The Great Falls Tribune reports on a story about a guy who robbed a casino.

A bicyclist suspected of robbing a Great Falls casino at gunpoint early Tuesday died minutes after the holdup when a squad car responding to the scene struck him.

Robert Lawrence Thrash, 39, was pedaling west out of 7th Alley North around 12:54 a.m. when he collided with a police car driven north on 9th Street North.

Officer Michael Badgley was driving: He and three other Great Falls squad cars were responding to a call three minutes earlier from Nickel Nats casino, 1425 8th Ave. N. Thrash of Great Falls, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Joy Burkstrand, a bartender at the casino, said that shortly before 1 a.m. Tuesday a man wearing a green army jacket and blue ski mask entered Nickel Nats. Only Burkstrand's friend, Amber Mort, was in the casino at the time.

It was snowing and Burkstrand figured the man was bundled up for the cold weather. She greeted him like every other customer, she said. But when he rounded the corner, she saw he was holding a rifle with a sawed off barrel.

"After that, all I saw was the gun," Burkstrand said. The man spoke softly and demanded money, she said. "I told him, 'You don't want to do this. You are on camera,'" she recalled. Burkstrand obeyed the man's demand when he became irritated. The robber fled on foot with about $500 as Burkstrand dialed 9-1-1.

Most painful $500 ever.

"I pity the fool who doesn't turn right in 0.6 miles!"

You could be hearing that from your GPS navigator soon, according to this MSN story . Manufacturers of GPS units are going to start having downloadable celebrity voices since people are getting annoyed with the standard voices that come on them now.

"The idea behind this came when we heard anecdotally that a lot of people were frustrated with the voices on their navigation systems and talked back to them," Andre said. "That led to some research and we found that a lot of users referred to their navigation systems by a specific name, like Jane, so we decided to capitalize on that relationship."

The idea behind Wanderlust’s new offering is to give drivers something a little different, explains CEO Will Andre. Mr. T not only guides, he also threatens: "Pay attention to what I’m saying," he bawls. "Mr. T gonna get you there in one piece … you gonna be there safely, or else!"

Directions from celebrities like Mr. T will be available for download on to stand-alone, portable navigation devices by the end of the year, while celebrity voices will be available in embedded car navigation devices in the first quarter of 2006, according to Andre.

A single celebrity voice will cost about $10 to download online, while unique character-themed voices — think of a generic surfer dude, or a cowboy — will cost about $5 each, Andre said. More celebrity voices are planned for later this year he notes, although he declined to disclose any specific names.

Give me one that sounds like K.I.T.T..

That's right. Roger Ebert is responsible for Oprah's success because he suggested she go into syndication...when they were on a date.

Ever since Oprah Winfrey revealed on her 20th anniversary program Monday that I was the person who first suggested she go into syndication, I have been flooded with requests for interviews.

Yes, it is true, I persuaded Oprah to become the most successful and famous woman in the world. I was also the person who suggested that Jerry Springer not go into syndication, for which I have received too little credit.

All of these years I have maintained a discreet silence about my role as Oprah's adviser, but now that she has spilled the beans, the time is right to tell the whole story.

According to 9news.com, a woman is marrying a man who shot her and kept her hostage for 6 days.

Tina Marie Stebbins revealed her intentions in a letter released as her boyfriend, Christian Leroy Lindblad, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting her in June 2002.

In her victim impact statement, Stebbins wrote -- quote -- "I love Christian today as deeply as I loved him before this awful thing happened to us."

Describing her boyfriend and herself as "soul mates," Stebbins says she's forgiven Lindblad.

The incident occurred at the Big Bear City home that the couple shared with Lindblad's parents, who tried to cover up the shooting. They've pleaded guilty to being accessories.

The Detriot News has a story about some 7-figure earning college presidents. All of the ones earning more than a million belong to private universities.

Five presidents have cracked the $1 million compensation barrier, according to an annual survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education to be released today, and more are sure to follow. Nine earned more than $900,000 -- a figure none broke in last year's report.

All were at private universities, and the figures are for fiscal 2004, the most recent information available for private schools. More recent data on public universities, for the current academic year, shows salaries are rising there, too. Leaders of 23 public institutions are being paid $500,000 or more this year, up from 17 a year ago.

In past surveys, the only presidents to break $1 million did so in their final years of service, their compensation boosted by some kind of severance or retirement package. This year's survey, however, features two million-dollar presidents -- Ross and Gee -- who are still on the job.

Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan is the highest paid public university president this year with $724,604 in compensation, followed by David P. Roselle of the University of Delaware ($720,522 in fiscal 2004, the most recent figures provided in his case) and Mark G. Yudof of the University of Texas system ($693,677).

Read on for the list of top 5 salaries for public and private universities.

Read More...

dave submitted a plug for his new page:

In what may prove to be the best collection of sports writing in the history of the world, SportsCorner has a new home on the web: http://davefymbo.blogspot.com

Looks like it started off with a cold reception from some random visitors :)

Nooooooooooooooooooo!! In a move that's about as smart as when they cut Family Guy, Fox has reduced their episode order for this season to 13, and they may not be bringing back the show, according to this Reuters article.

As for the demise of "Arrested," it comes just as the acclaimed comedy came back this week after a hiatus to make room for Fox's baseball coverage. The two back-to-back episodes averaged a paltry 4 million viewers Monday, sending Fox to fifth place in the 8 p.m. hour and putting a dent on the ratings of its lead-out, the rookie drama "Prison Break."

There is a possibility that the show will be shopped around, but its high cost is expected to be prohibitive for a cable network.

Technically, the show is not yet cancelled, only cut back (only the Reuters article says cancelled...it doesn't seem like the official word). But the outlook is not so good, given such a large cutback and the great minds of FOX programming. Hopefully it sells a million DVD's and FOX is left regretting the decision.

dave pointed to an article about the upcoming renovation of Memorial Stadium.

The brochure—sent out to donors this week—provides an overview of the upgrades to the beloved 82-year-old stadium:

• Luxury suites on the west side
• Enlarged press box
• Permanent seating in the north end zone
• Improved site-lines due to a lowered playing field
• Re-built south horseshoe
• Wider aisles
• Upgrades to concession stands, restrooms, and both Great Halls

dave says, "Catholic webmaster can't hide thier subconscious feelings. Talk about your all time typos."

See what he's talking about here.

dave submitted the first story for the toast topic. This guy really likes toast! Also, I couldn't have found a more fitting icon for the topic. That guy looks pretty excited about that toast.

To the uninitiated, we were the creators of the toast fad. Toast!