According to its Web site, www. spiralscouts.org, the organization "allows individual groups to determine the exact manner in which they will pursue their own goals." Groups are coed, and leaders aren't subject to discrimination based on sexual orientation, religion or gender.

Lotus Fresno Inc., owners of the Spanish-language stations KLBN, FM 105.1; KMMM, FM 107.1; KOQO, FM 101.9; and KGST, AM 1600, have gone so far as to completely change a part of the station's menu to lure a different audience.

What couldn't have been predicted was this:

That happened to Fresno City Council candidate Susan Good on Feb. 20. Her opponent, District 4 incumbent Larry Westerlund, was on the steps of the Veterans Memorial Auditorium that day announcing that he had been called to active duty with the Navy and was heading for Iraq.

I have a great mom and a great stepmom, both of whom had a real hand in raising me.

The symphony is reeling financially following the reign of controversial conductor David Andre. Donations by key supporters dried up in protest, despite well-regarded performances by the orchestra under Andre's direction.

It's been enough to drive most of us mad, but if there's one person in particular suffering the most, it may be President Bush.

She's going to make a great witness.

Monday, oil futures surged to a record of more than $120 a barrel, gas was averaging $3.61 a gallon nationwide -- $3.94 in Fresno -- and oil companies were making even bigger gobs of profit.

-- Doris Gaines, Fresno

Actually, William Saroyan never knew I existed. And l didn't know about him until I read "The Human Comedy," which my brother, Paul, and I discovered among the stacks of books my librarian mother would bring home.

Welcome home, my daughter. You've finished college at Berkeley and have chosen to come back to the Valley, at least for a few years, perhaps for many. It's been almost a year, do you feel welcomed here?

Their "big car" is a Mini Cooper, which gets about 37 miles per gallon on the highway.

Piano man: Have you given thanks lately, classical-music fans, for the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts series? Sometimes it gets overlooked in the rush for media attention when compared to such cultural heavyweights as the Fresno Philharmonic and Fresno Grand Opera.

That business was residential mortgages, and GM went into it in a big way. It bought one of the more aggressive lenders around, Ditech, and came to specialize in the kind of innovative mortgages that flourished in recent years.

"Basically, we wanted to turn it into a jazz club," says co-owner Carlton Lockett. "You've got to mix in some other music, like blues, to make it work out."

He was small in physical stature, but he had big ideas that undoubtedly drove him to seek statewide office. He served the people of Tulare County in the California Assembly for six years, and during that time made the Wyllie name a household word.

"I've toured around the world / From London to the Bay / It's Hammer, go Hammer, MC Hammer, Yo Hammer / And the rest can go and play / Can't touch this."

So far, though, there's been no successful electronic version of the input device beloved by reporters, students, lyricists and claims adjusters: good old pen on paper.

There was a reminder recently when Audubon California announced it reached an agreement with a farmer in Tulare County to safeguard a single colony of about 80,000 tricolored blackbirds -- nearly one-third of the world's population of this declining songbird.

Mike Villanueva didn't swing a club, yet he was credited with helping the Bulldogs lower their scores.

With no immigration reform in sight, the Department of Homeland Security has been focusing on border control and employee-verification programs. But recent events are calling into question the effectiveness of some of the department's actions.

It's a good idea given the current economic crisis. Maybe people might benefit from a snappy way to put a stop to their accumulation of debt. How about "Thrifty is Nifty"?

A recent conference sponsored by The Foundation on Aging and the Kansas City (Mo.) Partnership for Caregivers was aptly named.

With that much money and a governing board dominated by politicians and union representatives, there have been hints that factors other than pure fiduciary responsibility often drive decisions.

It's one of those universal truths that can't be argued.