Native Son

West Virginians paid homage Sunday to a highly decorated member of the Navy who was among 30 U.S. servicemen killed in an Aug. 6 helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Hundreds of people, many holding American flags, lined the street outside Parkersburg South High School as a private memorial service was held inside for Chief Petty Officer Nicholas H. Null, the News and Sentinel reported. Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin ordered flags lowered to half-staff in memory of Null. Null, 30, of Washington, W.Va., was an explosive ordnance disposal technician.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Rick Santorum, who has demonstrated an ability to rally social conservatives, is now trying to broaden his coalition in Michigan by attracting blue-collar fiscal conservatives - and do it all in Mitt Romney's boyhood backyard. A victory in Michigan Feb. 28 would be a stunning upset for the former Pennsylvania senator, and would signal his ability to do well in Rust Belt states where manufacturing has taken a beating in the economic downturn. "You're seeing that Anybody But Romney vote unite around Santorum here in Michigan," said Steve Mitchell, an East Lansing-based...

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- He was raw, and he was real. He sighed -- long, audible, this-is-worse-than-Kirk Gibson sighs -- and he cried. Always he led with his heart, laughing and mourning, remembered glories just a step ahead of the deepest regrets, the obvious chest-bursting pride shadow-dancing with head-bowing humility. Dennis Eckersley yesterday accepted the mantle of greatness extended to him by baseball's Hall of Fame with arms held out in gratitude, eyes wide with awe, and his soul laid bare -- the alcoholism, the broken relationships -- for all to see, including his father in the wheelchair, weeping through...

West Virginians paid homage Sunday to a highly decorated member of the Navy who was among 30 U.S. servicemen killed in an Aug. 6 helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Hundreds of people, many holding American flags, lined the street outside Parkersburg South High School as a private memorial service was held inside for Chief Petty Officer Nicholas H. Null, the News and Sentinel reported. Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin ordered flags lowered to half-staff in memory of Null. Null, 30, of Washington, W.Va., was an explosive ordnance disposal technician.

COLUMBUS, Ga.-- Colonel Robert B. Nett, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in combat in the Philippines during World War II and later served in the Korean War and Vietnam, has died. He was 86. Elsie Jackson, Fort Benning spokeswoman, said Nett died Sunday after a brief illness. Colonel Nett, a New Haven native who enlisted in the Connecticut National Guard in 1940, was sent into combat on Christmas Island shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was soon sent to Fort Benning and graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1942.

RICHMOND - The Jefferson, a massive Beaux Arts and Renaissance Revival-style hotel in the heart of this city's historic district, has been called "the best hotel in America" by Forbes magazine. Opened in 1895 just in time for the wedding reception of artist Charles Dana Gibson and Irene Langhorne, one of the models who posed for his "Gibson Girl" illustrations, its grand staircase is rumored to have been copied for the movie of "Gone With the Wind. " It leads up to the Rotunda, which was called "arguably the most beautiful public room of any hotel in the country" by the late Charles...

MADRAS, Ore. - Liz Nelson, his first-grade teacher, wore his 6-year-old handprint over her heart, on the sweater her volunteer room mother had made as a Christmas present, little hands drawn everywhere. Judy Vanek, a nurse in town who had wheeled a patient fresh from surgery out of the recovery room so he could get back in time to watch the World Series, carried a wallet-sized photo of him from high school, posing with Amanda Bailey with a crown on his head, king of the "Cinderella Ball.

DUBLIN, N.H. -- Judson D. Hale Sr. is downright excited. OK, his latest acquisition isn't Albert Einstein's brain, for which he made an unsuccessful pitch a decade ago. But adding a handkerchief allegedly used by Napoleon Bonaparte to his office collection of odd historical artifacts has the 71-year-old editor in chief of Yankee Publishing Inc., which publishes Yankee magazine and The Old Farmer's Almanac, all but dancing in his loafers. "Isn't it wonderful?" he says, fondling the embroidered square that came into his possession a week earlier via the...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Rick Santorum, who has demonstrated an ability to rally social conservatives, is now trying to broaden his coalition in Michigan by attracting blue-collar fiscal conservatives - and do it all in Mitt Romney's boyhood backyard. A victory in Michigan Feb. 28 would be a stunning upset for the former Pennsylvania senator, and would signal his ability to do well in Rust Belt states where manufacturing has taken a beating in the economic downturn. "You're seeing that Anybody But Romney vote unite around Santorum here in...

Way down at his end of the ice, where Andrew Raycroft was mighty glad that he wasn't Jose Theodore at the moment, the Bruins' rookie goalie could see what was about to happen. "I was thinking, 'Get to the middle and put it on net,' " said Raycroft, recalling the sight of fellow rookie Patrice Bergeron about to deliver the Bruins a 2-0 playoff series lead over the Canadiens last night at the Vault. "Go to the middle -- that's exactly what I was thinking -- and he must have listened to me. " Bergeron, 18 years old and wiser than an Eagle Scout about to go for his Mensa merit...

To say Americans have a misinformed view of Saudi Arabians is an understatement. As rabid individualists, we can’t fathom the apparently conformist dress. We see millions praying at the holy city of Mecca and blink uncomprehendingly. Many find the culture vaguely unsettling, if not threatening. “After 9/11, many of my friends in America think we’re all extremists,’’ says Hamzah Jamjoom, a Saudi and co-narrator of “Arabia,’’ the latest dazzling IMAX travelogue documentary to hit the big, big screen.

COLUMBUS, Ga.-- Colonel Robert B. Nett, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in combat in the Philippines during World War II and later served in the Korean War and Vietnam, has died. He was 86. Elsie Jackson, Fort Benning spokeswoman, said Nett died Sunday after a brief illness. Colonel Nett, a New Haven native who enlisted in the Connecticut National Guard in 1940, was sent into combat on Christmas Island shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was soon sent to Fort Benning and graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1942.

RICHMOND - The Jefferson, a massive Beaux Arts and Renaissance Revival-style hotel in the heart of this city's historic district, has been called "the best hotel in America" by Forbes magazine. Opened in 1895 just in time for the wedding reception of artist Charles Dana Gibson and Irene Langhorne, one of the models who posed for his "Gibson Girl" illustrations, its grand staircase is rumored to have been copied for the movie of "Gone With the Wind. " It leads up to the Rotunda, which was called "arguably the most beautiful public room of any hotel in the country" by the late Charles...

MADRAS, Ore. - Liz Nelson, his first-grade teacher, wore his 6-year-old handprint over her heart, on the sweater her volunteer room mother had made as a Christmas present, little hands drawn everywhere. Judy Vanek, a nurse in town who had wheeled a patient fresh from surgery out of the recovery room so he could get back in time to watch the World Series, carried a wallet-sized photo of him from high school, posing with Amanda Bailey with a crown on his head, king of the "Cinderella Ball.

WARSAW -- Pope Benedict XVI made a tiny slip in Polish when he thanked Poles "with" their kindness instead of "for. " No matter: the German pontiff found understanding in the homeland of John Paul II, and many hope that may offer some balm for German-Polish relations. Poles have embraced Bavarian-born Benedict with noticeably more warmth than his fellow Germans, urging him to visit and commenting favorably on his devotion to John Paul during his years as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- He was raw, and he was real. He sighed -- long, audible, this-is-worse-than-Kirk Gibson sighs -- and he cried. Always he led with his heart, laughing and mourning, remembered glories just a step ahead of the deepest regrets, the obvious chest-bursting pride shadow-dancing with head-bowing humility. Dennis Eckersley yesterday accepted the mantle of greatness extended to him by baseball's Hall of Fame with arms held out in gratitude, eyes wide with awe, and his soul laid bare -- the alcoholism, the broken relationships -- for all to see, including his father in the wheelchair,...

To say Americans have a misinformed view of Saudi Arabians is an understatement. As rabid individualists, we can’t fathom the apparently conformist dress. We see millions praying at the holy city of Mecca and blink uncomprehendingly. Many find the culture vaguely unsettling, if not threatening. “After 9/11, many of my friends in America think we’re all extremists,’’ says Hamzah Jamjoom, a Saudi and co-narrator of “Arabia,’’ the latest dazzling IMAX travelogue documentary to hit the big, big screen.

WARSAW -- Pope Benedict XVI made a tiny slip in Polish when he thanked Poles "with" their kindness instead of "for. " No matter: the German pontiff found understanding in the homeland of John Paul II, and many hope that may offer some balm for German-Polish relations. Poles have embraced Bavarian-born Benedict with noticeably more warmth than his fellow Germans, urging him to visit and commenting favorably on his devotion to John Paul during his years as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy.

Way down at his end of the ice, where Andrew Raycroft was mighty glad that he wasn't Jose Theodore at the moment, the Bruins' rookie goalie could see what was about to happen. "I was thinking, 'Get to the middle and put it on net,' " said Raycroft, recalling the sight of fellow rookie Patrice Bergeron about to deliver the Bruins a 2-0 playoff series lead over the Canadiens last night at the Vault. "Go to the middle -- that's exactly what I was thinking -- and he must have listened to me. " Bergeron, 18 years old and wiser than an Eagle Scout about to go for his Mensa merit badge, needed no one doing...

DUBLIN, N.H. -- Judson D. Hale Sr. is downright excited. OK, his latest acquisition isn't Albert Einstein's brain, for which he made an unsuccessful pitch a decade ago. But adding a handkerchief allegedly used by Napoleon Bonaparte to his office collection of odd historical artifacts has the 71-year-old editor in chief of Yankee Publishing Inc., which publishes Yankee magazine and The Old Farmer's Almanac, all but dancing in his loafers. "Isn't it wonderful?" he says, fondling the embroidered square that came into his possession a week earlier via the...