Selig says MLB wants to ban smokeless tobacco

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Commissioner Bud Selig wants to rid Major League Baseball of chewing tobacco.

Even though it's ingrained in the culture of the game and is evident anytime a player steps on the sticky floor of a big-league dugout, Selig hopes the time has finally come to rid MLB of the unhealthy habit.

In a letter to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids on Thursday, Selig told the group's president he believes "smokeless tobacco should be banned at the Major League level."

In order to make that happen, the owners have to negotiate with the players' union and have the ban added to the next collective bargaining agreement.

"In the current round of bargaining with the …

Unconsidered cause of bowel obstruction - gossypiboma

Forgotten foreign bodies, such as cotton sponges, gauze or instruments, after any surgical procedure are considered a misadventure.1 "Gossypiboma" denotes a mass of cotton that is accidentally retained in the body postoperatively. We describe a case in which a woman presented with features of intestinal obstruction about 10 months after open cholecystectomy.

Case report

A 30-year-old woman presented with a history of colicky pain in her upper abdomen along with constipation, vomiting and an episode of fresh bleeding per rectum about 1 month previously. She had undergone open cholecystectomy in a district hospital about 10 months earlier. On examination, a well-defined, …

AP Weekly Sports Calendar

EDITORS:

These are among the top sports events of the week. Coverage of most of these events will move on this circuit:

FRIDAY, April 11

thru 13, Augusta, Georgia _ golf, U.S. PGA, Masters.

thru 13, Morelia, Mexico _ golf, U.S. LPGA, Corona Championship.

thru 13, various sites _ tennis, Davis Cup World Group: Russia vs. Czech Republic, Argentina vs. Sweden, Germany vs. Spain, United States vs. France. EUROPE/AFRICA: Croatia vs. Italy, Netherlands vs. Macedonia, Belarus vs. Switzerland, Slovakia vs. Georgia, Luxembourg vs. Denmark, Finland vs. South Africa, Algeria vs. Hungary, Monaco vs. Greece, Ukraine vs. Egypt, Ireland …

10 REALLY COOL THINGS TO DO

1Backflips and slaptick

The Bumblinni Brothers are providing plenty of laughter with theirnew "Bigger and Better" show under way at the Actors Gymnasium innorth suburban Evanston. The duo, Chuck Stubbings and Paul Kalina,are the Chicago area's only two-man comic theater circus team. The 90-minute show consists of fire juggling, acrobatics, circus stunts,precision whip-cracking and lots of comedy. The show runs throughSunday. Tickets are $15; $10 for kids age 12 and under. Show timesare 7:30 tonight, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. TheActors Gymnasium is at 927 Noyes. Call (773) 665-4332.

2Helping hands Those who want to do some holiday shopping and …

Government Accuses Mitchelson Of Filing False Income Returns

Marvin Mitchelson, the flamboyant Los Angeles lawyer who coinedthe term "palimony," was charged Wednesday with filing false taxreturns.

Mitchelson reported net profits of between $179,000 and$266,000 from 1983 to 1986, but the Internal Revenue Service contendshis income was higher.

Mitchelson, 63, known as the "father of palimony" after winninga number of celebrity cases for people who lived with Hollywood starswithout being married to them, …

Swedish think-tank: Global arms spending slows

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The world's military spending grew by only 1.3 percent in 2010, thanks to budget constraints caused by the global financial crisis, with the top three arms investors being the United States, China and Britain, a think-tank said Monday.

South America was the region with the largest military spending growth of 5.8 percent, with countries such as Brazil seeking to increase its international influence, said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The institution, known as SIPRI, said global military spending in 2010 was the lowest since 2001.

It said the United States topped the list by spending $698 billion last year, followed by China with …

Much higher tritium level found at nuclear plant

State officials said Wednesday more radioactive tritium had been found at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant _ at levels more than 90 times higher than found in a test well nearly two weeks ago.

William Irwin, the state's radiological health chief, said readings of 1 million to 2 million picocuries per liter of the isotope were found in a concrete trench several hundred feet from the test well where tritium was first reported Jan. 7. A spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission put the number at "about 2 million."

That previous high reading turned up a sample of 22,300 picocuries per liter of tritium at a test well Tuesday, officials at …