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In the wake of much concern over the fate of the Temple school district

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off Wednesday with the most expensive and pivotal piece of the international space station: a $1.4 billion science laboratory.The shuttle and its crew of five soared into a clear sky at 6:13 p.m., with a rising full moon in the background and the setting sun turning the exhaust trail a beautiful gold and peach. The plume cast a rainbow-like shadow that seemed to stretch all the way to the moon.Commanding Atlantis is 1968 Rockdale High School graduate Ken Cockrell, who has logged more than 906 hours in space

WASHINGTON (AP) A middle-aged accountant with a history of mental illness fired several shots outside the White House Wednesday and then was shot by the Secret Service as he waved his handgun menacingly, authorities said. The tense, noontime standoff sent tourists running for cover. The drama unfolded just outside the fence at the edge of the South Lawn, 200 yards from the building where President Bush was inside exercising. The man, wounded in the knee and hospitalized under guard, was identified by law enforcement sources as Robert W. Pickett, 47, from Evansville, Ind. He had been fired by the Internal Revenue Service in the mid 1980s, and neighbors said he kept to himself, resented the IRS and was obsessed with West Point, where he had dropped out after a semester in 1972. Pickett had acknowledged in court records suffering from mental illness and trying to commit suicide.

While he loved the attention, all of the late phone calls, soul-searching and sleepless nights are finally over for Temple's Dominique Steamer."It was kind of pretty neat for people to come up to you and ask where you're going and saying how good you are," Steamer said of the high school football recruiting process. "I liked the feeling."But then, the time came for the 6-5, 300-pound Steamer to select a college. At first, he said it was Texas A&M. Then it became Oklahoma. Finally, late in the game, it was back to the Aggies."I prayed about it and asked God where he wanted me to go," Steamer said. "He kept saying A&M, so if that's where he wants me, then that's where I'm going."The uncertainty has ended for Steamer and many other area football players who are headed for college programs. Wednesday was the first day oral commitments could be honored through letters of intent

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