Stocks fall after spike in jobless claims; markets await more testimony from Fed chairman

The stock market fell in early trading Thursday after the Labor Department reported a spike in jobless claims, sapping some of the market's confidence ahead of Friday's anxiously anticipated March employment report.

The government said the number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since September 2005.

Investors are also cautiously awaiting more testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is appearing before Congress for a second straight day. On Wednesday, the Fed chairman said a recession is possible in the first half of this year.

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Name changes for black music are off the charts

Q. A friend asked me why country music has always been calledCountry Music on music sales charts, classical has always beenClassical, and jazz has always been Jazz, but black music has gonethrough about a dozen different names. I would appreciate a rundownof the names used by the charts and the industry to identify blackmusic.

A. Explaining the reasons--even those that are rational--forevents in history is sometimes close to impossible. Reporting thoseevents is an easier task, so we'll just do that. According to JoelWhitburn's Top Billboard R&B Singles reference book, here are thenames given to Billboard's various black music charts:

1942-1945: Harlem Hit …

Pfleger calls for public accounting of WTC funds

Pfleger calls for public accounting of WTC funds

Father Michael L. Pfleger Monday called for a full and public accounting of all funds raised for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that reduced the World Trade Center (WTC) to rubble.

"We need to ask for a public listing of how these monies raised for the 9-11 fund are distributed so that there is a guide to make sure that every life is valued equally in the way disbursements are made, and from what I'm told, that is not what is happening now," Pfleger told the Chicago Defender.

"This is not a money issue. It's a moral issue," he said.

Pfleger, who spoke to a number of people on the East Coast, said: …

Mauritania: al-Qaida claims it carried out attack

Al-Qaida's North Africa branch purportedly claimed responsibility Wednesday for ambushing an army patrol in Mauritania and kidnapping 12 soldiers whom officials initially reported had been killed.

Authorities first said the soldiers had been shot dead in Monday's attack, but the bodies were not found when army reinforcements swept the area. Government officials said some traces of blood were found, but they could only classify the soldiers as missing.

"This jihadist operation targeted the allies of the Americans, the crusaders on Islamic Mauritanian territory occupied by infidels," said the Internet statement attributed to al-Qaida.

The …

German Football Results

Results from the 20th round of the Bundesliga, the German first-division football league (home team listed first):

Friday's Game

Hamburger SV 1, Wolfsburg 1

Saturday's Games

Borussia Moenchengladbach 4, Werder Bremen 3

Eintracht Frankfurt 1, Cologne 2

Hertha Berlin 0, Bochum 0

Bayern Munich 3, Mainz 0

Hannover 1, Nuremberg 3

Schalke vs. Hoffenheim

Sunday's Games

Stuttgart …

Panel to drivers: Hang up phones Natarus' proposed law cheered

Angry motorists and pedestrians sick of worrying about being moweddown by a cell phone-wielding driver enthusiastically endorsed Fridayregulating the phones' use in Chicago.

The only thing wrong with Ald. Burton F. Natarus' (42nd) proposalis that it doesn't go far enough, they argued.

"The dangers involved in this situation are enormous," saidretired lawyer John B. Hirsch, one of a handful of people who spokeat a hearing by the City Council's Committee on Traffic Control andSafety.

Hirsch said he recently followed a driver on Fullerton who went 11/2 miles while flicking cigarette ash with his left hand and talkingon a cell phone with his right. "Was he driving …

Elvis is topic of Tenn. legal education seminar

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — It turns out Elvis the King of Rock and Roll spawned Elvis the lawsuit — a whole lotta lawsuits.

Now all those cases are helping other attorneys study the law.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee is sponsoring a continuing education session in Chattanooga on Tuesday billed as "Elvis Law. The state and federal cases dealing with the late king of rock 'n' roll."

Lawyers …