Jockstrip: The World As We Know It

BUT CAN SHE PLAY 'FREEBIRD'?

Former Attorney General Janet Reno kicks off the "Red Truck Tour" this week as she looks for votes in the race for governor of Florida.

The road trip, being made in her red pickup truck, is seen as an attempt to reassure voters about her health. Reno suffers from Parkinson's disease, and fainted two weeks ago in an appearance at Syracuse University in New York Doctors said the two were not related, but the incident sparked a flurry of speculation about her health. She said the day after the incident she felt fine and has made a number of appearances at her home of south Florida since then.

The "Red Truck Tour" will begin on the Alabama border in the Florida Panhandle and wind up March 12 at her home in the Kendall section of Miami.

Reno is seen as a heavy favorite in the Democratic primary election Sept. 10 but polls show Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, younger brother of President Bush, as a prohibitive favorite in the November general election.

THINGS WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

An Orlando judge on Friday temporarily returned the passport of a Saudi Arabian princess arrested in December for allegedly beating her live-in maid.

Princess Buniah al-Saud, niece of King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, promised Circuit Judge Richard Conrad she would return to stand trial.

The 41-year-old princess, who was studying English at the University of Central Florida, has been free on $2,500 bond after being arrested on charges of aggravated battery for the alleged attack on Ismiyati Mermet Suryono, 36, of Indonesia. Formal charges were filed last week. A trial date has not yet been set. If convicted, she faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Al-Saud had requested the passport return so she could return home for Muslim religious holidays. She promised to return so she could clear her name.

Saudi Arabia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

NEWS OF OTHER LIFE FORMS

They may be the world's largest living animals but blue whales can really move.

"They are like a streak," marine biologist Bruce Mate of Oregon State University in Corvallis told an American Geophysical Union ocean sciences meeting in Honolulu. "One animal migrated more than 10,000 miles in 10 months."

The scientists are using satellites to track the migration of blue whales. They've found that the marine mammals -- which grow to 100 feet in length and 80 to 100 tons in weight -- apparently travel much farther and faster than thought, rapidly zooming from one fertile zone to another and feeding throughout the year, unlike other whales such as humpbacks.

For example, 45 whales Mate tracked traveled 143,000 miles over the span of months.

"Think about a 20-minute mile -- that's what most people walk. Now imagine walking day and night for months at a time... and these are animals that weigh 80 tons," he said. "And our estimates of their speed are very conservative... when they migrate, they're moving much faster than this rule of thumb."

TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING

Authorities continue to find uncremated bodies on the grounds of a Georgia crematorium. More than 300 decomposing remains have been recovered at the site of Tri-State Crematory in Noble, about 90 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Ray Brent Marsh was ordered held without bond Friday for at least the "next few days" on 16 felony counts of theft by deception for allegedly taking money for cremations that never were performed. Investigators said Marsh, 28 -- who took over operation of a crematorium from his parents in 1996 -- told them the crematorium was no longer functioning properly.

AND FINALLY, TODAY'S UPLIFTING STORY

After more than four years of renovation and two years of being closed to the public, the Washington Monument reopened for business Friday.

At a ceremony, National Park Service Director Fran Mainella called the monument a "symbol of freedom," and noted that Friday marked the 270th birthday of George Washington. She also mentioned the importance of tourism to Washington's economic stability in the wake of Sept. 11, where 189 people were killed when a hijacked plane was flown into the Pentagon by terrorists.

Then Washington elementary school children Dayanira Hough and Tytianna Burns, with broad smiles on their faces, helped cut the red, white and blue ribbon -- signifying the official reopening of the monument.

People clapped and cheered, and park rangers walked the first group of children into the memorial.

"It is one of our most historic national icons," Chief of Resource Management Stephen Lorenzetti said. "It's truly a measure of how our democracy works and what it represents. George Washington was the first person to turn down absolute power. The peaceful transfer of power ... is so much more important now to be remembered with what happened in September."