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Central Florida's Walt Disney World and its biggest union have reached tentative agreement on a new three-year contract, officials said. The agreement Thursday came a day after union leaders had asked members to give them authorization to strike.

Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, returned to her adopted hometown of Pittsburgh Monday to offer a community hard hit by rising healthcare costs and a contracting job market a plan she said would protect them against continued economic woes. The Heinz name looms large in Pittsburgh, as one of several key industrial families who created the city. Speaking at the Teamsters Temple 249 Local Hall, a couple of miles from Heinz Field, Heinz Kerry was well received as a scion of a family that defined many attendees' lives. Lifelong Democrats Monday spoke glowingly of her former husband, John Heinz, who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate from 1977 until his death in 1991. "You see, we grew up going to the Heinz youth center," attendee Robert Dunn told United Press International.

A Florida Walt Disney World employee acquitted of fondling a girl while dressed as Tigger is now accused of shoving two people while dressed as Goofy. Orange County sheriff's Capt. Bernie Presha said a pair of photographers working for Kodak at the Orlando theme park complained Michael Chartrand, wearing a Goofy costume, shoved them each in the chest Aug. 29.

The head of the Teamsters union is calling for a U.S. government-run healthcare system, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday. "Rising health-care costs are causing a loss of jobs and making America less competitive," James P. Hoffa said Monday in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club.

Today is Sunday, Aug. 22, the 235th day of 2004 with 131 to follow. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Uranus and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Mars and Pluto.

Today is Thursday, Aug. 19, the 232nd day of 2004 with 134 to follow. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Uranus and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Mars and Pluto. Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include English poet John Dryden in 1631; Connecticut clockmaker Seth Thomas in 1785; statesman Bernard Baruch in 1870; aviation pioneer Orville Wright in 1871; French fashion designer Coco Chanel in 1883; actor Alfred Lunt in 1892; humorist Ogden Nash in 1902; pioneer television engineer Philo Farnsworth in 1906; singing Mills Brother Harry Mills in 1913; publisher Malcolm Forbes in 1919; "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry in 1921; jockey Willie Shoemaker in 1931 (age 73); actresses Diane Muldaur in 1938 (age 66) and Jill St. John in 1940 (age 64); Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States, in 1946 (age 58); and actors Gerald McRaney in 1948 (age 56), Adam Arkin in 1956 (age 48), John Stamos in 1963 (age 41), and Matthew Perry in 1969 (age 35).

Today is Monday, Aug. 16, the 229th day of 2004 with 137 to follow. The moon is new. The morning stars are Venus, Uranus and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Mars and Pluto. Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include the French physicist Gabriel Lippman, inventor of color photography, in 1845;Amos Alonzo Stagg, basketball, football hall of fame coach in 1862; British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, in 1881; labor leader George Meany in 1894; former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1913; actors Fess Parker in 1925 (age 79), Ann Blyth in 1928 (age 76) and Robert Culp in 1930 (age 74); football player and sports commentator Frank Gifford, also in 1930 (age 74), TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford, in 1953 (age 51); singer Eydie Gorme in 1932 (age 72); actresses Julie Newmar in 1935 (age 69) and Lesley Anne Warren in 1946 (age 58); actor Reginald VelJohnson in 1952 (age 52); director James Cameron in 1954 (age 50); actor Jeff Perry in 1955 (age 49); actress Angela Bassett and singer/actress Madonna, both in 1958 (age 46); and actors Timothy Hutton and Laura Innes, both in 1960 (age 44).

Today is Friday, July 30, the 212th day of 2004 with 154 to follow. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and Pluto. Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include English novelist Emily Bronte in 1818; auto pioneer Henry Ford in 1863; baseball player/manager Casey Stengel in 1890; English sculptor Henry Moore in 1898; Baseball Commissioner Allan "Bud" Selig in 1934 (age 70); film director Peter Bogdanovich in 1939 (age 65); singer Paul Anka in 1941 (age 63); California Governor/actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1947 (age 57); Anita Hill, of the Clarence Thomas hearings fame, in 1956 (age 48); and actors Ken Olin in 1954 (age 50), Delta Burke in 1956 (age 48), Laurence Fishburne in 1961 (age 43), Lisa Kudrow in 1963 (age 41), and Hilary Swank in 1974 (age 30).

Today is Monday, July 26, the 208th day of 2004 with 158 to follow. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and Pluto. Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include artist George Catlin, painter of American Indian scenes, in 1796; playwright George Bernard Shaw in 1856; Carl Jung, founder of analytic psychology, in 1875; novelist Aldous Huxley in 1894; poet/author Robert Graves in 1895; Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver, who led the 1950-51 Senate investigation of organized crime, in 1903; comedian Gracie Allen in 1906; actress Vivian Vance in 1912; Erskine Hawkins, trumpet, band leader, in 1914; actor Jason Robards and movie producer Blake Edwards, both in 1922 (age 82); filmmaker Stanley Kubrick in 1928; storyteller Jean Shepherd in 1929; rock star Mick Jagger in 1943 (age 61); actress Helen Mirren in 1946 (age 58); tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis in 1954; and actors Kevin Spacey in 1959 (age 454) and Sandra Bullock in 1964 (age 40).

Mayor Richard Daley and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich say high labor costs are endangering Chicago's $$@$!8 billion a year convention business. The mayor and governor joined forces to ask unions at the city's sprawling McCormick Place Exposition Center to agree to streamline procedures to cut the costs of convention planners.

Picket lines came down at major Des Moines area construction sites and workers were back on the job Thursday after a 13-day strike by five labor unions.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Thursday welcomed Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan to the city's third annual Freedom Institute weekend. Farrakhan, 70, delivered a 90-minute keynote address to more than 1,500 people at Cobo Hall, deploring the "sad spiritual condition" of African Americans and the hypocrisy of the Iraq war, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Poll: Wide support for U.S. energy policy WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- A new poll shows almost unanimous support in the United States for development of a comprehensive energy policy. The Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth said Friday a whopping 96 percent of Americans surveyed this month felt an energy policy was important, and nearly half said it was an "extremely important" issue. In February, 36 percent of respondents called energy policy "extremely important."

Machinists, mechanics and flight attendants picketed outside a terminal at Detroit's airport Friday to protest cuts at Northwestern Airlines. "The management has been treating Detroit workers very badly," Robert DePacs, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers told the Free Press.

The United Auto Workers Friday accepted the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for president, warts and all, even though the Bush administration's Energy secretary tried to paint Sen. John Kerry's international environmental positions as a threat to auto industry jobs. Kerry received the coveted endorsement of the 13-million-member AFL-CIO on Feb. 19, becoming the first candidate with organized labor's full backing since Al Gore. Unions contributed $$@$!62 million in the off-year 2002 elections but were outspent by big business 12-fold. The UAW usually does not back a candidate until after the primary season ends, but on Thursday Kerry received the nod of the 18-member United Auto Workers Executive Board.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry picked up support from two big labor unions Thursday, getting endorsements from the UAW and Teamsters. The 18-member United Auto Workers International Executive Board meeting in Detroit unanimously endorsed the Massachusetts senator.

Don't know if the penguins admired the act, but Akron, Ohio, zoo officials aren't pleased with the dive Tiffany Whipkey took into the bird's tank on a dare. The senior zookeeper was fired from her job for jumping into the 16,000-gallon penguin tank at the zoo on Feb. 28, the Akron Beacon Journal reported Friday.

MTV has canceled plans to shoot the reality TV series "The Real World" in Philadelphia because of run-ins with local unions. "The unions are not out to gouge anybody, but this is a union town," Tony Frasco, vice president of Teamsters Local 107, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

For the first time in a long time, Ohio is not a Republican stronghold heading into the general election. Presidential hopeful Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., spent two days campaigning in the Buckeye State last weekend and predicted Ohio voters would be critical for Democrats in November. No Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio. George W. Bush carried the state by 3.5 percent in 2000; Bill Clinton won there in 1992 and 1996. The last Democrat to become president without Ohio's electoral votes was John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Sen. John Kerry maintained his front-runner status Tuesday night in a surprisingly close Wisconsin primary that revived John Edwards' campaign and effectively ended Howard Dean's. Edwards didn't win but he finished a close second. "Today the voters of Wisconsin sent a clear message, and the message was this: 'objects in the rear view mirror may be closer than they appear,'" an ebullient Edwards said at Milwaukee's Serb Hall. "They want a debate. They want this race to continue."

Howard Dean may have backed off his contention that Wisconsin will be his make-or-break primary, but after Sen. John Kerry's victories in the South, America's Dairyland may be Dean's Waterloo. Kerry swept Tuesday's primaries in Virginia and Tennessee, where Dean hardly campaigned, showing that a New Englander can win big in Southern state primaries. Exit polls indicated that voters were looking for a candidate they believe has a chance to beat President George W. Bush in November. Kerry won 52 percent of the vote in Virginia, compared to 27 percent for Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., his nearest rival. Dean got 7 percent, 2 percent less than retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who said he was dropping out of the presidential race Wednesday.

Ballots in Michigan's Feb. 7 Democratic caucuses began going out via the Internet more than two weeks before John Kerry's come-from-behind victory in the Iowa caucuses. Michigan is only state with online voting this election cycle. There's no doubt this year's presidential primary -- the first in a major industrial state -- will be more significant than four years ago. Al Gore already had locked up the Democratic presidential nomination by the time Michigan had its 2000 primary. With a wide-open race, Michigan will have more impact on the party's selection process than at any time since 1988, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson won a surprise victory after a record 211,126 ballots were cast.

A Missouri truck driver fired for being too fat to fit behind the wheel of a small truck has been given an apology and rehired to drive bigger trucks. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Thursday Walter Geter had the help of his union, Teamsters Local 600, which got the 412-pound man working again.

Study says Super Bowl cuts into workday CHICAGO, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The Super Bowl match on Feb. 1 could mean up to $$@$!821.4 million in lost work time in the United States, a survey contended Thursday. The figure is reached through complex calculations and projections, beginning with imaging 10 minutes spent each day by football fans talking about the big game instead of working. Every 10 minutes of unproductive work time costs employers an average of $$@$!2.59 per worker, according to research released by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That $$@$!2.59, if projected over the 130,124,000 persons employed on non-farm payrolls (as of Dec. 31, 2003), grows to $$@$!337,021,160 for every 10 minutes talking about the Super Bowl.

Negotiations in the California grocery workers' strike have broken off, with the supermarkets rejecting a union offer to cut benefits by $$@$!350 million. The Los Angeles Times reported the supermarkets rejected the Friday offer that was described by the United Food and Commercial Workers as "substantial movement, in the hundreds of millions of dollars."