Urban News

(SAN JOSE, Calif.) -- You can't have a symphony orchestra without certain "givens." First, you need a conductor and musicians and the funding to pay their salaries. Second, you need sheet music, from which the orchestra can play. Now comes word from San Jose, Calif., that the financially troubled symphony orchestra in that city is about to lose its incredible collection of sheet music of the classics.

The San Jose Mercury is reporting that the orchestra, now "dark" and in court -- having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection -- might change its mind and file for Chapter 7. That move would make the situation more dire, sound the death knell for the orchestra and mean that all of its assets -- including its monumental collection of sheet music -- would become the property of the courts ... and eventually its debtors.

The publication says that the symphony has about a third of a million dollars in assets. Its debts are in excess of $3.4 million.

(CINCINNATI) -- An innovative project will be attempted by an emergency room and other treatment areas at a major Cincinnati hospital. According to officials at the Cincinnati Children's Medical Center, that facility will spend more than $12 million to see if it's possible to take all of the paperwork out of the emergency room and put everything into a computer database.

The project, announced Thursday to major local media and relayed by the Cincinnati Enquirer, involves the installation of a high-tech information system into the hospital; the system was designed by a division of General Electric.

With the new system, more than 500 bedside and other-area monitors will be linked to a common data center. The vital signs of patients can then be monitored by doctors at numerous points around the hospital complex.

The publication says that the new system will take about 18 months to install. Cincinnati will become the first city in the nation to have such a system at a major hospital.

(NEW ORLEANS) -- As the storm called Isidore raked across the Louisiana delta and neighboring areas, New Orleans battened down the hatches. The airport was closed, trash collections canceled, major roads flooded out and mass transit ground to a halt. Amid all of this the NFL Saints continued practicing for upcoming games.

The New Orleans Time-Picayune says that the team simply went inside, holding practices in the Superdome.

The last time the Saints schedule had to be changed because of a storm was in 1998, when Hurricane Georges blew through the south. The team was in Indianapolis at the time, but its flight back to Louis Armstrong International Airport had to be delayed for a day.

Meanwhile, the pumps are running at the highest speed in New Orleans to pump out floodwaters. The Crescent City is the largest urban area in the nation that is below sea level.

(PHOENIX) -- Remember when many colleges were referred to as "teachers' colleges?" Have you ever heard of a high school whose aim it is to prepare would-be teachers? Well, the Arizona Republic says that Phoenix is getting such a school and the facility will be among the first of its kind in the nation.

The school, to be called Teacher Preparation Charter High School, will train students to become future teachers with an eye to coordinating classes for entry into a four-year teaching college.

Some 80 students, ages 14 to 21, have pre-enrolled in the school; it will open its doors next fall.

The high school's activities will be coordinated by two area institutions of higher learning, South Mountain Community College and Phoenix College.

Phoenix officials say they know that many school leaders around the nation will be watching the project and they hope it can serve as a national model.