After seventh place in Vorselaar, he has one more shot to close the season with a win Sunday.

The team is insured against the loss, but had no possibility to ride on Saturday. Chauffeur Jo Plankaert was on his way to the team with spare bikes so they could train for the upcoming Trofeo Laigueglia.

Who Do We Vote For This Time Around?

He says he's for the little guy, but then he votes for a corporate-backed bill to make it harder for the little guy to file a class action suit when his kid swallows lead paint from a Chinese-made toy. In fact, Obama doesn't think Wall Street is a bad place. He wants the insurance companies to help us develop a new health care plan — the same companies who have created the mess in the first place. He's such a feel-good kinda guy, I get the sense that, if elected, the Republicans will eat him for breakfast. He won't even have time to make a good speech about it.

But this may be a bit harsh. Senator Obama has a big heart, and that heart is in the right place. Is he electable? Will more than 50% of America vote for him? We'd like to believe they would. We'd like to believe America has changed, wouldn't we? Obama lets us feel better about ourselves — and as we look out the window at the guy snowplowing his driveway across the street, we want to believe he's changed, too.

DHS faces scrutiny over care

Children's Rights, however, contends the failure of DHS to protect children in its care has been well-documented for more than 10 years and the agency has neglected to fix the problems. In two of the last five years, Oklahoma had the worst rate in the nation of children being abused while in foster care, the lawsuit states. "This includes physical abuse, sexual abuse or extreme neglect inflicted on foster children by foster parents or staff at shelters or other facilities," the lawsuit said. Oklahoma also has a bad record of splitting up siblings in foster homes and psychologically damaging children by bouncing them around from one foster home or shelter to another, the lawsuit states. "Recent state data shows that 34 percent of foster children in Oklahoma had experienced four or more placements and 17 percent — approximately 1,700 children — had experienced six or more placements while in DHS custody," the lawsuit said.

UFC is not coming to Hawaii until at least 2009

The Ultimate Fighting Championship's much-anticipated debut event in Hawaii won't happen until at least July of next year according to UFC President Dana White.

White, who told the Star Bulletin six months ago that he was close to finalizing a deal to hold a show at Aloha Stadium this year, said he will wait until a recently passed bill to regulate mixed martial arts goes into effect.

House Bill 1866, which establishes many new rules to help legitimize the sport, was enacted into law last July, but isn't effective until July 1, 2009.

"Thirteen new states regulated (mixed martial arts) last year and Hawaii is one of them, so we want to go over there, but the regs aren't done," White said. "We're not like all these other cheese dog shows that go over there before the regs are done."

The sport is currently overseen by the State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Regulated Industries Compliance Office, which handles licensing and issues permits required to hold events.

Harmonic Sees Q4 Sales of $88.4 million, up 17%

Harmonic Inc. reported Q4 2007 net sales of $88.4 million, up 17% from $75.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. For the full year 2007, net sales were $312.2 million, up 26% from $247.7 million in 2006. The Company saw revenue growth in both domestic and international markets, with international sales representing 43% and 44% of revenue for the fourth quarter and for the full year of 2007, respectively.

GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $13.3 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, up from $5.0 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, for the same period of 2006. For the full year 2007, GAAP net income was $30.1 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, up from $1.0 million, or $0.01 per diluted share in 2006.

Harmonic said the strong revenue growth reflects sales to an expanding range of cable, satellite, telco and other customers that are deploying a growing array of new video products and solutions.

Clam chowder is great chow for Super Bowl

This year's Super Bowl is shaping up to be the Clash of the Clam Chowders, if you'd like a menu to reflect the match-up.

Patriots fans can boast that the creamy New England version is older. Giants fans can note that the tomato-based Manhattan chowder is more colorful.

Culinary references seem to favor one or the other. The "Joy of Cooking" (Penguin Books, $18) uses the Manhattan style as its main recipe, adding that most New Englanders consider Manhattan clam chowder "an illegitimate child." Hmmm ... sounds like a little trash talking there.

Cook's Illustrated's "American Classics" (Boston Common Press, $29.95) contains two recipes for New England clam chowder but none for the Manhattan version. Maybe the fact that the company test kitchen is located just outside Boston has something to do with that.