Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont, Mount Sunapee Resort, in New Hampshire, and Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado. The Mueller's purchase of wind power saved the release of approximately 18,800 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere an amount equivalent to emissions produced by the annual electricity consumption of approximately 2,200 average homes or the combustion of 1.9 million gallons of gasoline. "Protection of the environment is one of our core values. It is also very important to our guests," says Tim Mueller. Working toward that core value this year, Okemo is implementing some new practices and programs. Okemo has made a major investment in reducing the amount of energy used to make snow over the years. The most visual of those energy-conscious efforts is the resort's arsenal of HKD tower guns.

Jonathan Takiff: What's hot from the Toy Fair

Game play is available on its built-in color screen, but the real fun comes when the user returns home, connects the device via USB cable to a computer and www.me2universe. There, players lead a personalized avatar through a 3-D virtual world, meeting up and gaming with other online players.

All those points acquired from exercise make the avatar more powerful and allow the user to "buy" decorative and enabling items.

"Children are supposed to take 10,000 steps a day, but most only walk 4,000 to 5,000. This will motivate them to meet the requirement," said an iToys demonstrator.

MY FIRST EXERCISE MACHINE: Tykes as little as 12 months can make a positive exercise/video game connection with Fisher Price's Laugh and Learn Smart Bounce & Spin Pony ($69.95).

While looking like one of those ride-on, motorized horsies my mom would let me climb on outside the supermarket (if I was very, very good), this one is kid-powered and offers different rewards.

Limit weapons for safer schools

A gun in the hands of a police officer or responsible individual is a good thing.

Morrisons steps up its supermarket sweep-out

The assets at Dewsbury have a book value of £5.3 million while the Leeds outlet is valued at just under £1.8m. A spokesman for Morrisons said: "Staff at the Dewsbury and Bond Street stores have been fully briefed and offered a choice of three options: transfer to another Safeway store, move to a Morrisons store or redundancy. "Morrisons is working closely with all members of staff to find the best solution for each individual." The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) required Morrisons to offload 52 stores to satisfy competition laws. So far, the company has arranged to sell 45 of the regulatory disposals together with a handful of unrelated commercial transactions. Among the deals completed to date, the group has sold 14 outlets each to Waitrose and Sainsbury's and another ten to market leader Tesco.

Page 2 sent Sam Alipour on a road trip with Ron Artest and his ...

INDIANAPOLIS TO CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- You can learn a lot about a fella by the way he deals with stress.

But this is a different tale altogether. Sitting in a fast-moving stretch H2 for a three-hour Indy-to-Champaign trek, flanked by eight of his closest Queensbridge Projects pals, Artest is forecasting a nervous night because in several hours he'll open for Ludacris at a rap concert at the University of Illinois -- where many people will be holding drinks and other potentially airborne projectiles.

For richer, for poorer ... we're about to learn if prenups mean ...

Christmas and the new year can be a time of high emotion for couples. Many who are dating decide after spending Christmas apart with their respective families that New Year's Eve is the perfect time to get engaged. Others, who have been married for years, find spending that the Christmas period together altogether too much, and put divorce at the top of their new year's resolution list.

His legal team argued that their marriage was short - 14 months - childless, and both have independent means.

Review: Jonas Brothers live up to their hype

Ten thousand screaming superfans demonstrated Wednesday night at Target Center that, after a few months as openers on the "Hannah Montana" tour, the Jonas Brothers can fill an arena on their own terms. The pop trio's audience of primarily teen and pre-teen girls shrieked, yelled, gasped and jumped with excitement from before the opening act (Rooney) until after the encore, unable to contain their love for everything Jonas.

The show opened dramatically with the drop of a giant white curtain, revealing a multi-level stage complete with platforms and trap doors. An earth-shattering swell of screams erupted as curly-haired brothers Nick and Kevin Jonas pranced onto the stage with electric guitars, and the volume increased as an elevator lifted frontman Joe Jonas out of the center of the highest platform, dressed in a gold satin blazer and tight black pants.

Historian finds 600-year-old recipe for bratwurst

Medieval town markets in Germany had committees tasked with monitoring the quality of produce. Thuringian bratwursts, which are made of beef and pork, are symbols of Germany's cultural heritage and ubiquitous snacks at football matches. Historian Hubert Erzmann, 75, found the ancient recipe, inscribed with pen and ink in a heavy tome of parchment, earlier this year while doing research in an archive in the eastern town of Weimar, museum spokesman Thomas Maeuer said. "The discovery shows that there were already consumer protection laws in the Middle Ages," he said. The instructions go on display tomorrow in the Bratwurst Museum near the eastern city of Erfurt, Thuringia's capital.

Are Designers The Enemy Of Design?

Does a great movie on global warming but does he walk the talk with a 20-room mansion and private jets? What is his real carbon footprint? Yes, he buys all kinds of carbon offsets, you know pay peasants in the Amazon to grow trees. But is that living a sustainable life. Can you buy your way to a carbon-free life there if you are rich? Both Davos and the Oscars were full of rich folks flying in on private jets leaving a big fat carbon footprint. Yet both conferences were allegedly CARBON-FREE. What's up with that? OK, enough. Now that I've insulted designers, allow me to insult myself. In the 90's, I was the editorial page editor of Business Week. I was the VOICE OF AUTHORITY. Truly, they had an ad campaign revolving around the voice of authority. I did design as a journalistic afterthought, at nights or the weekend.

A-Rod arrives, welcomes scrutiny

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Alex Rodriguez sat in the first-base dugout at Legends Field, surrounded by the usual circle of cameras, microphones and reporters. He knows the scrutiny will only increase as he approaches Barry Bonds' career home-run record, especially in an era when all top athletes must prove they haven't juiced up on performance-enhancing drugs.

If Rodriguez had been tested that many times, either he was selected for an unusually high number of random checks or he might have been subjected to additional tests -- which would happen, for instance, if a player tests positive for a banned stimulant for the first time.

Candidates offer final messages before Iowa caucus

I have always admired your family and the things they stood for. I was in college when that fatal day came and we no longer had our inspiration, your brother. I am disappointed in who you are endorsing. To think about all the times that the Clintons were here for you, and now you just put them aside. I think about it, and I thougt you were above the good old boys. Not so sure about that now. Hillary, a women. Maybe that just does not sit well with you Kennedys. I just don't understand. She is a great lady that certainly helped your party out by staying with Bill. The party owes her more than a senate seat. She should have all of you out there shouting her attributes. It was alright for Bill to be used to get votes for our new governor. He also has a short memory. I will have a hard time voting for either one of you because of this.

MJC dancers having Off-Balance 'Moments'

Modesto Junior College's Off-Balance Dance Company performs "Moments in Between," a modern dance repertory concert, beginning next week.

Songs include "Getting to Know You," "Something Wonderful" and "Shall We Dance?" Tickets are $15-$28; 532-3120 or www.sierrarep.org.