Gore gets speeding ticket

Gore gets speeding ticket
ASTORIA, Ore. -- Former Vice President Al Gore was cited for speeding as he drove a rented car to visit family on the coast earlier this month.
Gore, who was alone, was issued a $141 ticket for driving 75 mph on a highway in the northwest corner of the state, police said this week. The speed limit is 55 mph.
He was issued the ticket on Aug. 3, said Lt. Dale Rutledge of the Oregon State Police.
Gore will pay the fine, spokesman Mike Feldman told The Associated Press on Friday.
The trooper who stopped Gore didn't recognize him until he presented his license, Sgt. Andrew Merila told KATU-TV.
The trooper said Gore, who carried Oregon when he ran for president in 2000, was polite throughout the encounter.
Pauley reveals boutwith bipolar disorder
NEW YORK -- Jane Pauley, whose highly anticipated syndicated talk show debuts Aug. 30, reveals she was treated for bipolar disorder in her new memoir, "Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue."
Pauley writes openly about the life-changing experience excerpted in the latest People magazine, saying it was triggered by a rare reaction to prescription drugs prescribed for a simple case of hives.
"If you didn't know me well, you might not have noticed anything strange; I was strange only for me," the former co-anchor of "Today" and "Dateline NBC" writes. "I knew I wasn't well, but I didn't seem to be at a serious risk for more than some turbulence, though my doctors alluded to the possibility of a crash landing."
Her doctors and her husband, "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau, helped the 53-year-old journalist realize that she was racing too fast, making constant, grand plans such as producing her own line of clothing.
By the time she was hospitalized at New York Hospital in the spring of 2001, the bipolar condition (often called manic depression) was clear to Pauley. "My tides were fluctuating -- back and forth -- sometimes so fast they seemed to be spinning."
Pauley says she's now free of mood swings thanks to her treatment and to lithium -- and writing her memoir has also been cathartic.
"I had already decided that if only one good thing came out of this mess it would be the opportunity to talk about the disease," writes Pauley, who will also talk about her battle with bipolar disorder on her two old shows.
Governor honors'American Idol' star
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Gov. Mike Easley proclaimed today as Fantasia Barrino Day in North Carolina to mark her first major singing appearance in her home state since winning the "American Idol" title in May.
On Saturday night, Barrino, of High Point, and fellow "American Idol" contestants will perform in Winston-Salem, one of the stops on the American Idols Tour 2004.
Easley's proclamation, issued Thursday, cites the singer, who now performs as Fantasia, as "a true testament to what happens when you put your heart and soul into your dream" and says she "has shown through her amazing talent and larger-than-life personality that goodness does really grow right here in North Carolina."
Today's birthdays
Israeli political leader Shimon Peres is 81. Actor-director Melvin Van Peebles is 72. Singer Kenny Rogers is 66. Actor Clarence Williams III is 65. Rock-and-roll musician James Burton is 65. Singer Harold Reid (The Statler Brothers) is 65. Singer Jackie DeShannon is 60. Actress Kim Cattrall is 48. Actress Alicia Witt is 29.
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