Weekend in review: Best stories, multimedia

Dragon Boat race propels education partnership effort

VIEW: 2008 Dragon Boat Festival photo gallery.
VIEW: 2008 Dragon Boat Event (WMV)
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<img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/assets/gif/weblink_icon.gif> <font color=red><b> READ FULL STORY: </b></font color=red><a href=" /apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080727/NEWS16/480630419" target="_blank"><b>Dragon Boat race propels education partnership effort</b></a><br> <BR> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/photo.gif> <b><font color=red> VIEW</b></font color=red>: <a href=" /apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=TO&Dato=20080727&Kategori=ART03&Lopenr=314549932&Ref=PH" target="_blank "><b> 2008 Dragon Boat Festival </b></a> photo gallery. <BR> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/video.gif> <b><font color=red>VIEW</b></font color=red>: <a href=" /assets/wmv/TO51492727.WMV" target="_blank "><b> 2008 Dragon Boat Event </b></a> (WMV) <BR> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/video.gif> <b><font color=red>VIEW</b></font color=red>: <a href=" /assets/rm/TO51489727.RM" target="_blank "><b>2008 Dragon Boat Event</b></a> (Real)

Kraft Foods Inc. propelled itself with Flour Power. Toledo Fire Department had Blazing Paddles. And Brooks Insurance Agency dubbed its paddlers the Coverage Crew. They were among 44 teams from a variety of area organizations in the seventh annual Great Maumee River Dragon Boat Festival in International Park in East Toledo yesterday.

In a recent e-mail exchange with his friend and co-author, Jeffrey Zaslow, Randy Pausch said he still was amazed at how he had been transformed from boyish computer science professor to a "worldwide media-based inspirer." Such fame for Mr. Pausch, who died yesterday at age 47, began with his final lecture in September at Carnegie Mellon University on how to live a grateful, fulfilling life. It has now been viewed more than 10 million times on the Internet. A follow-up book with Mr. Zaslow has 2.8 million copies in print, in 30 languages.

A Maumee woman won $100,000 in an Ohio Lottery instant game. Loretta Stuyvaert filed a claim yesterday at the lottery's regional office in Toledo, the Ohio Lottery announced.

The specter is everywhere. You are reminded of it by the girl from Circleville who sits behind you in sociology class, then by the guy in the produce aisle at Krogers, and again at the family reunion, and when you meet with a couple former players who stopped by campus to visit. And even here, surrounded by the swirl of humanity in the heart of downtown in the Windy City, just beyond the shadow of the Sears Tower and a short walk from Navy Pier or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, you can't elude the aura of Ohio State football.

The Toledo metro area has the second-highest rate of rapidly growing firms statewide, an important factor for economic development, a recent U.S. Small Business Administration study found. And among all medium-sized metro areas nationwide, Toledo ranks No. 9 in the percentage of so-called high-impact firms firms that doubled sales in a four-year period and increase their employment. Locally, there were 719 high-impact firms in 2006, or 2.56 percent of all 28,054 firms, according to the study.

The pudding cups are gone. So are the hot dogs, and bumper covers, and spark plugs. Even the toilets in Tiffin have been flushed away. Northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan have lost nearly 5,300 manufacturing jobs in less than two years, according to state and federal unemployment filings. And another 2,100 high-paying manufacturing jobs in the region are scheduled to disappear from the Toledo-area s economic map in the next several months.