News In Brief

WHAT'S THAT ADDRESS AGAIN?

A hamlet in eastern Oregon is the recipient of 22 computers for its elementary school, technical help in building a municipal Web site, Internet pages for most of its businesses - and, to top it off, $75,000 in cash. The catch? Halfway must change its name to Half.com for a year. The deal is the publicity stunt of a new Internet company with the same name. At first, residents weren't thrilled with the idea. But money talks, and by last week town councilors had OK'd it. "I feel," punned Councilor Merrilyn Seal, "we have made two halves whole."

AND HE'S NOT THROUGH YET

You gotta give Ashrita Furman credit. The New Yorker has truly earned the "Mr. Versatility" title awarded him by the Guinness Book of World Records. Last week, he achieved his 62nd listing - bouncing for one mile on a pogo stick ... in Antarctica. Among his others: yodeling for 27 straight hours.

Entertainers pour big bucks into presidential campaigns

Politicians and entertainers were not on best terms last year after Hollywood came under fire for possibly influencing the youths who went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Colorado. Despite that - or perhaps as a result - film stars and other celebrity entertainers appear to be on a mission to pump cash into the 2000 presidential campaigns. The Center for Responsive Politics in Washington reports that such donors wrote checks for more than $1.6 million between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 last year - almost twice the $901,169 they contributed over the entire 1996 campaign. The sums that candidates received from donors in the film, TV, and music industries:

2000 campaign

Al Gore (D) $642,865

George W. Bush (R) $488,327

Bill Bradley (D) $328,524

John McCain (R) $180,938

1996 campaign

Bill Clinton (D) $506,699

Bob Dole (R) $193,170

Lamar Alexander (R) $121,050

Jesse Jackson (D) $80,250

- Associated Press

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