HAYWARD — Mason Francouer would have had to be driving a car pretty fast to earn the kind of ticket he picked up last fall for riding through downtown on a skateboard.

The 17-year-old's first brush with the law happened after school one day. He was rolling down a B Street sidewalk when a police officer on a bicycle pulled him over and fined him $560.

"I was going like 3 miles an hour and, I don't know, I got a ticket. It was kind of lame," said Francouer, a shaggy-haired high school senior who has been plying downtown on wheels since seventh grade.

His parents were infuriated by the ticket, and his father, electrician David Francouer, took several hours off work to join his son in court.

"We just thought it was kind of bogus," the teen said. "I don't mess up the sidewalk.

Watch this

Aside from the clown that looms large in the story of DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes), who has been catapulted back to 1981, there's the shadow of Life On Mars to escape. Job done, I'd say. For despite being more of a caper than its predecessor, and its occasional moments of smugness and lurches into self-parody, Ashes to Ashes is better than Life on Mars - and not just because of when it's set. The series' big mystery is more compelling, while Drake's desire to return to the present is more heartrending than was Sam Tyler's. A complete treat.

Who Killed the Playboy Earl?
9pm, Channel 4
Had Anthony Ashley-Cooper been born on a different kind of estate - council rather than stately home - the last years of his life, during which he squandered his money on drugs and prostitutes, would likely be viewed as feckless.

Bike rodeo helps kids learn cycling survival skills

Children aged 5-10 got some lessons in bicycling safety Saturday at the Capital City's first-ever bike rodeo.

The event was sponsored by Muscle Powered, which advocates biking and walking instead of driving everywhere, the Nevada Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Safety.

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Cisco Unified Communications

Future protection, which can create the possibility of opening up to more IP destinations outside the enterprise, may come in the form of technologies like wide packet inspection and in authenticated identity found in RFC 4474.

Don Weiner, Cisco: In a word, yes. Toll fraud and telabuse are real threats to any telephony system. Mechanisms must be available to prevent callers from transferring out of voice mail systems to world-wide destinations (an early form of toll fraud). Mechanisms must be available to restrict users from forwarding their phones to just anywhere. Users must be educated, through regular sessions (at least annually is recommended), on social engineering techniques designed to trick a user into revealing privileged information or enabling toll fraud (for example, transfer a caller to a remote destination).

Busy Man: With Funeral Homes and Much More, Kenny Purcell Has His ...

Kenny Purcell comes from hard-working stock. Although he's the name behind Purcell Funeral Homes, that's not all he's involved in.

In what little spare time the funeral services businesses in West Southern Pines, Laurinburg and Raeford afford him, Purcell and his family operate a limousine service, an insurance agency, fitness centers and an assisted-living facility. That workload keeps him running from before sunrise to well after sunset, but he's used to it.

"I fill my day every day," he says. "At some point, we'll probably downsize, maybe the fitness centers and the assisted living facility. The businesses are going well, but we stay pretty busy all day, although the funeral business isn't as profitable as it used to be. We don't depend on it. The Lord and I get up and going by 3 in the morning and finally finish my day at about 9 or 10 at night."

His busy pace is a family tradition.

The President's 'First Mechanic'

Although President George W. Bush calls him “the Pinkster" in letters, Santiago Gonzalez goes by “Pinkey" to the Georgetown residents who visit his store on M Street. Gonzalez, who immigrated to the US from Spain, is a bicycle mechanic and co-owner of Revolution Cycles, a four-store chain of bicycle shops in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. About 10 years ago, Pinkey started Revolution Cycles, now reputed as the chain that supplies Bush with his bicycles and bicycle maintenance. They also provide similar services to the Secret Service, John Kerry and locals. This week, THE HOYA sits down with the man who Bicycling Magazine dubbed “The First Mechanic."

How did you get involved in this business? Way back when … I was a young kid, a real good friend of mine open[ed] up a bike shop, [and] I used to go hang out after school [and] do my homework and stuff.

With Change, Cubans Speculate on Currency

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'Raulistas' Expected to Back Raul Castro

Other generals and colonels have run fishing, transportation and Habanos S.A., which works with a European firm to market Cuban cigars abroad.

Ramiro Valdes, 75, one of only three men honored with the title of Commander of the Revolution, for years operated a key company importing computers and other electronics, until Raul named him communications minister shortly after Fidel fell ill.

The armed forces also manage a chain of hundreds of small consumer goods stores and a tourism company that runs more than 30 hotels, with subsidiaries that provide domestic tourist travel by air and land.

Generals who once served as battlefield commanders have become leaders of a new military entrepreneurial class, with personal stakes in Cuba's future.

"Second- and third-tier officials have every incentive to stand together, if only as the best strategy for preserving their equities," Latell wrote.