She has shares alice in chains unplugged made it alice chains tour shows to one Grand Slam semifinal (2004 Australian Open) and two quarterfinals She has been ranked as high as No 7 but more often has just hung on the fringes of the top 10. Now she is in the semifinals for the third straight week after her 6-4, 6-3 dusting of fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva. After losing the first set to Chakvetadze, Vaidisova was down 2-0 and one point away from being down 3-0 and two service breaks. Vaidisova powered up her forehand in desperation and not only saved the break point but broke the Russian's serve four straight times. Vaidisova, who was ranked No. 12 in the world before this tournament and had made it to the French Open semifinals earlier this year, said of her second set circumstance, "I don't think it could have gotten much worse than that. I think it would have been even tougher and a little different story if I was down 3-0 and two breaks. "Hingis, after a three-year hiatus to help both her sore feet and sore psyche, is determined to return to the top of the rankings But she keeps running into Clijsters. This is the third time the two have played in a quarterfinal match in 2006 and the third time Clijsters has dictated both the style of play and the result. After Hingis broke Clijsters' serve to tie the first set at 4-4, the Belgian won three of the last four games and did it by getting angry and overpowering Hingis from the back court. While Clijsters berated her own play, it was Hingis who was the resigned loser. "You kind of run out of steam," Hingis said, "when you don't take chances But Kim puts so much pressure on you all the time.

She doesn't give you a free point; she's always on top of you No one hits winners off the first serve alice in chains godsmack . But she does. "*Venus Williams, who had withdrawn from the Acura Classic because of a wrist injury, withdrew from next week's JPMorgan Chase Open in Carson for the same reason. alice chains live . Two council members from the west San Fernando Valley are the chief obstacles to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's bid to place a $243-million telephone tax on the Feb alice chains . 5 presidential primary ballot. With the proposed measure coming before the City Council today, Councilmen Greig Smith and Dennis Zine -- two of the council's most fiscally conservative members -- still have not announced whether they will support it. When the 15-member council drafted the ballot language for the tax two weeks ago, Smith and Zine were the only ones who voted no alice mudgarden . And because the tax cannot reach the ballot without a unanimous vote, they loom as pivotal players in the city's effort to preserve the tax. Smith chief of staff Mitch Englander said Monday that his boss was "trying to figure out what's in the best interests of the city. " Zine, who returned Monday from city business in Japan, said he had not decided. The council has until Wednesday to declare that the loss of the tax would create an "emergency" -- language that is legally necessary to send the city's telephone utility users tax to voters. Proposition 218, the 1996 statewide tax initiative, requires general city taxes to come up for a vote in the same elections as council members unless an emergency is declared. If no emergency is declared, the tax cannot reach voters until 2009. City officials see the proposed ballot measure as insurance in case the tax is struck down by a court later this year. Although the tax is currently levied at 10% and generates $270 million annually, Villaraigosa has recommended that a 9% tax go on the ballot, which would allow the city to campaign on the idea that it is a tax cut. Council members privately said they hoped Zine and Smith would fall in line with their colleagues.

But Zine still isn't sure the city will face an emergency if it loses the tax money -- and will decide only after reading various reports, he said Monday. "Are they going to cut the Police Department in half? Are they going to cut the Fire Department in half? What are the consequences of not having the dollars?" Zine asked alice in chains junkhead . "They haven't shown me anything -- 'they' meaning the people who are supporting this. "Villaraigosa made a brief pitch for the tax when he appeared Saturday before a group of neighborhood council leaders alice and chains nutshell lyrics . The mayor said the loss of the tax revenue would be equivalent to losing 3,000 police officers. Since then, the mayor's aides have been in "constant contact" with Zine and Smith to get them on board, Villaraigosa spokesman Matt Szabo said. A representative of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. , which wrote Proposition 218, had no plans for addressing the council today, saying such an act would be tantamount to "lecturing a brick wall. "Smith and Zine could reasonably argue that there is no immediate need to vote on the tax, said association executive director Kris Vosburgh. "They certainly would come out as heroes if they came out and said this was a rush to judgment," Vosburgh said alice chains nutshell . "But I just don't know if they have it in them. "Councilman Richard Alarcon suggested two weeks ago that opponents of the tax could simply step out of the room when the vote was taken, allowing for a unanimous yes vote alice chains brother . But Zine said he had no plans to do so Alice In Chains . "I either vote yes or no," he said. --david. zahniser. The zebras are changing their stripes. NFL referees will be trading in their well-worn vertical black-and-white stripes for a style that instead uses broad white and thin black stripes that flare around the shoulders and upper arms. In addition to giving their annual lecture on rules changes for the upcoming season, several referees wore the new threads this week at New York Giants training camp. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told the Associated Press the reason for the makeover was to use a lighter, more efficient fabric that would be cooler when it's hot weather and warmer when it's cold. The second aim was to make the uniforms more easily accommodate not only the gear referees carry but the layers of clothing needed in cold weather. "The third reason was to give the uniforms a more modern, distinctly NFL look," he said. Referees will wear the new shirts and the traditional white knickers for most games, and in cold weather will switch to black full-length pants that will allow more room for additional layers. Not everyone was enamored of the new look.

"They should be riding on a horse at Saratoga," one spectator cracked while watching the officials oversee a practice session. *Trivia Time: Seven Dodgers have homered from each side of the plate in a game alice in chains sickman . What players have done it twice?*Take a gander at this: Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski doesn't fault Bruce Sutter's induction into baseball's Hall of Fame would alice chains . But when it comes to relievers, he says, Goose Gossage also belongs. "Sutter gets an awful lot of credit for winning one Cy Young award and popularizing the split-fingered fastball alice in chians . I would argue that Gossage popularized the idea of the intimidating closer nutshell lyrics alice. To me that has changed the game more. "*One-digit salute: How badly does Raiders receiver Jerry Porter want out of Oakland? During a practice at training camp in Napa, Porter was wearing a T-shirt featuring two giant hands on the front. One was pointing right at you; the other had its middle finger raised. *Swing clear of this: LPGA golfer Brittany Lincicome, 20, told USA Today about her goals in life: "To make enough money to retire at 35 Alice In Chains - aliceinchains . She might want to have a chat with PGA golfer John Daly about the latter. Daly claims to have gambled away $60 million -- and still can't stop. *On this day: In 1967, the Denver Broncos beat the Detroit Lions in an exhibition game, 13-7.

It was the first time an American Football League team defeated an NFL team alone alice in chains . The win included Bob Scarpitto's 28-yard run from punt formation. *Trivia answer: Eddie Murray, April 18 and June 9 in 1990; and Milton Bradley, April 18 and May 13 in 2005. *And finally: From Randy Hill of Fox Sports : "Houston Rockets center Yao Ming has promised to quit eating shark fin soup, which is considered a delicacy in China nutshell alice . Yao's growing interest in supporting the welfare of endangered species has been extended to fighting the threatened extinction of the legitimate NBA center. " lyrics in chains . A 27-year-old Oceanside man was sentenced Monday to 78 months in federal prison for setting fire to a synagogue. Manuel Tiscareno-Renteria was convicted in May of torching Congregation Beth Am Synagogue in 2003. He has been held in jail since his arrest the day after the fire. U. S District Court Judge Larry A nutshell . Burns will subtract the 48 months Tiscareno-Renteria has already served from Monday's sentence. Nobody was injured in the fire. . Mortgage rates around the country dipped for the second week in a row. Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to a nationwide average of 6. 63%, down from 6. 72% last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac reported. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, fell to 6 . 27% from 6. 34% last week. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages dropped to 5. 69% from 5. 78%. The mortgage rates do not include add-on fees known as points Alice In Chains - aliceinchains . The 30-year and 15-year mortgages each carried a nationwide average fee of 0. 3 point One-year ARMs carried an average fee of 0. 7 point. .

Sempra Energy, owner of Southern California Gas Co . Alice In Chains tickets and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. , said second-quarter earnings more than tripled, helped by strong results at its regulated utility operations and its commodity trading business. Sempra's net income rose to $373 million, or $1. 43 a share, from $121 million, or 48 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding gains from asset sales and other items, the San Diego-based company earned 71 cents a share. Analysts, on average, expected 63 cents, according to Reuters Estimates. Revenue rose to $2. 5 billion from $2. 2 billion. Net income for San Diego Gas & Electric rose to $65 million from $29 million. Southern California Gas' net income was unchanged at $58 million. lyrics nutshell . Blue-chip stock indexes rallied to two-month highs Thursday as some investors took an optimistic view of the economy and interest rates, ahead of today's July employment report and the Federal Reserve's meeting Tuesday. With the nation's retailers reporting a generally positive July, investors were reassured that consumer spending wasn't falling off a cliff. At the same time, the Institute for Supply Management's index of service-sector activity in July came in below expectations, more evidence that economic growth was moderating. "Both reports bode well for a soft-landing scenario" that would maintain decent economic growth while keeping inflation in check, said Peter Cardillo, chief strategist at S. W nutshell chords . Bach & Co. That, in turn, could give the Fed more confidence about halting its two-year-long credit-tightening campaign. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 42. 66 points, or 0. 4%, to 11,242. 59, its highest closing level since June 2. The Standard & Poor's 500 index inched up 1. 72 points, or 0. 1%, to 1,280. 27, also the highest since June 2. Winners topped losers by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. The Nasdaq composite index rallied 13. 53 points, or 0. 6%, to 2,092. 34, its highest since last Friday. The Institute for Supply Management's services index fell to 54. 8 in July from 57. 0 in June . Although any reading above 50 indicates growth, last month's reading was weaker than expected. Separately, the Commerce Department said new orders to U. S factories rose 1. 2% in June. Excluding the transportation sector, orders rose a scant 0. 1%. Today's government report on July employment trends may be the most important evidence the Fed weighs in deciding whether to raise interest rates further or go on hold, analysts said. Treasury bond traders have been pushing long-term yields lower for the last month, signaling that they expect the Fed to pause. On Thursday, the 10-year Treasury note yield held at a seven-week low of 4. 96%. On Wall Street, neither the bond market nor the stock market was rattled by interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. In other trading, near-term crude oil futures slipped 35 cents to $75. 46 a barrel as Tropical Storm Chris weakened, reducing the threat to Gulf of Mexico energy facilities. Among the day's market highlights:* Retail stocks were mostly higher on July sales reports.