Sunday, June 4th 2000, 2:13AM

* "Straight-Jacket" - Set in 1950s Hollywood; Stevie Ray Dallimore and Carrie Preston star in this comedy about an actor who marries a studio owner's secretary to conceal his sexual orientation and secure a part in "Ben-Hur." Written and directed by Richard Day. Opens Thursday at Playhouse 91, 316 E. 91st St., (212) 307-4100.

* Don Henley - The ex-Eagle makes a local stop on his "Inside Job" tour, performing Thursday at Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Sixth Ave., (212) 247-4777

* Mondo Melodia International Music Festival - Greek singer George Dalaras, Iraqi composer and singer Kazum Al Saher and Simon Shaheen (the Iranian composer who played violin for Sting's "Desert Rose") are among the performers. Saturday at Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Sixth Ave., (212) 247-4777.

* Al Green - The great '70s soul singer performs, with Odetta, as part of the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival on Wednesday at Central Park SummerStage. Rumsey Field, in the park at 72nd St., (212) 360-2777.

* Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - "Grease" is the word as they sing favorites Friday at the Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, (516) 334-0800.

* Jon Stewart - Comedy Central funnyman does his standup Thursday at Carnegie Hall, 57th St. and Seventh Ave., (212) 247-7800.

* White Oak Dance Project - Mikhail Baryshnikov (above) and his troupe perform three premieres: Yvonne Rainer's "After Many a Summer Dies the Swan," John Jasperse's "See Through Knot" and Mark Morris' "Peccadilloes," a solo danced by Baryshnikov. Wednesday thorough next Sunday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave., (718) 636-4100.

* "Welcome to the Voice" - A pop opera featuring Elvis Costello, Ron Sexsmith and the Brodsky Quartet, with score by Steve Nieve. Friday at

Summary: THEATER "Straight-Jacket"- Set in 1950s Hollywood; Stevie Ray Dallimore and Carrie Preston star in this comedy about an actor who marries a studio owner's secretary to conceal his sexual orientation and secure a part in "Ben-Hur."Written and directed by Richard Day. Opens Thursday at Playhouse 91, 316 E. 91st St., (212) 307-4100. CONCERTS Don Henley - The ex-Eagle makes a local stop on his "Inside Job"tour, performing Thursday at Radio City Music Hall, 1260


OSSINING IN 1825, inmates from New York's first state prison were barged down the Hudson River from Auburn to begin work on their new home here. They quarried local limestone and built on the edge of the river the first cell block for what was to become the state's second prison.

The gray stone building, its windows sealed in disuse, still stands next to the Conrail right-of-way, a reminder of the days when the Ossining Correctional Facility was known as Sing-Sing Prison.

The intervening years brought notoriety to this community whose lights used to flicker when the switch was pulled on the electric chair in Death Row. The chair itself was sent to Green Haven Prison in Dutchess County about five years ago, but Ossining's ''up-theriver'' reputation remains, and there are those here who have always wished the prison would go away.

Lingering distaste for the red brick prison on the hill was sharpened in the minds of many Ossining residents recently when Governor Carey found legislative support for his proposal to spend $24.6 million on nearly 600 new beds at Ossining. At the same time, the Governor set a closing date for the prison of Dec. 31, 1987.

Thomas A. Coughlin 3d, the State Commissioner of Correctional Services, said at the time that Ossining provided the only maximumsecurity space that could be added to ''in the next year'' and avoid overloading of local jails with state prisoners.

The desire to replace the prison with real estate developments that would add ratables to Ossining's tax base lies at the center of most objections. ''We do have a reputation as a prison town, and that doesn't help attract new development,'' Louis Engel, a former Supervisor of the Town of Ossining, said the other day. ''I.B.M. is all around us, but we don't have I.B.M. here. And we don't have General Foods or Pepsico, either,'' he said, referring to major companies with headquarters elsewhere in the county.

Mr. Engel, a Democrat, said the correctional facility ''is sitting on probably the most valuable piece of real estate in the community'' and should be developed with ''luxury, high-income housing that would bring some money into Ossining and some damn-well needed tax income.''

The Mayor of the village of Ossining, Edward M. Wheeler, is a Republican who owns a stationery business on Main Street. In an interview last week, he said he thought most of the community agreed with his approach of ''pragmatism.''

''It's obvious they're not going to close in 1987,'' Mayor Wheeler said. ''There's no way they can. Judges are sending more and more people to prison. This is the closest one to New York City, where nothing else is available. Nobody else wants a prison in his back yard. The one they've got is close to home for visitors. They'll keep it.''

Mayor Wheeler proposed that the village and state work together to improve the 70-acre site of the prison and the surrounding neighborhood of houses, some of which present a rundown look of peeling paint and boarded windows.

He suggested that the state help repair the roadbed of Hunter Street, which has been cracked by traffic entering the prison. He also suggested that the facility make a payment in lieu of taxes to the village, not just to the school district, which has received between $16,000 and $40,000 a year from the facility over the years.

Mr. Wheeler said that although the state pays the village for the prison's water, the village provides fire and ambulance service. To help counter local criticism, the state's expansion plan includes a provision to give the village a 10-acre portion of prison land along Spring Street that holds a three-story brick house with white shutters and two tall chimneys. It was once the home of the warden and is now used for offices.

Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Engel, in separate interviews, both approved of the move as a step in the right direction. Mr. Wheeler also said negotiations should now begin to have the state ''release to the village'' the tract of about 16 acres that lies between the river and the railroad tracks. It contains the original cellblock, a power house and old dormitories.

The riverfront site was described as ''priceless, one of the most delightful spots on either side of the river,'' by Kenneth W. Ritchie, chairman of an antiprison group called the Jericho Committee. The committee, which numbers about 40 members, has been seeking the prison's closing since 1974.

Mr. Ritchie said he favored the use of the site for open park land, perhaps a marina and areas for ''passive recreation.'' The prison and its high gray walls punctuated by watch towers that wend their way down the hill to the railroad tracks have had ''a negative impact on the community in the last 30 years,'' Mr. Ritchie said. ''We are paying the piper.''

Mr. Ritchie added that upstate communities with prisons such as Clinton and Attica had fewer choices for development because of their sites. With a hillside and views up and down the Hudson, ''we can do something far more valuable,'' he noted.

Asked what effect a closing of the Ossining Correctional Facility might have on those who work there, Mr. Ritchie said that many of the ''employees might be unwilling to move, the way anyone would.'' But he added that ''few live in Ossining.'' He said that many prison employees live in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey.

There are about 530 corrections officers on the staff at Ossining, according to a prison source, and about 1,500 inmates. One group opposed to closing Ossining is the National Association of Colored People, which has a 120-man chapter for inmates. The N.A.A.C.P. believes that if Ossining were to shut down, its inmates would be moved even farther away from New York City, where the families of most of them live.

''It would inhibit their rehabilitation process,'' said Alexander Smith, state coordinator of the organization's prison programs. ''The family bond plays a very important role in helping them make reentry to society.''

Illustrations: photo of watchtower of prison photo of view of Hudson River from Ossining Prison


By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN, Associated Press

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- An ex-convict who killed seven people in July before taking his own life in a Grand Rapids shooting spree had pledged in a suicide note to take his mother-in-law "with me."

Grand Rapids police released new information about the case Tuesday, including video and audio recordings.

Officials probably won't ever know with certainty why Rodrick Dantzler fatally shot a former girlfriend, his estranged wife, his 12-year-old daughter and four others related to them, including his mother-in law, police Chief Kevin Belk said.

Dantzler's suicide note "obviously indicated his frustration" with his estranged wife and her parents, Belk said. "Why he continues his rampage throughout the day . . . I don't think we'll ever know."

Dantzler shot at four police officers July 7 as he led them on a 12-minute chase through city streets and nearby highways, a prosecutor's report said. He wounded two people in downtown Grand Rapids during the chase and took three people hostage in a four-hour standoff. He released one before killing himself.

The 34-year-old fueled himself during the rampage with snorts of cocaine, police said.

He told his friend Willie Cunningham that he was upset with his estranged wife, Jennifer Heeren-Dantzler, 29, because she had taken his 12-year-old daughter for three days and not returned her.

In a suicide note left for his mother, he complained, "it seems like everyone that loves me walk (sic) out of my life."

Dantzler blamed his mother-in-law for talking Heeren-Dantzler into leaving him, writing, "I dont (sic) have anything nice 2 say about her! I gonna take her with me!!!"

Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth said police found an empty 12-shot clip at his in-laws' home and a 30-shot clip emptied of all but three bullets with Dantzler where he died.

"It would appear that he was simply a very angry man," Forsyth wrote in his report on the shootings. "Driven by anger and emboldened by alcohol and cocaine, he murdered his in-laws, his wife and his daughter. He next murdered Kimberlee, Amanda and Marissa Emkens."

Dantzler previously dated Kimberlee Ann Emkens, 23. He also killed her sister, Amanda Renee Emkens, 27, and her niece, Marissa Lynn Emkens, 10.

Dantzler had a criminal record as far back as 1992, when he was charged as a juvenile with breaking and entering and car theft. That was followed over the next eight years by charges of trespassing, domestic violence, destruction of property, larceny and assault.

He couldn't legally own a firearm because of his criminal record but used a stolen .40-caliber handgun in the shootings.

He called Cunningham for a ride on the afternoon of the shooting spree but didn't initially tell him about the slayings. Cunningham told investigators his girlfriend called him about an hour later and said seven people were dead and police were looking for Dantzler. When Cunningham asked his passenger what had happened, Dantzler said he'd "just lost it."

He told Cunningham he'd killed his father-in-law first and then his mother-in-law, estranged wife and their daughter. He also said he'd killed someone else but didn't mention he'd killed seven people in all.

Cunningham urged Dantzler to turn himself in but Dantzler said he wanted to kill himself instead. Cunningham noticed police cars approaching from the rear and jumped out of the white Suburban without stopping the car. Dantzler slid behind the wheel and took off with police in pursuit. Eventually, he crashed and fled on foot.

Belk praised the three people taken hostage that evening for their coolness under pressure.

"Their actions were remarkable," he said.

All three hid as they saw Dantzler running through their backyard, but he found two of them, Steve Helderman and Joyce Bean. He eventually released Bean after receiving Gatorade and cigarettes.

When a special response team got in through the home's basement about halfway through the standoff, Dantzler took Helderman with him into a bedroom closet. Megan Holmes came out from under the bed to try to calm Dantzler when he became agitated and threatened to shoot Helderman,

Dantzler ended his killing spree by shooting himself in the head at 11:29 p.m.

The others killed in the shooting spree were Dantzler's 12-year-old daughter, Kamrie Deann Heeren-Dantzler; his mother-in-law, 52-year-old Rebecca Lynn Heeren; and his father-in-law, 51-year-old Thomas Heeren.


An official feeder pageant to the 90-year-old Miss America pageant had a major sponsor involved in gay porn.

Ric Alonso and his partner of 21 years, Ernie Koneck, have both been both prominent power players in the Southern California Scholarship Association — an incorporated not-for-profit association — which produces the Miss Hollywood pageant, an official preliminary to Miss California, and a feeder to Miss America.

Miss Nebaraska Wins 2011 Miss America Pageant.

Alonso is listed as the first “major sponsor” for 2011 scholarship donations, while partner Koneck has been the pageantry point of contact and is featured in photographs alongside the smiling young sashed pageant contestants.

Miss America Blasts Newsweek Over Michelle Bachmann Cover.

However, on Tuesday the entertainment website Radaronline.com exposed Alonso as a moonlighting gay porn star and producer “Jake Cruise” who also owns three hardcore adult websites. Alonso promotes his pseudo-character on one of his X-rated film sites, stating “My movies are not your typical gay porn. I’m in a lot of the movies,” the site reports.

Following the revelation, Koneck announced his resignation Tuesday as Executive Director of the Southern California Scholarship Association, and said Alonso was in no way involved in the Miss Hollywood pageant, other than to provide scholarship funding.

“Ric has been involved in the pageant only financially. He’s not involved in the running of the pageant in any way. Likewise, my involvement in Ric’s business is strictly administrative and financial. I am CFO and handle accounting, finance, human resources, etc. Also, the Southern California Scholarship Association is not a nonprofit corporation, nor has it ever been presented as such. It is an unincorporated association that does not make a profit or remunerate anyone involved in the pageant in any way,” Koneck told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “All funds raised are used for pageant scholarships, pageant production expenses and expenses related to preparing our titleholders for state competition. Effective today, I have resigned from the Miss California Organization and the Southern California Scholarship Association.”

So is the financial association, even at a local level, between the well-respected Miss America pageant and an X-rated gay porn business a conflict of interest?

"Young girls across the country have looked up to Miss America for decades. Any connection the organization has with the porn industry, even financially, will prove dire effects going forward. It would be a huge mistake for any groups under the Miss America umbrella to continue dealings with these sort of individuals,” commented beauty pageant and Hollywood publicist, Angie Meyer. "Links to pornography run afoul to the principles the pageant was founded upon."

Yet not everyone sees it as a problem.

“The production of pornography is legal in the United States. There is no reason Ric Alonso’s money should be considered dirty or inappropriate for funding a beauty contest or any other business venture,” said pop culture/media expert Jenn Hoffman. “To single out porn would hypocritical; especially considering statistics say an estimated 70 percent of men and 30 percent of women look at it nearly every single day. That makes pornography more popular than smoking, drinking – or even the Miss America pageant!”

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Summary: Miss America Preliminary Sponsor Resigns After Gay Porn Revelations


I tend to disagree, both with you and with the NY Times guy.

First of all, I congratulate you for having a star intern who performs a (straightforward?) DFC in 10 minutes.

Second, you mention that IPO have a psychological element and banks must take into account. But, they did this, after the roadshow they raised the price from 32 to 45. I suspect institutional investors also know how to value a company and they must know that more than 60 dollars is a very risky proposition in the long term

What would you have done? price it at 50? maybe. It was risky, since it was the first social media company in the American market and with a fragile business model(Renren shares exploded the first day inthe Chinese market and then plunged again) But 83? 94? 122? It is very easy to analise this when facts have already happened.

Furthermore, how can you be so sure that banks already knew that the stock was going to trade so high? Last year LinkedIn shares were trading at 14,50 in secondary markets and in march they were at 35. What happened from march to may from a fundamental point of view? nothing

This is close to the DFC results from Edupristine and Trefis (and maybe from you star intern). Yes these markets are very closed but you can see a pattern around the 30-35 usd.

Regarding the NY Times guy, even him acknolewdges: "LinkedIn is still a fragile enterprise. Its business model remains unproved. It is going to have to grow awfully fast to justify its stock price"

So, you have entirely new business category in the stock market, secondary markets and DCF analysis (which, despite your intern calculating it in 10 minutes is one of the more -if not the most- recognised methods to estimate intrinsic value of a share) princing the shares at 33 usd and you raise it more than 30% and you still thinks the banks underpriced it on purpose?

What for? to make their other clients happy as the NY Times guy suggest? At their own expenses? I don't think so.

Banks have an inherent interest in pricing the IPO accordingly, first because of the comissions involved, and second because there are other lines of businesses resulting from a satisfied IPO client(follow-up offering, debt raising, private wealth management, etc.)

What would have happened if the banks had priced the shares at 80 and the markets had not bought it as they did? People were saying that banks were trying to cause (or blowing) a bubble by overpricing the shares, that they were greedy again because of the comissions involved an so on

Bottom line: It was the irrationality of the markets that made the stock to skyrocket. But the banks involved, supposing they did not buy share for themselves at the IPO price to sell them later, as a comment in the NY Times suggets acted (at least this time) as they had to.

Summary: LAST week The Economist gave warning in a leader that a new bubble seemed to be forming in private-market valuations of some kinds of internet companies.


BEIJING - Authorities in a second Chinese city were said yesterday to have begun seizing iPads from local retailers in an escalating trademark dispute between Apple and an insolvent maker of computer displays, Proview Technology.

The tablet computers are under “temporary impoundment’’ from retailers in Xuzhou, a city of 1.8 million people in coastal Jiangsu province, Ma Dongxiao, a lawyer for Proview’s creditors and the company, said by telephone. State-owned CCTV television confirmed the seizures in Xuzhou.

News reports Monday said about 45 iPads had been confiscated from outlets in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, about 265 kilometers, or 165 miles, southwest of Beijing. Reports on the Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo said other retailers had removed iPads from displays, though some were selling them under the counter.

The seizures follow a ruling in December in which a court in Shenzhen dismissed Apple’s contention that it owned the iPad name in China. Proview later asked the authorities in more than 20 Chinese cities to investigate whether iPads were being sold after the ruling, Ma said, a move that allows the authorities to impound the tablets until their inquiries are complete.

Proview has also made a filing with the General Administration of Customs in China, he said, putting Apple on notice that the company could seek to block the export of iPads, should Proview’s ownership claims be upheld.

In effect, the seizures and the filing are warnings by Proview of the havoc it could wreak unless Apple agrees to pay a large fee to settle the trademark fight.

The Chinese government is widely accused of ignoring what foreign intellectual property specialists call the rampant theft of patents, trademarks, and other creations such as Hollywood films and computer software.

Paradoxically, however, China’s own intellectual property laws are so sweeping that they allow the Chinese government to ban the worldwide sale of any made-in-China product that is found to violate a Chinese patent, trademark, or other protection. Tens of millions of iPads have been manufactured in plants in Chengdu and Shenzhen since the tablet was introduced in April 2010.

Moreover, because Chinese courts are not independent but instead answer to the Communist Party, rulings can frequently be swayed by politics, personal relationships, and other factors.

“It’s the wild, wild East,’’ one lawyer said of China’s intellectual property environment in an interview yesterday.

That lawyer, who refused to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said a rush by foreign companies to shift manufacturing to China had left them exposed to draconian remedies not just in legitimate disputes, but in lawsuits brought by so-called trolls, who seek to exploit dubious property claims to extort huge settlements from global brands.

“You can’t afford to lose a case in China,’’ said that lawyer.

Some specialists have called it unlikely that the Chinese government would shut down exports by a major multinational company, even one that lost an intellectual property case, because of the potential for diplomatic repercussions and an exodus of foreign corporations unwilling to put their operations at risk.

A spokesman for Apple could not be reached, but in the past the company has refused to comment on the dispute.

Proview, based in Hong Kong, was once one of the world’s biggest makers of computer displays.

But it fell into financial difficulties and was delisted by the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2010.

The company trademarked the name IPAD in several countries in 2000, intending to use it for a Web-capable hand-held device, but the project was scrapped, said Ma. Apple bought the rights to the name from a subsidiary in Taiwan in 2009.

Proview now contends that the sale did not cover its Shenzhen subsidiary, which had registered the trademark in China.

The Shenzhen court rejected Apple’s argument against that in December, but Apple is appealing that ruling. Proview has filed another lawsuit in Shanghai; arguments in that case will be heard this month, Ma said.

Ma declined to say how much money the company and its creditors were seeking from Apple but said they were willing to settle the case “in or outside of court.’’

“Proview not only owes money to banks and suppliers, but also to its workers,’’ he said.

Summary: Authorities in a second Chinese city were said Tuesday to have begun seizing iPads from local retailers in an escalating trademark dispute between Apple and an insolvent maker of computer displays, Proview Technology. The tablet computers are under “temporary impoundment’’ from retailers in Xuzhou, a city of 1.8 million people in coastal Jiangsu province, Ma Dongxiao, a lawyer for Proview’s creditors and the company, said by telephone. State-owned CCTV television confirmed the seizures in Xuzhou.


We take you inside the stealth teams out to bust the fakes in every corner of the country and we're not just talking about those handbags and fake rolexes, are refer day item notice medicine cabinet....

We take you inside the stealth teams out to bust the fakes in every corner of the country and we're not just talking about those handbags and fake rolexes, are refer day item notice medicine cabinet. You were there on the inside. This is hurting everyone in the family, husbands, wives, children, all targeted with fakes. Tonight we head to the lab, what's really in the counterfeit makeup? What is that that fake viagra? The ingredients will stun you. Not to mention shampoo, soaps, what are you really putting on your face? You're about to see it all go down. Reporter: In every corner of America tonight -- families getting their shopping lists ready for the weekend. And who isn't hunting for a steal? But tonight, you're about to see what happens when that real deal isn't the real thing. This was manufactured in China by a criminal organization. Reporter: You're about to watch as "20/20" takes you on the inside. Come down here so we can at least block this path here. Reporter: We join the elite teams who bust the fakes. Are we rolling? Reporter: The people putting your family at risk. Okay, that's the signal. Let's go! Reporter: Three different cities, and you'll see the moment they're put on the spot right here. Police. Can you stand up? Reporter: The product in your medicine cabinet that could be making your husband sick. The staple bought by women every day. And the ingredients that will stun you. And your babies -- did you buy something that's putting them at risk every time you use it? And this was the headline that got us started -- A major bust tonight involving products. What was really inside those products? Reporter: Long Island, New York just this year -- one of the biggest counterfeit busts on U.S. Soil. Authorities say two brothers selling products with names and labels we all know. Look at this. The Vicks vaporub. The chapstick. The baby oil. But all of those products customers were putting on their face were fake. And who knows what was in them? And get this. The products were being sold in stores across the country. From Florida to New York to Pennsylvania. And as you'll see tonight, investigators say that's just the start. We team up with the feds -- the international property rights center in Washington, D.C. -- where inside we are given a firsthand look at products fooling American families every day. Do you think Americans would be shocked to know just how much of what they're buying is actually fake? I think most Americans have no idea. Reporter: It's a dirty little business? It's a very, very lucrative business. Reporter: Director lev Kubiak takes us into the room where they pulled out the fakes -- what they've seized from store shelves and internet sites across this country. So, all of these are everyday American products? Everyday American products. Reporter: Perhaps you would expect luxury knockoffs -- the fake ugg boots next to the real ones. The beats headphones -- fakes too. But tonight here, we reveal the dangerous fakes. The ones right in your bathroom. The ones your family uses every day. Coming from low wage factories all over the world, where they steal the labels and place them on their own products. These fakes are made in China. Reporter: The shampoo. The bathroom soap. The razors. Even the condoms. Guaranteed to protect you. But in this case, investigators say they used substandard materials. And then a brand name we all know. But in this case, really head and shoulders above the rest? So, this shampoo is in showers across this country, but this isn't the real thing? It's not. What are you really putting in your hair? Heavy contaminants, heavy metals. So you could be putting metal contaminants into your hair without even knowing it? Things that a legitimate company would never introduce. Reporter: He says it's a mistake that can be toxic. That if you're shopping in a discount store, a dollar store, and you're getting a trusted brand name for far less you should ask yourself -- is this really the real thing? So, if you're paying a dollar for this when you normally pay a lot Mo S, ithould be a red flag? It should be a red flag. Reporter: And look at this tonight -- also found in a discount store. An extension cord for a lot less. The same color. The same packaging. Even the safety seal to seal the deal. They even put on this underwriter laboratory seal to make sure the public feels that it's been tested or there is some security there. The safety seal. The safety seal. Reporter: But they're about to show us what happens even with that seal when a counterfeit cord is put to the test. Investigators say the copper wire is so thin it can't even carry the electrical current coming from the living room wall. And he tells me it's not just what you buy for your home. It can be in your car, too. If you've ever been given a great deal on a repair, driver beware. Even the replacement airbag can be a fake. This is going to scare a lot of people. Reporter: And watch what happens side by side. On the left, a real air bag, fully deploying. On the right, the fake airbag, disintegrating right into your face. Bursting into pieces. Nothing there to protect you. How do they know if they've got a fake airbag in their car? Take it to an authorized dealer or a repair shop that you really trust and have them check it. Reporter: Tonight here -- with all of those fake goods pulling in $500 billion a year -- Ready to rock. Reporter: -- We're with the teams out to protect your family. We start with mom. And we head to a discount store, not unlike so many do across America. This one right here in the heart of New York City. And our team heads right in to buy Mac cosmetics, a brand name you can trust. But we wanted to know what's really in that rainbow of colors. We buy it -- You got some great stuff here. -- And take it to the lab. The "20/20" test. Is this eye shadow pretty? Or pretty dangerous? We're told we'll have to come back for the results. And tonight, we're also out to protect your husband with something else in the medicine cabinet. Why would you let something like erectile dysfunction get in your way? Reporter: That's right. Authorities tell us viagra is one of the most counterfeit medication sold in America. But investigators ask -- in counterfeit bottles, what's really in some of those little blue pills? In fact, we've all heard the warnings in those commercials -- one line in particular. Authorities say it's in there in part because of possible fake ingredients. Too little or too much of something can lead to an unintended consequence. Seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. Reporter: And just like the makeup, we're about to learn tonight what's really in these little blue pills discovered by investigators. And while we wait for those results, investigators aren't standing down. We're given exclusive access right there with them in Phoenix, in New York, in Los Angeles. It's another hot day in L.A. And they're about to turn up the heat, trying to snuff out the fake-outs. L.a. County sheriff sgt. Janice Munson and her team getting ready -- This is going to be operation "Wrong time." We're going after an individual who's selling Rolex watches. Reporter: In the room with them, we meet private investigator Kris Buckner, who hunts down the fakes and then turns them over to the L.A. Sheriffs' department. Well, that's kind of our job, we're on the ground, we identify the targets that are selling or making this stuff. Reporter: First up, one of the most common fakes of all. But time's up for the fake Rolex. And we listen in as they tell the team the signal to watch for when they catch their guy. As soon as the hat comes off, the hat is the sign that we have product. Once the hat comes off and it's a go. Questions? Are we rolling? Reporter: They're on the way. The cops arrive at the parking lot. Unmarked SUVs -- we're in one of them -- putting up the visor to keep our cameras out of view. That's the customer right there. He's actually working undercover -- waiting. Now, will the seller show up? And right on cue, he pulls in. Everyone inside the cars, including us, now studying that cap. Okay, that's the signal. Let's go. Reporter: The suspect under arrest. And the fake watches about to fetch him thousands could tonight fetch him jail time. The next stop, this parking garage. Tucked in the back corner. Fake bags that could fetch $150,000. We're right there, tonight, two more under arrest.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Summary: Act 1: Aside from being fake, many counterfeit products can be dangerous and contain heavy metals.


UPDATED 06/28/2014 at 04:10 PM EDT • Originally published 06/29/2014 at 09:00 AM EDT

said at his funeral Saturday that she doesn't blame her husband, Justin Ross Harris – despite Harris telling police that he'd been researching child deaths in cars in the days leading up to his son Cooper's death.

Harris, 33, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and second-degree child cruelty after he left Cooper for seven hours in the family's sweltering SUV while he went to work in Marietta, Georgia, on June 18.

According to a search warrant obtained by PEOPLE, after police seized computers and other electronic devices from his home, Harris "stated that he recently researched, through the internet, child deaths inside vehicles and what temperature it needs to be for that to occur," during an interview with officers. "Justin stated that he was fearful that this could happen."

He remains in jail without bond and is due to appear before a judge on Thursday.

Harris was not allowed to attend his son's funeral in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Saturday but he addressed the mourners via speakerphone,

. "Thank you for everything you've done for my boy," he said, noting that his son had a "good life" and he had no words to say. "Just horrible," he added. "I'm just sorry I can't be there."

The hearse outside Cooper Harris's funeral

Harris's wife, Leanna, then spoke to the crowd. "Am I angry with Ross? Absolutely not," she said. "It has never crossed my mind. Ross is and was and will be – if we have more children – a wonderful father. Ross is a wonderful daddy and leader for our children."

Leanna was still on the phone with her husband as she followed her son's casket out of the church and said, "I love you," before hanging up.

Summary: Ross Harris's 22-month-old son, Cooper, died after being left in an SUV in 90-degree temperatures on June 18


updated 08/26/2014 AT 08:30 PM EDT

•originally published 08/26/2014 AT 06:55 PM EDT

Christopher Brandon Lee, the man accused of murdering his alleged lover

, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder with a special allegation of lying in wait.

Police believe that Lee, a neighbor of Corwin and her Marine husband, Jon, killed the 19-year-old and stashed her body near the Joshua Tree National Park after she vanished on June 28.

deep within a remote gold mine shaft on Aug. 17.

The cave specialist instrumental in locating Corwin's body is still scratching his head over the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department's success in finding the teenage murder victim.

"I kept telling them, 'She's not in a mine shaft. Who's going to dump a body in a mineshaft in 2014? This isn't a movie,' " says Doug Billings, who was called in to assist in the search when detectives learned of his extensive knowledge of the hundreds of old mines near the rugged national park.

"They just kept saying, 'She's in a shaft somewhere and you're going to find her,' " says Billings, who started exploring the 130-year-old mines around the park as a teenager. "She just happened to go missing in an area that I'd spent 30 years searching. I knew every canyon, trail, mine shaft and road in that area."

Working with evidence provided by detectives, Billings went through his old notes, studied satellite photos and put together a list of possible locations where Corwin's body might be found.

For the next six weeks, dozens of volunteers from caving clubs throughout southern California looked alongside search and rescue crews and braved 117-degree heat while searching 85 different shafts identified by Billings.

Corwin's body was eventually found in a 140-foot deep mine.

"This particular mine was number two on my list," recalls Billings. "I was standing 50 feet from it on our second day out, but the temperatures were so bad that we had to leave because the dogs couldn't handle the heat."

Detectives also located .22-caliber cartridge casings and pieces of rebar near Corwin's body that matched those found in Lee's Jeep.

Lee, a former Marine who

reports pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, is being held without bail in a San Bernardino County jail after being extradited from Alaska.

Jon Corwin attended Lee's arraignment hearing, sitting in the back of the room with his father, Tom, according to the newspaper. Lee has another court hearing scheduled Sept. 16.

Summary: The neighbor accused of Corwin's murder pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder on Tuesday


08/28/2014 AT 07:00 AM EDT

was a big fan of

How big? Well, he claims to have written some fan fiction with himself in Ross's role.

Wednesday night to discuss her new movie

, he confessed his secret to her – and enlisted her help in making his fantasy come true.

But wait, folks, there's more:

Because Kimmel's playing "Ross," naturally, most of the jokes revolve around Ross's sexual prowess. For example, when Cox shows up as Monica, her opening line is, "Hey Ross, everyone down at Central Perk is talking about how good you are at making love," and Kudrow enters with, "Hey, are you guys talking about how good Ross is at making love without me?" (According to Kimmel's script, Joey and Chandler are both dead – and for a very good reason.)

seems to be the closest the cast has gotten to officially reuniting, at least until Kimmel made this happen. Check out the full clip below.

Summary: Apparently, Kimmel has written a Friends script in which he stars as Ross


FORTUNE — The worst credit squeeze in China in recent memory seems to be over. After the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, issued a reassuring statement on June 25 that dispelled investors’ worries about the lack of liquidity in China’s interbank loan market, Chinese stock markets halted their plunge, and the rates of China’s interbank loans fell from over 20% to around 6% (still two to three times greater than the average rate before the recent panic). China’s Lehman moment, for now at least, appears to have been averted.

However, many questions remain, both about the causes of the recent turmoil in China’s banking system and the implications for the Chinese economy.

As for what prompted the recent seizing-up of China’s interbank loan market, there is no shortage of theories. The PBOC, widely perceived as having engineered an artificial credit squeeze to crack down on China’s shadow banking sector, has come out with innocent but not very credible explanations. It blames the panic on a set of coincidental factors, such as the June deadline for banks to report their numbers (a requirement that forces many banks to reduce outstanding loans and embellish their risk profiles), tax due dates at the end of May and middle of June (tax payments suck cash out of the circulation), and increased demand for cash before a traditional Chinese holiday.

An alternative explanation, popular mainly among economists and investors, is that the PBOC was engaged in a high-stakes game with players in China’s shadow banking system, all with the blessing of China’s new political leadership. Because interbank loans constitute the bulk of funding for borrowers in the shadow banking system, making such loans less available sends a powerful message that the central government will no longer tolerate risky behavior and keep inflating China’s credit bubble. Some analysts went so far as to suggest that this is the first shot fired by the Chinese government to signal the start of a deleveraging process.

MORE: Fed’s Bernanke talk tab: $151 billion and counting

There is a third explanation, which is simpler and perhaps more reasonable. This incident is most likely a botched response by the Chinese monetary authorities to a problem that has been long in the making but exploded without warning and caught them completely by surprise.

The growth of China’s shadow banking system (with estimated outstanding credits equaling roughly 10-15% of the balance sheet of the formal banking sector) has long been flagged as a source of risk in China’s financial sector. Chinese policy-makers are fully aware of the risky activities within this sector but have opted to do nothing because the system serves several useful functions and has powerful interest groups. Local governments, real estate developers, and private entrepreneurs unable to obtain loans from the state-owned formal banking sector can tap this system for funding by paying a higher interest rate. State-owned banks and investment companies pocket lucrative transaction fees by peddling wealth management products (WMPs) issued by borrowers to depositors chasing high yields. When this game is going well, a lot of rich and powerful people make money while risk builds up in the financial sector.

As with similar instances of financial recklessness, confidence can evaporate quickly, setting off a panicked exit from the market. Even sophisticated and capable regulators are often ill-prepared for such unforeseen and highly disruptive events. If we analyze the recent gyrations in China’s interbank loan market from this perspective, we may gain a better understanding of the causes behind the short-lived panic and avoid overreacting to or over-interpreting this event.

Granted, the opacity of the decision-making process, the lack of a free press, and the insensitivity of policy-makers to the need to communicate their intentions to market participants all contribute to the difficulty in making the right call on China. To avoid making mistakes in the future, analysts should do themselves a favor by focusing more on political factors than on economics. In the case of the recent upheaval in China’s financial system, the idea that the squeeze was deliberately engineered by the PBOC to crack down on the shadow banking system makes little political sense. Only the Politburo Standing Committee, the ruling Communist Party’s most powerful body, could have made such a decision. But the Politburo would not likely authorize such a move at this delicate moment.

The Communist Party is scheduled to hold its third central committee plenum in the fall, when its most important economic initiatives will be unveiled. It is inconceivable that the party’s leadership would risk economic turmoil and disrupt its plans with a bold move on the shadow banking system before they head to the beach for the summer.

To implement any kind of meaningful reform to the shadow banking system, Chinese leadership will first have to reach a consensus at the top, overcome resistance from interest groups, and devise complex plans to address the consequences of reform. All this takes time and fierce bargaining. Based on the quick retreat sounded by the PBOC, it is quite obvious that the top leadership has no such plans in place for now.

MORE: Big Law has a shrinkage problem

However, this does not mean that Beijing can delay dealing with the massive risks in the banking system for very long. If anything, the recent bloodbath in the Chinese financial sector should prompt China’s top leaders that they must have a more comprehensive plan for financial deleveraging when they meet in the fall. Otherwise, they are almost certain to face a bursting of China’s credit bubble that will make last week’s turmoil look insignificant.

Minxin Pei is the Tom and Margot Pritzker ’72 Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States

Summary: The idea that the recent banking squeeze was deliberately engineered by the People's Bank to crack down on the shadow banking system makes little political sense.


FORTUNE — What songs best describe your work ethic? How many cows are in Canada? A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?

Those queries come from the Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions for 2013, as compiled by the job hunters’ website Glassdoor. Allegedly, they’re all actual conversational gambits used by corporate interviewers.

You may think such questions could produce useful insights. Or you might see them as off the wall. But are your interview questions any better?

Managers tend to think of interviewing job candidates as “something that’s easy,” says Pamela Skillings, president and chief trainer at Skillful Communications in New York. Believing they’ve reached a career level where they have been magically imbued with the gift of giving a good job interview, such managers wing it and fail to prepare questions that will reveal the best potential employees. All too often, they get a penguin in a sombrero.

MORE: Whole Foods’ John Mackey: Self-awareness on aisle 5?

“They end up hiring someone who costs the company a lot” in wasted training time and salary expenses, Skillings says. “You try to fix the mistake you made in the interview process. Then you have to fire the person or move them into a different role, and you have to start over.”

A bad interview “hurts the manager first,” Skillings says. “A bad hire is going to come back to bite you.”

Some managers try to protect themselves with vague questions of the “tell-me-about-yourself” variety. But experts say such prosaic questions produce answers of little use.

Before you sit down with job candidates, “you need a great shopping list” that lays out what you need to know about each applicant for a particular position, says Mel Kleiman, author of Hire Tough, Manage Easy and president of HR consulting firm Humetrics, which is based in Sugar Land, Texas. It’s basic stuff, Kleiman says: “Can you do the job? Can you do the job at the degree of excellence needed? Will you do it? Can you and I live together? If you are hired, can you put up with our culture and [can] we put up with your personality?”

Those aren’t the interview questions, Kleiman says. They’re templates you can use to design questions whose answers will tell you, “Is this person right for the job and is this job right for the person?”

Rather than focusing on eliciting the answers they need, inexperienced interviewers often ask rote questions that “bounce along the surface without getting to know the real person behind the interview hype,” says Paul Falcone, author of 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire. “There’s not much rhyme or reason to their questioning techniques” and they ask the same basic types of questions to all candidates for all positions.

Falcone’s examples of rote questions:

Effective interviewers ask “behavioral” questions, according to Skillings. They use phrases such as, “tell me about a time, give me an example,” she says, because the way a person reacted to a past situation may be an indication of what he or she will do in the future.

MORE: Facebook’s new look can’t conceal its old problems

So, “instead of asking ‘Are you a good negotiator?’ it’s better to say, ‘Tell me about a negotiation and how it went.’ Get a real example. Probe for details. Get to the heart of what you need to know,” Skillings says.

Falcone agrees. “We need objective diagnostic indicators of an individual’s probability of succeeding within our organization.” Otherwise, interviewers are “left picking from among people who may sell themselves better than others.”

Falcone’s examples of effective interview questions:

Ask questions that “reveal a candidate’s level of career introspection,” Falcone says. “Do they know what they want? Can they articulate their career history in a clear and compelling manner?”

During the interview, really listen to the candidate, Kleiman says. “You’ll never learn anything while you’re talking.”

If hiring people isn’t your main job, don’t be afraid to ask for help, recommends Skillings, who teaches workshops and online courses on conducting interviews. “We see a little bit of attitude from managers” at the beginning of training, she says. “`I don’t need this, I know how the deal works.’ By the end, they realize they didn’t know things, or were rusty.”

Summary: Managers often think that they have reached a career level where they have been magically imbued with the gift of giving a good job interview. It doesn't work that way.


FORTUNE — Somewhere in the world sits a large vault, manned by armed guards and further protected by biometrics. But there is no gold, cash or jewels inside. Instead, it’s just a computer that has never been connected to the Internet.

The vault’s purpose? Protecting bitcoin.

It’s the brainchild of Wences Casares, former CEO of digital wallet company Lemon (acquired by Lifelock last December). His new company is called Xapo, and has raised $20 million in first-round funding led by Benchmark. Other investors include Fortress Investment Group FIG and payment-focused VC firm Ribbit Captial.

Xapo’s vault — actually there are two, both at undisclosed locations — is a so-called “cold storage” facility for storing bitcoin, which means that it is virtually impossible to hack (well, unless you get past the armed guards). Not only are the servers not online now, but the fact that they never were online means no one was ever able to “fingerprint” them, and predict how they would generate the randomness of public/private bitcoin keys (information that is essential to stealing bitcoin). And, on the off chance a breach does occur (or Xapo goes bankrupt), all of the bitcoin contained in the vaults is insured.

So far the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has been holding bitcoin for large institutions, including hedge funds, family offices and sovereign wealth funds. Users pay 12 basis points per year, based on the number of bitcoin being stored. But Casares wants to expand to more of a retail audience — something he hopes to attract, in part, via a complementary digital wallet product. The wallet is about convenience, while the vault is about security.

“I grew up in Argentina,” Casares says. “My parents were sheep ranchers, and I saw them lose everything at least three times. Once because of inflation, once because of deflation and once because their savings were confiscated. I recognize that those are extremes but, when you grow up in that environment you become much more aware of problems with currency. So when I saw bitcoin it was like a dream.”

Matt Cohler, a Benchmark partner who personally holds “a lot” of bitcoin, believes that people will eventually pick bitcoin service providers much like they currently choose traditional banks or money managers. “You’ll want to understand the company’s credibility, backing, and solvency. In this case, you have a company led by one of the most important people in the bitcoin ecosystem, it’s insured and has investors from both Silicon Valley and Wall Street.”

Sign up for my daily email newsletter on deals and deal-makers: GetTermSheet.com

Summary: Xapo secures $20 million from Silicon Valley and Wall Street investors.


At dusk each evening until 4 January, the acres of dark gardens at Waddesdon Manor, the palatial Rothschild house in Buckinghamshire, will start to glow with eerie light from sculptural installations created by the artist Bruce Munro.

He is returning for the third year to create a midwinter trail of light through the spectacular gardens around the National Trust property.

New pieces this year include Moon Harvest, inspired by night-time views of the harvest moon from his home in Wiltshire – which like many of his pieces uses humble materials, in this case 20 bales of straw from the Waddesdon estate – and a piece formed by 19 lamp-posts inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia.

For the first time he has also made a piece for one of the rooms in the house, a screen of the many Inuit descriptions of snow transposed into Morse-coded flecks of moving light.

Summary: Bruce Munro returns for third year to create sculptural installations through National Trust property’s gardens


Charlie Baker knows he’s a towering presence, but a lot of people didn’t really notice until he got elected governor.

Chances are you haven’t gone toe-to-toe with someone of Baker’s 6-foot-6-inch stature, unless you play for the Celtics.

His height looms large after eight years of Deval Patrick, who at 5 foot 9 inches ranks pretty low in the standings of Massachusetts governors. In recent decades, only Michael Dukakis (5 foot 8 inches) and Jane Swift (5 foot 6 inches) are beneath him, while Republicans Bill Weld and Mitt Romney each stood over 6 feet.

Speaker of the House Bob DeLeo -- just under 5 foot 10 inches -- recently learned firsthand how life would be different under a taller administration. At Baker’s first press conference with legislative leaders at the State House, he deferred to DeLeo for opening remarks, telling him: “Mr. Speaker, this is your house … You’re the guy who starts this off.”

While Baker meant what he said, the microphone setting clearly indicated there was a new world order in place.

“The folks who apparently had set up the microphone and podium didn’t quite understand I would be first, because the microphone was six feet high,” DeLeo recounted.

That’s something everyone else will need to get used to, warns Boston lawyer Matt Henshon who served as Bill Bradley’s body man during his 2000 presidential bid.

Bradley’s advance team made sure the microphone and podium were properly set for the 6-foot-5-inch former New York Knicks player turned US senator. Henshon said speakers who go before or after the tallest guy in the room often spend some awkward moments fiddling with the microphone -- while the audience and media members watch.

And when it comes to photographs, Baker shouldn’t take it personally if other politicians don’t want to be in the same frame. Bradley, according to Henshon, likes to tell the story of how he went to the White House to meet Lyndon B. Johnson after bringing home the gold for the US basketball team in the 1964 Olympics.

But LBJ was being LBJ -- which meant he did not want to be upstaged. When it was Bradley’s turn to take a photo with the president, LBJ looked at him and said: “Move along.”

Henshon, who himself is 6 foot 5 inches tall and, like Bradley, was a college basketball star at Princeton, offers this advice to Baker: “Be yourself. You can’t run away from your height.”

Tall jokes hit a high point -- or low point, depending on who you ask -- when Baker appointed Jay Ash to oversee economic development and housing for the new administration. Ash, the city manager of Chelsea, is 6 foot 7 inches, and captained his high school and college basketball teams. Throw in attorney general-elect Maura Healey, a former captain of the Harvard basketball team and a pro point guard, and an all-star lineup starts to take shape. Perhaps this is the new Celtics team.

For days, we had to put up with Ash, a Democrat, cracking the same one-liner about joining the Republican’s team: “It’s great to be able to see eye to eye with someone.”

We all know life is good for tall people. Studies show they get paid more. That’s likely because they have more self esteem and confidence than shorter counterparts, and their height gives the perception of authority. In politics, winners grow bigger in our eyes, while losers shrink before us.

Voters like candidates with altitude because we prefer leaders with greater physical stature out of an evolutionary need for someone to protect us from the wild, said Gregg Murray, a political science professor at Texas Tech University, who has studied the subject. On the flip side, tall people tend to run for office because they think they’re more qualified to be a leader.

Murray found that the taller candidate has won the popular vote in about two-thirds of all US presidential elections. Of course, the most recent election between Barack Obama (6 foot 1 inch) and Romney (6 foot 2 inches) is one of the exceptions.

Baker reached his current height in 1976 when he was 20. He gets his tall genes from both sides of his family. His dad, Charlie, is 6 foot 3 inches, and his maternal grandfather, Ralph K. Ghormley, was 6 foot 4 inches.

“The best thing is that it’s distinguishing,” says Baker, “and that’s probably the worst thing, too.”

Being larger than life allows him to command a room. He’s easy to spot in a crowd. It’s an icebreaker.

The downsides? It’s hard to find clothes that fit. Parties can be no fun because it’s difficult to follow conversations, unless he leans against a wall and hunches down to get within earshot. It also can be painful -- Baker’s got a permanent scab on the top of his head from a lifetime of hitting light fixtures and door jambs.

On the campaign trail, he had to keep his hands and arms in check fearing he could be seen as unnecessarily aggressive, especially when in face-to-face debates with Martha Coakley, who is 5 foot 6 inches.

But the worst moments came during parades when he thrust himself into crowds to shake hands.

“I came very close to ... trampling small children who would be wandering out into the parade route,” says Baker. “I would say, ‘Oh, my God.’ Several times that translated into some pretty acrobatic spills, but I always managed to avoid hitting anybody.”

Tall is in on Beacon Hill. Get used to looking up.

Summary: Charlie Baker has been a towering presence for most of his life, but now that he has been elected governor everyone else has started to take notice.


Ban Ki-Moon with Austrian Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst. (AAP)

Perhaps it was nerves before being serenaded by crossdressing Eurovision singer Conchita Wurst, but UN chief Ban Ki-moon fell into the trap of confusing Austria with Australia during a visit to Vienna.

"I thank in particular (Austrian) President (Heinz) Fischer and the government of Australia," Ban told reporters at a UN conference of developing landlocked countries hosted by the Austrian capital.

He later corrected himself and apologised in the news conference, saying: "There are no kangaroos in Austria. Sometimes this happens, I hope you understand."

Later, Wurst raised the roof for Ban and several hundred UN staff, belting out Cher's Believe and Rise Like a Phoenix, the song the bearded drag queen sang to win the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this year.

Wurst has used her Eurovision fame to promote a message of tolerance, with performances in front of the European Parliament and at LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) events around Europe.

Ban paid tribute to her efforts, saying: "I will continue to fight against transphobia and homophobia. I will stand strong for equality. I hope more of you join our global Free and Equal campaign."

This week's UN conference of landlocked developing countries brings together 32 nations with a combined population of 450 million people looking at improving transportation networks and access to markets.

Among those present was Robert Mugabe, the 90-year-old president of Zimbabwe, and Bolivian President Evo Morales. Neither attended Wurst's performance.

Do you have any news photos or videos?

Summary: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has offered his thanks to hosts Australia in a slip of tongue while attending an event in Vienna, Austria.


Eric Branc, San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

Colin Kaepernick (7) indicates he’ll enlist a quarterback consultant this offseason to fix his mechanics.

Colin Kaepernick (7) indicates he’ll enlist a quarterback...

Michigan wishes Harbaugh many happy returns on 51st birthday

The University of Michigan reportedly wants to give Jim Harbaugh a $49 million contract.

In the meantime, though, the school settled for offering the soon-to-be-available head coach best wishes for a happy 51st birthday. In the latest sign UM really wants the former Michigan man to be the man to replace Brady Hoke, it sent out this message Tuesday morning via the football program’s Twitter account, with an in-game photograph of Harbaugh from his college playing days included: “Happy birthday, Jim. #GoBlue.”

Harbaugh, of course, has declined to discuss Michigan’s interest, but general manager Trent Baalke confirmed Monday on 95.7 FM that the school has reached out to the 49ers. Baalke said a decision regarding Harbaugh’s future with the 49ers won’t be made until after Sunday’s regular-season finale.

That said, Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh already is speaking in the past tense about his brother’s tenure with the 49ers.

“Whatever’s next for him, he’ll do a great job there, whatever it is,” John Harbaugh said to CSN Baltimore. “He’ll be fired up and excited to do it, so I’m proud of him no matter what happens. I think they had a great coach there for the last four years, and they were blessed and fortunate to have him. I know the fans realize that and the players realize that, and that’s really what counts.”

QB school: After the 2011 season, Alex Smith visited a quarterback consultant to clean up his mechanics. Three years later, it sounds as if another 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, could be making a similar trip this offseason.

Kaepernick said he hadn’t settled on an instructor, but he indicated he planned to meet with a quarterback consultant after the season.

“Just working on possibilities right now,” he said.

In 2012, Smith met at USC with renowned former major-league pitching coach Tom House, whose list of football clients includes New England’s Tom Brady, New Orleans’ Drew Brees and Arizona’s Carson Palmer.

In high school, Kaepernick was tutored by former Cal head coach Roger Theder, who spent four years as an assistant with the Colts and Chargers. Theder scripted Kaepernick’s drills at Nevada’s pro day before the 49ers drafted him in 2011.

Kaepernick said he has altered his program every offseason since entering the NFL.

“A little bit here, a little bit there,” he said. “Try to make sure I’m staying on top of the things that I feel like are my weaknesses. I’ll do the same this offseason to make sure I’m better prepared for next season.”

In 2014, Kaepernick hasn’t developed as expected in his second full season as a starter. He ranks 22nd in the NFL in passer rating (85.1) and 24th in completion percentage (60.6). He entered 2014 with a 93.8 career rating and a completion percentage of 59.8.

Kaepernick acknowledged it’s difficult to change mechanical flaws during the season.

“You still look at mechanics — what you can do better — but it’s more of a week-to-week basis,” Kaepernick said. “It’s hard to break habits in-season. You don’t want to completely try to change things, because it can throw off everything else you’re doing.”

Roster move: The 49ers signed rookie nose tackle Garrison Smith to their practice squad. Smith, who played at Georgia, has spent time on the Saints’ and Dolphins’ practice squads this season.

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

Summary: [...] though, the school settled for offering the soon-to-be-available head coach best wishes for a happy 51st birthday.  In the latest sign UM really wants the former Michigan man to be the man to replace Brady Hoke, it sent out this message Tuesday morning via the football program’s Twitter account, with an in-game photograph of Harbaugh from his college playing days included: “Happy birthday, Jim. #GoBlue.”  Harbaugh, of course, has declined to discuss Michigan’s interest, but general manager Trent Baalke confirmed Monday on 95.7 FM that the school has reached out to the 49ers.  Baalke said a decision regarding Harbaugh’s future with the 49ers won’t be made until after Sunday’s regular-season finale.  Three years later, it sounds as if another 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, could be making a similar trip this offseason.  In 2012, Smith met at USC with renowned former major-league pitching coach Tom House, whose list of football clients includes New England’s Tom Brady, New Orleans’ Drew Brees and Arizona’s Carson Palmer.  In high school, Kaepernick was tutored by former Cal head coach Roger Theder, who spent four years as an assistant with the Colts and Chargers.  Kaepernick said he has altered his program every offseason since entering the NFL.  The 49ers signed rookie nose tackle Garrison Smith to their practice squad.


03/22/2015 AT 05:10 PM EDT

Despite meeting for the first time on a blind date in 2004, a New Jersey couple was shocked to see theyâd crossed paths almost 16 years before.

Jourdan and Ryan Spencer were watching her childhood home videos several years ago when they spotted 13-year-old Ryan walking across the screen during Jourdanâs 1988 vacation.

The video shows Jourdan, then 10, riding a water slide at Pennsylvaniaâs Sesame Place theme park, while her mother and siblings wait nearby. When a bespeckled Ryan walked into frame, the Spencers were shocked.

"Everyone's reaction was pretty much they can't believe it, and just in awe of the coincidence," Ryan told

The couple, who married in 2007, were met with skepticism when they first told the story to relatives, after misplacing the video proof. It wasn't until this March that they found it, and confirmed the crazy coincidence.

The Spencers, who have three children, grew up only 45 minutes from each other in New Jersey, and have already determined other instances where theyâd crossed paths in the past – including a 1989 Rolling Stones concert.

"I do really believe that people come into our lives and every person we meet has a purpose," Jourdan told ABC News.

Summary: A New Jersey couple found home video footage with each other on separate family vacations in 1988


Note from one of Kyle Schwartz's students

04/17/2015 AT 03:20 PM EDT

It was meant to be a lighthearted exercise. But things quickly got heavy after Kyle Schwartz asked her third-grade students to finish the sentence "I wish my teacher knew ... "

Many of the Denver students come from underprivileged homes, and their notes were heartbreaking. They spoke about their home lives, in particular, and the difficulties they have there.

Moved by their honesty, Schwartz began

(without any names attached) and tagging them #IWishMyTeacherKnew. It has since become a kind of movement, with other teachers joining in – highlighting the often silent struggles that kids everywhere face.

Here are some of the notes that Schwartz posted:

Had my students write "I wish my teacher knew___" It's a reality check. #edchat #fellowschat pic.twitter.com/8vFUZqQnu0

#iwishmyteacherknew how much I miss my dad since he got deported #edchat #ImmigrationReform pic.twitter.com/yUK0FCwwiO

#iwishmyteacherknew sometimes my reading log isn't signed because my mom is not around a lot #edchat pic.twitter.com/mUsm4zRdKc

"Ninety-two percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch," Schwartz tells

. "As a new teacher, I struggled to understand the reality of my students' lives and how to best support them. I just felt like there was something I didn't know about my students."

She lets the students write the notes anonymously if they wish, but has found that most want to put their names on them, and even talk about them in class, clearly wanting to share their experiences.

"Building community in my classroom is a major goal of this lesson," Schwartz says. "After one student shared that she had no one to play with at recess, the rest of the class chimed in and said, 'We got your back.' The next day during recess, I noticed she was playing with a group of girls. Not only can I support my students, but my students can support each other."

Summary: Denver teacher Kyle Schwartz got more than she bargained for with this assignment


Courtesy A Story About Love/GoFundMe

04/23/2015 AT 10:05 AM EDT

She died on April 16 at age 44. But in her own obituary, Beth O'Rourke insisted, "I was a survivor."

The Massachusetts mother of two wrote

in the days before she died, reflecting on her life, her love for her husband and children, and how – in a way – she beat cancer on her own terms.

"I died Thursday, April 16, 2015 surrounded by family, in the arms of my husband and anam cara, Brendan Patrick O'Rourke," she wrote. (

is a Gaelic term meaning "soul friend," and refers to the Celtic belief of souls bonding.)

"I was 44 years old. I was a survivor. I was blessed in this life with two amazing children; Courtney Elizabeth age 11 and Seamus Brendan aged 8."

She thanked her doctor, and said her own career in nursing allowed her to see the strength in others that she would eventually harness in her own cancer battle.

But the most poignant passages concern her family.

"I LOVED my life," she wrote. "I loved a long run, to sit quietly by the lake, to read and dance and sing and be silly with our children. We loved watching summer storms blow across the water. I loved to chat and laugh with my sisters and friends â¦ Of all the things I did in this life, nothing compared to being with Brendan and our children. I fought every day to stay alive and to be with them."

Cancer, she wrote, derailed everything. But eventually she transcended it.

"Cancer does not care who it takes, who it hurts, or honor or love. It comes into your life and starts to break the threads that hold you, and you are left to see pieces of yourself slip away and dreams fade. We were clung only to each other with pure love and faith binding us, in the end is when the most amazing thing happens, cancer loses its strength and grace appears. We need to see it. We accept it, and go with it. Grace and love win, not cancer."

She added: "I hope to be remembered, with laughter, love and a good pint. And for my children to know 'No Momma ever did and no Momma ever willâ¦' "

The O'Rourke family has set up a fund for the children's education. Visit

Summary: "I was a survivor," writes Beth O'Rourke, who died April 16 at age 44


NEW YORK — Jonathan Wang has not practiced law since he graduated from Columbia Law School in 2010, but he did not plan it that way.

When he entered law school, the economy was flourishing, and he had every reason to think that with a prestigious degree he was headed for a secure well-paying career. He convinced his parents, who work in Silicon Valley, that he had a plan.

“I would spend three years at school in New York, then work for a big law firm and make $160,000 a year,” said Wang, 29. “And someday, I would become a partner and live the good life.”

Wang, who works in Manhattan as a tutor for the law school admissions exam, is living a life far different from the one he envisioned. And he is not alone. About 20 percent of law graduates from 2010 are working at jobs that do not require a law license, according to a study, and only 40 percent are working in law firms, compared with 60 percent from the class a decade earlier.

To pay the bills, the 2010 graduates have taken on a variety of jobs, some that do not require admission to the bar; others have struck out on their own with solo practices. Most of the graduates have substantial loan debt.

Even as law school enrollment was peaking in 2010 — reaching 52,488, according to American Bar Association figures — those who were graduating were not receiving job offers from firms where they were interning. And offers to some students were rescinded.

“None of this was on my radar,” Wang said, “but it began to be obvious by the time second-year summer internships were over. We knew things were depressed, but then the legs were cut out from under us.”

After the economic collapse in the fall of 2008, corporations began to cut their spending on legal matters, and law firms, in turn, began to reduce their hiring and even laid off employees. The legal profession was undergoing the early wave of turbulence that left graduates in subsequent classes facing a harsher job market that has shown few signs of a robust recovery. But the class of 2010 was the first to experience it full force.

At the time, legal scholars predicted that when the economy turned the corner, the new graduates would find jobs. But the checkered job outcomes for the 2010 law graduates could be predicted by their early employment numbers, said Deborah J. Merritt, a law professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law.

She wrote “What Happened to the Class of 2010? Empirical Evidence of Structural Change in the Legal Profession,” a study published in March that examined the careers of those graduates and the legal marketplace.

Merritt combined public data, including court records and the employment outcomes of more than 1,200 lawyers who received their law degrees in 2010 and then passed the Ohio State Bar, with information from the National Association of Law Placement recorded for the same class nationally. She concluded that the 2010 class had not recovered in the ensuing years.

“Employment has improved only marginally for the class,” she said, “with unemployment at 6 percent, many fewer lawyers working at law firms, and a leap in the percentage of solo practitioners.

“These outcomes contrast markedly with those from the 2000 graduating class, which was also shadowed by an economic recession but were later able to better their positions,” she said. “But that type of progress has not occurred for the Class of 2010.”

With law firms cutting back, she said, most available positions “fall within modest-paying categories: solo practice, small firms, government work, and business jobs that do not require bar admission.”

And they might be the lucky ones, according to some 2010 graduates who said they were “too ashamed that I have not found a legal job” to allow their names to be mentioned.

Another 2010 graduate, Hyatt Shirkey, 30, who received his diploma in May 2010 from Ohio State’s law school, moved to Virginia, where he passed the bar the following July, and decided to open his own practice after juggling several jobs.

“When I started law school, it was still a great era,” he said. “I had some good experiences, including working for a federal judge in Columbus, Ohio. Then, the end of my second year in school, I saw that law firm offers were being pushed back.”

Overall, nearly 85 percent of law graduates have taken out student loans, according to the website Law School Transparency, and 2010 law graduates accumulated debt averaging $77,364 at public law schools and $112,007 at private ones.

Many have received financial hardship deferments or, like Shirkey, who accumulated $365,000 in student debt, including some undergraduate loans, received credits for public interest work. Federal government rules, revised last year, allow student borrowers who work in nonprofit and public sector jobs to have their loans forgiven after 10 years and to pay back their college loans based on their income and expenses.

“Otherwise, I would be very, very much in a pickle,” Shirkey said. “I anticipate that I will wind up working for the government or a nonprofit because I will need the credits to take care of my loan burden.

“Every time I look at the debt amount,” he said, “my heart beats a little harder.”

After he graduated, Wang had a yearlong fellowship with a state court judge, but when that ended in 2011, the “market was still awful,” he said. After he was admitted to the New York State Bar, he turned to tutoring and law school advising to pay his rent and loans.

“I thought the LSAT tutoring gig was going to be a temporary thing, but five years and one bar admission renewal later, here I am,” he said. His business has greatly expanded and he makes $100 an hour, but that is far below what he would make at a law firm. And, he said, “I waffle constantly, but I’m still in the mindset that I need to find a real job.”


An attempt to overthrow Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza ended in failure as coup leaders admitted defeat and were arrested or forced to go on the run from loyalist troops.

General Godefroid Niyombare, who launched the coup in the central African nation earlier in the week, told AFP on Friday by telephone that he wanted to give himself up while other top generals were arrested.

The dramatic end to the coup attempt ended 48 hours of uncertainty over who was in charge of the small, landlocked and impoverished nation, which has been gripped by a political crisis over Nkurunziza's controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive term in office.

"We have decided to surrender," Niyombare said. "I hope they won't kill us."

A senior police official said Niyombare was still on the run, but that three other pro-coup generals had been detained. The loyalist police official said they were still alive so they could be put on trial.

The coup leaders' spokesman, Zenon Ndabaneze, was speaking to AFP confirming that the putschists had decided to surrender when loyalist troops arrested him, deputy coup leader Cyrille Ndayirukiye and another senior figure among the mutineers.

"We decided to give ourselves up. We have laid down our arms. We have called the security ministry to tell them we no longer have any arms," Ndabaneze said, seconds before he could be heard being arrested.

"There will be no foul pay. We won't kill them, we want to keep them so they can be judged," the police official told AFP after the arrests.

The presidency meanwhile announced that Nkurunziza - who was abroad when the coup was declared - was back in the capital and poised to address the nation.

"He is in Bujumbura in a very secure place," an aide to the president told AFP. "He will address the nation today."

Nkurunziza was in neighbouring Tanzania for regional talks on Wednesday when the coup was launched, in a culmination of weeks of violent street protests over his bid to cling to power.

Opposition and rights groups insist that it is unconstitutional for Nkurunziza, who has been in office since 2005, to run for more than two terms. The president, however, argues his first term did not count as he was elected by parliament, not directly by the people.

Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the Hutu majority and born-again Christian, believes he ascended to the presidency with divine backing.

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Summary: The attempt to overthrow the Burundi government has failed, the coup leader's deputy says, with troops loyal to President Pierre Nkurunziza in control.


Tyler Bradley Indyck and Ephie Aardema in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” directed by Ilyse Robbins.

Ilyse Robbins has done it again. The director-choreographer who made her production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” the must-see musical of 2013, returns to Stoneham to work her magic on “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” Robbins takes this dated warhorse and infuses it with movement, wit, and the effervescence of an ensemble enjoying every minute of their performances.

Frank Loesser’s 1961 musical champions an ambitious, amoral corporate ladder climber named J. Pierrepont Finch who meticulously follows the instructions in his “How to Succeed” book (mellifluously voiced by TV personality Scott Wahle) to transform himself from window washer to corporate executive. Along the way, he antagonizes his fellow paper pushers, foils the plans of the boss’s whiny nephew, and inexplicably wins the heart of a young secretary whose dream revolves around being “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm.” It’s “Mad Men” without the sly self-awareness.

But Robbins knows this show requires performers who can add their own personalities to the bland book and have fun with Loesser’s delightful score. She starts by casting the role of Finch with newcomer Tyler Bradley Indyck, a performer who can make the smarmiest dialogue sound sincere and the most manipulative advancements feel innocent and winning. “Rosemary,” which to me always plays like an awkward love song, is hilarious and believable because of Indyck’s pantomime. In the ultimate narcissistic number, “I Believe in You,” which is sung to the mirror in the men’s executive washroom, Indyck’s performance is so pure and unadorned, you’ll find yourself rooting for him despite his blind ambition.

For the role of Rosemary, Finch’s love interest, Robbins taps the incomparable Ephie Aardema, who was so winning in the title role of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Rather than play her as dim-witted, Aardema’s Rosemary has ambition that matches Finch’s, she just has a different goal. Just in case we weren’t sure, the secretarial pool, led by Smitty (the powerhouse Ceit Zweil) reminds Rosemary in the number “Cinderella, Darling.”

Robbins fills out the company with the accomplished comedian Neil A. Casey as J.B. Biggley, the president of the company, and newcomer Angelo McDonough, who channels Nathan Lane as Finch’s irritating nemesis Bud Frump. The combination of experienced veterans and newbies seems to push everyone on the stage to up their game.

And that is the pleasure of this production. This 19-member cast doesn’t apologize for the show’s themes or push the satire that’s already in the script. They play it straight, and the humor and honesty of these characters come through in unexpected ways. Of course it doesn’t hurt that the company includes Aimee Doherty as the femme fatale, Sarah deLima as the president’s secretary, and Robert Saoud in dual roles as the milquetoast head of the mailroom and the tough-talking chairman of the board.

Robbins also understands the brisk tempo this musical needs, and she keeps it moving with expressive choreography that even makes the numerous scene changes flow smoothly. She showcases her talented dancers and smartly lets Russell Garrett, as the unctuous Bratt, bring down the house, along with the rest of the company men, with a high-energy response to “I Believe in You.”

Jim Rice keeps his six-piece orchestra lively without ever rushing, and Jenna McFarland Lord’s flexible set and John Eckert’s clever lighting changes serve Robbins’s vision for the show.

Though numbers like “The Company Way” and “A Secretary Is Not a Toy” feel like throwbacks to a bygone era, Robbins’s celebratory production makes this “How To” an unqualified success.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock,and Willie Gilbert. Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser. Based upon the book by Shepherd Mead.

Directed and choreographed by Ilyse Robbins. Presented by Stoneham Theatre.

At: Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main St., Stoneham, through June 7. Tickets: $50-$55, 781-279-2200,www.stonehamtheatre .org

Summary: Director-choreographer Ilyse Robbins takes a dated warhorse and infuses it with movement, wit, and the effervescence of an ensemble enjoying every minute of their performances.


T AKEOVERS and attempted takeovers of leading United States mineral companies are likely to continue in the months ahead as strategic metal supplies grow tighter. Moreover, President Reagan's proposed tax-cut program would provide major new incentives for acquiring mineral companies at prices well above the present market.

These conclusions are from a 42-page report by J. Clarence Morrison, first vice president of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. In his report, Alcan Aluminium Ltd. gets a ''buy'' recommendation, while the shares of nine other metal companies are rated ''buy/hold.'' These companies are the Aluminum Company of America, Asarco Inc., the Engelhard Minerals and Chemicals Corporation, Inco Ltd., the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, the Newmont Mining Corporation, the Phelps Dodge Corporation, the Phibro Corporation and the Reynolds Metals Company.

So far the takeover movement in the mineral industry has been marked by multibillion-dollar deals and frequent rebuffs from target companies.

Amax Inc. rejected a bid by the Standard Oil Company of California in March. That same month the St. Joe Minerals Corporation turned down the Seagram Company's offer but later accepted a higher bid from the Fluor Corporation. The Kennecott Copper Corporation accepted a March bid from the Standard Oil Company (Ohio) and has been merged into it.

These bids were made at prices that startled the investment community with premiums of 75 to 125 percent over market at the time of the announcement. But Mr. Morrison argues that the prices represented sound decisions by the corporate suitors because investment recoupment was likely in seven to 12 years, assuming an inflation rate of 8 to 9 percent. In a telephone interview, he said:

''We maintain that the trend toward acquiring metal companies will continue into the future, albeit at a much slower pace. We would except further acquisitions of copper and diversified metal companies but not necessarily aluminum or steel companies, since the latter two either do not have the same domestic mineral reserve positions or have other problems.''

Mr. Morrison suggests how to tell an appropriate price for a takeover bid. The cost of capital, he explained, is the basic criterion for determining the rate of return on investment.

''In our valuation models, we have assumed the present average cost of capital for large industrial or resource companies to be near the 18 percent level,'' he said. This is because corporations large enough to contemplate such huge mergers can borrow at about 2 percentage points below the banks' prime rate, now generally at 20 percent.

''However, no corporation will invest unless it can achieve a return several points above the cost of capital,'' Mr. Morrison said. For cyclical companies, the desired yield may easily range from 21 to 24 percent. So it is often necessary to adjust the value ascribed to the company to meet this higher yield requirement. The asset value of the company must first be determined through a process of several steps. It works like this:

The researcher takes the 15-year production flow from proven reserves (this time span is considered appropriate for mining companies) and determines the annual profits likely to result.

Profits for each of the 15 years are discounted to determine the total present value of those profits. The market value of any listed shares in the investment portfolio is added in, along with the value of net fixed assets as shown on the balance sheet. Long-term debt is subtracted from the total. The resulting figure is divided by average shares outstanding as projected for the 15-year reserve valuation time span.

For example, assume a corporation's asset value is calculated to be $50 a share based on a 15-year income stream period. Assume an 18 percent discount rate (the cost of money to the corporation) and a 24 percent return - which is what most corporations would insist on before investing in a cyclical industry such as mining.

The market valuation would be calculated as $50 multiplied by 18 and divided by 24 for a current market value of $37.50 a share. Shares of such companies today normally sell for about half this suggested market value. (Meanwhile, bid prices have amounted to 1.4 to 2.8 times the book value.)

This method of valuation, Mr. Morrison said, explains why such big premiums have been paid for recent acquisitions in the metal sector. Moreover, the payout over seven to 12 years could be substantially reduced if all tax advantages are taken into consideration. For example, the acquiring company can write up the metal inventory of the acquired company to market and lock in a major LIFO gain. This can be done without tax consequences if the move is completed by Jan. 1, 1982. Thereafter, this tax advantage is to be written out of the law, and such gains will be taxable at regular corporate rates. This is one reason for the recent rash of acquisitions. end

Summary: By Robert Metz   T AKEOVERS and attempted takeovers of leading United States mineral companies are likely to continue in the months ahead as strategic metal supplies grow tighter. Moreover, President Reagan's proposed tax-cut program would provide major new incentives for acquiring mineral companies at prices well above the present market.   These conclusions are from a 42-page report by J. Clarence Morrison, first vice president of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.  In his report, Alcan Aluminium Ltd. gets a ''buy'' recommendation, while the shares of nine other metal companies are rated ''buy/hold.'' These companies are the Aluminum Company of America, Asarco Inc., the Engelhard Minerals and Chemicals Corporation, Inco Ltd., the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, the Newmont Mining Corporation, the Phelps Dodge Corporation, the Phibro Corporation and the Reynolds Metals Company.


FROM the first moments, when the star-circled mountain in the Paramount Pictures logo fades into a similarly shaped, fog-shrouded Andean peak, where who knows what awful things are about to happen, ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is off and running at a breakneck pace that simply won't stop until the final shot, an ironic epilogue that recalls nothing less than ''Citizen Kane.'' That, however, is the only high-toned reference in a movie that otherwise devotes itself exclusively to the glorious days of the B-picture.

To get to the point immediately, ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is one of the most deliriously funny, ingenious and stylish American adventure movies ever made. It is an homage to old-time movie serials and back-lot cheapies that transcends its inspirations to become, in effect, the movie we saw in our imaginations as we watched, say, Buster Crabbe in ''Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars'' or in Sam Katzman's ''Jungle Jim'' movies.

The film, which opens today at Loews Astor Plaza and other theaters, is the result of the particularly happy collaboration between Steven Spielberg, its director, and George Lucas, who is one of its executive producers and who, with Philip Kaufman, wrote the original story on which Lawrence Kasdan's screenplay is based.

As Mr. Lucas's ''Star Wars'' helped itself to all sorts of myths, folk tales and characters from children's fiction and fused them into a work of high originality, and as Mr. Spielberg's ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' made sweetly benign a kind of science-fiction film that had turned paranoid, ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' refines its tacky source materials into a movie that evokes memories of movie-going of an earlier era but that possesses its own, far more rare sensibility.

The film, which is often pricelessly funny but never a sendup, is about Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), a two-fisted professor of archeology with a knack for landing in tight situations in some of the earth's more exotic corners, and his sometimes girlfriend Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), the daughter of a world-famous archeologist and who, when we first meet her, is running a lowdown bar in remotest Nepal. Just how Marion has come to be running a gin mill in Nepal is never explained, but ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is great fun as much for the things it explains as for the explanations it withholds.

The time is 1936, which not only attaches ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' to the films it remembers but also makes possible its fondly lunatic plot, which is about the attempts of Indiana Jones and Marion, at the behest of the United States Government, to find the lost Ark of the Covenant before a team of Nazi archeologists can lay their hands on it.

Hitler, who is described as being obsessed with the occult, is hellbent on finding the Ark, which once contained the Ten Commandments as handed down to Moses on their originally inscribed tablets. The Ark is reported variously (1) to confer magical powers on the person who possesses it, (2) to be ''something that man was not meant to disturb,'' being ''not of this world'' and, more picturesquely, (3) as ''a radio for speaking to God.'' No wonder Indiana and Marion risk life and limb every 90 seconds to prevent the Ark from finding its way to Berlin!

After their initial reconciliation in Nepal, following Indiana's narrow escape from death in the Andes, Indiana and Marion fly on to Egypt where there is every reason to believe the Nazis are about to uncover the Ark in a long-buried temple called the Well of Souls. Even before they reach the actual dig, however, there are fearsome obstacles to be overcome in Cairo, including attempted assassinations, a successful kidnapping and a fate worse than death for Marion at the hands of a renegade French archeologist named Belloq (Paul Freeman).

More of the plot you should not know, though it gives nothing away to reveal that Indiana and Marion, either singly or together, must face such tests of their endurance as confinement in an ancient tomb with thousands of asps and cobras, an attack by poisoned darts, a plate of poisoned dates, torture with a red-hot poker, being tied up in a vehicle that explodes before our very eyes and a superchase in which Indiana, on horseback, attempts to catch a Nazi truck convoy carrying the newly found lost Ark to Cairo for transshipment to Berlin.

The film's climax, in which the powers of the Ark are demonstrated to one and all, is almost as dazzling a display as the one that brings ''Close Encounters'' to its climax.

Mr. Harrison and Miss Allen are an endearingly resilient, resourceful couple, he with his square jaw, his eyes that can apparently see out of the back of his head and his ever-present fedora, and she with her Brooke Adams-Margot Kidder beauty, her ability to outdrink, shot glass for shot glass, Nepal's toughest barflies, her ever-ready sarcasm and her ability to screech without losing her poise.

Mr. Spielberg has also managed to make a movie that looks like a billion dollars (it was filmed in, among other places, Tunisia, France, England and Hawaii) yet still suggests the sort of production shortcuts we associate with old B-movies. The Cairo we see on the screen is obviously a North African city but, also obviously, it's not Cairo. There's not a pyramid in sight. My one quibble with Mr. Spielberg is that he didn't insert a familiar, preferably unmatching stock shot of Cairo into the scene to make sure we got the point. Sam Katzman would have insisted on it but, I suppose, we can't have everything. Just almost everything.

''Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' which has been rated PG (''Parental Guidance Suggested''), includes virtually nonstop action that involves a lot of violence, but this is less horrifying than scary in a most pleasaurable way.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, directed by Steven Spielberg; screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan; story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman; director of photography, Douglas Slocombe; edited by Michael Kahn; music by John Williams; screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan; released by Paramount Pictures. At Loews Astor Plaza, Broadway and West 44th Street; Coronet, Third Avenue near 59th Street; Loews Orpheum, 86th Street near Third Avenue; Loews 34th Street Showplace at Third Avenue, and other theaters. Running time: 115 minutes. This film is rated PG.

Indy . . . . . Harrison Ford

Marion . . . . . Karen Allen

Dietrich . . . . . Wolf Kahler

Belloq . . . . . Paul Freeman

Toht . . . . . Ronald Lacey

Sallah . . . . . John Rhys-Davies

Brody . . . . . Denholm Elliott

Gobler . . . . . Anthony Higgins

Satipo . . . . . Alfred Molina

Barranca . . . . . Vic Tablian

Colonel Musgrove . . . . . Don Fellows

Major Eaton . . . . . William Hootkins

Bureaucrat . . . . . Bil Reimbold

Jock . . . . . Fred Sorenson