Catholic Mom

FIORANO, Italy – Giancarlo Fisichella made it clear that he has no plan to become a full-time replacement for injured driver Felipe Massa at Ferrari.
"I spoke with Massa by phone and he told me he's very happy for me and that I was the right choice," Fisichella said Monday during his introduction as a Ferrari driver for the final five races of the Formula One season.
"I responded that I'm very sorry about what happened to him and told him to get better soon. 'Whenever you want your car come and take it because this is yours. I just hope I can do what you would have done,'" Fisichella recounted, according to the ANSA news agency.
Massa is not expected to return until next season after an accident almost cost him his life at the Hungarian GP.
Ferrari's longtime test driver Luca Badoer filled in for Massa in the first two races after the accident but qualified last and finished no better than 14th, prompting the team to hire Fisichella from Force India last week.
"I began my career with Minardi in 1996 and after nearly 14 years I had pretty much given up hope of driving a Ferrari, so I'm filled with happiness and pride now," Fisichella said.
Only one Formula One colleague called Fisichella after the move — former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello.
"He congratulated me. We've been good friends since we were 14," said Fisichella, whose first call after the move was to his father Roberto, a mechanic in Rome.
"He's my No. 1 fan and he was waiting anxiously. He kept on asking me and I didn't know what to tell him," Fisichella said. "It was one of the most beautiful moments of our lives."
Fisichella will get his Ferrari debut on home soil at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza this weekend.
"I've been racing there since 1992 when I was in Formula Three," he said. "It's a track I know well."

GLENROCK, Wyo. – Bud Grose seemed like the last person who should attract the attention of police when the 76-year-old retiree hopped on his antique tractor and rumbled through the annual parade in this small Wyoming town.
But what was supposed to be a day of fun at an end-of-summer festival ended abruptly when police shot Grose with a Taser in a dispute about where to end the parade route.
The incident nearly incited a riot as outraged neighbors rushed to his defense. Now residents of this tight-knit town of 2,400 are seething over what they see as police brutality, and town officials are scrambling to ease the tension.
The Glenrock Police Department has placed two of its seven officers on paid administrative leave and hired a consultant to conduct an internal review that began last week. Prosecutors have decided against filing any charges in the Aug. 1 confrontation, and Police Chief Tom Sweet acknowledged the situation has "highly inflamed the community."
"To me it doesn't matter if this was a town of Glenrock's size or New York City. This kind of stuff can't go on," said Grose's son, Mike. "It doesn't matter if there's 10 officers or a thousand, this is just totally unacceptable. We're taught to respect the law, not fear it."
The fracas at the annual Deer Creek Days arose from confusion over whether members of the tractor club could deviate from the parade route shortly before it ended.
Grose wanted to head directly to the town park for a tractor pull like in previous years. But the police department had a different plan, which apparently was not communicated to the tractor drivers.
As a result, Grose encountered a Glenrock officer attempting to direct the tractors along the regular parade route. Grose said he drove around the officer. The officer said he was struck by the tractor and injured his wrist, according to a state review of the incident.
"He, for some reason, said no, and I, for some reason, thought to myself yes," Grose recounted.
The police chief said the officer then chased Grose on foot until a fellow officer joined the pursuit in a police SUV and caught up to Grose's tractor. The police pulled in front of the tractor, and the tractor came to a stop as it bumped the SUV.
That is when the officer shocked Grose with the Taser. Grose eventually managed to pull the tractor around the police SUV and to a parking area down the road. An angry crowd formed as police kept ordering Grose off the tractor. Police did not arrest Bud Grose because of the tension at the scene, Sweet said.
"At the time, it was very close to having a riot right there, and that probably would have created a full-scale riot," Sweet said.
Grose's son, Mike, agreed. "There was some very good people there ready to make some bad choices that would have affected them for the rest of their lives," he said. "That's the point it had gotten to."
A lawyer for the two officers issued a statement Monday saying the officer who fired the Taser did so only after Grose "slammed" his tractor into the police SUV, resisted police commands and kept driving.
"They ultimately de-escalated a volatile situation created by Mr. Grose's actions. If anyone violated the law that day, it was Mr. Grose," Casper attorney John Robinson said. "He should not be regarded as a folk hero."
Police fired the Taser five times, according to a state review.
Residents are not letting the matter fade quietly. Mike Grose and his wife have printed T-shirts with a cartoonish drawing of a police officer using a Taser on a tractor driver. The caption reads "If you missed Deer Creek Days 2009, you missed a shocking experience."
The police chief acknowledges that the situation could have been handled differently.

"I think there were some contributing factors on both sides, from the law enforcement side and from Mr. Grose's side that maybe could have prevented some of the problem," Sweet said. "There probably was some better judgment that could have been used by everybody involved."

An estimated 2,000 people were on hand for the parade, which is part of a festival offering cookouts, an art show, street dances, sports tournaments, car races and a Christian revival.

Mike Grose was driving a tractor following his father and managed to catch up to see an officer about to shoot his father with a Taser. Mike Grose said he yelled at the officer not to shock his father because of a heart condition. Bud Grose underwent heart bypass surgery in 2000.

"It hurt like hell," said Bud Grose, who suffered bruising on his left upper body but no serious injuries.

Brad Jones' 9-year-old son was riding with Bud Grose in the parade, helping steer the tractor. An officer removed the boy from the tractor before Grose was shocked with a Taser.

"I mean this guy's a senior citizen with heart problems, driving a tractor. Whether or not he disobeyed, it didn't have to come to that," Jones said. "If the town don't do something with the officers, I think it's going to be really bad for the town. Our last two council meetings, the whole town is in an uproar."

After reviewing the state Division of Criminal Investigation's report, Converse County Attorney Quentin Richardson said last week that prosecution was not warranted for "any individual involved in the incident."

Bud Grose, who has retained an attorney, said he was relieved by that decision. He said he hopes the police internal investigation comes to the "correct decision."

"I'm a back-row person. I'm not enjoying the attention that I'm getting. It's totally out of character for me," said Grose. "I'm getting a tremendous amount of support from people I've never met before."

Sweet, who joined the Glenrock police in February, said communication will be key to settling the town's nerves.

"There's a lot of distrust now, and I'm relatively new here, but I'm going to have to build that trust back up," Sweet said. "At some point in time, people are just going to have to trust that we are going to do the right thing and take it for what it's worth."

FRANKFURT – Six countries trying to address concerns about Iran's nuclear program met Wednesday to review developments, and a German official urged Iran to agree to talks before the U.N. General Assembly meets later this month.
The meeting took place near Frankfurt and involved political directors — Foreign Ministry officials below ministerial level — from the U.S., France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany.
It was scheduled before Iran's main nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, told reporters on Tuesday that his nation would present new proposals and would open talks "in order to ease common concerns in the international arena." Jalili gave no details.
"We took note of the fact that Dr. Jalili has made a statement ... offering talks," the German political director, Volker Stanzel, said after Wednesday's meeting in remarks carried by RTL television.
"And I expect him to accept our offer to talk, to go into a dialogue on a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear question, before the United Nations General Assembly Week at the end of September."
Earlier Wednesday, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner acknowledged media reports of Jalili's statement, but said such offers must be formally presented to the governments involved before they could be considered.
"So far we have not received any such communication from the Iranian government through official channels," Ploetner told reporters in Berlin. "Consequently ... from our point of view nothing has changed."
"We hope that the press reports will be followed by something of substance at an official level."
Western nations and others worry Iran is moving toward development of nuclear warheads. But Iranian leaders say the country only seeks reactors to produce electricity.
The six countries plan to meet again on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month to review developments.
That would dovetail with U.S. President Barack Obama's deadline for Iran to agree to nuclear talks or risk harsher sanctions. Last year, Tehran was offered economic incentives in exchange for suspending uranium enrichment, but Iran's leaders responded by saying they would never give up control of the production of nuclear fuel.
In its latest report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has pressed Iran to clarify the purpose of its uranium enrichment activities and reassure the world that it's not trying to build an atomic weapon.
The agency acknowledged, however, that Iran has been producing nuclear fuel at a slower rate and has allowed U.N. inspectors broader access to its main nuclear complex in the southern city of Natanz and to a reactor in Arak.
Stanzel noted that the U.N. Security Council has repeatedly said that "Iran is obliged to reply to all the open questions and doubts about its program."
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Melissa Eddy reported from Berlin. Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.