Point guard Chelsea Slater (Forreston) broke Rockford College's career assists record Saturday as she led the Regents (13-5, 9-3 NAC) to 74-52 victory over Marian. Slater's six-assist performance in the game gave her 456 overall. She broke the record on a dish into the post to Angie Butler (Forreston). "Chelsea obviously has had a terrific senior year. She's clearly our team leader on the floor," first-year head coach Steve Cochran said. "Those two (Chelsea and Angie) have such a great connection. They've been incredible together." Slater is fifth nationally in Division III with 6.6 assists per game, and she is fourth in the country with a 2.46 assist-to-turnover ratio. The Regents, third in the Northern Athletics Conference behind Concordia, Wis., (12-1) and Wisconsin Lutheran (10-2), have seven games left in the regular season, but they are already assured of a winning season after going 8-17 last year.

Janet chalks up text service

The Joint Academic Network (Janet) has signed a deal for a mobile phone text service to connect the 18 million users of its education network.

Educational organisations can regulate and customise the text service so the messages sent out are clearly associated with the institution distributing them.

CM meets heads of IT companies in Bangalore

Pursuing its stated mission of making Kerala the destination for knowledge intensive and high value IT services, the Chief Minister Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan met heads of some of the leading names in IT and software development in the country at a road show held in Bangalore on the 14th of October. The road show was attended by over 50 senior professionals in some of the leading names in the IT industry. In his opening remark, the chief minister reiterated that the Government would extend all possible help to IT companies to start operations in the state and appealed to various company heads to consider Kerala in their investment plans. Earlier addressing the media, Mr. Achuthanandan said, "We are looking at a decentralized model for further developing the business environment and related infrastructure in the state.

African violet wins popularity contest

This plant soon became a popular house plant in Germany and other European countries but it did not come to North America until 1926. The California firm of Armacost and Royston imported seeds in 1926 from British and German greenhouses that were known for African violets. Their work led the way for the development of strains and hybrids suitable for home gardening. Today, the African violet is considered the world's most popular house plant and they are a $30 million a year industry.

But back to the seeds. According to Dorothy Parker Adams, "It all started with a package of 100 seeds." The 100 African violet seeds grew into 134 plants, and as they say, the rest is history. .

Pat McKee: High School Q&A

Question: Will the IHSAA ever put private schools in a class of their own? They really seem to be dominating sports. I don't like class sports but if they are going to have classes in sports should all schools follow the same rules or have a class of their own because their kids come from every where. (Dell from Indianapolis)

Answer: "Forever" is a long time, so I really can't say what the IHSAA will "ever" do. But the current IHSAA Board of Directors does not seem inclined to create a separate division for private schools. A proposal to do just that was presented a few years ago, and that proposal was soundly defeated. A couple of years later, another proposal called a "multiplier" that would have counted students at private schools at a higher rate than students at public schools (pushing some private schools into a larger class) also was defeated.

Business Briefs: Chamber organizes annual trade show

The Athens Area Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the annual Business Expo on March 27 at The Classic Center. Organizers for the 2008 Business Expo have adopted the theme "Let's Make a Deal" and will provide activities throughout the day. The day will start with a networking event, Business Before Hours, and end with award presentations at 4 p.m. The awards will include the annual Small Business Person of the Year.

Combat Training Solutions, a Stephens County company that manufactures simulated explosives for the military, announced that it plans to add more than 30 jobs and invest $1 million to expand a facility in Eastanollee.