Americans

Alysia Montaño says it's a "visual clue" of her strength and femininity. The yellow flower in the U.S. Olympian's hair was more than that during the first race of the "USA vs. The World" showcase series at Saturday's Penn Relays. It was a sure sign to the 48,871 spectators on a spectacularly sunny afternoon in Franklin Field that something special was happening on the track. Running in splendid isolation on the anchor of the first 4x800 in the 13-year-old history of the popular series of world-class relay races, Montaño brought the baton, the crowd and that bright artificial flower home in record-setting time.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The fishing trip off the rugged north coast of St. Lucia was supposed to last all day, but about four hours into the journey, the boat's electric system crackled and popped. Dan Suski, 30, a business owner and information-technology expert from San Francisco, had been wrestling a 200-pound marlin in rough seas with help from his sister, Kate Suski, 39, an architect from Seattle. It was noon Sunday. He was still trying to reel in the fish when water rushed into the cabin and flooded the engine room, prompting the captain to radio for help as he yelled out their coordinates.

With their baseball hats and sauntering gaits, they appeared to friends and neighbors like ordinary American boys. But the Boston bombings suspects were refugees from another world - the blood, rubble, and dirty wars of the Russian Caucasus. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was a southpaw heavyweight boxer who represented New England in the National Golden Gloves and talked about competing on behalf of the United States. His tangle-haired, 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, was a skateboarder who listened to rap and seemed easygoing to other kids in his Cambridge, Mass., neighborhood.

WASHINGTON - For the third year in a row, the nation's economic recovery has hit a springtime soft spot. Reflecting that weakness, only one in four Americans now expects his or her own financial situation to improve over the next year, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. The sour mood is undermining support for President Obama's economic stewardship and government in general. The poll shows that just 46 percent of Americans approve of Obama's handling of the economy while 52 percent disapprove.

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY professor Molefi Kete Asante, who launched the nation's first doctoral program in African-American studies at Temple 25 years ago, will again chair the university's African-American studies department, he said Thursday. Asante served as department chair from 1984 to 1997, when he was ousted amid allegations of plagiarism - which he has said were unfounded. He has had a rocky relationship with Teresa Scott Soufas, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, since she arrived at Temple in 2007.

I RA GLASS is the Jessica Simpson of public radio. Not the new, pregnant designer Jessica Simpson. The old, singing, can't dance a lick Jessica Simpson. That Jessica used to surround herself with dancers to hide her own immobility. And that brings us to Glass. The "This American Life" host will present the world premiere of "One Radio Show, Two Dancers," a night of stories and dance, courtesy of Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass , Saturday and Sunday at the Annenberg Center.

JERUSALEM - An Israeli military court sentenced a Palestinian American teenager Wednesday to two weeks in prison for throwing rocks at Israeli forces, the military said, in a case that has drawn attention to Israel's system of military detention of Palestinian minors. Israel's military said a juvenile military court convicted Mohammad Khalek, 14, of throwing stones, along with other Palestinians, at Israeli security forces April 2. It said Khalek confessed to the stone-throwing and reached a plea bargain for a fine of about $830 and a total of 31 days in jail, including the time he was held awaiting sentencing.

CHICAGO - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stopped in Chicago on Monday to visit the parents of the young U.S. diplomat who was killed while delivering textbooks in southern Afghanistan earlier this month. Kerry made the detour on his way back from Japan, the final leg of a 10-day overseas tour that started with tragedy when he learned of Anne Smedinghoff's death while readying to depart for Turkey on April 6. At the time, a clearly affected Kerry contacted Smedinghoff's parents, Tom and Mary Beth, from Andrews Air Force Base.

DALLAS - A federal bankruptcy judge has at least temporarily blocked a proposed $20 million severance payment for the chief executive officer of American Airlines as part of the company's merger with US Airways. The judge ruled that the proposed payment to Tom Horton exceeded limits that Congress set for bankruptcy cases in 2005. A spokesman for American said Friday that the airlines would push ahead with their merger and deal with Horton's compensation later. The U.S. Trustee's Office, part of the Department of Justice, objected to Horton's compensation.