Fedex

The slow return of air traffic over Europe isn't just helping stranded transatlantic passengers. It's also easing another, less-obvious disruption: the movement of air cargo into and out of a continent shadowed for nearly a week by a cloud of ash from the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallaj?kull volcano. "When you plan for contingencies, volcanic eruptions aren't high on the list," UPS spokesman Mark Dickens said Tuesday. "We're doing the best we can. " UPS and Federal Express said Tuesday that they had finally begun getting some flights through their major European hubs - UPS's in Cologne, Germany, and FedEx's in Paris.

In an apparently ill-conceived caper, several men briefly hijacked a FedEx van yesterday afternoon and tried to navigate it through rush-hour traffic in Center City before abandoning the easily recognizable vehicle and fleeing. The plan - if there was a plan - did not include an accomplice who could drive a manual transmission, police said. At least two assailants, one with a firearm, seized the van around 4 p.m. at 16th and Pine Streets and attempted to drive it before forcing one of two FedEx employees to operate the stick shift for them, police said.

I don't want to talk about Michael Vick anymore. But I do want to talk about my hero Ken. Ken was a FedEx driver in Western Pennsylvania who decided he wanted a dog. So he went to Airedale Rescue and Adoption of the Delaware Valley, an organization run by two extremely dedicated women who rescue and care for Airedale terriers. When the dogs are ready, they place them in loving homes. Ricky had been a stud dog in a Philadelphia puppy mill and had lived in a cage all his life.

Larry Summers, President Obama's chief economic advisor, recently described an "excess of fear" sweeping over the country. He was echoing Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous declaration "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. " Summers and Roosevelt were, of course, talking about the fear gripping the nation amid economic distress. But a similar fear has surrounded the country's efforts to reform health care.

FRED EX got quite a delivery from FedEx. He only wishes he hadn't signed for it. Ex-Eagles wide receiver Freddie Mitchell is under investigation after accepting a package allegedly containing about 7 pounds of marijuana. According to a story in Florida's Lakeland Ledger , Mitchell was handcuffed, but not arrested, last Thursday after signing for the package at his restaurant, Brothers Bar-B-Q in Lakeland. Police said the package was first delivered to the home of Mitchell's 90-year-old grandmother, who Mitchell said "takes memory pills.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - FedEx Corp. has said that it plans to stop using the Kinko's name on its copy and office service stores and book an $891 million charge for the quarter that ended Saturday. The charge relates to the value of the Kinko's name and a write-down of the value of its acquisition of the brand. The charge, which works out to $2.22 a share, was not part of FedEx's earnings forecast. The company early last month cut its outlook to $1.45 to $1.50 per share, down from $1.60 to $1.80, because of increasing fuel costs.

The news that his employer would no longer help pay for his chemotherapy arrived at Sam Vaughn's home by FedEx on Monday. In a letter, Jevic Transportation Inc. thanked the 62-year-old, who has bladder cancer, for his service. It apologized. It said that his job of 15 years was gone. That, effective at midnight that night, Vaughn's health insurance would be gone. That the 27-year-old trucking business was, suddenly, gone. Jevic's announcement Monday that it was shutting down has thrown the lives of its more than 1,000 employees into disarray.

The top players spoke, or grumbled, and the PGA Tour listened. The FedEx Cup schedule has been tweaked for 2008. The first three events will remain the same for the second year of the Tour playoffs: the Barclays, Deutsche Bank Championship and BMW Championship, all in consecutive weeks, starting Aug. 21. But after the BMW, which rotates from Chicago to St. Louis next year, the Tour will take a weeklong break before the Ryder Cup at Vahalla...

Now that the FedEx Cup is safely in Tiger Woods' hands, why not take a few minutes to contemplate how to make it better. Here are a few suggestions: 1. Tweak the schedule. If PGA Tour officials don't want the marquee players like Woods and Phil Mickelson to skip one of the four playoff tournaments, they've got to find a way to spread out the schedule of those final tournaments. Four weeks in a row is a slog, but what makes it tougher are the must-play events leading up to and after the playoffs.

ATLANTA - He's just too good, plain and simple. After dominating golf for the last decade, Tiger Woods yesterday began the domination of a new era in the game, the era of the FedEx Cup. Touring East Lake Golf Club with a 4-under 66, Woods posted a four-day total of 257 (23 under), a mark that earned him his second Tour Championship by 8 shots. His 72-hole total was the lowest in his career, matching the third-lowest total in PGA Tour history. He broke the tournament record by 6 strokes.