Energy fears looming, new survivalists prepare to live without oil

A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she is preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds (32 kilograms). She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

"I was …

'Don't you have a gran of your own?'

A Defiant pensioner fought off raiders who forced their way intoher house, asking: "Don't you have a grandmother of your own?"

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Evening Express,Elizabeth Gray was robbed when two men forced their way into herhome.

The 89-year-old's ordeal began around 7pm. When two men came tothe door of her house near Midstocket Road, the retired plantpathologist thought they were charity collectors.

However, they held her by the shoulder, pushed past her into thehall and said they were looking for money for drugs.

The shocked pensioner tried to call the police but the thugs hadbroken the chord on her phone. Reliving the …

20 Years in Business: BusinessWest Publisher Filled a Critical Void

Why doesn't Springfield have one of these?"

That's what BusinessWest publisher John Gormally was thinking just over two decades ago as he looked through a Southern Conn. monthly business magazine. "There was nothing in the Springfield area at that time devoted solely to business news and information," he said in a recent interview. "That was a void I thought needed to be filled."

Several months later, The Western Mass. Business Journal made its debut.

It was the spring of 1984. The Pioneer Valley region was emerging from an economic downturn, and things were starting to happen. Plans were taking shape for a new office tower in downtown Springfield, Northampton was in …

Disgraced pastor returns, as Christian businessman

Earlier this month, a guest took the pulpit at Open Bible Fellowship in Morrison, Ill., a 350-member church surrounded by cornfields. The speaker was an insurance salesman from Colorado named Ted Haggard.

The former superstar pastor, disgraced two years ago in a sex-and-drugs scandal, had returned _ this time as a Christian businessman preaching a message that was equal parts contrition and defiance. Haggard linked his fall to being molested in second grade and apologized again.

His two sermons were posted, fleetingly, on Haggard's Web site under one word: "Alive!"

While his exact plans remain unclear, …

City Phone Firm Is The Teleworst

Three firms with Bristol links have been shamed as Britain's leastadmired companies in a new survey.

Cable operator Telewest - which employs 300 people in the city --was named as the country's least admired company, coming bottom of alist of 240 British firms put together by business magazineManagement Today.

But just above the communication giant was struggling BritishEnergy, which runs the Hinkley Point B power station on the BristolChannel and insurer Royal & Sun Alliance, which employs 1,540 workersin its Bristol offices.

Dozens of customers have hit out at the poor service they havereceived from the communications firm.

Among them is pensioner …

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World Sprint Speedskating Championships Results

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Results Saturday from the world sprint speedskating championships:

Men

500_1, Lee Kyou-hyuk, South Korea, 34.33. 2, Dmitry Lobkov, Russia, 34.46. 3, Muncef Ouardi, Canada, 34.54. 4, Joji Kato, Japan, 34.56. 5, Mika Poutala, Finland, 34.62. 6, Mo Tae-bum, South Korea, 34.67. 7, Jamie Gregg, Canada, 34.69. 8, Hein Otterspeer, Netherlands, 34.72.

1,000_1, Lee Kyou-hyuk, South Korea, 1:08.01. 2, Muncef Ouardi, Canada, 1:09.06. 3, Joji Kato, Japan, 1:09.08. 4, Artyom Kuznetsov, Russia, 1:09.27. 5, Ermanno Ioriatti, Italy, 1:09.97. 6, Yuya Oikawa, Japan, 1:10.07. 7, Lee Ki-ho, South Korea, 1:10.47. …