"Three Wooden Crosses" Released in 2002 during his gospel period, this song returned Travis to the top of the charts after a nine-year absence. The song's narrator refers to three crosses seen alongside the road and tells the story of a crash survivor. Travis opens the song by singing, "A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher, riding on a midnight bus bound for Mexico ... " and it unfolds like a heartbreaking mystery. The song won the Country Music Association's song of the year award and a Dove Award as well.

"Forever and Ever, Amen" Driven by a subtle but bouncy bass line, this love song is told from the perspective of a free spirit trying to convince the woman he loves that he's ready to settle down. "I'm gonna love you forever and ever/forever and ever, amen," Travis sings in his mellow baritone on the chorus, and by the end of the song he's got you convinced. Released in 1987, the song was Travis' third No. 1 and won the Grammy Award for best country & western song and the Academy of Country Music's song of the year.

"Angels" This post-9/11 song is Travis as evangelist. The song begins with a bunch of friends sitting around talking about "politics, religion love and life" in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks when one says he doesn't believe in angels. Travis preaches, "Are you telling me you've never seen an angel?/Never felt the presence of one standing by?/No robe of white, no halo in sight?/Well, you missed the most obvious thing/Man, are you blind?/Just look in your mother's eyes."

"On the Other Hand" This was Travis' first No. 1 song in the U.S., but it required a little extra work to reach the top of the charts. Released in 1985, the song was Travis' first single as a Warner Bros. recording artist, and appeared on his game-changing album "Storms of Life." It initially drew little notice, but after Travis neared the top of the charts with his next single, he decided to re-release it in 1986. The rest is country music history.

"I Told You So" This Travis-penned breakup song was released four times over the years twice by Travis, once by Carrie Underwood and with Underwood as a duet. That duet helped return Travis to the spotlight in the latter years of the last decade. He performed the song with Underwood on "American Idol" and at The Academy of Country Music Awards. It also returned him to the stage at the Grammy Awards in 2010 when it won best country collaboration with vocals. The lyric "Now I found somebody new and you will never break my heart in two again ... " sums up the mood.

___

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott .

The storm was no longer expected to make landfall on the island of Hispaniola shared by the two nations and Dominican officials suspended a tropical storm warning for that country. But forecasters said Chantal could still bring heavy rain to flood-prone areas where people live in flimsy homes of plywood and corrugated steel.

In both countries, people fortified houses with tarps and wood and gathered supplies, largely ignoring warnings to leave their neighborhoods.

"We're going to wait until it's over. We're already used to this," said 36-year-old Sergio Guzman, who along the banks of a river near Santo Domingo.

Dominican state meteorologist Bolivar Ledesma said as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain could soak that country's southern coast.

As showers began falling along Haiti's southern coast Wednesday afternoon, officials took to the radio airwaves to urge people to move away from ravines, secure important records and stock up on food and water.

"There's not much I can do," Stevenson Etienne, a 40-year-old welder, said from his garage in downtown Port-au-Prince. "Still, I will try to protect myself and my children."

Chantal was about 145 miles (235 kilometers) south of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince Wednesday afternoon, moving west at 29 mph (46 kph), with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was on track to head north across Cuba and toward the Bahamas and Florida, but forecasters said the storm would likely weaken to a tropical depression by Thursday.

A tropical storm warning was in effect Wednesday for Haiti, Turks and Caicos and the southeastern Bahamas. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Jamaica and the central Bahamas.

Even a weaker Chantal could create problems for the rural southern peninsula of Haiti and southwestern Dominican Republic.

Storms often trigger flooding and landslides on Hispaniola, and severe deforestation and makeshift housing make Haiti especially vulnerable.

Port-au-Prince is a hilly city on the ocean that's surrounded by vast concrete shanties that collapse in mudslides, sometimes killing people. Also, about 279,000 Haitians still live in ramshackle settlements established after a devastating 2010 earthquake.

Last year, a hurricane and a tropical storm separately caused widespread flooding after merely brushing Haiti.

Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, general director for Haiti's Civil Protection Department, said the government had prepared 400 emergency shelters nationwide. She urged people to tie up livestock, monitor the radio for updates and avoid crossing rivers.

American Airlines canceled flights to Haiti and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Chantal raced through the eastern Caribbean early Tuesday, with officials in Dominica reporting that heavy winds ripped the roofs off several homes. No injuries were reported there or anywhere else in the region.

Overnight, the storm passed south of Puerto Rico, leaving about 7,000 people without power and more than 2,500 people without water. Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla ordered public employees in the U.S. territory to return to work on Wednesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard said all Puerto Rican ports had reopened except those on the southern and western coasts.

___

Associated Press writers Daniel and Evens Sanon reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Lopez from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed to this report.

July 8 (Reuters) - Mario Gomez will leave Bayern Munich and join Serie A's Fiorentina for next season, ending four years at the Bavarian club during which he scored goals at a prolific rate, won titles and yet ended up losing his first-team place.

Treble-winning Bayern confirmed that the clubs had agreed terms for the 28-year-old Germany international.

"It was Mario Gomez's wish to leave Bayern Munich for Fiorentina," Bayern's chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told the Bavarian club's official website (www.fcbayern.telekom.de).

Fiorentina have steered clear of big-name signings in the last few years and are battling to hold on to key player Stevan Jovetic.

Gomez will have to go without Champions League football next season as Fiorentina finished fourth in Serie A last season, one place off the Champions League playoff spot.

The Germany striker became the Bundesliga's most expensive signing when he moved to Bayern from VfB Stuttgart four years ago and has a prolific record for the Bavarians, scoring 75 goals in 115 leagues.

However, he spent much of last season as a reserve for Mario Mandzukic as Bayern claimed a Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League treble.

Gomez, who had previously been linked with Napoli, had a disappointing first season at Bayern, managing 10 Bundesliga goals and 14 in all competitions.

He came good the following year as he scored 28 goals in the Bundesliga, and 39 in all competitions.

He followed that by notching up 26 league goals in the 2011/12 season, plus 13 in the Champions League and two in the Cup, but he failed to score when it mattered, in the final against Chelsea when Bayern lost on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Needing greater strength in depth, Bayern signed Croatia forward Mandzukic who proved more versatile than Gomez and quickly established himself as first choice.

Nevertheless, Gomez, who leaves Bayern with two Bundesliga, two Cup and one Champions League winners' medals, still managed 11 goals despite starting only nine Bundesliga games last term.

Germany coach Joachim Loew will be forced to take a greater interest in Serie A as his first-choice striker Miroslav Klose plays for Roma-based Lazio. (Reporting by Brian Homewood in Zurich, Editing by Clare Fallon)

The study, published today (June 27) in the journal Science, found that one type of bacteria dominates in warm climates, whereas another is more prevalent in cooler areas. Combined with climate models, the findings suggest that the cold-loving bacteria could completely disappear from their current habitats as the climate warms.

That disappearance, in turn, could have unpredictable ripple effects across the entireecosystem, study researchers said, as the biocrusts are important resources for desert plants and help mitigate dust storms. []

"For the first time, we have shown that the distribution of microbes is also prone to changes due to global warming," said study co-author Ferran Garcia-Pichel, a microbial ecologist at Arizona State University. "We simply don't know the consequences of this."

Ubiquitous organisms

Throughout the arid regions of the western United States, desert soil is permeated by a cryptic collection of photosynthetic organisms, including microbes, lichens and mosses. These mostly bacterial biocrusts anchor the soil, preventing sandstorms and erosion. They also play a critical role in cycling carbon and providing nitrogen in the soil, which feeds the growth of .

Yet these soils remained virtually unstudied by researchers.

To get a better picture of these cryptic species, Garcia-Pichel and his colleagues conducted a thorough survey of the microbial constituents in biocrusts at 23 sites throughout the western United States. They found that two species Microcoleus vaginatus and M. steenstrupii each dominated in different regions.

Hot and cold

M. vaginatus predominated in cooler deserts near the California-Oregon border and in Utah, whereas M. steenstrupii was the main bacteria in the , New Mexico and California. The researchers looked at several potential causes for the difference in distribution, such as rainfall and soil composition, but found that temperature was the best predictor of which microbe thrived in each region.

To help confirm that this was the major driver behind the distribution, the team then took the bacteria back to the lab and cultured them at different temperatures. Sure enough, M. steenstrupii flourished in warmer conditions and was more tolerant to extreme heat, while the opposite was true for M. vaginatus.

Next, they looked atmodels, which predicted that the desert regions in the United States would increase in temperature over the next 50 years. With this projected warming, M. vaginatus could completely disappear from the arid regions of the western United States, the researchers said.

The team realized "this is enough temperature to push one of them out of our map,'" Garcia-Pichel told LiveScience.

Unknown consequences

Unfortunately, so little is known about the mysterious M. steenstrupii that no one is sure how this change will impact desert ecosystems, said Jayne Belnap, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Moab, Utah, who was not involved in the study.

"These are the only game in town to prevent dust storms and erosion, so they're really, really critical parts of this ecosystem," Belnap told LiveScience. "Yet we've never asked the question, 'who's really in there, and what's going to happen there as things shift?'"

Follow Tia Ghose on and .FollowLiveScience,&. Original article on.

[More from BGR: ]

The expectation for the second quarter was not all that high, showing only minor improvement from the first quarter, Loverde said. But the May results reflect deteriorating conditions rather than improvement and the market will probably fall short of projections.IDC previously estimated that annual PC sales will decline -7.8% in 2013.

This article was

Just last week, , ruling that excluding same-sex married couples from the federal definition of marriage unfairly discriminated against people in those unions. Now, a federal judge in Michigan has green-lighted a discrimination case brought by a same-sex couple that could be among the first to test how the DOMA decision will affect the dozens of state-level gay marriage bans around the country.

The case involves April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, two female nurses who live together with their adopted children in Hazel Park, Mich. The same-sex couple wants to jointly adopt their three children, but the Michigan Marriage Amendment, which defines marriage in the state as between only opposite-sex couples, prevents them from legally doing so. (Separately, the state allows only single people and married heterosexual couples to adopt.)

In a court filing on Monday, District Judge Bernard Friedman denied a motion from the Michigan government to dismiss the couple's case, ruling that the Supreme Court's DOMA decision, Windsor v. U.S., shed new light on the claim.

Plaintiffs are prepared to claim Windsor as their own. ... And why shouldnt they? The Supreme Court has just invalidated a federal statute on equal protection grounds because it place[d] same-sex couples in an unstable position of being in a second-tier marriage. Moreover, and of particular importance to this case, the justices expressed concern that the natural consequence of such discriminatory legislation would not only lead to the relegation of same-sex relationships to a form of second-tier status, but impair the rights of tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples as well. This is exactly the type of harm plaintiffs seek to remedy in this case.

But Friedman, a Ronald Reagan appointee, also noted that the state will be able to use the Windsor decision in its defense as well.

The justices wrote in that opinion that states have a "historic and essential authority to define the marital relation," an authority that DOMA intruded upon. Michigan can argue that its voters have a right to define marriage as only between a man and a woman under this authority, even as 12 states choose to allow same-sex marriages.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's conservative-leaning swing vote, wrote in the Windsor opinion that DOMA imposed "a disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages made lawful by the unquestioned authority of the States." He concluded that states must be allowed by the federal government to confer "dignity" on same-sex couples if they choose to legalize gay marriage without the federal government telling "those couples, and all the world, that their otherwise valid marriages are unworthy of federal recognition."

The case is just one of several challenging state gay marriage bans that are making their way through the courts. Gay couples are suing in Nevada, Illinois, Hawaii and New Jersey, which allow civil unions or domestic partnerships but not gay marriage. The Supreme Court stopped short of ruling there is a fundamental right to marriage that gay and lesbian people should not be denied, so it's unclear how the justices would rule if one of these cases reached them.

A date has not yet been set for the Michigan trial.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hormone replacement therapy during the early stages of menopause - typically around age 50 - doesn't hurt or help brain function, according to a new study.

Researchers found that women between the ages of 50 and 55 years old who took estrogen or estrogen with progesterone performed just as well on tests that measure memory problems as women of the same age who took a placebo.

"Our findings are that we didn't see any long term impact on cognitive function," said Mark Espeland, the study's lead author, from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Previous studies had found that women 65 years old and older suffered lasting memory problems when they used hormone therapy to treat symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness and trouble sleeping.

Imaging tests even found that the brains of those older women assigned to hormone therapy had become smaller, compared to those who took a placebo.

Currently, the government-backed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that postmenopausal women avoid hormone replacement therapy due to increased risks of heart disease, stroke, breast cancer and dementia.

Some research, however, has suggested there may be a "window of opportunity" when women first enter menopause that allows the safe use of hormones to possibly decrease their risk of conditions such as heart disease. What the effects would be on younger women's brains, however, has been unclear.

For the new study, Espeland and his colleagues used data on 1,326 women between the ages of 50 and 55 in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study to see whether taking estrogen or estrogen and progesterone led to any problems or benefits in brain health.

The women were assigned to take estrogen, estrogen and progesterone or a placebo for about seven years at the beginning of the study between 1996 and 1999. They were then followed for about the next 14 years.

During the follow-up period, the women were asked 14 questions that measured their cognitive abilities during phone interviews.

Overall, all groups scored about a 38 on a scale from zero to 50 - with lower scores signaling more memory problems.

There was also no difference between the groups on several other scales that measured - among other things - attention and working memory.

Francine Grodstein, who wrote an editorial accompany the new study in JAMA Internal Medicine, told Reuters Health the findings are primarily reassuring.

"So for (younger) women who really need hormone therapy to treat menopause symptoms this study didn't find hormone therapy had the amount of harm as it did for older women," said Grodstein, an associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Espeland told Reuters Health there could be a few possible explanations for the difference between older and younger women using hormone replacement therapy.

One possible explanation could be that older women already have more memory problems and hormone therapy accelerates the decline. It could also be that a woman's brain adapts to lower levels of hormones after menopause and hormone therapy disrupts that process.

The new study, however, may not have had enough participants to measure any moderate benefits from taking hormone therapy during the early stages of menopause, said Grodstein.

"One study is not going to tell us everything," she said.

But, Espeland noted, the researchers continue to follow these women for more information.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/18gabXb and http://bit.ly/19C6ARe JAMA Internal Medicine, online June 24, 2013.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Rhys Ifans is taking it to the small screen.

The "Amazing Spider-Man" and "Notting Hill" actor has signed on for a recurring role on CBS' Sherlock Holmes revamp "Elementary," the network said Wednesday."

Ifans will play Sherlock's older brother, Mycroft Holmes, beginning with the drama's Season 2 premiere on September 26.

The premiere is being shot on location in London. In it, Sherlock (played by Jonny Lee Miller) takes up an old case in London and is forced to confront Mycroft. Despite an earlier falling-out, Mycroft allows his brother and his partner, Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), to stay at his home at 221B Baker Street.

"I could not be more excited to have Rhys coming aboard," "Elementary" creator and executive producer Robert Doherty said. "I've always been a tremendous fan and feel very honored to have him in the fold. Equally excited are Jonny and Lucy, both of whom have worked with Rhys in feature films. I think this is going to be a lot of fun for all of us."

LONDON (Reuters) - John McEnroe was once the "bad boy" of Wimbledon, berating linesmen and umpires alike and famously screaming "You cannot be serious".

The 54-year-old silver fox had a new role on Thursday as comedy fall guy to Iranian Mansour Bahrami in the gentlemen's senior invitation doubles on a packed outside court.

The crowd whooped and cheered and the score - John and his brother Patrick beat Mansour and Frenchman Henri Leconte 6-1 6-4 - was irrelevant.

Even with a few creaking limbs, the quartet demonstrated all their silky skills of old and the fans lapped it up.

Bahrami, who delights in playing to the gallery, even shouted out "You cannot be serious" in mocking tones to McEnroe.

The Iranian earned by far the biggest cheer of the day when he rushed to the back of the court, played a glorious trick shot between his legs and left the McEnroe brothers flummoxed and flat-footed at the net.

John McEnroe's elegant serve is unchanged. He still can fire them down at over 100 miles an hour and for the grand slam winner turned television commentator, the competitive fires are clearly still burning.

But he too knows how to play to the gallery.

After hitting one particularly wayward double fault that landed beyond the tramlines, he jokingly shouted out "Are you sure?" to the umpire.

Another McEnroe double fault provoked a yell of delight from Bahrami who taunted him, shouting "Yes, come on."

In the first two rounds, Wimbledon crowds have got to see McEnroe having a great time. None of the sulking, none of the sound and fury, just tennis as pure fun. Temper tantrums were just a memory.

In the first round on Wednesday, the brothers beat the Australians Peter McNamara and Paul McNamee in a match that had more Macs than a fast food restaurant.

When someone shouted out "C'mon Mac," John McEnroe was quick to shout back "Which one?"

On Thursday, he wisely took a back seat in the comedy duel with Bahrami, a master at bringing the house down with his clowning antics.

Readying to receive McEnroe's serve, he even adopted a lumbering King Kong pose to try to put his opponent off.

The American's love/hate relationship with the crowd is now all adoration. The fans roared their approval and gave him a big cheer at the end when the former "Mr Grouch" applauded them back.

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

(Reuters) - Alabama's Jefferson County on Sunday filed a negotiated restructuring plan to wind up America's largest municipal bankruptcy and lock in losses of as much as 70 cents on the dollar for JPMorgan Chase and other Wall Street creditors.

The court filing is the latest chapter in a saga of corruption and mismanagement of public finances that forced the most populous county in the southern U.S. state of Alabama to ask for protection from creditors in November 2011.

Nineteen months after filing for bankruptcy, and at a reported cost of $20 million in lawyers fees, the county is now on track to exit Chapter 9 by year's end. The defaults and losses imposed on bondholders of a scale not seen since the 1930s will translate into pricier borrowing by the county for decades, portfolio managers and analysts have said.

The county's debt ballooned in the mid-2000s, when warrants issued to upgrade its sewer system spiked amid bribery and fraud charges that led to some 22 convictions.

Larry Langford, a Democrat and former mayor of Birmingham, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for having accepted jewelry and lavish gifts for his role in deals that fueled the multibillion-dollar sewer debt.

Jefferson County's case may soon be eclipsed as the largest government bankruptcy in U.S. history by Detroit, a faded industrial center whose emergency manager has offered unsecured creditors as little as 10 cents on the dollar.

Details of the Jefferson County plan, which must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Bennett, were hammered out in closed-door talks and rely on a planned sale by the county in late 2013 of about $1.9 billion of refinancing bonds.

"All major stakeholders in the case are or are expected to be supportive of the county's plan of adjustment," said David Carrington, president of the Jefferson County Commission.

Most major creditors, including bond insurers Financial Guaranty Insurance Co (FGIC), Assured Guaranty Ltd and a unit of Syncora Holdings Ltd, as well as seven hedge funds, agreed in recent weeks to substantial reductions in debt. County officials said owners of 82 percent of its debt were behind the 101-page plan, which includes locally unpopular sewer-rate increases to help pay the debt over coming decades.

JPMorgan, a big holder of the county's $3.1 billion of sewer warrants, took the biggest hit by agreeing to give up about $842 million of the $1.218 billion of sewer debt it holds, as well as other concessions. That will allow the big bank to recover barely over 30 percent of its sewer holdings.

The bankruptcy agreement is additional pain for JPMorgan, which in 2009 paid $75 million to the county and dropped credit-default swaps claims valued at $657 million as part of a settlement with federal regulators over alleged secret payments connected to Jefferson County bond deals.

The agreement also calls for increases in sewer rates of 7.41 percent a year for four years and comes after the county cut hundreds of jobs, ended in-patient care at a hospital for poor people in Birmingham, and slashed services.

Although the local economy is doing well with a 5.5 percent jobless rate, investors are likely to demand a premium when the county again taps the municipal bond market. Its planned $1.9 billion sale is likely to require Jefferson County to pay unusually high interest rates because of its defaults.

Jefferson County officials have said the negotiated deals would cost the county $200 million less, if enacted, than a tentative $2.05 billion agreement reached but never implemented ahead of the county's November 2011 bankruptcy filing.

Carrington, who bargained with creditors, said, "The plan achieves the fundamental bankruptcy purpose of giving Jefferson County a 'fresh start'."

(Reporting by Michael Connor in Miami; Editing by Tiziana Barghini and Diane Craft)