HOBART | Joe Negron and his 7-year-old son, Nicholas, wore matching smiles Tuesday as the two were reunited after nearly eight months."It's great to be back," beamed Joe Negron, a Navy serviceman who completed his fourth tour of duty in the Persian Gulf on Friday.Joe Negron's visit to John Wood Elementary School at the end of the day was done to surprise Nicholas, a second-grader, who hadn't seen his father since June."It's super Tuesday for the Negron boys," quipped Cheryl Negron, Nicholas' mother.Joe Negron couldn't fly into Chicago Midway Airport on Monday night as planned because of the fog, said Maryann Reynolds, Cheryl Negron's mother.But Joe Negron arrived in the area Tuesday morning and wanted to surprise his oldest son, who had been bummed out by the delay, she said.The surprise was a hit with Nicholas, who couldn't stop looking at his father and giving him an occasional hug."It's awesome," Nicholas said of his father's return.Cheryl Negron and her sons, Nicholas and Michael, 4, have been staying with her parents, Maryann and Gordon Reynolds, who live in rural Crown Point.The Reynolds family moved there from Lansing, where Cheryl Negron attended high school."This is a wonderful thing," Maryann Reynolds said while videotaping the father-and-son reunion.In coming days, the Negron family plans to get reacquainted by dining out at Joe's favorite pizza place, the Home Run Inn in Chicago, and hanging out at home playing video games.Cheryl Negron said family members have a lot of catching up to do since they didn't spend Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's together."This is very surreal.

MUW introduces ‘extraordinary technology' to students

Mississippi University for Women's Information Technology Services recently announced that it will be introducing Google Apps to students in March 2008. MUW will be the first university in Mississippi to implement the service.The program will offer access to free services such as e-mail, the ability to create and edit a personal calendar, instant messaging, online storage to save important projects and documents and programs similar to Microsoft Office products. Advantages of the applications are that students can access the services from any computer with an Internet connection."We believe that Google Apps leverages out existing investments and allows the university to provide extraordinary technology to our students," Larry Jones, MUW director of ITS, said.The new applications provide students with more network storage space.

No. 1/1 Women’s Basketball Earns 74-69 win at No. 6/6 LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. (Feb. 25, 2008) – Freshman Maya Moore (Lawrenceville, Ga.) scored 29 points as the top-ranked University of Connecticut women's basketball team recorded a 74-69 win over No. 6/6 Louisiana State on Monday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge.

In one of the bigger games of her promising young career, Moore played the full 40 minutes and poured in 29 points, including a perfect 7-for-7 mark at the foul line. She rounded out the box score with five rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks.

The Last Word: Akon's Finds Legal Troubles, Beyonce Makes the Naughty ...

In happier Akon news, the singer joined Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Ne-Yo and Kanye West among this year's Grammy Award nominees. Although the awards won't be given out until February, Akon already knows what he's going to do should he win one of the four Grammy he's nominated for.

"I'm calling my mom," he told MTV. "She's probably going to scream, 'cause she's always said, 'You know what, you're gonna win.'"

Now that he has someone in mind to make his one phone call should he end up in the big house, maybe now Akon can get that "Sorry, Blame it On Me" Long Arm of the Law remix with fellow law-abiding singer R. Kelly in the can too. To keep his name out there, of course.

2. Aretha Franklin Breaks Down Her Lack of Movie Time

If you know anything about music, you know about Aretha Franklin.