Grande dame of cooking still going strong at 90: Julia Child celebrates in San Francisco. How does it feel to turn 90 and have attained the status of an icon, a living legend? "It feels just like it felt before," Julia Child says with the throaty laugh familiar to millions who cut their culinary teeth on her "French Chef" television series. The show, along with her seminal book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (1961), revolutionized the way America cooks and eats. While making light of the difference a day -- or another decade -- makes, Child intends to enjoy her birthday thoroughly. First, there will be all the public observances, including a sold-out dinner Thursday at San Francisco's tony Fifth Floor restaurant, which -- like dinners that night at 19 other venues across the country -- will benefit the scholarship fund of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (which Child co-founded). Friday to Sunday, the action moves to Napa, with both members-only and public events at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, of which she is an honorary board member. Aug. 15, her actual birthday, will see her in Maine at an annual gathering of nieces, nephews, their offspring and friends, who for many years have rolled a joined birthday celebration for several members of the group into a jolly reunion. The schedule Child and her assistant of 14 years, former pastry chef Stephanie Hersh, have laid out is not exactly a senior-citizen routine, even though Child has always been candid about her age and realistic in assessing her own capabilities. When the Pasadena native moved back to California from her long-time home in the Boston area last year, she also made the move from a condominium she and her late husband, Paul, had purchased many years ago to a progressive retirement home. She is in the most active of the four levels available, but should the need arise, she can move on to assisted living facilities within the same complex.

What state is Child an honorary board member of "The American Wine, Food, and Arts" and native of?

A West Tennessee nonprofit organization will use a $300,000 federal grant to hire an attorney and a Spanish-speaking paralegal to help provide legal assistance to domestic violence victims. The U.S. Department of Justice two-year grant will begin Oct. 1, which is the start of domestic violence awareness month. U.S. Rep. John Tanner announced Monday that the grant was awarded to West Tennessee Legal Services of Jackson. The organization provides legal assistance and advocacy in 17 counties. "This award will offer assistance as we look for whatever ways possible to stop domestic violence and help the women, men and children who are victims of abuse," Tanner said in a news statement. The organization doesn't have a staff member who speaks Spanish and the need is increasing with growing Hispanic populations, said the organization's executive director Steven Xanthopoulos. He estimated the money will help handle at least another 180 cases next year. The group closes about 2,500 cases a year. The money was timed well because the legal group had recently lost about $120,000 in grant money due to a decrease in the poverty population in West Tennessee in Census 2000, Xanthopoulos said. "The drop in poverty is a good thing, but there is still a great need out there," he said. "So this was a very good thing." Having legal representation at divorce and child custody hearings is important in helping victims leave abusive and sometimes dangerous situations, said Margaret Cole, executive director of Wo/Men's Resource and Rape Assistance Program in Jackson. Her organization and Northwest Safeline are partners in the grant. Northwest Safeline, based in Dyersburg, is a family violence intervention project that serves Dyer, Obion, Lake and Crockett counties.

How many more cases will the grant money that West Tennessee Legal Services be able to handle next year?

Washington (CNN) -- The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to take in 17 Chinese Muslims held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the country's ambassador to the United States said Wednesday. The map shows the Pacific island nation of Palau in relation to China. Details of the transfer are still being worked out, Ambassador Hersey Kyota told CNN. But Kyota said his country, a former U.S. Pacific trust territory, has agreed to take in the ethnic Uighur detainees "for humanitarian reasons" and because of the "special relationship" between Palau and the United States. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly would not comment on the announcement, telling reporters, "We're still involved in ongoing discussions." The agreement includes some U.S. aid for Palau, Kyota said, but he said those details remained to be worked out as well. The country, with a population of about 20,000, is about 1,000 miles southeast of Manila, Philippines, and about 4,600 miles west of Hawaii. Palau has received nearly $900 million in U.S. aid since independence in 1994, according to congressional auditors, and depends on Washington for defense. The "Compact of Free Association" between Palau and the United States is up for review, but Kelly said any additional aid offer "is not linked to any other discussions we may be having with the government of Palau." The Uighurs were accused of receiving weapons and military training in Afghanistan.
What are the Chinese Muslims called?