Cathy Wallace did not always know what she wanted to be when she grew up. She wanted to help people, but did not know exactly how. A suggestion from friends sparked her interest. "When I was in college, I thought I wanted to be a doctor," she said. "I found I didn't want to do that and realized an interest in psychology. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but all my friends thought I should go into law because I was always on a soapbox. I decided to try it." Recently, Wallace received the Outstanding Woman Lawyer in Public Interest Law Award. The award was voted on and presented by the women's caucus of West Virginia University College of Law. Wallace, 38, called Gastonia home from the age of 8 until she graduated from Hunter Huss High School in 1983. Her parents, Carter Bond, 66, and Carol Bond, 59, are still residents of Gastonia. From Hunter Huss, she moved on to pursue a degree at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer. After graduation from Pfeiffer in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in both biology and psychology, she worked as legal secretary for attorney Louis A. Bledsoe Jr. for a year and a half. "Working for Louis Bledsoe was a pivotal moment," she said. "That was when I decided to go into the practice of law." She received her law degree at the University of Arkansas in 1992 and began her legal career in Public Defender Corp. in Princeton. She also taught criminal justice classes at Bluefield College in West Virginia. Wallace lives in Athens, W. Va., with her husband Rob, 37, and her daughters Rachel, 11, and Claire, 5.

Name three places Ms. Wallace has worked.

A government-sponsored coup last year made Bruce Iwasaki and Neal Dudovitz the kings of Los Angeles County's federally funded legal aid community. The two men emerged atop a changed landscape that resulted from a decade of begging for a share of shrinking public dollars doled out by an unsympathetic GOP-controlled Congress. That era was capped in 1998, when the Legal Services Corp. forced 275 legal aid providers nationwide to combine into 179. To comply with the orders from their main funding source, a new species of poverty lawyer emerged - a tech-savvy and button-down breed who swapped neighborhood walkin offices for toll-free phone lines, self-help kiosks and Internet access to legal advice. While some organizations made the dramatic change look effortless, for others, it did not come easy. And few programs provide more dramatic illustrations of the promise and pitfalls of government-funded legal services than Los Angeles County's two largest providers of federally funded services - Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Pacoima-based Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. From his offices in Koreatown, Iwasaki, a soft-spoken former O'Melveny & Myers attorney, quietly engineered a merger between a much smaller Legal Aid Society of Long Beach and his program, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. The merger was completed peacefully within a year of the federal order. Today, the programs operate seamlessly, offering new innovations - including toll-free multilingual phone advisers, expanded hours for domestic-violence clinics, and renewed immigration and consumer aid - built on the foundations of the old program. The organization is Los Angeles' largest government-funded group, with a budget of $11 million leveraged into $40 million in legal services to the poor.

What was the result of the change in funding?

Dr. Alex Cross is a psychiatrist and police lieutenant who lives in Detroit with his wife , Maria , their children , Damon and Janelle , and his grandmother , Nana Mama . Upon learning that Maria is pregnant with their third child , Cross considers accepting a job as an FBI profiler , but fears Maria's reaction , as it 'd require them to relocate to Washington , D.C. Meanwhile , a man called Picasso attends to an illegal underground Mixed Martial Arts fighting ring , where he flirts with businesswoman Fan Yau . After brutally beating his opponent , Picasso is invited to Fan Yau's house , where he sedates her while they 're having sex , tortures and kills her . Police Captain Richard Brookwell calls Cross and his partner , Tommy Kane , to the crime scene . On the way there , Cross tells Kane about Maria's pregnancy and the the FBI's offer , and Kane reveals that he is secretly dating their colleague , Monica Ashe . Cross deduces that Picasso is a professional assassin , and finds a sketch made behind by Picasso , revealing that his next target is businessman Erich Nunemarcher . Cross , Kane and Ashe go to Nunemarcher's office , but Nunemarcher ignores their claims . Picasso manages to enter the building , but is prevented from killing Nunemarcher by Cross , and escapes after being shot by Kane . Cross analyzes a drop of Picasso's blood and learns that he is a psychotic former member of the Special Forces and that his real target is billionaire CEO Leon Mercier . Cross informs Mercier that Picasso might be trying to kill him .
Who does Cross talk with during this story?