Thelma James was a prime candidate for a real estate ripoff: She is 68, has precious little money and can't read or write. "I won't lie to you. I was so-o-o excited," the widow and former duplex dweller said of the purchase of her first home, a sagging frame structure on Snowden. "I was glad to get me a house." When James realized she had been swindled she turned to Memphis Area Legal Services, which represented her in a lawsuit. Now, James's monthly house notes have dropped from $796 - more than twice her monthly income - to an affordable $247. Some of the people who took advantage of her through a questionable loan program were sent to jail. "I don't know what I would have done without Legal Services," said James. "They solved a lot of my problems." James is one of more than 3,000 clients served last year by MALS, which provides assistance for civil matters, such as domestic abuse and family-related problems, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income, veterans, housing and consumer fraud cases. Like James, most clients are elderly or female. Some are handicapped. Some need medical care or veteran's benefits. Some are trying to escape eviction or an abusive marriage. And 87 percent live at or below poverty level. Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton recently said Legal Services is important for those who, because of poverty or other struggles in life, think justice is an empty word. "They must be given reason to believe that the law is for them too," said Wharton, a former executive director of MALS. But MALS faces a funding crunch next year, brought on by a $200,000 shortfall from three revenue sources.

Question: "Does MALS help people who are trying to escape an abusive marriage?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "No"

Response: no

When American 11 struck the World Trade Center at 8:46, no one in the White House or traveling with the President knew that it had been hijacked. While that information circulated within the FAA, we found no evidence that the hijacking was reported to any other agency in Washington before 8:46. Most federal agencies learned about the crash in New York from CNN. Within the FAA, the administrator, Jane Garvey, and her acting deputy, Monte Belger, had not been told of a confirmed hijacking before they learned from television that a plane had crashed. Others in the agency were aware of it, as we explained earlier in this chapter. Inside the National Military Command Center, the deputy director of operations and his assistant began notifying senior Pentagon officials of the incident. At about 9:00, the senior NMCC operations officer reached out to the FAA operations center for information. Although the NMCC was advised of the hijacking of American 11, the scrambling of jets was not discussed. In Sarasota, Florida, the presidential motorcade was arriving at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School, where President Bush was to read to a class and talk about education. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told us he was standing with the President outside the classroom when Senior Advisor to the President Karl Rove first informed them that a small, twin-engine plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. The President's reaction was that the incident must have been caused by pilot error. At 8:55, before entering the classroom, the President spoke to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who was at the White House. She recalled first telling the President it was a twin-engine aircraft-and then a commercial aircraft-that had struck the World Trade Center, adding "that's all we know right now, Mr. President." At the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney had just sat down for a meeting when his assistant told him to turn on his television because a plane had struck the NorthTower of the World Trade Center. The Vice President was wondering "How the hell could a plane hit the World Trade Center" when he saw the second aircraft strike the South Tower. Elsewhere in the White House, a series of 9:00 meetings was about to begin. In the absence of information that the crash was anything other than an accident, the White House staff monitored the news as they went ahead with their regular schedules.

Question: "Which federal government agencies knew that American 11 had been hijacked before it struck the World Trade Center and how did most of them find out what had happened?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "The FAA knew, but everyone else found out from CNN"

Response: yes

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.

Question: "Julia Child, Grande dame of cooking and husband Paul spent most of their lives in Boston. Child a native of Pasadena moved back to California and is living where?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "Assisted living complex"

Response:
no