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Police were investigating a pair of unrelated armed robberies that occurred early today in east Wichita.

Police arrested three teenage males in the robbery of a man in the 1200 block of South Governeour. A 22-year-old man reported that after he pulled into his driveway at about 2:40 a.m., two men approached, and one put a handgun to his chest and demanded that he give his wallet and cell phone, said police Sgt. Diane Varnell.

The suspects took a debit card to an ATM, and an officer spotted them and arrested them, Varnell said. Two of the men arrested are 17; one is 16.

In an earlier robbery, at 12:50 a.m., two women in their 20s reported that two men robbed them in an apartment complex parking lot in the 2300 block of North Woodlawn, Varnell said. One of the robbers held a gun.

Wichita police today pulled a woman's body from a pond a few feet from a home in the 8200 block of East Champions Street where a woman was recently reported missing.

Police have been searching for Reena Mullick, 49, who was reported missing from the area of Champions and Rock Road, south of East 45th Street North and Rock.

Police Sgt. Brad Agnew said neighbors walking past the pond noticed the body shortly after 2 p.m. and called 911. Fire and EMS crews arrived and pronounced the person dead.

Agnew said the body was about 6 feet from the shore when police arrived.

The coroner's office was going to identify the body and determine a cause of death, he said.

These area roads are closed or under repair. Dates of completion are estimated.
U.S. 81 (South Broadway) and 55th Street South. One-lane traffic each direction with no left turns, right lane on southbound Broadway during the daytime through mid September.

Kellogg-Rock Road interchange. Partial closures of mainline and frontage roads through spring 2010.

13th and Broadway. One lane each direction with no left turns allowed through Aug. 1.

29th Street North, Maize Road to 119th Street. Two-way traffic on south half of 29th Street North; project completion June 1.

Central and I-235. One lane each direction on Central. No left turns onto I-235 from Central. On northbound I-235 exit ramp only the left lane will be allowed to turn left onto Central through Oct. 31.

So far, 19 incumbents and eight others have filed to run for local seats in the Kansas Legislature.

This is not a complete list of who will be on the ballot. Candidates have until noon June 10 to file their paperwork with the Kansas Secretary of State's office.

STATE SENATE

DISTRICT 16

Republican

It was a sunny, beautiful Saturday, a little after 10 a.m. Two boys and two dogs were crossing a south Wichita railroad bridge, about 140 yards long.

The engineer on an approaching train spotted them and started braking and sounding the horn.

The boys, 14 and 15, noticed the danger and started fleeing down the tracks.

It's a high, hulking old bridge over the Arkansas River, south of Pawnee and east of Broadway.

As the 14-year-old fled, he stopped to pick up a little dog with a face like that of Toto in "The Wizard of Oz."

Police were investigating a pair of unrelated armed robberies early Saturday .

Police arrested three teenage boys in the robbery of a 22-year-old man in the 1200 block of South Governeour. The man reported that two men approached him in his driveway at about 2:40 a.m., and one put a handgun to his chest, said police Sgt. Diane Varnell.

In an earlier robbery, at 12:50 a.m., two women in their 20s reported that two men robbed them in a parking lot in the 2300 block of North Woodlawn, Varnell said.

Greensburg residents, grateful for the help they have received in the past year, need one more item, one of their pastors says.

The Care-N-Share thrift store and food pantry, the first new business building to be completed on Greensburg's main street since the May 4 tornado, needs shelving, said Marvin George, pastor of First Baptist Church and head of Kiowa County's ministerial alliance.

"We've had some shelving donated, but all we have has come in incomplete and unusable," George said. Anyone wanting to donate can call him on his cell phone, 620-338-2241.

Strickland Construction of Kansas City built the building, with help from other companies, George said.

-- Roy Wenzl

Pope Benedict XVI ended his first U.S. pilgrimage Sunday, completing a mission aimed at renovating and rebuilding the troubled Roman Catholic Church in the United States with moving appearances at two iconic sites, the crater where the World Trade Center once stood and Yankee Stadium.

By many accounts he succeeded -- by tackling consistently and directly the pedophilia crisis that has undermined the church in America, and by casting commitment to Catholic life in a vividly positive light rather than a recriminatory litany of prohibitions.

He lauded the integration of immigrants, spoke forcefully in defense of human rights and made a plea for Catholic unity to overcome painful differences.

"Today's celebration is more than an occasion of gratitude for graces received," he said at a packed Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. "It is also a summons to move forward with firm resolve to use wisely the blessings of freedom, in order to build a future of hope for coming generations."

In the most solemn moment of the six-day tour, Benedict prayed Sunday at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Benedict sprinkled holy water in each direction of the compass, blessing as hallowed ground the scarred land where nearly 3,000 people lost their lives.

COLUMBIA, S.C. --A high school senior collected enough supplies to carry out a bomb attack on his school and detailed the plot in a hate-filled diary that included maps of the building and admiring notations about the Columbine killers, authorities said Sunday.

Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal, said the town's police chief, Randall Lear.

The teen planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at Chesterfield High School, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Lear said.

Bush to attend talks with Canada, Mexico

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is tending to his country's relationship with Canada and Mexico one last time, trumpeting trade over the "scare tactics" of economic isolation.

Republican John McCain said Sunday that cutting taxes and stimulating the economy are more important than balancing the budget, and accused both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama of supporting tax hikes that would worsen the impact of a recession.

"The goal right now is to get the economy going again," the GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting said on ABC's "This Week," adding that he would put the country "on a path to a balanced budget" by attacking wasteful spending.

McCain conceded it was probably a mistake to seek and accept the endorsement of televangelist John Hagee, who has referred to the Roman Catholic Church as "the great whore" and called it a "false cult system."

The Arizona senator said he had condemned Hagee's remarks about Catholics, and said it was different than the way Obama has responded to questions about his own relationship with William Ayers, a 1960s-era radical who in an interview published on Sept. 11, 2001, said he didn't regret bombing government buildings.

"How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings which could have or did kill innocent people?" McCain asked, calling Ayers an "unrepentant terrorist."

Yes, it rained, and yes, the ground was slick and muddy, but no, it did not prevent thousands of people from coming to the National Mall on Sunday to join an estimated 1 billion people around the world who were participating in Earth Day celebrations to promote environmental awareness.

Despite downpours, the show went on for most of the day with singers and speakers under a huge tent as spectators under a sea of umbrellas hollered and hooted. The rain caused fits and starts; during one break in the program, some people headed to nearby museums for cover. And eventually, the weather did win out. Late in the afternoon the rest of the event was canceled, but not before the environmentally conscious had their say.

Events were also held in seven other U.S. cities, including New York and Miami, and in about 180 countries in what was billed as the largest campaign ever to promote action on global warming.

More events are planned today and Tuesday, the official Earth Day.

ASUNCION, Paraguay -- The ruling-party candidate in Paraguay's presidential election has conceded defeat, signaling the end of six decades of one-party rule and handing victory to former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo.

Blanca Ovelar, the candidate of the long-ruling Colorado Party, says Lugo has built an unassailable lead and that the outcome of Sunday's election is now "irreversible."

News of the Lugo win sent thousands of his euphoric supporters into the streets of Asuncion in a massive celebration. Lugo, dubbed the "bishop of the poor," has vowed to help Paraguay's poor and indigenous.

U.N. chief warns of need for food relief

ACCRA, Ghana -- The U.N. chief warned Sunday that the world must urgently increase food production to ease skyrocketing prices and pledged to set up a task force on a crisis threatening to destabilize developing nations.

The Democratic presidential race in Pennsylvania intensified Sunday as Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama traded jabs on the stump and over the broadcast airwaves.

Each campaign accused the other of distorting its candidate's positions in new TV ads launched in advance of Tuesday's Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary.

Clinton unleashed a 30-second commercial taking Obama to task for criticizing her health care plan. The ramped-up back-and-forth comes as polls show Clinton holding a narrow lead in the Keystone State. A McClatchy-MSNBC-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette poll released Sunday put Clinton ahead by 48-43 percent with 8 percent undecided.

"He couldn't answer tough questions in the debate. So Barack Obama is making false charges against Hillary's health care plan," a voiceover says in the ad. "There are more and more questions about Barack Obama. Instead of attacking, maybe he should answer them."

Obama's camp released a 30-second ad of its own, blasting Clinton's claim that Obama is misleading voters when he says he doesn't take campaign contributions from special interest groups.

When the Power and Light District opened here last year, the developers of the upscale eating, drinking and entertainment venue had a vision: Make the several-block downtown area a place where all establishments would be smoke-free.

Now, the whole city has followed suit.

Like a growing number of cities and states throughout the country, this fast-changing city known for gritty jazz and tangy barbecue has outlawed smoking in restaurants and bars. The ban, which will begin within two months, comes after residents voted 52 percent to 48 percent on April 8 in favor of the ordinance.

The smoking ban places Kansas City, which has in recent years put on the full-court press to become a top tourism destination in the Heartland, in company with other big Midwest cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha and Indianapolis.

And just up I-35, the Iowa Legislature this month voted the same way Kansas City residents did: to make Iowa, including the capital city, Des Moines, smoke-free by this summer. (The vote makes Iowa the 24th state to pass a smoke-free law that includes restaurants and bars. In January, Illinois' statewide ban went into effect.)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to pay a million dollars for fake meat -- even if it has caused a "near civil war" within the organization.

The organization said it would announce plans today for a $1 million prize to the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012."

The idea of getting the next Chicken McNugget out of a test tube is not new. For several years, scientists have worked to develop technologies to grow tissue cultures that could be consumed like meat without the expense of land or feed and the disease potential of real meat.

A founder of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, said she had been hoping to get the organization involved in advancing in vitro meat technology for at least a decade.

But, Newkirk said, the decision to sponsor a prize caused "a near civil war in our office," since so many PETA members are repulsed by the thought of eating animal tissue, even if no animals are killed.

A couple have decided to give away their home to the winner of an essay contest. The catch: It costs $100 to enter, and the home will go only if at least 2,500 people sign up.

The state Gaming Control Board is examining whether Tiffany and Todd Lovell's contest qualifies as a raffle, which would make it illegal under state law, or a game of skill, which is allowed, said Greg Saunders, the board's deputy director.

"We haven't made that determination yet," he said.

The Lovells said the depressed housing market led them to try to move their 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bathroom home through the essay contest. They are hoping to get at least 2,500 entries, which would net them $250,000. If they receive fewer than 2,500 entries, they said they would cancel the contest and return the entry fees.

A dog that ran off during a road-trip rest stop apparently made her way nearly 80 miles across Nevada's high desert and two mountain ranges to return home a week later.

Moon, a Siberian husky, was reunited April 14 with owner Doug Dashiell, who had last seen her April 6 near Railroad Valley, about 77 miles from his home in Ely.

Moon, who is nearly 2 years old, was no worse for the wear, with the exception of stinking like a skunk that apparently sprayed her somewhere along the journey.

"I've had trouble with her running away before. She's always come home," Dashiell said. But he didn't expect her to show up after a week had passed.

"After seven days -- no way," he told the Ely Times.

At a rollicking youth rally on the campus of St. Joseph Seminary, and at events throughout the week in Washington and New York, Pope Benedict XVI has encountered young people who have read his encyclicals -- and others more interested in the cool factor of getting to see the pope.

The pope was welcomed to chants of "Viva Papa!" at Saturday's rally, but American youths don't always embrace their faith so easily.

Only 14 percent of Catholics between 20 and 40 attend Mass at least weekly, according to a study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostate at Georgetown University.

Yet evidence also suggests a blooming of youth Catholic orthodoxy. Tradition-minded private Catholic schools like Christendom College in Virginia and Ave Maria University in Florida boast small enrollments but are growing in stature. Also growing are women's religious orders in which sisters wear habits and perform traditional roles like teaching.

These young, devout Catholics share an appreciation for orthodox theology, self-sacrifice and fidelity to church teaching.

A Platte County judge has ruled that the graves of homestead pioneers scattered across Kansas City International Airport property will stay where they are.

The decision stops a city-backed plan to relocate the numerous 1800s-era cemeteries to make way for economic development.

In a ruling issued late last week, Circuit Court Judge Abe Shafer said the city had "failed to demonstrate good cause for the disinterment and movement of the individual remains," adding that the city didn't provide evidence showing the public would benefit from moving the graves.

Shirley Kimsey, a local historian whose family is buried in one of the cemeteries, welcomed the decision.

"Once a cemetery is established, it's supposed to stay where it is forever," Kimsey said. "I was quite sure that the judge was going to do the right thing."

Randy Nevil, a Goddard businessman who runs an apparel factory in Haiti, says the current unrest there defies any monetary solution.

Nevil said rising food costs sparked unrest that ignited April 7 in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

In the short term, Haiti needs nonperishable food, but in the long term, it needs business investment and jobs.

Maybe that's something we can help with. But more on that in a minute.

"I first noticed signs of problems in the streets when I made the trip from the factory to the apartment on Monday," Nevil said via an e-mail conversation last week. "You could see rocks in the streets used as barricades and lots of burned tires."

Q. My sister-in-law is apartment hunting, and she's been told that every time a landlord, or anyone else, submits a credit check, her credit score is automatically lowered by the credit rating agencies. Is that true?

A Not exactly.

"Typically, those inquiries are a very small part of a credit rating. In many cases, they're ignored completely or have zero impact," said Craig Watts, spokesman for the Fair Isaac Corp., which created the FICO credit score system more than 25 years ago.

A FICO score, which is the most commonly used credit scoring system in the country, is based on five categories. The biggest factor affecting your score is your payment history: how promptly you pay and how often you've been delinquent on monthly payments.

Credit report inquiries from a landlord, if they're counted at all, would be less than five points on a person's score, according to Watts.

Boeing Co.' s push to overturn the Air Force decision to award an Airbus consortium the lucrative aerial tankers contract rests on convincing Guy Pietrovito.

Pietrovito, 54, a deputy assistant general counsel at the Government Accountability Office, is responsible for weighing Boeing's appeal of the Air Force tanker award.

The GAO -- which has approximately 30 attorneys working on contractor protests -- typically assigns one attorney for each case. The GAO's protest docket lists Pietrovito as the lead attorney on the Boeing appeal.

The Air Force in February chose a team of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. --the parent company of Airbus -- and Northrop Grumman to build the new refueling tankers. The initial program is valued at around $35 billion but could grow to $100 billion if the Air Force places additional orders.

The GAO is scheduled to render its verdict in the tanker case by mid-June.

Marty Banuelos has a lot on his plate, perhaps literally and figuratively. Banuelos has been working on a WaterWalk restaurant deal for a while and has worked in other markets prior to that. He now has a couple of deals in the works and a couple on his wish list -- ones that coincidentally match a lot of other people's wish lists.

First, Banuelos has plans to bring seven Chix franchises to Wichita. Chix is similar to Scooter's in that it's a small, drive-through business, except instead of selling coffee it sells chicken.

Banuelos says the chicken is served fresh in three minutes after being double-dipped in buttermilk.

He already has some locations picked out, though he's not sharing details because he's still doing demographic studies on other potential areas.

Banuelos knows exactly where he wants to locate the other three business concepts he's exploring.

An open date awaits the Royals today back in Kansas City. Good thing. They can use the day off to lick their wounds from an abysmal weekend in the picturesque East Bay.

Oakland completed a three-game sweep Sunday afternoon with a 7-1 victory primarily because just-returned Luke Hochevar couldn't put the brakes on a five-run fourth inning. All five runs scored with two outs.

The Royals have lost four straight and eight of 11. They come limping home with a losing record (9-10), after completing a 2-5 road trip that included 1-1 splits in Seattle and Los Angeles before this three-game flop at McAfee Coliseum.

So, yes, the open date comes at a good time before Cleveland and Toronto come to Kauffman Stadium for three-game series.

"There's not a guy in here happy about the way we finished this road trip," manager Trey Hillman said. "We've just got to regroup, have a good homestand and get our rear ends back above .500."

So this is what happens to the Royals when Zack Greinke, like Brian Bannister, isn't in top form.

Other flaws get exposed and, right now, the Royals don't have enough to overcome them.

The Royals blew a four-run lead Saturday in a depressing 6-5 loss to the Oakland A's at McAfee Coliseum. They are back to .500 for the first time since winning their season opener after suffering a third straight loss and falling to 9-9.

"We just kind of fell flat there," second baseman Mark Grudzielanek said. "When you get a team against the ropes, you've got to keep putting it on and keep having quality at-bats. We fell off in that in the middle innings.

"That gave them a chance to get back in the game."

ESU batting: Crumbliss 1-3, Majors 1-2, Shortell 1-3, Hernandez 2-2, Dreiling 2-3, Wempe 0-2, Lane 0-3, Marasco 1-3, Anderson 1-2.

ESU pitching: Applehans 5-1, Waggoner 2-0.

ESU 15, NW Missouri 6

As Kansas State's head track and field coach, Cliff Rovelto's plate is plenty full.

But that hasn't kept the man recognized around the world as the guru of high jumping from piling on more by tutoring some of the nation's top post-college athletes in Manhattan. Particularly when the call came last fall from a raw but talented high jumper.

"I had a lot to learn," said Jim Dilling after going 7 feet, 4 ½ inches Saturday to win at the Kansas Relays.

Considering he cleared only 5-10 in his first college meet, he has come a long way on his own.

A four-time NCAA Division II champ at Minnesota State-Mankato, Dilling popped out of nowhere to win last summer's 2007 U.S. Outdoor at 7-5 ¼. The next two places were taken by Jamie Nieto and Jesse Williams, two of the nation's best jumpers who are also trained by Rovelto in Manhattan.

KU batting: Larson 1-4, Price 1-5, Allman 2-5, Afenir 2-3, Price 1-4, Morrison 2-5, Land 2-4, Thompson 0-3, Faunce 1-4.

KU pitching: Esquibel 5 2/3-6, Hkall 1 2/3-1, Smyth 2/3-0.

Kansas State 7, Texas Tech 4

The backup kicker saved the evening from being a disaster.

Up until Josh Cherry's 51-yard field goal with 12:43 to go in the final quarter of Kansas State's spring football game on Saturday, there was nothing.

No touchdowns. No field goals. No points. No noteworthy plays -- none positive, at least.

Cherry, kicking for the White team, provided the only points in the 3-0 win for the Dave Brock-coached squad, which earned steak dinners for the effort. The Purple team's consolation prize was bologna sandwiches.

Cherry played mostly as kickoff specialist as a freshman last season, serving as the backup place kicker to Brooks Rossman. Earlier in Saturday's game, he missed a field goal from 51 yards.

Even after free agency became a vehicle for player acquisition, Lamar Hunt never lost his enthusiasm for the college draft. He, more than anyone, eagerly anticipated the Chiefs' annual rookie haul.

His son Clark, now the Chiefs' chairman, may not be as outwardly enthusiastic, but he does understand the draft's importance. The Chiefs are placing an emphasis on the draft like no time in recent years, at least partly by Hunt's direction.

That, Hunt said, is not a one-time thing because the Chiefs have the fifth pick in this weekend's draft or 10 choices in the seven rounds, the most they've had in years.

This, with the intermittent exception, is how the Chiefs will do business from now on.

"We're going to be very focused every year on the draft as the key tool that we build this team with," Hunt said. "Certainly there will be an occasional year where we might sign a free agent who the public considers to be a marquee player. That's how it will shake out. I don't want to say we're never going to sign a player that has name recognition, because that's not true.

In $60,000 worth of boat, motor and gear, John Jamison raced across the water, eyes fixed on state-of-the art GPS and sonar equipment as he looked for the perfect place to fish.

"There's a misconception catfishermen are bib-overall-and-straw-hat guys," said Jamison, of Spring Hill. "Most of the guys I fish against are driving $50,000 boats and might be doctors and lawyers. It's become quite the sport."

And Jamison has enjoyed quite the success.

Within the last 13 months he's won three boats at catfishing tournaments.

He has many corporate sponsors who furnish everything from packets of hooks to boats and tournament expenses.

Hunting

Below is the basic listing of hunting seasons. Please check regulations for boundary, limits and permit requirements at www.kdwp.state.ks.us.

Open year-round -- Rabbit/hare season.

Through May 31 -- Spring turkey season.

Sept. 13-21 -- Youth/Disabled deer season.

Long-billed curlews are easily recognized by their eight-inch bills.

The 14-inch birds use the oversized bills to probe deep within sandy areas on their coastal wintering grounds and during their migrational stops at wetlands.

The birds are sometimes seen during spring migrations at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira wetland areas in central Kansas.

Surprisingly, the birds do their nesting in short grass prairie of the high plains, often miles from a true wetland.

Kansas' only recorded nesting curlews have been in the extreme southwest corner of the state.

This table lists top fishing times and days for the coming week. For best results, begin fishing one hour before and continue one hour after the times given. Times apply to all time zones (bold indicates best days).

Kansas Wildlife and Parks Commissioners have given tentative approval to reversing some upland game bird season changes made in 2005.

The action came during Thursday's meeting. Commissioners will officially vote on the upland season dates at a meeting June 26 in North Newton.

The current proposal calls for the 2008 pheasant season to run from Nov. 2 to Jan. 31 and quail Nov. 9 to Jan. 31.

Both seasons should run the second Saturday of November through Jan. 31 starting in 2009.

In 2005, commissioners voted to begin pheasant season earlier and close quail season earlier than had been done in decades. The public strongly opposed the changes.

Habitat loss from annual burning and intensive grazing has also affected these tallgrass songbirds in Kansas.

Numbers come from spring-breeding bird counts over the past 40 years.

Kansas has long been a stronghold for two of four original species of American prairie chickens.

• Greater prairie chickens:

For most of the 20th century it was said the Flint Hills held more of these than all states combined.

Loss of habitat has greatly reduced the Flint Hills population but numbers have grown substantially in the Smoky Hills of north-central Kansas over the past 30 years.

• Lesser prairie chickens: The Dust Bowl drought almost forced these birds into extinction across a range that includes Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

Her name is Amanda, and she is me. She's 17, snarky and obsessed with punctuation, gray screens, font size and becoming the editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper.

She's the star of "The Paper," the most awesome MTV reality show since "The Hills."

It debuted last week (you can still watch the premiere episode on mtv.com), and a new episode will air at 9:30 p.m. Monday, right after "The Hills."

The show follows a high school newspaper staff at Cyprus Bay High School, a giant high school in Weston, Fla.

The newspaper staff is made up of 60 kids, all of whom seem to be motivated, inspired and fantasizing about fabulous careers in journalism.

While a strapless gown is still classic for the stylish bride, this is the year of new up-top options -- from halters and spaghetti straps to short, sassy cap sleeves and even elegant full-length ones. That means support, shoulder coverage and a precious sense of security are suddenly chic.

"A lot of customers say they don't want a strapless gown," said Linda Shaps-Shanin, a vice president at David's Bridal. "Whether it's for religious reasons, or to have their shoulders covered, or they're afraid of lifting it up constantly, they want to feel comfortable that it's not going to fall down."

You may now kiss the bridal industry.

They finally get it -- and now they've got oodles of cool alternative necklines.

Here's how to pull it all together, with the year's hottest wedding-fashion trends:

Prom season. Don't you love to see the young couples all dressed up and going out to dinner? It's fun. And not so fun. After all these years since we went to our own proms, there's been time for a whole new perspective.

As my husband and I were having dinner at a very nice restaurant last week in Charleston, S.C., we could hardly concentrate on our own meals because we were watching the table of prom-goers next to us.

It made me crazy. Two of the three girls had on very expensive dresses; one did not. Two were obviously close friends; one was not. Two were very pretty blondes with shellacked hairdos; one, not so pretty, with drooping curls.

The blondes were with handsome guys in nice-looking tuxedoes; the unblonde was with a huge guy who was surely a football player. He had opted for an all-white tuxedo. He looked like an ice cream man who sampled the goods regularly.

No one at the table talked to the brown-haired girl in the inexpensive dress. No, not even her date.

Since I started slimming down salad dressings, lots of readers have written to me about their favorites in hopes that I could lighten those up, too.

Today, I'm tackling Carrabba's Creamy Parmesan Dressing, Panera Bread's Greek dressing and Panera's popular Raspberry Vinaigrette.

Substituting light mayonnaise for the real thing in Carrabba's Creamy Parmesan Dressing helped me trim the calories by 43 percent and the fat by 52 percent.

Drizzle two tablespoons of Lighter Creamy Parmesan Dressing onto your salad for just 65 calories and 5.6 grams of fat.

Extra vinegar and less oil help lighten up Panera's Greek Dressing. According to a "Panera Bread Cookbook" recipe, my version cuts the calories by 32 percent and the fat by 29 percent. But the numbers on Panera's Web site say that its Greek Dressing is a little healthier than the cookbook suggests. Using those statistics, I shaved off 16 percent of the calories and 11 percent of the fat.