A Whole Lot of Words

She will not perform with L.A. Philharmonic through Saturday.

Illness has forced pianist Viktoria Postnikova to withdraw from concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by her husband, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Thursday through Saturday. In place of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, Rozhdestvensky will substitute Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien” and the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s “Prince Igor.”

AP - It was almost the perfect ending for the Florida Panthers. In their first game since forward Richard Zednik had his neck cut by teammate Olli Jokinen’s skate in Buffalo on Sunday, the Panthers blew a third-period lead, were flat at the start of overtime and the Montreal Canadiens took advantage and earned a 2-1 victory on Wednesday night.

AP - Pat Knight is 901 wins from catching his old man. Nine days after succeeding his father as coach at Texas Tech, Knight got his first career win, an 84-75 victory over No. 18 Kansas State on Wednesday night.

AP - A state breakdown of ATV-related deaths

AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday the economy is deteriorating and signaled a readiness to keep on lowering a key interest rate to shore things up.

AP - The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it will distribute mobile homes to victims of last week’s tornadoes in Arkansas and Tennessee, despite a health warning about high formaldehyde levels in other trailers, officials said Thursday.

AP - A senior Justice Department official told Congress on Thursday that laws and other limits enacted since three terrorism suspects were waterboarded have eliminated the technique from what is now legally allowed.

AFP - Commerzbank, the second biggest German bank, reported a record full-year result for 2007 Thursday, though the group’s fourth quarter was hit by a heavy loss related to the US subprime market meltdown.

AP - The NCAA turned down Cincinnati quarterback Ben Mauk’s request for another season of eligibility, a major setback for the up-and-coming Big East team that finished with a No. 17 ranking.

Circuit City is opening two stores in Texas and Oregon on Thursday in a smaller format that is a key part of its turn-around plan.

The store, called ‘The City,’ is smaller and carries products in high-demand electronics categories. Including the latest openings, Circuit City has 16 of the newer stores up and running, and plans to open 50 to 60 in the fiscal year that begins next month.

The City stores are 20,000 square feet, compared with up to 33,000 square feet for a regular Circuit City. They are staffed with younger workers equipped with headsets and tablet-size PCs to assist customers.

Shelves (shown at right) rest on wheels so that product assortments can be re-arranged easily. Stools are plentiful so that guests can sit down and interact with computers and other products.

The Richmond, Virginia retailer says early sales and customer feedback have been positive. Circuit City has posted losses for the past year as store-level changes disrupted operations and competition intensified with rival Best Buy.

“Our brand needed refreshing,” Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover told a recent media briefing. “The way Circuit City can be different and better with that format is we can be superconvenient.”

(Photo: Circuit City)