Day Leads at The Masters;Mountain Lion Roams LA Suburb

At The Masters,the first of the four major golf tournaments of the year,Australian Jason Day topped the leader board with his second round six under par 68.Day,25,is twenty first on the PGA money list.He has three top ten finishes so far this year and came in second at the 2011 Masters.
Also of note on the venerable Augusta National course in Georgia,53-year old Fred Couples was tied for second place with another Aussie,Marc Leishman,and German Bernhard Langer,55,was in contention as well,leading the field in driving accuracy at 89.3%.Couples and Langer mostly play on the Champions Tour these days,the PGA's tour for older pros.
The top twelve:
Jason Day AUS -6
Marc Leishman AUS -5
Fred Couples USA -5
Jim Furyk USA -4
Brandt Snedeker USA -4
Angel Cabrera ARG -4
David Lynn ENG -3
Lee Westwood ENG -3
Justin Rose ENG -3
KJ Choi KOR -3
Tiger Woods USA -3
Bernhard Langer GER -2
A mountain lion prowled the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale,California Friday for several hours.The 120 pound big wildcat explored several residences,leaping over fences.No one was injured in the city of 191,719,which lies east of LA,adjacent to the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest.
Resident John Yankosky said he observed the mountain lion looking at him and his dog Max through his sliding glass door.
The same neighbourhood was recently visited by a black bear.
The mountain lion was subdued by Fish and Wildlife officers with three tranquilizer darts.It fell asleep on a patio,but they had to remove portions of decking to extract the healthy,tawny male.The neighbours watched as he was taken back to the mountains,where he was released.The lion was uninjured during the incident.
In rare instances,mountain lions have attacked and killed or injured people and pets in California.

Santa Anas Blast SoCal;McIlroy and Quiros Lead

The San Gabriel Valley was rocked by hurricane force Santa Ana winds this week in a rare event the likes of which are seen only once in 5-10 years.The tremendous gusts decimated the urban forests of Southern California as communities lost hundreds of treasured trees,losing power and even water in the process.Pasadena was particularly hard hit,with some 450 street trees being toppled by the winds.Homes were damaged in these lands along the San Gabriel Mountains,where gusts of up to 80 mph were recorded.
The fire risk was described as explosive by a weather service official.The Santa Anas are known for the catastrophic wildland fires they often contribute to in the region.
Rumors of European progress and positive manufacturing and employment trends protected the market this week.All major averages posted gains north of 7%.For the week,the S&P 500 rose 7.39.On the year,the S&P is still down 1.06,however.
The Race To Dubai,The European Tour,made its next to last stop at the Hong Kong Golf Club.After two rounds of the UBS Hong Kong Open,Alvaro Quiros of Spain and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy topped the leader board.Luke Donald of England led the series going into this weekend,followed by German Martin Kaymer and McIlroy in second and third place,respectively.
Next week will be back-loaded by an important Friday summit in Brussels on changes to the EU treaty for fiscal discipline.Other influential events will include the Institute for Supply Management's service sector report on Monday and a consumer sentiment reading also on Friday.The S&P futures were basically flat at -0.10 Friday evening,while bond index futures rose.