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• The former Formula One driver is vying for a Paralympic medal Wednesday in paracycling -- a hand cycle powered by the arms -- at the Brands Hatch race track, where he once raced cars. It's really incredible, when you realize the 45-year-old almost died in a horrific accident in a 2001 CART race in Germany.
• "For a brief moment I found myself thinking of all the things I've done," Zanardi said on his Twitter feed before leaving for the London Paralympics. "I'm a lucky boy!"
• His journey to the Paralympics began at the American Memorial 500 on Sept. 15, 2001, at the Eurospeedway Lausitz in Germany -- the only American-based series to go forward on the weekend after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
• Zanardi, a former two-time CART champion, had had a difficult season and started 22nd in a field of 27, but the car was responding well. He was enjoying the drive, passing one car after another, until with 13 laps to go he was in the lead.
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GOP spotlights Cuban-Americans while Democrats highlight Mexican-Americans at conventions
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Hispanics with the highest profiles in this year's political conventions, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, stand as opposites in a cultural and political split that has divided millions of U.S. Latinos for decades.
• Republicans chose Rubio, who is Cuban-American, to introduce Mitt Romney at the party's convention last week. Democrats, meeting this week in Charlotte, N.C., picked Castro, who is Mexican-American, as keynote speaker, the role that launched a young Barack Obama to national political prominence.
• Although they often are lumped together as Hispanics, Rubio and Castro are emblematic of acute political distinctions between Mexican-Americans, who are the largest Latino group in the U.S., and Cuban-Americans, who are the most politically active. Despite their shared language, these two constituencies have different histories in the United States and are subjected to distinctions in immigration policy that go easier on Cuban immigrants.
• "Historically, many Cuban-Americans for the last few decades have tended to be a little more conservative. So it's not surprising that you would see Sen. Rubio and the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, Ted Cruz, running as Republicans," Castro told The Associated Press. "And I don't begrudge them for that. I think the (Continued on page 34)
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