VICTORVILLE, Calif. — The Carnegie Mellon University-based Tartan Racing team walked away with a $2 million prize for coming in first in this year's Pentagon-sponsored robot race at a former Air Force base.

The team's robotic vehicle, "Boss," turned in the top performance as it navigated through the Urban Challenge course at the former George Air Force Base.

It and the 11 other finalist robots had to merge into moving traffic, navigate traffic circles and avoid obstacles without human intervention.

Stanford Racing's "Junior" of Stanford, Calif., won the $1 million second place prize, while Victor Tango's "Odin" of Blacksburg, Va., received $500,000 for finishing third.

MIDLAND — After more than four decades, two Midland High School basketball coaches who put it on the line for their black players have been honored for the unpopular moves they took in 1963.Beaver County's NAACP honored Hank Kuzma and Ed Olkowski for allowing five black basketball players to lead the Midland team to victory despite pressure to prevent the black teammates on the court together.The five black players were the team's best. They led the Leopards' to a 20-2 season in 1963 and a state championship two years later.President of Beaver County's NAACP, Willie Sallis, recalls playing on that team. He says the strong position taken by Kuzma and Olkowski made a difference in his life.

ERIE — In Erie, education is in the Palm of hundreds of students' hands.Quite literally.The Erie School District has distributed 500 Palm E2 hand-held computers to elementary and middle-school students in a new attempt to bring the digital era into the classroom.The Palms, along with the accompanying software and computer projectors, were paid for with a $196,000 state grant. The Palms will be used to receive assignments, research them and then send them back to the teacher — all with one device.Erie Superintendent Jim Barker says the district opted for the Palms over more powerful laptops because they were able to get more for their buck. The district bought five Palms for the price of one laptop.