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AND WE'RE PROUD TO HAVE YOU

What do Bill Gallo, Tony Bennett, and the late Frank Sinatra have in common? Yes, Sinatra and Bennett built legacies in the music business, but that's not the answer since Gallo is a newspaper cartoonist. The three were the only whites inducted last week into the new National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame. Among the 21 others: Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Wilma Rudolph, Arthur Ashe, Louis Armstrong and Dionne Warwick. But back to the whites: They were honored for helping to open doors of opportunity for blacks.

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MUCH APPRECIATED, THANKS

Asunción Franco Gonzalez is $25,000 richer today because he found $203,000 in cash. Huh? Well, the Mexican immigrant found the larger sum on a Los Angeles street after it fell from an armored truck, and, unaware that it was the object of a police search - or that there was a reward for its return - gave it back unopened. Said a police spokesman: "He's poor, but he's honest."

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First it was the state(s) most preferred by poll respondents if they didn't live where they do today. That distinction, cited in this space Aug. 24, went to Florida. Now come the results of the annual survey by pollsters for Harris Interactive on the cities most Americans would choose to live in - or at least near - if they could. And for the fourth time in five years the winner is New York. The Big Apple also emerged No. 1 last year, in 1999, and in 1997. The survey of 1,022 adults was taken between July 22 and 25. The top 10 cities and where they finished in the 2000 survey:

1. New York (1)

2. San Francisco (tie-6)

(tie) San Diego (5)

4. Seattle (3)

5. Denver (4)

(tie) Las Vegas (tie-6)

7. Chicago (tie-6)

(tie) Boston (9)

9. Atlanta (2)

10. Phoenix (10)

- PRNewswire