HONOLULU (AP) – Teenager Bethany Hamilton, an inspiration to many when she returned to surfing after losing her left arm to a shark, swapped “board stories” with Gov. Linda Lingle.

Lingle told the 14-year-old Hamilton on Friday she surfed for the first time in September.

“It was something I really enjoyed, something I’ve wanted to do for at least 25 years or so,” Lingle said.

The two spoke when Lingle thanked Hamilton for filming an anti-drug message for the state. The 30-second public-service announcement begins airing on local radio and television stations this week.

“I did this because I’m against drugs, and I think that’s a main problem in Hawaii that a lot of people get caught into,” Hamilton said.

She autographed a copy of her recently released autobiography, “Soul Surfer,” for the governor.

WINNETKA, Ill. (AP) – The house where newspaper columnist Mike Royko penned hard-edged articles on Chicago politics and life is being torn down by its owners.

The demolition began Thursday despite pleas from preservationists who say the California Craftsman home has historic value, The Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Officials of affluent Winnetka, north of Chicago, considered the house the best example of California Craftsman design in the village.

Designed by a local architect in 1906, the house was molded in the Craftsman style, which featured handcrafted wood detailing, wide eaves, low gables, built-in storage space and tiled fireplaces.

Ownership by Royko, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who died in 1997, added to the house’s significance, said David Bahlman of Landmark Preservation Council of Illinois.

“Not only are they destroying architecture of note, they are destroying history,” Bahlman said of the new owners, John and Catherine MacCarthy.

The MacCarthys, who bought the house from Royko’s wife, Judy, for $1.8 million earlier this year, plan to rebuild on the lot.

The MacCarthys did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) – Former President Ford said he often walked past a vacant lot where the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy will be housed when he was a student at the University Michigan in the 1930s.

Ford spoke to about 400 people gathered Friday at his alma mater for a groundbreaking ceremony for construction of the Joan and Sanford Weill Hall.

“When I came to the university in 1931, I brought a $100 check from a principal of a high school who wanted to make darn sure that I went to a school in Ann Arbor,” Ford said.

“I never would have thought when I plunked that $100 down 73 years ago that I’d be involved in a ceremony of this kind. … But strange things happen.”

The school’s Institute of Public Administration was renamed the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in 1999 in honor of Ford, the nation’s 38th president.

The school will be housed in an 80,000-square-foot facility with classrooms, a library, research centers, a computer laboratory, faculty offices and public space for conferences and lectures.

Construction on the building, which will serve as a gateway to the university’s central campus, is to be completed in August 2006.

Ford, a standout center on the football team, graduated from Michigan in 1935.

MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) – Entertainer Bill Cosby poked fun at Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in a performance at Northern Michigan University.

“Why are you people up here?” Cosby asked the crowd of more than 6,800 people Friday night at the Berry Events Center. “Didn’t you know there was nothing up here when you came to visit the campus?

“I called my wife before the show, and she asked what it was like up here, and I said, ‘I don’t know where I’m at.’ It’s an eight-hour drive from downtown.”

Marquette, with a population of about 20,000, is the Upper Peninsula’s largest city. Cosby’s routine included jokes about college life, relationships, and parents and children.

“I don’t care who you are or how much money you make, men, when you take your child to college, you will carry luggage up three flights of stairs while your wife and daughter pretend they’re looking at the architecture of the campus,” Cosby said.

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