Whatever happened to Lynice Weeks of TMJ 4 and Aaron Brown of CNN?
Weeks died on July 28 after waging a long battle with kidney problems.She came to Milwaukee's WTMJ (Channel 4) in 1993 as a general assignment reporter. She became the station's first consumer reporter within six months and held the position until her untimely death.
She was 41.
Brown left CNN in early November. He and Anderson Cooper co-hosted "NewsNight," which aired nightly at 10 p.m. CNN decided Cooper could stand on his own, booted Brown and renamed the program "Anderson Cooper 360."
Friday, March 3, 2006
Priorities - I'll let Aaron take front and center tonight.
Former anchor questions TV news priorities
By CHRIS CONRADMail Tribune
Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown had an epiphany following his network’s saturation coverage of the 2001 murder of actor Robert Blake’s wife.
The crowd that packed SOU’s Rogue River Room Wednesday night listened as Brown recalled shuffling home at 3 a.m. after a four- hour tour of duty reporting in excruciating detail a low-level celebrity shooting on the day four Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan. His wife was waiting up for him with only one question: Why?
"I am sure there were other things we could’ve reported that night," Brown said.
And so began his lecture titled "Is TV news fulfilling its promise?" Brown served as the keynote speaker for this year’s Thomas W. Pyle First Amendment Forum.
Brown, who described cable news anchors as "highly paid piece(s) of meat," began his TV career as a reporter and anchor at KING-TV News in Seattle. In December 1991, he joined ABC news to anchor "World News Now," the network’s overnight newscast. In 1993 he joined "ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings." In the summer of 2001 he was hired by CNN to launch "NewsNight with Aaron Brown." He has received several journalism awards, including an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks.
He suggested his eventual demise at CNN resulted from criticizing the network’s obsession with lurid celebrity gossip while short-changing meaningful news.
He compared such "breaking news" to heroin — it’s good for a while, but will eventually make you feel used and dirty.
"The news in this country is a business," he added. "You might not like to think of it that way, but it is."
He admitted that cable news reporters and editors have failed viewers by not telling stories that are important, that truly matter.
"Cable indulges too often in what amounts to mud wrestling — just two people shouting at each other," he said.
However, he didn’t let the casual TV viewer off easily. Because the news is a business, he argued, it is only giving consumers what they want.
"In the perfect democracy that I believe TV news is, it’s not enough to say you want serious news, you have to watch it," he said.
He likened a typical TV night for Americans as a political act where consumers vote with their remote controls.
According to Brown, CNN spent a fortune covering the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. After two weeks, he said, ratings fell to normal levels. The Fox news channel channeled their dollars into a story about American teenager Natalee Holloway disappearing in Aruba. Fox, of course, cleaned up in ratings and revenue.
Brown offered one remedy for fixing the news. He argued that during any given day there are only between 6 and 10 stories worth reporting.
"We should focus on reporting these really important stories well instead of constant breaking news," he said.
The Thomas W. Pyle First Amendment Forum is produced by SOU’s Department of Communication. The Forum is presented through a grant from The Ashland Daily Tidings, with support from the SOU School of Arts and Letters.
Reach reporter Chris Conrad at 776-4471, or e-mail
By CHRIS CONRADMail Tribune
Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown had an epiphany following his network’s saturation coverage of the 2001 murder of actor Robert Blake’s wife.
The crowd that packed SOU’s Rogue River Room Wednesday night listened as Brown recalled shuffling home at 3 a.m. after a four- hour tour of duty reporting in excruciating detail a low-level celebrity shooting on the day four Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan. His wife was waiting up for him with only one question: Why?
"I am sure there were other things we could’ve reported that night," Brown said.
And so began his lecture titled "Is TV news fulfilling its promise?" Brown served as the keynote speaker for this year’s Thomas W. Pyle First Amendment Forum.
Brown, who described cable news anchors as "highly paid piece(s) of meat," began his TV career as a reporter and anchor at KING-TV News in Seattle. In December 1991, he joined ABC news to anchor "World News Now," the network’s overnight newscast. In 1993 he joined "ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings." In the summer of 2001 he was hired by CNN to launch "NewsNight with Aaron Brown." He has received several journalism awards, including an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks.
He suggested his eventual demise at CNN resulted from criticizing the network’s obsession with lurid celebrity gossip while short-changing meaningful news.
He compared such "breaking news" to heroin — it’s good for a while, but will eventually make you feel used and dirty.
"The news in this country is a business," he added. "You might not like to think of it that way, but it is."
He admitted that cable news reporters and editors have failed viewers by not telling stories that are important, that truly matter.
"Cable indulges too often in what amounts to mud wrestling — just two people shouting at each other," he said.
However, he didn’t let the casual TV viewer off easily. Because the news is a business, he argued, it is only giving consumers what they want.
"In the perfect democracy that I believe TV news is, it’s not enough to say you want serious news, you have to watch it," he said.
He likened a typical TV night for Americans as a political act where consumers vote with their remote controls.
According to Brown, CNN spent a fortune covering the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. After two weeks, he said, ratings fell to normal levels. The Fox news channel channeled their dollars into a story about American teenager Natalee Holloway disappearing in Aruba. Fox, of course, cleaned up in ratings and revenue.
Brown offered one remedy for fixing the news. He argued that during any given day there are only between 6 and 10 stories worth reporting.
"We should focus on reporting these really important stories well instead of constant breaking news," he said.
The Thomas W. Pyle First Amendment Forum is produced by SOU’s Department of Communication. The Forum is presented through a grant from The Ashland Daily Tidings, with support from the SOU School of Arts and Letters.
Reach reporter Chris Conrad at 776-4471, or e-mail
0950
Anderson is in Southern California? How do you know? There is nothing that says California to me.
1000
Susan Candiotti
"A Fugitive Father" - The Perkins. How nice. Man, oh, man, being 'on the lamb' just ain't the same since TV.
I worry about Patrick. He's a good guy, you know. As an authority he has a team but let's face it there aren't many people supporting his efforts except people who really want a secure nation even if that means impeachment.
Affidavit gives few hints to CIA name leaker
Filing suggests official other than Libby discussed Plame to reporters
By Joel Seidman
NBC News Producer
Updated: 5:15 p.m. ET March 2, 2006
WASHINGTON - In a filing Thursday at U.S. District Court in the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby CIA/Leak case, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald -- in a 19-page affidavit -- offered few clues about the identity of the official or officials involved in the leak of former CIA employee, Valerie Wilson Plame's name to reporters, other than Libby himself.
Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted last year on charges that he lied about how he learned Plame’s identity and when he told reporters.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11640658/
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commercials
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Runaway Cars Tagged to Stop Chases
Feb. 3, 2005 — A paintball-like technology could end car chases in Los Angeles, and maybe across the country, if a system being tested in Southern California delivers what the company that makes it promises.
The Los Angeles Police Department is testing a new secret weapon to halt high-speed pursuits: smart darts.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1576247
10 Best Car Chases
IGN Cars honors some of the most exciting and technically well-executed car chase sequences ever.
by Steven Horn
March 11, 2003 - What do we love so much about car chases? Could it be that each one basically ends in a car crash? Or perhaps it's that they provide a welcome break from all that "talking" and "plot" nonsense. Whatever the reason, we here at IGN Cars are pretty much all in agreement that they put the sweetness in the cinematic honeypot.
We've been spending the past couple of days buried knee-deep in our DVD collection pulling out some of the greatest car chases of all time. Within a couple of hours, it became clear that picking just 10 was going to be problematic. In fact, before this article was even finished, debates were raging. Why wasn't "Blah Blah" included? Or, Why did you pick this one over that one, etc etc. We're sure you'll have some opinions too so read on to the end for an easy way to voice them.
http://cars.ign.com/articles/388/388628p1.html
THE GREATEST CHASE OF ALL
An inside look at how they filmed BULLITT, the granddaddy of car pursuit movies.
http://www.hottr6.com/triumph/BULLITT.html
Good job, Rick. Good sport for trying it. Don't try this at home.
1021
FILM REVIEW; Drugs, Guns, Car Chases And a Chemist in a Kilt
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: October 18, 2002
The United States and England may, as George Bernard Shaw observed, be divided by a common language, but if ''Formula 51'' is any indication, they are joined by a shared taste for an especially versatile expletive. It cannot, of course, be printed here, but the word and its variants account, by my conservative estimate, for about two-thirds of the dialogue in this new movie by Ronny Yu. If it were edited down to a PG-rated version, the picture would be about 10 minutes long, but not otherwise improved, since it is a witless, gruesome barrage of jokey violence and lame trans-Atlantic humor, kept moving by the pointless, derivative kineticism of Mr. Yu's hyperactive cuts and splices.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E6DA153DF93BA25753C1A9649C8B63
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Police killed in the line of duty dealing with cars.
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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System-
Date: 02 Mar 2006
Title: Survival depends on action taken at local level
By Shaun Benton
Cape Town - More than 600 delegates from local governments all over the world - from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe - have gathered for a conference in Cape Town dealing with a wide array of questions relating to environmental sustainability.
Titled, 'Out of Africa: Local Solutions for Global Challenges', the conference is stretched over the whole week but was put on hold yesterday to give South African delegates a chance to participate in the country's local government elections.
It's the first time the Canada and Germany-based ICLEI - now called Local Governments for Sustainability - is holding a conference in the southern hemisphere. Its previous conference was held in Athens in 2003.
Delivering a keynote speech to the conference on Monday, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said local governments were now assuming more responsibility - in the second decade since the groundbreaking Rio Earth Summit of 2002 - for delivering progress towards a more sustainable world order.
When the World Summit on Sustainable Development hosted by South Africa in 2002 placed the needs of people, particularly the poor, at the centre of the sustainable development equation, this signaled a shift in pressure for delivery on a global level towards local government.
Tying in with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of halving extreme poverty and its associated ills by 2015, it became clear that the move from strategy to action required the involvement of key actors at the frontline of delivery, namely those at a local level.
http://www.buanews.gov.za/view.php?ID=06030213151001&coll=buanew06
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"Children make their own way in life. Parents can't always protect them." Rashed Williams was a Columbine Hero status. Pressure to 'be good' caused a lot of conflict growing up. His escape marijuana. His answer to obtaining it was assault on a household. Dropped out of high school and became a repeated criminal. Very possibly, "Post Traumatic Disorder" leading to living with violence. The homeowner was reacting to the status of owning more marijuana than he was permitted to have under any medical marijuana law. Guns and drugs go together when the actions of the 'grower' is covert to the laws. No, doubt when Rashed was shot it was more like a drug dealer vs. drug dealer issue and resulted in violence. The marijuana grower hadn't anticipated a quasi celebrity.
Wonder rescue at Halemba mine
• Thursday, Mar 2, 2006
Rescuers on Monday saved a miner who had been trapped for five days about 1,000 metres underground in the Halemba coal mine in southern Poland.
Zbigniew Nowak, 30, has been hospitalised in the town of Sosnowiec for tests and treatment for dehydration.
According to Lech Krawczyk of St Barbara's hospital, the tests confirmed that the condition of the rescued miner was satisfactory.
Nowak spent over 111 hours under earth. When he was dug out he was happy he could celebrate his wife's birthday.
But his wife celebrated the birthday last Thursday.
Bogusaw Wypycha who headed the rescue operation said that the trapped miner survived because he was lying next to a broken pipe that was providing fresh air underground.
Nowak crawled towards the rescue team when he saw people that have been approaching him.
He asked first for some water and an apple. The rescuers did not tell him how long had he been trapped in order not to shock him.
http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=03/02/2006&qrTitle=Wonder%20rescue%20at%20Halemba%20mine&qrColumn=FOREIGN
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About 'the law' … and murder …
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Commercials
THIS IS ABOUT STEEL Tubes and not Aluminum Tubes. Hm.
Carlyle Group to buy N.J. steel tube maker
By Joseph N. DiStefano
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Carlyle Group, the $33 billion multinational investment company based in Washington, D.C., has agreed to buy a controlling stake in pipe manufacturer John Maneely Co., of Collingswood.
Carlyle has pledged to pay around $500 million to buy out a majority of the 18 shareholders. Members of the Dooner, Boylan and O'Donnell families, they are descendants of John Maneely, who founded the company in 1877.
Maneely president Peter S. Dooner III will continue to run the company, and his brother, Thomas Dooner, will remain a vice president. Both will be minority shareholders, said Daniel A. Pryor, the Carlyle managing director who handled the sale.
"We're betting on them. They're good guys, doing a good job. They doubled sales in the last five years, and we think they can keep doing better," Pryor added. Maneely has yearly sales of over $700 million. The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.
The U.S. pipe manufacturing industry has been consolidating, partly as a result of the growing Chinese economy, Pryor said. Backed by Carlyle, Maneely may acquire other pipe companies, he added.
In a statement, Peter Dooner called Carlyle "an excellent partner" thanks to its "global resources and industrial expertise." Carlyle is a major investor in factories in India, China and other fast-growing foreign markets, as well as the United States.
Maneely and its subsidiaries, Wheatland Tube Co. and Seminole Tubular Products Co., employ a total of 1,700 people at plants in Sharon and Wheatland, Pa.; Warren and Cambridge, Ohio; Chicago; Little Rock, Ark.; and Houston. There are no plans to change operations, Pryor said.
Maneely officials were not immediately available for comment on why the owners are selling now, after 128 years as a family-owned company. Pryor said tax considerations were a factor.
With "unprecedented" investment capital available to large and successful private firms such as Carlyle, "valuations are higher than they've been in several years," and many family-owned businesses see it as a good opportunity to sell, said Michael S. Goodman, a director at SSG Capital Advisors L.P., in Conshohocken.
Carlyle is one of a handful of large firms that dominate the buyout business. The firm has invested in more than 400 companies, including those involved in the defense (United Defense Industries) and consumer (Hertz) sectors.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/breaking_news/14000252.htm
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WASN'T Fort Lauderdale hit by a big storm recently?
Carlyle Group Unit Grabs Florida Apartment Property for $100M despite Title Insurance Issues
March 02, 2006
By Colleen Corley, News Writer
An affiliate of The Carlyle Group has purchased a high-rise apartment building in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for $102 million. American Land Ventures originally built the 409-unit luxury New River Phase II apartment building as part of a 10-acre development in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
But Fort Lauderdale's white hot condominium market prompted the company to sell to The Carlyle Group affiliate, which will sell the apartments as condominium units instead, explained Marty Schwartz, a partner with law firm Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod L.L.P.
Along with associate Javier Granda, Schwartz represented American Land Ventures in the title insurance process. The first title company backed out of insuring New River Phase II because construction had not yet been completed, Schwartz told CPN this afternoon. "There was a possibility that there could be construction liens that could be used against (American Land Ventures)," he said about the building being sold before completion.
Whether the title insurance company's hesitancy had to do with a fizzling Fort Lauderdale condo market, however, was unclear. American Land Ventures did not return calls for comment. The Carlyle Group selected a second title company to insure the transaction and a third to insure the purchases of the individual condo units. Another title company served as the escrow agent as well. All in all, Schwartz worked with four title companies to insure the project, which also includes 24,000 square feet of retail space.
"It's a prime piece of property and there's been a lot of activity. This is not a usual problem," he noted. Though a sale-before-completion transaction was unusual a few years ago, the flourishing Fort Lauderdale market has changed all that. Schwartz pointed out that he and Granda have also worked on two similar transactions. "As far as we can tell it is still a strong market," he added.
http://www.cpnonline.com/cpn/specialties/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002115124
Sanjay on FAT .
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The News Secretary.
Cracking Down On Halliburton
Good news from the Senate. Byron Dorgan and 25 others introduced a bill Thursday to clean up the business of government contracting. It takes its inspiration from the problems with Iraq and Katrina contractors, but applies to all contracting.
According to Dorgan's office, the bill would put "tough new penalties in place for war profiteers, eliminating conflicts of interest, insisting on transparency and putting an end to cronyism in key government appointments relating to federal contracting and public safety.”
To Charlie Cray, director of the Center for Corporate Policy, who wrote Grand Theft Baghdad for TomPaine.com about Iraq's bungled contracting, the legislation is much like what he's been calling for. Cray released this response praising the Dorgan bill:
The Center for Corporate Policy applauded Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and other Senate Democracts today for introducing the "Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act of 2006" , which would crack down on cronyism, corruption and war profiteering associated with federal contracting.
Federal contracting is a key chapter in the ongoing saga of corruption that starts on K Street and ends up undermining democracy at home and abroad. The abuse of U.S. taxpayers’ and Iraqi oil revenues witnessed in recent years has undermined the Iraq reconstruction project and put American troops at risk.
Their an analysis of the bill is here:http://www.corporatepolicy.org/issues/ACA2006.htm
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/02/cracking_down_on_halliburton.php
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Halliburton's gain
Once again, there is a total lack of regard by the administration for the taxpayers. According to a Feb. 27 item, the Army is reimbursing a Halliburton subsidiary for costs of $263 million on a "disputed $2.41 billion no-bid contract." While the Army admits there were "questionable business practices" that had "driven up costs," the reason for paying the firm was that "in the haste and peril of war, it had done as well as could be expected." What an excuse!
The amount being spent in Iraq is certainly troubling, especially when one considers the needs in this country. But the issue is only aggravated by revelations such as this one. Maybe we should ignore Enron's "questionable business practices." After all, we would just be following the example the Army has set in this case.
But then, we are in a war. But then, it is only the taxpayers' money. But then, we can always increase the deficit some more.
Not only is this a bad war, but it has been grossly mismanaged.
Brenda Owen Johnston
Raleigh
http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/412981.html
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There's Frankenstein, personally recruited by Bin Laden. How do you charge a computer with treason? Can a computer become a machine without a country?
Senator says may add airline pensions to tax bill
Reuters
Thursday, March 2, 2006; 3:14 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Senate Finance Committee said on Thursday he would try to add U.S. airline pension relief to a tax bill if Senate and House negotiators are unable to finish broad pension legislation.
Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate panel, said he was frustrated by a two-month delay in naming congressional negotiators to reconcile the Senate and House versions of pension reform legislation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201134.html
McCloy May Walk Again, Doctors Say
(KDKA) MORGANTOWN, W. Va. For the first time in many weeks, there is an update on Randal McCloy’s progress.
Anna McCloy, the wife of the only man to survive the Sago Mine tragedy, and her husband's doctors spoke with reporters on Thursday.
McCloy is making believers out of everyone who longed and prayed for a miracle.
McCloy, 26, was the only one of 13 miners trapped in the Jan. 2 explosion at the mine who survived.
“He looked at me one night and he says, 'I'm a miracle!’” said Anna McCloy.
The father of a 4-year-old son and 16-month-old daughter, McCloy wants to get home. After weeks in a coma, he is slowly but surely finding his place in the world again.
“If you listen to him, you can hear his character in him,” said Anna McCloy. “You could see his spirit coming out. You could see a sense of Randy the person, Randy the father.
“He'll joke with you. He'll listen to jokes and understand. He'll talk with the kids,” Anna added. “He's improved beyond our expectations.”
McCloy, who suffered serious brain injuries from lack of oxygen and carbon monoxide poisoning, is relearning everyday skills.
On Jan. 5, McCloy was transported to Allegheny General Hospital where his condition benefited from three days in a hyperbaric-oxygen chamber.
He returned to Ruby General Hospital and is now in rehab where he's receiving high doses of essential fatty acids to improve brain function.
“His physical abilities, mental, memory, and I think we see his old personality coming back,” said McCloy's doctor said.
Anna McCloy has not left her husband's side and though he remembers what happened in bits and pieces, he's not eager to return to the memory of losing 12 friends.
“When he wants to talk about it I'll listen to him, but I don't push him,” Anna said. “I don't question him.”
http://kdka.com/local/local_story_061172817.html
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Condi the Gym Guru
Condi Rice Shows Off Workout On TV Station
POSTED: 4:41 pm EST March 1, 2006
Besides being the Bush administration's go-to official for working out diplomatic misunderstandings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also happy to let the world know she's working out at the gym.
Rice's exercise routine, including weights and a calorie-burning workout, will be featured in a three-day segment on Washington's NBC television affiliate, WRC, that started Wednesday morning.
"She's an active, active secretary of state," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.
Asked whether the news feature signals a more muscular U.S. diplomacy, Ereli responded: "Muscular and agile."
It's not the first time Rice has showcased her hobbies for the public. Last June she took to the Kennedy Center concert stage to accompany on piano a young soprano battling an often-fatal disease.
Barbara Harrison, anchor of WRC's morning and 10 a.m. news shows, said viewers can gain insight into Rice from her routine and apply it to their own lives. The clip will be aired at about 5:45 a.m. EST.
"If she, one of the busiest women in the world, can work out every day, the rest of us ought to be able to do something," said
Harrison, who has been sharing with viewers her own quest to lose 10 pounds.
http://www.nbc30.com/health/7587214/detail.html
Gulf Coast Hurricane Victims Have 10 Days to Apply for Aid
WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2006 (ENS) - Six months after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma devastated the Gulf Coast and Florida, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved $5.4 billion in low interest loans to the victims, but now time is running out. Only 10 days remain to apply for federal government assistance.
The SBA has approved more than 76,200 disaster loans to homeowners, renters and businesses in the disaster area. The total includes more than 60,000 disaster loans for homeowners and renters for $4 billion, and more than 15,400 loans to businesses for $1.36 billion. In the SBA's guaranteed working capital and real estate/fixed asset loan programs, the agency has delivered $400 million in loans to small businesses in the declared disaster areas.
Together, these programs mean the SBA has approved a total of $1.76 billion in loans to businesses in the declared disaster areas.
"The SBA has acted and mobilized like never before to respond to the tremendous needs of the residents of the Gulf Coast disaster areas," said SBA Administrator Hector Barreto.
Common Ground volunteers help a New Orleans victim clean up from Hurricane Katrina. January 2006. (Photo by Marvin Nauman courtesy FEMA)
Louisiana has the most in approved disaster loans at $3.36 billion, followed by Mississippi at $1.68 billion. The SBA also has approved $142 million in disaster loans in Florida, $113.3 million in Texas and $90 million in Alabama.
More than 86 percent of the business disaster loan applications received to date have been processed, said Barreto, and more than 269,600 damaged properties have been inspected.
But even with these loans and other government assistance, the international aid agency Oxfam America released a report Monday showing that state and federal agencies are continuing to neglect poor communities caught in the hurricanes.
"Recovering States: The Gulf Coast Six Months After the Storm," examines current conditions, and long term implications, for lower income families whose vulnerabilities were laid bare by Hurricane Katrina.
“Despite critical reports and investigative hearings of government failures, despite the flurry of commitments to confront poverty in the U.S. – six months after Katrina, little has changed,” said Minor Sinclair, director of Oxfam America’s Regional Office.
“It’s unconscionable that the same vulnerable people abandoned in the height of the storm could again be neglected in the recovery," Sinclair said. "There are still thousands of people who don’t have a place to live and don’t have answers to the most basic questions about their futures in the Gulf Coast.”
Several key elements of the report analyze statistics related to the number of still displaced people, endemic poverty rates in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the repercussions of states’ proposed plans for federal funds.
Oxfam’s aims in the Gulf Coast since Katrina and Rita have been to empower poor communities that have been most deeply affected by the storms. Oxfam is partnering with 16 local community organizations such as the NAACP, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, and Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, to provide assistance to vulnerable groups.
On February 16, President George W. Bush submitted a request to Congress for an additional $19.8 billion for rebuilding the Gulf Coast, including an additional $4.2 billon in Community Development Block Grant funding, which Oxfam calls, “a major step toward reconstruction of the Gulf Coast,” but advises, “by no means should it be the last step.”
Homeowners on Sugar Mill Drive must gut their houses to remove the mold that resulted from Hurricane Katrina's flooding. In St. Bernard Parish, every home in every neighborhood was affected. January 2006. (Photo by Greg Henshall courtesy FEMA)
“We welcome this additional request for funds and urge Congress to respond quickly,” said Ashley Tsongas, advocacy coordinator for Oxfam’s Hurricane Recovery. “However, these funds must be allocated so they also meet the urgent housing needs of the poorest and most vulnerable hurricane survivors. Funds earmarked for FEMA should instead be directed to HUD [Department of Housing and Urban Development], a federal agency with proven affordable housing expertise.”
A portion of the $85 billion for relief and recovery in the Gulf Coast that has already been approved by Congress is dedicated to Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding designed to assist low and moderate income communities with decent housing, expanded economic opportunities, and quality of life improvements.
Although $11.5 billion has been already been appropriated for CDBG programs in the Gulf Coast and an additional $4.2 billion is waiting to be approved, regulations which govern the use of these funds have been loosened and the drafts of state housing recovery plans focus on a narrowly defined group of homeowners.
As a result, the lowest income groups stand to lose this important part of the recovery package, Oxfam warns.
“It is time to make good on the nation’s promises,” Sinclair said. “More funds for affordable housing must be made available immediately, through the new money that must be approved by Congress and through state plans that target the lowest income communities. This is the critical first step to a long road to recovery that builds back better, through federal support of local initiatives.”
Only 10 days remain to apply for disaster assistance. A 60 day extension to March 11 was granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Disaster officials are urging residents of disaster-designated counties and parishes in the Gulf Coast states to register during the next 10 days for federal and state financial assistance to help them recover from uninsured or under-insured losses caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This local resident writes suggestions on a sticky note at the Louisiana Recovery Planning Day Open House in Baton Rouge to give input identifying recovery issues unique to her community and parish affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (Photo by Robert Kaufmann courtesy FEMA)
"As long we continue to hear from people who need disaster assistance, we want to make it available," said David Paulison, acting FEMA director. "We are renewing our efforts to identify and reach people who may not have registered for various reasons and need more time to apply."
For those wishing to apply by phone, the toll-free number is 800-621-FEMA (3362). Speech or hearing-impaired applicants can call the TTY number 800-462-7585. The lines are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and multilingual operators are available to take calls.
"There is no reason for anyone who sustained hurricane losses not to make that call and get whatever assistance they are eligible to receive," Paulison said.
"We will continue to do everything in our power to provide the needed resources and speed the recovery of the Gulf Coast," said Barreto of the Small Business Administration.
"We want to remind all those eligible that the application deadline for physical damage loans is March 11, and we also want to urge applicants whose loans have already been approved to schedule their loan closings as soon as possible so that the rebuilding of their communities can proceed in earnest."
Applicants can check the status of their SBA disaster loan applications by calling 1-800-659-2955 or emailing SBA at disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.
FEMA said Monday it will meet a Wednesday deadline to get more than 1,400 people out of emergency quarters on three Carnival cruise ships and into travel trailers or local hotel rooms. Most of these people are first responders and their families in New Orleans and in St. Bernard Parish.
Meanwhile, to prepare for the 2006 hurricane season, just three months away, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still working on the levees that surround New Orleans, with June 1 target date for completion.
The force of Hurricane Katrina broke the levees six months ago, flooding New Orleans with water from Lake Ponchartrain, the industrial canal and other sources.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been charged with rebuilding the levees, and they say it is a daunting task. Contractors are working 24 hour days, building levee walls as high as 17 feet. This time, the levees are being reinforced with concrete backings.
"It's a tight schedule," said Fred Young, who is Corps project manager for the levee reconstruction program. "Supplies are tight and labor's tight down here, and we're just trying to do the best we can, and June 1 is our goal."
Critics point out that the government is only repairing breaks in the levees that it can see.
"We're doing repairs on the breaches, but there are many, many, many miles of levee that we don't have any idea of," said Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Public Health Research Center.
There's little chance the repaired levees will protect the city from strong storms, van Heerden added, perhaps leaving New Orleans just as vulnerable as it was before Katrina - which peaked as a category five hurricane and was a strong category three storm when it made landfall.
Van Heerden said, "The whole system is susceptible to flooding with a category two."
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2006/2006-03-01-04.asp
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Nic Robertson - Jihad Jack - Jack Thomas. An Aussie wanted to work for 'bin.' He was restless? Is that what you call it, Nic? Oh, radicalized. Right. Restlessness leads to an al Qaeda terrorist training camp. Did Jack get an autograph? It might be worth real money. 'Bin Laden seemed to float across the floor.' What was this guy smoking? Afghanistan. Hello. Put the pieces together. Be an extremist, be a drug lord, be a wealthy man.
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Bush library gets 2 years of his life, if ...
Hance to devote time to raising funds as long as project is in West Texas
09:58 AM CST on Thursday, March 2, 2006
By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – The only politician ever to beat George W. Bush has pledged to put his career on hold for two years to bring to life a Bush presidential library in West Texas.
Former U.S. Rep. Kent Hance, an Austin-based lobbyist, concedes that the Texas Tech-led proposal is a long shot. But the man who defeated Mr. Bush in a 1978 House race says he'd be happy to devote himself full time to raise the $300 million needed.
"I'm giving two years if it goes to West Texas," Mr. Hance said. "I saw the president at a Christmas party at the White House. He said that's a heck of a commitment. And I said, well, we want it."
His decision reflects an unusually personal marker as the four finalists – Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Baylor University in Waco and the University of Dallas – tussle on the public-relations front.
Baylor is close to the Bush ranch in Crawford. SMU is a short drive to where Mr. Bush lived and worked before moving to the Governor's Mansion, and first lady Laura Bush is an alumna.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-hance_02tex.ART.State.Edition2.1885c3ac.html
It’s unlike any other event in the world. A race over 1,150 miles of the most extreme and beautiful terrain known to man: across mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline. Add sub-zero temperatures and blinding winds, and you’ve got the makings of a legendary adventure. That’s the Iditarod.
http://www.iditarod.com/
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Mubarak warns Cheney to listen for once on Iran
Thursday, March 02, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, March 2 (IranMania) - President Hosni Mubarak has urged US Vice President Dick Cheney to heed his advice "for once" and not to take military action against Iran, Egyptian newspapers reported Wednesday, AFP reported.
"I warned Cheney against a strike on Iran and told him: 'Listen to my advice for once,'" he was quoted as telling Cheney, who was a strong advocate of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite Arab opposition.
Cheney and Mubarak met on January 17 and discussed Iran's controversial nuclear programme during a visit by the vice president.
Last month, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that Washington did not rule out using military force against Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Mubarak, quoted in the press, said an attack on Iran would only serve to strengthen the insurgency in neighbouring Iraq.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=40959&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Board passes resolution to impeach Bush, Cheney
City Hall Watch
By Justin Jouvenal
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, March 1, 2006 3:30 PM PST
E-mail this story Print this page
If it was up to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would be shown the door.
Never shy about wading into controversial national issues, the board on Tuesday approved a strongly worded resolution calling for the impeachment of the president and the vice president for a laundry list of alleged crimes.
The offenses include “misleading” the American people into an unnecessary war in Iraq, torture, “disregarding” presidential duty in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and alleged illegal wiretapping. The board has no say over impeachment — that is the purview of the U.S. Congress — but Supervisor Chris Daly, who sponsored the resolution, said it was an important symbolic statement.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2006/03/01/news/20060301_ne02_impeach.txt
CRIME and PUNISHMENT for mass murderer, 'the nurse sentence.' Imagine that. A mass murderer as a nurse. Two consecutive life sentences. Onto Pennsylvania for sentencing there. Wow.How could either of those sates and instituions not make the connect? Too Bizarre I guess. Chilling.
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Whatever happened to Mr. Whittington?
This is the last mention of him.
Willis mocks Cheney on Letterman
01/03/2006 - 08:55:54
Bruce Willis poked fun at Dick Cheney's recent shooting accident by appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman made-up like the US vice president's hunting victim Harry Whittington.
The actor had tiny wounds on the left side of his face, resembling a spray of buckshot holes and when he smiled he revealed one tiny hole in his front tooth where he was allegedly hit by the ammunition.
Willis joked: "I got shot." He then lifted his hat to reveal his semi-bald head covered in band-aids, adding: "Shot all my hair off." The Die Hard actor went on to explain: "I was playing cards with some politician guys, sitting around drinking all night.
"After a bottle and half of Jack Daniels, somebody came up with the idea: 'Let's go hunting.' It seemed like such a good idea at the time…"I'm thinking we're going to go out and hunt rhino or moose, (but we hunt) quail. But it's all really a blur to me."
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=143288420&p=y43z89xxx
I'll say 'enough' for tonight.
Anderson is in Southern California? How do you know? There is nothing that says California to me.
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Susan Candiotti
"A Fugitive Father" - The Perkins. How nice. Man, oh, man, being 'on the lamb' just ain't the same since TV.
I worry about Patrick. He's a good guy, you know. As an authority he has a team but let's face it there aren't many people supporting his efforts except people who really want a secure nation even if that means impeachment.
Affidavit gives few hints to CIA name leaker
Filing suggests official other than Libby discussed Plame to reporters
By Joel Seidman
NBC News Producer
Updated: 5:15 p.m. ET March 2, 2006
WASHINGTON - In a filing Thursday at U.S. District Court in the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby CIA/Leak case, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald -- in a 19-page affidavit -- offered few clues about the identity of the official or officials involved in the leak of former CIA employee, Valerie Wilson Plame's name to reporters, other than Libby himself.
Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted last year on charges that he lied about how he learned Plame’s identity and when he told reporters.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11640658/
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Runaway Cars Tagged to Stop Chases
Feb. 3, 2005 — A paintball-like technology could end car chases in Los Angeles, and maybe across the country, if a system being tested in Southern California delivers what the company that makes it promises.
The Los Angeles Police Department is testing a new secret weapon to halt high-speed pursuits: smart darts.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1576247
10 Best Car Chases
IGN Cars honors some of the most exciting and technically well-executed car chase sequences ever.
by Steven Horn
March 11, 2003 - What do we love so much about car chases? Could it be that each one basically ends in a car crash? Or perhaps it's that they provide a welcome break from all that "talking" and "plot" nonsense. Whatever the reason, we here at IGN Cars are pretty much all in agreement that they put the sweetness in the cinematic honeypot.
We've been spending the past couple of days buried knee-deep in our DVD collection pulling out some of the greatest car chases of all time. Within a couple of hours, it became clear that picking just 10 was going to be problematic. In fact, before this article was even finished, debates were raging. Why wasn't "Blah Blah" included? Or, Why did you pick this one over that one, etc etc. We're sure you'll have some opinions too so read on to the end for an easy way to voice them.
http://cars.ign.com/articles/388/388628p1.html
THE GREATEST CHASE OF ALL
An inside look at how they filmed BULLITT, the granddaddy of car pursuit movies.
http://www.hottr6.com/triumph/BULLITT.html
Good job, Rick. Good sport for trying it. Don't try this at home.
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FILM REVIEW; Drugs, Guns, Car Chases And a Chemist in a Kilt
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: October 18, 2002
The United States and England may, as George Bernard Shaw observed, be divided by a common language, but if ''Formula 51'' is any indication, they are joined by a shared taste for an especially versatile expletive. It cannot, of course, be printed here, but the word and its variants account, by my conservative estimate, for about two-thirds of the dialogue in this new movie by Ronny Yu. If it were edited down to a PG-rated version, the picture would be about 10 minutes long, but not otherwise improved, since it is a witless, gruesome barrage of jokey violence and lame trans-Atlantic humor, kept moving by the pointless, derivative kineticism of Mr. Yu's hyperactive cuts and splices.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E6DA153DF93BA25753C1A9649C8B63
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Police killed in the line of duty dealing with cars.
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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System-
Date: 02 Mar 2006
Title: Survival depends on action taken at local level
By Shaun Benton
Cape Town - More than 600 delegates from local governments all over the world - from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe - have gathered for a conference in Cape Town dealing with a wide array of questions relating to environmental sustainability.
Titled, 'Out of Africa: Local Solutions for Global Challenges', the conference is stretched over the whole week but was put on hold yesterday to give South African delegates a chance to participate in the country's local government elections.
It's the first time the Canada and Germany-based ICLEI - now called Local Governments for Sustainability - is holding a conference in the southern hemisphere. Its previous conference was held in Athens in 2003.
Delivering a keynote speech to the conference on Monday, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said local governments were now assuming more responsibility - in the second decade since the groundbreaking Rio Earth Summit of 2002 - for delivering progress towards a more sustainable world order.
When the World Summit on Sustainable Development hosted by South Africa in 2002 placed the needs of people, particularly the poor, at the centre of the sustainable development equation, this signaled a shift in pressure for delivery on a global level towards local government.
Tying in with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of halving extreme poverty and its associated ills by 2015, it became clear that the move from strategy to action required the involvement of key actors at the frontline of delivery, namely those at a local level.
http://www.buanews.gov.za/view.php?ID=06030213151001&coll=buanew06
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"Children make their own way in life. Parents can't always protect them." Rashed Williams was a Columbine Hero status. Pressure to 'be good' caused a lot of conflict growing up. His escape marijuana. His answer to obtaining it was assault on a household. Dropped out of high school and became a repeated criminal. Very possibly, "Post Traumatic Disorder" leading to living with violence. The homeowner was reacting to the status of owning more marijuana than he was permitted to have under any medical marijuana law. Guns and drugs go together when the actions of the 'grower' is covert to the laws. No, doubt when Rashed was shot it was more like a drug dealer vs. drug dealer issue and resulted in violence. The marijuana grower hadn't anticipated a quasi celebrity.
Wonder rescue at Halemba mine
• Thursday, Mar 2, 2006
Rescuers on Monday saved a miner who had been trapped for five days about 1,000 metres underground in the Halemba coal mine in southern Poland.
Zbigniew Nowak, 30, has been hospitalised in the town of Sosnowiec for tests and treatment for dehydration.
According to Lech Krawczyk of St Barbara's hospital, the tests confirmed that the condition of the rescued miner was satisfactory.
Nowak spent over 111 hours under earth. When he was dug out he was happy he could celebrate his wife's birthday.
But his wife celebrated the birthday last Thursday.
Bogusaw Wypycha who headed the rescue operation said that the trapped miner survived because he was lying next to a broken pipe that was providing fresh air underground.
Nowak crawled towards the rescue team when he saw people that have been approaching him.
He asked first for some water and an apple. The rescuers did not tell him how long had he been trapped in order not to shock him.
http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=03/02/2006&qrTitle=Wonder%20rescue%20at%20Halemba%20mine&qrColumn=FOREIGN
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About 'the law' … and murder …
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THIS IS ABOUT STEEL Tubes and not Aluminum Tubes. Hm.
Carlyle Group to buy N.J. steel tube maker
By Joseph N. DiStefano
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Carlyle Group, the $33 billion multinational investment company based in Washington, D.C., has agreed to buy a controlling stake in pipe manufacturer John Maneely Co., of Collingswood.
Carlyle has pledged to pay around $500 million to buy out a majority of the 18 shareholders. Members of the Dooner, Boylan and O'Donnell families, they are descendants of John Maneely, who founded the company in 1877.
Maneely president Peter S. Dooner III will continue to run the company, and his brother, Thomas Dooner, will remain a vice president. Both will be minority shareholders, said Daniel A. Pryor, the Carlyle managing director who handled the sale.
"We're betting on them. They're good guys, doing a good job. They doubled sales in the last five years, and we think they can keep doing better," Pryor added. Maneely has yearly sales of over $700 million. The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.
The U.S. pipe manufacturing industry has been consolidating, partly as a result of the growing Chinese economy, Pryor said. Backed by Carlyle, Maneely may acquire other pipe companies, he added.
In a statement, Peter Dooner called Carlyle "an excellent partner" thanks to its "global resources and industrial expertise." Carlyle is a major investor in factories in India, China and other fast-growing foreign markets, as well as the United States.
Maneely and its subsidiaries, Wheatland Tube Co. and Seminole Tubular Products Co., employ a total of 1,700 people at plants in Sharon and Wheatland, Pa.; Warren and Cambridge, Ohio; Chicago; Little Rock, Ark.; and Houston. There are no plans to change operations, Pryor said.
Maneely officials were not immediately available for comment on why the owners are selling now, after 128 years as a family-owned company. Pryor said tax considerations were a factor.
With "unprecedented" investment capital available to large and successful private firms such as Carlyle, "valuations are higher than they've been in several years," and many family-owned businesses see it as a good opportunity to sell, said Michael S. Goodman, a director at SSG Capital Advisors L.P., in Conshohocken.
Carlyle is one of a handful of large firms that dominate the buyout business. The firm has invested in more than 400 companies, including those involved in the defense (United Defense Industries) and consumer (Hertz) sectors.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/breaking_news/14000252.htm
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WASN'T Fort Lauderdale hit by a big storm recently?
Carlyle Group Unit Grabs Florida Apartment Property for $100M despite Title Insurance Issues
March 02, 2006
By Colleen Corley, News Writer
An affiliate of The Carlyle Group has purchased a high-rise apartment building in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for $102 million. American Land Ventures originally built the 409-unit luxury New River Phase II apartment building as part of a 10-acre development in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
But Fort Lauderdale's white hot condominium market prompted the company to sell to The Carlyle Group affiliate, which will sell the apartments as condominium units instead, explained Marty Schwartz, a partner with law firm Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod L.L.P.
Along with associate Javier Granda, Schwartz represented American Land Ventures in the title insurance process. The first title company backed out of insuring New River Phase II because construction had not yet been completed, Schwartz told CPN this afternoon. "There was a possibility that there could be construction liens that could be used against (American Land Ventures)," he said about the building being sold before completion.
Whether the title insurance company's hesitancy had to do with a fizzling Fort Lauderdale condo market, however, was unclear. American Land Ventures did not return calls for comment. The Carlyle Group selected a second title company to insure the transaction and a third to insure the purchases of the individual condo units. Another title company served as the escrow agent as well. All in all, Schwartz worked with four title companies to insure the project, which also includes 24,000 square feet of retail space.
"It's a prime piece of property and there's been a lot of activity. This is not a usual problem," he noted. Though a sale-before-completion transaction was unusual a few years ago, the flourishing Fort Lauderdale market has changed all that. Schwartz pointed out that he and Granda have also worked on two similar transactions. "As far as we can tell it is still a strong market," he added.
http://www.cpnonline.com/cpn/specialties/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002115124
Sanjay on FAT .
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The News Secretary.
Cracking Down On Halliburton
Good news from the Senate. Byron Dorgan and 25 others introduced a bill Thursday to clean up the business of government contracting. It takes its inspiration from the problems with Iraq and Katrina contractors, but applies to all contracting.
According to Dorgan's office, the bill would put "tough new penalties in place for war profiteers, eliminating conflicts of interest, insisting on transparency and putting an end to cronyism in key government appointments relating to federal contracting and public safety.”
To Charlie Cray, director of the Center for Corporate Policy, who wrote Grand Theft Baghdad for TomPaine.com about Iraq's bungled contracting, the legislation is much like what he's been calling for. Cray released this response praising the Dorgan bill:
The Center for Corporate Policy applauded Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and other Senate Democracts today for introducing the "Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act of 2006" , which would crack down on cronyism, corruption and war profiteering associated with federal contracting.
Federal contracting is a key chapter in the ongoing saga of corruption that starts on K Street and ends up undermining democracy at home and abroad. The abuse of U.S. taxpayers’ and Iraqi oil revenues witnessed in recent years has undermined the Iraq reconstruction project and put American troops at risk.
Their an analysis of the bill is here:http://www.corporatepolicy.org/issues/ACA2006.htm
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/02/cracking_down_on_halliburton.php
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Halliburton's gain
Once again, there is a total lack of regard by the administration for the taxpayers. According to a Feb. 27 item, the Army is reimbursing a Halliburton subsidiary for costs of $263 million on a "disputed $2.41 billion no-bid contract." While the Army admits there were "questionable business practices" that had "driven up costs," the reason for paying the firm was that "in the haste and peril of war, it had done as well as could be expected." What an excuse!
The amount being spent in Iraq is certainly troubling, especially when one considers the needs in this country. But the issue is only aggravated by revelations such as this one. Maybe we should ignore Enron's "questionable business practices." After all, we would just be following the example the Army has set in this case.
But then, we are in a war. But then, it is only the taxpayers' money. But then, we can always increase the deficit some more.
Not only is this a bad war, but it has been grossly mismanaged.
Brenda Owen Johnston
Raleigh
http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/412981.html
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There's Frankenstein, personally recruited by Bin Laden. How do you charge a computer with treason? Can a computer become a machine without a country?
Senator says may add airline pensions to tax bill
Reuters
Thursday, March 2, 2006; 3:14 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Senate Finance Committee said on Thursday he would try to add U.S. airline pension relief to a tax bill if Senate and House negotiators are unable to finish broad pension legislation.
Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate panel, said he was frustrated by a two-month delay in naming congressional negotiators to reconcile the Senate and House versions of pension reform legislation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201134.html
McCloy May Walk Again, Doctors Say
(KDKA) MORGANTOWN, W. Va. For the first time in many weeks, there is an update on Randal McCloy’s progress.
Anna McCloy, the wife of the only man to survive the Sago Mine tragedy, and her husband's doctors spoke with reporters on Thursday.
McCloy is making believers out of everyone who longed and prayed for a miracle.
McCloy, 26, was the only one of 13 miners trapped in the Jan. 2 explosion at the mine who survived.
“He looked at me one night and he says, 'I'm a miracle!’” said Anna McCloy.
The father of a 4-year-old son and 16-month-old daughter, McCloy wants to get home. After weeks in a coma, he is slowly but surely finding his place in the world again.
“If you listen to him, you can hear his character in him,” said Anna McCloy. “You could see his spirit coming out. You could see a sense of Randy the person, Randy the father.
“He'll joke with you. He'll listen to jokes and understand. He'll talk with the kids,” Anna added. “He's improved beyond our expectations.”
McCloy, who suffered serious brain injuries from lack of oxygen and carbon monoxide poisoning, is relearning everyday skills.
On Jan. 5, McCloy was transported to Allegheny General Hospital where his condition benefited from three days in a hyperbaric-oxygen chamber.
He returned to Ruby General Hospital and is now in rehab where he's receiving high doses of essential fatty acids to improve brain function.
“His physical abilities, mental, memory, and I think we see his old personality coming back,” said McCloy's doctor said.
Anna McCloy has not left her husband's side and though he remembers what happened in bits and pieces, he's not eager to return to the memory of losing 12 friends.
“When he wants to talk about it I'll listen to him, but I don't push him,” Anna said. “I don't question him.”
http://kdka.com/local/local_story_061172817.html
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Condi the Gym Guru
Condi Rice Shows Off Workout On TV Station
POSTED: 4:41 pm EST March 1, 2006
Besides being the Bush administration's go-to official for working out diplomatic misunderstandings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also happy to let the world know she's working out at the gym.
Rice's exercise routine, including weights and a calorie-burning workout, will be featured in a three-day segment on Washington's NBC television affiliate, WRC, that started Wednesday morning.
"She's an active, active secretary of state," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.
Asked whether the news feature signals a more muscular U.S. diplomacy, Ereli responded: "Muscular and agile."
It's not the first time Rice has showcased her hobbies for the public. Last June she took to the Kennedy Center concert stage to accompany on piano a young soprano battling an often-fatal disease.
Barbara Harrison, anchor of WRC's morning and 10 a.m. news shows, said viewers can gain insight into Rice from her routine and apply it to their own lives. The clip will be aired at about 5:45 a.m. EST.
"If she, one of the busiest women in the world, can work out every day, the rest of us ought to be able to do something," said
Harrison, who has been sharing with viewers her own quest to lose 10 pounds.
http://www.nbc30.com/health/7587214/detail.html
Gulf Coast Hurricane Victims Have 10 Days to Apply for Aid
WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2006 (ENS) - Six months after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma devastated the Gulf Coast and Florida, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved $5.4 billion in low interest loans to the victims, but now time is running out. Only 10 days remain to apply for federal government assistance.
The SBA has approved more than 76,200 disaster loans to homeowners, renters and businesses in the disaster area. The total includes more than 60,000 disaster loans for homeowners and renters for $4 billion, and more than 15,400 loans to businesses for $1.36 billion. In the SBA's guaranteed working capital and real estate/fixed asset loan programs, the agency has delivered $400 million in loans to small businesses in the declared disaster areas.
Together, these programs mean the SBA has approved a total of $1.76 billion in loans to businesses in the declared disaster areas.
"The SBA has acted and mobilized like never before to respond to the tremendous needs of the residents of the Gulf Coast disaster areas," said SBA Administrator Hector Barreto.
Common Ground volunteers help a New Orleans victim clean up from Hurricane Katrina. January 2006. (Photo by Marvin Nauman courtesy FEMA)
Louisiana has the most in approved disaster loans at $3.36 billion, followed by Mississippi at $1.68 billion. The SBA also has approved $142 million in disaster loans in Florida, $113.3 million in Texas and $90 million in Alabama.
More than 86 percent of the business disaster loan applications received to date have been processed, said Barreto, and more than 269,600 damaged properties have been inspected.
But even with these loans and other government assistance, the international aid agency Oxfam America released a report Monday showing that state and federal agencies are continuing to neglect poor communities caught in the hurricanes.
"Recovering States: The Gulf Coast Six Months After the Storm," examines current conditions, and long term implications, for lower income families whose vulnerabilities were laid bare by Hurricane Katrina.
“Despite critical reports and investigative hearings of government failures, despite the flurry of commitments to confront poverty in the U.S. – six months after Katrina, little has changed,” said Minor Sinclair, director of Oxfam America’s Regional Office.
“It’s unconscionable that the same vulnerable people abandoned in the height of the storm could again be neglected in the recovery," Sinclair said. "There are still thousands of people who don’t have a place to live and don’t have answers to the most basic questions about their futures in the Gulf Coast.”
Several key elements of the report analyze statistics related to the number of still displaced people, endemic poverty rates in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the repercussions of states’ proposed plans for federal funds.
Oxfam’s aims in the Gulf Coast since Katrina and Rita have been to empower poor communities that have been most deeply affected by the storms. Oxfam is partnering with 16 local community organizations such as the NAACP, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, and Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, to provide assistance to vulnerable groups.
On February 16, President George W. Bush submitted a request to Congress for an additional $19.8 billion for rebuilding the Gulf Coast, including an additional $4.2 billon in Community Development Block Grant funding, which Oxfam calls, “a major step toward reconstruction of the Gulf Coast,” but advises, “by no means should it be the last step.”
Homeowners on Sugar Mill Drive must gut their houses to remove the mold that resulted from Hurricane Katrina's flooding. In St. Bernard Parish, every home in every neighborhood was affected. January 2006. (Photo by Greg Henshall courtesy FEMA)
“We welcome this additional request for funds and urge Congress to respond quickly,” said Ashley Tsongas, advocacy coordinator for Oxfam’s Hurricane Recovery. “However, these funds must be allocated so they also meet the urgent housing needs of the poorest and most vulnerable hurricane survivors. Funds earmarked for FEMA should instead be directed to HUD [Department of Housing and Urban Development], a federal agency with proven affordable housing expertise.”
A portion of the $85 billion for relief and recovery in the Gulf Coast that has already been approved by Congress is dedicated to Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding designed to assist low and moderate income communities with decent housing, expanded economic opportunities, and quality of life improvements.
Although $11.5 billion has been already been appropriated for CDBG programs in the Gulf Coast and an additional $4.2 billion is waiting to be approved, regulations which govern the use of these funds have been loosened and the drafts of state housing recovery plans focus on a narrowly defined group of homeowners.
As a result, the lowest income groups stand to lose this important part of the recovery package, Oxfam warns.
“It is time to make good on the nation’s promises,” Sinclair said. “More funds for affordable housing must be made available immediately, through the new money that must be approved by Congress and through state plans that target the lowest income communities. This is the critical first step to a long road to recovery that builds back better, through federal support of local initiatives.”
Only 10 days remain to apply for disaster assistance. A 60 day extension to March 11 was granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Disaster officials are urging residents of disaster-designated counties and parishes in the Gulf Coast states to register during the next 10 days for federal and state financial assistance to help them recover from uninsured or under-insured losses caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This local resident writes suggestions on a sticky note at the Louisiana Recovery Planning Day Open House in Baton Rouge to give input identifying recovery issues unique to her community and parish affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (Photo by Robert Kaufmann courtesy FEMA)
"As long we continue to hear from people who need disaster assistance, we want to make it available," said David Paulison, acting FEMA director. "We are renewing our efforts to identify and reach people who may not have registered for various reasons and need more time to apply."
For those wishing to apply by phone, the toll-free number is 800-621-FEMA (3362). Speech or hearing-impaired applicants can call the TTY number 800-462-7585. The lines are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and multilingual operators are available to take calls.
"There is no reason for anyone who sustained hurricane losses not to make that call and get whatever assistance they are eligible to receive," Paulison said.
"We will continue to do everything in our power to provide the needed resources and speed the recovery of the Gulf Coast," said Barreto of the Small Business Administration.
"We want to remind all those eligible that the application deadline for physical damage loans is March 11, and we also want to urge applicants whose loans have already been approved to schedule their loan closings as soon as possible so that the rebuilding of their communities can proceed in earnest."
Applicants can check the status of their SBA disaster loan applications by calling 1-800-659-2955 or emailing SBA at disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.
FEMA said Monday it will meet a Wednesday deadline to get more than 1,400 people out of emergency quarters on three Carnival cruise ships and into travel trailers or local hotel rooms. Most of these people are first responders and their families in New Orleans and in St. Bernard Parish.
Meanwhile, to prepare for the 2006 hurricane season, just three months away, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still working on the levees that surround New Orleans, with June 1 target date for completion.
The force of Hurricane Katrina broke the levees six months ago, flooding New Orleans with water from Lake Ponchartrain, the industrial canal and other sources.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been charged with rebuilding the levees, and they say it is a daunting task. Contractors are working 24 hour days, building levee walls as high as 17 feet. This time, the levees are being reinforced with concrete backings.
"It's a tight schedule," said Fred Young, who is Corps project manager for the levee reconstruction program. "Supplies are tight and labor's tight down here, and we're just trying to do the best we can, and June 1 is our goal."
Critics point out that the government is only repairing breaks in the levees that it can see.
"We're doing repairs on the breaches, but there are many, many, many miles of levee that we don't have any idea of," said Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Public Health Research Center.
There's little chance the repaired levees will protect the city from strong storms, van Heerden added, perhaps leaving New Orleans just as vulnerable as it was before Katrina - which peaked as a category five hurricane and was a strong category three storm when it made landfall.
Van Heerden said, "The whole system is susceptible to flooding with a category two."
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2006/2006-03-01-04.asp
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Nic Robertson - Jihad Jack - Jack Thomas. An Aussie wanted to work for 'bin.' He was restless? Is that what you call it, Nic? Oh, radicalized. Right. Restlessness leads to an al Qaeda terrorist training camp. Did Jack get an autograph? It might be worth real money. 'Bin Laden seemed to float across the floor.' What was this guy smoking? Afghanistan. Hello. Put the pieces together. Be an extremist, be a drug lord, be a wealthy man.
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Bush library gets 2 years of his life, if ...
Hance to devote time to raising funds as long as project is in West Texas
09:58 AM CST on Thursday, March 2, 2006
By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – The only politician ever to beat George W. Bush has pledged to put his career on hold for two years to bring to life a Bush presidential library in West Texas.
Former U.S. Rep. Kent Hance, an Austin-based lobbyist, concedes that the Texas Tech-led proposal is a long shot. But the man who defeated Mr. Bush in a 1978 House race says he'd be happy to devote himself full time to raise the $300 million needed.
"I'm giving two years if it goes to West Texas," Mr. Hance said. "I saw the president at a Christmas party at the White House. He said that's a heck of a commitment. And I said, well, we want it."
His decision reflects an unusually personal marker as the four finalists – Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Baylor University in Waco and the University of Dallas – tussle on the public-relations front.
Baylor is close to the Bush ranch in Crawford. SMU is a short drive to where Mr. Bush lived and worked before moving to the Governor's Mansion, and first lady Laura Bush is an alumna.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-hance_02tex.ART.State.Edition2.1885c3ac.html
It’s unlike any other event in the world. A race over 1,150 miles of the most extreme and beautiful terrain known to man: across mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline. Add sub-zero temperatures and blinding winds, and you’ve got the makings of a legendary adventure. That’s the Iditarod.
http://www.iditarod.com/
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Mubarak warns Cheney to listen for once on Iran
Thursday, March 02, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, March 2 (IranMania) - President Hosni Mubarak has urged US Vice President Dick Cheney to heed his advice "for once" and not to take military action against Iran, Egyptian newspapers reported Wednesday, AFP reported.
"I warned Cheney against a strike on Iran and told him: 'Listen to my advice for once,'" he was quoted as telling Cheney, who was a strong advocate of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite Arab opposition.
Cheney and Mubarak met on January 17 and discussed Iran's controversial nuclear programme during a visit by the vice president.
Last month, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that Washington did not rule out using military force against Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Mubarak, quoted in the press, said an attack on Iran would only serve to strengthen the insurgency in neighbouring Iraq.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=40959&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Board passes resolution to impeach Bush, Cheney
City Hall Watch
By Justin Jouvenal
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, March 1, 2006 3:30 PM PST
E-mail this story Print this page
If it was up to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would be shown the door.
Never shy about wading into controversial national issues, the board on Tuesday approved a strongly worded resolution calling for the impeachment of the president and the vice president for a laundry list of alleged crimes.
The offenses include “misleading” the American people into an unnecessary war in Iraq, torture, “disregarding” presidential duty in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and alleged illegal wiretapping. The board has no say over impeachment — that is the purview of the U.S. Congress — but Supervisor Chris Daly, who sponsored the resolution, said it was an important symbolic statement.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2006/03/01/news/20060301_ne02_impeach.txt
CRIME and PUNISHMENT for mass murderer, 'the nurse sentence.' Imagine that. A mass murderer as a nurse. Two consecutive life sentences. Onto Pennsylvania for sentencing there. Wow.How could either of those sates and instituions not make the connect? Too Bizarre I guess. Chilling.
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Whatever happened to Mr. Whittington?
This is the last mention of him.
Willis mocks Cheney on Letterman
01/03/2006 - 08:55:54
Bruce Willis poked fun at Dick Cheney's recent shooting accident by appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman made-up like the US vice president's hunting victim Harry Whittington.
The actor had tiny wounds on the left side of his face, resembling a spray of buckshot holes and when he smiled he revealed one tiny hole in his front tooth where he was allegedly hit by the ammunition.
Willis joked: "I got shot." He then lifted his hat to reveal his semi-bald head covered in band-aids, adding: "Shot all my hair off." The Die Hard actor went on to explain: "I was playing cards with some politician guys, sitting around drinking all night.
"After a bottle and half of Jack Daniels, somebody came up with the idea: 'Let's go hunting.' It seemed like such a good idea at the time…"I'm thinking we're going to go out and hunt rhino or moose, (but we hunt) quail. But it's all really a blur to me."
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=143288420&p=y43z89xxx
I'll say 'enough' for tonight.
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