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Fugitive dad leaves sick son on dialysis
Authorities suspect man fled to Mexico as his child needs kidney
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (CNN) -- A Kentucky prisoner who duped authorities and his family into believing he intended to donate a kidney to his ailing son may have escaped to Mexico with his girlfriend, federal authorities said.
"It is a solid lead," Deputy U.S. Marshal Dawn Izgarjan told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday.
The possible breakthrough came after a couple saw a report on CNN about Byron Perkins and his fugitive girlfriend while at the Phoenix, Arizona, airport, recognized the pair and called authorities.
The couple reportedly told authorities they had spent time with Perkins and the woman, Lee Ann Howard, in a fishing village near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, earlier in the week. Authorities consider Perkins armed and dangerous.
"They described the tattoo that was on the gentleman's chest that was identified with Byron Perkins as being an identifying mark," Deputy U.S. Marshal Chuck Gilbert said.
The couple reportedly said the two went by the name Perkins and that the woman used insulin.
Authorities said Howard is a diabetic. (Watch for the jailhouse conversation the couple had about her needles -- 3:44)
The couple also said the two had books on regions of Mexico and that the man "seemed to know a lot" about the country, Izgarjan said.
http://cnn.worldnews.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=CNN.com+-+Fugitive+dad+leaves+sick+son+on+dialysis+-+Mar+3%2C+2006&expire=-1&urlID=17413014&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2006%2FUS%2F03%2F03%2Fkidney.dad%2F&partnerID=2006
'Crash's' look at racism trumps 'Brokeback' love
By Barry Caine, STAFF WRITER
One surprise, and we had to wait till the end. There is no justice.
In Sunday's 78th Annual Academy Awards, heretofore known as Everyone Wants to Sleep with George Clooney Night, "Crash" put a stop to the "Brokeback Mountain" stampede-that-never-happened with an upset win for best picture.
You can still hear the shock reverberating among Oscar-pool losers.
With no movie winning more than three Oscars, this was the first year in a while when no single picture dominated la "Lord of the Rings."
``An intricate ensemble piece about racism in L.A., ``Crash'' also notched awards for editing and original screenplay.
Picked as best original song was "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp," an insightful ditty from "Hustle & Flow" that was sung flatter than any nominee in recent memory.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_3573804
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The News Secretary
£2.6m for radical new treatment for kidney dialysis patients
An innovative new medical approach which could substantially improve the quality of life for over a million kidney dialysis patients, and bring huge savings to health services around the globe has received an investment round worth £2.6m.
The development of this new product has been made possible thanks to a major funding round of £2.6m led by NPI Ventures with funding from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), who had previously invested £95,000 in the technology, Imperial College and Oxford Capital Partners.
At present, over a million kidney dialysis patients worldwide are treated by having a synthetic tube – called a vascular access graft - inserted under the skin, through which they are "hooked up" to a machine every few days.
Vascular access grafts are inserted beneath the skin so needles can be injected regularly and to maximise blood-flow to the dialysis machine. However, these can develop a potentially lethal disease, called ‘intimal hyperplasia’. This thickens the blood vessels, which is the most common reason for grafts needing to be replaced within a year, or for patients to undergo remedial surgery.
London-based Veryan Medical Ltd has developed SwirlGraft to combat this. It updates the standard synthetic grafts with a new spiral shape, allowing the blood to swirl through it, mimicking its natural action and reducing the likelikood of any problems.
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/medicine_health/report-55268.html
Deception turns Tillman's death into sad mockery
BY MIKE BIANCHI
The Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. - What have they done to Pat Tillman?
Remember when he symbolized what the war on terrorism was supposed to be about_unselfishness, gallantry, patriotism? Now, tragically and perhaps even criminally, his name has become a euphemism for what far too many Americans believe this war has become _deception, fabrications, cover-ups.
We've gone from Pat Tillman giving up his life in his fight for justice to his death being marred by the obstruction of it. From weapons of mass destruction to whoppers of mass distortion. From a man whose life became an American inspiration to a man whose death is being tainted by a criminal investigation.
ORLANDO, Fla. - What have they done to Pat Tillman?
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14033517.htm
Commercials
Century 21 Hangs Sign on CNN
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/6/2006 8:59:00 AM
Century 21 Real Estate has signed on for a year-long advertising/sponsorship deal with CNN ad sales.
No, Anderson Cooper won't make sure he is standing in front of a Century 21 "for sale" sign for that next Katrina repopulating story.
Century 21 will become the sponsor of CNN's Open House Saturday morning half-hour real estate news feature series. It will also get billboards in "Top Five Real Estate Tips" and "Home Front" segments that air during the week on CNN networks.
In addition, an on-demand version of CNN's real estate shows will have a "brought to you by Century 21" attached for about a month--which month will be up to Century 21--and the company will be the real estate category sponsor on CNN.com.
On the other side of the table, Century 21 will get to use select stories from CNNMoney.com on its own Web site.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6313101.html?display=Breaking+News
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HK Hospital Authority enhances measures to prevent avian flu
Upon confirmation of a human avian influenza case in China's Guangdong province, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority announced Monday that it will strengthen measures in avian flu prevention.
During an urgent meeting held on March 4 by the Central Committee on Infectious Disease (CCID) of the Hospital Authority, a three-week enhanced surveillance program from March 8 was recommended.
According to the recommendation, public hospitals should report to the e-Flu system of the Hospital Authority all patients fulfilling the case definition of having pneumonia of unidentified etiology and travel history to places with confirmed human cases of avian flu infection in the past six months, within seven days before symptoms onset.
Besides, the laboratory network including the Hong Kong Public Health Laboratory Center, Princess Margaret Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital and some other public hospitals will participate in the enhanced surveillance program to provide rapid test for avian influenza.
This special enhanced surveillance program will be reviewed in three weeks' time. Meanwhile, all infection control measures under current Yellow Alert are still in effect.
The Hospital Authority will continue to co-operate with the Center for Health Protection to keep the general public and professionals posted of the most updated situation and relevant information.
http://english.people.com.cn/200603/06/eng20060306_248380.html
Avian Flu: US to produce second bird-flu vaccine; World Health Organization meets in Geneva on pandemic strategy
By Finfacts Team
Mar 6, 2006, 17:46
Today the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a three-day technical meeting of international public health experts at its Geneva headquarters, to discuss a rapid response strategy in the event of an influenza pandemic emerging.
http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10005101.shtml
Racism needs to be wiped out from cricket: Lee
Monday, 06 March , 2006, 12:48
London: Strike bowler Brett Lee thinks that ''a very small minority of the Aussie crowds are giving all Australians a bad name'' by passing racist remarks on the Proteas during their recent tour Down Under and said racism in any form should be wiped out of cricket.
''Racism should not be tolerated either on the field, in the crowd or in everyday life. I don't think that it is a major problem because I have not witnessed any of it myself.
However, there may be a very small minority of the Australian crowds that are giving all Australians a bad name. It is something that needs to be looked at and wiped out of our game,'' The Independent quoted him as saying.
Lee, who is now in South Africa tour, said the Ashes series last year was not out of their mind yet and the Aussies have some unfinished business to attend to next November when England tour Australia.
http://sify.com/sports/cricket/fullstory.php?id=14156164
Cartoon riots: Kano blames elite class
By Umoru Henry
Posted to the Web: Monday, March 06, 2006
Sorry, your browser does not support floating frames
ABUJA—THE Kano State Government said it saw the recent cartoon crisis coming hence the people of the state were allowed to express their grievances through a peaceful demonstration against the backdrop of a democratic system whose one of its tenets is freedom of expression, just as it condemned very strongly the killings and wanton destruction of property and urged other states and their governors to emulate the people and government of kano State.
Fielding questions from Journalists in Abuja at the end of the signing of Financial Agreement to eradicate polio out of Kano state, the State Deputy Governor, Engr. Magaji Abdullahi who noted that both Islam and Christianity abhor bigotry and violence, said any one who goes out under the guise of religion to engage in killing and destruction of people’s property was certainly not a true Moslem or practicing the religion, adding that most of the crisis that seem to have religion undertone are simply for selfish reasons and that of the elite class who use the poor to cause mayhem.
“Unfortunately, people use religion for their selfish end. Most of the religious crisis is not base on religion, but because of the selfish interest of elites who use the people for their selfish end”, he stressed.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/north/nt406032006.html
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Dogs that track dead people. The people are still being found in The Gulf Coast. It's good they are perfecting their skills post Katrina, another season is coming.
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Oil blast partners face huge claimsBy Katherine Griffiths, City Correspondent
(Filed: 22/02/2006)
Insurers representing airlines whose fuel supplies were hit by the Buncefield explosion last December are preparing to sue France's Total and Texaco of the US, the main The news comes as the insurance industry braces itself for claims of up to £500m following the explosion near Hemel Hempstead on December 11. The largest blast in Europe since the Second World War miraculously caused no deaths but destroyed several local businesses and forced residents to move out of their homes.
Major airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and BMI were severely affected with the Buncefield site being one of four main suppliers of fuel to Heathrow airport. Supplies have been dramatically cut, forcing up the price of fuel when it is already at historic highs.
Those hit by the disaster were disappointed by the first report into events surrounding the explosion, issued yesterday, as it contained nothing on who was to blame. A final report will be issued in several months' time following further investigations by the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency.
Sources say several major corporate claims are being prepared. Among those considering litigation are members of Lloyd's of London which writes much aviation insurance.
BA, Virgin and BMI would not comment on whether their insurers were planning litigation. US carriers such as American Airlines, which use Heathrow as their UK base, might also take legal action because of being hit by the fuel shortages.
Total and Texaco are the main oil companies in the firing line as the owners of the joint venture Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal (HOSL) which took up the majority of the space at the Buncefield complex.
But BP and Shell could also be implicated as they own stakes in the British Pipeline Agency which operated storage tanks at Buncefield and was part of the consortium running the West London Pipeline supplying Heathrow.
A spokesman for HOSL said: "We have great sympathy for all those affected by the Buncefield incident, but the cause of the incident has not yet been determined so we are not yet in a position to discuss compensation claims or comment on specific legal proceedings."
Companies involved are concerned that claims could escalate to cover a wide range of issues, from breach of contract over fuel supply to airlines to hundreds of demands for compensation from those who breathed in noxious fumes.
Several individuals and small businesses have already filed claims for compensation and people close to the situation believe that there could even be grounds for a criminal prosecution.
A row is also brewing over whether Buncefield will be rebuilt. Companies relying on fuel will want the site to be replaced, but environmental groups and local politicians are keen to fight against the rebuilding of such a potentially dangerous site.
(Filed: 22/02/2006)
Insurers representing airlines whose fuel supplies were hit by the Buncefield explosion last December are preparing to sue France's Total and Texaco of the US, the main The news comes as the insurance industry braces itself for claims of up to £500m following the explosion near Hemel Hempstead on December 11. The largest blast in Europe since the Second World War miraculously caused no deaths but destroyed several local businesses and forced residents to move out of their homes.
Major airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and BMI were severely affected with the Buncefield site being one of four main suppliers of fuel to Heathrow airport. Supplies have been dramatically cut, forcing up the price of fuel when it is already at historic highs.
Those hit by the disaster were disappointed by the first report into events surrounding the explosion, issued yesterday, as it contained nothing on who was to blame. A final report will be issued in several months' time following further investigations by the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency.
Sources say several major corporate claims are being prepared. Among those considering litigation are members of Lloyd's of London which writes much aviation insurance.
BA, Virgin and BMI would not comment on whether their insurers were planning litigation. US carriers such as American Airlines, which use Heathrow as their UK base, might also take legal action because of being hit by the fuel shortages.
Total and Texaco are the main oil companies in the firing line as the owners of the joint venture Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal (HOSL) which took up the majority of the space at the Buncefield complex.
But BP and Shell could also be implicated as they own stakes in the British Pipeline Agency which operated storage tanks at Buncefield and was part of the consortium running the West London Pipeline supplying Heathrow.
A spokesman for HOSL said: "We have great sympathy for all those affected by the Buncefield incident, but the cause of the incident has not yet been determined so we are not yet in a position to discuss compensation claims or comment on specific legal proceedings."
Companies involved are concerned that claims could escalate to cover a wide range of issues, from breach of contract over fuel supply to airlines to hundreds of demands for compensation from those who breathed in noxious fumes.
Several individuals and small businesses have already filed claims for compensation and people close to the situation believe that there could even be grounds for a criminal prosecution.
A row is also brewing over whether Buncefield will be rebuilt. Companies relying on fuel will want the site to be replaced, but environmental groups and local politicians are keen to fight against the rebuilding of such a potentially dangerous site.
St Andrew Society (Malta) annual Burns’ Supper
The annual Burns’ Supper hosted by the St Andrew Society (Malta) was held recently at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Sliema.
Members and guests were welcomed with a drink
and the sound of the pipes played by John Van
Dyke before gathering in the hall for the nicht’s ongauns.
Piper Mario Farrugia piped his way round the hall to officially set the night in motion and Society president Helen MacLachlan gave a short welcome speech.
The dinner began with the Selkirk Grace, delivered
by the Reverend Colin Westmarland and a traditional Scottish meal followed.
http://217.145.4.56/ind/news.asp?newsitemid=29239
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Mr. Mitchell has experienced discrimination at Allied Aviation. For a few days at work as a maintenance supervisor when he heard racial slurs. "These GD N make me sick."
Psychology it is hell and emotionally it has torn the family apart.
"The N Hit List"
Bathroom graffiti listing names. Vigilantism. A member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily. It is more than a 'hostile' work environment. The minority employees have reason to sue and also be concerned for their personal safety as well as their families. That harassment can easily lead to profound hatred especially as retaliation for firings.
Sensitivity training.
Allied Aviation is not willing to address the issue to the public. "It has a history that provides diversity…"
Racial harassing at the work place. It hasn't spilled over into the neighborhoods of the employees. Yet.
Racism has to be stopped. It mounts into a social hierarchy that gets dangerous as well as oppressive.
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Cruise ship stalls in pirate region
07mar06
MORE than 1300 passengers on an Australian-based cruise ship have arrived in Malaysia safely after the ship broke down in dangerous waters near Singapore.
John Richardson, a spokesman for P&O Cruises, said the Pacific Sky had anchored in the Malacca Strait for about 30 hours after problems with its starboard engine.
The crew was unable to fix the problem at sea and sailed on at slower speed using only the portside engine, arriving in Port Kelang in Malaysia about 8pm yesterday, Mr Richardson said.
"The captain described it as a minor but significant problem," he said.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18376780%255E1702,00.html
Australian cruise liner limps to port
An Australian cruise ship carrying 1,500 passengers is on its way to a Malaysian port for repairs after spending 30 hours stranded in the Malacca Strait.
P&O Cruises says the Pacific Sky experienced problems with one of its engines after leaving Singapore on Saturday night for a seven-day cruise.
Passenger Michael Storer says the ship came to a shuddering halt about five hours into the journey.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1585240.htm
World needs a 5-year-old's wisdom about bigotry
''Only the ignorant and uneducated are frightened of what they do not understand.''
Tolerance, diversity and respect for others are lessons best learned at home. The study of psychology and the observation of reality has proven that children model the behavior of the adults around them; both good and bad. Our view of the world and the people in it is formed by the examples set for us.
My earliest memory of such an example came on a very warm summer night when I was 5 years old. The only telephone in the house was on a small table in the center hall next to the stairs. In this position, the three rings that indicated the call on the party line was for us could be heard up the stairs and into the bedrooms. If I sat very quietly on the top landing, the reverse was true; I could hear everything being said below.
My parents' friends, the Lewises, were visiting from New York, where they had moved after selling the pharmacy they owned in Quakertown. ''Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Doc'' were favorites of mine, not only because they always brought wonderful chocolates, but because they treated me like I had a brain … no baby talk hyphenated by stupid questions.
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-quote-b-a-amar05,0,1342095.story?coll=all-newsopinionanotherview-hed
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Commercials
Sick Ship. Over 200 Royal Caribbean Passengers Catch Stomach Flu
http://www.hardbeatnews.com/editor/RTE/my_documents/my_files/details.asp?newsid=6011&title=Top%20Stories
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More about the cruise ship issue.
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The News Secretary and CNN Cheerleader
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Amnesty Report on 14,000 Finds Prisoner Abuse Continues in Iraq
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON, March 6 — Amnesty International accused the United States and its allies on Monday of committing widespread abuses in Iraq, including torture and the continued detention of thousands of prisoners without charge or trial.
The accusations could fuel the debate over the treatment of detainees that flared after the publication of graphic photographs showing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad being mistreated by American guards. More recently, British forces in Iraq have been criticized after videotapes showed British soldiers beating Iraqi youths after demonstrations in southern Iraq.
In its report, "Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and Torture in Iraq," Amnesty International also said the level of abuse by Iraqi forces since the transfer of power in June 2004 was increasing.
The United States and its allies, the report said, have "established procedures which deprive detainees of human rights guaranteed in international law and standards."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/international/europe/07rights.html
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Frankenstein the automated boy toy is back. Can't get more insulting in news reporting than an automated co-anchor.
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commercials
Bunny mutilator insane: court told
A Sydney-based financier accused of the mutilation deaths of 17 rabbits and a guinea pig has failed to persuade a magistrate to deal with his case under the Mental Health Act.
Brendan Francis McMahon, 37, is charged with 18 counts of aggravated animal cruelty and two counts of possessing cannabis.
The dead or severely injured rabbits and guinea pig were allegedly found in and around McMahon's office in Sydney's York Street in July and early August last year.
http://smh.com.au/news/national/bunny-mutilator-insane-court-told/2006/03/07/1141493645774.html
Iran: More Jaw and Less War
Linda Heard, sierra12th@yahoo.co.uk
Gen. Wesley Clark, who is expected to be a Democratic candidate for the US presidency in 2008, has a novel idea on how to tackle the growing contretemps between his government and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program.
Clark suggests the two sides should simply talk together face-to-face and discuss their problems instead of yelling threats at one another across the fence. Sounds eminently sensible, doesn’t it? But in these peculiar times, sensibility, not to mention testosterone, usually triumphs over sense.
The fact is that isn’t going to happen, at least not as long as the “new world order” Bush administration inhabits the White House, and the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists on ratcheting up the anti-US and anti-Israel rhetoric.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=78849&d=7&m=3&y=2006
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Update 6: UNC Attack Suspect Wanted to Punish Gov't
By STEVE HARTSOE , 03.06.2006, 07:19 PM
A University of North Carolina graduate accused of running down nine people on campus told an emergency dispatcher he wanted to "punish the government of the United States for their actions around the world," according to a 911 recording released Monday.
Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a 22-year-old native of Iran, called 911 to surrender Friday a few minutes after a sport utility vehicle sent students scurrying to escape. No one was seriously hurt.
Taheri-azar was later charged with nine counts of attempted murder and nine counts of assault, and his bail was set at $5.5 million.
University Police Chief Derek Poarch said Taheri-azar told investigators he intentionally hit people to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world."
At his first appearance Monday in Orange County court in Hillsborough, Taheri-azar told the judge he planned to represent himself and was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah." He was assigned a public defender, but ignored the lawyer's advice to stop talking.
"In this case, they're gonna ultimately allow him to represent himself," District Attorney Jim Woodall said after the hearing. "It's clear to me that that's what he truly wants to do."
Taheri-azar spoke politely when he called emergency dispatchers.
"Yes, sir. I just hit several people with a vehicle," Taheri-azar said on the recording. "Right now, I'm standing, you can come arrest me."
Taheri-azar graduated from North Carolina in December after studying psychology and philosophy. Investigators believe he has spent most of his life in the United States, Poarch has said.
On campus, UNC students held what they called an "anti-terrorism" rally on Monday.
"We don't want terrorism here, and we're not gonna stand for that where we live and where we go to school," said Kris Wampler, a member of the College Republicans, which helped organize the rally.
About 50 students attended, including a group of Muslim students who debated with organizers and said Taheri-azar had not been linked to any terrorist group.
"When you think of terms of a global context, this was an isolated incident," said Khurram Bilal Tariq, a 22-year-old junior.
The Muslim Students Association, which criticized the university's student newspaper last month for publishing a cartoon that depicted the Prophet Muhammad, has said Taheri-azar was not a member of the group and denounced his alleged actions.
Stephen Mann, an 18-year-old freshman, said he wasn't singling out Islam. He said a driver of any religion who did what Taheri-azar is accused of should be called a terrorist.
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/03/06/ap2574424.html
Much neded rainfall on the way
Story by Blake Smith (Contact)
7:09 a.m. Monday, March 6, 2006
After some weekend rain, it looks like the area gets a chance to dry out Monday. Lots of sunshine, light winds, and warm highs... right around 65 degrees.
Seven-day forecast
A warm front approaches from the west tomorrow and could spark strong to severe storms during the afternoon Tuesday and again on Wednesday.
The mornings should start with lots of sunshine though.
Gusty winds accompany the storms and wind gusts could be around 35 mph.
Another chance for storms comes in for the end of the work week.
Through it all, highs remain around 60 degrees
http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2006/mar/06/much_needed_rainfall_way/
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US reports strong earthquake in Indian Ocean
www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-07 08:41:42
LOS ANGELES, March 6 (Xinhuanet) -- A strong temblor of magnitude 6.2 hit Mid-Indian Ocean at 11:13 local time (18:13 GMT), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported on Tuesday.
The epicenter of the quake was located at 270 kilometers southeast of the Amsterdam Island, a French colony in the Indian Ocean, the USGS said in a report.
The earthquake occurred 10 kilometers under the seabed, according to the report. Seismologists are monitoring this temblor,the USGS said. Enditem
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/07/content_4267564.htm
Over 500 California Bridges Still Need Earthquake Upgrades
More than 500 bridges in California are still waiting for upgrades deemed necessary after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Federal officials say the repairs have been delayed because the state has not come up with its share of the funding.
After the 7.1 earthquake on October 17, 1989, the state identified 1,234 local bridges that needed replacement or seismic upgrades. The federal government agreed to pay $88.50 for every $11.50 the state contributed to the project. But in 2002, the California Transportation Department stopped funding the program saying it didn’t have enough money to meet the federal match requirements.
http://www.news10.net/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=16304
Small Earthquake Shakes Southern CA. Town
March 6, 2006 8:00 a.m. EST
Christina Ficara - All Headline News Staff Reporter
Ontario, CA (AHN) - A magnitude-3.4 earthquake shakes a Southern California town early Sunday, with no damage or injuries reported.
The quake was followed hours later by a magnitude-3.7 temblor across the U.S.-Mexican border.
At 2:43 a.m., the first quake was centered three miles west of Glen Avon, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, according to a preliminary report by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The second, at 10:54 p.m., was centered 12 miles south-southwest of Calexico and 20 miles south of El Centro.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7002667341
Clinton says ``anger'' attack is in part gender-based
By BETH FOUHY
AP Political Writer
March 6, 2006, 2:12 PM EST
NEW YORK -- Responding to Republican claims that she may be too angry to win national office, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told an audience Monday to wear such criticism as "a badge of honor" and suggested that gender played a role in the attacks.
"When you run as a Democrat, and in particular, when you run as a Democratic woman, whether you're running at the local, state or national level, it's likely you're going to draw some unfriendly fire," Clinton said at a breakfast fundraiser hosted by black and Hispanic women supporters. "People will be attacking you instead of your ideas, they may impugn your patriotism, they may even say you're angry."
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--clinton-anger0306mar06,0,4893593.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Valley Mormons fast, pray for rain
By Daryl James, Tribune
March 5, 2006
Mormons from more than 400 Valley congregations will pray for rain today during a regional fast prompted by the state’s ongoing drought.
“Usually people fast for personal reasons,” said Don Evans, Arizona spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “In this case, they’re also being asked to supplicate God for moisture.”
Other denominations also will participate through the Arizona Interfaith Movement and the Arizona Ecumenical Council.
“There is no greater danger to our state currently than the effects of this drought and the subsequent danger of fire,” said T. Dennis Barney, Latterday Saints chairman of interfaith relations in Arizona.
The official gauge at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has not recorded even a trace of rain in 138 days — a Valley record.
Evans said he does not know if the lack of rain is God’s will. “All we know is that we lack moisture,” he said. “And we would like to see a break in the drought.”
He said Latter-day Saints forgo food and water during 24-hour fasts at least once a month. He said the church occasionally asks its members to unite in fasting, but he cannot remember the last time Valley congregations fasted for rain.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=60443
Abortion ban flunks logic
Jed Pressgrove
March 05, 2006
Mississippi, following the lead of South Dakota, could ban all abortions in the state.
The bill that would virtually ban abortion is heading to Mississippi's House of Representatives. A Mississippi House committee approved the bill, 19-4. The ban would only allow abortions to save the mother's life. Cases involving rape and incest would be illegal under this ban.
Having been raised in a Republican-Christian home, I understand the argument against abortion. In fact, I once opposed legal abortions in all circumstances.
However, after acquiring an elementary understanding of America's legal system, I realized the government should not ban something based on personal beliefs.
I still disagree with abortion in most instances. Yet my feelings should not undermine the importance of freedom and a stable society.
At the very least, abortions should be legal in cases of rape and incest. But this bill wouldn't allow abortions in these unfortunate situations.
Think about this rationally. After a woman conceives the child of her rapist, how is she going to feel about this child? Can we guarantee she wouldn't neglect, harm or kill the baby?
Of course not. If we don't allow raped women the right to abort, the rapist wins again. Plus, we'll have cases where raped women will try to abort their own children, causing more harm and crime.
As for incest, the chance of a baby receiving lethal genes increases with this kind of birth. This proposed ban would ignore all the women pressured into incestuous relationships. The state has no right to tell a woman to keep a child from incest. Again, making abortion illegal will produce more harm and crime in this situation.
Scientifically, the proposed ban doesn't make any sense. Sociologists often look at societies as organisms slowly adapting to their environments. Sudden changes in an environment can disrupt adaptation.
Simply, it would throw our society off-balance to abruptly ban all abortions. There should be a limit on what we do. Otherwise, our society could become unstable.
Undoubtedly, this ban, if passed, will be challenged. The case will reach the Supreme Court, and I doubt the court will support such a strict ban.
But I don't care about that. This article is for everyone who would support this bill, regardless of how long it survives.
Humans are imperfect. We don't know when life truly begins. And women in cases of rape and incest will continue to abort their children, whether abortion is legal or not. Let's not add more people to our already flooded jails.
Instead, realize a legal precedent like an abortion ban could allow the government to take away more of our medical rights in the future.
In other words, if we force our subjective morals on the law system, we'll lose more freedom. You better believe that.
http://www.reflector-online.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/05/440b1d6a77a95
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The Pellicano Brief
Pakistani Nurse Raped for Refusing to Carry Out Abortions
Punjab, Pakistan (LifeNews.com) -- A nurse who refused to perform illegal abortions in Pakistan has become the victim of an alleged gang rape. Authorities say 26-year-old Rubina Kousar was attacked by three men who burst into her lodgings at a rural health center in the western Punjab last Wednesday. Three men have been arrested in connection with the crime, but they deny that they were the ones responsible. Kousar told the press, “I was constantly put under pressure over the course of six months to carry out illegal abortions on two women but I refused. And so revenge was taken.” Kousar added, “They have threatened my family with dire consequences if we do not settle this. But this is not the past when we can get pushed around. God will give me the courage to fight them.” In Pakistan, abortion is illegal except when the life of the mother is at risk. The attack on Kousar has sparked a firestorm of controversy over the treatment of rape victims in Pakistan.
Australian Couples Travel to U.S. for Embryo Gender Screening
Canberra, Australia (LifeNews.com) -- Wealthy Australians who are actually fertile are traveling to the U.S. for in vitro fertilization treatment in order to select the gender of their babies. Published reports say they're spending as much as $25,000 for a controversial embryo gender screening procedure that's been banned in Australia. News Limited newspapers say a California fertility center has performed the high-tech process on about 14 couples from Australia. The procedure is believed to be 99 percent accurate. During the IVF procedure, a cell is extracted from the embryos to determine the gender. By coming to the U.S., Australians can skirt the Australian laws banning sex selection.
Pro-Life Advocates Picket Amnesty International in Belfast
Belfast, Ireland (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life advocates have been picketing an Amnesty International meeting at Queen’s University in Belfast. The pro-life group known as Precious Life is calling on Amnesty International to actively campaign on behalf of the unborn child. The human rights organization is perhaps best known for its campaigns against capital punishment. Precious Life says that if Amnesty begins campaigning for abortion as a human right, it will be opposing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The organization is reportedly consulting its members to determine its future policy on abortion. Director Patrick Corrigan was quoted as saying that Amnesty cannot work on “sexual reproductive rights” without discussing the issue of abortion, and is now working to develop a policy position regarding the issue. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Precious Life, Bernie Smyth, was quoted as saying that abortion can never be described as a right. “Abortion is a needless act of violence that kills babies and hurts women,” Smyth said. Numerous studies indicate that women can suffer serious physical and emotional complications from abortion.
Arkansas Governor Supports South Dakota-like Abortion Ban
Little Rock, AR (LifeNews.com) -- Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he supports the kind of abortion ban passed by South Dakota lawmakers. The South Dakota bill would ban all abortions except in order to save the life of the mother. South Dakota legislators passed the bill in a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling which legalized abortion. But pro-life groups nationwide disagree about whether the timing is right for the legal challenge, given the current composition of the high court. Huckabee says he always felt that Roe was “illegitimate.” The Arkansas Governor notes that the South Dakota law is similar to a part of the Arkansas Constitution that isn't being enforced because of Roe. Huckabee suggested that he would accept legal exceptions for rape and incest, but he noted, “Accept is a better word than support.” Huckabee added that cases involving rape and incest account for only about one percent of the abortions that are performed. Huckabee, the chairman of the National Governors Association, is hosting the group's winter meeting in Washington.
Charges Filed for Selling of Body Parts in New York, Philadelphia
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- One district attorney called it “something out of a cheap horror movie.” He's referring to a case in which the owner of a biomedical supply house and three others have been charged with selling human body parts for use in transplants. Investigators say the defendants earned millions of dollars forging death certificates and organ donor consent forms to make it look like the bones, skin, tendons, and heart valves they obtained from bodies from funeral homes had been obtained legally. The case marks the first set of charges to emerge from a scandal involving hundreds of bodies, including that of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004. Some of the body parts could conceivably spread disease to transplant patients. The bodies reportedly came from funeral homes in New York City, Rochester, Philadelphia, and New Jersey that contracted with the Brooklyn funeral parlor for embalming. The Food and Drug Administration recently closed Biomedical Tissue Services, noting that the company had failed to screen for contaminated tissue. The FDA said patients who received the company's products could have been exposed to disease, although the risk might be minimal.
http://www.lifenews.com/nat2124.html
Kuwait passes new law easing freedom of press
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Kuwait's Parliament Monday passed a new press law banning the imprisonment of journalists without a final court ruling and allowing new newspapers to publish for the first time in three decades. All 53 MPs present at a session of the house, including Cabinet ministers, voted in favor of the legislation, which was described by lawmakers as a key reform measure.
Kuwaiti governments have since the mid-1970s imposed a total ban on issuing licenses for new newspapers, and journalists could hitherto be jailed while under investigation for an alleged offense.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=22741
Belarus candidate charged with hooliganism
ISN SECURITY WATCH (Monday, 6 March: 10.00 CET) – Prosecutors in Belarus have opened a criminal investigation against an opposition candidate who is challenging President Aleksandar Lukashenko in 19 March elections, charging him with “malicious hooliganism”.
Aleksandar Kozulin, who was allegedly beaten and briefly detained by security forces last Thursday, has been charged with smashing a portrait of Lukashenka while in detention at a police station.
He is also accused of trying to stage an unsanctioned news conference.
In a Sunday statement, the prosecution said Kozulin could face a maximum sentence of six years in prison for “malicious hooliganism”.
The international community and human rights groups have condemned Kozulin’s arrest and urged the government to guarantee the personal safety of all presidential candidates.
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=14983
DeLay faces midterm primary vote
Mr DeLay has fought a vigorous local campaign
Embattled Republican Tom DeLay faces US voters for the first time since his indictment last year, as primaries for 2006's midterm polls begin in Texas.
Mr DeLay, the former House leader who is accused in a campaign finance case, faces three rivals bidding to be the Republican candidate for his district.
The Texas primaries, votes held to pick party candidates, are the first in any state ahead of the 7 November midterms.
The main election has the potential to reshape the US political landscape.
In Congress, all 435 members of the House of Representatives face the voters along with one third of the 100 members of the US Senate.
There are also 36 races for state governorships which are often keenly watched to see if they throw up likely presidential candidates.
Republicans have controlled both chambers of Congress since 1994, except for a brief time when Democrats held the Senate.
But with President George W Bush suffering in the polls and the Republican party on the defensive over corruption scandals, Democrats have hopes of making gains.
Low turnout predicted
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4780492.stm
OPEC Ministers Likely to Keep Output Steady
From the Associated Press
March, 6 2006
With oil prices still above $60 a barrel, OPEC ministers probably will keep output steady when they meet this week to set strategies for the spring and early summer.
A warmer-than-usual winter in the U.S. has built inventories, which should drive prices lower. But worries about supply disruptions from such countries as Iran are keeping prices high.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-preview6mar06,1,4562264.story?coll=la-headlines-business
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Taxi safety under review following latest attack
February 27, 2006 - 01:05 pm
By: 570 News
After three stabbings in a month, cab drivers in Waterloo Region have reason to be concerned.
The latest attack happened outside The Keg on Pinebush Road in Cambridge on Friday night.
The driver was attacked by a man armed with a meat clever.
Dave Brubacher says all companies will be reviewing safety measures in the wake of this latest attack.
The chair of the Waterloo Region Taxi Association says some cabs already have GPS and panic buttons.
http://www.570news.com/news/local/article.jsp?content=20060227_130522_5292
Taxis want $1m safety taskforce
13feb06
THE recent murder of a taxi driver and subsequent assaults on drivers has prompted the taxi industry to demand the NSW Government urgently establish a taxi safety taskforce.
Transport Minister John Watkins yesterday said the Government would consider any proposal that could improve taxi driver safety, after a driver was punched in the head and had his keys stolen.
It was the fifth attack on a cabbie in two weeks, including the murder of disabled driver Youbert Hormozi, who was bashed and left for dead.
NSW Taxi Drivers' Association (TDA) president Michael Jools said the Government should allocate $1 million from the $7.5-million taxi advisory committee fund to set up a taxi safety taskforce.
"The current media focus reports on assaults, bashings, armed robberies and murder as new and unusual," Mr Jools said.
"The reality is that these events are not new or unusual."
"Taxi drivers are constantly and daily at risk. What starts as a fare evasion may finish as a runner; but sometimes it finishes as a murder."
"It's time to spend taxi drivers' money on taxi drivers' safety."
The TDA represents 22,000 cabbies.
Comment was being sought from the Government.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18129080%255E1702,00.html
Proposal to limit fare hike
BY WILLIAM MURPHY
STAFF WRITER
March 6, 2006
While the city of Long Beach is proposing a $1 increase in taxi fares, two City Council members are suggesting that the current fare remain in force from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. to discourage bar patrons from drinking and driving.
The increase, which would not apply to senior citizens, would raise the minimum fare per passenger to $4.50 and the maximum to $5.50, depending on how far someone is carried within the city limits, according to a proposal to be presented to the city council at its meeting tomorrow night.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-licabs064652904mar06,0,2613448.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
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Wal-Mart bows to pressure to sell morning-after pill in US
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Monday March 6, 2006
The Guardian
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has reversed its opposition to the morning-after pill and agreed to sell it in 3,700 pharmacies. The decision follows a successful campaign against the retailer in Illinois and Massachusetts, which enacted laws requiring pharmacists to fill prescriptions for the emergency contraceptive.
Last week, the attorney general of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, turned up the pressure when he said the state would no longer extend its insurance plan for its 188,000 employees to cover prescriptions filled at Wal-Mart unless the chain agreed to stock the pills.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1724302,00.html
Fairhope Residents Against Proposed Wal-Mart Store
March 6, 2006, 12:09 AM EST
Hundreds of protesters joined hands in a demonstration against a proposed Wal-Mart on the outskirts of Fairhope over the weekend.
Wal-Mart plans a supercenter about two miles from downtown Fairhope, but protesters say that's too close and could destroy the city's "village" lifestyle.
Organizers estimated up to 1,000 protesters joined hands at the demonstration.
Wal-Mart has a building permit from the city for its supercenter. The Fairhope City Council plans a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday with engineers to response to complaints about potential traffic and drainage issues.
Louis McGrath and his wife, Barbara, oppose the project, saying Wal-Mart's bright lights would shine on their backyard.
Wanda Moseley, a sales associate at Wal-Mart's nearby Daphne store, drove her car on the highway lined with protesters. In the back seat, her 13-year-old son and his friend held signs that said: "Wal-Mart is coming, so live with it."
Says Moseley: "They got reasonable prices and we need more jobs in Fairhope for teenagers."
http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4588443&nav=0RdE
Wal-Mart to hire ethics czar
Associated Press
Wal-Mart Stores plans to hire a director of global ethics, a restructured position aimed at ensuring that the retailer's code of conduct is applied across a growing global network of more than 6,200 stores and 1.6 million employees in 15 countries, the company said last week.
The job advertisement comes a year after embarrassing revelations that Wal-Mart's No. 2 executive, Tom Coughlin, had been pilfering company money and goods for years.
Coughlin pleaded guilty Jan. 31 to fraud and tax charges for stealing money, gift cards and merchandise from the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer.
Wal-Mart also faces a class-action lawsuit in California claiming it had discriminated against female employees, and it is a repeated target of ethics allegations by organized labor and other critics.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark said the ethics post was previously held by someone who had other responsibilities.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3700786.html
Wal-Mart recalls Great Value milk
Safety Alert: Foul Odor Reported
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin is asking consumers to check their refrigerators for two kinds of milk sold at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.
The commissioner's request follows Wal-Mart's announcement that it has pulled milk from its shelves after receiving complaints about it having a foul odor.
The two kinds of pulled milk are Great Value brand vitamin D milk, gallon, 128 fluid ounces and Great Value reduced fat 2 percent milk, gallon, 128 fluid ounces. Both kinds have a "sell by" code of "07MAR" with a manufacturing plant code No. 13-300. Codes are located on the shoulder of the plastic gallon container.
"This is a voluntary product withdrawal issued by Wal-Mart on Feb. 24 for both Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs in the affected area; primarily middle Georgia and south Georgia," Irvin said.
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20060305/localnews/73652.shtml
Wal-Mart CEO peaks to governors
Sunday, Mar 5, 2006
By Roby Brock
One week ago, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told the National Governors Association that he needed help to make health care more affordable and accessible for the retail giant's 1.3 million U.S. employees because the company "can't do it alone." Scott said Wal-Mart would extend the company's health care coverage to children of employees, reduce wait time for enrolling in its plans, and expand a pilot program of in-store health clinics. He also asked for cooperation between government and industry in addressing health care system reforms.
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2006/03/05/RobyBrock/334719.html
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Corporate Confidential
The most irresponsible book I have ever heard of. It promotes corporate discrimination and violence against women. Anderson Cooper is a blight on his generation taking away rights rather than advocating for them. This after spot lighting Bigotry. What a bunch of jerks.
This author should be FIRED !!!!
The Author
Cynthia Shapiro is a sought-after workplace coach, employee advisor, and career expert. She offers personalized coaching, workplace issue resolution, HR training, and group workshops.
Her uniquely fresh approach to workplace advice has been featured in Entrepreneur, Redbook, and 44 national newspapers including the Seattle Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Miami Herald, and New York Newsday. Her reputation for resolving complex and daunting workplace issues into an opportunity for higher success has earned her the nickname "The Work Dr."
http://www.corporateconfidential.com/theauthor/index.php4
BAN THE BOOK !!!!!!!!!! Intimidation tactics, Anderson? Want a jerk. If it were up to you the Walmart employees would be living in shakles.
It victimizes people and that is the agenda this show promotes. Victimization and intimidation. It's media pollution. I tell you what, Anderson, if you want to scare teh workforce into being submissive, the one sure way of giving that incentive is to PAY THEM enough to make it worthfor them to look the other way. With the wages the American workforce makes these days they don't care if they file a a lawsuit. They can go down the road and make the same wage and it it is a company other than Walmart, they might actually have benefits. Anderson your programming is a waste of time.
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Monday, March 6, 2006
I was hoping someone would do something about this issue in a dignified manner.
I don't know about the Nancy Grace bashing either. A dead fiancee' is a big deal in anyone's life. There are those that don't find that type of happiness again. It is good of her to still call on his life and the fact she still moarns for him 27 years later. However, she should realize the 'content' of her program is a reaction to others and not necessarily a tribute to a long lost love. She might need to work on her approach to honoring him rather than seeing him as a promotion to her cause. At any rate this article in the L.A. Times contextualizes 'the view' at and about cable news. I appreciated the effort put forward here. Thank you.
Regarding Media
Cable's fall from Grace
March 4, 2006
From serious to desperate
For people who think serious journalism is to be valued, this has been a melancholy week, marked by the passing from the scene of two authentic visionaries. One was The Times' former publisher, Otis Chandler — who, along with two equally visionary editors, Nick Williams Sr. and Bill Thomas — transformed this paper into one of international standing and showed print journalism the way forward in an era increasingly saturated with television. The other was CNN founder Ted Turner, who finally quit Time Warner's board in disgust, severing all ties to the cable news operations he virtually willed into being in the face of universal skepticism and outright scorn.
Turner has a loose lip and an unsteady personality, but he never wavered in his belief that serious news has a place on television. The same cannot be said of the corporate apparatchiks now running CNN and CNN Headline and cringing before Fox News' success. They're the ones who have unleashed Grace on their Headline network and defaced CNN's regular report with things like Jack Cafferty's bizarre and incoherently histrionic intrusions into the afternoon news and the increasingly demagogic Lou Dobbs' second rate imitations of a Howard Beale rant.
These desperate acts have been triggered by CNN's inability to come even close to matching Fox in the ratings. The commercial genius of Rupert Murdoch's network, of course, resides in Roger Ailes' intuition that the talk radio model could be transferred to television, thereby avoiding the expense of real reporting while cultivating viewers with a taste for conservative partisanship and, more important, entertainment. Murdoch and his accomplices clearly understand that one of the more disturbing characteristics of the current cultural moment is the insistence of so many people that they have an unalienable right to be entertained during their every waking moment, no matter what they're doing. (It's probably only a matter of time until patients require that their heart surgeons tap dance into the operating room.)
We verge these days on becoming a trivial people.
In a talk to a college audience in Oregon this week, former CNN anchor Aaron Brown mused that cable news has proceeded from promise to decadence because "it is only giving consumers what they want." According to the Ashland Mail Tribune's account of his remarks, Brown said that "CNN spent a fortune covering the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. After two weeks, 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."
Thus, we have Nancy Grace, indefatigable pursuer of missing white women and "host" of a show that — over the past year — has boosted CNN Headline's audience in her time slot by 181% to just over 600,000. That's still roughly 1.5 million fewer viewers than O'Reilly has for cable news' top-rated show.
The conventional response to all this is simply to shrug and attribute it all to the irrepressible venality of frightened corporate executives. The problem there is that you can't have opportunists without opportunity.
Brown put his finger on the responsibility for creating that opportunity this week, when he said, "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."
Let's do something really entertaining. Let's imagine that the real — well, really fictional — Howard Beale were presented with Grace, O'Reilly and the whole wretchedly dispiriting direction of cable news. It's hard to envision him saying anything, except:
"I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell:
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
Regarding Media
Cable's fall from Grace
March 4, 2006
From serious to desperate
For people who think serious journalism is to be valued, this has been a melancholy week, marked by the passing from the scene of two authentic visionaries. One was The Times' former publisher, Otis Chandler — who, along with two equally visionary editors, Nick Williams Sr. and Bill Thomas — transformed this paper into one of international standing and showed print journalism the way forward in an era increasingly saturated with television. The other was CNN founder Ted Turner, who finally quit Time Warner's board in disgust, severing all ties to the cable news operations he virtually willed into being in the face of universal skepticism and outright scorn.
Turner has a loose lip and an unsteady personality, but he never wavered in his belief that serious news has a place on television. The same cannot be said of the corporate apparatchiks now running CNN and CNN Headline and cringing before Fox News' success. They're the ones who have unleashed Grace on their Headline network and defaced CNN's regular report with things like Jack Cafferty's bizarre and incoherently histrionic intrusions into the afternoon news and the increasingly demagogic Lou Dobbs' second rate imitations of a Howard Beale rant.
These desperate acts have been triggered by CNN's inability to come even close to matching Fox in the ratings. The commercial genius of Rupert Murdoch's network, of course, resides in Roger Ailes' intuition that the talk radio model could be transferred to television, thereby avoiding the expense of real reporting while cultivating viewers with a taste for conservative partisanship and, more important, entertainment. Murdoch and his accomplices clearly understand that one of the more disturbing characteristics of the current cultural moment is the insistence of so many people that they have an unalienable right to be entertained during their every waking moment, no matter what they're doing. (It's probably only a matter of time until patients require that their heart surgeons tap dance into the operating room.)
We verge these days on becoming a trivial people.
In a talk to a college audience in Oregon this week, former CNN anchor Aaron Brown mused that cable news has proceeded from promise to decadence because "it is only giving consumers what they want." According to the Ashland Mail Tribune's account of his remarks, Brown said that "CNN spent a fortune covering the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. After two weeks, 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."
Thus, we have Nancy Grace, indefatigable pursuer of missing white women and "host" of a show that — over the past year — has boosted CNN Headline's audience in her time slot by 181% to just over 600,000. That's still roughly 1.5 million fewer viewers than O'Reilly has for cable news' top-rated show.
The conventional response to all this is simply to shrug and attribute it all to the irrepressible venality of frightened corporate executives. The problem there is that you can't have opportunists without opportunity.
Brown put his finger on the responsibility for creating that opportunity this week, when he said, "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."
Let's do something really entertaining. Let's imagine that the real — well, really fictional — Howard Beale were presented with Grace, O'Reilly and the whole wretchedly dispiriting direction of cable news. It's hard to envision him saying anything, except:
"I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell:
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
Aaron certainly knows how to get attention. Do it, Aaron. People are hungry for it.
EX-CNN ANCHOR BROWN: "THE NEWS IN THIS COUNTRY IS A BUSINESS"Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown has suggested that television viewers are responsible for the deterioration of broadcast news as much as the TV networks themselves. "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 told an audience in Medford, OR this week. As reported by the Medford Mail Tribune, Brown, speaking to a First Amendment forum, noted that while CNN was spending a fortune covering the 2004 tsunami, Fox News was channeling its resources into the missing teenager Natalee Holloway. The contest, he noted, was won hands down by Fox. The result, he suggested, was not lost on his former employer, CNN. "The news in this country is a business," he said. "You might not like to think of it that way, but it is." He suggested that television, instead of being diverted by scores of late-breaking trivial stories, ought to focus on the 6-10 "really important stories" that occur each day.
HOLOWAY CASE PULLS BIG RATINGSThe Natalee Holoway case continues to attract viewers in massive numbers. According to an analysis of Nielsen ratings, last Thursdays Primetime Live, which featured an interview with Joran Van Der Sloot, the Dutch teenager who is the prime suspect in the case, drew its highest ratings in three years. And on Wednesday of this week, Greta Van Susteren's interview with Van Der Sloot on Fox News Chennel brought her the highest ratings among 25-54-year-olds than any cable news personality, including the usual champ, Bill O'Reilly.
HOLOWAY CASE PULLS BIG RATINGSThe Natalee Holoway case continues to attract viewers in massive numbers. According to an analysis of Nielsen ratings, last Thursdays Primetime Live, which featured an interview with Joran Van Der Sloot, the Dutch teenager who is the prime suspect in the case, drew its highest ratings in three years. And on Wednesday of this week, Greta Van Susteren's interview with Van Der Sloot on Fox News Chennel brought her the highest ratings among 25-54-year-olds than any cable news personality, including the usual champ, Bill O'Reilly.
I mean really hungry
Anderson Cooper gets his Mardi Gras on
More Anderson Cooper
Hey, we didn't know Anderson Cooper was such a wild and crazy guy. Look at him rockin' out in his CNN Mardi Gras beads!
We just can't wait to see that video from the Coopster float we bet so many guys took off their shirts for him.
Recently, Oprah has been doing lots of interviews with Anderson Cooper, and she has done many projects with him. A rumor is going around that Oprah and Anderson Cooper are going to be making a movie together.
This is typical conservative backlash. It would seem as though Aaron touched a nerve.
Former CNN Anchor Aaron Brown Blames Public For Decline of TV News
Posted by Noel Sheppard on March 4, 2006 - 11:19.
It appears former CNN anchor Aaron Brown is still licking his wounds. Speaking to a group in Medford, Oregon, on Wednesday, Brown suggested that the decline in television news is due to the choices being made by viewers, and that network executives are now basing their content decisions on what they believe the public wants to see versus what is really important.
As reported by the Medford Mail Tribune: “‘The news in this country is a business,’ he added. ‘You might not like to think of it that way, but it is."
First, Brown blamed TV executives:
“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.”
Then, Brown blamed the public:
“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.”
Brown used an example from 2004 to make his case:
“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.”
Of course, Brown didn’t mention that most Fox News programs are more highly rated than their CNN rivals, or the possibility that the reason Fox News “cleaned up” in his example is that CNN has been losing viewers for years.
Regardless, Brown had a solution:
“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.”
Certainly, nobody in America would disagree with Brown’s desire for CNN to focus on reporting important stories well, especially devotees of the MRC and this website.
As one would imagine, Brown took the opportunity to offer an explanation for his own failure at CNN: “He suggested his eventual demise at CNN resulted from criticizing the network’s obsession with lurid celebrity gossip while short-changing meaningful news.”
Brown also made an interesting analogy concerning the TV networks’ fascination with such trivialities: “He compared such ‘breaking news’ to heroin — it’s good for a while, but will eventually make you feel used and dirty.”
There is some delicious irony in this observation by Brown, for I normally feel used and dirty after watching CNN, especially when he was the host.
(The Drudge Report deserves a hat tip for this report, as does the CBSNews Blog for providing a link to the Mail Tribune article.)
Friday, March 3, 2006
People never seem to lose sight of those that become a part of their daily lves.
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."
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."
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
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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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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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Commercials
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
commercial
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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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