Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?PHILADELPHIA Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans late on Tuesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct... (more)
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Homeland Disaster: Natl. Guard Watches Helplessly from AfarAs the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina's damage to Louisiana and Mississippi overwhelms families, aid agencies, and news coverage, we will do well to remember one group of people truly caught in the middle: the 6,000 National Guardsmen from Louisiana and Mississippi serving in Iraq right now.
See this story about one unit from Lousiana.
"Lieutenant Colonel Jordan Jones says he and his fellow soldiers have been following the events on television and trying desperately... (more)
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New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding.
It would be the largest single-year funding loss ever for the New Orleans district, Corps officials said.
I've been here over 30 years and I've never seen this level of reduction, said Al Naomi, project manager for the New Orleans district. I think part of the problem is it's not so much the reduction, it's the drasti... (more)
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Why the Levee BrokeEven though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters continued to rise in New Orleans on Wednesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until until it's level with the massive lake.
There have been numerous reports of bodies floating in the poorest neighborhoods of this p... (more)
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FEMA Directing Donations To Rev. Pat RobertsonSPLOID EXCLUSIVE: FEMA is directing Katrina donations to none other than the Rev. Pat Robertson …
Millions of Americans and people around the world have rushed to donate money to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which is shaping up to be one of the worst U.S. disasters in history, if not the worst.
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is the lead federal agency in the rescue & recovery operation at work in New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf coast... (more)
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Stories of heartbreak and hope in Katrina's wakeDoctors told me that while trying to evacuate critical patients from Charity Hospital in New Orleans, two of the evacuation vehicles came under fire. The doctors said they were able to get all but one of the patients out of the hospital.
Who was shooting at these vehicles? The doctor I spoke to had no idea. He said a person in a white shirt from a high building started firing upon them as they were trying to evacuate.
Charity Hospital is one of the bigger hospitals ... (more)
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BUSH TWANGS ..WHILE NEW ORLEANS SINKSIN a picture sure to strike a sour note with the American public, President Bush strums a guitar for the cameras - as New Orleans sinks below the waves.
Mr Bush was at Coronado Naval Base in Texas with entertainer Mark Wills as Hurricane Katrina's 145mph winds killed hundreds on the the Gulf Coast when he committed the PR blunder.
Mr Bush finally cut short his holiday in Texas by two days to fly to Washington when the scale of the disaster became clear. He was spurr... (more)
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China faces water crisisI understand water issues. I know how ecosystems work, and how easily they break down.
And they are breaking down. They are breaking down all over the world. There is a global crisis in biodiversity. We are losing species at a rate we have never seen before. I care about our future, and I am worried.
This summer, I helped lead a group of talented students to China. We went to China to explore the role of agriculture and other factors causing some of the worst water ... (more)
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State stops paying for Viagra, sex changesThe state of Minnesota is quietly getting out of the business of paying for three controversial treatments that affect the sex lives or sex organs of low-income patients.
Starting today, the state will no longer cover routine circumcisions, unless "required by religious practice," under its insurance plans for 670,000 low-income Minnesotans, according to the Department of Human Services.
It's also dropping coverage of Viagra and other impotence drugs.
... (more)
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Parasites brainwash grasshoppers into death diveA parasitic worm that makes the grasshopper it invades jump into water and commit suicide does so by chemically influencing its brain, a study of the insects’ proteins reveal.
The parasitic Nematomorph hairworm (Spinochordodes tellinii) develops inside land-dwelling grasshoppers and crickets until the time comes for the worm to transform into an aquatic adult. Somehow mature hairworms brainwash their hosts into behaving in way they never usually would – causing them to... (more)
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News Corp takeover of MySpace could be hit by lawsuitRupert Murdoch's plans for world domination of the internet have hit a snag, with news that shareholders in MySpace.com owner Intermix Media have launched a lawsuit to try to stop its $580m (£321m) takeover by News Corporation.
The suit has been filed by lawyers Kreindler & Kreindler in Los Angeles, and alleges that the directors of Intermix, owner of MySpace.com, engineered the sale to News Corp so that it benefited themselves at the expense of public shareholders.... (more)
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'Times-Picayune' Blog/Forum Reveals True Horror of Disaster Today While the world, and the media, focus on major developments involving thousands of victims in New Orleans, individual horror stories -- and cries for help -- just get lost. The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, from the onset of the catastrophe, has managed to provide blogs, forums, and bulletin boards for readers to seek help or information. But this morning, the pleadings at one forum turned absolutely chilling. Here are a few samples from past few hours on Thursday (updated here from the top).... (more)
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Growing Fears Of International Energy Crisis… President George W. Bush on Thursday promised the US government would do everything possible to alleviate the chaos and suffering that has enveloped New Orleans and the Gulf coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but acknowledged that federal and local authorities had not been prepared for the catastrophe.
As efforts continued to evacuate the flood-stricken city, which has been wracked by looting and other crime, Mr Bush said: “I don't think anybody anticipated the breach ... (more)
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Trapped in an Arena of SufferingA 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers.
The Louisiana Superdome, once a mighty testament to architecture and ingenuity, became the biggest storm shelter in New Orleans the day before Katrina's arrival Monday. About 16,000 people eventually settled in.
By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. A few hundred people were evacuated from the arena Wednesday, an... (more)
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Katrina: NBC News Hires Private Security For New Orleans Crews; "We've Never Been In A Situation Domestically Like This""NBC News has sent private security personnel to the increasingly dicey Gulf Coast region to help keep its employees safe while covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," THR's Paul Gough reports.
"The private security officers, usually former soldiers or police, are licensed to carry firearms and are trained to keep the situation under control so that journalists can do their jobs ... (more)
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Gas Prices SoarGas prices jumped at stations around the country today as gasoline futures surged and crude prices rose in the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which flooded refineries, shut pipelines and slashed U.S. fuel production by more than 10 percent.
Pump prices rose to just under $6 a gallon at some retail outlets in the south. CNN showed footage of a gas station in Georgia advertising regular gas for $5.87 a gallon.
According to GasPriceWatch.com, which tracks r... (more)
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Federal government wasn't ready for Katrina, disaster experts sayThe federal government so far has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina, former top federal, state and local disaster chiefs said Wednesday.
The experts, including a former Bush administration disaster response manager, told Knight Ridder that the government wasn't prepared, scrimped on storm spending and shifted its attention from dealing with natural disasters to fighting the global war on terrorism.
... (more)
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Police cite motorists who leave cars idlingDaytona Beach Police have handed out 61 citations to people who left their cars idling at local convenience stores and gas stations while they went inside.
The citations include a $71.50 fine.
The campaign conducted Monday was designed to crack down on auto thefts, which can occur in the couple of seconds it takes to buy that morning cup of coffee. It takes two seconds to remove the keys from the ignition, police said, while about 145 hours of time is wasted when a ... (more)
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Secrecy Veils China's Jailing of a JournalistFor the more than 11 months that he has been incarcerated, Zhao Yan has been held in one of the darkest corners of China's legal system because of the accusation against him: that he leaked state secrets to his employer, The New York Times.
The accusation, which Mr. Zhao and The Times deny, deprives a defendant in China of almost all rights. Mr. Zhao still has not had a court hearing. No public explanation has been given for his arrest. He is forbidden to see his family. His lawye... (more)
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Bush Pledges Border ControlWith increasingly fierce debates over border security exposing divisions in the Republican Party, President Bush on Monday endorsed a policy of strict border enforcement.
His comments during appearances in California and Arizona were an apparent response to some state officials and conservatives in his own party who say the administration has failed to adequately address human trafficking from Mexico into the United States.
Officials in the two states have struggled... (more)
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Report Scores Runaway CEO Pay, Alleges War ProfiteeringChief executives at U.S. defense contractors have seen a 200-percent pay raise since the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, widening the chasm between compensation in the corner office and wages on the factory floor, a new report said Tuesday.
Average CEO pay--$11.8 million in salary, stock options, bonuses, and incentives--rose last year to 431 times what the average worker earned, $27,460, according to the report from the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies and Bos... (more)
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