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.
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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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If hydrocarbons are renewable- then is "Peak Oil" a fraud?Are hydrocarbons "renewable"- and if so- what does such a conclusion mean for the future of the world's oil and natural gas supplies?
The question is critical due to the enormous amount of coverage the issue of "Peak Oil" is receiving from the mainstream press. If the supply of hydrocarbons is renewable- then the contrary to the conventional wisdom being touted throughout the mainstream press today- the world is NOT running out of oil.
Unbeknownst to Westerners, the... (more)
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Can’t Happen HereI thought Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here and Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale are the works of fiction envisioning the dystopian American society in a militant-fascist regime, but these novels have the self-fulfilling prophecy of George Orwell’s iconic masterwork 1984 [“Iraq in Utah,” Aug. 25, City Weekly].
The heavy-handed and brutish military-style raid in the name of drug prevention is the epitome of de ... (more)
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12-Hour Party PeopleTrudy Childs recalls rubbing her wrists and wincing in agony. No stranger to pain, the 52-year-old rheumatoid arthritis sufferer could barely tolerate the zip tags Utah County Sheriff’s deputies used to keep her in line. An unsympathetic officer congratulated Childs on an “Emmy-winning performance,” laughing as his colleagues—close to 90 law-enforcement officials, including Provo City police and a Utah Department of Corrections SWAT squad—cleared out hundreds of peo... (more)
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Newton says he got caught up in 'business as usual' on HillState Rep. Chris Newton pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday and called for the end of the "corruptive influence of money in politics" — while a chorus of voices across the state grew louder in its calls for Newton to resign from office immediately.
The Republican from Cleveland, Tenn., admitted in federal court here that he was guilty of bribery and extortion, becoming the only one of five sitting or former state lawmakers to reverse his plea to guilty in the Operation... (more)
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Man dies after Martin deputies fire Taser at himA 31-year-old Port Salerno man died early Saturday after being arrested and possibly shot twice with a Taser stun gun, Martin County Sheriff's Office reported.
Brian Lichtenstein had been out of Palm Beach County Jail for four days and was in the midst of a three-day crack-cocaine binge when sheriff deputies found him Friday night running naked through woods near Riverland Mobile Home Park in Stuart, according to the incident report.
Lichtenstein screamed, "Leave me... (more)
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'Terror' suspects in photos blunderANTI-TERROR cops swooped on three asylum seekers because they were taking photos near the Celtic Manor, we can reveal.
The men, two aged 20 and one aged 26, were arrested under the Terrorism Act by Gwent Police on Thursday but released without charge on Friday night. They had been detained following reports of suspicious activity in the Chepstow Road area of Newport. They are believed to have been near the five-star resort taking pictures.
Dave Phillips, chief execu... (more)
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Black box catches bad driving on filmIt's bad news for boy racers: Big Brother is watching you - and so are your parents on a new in-car video camera that records how motorists drive.
The palm-sized device, to be launched in Britain this month, is fixed to the windshield beneath the rear-view mirror and captures any dangerous or erratic driving.
Parents can then download the colour footage onto a computer to see - and hear - how their children behave behind the wheel.
The $2,100 camera, ... (more)
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Huge rise in child drinking revealed by NHSThe number of children buying alcohol illegally in shops and pubs is rising and the amount children drink in a week has doubled in 15 years, an NHS survey shows.
Campaigners fear that the problem can only worsen as thousands of licensed premises apply for extended hours under the Government's relaxation of the law.
They predict a rise in binge-drinking among teenagers and a growth in the problem of noisy and violent town centres on Friday and Saturday nights.
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HP to invest $150 Million in RFIDIf radio frequency identification (RFID) technology grows at the breathtaking clip so many are projecting, Hewlett-Packard wants to make sure it doesn't miss being out in front. It's been behind the curve before, and doesn't want to be there again.
The Palo-Alto, Calif.-based company is dedicating the bulk of a September technology forum to demonstrating RFID chips it is developing with partner Hitachi, giving attendees a first-hand showcase of the next-generation bar coding techn... (more)
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Nagin: White House ignores pleas to save New Orleans; helicopters diverted8:07 pm CDT -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has given a remarkable interview to WWL TV, broadcast on wwltv.com. Nagin said that the National Guard's Blackhawk helicopter carrying the sandbags to plug the hole in the levee on 17th St. Canal was diverted to rescue misssions.
Nagin said he called the governor, and that he and other state and local officials are unsuccesfully trying to get through to the White House to ask if the people in Washington know what they're doing.
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