FORT HOOD, Texas – An Army officer opened fire Thursday with two handguns at the Fort Hood military base in an attack that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman and apprehended two other soldiers in what appears to be the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base.
There was no immediate word on a motive. The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. He said all the casualties took place at the base's Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.
"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said.
A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan. The official said Hasan, believed to be in his late 30s, was killed after opening fire at the base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
A defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hasan was a mental health professional — an Army psychologist or psychiatrist. Officials say it was not clear what Hasan's religion was, but investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name or if he may have changed his name and converted to Islam at some point.
A graduation ceremony for soldiers who finished college courses while deployed was going on nearby at the time of the shooting, said Sgt. Rebekah Lampam, a Fort Hood spokeswoman.
Greg Schanepp, U.S. Rep. John Carter's regional director in Texas, was representing Carter at the graduation, said John Stone, a spokesman for Carter, whose district includes the Army post.
Schanepp was at the ceremony when a soldier who had been shot in the back came running toward him and alerted him of the shooting, Stone said. The soldier told Schanepp not to go in the direction of the shooter, he said.
The base was locked down after the shootings. The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Nine were taken to Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple. A hospital spokeswoman says all had been shot and are adults. A Fort Hood spokesman said he could not immediately confirm any identities of the injured.
Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis., says her daughter, 19-year-old Amber Bahr, was shot in the stomach but was in stable condition. "We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," Pfund told The Associated Press. She couldn't provide more details and only spoke with emergency personnel.
"I ask that all of you keep these families and these individuals in your prayers today," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said.
The shootings on the Texas military base stirred memories of other recent mass shootings in the United States, including 13 dead at a New York immigrant center in March, 10 killed during a gunman's rampage across Alabama in March and 32 killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at Virginia Tech in 2007.
Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.
"The bottom line for us is that we are increasing security at our gates because the threat hasn't yet been defined, and we're reminding our Marines to be vigilant in their areas of responsibility," said Capt. Rob Dolan, public affairs officer for the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.
In Washington, President Barack Obama called the shooting "a horrific outburst of violence." He said it's a tragedy to lose a soldier overseas and even more horrifying when they come under fire at an Army base on American soil.
"We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident," the commander in chief said. "We are going to stay on this."
Covering 339 square miles, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Home to about 52,000 troops as of earlier this year, the sprawling base is located halfway between Austin and Waco.
About a mile from Fort Hood's east gate, Cynthia Thomas, director of Under the Hood Cafe, a coffee house and outreach center, was calling soldiers and friends on the post to make sure they're OK.
"It's chaotic," Thomas said, as a SWAT team just drove by. "The phones are jammed. Everybody is calling family members and friends. Soldiers are running around with M-16s."
Fort Hood officially opened on Sept. 18, 1942, and was named in honor of Gen. John Bell Hood. It has been continuously used for armored training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Largest cruise ship squeezes under Danish bridge
KORSOER, Denmark – The world's largest cruise ship cleared a crucial obstacle Sunday, lowering its smokestacks to squeeze under a bridge in Denmark.
The Oasis of the Seas — which rises about 20 stories high — passed below the Great Belt Fixed Link with a slim margin as it left the Baltic Sea on its maiden voyage to Florida.
Bridge operators said that even after lowering its telescopic smokestacks the giant ship had less than a 2-foot (half-meter) gap.
Hundreds of people gathered on beaches at both ends of the bridge, waiting for hours to watch the brightly lit behemoth sail by shortly after midnight (2300GMT; 7 p.m. EDT).
"It was fantastic to see it glide under the bridge. Boy, it was big," said Kurt Hal, 56.
Company officials are banking that its novelty will help guarantee its success. Five times larger than the Titanic, the $1.5 billion ship has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, a small golf course and a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater. It has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members.
Accommodations include loft cabins, with floor-to-ceiling windows, and 1,600-square-foot (487-meter) luxury suites with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades.
The liner also has four swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, and a youth zone with theme parks and nurseries for children.
Oasis of the Sea, nearly 40 percent larger than the industry's next-biggest ship, was conceived years before the economic downturn caused desperate cruise lines to slash prices to fill vacant berths.
It was built by STX Finland for Royal Caribbean International and left the shipyard in Finland on Friday. Officials hadn't expected any problems in passing the Great Belt bridge, but traffic was stopped for about 15 minutes as a precaution when the ship approached, Danish navy spokesman Joergen Brand said.
Aboard the Oasis of the Seas, project manager Toivo Ilvonen of STX Finland confirmed that the ship had passed under the bridge without any incidents.
"Nothing fell off," he said.
The enormous ship features various "neighborhoods" — parks, squares and arenas with special themes. One of them will be a tropical environment, including palm trees and vines among the total 12,000 plants on board. They will be planted after the ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale.
In the stern, a 750-seat outdoor theater — modeled on an ancient Greek amphitheater — doubles as a swimming pool by day and an ocean front theater by night. The pool has a diving tower with spring boards and two 33-foot (10-meter) high-dive platforms. An indoor theater seats 1,300 guests.
One of the "neighborhoods," named Central Park, features a square with boutiques, restaurants and bars, including a bar that moves up and down three decks, allowing customers to get on and off at different levels.
Once home, the $1.5 billion floating extravaganza will have more, if less visible, obstacles to duck: a sagging U.S. economy, questions about the consumer appetite for luxury cruises and criticism that such sailing behemoths are damaging to the environment and diminish the experience of traveling.
It is due to make its U.S. debut on Nov. 20 at its home port, Port Everglades in Florida.
The Oasis of the Seas — which rises about 20 stories high — passed below the Great Belt Fixed Link with a slim margin as it left the Baltic Sea on its maiden voyage to Florida.
Bridge operators said that even after lowering its telescopic smokestacks the giant ship had less than a 2-foot (half-meter) gap.
Hundreds of people gathered on beaches at both ends of the bridge, waiting for hours to watch the brightly lit behemoth sail by shortly after midnight (2300GMT; 7 p.m. EDT).
"It was fantastic to see it glide under the bridge. Boy, it was big," said Kurt Hal, 56.
Company officials are banking that its novelty will help guarantee its success. Five times larger than the Titanic, the $1.5 billion ship has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, a small golf course and a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater. It has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members.
Accommodations include loft cabins, with floor-to-ceiling windows, and 1,600-square-foot (487-meter) luxury suites with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades.
The liner also has four swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, and a youth zone with theme parks and nurseries for children.
Oasis of the Sea, nearly 40 percent larger than the industry's next-biggest ship, was conceived years before the economic downturn caused desperate cruise lines to slash prices to fill vacant berths.
It was built by STX Finland for Royal Caribbean International and left the shipyard in Finland on Friday. Officials hadn't expected any problems in passing the Great Belt bridge, but traffic was stopped for about 15 minutes as a precaution when the ship approached, Danish navy spokesman Joergen Brand said.
Aboard the Oasis of the Seas, project manager Toivo Ilvonen of STX Finland confirmed that the ship had passed under the bridge without any incidents.
"Nothing fell off," he said.
The enormous ship features various "neighborhoods" — parks, squares and arenas with special themes. One of them will be a tropical environment, including palm trees and vines among the total 12,000 plants on board. They will be planted after the ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale.
In the stern, a 750-seat outdoor theater — modeled on an ancient Greek amphitheater — doubles as a swimming pool by day and an ocean front theater by night. The pool has a diving tower with spring boards and two 33-foot (10-meter) high-dive platforms. An indoor theater seats 1,300 guests.
One of the "neighborhoods," named Central Park, features a square with boutiques, restaurants and bars, including a bar that moves up and down three decks, allowing customers to get on and off at different levels.
Once home, the $1.5 billion floating extravaganza will have more, if less visible, obstacles to duck: a sagging U.S. economy, questions about the consumer appetite for luxury cruises and criticism that such sailing behemoths are damaging to the environment and diminish the experience of traveling.
It is due to make its U.S. debut on Nov. 20 at its home port, Port Everglades in Florida.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Maine girl with ‘mermaid syndrome’ dies at 10
‘Tough little thing’ gained following on Internet, TV
PORTLAND, Maine - Shiloh Pepin, a girl who was born with fused legs, a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," and gained a wide following on the Internet and U.S. television, has died. She was 10.
Doctors had predicted she would at most only survive for days after her birth. The girl died at Maine Medical Center on Friday afternoon, hospital spokesman John Lamb said. She had been hospitalized in critical condition for nearly a week.
Being born with "mermaid syndrome," also known as sirenomelia, meant that the Kennebunkport girl had only one partially working kidney, no lower colon or genital organs and legs fused from the waist down.
Some children who have survived sirenomelia have had surgery to separate their legs, but Shiloh did not because blood vessels crossing from side to side in her circulatory system would have been severed. She had received two kidney transplants, the last one in 2007.
Her story was featured recently on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and other national television programs.
Earlier this month, her mother, Leslie Pepin, said her daughter came down with a cold that quickly turned to pneumonia. Shiloh was rushed to Maine Medical Center on Oct. 10 and was placed on antibiotics and a ventilator.
For a while, Leslie Pepin said, things were looking up. "She's a tough little thing," she said of her daughter earlier this week.
Shiloh was a fifth-grader at Kennebunkport Consolidated School. "She was such a shining personality in that building," said Maureen King, chairwoman of the board of the regional school district. Counselors will be available next week to talk to students.
Through the television shows, news articles, Facebook and other Web sites, Shiloh inspired many.
"I live in Iowa. I have cerebral palsy. I love your video," 12-year-old Lydia Dawley wrote to Shiloh on Facebook. "You have a great personality I wish you lived close so we could be friends and hang out. You opened my eyes because you are so brave."
PORTLAND, Maine - Shiloh Pepin, a girl who was born with fused legs, a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," and gained a wide following on the Internet and U.S. television, has died. She was 10.
Doctors had predicted she would at most only survive for days after her birth. The girl died at Maine Medical Center on Friday afternoon, hospital spokesman John Lamb said. She had been hospitalized in critical condition for nearly a week.
Being born with "mermaid syndrome," also known as sirenomelia, meant that the Kennebunkport girl had only one partially working kidney, no lower colon or genital organs and legs fused from the waist down.
Some children who have survived sirenomelia have had surgery to separate their legs, but Shiloh did not because blood vessels crossing from side to side in her circulatory system would have been severed. She had received two kidney transplants, the last one in 2007.
Her story was featured recently on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and other national television programs.
Earlier this month, her mother, Leslie Pepin, said her daughter came down with a cold that quickly turned to pneumonia. Shiloh was rushed to Maine Medical Center on Oct. 10 and was placed on antibiotics and a ventilator.
For a while, Leslie Pepin said, things were looking up. "She's a tough little thing," she said of her daughter earlier this week.
Shiloh was a fifth-grader at Kennebunkport Consolidated School. "She was such a shining personality in that building," said Maureen King, chairwoman of the board of the regional school district. Counselors will be available next week to talk to students.
Through the television shows, news articles, Facebook and other Web sites, Shiloh inspired many.
"I live in Iowa. I have cerebral palsy. I love your video," 12-year-old Lydia Dawley wrote to Shiloh on Facebook. "You have a great personality I wish you lived close so we could be friends and hang out. You opened my eyes because you are so brave."
Health fears calmed as Puerto Rico fuel tank blaze is controlled
Five tanks were still burning Saturday evening at a fuel storage complex in Puerto Rico, another 12 were still smoking but posed no danger and four had burned themselves out and collapsed, Gov. Luis Fortuno said.
Hundreds of firefighters have been battling the blaze at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility in the municipality of Bayamon, near San Juan, since shortly after midnight Friday. The initial explosion shook the ground with the force of a 2.8 magnitude earthquake.
"Our mission right now is to contain the fire and not have it affect the other tanks," Fortuno said at a news conference.
Firefighters will likely remain busy.
"It's quite an intense fire, and it's going to burn for quite a while," said Jeff Wanko, the lead investigator with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an independent government agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents.
Eric Guzman, vice president of marketing for Caribbean Petroleum, said the company hired a firm that specializes in putting out fires, El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported. The private firefighters were expected to arrive Saturday night. Guzman added that he could not say how much fuel was in the tanks when the fire started, but the blaze could be extinguished by Monday afternoon.
The cause of the explosion remained unknown but officials were investigating. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the storage facility Saturday and "treating it as a crime scene," Wanko said.
The crime scene designation is routine, he said, and investigators rarely find criminal intent.
Federal agencies have jurisdiction over Puerto Rico because it is a territory of the United States.
Air quality remained good despite the fire's thick plume of black smoke, the governor said. The Environmental Protection Agency will continue to monitor the air, he said.
"We're not finding levels that would be of concern," said EPA spokesman Bonnie Bellow. "The fire is so intense that it is burning off chemicals that are part of the fuel."
The Caribbean Petroleum storage complex sits near San Juan's bay, but no water contamination had been found other than a small oil slick at a nearby channel that had been contained, Fortuno said.
A containment pool on the property has caught the runoff from the water used to fight the fires, Fortuno said. That water will be removed and treated, he said.
Officials had been concerned because a wind shift Saturday had put more residents at risk from smoke inhalation, but there were no reports of any problems.
Authorities also had been concerned that precipitation Saturday mixed with the smoke could lead to acid rain, but that also had not presented any reported problems.
The governor sought to allay any fears over gasoline supplies. Caribbean Petroleum, which owns 200 gas stations in Puerto Rico and several inland distribution facilities, supplies much of the island's fuel.
In the next 48 hours, Fortuno said, Puerto Rico will receive 3.6 million gallons of regular gasoline, more than 1 million gallons of premium gasoline and more than 1 million gallons of diesel fuel.
"There's no reason to worry in the least," he said.
Even though hundreds of nearby residents had been evacuated, Fortuno said "there is no need to move anyone else at this moment." More than 500 people spent Friday night in two shelters.
About 1,450 inmates were transferred from prisons near the fire and taken to other facilities throughout the island.
There were other disruptions: Boy band Jonas Brothers rescheduled until December a concert that was supposed to be held Saturday in San Juan.
Watch iReporter's account of the blast and fire Video
Many residents said this was the first time they had encountered anything like the fire, at least in person.
For Carlos Salgado, the massive clouds of black smoke reminded him of the horrifying TV images he'd seen after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Early Saturday morning, Salgado stood on the balcony of his San Juan home, about 10 miles from the blast site, and watched fireballs illuminate the night sky.
iReport.com: See, share, send images of the explosion
"I've never seen anything like this in Puerto Rico," said Salgado, the legal counsel for the emergency corps that manages ambulances on the Caribbean island.
He could hear explosions, and acrid air burned his nostrils as winds shifted westward, carrying the thick smoke over populated areas of the island. The wind had been blowing the smoke to the north Friday, over less populated areas and the Atlantic Ocean.
Fortuno said he declared a state of emergency for the area so Puerto Rico can get aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The fire, he said Saturday, had already cost the island $6.4 million. Money can be recovered, he said, from the oil company, FEMA and the EPA.
FBI Special Agent Harry Rodriguez confirmed Friday that the agency is investigating graffiti found on two San Juan tunnels that referred to a fire. A spray-painted message on the two tunnels, less than three miles apart, said: "Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf, Soul, ACNF."
Caribbean Petroleum owns the Gulf Oil brand in Puerto Rico.
Rodriguez said he did not know what or who ACNF is.
Investigators are not discounting any possibilities, said Orlando Felix, resident ATF agent in charge in Puerto Rico. The company has had violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the main law in the United States that deals with the disposal of solid and hazardous wastes, said Bellow, the EPA spokeswoman. Caribbean Petroleum, she said, is under a corrective-action plan.
Pedro Nieves, chairman of the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board, said Caribbean Petroleum has a history of spills. Fortuno, the governor, announced Saturday that some aspects of life on the island will soon get back to normal. All but one elementary school in Catano will be open Monday. Schools in Bayamon, San Juan, Toa Baja and Catano had been closed Friday.
Hundreds of firefighters have been battling the blaze at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility in the municipality of Bayamon, near San Juan, since shortly after midnight Friday. The initial explosion shook the ground with the force of a 2.8 magnitude earthquake.
"Our mission right now is to contain the fire and not have it affect the other tanks," Fortuno said at a news conference.
Firefighters will likely remain busy.
"It's quite an intense fire, and it's going to burn for quite a while," said Jeff Wanko, the lead investigator with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an independent government agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents.
Eric Guzman, vice president of marketing for Caribbean Petroleum, said the company hired a firm that specializes in putting out fires, El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported. The private firefighters were expected to arrive Saturday night. Guzman added that he could not say how much fuel was in the tanks when the fire started, but the blaze could be extinguished by Monday afternoon.
The cause of the explosion remained unknown but officials were investigating. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the storage facility Saturday and "treating it as a crime scene," Wanko said.
The crime scene designation is routine, he said, and investigators rarely find criminal intent.
Federal agencies have jurisdiction over Puerto Rico because it is a territory of the United States.
Air quality remained good despite the fire's thick plume of black smoke, the governor said. The Environmental Protection Agency will continue to monitor the air, he said.
"We're not finding levels that would be of concern," said EPA spokesman Bonnie Bellow. "The fire is so intense that it is burning off chemicals that are part of the fuel."
The Caribbean Petroleum storage complex sits near San Juan's bay, but no water contamination had been found other than a small oil slick at a nearby channel that had been contained, Fortuno said.
A containment pool on the property has caught the runoff from the water used to fight the fires, Fortuno said. That water will be removed and treated, he said.
Officials had been concerned because a wind shift Saturday had put more residents at risk from smoke inhalation, but there were no reports of any problems.
Authorities also had been concerned that precipitation Saturday mixed with the smoke could lead to acid rain, but that also had not presented any reported problems.
The governor sought to allay any fears over gasoline supplies. Caribbean Petroleum, which owns 200 gas stations in Puerto Rico and several inland distribution facilities, supplies much of the island's fuel.
In the next 48 hours, Fortuno said, Puerto Rico will receive 3.6 million gallons of regular gasoline, more than 1 million gallons of premium gasoline and more than 1 million gallons of diesel fuel.
"There's no reason to worry in the least," he said.
Even though hundreds of nearby residents had been evacuated, Fortuno said "there is no need to move anyone else at this moment." More than 500 people spent Friday night in two shelters.
About 1,450 inmates were transferred from prisons near the fire and taken to other facilities throughout the island.
There were other disruptions: Boy band Jonas Brothers rescheduled until December a concert that was supposed to be held Saturday in San Juan.
Watch iReporter's account of the blast and fire Video
Many residents said this was the first time they had encountered anything like the fire, at least in person.
For Carlos Salgado, the massive clouds of black smoke reminded him of the horrifying TV images he'd seen after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Early Saturday morning, Salgado stood on the balcony of his San Juan home, about 10 miles from the blast site, and watched fireballs illuminate the night sky.
iReport.com: See, share, send images of the explosion
"I've never seen anything like this in Puerto Rico," said Salgado, the legal counsel for the emergency corps that manages ambulances on the Caribbean island.
He could hear explosions, and acrid air burned his nostrils as winds shifted westward, carrying the thick smoke over populated areas of the island. The wind had been blowing the smoke to the north Friday, over less populated areas and the Atlantic Ocean.
Fortuno said he declared a state of emergency for the area so Puerto Rico can get aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The fire, he said Saturday, had already cost the island $6.4 million. Money can be recovered, he said, from the oil company, FEMA and the EPA.
FBI Special Agent Harry Rodriguez confirmed Friday that the agency is investigating graffiti found on two San Juan tunnels that referred to a fire. A spray-painted message on the two tunnels, less than three miles apart, said: "Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf, Soul, ACNF."
Caribbean Petroleum owns the Gulf Oil brand in Puerto Rico.
Rodriguez said he did not know what or who ACNF is.
Investigators are not discounting any possibilities, said Orlando Felix, resident ATF agent in charge in Puerto Rico. The company has had violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the main law in the United States that deals with the disposal of solid and hazardous wastes, said Bellow, the EPA spokeswoman. Caribbean Petroleum, she said, is under a corrective-action plan.
Pedro Nieves, chairman of the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board, said Caribbean Petroleum has a history of spills. Fortuno, the governor, announced Saturday that some aspects of life on the island will soon get back to normal. All but one elementary school in Catano will be open Monday. Schools in Bayamon, San Juan, Toa Baja and Catano had been closed Friday.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A Windows to Help You Forget
Microsoft's New Operating System Is Good Enough to Erase Bad Memory of Vista
In just two weeks, on Oct. 22, Microsoft's long operating-system nightmare will be over. The company will release Windows 7, a faster and much better operating system than the little-loved Windows Vista, which did a lot to harm both the company's reputation, and the productivity and blood pressure of its users. PC makers will rush to flood physical and online stores with new computers pre-loaded with Windows 7, and to offer the software to Vista owners who wish to upgrade.
With Windows 7, PC users will at last have a strong, modern successor to the sturdy and familiar, but aged, Windows XP, which is still the most popular version of Windows, despite having come out in 2001. In the high-tech world, an eight-year-old operating system is the equivalent of a 20-year-old car. While XP works well for many people, it is relatively weak in areas such as security, networking and other features more important today than when XP was designed around 1999.
After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced. It's a boost to productivity and a pleasure to use. Despite a few drawbacks, I can heartily recommend Windows 7 to mainstream consumers.
Like the new Snow Leopard operating system released in August by Microsoft's archrival, Apple, Windows 7 is much more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary product. Its main goal was to fix the flaws in Vista and to finally give Microsoft customers a reason to move up from XP. But Windows 7 is packed with features and tweaks that make using your computer an easier and more satisfying experience.
Windows 7 introduces real advances in organizing your programs and files, arranging your taskbar and desktop, and quickly viewing and launching the page or document you want, when you want it. It also has cool built-in touch-screen features.
It removes a lot of clutter. And it mostly banishes Vista's main flaws -- sluggishness; incompatibility with third-party software and hardware; heavy hardware requirements; and constant, annoying security warnings.
I tested Windows 7 on 11 different computers, ranging from tiny netbooks to standard laptops to a couple of big desktops. These included machines from Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, Asus, Toshiba and Sony. I even successfully ran it on an Apple Macintosh laptop. On some of these machines, Windows 7 was pre-loaded. On others, I had to upgrade from an earlier version of Windows.
In most cases, the installation took 45 minutes or less, and the new operating system worked snappily and well. But, I did encounter some drawbacks and problems. On a couple of these machines, glacial start-up and reboot times reminded me of Vista. And, on a couple of others, after upgrading, key features like the display or touchpad didn't work properly. Also, Windows 7 still requires add-on security software that has to be frequently updated. It's tedious and painful to upgrade an existing computer from XP to 7, and the variety of editions in which Windows 7 is offered is confusing.
Finally, Microsoft has stripped Windows 7 of familiar built-in applications, such as email, photo organizing, address book, calendar and video-editing programs. These can be downloaded free of charge, but they no longer come with the operating system, though some PC makers may choose to pre-load them.
In recent years, I, like many other reviewers, have argued that Apple's Mac OS X operating system is much better than Windows. That's no longer true. I still give the Mac OS a slight edge because it has a much easier and cheaper upgrade path; more built-in software programs; and far less vulnerability to viruses and other malicious software, which are overwhelmingly built to run on Windows.
Now, however, it's much more of a toss-up between the two rivals. Windows 7 beats the Mac OS in some areas, such as better previews and navigation right from the taskbar, easier organization of open windows on the desktop and touch-screen capabilities. So Apple will have to scramble now that the gift of a flawed Vista has been replaced with a reliable, elegant version of Windows.
Here are some of the key features of Windows 7.
New Taskbar: In Windows 7, the familiar taskbar has been reinvented and made taller. Instead of mainly being a place where icons of open windows temporarily appear, it now is a place where you can permanently "pin" the icons of frequently used programs anywhere along its length, and in any arrangement you choose. This is a concept borrowed from Apple's similar feature, the Dock. But Windows 7 takes the concept further.
For each running program, hovering over its taskbar icon pops up a small preview screen showing a mini-view of that program. This preview idea was in Vista. But, in Windows 7, it has been expanded in several ways. Now, every open window in that program is included separately in the preview. If you mouse over a window in the preview screen, it appears at full size on your desktop and all other windows on the desktop become transparent -- part of a feature called Aero Peek. Click on the window and it comes up, ready for use. You can even close windows from these previews, or play media in them.
I found this feature more natural and versatile than a similar feature in Snow Leopard called Dock Expose.
You can also use Aero Peek at any time to see your empty desktop, with open windows reduced to virtual panes of glass. To do this, you just hover over a small rectangle at the right edge of the taskbar.
Taskbar icons also provide Jump Lists -- pop-up menus listing frequent actions or recent files used.
Desktop Organization: A feature called Snap allows you to expand windows to full-screen size by just dragging them to the top of the screen, or to half-screen size by dragging them to the left or right edges of the screen. Another called Shake allows you to make all other windows but the one you're working on disappear by simply grabbing its title bar with the mouse and shaking it several times.
File Organization: In Windows Explorer, the left-hand column now includes a feature called Libraries. Each library -- Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos -- consolidates all files of those types regardless of which folder, or even which hard disk, they live in.
Networking: Windows 7 still isn't quite as natural at networking as I find the Mac to be, but it's better than Vista. For instance, now you can see all available wireless networks by just clicking on an icon in the taskbar. A new feature called HomeGroups is supposed to let you share files more easily among Windows 7 PCs on your home network. In my tests, it worked, but not consistently, and it required typing in long, arcane passwords.
Touch: Some of the same kinds of multitouch gestures made popular on the iPhone are now built into Windows 7. But these features won't likely become popular for a while because to get the most out of them, a computer needs a special type of touch screen that goes beyond most of the ones existing now. I tested this on one such laptop, a Lenovo, and was able to move windows around, to resize and flip through photos, and more.
Speed: In my tests, on every machine, Windows 7 ran swiftly and with far fewer of the delays typical in running Vista. All the laptops I tested resumed from sleep quickly and properly, unlike in Vista. Start-up and restart times were also improved. I chose six Windows 7 laptops from different makers to compare with a new MacBook Pro laptop. The Mac still started and restarted faster than most of the Windows 7 PCs. But the speed gap has narrowed considerably, and one of the Lenovos beat the Mac in restart time.
Nagging: In the name of security, Vista put up nagging warnings about a wide variety of tasks, driving people crazy. In Windows 7, you can now set this system so it nags you only when things are happening that you consider really worth the nag. Also, Microsoft has consolidated most of the alerts from the lower-right system tray into one icon, and they seemed less frequent.
Compatibility: I tried a wide variety of third-party software and all worked fine on every Windows 7 machine. These included Mozilla Firefox; Adobe Reader; Google's Picasa and Chrome; and Apple's iTunes and Safari.
I also tested several hardware devices, and, unlike Vista, Windows 7 handled all but one smoothly. These included a networked H-P printer, a Canon camera, an iPod nano, and at least five external flash drives and hard disks. The one failure was a Verizon USB cellular modem. Microsoft says you don't need external software to run these, but I found it was necessary, and even then had to use a trick I found on the Web to get it to work.
System Requirements: Nearly all Vista PCs, and newer or beefier XP machines, should be able to run Windows 7 fine. Even the netbooks I tested ran it speedily, especially with the Starter Edition, which lacks some of the powerful graphics effects in the operating system. (Other netbooks will be able to run other editions.)
If you have a standard PC, called a 32-bit PC, you'll need at least one gigabyte of memory, 16 gigabytes of free hard-disk space and a graphics system that can support Microsoft technologies called "DirectX 9 with WDDM 1.0." You'll also need a processor with a speed of at least one gigahertz. If you have a newer-style 64-bit PC, which can use more memory, you'll need at least two gigabytes of memory and 20 gigabytes of free hard disk space. In either case, you should double the minimum memory specification.
Installation, Editions and Price: There are four editions of Windows 7 of interest to consumers. One, a limited version called Starter, comes pre-loaded on netbooks. A second, called Business, is mainly for people who need to tap remotely into company networks (check with your company to see if you need this). A third, called Ultimate, is mainly for techies who want every feature of all other editions. Most average consumers will want Home Premium, which costs $120 for upgrades.
The system for upgrading is complicated, but Vista owners can upgrade to the exactly comparable edition of Windows 7 while keeping all files, settings and programs in place.
Unfortunately, XP owners, the biggest body of Windows users, won't be able to do that. They'll have to wipe out their hard disks after backing up their files elsewhere, then install Windows 7, then restore their personal files, then re-install all their programs from the original CDs or downloaded installer files. Then, they have to install all the patches and upgrades to those programs from over the years.
Microsoft includes an Easy Transfer wizard to help with this, but it moves only personal files, not programs. This painful XP upgrade process is one of the worst things about Windows 7 and will likely drive many XP owners to either stick with what they've got or wait and buy a new one.
In my tests, both types of installations went OK, though the latter could take a long time.
Bottom line: Windows 7 is a very good, versatile operating system that should help Microsoft bury the memory of Vista and make PC users happy.
In just two weeks, on Oct. 22, Microsoft's long operating-system nightmare will be over. The company will release Windows 7, a faster and much better operating system than the little-loved Windows Vista, which did a lot to harm both the company's reputation, and the productivity and blood pressure of its users. PC makers will rush to flood physical and online stores with new computers pre-loaded with Windows 7, and to offer the software to Vista owners who wish to upgrade.
With Windows 7, PC users will at last have a strong, modern successor to the sturdy and familiar, but aged, Windows XP, which is still the most popular version of Windows, despite having come out in 2001. In the high-tech world, an eight-year-old operating system is the equivalent of a 20-year-old car. While XP works well for many people, it is relatively weak in areas such as security, networking and other features more important today than when XP was designed around 1999.
After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced. It's a boost to productivity and a pleasure to use. Despite a few drawbacks, I can heartily recommend Windows 7 to mainstream consumers.
Like the new Snow Leopard operating system released in August by Microsoft's archrival, Apple, Windows 7 is much more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary product. Its main goal was to fix the flaws in Vista and to finally give Microsoft customers a reason to move up from XP. But Windows 7 is packed with features and tweaks that make using your computer an easier and more satisfying experience.
Windows 7 introduces real advances in organizing your programs and files, arranging your taskbar and desktop, and quickly viewing and launching the page or document you want, when you want it. It also has cool built-in touch-screen features.
It removes a lot of clutter. And it mostly banishes Vista's main flaws -- sluggishness; incompatibility with third-party software and hardware; heavy hardware requirements; and constant, annoying security warnings.
I tested Windows 7 on 11 different computers, ranging from tiny netbooks to standard laptops to a couple of big desktops. These included machines from Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, Asus, Toshiba and Sony. I even successfully ran it on an Apple Macintosh laptop. On some of these machines, Windows 7 was pre-loaded. On others, I had to upgrade from an earlier version of Windows.
In most cases, the installation took 45 minutes or less, and the new operating system worked snappily and well. But, I did encounter some drawbacks and problems. On a couple of these machines, glacial start-up and reboot times reminded me of Vista. And, on a couple of others, after upgrading, key features like the display or touchpad didn't work properly. Also, Windows 7 still requires add-on security software that has to be frequently updated. It's tedious and painful to upgrade an existing computer from XP to 7, and the variety of editions in which Windows 7 is offered is confusing.
Finally, Microsoft has stripped Windows 7 of familiar built-in applications, such as email, photo organizing, address book, calendar and video-editing programs. These can be downloaded free of charge, but they no longer come with the operating system, though some PC makers may choose to pre-load them.
In recent years, I, like many other reviewers, have argued that Apple's Mac OS X operating system is much better than Windows. That's no longer true. I still give the Mac OS a slight edge because it has a much easier and cheaper upgrade path; more built-in software programs; and far less vulnerability to viruses and other malicious software, which are overwhelmingly built to run on Windows.
Now, however, it's much more of a toss-up between the two rivals. Windows 7 beats the Mac OS in some areas, such as better previews and navigation right from the taskbar, easier organization of open windows on the desktop and touch-screen capabilities. So Apple will have to scramble now that the gift of a flawed Vista has been replaced with a reliable, elegant version of Windows.
Here are some of the key features of Windows 7.
New Taskbar: In Windows 7, the familiar taskbar has been reinvented and made taller. Instead of mainly being a place where icons of open windows temporarily appear, it now is a place where you can permanently "pin" the icons of frequently used programs anywhere along its length, and in any arrangement you choose. This is a concept borrowed from Apple's similar feature, the Dock. But Windows 7 takes the concept further.
For each running program, hovering over its taskbar icon pops up a small preview screen showing a mini-view of that program. This preview idea was in Vista. But, in Windows 7, it has been expanded in several ways. Now, every open window in that program is included separately in the preview. If you mouse over a window in the preview screen, it appears at full size on your desktop and all other windows on the desktop become transparent -- part of a feature called Aero Peek. Click on the window and it comes up, ready for use. You can even close windows from these previews, or play media in them.
I found this feature more natural and versatile than a similar feature in Snow Leopard called Dock Expose.
You can also use Aero Peek at any time to see your empty desktop, with open windows reduced to virtual panes of glass. To do this, you just hover over a small rectangle at the right edge of the taskbar.
Taskbar icons also provide Jump Lists -- pop-up menus listing frequent actions or recent files used.
Desktop Organization: A feature called Snap allows you to expand windows to full-screen size by just dragging them to the top of the screen, or to half-screen size by dragging them to the left or right edges of the screen. Another called Shake allows you to make all other windows but the one you're working on disappear by simply grabbing its title bar with the mouse and shaking it several times.
File Organization: In Windows Explorer, the left-hand column now includes a feature called Libraries. Each library -- Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos -- consolidates all files of those types regardless of which folder, or even which hard disk, they live in.
Networking: Windows 7 still isn't quite as natural at networking as I find the Mac to be, but it's better than Vista. For instance, now you can see all available wireless networks by just clicking on an icon in the taskbar. A new feature called HomeGroups is supposed to let you share files more easily among Windows 7 PCs on your home network. In my tests, it worked, but not consistently, and it required typing in long, arcane passwords.
Touch: Some of the same kinds of multitouch gestures made popular on the iPhone are now built into Windows 7. But these features won't likely become popular for a while because to get the most out of them, a computer needs a special type of touch screen that goes beyond most of the ones existing now. I tested this on one such laptop, a Lenovo, and was able to move windows around, to resize and flip through photos, and more.
Speed: In my tests, on every machine, Windows 7 ran swiftly and with far fewer of the delays typical in running Vista. All the laptops I tested resumed from sleep quickly and properly, unlike in Vista. Start-up and restart times were also improved. I chose six Windows 7 laptops from different makers to compare with a new MacBook Pro laptop. The Mac still started and restarted faster than most of the Windows 7 PCs. But the speed gap has narrowed considerably, and one of the Lenovos beat the Mac in restart time.
Nagging: In the name of security, Vista put up nagging warnings about a wide variety of tasks, driving people crazy. In Windows 7, you can now set this system so it nags you only when things are happening that you consider really worth the nag. Also, Microsoft has consolidated most of the alerts from the lower-right system tray into one icon, and they seemed less frequent.
Compatibility: I tried a wide variety of third-party software and all worked fine on every Windows 7 machine. These included Mozilla Firefox; Adobe Reader; Google's Picasa and Chrome; and Apple's iTunes and Safari.
I also tested several hardware devices, and, unlike Vista, Windows 7 handled all but one smoothly. These included a networked H-P printer, a Canon camera, an iPod nano, and at least five external flash drives and hard disks. The one failure was a Verizon USB cellular modem. Microsoft says you don't need external software to run these, but I found it was necessary, and even then had to use a trick I found on the Web to get it to work.
System Requirements: Nearly all Vista PCs, and newer or beefier XP machines, should be able to run Windows 7 fine. Even the netbooks I tested ran it speedily, especially with the Starter Edition, which lacks some of the powerful graphics effects in the operating system. (Other netbooks will be able to run other editions.)
If you have a standard PC, called a 32-bit PC, you'll need at least one gigabyte of memory, 16 gigabytes of free hard-disk space and a graphics system that can support Microsoft technologies called "DirectX 9 with WDDM 1.0." You'll also need a processor with a speed of at least one gigahertz. If you have a newer-style 64-bit PC, which can use more memory, you'll need at least two gigabytes of memory and 20 gigabytes of free hard disk space. In either case, you should double the minimum memory specification.
Installation, Editions and Price: There are four editions of Windows 7 of interest to consumers. One, a limited version called Starter, comes pre-loaded on netbooks. A second, called Business, is mainly for people who need to tap remotely into company networks (check with your company to see if you need this). A third, called Ultimate, is mainly for techies who want every feature of all other editions. Most average consumers will want Home Premium, which costs $120 for upgrades.
The system for upgrading is complicated, but Vista owners can upgrade to the exactly comparable edition of Windows 7 while keeping all files, settings and programs in place.
Unfortunately, XP owners, the biggest body of Windows users, won't be able to do that. They'll have to wipe out their hard disks after backing up their files elsewhere, then install Windows 7, then restore their personal files, then re-install all their programs from the original CDs or downloaded installer files. Then, they have to install all the patches and upgrades to those programs from over the years.
Microsoft includes an Easy Transfer wizard to help with this, but it moves only personal files, not programs. This painful XP upgrade process is one of the worst things about Windows 7 and will likely drive many XP owners to either stick with what they've got or wait and buy a new one.
In my tests, both types of installations went OK, though the latter could take a long time.
Bottom line: Windows 7 is a very good, versatile operating system that should help Microsoft bury the memory of Vista and make PC users happy.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tough Times for Blockbuster
Considering the recession and fickle consumer tastes, these are awfully difficult days to be a retailer. For video chain Blockbuster, already no stranger to tough times, it just keeps getting harder.
With the rise of competitors such as movie-mailer Netflix and Redbox, whose flick-dispensing machines can be found in grocery stores all over, Blockbuster is being forced to reset, saying it may close nearly 1,000 stores by the end of 2010 as its once-certain dominance continues to be threatened by rivals.
According to a regulatory filing Tuesday, Blockbuster expects to shut between 810 and 960 locations by the time next year wraps up, a number that would exceed more than one-fifth of its current U.S. shops.
That's quite a step up, or back depending on your perspective, from Blockbuster's previous plan, which anticipated 380 to 425 closings in that time frame. Here's how the corporate office see it: Blockbuster characterizes 35% of its stores as "core," while saying 47%, or nearly half its total, are profitable, but still "non-core." The remaining 18% aren't turning a profit.
Ugh. That about sums it up at this point. Earlier this year, there were worries that Dallas-based Blockbuster might have to consider bankruptcy before it diffused that crisis. How about 2008, though? Another close call. Back then, it looked at a merger with Circuit City -- the electronics seller that did end up bankrupt. Now, store shutdowns.
The company's filing with regulators show that it's taking a multifaceted approach to its future offerings. Currently, it has 4,356 domestic stores, of which 606 are franchised. With those brick-and-mortar sites it battles against Hollywood Video and others. In addition to shrinking overall, Blockbuster expects to have more of its stores be the smaller city-based variety, with fewer large structures.
Meanwhile, Blockbuster's Total Access service, with 1.6 million subscribers, has a way to go before it can match the 9.4 million users Netflix claimed at the end of 2008. That makes it the undisputed leader of the 12 million-strong estimated market. Not surprisingly, Blockbuster hopes to grow its own base, and with Americans always looking for convenience -- walking to the mailbox beats driving to the store any day -- perhaps it can.
(If you need more evidence of diverging paths, consider that Netflix saw its revenue go from $682 million in 2005 to in excess of $1.3 billion in 2008. Blockbuster is still bigger in that regard, with sales of some $5.3 billion last year, but that was down from almost $5.9 billion in '05. Growth, of course, is what you want, not backsliding.)
How about rental boxes? Right now, Blockbuster has just under 500 dispensers, and it foresees expanding that a whopping five-fold by the end of this year. Then it's really going to crank up the buildout, envisioning 10,000 by the middle of 2010. Even so, Redbox already claims more than 15,000 units today, and you can be sure more are on the way.
Finally, Blockbuster hopes its On Demand offering, where it goes against the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, will ultimately have a presence "in nearly every connected device." Again, doable, but also again, no easy task.
Can Blockbuster solve the riddles it's facing? Sure. Trouble is, even if it does, it might soon find itself facing new competition from another front you might have heard of -- YouTube, which has reportedly had discussions with a number of big studios about streaming movies via subscription.
What a difference, indeed.
With the rise of competitors such as movie-mailer Netflix and Redbox, whose flick-dispensing machines can be found in grocery stores all over, Blockbuster is being forced to reset, saying it may close nearly 1,000 stores by the end of 2010 as its once-certain dominance continues to be threatened by rivals.
According to a regulatory filing Tuesday, Blockbuster expects to shut between 810 and 960 locations by the time next year wraps up, a number that would exceed more than one-fifth of its current U.S. shops.
That's quite a step up, or back depending on your perspective, from Blockbuster's previous plan, which anticipated 380 to 425 closings in that time frame. Here's how the corporate office see it: Blockbuster characterizes 35% of its stores as "core," while saying 47%, or nearly half its total, are profitable, but still "non-core." The remaining 18% aren't turning a profit.
Ugh. That about sums it up at this point. Earlier this year, there were worries that Dallas-based Blockbuster might have to consider bankruptcy before it diffused that crisis. How about 2008, though? Another close call. Back then, it looked at a merger with Circuit City -- the electronics seller that did end up bankrupt. Now, store shutdowns.
The company's filing with regulators show that it's taking a multifaceted approach to its future offerings. Currently, it has 4,356 domestic stores, of which 606 are franchised. With those brick-and-mortar sites it battles against Hollywood Video and others. In addition to shrinking overall, Blockbuster expects to have more of its stores be the smaller city-based variety, with fewer large structures.
Meanwhile, Blockbuster's Total Access service, with 1.6 million subscribers, has a way to go before it can match the 9.4 million users Netflix claimed at the end of 2008. That makes it the undisputed leader of the 12 million-strong estimated market. Not surprisingly, Blockbuster hopes to grow its own base, and with Americans always looking for convenience -- walking to the mailbox beats driving to the store any day -- perhaps it can.
(If you need more evidence of diverging paths, consider that Netflix saw its revenue go from $682 million in 2005 to in excess of $1.3 billion in 2008. Blockbuster is still bigger in that regard, with sales of some $5.3 billion last year, but that was down from almost $5.9 billion in '05. Growth, of course, is what you want, not backsliding.)
How about rental boxes? Right now, Blockbuster has just under 500 dispensers, and it foresees expanding that a whopping five-fold by the end of this year. Then it's really going to crank up the buildout, envisioning 10,000 by the middle of 2010. Even so, Redbox already claims more than 15,000 units today, and you can be sure more are on the way.
Finally, Blockbuster hopes its On Demand offering, where it goes against the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, will ultimately have a presence "in nearly every connected device." Again, doable, but also again, no easy task.
Can Blockbuster solve the riddles it's facing? Sure. Trouble is, even if it does, it might soon find itself facing new competition from another front you might have heard of -- YouTube, which has reportedly had discussions with a number of big studios about streaming movies via subscription.
What a difference, indeed.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Fire prompts evacuations,but crews make progress
LOS ANGELES – Firefighters brought a sprawling wildfire near Los Angeles under greater control Thursday, despite a flare-up in a remote canyon that prompted about 25 nearby residents to be evacuated.
The blaze was 38 percent contained Thursday morning, up from 28 percent the previous day. The fire now measures 144,743 acres, or 226 square miles, and is one of the largest wildfires in Southern California history.
Despite the overall progress, firefighters encountered a flare-up in the canyon as strong downslope winds "just kind of blew the fire up," said U.S. Forest Service official John Huschke. Twenty-five people in 11 homes were evacuated.
"Everything else looks really good," he said.
Some 12,000 homes in foothill communities below the fire's southeastern edge officially remained threatened, although other communities farther west that were under siege for days were out of danger.
The forecast called for hot and dry weather in the next couple days, with Thursday's high hovering around 100 in the fire area, the National Weather Service said.
The wildfire, now in its eighth day, destroyed 64 homes, burned three people and left two firefighters dead. During the night, a firefighter injured his leg when he fell 20 foot from a cliff and was taken to a hospital by a medical helicopter, officials said. He was in stable condition.
Full containment was expected Sept. 15, meaning fire officials expect that they will have the blaze completely surrounded by then.
Firefighters have been conducting an aerial assault on the fire to complement the efforts on the ground. Helicopters have doused the fire with 1.7 million gallons of water — enough to fill about three Olympic-sized swimming pools — while airplanes have dropped 670,000 gallons of retaradant on the fire.
Many homes were saved, but damaged areas looked like war zones to some returning evacuees.
"It's like, is this really our house? Is it really still here?" T.J. Lynch said about returning to his home in the Tujunga neighborhood late Wednesday. "Because we had made peace with the fact that we'd never see our stuff again."
"It looks like nothing changed, but when the sun comes up tomorrow, I expect we'll see the hills blackened and gray," the screenwriter said. "We'll hike up the hill and see how close it came to our neighbors."
Officials said they were pleased with the progress, but said they have much more work ahead.
"We're changing the pace and treating this as a marathon," U.S. Forest Service incident commander Mike Dietrich said. "If it were a 26-mile race, we'd only be at mile six."
The search for what sparked the blaze intensified Wednesday when U.S. Forest Service investigators gathered along a road in a blackened forest to hunt for clues near where the fire started. They shook soil in a can and planted red, blue and yellow flags to mark evidence beneath a partially burned oak tree at the bottom of a ravine.
Deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said the fire was "human-caused," meaning it could have been started by anything from a dropped cigarette to a spark from something like a lawn mower. Forest Service officials said there was no lightning in the area at the time and no power lines in the vicinity, but later backtracked on Joseph's comments, saying they are looking at all possible causes.
"The only thing I can say is it is possibly human activity," Forest Service Commander Rita Wears said.
The fire also cast a smoky haze over the Los Angeles area and gave the night sky an eerie glow. The smoke spread throughout the West, affecting air quality in Las Vegas and combining with soot from local fires to block mountain views in Denver.
The blaze was 38 percent contained Thursday morning, up from 28 percent the previous day. The fire now measures 144,743 acres, or 226 square miles, and is one of the largest wildfires in Southern California history.
Despite the overall progress, firefighters encountered a flare-up in the canyon as strong downslope winds "just kind of blew the fire up," said U.S. Forest Service official John Huschke. Twenty-five people in 11 homes were evacuated.
"Everything else looks really good," he said.
Some 12,000 homes in foothill communities below the fire's southeastern edge officially remained threatened, although other communities farther west that were under siege for days were out of danger.
The forecast called for hot and dry weather in the next couple days, with Thursday's high hovering around 100 in the fire area, the National Weather Service said.
The wildfire, now in its eighth day, destroyed 64 homes, burned three people and left two firefighters dead. During the night, a firefighter injured his leg when he fell 20 foot from a cliff and was taken to a hospital by a medical helicopter, officials said. He was in stable condition.
Full containment was expected Sept. 15, meaning fire officials expect that they will have the blaze completely surrounded by then.
Firefighters have been conducting an aerial assault on the fire to complement the efforts on the ground. Helicopters have doused the fire with 1.7 million gallons of water — enough to fill about three Olympic-sized swimming pools — while airplanes have dropped 670,000 gallons of retaradant on the fire.
Many homes were saved, but damaged areas looked like war zones to some returning evacuees.
"It's like, is this really our house? Is it really still here?" T.J. Lynch said about returning to his home in the Tujunga neighborhood late Wednesday. "Because we had made peace with the fact that we'd never see our stuff again."
"It looks like nothing changed, but when the sun comes up tomorrow, I expect we'll see the hills blackened and gray," the screenwriter said. "We'll hike up the hill and see how close it came to our neighbors."
Officials said they were pleased with the progress, but said they have much more work ahead.
"We're changing the pace and treating this as a marathon," U.S. Forest Service incident commander Mike Dietrich said. "If it were a 26-mile race, we'd only be at mile six."
The search for what sparked the blaze intensified Wednesday when U.S. Forest Service investigators gathered along a road in a blackened forest to hunt for clues near where the fire started. They shook soil in a can and planted red, blue and yellow flags to mark evidence beneath a partially burned oak tree at the bottom of a ravine.
Deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said the fire was "human-caused," meaning it could have been started by anything from a dropped cigarette to a spark from something like a lawn mower. Forest Service officials said there was no lightning in the area at the time and no power lines in the vicinity, but later backtracked on Joseph's comments, saying they are looking at all possible causes.
"The only thing I can say is it is possibly human activity," Forest Service Commander Rita Wears said.
The fire also cast a smoky haze over the Los Angeles area and gave the night sky an eerie glow. The smoke spread throughout the West, affecting air quality in Las Vegas and combining with soot from local fires to block mountain views in Denver.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Disney catches comics giant Marvel in a $4B web
Pow! Disney captures Spider-Man, Iron Man and other Marvel characters in $4 billion deal
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. is punching its way into the universe of superheroes and their male fans with a deal announced Monday to acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion, bringing characters such as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and "Toy Story."
The surprise cash-and-stock deal sent Spidey senses tingling in the comic book world. It could lead to new rides, movies, action figures and other outlets for Marvel's 5,000 characters, although Marvel already was aggressively licensing its properties for such uses.
The deal won't have benefits right away, and Disney stock sank on the news. Disney expects a short-term profit hit, and Marvel characters from X-Men to Daredevil are locked up in deals with other movie studios and theme parks. But Disney's CEO, Robert Iger, promised an action-packed future.
"`Sparks will fly' is the expression that comes to mind," Iger told analysts.
Stan Lee, the 86-year-old co-creator of "Spider-Man" and many more of Marvel's most famous characters, said he was thrilled to be informed of the marriage Monday morning.
"I love both companies," he said. "From every point of view, this is a great match."
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year and marks Disney's biggest acquisition since it purchased Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the maker of "Up" and "Cars," for $7.4 billion in stock in 2006.
Marvel would follow another storied comic book publisher into the arms of a media conglomerate. DC Comics, the home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, was bought by Warner Bros. -- now part of Time Warner Inc. -- in 1969.
Buying Marvel is meant to improve Disney's following among men and boys. Disney acknowledges it lost some of its footing with guys as it poured resources into female favorites such as "Hannah Montana" and the Jonas Brothers.
"Disney will have something guys grew up with and can experience with their kids, especially their sons," said Gareb Shamus, whose company Wizard Entertainment Group runs several of the Comic-Con conventions around the nation.
Marvel TV shows already account for 20 hours per week of programming on Disney's recently rebranded, boy-focused cable network, Disney XD, and that looks likely to increase, Iger said. The shows are "right in the wheelhouse for boys," he said.
There will be some lag before Marvel's trove of characters are fully developed at Disney, because of licensing deals Marvel has with other studios.
For example, Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures is developing the next three "Spider-Man" sequels, starting with "Spider-Man 4" set for a May 2011 release. News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox has the long-term movie rights to the "X-Men," "Fantastic Four," "Silver Surfer" and "Daredevil" franchises.
Both studios maintain those rights in perpetuity unless they fail to make more movies.
Separately, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures has a five-picture distribution deal for Marvel-made movies, the first of which will be "Iron Man 2," set for release next May. Paramount said it expects to continue working with Marvel and Disney.
General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios has an attraction called Marvel Super Hero Island in Orlando, Fla., that will stay in existence as long as Universal wants to keep it there and follows the contract terms, Universal said.
Disney said it will honor and re-examine Marvel's licensing deals upon expiration and may extend the profitable ones. Iger noted that when it bought Pixar, that company also had third-party licensing agreements that eventually expired, allowing the companies to move forward together.
Despite beginning to make its own movies, starting with "Iron Man" last year, licensing remained a key driver of Marvel's $206 million in profit and $676 million in revenue last year. Iger said Disney could give Marvel broader global distribution and better relationships with retailers to sell Marvel products.
However, analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. noted that the $4 billion offer was at "full price."
Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50, a 29 percent premium over Friday's closing stock price. The final ratio of cash and stock will be adjusted to ensure Disney stock makes up at least 40 percent of the final offer.
Marvel shares shot up $9.72, or 25 percent, to close at $48.37 on Monday. Disney shares fell 80 cents, or 3 percent, to $26.04.
Disney investors were probably unhappy that the deal will reduce earnings per share in the short term and might not turn positive until the company's 2012 fiscal year. Disney's earnings per share will drop partly because the company will issue 59 million new shares, and partly because Marvel plans to release two costly blockbusters, "Thor" and "The First Avenger: Captain America" in 2011. DVD sales of those films likely won't roll in until fiscal 2012.
Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.
If it works out, Marvel's chief executive, Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, 66, will pocket a hefty payday. He snatched Marvel assets out of bankruptcy in 1998, in a deal that valued the company at around $450 million including debt, outmaneuvering investors Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman. His 37 percent stake in Marvel is now worth about $1.5 billion.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. is punching its way into the universe of superheroes and their male fans with a deal announced Monday to acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion, bringing characters such as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and "Toy Story."
The surprise cash-and-stock deal sent Spidey senses tingling in the comic book world. It could lead to new rides, movies, action figures and other outlets for Marvel's 5,000 characters, although Marvel already was aggressively licensing its properties for such uses.
The deal won't have benefits right away, and Disney stock sank on the news. Disney expects a short-term profit hit, and Marvel characters from X-Men to Daredevil are locked up in deals with other movie studios and theme parks. But Disney's CEO, Robert Iger, promised an action-packed future.
"`Sparks will fly' is the expression that comes to mind," Iger told analysts.
Stan Lee, the 86-year-old co-creator of "Spider-Man" and many more of Marvel's most famous characters, said he was thrilled to be informed of the marriage Monday morning.
"I love both companies," he said. "From every point of view, this is a great match."
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year and marks Disney's biggest acquisition since it purchased Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the maker of "Up" and "Cars," for $7.4 billion in stock in 2006.
Marvel would follow another storied comic book publisher into the arms of a media conglomerate. DC Comics, the home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, was bought by Warner Bros. -- now part of Time Warner Inc. -- in 1969.
Buying Marvel is meant to improve Disney's following among men and boys. Disney acknowledges it lost some of its footing with guys as it poured resources into female favorites such as "Hannah Montana" and the Jonas Brothers.
"Disney will have something guys grew up with and can experience with their kids, especially their sons," said Gareb Shamus, whose company Wizard Entertainment Group runs several of the Comic-Con conventions around the nation.
Marvel TV shows already account for 20 hours per week of programming on Disney's recently rebranded, boy-focused cable network, Disney XD, and that looks likely to increase, Iger said. The shows are "right in the wheelhouse for boys," he said.
There will be some lag before Marvel's trove of characters are fully developed at Disney, because of licensing deals Marvel has with other studios.
For example, Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures is developing the next three "Spider-Man" sequels, starting with "Spider-Man 4" set for a May 2011 release. News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox has the long-term movie rights to the "X-Men," "Fantastic Four," "Silver Surfer" and "Daredevil" franchises.
Both studios maintain those rights in perpetuity unless they fail to make more movies.
Separately, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures has a five-picture distribution deal for Marvel-made movies, the first of which will be "Iron Man 2," set for release next May. Paramount said it expects to continue working with Marvel and Disney.
General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios has an attraction called Marvel Super Hero Island in Orlando, Fla., that will stay in existence as long as Universal wants to keep it there and follows the contract terms, Universal said.
Disney said it will honor and re-examine Marvel's licensing deals upon expiration and may extend the profitable ones. Iger noted that when it bought Pixar, that company also had third-party licensing agreements that eventually expired, allowing the companies to move forward together.
Despite beginning to make its own movies, starting with "Iron Man" last year, licensing remained a key driver of Marvel's $206 million in profit and $676 million in revenue last year. Iger said Disney could give Marvel broader global distribution and better relationships with retailers to sell Marvel products.
However, analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. noted that the $4 billion offer was at "full price."
Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50, a 29 percent premium over Friday's closing stock price. The final ratio of cash and stock will be adjusted to ensure Disney stock makes up at least 40 percent of the final offer.
Marvel shares shot up $9.72, or 25 percent, to close at $48.37 on Monday. Disney shares fell 80 cents, or 3 percent, to $26.04.
Disney investors were probably unhappy that the deal will reduce earnings per share in the short term and might not turn positive until the company's 2012 fiscal year. Disney's earnings per share will drop partly because the company will issue 59 million new shares, and partly because Marvel plans to release two costly blockbusters, "Thor" and "The First Avenger: Captain America" in 2011. DVD sales of those films likely won't roll in until fiscal 2012.
Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.
If it works out, Marvel's chief executive, Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, 66, will pocket a hefty payday. He snatched Marvel assets out of bankruptcy in 1998, in a deal that valued the company at around $450 million including debt, outmaneuvering investors Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman. His 37 percent stake in Marvel is now worth about $1.5 billion.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
AP IMPACT: Secret process benefits pet projects
WASHINGTON – A sleepy Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that sees about three travelers a day will get $15 million under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. A government priority list ranked the project as marginal, but two powerful Democratic senators persuaded the administration to make it happen.
Despite Obama's promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence. This allowed low-priority projects such as the checkpoint in Whitetail, Mont., to skip ahead of more pressing concerns, according to documents revealed to The Associated Press.
A House oversight committee has added the checkpoint projects to its investigation into how the stimulus money is being spent. The top Republican on that committee, California's Rep. Darrell Issa, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Wednesday, questioning why some projects leapfrogged others.
It wasn't supposed to be that way. In 2004, Congress ordered Homeland Security to create a list, updated annually, of the most important repairs at checkpoints nationwide. But the Obama administration continued a Bush administration practice of considering other, more subjective factors when deciding which projects get money.
The results:
• A border station in Napolitano's home state of Arizona is getting $199 million, five times more than any other border station. The busy Nogales checkpoint has required repairs for years but was not rated among the neediest projects on the master list reviewed by the AP. Napolitano credited her lobbying as Arizona governor for getting the project near the front of the line for funding under the Bush administration. All it needed was money, which the stimulus provided.
• A checkpoint in Laredo, Texas, which serves more than 55,000 travelers and 4,200 trucks a day, is rated among the government's highest priorities but was passed over for stimulus money.
• The Westhope, N.D., checkpoint, which serves about 73 people a day and is among the lowest-priority projects, is set to get nearly $15 million for renovations.
The Whitetail project, which involves building a border station the size and cost of a Hollywood mansion, benefited from two key allies, Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Both pressed Napolitano to finance projects in their state. Tester's office boasted of that effort in an April news release, crediting Baucus and his seat at the head of the "powerful Senate Finance Committee."
Customs officials would not discuss that claim. Asked to explain Whitetail's windfall, they provided a one-page fact sheet that contains no information about Whitetail's needs and is almost identical to the fact sheet for every other Montana project.
It's hardly a recent phenomenon for politicians to use their influence to steer money to their home states. Yet Obama said the stimulus would be different. He banned "earmarks," which lawmakers routinely slip into bills to pay for pet projects, and he told agencies to "develop transparent, merit-based selection criteria" for spending.
Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency overseeing border projects, allowed the AP to review the list but will not make it public or explain its justifications for deviating from it.
Releasing that information would allow the public to see whether less important projects are getting money. The Transportation Department, for instance, recently was criticized by its internal watchdog for not following its standards when handing out money for 50 airport construction projects. Now the full $1.1 billion airport construction program is under scrutiny.
Without the lists, the public and members of Congress don't know when the administration bumps a project ahead of others ranked more important.
Customs officials said they wouldn't release the master list because it was just a starting point and subject to misunderstanding. They acknowledged there's no way for the public to know whether they are cherry-picking projects.
"There's a certain level of trust here," said Robert Jacksta, a deputy customs commissioner.
Some discrepancies between the stimulus plan and the priority list can be attributed to Congress, which set aside separate pools of money for large and small border stations. That guaranteed that a few small, probably lower-rated projects would be chosen ahead of bigger, higher-priority projects. But it doesn't explain all the discrepancies, because even within the two pools, Homeland Security sometimes reached way down on the list when selecting projects.
Many of the nation's 163 border checkpoints, known as land ports, are more than 40 years old and in need of upgrade and repairs. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, those needs became more pressing and complex as officials beefed up border security. There is far more work to be done than money to complete it.
To prioritize, officials score each project on traffic volume, security vulnerability, construction needs and other factors. The resulting list represents "an objective and fair method for prioritizing projects," officials wrote in a 2005 summary.
That's the process the Obama administration described in a news release announcing $720 million in stimulus money for borders. But it didn't say that officials can choose projects out of order for many reasons.
Trent Frazier, who oversees the border projects, said the list Congress required is more like a meal plan. The administration can decide when to eat each dish, as long as everything eventually gets eaten.
Explaining why one project might get pushed ahead, Frazier said, "You just really liked pizza and you wanted to accelerate it."
In the case of the stimulus, officials said the Nogales, Ariz., project was construction-ready, a requirement of the recovery law. Officials also consider the economy, which means if the government expects local businesses to close and border traffic to decrease, it can delay paying for that project.
In one instance, officials said they reached deep into the list to provide $39 million for repairs in Van Buren, Maine, because flooding made the facility a safety hazard. In another, they are spending $30 million in Blaine, Wash., a lower-rated project that is unusual because it includes covering the costs of a state road project. With the 2010 Olympics coming to nearby Vancouver, Canada, officials worried the border would be strained without the project.
Officials said they could similarly justify every decision they've made. They would not provide those justifications to the AP. Frazier said the department would answer questions on a case-by-case basis, working through Congress to explain decisions to the public.
But even some in Congress say they aren't getting answers. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said he has yet to hear a good explanation about why highly ranked projects such as Laredo were snubbed.
More than $116 billion in freight passed through Laredo last year, according to the Transportation Department. It is one of the busiest border stations in the country. Unemployment in the metropolitan area is 9.4 percent.
"For the sake of fairness, if you have a list, there's some sort of expectation that you're going to follow that list," Cuellar said.
Tester, who said he pressed the Obama administration to get money for Montana projects, said border crossings in his state had been unfairly ignored.
"The northern border tends to be forgotten, and it shouldn't be," Tester told the Great Falls Tribune after announcing $77 million for Montana posts in the stimulus.
Whitetail, Mont., an unincorporated town with a population of 71, saw only about $63,000 in freight cross its border last year. County unemployment is an enviable 4 percent.
"I think, absolutely, it's going to create jobs and build the infrastructure," Tester said.
Despite Obama's promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence. This allowed low-priority projects such as the checkpoint in Whitetail, Mont., to skip ahead of more pressing concerns, according to documents revealed to The Associated Press.
A House oversight committee has added the checkpoint projects to its investigation into how the stimulus money is being spent. The top Republican on that committee, California's Rep. Darrell Issa, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Wednesday, questioning why some projects leapfrogged others.
It wasn't supposed to be that way. In 2004, Congress ordered Homeland Security to create a list, updated annually, of the most important repairs at checkpoints nationwide. But the Obama administration continued a Bush administration practice of considering other, more subjective factors when deciding which projects get money.
The results:
• A border station in Napolitano's home state of Arizona is getting $199 million, five times more than any other border station. The busy Nogales checkpoint has required repairs for years but was not rated among the neediest projects on the master list reviewed by the AP. Napolitano credited her lobbying as Arizona governor for getting the project near the front of the line for funding under the Bush administration. All it needed was money, which the stimulus provided.
• A checkpoint in Laredo, Texas, which serves more than 55,000 travelers and 4,200 trucks a day, is rated among the government's highest priorities but was passed over for stimulus money.
• The Westhope, N.D., checkpoint, which serves about 73 people a day and is among the lowest-priority projects, is set to get nearly $15 million for renovations.
The Whitetail project, which involves building a border station the size and cost of a Hollywood mansion, benefited from two key allies, Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Both pressed Napolitano to finance projects in their state. Tester's office boasted of that effort in an April news release, crediting Baucus and his seat at the head of the "powerful Senate Finance Committee."
Customs officials would not discuss that claim. Asked to explain Whitetail's windfall, they provided a one-page fact sheet that contains no information about Whitetail's needs and is almost identical to the fact sheet for every other Montana project.
It's hardly a recent phenomenon for politicians to use their influence to steer money to their home states. Yet Obama said the stimulus would be different. He banned "earmarks," which lawmakers routinely slip into bills to pay for pet projects, and he told agencies to "develop transparent, merit-based selection criteria" for spending.
Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency overseeing border projects, allowed the AP to review the list but will not make it public or explain its justifications for deviating from it.
Releasing that information would allow the public to see whether less important projects are getting money. The Transportation Department, for instance, recently was criticized by its internal watchdog for not following its standards when handing out money for 50 airport construction projects. Now the full $1.1 billion airport construction program is under scrutiny.
Without the lists, the public and members of Congress don't know when the administration bumps a project ahead of others ranked more important.
Customs officials said they wouldn't release the master list because it was just a starting point and subject to misunderstanding. They acknowledged there's no way for the public to know whether they are cherry-picking projects.
"There's a certain level of trust here," said Robert Jacksta, a deputy customs commissioner.
Some discrepancies between the stimulus plan and the priority list can be attributed to Congress, which set aside separate pools of money for large and small border stations. That guaranteed that a few small, probably lower-rated projects would be chosen ahead of bigger, higher-priority projects. But it doesn't explain all the discrepancies, because even within the two pools, Homeland Security sometimes reached way down on the list when selecting projects.
Many of the nation's 163 border checkpoints, known as land ports, are more than 40 years old and in need of upgrade and repairs. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, those needs became more pressing and complex as officials beefed up border security. There is far more work to be done than money to complete it.
To prioritize, officials score each project on traffic volume, security vulnerability, construction needs and other factors. The resulting list represents "an objective and fair method for prioritizing projects," officials wrote in a 2005 summary.
That's the process the Obama administration described in a news release announcing $720 million in stimulus money for borders. But it didn't say that officials can choose projects out of order for many reasons.
Trent Frazier, who oversees the border projects, said the list Congress required is more like a meal plan. The administration can decide when to eat each dish, as long as everything eventually gets eaten.
Explaining why one project might get pushed ahead, Frazier said, "You just really liked pizza and you wanted to accelerate it."
In the case of the stimulus, officials said the Nogales, Ariz., project was construction-ready, a requirement of the recovery law. Officials also consider the economy, which means if the government expects local businesses to close and border traffic to decrease, it can delay paying for that project.
In one instance, officials said they reached deep into the list to provide $39 million for repairs in Van Buren, Maine, because flooding made the facility a safety hazard. In another, they are spending $30 million in Blaine, Wash., a lower-rated project that is unusual because it includes covering the costs of a state road project. With the 2010 Olympics coming to nearby Vancouver, Canada, officials worried the border would be strained without the project.
Officials said they could similarly justify every decision they've made. They would not provide those justifications to the AP. Frazier said the department would answer questions on a case-by-case basis, working through Congress to explain decisions to the public.
But even some in Congress say they aren't getting answers. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said he has yet to hear a good explanation about why highly ranked projects such as Laredo were snubbed.
More than $116 billion in freight passed through Laredo last year, according to the Transportation Department. It is one of the busiest border stations in the country. Unemployment in the metropolitan area is 9.4 percent.
"For the sake of fairness, if you have a list, there's some sort of expectation that you're going to follow that list," Cuellar said.
Tester, who said he pressed the Obama administration to get money for Montana projects, said border crossings in his state had been unfairly ignored.
"The northern border tends to be forgotten, and it shouldn't be," Tester told the Great Falls Tribune after announcing $77 million for Montana posts in the stimulus.
Whitetail, Mont., an unincorporated town with a population of 71, saw only about $63,000 in freight cross its border last year. County unemployment is an enviable 4 percent.
"I think, absolutely, it's going to create jobs and build the infrastructure," Tester said.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
New details emerge about ordeal of kidnapped girl
PLACERVILLE, Calif. – Authorities say an alleged kidnapper fathered two children with the woman who emerged 18 years after being snatched from a bus stop.
The new details came as authorities provided more information about the saga Jaycee Lee Dugard, who vanished when she was 11 years old and turned up at a police station in Northern California this week.
El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar says the woman spent most of her time in sheds, tents and outbuildings to isolate her from the world. Police say her captor was Phillip Garrido, who is being held on various kidnapping and sex charges.
Kollar says Dugard and the children have never been to school, never been to the doctor, and were kept in complete isolation in this compound.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say an alleged kidnapper fathered two children with the woman who emerged 18 years after being snatched from a bus stop.
The new details came as authorities provided more information about the saga Jaycee Lee Dugard, who vanished when she was 11 years old and turned up at a police station in Northern California this week.
El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar says the woman spent most of her time in sheds, tents and outbuildings to isolate her from the world. Police say her captor was Phillip Garrido. He is being held for investigation of kidnapping, rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration.
The new details came as authorities provided more information about the saga Jaycee Lee Dugard, who vanished when she was 11 years old and turned up at a police station in Northern California this week.
El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar says the woman spent most of her time in sheds, tents and outbuildings to isolate her from the world. Police say her captor was Phillip Garrido, who is being held on various kidnapping and sex charges.
Kollar says Dugard and the children have never been to school, never been to the doctor, and were kept in complete isolation in this compound.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say an alleged kidnapper fathered two children with the woman who emerged 18 years after being snatched from a bus stop.
The new details came as authorities provided more information about the saga Jaycee Lee Dugard, who vanished when she was 11 years old and turned up at a police station in Northern California this week.
El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar says the woman spent most of her time in sheds, tents and outbuildings to isolate her from the world. Police say her captor was Phillip Garrido. He is being held for investigation of kidnapping, rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration.
Venezuela repeats at Miss Universe contest
NASSAU, Bahamas – Miss Venezuela was the fairest of them all once again, winning the 2009 Miss Universe crown for the second year straight and the sixth time since the pageant's creation.
Dressed in a flowing red gown, 18-year-old Stefania Fernandez hugged the runner-up from the Dominican Republic and danced in joy as her victory was announced Sunday.
The crown briefly fell to the floor as it passed from one Venezuelan beauty to the next.
But Fernandez said there was time for outgoing Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza to whisper in her ear that she must have worked hard for Venezuela to win consecutive crowns.
"What do we Venezuelans have?" Fernandez, an international relations student, told reporters after the pageant. "That we are ourselves."
The other top-five finalists were runner-up Ada Aimee de la Cruz, followed by Miss Kosovo, Droga Ganusha; Miss Australia, Rachael Finch; and Miss Puerto Rico, Mayra Matos Perez.
During a question-and-answer segment with the five top finalists, Fernandez said she believed women have overcome obstacles such as hitting the proverbial glass ceiling.
"I feel we have reached the level that men are at," she said.
When asked later how she thought beauty contests promoted equality between men and women, Fernandez said they provided exposure.
"We have quite a following worldwide," she said. "We are models to follow."
The new Miss Universe is from the city of Merida in the west of a beauty-obsessed South American country where hard-fought pageants are something of a national sport, with contestants widely dissected by the public and the media.
Fernandez said she did not know whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would receive her. He did not meet with Mendoza when she won and made no public statements at the time.
But Fernandez said he might change his mind.
"We'll see, because we are making history," she said.
The top 15 Miss Universe finalists appeared in bathing suits before the final 10 were chosen for the evening gown segment.
Pageant co-owner Donald Trump told reporters, "I think this is the most beautiful group of women I've ever seen."
The televised event included musical performances by Flo Rida, Heidi Montag, David Guetta and Kelly Rowland.
Montag gave her first live performance, singing "Body Language" from her debut album.
Fans cheered on the blond star of MTV's "The Hills," although NBC, which broadcast the event in the Bahamas live, blocked out more than half of her performance as they introduced the 15 finalists.
"It's my first performance live and it's in front of a billion eyes," Montag said.
The on-stage hosts were Billy Bush, co-anchor of "Access Hollywood," and Claudia Jordan, a former Miss Rhode Island USA who has appeared on several TV shows. Judges included actor Dean Cain and supermodel Valeria Mazza.
Miss China, Wang Jingyao, was named Miss Congeniality and Miss Thailand, Chutima Durongdej, won Miss Photogenic.
Many contestants have suffered from dehydration in recent weeks, and Jewel Selver, Miss Turks and Caicos, went home Saturday to recuperate, said Esther Swan, Miss Universe spokeswoman.
Dressed in a flowing red gown, 18-year-old Stefania Fernandez hugged the runner-up from the Dominican Republic and danced in joy as her victory was announced Sunday.
The crown briefly fell to the floor as it passed from one Venezuelan beauty to the next.
But Fernandez said there was time for outgoing Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza to whisper in her ear that she must have worked hard for Venezuela to win consecutive crowns.
"What do we Venezuelans have?" Fernandez, an international relations student, told reporters after the pageant. "That we are ourselves."
The other top-five finalists were runner-up Ada Aimee de la Cruz, followed by Miss Kosovo, Droga Ganusha; Miss Australia, Rachael Finch; and Miss Puerto Rico, Mayra Matos Perez.
During a question-and-answer segment with the five top finalists, Fernandez said she believed women have overcome obstacles such as hitting the proverbial glass ceiling.
"I feel we have reached the level that men are at," she said.
When asked later how she thought beauty contests promoted equality between men and women, Fernandez said they provided exposure.
"We have quite a following worldwide," she said. "We are models to follow."
The new Miss Universe is from the city of Merida in the west of a beauty-obsessed South American country where hard-fought pageants are something of a national sport, with contestants widely dissected by the public and the media.
Fernandez said she did not know whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would receive her. He did not meet with Mendoza when she won and made no public statements at the time.
But Fernandez said he might change his mind.
"We'll see, because we are making history," she said.
The top 15 Miss Universe finalists appeared in bathing suits before the final 10 were chosen for the evening gown segment.
Pageant co-owner Donald Trump told reporters, "I think this is the most beautiful group of women I've ever seen."
The televised event included musical performances by Flo Rida, Heidi Montag, David Guetta and Kelly Rowland.
Montag gave her first live performance, singing "Body Language" from her debut album.
Fans cheered on the blond star of MTV's "The Hills," although NBC, which broadcast the event in the Bahamas live, blocked out more than half of her performance as they introduced the 15 finalists.
"It's my first performance live and it's in front of a billion eyes," Montag said.
The on-stage hosts were Billy Bush, co-anchor of "Access Hollywood," and Claudia Jordan, a former Miss Rhode Island USA who has appeared on several TV shows. Judges included actor Dean Cain and supermodel Valeria Mazza.
Miss China, Wang Jingyao, was named Miss Congeniality and Miss Thailand, Chutima Durongdej, won Miss Photogenic.
Many contestants have suffered from dehydration in recent weeks, and Jewel Selver, Miss Turks and Caicos, went home Saturday to recuperate, said Esther Swan, Miss Universe spokeswoman.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Love in the Time of Terror
She was a single;he was divorced and searching.Together they kindled an epic passion for each other-and jihad.
This is a story about love — love that lives and grows in the least likely places. It's a story about soul mates joined in the soulless business of terror.
Malika met Abdessattar at a tram stop in Brussels. She was fully veiled; he bore the deep marks of prostration before Allah, of ritually pounding his forehead into the ground. They grew passionate — about each other, and about jihad. Two years later, Abdessattar would become a martyr. This past December, Malika would be arrested in a vast counterterrorism operation in Belgium, with authorities calling her "an al Qaeda living legend." Utter devotion led them there.
I first came into contact with Malika el Aroud four years ago when I obtained a rare copy of her self-published memoir, Soldiers of Light, while I was helping to research a book and CNN documentary on Osama bin Laden. I found her e-mail address, but it would take six months of phone calls before she would agree to meet with me for an interview.
"One Woman’s War" is based on Paul Cruickshank's reporting for Marie Claire. It was produced by Paul Cruickshank and presented by Nic Robertson, CNN's Senior International Correspondent.
On an icy winter day, I knocked on the door of her second-floor chalet apartment in a sleepy Swiss hamlet near the city of Fribourg. A vision in black greeted me politely in perfect French — but refused to shake my hand, explaining that her religion forbids it. Malika, 46 at the time, was covered from head to toe in dark robes; only her round face showed. Her features were unremarkable, except for a burning intensity in her expressive deep-brown eyes.
She offered me a cup of Moroccan tea and an array of Swiss cakes, and served them up in her small kitchen, which, like the rest of her home, was immaculate and paneled in ski-lodge pinewood.
I sat down across from her to start our interview, and it was then that she dropped her motherly tone. "If you're polite with me, I'll stay polite and there'll be no problem," she said, fixing me with her piercing eyes.
"For many years, I lived without religion," she began. "Islam for me was really a gift from God." A Moroccan immigrant living in Belgium, Malika had grown up feeling stifled and frustrated; her observant parents had required her to don a veil at home, yet she wore miniskirts and tight jeans to school. At 18, she found freedom of a sort by marrying a Moroccan seeking identity papers. But instead of moving in with him, she started hanging out in seedy nightclubs, sleeping at the apartments of random acquaintances, and showering in public restrooms. "I did everything that is bad," she told me. Jobless and too proud to ask for money, she hardly ate and at one point tried to kill herself by swallowing a handful of pills. Eventually she got engaged to a cousin, who left her when she became pregnant.
At 32, an unmoored and vulnerable single mom, Malika began a journey back to Islam. It started simply, when she was listening to a Moroccan radio station one afternoon: "I heard the Arabic call of prayer, and I felt something very strong in my heart telling me to wake up and return," she told me, her voice thick with emotion. She found a Koran and read it for the first time. As she described in her memoir: "It penetrated my heart like a ray of light. I discovered that God's forgiveness is immense."
A few years later, Malika signed up for classes at the Centre Islamique Belge, an organization that adheres to a rigid, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam known as Salafism, which shuns Western modernity. When she walked into her first class, all of the women turned and stared, irked by her Western clothes. It would not be long before Malika started viewing the world through a 2-inch-by-6-inch slit in her veil.
Two more short-lived marriages followed. Then one day, Abdessattar Dahmane, wearing glasses and a fezlike Tunisian cap, gingerly approached Malika while she was waiting for a tram. He explained, as she stood there fully veiled, that he had heard about her through the center and wanted to meet her. Apologizing for being so forward, he gave her his phone number and asked if they could continue the conversation by phone. Attracted by his courtesy and warm smile, Malika agreed.
In early 1999, the two had long talks and walks in the city's public parks, and a chaste romance developed. "He was very gallant and gentle toward me," Malika told me, her eyes shining. What she did not know was that Abdessattar, who had also been married and had pursued media studies at Tunis University, had caught the attention of Belgian security services because of his connection to a group of pro-al Qaeda extremists. When she met him, he had just returned from trying to get into Kosovo, where he wanted to fight jihad against Serb forces targeting Kosovo Muslims.
On an early spring day in 1999, Abdessattar proposed to Malika. She'd just learned that she had contracted tuberculosis, and she was dreading what Abdessattar's reaction might be when she told him. But what he said made her swoon: "You're going to need me, and I want to take care of you." After their wedding at the Islamic center in April, he was true to his word, even insisting on taking care of all the household chores.
Malika’s younger sister, Saida, remembered just how smitten Malika was during this time. "She'd had many bad experiences with men, but Abdessattar treated her well, and that made all the difference," she told me. Unlike Malika, Saida, who runs her own housecleaning business in Brussels, is comfortably integrated into Belgian society and has made it clear that she shares none of her sister's radical views.
But Abdessattar's behavior struck Saida as bizarre at the time. "He would say a minimum to me, and he would avert his gaze when he did speak to me," Saida said. One day, Saida and her husband invited the newlyweds to dinner at their home. The evening was a disaster: Abdessattar stormed out when he discovered that Saida's husband belonged to the Shia branch of Islam instead of the Sunni branch that Abdessattar adhered to. (The root of the divide between these factions is a disagreement about the true successor of the Prophet Muhammad. The most extreme Sunni radicals believe that Shia Muslims are heretics who deserve to die.) Abdessattar's abrupt exit from the dinner party caused a deep rift between the two sisters.
In the early months of his marriage to Malika, Abdessattar talked incessantly about how an alliance of non-Muslim powers led by the United States was oppressing Muslims around the world. He spoke of "global jihad," which had been recently declared by bin Laden from the mountains of Afghanistan. "He made me understand certain things," Malika told me. "I felt the same pain he felt, seeing our brothers and sisters massacred and killed. I felt such anger that I wanted to take up arms myself." Russian military actions against Chechen Muslims particularly agitated the couple.
One evening in late 1999, Abdessattar caught sight of bin Laden on the evening news: The self-styled prophet, dressed in flowing white robes, was calling for volunteers for his global jihad. "My husband was transfixed," Malika told me, dreamily. "There was a fascination, a love. It was very clear, and I felt the same. Osama had a beauty in his face." At that very moment, Malika said, her husband resolved to leave Belgium for Afghanistan to volunteer for jihad. She agreed that she would eventually join him.
Abdessattar left in the spring of 2000 for Afghanistan, where he enrolled in a training camp near the city of Jalalabad. His initial hope was to eventually fight with jihadists in Chechnya, but at some point he was recruited into bin Laden's terrorist network. In January 2001, after eight months of separation, Malika boarded a flight to Pakistan. She felt a pang of guilt about saying good-bye to her daughter, who was getting ready to start college, but the feeling quickly vanished as she thought about seeing the man she loved. For the first time in her life, she felt she was doing something meaningful: Her plan, she told me, was to set up an orphanage in Afghanistan.
When Malika landed, two men drove her through the stunning mountain passes across the border into Afghanistan. Despite the natural beauty of her surroundings, Malika could hardly believe the poverty of the Afghan people. As she described it in her memoir: "What I saw then was wretchedness with a capital W. It's something that we in the West just can't imagine." She felt ashamed of the simple luxuries she'd enjoyed in Belgium.
When they reached Jalalabad, an eastern Afghan city in a valley beneath the soaring, snowcapped mountains of the Hindu Kush, her drivers dropped her off in front of a small, dilapidated shack. Her husband emerged, noticeably bulked up from his training. He greeted her with a smile, and she was burning to embrace him. They did not leave the dwelling for the next three days.
Malika took to the mundane rhythm of life in Jalalabad, accepting the lack of running water, limited access to electricity, and other inconveniences, such as living in only one room. "It was like being in the Middle Ages," she told me. "I had to pump water from the wells and burn wood to heat the place up. There were holes all over the walls." When Abdessattar left the home, Malika would spend time cooking vegetable dishes with the wives of her husband's al Qaeda comrades. Meat was expensive and difficult to come by. Occasionally she would go to the market to pick up some pieces of chicken — although it took a little time to get used to seeing her dinner slaughtered right in front of her because of a lack of refrigeration. But she adjusted. Malika's only complaint: She did not like having to wear the mesh grill of the burka over her eyes when she went out; it made her lose her balance.
Once or twice she saw the wives of bin Laden, when they came to visit with him from Kandahar, al Qaeda's headquarters in the south. Despite well-worn tales of scant freedoms — of virtual house arrest for the wives of Islamic fundamentalists — "they seemed happy, from what I could tell," she said. "They were radiant, even. Otherwise they wouldn't be married to him. I don't think he was forceful with them." Malika never met bin Laden, because of strict segregation between the sexes, but called his appeal magnetic. "It's easy for me to describe the love that Abdessattar felt for him because I felt it myself," she told me, her voice brimming with passion. "It was he who helped the oppressed. It was he who stood up against the biggest enemy in the world: the United States."
A few months after her arrival, she and Abdessattar moved into a more comfortable residence in an enclave of homes reserved for bin Laden's most trusted operatives near Jalalabad's main river. But Abdessattar was determined to school Malika and show her more of the real Afghanistan, taking her on tours of run-down hospitals and villages ravaged by war and hunger. Her husband told her, "Look, look at this closely, because this is the work of the Americans, the result of the U.N. sanctions."
One day, Abdessattar took Malika on a tour of his training camp, where, to her delight, he showed her how to fire a Kalashnikov assault rifle, even allowing her to squeeze the trigger, making the mountain valley echo with the thunderous sound of high-intensity rounds. But Abdessattar had not taken her there just for her amusement; he was teaching her how to protect herself from the nearby Northern Alliance, which was fighting against bin Laden and the Taliban. He told her, "If they come when I am away, fire on them till they kill you. Don't let yourself be taken alive." From that day on, Malika would never sleep without the weapon at the foot of her bed.
In August 2001, Abdessattar headed for northern Afghanistan, telling Malika that he was taking a trip to film a report on the exploits of jihadists on the northern front. It was a lie. Bin Laden had personally selected Abdessattar to carry out one of his most vital missions. Al Qaeda's catastrophic strike against the U.S. — five years in the making — was now only weeks away. Bin Laden knew the 9/11 attack would make him the world's most wanted man and that there would be enormous pressure on the Taliban to give him up. How better to ingratiate himself with the Taliban than by killing their greatest foe, Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance? The plan was for Abdessattar and a colleague to pose as TV journalists to gain access to Massoud, then assassinate him.
When Abdessattar set off on his trip, he knew it would likely be the last time he saw the woman he loved, but his passion for jihad was greater. When I asked Malika why she was kept in the dark, she snapped, "Since when does a secret agent, entrusted with a mission, tell his wife?"
On September 9, the al Qaeda hit men went to meet Massoud at his field headquarters. According to survivors of the attack, Abdessattar's first question to Massoud was: "If you capture Osama bin Laden, what will you do with him?" There was no second question. His colleague, the fake cameraman, who had been filming Massoud at close range, triggered his suicide vest, fatally wounding the Northern Alliance leader. Abdessattar, who had been standing a few feet away, survived the bomb blast and was captured by Massoud's guards and locked in a nearby room. But after they left, Abdessattar escaped through a window, then sprinted. Just as he started to gain ground, he came to a river blocking his path. He tried to wade across, but the guards caught up with him and shot him dead.
By September 12, the suicide mission was an open secret in Jalalabad, where people in the streets were celebrating the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. and the death of Massoud. Malika learned of her husband's death when she stepped outside and a woman warmly congratulated her on being the wife of a martyr. Malika recalled in her memoir, "My heart jumped."
A succession of visitors came to congratulate her over the next few days, seemingly unaware of how stricken she was with grief. Eventually a courier, sent by bin Laden, dropped off a videotape that her husband had made in the hope that she would hear the news from him first. "Abdessattar gently prepared me for the fact he was no longer there," Malika said, as if speaking of the most tender kind of love token. "He told me he loved me, but he was already on the other side." The courier also gave her $500 in cash from bin Laden to settle her husband's debts. "It's the pinnacle in Islam to be the widow of a martyr," Malika told me proudly. "For a woman, it's extraordinary."
Weeks later, still gripped by sorrow, Malika watched with detachment as the night sky above Jalalabad lit up with explosions from American bombs. In mid-November, she heard on the radio that the Taliban had abandoned their positions around the city. Worse, word came to her that Massoud's men knew where she was — and planned to hunt her down in order to avenge the death of their commander.
Before she could escape, Massoud's men stormed her compound. Trapped inside and terrified, Malika heard only the deafening sound of explosions, gunfire, and shattering glass. The al Qaeda fighters told the women and children to run for their lives, while the men provided cover, launching grenades and bazooka rounds on their assailants. Assisted by one of the al Qaeda men, Malika ran to the back of the compound and climbed a ladder to the top of a 7-foot wall. Then she jumped — burka and all — down onto the muddy bank of the river below. She waded across the icy waters with other fleeing women and children, to what they hoped would be safety.
However, after bedding down with an Afghan family overnight, the fugitives ran into a group of Northern Alliance fighters on a road leading out of the city, and the women were taken prisoner. Malika remembered the words of her husband: "Don't let them take you alive." But lucky for her, Malika's captors didn't know the prize they'd caught, given that she was wrapped in her burka. She and the others were held in several locations in the mountains above Jalalabad before being taken back into the city.
After a couple of weeks, a band of al Qaeda fighters discovered where the women were being held and launched a daring raid at dawn to set them free. Shouting "Don't be afraid, sisters! We are your brothers in Islam!" they loaded Malika and the others into vans and sped off into the Jalalabad morning.
The convoy drove high up into the mountains, but the last long, steep climb had to be made by foot. Finally they came upon an elaborate cave complex. Although Malika was never told the name of the place, she was likely taken to Tora Bora, al Qaeda's infamous mountain redoubt.
When she entered the caves, she saw dozens of fighters milling about. She was offered fresh food, fruit, and hot coffee, and was relieved to find a bucket of clean water so that she could bathe. "It was like a scene out of Ali Baba," she recalled in her memoir. "There were mattresses, blankets, gas lamps ... it was all incredibly well organized." As the sun set, she noticed the gorgeous view and wished she could take some photos.
The next morning, an al Qaeda escort brought her across the border into Pakistan. She was lucky to have left when she did. Soon after, the U.S. initiated an intensive bombing campaign after receiving intelligence that bin Laden was hiding at Tora Bora.
On December 18, 2001, Malika's escort dropped her off at the gates of the Belgian embassy in Islamabad, where she turned herself in, in the interest of safe passage back to Brussels. "We will never stop our fight," the al Qaeda fighter told her before he left. The chivalry of her husband's comrades — who had risked their own lives to protect hers — sealed her devotion to the cause.
On her return to Belgium, Malika was interrogated by authorities, who eventually charged her with complicity in the assassination of Massoud. But she was cleared in a 2003 trial and went on to meet another Tunisian-born man, Moez Garsallaoui, who shared her incendiary views. They married, and she moved in with him in Switzerland, away from the media attention in Brussels. There, Malika devoted herself to promoting bin Laden's cause online. The computer-savvy Moez set up an Arabic Website for himself and helped his wife administer a French-language counterpart called Minbar-SoS, a reference to the pulpits in mosques, called minbars. Under the pseudonym Oum Oubeyda, a variation on Abdessattar's al Qaeda code name, Malika regularly voiced her support for al Qaeda, while others posted videos of bloody attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The site eventually attracted a following of more than 1400 full-time members.
As I talked with Malika in her Swiss home, Moez wandered in and out of the room. Meek rather than menacing, with a neatly cropped beard and glasses, he clearly played second fiddle to his wife, who gently bossed him around throughout the afternoon. Although she tried to make a public display of being deferential to him, it was obvious who was in awe of whom.
This is a story about love — love that lives and grows in the least likely places. It's a story about soul mates joined in the soulless business of terror.
Malika met Abdessattar at a tram stop in Brussels. She was fully veiled; he bore the deep marks of prostration before Allah, of ritually pounding his forehead into the ground. They grew passionate — about each other, and about jihad. Two years later, Abdessattar would become a martyr. This past December, Malika would be arrested in a vast counterterrorism operation in Belgium, with authorities calling her "an al Qaeda living legend." Utter devotion led them there.
I first came into contact with Malika el Aroud four years ago when I obtained a rare copy of her self-published memoir, Soldiers of Light, while I was helping to research a book and CNN documentary on Osama bin Laden. I found her e-mail address, but it would take six months of phone calls before she would agree to meet with me for an interview.
"One Woman’s War" is based on Paul Cruickshank's reporting for Marie Claire. It was produced by Paul Cruickshank and presented by Nic Robertson, CNN's Senior International Correspondent.
On an icy winter day, I knocked on the door of her second-floor chalet apartment in a sleepy Swiss hamlet near the city of Fribourg. A vision in black greeted me politely in perfect French — but refused to shake my hand, explaining that her religion forbids it. Malika, 46 at the time, was covered from head to toe in dark robes; only her round face showed. Her features were unremarkable, except for a burning intensity in her expressive deep-brown eyes.
She offered me a cup of Moroccan tea and an array of Swiss cakes, and served them up in her small kitchen, which, like the rest of her home, was immaculate and paneled in ski-lodge pinewood.
I sat down across from her to start our interview, and it was then that she dropped her motherly tone. "If you're polite with me, I'll stay polite and there'll be no problem," she said, fixing me with her piercing eyes.
"For many years, I lived without religion," she began. "Islam for me was really a gift from God." A Moroccan immigrant living in Belgium, Malika had grown up feeling stifled and frustrated; her observant parents had required her to don a veil at home, yet she wore miniskirts and tight jeans to school. At 18, she found freedom of a sort by marrying a Moroccan seeking identity papers. But instead of moving in with him, she started hanging out in seedy nightclubs, sleeping at the apartments of random acquaintances, and showering in public restrooms. "I did everything that is bad," she told me. Jobless and too proud to ask for money, she hardly ate and at one point tried to kill herself by swallowing a handful of pills. Eventually she got engaged to a cousin, who left her when she became pregnant.
At 32, an unmoored and vulnerable single mom, Malika began a journey back to Islam. It started simply, when she was listening to a Moroccan radio station one afternoon: "I heard the Arabic call of prayer, and I felt something very strong in my heart telling me to wake up and return," she told me, her voice thick with emotion. She found a Koran and read it for the first time. As she described in her memoir: "It penetrated my heart like a ray of light. I discovered that God's forgiveness is immense."
A few years later, Malika signed up for classes at the Centre Islamique Belge, an organization that adheres to a rigid, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam known as Salafism, which shuns Western modernity. When she walked into her first class, all of the women turned and stared, irked by her Western clothes. It would not be long before Malika started viewing the world through a 2-inch-by-6-inch slit in her veil.
Two more short-lived marriages followed. Then one day, Abdessattar Dahmane, wearing glasses and a fezlike Tunisian cap, gingerly approached Malika while she was waiting for a tram. He explained, as she stood there fully veiled, that he had heard about her through the center and wanted to meet her. Apologizing for being so forward, he gave her his phone number and asked if they could continue the conversation by phone. Attracted by his courtesy and warm smile, Malika agreed.
In early 1999, the two had long talks and walks in the city's public parks, and a chaste romance developed. "He was very gallant and gentle toward me," Malika told me, her eyes shining. What she did not know was that Abdessattar, who had also been married and had pursued media studies at Tunis University, had caught the attention of Belgian security services because of his connection to a group of pro-al Qaeda extremists. When she met him, he had just returned from trying to get into Kosovo, where he wanted to fight jihad against Serb forces targeting Kosovo Muslims.
On an early spring day in 1999, Abdessattar proposed to Malika. She'd just learned that she had contracted tuberculosis, and she was dreading what Abdessattar's reaction might be when she told him. But what he said made her swoon: "You're going to need me, and I want to take care of you." After their wedding at the Islamic center in April, he was true to his word, even insisting on taking care of all the household chores.
Malika’s younger sister, Saida, remembered just how smitten Malika was during this time. "She'd had many bad experiences with men, but Abdessattar treated her well, and that made all the difference," she told me. Unlike Malika, Saida, who runs her own housecleaning business in Brussels, is comfortably integrated into Belgian society and has made it clear that she shares none of her sister's radical views.
But Abdessattar's behavior struck Saida as bizarre at the time. "He would say a minimum to me, and he would avert his gaze when he did speak to me," Saida said. One day, Saida and her husband invited the newlyweds to dinner at their home. The evening was a disaster: Abdessattar stormed out when he discovered that Saida's husband belonged to the Shia branch of Islam instead of the Sunni branch that Abdessattar adhered to. (The root of the divide between these factions is a disagreement about the true successor of the Prophet Muhammad. The most extreme Sunni radicals believe that Shia Muslims are heretics who deserve to die.) Abdessattar's abrupt exit from the dinner party caused a deep rift between the two sisters.
In the early months of his marriage to Malika, Abdessattar talked incessantly about how an alliance of non-Muslim powers led by the United States was oppressing Muslims around the world. He spoke of "global jihad," which had been recently declared by bin Laden from the mountains of Afghanistan. "He made me understand certain things," Malika told me. "I felt the same pain he felt, seeing our brothers and sisters massacred and killed. I felt such anger that I wanted to take up arms myself." Russian military actions against Chechen Muslims particularly agitated the couple.
One evening in late 1999, Abdessattar caught sight of bin Laden on the evening news: The self-styled prophet, dressed in flowing white robes, was calling for volunteers for his global jihad. "My husband was transfixed," Malika told me, dreamily. "There was a fascination, a love. It was very clear, and I felt the same. Osama had a beauty in his face." At that very moment, Malika said, her husband resolved to leave Belgium for Afghanistan to volunteer for jihad. She agreed that she would eventually join him.
Abdessattar left in the spring of 2000 for Afghanistan, where he enrolled in a training camp near the city of Jalalabad. His initial hope was to eventually fight with jihadists in Chechnya, but at some point he was recruited into bin Laden's terrorist network. In January 2001, after eight months of separation, Malika boarded a flight to Pakistan. She felt a pang of guilt about saying good-bye to her daughter, who was getting ready to start college, but the feeling quickly vanished as she thought about seeing the man she loved. For the first time in her life, she felt she was doing something meaningful: Her plan, she told me, was to set up an orphanage in Afghanistan.
When Malika landed, two men drove her through the stunning mountain passes across the border into Afghanistan. Despite the natural beauty of her surroundings, Malika could hardly believe the poverty of the Afghan people. As she described it in her memoir: "What I saw then was wretchedness with a capital W. It's something that we in the West just can't imagine." She felt ashamed of the simple luxuries she'd enjoyed in Belgium.
When they reached Jalalabad, an eastern Afghan city in a valley beneath the soaring, snowcapped mountains of the Hindu Kush, her drivers dropped her off in front of a small, dilapidated shack. Her husband emerged, noticeably bulked up from his training. He greeted her with a smile, and she was burning to embrace him. They did not leave the dwelling for the next three days.
Malika took to the mundane rhythm of life in Jalalabad, accepting the lack of running water, limited access to electricity, and other inconveniences, such as living in only one room. "It was like being in the Middle Ages," she told me. "I had to pump water from the wells and burn wood to heat the place up. There were holes all over the walls." When Abdessattar left the home, Malika would spend time cooking vegetable dishes with the wives of her husband's al Qaeda comrades. Meat was expensive and difficult to come by. Occasionally she would go to the market to pick up some pieces of chicken — although it took a little time to get used to seeing her dinner slaughtered right in front of her because of a lack of refrigeration. But she adjusted. Malika's only complaint: She did not like having to wear the mesh grill of the burka over her eyes when she went out; it made her lose her balance.
Once or twice she saw the wives of bin Laden, when they came to visit with him from Kandahar, al Qaeda's headquarters in the south. Despite well-worn tales of scant freedoms — of virtual house arrest for the wives of Islamic fundamentalists — "they seemed happy, from what I could tell," she said. "They were radiant, even. Otherwise they wouldn't be married to him. I don't think he was forceful with them." Malika never met bin Laden, because of strict segregation between the sexes, but called his appeal magnetic. "It's easy for me to describe the love that Abdessattar felt for him because I felt it myself," she told me, her voice brimming with passion. "It was he who helped the oppressed. It was he who stood up against the biggest enemy in the world: the United States."
A few months after her arrival, she and Abdessattar moved into a more comfortable residence in an enclave of homes reserved for bin Laden's most trusted operatives near Jalalabad's main river. But Abdessattar was determined to school Malika and show her more of the real Afghanistan, taking her on tours of run-down hospitals and villages ravaged by war and hunger. Her husband told her, "Look, look at this closely, because this is the work of the Americans, the result of the U.N. sanctions."
One day, Abdessattar took Malika on a tour of his training camp, where, to her delight, he showed her how to fire a Kalashnikov assault rifle, even allowing her to squeeze the trigger, making the mountain valley echo with the thunderous sound of high-intensity rounds. But Abdessattar had not taken her there just for her amusement; he was teaching her how to protect herself from the nearby Northern Alliance, which was fighting against bin Laden and the Taliban. He told her, "If they come when I am away, fire on them till they kill you. Don't let yourself be taken alive." From that day on, Malika would never sleep without the weapon at the foot of her bed.
In August 2001, Abdessattar headed for northern Afghanistan, telling Malika that he was taking a trip to film a report on the exploits of jihadists on the northern front. It was a lie. Bin Laden had personally selected Abdessattar to carry out one of his most vital missions. Al Qaeda's catastrophic strike against the U.S. — five years in the making — was now only weeks away. Bin Laden knew the 9/11 attack would make him the world's most wanted man and that there would be enormous pressure on the Taliban to give him up. How better to ingratiate himself with the Taliban than by killing their greatest foe, Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance? The plan was for Abdessattar and a colleague to pose as TV journalists to gain access to Massoud, then assassinate him.
When Abdessattar set off on his trip, he knew it would likely be the last time he saw the woman he loved, but his passion for jihad was greater. When I asked Malika why she was kept in the dark, she snapped, "Since when does a secret agent, entrusted with a mission, tell his wife?"
On September 9, the al Qaeda hit men went to meet Massoud at his field headquarters. According to survivors of the attack, Abdessattar's first question to Massoud was: "If you capture Osama bin Laden, what will you do with him?" There was no second question. His colleague, the fake cameraman, who had been filming Massoud at close range, triggered his suicide vest, fatally wounding the Northern Alliance leader. Abdessattar, who had been standing a few feet away, survived the bomb blast and was captured by Massoud's guards and locked in a nearby room. But after they left, Abdessattar escaped through a window, then sprinted. Just as he started to gain ground, he came to a river blocking his path. He tried to wade across, but the guards caught up with him and shot him dead.
By September 12, the suicide mission was an open secret in Jalalabad, where people in the streets were celebrating the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. and the death of Massoud. Malika learned of her husband's death when she stepped outside and a woman warmly congratulated her on being the wife of a martyr. Malika recalled in her memoir, "My heart jumped."
A succession of visitors came to congratulate her over the next few days, seemingly unaware of how stricken she was with grief. Eventually a courier, sent by bin Laden, dropped off a videotape that her husband had made in the hope that she would hear the news from him first. "Abdessattar gently prepared me for the fact he was no longer there," Malika said, as if speaking of the most tender kind of love token. "He told me he loved me, but he was already on the other side." The courier also gave her $500 in cash from bin Laden to settle her husband's debts. "It's the pinnacle in Islam to be the widow of a martyr," Malika told me proudly. "For a woman, it's extraordinary."
Weeks later, still gripped by sorrow, Malika watched with detachment as the night sky above Jalalabad lit up with explosions from American bombs. In mid-November, she heard on the radio that the Taliban had abandoned their positions around the city. Worse, word came to her that Massoud's men knew where she was — and planned to hunt her down in order to avenge the death of their commander.
Before she could escape, Massoud's men stormed her compound. Trapped inside and terrified, Malika heard only the deafening sound of explosions, gunfire, and shattering glass. The al Qaeda fighters told the women and children to run for their lives, while the men provided cover, launching grenades and bazooka rounds on their assailants. Assisted by one of the al Qaeda men, Malika ran to the back of the compound and climbed a ladder to the top of a 7-foot wall. Then she jumped — burka and all — down onto the muddy bank of the river below. She waded across the icy waters with other fleeing women and children, to what they hoped would be safety.
However, after bedding down with an Afghan family overnight, the fugitives ran into a group of Northern Alliance fighters on a road leading out of the city, and the women were taken prisoner. Malika remembered the words of her husband: "Don't let them take you alive." But lucky for her, Malika's captors didn't know the prize they'd caught, given that she was wrapped in her burka. She and the others were held in several locations in the mountains above Jalalabad before being taken back into the city.
After a couple of weeks, a band of al Qaeda fighters discovered where the women were being held and launched a daring raid at dawn to set them free. Shouting "Don't be afraid, sisters! We are your brothers in Islam!" they loaded Malika and the others into vans and sped off into the Jalalabad morning.
The convoy drove high up into the mountains, but the last long, steep climb had to be made by foot. Finally they came upon an elaborate cave complex. Although Malika was never told the name of the place, she was likely taken to Tora Bora, al Qaeda's infamous mountain redoubt.
When she entered the caves, she saw dozens of fighters milling about. She was offered fresh food, fruit, and hot coffee, and was relieved to find a bucket of clean water so that she could bathe. "It was like a scene out of Ali Baba," she recalled in her memoir. "There were mattresses, blankets, gas lamps ... it was all incredibly well organized." As the sun set, she noticed the gorgeous view and wished she could take some photos.
The next morning, an al Qaeda escort brought her across the border into Pakistan. She was lucky to have left when she did. Soon after, the U.S. initiated an intensive bombing campaign after receiving intelligence that bin Laden was hiding at Tora Bora.
On December 18, 2001, Malika's escort dropped her off at the gates of the Belgian embassy in Islamabad, where she turned herself in, in the interest of safe passage back to Brussels. "We will never stop our fight," the al Qaeda fighter told her before he left. The chivalry of her husband's comrades — who had risked their own lives to protect hers — sealed her devotion to the cause.
On her return to Belgium, Malika was interrogated by authorities, who eventually charged her with complicity in the assassination of Massoud. But she was cleared in a 2003 trial and went on to meet another Tunisian-born man, Moez Garsallaoui, who shared her incendiary views. They married, and she moved in with him in Switzerland, away from the media attention in Brussels. There, Malika devoted herself to promoting bin Laden's cause online. The computer-savvy Moez set up an Arabic Website for himself and helped his wife administer a French-language counterpart called Minbar-SoS, a reference to the pulpits in mosques, called minbars. Under the pseudonym Oum Oubeyda, a variation on Abdessattar's al Qaeda code name, Malika regularly voiced her support for al Qaeda, while others posted videos of bloody attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The site eventually attracted a following of more than 1400 full-time members.
As I talked with Malika in her Swiss home, Moez wandered in and out of the room. Meek rather than menacing, with a neatly cropped beard and glasses, he clearly played second fiddle to his wife, who gently bossed him around throughout the afternoon. Although she tried to make a public display of being deferential to him, it was obvious who was in awe of whom.
World's Weirdest Hotels
On your next trip, you could be checking into a wine cask, a salvaged 727 airplane, or a room where the furniture defies the law of gravity.
Upside-down stay
At Berlin's Propeller Island City Lodge, each of the 30 rooms is weird in its own way. The artist-owner, Lars Stroschen, has seen to that. One room, the first built, is made to look like a brightly painted medieval town, with an ultra-mini golf course surrounding the castle bed. Another has furniture attached to the ceiling, another has coffins for beds, and still another has lion cages on stilts (the website claims that kids "love to sleep" in them). Then there's the Freedom Room, which resembles a prison, complete with a toilet next to the bed—oh, that German humor!
A place to unwine'd
When they were owned by a Swiss château, the four enormous casks on the grounds of the Hotel De Vrouwe Van Stavoren in the Netherlands held the equivalent of 19,333 bottles of wine. Now, after some creative recycling, it's guests rather than booze that mellow out inside the casks. The richly worn and airtight oak barrels have two narrow beds, with a small sitting area outside. The grounds are quite close to tiny Stavoren's harbor, which was a major port in the Middle Ages.
Crazy kind of stay
The daughter of Ho Chi Minh's No. 2 masterminded the Hang Nga Guest House and Art Gallery in Da Lat, Vietnam, a complex that more than earns its local nickname, the Crazy House. The three main buildings are Gaudi-esque concrete treehouse-like growths that appear as if they flowed organically out of the ground. Inside, the walls seem to dissolve into the floor, and right angles are avoided entirely. Each guest room is built around a different animal theme: the Eagle Room has a big-beaked bird standing atop a huge egg, while another has arm-sized ants crawling up the wall. The animal theme continues outside — a large giraffe statue on the property contains a teahouse, and human-size "spider webs" are set up here and there.
In a league of its own
Hydrophobics should stay far from Jules' Undersea Lodge, named for novelist Jules Verne of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea fame. The 600-square-foot lodge, a former marine lab, is 21 feet underwater, close to the bottom of the mangrove-filled Emerald Lagoon, in Key Largo. You'll have to know how to scuba dive to reach your room, and guests without the mandatory certification must take a course at the hotel. Once you've reached the lodge, which sleeps up to six, you'll be close to angelfish, anemones, barracuda, oysters, and other creatures—each room is equipped with a 42-inch window, so you don't need to be suited up to keep an eye on the neighborhood.
Crash in a jet plane
Near a beach that's within Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica, the Hotel Costa Verde doesn't lack for great sights. But few are as amazing as its own 727 Fuselage Suite, a salvaged 1965 Boeing 727-100 that looks as if it's crashed into the Costa Rican jungle (it's actually mounted atop a 50-foot pillar and reached via a spiral staircase). The jet's interior was once able to hold up to 125 passengers, but there are few reminders left of its days in the service of South African Airways and Colombia's Avianca Airlines. The suite's two bedrooms, dining area, and sitting room are now covered over entirely in teak to match the surroundings. Guests can play "spot the toucan" on the small wood deck that sits on top of the right wing.
Your escape pod awaits
Colored bright-orange for easy visibility, the '70s-era escape pods that make up the Capsule Hotel once hung outside oil rigs, ready to be deployed in case of an evacuation. Recycled by self-proclaimed "garbage architect" Denis Oudendijk, the fleet of pods now rotates among different moorings in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. At the moment, two are in the western Dutch town of Vlissingen and another is in The Hague. For a kind of James Bond-meets-Barbarella twist, opt to book your pod with a disco ball and all the spy's movies on DVD. It's a super-kitschy nod to a similar pod's appearance in "The Spy Who Loved Me."
Where the penthouse is a trailer park
Cape Town's sleek Grand Daddy hotel has a surprise on its roof: a fleet of seven Airstream trailers, six of which were imported from the U.S. The aluminum-clad "rooms," which sleep two people, have been done in playful themes that incorporate icons like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (a blonde wig and a bear suit are available for dress-up), and John Lennon and Yoko Ono (the room's white-on-white furnishings include an enormous bed, natch). If you don't want to stray as far from the trailers' original looks, there's the Pleasantville model, an Eisenhower-era fantasia with chintz, harvest-gold curtains, and flower-covered throw pillows.
Upside-down stay
At Berlin's Propeller Island City Lodge, each of the 30 rooms is weird in its own way. The artist-owner, Lars Stroschen, has seen to that. One room, the first built, is made to look like a brightly painted medieval town, with an ultra-mini golf course surrounding the castle bed. Another has furniture attached to the ceiling, another has coffins for beds, and still another has lion cages on stilts (the website claims that kids "love to sleep" in them). Then there's the Freedom Room, which resembles a prison, complete with a toilet next to the bed—oh, that German humor!
A place to unwine'd
When they were owned by a Swiss château, the four enormous casks on the grounds of the Hotel De Vrouwe Van Stavoren in the Netherlands held the equivalent of 19,333 bottles of wine. Now, after some creative recycling, it's guests rather than booze that mellow out inside the casks. The richly worn and airtight oak barrels have two narrow beds, with a small sitting area outside. The grounds are quite close to tiny Stavoren's harbor, which was a major port in the Middle Ages.
Crazy kind of stay
The daughter of Ho Chi Minh's No. 2 masterminded the Hang Nga Guest House and Art Gallery in Da Lat, Vietnam, a complex that more than earns its local nickname, the Crazy House. The three main buildings are Gaudi-esque concrete treehouse-like growths that appear as if they flowed organically out of the ground. Inside, the walls seem to dissolve into the floor, and right angles are avoided entirely. Each guest room is built around a different animal theme: the Eagle Room has a big-beaked bird standing atop a huge egg, while another has arm-sized ants crawling up the wall. The animal theme continues outside — a large giraffe statue on the property contains a teahouse, and human-size "spider webs" are set up here and there.
In a league of its own
Hydrophobics should stay far from Jules' Undersea Lodge, named for novelist Jules Verne of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea fame. The 600-square-foot lodge, a former marine lab, is 21 feet underwater, close to the bottom of the mangrove-filled Emerald Lagoon, in Key Largo. You'll have to know how to scuba dive to reach your room, and guests without the mandatory certification must take a course at the hotel. Once you've reached the lodge, which sleeps up to six, you'll be close to angelfish, anemones, barracuda, oysters, and other creatures—each room is equipped with a 42-inch window, so you don't need to be suited up to keep an eye on the neighborhood.
Crash in a jet plane
Near a beach that's within Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica, the Hotel Costa Verde doesn't lack for great sights. But few are as amazing as its own 727 Fuselage Suite, a salvaged 1965 Boeing 727-100 that looks as if it's crashed into the Costa Rican jungle (it's actually mounted atop a 50-foot pillar and reached via a spiral staircase). The jet's interior was once able to hold up to 125 passengers, but there are few reminders left of its days in the service of South African Airways and Colombia's Avianca Airlines. The suite's two bedrooms, dining area, and sitting room are now covered over entirely in teak to match the surroundings. Guests can play "spot the toucan" on the small wood deck that sits on top of the right wing.
Your escape pod awaits
Colored bright-orange for easy visibility, the '70s-era escape pods that make up the Capsule Hotel once hung outside oil rigs, ready to be deployed in case of an evacuation. Recycled by self-proclaimed "garbage architect" Denis Oudendijk, the fleet of pods now rotates among different moorings in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. At the moment, two are in the western Dutch town of Vlissingen and another is in The Hague. For a kind of James Bond-meets-Barbarella twist, opt to book your pod with a disco ball and all the spy's movies on DVD. It's a super-kitschy nod to a similar pod's appearance in "The Spy Who Loved Me."
Where the penthouse is a trailer park
Cape Town's sleek Grand Daddy hotel has a surprise on its roof: a fleet of seven Airstream trailers, six of which were imported from the U.S. The aluminum-clad "rooms," which sleep two people, have been done in playful themes that incorporate icons like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (a blonde wig and a bear suit are available for dress-up), and John Lennon and Yoko Ono (the room's white-on-white furnishings include an enormous bed, natch). If you don't want to stray as far from the trailers' original looks, there's the Pleasantville model, an Eisenhower-era fantasia with chintz, harvest-gold curtains, and flower-covered throw pillows.
America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up
Low crime, strong schools, green spaces, and fun activities are key ingredients for a happy childhood.
If you could create the ideal community to raise a child in, what ingredients would you include? First off, you'd probably want a low crime rate.
A strong school system would also be key. From there, you'd need lots of other children, expansive green spaces to play in, and plenty of nearby family events. Toss in an abundance of artistic and recreational activities, and all of a sudden you've got one heck of a place to grow up. At U.S. News, we wanted to find out if any communities like that already existed—and if so, where they were located. So we dug into our database of 2,000 different places all across the country and pinpointed the locales that met these criteria. We then examined these communities more closely to determine which places offered the best combination of safe neighborhoods, fun activities, and top-notch educators. Our selections appear below, in our list of America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Junior adventurers will love Virginia Beach, Va. This community of 434,000 residents in the southeastern part of the state has a low crime rate, a solid school system, and 35 miles of majestic beaches on the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. "It's kind of neat to be able to come home from work, make a call to my wife or son, grab a bucket of chicken or some sandwiches, and then go out on the bay and have dinner," says Greg Ward, who works for a marketing firm that represents the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Children can explore an impressive ecosystem of threatened and endangered species—including bald eagles and loggerhead sea turtles—in the 9,000-acre Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The warm summers and mild winters provide plenty of opportunities to hike, bike, and picnic your way through the 19 miles of scenic trails over at First Landing State Park. And after checking out the sand tiger sharks and the cow-nose rays at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, children can catch an educational picture in its 3-D IMAX theater.
And in early September, the community is launching an online resource—VBparents.com—designed to keep parents plugged in to local health and school news, while ensuring that they are up-to-date on all of the community activities available to their kids. "There are lots of great parenting resources out there. This one is going to be specific to raising your child and your family within the city of Virginia Beach," says Jenefer Snyder, city of Virginia Beach GrowSmart coordinator. "We are constantly going to be connecting it back to community services, activities, events, programs, and classes."
Madison, Ala.
Of the roughly 43,000 residents in the friendly, churchgoing town of Madison, Ala., about 12,000 are under 18 years old. And this bedroom community of Huntsville, Ala., offers no shortage of outlets to keep these young folks active. "There is an event almost every weekend—whether it is in Madison, Huntsville, or Madison County—that families can attend," says Paul Finley, the mayor of Madison. Children can take advantage of the area's expansive outdoor amenities: watching beavers plunge into Bradford Creek or rabbits dart through the 130-acre Rainbow Mountain Trails park. And if they behave well enough, perhaps some lucky children can even persuade their mom and dad to send them to Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in nearby Huntsville.
Overland Park, Kan.
Just 12 miles outside of Kansas City, Mo., is the lovely community of Overland Park, Kan. This family-friendly suburb in America's heartland has a four-season climate and is opening a 12-field, artificially turfed, fully lit soccer complex in the late summer. "Soccer is a big sport in this community," says Mayor Carl Gerlach. Meanwhile, at the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, kids can visit nearly 200 farm animals, toss a bobber into a fishing pond, or take a ride in a horse-drawn wagon. The 17-mile-long Indian Creek Trail makes for a great bike ride. At the same time, sports fans are only a short car ride away from a Kansas City Chiefs football game or a Kansas City Royals baseball game. In addition, "we have three different school districts in Overland Park," Gerlach says. "All three have been nationally ranked and won awards."
San Jose, Calif.
With 9 square miles of green spaces, 300 days of sunshine a year, and four different professional sports franchises to follow, San Jose, Calif., has everything you need for a happy childhood. At just over 1 million residents, San Jose considers itself the capital of Silicon Valley, but it doesn't take a computer scientist to understand the city's appeal to kids. San Jose is the country's safest big city, and although it's certainly expensive—the median home price is $449,000—the city offers all sorts of great activities for children. Rather than chasing its skateboarders away, San Jose has embraced them by opening six public skateboarding parks, including Lake Cunningham Regional Skate Park, the largest one in the state. And at the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, children can experience everything from theater to gardening.
Boston
With an exciting history and a boatload of activities, Boston is a great option for parents looking to raise children in a big city. Kids will marvel at the African penguins in the New England Aquarium, gawk at the humpback whales on a whale-watching tour, and erupt as the Red Sox take the field at beautiful Fenway Park. At the same time, Boston is one of the safest large cities in the country.
Rochester, Minn.
With about 100,000 residents, the safe, friendly city of Rochester, Minn., has enough activities to tire out even the most energetic youngsters: 85 miles of trails for in-line skating, 3,200 acres of public parks for touch football, and 56 different playgrounds. "It's a huge sports town," says Brad Jones, executive director of the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau. Fortunately, the area's big sport—hockey—is well-suited for Rochester's chilly winters. "We [also] have two hockey complexes, one with four rinks under one roof and the other with two," Jones says. "We have the National Volleyball Center located here, and it's always hopping with volleyball tournaments and trainings."
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
It would be tough to find a safer community than Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the crime index is about a fifth of the national average. And with a solid school system, plenty of fun activities, and affordable housing costs, this eastern Iowa city can keep your kids happy without emptying your wallet. Tim Boyle, the executive director of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the city's manageable size—it has just 123,000 residents—allows its young people to get involved in a variety of different activities. "The thing that I like about Cedar Rapids is you could end up with a junior or senior in high school who is an offensive tackle on the football team and has the lead in the spring musical," Boyle says. In addition to a strong music program in its public schools, the area has more than 50 public tennis courts, more than 75 parks, 23 sand volleyball courts, and even a BMX dirt track. During the winters, which can get extremely cold, children can remain active on three indoor soccer fields and five ice-skating rinks.
Denver
Whether they prefer snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains, biking through America's largest city park system, or heading over to Invesco Field at Mile High for a Broncos football game, Denver is a wonderful place to be a kid. Also among the country's safest big cities, Denver has 300 days of annual sunshine, eight different professional sports franchises, and countless opportunities for fishing, white-water rafting, and horseback riding.
Plano, Texas
With 7,000 faculty and staff members serving 55,000 students in this Texas community, the Plano Independent School District has achieved national recognition for its strength. The Department of Education has handed 24 of its schools National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence awards, and 99 of its seniors were named semifinalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program. "We have a wonderful park system here in our community that has always been very much focused on youth sports, whether it is soccer or baseball or basketball," says Mayor Phil Dyer. Meanwhile, the community's less costly lifestyle—median home prices are just $213,900—means there should be enough cash left in the budget for the 50-minute trip to Arlington, Texas, for a Dallas Cowboys game.
Edison, N.J.
Working parents in Edison, N.J., can take advantage of the township's expansive after-school programs, which expose youngsters to a host of activities, including magic, piano, cooking, and arts and crafts. More than 30 area parks have facilities for tennis, basketball, soccer, and other sports. At the same time, this community of about 100,000 also offers organized youth leagues for everything from softball to lacrosse.
If you could create the ideal community to raise a child in, what ingredients would you include? First off, you'd probably want a low crime rate.
A strong school system would also be key. From there, you'd need lots of other children, expansive green spaces to play in, and plenty of nearby family events. Toss in an abundance of artistic and recreational activities, and all of a sudden you've got one heck of a place to grow up. At U.S. News, we wanted to find out if any communities like that already existed—and if so, where they were located. So we dug into our database of 2,000 different places all across the country and pinpointed the locales that met these criteria. We then examined these communities more closely to determine which places offered the best combination of safe neighborhoods, fun activities, and top-notch educators. Our selections appear below, in our list of America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Junior adventurers will love Virginia Beach, Va. This community of 434,000 residents in the southeastern part of the state has a low crime rate, a solid school system, and 35 miles of majestic beaches on the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. "It's kind of neat to be able to come home from work, make a call to my wife or son, grab a bucket of chicken or some sandwiches, and then go out on the bay and have dinner," says Greg Ward, who works for a marketing firm that represents the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Children can explore an impressive ecosystem of threatened and endangered species—including bald eagles and loggerhead sea turtles—in the 9,000-acre Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The warm summers and mild winters provide plenty of opportunities to hike, bike, and picnic your way through the 19 miles of scenic trails over at First Landing State Park. And after checking out the sand tiger sharks and the cow-nose rays at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, children can catch an educational picture in its 3-D IMAX theater.
And in early September, the community is launching an online resource—VBparents.com—designed to keep parents plugged in to local health and school news, while ensuring that they are up-to-date on all of the community activities available to their kids. "There are lots of great parenting resources out there. This one is going to be specific to raising your child and your family within the city of Virginia Beach," says Jenefer Snyder, city of Virginia Beach GrowSmart coordinator. "We are constantly going to be connecting it back to community services, activities, events, programs, and classes."
Madison, Ala.
Of the roughly 43,000 residents in the friendly, churchgoing town of Madison, Ala., about 12,000 are under 18 years old. And this bedroom community of Huntsville, Ala., offers no shortage of outlets to keep these young folks active. "There is an event almost every weekend—whether it is in Madison, Huntsville, or Madison County—that families can attend," says Paul Finley, the mayor of Madison. Children can take advantage of the area's expansive outdoor amenities: watching beavers plunge into Bradford Creek or rabbits dart through the 130-acre Rainbow Mountain Trails park. And if they behave well enough, perhaps some lucky children can even persuade their mom and dad to send them to Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in nearby Huntsville.
Overland Park, Kan.
Just 12 miles outside of Kansas City, Mo., is the lovely community of Overland Park, Kan. This family-friendly suburb in America's heartland has a four-season climate and is opening a 12-field, artificially turfed, fully lit soccer complex in the late summer. "Soccer is a big sport in this community," says Mayor Carl Gerlach. Meanwhile, at the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, kids can visit nearly 200 farm animals, toss a bobber into a fishing pond, or take a ride in a horse-drawn wagon. The 17-mile-long Indian Creek Trail makes for a great bike ride. At the same time, sports fans are only a short car ride away from a Kansas City Chiefs football game or a Kansas City Royals baseball game. In addition, "we have three different school districts in Overland Park," Gerlach says. "All three have been nationally ranked and won awards."
San Jose, Calif.
With 9 square miles of green spaces, 300 days of sunshine a year, and four different professional sports franchises to follow, San Jose, Calif., has everything you need for a happy childhood. At just over 1 million residents, San Jose considers itself the capital of Silicon Valley, but it doesn't take a computer scientist to understand the city's appeal to kids. San Jose is the country's safest big city, and although it's certainly expensive—the median home price is $449,000—the city offers all sorts of great activities for children. Rather than chasing its skateboarders away, San Jose has embraced them by opening six public skateboarding parks, including Lake Cunningham Regional Skate Park, the largest one in the state. And at the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, children can experience everything from theater to gardening.
Boston
With an exciting history and a boatload of activities, Boston is a great option for parents looking to raise children in a big city. Kids will marvel at the African penguins in the New England Aquarium, gawk at the humpback whales on a whale-watching tour, and erupt as the Red Sox take the field at beautiful Fenway Park. At the same time, Boston is one of the safest large cities in the country.
Rochester, Minn.
With about 100,000 residents, the safe, friendly city of Rochester, Minn., has enough activities to tire out even the most energetic youngsters: 85 miles of trails for in-line skating, 3,200 acres of public parks for touch football, and 56 different playgrounds. "It's a huge sports town," says Brad Jones, executive director of the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau. Fortunately, the area's big sport—hockey—is well-suited for Rochester's chilly winters. "We [also] have two hockey complexes, one with four rinks under one roof and the other with two," Jones says. "We have the National Volleyball Center located here, and it's always hopping with volleyball tournaments and trainings."
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
It would be tough to find a safer community than Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the crime index is about a fifth of the national average. And with a solid school system, plenty of fun activities, and affordable housing costs, this eastern Iowa city can keep your kids happy without emptying your wallet. Tim Boyle, the executive director of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the city's manageable size—it has just 123,000 residents—allows its young people to get involved in a variety of different activities. "The thing that I like about Cedar Rapids is you could end up with a junior or senior in high school who is an offensive tackle on the football team and has the lead in the spring musical," Boyle says. In addition to a strong music program in its public schools, the area has more than 50 public tennis courts, more than 75 parks, 23 sand volleyball courts, and even a BMX dirt track. During the winters, which can get extremely cold, children can remain active on three indoor soccer fields and five ice-skating rinks.
Denver
Whether they prefer snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains, biking through America's largest city park system, or heading over to Invesco Field at Mile High for a Broncos football game, Denver is a wonderful place to be a kid. Also among the country's safest big cities, Denver has 300 days of annual sunshine, eight different professional sports franchises, and countless opportunities for fishing, white-water rafting, and horseback riding.
Plano, Texas
With 7,000 faculty and staff members serving 55,000 students in this Texas community, the Plano Independent School District has achieved national recognition for its strength. The Department of Education has handed 24 of its schools National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence awards, and 99 of its seniors were named semifinalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program. "We have a wonderful park system here in our community that has always been very much focused on youth sports, whether it is soccer or baseball or basketball," says Mayor Phil Dyer. Meanwhile, the community's less costly lifestyle—median home prices are just $213,900—means there should be enough cash left in the budget for the 50-minute trip to Arlington, Texas, for a Dallas Cowboys game.
Edison, N.J.
Working parents in Edison, N.J., can take advantage of the township's expansive after-school programs, which expose youngsters to a host of activities, including magic, piano, cooking, and arts and crafts. More than 30 area parks have facilities for tennis, basketball, soccer, and other sports. At the same time, this community of about 100,000 also offers organized youth leagues for everything from softball to lacrosse.
4 Lies that Can Cost You Your Job
When Mark N. was approached by one of his company’s vendors, the Information Technology professional had no idea that secretly taking on a client in his spare time would cost him his job. Sure seems obvious after the fact, but Mark is not alone.
Lisa F. shares his pain, but from a managerial perspective. “I know when a woman lies about being sick, just by looking at her hands and toes.” For the senior level new media executive, the giveaway is newly polished nails. “You cannot imagine how many women come in after a sick day with a fresh manicure or pedicure,” she observes.
Every day individuals fib, lie and embellish their way through the work day, not realizing that there are repercussions. The consequences may not always be as severe as termination, but it can be a reduction in bonus, a permanent mark on your record or a poor score on your yearly review, not to mention the damage done to your reputation among fellow colleagues. What follows are 4 frequent fibs that every single should avoid in the workplace.
Pulling the Healthy Sick Card
If you call in sick when you’re feeling perfectly fine you better be smart about it. Taking off one too many hangover Fridays, or regularly turning the day before calendared holiday 3 day weekends into your personal 4 day long weekends, will no doubt cause suspicious minds. So come clean to your supervisor and ask that these be reported as vacation days, or try to schedule your healthy sick days on less conspicuous days during the week.
The Faux Appointment/Emergency
Leaving work under false medical or other emergent pretenses is asking for trouble. Take it from Kristine who played hooky to get prepped for a date and was spotted getting her hair blown out at the salon by one of her co-workers. All it takes is one sighting or slip and you can lose your credibility, especially when medical or family issues are used as an excuse.
Pointing the Finger
When people’s jobs and egos are at stake, blaming others when you’re at fault can lead to war in the workplace. Remember, it’s a politics game and you’ll lose if you try to dodge the bullet by feigning innocence. Folks, the only way to keep allies and integrity intact is to play fair and take ownership of your conduct and work in good times and in bad.
Fudging Hours & Fudging Expenses
Working to make sure you get in those all those billable hours is seriously stressful. You may hit your targets by rounding up to the nearest hour but don’t press your luck. This is a serious offense, and companies’ billings are increasingly being examined by their clients and their clients’ audit units or accountants. If you’re a certified professional, lying here may not cost you just a client, but your license.
Lisa F. shares his pain, but from a managerial perspective. “I know when a woman lies about being sick, just by looking at her hands and toes.” For the senior level new media executive, the giveaway is newly polished nails. “You cannot imagine how many women come in after a sick day with a fresh manicure or pedicure,” she observes.
Every day individuals fib, lie and embellish their way through the work day, not realizing that there are repercussions. The consequences may not always be as severe as termination, but it can be a reduction in bonus, a permanent mark on your record or a poor score on your yearly review, not to mention the damage done to your reputation among fellow colleagues. What follows are 4 frequent fibs that every single should avoid in the workplace.
Pulling the Healthy Sick Card
If you call in sick when you’re feeling perfectly fine you better be smart about it. Taking off one too many hangover Fridays, or regularly turning the day before calendared holiday 3 day weekends into your personal 4 day long weekends, will no doubt cause suspicious minds. So come clean to your supervisor and ask that these be reported as vacation days, or try to schedule your healthy sick days on less conspicuous days during the week.
The Faux Appointment/Emergency
Leaving work under false medical or other emergent pretenses is asking for trouble. Take it from Kristine who played hooky to get prepped for a date and was spotted getting her hair blown out at the salon by one of her co-workers. All it takes is one sighting or slip and you can lose your credibility, especially when medical or family issues are used as an excuse.
Pointing the Finger
When people’s jobs and egos are at stake, blaming others when you’re at fault can lead to war in the workplace. Remember, it’s a politics game and you’ll lose if you try to dodge the bullet by feigning innocence. Folks, the only way to keep allies and integrity intact is to play fair and take ownership of your conduct and work in good times and in bad.
Fudging Hours & Fudging Expenses
Working to make sure you get in those all those billable hours is seriously stressful. You may hit your targets by rounding up to the nearest hour but don’t press your luck. This is a serious offense, and companies’ billings are increasingly being examined by their clients and their clients’ audit units or accountants. If you’re a certified professional, lying here may not cost you just a client, but your license.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Explota iPhone en la cara de un joven
El adolescente recibió heridas leve en un ojo
Un adolescente de Francia sufrió una herida leve en su ojo luego de explotarle su iPhone en la cara.
El joven francés aseguró que en el momento del incidente tenía el teléfono celular a "30 centímetros de mi cara cuando sentí como un grano de arena en el ojo".
El móvil produjo sonidos continuados y rápidos, luego la pantalla de vidrio se cuarteó y explotó, por lo que arrojó pequeños fragmentos que se incrustaron en la cara del joven, de acuerdo con la página de internet informativostelecinco.com.
El adolescente asegura que el teléfono no estaba excesivamente caliente antes de explotar.
Hace unos días un británico también denunció que el famoso móvil de Apple que compró a su hija explotó tras recalentarse. Reportó un periódico británico online.
Luego de hablar con varios departamentos, consiguió hablar con un ejecutivo de la compañía. Tras esta conversación, recibió una carta de Apple negando toda responsabilidad pero ofreciendo una compensación.
En 2007, una situación similar se presentó con las baterías de las computadoras Macbook, cuando varias computadoras portátiles reportaron sobrecalentamiento e incendio reportado por varios usuarios de internet, en blogs especializados sobre el tema.
Un adolescente de Francia sufrió una herida leve en su ojo luego de explotarle su iPhone en la cara.
El joven francés aseguró que en el momento del incidente tenía el teléfono celular a "30 centímetros de mi cara cuando sentí como un grano de arena en el ojo".
El móvil produjo sonidos continuados y rápidos, luego la pantalla de vidrio se cuarteó y explotó, por lo que arrojó pequeños fragmentos que se incrustaron en la cara del joven, de acuerdo con la página de internet informativostelecinco.com.
El adolescente asegura que el teléfono no estaba excesivamente caliente antes de explotar.
Hace unos días un británico también denunció que el famoso móvil de Apple que compró a su hija explotó tras recalentarse. Reportó un periódico británico online.
Luego de hablar con varios departamentos, consiguió hablar con un ejecutivo de la compañía. Tras esta conversación, recibió una carta de Apple negando toda responsabilidad pero ofreciendo una compensación.
En 2007, una situación similar se presentó con las baterías de las computadoras Macbook, cuando varias computadoras portátiles reportaron sobrecalentamiento e incendio reportado por varios usuarios de internet, en blogs especializados sobre el tema.
Tropical Storm Bill forms as Ana races west
MIAMI – The government of the Netherland Antilles issued a tropical storm watch for St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius on Saturday as Ana raced west through the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Bill, the second named storm of the Atlantic season, formed further to the east and forecasters said they expected it to strengthen.
The National Hurricane Center said Saturday evening that Ana had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph and was moving west near 17 mph. It was about 730 miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands.
The Hurricane Center said residents there and in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico should monitor Ana's progress. The tropical storm watch for the Netherland Antilles meant tropical storm conditions were possible, probably within 36 hours.
Tropical Storm Bill also had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph and was moving west near 16 mph. It was expected to get stronger within the next day or so and was about 820 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Guillermo was still swirling in the open Pacific but had weakened to a Category 2 storm with winds near 110 mph. Guillermo was expected to weaken further as it headed over cooler waters. It was moving west-northwest near 14 mph and was about 1,605 miles west of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Bill, the second named storm of the Atlantic season, formed further to the east and forecasters said they expected it to strengthen.
The National Hurricane Center said Saturday evening that Ana had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph and was moving west near 17 mph. It was about 730 miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands.
The Hurricane Center said residents there and in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico should monitor Ana's progress. The tropical storm watch for the Netherland Antilles meant tropical storm conditions were possible, probably within 36 hours.
Tropical Storm Bill also had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph and was moving west near 16 mph. It was expected to get stronger within the next day or so and was about 820 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Guillermo was still swirling in the open Pacific but had weakened to a Category 2 storm with winds near 110 mph. Guillermo was expected to weaken further as it headed over cooler waters. It was moving west-northwest near 14 mph and was about 1,605 miles west of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.
Tropical Storm Claudette threatens Fla. Panhandle
PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. – Brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Claudette was bringing heavy rain to the Florida Panhandle Sunday, likely becoming the first tropical storm to strike the U.S. mainland this year.
Claudette had winds of at least 50 mph, but was not expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage. Lurking more ominously was Tropical Storm Bill, which was quickly turning into a powerful storm over warm waters in the open Atlantic with sustained winds of 65 mph. Ana, a tropical storm that had also been churning in the Atlantic, had weakened to a depression.
Heavy rain began in the afternoon in Pensacola as Claudette approached. On Pensacola Beach, the National Park Service closed low-lying roads that connect the restaurants and hotels to the undeveloped National Seashore and historic Fort Pickens Fort.
The Park Service said campers would be ordered to leave the area because of the likelihood of the road flooding.
In Panama City, the Bay County Emergency Operations Center opened a shelter at a local high school for residents of low-lying areas and people with special needs.
Earlier along Pensacola Beach, surfers under gray skies enjoyed the waves and tourists mingled on the beach, despite a tropical storm warning covering most of the Panhandle, from the Alabama state line to the Suwanee River more than 300 miles to the east.
Miguel Gonzalez, on vacation from North Carolina, was unconcerned about the storm as he readied his children for day on Pensacola Beach. But he said his family would head in when the rain started.
"We will just stay out there for an hour or so, take a few pictures and then leave," he said.
Rainfall of 3 to 5 inches was expected, with isolated areas getting up to 10 inches, forecasters said.
"We may see some heavy rains as a result, but we don't expect any high winds or coastal flooding," said John Dosh, manager of Emergency Management. "This event is a good example of how quickly a tropical storm can develop. We won't always have a lot of warning. This is why citizens need to be prepared throughout hurricane season."
Pensacola Beach is still recovering from Hurricane Ivan, which devastated the western Florida Panhandle and parts of Alabama in 2004.
At 5 p.m. EDT, Claudette was about 40 miles west-southwest of Apalachicola and moving northwest near 14 mph. Its center was expected to reach the northern Gulf Coast by Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, Ana's winds had diminished to 35 mph and was expected to make landfall at the Leeward Islands early Monday. Watches were posted for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Antigua, St. Maarten and several other islands in the area. Ana was forecast to bring 2 to 4 inches of rain.
Tropical Storm Bill, however, was intensifying far from land in the open Atlantic, and could become a hurricane late Sunday or on Monday.
In the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo had winds that had dropped to 85 mph, and it was expected to lose steam in the next day. Guillermo was moving west at 14 mph, about 995 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and didn't threaten any land.
Despite the storms, a warmer weather pattern called El Nino over the Pacific Ocean is generally expected to damper the formation of tropical storms in the Caribbean and Atlantic this year, said Brian Daly, a meteorologist with the national weather service in Mobile, Ala.
"It's pretty frequent that an El Nino year would be somewhat delayed with fewer storms," Daly said.
Forecasters revised their Atlantic hurricane season predictions after the first two months of the season passed without any named storms developing.
Claudette had winds of at least 50 mph, but was not expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage. Lurking more ominously was Tropical Storm Bill, which was quickly turning into a powerful storm over warm waters in the open Atlantic with sustained winds of 65 mph. Ana, a tropical storm that had also been churning in the Atlantic, had weakened to a depression.
Heavy rain began in the afternoon in Pensacola as Claudette approached. On Pensacola Beach, the National Park Service closed low-lying roads that connect the restaurants and hotels to the undeveloped National Seashore and historic Fort Pickens Fort.
The Park Service said campers would be ordered to leave the area because of the likelihood of the road flooding.
In Panama City, the Bay County Emergency Operations Center opened a shelter at a local high school for residents of low-lying areas and people with special needs.
Earlier along Pensacola Beach, surfers under gray skies enjoyed the waves and tourists mingled on the beach, despite a tropical storm warning covering most of the Panhandle, from the Alabama state line to the Suwanee River more than 300 miles to the east.
Miguel Gonzalez, on vacation from North Carolina, was unconcerned about the storm as he readied his children for day on Pensacola Beach. But he said his family would head in when the rain started.
"We will just stay out there for an hour or so, take a few pictures and then leave," he said.
Rainfall of 3 to 5 inches was expected, with isolated areas getting up to 10 inches, forecasters said.
"We may see some heavy rains as a result, but we don't expect any high winds or coastal flooding," said John Dosh, manager of Emergency Management. "This event is a good example of how quickly a tropical storm can develop. We won't always have a lot of warning. This is why citizens need to be prepared throughout hurricane season."
Pensacola Beach is still recovering from Hurricane Ivan, which devastated the western Florida Panhandle and parts of Alabama in 2004.
At 5 p.m. EDT, Claudette was about 40 miles west-southwest of Apalachicola and moving northwest near 14 mph. Its center was expected to reach the northern Gulf Coast by Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, Ana's winds had diminished to 35 mph and was expected to make landfall at the Leeward Islands early Monday. Watches were posted for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Antigua, St. Maarten and several other islands in the area. Ana was forecast to bring 2 to 4 inches of rain.
Tropical Storm Bill, however, was intensifying far from land in the open Atlantic, and could become a hurricane late Sunday or on Monday.
In the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo had winds that had dropped to 85 mph, and it was expected to lose steam in the next day. Guillermo was moving west at 14 mph, about 995 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and didn't threaten any land.
Despite the storms, a warmer weather pattern called El Nino over the Pacific Ocean is generally expected to damper the formation of tropical storms in the Caribbean and Atlantic this year, said Brian Daly, a meteorologist with the national weather service in Mobile, Ala.
"It's pretty frequent that an El Nino year would be somewhat delayed with fewer storms," Daly said.
Forecasters revised their Atlantic hurricane season predictions after the first two months of the season passed without any named storms developing.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Questions Surround Chevy Volt Fuel Economy Claim
General Motors jolted the automotive world yesterday by announcing that its upcoming electric-drive Chevy Volt will earn an EPA city mileage rating of 230 mpg. It's an astounding claim - one that would make the Volt more than four times as efficient as the Toyota Prius. And yet, even the federal government says it can't back up GM's math.
What's going on here?
The Volt is one of several so-called Extended-Range Electric Vehicles, or EREVs, in development. An EREV functions as an electric car until its batteries are depleted to a certain level; then it starts a small gasoline engine. That engine, however, doesn't drive the wheels - it merely acts as a generator to recharge the batteries. The Volt, GM says, can travel about 40 miles at any speed before its onboard generator kicks in.
That number is significant, because Department of Transportation figures show that most Americans drive less than 40 miles per day. For most of us, owning a Chevy Volt could mean rarely ever using gasoline.
That possibility, however, makes measuring the car's predicted fuel economy a tricky process.
To attempt to solve that problem, the EPA has been developing a new testing process for EREVs. But they haven't finalized the process - and GM may have been premature in using it to arrive at their jaw-dropping number.
The EPA, in fact, won't back up GM's number. Instead, the agency released a statement reading, "EPA has not tested a Chevy Volt and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM," though they added, "EPA does applaud GM's commitment to designing and building the car of the future."
The EPA's tentative EREV testing process won't actually measure gasoline usage. Instead, it rates vehicles in kilowatt hours per 100 miles, then converts that measurement to miles per gallon. Effectively, the testing procedure doesn't give an mpg rating. It merely shows that a vehicle will use energy that equates to a certain mpg rating.
To illustrate this point, Nissan quickly followed GM's announcement with its own, claiming the upcoming 2010 Nissan Leaf electric car will earn a 367 mpg EPA rating. The rules, it seems, can generate a miles-per-gallon rating for a car that doesn't even use gasoline.
So what kind of mileage can a Volt driver actually expect?
That depends entirely on how much they drive. GM claims the Volt has a 300-mile range after the gasoline engine ignites, but the company hasn't released what the size of the Volt's gas tank will be. Engineers have said it could be as small as 8.5 gallons - and 300 miles on 8.5 gallons means the car might be no more efficient than 35 mpg.
Your mileage, then, will vary greatly based on how far you drive. For 40 miles, the Volt uses no gas. After that, it's probably going to net about 35 mpg. So if you commute 40 miles or less per day, you could expect an infinite number of miles per gallon. For every mile you drive over 40, the number drops precipitously, stabilizing at around 35 mpg as the needle drifts toward empty.
But that explanation is a mouthful, and not nearly as easy to market as 230 mpg.
What's going on here?
The Volt is one of several so-called Extended-Range Electric Vehicles, or EREVs, in development. An EREV functions as an electric car until its batteries are depleted to a certain level; then it starts a small gasoline engine. That engine, however, doesn't drive the wheels - it merely acts as a generator to recharge the batteries. The Volt, GM says, can travel about 40 miles at any speed before its onboard generator kicks in.
That number is significant, because Department of Transportation figures show that most Americans drive less than 40 miles per day. For most of us, owning a Chevy Volt could mean rarely ever using gasoline.
That possibility, however, makes measuring the car's predicted fuel economy a tricky process.
To attempt to solve that problem, the EPA has been developing a new testing process for EREVs. But they haven't finalized the process - and GM may have been premature in using it to arrive at their jaw-dropping number.
The EPA, in fact, won't back up GM's number. Instead, the agency released a statement reading, "EPA has not tested a Chevy Volt and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM," though they added, "EPA does applaud GM's commitment to designing and building the car of the future."
The EPA's tentative EREV testing process won't actually measure gasoline usage. Instead, it rates vehicles in kilowatt hours per 100 miles, then converts that measurement to miles per gallon. Effectively, the testing procedure doesn't give an mpg rating. It merely shows that a vehicle will use energy that equates to a certain mpg rating.
To illustrate this point, Nissan quickly followed GM's announcement with its own, claiming the upcoming 2010 Nissan Leaf electric car will earn a 367 mpg EPA rating. The rules, it seems, can generate a miles-per-gallon rating for a car that doesn't even use gasoline.
So what kind of mileage can a Volt driver actually expect?
That depends entirely on how much they drive. GM claims the Volt has a 300-mile range after the gasoline engine ignites, but the company hasn't released what the size of the Volt's gas tank will be. Engineers have said it could be as small as 8.5 gallons - and 300 miles on 8.5 gallons means the car might be no more efficient than 35 mpg.
Your mileage, then, will vary greatly based on how far you drive. For 40 miles, the Volt uses no gas. After that, it's probably going to net about 35 mpg. So if you commute 40 miles or less per day, you could expect an infinite number of miles per gallon. For every mile you drive over 40, the number drops precipitously, stabilizing at around 35 mpg as the needle drifts toward empty.
But that explanation is a mouthful, and not nearly as easy to market as 230 mpg.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)