Evening Edition

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1 Evacuation underway as storm heads to Gulf spill site

by Alex Ogle, AFP

52 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – A tropical storm barreling towards the Gulf of Mexico oil spill site Friday forced crews to suspend operations and halt work to permanently plug the gushing BP well.

Admiral Thad Allen, the US official overseeing the spill response, said that crews aboard two drilling rigs and a container ship were drawing up thousands of feet of pipes from beneath the sea, while non-essential personnel were being evacuated as Tropical Storm Bonnie took aim at the area.

Officials said a cap that has kept oil from escaping the well since last Thursday would stay in place, after a week of tests suggested pressure would not force oil out through new leaks.

2 Oil workers evacuate as tropical storm sets in

by Alex Ogle, AFP

Fri Jul 23, 7:15 am ET

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Crews working on a huge oil spill evacuated Friday as a tropical storm barreled toward the Gulf of Mexico, prolonging the region’s environmental and economic nightmare.

The cap in place for a week on the ruptured well will remain in place, but efforts to complete the relief wells for a permanent fix were set back by the evacuation ordered as Tropical Storm Bonnie churned toward the area.

BP said in a statement early Friday it suspended work on its relief well drilling on consultation with government officials due to the storm.

3 Dutch court fines firm over Ivory Coast toxic waste

by Nicolas Delaunay, AFP

25 mins ago

AMSTERDAM (AFP) – A Dutch court Friday slapped a one million euro fine on multinational shipping company Trafigura for illegally exporting toxic waste to Ivory Coast that the West African nation says killed 17 people.

“The court sentences Trafigura to a fine of one million euros”, equivalent to 1.3 million dollars, presiding judge Frans Bauduin said as he found the company guilty of breaking European waste export laws.

Switzerland-based Trafigura said it was disappointed by the ruling in the Amsterdam district court, its first court sanction for the events in Ivory Coast, and would consider an appeal.

4 Unique coral reef spurs Mexico tourism battle

by Sophie Nicholson, AFP

Fri Jul 23, 12:04 pm ET

CABO PULMO, Mexico (AFP) – A 20,000 year-old coral reef, the only one in the Gulf of California, is at the center of a dispute over a huge tourist development which could draw thousands to a remote part of Mexico.

At the moment, most only hear about Cabo Pulmo, where pristine beaches meet a turquoise sea, by word of mouth.

US tourist Lenny McCarl said he discovered the village thanks to his girlfriend’s family, during a visit in June.

5 Hypo Real Estate only German bank to fail test: central bank

AFP

2 hrs 22 mins ago

FRANKFURT (AFP) – German banks passed a European Union stress test, an official statement said on Friday, except for Hypo Real Estate, a property and municipal funding specialist owned by the state.

“HRE is the only German bank to fall short of the six percent tier 1 capital ratio in the most severe stress scenario,” a joint statement issued by the German central bank and financial sector stabilization fund SoFFin said.

The test’s key indicator, tier 1 capital is core bank reserves that cover the risk of depositors demanding their money back and rendering a bank insolvent.

6 Most Greek banks defy doomsters, passing stress tests

by John Hadoulis, AFP

47 mins ago

ATHENS (AFP) – Greece’s main banks passed with varying success on Friday EU-wide stress tests on their ability to weather another storm, with only one bank failing to make the grade.

Many analysts had wondered how Greek banks, heavily dependent on central bank funding, would survive the EU-wide crash tests.

But the Bank of Greece said five out of six Greek credit institutions had passed the exam, a result which the Greek finance minister said showed the system’s resilience in an extreme-case simulation.

7 Cavendish wins 18th stage, Contador still in yellow

by Justin Davis, AFP

2 hrs 19 mins ago

BORDEAUX, France (AFP) – Britain’s Mark Cavendish claimed his 14th career success on the Tour de France Friday after coasting to victory in a bunch finish to the 18th stage over 198km from Salies-de-Bearn to Bordeaux.

Alberto Contador retained his eight-second overall lead on Andy Schleck a day ahead of the final time trial over 52km that will decide whether the Spaniard wins the yellow jersey for the third time.

Met on the podium by Hollywood stars Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise, who had spent the day watching the action, Astana rider Contador was all smiles.

8 Gulf tropical storm puts BP spill work on hold

By Kristen Hays and Tom Bergin, Reuters

Fri Jul 23, 11:19 am ET

HOUSTON/LONDON (Reuters) – The approach of Tropical Storm Bonnie on Friday forced BP Plc to halt efforts to permanently plug a gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, sending ships and workers scrambling for safety.

Two rigs stopped drilling relief wells intended to halt the leak for good and prepared to move out of the path of the storm, which was projected to hit the spill area on Saturday with winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour.

Many non-essential workers already have abandoned the spill site, and officials said the key drilling ships were expected to pull out later on Friday and be gone about two days.

9 Seven banks fail Europe’s stress test

By Steve Slater and Fiona Ortiz, Reuters

1 hr 31 mins ago

LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) – Seven European banks are not strong enough to withstand another recession and would face a capital shortfall of 3.5 billion euros ($4.5 billion), far less than expected, stoking fears the keenly-awaited stress tests were too soft.

While the modest findings cast doubt on the credibility of the bank tests — released on Friday in a bid to restore investor confidence — with the European economy apparently improving fast, some analysts said that may not matter.

Five of Spain’s smaller regional lenders, known as cajas, failed the test and their recapitalization will almost complete a state-funded drive to consolidate the country’s network of its unlisted savings banks.

10 Senate climate bill in peril as Democrats delay action

By Timothy Gardner and Thomas Ferraro, Reuters

Fri Jul 23, 8:47 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Thursday dealt a potentially fatal blow to President Barack Obama’s push to curb greenhouse gas emissions, postponing its bid to pass broad legislation to combat climate change.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he plans to bring up a narrower energy bill next week that would revamp offshore oil drilling rules in the wake of the BP oil spill.

But he will put off consideration of broader legislation sought by Obama until September at the earliest.

11 No ruling in hearing over Arizona immigration law

By Tim Gaynor, Reuters

Thu Jul 22, 10:58 pm ET

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A U.S. judge grilled lawyers for the Obama administration and Arizona on Thursday over the legality of the state’s tough, new immigration law set to take effect next week, but gave no timetable for a ruling.

The Obama administration is seeking a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the law that requires state and local police, during lawful contact, to investigate the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspect of being an illegal immigrant.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton peppered lawyers for both sides during a 90-minute hearing over whether the state law contravenes federal authority over immigration law, and if predictions by critics that it will lead to racial profiling were overstated and unwarranted.

12 Ships evacuate spill site as tropical storm nears

By HARRY R. WEBER and DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writers

21 mins ago

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – Engineers prepared to abandon their vigil over BP’s broken oil well Friday as ships and rig workers evacuated the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie.

The mechanical plug that’s throttled the oil for a week will be left closed, even if the undersea robots monitoring the well’s stability leave. The only way BP would know if the cap had failed would be satellite and aerial views of oil gushing to the surface.

But retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said he’s confident the cap will hold, despite a few leaks that raised concerns last week. Scientists say even a severe storm shouldn’t affect the plug, nearly a mile beneath the ocean surface 40 miles from the Louisiana coast.

13 Senate Democrats turn focus to Gulf spill response

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jul 23, 6:36 am ET

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats hope to pass a narrow energy bill next week that responds to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and takes steps to improve energy efficiency, after abandoning plans for a sweeping measure that caps greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said no Republican senator was willing to back a comprehensive energy and climate bill, a development he called “terribly disappointing” and even dangerous.

“It’s easy to count to 60,” Reid told reporters Thursday. “I could do it by the time I was in eighth grade. My point is this, we know where we are. We know we don’t have the votes.”

14 Seeds of distrust in Ala. town’s big cleanup haul

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer

33 mins ago

BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. – The Gulf oil spill has replaced most of the shrimp, oysters and crabs flowing into this sleepy coastal hamlet with cash – gobs of it. But if this is a boomtown, it’s a bitter one.

Bayou La Batre, population 2,313, has received $8.5 million in BP grant money, more than any other place on the Gulf Coast, but boat operators idled by the spill complain that some of the cash intended to keep them working has gone instead to recreational fishermen and the mayor’s brother.

The town that locals call “The Bayou” is in an uproar headed into a town-hall meeting Saturday by the administrator of a separate $20 billion BP claims fund. At the docks, hundreds have gathered for meetings and protests about how the grant money is being spent.

15 Feds work to put a price tag on oil spill damage

By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer

Thu Jul 22, 7:41 pm ET

BAY RONQUILLE, La. – The marsh is soaked with oil and the grass is dying. It’s a common sight on the Gulf coast these days, and it’s nothing new for Robert Nailon.

The BP-hired environmental consultant kneels as he has done many times on the Louisiana coast, assessing the damage in a task now taking on new importance as the world’s attention turns from the ubiquitous images of gushing oil to the daunting task of restoration.

He dips his hand, covered in a blue rubber glove, into the muddy ground. It comes up streaked brown with crude. “You’ve got sheen throughout,” he says, and calls out his findings to a government scientist: Oil covers about 95 percent of the grass, reaching about 15 feet inland.

16 Residents warn of recall if council members remain

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer

24 mins ago

BELL, Calif. – City Council members who make nearly $100,000 a year for governing this small, poverty-plagued suburb of Los Angeles must resign immediately or face a recall campaign, a community group warned Friday.

The threat came hours after it was announced that the city manager, assistant city manager and police chief were stepping down following a public outcry over their salaries, which total more than $1.6 million a year.

In the wake of that scandal, residents have lost trust in Mayor Oscar Hernandez and three other council members, said Ali Saleh, co-founder of the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse.

17 Vast majority of EU banks pass ‘stress tests’

By PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writer

26 mins ago

LONDON – All but 7 of 91 European banks passed the much-anticipated “stress tests” aimed at showing Europe’s banking system is sound enough to weather the continent’s debt crisis – an outcome that officials hoped would forestall further market turmoil.

It had been thought that some banks needed to fail for the exercise to be accepted as credible, and some analysts still argued that the results showed the tests weren’t rigorous enough – the euro was trading flat on the day after the release of the results at just below $1.29.

If financial markets take the view that the tests were not tough enough when European trading resumes Monday, then the exercise could make matters worse – and further expose the EU to charges that it has failed to rise to the debt crisis within its borders.

18 Mexico: Ancient woman suggests diverse migration

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 2 mins ago

MEXICO CITY – A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History on Thursday released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico’s Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.

Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.

19 Cavendish wins stage; Contador nears Tour title

By NAOMI KOPPEL, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 5 mins ago

BORDEAUX, France – Even without his most important teammate, Mark Cavendish showed yet again that few can touch him when it comes to sprinting.

The British rider captured the 18th stage of the Tour de France on Friday while Alberto Contador of Spain drew closer to victory. The defending champion leads Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck by eight seconds entering Saturday’s decisive time trial, a day before the three-week race ends in Paris.

Cavendish won a stage for the fourth time in this Tour and the 14th time in just three years of competing in cycling’s premier event.

20 US-Russia nuke treaty facing hurdles in US Senate

By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jul 23, 6:36 am ET

WASHINGTON – The once smooth path for Senate ratification of a major nuclear arms control agreement with Russia is looking a little dicier.

Conservatives opposing New START, a replacement for a Cold War-era treaty, are trying to make it an issue in November’s congressional elections.

While they are unlikely to kill the agreement, they could force Democrats to delay a ratification vote until after the election. That could be damaging to President Barack Obama. A narrow victory after a lengthy, contentious debate could destroy his hopes for achieving more ambitious goals, including further reductions of nuclear weapons and ratification of a nuclear test ban treaty.

21 MLB begins testing for HGH in minor leagues

By The Associated Press

Fri Jul 23, 7:39 am ET

NEW YORK – Major League Baseball implemented random blood testing for human growth hormone in the minor leagues on Thursday, the first professional sports league in the United States to take the aggressive step against doping.

The blood testing becomes part of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, which commissioner Bud Selig introduced in 2001 to test for performance-enhancing drugs.

“The implementation of blood testing in the minor leagues represents a significant step in the detection of the illegal use of human growth hormone,” Selig said in a statement. “HGH testing provides an example for all of our drug policies in the future.”

22 House pressured to pass stripped-down war measure

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jul 23, 11:14 am ET

WASHINGTON – After a take-it-or-leave-it vote by the Senate, House Democrats face little choice but to drop billions in aid for schools, college students and others that they had hoped could ride on legislation paying for President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan.

The Senate rejected the House measure, passed earlier this month, by a 46-51 vote that fell short of a majority, much less the 60 votes required to defeat a filibuster.

Instead, the Senate on Thursday stripped out the $20 billion in House add-ons and returned to the House an almost $60 billion measure passed by a bipartisan vote in May. The Senate measure is limited chiefly to war funding, foreign aid, medical care for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and replenishing almost empty disaster aid accounts.

23 Senate Democrats turn focus to Gulf spill response

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jul 23, 6:36 am ET

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats hope to pass a narrow energy bill next week that responds to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and takes steps to improve energy efficiency, after abandoning plans for a sweeping measure that caps greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said no Republican senator was willing to back a comprehensive energy and climate bill, a development he called “terribly disappointing” and even dangerous.

“It’s easy to count to 60,” Reid told reporters Thursday. “I could do it by the time I was in eighth grade. My point is this, we know where we are. We know we don’t have the votes.”

24 Proposed federal rules target for-profit colleges

By ERIC GORSKI, AP Education Writer

1 hr 58 mins ago

The Education Department proposed much-anticipated regulations Friday that would cut off federal aid to for-profit college programs if too many of their students default on loans or don’t earn enough after graduation to repay them.

“Some proprietary schools have profited and prospered but their students haven’t, and this is a disservice to students and to taxpayers,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a briefing with reporters. “And it undermines the valuable work, the extraordinarily important work, being done by the for-profit industry as a whole.”

To qualify for federal student aid programs, career college programs must prepare students for “gainful employment.”

25 Checks are coming: Obama signs unemployment bill

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jul 23, 12:29 am ET

WASHINGTON – Federal checks could begin flowing again as early as next week to millions of jobless people who lost up to seven weeks of unemployment benefits in a congressional standoff.

President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law a restoration of benefits for people who have been out of work for six months or more. Congress approved the measure earlier in the day. The move ended an interruption that cut off payments averaging about $300 a week to 2 1/2 million people who have been unable to find work in the aftermath of the nation’s long and deep recession.

At stake are up to 73 weeks of federally financed benefits for people who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless benefits. About half of the approximately 5 million people in the program have had their benefits cut off since its authorization expired June 2.

26 US wades into thorny Asian disputes

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jul 23, 3:28 am ET

HANOI, Vietnam – The Obama administration on Friday lashed out at belligerent acts by North Korea, human rights abuses in military-run Myanmar and, in a sign of new U.S. attention to the Pacific, claimed the resolution of thorny territorial disputes in the South China Sea to be in America’s national interest.

Speaking at a Southeast Asian regional security forum in Vietnam, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned North Korea that it must reverse a “campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior” if it wants improved relations with its neighbors and the United States.

She said that stability in the region, particularly on the Korean peninsula, depends in large part on convincing an “isolated and belligerent” North Korea to change course. The communist North has pulled out of nuclear disarmament talks and is blamed for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March that has ratcheted up tensions.

27 Sherrod fallout: Obama says forced ouster wrong

By MERRILL HARTSON, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jul 23, 8:32 am ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has ordered a more patient, deliberative style of governance from his aides and Cabinet members in the wake of a convulsive week surrounding the ouster of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod.

After telling Sherrod he regretted her forced resignation over racial remarks she made to an NAACP audience, Obama said in a nationally broadcast network interview he believes Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “jumped the gun” in sacking the veteran Georgian federal worker.

A furor erupted this week over a conservative blogger’s posting of portions of a speech Sherrod gave in which she told of giving short shrift attention 24 years ago to the pleas for financial aid by a poor white farmer. Sherrod is black, and the operator of the website BigGovernment.com posted a portion of her speech. The blogger, Andrew Breitbart, said he did so to illustrate racism within the NAACP, which earlier accused the tea party of having racist elements.

28 Historian stages sleep-ins to save SC slave cabins

By BRUCE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 54 mins ago

CHARLESTON, S.C. – When Joe McGill spreads his sleeping bag on the floor of a slave cabin, he knows that spending the night there will conjure the specter of slavery.

“If I were a firm believer in ghosts and spirits and things of that nature, I don’t think I could do this,” said McGill, a preservationist who is working to preserve buildings that are part of a past that many prefer to forget.

One night he heard dogs in the distance – a sound that recalled the search for runaways during slavery. He awoke on Mother’s Day morning in a cabin thinking of children being sold from their mothers. Then he walked to the black graveyard on a plantation near Charleston.

29 Ex-Pa. judge pleads guilty in kids-for-cash scheme

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 56 mins ago

PHILADELPHIA – A former judge in northeastern Pennsylvania pleaded guilty Friday to a racketeering conspiracy charge for his role in a kickback scheme that put juvenile defendants, many without lawyers, behind bars for sometimes minor offenses.

Michael Conahan, 58, faces up to 20 years in prison after his plea in Scranton federal court. No sentencing date was set.

Court documents do not indicate if Conahan will testify against the other former Luzerne County judge charged in the case, Mark Ciavarella Jr. Conahan’s lawyer, Philip Gelso, declined to comment Friday.

30 Source: Computer worker suspected in Utah list

By BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press Writer

Thu Jul 22, 7:21 pm ET

SALT LAKE CITY – A computer specialist for a Utah state agency has come under suspicion in the distribution of a list of 1,300 purported illegal immigrants.

A person familiar with the case identified the worker Thursday as Teresa Bassett, who works in the Utah Department of Workforce Services. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to release details about the investigation. The Salt Lake Tribune first reported Bassett’s identity.

Before joining the Department of Workforce Services, Bassett also worked for the Department of Technology Services and the Department of Corrections. She first began working for the state in November 1993.

31 Father’s death turning point for fired ag official

By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer

Thu Jul 22, 6:52 pm ET

ATLANTA – Forty-five years before she became the central figure in a racial firestorm between the White House and the political right, Shirley Sherrod was a black 17-year-old in rural Georgia brimming with righteous anger over her father’s shooting death. She blamed a white neighbor squabbling over some cows, but the law did nothing.

She vowed the night her father died to commit herself to helping black people, who she would later say were “facing the devil.” By the 1970s she and her husband had led other black families in creating a sprawling communal farm, an effort that failed in part because of federal discrimination.

By the mid-1980s she was working for a group devoted to keeping black-owned farms afloat when a white farmer walked in seeking help. That moment marked the beginning of a change in her views about race, she said years later in a videotaped speech – a speech that caused the uproar this week after a conservative website posted a snippet with important context removed.

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    • on 07/23/2010 at 23:22
      Author
    • on 07/24/2010 at 00:24

    need to start standing up to the Senate and refuse to fund wars and foreign aid without helping our own.  

      • on 07/24/2010 at 00:35
        Author

      good to see you back on schedule.

    • on 07/24/2010 at 01:51

    [I hope they all go to Albany and defecate on the steps of the capitol building as the legislatures are leaving. Then fly to NYC and do on Mayor Bloomberg’s SUV/Limo while he’s getting into it.

    State Plans to Eliminate 170,000 Canada Geese

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