Rory Reid, the son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has won Nevada's Democratic gubernatorial primary.
The chairman of the powerful Clark County Commission had only token opposition on Tuesday's ballot from Frederick L. Conquest of Las Vegas.
He …
State has problems
not named Sen. Byrd
I don't care what a highway or bridge is named so long as they aresafe.
Thanks to Sen. Robert Byrd and his directing federal funds to WestVirginia, our bridges are being repaired or replaced, highways arebeing re-paved and built, and federal facilities are being built thatemploy West Virginians.
Doesn't the Legislature have more important issues to concernthemselves with, such as unemployment, Medicaid, teachers retirement,drug trafficking and workers compensation?
Ida Watson
Hurricane
Jesus does not
love you, U.S.A.
God is angry with the United States of America.
Not because …
Police investigating the playground killing of an orthodontist who was involved in a bitter child custody dispute have arrested a relative of his ex-wife, the police commissioner said Tuesday.
Dr. Daniel Malakov, 34, died Oct. 28 while taking his 5-year-old daughter, Michelle, to a visit with his former wife, Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova, at a playground in Queens. As the child went to greet her mother, a gunman fired three rounds into Malakov's chest.
Mikhail Malayev was arrested in Chamblee, Ga., and his fingerprints matched those found on a homemade silencer used in the killing, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
The 50-year-old suspect is …
It was only after police in Cut Bank, Mont., curbed the silver Nissan Rogue after a short chase Monday night that officers identified the two occupants: Daniel Baker 21, of Deerfield and his girlfriend, Kristina Aksman, 20.
On Wednesday, Baker was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Aksman's mother, Lake County authorities said. Marina Aksman, 50, was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat that was found in the bedroom near her battered body early on April 1, …
Friday Ndumekle Clements, the adopted son of Chicago Catholicpriest Rev. George Clements, suffered a broken leg last week whilecompeting with an Illinois soccer team in the 1987 European-SovietCup Tour. He has returned to Chicago. English midfielder Matthew Whitshire, recently signed by the Sting,impressed general …
WASHINGTON - A government video shows the potential destruction caused by hackers seizing control of a crucial part of the U.S. electrical grid: an industrial turbine spinning wildly out of control until it becomes a smoking hulk and power shuts down.
The video, produced for the Homeland Security Department and obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, was marked "Official Use Only." It shows commands quietly triggered by simulated hackers having such a violent reaction that the enormous turbine shudders as pieces fly apart and it belches black-and-white smoke.
The video was produced for top U.S. policy makers by the Idaho National Laboratory, which has studied the …
Today is Saturday, June 20, the 171st day of 2009. There are 194 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On June 20, 1893, a jury in New Bedford, Mass., found Lizzie Borden not guilty of the ax murders of her father and stepmother.
On this date:
In 1782, Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States.
In 1837, Queen Victoria acceded to the British throne following the death of her uncle, King William IV.
In 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state.
In 1909, actor Errol Flynn was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
In 1943, race-related rioting erupted in Detroit; federal …
Great flavor combinations never go out of style. Like goodfashion designs, they just get continually reworked.
More than a decade ago at Gordon restaurant when chef JohnTerczak was manning the stove, he served a stellar appetizer ofeggplant with Roquefort cheese sauce. The daring pairing of twoassertive ingredients combined to create a third wonderful newflavor.
In a similar vein, eggplant and Stilton cheese create a piquantfoil for pasta with sauteed summer vegetables. PASTA WITH VEGETABLES AND CREAMY STILTON SAUCE
3 tablespoons butter, divided 1 small eggplant,peeled and cut into small dice 1 red or yellow bell pepper,cored, …
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Summaries from the seventh round of the Spanish league (home team listed first):
| Saturday's Games |
|---|
| Mallorca 1, Valencia 1 |
Mallorca: Tomar Hemed (93, penalty).
Valencia: Adil Rami (39).
Halftime: 1-0.
Attendance: 14,000.
| Getafe 0, Villarreal 0 |
|---|
Attendance: 8,000.
| Real … |
|---|
The assassins of a senior Hamas operative used a powerful muscle relaxant to incapacitate him before suffocating him with a pillow in his hotel room, Dubai police said Sunday, in the latest revelations from the slaying local authorities have blamed on Israel.
Police said forensic tests turned up traces of the drug succinylcholine _ part of a chemical cocktail used in lethal injections in the U.S. _ in the bloodstream of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose body was found in his room at a luxury hotel in Dubai on Jan. 20.
Dubai authorities have blamed Israel's Mossad intelligence agency for the slaying in a case that has spread far beyond the Gulf city-state's shores. …
American GIs survive on modest salaries and fight with agingequipment. Some 5,000 military families are on food stamps. The Armysuffers a $3.3 billion shortfall in basic ammunition.
Maintenance problems grounded one third of Marine Corps aircraftlast August.
Meanwhile, a warship grows in Pascagoula. Senate Majority LeaderTrent Lott (R-Miss.) added $460 million to this fiscal year's defensebudget for an LHD-8 Navy amphibious assault ship the Pentagon neverrequested. Since fiscal 2000, Lott has earmarked $835 million forthis vessel, thus benefitting his neighbors and donors at the IngallsShipyard. In fact, from his front porch, Lott can watch his toy boatbeing …
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Sarah Palin's version of Paul Revere's ride has triggered a tug of war over the Wikipedia entry on that historic event. Dozens of changes were made to the Revere page on the Internet site Sunday and Monday after Palin claimed Revere's famous ride was intended to warn both his fellow colonists and British soldiers. The page features a padlock, which Wikimedia Foundation spokesman Jay Walsh said can provide a cooling-off period when there are numerous attempts to edit a site.
Actually the site has been "semi" protected since November due to what one online editor and contributor, Jeff Schneider, called excessive vandalism. Students sometimes alter pages featuring …
The Drug Enforcement Administration says it doesn't believe Dr. David Chao of the San Diego Chargers medical staff was using medications himself even though he apparently had written at least 108 drug prescriptions to himself since 2008.
DEA spokeswoman Amy Roderick says the agency is continuing the investigation that started on June 29 when it searched the offices of Chargers and San Diego Padres doctors and their pharmacies.
Dr. David Chao says in a statement that he denies the implication of self-use or self-prescribing of controlled substances and that he will continue to appropriately treat injuries.
Scientists have been scrapping old notions about dinosaurs eversince they discovered fossilized remains of nests of baby dinos at"Egg Mountain" in Montana.
Contrary to previous belief, dinosaurs apparently didn't abandontheir babies after hatching.
The Montana excavations also support a controversial theory thatat least some dinosaurs were warm-blooded and relativelyfleet-footed, not lumbering, cold-blooded beasts.
Bone fragments, models and casts of eggs and babies from thesite recently went on display at the Chicago Academy of Sciences,2001 N. Clark. The "Lives of the Dinosaurs" exhibit also includes 40photographs and drawings of the 75 million-year-old dinosaurs.
The exhibit, located on the third floor of the nature museum,complements the Dino-rama display of 12 nearly lifesize dinosaurmodels on the museum grounds.
Between 1978 and 1984, paleontologist Jack Horner and colleaguesdug up more than 500 eggs in a square mile area near Choteau, Mont.They also found thousands of eggshell fragments, parts of 150dinosaur skeletons and four nests containing the remains of dinosaurbabies. These were the first nests of baby dinosaurs found anywherein the world.
Many fossils come from the duckbill dinosaur, which laid anaverage of 20 eggs in hollowed-out ground nests about 3 feet by 6feet. The nests were covered with rotting vegetation to keep theeggs warm.
Fossil evidence indicates that newly hatched duckbill dinosremained in the nest and were cared for by their mothers. Forexample, some babies found in nests were 2 1/2 times larger thannewborns. Moreover, the bones in baby skeletons probably were notstrong enough to enable them to walk immediately.
A second species, known as Orodromeus, apparently left the nestat birth but stayed near its mother.
If, as Horner suggests, dinosaurs cared for their young, theybehaved more like birds than reptiles. With rare exceptions,reptiles abandon their young.
The bone structure of dinosaurs also is birdlike, especially thelegs and upright stance. Horner agrees with scientists who saydinosaurs should not be considered cold-blooded reptiles, but beplaced instead in a class with warm-blooded birds.
Dino-rama is open through Labor Day, and the Montana exhibit ison display through Sept. 25. Tickets are $4 for adults and $2.50 forchildren and seniors.
FBI Director Robert Mueller and former Attorney General John Ashcroft cannot be sued by a former Sept. 11 detainee who claimed he was abused because of his religion and ethnicity, a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court said Monday in a decision that could make it harder to sue top officials for the actions of low-level operatives.
The court overturned a lower court decision that let Javaid Iqbal's lawsuit against the high-ranking officials proceed.
Iqbal is a Pakistani Muslim who spent nearly six months in solitary confinement in New York in 2002. He had argued that while Ashcroft and Mueller did not single him out for mistreatment, they were responsible for a policy of confining detainees in highly restrictive conditions because of their religious beliefs or race.
But the government argued that there was nothing linking Mueller and Ashcroft to the abuses that happened to Iqbal at a New York prison's Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit, and the court agreed.
"The complaint does not show or even intimate, that petitioners purposefully housed detainees in the ADMAX SHU due to their race, religion or national origin," said Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion. "All it plausibly suggests is that the nation's top law enforcement officers, in the aftermath of a devastating attack, sought to keep suspected terrorists in the most secure conditions available until the suspects could be cleared of terrorist activity."
The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had said the lawsuit could proceed.
Richard A. Samp, lawyer for the Washington Legal Foundation, welcomed the court's ruling. "It ensures the ability of senior national security officials to perform their duties without the distraction of having to defend against claims for money damages," he said.
"The decision's effect will be widespread. By enabling all defendants to win dismissal of unsubstantiated claims, it will make it more difficult for plaintiffs to coerce settlements from defendants seeking to avoid the costs of discovery," Samp said.
The court's liberal justices _ David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens _ dissented from the nine-meber court's opinion.
"Iqbal contends that Ashcroft and Mueller were at the very least aware of the discriminatory detention policy and condoned it and perhaps even took part in devising it," Souter said. He should be given chance to prove his claims in court, Souter said.
Kennedy said the Sept. 11 attacks were carried out by Arab Muslim hijackers who counted themselves members of al-Qaida.
"It should come as no surprise that a legitimate policy directing law enforcement to arrest and detain individuals because of their suspected link to the attacks would produce a disparate, incidental impact on Arab Muslims, even though the purpose of the policy was to target neither Arabs nor Muslims," he said.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts. Iqbal could have a case against others, Kennedy said.
His "account of his prison ordeal could, if proved, demonstrate unconstitutional misconduct by some governmental actors," Kennedy said. "But the allegations and pleadings with respect to these actors are not before us here."
Iqbal was arrested at his suburban home on Nov. 2, 2001, and charged with nonviolent federal crimes unrelated to terrorism. Two months later, he was moved to a holding facility in New York, where he was in solitary confinement for more than 150 days without a hearing, his lawsuit alleges.
He said he was subjected to physical and verbal abuse, including unnecessary strip searches. On the day he entered solitary confinement, he says, he was thrown against a wall, kicked in the stomach, punched in the face and dragged across a floor by federal prison officers.
He was cleared of any involvement in terrorism and was deported in January 2003 after pleading guilty to fraud and being sentenced to a year and four months in prison.
The appeals court said it recognized the gravity of the situation confronting government investigators after the 2001 terrorist attacks and agreed that some forms of government action that otherwise would not be proper are permitted in emergencies.
But it said most of the rights cited in the lawsuit "do not vary with surrounding circumstances, such as the right not to be subjected to needlessly harsh conditions of confinement, the right to be free from the use of excessive force and the right not to be subjected to ethnic or religious discrimination."
A 2003 Justice Department report found "significant problems" with the treatment of post-Sept. 11 detainees at the facility in New York, including physical abuse and mistreatment.
PUPILS at Banwell Primary School are to feature in a BBCtelevision programme highlighting changing attitudes to sex.
Three 11-year-olds in their final year at the West Street schoolappear in Sex Life on January 13 on BBC2. The programme questions howchildren learn about sex and examines if there is a link with whenthey first have sex.
It is one of three programmes on the nation's sex life startingthis Sunday.
One deals with middle-aged women and the dating game and the otherwith couples who have been together for many years. In the secondepisode, broadcast at 10pm - well after the watershed - the childrencan be seen openly discussing adult issues.
The children were filmed in sex education classes and theirresponses to questions outside class are thought by experts to berepresentative of attitudes of youngsters across the country.
In one scene 11-year-old James says:
"Tarts are nice, you don't want someone boring who won't doanything." Another boy says of James' last girlfriend: "She letsJames do what he wants to her and we all know what that is."
Others are more reticent. Helena says she will snog a boy - butnot until she is at least 12 years old.
At the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University "you can see sheep interacting with lions," says Noe Alberto Jose of Luanda, Angola. "People who would normally be enemies are in the same room in fellowship, which back home might be impossible."
[Graph Not Transcribed]
While studying in Zambia, Jose remembers meeting Hutu and Tutsi refugees who refused to look at each other. This year there were Hutu and Tutsi participants at the institute. Jose and To Thi Bay, of Hanoi, Vietnam, are both directors of fledgling peace programs. The contexts in which they work are remarkably different, yet they face similar challenges, such as shortages of mediation materials in their languages.
With support from Mennonite Central Committee, Jose and Bay participated in the institute and have returned home with improved skills for dealing with conflict and a worldwide connection to peace builders. In the past seven years, MCC has sponsored more than 100 participants.
Bay says this summer's courses helped her understand more about her own perspectives as well as typical Vietnamese responses to conflict. She is organizing mediation training for Vietnamese development workers who want to integrate peace building with community development.
Jose, who directs the peace program of the Council of Christian Churches in Angola, began his peace work among displaced Angolan families. A cease-fire agreement recently ended 27 years of civil war in Angola and the need for training in conflict resolution is urgent.
He has organized Core Peace Groups in provincial capitals. The groups hold workshops to help people analyze conflicts and discuss nonviolent solutions.--From MCC release by Maria Linder-Hess
SINGAPORE (AP) — A corpse has been found in a Singapore apartment building's water storage tank after residents complained of yellow, foamy water.
Singapore police say the body of a 30-year-old Indonesian woman was found Monday at the 15-story building and the case is being investigated as a murder. They say a 27-year-old Bangladeshi man was arrested in connection with the case.
Singapore's New Paper reported Tuesday that none of the building's residents had reported illnesses related to the contaminated water despite some cooking or washing with it.
The paper reported that the Indonesian and Bangladeshi residents were lovers and had been heard fighting late Sunday.
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says Gaza furniture makers have exported goods to neighboring Jordan, the first non agricultural exports since Hamas militants seized the territory.
The military said Monday that two truckloads of furniture left Gaza for Jordan.
Spokesman Maj. Guy Inbar said seven truckloads of furniture were supposed to leave for Europe last year, but Gaza militants burned down the warehouse.
Israel limited Gaza imports and exports as part of a blockade intended to stop Hamas from rearming after the militants seized Gaza in 2007. Critics say it hurts ordinary people in Gaza.
Israel relaxed its limitations on Gaza exports last year.
Ali al-Haeek of the Palestinian business association said the furniture will be displayed at a convention in Amman, Jordan.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Results Sunday in Scottish football (home teams listed first):
| Premier League |
|---|
Motherwell 0, Celtic 1
St. Mirren 1, Hibernian 0
Hearts 1, Dundee United 1
Simple reactors provide energy and fertilizer for Chinese farms and villages. Another benefit includes improved household sanitation.
NO centralized waste management systems are in place to handle agricultural by-products, human wastes, animal manures and food residuals generated by the 840 million Chinese - 70 percent of the country's population - who live on farms or in villages. Instead, since the 1970s, The People's Republic of China has been promoting underground, individual, anaerobic digesters to process rural organic materials. This strategy has resulted in approximately five million household anaerobic digesters installed in China today.
In rural China, nonrecyclable inorganic wastes tend to accumulate on unused pieces of land scattered throughout the countryside. Management practices for organics, on the other hand, are more varied. Food residuals and many agricultural by-products are fed to farm animals as supplements to commercial feed. Households that do not have digestion systems use unprocessed human and animal manure as fertilizer. Waste from toilets and animal pens is stored in open pits until it is scooped out and delivered to the field. Another method for dealing with this material is simply to pile up the manure, cover it with soil and allow it to compost without turning.
Households with an anaerobic digestion system mainly utilize human and animal manures along with agricultural by-products such as grain stalks (primarily rice), sweet potato vines, and weeds. Other organics such as spoiled food, grain husks and weeds are added in small quantities. Thirty years ago, when digesters first were being promoted, rice stalks were one of the main materials processed, mostly because of an insufficient amount of other organics. The early digesters also were large and used mechanical equipment for cleaning. Experience has shown that grain stalks tend not to break down very well in household systems, and cause the formation of a crust of up to one meter thick inside the digester. The crust needed to be removed in an annual clean out and hindered digester efficiency. The only way to remove the crust and the accumulated material was to enter the digester from a port at the top of the reactor. Not only was this difficult work, but it also was dangerous due to the potential for explosions from the biogas, and absence of oxygen.
Today, in Sichuan Province for example, most agricultural families raise two to four pigs for market at a time due to an increase in meat consumption. In situations like these, the combination of human waste and animal manure provides sufficient feedstock to meet the majority of the energy needs of the family. Grain stalks are either burned directly as fuel during winter when gas production drops or are sold as a paper feedstock.
REACTOR DESIGN AND OPERATION
Reactor design has evolved over time. It used to be a cylindrical main reactor with a domed top that accepted waste material through a port connected to the bottom. Early reactors had a separate effluent storage container that was connected by a pipe attached below the water line. A port was constructed at the top to allow the reactor to be cleaned out. To maintain a gas seal, the lid had to be heavy making it hard to remove. The influent port was relatively large and located outside so that a variety of materials - including human and animal manure could be manually fed into the reactor.
Modern designs have simplified construction of the system. There is no longer a port at the top of the reactor. The effluent chamber and reactor are now connected, while toilets and pigsties generally are directly connected to the influent port. In the standard modern design, effluent is removed from the reactor at the top of the water column, meaning that supernatant is collected rather than sludge. Additionally, no mixing of the system occurs when effluent is removed. In some systems, a vertical cylindrical pull-rod port is added to the base of the effluent port. Effluent is removed by moving the pull-rod - simply a wooden shaft with a metal disk on the bottom - up and down in the port. A bucket can be placed directly under the pull-rod port, simplifying effluent removal, while the movement of the wooden shaft provides some mixing in the reactor.
Head space volume above the reactor essentially is fixed, although the volume increases slightly with increasing pressure since the effluent port liquid level moves up and down with pressure changes. Additionally, if effluent is not regularly removed from the system, the increasing liquid volume also reduces head space volume. As a result, gas pressure delivered into the home is not constant, causing variation in heat produced by cooking elements and variation of gas lamp light intensity.
To resolve this problem, some systems are constructed with a separate gas storage chamber with a floating cover to maintain constant pressure regardless of gas volume. This modification consists of a cup shaped concrete storage container floating upside down in a tank of water. The cup moves up and down in the tank with changes in gas volume. Another advantage of this type of storage system is that during cold weather, moisture in the gas condenses in the storage container rather than in the gas line. Condensate in supply lines can block the lines or be another cause of oscillating gas pressure.
Construction of the reactors is completed by technicians trained by the local government and members of the household. The technicians are local residents who construct reactors as a sideline to their regular work. The basic construction materials for the reactors are concrete and bricks, easily available and commonly used in rural China. Most reactors are built in conjunction with the construction of new pigsties and toilet facilities. Construction time for a reactor is approximately one week, and the total cost including materials and the technician's time is approximately $80 US.
The modern automatically feeding systems are very simple to operate and maintain. Waste from the pigsty and toilet flows directly into the reactor. The toilets are basic Asian squat style facilities with the plumbing feeding into the reactor influent port. Many of the homes have no running water and - in all cases - the toilets are nonflushing and water only is added manually for cleaning. Ideally, according to some sources, daily infeed to a six cubic meter reactor should be approximately 30 kilograms of feces and other organics plus approximately 50 kilograms of water and urine. The net solids of the material entering the reactor should be approximately eight percent.
Manually fed systems require more work. Waste material must be transferred from the initial storage pits and delivered to the influent port of the reactor. Although material is supposed to be collected from the effluent port and flushed back into the influent port to promote mixing of the reactor, few farmers actually do this. Effluent is removed as required.
BIOGAS AND EFFLUENT
From the farmers' point of view, the primary reason for constructing a digester system is to produce biogas which is approximately 60 percent methane. Gas production is temperature dependent, with production being inhibited at mean ambient temperatures less than 10oC. More than half of China's rural population are in areas where mean ambient temperatures exceeds 10'C eight to 12 months of the year.
The gas primarily is used for cooking and lighting. A digester can provide approximately 60 percent of a family's energy needs. All of the kitchens have a traditional fuel stove in addition to the gas burner and during winter months, when gas production drops, straw, firewood and coal are used for cooking.
Effluent from the reactors is an odorless, dark colored slurry, primarily used as an agricultural fertilizer. Other applications include a feed supplement for pigs, mushroom growing media, fertilizer for fish ponds, worm rearing media (the worms are then fed to chickens), and media for soaking seeds prior to germination.
[Author Affiliation]
Paul Henderson is an Environmental Engineer with the city of Vancouver, Canada. He recently conducted a six month study of waste management systems in the Peoples' Republic of China, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, the Sichuan Provincial Commission of Science and Technology, and the Solid Waste Association of North America. The author especially wishes to thank the Mianyang, Sichuan Province, Municipal Biogas Office for its assistance.
Media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit shrank 34 percent as the ad slump and slow DVD sales hurt revenue in the company's publishing, movie and online properties.
But the New York-based company affirmed its full-year adjusted earnings projection of roughly $1.98 per share, or flat year-over-year.
Time Warner, which owns the Warner Bros. movie studio, the HBO and Turner cable networks, Time Inc. magazines and the AOL Internet portal, earned $519 million, or 43 cents per share, in the three months ended in June. That's down from $792 million, or 66 cents per share, a year earlier.
Last year's results include earnings from its recently spun-off cable unit. Earning from continuing operations, which exclude results from Time Warner Cable, fell 8 percent.
Excluding items, the company said it would have earned 45 cents per share in the most recent quarter. Analysts, who typically exclude items, expected 37 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.
Revenue fell 9 percent to $6.81 billion, shy of the average forecast, $6.97 billion.
The company's networks segment, which includes Turner and HBO, held up the best. Sales grew 5 percent to $3 billion as higher subscription revenue offset lower ad sales.
But filmed entertainment tumbled 9 percent to $2.3 billion as slow DVD sales dragged down revenue.
The publishing unit took a beating from the industrywide advertising slump. Advertising revenue in publishing plunged 26 percent.
AOL, which Time Warner plans to spin off into a separate company, was pummeled by ad declines as well as subscriber losses. Overall revenue at AOL dropped 24 percent to $804 million.
Environmental and consumer groups said Thursday that funding for a federal loan program to help the U.S. auto industry should have some strings attached _ in the form of higher fuel efficiency standards.
Consumer watchdog Public Citizen and several environmental groups called the support a "bailout" and in exchange for the loans, urged Congress to push the industry to meet higher fuel economy standards beyond requirements approved last year of at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
"The industry created the mess it's in now, and did it while laughing all the way to the bank. It's time for these companies to give back to the American people," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen.
"Are we getting the oil savings and global warming pollution reductions that we need? Those are critical issues," said Ann Mesnikoff, director of the Sierra Club's clean cars campaign.
The auto industry wants to secure up to $50 billion in government loans over three years to help it modernize its plants and develop more fuel-efficient vehicles. Congress authorized $25 billion in loans in last year's energy bill but hasn't funded the program.
General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have been working to secure funding for the loans after months of tight credit markets, tepid sales and high gasoline prices. Industry leaders say the loans are not a government bailout because it would speed up production of fuel-efficient vehicles and reduce dependence on imported oil.
GM spokesman Greg Martin said the loan program was "explicitly tied to getting more fuel efficient vehicles on the road quicker."
Members of Michigan's congressional delegation discussed the loans Thursday with industry officials and auto executives who participated by conference call, including GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, who was testifying Friday at a Senate energy summit. Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, also participated on the call.
"There's a concerted bipartisan effort to make this happen," said Republican Rep. Dave Camp.
It's said that an army marches on its stomach. If that is the case, then the members of the Army Reserve's 75th Combat Support Hospital and 900th Quartermaster Company literally should be rolling through the trenches.
Recently, the 75th from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the 900th from El Paso, Texas, were named the best field kitchens in the Army Reserve. Both were recipients of the Phillip A. Connelly Award, the Army's highest food service award, during the Joint Services Excellence in Food Service Awards.
According to Edward Siegler, a food service specialist with the U.S. Army Reserve Command, recent changes in Army Reserve food service procedures have limited Reserve units to competition in the field kitchen category. This is the result of fewer meals being cooked by Soldiers during drills. However, this did not limit the amount of entrants in this year's competition.
"Surprisingly, although our units are cooking less, we had more competitors for this year's award than in previous years," said Siegler.
And, while some units may be cooking less, the 75th's food section still cooks at every drill.
"We get a lot of practice," said Sgt. 1st Class James Spencer, section leader for the 75th. "We didn't even know we were in the competition until somebody told us. And, even after we found out, we just kept doing the things we normally do. Everyone in my section works hard. They deserve the recognition."
The competitors were judged based upon a number of criteria, including kitchen safety, cooking ability and cleanliness.
"It's scored sort of like figure skating. You start with a perfect score, and then points are deducted as deficiencies are found," added Siegler. "There is a lot of artistry involved today in cooking Soldiers' meals. And the Soldiers really appreciate it when their cooks do a good job."
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Teenage allrounder Mitchell Marsh has replaced Brett Lee in Australia's one-day international squad for the three-match series in South Africa.
Marsh, who is currently part of Australia's Twenty20 group, will stay in South Africa for the ODIs with Lee ruled out after undergoing an appendix operation.
Cricket Australia's chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch says the 19-year-old Marsh only just missed out on the initial one-day squad and has the ability to make "a significant impact at international level."
Hilditch says Australia are well covered with four fast bowlers for the one-dayers.
Marsh will join up with older brother Shaun in the ODI squad. They are the sons of former Australia batsman Geoff Marsh.
Ten children drank windshield wiper fluid after a staffer at an Arkansas day care put the liquid in a refrigerator and mistakenly served it thinking it was a flavored drink mix, hospital officials said Friday.
Doctors estimate the children, ages 2 to 7, drank about an ounce (29 milliliters) of the fluid late Thursday afternoon before realizing it tasted wrong, said Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.
Only one child remained hospitalized Friday morning after blood samples showed "measurable levels" of methanol, a highly toxic alcohol that can induce comas and cause blindness, officials said.
"All we know was that the individual at the day care had recently shopped and had come back to the day care with a lot of different products," James told The Associated Press. "This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator."
Julie Munsell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, identified the day care operator as Carolyn Bynum in the town of Scott, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of Little Rock. Bynum declined to comment Friday.
Bynum had a state license to care for 10 children in her home and had no complaints or serious compliance issues in the past, Munsell said. Child welfare investigators planned to interview Bynum on Friday.
The children all were examined by doctors at the hospital and the day care provided a sample of the windshield wiper fluid for laboratory testing, James said.
The toxicologist warned that many antifreeze or windshield wiper solutions have bright colors, which children can mistake for fruit drinks.
"I think the take-home message is not to have these products in the kitchen or where you're doing any kind of food preparation," she said.
Ireland begins deploying troops Wednesday for a delayed EU peacekeeping mission to Chad as the central African country remains in a state of emergency.
In addition to the troops from Ireland, Austria was sending supplies to Chad this week for the force, said Lt. Col. Philippe de Cussac, a force spokesman based at its headquarters outside Paris.
The moves were part of the gradual ramping-up of the 4,000-strong EU peacekeeping force, in which advance parties had originally been supposed to deploy in December _ but only arrived this month.
The mission is designed to protect tens of thousands of refugees along Chad's border with Sudan, as well as in the neighboring Central African Republic.
The deployment has been repeatedly delayed _ first because the force lacked sufficient helicopters and medical support, then because of an attack by rebels on Chadian capital N'Djamena earlier this month.
Now, a first, large-scale deployment isn't expected until March. The full deployment isn't expected before mid-May for three zones of eastern Chad and one in northern Central African Republic.
Ireland said 50 members of the army's elite Ranger wing would depart on a charter flight Wednesday night for N'Djamena. They were expected to make a 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) drive Friday to their eastern base at Abeche, which borders Sudan and is near refugee camps.
The Rangers are pathfinders for the main bulk of the Irish contribution of 400 additional troops, which are now scheduled to arrive in mid-May. Gen. Pat Nash of Ireland heads the EU force, made up mostly of French troops.
On Jan. 31, the Ranger unit was forced to turn back when the N'Djamena airport shut down because of an imminent rebel offensive against the Chadian government of President Idriss Deby. An Austrian unit of peacekeepers also was turned back that day.
The rebels were repulsed after fighting that left more than 160 dead and 1,000 wounded. On Friday, Deby declared a 15-day state of emergency and appealed to citizens to inform on suspected rebels still hiding in N'Djamena.
It's really a shame to say this, but because Black people and everyone else, for that matter, are faced with voting for choices made by the inner circle of powerbrokers, once again many voters will have to punch the card or touch the corrupted Deibold computer screens while holding our noses. I hear a great deal of talk about voting for the lesser of two evils, but in many of the races, it's really a matter of voting for the evil of two lessers.
In what is billed as a precursor for the 2008 presidential election, if Bush doesn't cancel the election that year, Black people are again being touted as the group that can determine the outcome of the 2006 election, thus, having the …
Two felony charges against Vikings great Carl Eller are being dropped. A judge will rule on two lesser charges stemming from his clash with police last April.
An announcement was made Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court.
The Star Tribune reports that a judge will now decide whether Eller is guilty of one count of fourth-degree assault on a Minneapolis police …
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - The plunging waterfalls and soaring crags chiseled by the Merced River draw millions of visitors each year, but the crowds are precisely what threatens the waterway and the park.
Efforts to safeguard the Merced have spawned a court battle over the future of development in Yosemite National Park's most popular stretch. The case may come down to the challenge facing all of America's parks: Should they remain open to everyone, or should access be limited in the interest of protecting them?
In November, a federal judge barred crews from finishing $60 million in construction projects in Yosemite Valley, siding with a small group of …
Company Conversion Ratio LendingTree 5% E-Loan, iOwn 10%-15% American Home Mortgage Holdings, MortgageIT …
Raj Singh says he was thinking about putting his new high-end soft goods store, Antara Home, in Colonie Center. Until he saw the sign there.
It was a huge display for customers as they entered the mall, telling them about the improvements taking place.
"We expect the mall to effectively become 'downtown Albany,' " it says.
For Singh, 38, that clinched the deal. Why would he want to open a store at a place with a fake downtown when he can get a real one only a few miles away?
That's why his new store, Antara, opened two weeks ago at Broadway Arcade, with an entrance on Maiden Lane. In downtown Albany.
"I'm not trying to be …
Byline: Associated Press
President Bush and Bill Clinton prepped privately on Wednesday for their second debate showdown today.
Ticket mates Dan Quayle and Al Gore sparred at a distance.
"I think this administration is unraveling," said Gore, the Democratic vice presidential candidate. "George Bush is in a political panic," he contended, noting confirmation by the administration that it had searched through embassy files overseas for Vietnam-era information on Clinton.
With the GOP lagging in the polls, Quayle countered with a reprise of his Tuesday night debate charge that Clinton wasn't a man to be trusted - except to raise taxes and …
While Olympic watchers waited Wednesday for the Usain Bolt show to begin, a marathon swimmer from Russia, a power-hitting American softball star and a Spanish field hockey player provided some of the early thrills.
Bolt, who easily won the 100-meter sprint in world record time of 9.69 seconds at the Bird's Nest last Saturday, was heavily favored to repeat his gold in the 200 later Wednesday.
It he wins both the 100 and 200, he'd be the first Olympic athlete since Carl Lewis in 1984 to achieve the feat. And Michael Johnson's 12-year-old world record of 19.32 seconds could fall in the process.
Early on the fifth-to-last day of the Beijing Games, …
RAY MEOLA, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
When Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall said: 'What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar,' no one listened. At first, that is. But his wit prevailed and he's credited with breaking the congressional gridlock during Wilson's administration and getting a good deal of legislation through.
When Raymond Meola said: 'What this country needs is a really good three thousand dollar 'deli' machine, no one listened. At least not much, so far.
Why is it that machine manufacturers will not build machines we want? They seem to be building what they think we want. Or is it what they think we'll put up with?
The …
FRIDAY JANUARY 5: FIREFIGHTERS were called out to an overturned car on the B4525 yesterday evening.
Crews from Brackley and Towcester attended the scene after receiving reports of the single vehicle accident shortly before 6.15pm. …
Byline: The Dallas Morning News
The hammerhead shark's notorious silhouette confers an advantage in the search for food,new research has found.
The creature's anvil-shaped head is a finely tuned sensor used to detect the mild electric fields generated by other animals, researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa reported in San Diego last week at a meeting of the American Physiological Society.
Most sharks have special pores that …
Byline: Steve Bornfeld Staff writer
Tune in your local television news and you might get one impression of local broadcast journalists - dignified, professional and just plain nice.
Tune in "WIOU" and you get another - ambitious, lecherous and just plain rotten.
The disparity will certainly be even more stark since this cynical drama will air at 10 p.m. (debuting tonight on WRGB, Channel 6) as a lead-in to the local news, an arrangement that has caused some understandable consternation among CBS affiliates across the country.
The pilot of "WIOU" reveals its obvious parentage. It is anything but original, owing its soapy ensemble story of …
A Scottish widow with twin passions for birds and music has left most of her 10 million pound ($16.6 million) fortune to New York's Metropolitan Opera and a British nature charity.
Mona Webster died in August at age 96 and details of her will have recently been made public.
She divided …
CARACAS, Venezuela - Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans packed a major highway Saturday in a rally for opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, one of the largest demonstrations against President Hugo Chavez in years.
Shouts of "Dare to change!" rose up from the dense crowd filling the highway for several miles and spilling into nearby overpasses and streets in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. The rally came eight days before the country's presidential election on Dec. 3.
Rosales, speaking from a stage, promised democracy for a country he said was sinking into Cuba-style authoritarianism under Chavez.
"I don't want to be a president who controls all the …
The Program-A-Bead 995 meter, mixer and dispenser can be used with automated assembly machines. It dispenses a two-component flexible silicone at variable …
Artist Ronnie Wood for decades has shared his insights into the world of music. From Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix or his own band, The Rolling Stones, Wood has offered a view into the lives of the icons he has played, laughed, lived and cried with. Wood has produced a series of five works on paper of his band mates that will debut at Artexpo New York. These prints capture …
RENSSELAER -- Helen Simmons O'Brien, 89, of Rensselaer, died July 20, 1997 at Albany Memorial Hospital. Born in Albany, she was the daughter of the late Charles A. and Josephine Donnelly Simmons and the widow of James M. O'Brien. Mrs. O'Brien was retired for a number of years from the Simmons Machine Tool Co. She is survived …
Shares of Chinese software company Kingtone Wirelessinfo Solution Holding Ltd. fell in their trading debut.
The Chinese company priced 4 million American depository shares at $4 apiece, the bottom of its expected range of $4 to $6. In afternoon trading, the stock fell 12 cents to $3.88.
Kingtone had said in a regulatory filing on May 5 that it planned to sell …
Helping Biotech Businesses Grow
Communicating presents an image of openness, engendering trust; when you don't communicate, people soon think the worst. Biopharmaceutical companies frequently ignore corporate marketing until too late in the game: Public relations should start at inception to help companies start out correctly.
In November 1998, FDA approved Enbrel (etanercept, a monotherapy tumor necrosis factor inhibitor) for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, a debilitating disease that until then had no effective remedy. In January 2002, the drug was also approved for psoriatic arthritis. Produced by Seattle-based Immunex Corporation, the biopharmaceutical is hailed as …
Business Appraiser that specializes in M&A, and valuations required for SBA loans and other financing options.
Area of Specialization: M & A Certifications/Credentials: CBA, BVAL Website: www.bizappraiser.net State or Country: WA Category: Listing #:56157 [To receive the contact name for this listing, reference the five-digit number which follows each listing and e-mail to FirstList, …
, wife Maria Shriver and rocker Jon Bon Jovi will participate in the opening ceremony for the 10th Special Olympics World Summer Games in Raleigh, N.C. Billy Crystal will be host of the 4-hour event, which will be held June 26 at Carter Finley Stadium. The Special Olympics will run through July 4.
Schwarzenegger and Shriver are expected to introduce the parade of athletes -- more than 7,000 of them from 150 countries …
South Korea says North Korea has fired a sixth missile off its eastern coast.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff say five missiles were fired earlier Saturday and the sixth around 4:10 p.m. (0710 GMT).
The launches come two days after North Korea fired four short-range missiles.
The test-firing could further escalate tensions in the region as the U.S. tries to muster support for tough enforcement of a U.N. resolution imposed on the communist regime for its May nuclear test.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quotes military officials as saying the missiles fired Saturday appear to be Scuds. South Korea's military said North Korea's Scuds are …
(ADPnews) - May 16, 2011 - German construction group Hochtief AG (ETR:HOT) today reported a consolidated net loss of EUR 169.5 million (USD 238.9m) for the first quarter of 2011, down from a net profit of EUR 34 million booked a year earlier.
The significant decline in profitability results from the decrease in earnings booked by the company's Asia Pacific division.
In April Hochtief's Australian subsidiary Leighton (ASX:LEI) significantly lowered its forecast for fiscal 2011.
Hochtief registered a loss before interest, tax and amortisation (LBITA) of EUR 404.3 million in the first quarter, following earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) of …
