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WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2008 – In the wake of Hurricane Gustav, the Coast Guard is making preparations for a possible wave of tropical storms and hurricanes, a senior Coast Guard officer said Sept. 5. “We don’t have a lot of bench strength, but we’re moving forces around in preparation for each one of these operations to position them so that we can respond,” Coast Guard Vice Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area, told bloggers during a teleconference to address the current storm systems in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. To be...

The 2008 peak of hurricane season is ramping up with Gustav and Hanna. The two storms pose threats to the U.S. At least 22 deaths in Hispanola are attributed to Gustav to date, and a Hurricane Warning is in effect for Jamaica. Tropical Storm Hanna has formed in the Atlantic. Gustav Hanna Visible Satellite Image LoopInfrared Satellite Image Loop Visible Image LoopInfrared Image Loop WV Satellite Image Loop WV Image Loop Public Advisory Public Advisory Discussion Discussion Buoy Data: Western Caribbean                   FL and East GOM                   Western GOM East CaribbeanWest AtlanticFlorida Forecast Models Category Wind Speed Barometric Pressure Storm...

Report: Detained Teen Allegedly Intended to Hijack Plane, Crash Into 'Hannah Montana' Concert Friday, January 25, 2008 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A teenage passenger from California was arrested in Nashville for plotting to hijack a plane from Los Angeles to Nashville, the FBI said Friday. FBI spokesman George Bolds told The Associated Press the 16-year-old boy was removed from Southwest Airlines Flight 284 Tuesday night by authorities at Nashville International Airport and found with "suspicious" items. Bolds said the teen had handcuffs, rope and duct tape in his bag and was believed to be traveling alone. The juvenile's name has not...

GARLAND, Texas (Dec. 29) - A 6-year-old girl who won four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert with an essay falsely claiming her father died in Iraq isn't going to the show after all. The contest's sponsor, a store chain named Club Libby Lu, withdrew the prize Saturday and awarded it to another contestant. It didn't identify the new winner. "With this decision, we hope to revive the intended spirit of the contest, which was designed to make a little girl's holidays extra special," Club Libby Lu chief executive Mary Drolet said in a statement Saturday. Officials of the Chicago-based...

LOS ANGELES — Sheriff's deputies evicted people from an urban community garden to make room for a warehouse Tuesday, touching off a furious protest in which actress Daryl Hannah and others climbed into a walnut tree or chained themselves to concrete-filled barrels. At least 39 people were arrested. Authorities cut away branches in an effort to remove the "Splash" actress and another tree-sitter. "I'm very confident this is the morally right thing to do, to take a principled stand in solidarity with the farmers," Hannah said by cell phone before a fire truck raised officers into the tree. About 350...

On CBS’s "The Early Show" this morning, co-host Harry Smith reported from Baghdad. However, unlike Dave Price, the "Early Show weatherman who reported on high morale and security progress in Iraq-- Smith focused on the negative, and even complained that the security situation is so bad that he couldn’t go out and get ice cream. Harry Smith: "Now the one other example I can give you of what the security situation is like here, just around our hotel, it's very, very secure. But when I asked our folks if I could go down to the corner and out of the...

defense lawyers say they now believe there is a White House insider or former official who has been helping the investigation for months. The lawyers say this is based on information grand jury witnesses heard about the actions of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby well before reporters Matt Cooper and Judy Miller testified White house officials leaked information about an administration critic. The lawyers supporting the White House also point to a sealed legal brief Fitzgerald submitted to the courts more than a year ago that prompted judges to refer to the gravity of the case. According to several news...

Little Green Footballs alerts us that Hollywood actor (and incarnate Tibetan Buddhist lama, according to him) Richard Gere is urging Palestinians to vote ("Vote or Die"?) in the fortcoming election. The problem is that he is willing to share the stage with some murderous villains: Gere’s co-stars in this public service announcement, presumably also speaking for the entire world, have previously urged Palestinians to wipe out Israel and finish the work of Adolf Hitler: Joining Gere in the announcement are Sheik Taissir Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Atallah Hanna, the...

The prime suspect in the hunt for the killer of teenager Hannah Foster was arrested in India today, days after her parents arrived in the country to help with the search. Trevor and Hilary Foster spoke of their delight after police announced that a man had been detailed in India. Residents of Kalimpong, near the border with Nepal, recognised the suspect – Maninder Pal Singh Kohli – from a photograph in a newspaper report about the Fosters’ appeal for help, said Darjeeling police chief Rajiv Mishra. “Kohli might also have seen the report and was apparently trying to flee to...