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Locked on 12/23/2004 10:40:31 PM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
XXIII: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1307764/posts |
Posted on 11/17/2004 9:24:29 PM PST by nwctwx
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I hadn't thought about that. Here's another update:
N.J. NUCLEAR PLANTS TO SHUT DOWN DUE TO OIL SPILL
12/2/2004, 7:24 p.m. ET
By David B. Caruso
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two nuclear power plants in southern New Jersey will shut down Friday because of fears that the water intake valves that provide coolant for their reactors could be clogged by oil from last week's tanker spill in the Delaware River, their operator said.
Protective booms were put in place around the water intakes at the Salem I and Salem II plants, but their operator, Public Service Enterprise Group, said the barriers might not block heavier globs of crude oil floating beneath the river's surface.
The plants, in Lower Alloways Creek, N.J., were expected to be shut down for several days, the company said. A spokesman for the company said consumers would not be affected.
The spill has washed a sheen of oil over 70 miles of shoreline in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, killing birds and hampering shipping traffic.
Good weather allowed investigators to return to the river on Thursday to resume the hunt for whatever tore open the hull of the oil tanker last week.
Two sonar ships, soon to be joined by a third, have spent several days surveying the river bottom, looking for anything that might have damaged the Athos I as it was being maneuvered into a port near Paulsboro, N.J., with a load of Venezuelan crude.
So far, they've found nothing, but authorities said it could take several days to analyze the sonar data they've collected. The river has been too murky for underwater video cameras. Strong winds kept the boats from operating Wednesday.
Investigators have been exploring whether the tanker might have struck a 13 1/2-foot-wide propeller that broke off a dredging vessel last spring and was never recovered, or something else resting on the river's muddy floor.
"With a river like this, anything can end up down there," said Larry DaVico, an engineer with Weeks Marine, a company that dredges the Delaware regularly. "Stuff can fall off of vessels. You'll occasionally get parts of old cars, engine blocks, refrigerators."
Debris like that, however, is generally not a danger to the hull of an oceangoing tanker, DaVico said.
"Typically, when you hear about a tanker leaking it's because it had a defective hull to begin with, or it rubbed up against a rock outcropping in the channel," he said. "Could something big enough to hurt the ship have drifted into the channel? Strange stuff like that definitely happens, but it is extremely rare. I can't remember the last time we found anything like that, if ever."
Coast Guard investigators are also checking to make sure the tanker was in the section of the channel where it was supposed to be and didn't accidentally run aground.
Ships as big as the 750-foot Athos I perform a delicate balancing act as they approach the wharfs that ring the port.
Loaded down with cargo, their hulls often ride so deep beneath the water's surface that a person standing on the river bottom could reach up and touch them.
That doesn't leave much room for error, and big vessels entering the port are required to have a local pilot on board who can guide the ship past shallow spots.
On the night that its hull mysteriously ripped open, the Athos I was running about as low as a boat can legally go in the Delaware, according to investigators.
Authorities have said the ship had a draft of 36 1/2 feet at the time of the accident, meaning that at low tide, its bottom would have had roughly 3 1/2 feet of water beneath it as it passed through the Delaware's 40-foot-deep shipping channel.
Ships traffic in the port has been limited since the accident. On a normal day, 12 to 13 ships transit the Port of Philadelphia. That number has been reduced to seven or eight.
What an awesome choice. I am really happy about it.
Troopers To Patrol N.J. Malls During Holiday
POSTED: 8:39 am EST December 3, 2004
TRENTON, N.J. -- Shoppers might see state troopers, along with Santa Claus, in New Jersey malls over the holiday season.
Specially trained troopers, some with dogs, will make random visits to bolster security and keep shoppers safe from terrorists.
Officials stress the patrols are not in response to specific threats against malls. They say it's part of a strategy to increase security at airports, sport events, nuclear plants and other sites considered to be soft targets.
Here is a link to some photos. Keep clicking "next" at the top of the page for more pictures.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/ts/112704delaoilspill&tmpl=sl&e=1
I would guess you were near the Howard "L" if you were at NU. Probably near Broadway or Clark?
Mall security getting anti-terror training
12/3/2004, 8:18 a.m. ET
By MATT APUZZO
The Associated Press
MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) — In a shopping mall outside Hartford, past the Abercrombie & Fitch and the cell phone kiosks, tucked away by the Barnes & Noble, a conference room full of security guards is learning how to spot suicide bombers.
They are being taught blast patterns and behavior profiles, how a bomb is packaged and how a bomber is recruited.
Suburban shopping mall security guards — whose jobs usually consist of watching for shoplifters and shooing away loitering teenagers — are receiving the type of training that just a few years ago was reserved for the Israeli police and the U.S. military.
"If they're carrying a bag, look for that white-knuckle grip. ... They're carrying that package and they're holding onto it for dear life," Patrick Chagnon, a Connecticut State Police detective and national counterterrorism instructor, tells his class of 10 students as the Shoppes at Buckland Hills mall bustles with holiday shoppers carrying bags and boxes of all sizes.
Chagnon's students are also told to watch for people wearing oversized clothes, and are instructed to make eye contact with shoppers and look for either extremely focused people or those who won't return a look. Another tip-off: Terrorists often ritualistically shave their bodies before carrying out a suicide bombing, he says.
Around the country, enrollment in these suicide bombing classes has increased in the past year, and the students include not just elite SWAT team members, but also local patrol officers and private security forces.
"Everyone has an obligation to be a soldier in this war," Connecticut Homeland Security Director John Buturla says.
In Israel, mall security guards, bus drivers and hotel managers are added eyes and ears for the police. That is what state and federal officials are trying to build in the United States.
In New York City, for example, apartment doormen and supers are being trained to be on the lookout for cars or trucks that are parked outside for a long time; for anyone who takes pictures of the building or lingers too long outside; and for new tenants who move in with little or no furniture.
The International Council of Shopping Centers held about 20 anti-terrorism classes this year and plans dozens more next year, says Malachy Kavanagh, who helps organize training for the organization. A class of mall security directors recently received training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., he says.
"Our attitude is that everybody has a role: mall managers, engineers, maintenance people," Kavanagh says. "The more people you train, the more eyes you have, the more people you have aware, the better your opportunity to prevent things."
Such training frequently is met with skeptical questions: Is al-Qaida really going to attack a Connecticut shopping mall? Anti-terrorism instructors say a bombing is nearly twice as likely at a commercial establishment than at a government building or military installation.
"A mall is packed with people. Government buildings usually are not," says Uri Mendelberg, a former Israeli military official whose company, ISDS International, teaches a three-day, $1,300 course on suicide attacks in Springfield, Mass. Mendelberg says about 60 people, including security agents for major U.S. corporations, have taken his class since it started last year.
Chagnon's lectures for mall security officials on how to prevent suicide bombings are paid for by the state and run about four hours.
"It will happen. You just need to make sure it doesn't happen here," he tells the security guards. "If terrorists know that `Mall A' has good security and `Mall B' doesn't, where are they going to go?"
An Associated Press reporter was allowed to sit in on the training, but the security guards were not allowed to be interviewed.
Some of the security guards questioned how much they could be expected to help, since they do not carry weapons and have no powers of arrest. But Chagnon told them their job is to alert law enforcement, and he assured them they could help thwart attacks by spotting surveillance teams and terrorism rehearsals.
"They're going to do a dry run," Chagnon said.
Two different Fosters. Yours was in Evanston, JP's was in Chicago. Still almost spittin distance!
I have a Tween, inbetween a child and a teen. I dread the teen years.
You're right. Clark is very familiar. I know that I was within walking distance of the campus, and there was only one el between me and the Lake. I was there for a grand total of nine months, 20 years ago, so I'm a little fuzzy.
I guess you were in that area too?
It isn't so bad if you have 'The Talk' with potential boyfriends.
"So Jon, have you ever wondered what it's like to dangle under a bridge, waiting for the train to come and cut the rope?"
I think I will go on dates with her. For now she is only 9 and hates boys. But I did sneak a look at her diary and she did write that some kid named Gino "was cute". I'm sorry that was the only time I looked in the diary, I felt bad about it. I told my husband and he said he will "kill Gino" LOL.
Hmmmmmm. My son is 11. That's not too much age difference is it?...
No, they are close in age. I would recommend being nosy and intrusive without them knowing :) for now.
LOL!
Now if we were just 3000 miles closer...
You all keep up the fight though! Have a good one!
kelly
Cashier jailed for nixing victim's 911 call
Said Azzawi, 36, an employee at the Citgo at 5060 E. 38th Street, was handcuffed by Marion County sheriff's deputies after denying the Papa John's courier the chance to use the free store phone.
...Azzawi, a native of Iraq who has had the roughly $7-an-hour job for just two weeks, said he wanted to help, but has been victimized by patrons who lie to him about why they want to use the free phone instead of the two pay-per-use public telephones in the parking lot.
...Police reports said sheriff's deputies then went to the Citgo, where Azzawi and two others were working.
...Azzawi was the only one arrested.
...Azzawi also was upset because he said he was wearing only a T-shirt when he was arrested and taken Downtown -- and this morning when he was freed he had no jacket to walk in 28-degree weather to try to hail a cab and get back home.
Azzawi, who came to the United States in 1991, said he is reconsidering staying in the U.S. after the experience. He has no prior criminal record in Marion County and said he hasn't been arrested before.
"I'm thinking about trying to leave the country. Even (with) the danger back home I want to go," he said.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/1/199429-9901-093.html
We just handed you your hat. Good ridence!
AP- Explosion reported at gas station in Madrid Spain after warning from Basque group.
Granny....the tanker that had the spill in the Delaware River is listed on the corporate web-site as a double-hulled tanker. The problem is that they are getting away with calling some of these tankers "double-hulled"; when they are only double-hulled above the water.
The Athos 1 (Delaware River spill) was double-hulled above water and SINGLE hulled below.....is that assanine....as mad as I am about this situation...I believe that it is also criminal.
Still no update on how and why this happened...the spill has now travelled along 70 miles of the Delaware river. I will update additional info. regarding this as I find the info...as well as the time.
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