Costco – ETQ 7250 Watt Running 8250 Watt Peak Portable Generator With Electric Start.

Wikinews reporter Paul Wace reports on effect of snowfall in Buckinghamshire (UK) (video link). WikiNews – part of the Wikimedia empire – has expanded into direct reporting. From Paul Wace’s coverage of the snows in England:

This month is set to be one of the coldest ever recorded in the United Kingdom, as snow leads to millions of people’s travel plans disrupted.

One person at London Heathrow Airport said the grounding of aircraft, and disruption to rail services, had created “the Christmas from hell.” On one of the busiest weekends for travellers of the year, Heathrow and Gatwick Airports closed their runways and roads countrywide became impassable.

One person has already died this weekend after the ambulance he was being treated in crashed in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Meterologists warn that the conditions are unlikely to recede soon, adding that this month is set to be one of the coldest on record. Britain is not alone in Europe; airports in Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands are similarly affected.

Wikinews today reports from the village of Flackwell Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, where villagers were buying essentials from the local supermarket, and roads were covered in six inches of snow. Wikinews journalist Paul Wace reported that councillors pledged to grit major routes, but the main road through the village was covered in a slushy mix of snow and grit, making travel extremely difficult.

xxx

Boat sinks off New Jersey coast, killing one

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Jump to: navigation, search

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

United States

Other stories from United States

* 8 January 2011: Former CIA agent indicted after leaking classified information

* 7 January 2011: Homeless Columbus, Ohio man with ‘god-given gift of voice’ becomes YouTube sensation

* 7 January 2011: ‘Suspicious’ package closes half of Washington Dulles Airport terminal

* 3 January 2011: Fifteen killed by US drone strikes in Northern Waziristan

* 3 January 2011: Obama signs healthcare bill for 9/11 emergency workers

…More articles here

Location of United States

A map showing the location of United States

To write, edit, start or view other articles on United States, see the United States Portal

Wikinews-United States-logo.svg

Flag of the United States.svg

A MH-65 rescue helicopter similar to this one was used by the US Coast Guard to rescue the men.

A Florida man was killed and another man hospitalized after their boat sank off Cape May, New Jersey, US.

The Sea Wolf sent a distress signal via emergency satellite beacon at about 1:35 AM on Thursday, seven miles off Cape May. A member of the State Police informed the Coast Guard who sent out a MH-65 rescue helicopter and two rescue launches.

The helicopter managed to save Steve Hopkins of the District of Columbia but was unable to do the same for Gregory Arlotta of Florida. The 62 year old disappeared among the debris in eight-foot waves.

Arlotta had recently bought the vessel in New York; its previous owner was in his seventies and had decided to sell the ship. The Sea Wolf had been operating for a couple of decades prior to the sinking, and was described by one local as unfit for the voyage it was undertaking to New Orleans. A 1963 Gilligan, it was designed for use within ten miles of shore for fishing.

via Boat sinks off New Jersey coast, killing one – Wikinews, the free news source.

BP report into Gulf of Mexico disaster lays blame on other contractors – Wikinews, the free news source.

Friday, September 10, 2010

In their report on the disaster, BP shifts a large proportion of the blame to other contractors, including Transocean and Halliburton. The report was likely written with the company’s legal liability for the disaster in a prominent position. The executive summary is four and a half pages long—and the first page is made up entirely of legal disclaimers—if BP was found to be negligent in their operations of the rig, they could be fined a good deal more.

BP released their report into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster earlier this year on Wednesday, and shifted much of the blame for the explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, onto Transocean, the company managing the rig. The report concludes by stating that decisions made by “multiple companies and work teams” contributed to the accident which it says arose from “a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces.” The report, the product of a four-month investigation conducted by BP’s Head of Safety Operations, Mark Bly, criticizes the oil rig’s fire prevention systems, the crew of the rig for failing to realize and act upon evidence that oil was leaking from the surface of the ocean, and describes how BP and Transocean “incorrectly accepted” negative pressure test results. The document goes on to note that the blow-out preventer failed to operate, likely because critical components were not operational.

Bob Dudley, who will become chief executive of BP, described the accident as “tragic”. He said, “we have said from the beginning that the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon was a shared responsibility among many entities. This report makes that conclusion even clearer, presenting a detailed analysis of the facts and recommendations for improvement both for BP and the other parties involved. We have accepted all the recommendations and are examining how best to implement them across our drilling operations worldwide.” The report included 25 recommendations, according to a press release, “designed to prevent a recurrence of such an accident.” The oil company has previously blamed Transocean and Halliburton, the well contractor, for the disaster and BP executives feel they have been unfairly blamed by US politicians for the disaster, and the report continues this view.

Tony Hayward, who was fired from the position of BP’s chief executive following multiple public relations issues, squarley places the blame for the disaster on Halliburton. “To put it simply, there was a bad cement job,” he said in a statement, also claiming that BP should not be the only company to take the blame for the explosion. “It would appear unlikely that the well design contributed to the incident,” he argues. The report blames the type of cement used by Halliburton, designed to prevent harmful hydrocarbons from reaching the seabed, as well as criticizing the crew of Deepwater Horizon, for failing to realize for forty minutes that oil had started to leak from the well, and once it was realized, the crew “vented” the hydrocarbons “directly onto the rig”.

Describing how the explosion, which killed eleven rig personnel, occurred, the report states that “the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system probably transferred a gas-rich mixture into the engine rooms,” where the hydrocarbons ignited and a fireball engulfed the rig. But, the report states, the blowout preventer, the ultimate failsafe on the Deepwater Horizon failed, likely due to the fire on the rig. An automated system was not operational because the batteries powering it, located in a control pod, had gone flat, and another control pod contained a faulty solenoid valve.

The report was likely, however, written with the company’s legal liability for the disaster in a prominent position, since they are facing hundreds of lawsuits and criminal charges as a result of the spill. The executive summary is four and a half pages long and the first page is made up entirely of legal disclaimers saying if BP was found to be negligent in their operations of the rig, they could be fined a good deal more.

Questions have also been raised as to why BP has chosen to release their report before authorities examine the blowout preventer. The energy editor of The Guardian, Terry Macalister, wrote that the “catalougue of errors – both human and mechanical” in the report “demolish” the oil industry’s “much quoted mantra” of safety first. “It may come first in the board room but it does not down at the wellhead where the real dangers are faced,” he wrote. “It is worth remembering that BP, its rig operator Transocean and the main well contractor Halliburton are the blue chip companies in the wider oil and gas sector. If the shoddy work practices highlighted here are what the best-in-class do, then what is happening in the lower reaches of this industry?”

HAVE YOUR SAY
What do you think of Transocean’s claim that BP made “a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk”?
Add or view comments

Transocean described the report as a “self-serving” attempt to “conceal the critical factor that set the stage for the Macondo incident: BP’s fatally flawed well design. In both its design and construction, BP made a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk – in some cases, severely.” In a statement, the company listed five issues they felt had contributed to the disaster that were no fault but BP’s. “Transocean’s investigation is ongoing, and will be concluded when all of the evidence is in, including the critical information the company has requested of BP but has yet to receive.” Members of Congress, who are also carrying out a review into the disaster, also dismissed the report. Ed Markey, the Massachusetts democrat who has been investigating the spill in Congress, said that he felt the report was simply a lengthy defense of the oil company’s handling of the spill. “BP is happy to slice up blame, as long as they get the smallest piece,” he said.

Bly acknowledged during a press conference in Washington that the report did not detail the charges raised against the company in Congress and that BP permitted a culture of recklessness to flourish. He did, however, reject suggestions that cost-cutting had put lives at risk and the rig was a disaster waiting to happen. “What we see instead is, where there were errors made they were based on poor decision-making process or using wrong information,” he said. The Guardian reported that “the report is narrowly focused on the final days before the explosion rather than on earlier decisions about well design and safety procedures. It is also closely focused on the rig itself. No BP officials have been sacked for their role in the explosion, and Bly said there was no indication of any blame beyond the well-site managers.”

The Associated Press reported that Bly “said at a briefing in Washington that the internal report was a reconstruction of what happened on the rig based on the company’s data and interviews with mostly BP employees and was not meant to focus on assigning blame. The six-person investigating panel only had access to a few workers from other companies, and samples of the actual cement used in the well were not released.” The report continued, “Steve Yerrid, special counsel on the oil spill for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, said the report clearly shows the company is attempting to spread blame for the well disaster, foreshadowing what will be a likely legal effort to force Halliburton and Transocean, and perhaps others, to share costs such as paying claims and government penalties.”

Heavily oiled Brown Pelicans wait to be cleaned of crude oil in Louisiana. Jim Footner of Greenpeace said that “the real problem is our addiction to oil, which is pushing companies like BP to put lives and the environment at risk … The time has come to move beyond oil and invest in clean energy.”

Head of Greenpeace‘s energy campaign, Jim Footner, said that it was “highly likely that a truly independent report would be even more damning for BP.” However, he said, “the real problem is our addiction to oil, which is pushing companies like BP to put lives and the environment at risk. The age of oil is coming to an end and companies like BP will be left behind unless they begin to adapt now. The time has come to move beyond oil and invest in clean energy.” Alfred R Sunsen, whose oyster company operating in the Gulf of Mexico is facing the prospect of going out of business after 134 years, reacted angrily the the report. “The report does not address the people, businesses, animals, or natural resources that have been impacted by the disaster and will be dealing with the consequences of their inadequate and slow response to the disaster,” he said. The New York Times said that the report is “unlikely to carry much weight in influencing the Department of Justice, which is considering criminal and civil charges related to the spill,” and described it as “a public relations exercise” and a “probable legal strategy as it prepares to defend itself against possible federal charges, penalties and hundreds of pending lawsuits.”

Wayne Pennington, head of the geological engineering department at Michigan Technical University, also alleged that BP was wrong to blame other parties involved with the disaster. “The blowout and subsequent explosion and spillage appear to the result of an overall attitude that encouraged unwarranted optimism in the quality of each component of the job, allowing the omission of standard testing procedures, and the misinterpretation of other tests in the most-favorable light.” He continued: “Instead, skepticism should reign on any drilling job, and testing and evaluation at each stage of the drilling and completion would then be routine; instead of questioning the need for such things as the cement bond log, the companies involved should insist on checking and double-checking quality at each step of the process. This was clearly not done, repeatedly, in the case of the Macondo well, and disaster resulted.”

4.9 million barrels of crude oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, causing damage to marine and wildlife habitats as well as the Gulf’s fishing and tourism industries. Extensive measures were used to prevent the oil from reaching the coastline of Louisiana, including skimmer ships, floating containment booms, anchored barriers, and sand-filled barricades. Scientists have also reported immense underwater plumes of dissolved oil not visible at the surface. The U.S. Government has named BP as the responsible party, and officials have committed to holding the company accountable for all cleanup costs and other damage.

Dudley went on to say that BP “deeply regret” the disaster. “We have sought throughout to step up to our responsibilities. We are determined to learn the lessons for the future and we will be undertaking a broad-scale review to further improve the safety of our operations. We will invest whatever it takes to achieve that. It will be incumbent on everyone at BP to embrace and implement the changes necessary to ensure that a tragedy like this can never happen again.”

• Steven Mufson, David Hilzenrath “In report on gulf oil spill, BP spreads the blame” – The Washington Post, September 9, 2010
• Suzanne Goldenberg “Gulf oil disaster: BP admits missing warning signs hours before blast” – The Guardian, September 8, 2010
• “BP oil spill report – live coverage” – The Guardian, September 8, 2010
• Ian Urbina “Report by BP Finds Several Companies at Fault in Spill” – The New York Times, September 8, 2010
• Harry R. Weber, Michael Kunzelman, Dina Cappiello “BP report blames itself, others for oil spill” – The Associated Press, September 8, 2010

Jeffrey Alexander Sterling, an ex-officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was taken into custody Thursday by federal agents in St. Louis, Missouri. He was indicted on six separate counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information, as well as four additional charges: mail fraud, unlawfully keeping national defense information, obstruction of justice, and unauthorized conveyance of government property. Sterling, aged 43, had been employed by the CIA from May 1993 until he was fired in January 2002. During his arraignment, a judge declared that he would be held until a Monday hearing because the government called him a danger to the community.

Sterling, an African American lawyer who lives in O’Fallon, allegedly provided classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen, some of which was incorporated into Risen’s 2006 State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. Risen, who wrote about the CIA’s involvement in Iran’s nuclear program, has not named any of his sources even after being subpeonaed twice; Risen was not explicitly named in Sterling’s indictment, but his involvement in the alleged leak is strongly supported by its contents, and a US government official confirmed the connection to NBC News.

The indictment stated that, for two years during his career with the CIA, Sterling had been involved in “a classified clandestine operational program designed to conduct intelligence activities related to the weapons capabilities of certain countries.” An anonymous source close to the investigation said one of those countries was Iran. While managing CIA operations, Sterling also handled a “human asset,” whose name he is also accused of releasing.

From 2000, Sterling had been engaged in various disputes with the agency. According to a story authored by Risen for The New York Times in March 2002, Sterling’s supervisor during the Iran program said, “You kind of stick out as a big black guy.” The comment was made after Sterling made requests for new assignments concerning Iran, requests declined because his appearance could interfere with the cases. Sterling, sued the CIA for racial discrimination shortly after being fired, but was unable to come to a settlement in February 2003, and began leaking the classified information soon after that. The indictment claimed the motive behind the leak was retaliation for the unsuccessful lawsuit.

Edward B. MacMahon Jr., a Virginia attorney for Sterling, said, “He has always maintained his innocence throughout the course of this entire investigation. We’ll seek to prove that in court.” MacMahon also said trial will be held at a U.S. District Court in Alexandria, as the case began in that state. Every charge against Sterling comes with the possibility of 10–20 years of jail time.

US Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer made a statement, saying that “Sterling placed at risk our national security and the life of an individual working on a classified mission.” A spokesperson for the CIA said, “Separate and apart from any specific instance, including this matter involving a former agency officer who left the CIA years ago, we take very seriously the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.” The New York Times did not comment on the matter.

The Obama administration has already taken action in several similar leaks involving government officers. The administration has also initiated an investigation into Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, after the site’s release of thousands of classified documents.

via Former CIA agent indicted after leaking classified information – Wikinews, the free news source.

Here’s a link to NPR’s coverage of the Omaha, Nebraska high schoolmurder/suicide: Alleged Gunman In Omaha High School Kills Vice Principal, Self.  The 17-year old shooter is, apparently, the child of an Omaha detective. An excerpt from NPR’s news blog, The Two-Way:

Police say a 17-year-old high school senior shot two school administrators today in Omaha, Nebraska. Katie Knapp Schubert from member station KIOS reports:

Robert Butler Jr. walked in to the office at Millard South High School just before 1 p.m. and shot principal Curtis Case and assistant principal Vicki Kaspar. Butler was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound a short time later. Police Chief Alex Hayes says Butler was the son of an Omaha Police Detective.

“We currently are speaking with him and we have an officer assigned to help him with any needs he may have as far as his mental state goes,” Hayes said. “So we’ll be continuing to look at that and see what kind of issues were going on with Robert Butler.”

The AP reports that in an ominous Facebook update before the shooting, Butler wrote that people would “hear about the ‘evil’ things he did and said the school drove him to violence.” They add:

Butler recently transferred to the school from Lincoln, Nebraska. He wrote in the post that Omaha changed him and said he wanted people to remember him for who he was before affecting “the lives of the families I ruined.”

http://www.gammadyne.com/product_info.htm#banners

For your convenience, you may use one of the following banners to link to Gammadyne Corporation. Below each banner is a description of what it should be used for, the memory size of the banner, the physical dimensions of the banner in pixels, and the HTML code that can be used to display and link the banner.

Logo

General
30 KB, 840×104

Banner 1

General
14 KB, 468×60

Banner 2

General
11 KB, 468×60

Banner 3

General
14 KB, 468×60

Banner 4

Gammadyne Mailer
14 KB, 468×60

Banner 5

General
10 KB, 468×60

Banner 6

General
9 KB, 450×120

Banner 7

General
19 KB, 468×60

Banner 9

General
10 KB, 468×60

Banner 10

Old Website Banner
14 KB, 489×107

Banner 11

DJ Jukebox
14 KB, 468×60

Banner 12

Gammadyne Mailer
11 KB, 468×60

Banner 13

General
5 KB, 468×60

Banner 16

Gammadyne Mailer
8 KB, 468×60

Banner 17

Scratchboard
12 KB, 468×60

Banner 18

Gammadyne Product Specifications.

http://www.gammadyne.com/product_info.htm#banners

For your convenience, you may use one of the following banners to link to Gammadyne Corporation.  Below each banner is a description of what it should be used for, the memory size of the banner, the physical dimensions of the banner in pixels, and the HTML code that can be used to display and link the banner.

Logo

General
30 KB, 840×104
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/logo.jpg”></a>

Banner 1

General
14 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-01.gif”></a>

Banner 2

General
11 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-02.gif”></a>

Banner 3

General
14 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-03.gif”></a>

Banner 4

Gammadyne Mailer
14 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com/mmail.htm”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-04.gif”></a>

Banner 5

General
10 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-05.gif”></a>

Banner 6

General
9 KB, 450×120
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-06.gif”></a>

Banner 7

General
19 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-07.gif”></a>

Banner 9

General
10 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-09.gif”></a>

Banner 10

Old Website Banner
14 KB, 489×107
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-10.gif”></a>

Banner 11

DJ Jukebox
14 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com/jukebox.htm”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-11.gif”></a>

Banner 12

Gammadyne Mailer
11 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com/mmail.htm”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-12.gif”></a>

Banner 13

General
5 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-13.gif”></a>

Banner 16

Gammadyne Mailer
8 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com/mmail.htm”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-16.gif”></a>

Banner 17

Scratchboard
12 KB, 468×60
<a href=”http://www.gammadyne.com/sb.htm”><img src=”http://www.gammadyne.com/images/Gammadyne-banner-17.gif”></a>

Banner 18

A commercial airliner strayed into restricted airspace around the Capitol on Saturday, triggering an evacuation of the complex and the scrambling of fighter jets from Andrews Air Force Base.

The Piedmont Airlines DHC-8 Dash 8 turboprop, en route to Reagan National Airport from Hilton Head, S.C., lost contact with air traffic controllers due to a crew error, which triggered security measures put in place after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Piedmont is a subsidiary of U.S. Airways.

via Stray airliner prompts Hill evacuation – Jonathan Allen and John Maggs – POLITICO.com.

A commercial airliner strayed into restricted airspace around the Capitol on Saturday, triggering an evacuation of the complex and the scrambling of fighter jets from Andrews Air Force Base.

The Piedmont Airlines DHC-8 Dash 8 turboprop, en route to Reagan National Airport from Hilton Head, S.C., lost contact with air traffic controllers due to a crew error, which triggered security measures put in place after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Piedmont is a subsidiary of U.S. Airways.

via Stray airliner prompts Hill evacuation – Jonathan Allen and John Maggs – POLITICO.com.

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) has an excellent page explaining the what-and-why of  CPAT (Candidates Physical Aptitude Test). [NB: some seem to substitute “Ability” for aptitude, as will be evident in a quick google search.] CPAT is in widespread, if not universal, use in the United States. The IAFF is composed of actual firefighters, and represents them; they speak, to my mind, with great authority.

My very informal research suggests that active firefighters – and perhaps many firefighter candidates – can, in fact, perform CPAT easily, and are capable of shorter times, and heavier resistance (i.e. weight) than required by the test. Here’s a brief description of the test, from the IAFF website:

During the entire test the candidate must wear a 50 lb. weighted vest (simulating the weight of a fire fighters protective clothing and equipment). The eight events are:

1. Stair Climb (climbing stairs while carrying an additional 25 lb. simulated hose pack),
2. Ladder Raise and Extension (placing a ground ladder at the fire scene and extending the ladder to the roof or a window),
3. Hose Drag (stretching uncharged hoselines, advancing lines),
4. Equipment Carry (removing and carrying equipment from fire apparatus to fireground),
5. Forcible Entry (penetrating a locked door, breaching a wall) and
6. Search (crawling through dark unpredictable areas to search for victims)
7. Rescue Drag (removing victim or partner from a fire building),
8. Ceiling Pull (locating fire and checking for fire extension)

The target time for completion, as a pass-fail test, is 10 minutes, 20 seconds.

So far as I know, there’s no requirement – or classification system – for members of CERTs (Community Emergency Response Teams), the excellent FEMA program whose adoption varies widely from locality to locality. Irwin Redlener, in his must-read Americans at Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared for Megadisasters and What We Can Do, argues that individual fitness (and fitness across a community, or larger population) is one of the essential steps to reduce to disaster risk and mitigate outcomes.

So why not use CPAT as a factor in assessing the readiness of civilian responders? Make it part of the voluntary training of CERTs,  3 Steps Teams, or, for that matter, part of the high-school physical education requirement. From the pool of volunteers that can manage the test, we’ll probably know who is able to handle the more physically demanding aspects of disaster response, inspire others to become more fit, and who might be inclined to get more training – NASAR (National Association for Search and Rescue) courses, and the like.

It doesn’t require much to know that Americans, on the whole, could be much fitter, and we’d benefit from that, individually, collectively, in many ways, including increased general public health (and its corollary, decreased health care costs).  Perhaps it’s time to set standards and goals for civilian responders as well as paid and regular (e.g. volunteer firefighters, who are professional in one sense, but unpaid for the most part). And perhaps CPAT is one way to start that.