AlexHolm

The New York Times reported Saturday that the dogfighting subculture in Texas is rising.
Undercover agents trailed a car with dogfighters and a pitbull, who was going to fight another dog from Louisiana.
Another car followed them to protect the dog and a $40,000 bet placed on the fight.
The dog fighters from Louisiana decided to back out at the last second, but the crew from Texas threatened to kill them.
The pitbull's owner decided to let the crew from Louisiana live, but took the dog.
The agents found in their investigation that the dogfighting subculture in Texas is growing, and more young members are beginning to participate.
The investigation led to the indictment of 55 people, and almost 190 pitbulls were seized.
Officials described it as one of the largest dogfighting rings in the country.
The investigation found that these dogs were trained and kept in extremely cruel ways.
They were forced to fight against each other, and the loser was usually killed.
People from as far away as the Czech Republic came to watch some of the fights.
The dogs that were seized had to be euthanized because they were trained to attack other dogs.

Posted by holm0629 at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported Saturday that the army has let a soldier escape without consequences for domestic violence.
On Christmas Day in 2007, Sgt. Carlos Renteria smothered his wife with a pillow and caused injuries to her.
Adriana Renteria, his wife, reported the abuse and was assured by the army that it would be taken care of, but it never was.
The couple's troubles began as newlyweds, and Adriana had reported other instances of abuse previously, but the case was never properly dealt with.
The Sgt. was ordered to take anger management classes, and only attended one.
Domestic violence is a growing problem with soldiers who are returning from Iraq.
After the Christmas Day incident was reported, Sgt. Renteria was again deployed to Iraq.
His wife, with whom he recently divorced in October, said he was suffering from nightmares and was drinking heavily.
Still the army has not prosecuted the case.
Adriana worries that the Sgt.'s behavior will worsen, and has gotten a restraining order.
Three murders have occurred on a military base in North Carolina in the past four months, and were all committed by soldiers against their wives of girlfriends.

Posted by holm0629 at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported Sunday that firefighters continue to struggle to contain wildfires in Southern California.
Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate.
The governor declared Los Angeles, Orange, and Santa Barbara counties as states of emergency.
Dozens of homes in Anaheim have been destroyed, and firefighters continue to battle fires in Santa Barbara.
Many major roads have been closed down, and power could potentially go out.
The Corona blaze, named the Freeway Complex fire, damaged 94 homes by Saturday night and was driven by erratic winds.
The winds in these fires is especially dangerous because it can cause fires to spread extremely fast.
At one hospital, staff had to move quickly to transport critically ill patients.
Oakridge mobile home park looked like "a firestorm" according to firefighters.
Some fireighters were also trapped int raffic jams on the closed roads.
Some residents had to evacuate immediately with no chance to gather any of their belongings.

Posted by holm0629 at 2:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported Saturday that up to 50 students from a St. Louis high school may have been exposed to the H.I.V. virus.
The school, Normandy High School, sent out a letter to 1300 parents informing them that there would be an investigation on the issue.
So far, one person has been confirmed to have the virus, but it is not confirmed that they are a student, or who they are.
All of the students have been offered free confidential testing for the virus, and the results should be released this week.
97 percent of the students chose to be tested.
Mya McLemore, a senior at the highschool, says she pays close attention to the behavior of her classmates to see if she can see anything unusual.
Jamar McKinney, a junior, said that students are all talking about who could have the disease.
Parents from a rival school called Normandy's principal to see if it would be safe to play in a football game against the school, and he assured them it would be.
The Health Department is conducting an investigation as to how the disease could have spread.
The school, which is 99 percent black, has other negative issues that may cause it to be taken over by the state.
Students said they do not appreciate the negative media attention.

Posted by holm0629 at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported Sunday that the presidential campaigns will try to focus their attention in these last few days to states that they lost in 2004.
John McCain is scehduled to make appearances in states that voted democratic in 2004 such as Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
At a Pennsylvania high school he said "The pundits have written us off."
He will also make stops in Florida, Virginia, Indiana, New Mexico, Nevada , and Tennessee, before going home to Arizona for election day.
Barack Obama will spend his time in three Ohio cities, and make stops in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, before going home to Chicago for Tuesday's election.
"We can't let this slip away," Obama said in Colombus.
Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will also spend her time in Ohio.
Joe Biden will be in Florida.
Many Americans have already voted via absentee ballots.
John McCain also appeared on Saturday Night Live.
Both candidates have been using their remaining time to stress reoccurring themes.

Posted by holm0629 at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Chicago Tribune reported Sunday that the search for Jennifer Hudson's nephew still continues.
The 7-year-old child, Julian, has been missing since Friday, when his grandmother, Darnell Donerson, and uncle, Jason Hudson, were found shot to death in their Englewood home.
An amber alert was issued for Julian and for his stepfather, Michael Balfour, who had recently separated from Julian's mother, Julia.
Balfour was arrested at his pregnant girlfriend's home, but police did not find Julian with him.
Police are still looking for a white Chevrolet truck belonging to Jason Hudson.
Police said that they believe the shooter came in and struck Jason Hudson, then shot Donerson when she came in to the room.
Julian's mother pleaded for her son's safe return, and described him as an easygoing child who preferred to stay with his grandmother rather than playing outside.
Jennifer Hudson was in Florida promoting a movie when she was informed of the killings, and flew back to Chicago to identify the bodies of her mother and brother.

Posted by holm0629 at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported Sunday that a 6-year-old boy who was kidnapped from his home Wednesday was found wandering the sidewalks a few miles from his home on Saturday.
Cole Puffinburger was abducted by 3 men who burst into his home pretending to be police officers to collect drug money from his grandfather.
The men demanded money from the child's mother and fiance and ransacked the house and took the child.
Witnesses called police when they saw the child walking down the sidewalk, in "good condition."
At a press conference, Cole's father said that he was glad that Cole was home.
The child's grandfather was arrested Saturday but is not charged with any crimes. Police said he may be involved with the Mexican Cartel, and may be able to lead police to the child's abductors.
Police are continuing to investigate possible suspects.

Posted by holm0629 at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported that residents in Elkhart, Indiana are struggling due to unemployment.
The city recently passed a law to limit the number of garage sales to one per month for each home, which was a way that many residents have been making their money recently.
Many residents have recently lost their jobs at factories that produce R.V.s and mobile homes due to rising gas prices.
There is a large number of homes that are for sale, because residents can not afford to keep them.
There has also been a rise in the number of robberies that have taken place in the past two weeks.
Many people are flooding the unemployment office as their last resort.
Interviews and lawn signs suggest that the town is basically split between McCain and Obama.
Some people are reluctant to vote Republican again, but others feel that race will be an issue for this election.

Posted by holm0629 at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported Saturday that both political parties will be fighting for the Catholic vote this election.
Democrats argue that their party better represents the teachings of the Church, but many Catholics do not agree.
Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa. ordered all priests in that diocese to give a homily urging members not to vote "pro-choice."
The bishop said that being right on taxes, education, and health care didn't matter if a candidate was pro-choice.
Scranton is a focus of this issue because it is the home city of Joe Biden.
Many liberal lay Catholics criticized the Bishop's message, and a nun gathered signatures from Catholic leaders for an advertisement that suggests it is a sin not to vote for Barack Obama because of race, and that it is a threat to human dignity.
John McCain is promoting his pro-life stance in his campaign, trying to appeal to Catholic voters.
A Catholic group called Fidelis put together a video to encourage voters to make abortion and same-sex marriages a priority this election.
There are many other issues surrounding Catholic voters and whether they will be able to support Barack Obama.

Posted by holm0629 at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported that Hurricane Ike was not as destructive as it could have been because of good planning and response by authorities and by luck.
Many of the effects that occurred because of Hurricane Rita and Katrina did not occur, such as the traffic congestion, the thieves, and the large number of deaths.
Officials have changed their methods of dealing with hurricanes since Rita and Katrina.
The storm also changed its course at the last minute which resulted in less coastal flooding according to officials.
But, despite this,officials have determined that 6 people have drowned in Texas because of the storm, 12 people died due to other effects of the storm such as fires, and 3 elderly people died because of damage to medical equipment. They also think that some other people may have died as well.
Tens of thousands of homes were also destroyed.
Problems also occurred with rescue efforts, including delayed delivery of supplies by FEMA.
Officials also said it was hard to make people evacuate their homes on the coast.
The predicted storm surge was 20 feet, but it did not reach that height, which officials describe as a "godsend."

Posted by holm0629 at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported on Thursday that thousands of residents of the Texas Coast evacuated their homes in preparation for Hurricane Ike.
According to a local bulletin by the National Weather Service, anyone who does not evacuate will "face certain death."
Some people still chose to stay in their homes despite this warning.
The storm is expected to cause floods of up to 22 feet above seawater and is predicted to be a category three storm, with winds over 100 miles per hour.
Many people in Houston and Galveston boarded up their houses and evacuated their homes.
Traffic was backed-up and some gas stations ran out of fuel due to the amount of evacuees. Officials hope that this will not be as big of a problem as it was three years ago during Hurricane Rita.
The Governor of Texas said, "“I cannot overemphasize the danger that is facing us."
The Federal Government is sending aid to the area in the form of food, water, and other supplies.They also sent rescue teams.
The Star Tribune reported that storm surge from Hurricane Ike will be very large because coastal waters of Texas are very shallow, and that the storm will span a very wide distance.

Posted by holm0629 at 4:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported Saturday that many black Barack Obama supporters that come to vote for him in November may also vote for Proposition 8 to be passed, which would ban same-sex marriages.
The newspaper reported that in general black people do not tend to support same-sex marriages, so many of Obama's black and other minority voters may come to the polls to vote for him, and while they are there may cast a vote for Proposition 8.
This is despite that fact that Obama does not support the ban.
Yahoo News reported that neither John McCain or Barack Obama want to feul a gay-marriage debate, but McCain supports the proposition.
Many opponents of the ban plan to fight the proposition by fund raising to reach out to undecided voters, and to try to show the black community that it would be hurting itself to pass this law.
They plan to have gay, black spokesmen to speak to the black communities about this idea.
But the supporters of Proposition 8 are also doing their part to make sure it gets passed.
They are also fund raising and trying to reach out to the religious and conservative groups to gain increasing support for the proposition.
They also believe that the nomination of Sarah Palin for Vice President will help them because she will be able to gain the support of many religious and conservative groups.

Posted by holm0629 at 4:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)