UPDATE: 8:31 am cdt 02 june 2010 hurricanes.gov reports a -0-% chance of this system becoming a tropical storm in the next forty-eight hours. elsewhere, tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next forty-eight hours.
UPDATE: 8:14 am cdt tuesday 01 june 2010: hurricanes.gov give this system a low chance of 10% of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next forty-eight hours.
the baptist church of gaza city.
early estimates from the secretary of state peg voter turnout at 2,285 ballots cast for just under 9 percent turnout for the 36 precincts ... times-picayune: helena moreno defeats james perry in state house election ... nola.com: helena moreno takes down-and-dirty house election from james perry ... 
... right now complete but unofficial results from the secretary of state show helena moreno winning by 263 votes over james perry...[1,274 56% ||| 1,011 44%] something tells us we havent seen the last of mr. perry...iran, based on russian intelligence, reports deepwater horizon oil catastrophe "is threatening the entire eastern half of the north american continent with 'total destruction.'presstv.ir: An ominous report by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources warned of the impending disaster resulting from the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico, calling it the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history, the European Union Times reported.
UPDATE: EU Times Story On 'Toxic Oil Spill Rains' So, Where's This 'Dire Report'?
Russian scientists believe BP is pumping millions of gallons of Corexit 9500, a chemical dispersal agent, under the Gulf of Mexico waters to hide the full extent of the leak, now estimated to be over 2.9 million gallons a day.
Experts say Corexit 9500 is a solvent four times more toxic than oil.
The agent, scientists believe, has a 2.61ppm toxicity level, and when mixed with the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, its molecules will be able to “phase transition.”
This transition involves the change of the liquid into a gaseous state, which can be absorbed by clouds.
The gas will then be released as “toxic rain” leading to “unimaginable environmental catastrophe” destroying all life forms from the “bottom of the evolutionary chart to the top,” the report said.
RBK/MD
more terrible news...
dennis lee hopperUPDATED: 2:09 pm cdt
CNN
excerpt:'Diff'rent Strokes' actor Gary Coleman dies at 42
By Todd Leopold, CNN
May 28, 2010 -- Updated 1858 GMT (0258 HKT)
(CNN) -- Former child star Gary Coleman, who rose to fame as the wisecracking youngster Arnold Jackson on the TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" but grew up to grapple with a troubled adulthood, has died. He was 42.
Coleman died of a brain hemorrhage at a Provo, Utah hospital, Friday afternoon, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The actor fell ill at his Santaquin, Utah, home Wednesday evening and was rushed by ambulance to a hospital, Coleman's spokesman had said in a statement earlier Friday. ~ read more
utah media and entertainment websites are reporting that former child actor/ "diff'rent strokes" star gary coleman is hospitalized in a salt lake city hospital where he has slipped into a coma and is on life support.Coleman, 42, suffered the injury in his Utah home on Wednesday and was taken to a local hospital for treatment, manager John Alcantar said in a statement Friday.
Coleman was then transferred to the ICU at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center for further tests and treatment.
And there, things took a bad turn.
"As of mid-morning on May 27, Mr. Coleman was conscious and lucid," said Alcantar. "By early afternoon, Mr. Coleman was slipping in and out of consciousness and his condition worsened.
"We are saddened to announce that since mid-afternoon, Mountain Time, on May 27, 2010, Mr. Coleman has been unconscious and on life support." ~ Read more
UPDATE 30 december 2011: mike magnoli makes his way home to connecticut
thanks to a googler, we now learn that former kalb reporter and on-again-off-again wst... fave, mike magnoli has joined katc tv.
====a couple of days ago we wondered about the possibility of, god forbid, a hurricane coming through the gulf of mexico; churning up spilled oil and dispersing it in the rain across north america.
last night in this report we noticed that the nola.com commenter "stormy787" was wondering the same thing.
stormy wrote:What is the chance of "oil rain" happening if a hurricane comes our way in New Orleans or other regions of the gulf. Could this cause our drinking water to become un-drinkable? Oil on crops? Cattle not able to graze? Many here are getting very concerned about this. Has anyone addressed this yet?
and then linked to this post on fastertimes.com: "will hurricane season mean 'oilmageddon' for the united states?"
excerpt:The concept of “oil rain” is based on the idea that “micro-droplets” of oil will be small enough to be be sucked into a developing storm. And what is one of the primary methods being used in the Gulf right now? ”Dispersants” that break oil into micro-droplets.~ read more
via: whatreallyhappened.com
By Steve ElliottMaybe there should be an IQ test for police officers. What was first thought to be one of the largest marijuana seizures in the Corpus Christi Police Department's history turned into an embarrassing incident for the cops, as the clueless officers spent a busy and exciting evening harvesting hundreds of harmless weeds from a city park.
The revealing incident began when a teenager riding his bike through Waldron Park in Flour Bluff discovered what he thought were pot plants growing there about 8 p.m Thursday, reports Bart Bedsole of KRIStv.com.
The would-be junior narc wasted no time in excitedly reporting his "find."
Police then self-importantly hauled away 300 to 400 medium-sized plants that they, too, believed were marijuana.
Exhausted officers only stopped collecting the harmless plants because it got too dark to work; they planned to return bright and early in the morning to look around for more marijuana.
Trouble is, after spending more than an hour laboriously removing and tagging hundreds of plants, and then hauling it all to the police department downtown, testing revealed that none of it was marijuana at all.
"This is exactly the caliber of police work that is done in Corpus Christi, Texas," wrote Derrick Sillers, one commenter on the original news story. "The residents of Corpus [Christi] and Nueces County should seriously be concerned with how their tax dollars are spent. This is the same police department that serves, protects and investigates you."
Embarrassed officers haven't given any word yet on what the plants actually were.
Neither did they explain how their big "drug haul" will be disposed of, now that they've spent untold hours and plenty of taxpayer money clearing weeds of the the city park. ~ source
wafb reports that "engineers will not use booms made out of hair to soak up the growing oil spill in the gulf of mexico."
a test conducted in texas this past february during an oil spill there showed "commercial boom absorbed more oil and less water than hair boom.
charlie henry of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration said booms made from hair became water-logged and sank within a short period of time."
barbers and other groups that had been collecting hair are asked to stop.
in the 1969 santa barbara oil spill hay was used to some degree of success ~ sourcesooo both of these candidates likely suck.
they're the only ones on the runoff ballot too.. helena moreno was in a car wreck on 14 october 2002. she t-boned a car that ran through a stop. there was a fatality. whether the investigation then was a cover-up who knows but it doesnt seem likely.
ms. moreno was a repeater for a new orleans television station. she quit that ... and eventually ran against wm. jefferson. now she finished second primary to move into the runoff for dist #93 state representative to replace the big liberal tax and spender karen carter peterson; who was foolishly elevated by special election to the state senate after the resignation of cheryl gray evans.
ms. moreno's opponent in the runoff is james perry. mr. perry recently ran for mayor of orleans and at first his campaign tactics shook up the "elite" so badly that they had to bring in mitch landrieu. mayor landrieu at the time was the lieutenant governor.
in the fall there will be a statewide special election to fill the lt. governor vacancy. we had hoped that they would abolish the office at least until the regular election.
bananas foster a/k/a foster l. campbell, public service commissioner, recently has said there is a 50% chance of his running. we would strongly consider voting for him if there are no third party candidates to choose from.
the flamboyantly liberal rino jay dardenne certainly doesnt deserve it.
regarding rehashing ms. moreno's accident, orleans media makes it pretty clear that mr. perry and his operatives that fell far short with their reach.
so mr. perry, apparently and this part needs to be checked who filed an la. r.s. 44:1 et seq public records request to the new orleans police department traffic fatality unit.
perry operatives emailed it around to various orleans media outlets and this is the part that we dont like -- according to the lens, who apparently, filed their own public records request which runs to seventy-three pages and compared them:mr. perry's so called "summary." they found it left out some 15 pages of the official record.
perry violated the state election code by making false claims about her, causing "irreparable injury." it asks a judge to order perry to discontinue the "damaging conduct" and fine him $500, the maximum allowed, plus legal fees.the tp says that no hearing date has been set down.
congrats to head coach smith for being recognized for all his years of hard work and dedication to warhorse athletics and the community and for his personal integrity in taking an interest in and helping out the young men entrusted to his care by being awarded espn national coach of the year.
the thing about head coach smith is that he never ages. he looks the same today as he did years ago when we attended peabody.
we also remember head coach smith's predecessor, head coach ernest bowman. no we didnt play basketball are you crazy? head coach bowman was also the sponsor of the chess club.
head coach bowman was also a very youthful looking man. hard to believe that he was at retirement age in 1985.
there must be some kind of fountain of youth going on over in the peabody boy's gym. we sure are thankful that we had the opportunity to drink from that well.
this report out of the uk independant is like a great big duh! but what we wonder about is that if a hurricane does come up the gulf; through the oil catastrophe could it possibly churn up the oil into itself and disperse it in the rainfall across north america?
wouldnt that be a kick-in-the-pants if much of the usa's farmland is poisoned and what about wildlife, etc.
the report speculates that "[I]t is possible that oil on the surface could impede heat transfer into the atmosphere and therefore lessen the intensity of any hurricane that enters the Gulf."
via: sammy hanna's rethug propaganda rag:excerpt:
Waterproof Mayor Bobby Higginbotham was jailed Wednesday following his conviction of malfeasance in office and felony theft.
He will be sentenced on June 24th by Judge John Crigler, who ordered that Higginbotham be held without bond because he was considered a flight risk. The judge said Higginbotham had missed several court hearings in the past.
Higginbotham was convicted by a six-person jury. He was represented by attorney Sandra Jenkins of New Orleans. Four witnesses, including himself, were called during his defense.
He faces a maximum of five years on the charge of malfeasance in office and a maximum of 10 years for felony theft.
Asst. Dist. Atty. Linda Watson said the judge ordered a partial mistrial on a count of public contract fraud due a recording error, but that charge can be brought up again.
"We felt we had a strong case," said Watson, "The entire town council testified against him as well as employees of the Town of Waterproof. We did expect a guilty verdict." ~ read more
"district attorneys in the state dont have a good track record of prosecuting politicians for wrong-doing and they just dont do it and so the feds have to do it -- thank goodness we have somebody -- but the district attorneys have jurisdiction over all of this.EXTERNAL LINK
the district attorney could have prosecuted the jefferson's for ripping off the state. they dont. thats one of the reasons that this (corruption) is so prolific around the state is the fact that there is no scrutiny by the state and there is no prosecution by the local district attorneys."
~ louisiana political blogger and attorney c.b. forgotston 26 february 2010 on the moon griffon show
: click for bp live spill cam
nasa hd picture of spillThanks to hundreds of live webcams positioned at beaches, piers and bridges across the region, from New Orleans to Key West, the effects of the oil can be witnessed first-hand, even by people that are a world away.
live oil spill cam via wkrg.comnew york times: May 18, 2010, 5:10 pm
Louisiana Politician Drops Defamation Suit
By JOSEPH PLAMBECK
Steve J. Theriot, the interim president of Jefferson Parish, La., who this month filed a lawsuit to find out the identities of anonymous commenters who he thought had defamed him on the Web site of the The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, has asked his lawyers to drop the suit, Mr. Theriot said on Tuesday.
“This lawsuit was never intended to silence individuals from expressing their views or suppressing any First Amendment rights,” Mr. Theriot said in the statement. “Rather, the focus was on the detrimental consequences that stem from false and injurious statements being made by anonymous posters and bloggers in cyberspace.”
In the suit, Mr. Theriot and the parish said the commenters were guilty of malicious and defamatory statements, and requested that Nola.com, the online home of The Times-Picayune, release the names of 11 users. James O’Byrne, the director of content at Nola.com had said that it would not disclose the names. Winning the case would have most likely been a difficult battle for Mr. Theriot, because of his status as a public official. ~ source
a kind lady feeds the pigeons at super one foods in kingsville, louisiana.
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in the distance, the proctor & gamble, kingsville, la. soap plant
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===="he had a perfect trip, perfect trip. i mean i wouldnt have changed it for nothing in the world. you know. he just come up a little empty ... he run so hard in the derby you know. its not a big horse like [trainer] todd [pletcher] said.according to nbc sports, the winning jockey, martin garcia, is 25 years old. mr. garcia previously worked at a delicatessen in california before he was convinced to go to the track and "try his hand, first as an exercise rider and then as a jockey."
but you know but when you win the derby you got to go for three legs ... i mean i'm not disgusted with the horse, believe what i'am telling you, he's a good horse and we'll have fun with him in the future -- you know he just come up empty today ...
i wouldnt have changed positions with nobody in the first half-a-mile. the track is kinda fast, they were running fast all day so, but i was comfortable and when i asked him he just kinda folded up you know but it happens -- horse racing."
~ calvin borel, super saver, no 8, finished eighth
UPDATE: video: 135th preakness stakes lookin at lucky
seconds after riding super saver to win the kentucky derby jockey calvin borel in replying to the first question posed to him by nbc sports ("what is your secret?") said that after all the hard work he has put into his craft and good horses believes that he and super saver are going on to win the triple crown of thoroughbred racing.Preakness Stakes Post Time:
Post time for the 2010 Preakness Stakes is set for 5:12 PM CDT and will be the 12th of 12 races
today at Pimlico Race Course. ~ courtesy jake thompson the online wire
this morning shortly before 8:00 am cdt, ominously dark clouds from out west brought a potentially severe thunderstorm to portions of north rapides parish, la. the storm did manage to knock out electrical power to parts of north rapides parish from around 8:00 am.
for a time it delivered heavy rain and strong lightning strikes accompanied by loud thunder. thankfully, there was little to no wind associated with the storm. eventually precipitation and stormy weather tapered off and the skies cleared though conditions remain partly cloudy.
around 9:00 am a cleco call center [1800-622-6537] operator named darlene said that cleco had suffered a lightning strike to a part of its grid resulting in around 1,800 customers without power.
shortly thereafter, wst... observed several cleco service utility and bucket trucks working on the lines. cleco had most if not all power restored by noon.
todays forecasted for more scattered thunderstorms until at least 11:00 pm cdt.
UPDATE: 11:51 am cdt thursday 13 may 2010 fox 8 news report from 11 may 2010
click here for video watch/download page
UPDATE: 7:56 pm cdt: chad over at www.thedeadpelican.com has picked up on the story....
steve theriot and jefferson parish demand that nola.com reveal including but not limited to personally identifiable information behind the above user names.
we must have been thinking of some other firm.Posted by Tax Attorney
May 12, 2010, 11:40AM
Well this is a very interesting comment. I have never really heard of suing somebody to help them- I wonder what Phelps Dunbar is doing?
How about simply having open and Public meetings? Why does taxpayer money have to be paid to a politically connected Law firm to get the names of people to help them?
Just a friendly little defamation lawsuit
This man thinks we are stupid
Yesterday, it was reported that interim Jefferson Parish President Steve Theriot filed a defamation lawsuit against some unknown bloggers. Apparently, their on-line comments hurt his feelings. ( See story here.)
Theriot is an accountant and apparently unfamiliar with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It allows us to freely criticize the performance of public servants.
Now, Theriot insults our intelligence.
Today, Theriot says that the defamation lawsuit asking for unspecified damages against his critics was "aimed at addressing the concerns they raise -- not at blocking criticism of the government." ( See story here.)
I'm sure it was just a mix up in communications with Theriot's lawyers. They thought he said “sue the bastards.” What Theriot apparently said was “invite those citizens to lunch so we can learn more about their concerns.”
We lawyers often get the terms lawsuit and lunch confused.
Theriot was brought in to restore confidence in Jefferson Parish government. If that is still the goal, it’s time to go to Plan B.
I'm sure I will be hearing from Theriot's lawyers to get more of my input.
C.B.
www.forgotston.com
