Colorado Springs, Colo (Friday, Jan. 15, 2010) – Focus on the Family will broadcast the first Super Bowl ad in its history February 7 during CBS Sports’ coverage of the game at Dolphin Stadium in South Florida.

The 30-second spot from the international family-help organization will feature college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. They will share a personal story centered on the theme of « Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life. »

Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, said the chance to partner with the Tebows and lift up a meaningful message about family and life comes at the right moment in the culture, because « families need to be inspired. »

« Tim and Pam share our respect for life and our passion for helping families thrive, » Daly said. « They live what we see every day – that the desire for family closeness is written on the hearts of every generation. Focus on the Family is about nurturing that desire and strengthening families by empowering them with the tools they need to live lives rooted in morals and values. »

Daly added that all the funds to air the ad came from a handful of « very generous and committed friends » who donated specifically to support the project. No money from the ministry’s general fund was used.

The Tebows said they agreed to appear in the commercial because the issue of life is one they feel very strongly about.

Daly chuckled at some of the « will-they-or-won’t-they? » speculation in the media about whether Focus would indeed create a Super Bowl ad.

« Now that the ad has been shot, we’re excited to tell people it’s coming, because the Tebows’ story is such an important one for our culture to hear, » he said. « You won’t want to miss it. »

A powerful earthquake hit the impoverished country of Haiti on Tuesday. A hospital collapsed and people were screaming for help.

Other buildings also were damaged, The Associated Press reported.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 7 and was centered about 10 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new « war president »? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do — destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they’ve always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can’t believe you’re about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn’t so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That’s the way General Washington insisted it must be. That’s what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. « You’re fired!, » said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in’ hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea — « Let’s invade Afghanistan! » Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There’s a reason they don’t call Afghanistan the « Garden State » (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html ). Afghanistan’s nickname is the « Graveyard of Empires. » If you don’t believe it, give the British a call. I’d have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev’s number though. It’s + 41 22 789 1662 (http://www.greencrossinternational.net/contact-us ). I’m sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you’re about to commit (http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/gorbachev-obama-prepare-ground-withdrawal-afghanistan ).

With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the « war president. » Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line — and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.

Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn’t have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.

I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush’s Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.

Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you’re doing it so you can « end the war ») will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you’ve said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone — and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout « tea bag! »

Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.

We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can’t take it anymore. We can’t take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of « landslide victory » don’t you understand?

Don’t be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn’t be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can’t change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.

The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can’t be won over by abandoning the rest of us.

President Obama, it’s time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, « No, we don’t need health care, we don’t need jobs, we don’t need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, ’cause we don’t need them, either. »

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that’s what they’d do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.

All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam « might » be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish — the full terror of which we scarcely know.

When we elected you we didn’t expect miracles. We didn’t even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn’t even function as a nation and never, ever has.

Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God’s sake, stop.

Tonight we still have hope.

Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON’T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother’s son.

We’re counting on you.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

P.S. There’s still time to have your voice heard. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 or email the President: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact .

Lire la suite »

2008-olympics-schedule.xls

the world’s biggest search engine. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft

Their Philosophy

The Internet is getting bigger and more disorganized every day. Cuil’s goal is to solve the two great problems of search: how to index the whole Internet—not just part of it—and how to analyze and sort out its pages so you get relevant results.

Cuil’s founders worked with other search engines and knew that tinkering with old systems wouldn’t work. A fundamentally different approach was needed. So we’ve developed new architecture and algorithms that can handle the exponential growth of the Internet and organize results that reflect its enormous complexity.

Cuil believes that:
Size matters

Size matters because many people use the Internet to find information that is of interest to them, even if it’s not popular. Existing technology can’t keep up with the increasing volume of Web pages. If a search engine is incapable of indexing the Internet properly how can it hope to provide accurate search results? Imagine if the phone company decided to stop listing infrequently called numbers in the phone book. Maybe no one phones your grandmother much, but if her friend from the old neighborhood wants to get in touch, shouldn’t her number be in the book? Cuil lists all the numbers, even the ones that aren’t called much. Because one day someone will need that number.
Popularity is useful, but not always important

Popularity is useful, but has dominated search results so heavily that it gets harder and harder to find the page you want, especially if your search is a complex one. Cuil respects popular pages and recognizes that for many simple searches, popularity is an easy answer to your question. But for a deeper search, establishing relevancy is more than a numbers game. Cuil prefers to find all the pages with your keyword or phrase and then analyze the rest of the content on those pages. During this analysis we discover that your keywords have different meanings in different contexts. Once we’ve established the context of the pages, we’re in a much better position to help you in your search.
Organization is fundamental

The Internet is information; usually too much. Ten blue links is a simple concept which fails to reflect the huge diversity and variety of information available to you on the Web. Cuil organizes the Internet so you can find the information you want. We separate different ideas from each other so you can choose the one that interests you. We pick images to illustrate the idea behind each page to aid you in your choice. We include roll-over definitions and offer you ideas to refine your search. We can do all this because we believe that information is only useful when it’s sorted. Cuil’s goal is to guide you towards answers to the questions you’re not even sure how to ask.
Cuil analyzes the Web, not its users

Privacy is a hot topic these days, and we want you to feel totally comfortable using our service. Because Cuil analyzes Web pages and not click-throughs, we don’t need to know your search history and habits. So our privacy policy is very simple: when you search with Cuil, we do not collect any personally identifiable information, period. We have no idea who sends queries: not by name, not by IP address, and not by cookie. Your search history is your business, not ours. We don’t need to keep logs of our users’ search activity, so we don’t. For further details, read our Privacy Policy. Don’t worry, it’s short and to the point. No legal mumbo-jumbo.

On Sunday morning, at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, an unidentified gunman fired a number of shots with a shotgun, killing one person, and wounding at least six others. That person who started the Knoxville church shooting was finally tackled by two parishioners and restrained until the authorities arrived.

A man wielding a shotgun entered a church and opened fire as congregants watched a youth performance Sunday, killing one person and injuring eight others, police said.

The gunman was tackled by church members and eventually taken into police custody. None of the children were injured. A hospital spokeswoman said five of the wounded were in critical condition.

Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen identified the man killed as Greg McKendry, 60, a longtime church member and usher at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

« It appears Mr. McKendry was the first person he (the gunman) encountered when he walked into the sanctuary, » Owen said. « It’s going to be a while before all the facts are cleared up. »

A church member who arrived moments after the shooting said the gunman fired three times and was tackled. Steve Drevick said he spoke to several eyewitnesses and that no one at the church recognized the gunman. He did said the gunman had more ammunition on him.

Officials wouldn’t say exactly how many people helped subdue the gunman.

« It was a large group and we are thankful for them for without it, this situation could have been even worse, » Mayor Bill Haslam said.

There were about 200 people at the time of the shooting watching a youth performance being put on by 25 children.

Church member Marty Murphy told The Knoxville News Sentinel that she was about 30 to 40 feet from the shooter when the rampage began.

« We heard the first shot, » she said. « It sounded like a bomb went off. We thought it was part of the program at first. »

She said church members dove under church pews and others ran out the sanctuary.

Murphy told the newspaper some of the children were close to the shooter when the attack began.

« One little girl had blood all over her, » she said. « She was just hysterical. I don’t know how that girl is going to sleep tonight. »

Another witness told the newspaper that the man killed was a hero.

« Greg McKendry stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us, » Barbara Kemper said.

Police had cordoned off the church with yellow and red tape, and were taking statements and collecting video cameras from church members who were taping the performance. Owen said the FBI also was assisting in the investigation.

The church’s minister was on vacation in western North Carolina at the time of the shooting but returned Sunday afternoon.

« We’ve been touched by a horrible act of violence. We are in a process of healing and we ask everyone for your prayers, » the Rev. Chris Buice said in a statement outside the church.

The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church is a community that meets to worship and work together for social change, according to the church’s Web site. Since the 1950′s, the congregation has worked for desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women’s rights and gay rights, according to the Web site. The congregation also has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the ACLU.

Chez Reavie only needed a one-under 70 on Sunday to collect his first PGA Tour title at the Canadian Open.

Reavie, who came back early Sunday morning to birdie his last hole of the third round and grab the lead to himself, finished at 17-under-par 267 for a three-shot victory.

« I’m so excited, » said Reavie, a PGA Tour rookie this year. « For this to be my first legitimate chance to win a tournament and be able to pull it off is pretty amazing. »

Nothing could stop Chez Reavie’s momentum at the RBC Canadian Open.
He became a wire-to-wire winner at golf’s third-oldest national championship by shooting a final-round 70.

It was the first career PGA Tour victory of his career.
Reavie finished three shots ahead of Billy Mayfair (68) and four up on Sean O’Hair (68) and Steve Marino (70).

Canadian Mike Weir was unable to make a Sunday charge.

The popular lefty from Bright’s Grove. Ont. closed with a 69 and finished in a tie for fifth

Discovery Channel found the perfect way to entertain its audience for a whole Shark Week. The cable network starts its 21st annual programming dedicated to the aquatic creatures on Sunday with “Mythbusters: Shark Special” (9 p.m.), one of six fresh shows that will surely lure TV viewers. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman will scrutinize once again traditional urban tales about sharks and even build a robo-shark with a length of 16 feet.

The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which first aired in 1987, is a week-long series of feature television programs dedicated to facts on sharks. Shark Week is held annually, normally running in July or August. During Shark Week 2006, the Silver Spring, Maryland, headquarters of the Discovery Channel was outfitted to resemble a giant shark.

In 2000, six million 3D Pulfrich glasses were distributed to viewers in the United States and Canada for an episode featuring an extinct giant shark which had 3D segments.

In 2005, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from the Discovery Channel series MythBusters hosted Shark Week, and a two-hour MythBusters « Jaws Special » was premiered for the event. In 2006, Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs hosted, and two Dirty Jobs episodes were featured, titled « Jobs that Bite » and « Jobs that Bite Harder

In Columbia Pictures’ heart-racing sci-fi adventure Zathura, two squabbling brothers are propelled into deepest, darkest space while playing a mysterious game they discovered in the basement of their old house. On their fantastic journey, they are joined by a stranded astronaut and must survive meteor showers, hostile lizard-like aliens, a rocket-propelled robot run amok and an intergalactic spaceship battle. Unless they finish the game and reach the planet Zathura, they could be trapped in outer space forever.

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/zathura/

China named its Olympic women’s gymnastics team on Friday, and the inclusion of at least two athletes has further raised questions, widespread in the sport, about whether the host nation for the Beijing Games is using under-age competitors.

Chinese officials responded immediately, providing The New York Times with copies of passports indicating that both athletes in question — He Kexin, a gold-medal favorite in the uneven parallel bars, and Jiang Yuyuan — are 16, the minimum age for Olympic eligibility since 1997.

Officials with the International Gymnastics Federation said that questions about He’s age had been raised by Chinese news media reports, USA Gymnastics and fans of the sport, but that Chinese authorities presented passport information to show that He is 16.

Online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, however, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He and Jiang may be as young as 14 — two years below the Olympic limit.

Mary Lou Retton, the Olympic all-around gymnastics champion at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, recently watched a competition video of He and other Chinese gymnasts on the uneven bars.

“The girls are so little, so young,” Retton said. Speaking of He, Retton rolled her eyes and laughed, saying, “They said she was 16, but I don’t know.”

An advantage for younger gymnasts is that they are lighter and, often, more fearless when they perform difficult maneuvers, said Nellie Kim, a five-time Olympic gold medalist for the former Soviet Union who is now the president of the women’s technical committee for the Swiss-based International Gymnastics Federation.

“It’s easier to do tricks,” Kim said. “And psychologically, I think they worry less.”

The women’s gymnastics competition at the Beijing Games, which begin Aug. 8, is expected to be a dramatic battle for the team gold medal between the United States and China. At the 2007 world championships, the Americans prevailed by 95-hundredths of a point.

On the uneven bars, He and Nastia Liukin of the United States are expected to challenge for the individual gold medal.

In Chinese newspaper profiles this year, He was listed as 14, too young for the Beijing Games.

The Times found two online records of official registration lists of Chinese gymnasts that list He’s birthday as Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14. A 2007 national registry of Chinese gymnasts — now blocked in China but viewable through Google cache — shows He’s age as “1994.1.1.”

Another registration list that is unblocked, dated Jan. 27, 2006, and regarding an “intercity” competition in Chengdu, China, also lists He’s birthday as Jan. 1, 1994. That date differs by two years from the birth date of Jan. 1, 1992, listed on He’s passport, which was issued Feb. 14, 2008.

There has been considerable talk about the ages of Chinese gymnasts on Web sites devoted to the sport. And there has been frequent editing of He’s Wikipedia entry, although it could not be determined by whom. One paragraph that discusses the controversy of her age kept disappearing and reappearing on He’s entry. As of Friday, a different version of the paragraph had been restored to the page.

The other gymnast, Jiang, is listed on her passport — issued March 2, 2006 — as having been born on Nov. 1, 1991, which would make her 16 and thus eligible to compete at the Beijing Games.

A different birth date, indicating Jiang is not yet 15, appears on a list of junior competitors from the Zhejiang Province sports administration. The list of athletes includes national identification card numbers into which birth dates are embedded. Jiang’s national card number as it appears on this list shows her birth date as Oct. 1, 1993, which indicates that she will turn 15 in the fall, and would thus be ineligible to compete in the Beijing Games.

Zhang Hongliang, an official with the Chinese gymnastics federation, said Friday that perhaps Chinese reporters and provincial sports authorities made mistakes in listing He’s and Jiang’s birth dates differently from the dates given on their passports.

“The two athletes have attended international sports competitions before, and I’m sure the information is correct,” Zhang said of the athletes’ passports

more

“I want it to be everything for her that she ever dreamed of,” Newton told the San Francisco Sentinel earlier in the week. “That’s why it is Montana. It’s her dream, right there on the river … I want it to be magical.”

“I see this wonderful incredible human being we’re lucky to have in the political sphere in San Francisco, Calif.,” she said, before hinting at his potential gubernatorial aspirations. “The whole state is lucky to have him.”

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BULLETIN
HURRICANE DOLLY INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 13B…RETRANSMITTED
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042008
200 PM CDT WED JUL 23 2008

…DOLLY MADE LANDFALL IN SOUTH PADRE ISLAND…EXPECTED TO MOVE
FARTHER INLAND OVER SOUTHERN TEXAS LATER TODAY…

A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE COAST OF TEXAS FROM
BROWNSVILLE TO CORPUS CHRISTI…AND FOR THE NORTHEASTERN COAST OF
MEXICO FROM RIO SAN FERNANDO NORTHWARD TO THE BORDER BETWEEN MEXICO
AND THE UNITED STATES. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY
SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NORTH OF CORPUS
CHRISTI TO PORT O’CONNOR.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND A HURRICANE WATCH ARE IN EFFECT FROM LA
PESCA TO SOUTH OF RIO SAN FERNANDO.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA…INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS…PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 200 PM CDT…1900Z…THE EYE OF HURRICANE DOLLY WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 26.4 NORTH…LONGITUDE 97.3 WEST. THIS POSITION IS
OVER LAGUNA MADRE ABOUT 35 MILES…60 KM… NORTH-NORTHEAST OF
BROWNSVILLE TEXAS AND 30 MILES…51 KM…EAST SOUTHEAST OF
RAYMONDVILLE.

DOLLY IS NOW MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 7 MPH…11 KM/HR.
ON THE FORECAST TRACK…THE EYE OF HURRICANE DOLLY WILL BE MOVING
INLAND OVER FAR SOUTH TEXAS LATER TODAY. PERSONS ARE ADVISED NOT TO
VENTURE OUTDOORS DURING THE RELATIVE CALM OF THE EYE BECAUSE WINDS
WILL SOON INCREASE QUITE RAPIDLY.

BECAUSE A PORTION OF THE CIRCULATION OF DOLLY HAS BEEN INTERACTING
WITH LAND…THE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE DECREASED TO NEAR 95
MPH… 150 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER GUSTS. DOLLY IS NOW A CATEGORY ONE
HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. STRONGER WINDS…ESPECIALLY
IN GUSTS…ARE LIKELY ON HIGH RISE BUILDINGS. A GRADUAL WEAKENING
SHOULD BEGIN SOON AS THE EYE MOVES FARTHER INLAND.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 25 MILES…35 KM…FROM
THE CENTER…AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 140
MILES…220 KM. HARLINGEN TEXAS MEASURED 54 MPH…87 KM/HR SUSTAINED
WINDS WITH GUSTS TO 74 MPH…119 KM/HR.

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE
PLANE AT LANDFALL WAS 967 MB…28.56 INCHES.

DOLLY IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 12
INCHES…WITH ISOLATED AMOUNTS OF 20 INCHES…OVER PORTIONS OF
SOUTH TEXAS AND NORTHEASTERN MEXICO OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS.
BROWNSVILLE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR HAS ESTIMATED UP
TO A FOOT OF RAIN SO FAR OVER PORTIONS OF COASTAL FAR SOUTH TEXAS.
THESE RAINS WILL LIKELY CAUSE WIDESPREAD FLOODING ACROSS PORTIONS
OF SOUTH TEXAS AND NORTHEAST MEXICO.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 6 TO 8 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE
LEVELS…ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES…CAN BE
EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE NORTH OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL.

ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTH TEXAS TODAY
AND TONIGHT.

REPEATING THE 200 PM CDT POSITION…26.4 N…97.3 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD…WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 7 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…95
MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…967 MB.

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT
400 PM CDT.

$$
FORECASTER AVILA

Hurricane Dolly was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday afternoon, about an hour after it made landfall on South Padre Island, Texas, the the National Hurricane Center said.
Nobody wants to be caught unprepared.

« We’re looking at seventy-mile-per-hour winds or better, so we’re going to be prepared. We have everything pre-cut and labeled, ready to put up every year,” said one Texas resident.

« We recommend that you keep half a tank of fuel all the time during hurricane season it wont cost nearly as much as when it is time to fill to the top so that you can get a safe distance from the surge zones, » said Harris County Emergency Management coordinator, Mark Sloan.

Dolly was upgraded from a tropical storm Tuesday afternoon, with wind speeds strengthening to about 136 kilometres per hour.

At 5 a.m. Wednesday, the storm’s centre was about 105 kilometres east-southeast of Brownsville, moving northwest at about 13 kilometres per hour.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the coast of Texas, from Brownsville to Corpus Christi, and in Mexico from Rio San Fernando northward.

U.S. forecasters said the hurricane’s eye should hit the coast around midday Wednesday.

The U.S. Census Bureau said that based on Dolly’s projected path, about 1.5 million Texans could feel the storm’s effects.

The National Weather Service in Brownsville, said conditions were favorable for tornadoes into Wednesday morning, especially in deep south Texas and the adjacent coastal waters

Projet de loi constitutionnelle adopté par le Congrès

Scrutin public – Table des scrutins publics

Compte rendu analytique – compte rendu intégral

Dossier législatif

La séance publique en vidéo Le scrutin public en vidéo

Radovan Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted men, was arrested yesterday 13 years after he was first indicted by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal.

The 63-year-old war crimes suspect faces genocide charges for his role in the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in Europe’s worst atrocity since the Second World War, and for organising the siege of Sarajevo which claimed 12,000 lives.

Performance

• A 3.6L DI VVT V6 engine with a projected 300 hp and manual six-speed transmission is standard on LS and LT models. Choose the available six-speed automatic with TAPshift to achieve an estimated 26 mpg highway1
• A 6.2L V8 with a projected 400 hp with six-speed automatic transmission with TAPshift includes Active Fuel Management technology to achieve 23 mpg highway1
• For the top-of-the-line, the 6.2L V8 with manual six-speed transmission produces a projected 422 hp
• Four-wheel independent suspension system, including a 4.5 link rear suspension
• Variable-rate power steering with the rack mounted forward of the front axle for better weight balance and greater driver feel
• Four-wheel disc brake systems with ABS standard on all models, including four-piston Brembo calipers on SS models
• StabiliTrak Electronic Stability Control System with traction control standard on all models
• Competitive/Sport modes for the Stabilitrak system offered on SS models, including launch control on SS models equipped with the six-speed manual transmission
• Robust body structure and exceptional build quality

Design

• Sleek, heritage-inspired styling with contemporary cues and 10 available exterior colors
• Detailed interior with heritage-inspired design, excellent attention to detail and available ambient LED lighting technology
• RS Appearance Package available on LT and SS, with HID headlamps with integrated halo ring feature, spoiler, specific taillamps and 20-inch wheels2
• Family of 18-, 19- and 20-inch wheels2
• Extensive list of options and accessories for almost unlimited personalization choices

Technology

• Bluetooth wireless technology for compatible phones3
• Premium Boston Acoustics 9-speaker, 245 watt audio system with subwoofer available on select models
• USB connectivity available on select models
• Ultrasonic Rear Parking Assist available on select models (planned for December, 2009)
• Remote vehicle starting system available on select models
• Six standard airbags: Dual-stage frontal air bags, Head-curtain side-impact air bags, Front-seat-mounted, side-impact thorax air bags for driver and front passenger.4
• OnStar with one-year Safe & Sound Plan standard, also available is Turn-By-Turn Navigation5 with Directions & Connections plan