A 74-year-old man shot and wounded a teenager who attempted to carjack him with a knife early this morning in southwest Houston, police said.
The 18-year-old male suspect was wounded in the abdomen and was caught by police after he tried to run away following the shooting. He was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital in fair condition.
No other injuries were reported.
Police have not released the suspect's name because no charges have been filed against him, but investigators said that he will mostly likely be charged with aggravated robbery.
The shooting happened outside a home in the 10900 block of Corona in southwest Houston about 6:30 a.m., police said.
The victim, August Peters, had just parked his car in front of his wife's home when he noticed another car drive past him and park at the curb across the street.
When the victim got out of his car, he told investigators that the teen came up to him and pressed a knife against his throat.
"He said, 'Give me your car or I'll kill you,'" said Victor Senties, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department.
The victim was able to reach inside his car to get a pistol. He fired two shots at the suspect, Senties said.
The suspect ran into the driveway of a home across the street and then somehow got into the home. He broke a window to get out and continued running away. Senties said no one was at the home at the time.
Police found the teen moments later on bridge on Wilcrest near Bellaire about two blocks from where he was shot.
Investigators are uncertain if the teenager got out of the car the victim had seen park on the street. They have no description of the vehicle and no other suspects at this time.
LOS ANGELES - Gidget the Chihuahua, the bug-eyed, big-eared star of 1990s Taco Bell commercials who was a diva on and off the screen, has died. She was 15. Gidget suffered a massive stroke late Tuesday night at her trainer's home in Santa Clarita and had to be euthanized, said Karin McElhatton, owner of Studio Animal Services in Castaic, which owned the dog.
Although she was hard of hearing, Gidget was otherwise in good health up to the day of her death, eating well and playing with her favorite squeaky toys at the home of trainer Sue Chipperton, McElhatton said....
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2009 16:50 ||
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#1
Awwwww.
I still miss the little mutt.
Don't eat there (it's not like it's actual Mexican food), but they were cute commercials.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/23/2009 18:30 Comments ||
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#2
Moment of Silence in Congress???
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/23/2009 20:19 Comments ||
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I care more about this than that other Southern California celebrity who died recently that was the unending topic of talk on cable news.
#4
I remember that although everybody loved the commercials, sales didn't budge, so they ended the "Dog Commercials"
I'll go along with "Not real Mexican" i don't eat there anymore either.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2009 21:17 Comments ||
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#5
Yeah, I liked the little mutt myself - as for the TACO BELL chain, IMO it twasn't the dog but the mediocre products and promos being offered. I don't think the chain lost anything or very much.
#1
I swear I've seen this somewhere... something like the headlines are real, but the twitter account is owned by a German satirist who's selecting them for maximum humor value. On a quick google, there's this.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/23/2009 15:43 Comments ||
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OTOH CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > YOUTUBE VidArtic > seems KOREA is claiming to had originally discovered CHINA + JAPAN. [OTHER = USA, Egypt, + India] - also allegedly RULED MOST OF CHINA???
A major and historic winter storm is underway at this Wednesday morning in Argentina. yes its Thursday now but the article has some nice SHemisphere maps that you don't get to see very often and there are some nice pictures here
Snow is falling in many parts of the country and in many areas not used to winter precipitation. Local news reports indicate snow already have been observed in the provinces of Mendoza, San Luis, San Juan, Cordoba, La Pampa and Buenos Aires.
In Bahia Blanca, a coastal city in the Southern part of the Buenos Aires, the snow storm is heavy and local authorities describe it as the worst snow event in 50 years. Roads are already blocked by snow and ice in the regional. TN news channel reports some areas of the Sierra de La Ventana could pick up even 3 feet of snow, unimaginable to the region.
Early this Wednesday afternoon, satellite pictures were showing a band of clouds advancing to the North and snow precipitation could no be ruled out in the capital Buenos Aires. In July 9th and 10th 2007 it snowed in the city of Buenos Aires for the first time in 89 years and it could snow again just two years later. Snow was also reported in the capital of Chile Santiago. MetSul Weather Center is not ruling out snow also in Uruguay.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/23/2009 11:10 ||
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Damn that Gerbil Worming!
Who knew AlBore was in South America?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/23/2009 12:50 Comments ||
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Slightly on subject.
We here in the Deep South are having a record setting cool summer, July temps in the High 60's are highly unusual.
OK where's Algore? The evil Scientist's errand moron.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2009 13:44 Comments ||
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Redneck,
It's record cold in Minnesota too. In fact, a friend just got back from a fishing trip in Canada expecting warm weather and was treated to 40F temperatures (30's wind chill).
Global warming indeed.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/23/2009 14:52 Comments ||
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Summer: Boston 2009. One day over 90(and that was in May), maybe 10 over 80. Tons of rain.
#7
I'm in Boston also, normally install the air conditioning by Memorial Day, in 2008 it was unusually cool and I got to wait till a week after Memorial Day. This year still haven't done it yet. It's a very comfortable 65 degrees right now. I work at home so air conditioning is normally a must in summer.
#9
CyberSarge - true, it's winter in the southern hemisphere, but the areas mentioned usually only get measurable precipitation in late spring, early summer. It's extremely rare for Bahia Blanca to get snow, partly because it's on the coast, and partly because the winds usually drive weather patterns from land to sea in that area, and it's very dry 9 months out of the year.
We've had one day at/over 90 degrees so far this summer, quite unusual. It's also been extremely wet! The last time these patterns were seen was in 1913.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/23/2009 18:32 Comments ||
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#10
I'm in Boston also, normally install the air conditioning by Memorial Day
I assume you're referring to window air conditioners, not central air.
#11
Zhang - Yes, building was built in 1935, no central air then.
CyberSarge - Yes, but Buenos Aires is the same latitude in the south as Los Angeles, Dallas, or South Carolina in the north -- not used to snow in winter.
#12
I'm about an hour north of Boston. I haven't switched the thermostat from 'heat' to 'cool' yet this season. The central ac hasn't been needed, but the heat has been a couple of times. We've had several (small) fires in the fireplace this month, last one a couple of days ago.
Just got back from a bluegrass concert. Cloudy, sprinkles, 63 degrees.
#13
Central Virginia here. We had some mid-high 90's back June (and my Early Girl tomatoes were ripening every day), but has rarely hit 90 since. Now I've got plenty of tomatoes, but they're still green. Maybe it needs to be hotter for them to ripen - lord knows they're getting enough sun.
I think I've had the A/C on maybe 2 evenings so far this year. It's a little humid tonight, but so far the ceiling fans are taking care of it.
I rarely turn the A/C on during the day anyway while I'm at work, unless it's going to be in the mid-high 90's and humid, and even then I leave it set at 85. Nice thing about a cinderblock/stucco house - it tends to be cooler in summer and warmer in winter than a regular house, and holds the heat/cold well.
Gerbil Worming my a**.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/23/2009 21:33 Comments ||
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Honduras' interim government on Tuesday gave 72 hours to Venezuelan diplomats to leave, accusing them of threatening to use force and interfering into the country's internal affairs.
"The Foreign Ministry has requested the honorable embassy of Venezuela the withdrawal of its administrative, technical and diplomatic staff in a term of 72 hours due to the threats of using force, the interference in internal issues as well as the lack of respect to the territorial integrity," Deputy Foreign Minister Martha Lorena Alvarado said. The request, however, was turned down by Vezezuelan diplomats who said they would not leave Honduras and would not obey the order of any coup government not recognized by Venezuela.
"We do not recognize the government led by Roberto Micheletti. It is a coup government, supported by bayonets," Uriel Vargas, the first secretary from the Venezuelan embassy in Honduras, told local radio station HRN.
Since the June 28 coup in which Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deposed by force, Venezuela has shown full support for the ousted leader and condemned the post-coup government as "usurpers" and "coup-mongers."
Chavez said Tuesday that Zelaya's expulsion had also been an attack on Venezuela and regional leftist countries. The Venezuelan president has also reiterated in various occasions that his country would not use force to meddle in Honduras' internal affairs.
The European Union on Monday suspended 65.5 million euros (93 million U.S. dollars) in aid to Honduran institutions, saying that the bloc would continue to restrict political contacts with Honduras' de facto government "until a peaceful negotiated solution has been found."
Oops, he's on to our secret plan. Quick, Halliburton, we need a hurricane!
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Cubas former President Fidel Castro said that two rounds of talks to resolve a political crisis in Honduras, mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, were a U.S.-backed ploy to buy time. Castro repeated accusations that the State Department and the extreme right in the U.S. supported the overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on June 28. His comments were posted in a reflection today on the Cubadebate.cu Web site.
The United States governments calculations were based on the fact that Arias boasts a Nobel Peace Prize, Castro wrote. Oscar Ariass real history indicates that he is a neo-liberal politician, talented and fluid with words, extremely calculating and a loyal ally of the United States.
Arias ended a second round of talks between Zelaya, an ally of Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and Hondurass acting President Roberto Micheletti on July 19. The Costa Rican leader said he would work through today to try to reach a solution to the Honduran crisis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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Well well, look who's lying "CRISIS" Now.
Unka Fidel shows his head.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2009 0:07 Comments ||
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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Rivals in the Honduran crisis sent teams to Costa Rica Wednesday ahead of a deadline for stalled crisis talks, as a diplomat suggested they had reached a deal for the conditional return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity almost a month after soldiers sent Zelaya away into exile, crisis mediator and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, the Costa Rican president, postponed a press briefing to accommodate the new plan to meet the two sides.
"We're traveling to Costa Rica immediately after this news conference is over" said interim foreign minister Carlos Lopez Contreras in Honduras.
A diplomatic source in Costa Rica said that a delegation for Zelaya was also heading to San Jose, and suggested that both sides had reached agreement for Zelaya's conditional return to Honduras. The deal would oblige Zelaya to respond to crimes he is accused of by the country's courts, and would return de facto president Roberto Micheletti to head the Congress, the diplomat said, requesting anonymity.
The devil clearly is in the details. What kind of court? Who prosecutes? What kind of hearings?
In the meantime, will Zelaya's supporters and paid toadies stop bringing guns into the country?
Costa Rican President Arias on Sunday warned that Honduras was on the brink of civil war and pleaded for crisis talks to resume after a 72-hour break.
Representatives of the interim leadership that backed Zelaya's ouster on June 28 rejected a proposal by Arias on Sunday that Zelaya return as president in charge of a "reconciliation" government. But they "maintain their position for dialogue and wish to preserve peace and tranquility in Honduras," a statement said Wednesday.
Despite increasing international aid freezes and insistence on a return for Zelaya, the de facto leaders have maintained that he will be arrested if he attempts to come back.
Zelaya, exiled in neighboring Nicaragua, has said he would return "by air, land or sea" shortly after the deadline expires.
But Hondurans remains deeply split over the possibility of his return, with many fearing more violence after Zelaya's spectacular first attempt left at least one protester dead in clashes with soldiers. Hundreds of white-clad demonstrators on Wednesday protested against Zelaya's return in the capital of an increasingly polarized Honduras. "We don't like you, Mel," one banner read in Wednesday's demonstration, using Zelaya's nickname.
Lawmakers in Honduras meanwhile approved the country's 2009 budget in a move that had been paralyzed under Zelaya.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - A Republican senator unhappy with U.S. policy on Honduras delayed on Tuesday a committee vote to confirm the nominee to head the State Department's bureau of western hemisphere affairs. Conservative Senator Jim DeMint, who has expressed concern over Washington's call for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to be reinstated, invoked his right to ask the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to postpone voting to confirm Arturo Valenzuela, currently a professor at Georgetown University, to be assistant secretary of state.
DeMint also asked for a delay in confirming Thomas Shannon as U.S. ambassador to Brazil. Shannon currently holds the assistant secretary's post. Both votes had been set for Tuesday afternoon but are now likely to be held next week.
DeMint is one of 17 Republican senators who wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this month asking the administration to reassess its stance on Honduras. The group said it worried that Washington's pro-Zelaya stance would legitimize "abuses of power" and "violations of the Honduran constitution" by Zelaya before he was ousted by the army on June 28.
Efforts to broker an end to the Honduran power struggle collapsed on Sunday, after interim leader Roberto Micheletti rejected a proposal to reinstate the overthrown president. Clinton spoke to Micheletti by phone after the talks fell apart and warned him he could face cuts in economic aid unless he strikes a deal with his rival.
DeMint and other Republicans have said they believe Hondurans were acting lawfully when they ousted Zelaya after he had sought to hold a referendum on overhauling the constitution to allow his re-election.
A spokesman for DeMint said on Tuesday the senator was also displeased at Valenzuela's refusal to discuss Honduras at length during his nomination hearing. At the hearing, DeMint asked why Washington would want to be on the same side as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro, in the Honduran crisis.
"President Obama rushed to side with Chavez and Castro before getting the facts. Now it's clear that the people of Honduras were defending the rule of law," DeMint said on Tuesday, through his spokesman.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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"President Obama rushed to side with Chavez and Castro before getting the facts.
Oh , Facts don't bother him a bit.
(Thought y'all knew that?)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2009 13:48 Comments ||
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"President Obama rushed to side with Chavez and Castro before getting the facts.
Isn't that Obambi's modus opperandi in anything? Operate mouth, get whispered to in the ear, brush it off and continue to bloviate. Never once engage brain, on anything. We have a 13-YO as "president".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/23/2009 18:40 Comments ||
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TEGUCIGALPA, July 21 (Reuters) - The United States and Europe stepped up pressure on Honduras' de facto government on Tuesday as deposed President Manuel Zelaya and his supporters called on Washington to pave the way for his return. With negotiations deadlocked and Zelaya vowing to return to Honduras within days, some fear Central America's worst crisis since the end of the Cold War could flare into violence.
Talks mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias collapsed over the weekend but he hopes to bring both sides back to the negotiating table on Wednesday. The U.S. government threw its weight behind Arias' proposal that Zelaya, who was toppled in a June 28 coup, be reinstated to set up a coalition government.
"We're in constant contact with a number of countries in the hemisphere regarding the situation in Honduras, and we believe the Arias mediation is the right way to go, and the time is now to ... resolve this issue," State Department deputy spokesman Robert A. Wood told reporters. "We think that this is the best (way) ... to restore the constitutional order in the country, and we want to see that happen now," he said. Isn't that why the Hondurans bounced him in the first place?
The government that took power when Zelaya was toppled has not been recognized by any other country, but it refuses to allow his return to power and vows to arrest him on arrival.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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For the last time, get your shit straight reuters. (or shall I say routers?)
Hillary, pull out your measuring stick and measure your hips, and then compare it to the Honduran supreme court.
Obama, there was never a better oppertunity to "not interfere".
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has pledged firm support for Georgia, saying that America stands with the former Soviet republic and will continue to do so.
"Hi! It's great to be in Atlanta! How bout them Dawgs!"
Biden spoke in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, hours after arriving from Ukraine on a mission to assure both countries that the United States will not abandon them as Washington seeks a thaw in relations with Russia. Biden spoke late Wednesday at a banquet hosted by President Mikheil Saakashvili. He described U.S. support as "an unequivocal, clear message to all who will listen and some who do not want to" -- an apparent reference to Russia.
Putin doesn't believe you and Bambi. He thinks you two will fold like cheap lawn chairs.
The vice president will hold two days of talks with Mr. Saakashvili, and will meet with opposition leaders who have held more than three months of near-daily anti-Saakashvili protests in the capital.
Biden is the first senior U.S. official to visit Georgia since Russian troops swept into the country last year. Russia says the operation was a response to a Georgian military push to regain control of the breakaway territory of South Ossetia. Georgia says it was reacting to a Russian invasion. Russia has since recognized South Ossetia and a second breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent countries, despite strong protests from Western governments.
Earlier in Ukraine, Biden told a gathering of business people, politicians and students that the United States will stand by the country as it continues on what he called "a path to freedom and prosperity."
They're doomed.
He also reaffirmed U.S. support for Ukrainian efforts to gain NATO entry, and he urged Ukrainian leaders to seek compromise on issues that have split the country's government. Biden also urged his audience to work toward becoming more energy efficient.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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"Boy, it sure took a long time to get here! Usually only takes a couple of hours. Anyway, I'd like to thank Governor Saakashvili for the nice reception."
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's main opposition party, which until recently touted plans to stand up to the United States and form closer ties in Asia, is taking a more pragmatic line toward Tokyo's top ally ahead of a likely election victory. That should help ease concerns about any possible upset in the relationship, under which Japan has for decades kept in lockstep with the United States on security policy in return for the shelter of its "nuclear umbrella."
Needed now more than ever because of the crazy Norks. Japan has figured out that dissing the US right now just isn't a smart move.
Analysts say the change in emphasis by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is both a bid to avoid alienating voters ahead of the August 30 poll and a sign of a new realism as it confronts a growing probability of taking power.
"The stage is completely different now," said Yukio Okamoto, a former diplomat now of think tank Okamoto Associates.
"They have to really, realistically think about what they are going to do," he added. "The line they have been insisting on so far is untenable, unsustainable in the face of the stark realities of the world security situation."
The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has made the U.S.-Japan alliance the core of its diplomatic and security policies since the end of World War Two, and has stretched the limits of its pacifist constitution, often at U.S. urging. In an effort to erode the rival Democrats' lead in opinion polls, the LDP has repeatedly accused opposition leaders of lacking the experience to handle growing regional threats.
North Korea conducted a nuclear test in May, following what Pyongyang said was the launch of a rocket, which passed over a nervous Japan. China's rapidly rising military might is another constant concern for Japan, whose defense budget has been sliding for seven years.
"In the midst of that, your security policy is 'let's distance ourselves from our ally of the past 50 years and embark on a new security policy'? It's a no-brainer that you back away from that," said Brad Glosserman of Hawaii-based think tank Pacific Forum CSIS. "Essentially, what the DPJ wants to do at this point is eliminate every reason that voters have for not voting for them."
Then again, the DPJ could be borrowing a page from US Democrats -- lie their way to power ...
Democratic Party leaders have long stressed that they will keep the U.S. alliance at the center of Japan's security policy, but their plans to challenge the current consensus on a range of issues could cause friction. Former party leader Ichiro Ozawa sparked criticism in February, for example, when he said that most of the 47,000 U.S. troops based in Japan were not needed.
That's actually true. We could bring most of them to Guam or elsewhere, but even then the DPJ isn't satisfied, because ...
The DPJ has also attacked an agreement to move 8,000 U.S. Marines from the southern island of Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam, because of the high costs involved for Japan.
Under Ozawa's successor, Yukio Hatoyama, the party is now distancing itself from promises to call an immediate halt to a refueling mission in support of U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan. The DPJ has in the past delayed legislation enabling the mission, saying it was a breach of Japan's pacifist constitution. Ozawa publicly snubbed a personal request from then-U.S. ambassador Thomas Schieffer in 2007 to back it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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"They have to really, realistically think about what they are going to do .... The line they have been insisting on so far is untenable, unsustainable in the face of the stark realities ...."
Sounds an awful lot like what the talking heads said about our new administration before it rolled into DC.
#2
I remember when these idiots had the brilliant plan of cozying up to China to create an Asian power. Yeah, great idea guys, get with the people who hate your guts and to this day broadcast nationwide propaganda against you. It just shows you how desperate they really are to stick it to the USA...for no reason other than racism.
#3
ION NIPPON, BHARAT RAKSHAK > JAPAN'S POSTURE WORRIES TAIWAN [2009 White Paper suppors dev of "Ocean Country" pro-Japan agendum], + IS IT A THREAT TO CHINA THAT THE US RETURNS TO SOUTHEAST ASIA [CHINA DAILY Poll Survey w/Comments]!?
Also, TOPIX > US MAY SET UP "DEFENSE UMBRELLA" OVER MIDEAST [Gulf States agz IRAN] + HILLARY: NUCLEAR-ARMED IRAN WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO DOMINATE THE MIDDLE EAST.
#5
Their constitution does not allow for projecting military force, Dougie Mac saw to that. They'll need to change it if they want to play with the big boys again.
#6
If I remember right, it seems to me that Japan knows quite well how to make an H-bomb and knows everything it needs to know about how to deliver them on the appropriate range missiles. It is also positioned itself to be only a few months away from refining enough nuclear material to be a serious problem to anybody in the area. If this is true, the problem is whether or not they want to lift the lid on pandora's box again.
#7
mojo, from what I've gathered in the past year or so the dictates of a constitution can be ignored without repercussions by our political class. Perhaps Japan is different, or they just haven't learned that lesson yet, but give them time.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Times Co. said Thursday its second-quarter profit climbed nearly 85 percent, as it cut costs aggressively to deal with punishing declines in newspaper and online advertising.
The company said it cut its operating costs by 20 percent to manage its revenue falloff, following a pattern that also emerged in recent earnings reports from fellow newspaper publishers Gannett Co. and McClatchy Co. The company also signaled that the advertising slump may be starting to break. While ad revenue fell 30 percent across the company, Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson said "the rate of decline lessened throughout the quarter."
The publisher of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The International Herald-Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers said Thursday that it earned $39.1 million, or 27 cents per share, from April through June. That compares with a profit of $21.1 million, or 15 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
The company was helped by a favorable tax adjustment, which boosted earnings by $37.7 million, or 26 cents per share.
In other words, almost their entire profit was based on the tax adjustment.
Even after one-time events, the company said it would have earned 8 cents per share. On that basis, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of 4 cents per share.
Still, shares fell 19 cents, or 3 percent, to $6.43 in morning trading after initially running higher. Investors appeared to catch themselves after a closer look at the company's revenue.
"Cost cutting is fine," said Ed Atorino, a media analyst with Benchmark Co. "But revenues aren't looking too great -- pretty much across the sector. And Times revenue was worse than expected."
Times Co. revenue fell 20 percent to $584 million. Analysts were expecting $603 million.
Better find some more tax adjustments or Carlos Slim will be wanting his money back ...
Advertising revenue plunged 30 percent -- worse than the 27 percent year-over-year decline the Times Co. posted in the first quarter, when it had a net loss of $74.5 million. Even revenue from Internet advertising, which had been growing before the recession deepened last year, tumbled 15.5 percent in the second quarter to $68 million.
Given the declines, the company is scrambling to slash expenses and sell assets. It had a debt load of roughly $1 billion at the end of last year, which it has cut by about $45 million.
The Times Co. managed to wring $20 million in annual cost concessions from unions at The Boston Globe over the past few months after threatening to shut down the newspaper. That should make it easier for the Times Co. to find a buyer for the Globe, which was projected earlier this year to lose $85 million in 2009.
The company is also looking to sell its 17.5 percent stake in the Boston Red Sox. It has already agreed to sell WQXR-FM, a New York City classical music station, for $45 million.
Most employees at the flagship New York Times newspaper have taken a 5 percent pay cut through the end of the year. The company hopes the move will trim costs by $4.5 million and save about 80 jobs, most of them in the newsroom. The Times said in March it was cutting about 100 workers from the business side of the newspaper.
So they have $1 billion in debt and have cut $45 million ($0.045 billion). Shrewd, real shrewd ...
#2
Another cost saver they can do is to eliminate the last of their investigative reporters and replace them with fiction writers. Oh? That's already been done. I couldn't tell.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/23/2009 11:35 Comments ||
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The company also signaled that the advertising slump may be starting to break.
There's a difference between rebounding and flattening out.
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors posted Wednesday a 22 percent global sales drop from a year earlier for the first six months of 2009 amid the economic slowdown and the automaker's slide into bankruptcy.
GM said its global first-half sales, which include brands the automaker is trimming from its lineup, fell 21.8 percent to 3.55 million vehicles. The automaker's sales in the second quarter fell 15.4 percent to 1.94 million vehicles. The automaker said second-quarter sales reflected continuing economic pressures and production cuts in the United States. It estimated a 12 percent second-quarter global market share, down 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier.
GM emerged from bankruptcy protection on July 10, concluding a 40-day stay in Chapter 11 with a sale of its key operations to a new company majority-owned by the U.S. Treasury and pledging to win back American consumers and taxpayers.
Working well, isn't it ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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I'd love to own a new Chevy Volt, but no at the stick it in my butt, 40 grand they want.
(Plus whatever they can think of extra, like tires or with a diesel engine instead of flashlight batteries)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/23/2009 0:12 Comments ||
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I'd love to own one of the new Corvette ZR-1s but the fact that I'd be subsidizing the UAW and lefties in DC will prevent any serious consideration of a purchase.
MILITARY bombing practice has caused one of France's worst fires for three years which continues to rage on the eastern outskirts of Marseille. The fire has burnt dozens of homes but claimed no victims.
The wildfire was caused by military practice shelling which hit the eastern Trois-Ponts suburb of the southern city forcing the evacuation of scores of residents.
"There are a few dozen houses burnt in the Trois-Ponts district but there are no victims," fire brigade spokesman Samuel Champon said. "There are more homes threatened than vehicles mobilised."
The fire moved down a hill outside the city and threatened the Trois-Ponts district where residents sprayed water on the outside of their houses before they moved out. People in neighbouring La Barasse also left, although local authorities said no evacuation order had been given. About 1200ha of brush was razed by the blaze.
"We are in a defensive mission for the moment," Mr Champon, pointing to "problems with the lie of the land" and difficulties in accessing water points.
A thick black smoke swirled around the district and many residents angrily criticised the French army which had staged artillery training at its Carpiagne camp just before the fire started.
Regional prefect Michel Sappin confirmed that the blaze had been started by the shelling, lashing out at the "imbecilic" action that had led to "an annoying and serious" situation in a zone close to a city and saying he was "exasperated".
In such weather conditions, with high winds, the army should refrain from carrying out shelling practice, he said.
#14
Holy crap! Check out the pics at the link. Looks like the California hills burning - again.
What the h-e-double-toothpicks did they do?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/23/2009 12:44 Comments ||
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#15
Indulged in shelling practice in Mediterranean country during the dry season? Somebody just wasn't thinking. It looks like the California hills burning because they're similar climates & similar terrain, as I understand it.
Marseille is even known for siroccos, their very own version of the Santa Ana.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/23/2009 13:41 Comments ||
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Interesting but getting rather far afield from the Burg. AoS.
If there's one thing worse than being in a coma, it's people thinking you are in one when you aren't. Yet a new comparison of methods for detecting consciousness suggests that around 40 per cent of people diagnosed as being in a vegetative state are in fact "minimally conscious".
In the worst case scenario, such misdiagnoses could influence the decision to allow a patient to die, even though they have some vestiges of consciousness. But crucially it may deprive patients of treatments to make them more comfortable, more likely to recover, or to allow them to communicate with family, say researchers.
In a vegetative state (VS), reflexes are intact and the patient can breathe unaided, but there is no awareness. A minimally conscious state (MCS) is a sort of twilight zone, only recently recognised, in which people may feel some physical pain, experience some emotion, and communicate to some extent. However, because consciousness is intermittent and incomplete in MCS, it can be sometimes very difficult to tell the difference between the two.
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Though it is not widely known, a very dangerous contributing factor to coma and brain damage is believed to be in the use of cold oxygen ventilation.
Oxygen out of compression is significantly colder than air temperature, and the nasal tube runs right past the artery leading to the brain. This cools the blood, and can cause or exacerbate damage to an already damaged brain.
It has been suggested that many of the people in a minimally conscious state coma would have regained consciousness had they been given warmed oxygen, but that the cold oxygen forced them into coma.
#5
Need to find a way to electrify the outer hull without causing a problem to the ship's crew. I think that would put a shocking end to piracy with the first or second attempt.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/23/2009 18:55 Comments ||
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Long piece in the Asia Times on the situation in Laos with special reference to exiled Laotians who are now returning to the mother country. Worth a read if you were once in the area.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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COLOMBO - After months of being at the receiving end of international criticism for human rights violations, Sri Lanka finally clinched a crucial agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday for a standby credit facility of US$2.5 billion. This which will bolster the country's foreign exchange reserves, depleted by the impacts of the global economic downturn and an expensive war.
IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a statement that was cheered by Colombo's stock markets on Tuesday that a staff mission had reached agreement with the Sri Lankan authorities, and the program is expected to be considered by the fund's executive board on July 24. Its approval "would enable Sri Lanka to draw an amount of about US$313 million immediately".
Though, technically, the final decision will only be known once the approval comes, Sri Lanka central bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Inter Press Service that the board meeting is just a formality. "We have reached [the] agreement," he said.
In February, Sri Lanka requested an IMF credit facility of $1.9 billion urgently needed to shore up sagging foreign reserves adversely hit by the combined force of lower revenues from export income and rapid withdrawals by foreigners who had invested in government bonds. By December 2008, gross official reserves stood at $1.7 billion compared with $3.5 billion in the previous year. This money was barely enough to sustain 1.5 months of imports.
Share prices in the Colombo stock market climbed sharply on Tuesday in reaction to the news. Brokers said the news was expected to boost confidence in the market and again entice foreign investors to return to Sri Lanka. The end of a nearly three-decade long conflict in May is also expected to trigger a surge in investments.
While most IMF standby credit facilities are approved quickly, considering they are usually meant to offset contingencies, the Sri Lankan application was delayed amid allegations of mounting civilian deaths and other human rights allegations as the government entered the final phase of its war with Tamil Tiger rebels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
China uses its influence to help its newest ally.
PHUKET: For the first time, Sri Lanka has set a six-month timeline for rehabilitating Tamils displaced by the recently ended conflict between its armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Asked when the time limit for resettling the internally displaced persons began, Minister for Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama said, a month has gone and wanted the global community to appreciate that the war had ended less than two months back. It has been eight weeks [since the war ended], he said after emerging from a meeting with External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna, on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Mr. Bogollagama said the devolution of power to Tamils of Sri Lankan origin was part of the Constitution, and its implementation was part of the healing process, now that the more than two-decade-old conflict had ended. The government was sharing the progress made in the rehabilitation process and its ideas about the pace of the devolution of power with the entire polity of Sri Lanka, through the All Parties Representative Committee, which could be reshaped to make it even more broad-based.
We share a warm and unique relationship and we speak in one voice, said Mr. Bogollagama, and the sentiment was reciprocated by Mr. Krishna.
His observations come days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Parliament that Indias relationship with Sri Lanka hinged on its treatment of its Tamils.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Given the declines, the company is scrambling to slash expenses and sell assets. It had a debt load of roughly $1 billion at the end of last year, which it has cut by about $45 million.
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors posted Wednesday a 22 percent global sales drop from a year earlier for the first six months of 2009 amid the economic slowdown and the automaker's slide into bankruptcy.
