Filed under: Aretha Franklin , Beauty After wearing this sparkling copper gown with a dyed to match polyester wig to the Tony Awards on Sunday ( left ), Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin wore it again on Monday — but this time with a frizzy ‘do — to perform at the Apollo Theater with her… Read more
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Aretha Franklin — 2 Days, 2 Weaves, 1 Dress
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Tagged apollo-theater, aretha, aretha franklin, awards, beauty, celeb news, franklin, Hollywood, News, queen, sparkling, sunday, TMZ, tony
Imagine if an oil spill happened in your town and contaminated a whole park… that's exactly what just happened in this Utah town. VIDEO OF THE UTAH SPILL: http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978299489 http://heraldextra.com/news/state-and-regional/article_b28deb54-3914-5051-8ce0-d… Emergency workers believe they have stopped a 21,000-gallon oil leak from reaching the environmentally sensitive Great Salt Lake, one of the West's most important inland water bodies for migratory birds that use it as a place to rest, eat and breed. But the spill has taken a toll on wildlife at area creeks and ponds, coating about 300 birds with oil and possibly threatening an endangered fish. The leak began Friday night when an underground Chevron Corp. pipeline in the mountains near the University of Utah broke. The breach sent oil into a creek that flows through neighborhoods, into a popular Salt Lake City park, and ultimately into the Jordan River, which flows into the Great Salt Lake. The 10-inch pipeline was shut off Saturday morning, when workers at a nearby Veterans Administration building smelled oil and called the Salt Lake City fire department, which notified Chevron. The pipe carries crude oil from western Colorado to a refinery near the Salt Lake City International Airport. Jason Olsen, spokesman for the Salt Lake City Joint Information Center, said Sunday that emergency workers believe they have contained the spill to the Jordan River. But the spill still took its toll on birds at Red Butte Creek and at a large pond at Liberty Park, where visitors often feed birds from the shore and on rented paddle boats. About 300 birds were coated in oil and cleaned at Utah's Hogle Zoo. Fewer than 10 have died, said Salt Lake City spokeswoman Lisa Harrison-Smith. Most of the birds were Canada geese, although some ducks were also covered. Harrison-Smith said the oil also flowed through several other riparian areas, which could threaten the June sucker. It's been listed as an endangered species since 1986. Most of Liberty Park reopened Sunday. The pond remained closed, and Olsen urged those who live near affected waterways to stay away from them. “Wherever the oil is, the smell is still fairly strong,” Olsen said. The Salt Lake City Police Department told residents whose yards were polluted by the spill not to clean them up, but to file a claim with Chevron first. Chevron has said it is taking full responsibility for the spill and will pay for its cleanup. Harrison-Smith said Chevron had investigators at the scene of the leak Sunday and that the Environmental Protection Agency had brought in a U.S. Coast Guard water recovery expert to assist with cleanup efforts. She said city officials were hoping to receive a report on the spill from Chevron sometime Sunday evening. U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said he spoke by telephone Sunday with Becky Roberts, president of the company's Chevron Pipe Line Co. unit. Matheson said Roberts told him that until Chevron crews dig up the broken section of pipe, the company can't be sure what caused the leak. Matheson is urging full disclosure on the leak's cause, and said his office will follow up to make sure Chevron follows EPA regulations. “I would say they are responding very aggressively to it. I think they know there is a heightened concern among people in this country about oil spills,” Matheson said. “I think they understand it's in their best interest to do everything they can to fix this as soon as possible.” Online: http://www.chevron-pipeline.com added by: captainplanet71
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Tagged environmental, Hollywood, jordan, mountains, police, salt, sunday
Imagine if an oil spill happened in your town and contaminated a whole park… that's exactly what just happened in this Utah town. http://heraldextra.com/news/state-and-regional/article_b28deb54-3914-5051-8ce0-d… Emergency workers believe they have stopped a 21,000-gallon oil leak from reaching the environmentally sensitive Great Salt Lake, one of the West's most important inland water bodies for migratory birds that use it as a place to rest, eat and breed. But the spill has taken a toll on wildlife at area creeks and ponds, coating about 300 birds with oil and possibly threatening an endangered fish. The leak began Friday night when an underground Chevron Corp. pipeline in the mountains near the University of Utah broke. The breach sent oil into a creek that flows through neighborhoods, into a popular Salt Lake City park, and ultimately into the Jordan River, which flows into the Great Salt Lake. The 10-inch pipeline was shut off Saturday morning, when workers at a nearby Veterans Administration building smelled oil and called the Salt Lake City fire department, which notified Chevron. The pipe carries crude oil from western Colorado to a refinery near the Salt Lake City International Airport. Jason Olsen, spokesman for the Salt Lake City Joint Information Center, said Sunday that emergency workers believe they have contained the spill to the Jordan River. But the spill still took its toll on birds at Red Butte Creek and at a large pond at Liberty Park, where visitors often feed birds from the shore and on rented paddle boats. About 300 birds were coated in oil and cleaned at Utah's Hogle Zoo. Fewer than 10 have died, said Salt Lake City spokeswoman Lisa Harrison-Smith. Most of the birds were Canada geese, although some ducks were also covered. Harrison-Smith said the oil also flowed through several other riparian areas, which could threaten the June sucker. It's been listed as an endangered species since 1986. Most of Liberty Park reopened Sunday. The pond remained closed, and Olsen urged those who live near affected waterways to stay away from them. “Wherever the oil is, the smell is still fairly strong,” Olsen said. The Salt Lake City Police Department told residents whose yards were polluted by the spill not to clean them up, but to file a claim with Chevron first. Chevron has said it is taking full responsibility for the spill and will pay for its cleanup. Harrison-Smith said Chevron had investigators at the scene of the leak Sunday and that the Environmental Protection Agency had brought in a U.S. Coast Guard water recovery expert to assist with cleanup efforts. She said city officials were hoping to receive a report on the spill from Chevron sometime Sunday evening. U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said he spoke by telephone Sunday with Becky Roberts, president of the company's Chevron Pipe Line Co. unit. Matheson said Roberts told him that until Chevron crews dig up the broken section of pipe, the company can't be sure what caused the leak. Matheson is urging full disclosure on the leak's cause, and said his office will follow up to make sure Chevron follows EPA regulations. “I would say they are responding very aggressively to it. I think they know there is a heightened concern among people in this country about oil spills,” Matheson said. “I think they understand it's in their best interest to do everything they can to fix this as soon as possible.” Online: http://www.chevron-pipeline.com added by: captainplanet71
Posted in Celebrities, Hot Stuff
Tagged chevron, country, current, environmentally, jordan, leak, mountains, police, salt, spill, sunday, university
The network morning and evening news shows have all but ignored President Obama’s Saturday letter to congressional leaders asking for $50 billion in additional spending to prevent the “massive layoffs of teachers, police, and firefighters.” Only Sunday’s Good Morning America on ABC has covered the President’s request so far. The chief executive’s June 12 letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader John Boehner urged “swift action” on the multi-billion dollar proposal to prevent the public sector layoffs and “give our nation’s businesses added impetus to hire and grow.” ABC anchor Bill Weir brought up the President’s letter with White House correspondent Jake Tapper 13 minutes into the 8 am Eastern hour of Sunday’s Good Morning America: WEIR: And then, I guess, slightly more difficult than stopping the leak is keeping open the flow of federal stimulus money- I understand the President [is] asking for another $50 billion? JAKE TAPPER: Another $50 billion, and this has been a tough sell for Democrats on Capitol Hill, not to mention, of course, Republicans. President Obama made the request in a letter yesterday . I will be sitting down today with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Minority Leader John Boehner to see if they have any willingness to pass an additional $50 billion. The President says this is needed as emergency aid to state and local governments, to make sure there aren’t massive layoffs of teachers and policemen and firemen. But, so far, Congress has shown no inclination to pass any more spending bills. Neither Sunday’s Today show on NBC nor CBS’s Sunday Morning program mentioned the spending request. This omission continued on all three networks Sunday evening news programs. The networks’ morning shows on Monday also failed to mention the push for further spending by the President. By contrast, CNN’s Christine Romans devoted an entire segment to it on American Morning: JOHN ROBERTS: Twenty minutes now after the [7 am Eastern] hour- Christine Romans here ‘Minding Your Business’ this morning. And we heard mantras of ‘drill baby drill’- now, I guess this one is ‘spend baby spend,’ right? CHRISTINE ROMANS: Right, the President- KIRAN CHETRY: But don’t call it ‘stimulus.’ ROMANS: Don’t call it- whatever you do, do not call new spending in the economy ‘stimulus’ because we have mid-term elections coming up and Republicans and- you know, frankly, a lot of Democrats are not real keen on spending a lot more money. But the President this weekend sending a letter to congressional leadership, saying this is not the time to pull back on some important emergency spending measures because the economy is really at a critical juncture, he says, in the path to recovery. The President, in this three-page letter to Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, saying basically, we cannot afford to slide backward, that we must take emergency measures. All told, maybe up to $50 billion in new spending for things like keeping teachers on the job, for helping people pay their premiums for health care insurance, for making sure that first responders have money so that they are out there actually being able to answer 911 calls and the like. Here’s the issue that the President points out in his letter. We have an economy that is in a recovery, but that recovery seems to be pretty fragile. You look at the number of people unemployed- it’s still 9.7 percent. You look at the most recent retail sales number- retail sales fell 1.2 percent in the most recent month. That was a surprise to people. And you have you a 30-year fixed rate mortgage of an unbelievable 4.81 percent. Folks, that is so low for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. But you still have a lot of concerns with the housing market. It’s just not going to recover until you see the job situation recover. So the President is asking for some- you know, solidarity behind some new spending. The letter went over like a lead balloon with Republicans- ROBERTS: I’m sure. ROMANS: And even some Democrats are concerned. Look, they can’t support anything in the next few months that’s going to turn up in a campaign ad against them as some kind of a new stimulus or spending money we don’t have. So it’s a tough fight the President has here. CHETRY: All right. Christine Romans, thanks so much. ROMANS: Sure. CHETRY: Oh, what’s your numeral? Sorry about that. ROMANS: Oh, the numeral is 300,000. And this is one of the reasons why the President really makes it personal about this spending- 300,000. CHETRY: This is how many people sign up for unemployment benefits each month? ROMANS: This is- according to David Axelrod, if you don’t spend more money, you’re going to have 300,000 teachers out of work- 300,000. That means if you don’t find the money to spend- ROBERTS: That’s true, yeah. ROMANS: You’re going to notice this in your school, in your classroom. This is something- ROBERTS: State and local budgets. ROMANS: It affects you, and the President noted that in his letter, that state and local people are really in big trouble here. ROBERTS: Okay. And now it’s time to say goodbye to all our company. ROMANS: Or walk. CHETRY: All right, Christine.
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Network News Shows Largely Skip President’s $50 Billion Spending Request
The odds of Ridley Scott ever shooting his planned/rumored/anticipated prequel to Alien remain at a less-than optimal 45-to-1 , but that didn’t stop the filmmaker on Sunday from passing along details of what to expect if he ever gets it underway. Two words: Space Jockey.
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Ridley Scott Describes Alien Prequels He’ll Probably Never Make
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Tagged 20px-20px, along-details, celeb news, gets-it-underway, newswire, ridley-scott, stop-the-filmmaker, sunday, tv guide
Nothing ruins my Sunday more than a pundit defending his or her politician by completely misrepresenting a law and nobody on the program in question bothers to challenge the falsehood. Such happened on the recent installment of ABC’s “This Week” when Democrat strategist Donna Brazile said of President Obama’s pathetic response to the Gulf Coast oil spill, “The administration has been constrained by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which basically gives the responsible party the lead role in trying to not only fix the problem, but contain the problem.” Really? Well, why don’t we look at the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and see if Brazile was right (video and transcript follow with details about this law and commentary): ROBERT REICH: But the present spectacle of the Coast Guard asking BP to speed up this clean-up is absurd. I mean, the federal government needs to be in charge. The president needs to be in charge of this. Use BP’s expertise. Use BP’s resources. But the president must be in charge of all of this. Otherwise, he looks like he’s just standing on the sidelines. DONNA BRAZILE: Well, the administration has been constrained by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which basically gives the responsible party the lead role in trying to not only fix the problem, but contain the problem. That has been the problem from day one. They’ve waited for BP to come up with the answers, and we know that BP continues to mislead people. This is the Overview of the Act (emphasis added): The Oil Pollution Act (OPA) was signed into law in August 1990, largely in response to rising public concern following the Exxon Valdez incident. The OPA improved the nation’s ability to prevent and respond to oil spills by establishing provisions that expand the federal government’s ability , and provide the money and resources necessary, to respond to oil spills. The OPA also created the national Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which is available to provide up to one billion dollars per spill incident. In addition, the OPA provided new requirements for contingency planning both by government and industry. The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) has been expanded in a three-tiered approach: the Federal government is required to direct all public and private response efforts for certain types of spill events ; Area Committees — composed of federal, state, and local government officials — must develop detailed, location-specific Area Contingency Plans; and owners or operators of vessels and certain facilities that pose a serious threat to the environment must prepare their own Facility Response Plans. Finally, the OPA increased penalties for regulatory noncompliance, broadened the response and enforcement authorities of the Federal government , and preserved State authority to establish law governing oil spill prevention and response. Now, let’s take a look at the expanded National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) (emphasis added): The OPA was enacted to strengthen the national response system. The OPA provides for better coordination of spill contingency planning among federal, state, and local authorities. The addition of the National Strike Force Coordination Center (NSFCC), for example, is expected to relieve equipment and personnel shortages that have interfered with response to oil spills posing particularly significant environmental or human health threats. Today’s rule revises the NCP to implement a strongly coordinated, multi-level national response strategy. The national response strategy, contained primarily in Subparts B and D of the NCP, provides the framework for notification, communication, logistics, and responsibility for response to discharges of oil, including worst case discharges and discharges that pose a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States. The amended NCP further strengthens the OSC’s ability to coordinate the response on-scene and also incorporates a new OPA- mandated level of contingency planning–Area Committees and Area Contingency Plans (ACPs). These committees and plans are designed to improve coordination among the national, regional, and local planning levels and to enhance the availability of trained personnel, necessary equipment, and scientific support that may be needed to adequately address all discharges. The major revisions to the NCP being promulgated today reflect OPA revisions to CWA [Clean Water Act] section 311. These changes increase Presidential authority to direct cleanup of oil spills and hazardous substance releases and augment preparedness and planning activities on the part of the federal government, as well as vessel and facility owners and operators . For example, revised CWA section 311(c) requires the President to direct removal actions for discharges and substantial threats of discharges posing a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States . Revised section 311(d) requires a number of specific changes to the NCP, including the establishment of “criteria and procedures to ensure immediate and effective Federal identification of, and response to, a discharge, or the threat of a discharge, that results in a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States.” Section 311(d) also mandates the establishment of procedures and standards for removing a worst case discharge of oil and for mitigating or preventing a substantial threat of such a discharge. As such, quite contrary to what Brazile stated Sunday, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, along with its changes to the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan, significantly increased the President’s authority over oil spills. As this disaster is now over seven weeks old, surely “This Week” host Jake Tapper should have been aware of the pertinent provisions of this Act. Ditto Reich and George Will who also sat idly by as Brazile made this misrepresentation. With this in mind, why didn’t anyone challenge her on this? This question especially goes out to Will who in recent months has gone after Bill Maher as well as Brazile for misrepresenting the facts in his presence. I guess George wasn’t in the mood for a fight today. Too bad, for it was easy pickings. Of course, there’s a larger issue here, and why this really angers me when it happens. It’s not surprising that a pol or pundit stretches the truth. It happens almost every time these people open their mouths. However, when their misrepresentations go unchallenged, the viewer assumes the statement was accurate. This is why it’s so important for the host or moderator to be on top of things. Unfortunately, folks watching “This Week” on Sunday were given the wrong impression about this law and its relevance to what’s currently happening on the Gulf Coast. As such, the burden was on SOMEONE present to correct Brazile on this point. Sadly, that didn’t occur. What a shame.
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Donna Brazile Defends Obama By Badly Misrepresenting Oil Pollution Act, Gets No Challenge From ‘This Week’ Panel
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Tagged bp gulf oil spill, donna brazile, Hollywood, oil spill, plans, politics, public, robert-reich, sunday, united-states, week
Germany#39;s Per Mertesacker tackles Australia#39;s Brett Emerton, top, during the World Cup group D soccer match between Germany and Australia at the stadium in Durban, South Africa, Sunday, June 13, 2010. Germany thrashed 10-man Australia 4-0 in their opening Group D match of the World Cup here on Sunday with goals from Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Mueller and Cacau. A tired-looking Australian team were overwhelmed from the eighth minute when Podolski collected a pullback from Muel
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Germany vs Australia highlights world cup 2010
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Tagged Australia, australian, brett-emerton, celeb news, eighth, from-the-eighth, group, Hollywood, lukas-podolski, mertesacker, miroslav-klose, opening, south-africa, sunday, world
The first half of the England vs United States game on South Africa World Cup 2010 , Sunday (06/13/ 2010 ) dawn over already. England lead the match first after.
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USA vs England World Cup 2010 Update | Mindmasterclass dot Com …
Tagged dawn-over, Hollywood, lead-the-match, Match, match-first, south, south-africa, sunday, united-states
The newly-formed government of Kyrgyzstan has extended a state of emergency announced last week after ethnic violence between Uzbek and Kyrgyz groups has spiraled, killing more than 100 and extending to neighboring provinces. The violence began in the southern city of Osh on the border of Uzbekistan last Sunday, but has since spilled over to other areas in the region. —JCL Al-Jazeera English: Kyrgyzstan’s interim government has extended a state of emergency in the country’s south in a bid to stop ethnic clashes that have killed more than 100 people. Authorities on Sunday imposed a 24-hour curfew in the southern Osh region, and extended a state of emergency to cover the entire neighbouring province of Jalal’abad. Police and soldiers have also been authorised to “shoot-to-kill” to defend civilians and in self-defence, but the measure has not stopped the spiralling violence pitting ethnic Uzbeks against Kyrgyz. Gunfire rang out on Sunday in the city of Jalal’abad, where the day before a mob burned a university, besieged a police station and seized an armoured vehicle and other weapons from a local military unit. Read more Related Entries June 11, 2010 Kyrgyzstan Violence Kills Dozens May 24, 2010 Secret U.S. Plans for Clandestine Mideast Military Activity Brought to Light
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Kyrgyzstan Extends State of Emergency
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Tagged 24-hour-curfew, kyrgyzstan, light, military, News, raw news, southern, stars, sunday, the-southern, the-spiralling, upate, violence, violence-began
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