Hillary Rodham Clinton has concluded to end her historic presidential campaign additonally stopping her choices open to retain her delegates and promote her challenge agenda, a campaign official says.
The former initial lady informed House Democrats within the duration of a private conference demand Wednesday the she is planning to express substantiation for Barack Obama’s candidacy and congratulate him for gathering the fundamental delegates to be the party’s nominee.
“Senator Clinton may be hosting an concern in Washington, D.C., to thank her supporters and express her substantiation for Senator Obama and party unity. This concern serves to be had on Saturday to accommodate a multitude of of Senator Clinton’s supporters who would like to attend,” her communications director Howard Wolfson said.
Also in the speech, Clinton is able to push once-warring Democrats to focus on the over&wshyp;arching election and defeatiang Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
The announcement brought to a conclusion an epic five-month nominating stave off pitting the beforehand extensive female candidate against the many healthy brown contender ever.
Obama Tuesday night secured the 2,118 delegates to claim the Democratic nomination, but Clinton discontinued very brief of comprehending the current milestone, arguing she would.
An adviser declared Clinton and her lieutenants had gone over multitude of ways a presidential candidacy can end, not excluding forbearing the campaign to retain control of her convention delegates and uphold her visibility in an endeavor to promote her signature matter of well being care.
The greater number of choices store freeing her delegates to returning Obama and ending her candidacy unconditionally. The official stressed this neither Clinton nor her inner circle had determined specifically how direction to take a good amount as opposed to to know overly the active arrangement of her bid to become the nation’s chiefly female president had ended.
On the telephone requirement amid impatient congressional supporters, Clinton was urged to attractiveness a end to the controversial campaign, or at the very least express validation for Obama. Her decision to acquiesce caught multi in the campaign by shock and left the campaign scrambling to finalize the logistics and specifics behind her campaign departure.
On her mainly campaign visit to New Hampshire in February 2007, Hillary Rodham Clinton was confronted by a voter who demanded she explain her 2002 Senate vote authorizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
“I need to recognize if ideally here, best now, after and for all and without nuance, you can say this war authorization was a mistake,” Roger Tilton queried Clinton. “I, and I am sure a lot of more chief voters — until we hear you say it, we are not more than likely to hear all the a greater amount of exorbitant situations you are saying.”
Clinton replied, as she might repeat in the in the wake of months: “Knowing how we can appreciate now, I might never undergo voted for it.”
Her refusal to admit error failed to satisfy Tilton, a 46-year-old interest analyst from what i read in Nashua a great deal although he loved her position on quality of life attention and capping Iraq troop levels.
That exchange, pounced upon by specific reporters to the displeasure of Clinton’s aides, foreshadowed her demise. Her refusal to coming back off such a vote tethered her to the outside of and to an unpopular war. It embodied her campaign’s rule miscalculation: the decision to most recent her as the standard-bearer for Washington experience, set for office on Day One.
As these it was a telltale second in the former first lady’s dizzying 17-month downturn out of prohibitive front-runner to also-ran — upended by Barack Obama, a first time on the nationwide political scene, and by his message of change, in a year voters hungered for change.
By itself, Clinton’s Iraq vote did not worth her the nomination. There got more and more culprits: her ever-changing campaign themes, unpleasent financing planning, squabbling members and a field organizing program intended for quick victory fairly as opposed to a 50-state delegate hunt.
And there got happenings along the way overly got omens of her downfall — the majority of not completely understood in the bright glow of her near-universal and cr recognition, endorsements according to the party organization and extensively instigate in the beginning of polls.
___
The mainly quarter of 2007 finished provided a big shock for the Clinton campaign, the reputed powerhouse of Democratic fundraising: Obama articulated $25 million of a good amount of as opposed to 100,000 donors in individuals 3 months. While the New York senator had cited $26 million of 60,000 donors, only $20 million was for primaries, $6 million for the entire election. Obama’s general included $23 million for the primaries.
At first, word of Obama’s stunning prosperity led to near-panic throughout the Clinton team. Eventually, the agitation gave way to a wary calm. “He talked about a lot, we talked about a lot,” spokesman Howard Wolfson mused. “He’ll buy a lot of ads, we will buy a lot of ads.”
But by now, Obama had eternally shattered the association technique to soliciting campaign cash.
Clinton’s traffic had appear for the most part out of squeezing wealthy those of us for the maximum legal contribution of $2,300 for the primaries and $2,300 for the over&wshyp;arching election. The Obama campaign mined the Internet for pithy donations on individuals who am able to be re-solicited within the campaign.
Obama are able to eventually step up a good amount of as opposed to $265 million for the primaries of a large amount of as opposed to 2 million individuals. Clinton brought up around $215 million, and will end her campaign greater number of as opposed to $30 million in debt. Most important, Obama’s simpleton of little donors brought in for the impressive field company he would build, drawing on grass-roots substantiation around the world and penetrating argues Clinton couldn’t purchase to contest.
___
In May of survive year, a leaked memo out of Clinton deputy campaign manager Mike Henry both foreshadowed and helped form dire occurreneces for her campaign. Henry recommended the New York senator skip the leadoff Iowa caucuses. The document roiled her campaign and revealed the principally of most members disputes. It as well ought to boost seal her faulty cropping in the market cycles later, that gave Obama a risk to substantiate such a grey voters are able to substantiation a brown presidential candidate.
All along, Clinton’s advisers had fretted regarding her probability in Iowa. Bill Clinton did not campaign in the neighborhood in his primarily presidential run in 1992, and the couple had never constructed the establishment needed to win the caucuses.
Supporters such as former Gov. Tom Vilsack warned too Clinton was appearing dangerously late and needed to visit the region more. Campaign purchasers troubled such a Clinton was sticking to a rigorous schedule in the Senate, not spending considerable age in Iowa until late summer 2007.
Although the concept overly she wouldn’t vie in the campaign’s initial contest was never majorly thought by top campaign aides, Henry had the thought of different in the campaign — combined with top adviser and delegate-hunter Harold Ickes — and he was encouraged to put his trepidations on Clinton’s Iowa risks in writing.
The leak of Henry’s memo — that accurately pointed out so Iowa was Clinton’s weakest neighborhood and is able to motivate a multimillion-dollar possession which should be proper exhausted elsewhere — was a suck who put her on the defensive in Iowa for the remainder of the campaign.
Sure enough, it prices Clinton $25 million to end third in Iowa — narrowly behind John Edwards but swamped by Obama, whose organizers had dubbed thousands of young, first-time caucus-goers to appear out for him. Henry left the campaign not extensively after.
___
Clinton delivered solid performances in a for a long while succession of televised debates, but overly streak came apart in a single second in Philadelphia in late October 2007, when she was surveyed throughout a forum on MSNBC if she should substantiation a proposal by her state’s governor, Eliot Spitzer, to make it easier for illegal immigrants to find driver’s licenses.
“I did not say such a it given that be done, but I positively can make out why Governor Spitzer is working to do it,” Clinton said.
That response, and additionally non-answers too night, acquired her appear evasive and opportunistic. Media coverage, until later more often than not respectful, turned critical.
Privately, the New York senator informed friends that Spitzer had identified her shortly before the debate and surveyed the present she validation him on the issue. “I took a hit for him, and it lose me,” Clinton claimed.
___
Until January of the current year, former President Clinton had continued viewed as an asset for his wife amidst her helps and supporters. Although reviled by conservatives for his affair in on a White House intern, Bill Clinton remained a beloved are certain amidst Democratic audiences, truly blacks, who remembered the 1990s as fairly prosperous and his efforts on this behalf.
That adjusted in South Carolina, at which the former president campaigned vigorously for his wife. Her advisers, conscience of his penchant to go off message, had urged him to remain ensured and blabber up her accomplishments, not criticize Obama.
But Bill Clinton chafed at the campaign’s reluctance to issue the Illinois senator, exceptionally in how the former president viewed as conflicts between Obama’s rhetoric of opposition to the Iraq war and his voting record. So he took it on himself to speak out, amongst calamitous results.
Obama soundly won South Carolina, and Bill Clinton when that happens created situations worse. He seemed to reduce Obama’s achievement by noting this civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, never the presidential contender who Obama had presently become, had additionally won the state’s number one decades earlier.
Once so popular amidst blacks he was called the initial brown president by author Toni Morrison, Bill Clinton had helped force folks voters away based on data from his wife. Obama’s currently enduring brown substantiation ought to climb to as a good deal as 90 per cent of the brown vote in subsequent contests.
___
Super Tuesday primaries on Feb. 5 looked at chiefly to be a steady shooting for Clinton, even though not the knockout completely stink her camp after anticipated.
In fact, a miscalculation right about the day propelled her extensively and stable decline.
Although she won enormous economy primaries — California, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts — she all but ceded caucuses to Obama in properties as Colorado, Minnesota and Kansas. By the closing count a few days later, Obama had collected a few a greater number of delegates as opposed to Clinton of the roughly 1,700 at stake overly day.
Clinton had grown an aversion to caucuses once her bad undergo in Iowa; she nonetheless publicly referred to as them unrepresentative and undemocratic. Combined provided harmful budgeting and a shoddy state of affairs of the party’s method of proportional allocation of delegates, so led to catastrophic strategic planning for the Super Tuesday contests.
When Clinton was that much riding excessive in the polls, campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, primary strategist Mark Penn and further advisers thought she should turn up end to clinching the nomination by lucrative sizeable — if costly — chief states. The campaign had budgeted accordingly.
Other Clinton advisers, and also Ickes, had vainly warned which proportional allocation can aide Obama to select up heaps of delegates in the argues Clinton won on Super Tuesday and dozens a great deal more in the caucus suggests if Clinton did not contest them.
Those concerns headed generally unheeded and the big-state Super Tuesday strategy failed badly. Clinton’s campaign was left almost broke, among no true procedures for how to method the contests to come. Obama scored 11 straight wins in February alone, additonally Clinton was required to to lend her campaign $5 million easily to remain afloat. He took the over&wshyp;arching delegate cause Feb. 12 and never lost it.
___
In March, a self-inflicted wound did !no! as opposed to anything and everything else to undermine her contend of out of country policy suffer — and her efforts to reassure voters of her trustworthiness. More as opposed to in the wake of she myself depicted coming up underneath sniper fire as above all lady in an 1996 airport landing in Bosnia.
“There was projected to be specific sort of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but rather we just recently ran amidst our heads lower to get to the vehicles to get to our base,” Clinton alleged within the duration of a worldwide policy speech in Washington. In the hours and days afterward, her say was discredited by video of the landing that surfaced on television to hear and YouTube. But Clinton stuck to her story for a week before ultimately identifying she misspoke. “A tinier blip,” she referred to as it.
Her helps considered it to be everything but. Privately, properties got horrified by the gaffe and saw basically no feasible way to defend it.
___
In New Hampshire on Jan. 4, the day following she lost so catastrophically in Iowa, Clinton was questioned by a reporter whether Obama represented an invincible force this she would be powerless to contest. At the time, Clinton batted going back the question. But she reimbursed to it for the duration of drinks investing in reporters cycles later.
“I are sure you may suffer been heard on to something,” she said.
In the end, none of the mistakes by Clinton and her campaign committe was fatal in and of itself. She and her husband got pros in extricating themselves based on data from death-defying jams.
But Obama proved to be more and more as opposed to recently a traditional opponent. In the end, the Clintons’ standard tactics — big-scale fundraising, high-powered political connections, old-fashioned grit and determination — got no balance for Obama and a candidacy uniquely suited to the moment.
Campaigning in the closing primaries, Clinton said, “I’ve actually enjoyed the system of making able to go out and see currently world anew.”
But how she saw was a earth the present wanted one new.
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By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The fate of nearly 2.3 million Democratic presidential primary votes belongs to 30 party activists.
The activists sit on the Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, which was to meet Saturday to decide what role Michigan and Florida should play at the national convention in August.
Both states were banned from sending delegates to the meeting because they held primaries in January, too early for party rules. They were attempting to have greater influence on the presidential nominating process long dominated by Iowa and New Hampshire.
Now Democrats want to figure a way to include the two states in the convention because they will be important battlegrounds in the general election.
Just how many delegates to give each state and how to distribute them between the candidates was the vexing decision before the rules committee. Clinton supporters planned a protest to demand full seating of the 368 delegates from the two states — an unlikely outcome with committee members interested in punishing the two states to discourage future line jumpers.
By 8 a.m. Saturday some 200 people had gathered on a sidewalk outside the hotel where the committee was to meet. They waved homemade signs, blew party signs, and chanted “Every vote!” Hotel security staff kept watch over the crowd, shepherding people off the hotel grounds at times.
Beverly Battelle Weeks, 56, a Clinton delegate who got up well before dawn to drive up from Richmond, Va., carried a black umbrella on which she had pasted letters spelling out “Count All Votes.”
“The right thing to do is to seat all the delegates. Anything less is not democratic,” she said.
Hillary Rodham Clinton won both the Florida and Michigan contests after all the candidates agreed not to campaign in either state. At the time, she said the vote didn’t matter, but now she is trailing Barack Obama and wants to see her victories result in more delegates at the convention.
“It’s important to send the right signals to them and the people living in those states that we Democrats value those states, value those voters and want them as full partners in a general election in assembling 270 electoral votes,” said Clinton strategist Harold Ickes, a member of the rules committee.
Obama could afford to allow Clinton a few delegates — going into the meeting, he was just 42 away from the nomination out of more than 2,000 required. Clinton was more than 200 delegates behind.
The committee appeared to be leaning toward a compromise that would allow each state to restore half of its delegate count. That probably would add fewer than 30 more delegates to the total that Obama needs, with three more contests to go — Puerto Rico on Sunday and Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday.
Members of the committee discussed their options over a lengthy dinner with DNC Chairman Howard Dean that began Friday night and lasted until 2 a.m. Saturday. People who attended said no deals were reached, although there was a widespread sentiment that they should try to come up with some resolution that would put the issue behind them.
Obama campaign officials, eager to move on, said they were willing to give Clinton the edge in delegates, but they were not willing to accept the Clinton camp’s hard-line stance that all the delegates should be fully seated in accordance to the January elections.
“We have both fought hard throughout the country, both of us, for delegates and the fact that we’re willing to essentially cede her delegates we do not think is an insignificant gesture on our part,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said. “But we’re willing to do this in the interest of trying to bring this to a close so we can focus on the general election.”
Source:news.yahoo
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press Writer
BAYAMON, Puerto Rico - Barack Obama told veterans Saturday that he can’t understand why Republican John McCain opposes legislation that would provide college scholarships to people who have served in the U.S. military.
“Now, let me be clear: No one can dispute John McCain’s love for this country or his concern for veterans. But here’s what I don’t understand. I don’t understand why John McCain would side with George Bush and oppose our plan to make college more affordable for our veterans,” the Democratic presidential candidate said. “George Bush and John McCain may think our plan is too generous. I could not disagree more.”
Obama’s criticism renews a clash that turned personal after the Senate approved the scholarship bill Thursday.
During the Senate debate, the Illinois senator questioned why McCain a Navy veteran and former prisoner of war would oppose the measure.
McCain responded with a sharp statement saying that he wouldn’t listen to any lectures on veterans’ affairs from Obama, “who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform.”
Obama, speaking to reporters aboard his plane Saturday, countered that the idea that he can’t speak on veterans’ issues because he didn’t serve in the military “makes no sense whatsoever.”
“I didn’t serve, as many people my age, because the Vietnam war was over by the time I was of draft age and we went to an all-volunteer Army. But obviously I revere our soldiers and want to make sure they are being treated with honor and respect,” he added.
The Arizona senator opposes the scholarship measure, as does the Pentagon, because it applies to people who serve just three years. He fears that would encourage people to leave the military after only one enlistment even as the U.S. fights two wars and is trying to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps.
Instead, McCain and Republican colleagues proposed a bill to increase benefits in conjunction with a veteran’s length of service. Senate Democrats blocked that measure.
“While Barack Obama engages in the same tired partisan politics that has failed our veterans time and again, John McCain has offered legislation that will expand needed education benefits for veterans while promoting retention in our armed forces,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Saturday.
Only three primaries are left in the battle for the Democratic nomination, and Puerto Rico is holding one of them. Puerto Ricans can vote in party primaries but not in the fall general election.
Clinton spoke at an evening rally in Aguadilla, where she reminded the crowd of her ties to Puerto Rico as a first lady and then as senator from New York, which has approximately 1 million Puerto Rican residents.
“My commitment to Puerto Rico did not start last month or last year,” she said. “I will always be your voice as president.”
Through her speech, Clinton drew applause by insisting Puerto Ricans should get the same tax breaks, health care and economic opportunity afforded mainland U.S. citizens.
“You deserve a president who will give Puerto Rico’s issues as much attention as the president gives to any state,” she said.
Both candidates are hoping to increase their share of the 55 delegates who will be chosen June 1.
After Obama’s speech, he led a caminata a short political parade through the streets of Old San Juan. With an oceanfront park on one side and colorful colonial buildings on the other, Obama shook hands with cheering fans as scores of supporters marched behind.
Occasionally, he clapped or wiggled his hips to the Latin beat of his campaign song.
About 100 pro-independence advocates noisily protested a couple of blocks away. “Presidential primary is colonial trickery!” they chanted, criticizing both Obama and Clinton for not pledging to resolve Puerto Rico’s status remain a territory, become a state or declare independence.
But Obama was careful not to get caught up in the controversy, repeatedly saying that Puerto Ricans should be given a chance to decide their status for themselves.
___
Associated Press Writers Andrew O. Selsky and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
Source:news.yahoo
To hear Howard Avery describe it, Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie knew nothing of his son when their paths happened to cross at a recent AAU basketball event.
Michael Avery
As fate would have it, though, that chance encounter led to a scholarship offer from the Wildcats and perhaps the earliest verbal commitment in the history of college basketball’s winningest program.
Michael Avery, a 6-foot-4 eighth-grader from Lake Sherwood, Calif., says he will play for the Cats. Now on with the business of finding a high school.
“That’s the funny thing,” Howard Avery said with laugh. “We’ve got our college. Now we need our high school.”
Avery currently attends Ascension Lutheran School in Thousand Oaks. He recently came east to interview with a private school in Culver, Ind., that he is considering attending next year. During that trip, the coach of Culver’s upstart basketball program introduced the family to the Indiana Elite AAU staff, who subsequently invited Avery to play with their team in the King James tournament in Akron, Ohio.
According to Avery, Gillispie was scouting the event when the young player caught his eye.
“The second game we played, coach Gillispie was there watching a couple of other players that he may have had an interest in,” Avery said. “There was a 7-footer from Africa, a 6-10 player and a 6-8 player, so there were a lot of talented players at that game. I don’t even think he was aware of Michael before this game.
“Michael came off the bench each half and had a good game against some really good competition. From what I understand, he displayed a total skill set and the basketball IQ to know when and where to use that skill set within the context of the game. I think that’s what really impressed coach Gillispie.”
Rules prohibit college coaches from initiating contact with prospects and their families at events like the King James tournament, but word was later filtered through the Indiana Elite staff that Gillispie was very impressed with Avery.
“So what I proceeded to do was make contact with coach Gillispie,” Avery said. “I got a contact number for him and left him a message, but didn’t hear back from him. I started wondering, does he really like my son? When I got in Los Angeles Monday morning, I decided to try again, and he answered the call. He told me he remembered my son, and that he was really glad that I called. He explained that he wasn’t allowed to call me back, so it had to be me that initiated the call.
“We talked for a while and he said, ‘I like your son. In fact, I like him so much I want to offer him a scholarship here at Kentucky.’ I was like, ‘You’re joking, right?’ He said, ‘Nope. I’m serious. I really love the way he plays.”
When he told his son about the UK scholarship offer, the first official offer Michael Avery had received, it was difficult to restrain the excitement.
“I think Michael wanted to commit right then,” Avery said. “But this is all so new to us, and I’m aware of the unusual nature of an eighth-grader giving a commitment to a college. I wasn’t really sure how to react to it at first. A lot of people will say it’s too early in the process, but after talking to some people who know coach Gillispie, we decided it really can’t get much better than this opportunity.
“It’s a dream school for any kid who grows up wanting to play basketball. There’s only a few of them out there: Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Indiana back east; UCLA out here. If you’ve got an opportunity to play for one of those schools and get a great education, why not? We don’t need a hundred offers; we just need one great program and one great coach.”
Avery had also been getting early interest from USC, who according to his father had invited him to the Trojans’ elite camp this summer. Several other programs were just beginning to inquire about him.
Family ties could make it easier for Avery to see himself playing in this part of the country. His mother is from Indiana, and his grandmother still lives near Indianapolis.
The elder Avery said he is not a diehard fan of college basketball, but his son is. “Michael’s a student of the game. When he’s not playing or studying, he’s watching basketball. That’s his life. He’s really passionate about it. He must have watched about 12 Kentucky games last year. He knew all about them.”
And what does the family know about Gillispie and his coaching style thus far?
“We just know that he’s been really, really successful no matter where he’s been,” Avery said. “The turnaround at UTEP and the turnaround at Texas A&M… they speak for themselves. He’s got a tremendous track record, and everyone we’ve talked to about coach Gillispie have nothing but great things to say about him. We know he’s a coach who can develop Michael’s game and get the most out of his ability.”
Much can change in a player’s body and physical development between the eighth grade and his senior year of high school. Avery could end up being much taller and developing into another position, but his father said the UK staff envisions him as a combo guard at this point.
Rivals.com does not rank players at such an early age, but some services list Avery among the top 10 players in his class.
“He was ranked third in the U.S. Elite Camp at Baylor,” Avery said. “And he was ranked eighth at the Junior All-American Camp.
“But, you know, I don’t think coach Gillispie was aware of any of that. He just saw my kid play. There’s something to be said for that. He’s not going based on what anyone has told him or where some website has Michael ranked. He saw his ability and potential himself. I really respect it.”
The Averys have not made a final decision on his high school future. If he does not come to Indiana, he will likely play for Crespi High School in the L.A. area.
“No matter where he is, he’s got a lot of motivation now,” Avery said. “He’s going to be working really hard to improve his game because he knows a lot will be expected of him when word gets out that he’s going to a school like Kentucky.”
Source:rivalshoops.rivals
By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A line of severe storms swept across the Southeast on Thursday, damaging homes and businesses in at least four states. One person was killed and three were injured by a tornado in North Carolina, authorities said.
An apparent tornado wrecked a shopping area in Mississippi and strong winds flipped a mobile home in Alabama. In south-central Tennessee, at least four homes and a few barns were damaged.
A tornado touched down late Thursday on the outskirts of Greensboro, N.C., blowing three tractor-trailers off Interstate 40, authorities said. One person was killed and two were injured in the freeway accidents, and a third was hurt when a wall collapsed.
Two businesses and one house were damaged in Guilford County, said state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety spokeswoman Patty McQuillan. Two houses collapsed in Clemmons, probably because of high winds, and more than 32,000 were without power, officials said.
In Alabama, at least 15 school systems released students early, while others held students late as squalls passed. Winds blew a piece of metal roofing off Hamilton High School, about 90 miles northwest of Birmingham.
“For 10 minutes, it was pretty good wind with lightning and thunder and rain blowing sideways,” said Todd Page, who works at a car dealership in Hamilton.
There were no confirmed reports of tornadoes in Alabama but winds gusting up to 60 mph flipped a mobile home, said George Grabryan, emergency management director in Lauderdale County. A house and a building in the rural county were also damaged.
In Tupelo, Miss., an apparent tornado wrecked a furniture store where William Felks and Allan Jackson had to brace themselves during the storm.
“Me and Allan hid behind a door, and I was holding on to his belt as tight as I could. Then in seconds it stopped,” Felks told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. “It took less than a minute to mess this whole building up. Man, I was scared.”
A home improvement store and a farm supply retailer near Tupelo were also damaged, said Paul Harkins, Lee County’s director of emergency communications. “There were power lines and trees down around it and a car was lifted off the ground and pushed into a tree,” Harkins said.
The same weather system struck Oklahoma a day earlier.
Severe weather experts there picked through debris and damage Thursday to determine whether tornadoes touched down after severe storms moved through the state, toppling trees and knocking out power to thousands of people.
A tornado reported near the southern Oklahoma town of Paoli apparently picked up a mobile home off the ground with a woman and her son inside, said Garvin County Emergency Management Director Buck Pearson.
The woman, Cindy Ward, suffered some broken toes and was bruised, but the boy was not hurt. Ward managed to get her son into an interior closet just before the storm hit the home.
“There was no shaking, no rattling, no sound like a freight train,” Ward told the Pauls Valley Daily Democrat. “It wasn’t a calm before the storm. It just pickled it up and slammed it down. The only noise we heard was ‘kaboom’ when the house landed.”
___
Associated Press writers Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and Chris Talbott in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.
Source:news.yahoo
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush stuck out his right elbow Thursday, jokingly demonstrating how he’ll escort his daughter down the aisle at her wedding this weekend.
He made the gesture at Andrews Air Force Base before boarding Air Force One for the flight to Texas, where Jenna Bush will be married Saturday before about 200 guests at the family’s 1,600 acre, secluded ranch. Asked if he was excited, the president smiled and gave a thumbs-up.
“He’s looking forward to it,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters aboard the plane as it flew from rainy Washington to sunny Texas. “He’s excited like any proud father is to see one of his daughters get married.”
“I think he’s also going to make sure he gets a good night’s sleep tonight so he can stay up late the rest of the weekend and enjoy all the activities.”
First lady Laura Bush is already at the ranch getting ready for the outdoor wedding on the 1,600-acre spread in central Texas. Jenna Bush, 26, is tying the knot with longtime boyfriend Henry Hager, who turns 30 on Friday.
The bride-to-be and Hager of Richmond, Va., opted for a more low-key affair, thinking a White House wedding would be too formal and stuffy.
The White House says it will be a closed affair. No details are expected to be released, although White House officials say the family might agree to release a photo or two of the wedding on Sunday.
“This is really a private event for the family,” Johndroe said. “I think the activities of the weekend are going to be really a private celebration for Jenna and Henry’s family and friends.”
Marvin Bush, one of the president’s brothers, and his family flew down with Bush on Air Force One. The group, along with White House advisers, hopped on the Marine One presidential helicopter with Bush, who hurried them up with a wave and a smile.
On Thursday evening, the president and Mrs. Bush drove about five miles from their ranch to dine at another ranch owned by Donald Ensenat and Joseph Canizaro, both from New Orleans. Ensenat, one of Bush’s fraternity brothers at Yale University and a former ambassador to Brunei, stepped down after six years as U.S. chief of protocol, saying the job was taking a toll on his family and wife, who divided time between Washington and New Orleans. He went into business with Canizaro, a real estate developer, venture capitalist and Republican contributor.
On Friday night, the couple is hosting a rehearsal dinner; and on Saturday, a barbecue lunch is being planned.
Bush has joked that he has had little to do with the wedding planning — that he’s mostly just expected to open his wallet. Vice President Dick Cheney noted that on Thursday when he visited one of the government’s financial centers in Philadelphia where the economic stimulus checks are being processed.
“He’s on his way to Texas for his daughter’s wedding this weekend,” Cheney said about Bush. “So you can bet he’ll be writing a few checks, too.”
Tricia Nixon, one of President Richard Nixon’s daughters, was the last child of a president to get married at the White House. She married Edward Cox on June 12, 1971. Since then, other children of presidents have gotten married, but their weddings were not held at the White House.
Source:news.yahoo
LONDON (Reuters) - British singer Amy Winehouse has been released from police custody after being arrested on suspicion of drug offences, police sources said on Thursday.
The Grammy-winning soul singer, who was cautioned for assault less than two weeks ago, was held after she handed herself in at an East London police station on Wednesday and was questioned by detectives for more than nine hours.
The arrest related to a video published by a British tabloid newspaper showing the singer smoking what it said was crack cocaine. The 24-year-old singer has not been charged.
“At 1 p.m. (8:00 a.m. EDT) on Wednesday, a 24-year-old woman attended a London police station by arrangement,” police said in a statement. “She was arrested in connection with alleged possession of a controlled drug.”
A spokeswoman said on Thursday that the woman, based in Camden, north London, was released on bail until later this month pending further inquiries. She did not name the woman and declined to give more details.
Media reports said Winehouse looked anguished and disheveled as she arrived at the Limehouse police station.
She was held overnight in a cell last month but was released without charge after admitting assault by slapping a man.
The latest Sunday Times Rich List said Winehouse, whose battle against drug addiction has often overshadowed her recording success, is worth about 10 million pounds ($20 million).
She did not attend the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in February, but still managed five big wins, including record and song of the year for “Rehab” and best pop vocal album for her breakthrough release, “Back to Black.”
Her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, 25, is due to stand trial in June charged with trying to pervert the course of justice and inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Fielder-Civil, who is in custody, denies the charges, which relate to an East London pub brawl in June 2006.
(Reporting by Andrew Hough and Avril Ormsby; Editing by Jeremy Lovell and Tim Pearce)
Source:News.yahoo
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer Posted
In this July 2, 2003 file photo, the skyline of Pittsburgh is seen through the morning haze from across the Allegeheny River. A city outside California has for the first time been named the sootiest in the nation, one of the categories the American Lung Association uses to determine the most polluted cities in the country. Pittsburgh overtook Los Angeles in the category that measures short-term particle pollution or soot. Los Angeles still took the all-around pollution title. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
LOS ANGELES - A city outside California has for the first time been named the sootiest in the nation, one of the categories the American Lung Association uses to determine the most polluted cities in the country.
Los Angeles still took the all-around pollution title, though.
Pittsburgh overtook Los Angeles in the category that measures short-term particle pollution or soot. Los Angeles, the country’s longtime soot and smog leader, has enacted aggressive measures to tackle sources of pollution, resulting in a substantial drop in particle pollution levels, said Janice Nolen, the association’s assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy.
“It’s not that Pittsburgh has gotten worse; it’s that Los Angeles has gotten better,” Nolen said. “If the trend continues, Pittsburgh will top two lists, and LA will only be leading the nation in ozone.”
Still, Los Angeles held its own in two other categories measuring year-round soot levels and smog. And statewide, 26 of California’s 52 counties with air quality monitoring stations got failing grades for having either high ozone days or particle pollution days.
The association’s “State of the Air: 2008″ report, being released Thursday, was based on air quality measurements reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by state and local agencies between 2004 and 2006. The study looks at three key pollution measures.
The eight metropolitan areas considered to be the nation’s most polluted by every measure were Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Visalia-Porterfield and Hanford-Corcoran, all in California; Washington-Baltimore; St. Louis; and Birmingham, Ala.
The cleanest cities were Fargo, N.D., and Salinas, Calif.
The rankings were based on ozone pollution levels produced when heat and sunlight come into contact with pollutants from power plants, cars, refineries and other sources. The lung association also studied particle pollution levels emitted from these sources, which are made up of a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles in the air.
The study found that about 42 percent of residents nationwide live in counties with high levels of particle or ozone pollution.
“When you think of the impact of ozone on our respiratory tracts, imagine putting acid right in your eye. It’s that corrosive,” said Tony Gerber, a pulmonary specialist and assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco. “This corrosiveness causes severe irritation and leads to problems like asthma attacks, coughing, wheezing, chest pain and even death.”
Source:news.yahoo
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