Breaking News Thread

[FoundArealQuad]

Better get into that Krandall

[Krandall]

7 more years until the next one

[Flynbyu]

I saw that on CNN yesterday.

It's a raw stone. Looks very cool.

~Brian

[Krandall]

I can't even imagine finding something like that.. Jaw just hitting the floor knowing it's worth 100+ million.

[Flynbyu]

It's worth more cut and polished!!!

~Brian

[Krandall]

Private search on for missing NFL players in Gulf
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090304/ap_on_re_us/missing_boaters_nfl

I meant to post this yesterday, truly sad. Wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemies dieing like this.

TAMPA, Fla. – Private boats and planes searched Wednesday for two NFL players and a third man missing for four days since their boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida, family members said.

The Coast Guard called off the official search Tuesday for Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, who owned the boat, free-agent NFL defensive lineman Corey Smith and former South Florida player William Bleakley. But their families appealed for help to keep hunting.

Two or three charters left in the late morning from a St. Petersburg marina and at least one had friends of the families of the missing men aboard, said Don Beggs, who owns one of the local docks. Three private planes also had searched, according to Cooper's father, Bruce Cooper.

A fourth man on the fishing trip, Nick Schuyler, was rescued Monday after crews found him clinging to the boat. His doctor said it's a "miracle" Schuyler survived in the cold water for nearly two days after the boat carrying the men on a fishing trip overturned in rough seas off the Florida coast Saturday.

Dr. Mark Rumbak said the 24-year-old is in good condition but will remain in intensive care in case there are complications. Schuyler was in 63-degree Gulf of Mexico water for around 46 hours and probably could have lived only another five to 10 hours if he wasn't rescued Monday, Rumbak said.

"I think he is extremely fortunate having been in the water for 46, 47 hours and that he's even alive," Rumbak said. "I can't explain it. Some divine providence, I really think."

The missing men's families have set up an e-mail address for experienced pilots and boaters to contact them. Coast Guard Capt. Timothy Close said the agency wouldn't prevent private searches, but discouraged them, saying they could be dangerous. He said authorities believed if there were more survivors, they would have been found.

Free-agent defensive tackle Tank Johnson, a childhood friend and college teammate of Cooper at Washington, was taking a lead role in the renewed search. Johnson, who played for the Dallas Cowboys last season, said the family has not given up hope that the men are still alive.

"I truly believe he is out there somewhere being strong," Johnson said.

Even if the men aren't found alive, it's important to recover their remains so survivors can have closure, Johnson said.

"This kid is going fight to the bitter end," Cooper's father said. "And so in my heart of hearts, I just believe he's out there somewhere just waiting to be found, so that really gives me strength in this effort to find him."

Bleakley's mother said Wednesday that Schuyler gave her a harrowing account of the men's fight to survive after the boat capsized. Betty Bleakley said Schuyler told her the men swam back to the boat after being repeatedly hurled by strong waves.

"To listen to Nick, they fought real hard to come home," Betty Bleakley said. "Nick said that all of them fought, just fought to stay alive."

Bleakley and Schuyler, college teammates, managed to stick together for about 24 hours. She says they talked about how they would live their lives differently.

"He said they huddled together, they just kept climbing back on the boat after getting knocked off," she said. "He said they just kept fighting. They fought. They fought."

Betty Bleakley said her son's actions were heroic. She said he swam underneath the boat to get life vests for the other men and then used a cushion for floatation himself.

"That was Will," she said. "Will was calm and level-headed and would just try to think things through.

"As painful as it was talking to Nick, it's providing some closure for us," she said.

[Flynbyu]

Terrible.

I'm shocked the owner of the boat went that far out, especially with small craft advisories. 7 foot waves in a 21 foot boat would keep me close to shore. Waves that size would be uncomfortable in a boat twice that size.

~Brian

[socalrappy700]

Not a smart move, sad that they had to pay the ultimate price.

[Flynbyu]

Yes they did.

They were anchored 30+ miles away from shore?

Too far in a boat that small in my opinion.

~Brian

[Krandall]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_obama_budget
Obama takes aim at costly defense contracts



President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the U.S. government was paying too much for things it did not need and ordered a crackdown on spending "plagued by massive cost overruns and outright fraud."

The Democrat, under fire from Republicans for the $3.5 trillion price tag for his 2010 budget plan, also took aim at predecessor George W. Bush and noted the cost of government contracts had doubled to more than half a trillion dollars over the past eight years.

Obama, who inherited a $1.3 trillion budget deficit when he took office on January 20, said wasteful spending was a problem across the government, but he zeroed in on the defense industry and costly weapons projects hit by "delay after delay."

[socalrappy700]

Better clean up your resume Aaron.

[Flynbyu]

Better clean up your resume Aaron.

Yup.

No more forum whoring. Get to work. You have a deadline.



~Brian

[Flynbyu]

RENO, Nev. – The eagle has landed — with a thud — after crashing through the windshield of a tractor-trailer on a Nevada highway. State wildlife officials said Wednesday that a 15-pound golden eagle with a 7-foot wing span has a swollen head but otherwise appears unhurt after crashing into a Florida truck driver's big rig on Monday.










Matthew Roberto Gonzalez of Opa Locka, Fla., was driving on U.S. Interstate 80 in northeast Nevada near Wells, about 60 miles west of the Utah line, when the eagle came crashing into the cab of his truck.

"I heard a loud thump like a brick or something coming through the glass," said Daryl Young of Miami, the co-driver who was dozing in the sleeper berth when it happened. "I woke up, and the windshield was all over me. Next thing I know there was a big bird lying on the floor."

Joe Doucette, a spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said it appears the eagle hit the windshield head first.

"One side of the head is swollen, but there does not appear to be any permanent damage," he said.

"The guys in the truck immediately bailed out because it was one ticked off bird. She was pretty feisty," Doucette said. "Even the officer who responded didn't want to go in there so we had one of our wildlife biologists do it."

The eagle was recovering at the Northeast Nevada Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Spring Creek, and Doucette said the goal was to release it back into the wild.

Jeffrey Spires, owner of Spires Trucking of South Florida in Miramar, Fla., said he thought his drivers were kidding when they called to report the damage.

"Never in trucking history," he said.

Story via the AP

~Brian

[Flynbyu]

Unless you've been living under a rock (and it's okay to admit if you have, I'm told rent is cheap), you probably heard that President Barack Obama sat courtside at D.C.'s Verizon Center Friday night, watching his hometown Chicago Bulls take on the Washington Wizards.



The First Fan drank beer, read the game program and left early (with four minutes left) during a blowout. "All common American activity," as Tom Ziller put it, "except most of us don't sit courtside, nor are we important enough that the NBA will hold up a tip-off until we get to our seats." (Speak for yourself, Z!)

But Obama's night of "Joe Plumber Americana" didn't stop there. He also exchanged a few playful words with a diehard Wizards fan sitting a few rows back. Yes, that's right, the 44th President of the United States joined in a little trash talk. Awesome.

The vocal instigator: Miles Rawls (above, standing, "heckling"), the commissioner of the Barry Farms' Goodman League — a big-time summer circuit in Southeast D.C., which has starred Gilbert Arenas and Kevin Durant, among others.

Dan Steinberg of the D.C. Sports Bog, in a fun must-read, talked with Rawes about trading barbs with the President.

Here's a snippet from the interview:

[Rawls] said his chatter, like always, was unscripted, "right off the top of my head. I just had to see how he was gonna take it," Rawls said. "Once I knew he was a big trash talker, too, about them Bulls, that means the gloves came off." [...]

"I wasn't heckling the President and I don't heckle the players. I talk about their weaknesses. We was having a good time. He was talking trash and I was talking trash. I couldn't believe he was that laidback and real. I loved it."

And while they talked through much of the game, Rawls — who had never met a President — said no lines were crossed. "I wasn't disrespectful," he said. "I know my limits."

So, for example, he told the President that if he was rooting for the visitors, he was "gonna have to keep it to a low roar, because we're cheering for the Wizards over here." Obama, in turn, repeatedly needled Rawls about the Wizards' habit of letting leads evaporate, especially when the Bulls made a run.



"We was just going back and forth," Rawls said. "Once Chicago started coming back, he told me, 'Now I think you need to sit down.' When Tyrus Thomas dunked on somebody, he turned around, was talking smack. Then JaVale McGee had that alley-oop, and he gave me the high five. We was just supporting each others' team, having a good time."

Well, I smell an audit coming.



~Brian

[Colorado700R]

Better clean up your resume Aaron.

Kim Jong Ill and Iran will keep me employed.  There are more than a few that need to be cut, more than a few here too