Breaking News Thread

[Flynbyu]

CNN: Rap star T.I. sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay a $100,300 fine on weapons charges.

More to follow.

~Brian

[Flynbyu]

Missing woman found dead in her home. She's only been missing for seven years.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/03/27/ca.dead.home.years.kgo

~Brian

[Krandall]

Seems it's either feast or famine.. while others are dealing w/ droughts. We're dealing w/ TO MUCH water.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_re_us/midwest_flooding
Red River tops historic marker, undermines levy

FARGO, N.D. – The Red River rose to a daunting 112-year high early Friday and breached one of the dikes fortifying the city, but the mayor pledged to "go down swinging" as he called for more evacuations and additional National Guard troops to prevent a devastating flood.

The river swelled to 40.32 feet — more than 22 feet above flood stage and inches more than the previous high water mark of 40.1 feet set in 1897. It was expected to crest as high as 43 feet on Saturday. Fargo's main dike protects the city at the 43-foot level.

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker says the city has no plans to build the dike any higher. He says officials believe the Red River will crest at between 41.5 and 42 feet.

"We're not going to proceed to take it to 44. Is that a gamble? We don't think so," Walaker said.

Walaker says they are adding 800 members of the guard from North Dakota and South Dakota to patrol dikes for breaches, on top of the 900 troops already in place.

Officials asked people to stay off of roads to keep streets clear for sandbag trucks and avoid traffic jams that have been plaguing the area.

Authorities in Fargo and across the river in Moorhead, Minn., expanded evacuations Friday across several blocks of their cities. The total number of people ordered from homes wasn't clear.

Sen. Byron Dorgan also said that Northwest Airlines was sending two jetliners to move patients from hospitals to safer areas.

Just after 2 a.m. Friday, residents in one neighborhood were roused from sleep and ordered to evacuate after authorities found a leak in a dike. The leak left the integrity of the dike in question, police Capt. Tod Dahle said.

"It's not like there's a wall of water going through," he said. "It's just a significant leak."

Fargo spokeswoman Karena Lunday said it was the only overnight breech and crews would start patching it Friday morning.

"We want to go down swinging if we go down," Walaker said.

The American Red Cross planned to send another 150 people to the North Dakota flood zone to operate emergency shelters. They will join the 85 such volunteers already working in Grand Forks, Bismarck, Fargo and Moorhead, Minn.

Spokeswoman Courtney Johnson said Friday it's not necessarily a sign that the Red Cross is expecting a disaster. "No one living has ever seen something like this," she said. "We preach preparedness. We can't not be prepared."

Residents in this city of 92,000 had been scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags along the river and spent much of Thursday preparing for a crest of 41 feet, only to have forecasters late in the day add up to 2 feet to their estimate.

The National Weather Service said in its follow-up statement that the Red was expected to crest between 41 and 42 feet by Saturday, but could reach 43 feet. It said water levels could remain high for three days to a week.

The first estimate sparked urgency among thousands of volunteers in Fargo. The second shook their spirits.

"I've lived here 40 years and over a 30-minute span I've reached a point where I'm preparing to evacuate and expect never to sleep in my house again," said Tim Corwin, 55, whose south Fargo home was sheltered by sandbags to 43 feet.

But the sandbag-making operation at the Fargodome churned as furiously as ever, sending fresh bags out to an estimated 6,000 volunteers who endured temperatures below 20 degrees in the race to sandbag.

"I was skeptical as far as volunteers coming out today, but they're like mailmen," said Leon Schlafmann, Fargo's emergency management director. "They come out rain, sleet or shine."

Several unusual factors sent the Red River surging to historic heights this year. The winter was unusually cold and snowy, which left a large snowpack sitting on top of frozen ground that couldn't absorb it. Then a warm snap and heavy rain quickly melted the snow and sent it into toward the river.

And it all happened to a river that flows north. When most rivers in the United States melt, they send the extra water south toward warmer, open water. When the Red breaks up, it sends hunks of ice north into colder water that is often still frozen.

Officials ordered the evacuation of another Fargo neighborhood and a nursing home late Thursday after authorities found cracks in an earthen levee. Residents were not in immediate danger, and water wasn't flowing over the levee, Walaker said.

Still, officers went door to door to the roughly 40 homes in the River Vili neighborhood and were evacuating Riverview Estates nursing home. Authorities also asked the 1,000 residents who live between the main dikes and the backup dikes in various parts of the city to leave within 24 hours. That evacuation could become mandatory.

Authorities across the river in Moorhead, also stepped up evacuations Thursday. The city of about 35,000 recommended that residents leave the southwest corner of the city and a low-lying township to the north where some homes had already flooded.

Fargo's largest hospital and at least four nursing homes also moved residents.

"A few of them said they didn't want to go. I said I'm going where the crowd goes," said 98-year-old Margaret "Dolly" Beaucage, who clasped rosary beads as she waited to leave Elim Care Center.

"I'm a swimmer," she said, smiling, "but not that good a swimmer."

In rural areas south of Fargo, crews were rescuing stranded residents. Pat Connor of the Cass County sheriff's department said 70 people had been rescued by Thursday evening, and he expected that number to grow.

The federal government announced a disaster declaration Thursday for seven Minnesota counties. The entire state of North Dakota had received a disaster designation earlier in the week.

On the Canadian side of the northern-flowing Red River, ice-clogged culverts, ice jams and the rising river threatened Manitoba residents. Several homes were evacuated north of Winnipeg and several dozen houses were flooded.

"We're in for probably the worst two weeks that this community has ever seen in its entire existence," St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang said. The Red River crest threatening North Dakota isn't expected to arrive in Manitoba for another week.

[Flynbyu]

ShamWow dude battered hooker in South Beach hotel room brawl!

MARCH 27--Meet Vince Shlomi.



He's probably better known to you as the ShamWow Guy, the ubiquitous television pitchman who has been phenomenally successful peddling absorbent towels and food choppers. Shlomi, 44, was arrested last month on a felony battery charge following a violent confrontation with a prostitute in his South Beach hotel room. According to an arrest affidavit, Shlomi met Sasha Harris....



26, at a Miami Beach nightclub on February 7 and subsequently retired with her to his $750 room at the lavish Setai hotel. Shlomi told cops he paid Harris about $1000 in cash after she "propositioned him for straight sex." Shlomi said that when he kissed Harris, she suddenly "bit his tongue and would not let go." Shlomi then punched Harris several times until she released his tongue. The affidavit, a copy of which you'll find here, notes that during the 4 AM fight Harris sustained facial fractures and lacerations all over her face (she is pictured here in mug shots snapped following busts in 2008 and 2005). After freeing his tongue, a bleeding Shlomi ran to the Setai lobby, where security summoned cops. Harris refused to cooperate with officers, who recovered $930 from her purse. "Both parties had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from their persons," police reported. In a brief telephone interview, Harris declined to answer TSG questions about her run-in with Shlomi, though she did say she is considering a lawsuit against the pitchman. Asked if she worked as a hooker, Harris declined comment. As seen in the below mug shot, Shlomi was also injured during the fracas and, court records show, was treated at Mount Sinai Medical Center. While Shlomi and Harris were both arrested for felony aggravated battery, prosecutors this month declined to file formal charges against the combatants. Police records list Shlomi's occupation as "Marketing," but make no mention of his affiliation with the ShamWow or the Slap Chop, both of which sell for $19.95 (plus shipping and handling).

See the police report here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0327092sham3.html

~Brian

[disco]

Looks like she slap-chopped his face.

I don't think I'd punch somebody holding my tongue with her teeth.  That would be a good way to lose it. 

[Peelz]

SHAM-WOW

[Krandall]

U.S. deploys anti-missile ships before N.Korea launch
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090330/wl_nm/us_korea_north

SEOUL (Reuters) – The United States deployed two missile-interceptor ships from South Korea on Monday, a military spokesman said, days ahead of a North Korean rocket launch widely seen as a long-range missile test that violates U.N. sanctions.

The launch presents the first significant challenge by the prickly state to U.S. President Barack Obama, who will discuss Pyongyang's intentions with global leaders including Chinese President Hu Jintao this week at the G20 summit in London.

The United States, however, has no intention to shoot down the rocket in a test seen by Washington as part of Pyongyang's goal to eventually develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.

"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," Gates said on "Fox News Sunday" when asked if the Pentagon planned to shoot down the missile.

"If we had an aberrant missile, one that looked like it was headed for Hawaii, we might consider it," he said, adding the Pentagon does not believe North Korea can put a warhead on the missile or reach the U.S. West Coast.

U.S. Forces Korea dispatched the guided missile destroyers from the South Korean port of Busan, a spokesman said without offering further details.

Local media quoted informed sources as saying the vessels with sophisticated radar will monitor the launch, which Pyongyang has said is planned for April 4-8. South Korea also plans to dispatch one of its missile-intercepting destroyers closer to the launch date, officials have said.

Japan deployed two missile-intercepting vessels to waters off its west coast at the weekend and another with sophisticated radar off its Pacific coast.

The North Korean rocket is supposed to drop booster stages to the east and west of Japan. Government officials said Tokyo is poised to shoot down debris that poses a threat to its public.

Rear Admiral James Kelly, Commander of U.S. Forces Japan, told reporters on Monday Japan had nothing to fear from the launch. "Number one, I wouldn't lose sleep at night. Number two, Japan is very safe," he said.

Asked why he was so confident, Kelly said: "What it's based on is complete confidence that certainly from the United States naval perspective, we're postured to defend Japan and that's what we are here for.

"We believe we are postured in the right way to react in complementation with the Self-Defense Forces of Japan."

[Colorado700R]

 

[Flynbyu]

If we shoot it down, all hell will break loose. We can pretty much kiss the idea of North Korea quitting their nuclear (NEW-KU-LAR) process goodbye. If we could only hack the launch operation and make it explode after takeoff. That would be super cool.....CIA GEEK SQUAD!

~Brian

[P.I.M.P.]

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6004746

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Police say a customer fired one or two shots into a Salt Lake City McDonald's after the driver of the car he was in was told the restaurant was not serving lunch.

Police say the female driver of a white Dodge Intrepid pulled up to the drive-thru at 210 W. 500 South and ordered from the lunch and dinner menu around 2 a.m. Sunday but was told only breakfast was available.

Police say two men then got out of the car and one pulled a sawed-off shotgun from the trunk, shooting into the drive-thru window once or twice, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday. No one was injured.

The car then left the scene. According to the Tribune, the shooter was described as Polynesian, 6 feet 1 inch tall, with long hair in a ponytail, a beanie cap and a white T-shirt.

[Flynbyu]

That's jacked up.

~Brian

[Peelz]

GIMME MA QUARTA' POUNDA' B*TCH!   

[Colorado700R]

If we shoot it down, all hell will break loose. We can pretty much kiss the idea of North Korea quitting their nuclear (NEW-KU-LAR) process goodbye. If we could only hack the launch operation and make it explode after takeoff. That would be super cool.....CIA GEEK SQUAD!

~Brian

That douche is like a spoiled little kid..

If he doesn't get the consessions he wants he has a tantrum and does a test or launches some shit to get more attention.

In my experience the best way to deal with a tantrum is to beat it out of the child 

[Flynbyu]

If we shoot it down, all hell will break loose. We can pretty much kiss the idea of North Korea quitting their nuclear (NEW-KU-LAR) process goodbye. If we could only hack the launch operation and make it explode after takeoff. That would be super cool.....CIA GEEK SQUAD!

~Brian

That douche is like a spoiled little kid..

If he doesn't get the consessions he wants he has a tantrum and does a test or launches some shit to get more attention.

In my experience the best way to deal with a tantrum is to beat it out of the child 

1,000,000 man army.

That scares me.

~Brian

[Colorado700R]

If we shoot it down, all hell will break loose. We can pretty much kiss the idea of North Korea quitting their nuclear (NEW-KU-LAR) process goodbye. If we could only hack the launch operation and make it explode after takeoff. That would be super cool.....CIA GEEK SQUAD!

~Brian

That douche is like a spoiled little kid..

If he doesn't get the consessions he wants he has a tantrum and does a test or launches some shit to get more attention.

In my experience the best way to deal with a tantrum is to beat it out of the child 

1,000,000 man army.

That scares me.

~Brian

Pfft, an Army fights on it's stomach....and those poor bastards are starving.