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World
After Hurricane Ike, Haiti needs `flood of
helicopters’
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – With Haiti’s major bridges crumbled, roadways flooded and an estimated one million people homeless, humanitarian and government groups struggled Monday to push relief supplies into the country and throughout the storm-ravaged Caribbean.
Four storms in rapid succession have demolished patches of the Caribbean from Cuba to Hispaniola to Jamaica to the Turks and Caicos Islands to the Bahamas, killing more than 350 people, sinking entire towns, and hampering aid efforts.
“We need a flood of helicopters because there is a lot of food coming into Port-au-Prince and it cannot reach the provinces,” Haitian President Rene Preval said in an interview with The Miami Herald.
Iraq signs a natural gas deal; Iraqi guards shoot pedestrian
BAGHDAD – The Iraqi government approved in principle a deal potentially worth billions of dollars with Royal Dutch Shell to exploit the immense amount of natural gas in southern Iraq that is now being flared off, the government said in a statement.
Under the agreement approved Sunday, Shell will build the infrastructure to capture and purify the 700 million cubic feet of gas now being burned off every day at the southern oil wells to relieve pressure on the reservoirs below.
“That’s about the same amount of energy used to provide domestic power to the whole of Iraq,” said a Shell official who spoke on background, citing company policy. “It’s a very valuable resource going wasted in the absence of gathering infrastructure … Just look on Google Earth, particularly at night— it’s lit up with gas flares.”
Nation
Ultra-mobile PC on the way
SAN JOSE, Calif. – When it comes to surfing the Internet, playing games or watching movies on the road, a laptop can be too big, and a smart phone too small.
That’s why some tech heavyweights have been working on a device that falls in between.
The gadget, essentially a handheld computer, has the same processing power as a laptop but in a considerably smaller size.
Like a smart phone, it can connect to the Internet while out on the road, but offers a bigger screen and the ability to display Websites that most smart phones can’t.
A new generation of the devices, sometimes called ultra-mobile personal computers or UMPCs, is slated to hit stores this fall, and has some consumers salivating.
Nominees to take break from campaign
In a departure from the increasingly nasty environment of the presidential campaign, Barack Obama and John McCain will make a joint appearance on Thursday in New York to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
It’s the kind of civility that the public says it wants in politics but rarely gets.
“It says that despite all the differences, they agree broadly on issues of patriotism and the need to oppose the forces that caused 9/11,” said John Geer, the editor of The Journal of Politics.
The candidates plan to visit the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attack seven years ago.
They also have agreed to suspend television ads on Thursday.
The event will mark the first time since they appeared together since nominated. .
Video conferencing is growth area
MILWAUKEE – Airline capacity has shrunk, fares have risen and it’s difficult to maneuver through airport security.
There’s a solution for corporate travelers that not only solves these problems, but also reduces their carbon footprint.
Video conferencing has come of age, says Ryan Davies, a senior analyst at Cortina Asset Management Inc. in Milwaukee.
For the $15,000 that a handful of cross-country business trips might cost, a company can buy a high-definition video conferencing system, Davies said.
Unlike the systems of even just five years ago, state-of-the-art video systems have good all-around quality and are much easier to set up, he said.
Local/BSU
Therapy canine missing since Saturday
Trusty, a therapy dog trained to cheer hospital patients and care center residents, disappeared Saturday.
Now his owner hopes the community will help find the specially trained canine.
Trusty disappeared from his family’s farm near Amity and McDermott roads in eastern Canyon County in the afternoon and hasn’t been seen since.
His owner, Robin Lindquist, said she and Trusty make weekly visits to local nursing homes and hospice care centers, including Sunbridge Retirement and Rehabilitation and Guardian Hospice in Nampa, and give comfort to those in need.
The duo had been scheduled to visit a senior care center in Meridian on Tuesday.
Police investigate shots fired in Caldwell home
A Caldwell home was hit by gunfire just after midnight Monday, but officials say the residents escaped injury.
Six people, including two minors, were in the North La Cresta Avenue residence during the shooting, but no injuries were reported. One round from a shotgun was fired at the home, breaking a window and damaging the siding of the house, investigators said.
No suspects have been identified at this time.
“There was an altercation earlier that day between one of the parties of the house and a person on the street, but we don’t know if it was related,” Caldwell Police Sgt. Tony Thompson said.
Valley achieves ‘best’ air quality
The best air quality measurements in at least eight years may put the Treasure Valley on track to meet Environmental Protection Agency guidelines and help keep its federal funding for highways.
Fewer vehicle miles driven and cooler weather helped 2008 have the fewest number of air quality alerts issued by Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality since it began monitoring ozone levels in 2000.
That means the Treasure Valley could dodge the “bullet” of ozone level non-attainment, DEQ Air Shed Manager Leonard Herr said.
“I think there’s a very good chance of that happening now,” Herr said.
Sex books back on shelf
Two controversial sex books are back on the Nampa Public Library’s shelves after the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho threatened a lawsuit, claiming the First Amendment rights of library patrons were violated.
The Nampa Public Library Board of Trustees, at an emergency meeting Friday, discussed the cost of defending the library in a lawsuit and voted unanimously to rescind a policy moving the books— “The New Joy of Sex” and “The Joy of Gay Sex”— from public access.
The ACLU challenged the board’s 3-2 vote June 2 to move the books into the director’s office—still available upon specific request—and claimed that the move violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The organization cited several cases establishing policies restricting or sequestering books violates the publics’ right to open information.
What The?
A day she will always treasure
A bride’s stepfather, father and brother got into a spirited discussion at her wedding in Raymond, Ohio during which all three men were stabbed. The father and brother were hospitalized. The stepfather was arrested.
Death to the rebel Alliance!
A man brandished a pistol outside a middle school in Oregon and then fled the scene on a skateboard. Police were able to quickly apprehend him from witness descriptions. He was wearing black and red paint on his face to make himself look like the “Star Wars” character Darth Maul.
Well, you were out of town and I was bored
A man in Bethlehem, N.J., overheard his 43-year-old wife telling someone on the telephone that she had some nude pictures of herself on her cell phone. This was news to hubby. He printed out the photos and, when he confronted her, she admitted that she had allowed two teenagers to take the shots. She was arrested.
COMPILED BY ARBITER STAFF