Oil rig explosion: Is oil leaking from Mariner Energy rig near Vermillion Bay?

An oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday morning forced all 13 crew members to evacuate into the water.

Company officials said in a statement Thursday morning that the incident does not appear to have resulted in an oil leak. The Associated Press, however, has reported that the Coast Guard says there is a mile long, 100 foot-wide oil sheen near the platform.

The fire occurred on a platform about 100 miles south of Louisiana’s Vermillion Bay and west of the site of the Deepwater Horizon accident. The rig is in 320 feet of water, much shallower than the mile-deep well operated by BP that caused a massive oil spill this summer.

The shallower water would make an attempt to plug any leak significantly easier.

The Coast Guard dispatched helicopters, airplanes, and four cutters to the scene. The crew members had evacuated the rig in immersion suits and were picked up in the water by an oil service boat. The company says no injuries have been reported.

The facility, Vermillion Block 380, is owned by Mariner Energy Inc., an independent oil and gas exploration, development, and production company based in Houston. The company holds 350 offshore exploration leases, with 110 currently in development, according to the company’s website.

The platform collected production from seven wells producing about 1,400 barrels of oil per day and 9 million cubic feet of gas. Production was shut down, the company said, before the crew evacuated.

The Pageant

Hopefully this is not a bad timing for her as the pageant takes place tomorrow in Las Vegas. With the different incidents in the Philippines for the past few days before the competition, hopefully Venus will still stay in shape and confident to win the crowd. Before the event, her very close friend died in a car accident and just today a hostage taking took place in the Philippines. For sure this will be tackled and will be ask on how she is still going to promote the tourism in the Philippines with this tragic event. Venus is one of the favorite and hopefully she will make it. Go Pinoy!!!!

I am so impressed

New Interest - Web hosting

I have thinking this for a while now to get involve into web hosting. But I just can't find the time to read thoroughly the concept involve. I love working online and I think web hosting will be one of my cup of tea. I have read some web hosting news but seems I don't get to point just yet but I know I want to learn how to do. A friend of mine has even encourage me to get involve because she has been doing it for a while now. Hopefully I will find a time to really study it and get started. I am just so busy with my daughter right and I just got back from the country, so I am still trying to settle things out. Since I am a little behind now, I might hang out more often at web hosting news to be update on the time that I lost. I am really looking forward to get this new interest get started. I will try my best to really push through and hopefully be successful on it.

Mobile-phone networks vie for the Apple iPad

APPLE executives will jet into Britain this week for crunch talks with mobile-phone companies over which network will sign up its iPad tablet computer. The gadget giant said last week that its new device will go on sale in America from April 3 and come to Britain later in the month. However, unlike in 2007 when O2 was selected as the network for its iPhone, Apple is not expected to choose a single provider this time. Even so, because of the buzz and data revenues that Apple’s popular devices generate, Vodafone, Orange and O2 — all of which now carry the iPhone — are particularly anxious not to be left behind. The iPad is expected to build on the early success of e-readers from Sony and Amazon. It has already signed deals with publishers including Hachette, Harper Collins and Penguin to sell digital versions of their books.

Lengthy talks have also been held with film studios and newspaper publishers to provide downloadable versions of their content to the device. Sources say that mobile-phone carriers have already had preliminary discussions about the iPad with Apple but nothing has been decided on price. In contrast to other handset makers, Apple commands up to 30% of data revenues from the networks, as well as a share of sales of the 150,000 applications downloaded from its App Store. Because iPhone customers consume three times as much data as other mobile users, O2’s network struggled to cope with demand. Talks are scheduled to run into next week. Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, is not part of the delegation. Sales of the iPad are forecast to start slowly. Morgan Stanley, the investment bank, has the most bullish prediction, pencilling in 6m sales in 2010. That compares with 52.4m iPods and 25.1m iPhones sold by Apple worldwide in the past year.

Killer whale to be spared as ponytail blamed for trainer death

Witnesses described seeing the 30-year-old, 12,300-pound bull orca, named Tilikum, grabbing veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau's long hair in its mouth before dragging her underwater at SeaWorld Orlando in Florida. Chuck Tompkins, head of animal training at all SeaWorld parks, said: "Dawn had just finished up a very good session with this animal. She was interacting with him, petting him on the nose. "Dawn had very long hair in a ponytail. That ponytail had swung in front of him. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her underwater and held her underwater." Witnesses at an earlier show said that the whale had been behaving like an unruly child but Mr Tompkins dismissed the reports and said he was a "good animal". SeaWorld has temporarily closed its whale attractions but there were reportedly no plans to remove the animal from the show. Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for the drowning of a previous trainer in Canada in 1991. Eight years later a late night park intruder was found dead in his pool. Brancheau's older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer, who was married with no children, would not want anything to happen to the whale and the family regarded her death as a tragic accident. "Dawn loved the whales like her children, she loved all of them," her sister said. "They all had personalities, good days and bad days."

Magnitude-6.0 Quake Off Northern Calif. Coast

A magnitude-6.0 earthquake has struck off the coast of Humboldt County, but officials say there are no immediate reports of major damage or injury.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the temblor hit at 12:20 p.m. about 35 miles northwest of the community of Petrolia and nearly 50 miles west of Eureka. The shaking was felt up to the Oregon border and as far south as Sonoma County.

County spokesman Phil Smith-Hanes says he felt a rolling sensation, but the movement didn't feel as severe as the magnitude-6.5 quake that struck the same area Jan. 9. That quake left more than $40 million of damage in the area and caused one major injury.

Eureka Fire Chief Eric Smith says crews are checking on structures damaged in the previous earthquake to make sure they're secure.

Amid Super Bowl hoopla, fight over 'Who Dat'

Who owns "Who Dat?"

Some T-shirt makers are asking that question after they were hit with cease-and-desist letters from the NFL demanding that they stop selling shirts with the traditional cheer of New Orleans Saints fans. The National Football League says the shirts infringe on a legal trademark it owns. Separately, two brothers and longtime Saints fans claim they own the phrase, which was around before the long-downtrodden team's inception in 1966. The chant _ "Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints" _ is often shortened to "Who Dat" on shirts and signs and has been a mainstay at the Superdome since the 1980s. Saints fans, still jubilant after the Saints' win over the Minnesota Vikings for their first Super Bowl appearance, have voiced their dismay on radio talk shows, blogs and Web site posts. Many say it's something that simply can't be owned. "How can they put a trademark on something that's been around for 150 years?" said Robert Lauricella, a 50-year-old oil field sales representative. "Just because the Saints have made the Super Bowl, why does everybody have to make a buck?"

Shirts bearing the Saints cheer are big business as the team prepares for the big game against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami. Lauren Thom, owner of the Fleurty Girl T-shirt shop in New Orleans, said Thursday that she recently received a letter from the NFL demanding that she quit selling "Who Dat" shirts. "I don't mind paying royalties," Thom said. "I just don't know who owns 'Who Dat' or whether it's in the public domain." The NFL doesn't cut much slack when it believes it owns a trademark. This case is no exception. In an e-mail, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said the NFL has sent a handful of letters in the past year asking vendors to stop selling "Who Dat" merchandise. The unlicensed shirts led fans to believe the Saints endorsed the product, he said. "This helps protect the local businesses that are selling legitimate Saints merchandise and also the local printers that are making the licensed Saints apparel," he said. Meanwhile, WhoDat Inc., controlled by longtime Saints fans and brothers Sal and Steve Monistere, also claims rights to the phrase. In 1983, Steve Monistere produced the song "Who Dat Say They Gonna Beat Dem Saints" with Aaron Neville and several Saints players.

In a statement Thursday, WhoDat Inc. said that before that recording, there were no branded items with the motto. The brothers said the company has the only federal trademark for "Who Dat." Steve Monistere said he and his brother were at the Saints' first game in 1967 and have been fans through all the ups and downs _ mostly downs, of course. Storyville shop co-owner Gabriel Harvey pulled his "Who Dat" shirts after getting letters from the NFL and WhoDat Inc. "It seems unclear who, if anyone, owns it," Harvey said. "A lot of people believe it belongs to the city and the people." Two members of Louisiana's congressional delegation _ Republican Sen. David Vitter and Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon _ took public umbrage at the NFL.
Vitter wrote NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, urging the league to concede that "Who Dat" is in the public domain. Otherwise, Vitter said he will print and sell T-shirts with "WHO DAT say we can't print Who Dat!" on them. "Please either drop your present ridiculous position or sue me," Vitter wrote. Melancon provided a link _ headed "No One Owns WHO DAT" _ on his Twitter page to a petition encouraging the NFL to back off. The "Who Dat" chant's origins are somewhat murky. Some historians say it came about in the days of late 19th-century minstrel shows and later showed up in vaudeville routines. In 1937's "A Day at the Races," the Marx Brothers perform a number _ in blackface _ called "Who Dat Man." "Who Dat" also is used in a 1938 MGM cartoon _ now seldom seen because of its racially offensive nature _ called "Swing Wedding," which featured frog caricatures of black entertainers such as Ethel Waters, the Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway. It's been yelled at high school and college games, and fans of the Cincinnati Bengals are known to chant "Who Dey?" Glenn Lunney, a Tulane University Law School professor specializing in intellectual property, said a trademark is different from a copyright or patent and doesn't necessarily have to be original. For example, computer and iPod manufacturer Apple trademarked the familiar, centuries-old fruit, he said. "You can take a word and by applying it to goods or services get people to think about your goods or services," and get commercial rights, he said. The NFL would likely argue it has a valid trademark because "Who Dat" is so strongly associated with the Saints, he said. In a similar case, bookstores around the University of Wisconsin sold "Bucky Badger" T-shirts royalty-free for years _ until the university trademarked the mascot itself in the late 1980s and won its case in court, Lunney said. As for Thom, she said several New Orleans attorneys have offered free legal help. And how about the WhoDat Inc. guys? They "were nice" about the situation, Thom said _ "they said we should market the shirts together and make more money together."

Experts question motives of mammogram guidelines

Cancer experts fear new U.S. breast imaging guidelines that recommend against routine screening mammograms for women in their 40s may have their roots in the current drive in Washington to reform healthcare. Critics of the guidelines, issued on Monday by the U.S. Services Task Force, an independent panel sponsored by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Quality, say the new guidelines are a step backward and will lead to more cancer deaths.

Here are some of their concerns.

* Dr Carol Lee, chairwoman of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission, said she fears insurers -- both private and public -- will use them to pare back health costs. "These new recommendations seem to reflect a conscious decision to ration care," Lee said in a statement. She said since the onset of regular mammogram

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Palin says presidency "not on my radar screen"

Sarah Palin said a run for the White House in 2012 is "not on my radar screen right now" as the Republican carefully did not close the door to a possible candidacy in an interview that launched her big book tour. Palin spoke to TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey as she began the roll-out to her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." Palin made clear she wanted to concentrate on the 2010 congressional elections in which Republicans hope to make inroads into Democratic majorities in the U.S. Congress. "I'm concentrating on 2010 and making sure that we have issues to tackle," Palin said in the interview taped last week and broadcast on Monday. "I don't know what I'm going to be doing in 2012. (Running for president is) not on my radar screen right now." The former Alaska governor and unsuccessful 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, who is popular among many U.S. conservatives, has embarked on a campaign-style media tour to promote Tuesday's release of her book. Her appearance on Winfrey's program, one of the most watched daytime shows on U.S. television, comes as political insiders watch her every move to see if she may launch a bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Winfrey actively supported Democrat Barack Obama during last year's campaign. Palin is to hit a dozen states during a book tour that will take her mostly to smaller cities. The initial printing of 1.5 million copies promises the memoir written with a ghost writer will be an instant best-seller. If Palin is to seek higher office, she'll have to overcome some political headwinds. A Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 60 percent of those polled said Palin was not qualified to serve as president and 52 percent viewed her in unfavorable terms. Among Republicans, however, her positive rating was 76 percent. The interview with Winfrey was interspersed with home video showing Palin playing with her grandson Tripp, exercising in shorts, and staying out of her daughter's way during a Halloween trick-or-treating excursion in their hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.A self-styled "hockey mom" during the 2008 campaign, Palin directed her at-times tart tongue at CBS TV anchorwoman Katie Couric and Levi Johnston, who fathered a child out-of-wedlock with Palin's daughter Bristol and has since become a Palin critic.

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Guilty plea' in balloon boy case

The US parents who triggered a major alert by claiming their six-year-old son was adrift in a helium balloon are to admit charges, their lawyer says. Falcon Heene's mother is to admit false reporting to authorities and his father will admit attempting to influence a public servant. Falcon's disappearance became a media drama but he was later found at home. Police accused the family of masterminding the 15 October incident as part of a publicity bid. The couple, who have three children, will enter their pleas at Larimer County Court on Friday, a statement from their lawyer says.

Police search

The incident in Colorado led to a media storm.he couple reported that their young son had been carried away by a helium balloon - whose progress was then tracked by news organisations. Police carried out an intensive search for the boy after the balloon landed about 64km (40 miles) north of Denver and was found to be empty. But it then transpired that the child was hiding at home and days later the couple were accused of an elaborate hoax. According to a statement from lawyer David Lane, Mayumi Heene, 45, will admit a misdemeanour and her husband Richard, 48, a felony. Mr Lane said Mr Heene agreed to "fall on his sword" by admitting the felony charge to prevent his wife - a Japanese national - being ordered out of the US. The stipulated sentences for both are probation, his statement said, with the possibility of up to 60 days in jail for Mrs Heene and up to 90 days for Mr Heene. Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden had earlier suggested that the couple could have faced charges of conspiracy and contributing to the delinquency of a minor - which carry jail terms of up to six years.

Soldier kills 11 in shooting rampage at Fort Hood army base

A U.S. Army major firing two handguns killed 11 people and wounded 31 others in a shooting rampage on Thursday at Fort Hood base in Texas, a prime point of deployment for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army said the gunman was killed. U.S. broadcast media identified him as Major Malik Nidal Hasan, and said he was a psychiatrist who was facing an upcoming deployment to Iraq. There was no immediate official confirmation of his identity. U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas told FOX news: "I do know that he has been known to have told people that he was upset about going (to Iraq)." U.S. military officials say the shooter's motives were still unclear. The incident at Fort Hood, the largest military installation in the world, was one of the worst killings reported on a U.S. military base. In May a U.S. soldier at a base in Baghdad shot dead five fellow soldiers. It raised new questions about the toll that six years of continuous fighting in Iraq...Read More!!!

New mobile device does Twitter and only Twitter

The Twitter Peek, which debuts on Amazon.com today, flies in the face of the "everything-and-every-app-you'll-ever-need-in-your-life" marketing used to promote today's smart phones. This hand held device does Twitter and nothing but Twitter. The question is are there enough people out there who will shell out as much as $199 for a one-trick pony?Executives at Peek Inc. of New York aren't betting on the tech-savvy crowd. Rather, they believe the Twitter Peek will interest customers who own simple, inexpensive cell phones, yet still want to read their Twitter news updates and other tweets away from the desktop. "Twitter's more useful on a mobile device,'' said Peek founder and CEO Amol Sarva. You might remember Peek's first products introduced last year - the Peek Classic, which just does e-mail and costs $19.95, and the $59.95 Peek Pronto, which accesses up to five e-mail accounts and can send and receive text messages. Each requires a wireless service plans that start at $15 per month. Unlike the earlier Peeks, named one of Time Magazine's Gadgets of the Year, the Twitter Peek doesn't do e-mail or texting. I've been testing a demo model for the past week and it does its one-and-only job well enough - it provided an easy way to read my Twitter feeds. On the device, I learned that Mayor Gavin Newsom dropped out of the governor's race, that the Giants hired a new hitting coach named Bam Bam and that Twitter co-founder Biz Stone saw a spider outside his window. It looks like an older Blackberry and comes in a Twitter-style aqua blue or charcoal gray. Fittingly, it can chirp when a tweet arrives. The display lists the start of each message and who it's from, and you click a scroll wheel on the side to view the entire 140-character tweet. Handy keyboard shortcuts let you jump from one message to the next or start a new tweet. And one new feature rolled out last week gives you the ability to view links. One minor quibble: I found having to double-click on the side scroll wheel to view a tweet clumsy. At launch, the Twitter Peek costs $99 for six months, which includes the monthly wireless data service through T-Mobile, and $7.95 per month afterward, with no service contract. Or you can fork over a one-time $199 payment that includes wireless service for the lifetime of the device. Is it a better experience than something like a Twitter-specific app on an iPhone? No. But Sarva says that's not the point. He argues that not everyone wants to spend $100 to $300 for a smart phone and another $30 each month or so for a data plan. From that point of view, he calls it "the better way to Twitter.'' I'm still not convinced there's going to be a big market for the Twitter Peek because people who opt for a cell phone that only makes calls probably aren't going to be hooked on Twitter enough to want to buy and carry another single-purpose device.

USS New York comes 'home' to harbor

ABOARD THE USS NEW YORK - The USS New York, built with steel salvaged from the fallen Twin Towers, entered New York Harbor Monday and paused for a moment in the waters off Ground Zero to honor those lost in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A detail aboard the 684-foot, $1.2-billion amphibious assault vessel fired a 21-gun salute from the fantail of the ship. Firefighters and onlookers from the shore acknowledged the salute, while aboard the ship the head of the September 11th Families' Association, president Lee Ielpi, had tears in his eyes thinking about his son, Jonathan, 29, a firefighter and father of two killed on 9/11 - as well as all those who gave their lives that fateful day. "I'm thinking of my son," Ielpi said, as he watched the ceremonial exchange Monday. "It's a good day. We're smiling through our tears." The USS New York's bow was built from 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the fallen World Trade Center. The ship officially "came home" at 9:59 a.m., when it moored at Pier 88. It is in town for a commissioning ceremony Saturday. Escorted by NYPD helicopters, one of the newest ships in the Navy fleet sailed under the Verrazano Bridge to a welcoming rainbow off Staten Island - and was acknowledged by fire boats shooting streams of red, white and blue water into the air near Governors Island. "It's fantastic," Cmdr. Curt Jones said. "It really does feel like we're coming home." The New York is one of four ships of its type currently either in service or ready for service. Another four are being built, including two named for the other Sept. 11 sites: the USS Arlington, named for the attack on the Pentagon; and, the USS Somerset, named for the field in Pennsylvania where United Flight 93 crashed after passengers overwhelmed terrorists. The USS New York is the latest in a long line of so-named ships dating back to a Revolutionary War-era gondola and including a 36-gun 19th Century frigate, a 74-gun ship of the line, a screw sloop, a Spanish-American War-era armored cruiser, a World War I-era battleship and a nuclear sub named USS New York City. "It's wonderful being on this ship," said the chaplain, the Rev. Laura Bender of Lake Ronkonkoma, an 11th-generation New Yorker and one of about 10 Long Islanders in the crew of 359. "The ship for me is a symbol of how life always comes from death and strength comes from adversity. I really feel we are sailing the World Trade Center home and there will be a lot of healing just by moving past Ground Zero and saluting the site and receiving a salute back from the fire department." The morning aboard the USS New York began with reveille at 4 a.m., a tradition that Monday was followed by a fitting tribute to the ship's roots: a recording of Frank Sinatra singing "New York, New York." Before docking at Pier 88, next to the aircraft carrier Intrepid, the ship ran up the Hudson to the George Washington Bridge, then turned around and returned to the pier Monday. The ship's boatswain, Fred Tiedemann of Woodside, a 26-year Navy veteran who oversees the deck equipment, said he has served on a dozen ships. But said this one is special. "I'm from New York, and I know some of the people who went down in the towers," he said. "It's going to be pretty special" returning the seven and a half tons of steel to Manhattan. "It means a lot to the crew." VIPs and Sept. 11 first responders were flown out to the ship by Marine Chinook helicopters, including Ferg Foley, chief operating officer for American Defense Systems, a Hicksville defense contractor. On Sept. 11 he was the senior officer in Manhattan for the Army National Guard and spent two weeks coordinating the response at Ground Zero. "It's amazing" to be onboard, Foley said, "just knowing that it has some of that steel from Ground Zero and that it represents the fighting spirit of the United States. You can sense the pride of the servicemen and women working on the ship." For Lt. Melissa Proud of Glen Cove, the supply officer, the New York is her second ship in a decade in the Navy. She has been aboard for more than a year. She said the New York and its sister ships are the first to have "sit-up bunks" that give the crew enough space to sit up in the beds that are stacked three deep. The lower levels of the ship are largely occupied with a hangar bay filled with two helicopters and two levels below where vehicles from a tank to a Humvee are parked, along with two amphibious air-cushioned troop carriers powered by a pair of giant propellers that are launched from a floodable well deck. On the wide bridge Sunday, more than a dozen personnel navigated with charts and radar and other video screens, while one sailor steered with a small black wheel and Jones, the captain, watched from a padded chair on the starboard side. In the center of the pilothouse floor was the ship's emblem showing the Twin Towers and a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Five Cuts: History offers the Phillies

1. With the sound of Alex Rodriguez's ringing double to left field, the Phillies' situation went from "bad" to "desperate" late Sunday night. Philadelphia is now down 3-1 in the World Series, a position from which very few teams have ever recovered: Those in this position have gone 5-28 in best-of-seven Series, and the last team to come back from a 3-1 hole was the 1985 Royals. Teams in the specific position of the Phillies, down 3-1 in the World Series without home-field advantage in 2-3-2 format, have won just two of 13 times: the 1979 Pirates and the 1958 Yankees.

Are there any lessons to be gleaned from those squads? Well, the '58 Yankees had the best offense in their league, and after scoring just 12 runs in four games, losing three to Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette, they turned it on at the end, with 17 runs in the last three contests, the last two started by the Braves' legendary duo on two days' rest apiece. It's unlikely that Joe Girardi will ask that much of his own top starters, although anything seems possible this month.

The '79 Pirates are a bit more interesting. They also split the first two games of the Series, as did these Phillies, lost Game 3 when their lefty starter, in Pittsburgh's case John Candelaria, couldn't hold an early 3-0 lead, and watched their ace reliever lose Game 4. Like this year's Phillies, they were an underdog going in, a freewheeling bunch whose rallying cry was the Sister Sledge disco hit, We Are Family. To win their Series, their pitchers stepped up, allowing just two runs over the last three games. Oh, Phillies fans who want to bury Cole Hamels should note that Candelaria bounced back with six shutout innings in Game 6 of that Series.

If the Phillies are to win the World Series, that's the path they'll need to take: improved run prevention, beginning with the starting pitchers.

2. They're not in a bad place to get that started on Monday night, as Cliff Lee takes the mound coming off his domination of the Yankees in Game 1. Lee has yet to allow more than one earned run in any postseason start, and all told he has allowed just five runs in 33 1/3 postseason innings over four starts, all Phillies wins. Since they acquired him just before the trade deadline, the Phillies are 12-4 when Lee starts, behind his 11 quality starts in 16 turns. He has replaced Hamels as the team's ace, and there were a number of people who felt that Charlie Manuel should have matched Joe Girardi by using Lee on short rest in Game 4.

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Old Yankee Stadium in shadow of new park, sits out first Yankee WS since ?23

As the No. 4 elevated train pulls into the 161st Street station in the Bronx, it passes by the original Yankee Stadium. Hardly a rider notices. The home to exactly 100 World Series games and nine clinchers for the Yankees stands ignored, just across the street from its glitzy, new US$1.5 billion replacement. "I did the first few times I came. I thought about then," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said in an interview with The Associated Press before Game 1 of the Series. "Once I'm here, I don't anymore. Destined to be taken down piece by piece, the 86-year-old Yankee Stadium is a shell of itself, wrapped in scaffolding, construction netting and a blue plywood wall at street level. Take a sliver of a peek into the park from the 4 train, peer through a hole in the fence on River Avenue or look inside from the plaza across 161st Street and you'll see the place has been stripped of its memories. The nearly 56,000 blue seats are gone, leaving tiers of exposed concrete. The padding that covered the right-field wall where little Jeffrey Maier reached over and coaxed a flyball into a home run for Derek Jeter in the 1996 American League championship series is gone, too. The mound where Mariano Rivera saved 15 playoff games. Flattened. The perfectly manicured lawn has been cut up. All that's left is a mound of dirt piled high near the visiting dugout, weeds growing wildly. The batter's eye black area in centre field where Reggie Jackson sent one of his three home runs bouncing in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, is faded and greying. And the soaring yellow foul poles have been toppled. "It is sad when you think about everything that's gone on over there, but this is everything we had hoped for," Yankees veteran Andy Pettitte said. "When we built this new stadium we hoped to be able to bring a World Series here."

Pilots Who Missed Airport Were Using Their Laptops

Any employee at a company that has gone through a merger knows how distracting it can be when the new owner imposes new rules. That distraction, not a nap, was what two Northwest Airlines pilots say caused them to fly far beyond the Minneapolis airport last week, federal investigators reported Monday. The pilots told the National Transportation Safety Board that they missed their destination because they had taken out their personal laptops in the cockpit, a violation of airline policy, so the first officer, Richard I. Cole, could tutor the captain, Timothy B. Cheney, in a new scheduling system put in place by Delta Air Lines, which acquired Northwest last fall. The interim report from the safety board ran counter to theories in aviation circles last week that the two pilots might have fallen asleep or were arguing in the cockpit. Each pilot, in separate interviews with the safety board that totaled more than five hours, denied those theories. “Both said they lost track of time,” the report stated. It also said that the pilots had heard voices over their cockpit radios but ignored them. The pilots passed breath analysis tests to check for alcohol use, and had a 17-hour break between the San Diego-to-Minneapolis trip and their previous flight. Delta, in a statement Monday, hinted strongly that the lapse could cost both men their jobs. “Using laptops or engaging in activity unrelated to the pilots’ command of the aircraft during flight,” the statement said, “is strictly against the airline’s flight deck policies and violations of that policy will result in termination.” The pilots remain suspended until completion of the airline’s investigation. The impromptu tutoring session apparently caused Mr. Cole and Mr. Cheney to ignore air-traffic controllers for about 90 minutes on Wednesday night, and forget to begin preparations for landing in Minneapolis. Instead, the plane flew about 110 miles to the skies over Eau Claire, Wis., as more than a dozen air-traffic controllers in three locations serving Denver and Minneapolis tried to get the pilots’ attention. The North American Aerospace Defense Command readied four fighter jets and had them on “runway alert” in the vicinity, according to a command spokesman, Michael D. Kucharek. A flight attendant finally called the cockpit when the plane did not begin its scheduled descent to Minneapolis to ask when it might arrive, according to the report. The plane, which carried 144 passengers and three flight attendants as well as the two pilots en route from San Diego, made a loop in the sky over Wisconsin and returned to Minneapolis, where it landed safely. Industry executives and analysts said the pilots’ behavior was a striking lapse for such veteran airmen. The two pilots have a total of 31,000 flying hours of experience between them. Mr. Cheney, of Gig Harbor, Wash., has been at Northwest since 1985, while Mr. Cole, of Salem, Ore., has been at the airline since 1997. The pilots did not respond to phone messages left at their homes. Robert W. Mann Jr., a veteran industry analyst, said of the pilots’ explanation: “It’s inexcusable.” Delta acquired Northwest last fall, and since then has begun integrating the two airlines’ operations, like reservation systems and airport check-in counters and kiosks. While Delta still operates flights under the Northwest name, it has begun switching pilots to the Delta system to request assignments. Though similar to Northwest’s scheduling system, the Delta procedure uses different acronyms and a different computer program, said a pilot who has used both systems but who requested anonymity because he not authorized to speak publicly. He said the Northwest system was “more intuitive.” Pilots and other flight crewmembers bid, through computer programs, on the flights they wish to operate. Their requests are often awarded on seniority. Flight schedules are of high importance to pilots because many commute from their hometowns to bases at airline hubs. They arrange their non-airline activities, like second jobs and volunteer programs, according to the ease with which they can reach the city where they are based. Many have memorized the flights they can take from home to reach their bases, and often base their work schedules depending on how many days they will be away from home. But the new scheduling system may be only a first step. As a result of the merger, some pilots at Northwest face the possibility that they may be operating out of new cities, meaning they will have to re-arrange their personal lives as well as their work schedules, a person familiar with the airline’s plans said. In fact, Northwest cautioned pilots earlier this year not to become distracted by the changes that were in store. “While we cannot minimize distractions from our personal or professional lives, we can mitigate their effects so they do not affect the safety of our airline,” a memorandum from the airline said. “Leave distractions about personal, corporate or other external issues outside of the flight deck.” The airline bans pilots from working on personal computers in the cockpit, where they are supposed to concentrate on the multiple gauges and controls required in flight. In the case of Flight 188, “neither pilot was aware of the airplane’s position until a flight attendant called about five minutes before they were scheduled to land and asked what was their estimated time of arrival,” the report said. By that time, the plane, which should have begun its descent into Minneapolis about half an hour earlier, was still at 37,000 feet and more than 100 miles beyond its destination. Flight attendants have not had keys to open a plane’s cockpit door since the 2001 terrorist attacks, and there is no procedure in which they regularly check on pilots. The cabin crew communicates by phone or through chimes that can be heard in the passenger cabin.The aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder captured only the last 30 minutes of conversation, some of it on the ground after landing. Investigators said they would try to use the flight data recorder, which captured the entire flight, including use of radios, to determine the level of crew activity.

Garbage trucks lead to discovery of dead Fla. girl

A sad news happen to a little girl.

After 7-year-old Somer Thompson vanished on her way home from school, investigators tailed nine garbage trucks from her neighborhood to a Georgia landfill nearly 50 miles away, then picked through the trash as each rig spilled its load. They sorted through more than 225 tons of garbage before their worst fears were realized: Sticking out of the rubbish were a child's lifeless legs. Sheriff Rick Beseler said the quick discovery of Somer's body on Wednesday, two days after she disappeared, may have saved precious evidence that could lead to her killer. "Had we not done this tactic, I believe that body would have been buried beneath hundreds of tons of debris, probably would have gone undiscovered forever," he said Thursday. An autopsy to establish the cause of death was performed Thursday, but authorities would not disclose their findings. At a news conference, Beseler would not say if Somer had been sexually assaulted or answer other questions about the condition of the body. "I fear for our community until we bring this person in. This is a heinous crime that's been committed," Beseler said. "And we're going to work as hard as we can to make this community safe." Searching landfills is common when children disappear, but it is unusual to try to zero in on them more efficiently by tracking a neighborhood's garbage trucks, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "Time is the enemy in these cases and the sheriff used every resource," Allen said. The sheriff said police have questioned more than 155 registered sex offenders in the area so far. State online records show 88 sex offenders live in Orange Park, a Jacksonville suburb of about 9,000 people just south of Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Beseler would not say whether investigators believe the crime was committed by more than one person. Somer's father and other family members were "torn up" upon hearing the news, aunt Laura Holt said. As for the killer or killers, "I don't think they deserve to live," Holt said. "I don't think there's anything worse that a person can do — to kill a child and dump her in the dump like a piece of trash?" The girl disappeared in a heavily populated residential area about a mile from a stretch of fast-food restaurants and other businesses. Investigators will presumably try to pinpoint the trash bin or garbage can where she was dumped, based on the trash around her and the truck's pickup route. Tuesday was trash day in Somer's neighborhood, and it was Detective Bruce Owens' idea to track the garbage trucks to the landfill they use in Folkston, Ga., 48 miles way. "At that time I realized that this is probably not going to turn out good," the 10-year veteran of the Clay County Sheriff's Office told The Florida Times-Union. But he said he had been expecting to find perhaps a backpack or a piece of clothing, not a body. The sheriff said he had told the girl's mother, Diena Thompson, to prepare for the worst, and called her after receiving the news Wednesday night. "Needless to say, she was absolutely devastated," Beseler said. "It was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make in my life, and I hope I never have to make another one like that." Somer vanished on Monday during her mile-long walk home from school. Authorities said she squabbled with another child and walked ahead of the group. She was last seen outside a vacant house that was on her route home, sheriff's spokeswoman Mary Justino said. Investigators are examining the house for evidence, Justino said. On Thursday, flowers and dozens of teddy bears were heaped around an oak tree across the street from Somer's home where about 200 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of the family's home just after sundown. Diena Thompson came out to thank the group who sang "Amazing Grace" and "You Are My Sunshine," then recited the Lord's Prayer. "I wish I could hug every one of you," Thompson said. "I love every one of you." Neighbor Carter Beukema shouted his comments about if the accused killer goes to trial: "I hope I'm on the jury. He will pay." Somer "was always happy unless she couldn't find anyone to play with," neighbor Robert Ocain said. "She trusted anybody. Honestly, I think all the kids around here do." At the tree, Catherine Sullivan held her teary-eyed 5-year-old daughter, Nya Frederick. They drove to the Thompsons' neighborhood from Jacksonville because Sullivan wanted to show her child the dangers of being too friendly with strangers. "She seemed to understand when I explained to her her mommy wouldn't see her anymore," the mother said.

Flu Vaccine Requirement for Health Workers Is Lifted

The Paterson administration backed away on Thursday evening from a health regulation that would have compelled hundreds of thousands of health care workers and hospital volunteers to be vaccinated for seasonal and swine flu. Claudia Hutton, a spokeswoman for the State Health Department, said in an interview Thursday night that the regulation had been suspended because of a shortage of H1N1 vaccine. She said that given the shortage, the state wanted to concentrate its vaccination efforts on pregnant women and children. “Since the vaccine is so scarce right now and since the virus has proved especially difficult for pregnant women and young people — there have been deaths — we felt that the best use of the scarce amount of vaccine right now is for those populations,” Ms. Hutton said. In August, the state health commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, issued a regulation ordering health care workers to be vaccinated by Nov. 30, and hospitals warned that workers who refused could be disciplined or fired. But last week, a judge in Albany halted enforcement of the rule in response to a lawsuit filed by three nurses who claimed that the requirement needed legislative approval and that the commissioner had overstepped his authority. Ms. Hutton said that Dr. Daines’s change of policy — which was announced late Thursday in a statement from the office of Gov. David A. Paterson — was not influenced by the litigation. New York found itself isolated in its insistence on mandatory vaccinations. No other state adopted a similar regulation, and neither the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the World Health Organization were recommending mandatory H1N1 vaccinations. Some public health experts had applauded the rule. But referring to mandatory vaccination, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the federal centers, said last summer that “this is just not the right flu season to take this on,” because of the logistical difficulties of distributing both seasonal and swine flu vaccines. Those logistical concerns turned out to be warranted. The governor pointed to a statement by the centers that said that only about 23 percent of the anticipated vaccine supply would be available by month’s end. So far this week, the federal agency has allowed the state to order 146,300 doses of vaccine, while physicians have asked for more than 1.48 million doses, Ms. Hutton said. “They don’t expect things to get markedly better until well into November, perhaps December,” Ms. Hutton said. “Even while the mandate was in effect, we were telling our hospital workers that if you have a choice of vaccinating patients or workers, please vaccinate patients.”Terence L. Kindlon, a lawyer for the three nurses, said on Thursday evening: “This is a good result, because the decision whether or not to be vaccinated is one that should be made by the individual. That’s all we ever wanted to establish here: the right to make that choice.”