At least 200 structures have been destroyed and 1,100 damaged after a dam on an eastern Iowa lake failed. The dam failed due to massive rain Saturday and Gov. Chet Culver said that 10 inches of rain had recently fallen in a 12-hour period. No injuries were reported.
Gov. Chet Culver, Iowa, dam Seventeen months ago, a commuter plane crashed into a suburban house outside Buffalo, N.Y. killing all 49 people on board and one on the ground. Since then, advocates have been pushing Congress to act on increasing pilot safety regulations but these attempts have been negated by the inability to organize an advocacy union. This struggle has stalled action on a wide-ranging bill whose main purpose is to fund the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through 2012. The FAA is currently drafting its own proposals to set more-stringent pilot-training standards and modify work conditions, including rest time, based on scientific research.
From today’s New York Times……..”Secret military field reports that were made public Sunday revealed that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand in the war in Afghanistan. This, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants.”
Afghanistan, Pakistan Army General Stanley McChrystal will be given a retirement ceremony tonight at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.
General McChrystal is a graduate from West Point and a former Green Beret. After serving as commander on the Joint Special Operations Command from 2003 to 2008, he was appointed by Obama as Commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A). McChrystal resigned from his position at the end of June after he and staff members were quoted in a Rolling Stone magazine article criticizing administration officials.
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By Sarah Mamula
The Gulf Coast just can’t catch a break. As if the region has not had enough problems cleaning up BP’s mess, now meteorologists are reporting that Hurricane Bonnie is headed in that direction. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami has said Bonnie could potentially become a tropical storm by the time it reaches the Gulf of Mexico, which is predicted to happen on Saturday. Hopefully not too much damage is done…
By Sarah Mamula
