Home > Waco Breaking News > Archives > 2008 > October > 15
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
McCain-Obama presidential debate: Fact check
MORE DEBATE
Facts went astray on tax cuts, negative campaign advertising and oil imports when Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain engaged Wednesday in their third and final presidential debate.
Some examples:
OBAMA: “Every dollar that I’ve proposed, I’ve proposed an additional cut, so that it matches.”
THE FACTS: The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that his programs would add $281 billion to the deficit at the end of his first term. The analysis includes Obama’s proposals for saving money.
McCAIN: “We have to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much.”
THE FACTS: This is a reference to U.S. spending on oil imports. McCain has repeatedly made this claim. But the figure is highly inflated and misleading. According to government agencies that track energy imports, the United States spent $246 billion in 2007 for all imported crude oil, a majority of it coming from friendly nations including neighboring Canada and Mexico. An additional $82 billion was spent on imported refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. A majority of the refined products come from refineries in such friendly countries as the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Trinidad-Tobago and the Virgin Islands.
OBAMA: “One hundred percent, John, of your ads — 100 percent of them — have been negative.”
THE FACTS: The statement is mostly true when it comes to McCain’s current commercial spots. But by saying McCain’s ads “have been” 100 percent negative, Obama ventures into misleading territory. A recent study by the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that in the first week of October “nearly 100 percent” of McCain’s ads were negative. The study also reported, however, that to date 73 percent of McCain’s ads have been negative and that 61 percent of Obama’s ads have been negative.
McCAIN: “Sen. Obama is spending unprecedented amounts of money in negative attack ads on me.”
THE FACTS: Obama is spending unprecedented amounts of money on ads, period — negative or otherwise. Obama is outspending McCain and the Republican Party by more than 2-to-1 in presidential ads. At one point in August, 90 percent of the ads Obama was airing were against McCain. The study by the Wisconsin Advertising Project found that about 34 percent of Obama’s ads are now negative.
OBAMA: “I want to provide a tax cut for 95 percent of working Americans, 95 percent.”
THE FACTS: Obama constantly says this. But the independent Tax Policy Center says his plan cuts taxes for 81.3 percent of all households in 2009.
McCAIN: Said of Obama’s running mate Sen. Joe Biden: “He had this cockamamie idea of dividing Iraq into three countries.”
THE FACTS: Biden actually proposed dividing Iraq into three semiautonomous regions, not separate countries. He was a prime sponsor of a nonbinding Senate resolution that called for Iraq to have federal regions under the control of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis in a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia.
OBAMA: Said he would be “completely supportive” of late-term abortion restrictions “as long as there’s an exception for the mother’s health and life.”
THE FACTS: Obama leaves himself a lot of latitude in this answer. A woman’s “health” has been so broadly interpreted that it can include conditions, including psychological conditions, that are difficult to diagnose or prove. Anti-abortion advocates say that makes the ban meaningless, because it leaves too much subjective judgment in the equation.
MCCAIN: “Sen. Obama, as a member of the Illinois state Senate, voted in the Judiciary Committee against a law that would provide immediate medical attention to a child born in a failed abortion. He voted against that.”
OBAMA: “If it sounds incredible that I would vote to withhold lifesaving treatment from an infant, that’s because it’s not true.”
THE FACTS: As a state senator, Obama opposed three legislative efforts, in 2001, 2002 and 2003, to give legal protections to any aborted fetus that showed signs of life. The 2003 measure was virtually identical to a bill President George W. Bush signed into law in 2002 — a bill that passed before Obama was in the U.S. Senate, but one that Obama said he would have supported. The state of Illinois already had a law to protect aborted fetuses born alive and considered able to survive. Among those opposed to the state effort was the Illinois State Medical Society, which argued that the bill would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and expand civil liability for doctors. Critics said the proposed legislation would have undermined the landmark Supreme Court case on abortion, Roe v. Wade, in ways the federal law would not.
McCAIN: “Senator Obama talks about voting for budgets. He voted twice for a budget resolution that increases the taxes on individuals making $42,000 a year.”
THE FACTS: The vote was on a nonbinding resolution and did not increase taxes. The resolution assumed that President Bush’s tax cuts would expire, as scheduled, in 2011. If that actually happened, it could mean higher taxes for people making as little as about $42,000.
OBAMA: “We can cut the average family’s premium by $2,500 a year.”
THE FACTS: If that sounds like a straight-ahead promise to lower health insurance premiums, it isn’t. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it’s not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.
MCCAIN: Warned a small business owner that he would be fined under Obama’s health care plan if he did not provide health insurance for workers.
THE FACTS: Obama’s health care plan does not impose mandates or fines on small business. He would provide small businesses with a refundable tax credit of up to 50 percent on health premiums paid on behalf of their employees. Large as well as medium-sized businesses that do not offer meaningful coverage or contribute to the cost of coverage would be required to pay a percentage of payroll toward the costs of a public insurance plan. But small businesses would be exempt from that requirement.
McCAIN: “We can eliminate our dependence on foreign oil by building 45 nuclear power plants right away.”
THE FACTS: For nuclear power to lower oil dependency would require a massive shift to electric or hybrid-electric cars, with nuclear power providing the electricity. No new U.S. nuclear reactor has been built since the 1970s. Although 15 utilities have filed applications to build 24 new reactors, none is expected to be built before 2015 at the earliest. Turmoil in the credit markets could force cancellation of some of the projects now planned, much less spur construction of 45 new reactors, as reactor costs have soared to about $9 billion apiece.
AP writers Tom Raum, Lita Baldor, Kevin Freking and H. Josef Hebert contributed to this report.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines
Waco murder trial update: White supremacist found guilty of capital murder, sentenced to life in prison without parole
The jury has found a white supremacist guilty of capital murder in the stabbing death of a woman in April 2006.
The verdict means Robert Allen Byrd will be automatically sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole.
Earlier this afternoon, Byrd took the stand and testified he did not kill Dana Leigh Taylor and said his relationship with her was like brother and sister.
Byrd’s ex-wife testified that he twice asked her not to testify at his trial.
Chelsey Parks, who was married to Byrd from June 2006 to April 2007, said he told her he killed Dana Leigh Taylor because she was an informant for the FBI.
Byrd said he slapped Taylor at his house, put her in a truck and they drove south.
Near Waco he took her took a field and slashed her throat, Parks said Byrd told her. When Taylor didn’t die right away he stomped on her face, she testified.
He also told her he went to Wal-Mart after the killing to buy new clothes.
Parks said Byrd also told her that Taylor was the wife of a high-ranking Aryan Circle member and her death might put Parks in danger. The rule was “a wife for a wife,” she recalled him saying.
He sent her to live with a friend, Aaron Jostmeyer, for her safety, she said.
While he was in jail, he wrote her letter and asked her not to testify at his trial, she said. A telephone recording from jail also shows him asking her not to testify.
Jostmeyer said Byrd would tell him only that “he did something.” Byrd told him watch the news, he testified, and the story was about a body being found.
A state pathologist testified that although the remains were badly decomposed, a cut on a vertebrae indicated a slash wound to the throat.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Courthouse, Police & crime
Police say lightning sparked deadly housefire
Fire investigators have determined that a nearby lightning strike likely caused a deadly Woodway house fire earlier this month.
Authorities also have identified the victim of the Oct. 7 fire at 13854 Harbor as 87-year-old Sarah Warden.
According to the autopsy report, the cause of death was smoke inhalation and burns, Woodway Public Safety Chief Yost Zakhary said in a statement.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Police & crime
Baylor VP to take helm at East Texas university
MARSHALL, Texas — Baylor University vice president Samuel “Dub” Oliver has been named president of East Texas Baptist University.
The announcement came from ETBU Board of Trustees chair Hal Cornish after a special called trustee meeting Wednesday afternoon, the college said in a press release.
Oliver will succeed current president Dr. Bob E. Riley who is retiring effective July 16, 2009, after 17 years at the helm.
Oliver currently serves as the Vice President for Student Life at Baylor University. He has served in various positions and has been employed at Baylor for 16 years. Dr. Oliver will join ETBU as its 12th president effective June 1, 2009.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines
Dow falls another 700 points on recession fears
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 733 points at the close of trading today — the second-largest point loss ever — as traders saw worrying signs of recession. More here from the Associated Press.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Business, National news
Medical examiner, forensic biologist testify during Waco murder trial
Two employees of the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas testified Wednesday afternoon during the murder trial of Eric Williams, charged in the 2007 slaying of his girlfriend, Erica Rivera. The trial is being held in Waco’s 170th State District Court, presided over by Judge Jim Meyer.
Dr. Keith Pinckard, a medical examiner with the institute, performed an autopsy on Rivera’s body. The autopsy was ordered by a McLennan County justice of the peace on May 9, 2007.
Pinckard said that because Rivera’s body was affected by rain, it was “unrecognizable.” He said the extent of the decomposition was so severe that he wasn’t able to determine the exact cause of her death. But Pinckard did say he believes Rivera died as the result of homicidal violence.
Pinckard further testified that because of the state of the body, he was unable to determine the time or date of Rivera’s death.
Christi Wells, a forensic biologist with the institute, testified that she ran tests on Rivera’s body to determine if there was evidence that Rivera was sexually assaulted. She sent the results of her findings to the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab. Testimony on the DPS lab’s findings is expected later in the trial.
Testimony continues this afternoon.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines
Waco robbery defendant sentenced to life in prison
A 19th State District Court jury took 45 minutes this afternoon to sentence Terrell Rene Henry to life in prison.
This morning, the jury convicted Henry, 37, of aggravated robbery of a Skinny’s convenience store in October 2007.
Henry held up the store at 1225 Speight Ave. with a large butcher knife.
Because of four previous felony convictions, the minimum sentence jurors could have given Henry was 25 years in prison.
At right is an image taken from the store’s surveillance camera showing the robber holding the knife.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Courthouse, Police & crime
Flood advisory expires
Update, 2 pm: The NWS is letting the advisory expire. The gauge up on the Trib roof shows 1.6 inches on the day; Waco airport reports 0.83 inches. Other notable reports from the NWS: 3.44 inches in Kempner; 2.78 inches in Valley Mills; 2.36 inches at Aquilla Lake.
Original NWS alert: THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN FORT WORTH HAS ISSUED A
FLOOD ADVISORY FOR… SOUTHEASTERN BOSQUE COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS CORYELL COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS HILL COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS EASTERN LAMPASAS COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS NORTHWESTERN MCLENNAN COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS
UNTIL 145 PM CDT
AT 1152 AM CDT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS DETECTED VERY HEAVY RAIN ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM WHITNEY TO 11 MILES EAST OF COPPERAS COVE. RADAR ESTIMATES THAT 1 1/2 TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN FROM KEMPNER TO CRAWFORD…TO JUST NORTHEAST OF HILLSBORO.
EXCESSIVE RUNOFF FROM THESE STORMS WILL CAUSE FLOODING OF SMALL CREEKS AND STREAMS…HIGHWAYS AND UNDERPASSES. ADDITIONALLY…COUNTRY ROADS AND FARMLANDS ALONG THE BANKS OF CREEKS AND STREAMS AND OTHER LOW LYING AREAS ARE SUBJECT TO FLOODING.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Weather
Baylor officials defend move to allow students to retake SAT
Baylor University officials are defending their decision to allow this year’s incoming freshman class to retake the SAT in June, a move some academic organizations across the country criticize as an effort to pad their average SAT scores.
Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman, however, says the decision to allow the students to retake the SAT was made in early May, with the goal of enabling incoming students to obtain the highest level of merit-based financial aid possible.
“We saw that we had merit aid available and we wanted to make sure that it was distributed to a class of very academically talented students (who) we felt were deserving of that merit aid,” Fogleman said.
Incoming students who opted to retake the test, 861 in all, were given a $300 bookstore credit to defray the cost of books. If students increased their test score by more than 50 points, they were granted an additional $1,000 in merit aid. Fogleman said that 177 students increased their scores to such a degree that they moved into a higher merit scholarship category, beyond the additional $1,000.
Fogleman insisted the school was motivated by the financial benefit for students. “We weren’t writing checks to students,” Fogleman said. “We didn’t just give them $300 and if they wanted to use that for tickets to a rock concert over the summer, that was not the case.”
However, given Baylor’s resolute determination to advance into the top tier of national universities, some question whether the students’ financial health was truly the driving factor and not the school’s desire to improve its national image.
Baylor faculty senate chair Georgia Green said she and other faculty members believe the move backfired in a big way, regardless of the motives.
“Any time the university gets negative publicity on a national level, it’s certainly harmful to the university,” Green said.
Green added, “The faculty was never informed of this. We never got any official notification that this was happening or why, so when we heard about it we could only speculate as to why it was happening. Of course, the first thought is that we’re doing this so we can raise our SAT scores.”
Green said the faculty senate passed a motion of disapproval at Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting — passed with “overwhelming approval”— which states, in part, “This practice is academically dishonest and should be discontinued.”
twoods@wacotrib.com 757-5721
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines
Injury accident reported on Interstate 35 in Bellmead
Two people were injured in accident about 11:40 a.m. on Interstate 35 northbound in Bellmead.
The wreck involved a small red car and a tractor-trailer.
Police at the scene said the truck hit the car. Two passengers in the car were taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center for treatment. The extent of their injuries were unknown.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines
Nancy Reagan has broken pelvis
Nancy Reagan has been hospitalized in Los Angeles with a broken pelvis.
Reagan spokeswoman Joanne Drake says the 87-year-old former first lady fell at her home last week. She decided Monday to get checked out at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where doctors determined she had a fractured pelvis.
Drake says Mrs. Reagan is in good spirits and surgery isn’t required. She’s in some pain and undergoing physical therapy.
It was not known how long Mrs. Reagan will be hospitalized.
Drake says Mrs. Reagan apparently got up in middle of the night at her Bel-Air home and fell after twisting her leg.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, National news
Dow sheds more than 300 points
Stocks continued to slump this morning behind a weaker-than-expected retail sales report.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped back beneath the 9,000 mark despite other good news such as credit markets easing a bit, with a key overnight bank lending rate falling.
The dollar gained versus the yen and fell against the euro.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Business
FEMA triples mobile homes in 4 Southeast Texas counties
FEMA has more than tripled the number of mobile homes for Hurricane Ike victims in four southeast Texas counties in the last week — raising the number from 18 to 62 — but officials say thousands more are still needed.
“The bottom line is that 62 is just an unsatisfactory number,” Orange Mayor William Brown Claybar said.
The 62 units reported by FEMA refers to mobile homes and park model trailers occupied as of Tuesday night in Jefferson, Orange, Hardin and Chambers counties.
After Ike hit the region on Sept. 13, flooding left thousands in southeast Texas with uninhabitable homes.
Orange County has requested 4,000 temporary housing units. And Jefferson County Judge Ron Walker has said at least 1,000 more may be needed in his county.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Hurricane Ike, Around the state
Cheney’s heart beating abnormally
Vice President Dick Cheney will visit George Washington University Hospital today after doctors discovered a recurrence of an abnormal heart rhythm, his spokeswoman said in a written statement.
Cheney has a history of heart problems, including several heart attacks.
Doctors discovered today that Cheney was “experiencing a recurrence of atrial fibrillation, an abnormal rhythm involving the upper chambers of the heart,” Megan Mitchell said.
He will undergo an outpatient procedure to restore his normal rhythm, she said.
Cheney canceled a campaign event in Illinois for Marty Ozinga, a Republican nominee for a U.S. congressional seat.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines
Mistake lets Wisconsin drivers score 35-cent gas
Sure, gas prices have come down lately. But to 34.9 cents a gallon? That’s what Kelly Joosten and dozens of other motorists paid at a Citgo station Monday. The sign advertised $3.43 for a gallon of premium fuel, but the pump cost read $0.349 a gallon.
“That was amazing,” said Joosten, who normally spends about $100 to fill up her 1998 Ford Expedition.
Joosten proudly showed off her receipt for 25.36 gallons at $8.85. She said she saw other motorists filling gas cans, too, at the discounted price.
Station owner JP Raval says the attendant on duty couldn’t figure out why the station was suddenly so busy.
Raval estimated 30 to 40 customers fueled up at the incorrect price — between 200 and 300 gallons worth — for about 90 minutes.
“People kept coming, so fast,” Raval said. “Everything was crowded; it was like a fairground.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, National news, Weird & wacky
Officer: Body was in vehicle for days before burial
According to testimony today from McLennan County Sheriff’s Cpl. Bob Fuller, evidence in an abandoned vehicle on a 2-acre tract near Riesel revealed that 25-year-old Erica Rivera’s body had been decomposing for days inside the vehicle, and later dragged to a shallow grave.
Rivera, a mother of three, was last seen April 28, 2007, arguing with her boyfriend, Eric Williams, 38, in the parking lot of the Falcon Club in Waco. He is now on trial in her death.
On May 3, 2007, Williams asked neighbors of the eastern McLennan County property to help pull his car from the mud in the area where Rivera’s body was found May 8, according to court testimony.
While Fuller testified that no evidence was found in Williams’ Oldsmobile, he said one of two abandoned vehicles on the property contained a shovel with mud caked on it.
Because of heavy rains during this time, Fuller said investigators did not return to the scene until May 25, 2007. In the second abandoned vehicle, Fuller said he found part of a scalp with hair attached to it, decaying fluids, a blood-stained towel, and a plastic bag with Rivera’s clothing in it.
A second bag contained men’s clothing, including a shirt that read “PCA” and a pair of size-13 tennis shoes, Fuller said.
Testimony from Deputy Robert Fulmer earlier today revealed that Williams was wearing size-13 tennis shoes at the time of his May 12, 2007, arrest. Fulmer also testified that Williams was carrying a bag with several shirts emblazoned with “PCA” on them.
In opening arguments Monday, McLennan County Assistant District Attorney Beth Toben said PCA stands for Packaging Corporation of America, where Williams previously worked.
Rivera’s body was found in a shallow grave on a rainy May 8, Fulmer recalled. The body wasn’t removed until the next day and it wasn’t until May 25 that the sheriff’s office could do a thorough search of the property because of rain and flooding in the area, he said.
Testimony continues at 1:30 p.m. today in McLennan County’s 170th State District Court.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Hot stories, Courthouse, Police & crime
Murder trial of white supremacist resumes
Former sheriff’s office detective Shawn Nixon was on the stand this morning in the capital murder trial of Robert Allen Byrd, a captain in the Aryan Circle who is accused of killing Dana Leigh Taylor in April 2006.
Nixon was corroborating the testimony of Jennifer Perez, an acquaintance of Byrd’s, who said she was in a truck when he stabbed Taylor to death in the woods off Old Dallas Highway. Nixon said that cell-phone records and debit-card receipts backed up her descriptions of where the two went and what they did the day Perez says Byrd killed Taylor.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Courthouse, Police & crime
Jury to decide aggravated robbery case
A jury in Waco’s 19th State District Court just went out this morning to deliberate the fate of Terrell Rene Henry in his aggravated robbery trial.
Henry, 37, is charged with robbing the Skinny’s convenience store at 1225 Speight Ave. with a large butcher knife in October 2007.
It is one of three trials under way in a busy McLennan County Courthouse this week.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Courthouse, Police & crime
Ike impacts endangered sea turtle
Hurricane Ike may have dealt a blow to the world’s most endangered sea turtle.
The storm erased nesting areas for Kemp’s ridley turtles by washing away dunes and beaches on battered Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island, said Andre M. Landry Jr., director of the Sea Turtle and Fisheries Ecology Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University at Galveston.
The number of ridley nests on the upper Texas Gulf Coast has risen every year since 2003, reaching 16 last year. But six of those were on Bolivar Peninsula, which was nearly wiped clean by Ike.
Nesting season starts in April, and officials hope to have replenished the beaches by then.
Before Ike, Landry’s laboratory lost most of a $71,000 grant and would have been forced to end beach patrols that assist in the survival of the turtles, the Houston Chronicle reported today. But fundraising sparked by a $25,000 challenge grant from Houston attorney Joe Jamail made up the difference.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Around the state, Environmental, Weather
Retail sales hit 3-year low
Retail sales suffered their biggest drop in three years last month, as American households reined in spending amid a tough job market, the financial crisis and falling home values, CNNMoney.com reports.
The Commerce Department reported today that retail sales fell 1.2 percent in September, nearly double the 0.7 percent drop expected by economists.
A steep 3.8 percent decline in auto purchases help depress the overall sales for the month.
At last glance, the Dow was down about 250 points.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Business
Vote on our ‘Best Shots’ football photos
Don’t forget to keep voting this week on our Best Shots from last weekend’s high school football games. I ask you: How can you not vote for this adorable adolescent?
That cherubic face is in our “Cute kids” poll. Other voting choices are “Colorful dress” from homecoming festivities, “Flashy facepaint” and “Action-packed pic.”
Unlike the presidential race, feel free to vote often.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines
U.S. troops kill No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq
American troops acting on a tip killed the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq — a Moroccan known for his ability to recruit and motivate foreign fighters — in a raid in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said today.
The military statement described the man, known as Abu Qaswarah, as a charismatic leader who had trained in Afghanistan and managed to rally al-Qaida followers in Iraq despite U.S. and Iraqi security gains.
Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, a U.S. spokesman in Baghdad, also said the military suspected that Iranian agents were trying to bribe Iraqi politicians to oppose negotiations over a security pact that would extend the presence of American troops in Iraq.
But, he said, the military had no reason to believe Iraqi politicians had taken the Iranians up on the offers.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Military, World news
Hurricane Omar smacks Caribbean islands
Hurricane Omar is gaining strength as it moves northeast, a day after drenching islands in the southeastern Caribbean.
Omar’s maximum sustained winds early today were near 80 mph.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Omar is expected to continue gaining power over the next 24 hours. It could pass the threshold of 96 mph winds for a Category 2 storm by the time it reaches the northern Leeward Islands late today.
Hurricane warnings have been issued for the U.S. Virgin islands, Puerto Rico’s Vieques and Culebra islands and other islands in the region.
Meanwhile, a tropical depression is hugging the coast of Honduras. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the entire coast of Honduras.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Weather
Economic data sends Wall Street down
As new economic data proved generally dismal, U.S. stocks dropped more than 100 points in early trading today.
There are bright spots with better-than-forecast results for Coca-Cola Co., Intel Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Business, National news
NY Times writes about Baylor freshman incentive
The New York Times focused a story yesterday on Baylor University and its freshman incentive program that encourages students to retake the SAT and improve their scores.
Here’s the story.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Hot stories, Baylor University,