Sunday, August 28, 2011

IMF chief urges US policymakers to help economy


Christine Lagarde, of France, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, arrives at the morning session of the Economic Policy Symposium at Jackson Hole in Moran, Wyo., Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011.

AP Photo/Reed Saxon


IMF chief urges US policymakers to help economy

By Paul Wiseman

AP Economics Writer
Published August 27, 2011


JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The new head of the International Monetary Fund urged U.S. policymakers to take more aggressive steps to stimulate the economy and ease the housing crisis.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde, speaking at an economic conference in Jackson Hole Saturday, said the United States should reach a "credible" plan to control government debts in the future, but push for stronger economic growth now.

If the economy stagnates, she said, plans to cut government spending in the future will lose credibility. "Who will believe that commitments to cut spending can survive a lengthy stagnation with prolonged unemployment and social dissatisfaction?" she said.

Her comments echoed those of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who in a speech here Friday urged Congress to do more to help the ailing U.S. economy. Congress, led by House Republicans, has emphasized reducing government budget deficits over short-term measures to create jobs.

Lagarde also pushed U.S. policymakers to halt "the downward spiral of foreclosures, falling house prices and deteriorating household spending." She said they could move more aggressively to reduce amount of principal homeowners owe on their mortgages; about one in four U.S. homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

The government could help homeowners take advantage of super-low mortgage rates to refinance their homes and reduce their monthly payments, she said.

In July, Lagarde replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the IMF. He had been accused of assaulting a hotel maid. Those charges were dismissed last week.

Private investors or governments must replenish the capital of banks facing potential losses if ailing European countries such as Greece, Italy and Portugal cannot meet government debt payments, Lagarde said.

Lagarde urged central banks around the world to keep interest rates low and consider "unconventional" steps if they are required to protect the fragile global recovery. On Friday, Fed chief Bernanke did not announce any further steps to jolt the economy. He did say the Fed would discuss its options at its policy meeting next month. One unconventional step the Fed could take would be a third round of bond purchases, a policy known as "quantitative easing," designed to help the economy by lowering long-term interest rates.

"The downside risks to the global economy are increasing," Lagarde said. "Those risks have been aggravated further by a deterioration in confidence and a growing sense that policymakers do not have the conviction, or simply are not willing, to take the decisions that are needed."

Source

Last Hurricane IRENE Public Advisory



Hurricane IRENE Public Advisory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


US Watch/Warning Storm Surge Probs UPDATE
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000
WTNT34 KNHC 281152
TCPAT4

BULLETIN
HURRICANE IRENE INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 32A
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL092011
800 AM EDT SUN AUG 28 2011

...CENTER OF IRENE NEARING NEW YORK CITY...


SUMMARY OF 800 AM EDT...1200 UTC...INFORMATION
----------------------------------------------
LOCATION...40.3N 74.1W
ABOUT 40 MI...60 KM SSW OF NEW YORK CITY
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...75 MPH...120 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT...NNE OR 20 DEGREES AT 25 MPH...41 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...963 MB...28.44 INCHES


WATCHES AND WARNINGS
--------------------
CHANGES IN WATCHES AND WARNINGS WITH THIS ADVISORY...

THE TROPICAL STORM WARNING FROM OCRACOKE INLET NORTH CAROLINA TO
CAPE CHARLES LIGHT VIRGINIA...INCLUDING THE PAMLICO...ALBEMARLE...
AND CURRITUCK SOUNDS AND CHESAPEAKE BAY SOUTH OF NEW POINT
COMFORT...IS DISCONTINUED.

SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT...

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* CHINCOTEAGUE VIRGINIA NORTHWARD TO SAGAMORE BEACH MASSACHUSETTS...
INCLUDING DELAWARE BAY...NEW YORK CITY...LONG ISLAND...LONG ISLAND
SOUND...COASTAL CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND...BLOCK ISLAND...
MARTHAS VINEYARD AND NANTUCKET

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* NORTH OF CAPE CHARLES LIGHT TO SOUTH OF CHINCOTEAUGUE VIRGINIA...
INCLUDING CHESAPEAKE BAY NORTH OF NEW POINT COMFORT AND THE TIDAL
POTOMAC
* NORTH OF SAGAMORE BEACH TO EASTPORT MAINE
* UNITED STATES/CANADA BORDER NORTHEASTWARD TO FORT LAWRENCE
INCLUDING GRAND MANAN
* SOUTH COAST OF NOVA SCOTIA FROM FORT LAWRENCE TO PORTERS LAKE

INTERESTS ELSEWHERE IN EASTERN CANADA SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF
IRENE.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA IN THE UNITED
STATES...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE
MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
FORECAST OFFICE. FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA OUTSIDE
THE UNITED STATES...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR NATIONAL
METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE.


DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK
------------------------------
AT 800 AM EDT...1200 UTC...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE IRENE WAS LOCATED
BY AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT AND NOAA DOPPLER
RADAR NEAR LATITUDE 40.3 NORTH...LONGITUDE 74.1 WEST. IRENE IS
MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 25 MPH...41 KM/H...AND THIS
MOTION WITH A CONTINUED GRADUAL INCREASE IN FORWARD SPEED IS
EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO. ON THE FORECAST TRACK...THE
CENTER OF IRENE WILL MOVE NEAR NEW YORK CITY THIS MORNING...AND MOVE
INLAND OVER SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND BY THIS AFTERNOON. IRENE IS
FORECAST TO MOVE INTO EASTERN CANADA TONIGHT.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 75 MPH...120 KM/H...WITH
HIGHER GUSTS. IRENE IS A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE
SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE WIND SCALE. IRENE IS FORECAST TO WEAKEN
AND BECOME A POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE BY TONIGHT OR EARLY MONDAY.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 125 MILES...205 KM...FROM
THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 320
MILES...520 KM. GROTON CONNECTICUT RECENTLY REPORTED SUSTAINED
WINDS OF 39 MPH...63 KM/H...AND A WIND GUST TO 54 MPH...87 KM/H.

BATTERY PARK NEW YORK CITY HAS RECENTLY REPORTED A TOTAL WATER LEVEL
NEAR 8.6 FEET.

THE LATEST MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY THE HURRICANE HUNTER
AIRCRAFT WAS 963 MB...28.44 INCHES.


HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND
----------------------
STORM SURGE...AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM SURGE WILL RAISE WATER
LEVELS BY AS MUCH AS 4 TO 8 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL WITHIN THE
HURRICANE WARNING AREA. NEAR THE COAST...THE SURGE WILL
BE ACCOMPANIED BY LARGE...DESTRUCTIVE...AND LIFE-THREATENING WAVES.
HIGHER THAN NORMAL ASTRONOMICAL TIDES ARE OCCURRING THIS WEEKEND.
COASTAL AND RIVER FLOODING WILL BE HIGHEST IN AREAS WHERE THE PEAK
SURGE OCCURS AROUND THE TIME OF HIGH TIDE. STORM TIDE AND SURGE
VALUES ARE VERY LOCATION-SPECIFIC...AND USERS ARE URGED TO CONSULT
PRODUCTS ISSUED BY THEIR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICES.
WATER LEVELS IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY WILL GRADUALLY SUBSIDE THIS
MORNING.

RAINFALL...IRENE IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF
5 TO 10 INCHES...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 15 INCHES...FROM
EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA...DELAWARE AND NEW JERSEY INTO EASTERN NEW YORK
AND INTERIOR NEW ENGLAND. THESE RAINS...COMBINED WITH HEAVY RAINS
OVER THE PAST FEW WEEKS...COULD CAUSE WIDESPREAD FLOODING...
LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS...AND SIGNIFICANT UPROOTING OF TREES
DUE TO RAIN-SOFTENED GROUNDS.

WIND...TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS...
ESPECIALLY IN GUSTS...WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD NORTHWARD INTO
SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND THIS MORNING. WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER
FLOORS OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN
THOSE NEAR GROUND LEVEL.

TORNADOES...ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE OVER NORTHERN NEW
JERSEY...SOUTHEASTERN NEW YORK...AND EXTREME SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND
THROUGH THIS MORNING.

SURF...LARGE SWELLS GENERATED BY IRENE ARE AFFECTING MUCH OF THE
EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. THESE SWELLS WILL CAUSE
LIFE-THREATENING SURF AND RIP CURRENT CONDITIONS.


NEXT ADVISORY
-------------
NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY...1100 AM EDT.

$$
FORECASTER PASCH/BROWN


http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/281152.shtml


Tropical Storm JOSE Public Advisory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

000
WTNT31 KNHC 281213
TCPAT1

BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM JOSE SPECIAL ADVISORY NUMBER 1...CORRECTED
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL112011
800 AM AST SUN AUG 28 2011

CORRECTED FOR TIME OF WEAKENING

...TROPICAL STORM JOSE FORMS NEAR BERMUDA...TROPICAL STORM WARNING
ISSUED...


SUMMARY OF 800 AM AST...1200 UTC...INFORMATION
----------------------------------------------
LOCATION...30.8N 65.7W
ABOUT 115 MI...185 KM SSW OF BERMUDA
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...40 MPH...65 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT...N OR 350 DEGREES AT 16 MPH...26 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1008 MB...29.77 INCHES


WATCHES AND WARNINGS
--------------------
CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY...

THE BERMUDA WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR
BERMUDA.

SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT...

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* BERMUDA

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED SOMEWHERE WITHIN THE WARNING AREA...IN THIS CASE WITHIN 12
HOURS.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...PLEASE MONITOR
PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR NATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE.


DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK
------------------------------
AT 800 AM AST...1200 UTC...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM JOSE WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 30.8 NORTH...LONGITUDE 65.7 WEST. JOSE IS
MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH NEAR 16 MPH...26 KM/H...AND THIS MOTION IS
EXPECTED TO CONTINUE TODAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 40 MPH...65 KM/H...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS FORECAST TODAY AND JOSE SHOULD
WEAKEN ON MONDAY.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 50 MILES...85 KM
FROM THE CENTER.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1008 MB...29.77 INCHES.


HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND
----------------------
WIND...TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED ON BERMUDA BEGINNING
LATER THIS MORNING.

RAINFALL...RAIN TOTALS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE ON BERMUDA.


NEXT ADVISORY
-------------
NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY...1100 AM AST.

$$
FORECASTER KIMBERLAIN/BLAKE

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT1+shtml/281159.shtml


Hurricane Irene bears down on the New York area



Hurricane Irene bears down on the New York area


Barely a hurricane but massive and packed with rain, Irene lumbered onto the New Jersey shore Sunday morning on its way toward pummeling New York.

(Complete story and continuing coverage via WABC EYEWITNESSNEWS)

Saturday, August 27, 2011

UPDATE 4-New York shuts down ahead of Hurricane Irene

By Basil Katz and Edith Honan

NEW YORK, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Times Square emptied out and evacuation shelters filled up as New York City shut down on Saturday ahead of Hurricane Irene, which charged up the East Coast on a direct path toward the world financial capital.

New Yorkers deserted the streets and took cover from a rare hurricane headed their way -- only five have tracked within 75 miles (120 km) of the city since records have been kept. The full impact of heavy rain, powerful winds and a surging sea was expected through Sunday morning.

Rain was reported throughout the city around 8 p.m (2400 GMT), and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch in addition to the hurricane warning.

After Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the unprecedented evacuation of 370,000 people living in neighborhoods near the water's edge, more than 3,700 took refuge in the city's shelters, thousands more fled to the homes of friends or relatives, and others defiantly stayed behind.

While shelters were mostly empty, others such as the John Adams High School in Queens overflowed.

A smattering of food and liquor stores stayed open while the public transit system that moves 8.5 million people each weekday halted operations, also a first, as the giant 580-mile (930-km)-wide storm unleashed 8O miles per hour (130 km per hour) winds, grounding aircraft along the eastern seaboard.

At Brooklyn Tech High School shelter, evacuees watched weather reports on a large television screen in the auditorium while others dined on mozzarella sticks, string beans, milk and apple sauce.

"I didn't want to leave (home), I wanted to stay, but I feared for my life. I didn't want to get stuck in the dark and in the flood," said Margie Robledo, 58, of Coney Island, who just arrived in New York from Puerto Rico, where the storm had hit days earlier.

CALM IN THE DANGER ZONE

Others defied the evacuation order after Bloomberg announced police would not enforce it. Despite the persistent warnings and ominous skies, the neighborhood around Brooklyn's Coney Island -- within the danger zone -- was calm. Parked cars lined the streets, and there was no sign of a mass exodus.

"They are right, we should be evacuating, but we are not," said John Visconti, 47, who owns an auto repair business and lives on the ground floor of his building in the nearby Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn. "We just want to stay home and hope for the best. We should be OK."

The evacuation zones included shiny apartment buildings in Manhattan's wealthy Battery Park City, working class Red Hook in Brooklyn and run-down public housing in Coney Island -- all neighborhoods at the water's edge.

"If the neighborhood is eventually legitimately flooded, I have food and books and whiskey," said attorney Neal D'Amato, 31, sipping a beer at the Red Hook Bait and Tackle shop bar.

He said he would ride out the storm in his fourth-floor apartment.

In Times Square, the so-called crossroads of the world, tourists were left with limited options. Broadway shows were canceled, Starbucks stores closed as was McDonald's.

Many other chain stores and attractions for kids such as the Toys "R" Us flagship store and Hershey's chocolate emporium were also shuttered.

The Frames bowling alley in the Port Authority Bus Terminal was still open, and had no immediate plans to close early, despite few customers. There was still adult entertainment on the fringes of Times Square with peep shows and stores offering porn, sex toys and lingerie open for business.

Taxis were plentiful even though mass transit halted at midday, suggested most people were staying home.

The network of 468 subway stations, 324 bus routes and two commuter rail lines was unlikely to be open for Monday morning's commute, Bloomberg said, and electricity in lower Manhattan including Wall Street could be out for days if the utility Consolidated Edison (ED.N) decide to preemptively shut off power. The New York Stock Exchange expected a normal trading session on Monday. [ID:nN1E77Q0B6]

One of the danger zones, the Financial District surrounding Wall Street, was largely deserted, with clusters of pedestrians with suitcases hailing cabs to get to higher ground.

PLASTIC SHEETS AND SANDBAGS

Outside the W Hotel near the World Trade Center site of the Sept. 11 attacks, Tamara Steil, 57, who is visiting from Michigan, waited for a hotel shuttle to take her to a midtown Manhattan hotel.

"We were here to spend money on restaurants and bars, but all these places are closed," she said, as she shared a pack of beer with other stragglers.

The South Street Seaport, which on a typical summer Saturday would be full of tourists, was nearly abandoned, the storefronts and restaurants boarded up or covered in plastic sheets, sandbags protecting the doors.

At a Manhattan Home Depot store, store clerks said they planned to stay open throughout the storm, but early on Saturday it had already run out of flashlights, duct tape, rope and tarps.

Irina Katkov, 38, an office manager, who lives in a seven-story building near the Atlantic Ocean, said about half the people in the evacuation zone where she lives were staying put, herself among them.

"We're not scared, we are ready for the fun," Katkov said. "Cameras are ready, batteries are charged, can't wait." (Additional reporting by Martin Howell; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Xavier Briand and Philip Barbara)

Source
.

Hurricane Irene Hits, Raising Fears of Storm Surge

Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency
Waves crashed into Avalon Pier as Hurricane Irene struck the Outer Banks in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., on Saturday. More Photos »

By KIM SEVERSON, DAN BARRY and CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

Published: August 27, 2011

This article was reported by Kim Severson, Dan Barry and Campbell Robertson and was written by Mr. Barry.

WILMINGTON, N.C. — After several anxious days of dire forecasts that forced much of the East Coast into unprecedented levels of lockdown, a weakened but still ferocious Hurricane Irene made landfall on Saturday morning along the southern coast of North Carolina.

It announced itself with howling winds, hammering rains and a gradual, destructive move northward toward the battened-down cities of Washington, New York and Boston.

Shortly after daybreak in Nags Head, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, surging waves ate away at the dunes, while winds peeled the siding from vacated beach houses — as if to challenge the National Hurricane Center’s early morning decision to downgrade Irene to a Category 1 hurricane, whose maximum sustained winds would reach only — only — 90 miles an hour, with occasional stronger gusts.

“Some weakening is expected after Irene reaches the coast of North Carolina,” an update by the hurricane center at 8 a.m. said. “But Irene is forecast to remain a hurricane as it moves near or over the mid-Atlantic states and New England.”

The massive storm was expected to push out to sea again later Saturday and then head north toward New York, where the specter of an electrical shutdown was added to the list of potential consequences. The region prepared to face powerhouse winds that could drive a wall of water over the beaches of the Rockaway Peninsula and between the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan.

The city scrambled to complete evacuation of about 300,000 residents in low-lying areas where officials expected flooding to follow the storm. Officials also ordered the entire public transportation system — subways, buses and commuter rail lines — to shut down Saturday for what they said was the first time in history. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said mass transit was “unlikely to be back” in service on Monday, but electricity in Lower Manhattan could remain out.

“This is just the beginning,” the mayor said at a morning news conference in Coney Island, Brooklyn, where he and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly inspected boats that emergency workers could use in neighborhoods they could not travel through any other way. “This is a life-threatening storm.”

Officials said the central concern at the moment was the storm surge of such a large, slow-moving hurricane — the deluge to be dumped from the sky or thrown onto shore by violent waves moving like snapped blankets. “I would very much take this seriously,” Brian McNoldy, a research associate of the Department of Atmospheric Research at Colorado State University, said. “Don’t be concerned if it’s a Category 1, 2, 3, 4. If you’re on the coast, you don’t want to be there. Wind isn’t your problem.”

Mazie Swindell Smith, the county manager in Hyde County, N.C., which is expecting storm surge from the inland bay that abuts it, agreed. “The storm is moving more slowly than expected,” Ms. Smith said. “That’s not good as far as rainfall, because it will just sit here and dump rain.”

With the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United State since 2008, government officials issued evacuation orders for about 2.3 million people, according to The Associated Press — from 100,000 people in Delaware to 1 million people in New Jersey, where the governor, Chris Christie, told everyone to “Get the hell off the beach.” And in New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took the historic step of ordering the evacuation of several waterfront areas, including Manhattan’s Battery Park City.

On Saturday, both Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York were stressing the seriousness of the situation, telling residents in the evacuation zones to get out for their own safety. On Friday, city officials issued what they called an unprecedented order for the evacuation of about 370,000 residents of low-lying areas, while on Long Island, county and town officials ordered a mandatory evacuation of about 400,000 people.

Irene was projected to hug the coast throughout Saturday and make landfall again around midday on Sunday on Long Island, just east of New York City. That track gives the city a bit of a break, because the east side of a hurricane is more powerful than the west, though there might be storm surges of four to eight feet.

“They’re going to be on the west side, but they’re still going to get strong winds and storm surge,” John Guiney, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said.

Hurricane watches were posted and states of emergency declared for Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New England, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. Amtrak canceled train service for parts of the Northeast Corridor for the weekend, and airlines began canceling flights, urging travelers to stay home. Broadway shows shut down. Major League Baseball games were postponed.

Most airlines have grounded flights this weekend, in the New York City area and beyond, and Newark Liberty International Airport, Kennedy International Airport and La Guardia Airport were set to close at noon on Saturday in anticipation of the severe weather. Michael Trevino, a spokesman for the merged United Airlines and Continental Airlines, said 2,300 flights would be canceled. A JetBlue spokesman said the airline had grounded 1,252 flights in the New York area and beyond starting Saturday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, still seeking to redeem itself from its spotty performance after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, had 18 disaster-response teams in place along the East Coast, with stockpiles of food, water and mobile communications equipment ready to go. The Coast Guard: more than 20 rescue helicopters and reconnaissance planes ready to take off. The Defense Department: 18 more helicopters set aside for response. The National Guard: about 101,000 members available to respond. The American Red Cross: more than 200 emergency response vehicles and tens of thousands of ready-to-eat meals in areas due to be hit by the storm.

FEMA has also moved onto the Internet and social media in a big way, with Craig Fugate, the FEMA director, posting updates on Twitter several times an hour about the agency’s response and the status of the storm.

“The category of the storm does not tell the whole story,” Mr. Fugate wrote Saturday morning on his Twitter feed, after Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a Category 1 storm. “Some of our Nation’s worst flooding came from tropical storms.”

President Obama ended his vacation early by flying back Friday night from Martha’s Vineyard to be in Washington for the storm. In advance of Irene’s arrival, he had issued federal emergency declarations for New Hampshire, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey, clearing the way for federal support to respond to the hurricane.

The toll being exacted on North Carolina — even before the hurricane’s eye wall reached land just east of Cape Lookout — augured what was likely in store for other states along the Atlantic Seaboard, with some 50 million people possibly affected. Downed trees. Damaged municipal buildings. The flooding of the communities of Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach. The partial collapse of a pier in Atlantic Beach. The suspension of a search for a teenage male who jumped off a boat ramp and disappeared into the churning waters outside Wilmington; officials said the dangerous weather would delay a search until sometime Saturday afternoon for the young man.

North Carolina officials said another man was killed near Nashville, N.C., when a tree branch fell on him while he was walking in his yard. And a surfer was killed in Virginia beach, Va., while testing the massive waves in advance of the storm’s arrival.

By Saturday morning, some 200,000 customers had lost power in North Carolina, according to Progress Energy, with the utility expecting more blackouts as the hurricane moved inland. Power was out for about half of the 106,000 residents in the port city of Wilmington. After a night of fierce winds that gusted to nearly 80 miles an hour, people emerged from their homes to downed trees, darkened traffic lights — and a collective sense of having been spared the worst of the storm’s wrath.

Judy and Greg Harvey, out-of-towners from Philadelphia, were surprised by how the locals had taken the storm in stride. The Harveys had driven in from Philadelphia to care for his mother, who was in a hospice that had shut down at 6 p.m. Friday and was keeping visitors out of the facility until noon Saturday. This made for a maddeningly long morning for the couple — “She could be gone, actually,” said Judy Harvey — but a morning allowing for observation of the area’s post-storm reaction.

“No one seems to be too upset at all,” Ms. Harvey said. “They just shut everything down and pull the metal grates across the windows and wait.”

Meanwhile, at the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, about 100 children had spent the night in sleeping bags and inflatable beds, arriving with staff members who had to work and parents from the area who wanted a safe place to wait the storm out. A band of doctors in scrubs entertained them with soft rock.

Twelve babies were born during the night. According to a hospital nurse, the parents of two of them were said to be considering the middle name Irene.

In Curritack County, all bridges connecting the mainland to the Outer Banks had been shut down, save for last-minute and emergency traffic, and the main highways were eerily quiet.

On Friday, several business owners along the main thoroughfare had bravely insisted that they would remain open through the storm. But by Saturday morning it appeared that, having woken up to powerful gusts of car-rattling winds and driving rain, these merchants had reconsidered. For example, the spray-painted word “Open” adorned the plywood covering a local 7-Eleven, but the door was locked, and a small sign listed numbers to call in case of emergency.

These were the first on-the-ground manifestations of what most people had experienced only through the multi-colored radar maps that appeared on television, beside meteorologists wearing studied looks of concern. These maps showed a cone-shaped mass of reds, yellows and greens inching north from the Bahamas.

Perhaps the most breathtaking, even humbling, images came from some 200 miles up, via the International Space Station. Photographs taken by astronauts showed what looked like a massive swirl of mashed potatoes straddling the edge of the green plate of the United States.

“If you were to just put it on a map of the United States, it would go from South Florida to Pennsylvania, and from North Carolina to eastern Oklahoma,” Mr. McNoldy said. “It’s big, yeah.”

Kim Severson reported from Wilmington, N.C., Dan Barry from New York and Campbell Robertson from Coinjock, N.C. Brian Stelter contributed reporting from Nags Head, N.C., Shaila Dewan from New York and Eric Lipton from Washington.

Source

The poor man is Christ's witness

Strengthened by unquestioning faith in Christ, even the illiterate disciple will be able to withstand the doubts and questions that infidelity can produce, and put to blush the sophistries of scorners. The Lord Jesus will give the disciples a tongue and wisdom that their adversaries can neither gainsay nor resist. Those who could not by reasoning overcome Satanic delusions, will bear an affirmative testimony that will baffle supposedly learned men. Words will come from the lips of the unlearned with such convincing power and wisdom that conversions will be made to the truth. Thousands will be converted under this testimony.

Why should the illiterate man have this power, which the learned man has not? The illiterate one, through faith in Christ, has come into the atmosphere of pure, clear Truth, while the learned man has turned away from the truth. The poor man is Christ's witness. He cannot appeal to histories or to so-called "high science," but he gathers from the Word of God powerful evidence. The truth that he speaks under the inspiration of the Spirit, is so pure and remarkable and carries with it a power so indisputable, that his testimony cannot be gainsaid. His faith in Christ is his anchor, holding him to the Rock of Ages. He can say, "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" [2 Timothy 1:12].

Manuscript 53, May 11, 1905, (see also IHP 297, MAR 252, UL 145)

Weaving Together the Stories of God, People, and City




When Ryan Bell (DMin '11), senior pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church, felt drawn to Fuller's Doctor of Ministry program, he "was looking not so much for a school, but for mentors," he says, "who could help me think in a new way about the mission challenge I was facing." For Bell, this challenge included his passion to help people who may not view themselves as religious or spiritual to discover that God is at work in their lives and in the world--a task that required equipping "well beyond the church growth tools and marketing strategies" Bell had previously been taught.

"In my ministry, I find my greatest reward in weaving together the stories we inhabit," says Bell, describing how satisfying it is when a member of his congregation "makes the connection between their 'spiritual life' and the rest of their life." Bell sees a divide caused by American culture, which has "cordoned God off from the affairs of our daily life" so that God is "irrelevant or unknown" to many people. For Bell, then, "spiritual leadership is about helping people weave together God's story in Scripture, their personal story, and the story of our neighborhood and city." It is at the intersection of these stories, Bell believes, that one can find what God most wants to do.

The DMin program in Missional Leadership was integral to Bell's process of creating his unique approach to ministry. "What I needed," he says, "was a framework in thinking theologically about our contemporary mission challenge." While the Master of Divinity he earned in 2000 was helpful in giving him solid skills in biblical languages, as well as exegetical and theological methods, it was the DMin program that met Bell's present need for his ministry.

"It combined rigorous theological and philosophical work that I didn't get in my MDiv with innovative cultural and leadership studies," he explains, describing the way that the leadership component was integrated into his DMin courses instead of merely added on, as he was accustomed to in the past. While this model kept the program from being about "techniques to make the church more relevant to our culture," Bell points out, that also means it focused on "something infinitely more difficult--and more rewarding." Pressing on through the program, Bell experienced that reward as he learned how to integrate the many disconnected pieces he already had for ministry--theology from his MDiv courses and personal reading, "an innate curiosity about the cultural moment we inhabit" and the way it affects local churches, and ten years of urban ministry and leadership experience.

Today, this integrated model of ministry equips Bell not only to lead his congregation in Hollywood, but also to step out with them doing interfaith work with Muslim and Jewish friends in the city and to partner with LA Voice, an affiliate of PICO, a faith-based community organizing national network. Through these and other efforts, Bell and his congregation actively seek God's peace and justice enacted in their community, as they weave their stories together with God's and those of their neighbors.

Bell says that "the timing couldn't have been better" when he moved to the Hollywood Adventist Church one year into his DMin studies. "Fuller's DMin program quite literally transformed my ministry," he states, recalling how he was able to begin his work in Hollywood with a "different kind of leadership--more in harmony with my theology and better able to address the world I actually inhabit."

Source
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Those Who Trust

by Scott Arany

2 days ago

Those Who Trust from Scott Arany on Vimeo.



Performed at the Hollywood Adventist Church. Scott Arany on lead vocals, Nathan French on vocals and guitar, Dannon Rampton on mandolin, Brian Lauritzen on cello, Thomas Hjorth on electric guitar, Troy Welstad on keys, Mikkel Heimburger on bass, random dude on the drums.

Source
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Faith and Deeds


James 2

1My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

3And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

4Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

5Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

6But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

7Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

8If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

9But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

10For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

12So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

13For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

14What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

15If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

16And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

18Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

19Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

20But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

21Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

22Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

23And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

24Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
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Food for everyone-towards a global deal



http://www.eesc.europa.eu/food-for-everyone/about.html


Staffan Nilsson's speech – opening session –
At the conference Food for everyone-towards a global deal
23 May 2011
EESC- JDE 62


A very warm welcome to all of you attending our conference today entitled: "Food for everyone - towards a global deal". Food security concerns us all, because it is about the earth's resources, which we all share and use, and because food is vital for our lives.

I sometimes have the feeling that we modern urbanites are wholly unaware that the food we eat is the fruit of the earth. In the rich world, supply is enormous and choice infinite. In poor countries, people at best face the daily grind of trying to scrape together just enough to live on. Yet it is the earth – the land – that supplies our daily bread. No artificial system has been invented that can convert carbon atoms in the atmosphere into organic material so effectively. Plant photosynthesis captures energy from sunlight. Oxygen is also released during this process, which is the most important cycle in nature. It is plant cells that signify growth in the real sense of the word. And agriculture is the human activity that is perhaps most clearly tied to – and dependent on – this process. As a working farmer myself, I am a tiny part of that process – alongside all my fellow farmers, great and small, across the world.

The right to food involves three interlinked concepts:

- food safety – safe and healthy food
- food sovereignty – the right of self-determination in farming policy, and
- food security – the topic of our discussion today – which is officially defined as existing "when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life".

Why is food security now on the agenda? Why indeed is it the subject of our conference today? The short answer is that it is high on the agenda of the French G20 presidency in the run-up to the June summit. The EESC has been asked for input and wants to convey a robust message from civil society that makes clear just what we expect from our political leaders.

At the same time, we know only too well that we are nowhere near achieving the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000 at a UN conference attended by 189 heads of state or government in a bid to halve poverty and hunger by 2015. There are precisely 1 318 days left to achieve that.

FAO figures also clearly show that global-market food prices are on the increase. I look forward to hearing the FAO contribution to our discussions. In the short term, food price increases weigh heavily on people in countries that are, of necessity, net food importers.

We have also long known that some one billion people have too little food to live on. In 2009, the FAO pointed out that, far from improving, the situation had got worse, with the number of people in this category having risen by some 100 million.

There are thus many reasons to focus on food security and the right to food.

World leaders are concerned about the current increase in food prices on the world market and this is a major problem in the short term for developing countries that are reliant on imports.

Last year, a number of countries – including Russia – halted their grain exports so as to be able to meet their own supply needs. On 9 May this year, we learned that the Russian export ban, which will continue until at least 1 July, is threatening the Russian wheat harvest as lower domestic prices mean that farmers are switching from wheat to more profitable crops.

On 21 May, we heard that grain prices are shooting up because of drought. The European grain harvest has been hit by dry weather and frost damage. The wheat price has reached a record high.

I would at the same time like to quote from one of the contributors to our conference homepage:

"But the real problem is never addressed, that is the weak economic situation of farmers all over the world. In most countries, developed and developing countries' farm incomes are far below incomes in most other sectors of the economy. If farmers made money and had a sufficient income, hunger would not be an issue."

Clearly there are two sides to rising prices – just as hugely fluctuating prices create problems in themselves. Just how is everything linked together?

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the FAO in Rome on 6 May and spoke decisively and at length on the issue. Among other things, she said:

"We need to respond to the current climb in prices with immediate action while simultaneously deepening our commitment to long-term investment in agriculture and food security worldwide."

Let us hope that other world leaders take the same view and that we move from words to action.

Many issues need to be discussed and I hope you all will have the opportunity to tackle them during our workshops today. These include:

Investment – What can be done to boost investment and give farmers – not forgetting that women farmers are the norm across the world – access to micro-credits and the opportunity to invest?

Infrastructure – What can be done to give small farmers in remote areas the opportunity to market surplus production? How can we avoid production being undermined because of logistical shortcomings or lack of infrastructure?

Research and development – Where will the resources come from? What areas should we focus on? Are GM crops an opportunity or a threat?

Property rights – The whole land issue is complex. What can be done to give opportunities to countries that need land reform?

Land-grabbing – Is the fact that countries and companies buy up land in other countries a threat or an opportunity for local development? Do we need an international convention?

Biofuel production – Is biofuel production on arable land an opportunity or a threat for food production?

Climate change – How might climate change affect food production?

We can hardly mention all these issues without also touching on the CAP, the common agricultural policy, which is currently in a state of flux. There is no doubt that Europe's farmers need a common, forward-looking policy. The single market needs more – not fewer – common rules. That said, I also agree with a comment left on our website:

"In Sweden, different stakeholders – the farmers' association, the major environmental NGOs and the Church of Sweden – discussed ways to increase the coherence between these policies. One of the common conclusions was that the continued reform of CAP should focus on achieving ecological, social and economic sustainability in agriculture, and on clarifying the relationship between public support and the public goods and social values that farmers deliver to society."
Obviously we need a consistent, coherent policy.

The conclusions and recommendations of today's workshops will be organised civil society's input to discussions on food security within the G20. We hope that the outcome will also contribute to wider European and global discussions on this issue.

I am convinced that the EESC can, with its expertise and network of contacts with civil society in Europe and worldwide, provide an innovative and balanced contribution to the forthcoming G20 meeting.

Food security issues play an equally important role in policies designed by the European Commission. The conference today has been organised in close cooperation with the European Commission, and I would like to thank the Commission for its support. I am also very glad that two commissioners, Mr Dacian Ciolos and Mr Andris Piebalgs, will be attending today.

In the run-up to today's conference, a discussion forum was posted on the internet to encourage debate on the issues we are now addressing. My thanks go to everyone who contributed. A number of people highlighted the importance of rallying farmers in developing countries. The point was also made that, as we in the industrialised countries are pursuing a policy of coherence among a number of different areas, then we must be prepared to ensure that trade policy and development policy are consistent with agricultural policy and vice-versa.


* * *


You are all welcome to participate in the debate that follows. If you wish to take the floor, please fill in the request card that you find in your conference file and give the completed card to one of the ushers in the room. There are 5 request cards in your files: one for the debate on food security as a global challenge, plus one for each of the four workshops.


* * *


We have selected four major themes that we will then be looking at during four workshops, all intended to provide input on different matters.

Workshop 1 – food security and the functioning of the global agricultural markets
Workshop 2 – food security as a right
Workshop 3 – food security and the need for policy coherence between agriculture, trade and development policies
Workshop 4 – food security in the developing countries

I would like to give a special welcome to our guests and speakers who have travelled from far afield – from Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, India, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa. It will be particularly interesting to learn about your views and experiences.


Welcome once again – and I wish you every success in your deliberations today.

________________________

For further details:
Coralia Catana EESC President's Spokesperson +32 (0)25469963 +32 (0)498984613
E-mail: coralia.catana@eesc.europa.eu president.eesc@eesc.europa.eu
Internet: http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=portal.en.staffan-nilsson-speeches

Source: http://www.eesc.europa.eu/food-for-everyone/2011-05-23-speech-food-for-everyone-en.doc


Update: Hurricane IRENE Forecast



Hurricane IRENE Forecast Discussion
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Hurricane IRENE Forecast Discussion
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Home Public Adv Fcst/Adv Discussion Wind Probs Maps/Charts Archive

US Watch/Warning Storm Surge Probs Position Estimate
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000
WTNT44 KNHC 270857
TCDAT4

HURRICANE IRENE DISCUSSION NUMBER 28
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL092011
500 AM EDT SAT AUG 27 2011

SATELLITE IMAGERY AND COASTAL RADAR DATA SHOW THAT IRENE HAS LOST
SOME ORGANIZATION THIS MORNING. THE CLOUD TOPS HAVE WARMED
SIGNIFICANTLY IN THE WESTERN SEMICIRCLE...AND THERE IS A LACK OF
CONVECTIVE BANDING IN THE SOUTHWESTERN QUADRANT IN THE RADAR DATA.
THIS SUGGESTS THAT DRY AIR SEEN IN WATER VAPOR IMAGERY TO THE WEST
OF IRENE IS STARTING TO ENTRAIN INTO THE HURRICANE. AN AIR FORCE
RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT CONTINUES TO OBSERVE 90-100 KT
WINDS AT 700 MB OVER THE EASTERN SEMICIRCLE. HOWEVER...THE HIGHEST
SURFACE WIND ESTIMATES FROM THE SFMR HAVE ONLY BEEN 70-75 KT. THE
INITIAL INTENSITY IS REDUCED TO 80 KT...AND THIS COULD BE A LITTLE
GENEROUS. DESPITE THE DECREASE IN CONVECTIVE ORGANIZATION...THE
AIRCRAFT REPORTS THAT THE CENTRAL PRESSURE REMAINS NEAR 952 MB.

THE INITIAL MOTION IS 020/12. IRENE IS WEST OF THE SUBTROPICAL
RIDGE...WITH WATER VAPOR IMAGERY SHOWING A MID/UPPER-LEVEL
SHORTWAVE TROUGH IN THE WESTERLIES MOVING ACROSS THE GREAT LAKES.
IRENE SHOULD CONTINUE TO MOVE NORTH-NORTHEASTWARD INTO THE
WESTERLIES DURING THE NEXT 36-48 HOURS...WITH THE CENTER MOVING
OVER EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA...OVER OR NEAR THE COAST OF THE
MID-ATLANTIC STATES...AND THEN OVER NEW ENGLAND. AFTER 48 HOURS...
THE CYCLONE SHOULD TURN NORTHEASTWARD AND THEN EAST-NORTHEASTWARD
WITH AN INCREASE IN FORWARD SPEED AS IT REACHES THE CORE OF THE
WESTERLIES. THE NEW FORECAST TRACK IS AN UPDATE OF THE PREVIOUS
TRACK AND LIES IN THE CENTER OF THE GUIDANCE ENVELOPE.

LAND INTERACTION...DRY AIR ENTRAINMENT...AND INCREASING VERTICAL
WIND SHEAR SHOULD CAUSE IRENE TO WEAKEN AS IT MOVES ALONG THE U.S.
EAST COAST. HOWEVER...THE CYCLONE IS EXPECTED TO REMAIN A
HURRICANE WITH A VERY LARGE WIND FIELD UNTIL AFTER LANDFALL IN NEW
ENGLAND. EXTRATROPICAL TRANSITION SHOULD OCCUR AFTER THE NEW
ENGLAND LANDFALL...WITH IRENE GRADUALLY WEAKENING FROM 48-120 HR.

THE RADAR PRESENTATION OF THE CENTER OF IRENE HAS DECREASED TO THE
POINT THAT WE WILL BE REVERTING TO THREE-HOURLY INTERMEDIATE
ADVISORIES.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INIT 27/0900Z 34.1N 76.5W 80 KT 90 MPH
12H 27/1800Z 35.7N 75.8W 75 KT 85 MPH...INLAND
24H 28/0600Z 38.4N 74.6W 70 KT 80 MPH...OVER WATER
36H 28/1800Z 41.9N 72.7W 65 KT 75 MPH...INLAND
48H 29/0600Z 46.3N 69.6W 50 KT 60 MPH...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP
72H 30/0600Z 54.0N 59.0W 40 KT 45 MPH...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP
96H 31/0600Z 57.0N 41.0W 40 KT 45 MPH...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP
120H 01/0600Z 58.0N 23.0W 35 KT 40 MPH...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP

$$
FORECASTER BEVEN

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT4+shtml/270857.shtml


Friday, August 26, 2011

A Shelter in the time of storm




The Lord’s our Rock, in Him we hide,
A Shelter in the time of storm;
Secure whatever ill betide,
A Shelter in the time of storm.

Refrain

Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A weary land, a weary land;
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A Shelter in the time of storm.

A shade by day, defense by night,
A Shelter in the time of storm;
No fears alarm, no foes afright,
A Shelter in the time of storm.

Refrain

The raging storms may round us beat,
A Shelter in the time of storm
We’ll never leave our safe retreat,
A Shelter in the time of storm.

Refrain

O Rock divine, O Refuge dear,
A Shelter in the time of storm;
Be Thou our Helper ever near,
A Shelter in the time of storm.

Refrain


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Words: Ve­rnon J. Charles­worth, cir­ca 1880.

Music: Ira D. Sank­ey, cir­ca 1885 (MI­DI, score)
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N.Y.C. to Shut Mass Transit for Storm

Colin Archer

A main route on Long Beach Island, N.J.


The commuter rail lines that serve Long Island, Westchester County and Connecticut will also be shut down.

With Hurricane Irene pushing relentlessly toward the East Coast, officials made plans to shut down New York City’s sprawling subway and bus system beginning at noon on Saturday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said.

Officials decided to go ahead with the transit shutdown, which they had first mentioned on Thursday as a possibility at a City Hall briefing on Thursday, as the city was evacuating hospitals and nursing homes in low-lying areas. State officials continued arrangements for coordinating emergency services and restoring electricity if the storm does the kind of damage many fear.

Some Atlantic City casinos made plans to stop rolling the dice and turn off the slot machines by 8 p.m. Friday. The naval submarine base in Groton, Conn., sent four submarines out to ride out the storm deep in the Atlantic Ocean. And Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said that all lanes of 28-mile stretch of a major highway in Ocean County would go in only one direction — westward — beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday to help speed the trip away from Long Beach Island. Those preparations came as states of emergency remained in effect in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Homeowners scrambled to cover windows with plywood and boaters struggled to get their vessels away from docks. In New York, apartment dwellers with balconies and terraces hauled in patio furniture and potted plants, and stores ran short on staples like batteries, flashlights and bottled water. In shore towns on Long Island and in New Jersey, vacationers waited in lines at gasoline stations and watched as emergency crews piled sandbags on low-lying beach roads.

The hurricane watch for the city was a formal indication that forecasters saw a potential threat within 24 to 36 hours. It was issued 14 hours after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the city was ready with “evacuation contingencies” for low-lying places like Coney Island in Brooklyn, Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan and parts of Staten Island and the Rockaways in Queens — areas that are home to 250,000 people.

The mayor said Thursday that the city was ordering nursing homes and hospitals in those areas to evacuate residents and patients beginning at 8 a.m. Friday unless they receive special permission from state and city health officials, among them the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, who, the mayor noted, was chairman of the community health sciences department at Tulane University when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

The evacuation order covered 22 hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities for older people.

The city also ordered construction work halted until 7 a.m. Monday. With the worst of the storm expected on a weekend, a time when relatively few construction crews would normally be on the job, the Buildings Department said Friday that its inspectors were checking construction sites to see that equipment had been secured. The department said it would check over the weekend that builders complied with the no-work order.

Anticipation of the hurricane disrupted other rituals of late summer. New York University postponed its move-in day for undergraduates, which had been scheduled for Sunday, James Devitt, a university spokesman, said. Students will not be able to move into university housing until Monday. Columbia University also shifted its move-in day from from Sunday to Monday and Tuesday, according to an e-mail from Brian Connolly, a university spokesman. He also said that campus events on Sunday and Monday, including a welcome reception and a convocation ceremony, had been cancelled and would be rescheduled.

At a City Hall briefing on Thursday evening, the mayor said the five hospitals in the low-lying areas were reducing their caseloads and canceling elective surgeries on Friday to be ready for emergencies over the weekend. One, Coney Island Hospital, is to begin moving patients to vacant beds in other parts of the city on Friday, he said.

Mr. Bloomberg said he would decide by Saturday morning whether to order a general evacuation of the low-lying areas.

He also said he was revoking permits for events in the city on Sunday and in the low-lying areas on Saturday. The Sunday cancellations apparently included a concert on Governors Island by the Dave Matthews Band. A statement on the band’s Web site said people with tickets for that show should attend the Friday or Saturday performance. But the Web site said to check for updates on Friday.

The mayor said 300 street fairs over the weekend “would have to be curtailed” to keep streets clear for hurricane-related transportation — ambulances carrying patients to nursing homes or hospitals on higher ground, buses and city-owned trucks moving to where they would be ready for duty once the hurricane had swept by.

Mr. Bloomberg said people should stay out of parks because high winds could bring down trees. “And incidentally,” he said, “it’s a good idea to stay out of your own backyard if you have trees there.”

The mayor cautioned that forecasts were not always accurate and that the hurricane, a sprawling storm still far away, could become weaker.

“We’re talking about something that is a long time away in meteorological terms,” he said, “so what we have to do is assume the worst, prepare for that, and hope for the best.”

That seemed to be the official mantra from South Jersey to coastal Connecticut on Thursday. In East Hampton, N.Y., crews removed sidewalk benches so they would not blow away if Hurricane Irene howled through. In Long Beach, N.Y., maintenance crews used a different kind of defensive maneuver, building up berms that they hoped would block the waves.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie told shore-area residents hoping to sit out the storm that “it is not the smart thing to do.” He said people who were thinking about a weekend along the coast should think again.

“Do not go,” he said.

Mr. Christie also urged people on barrier islands to leave. “Right now, I’m asking people to do this voluntarily,” he said. “I am actively considering a mandatory evacuation, but I’m not there yet.”

Officials elsewhere echoed his concern about areas closest to the Atlantic Ocean. On Long Island, the Islip town supervisor, Phil Nolan, called for a voluntary evacuation of Fire Island “to avoid a rush of people as the storm nears Long Island.”

Cape May County, N.J., went a step further, ordering everyone out. Evacuations of its barrier islands began on Thursday afternoon. People on the mainland were told to leave beginning at 8 a.m. on Friday, said Lenora Boninfante, the county communications director.

In the northern part of the state, the Jets-Giants game at MetLife Stadium was changed to 2 p.m. Saturday from 7 p.m. because of concerns about the weather.

Back in the city, Mr. Bloomberg, along with Joseph F. Bruno, the commissioner of the city’s Office of Emergency Management, instructed residents to take preliminary steps: stock up on basic supplies, identify an alternative place to sleep in the event of an evacuation and prepare a “go bag” of essentials to allow for a rapid departure, if necessary.

As for a transit shutdown, Jay H. Walder, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said his agency could not guarantee the safety of passengers if winds remained above 39 miles per hour for a sustained period. He said it could take up to eight hours to shut down the system, meaning that transit planners may have to make a judgment call on Saturday, well before the full force of the storm is felt.

And because it takes the agency several hours to restart trains and buses, a shutdown could last through early Monday, if not longer. “It’s hard to predict when it will come back,” Mr. Walder said, “because I can’t really predict for you exactly what will happen in the storm.”

In the event of a shutdown, Mr. Walder said, the transportation authority will aid in evacuation efforts.

Mr. Bloomberg warned New Yorkers to heed any evacuation call as quickly as possible, in case mass-transit options were unavailable.

Certain low-lying areas of the subway system are particularly susceptible to flooding, in Lower Manhattan and on exposed tracks in parts of Brooklyn. Overhead catenary cables, which provide power to commuter rail lines in the suburbs north and east of the city, can be knocked down by winds, and stations on elevated routes could be dangerous for the trains and for passengers waiting to catch them.

Still, against the drumbeat of plans and announcements from officials on Thursday, some all but disregarded the hurricane talk. Dave Merklin of Freeport, N.Y., said he was doing “practically nothing, because I’ve been through so many of these storms.”

“I’ve lived in this house for 40 years,” he said. “I wait until the storm is gone, and then I clean up the mess. I don’t do much in the way of preparation except make sure the doors are closed.”

Sydney Ember, Matt Flegenheimer and Stacey Stowe contributed reporting.

Source
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Projected path of Hurricane Irene



Buffett's one-day win on Bank of America: $357 million


CBC.ca
CNNMoney - 33 minutes ago
by Maureen Farrell August 26, 2011: 12:41 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Warren Buffett earned $357 million in paper profits on Thursday simply on warrants ...


CBC.ca
MarketWatch - 13 hours ago -
Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, has plunged $5 billion into Bank of America /quotes/zigman/190927/quotes/nls/bac BAC +3.25% . ...

Warren Buffett: Tax Hypocrite

Warren Buffett: Tax Hypocrite

President Barack Obama and Warren Buffett in the Oval Office, July 14, 2010. (Photo credit: Pete Souza)

The Obama Administration has turned to billionaire Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive of financial giant Berkshire Hathaway, to make the case for raising taxes on the rich because, says Buffett, he can afford it. On Aug. 22, the White House reportedly chatted with Wall Street’s most famous investor to get his thoughts about the sputtering economy.

What likely got the Administration’s attention was Buffett’s oped in the New York Times. Buffett proposed that “It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.” He implied he would like to see the capital gains be treated equally as income.

To wit, he wrote of the so-called “super-rich”, which he apparently defines as households earning $1 million or more a year: “Most wouldn’t mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering.” Isn’t that nice of Mr. Buffett?

But if he were truly sincere, perhaps he might simply try paying the taxes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says his company owes? According to Berkshire Hathaway’s own annual report — see Note 15 on pp. 54-56 — the company has been in a years-long dispute over its federal tax bills.

According to the report, “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.”

Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, who was alerted to the controversy by a federal government lawyer, said, “The company has been short-changing the tax collection agency for much of the past decade. Mr. Buffett’s company has not fully settled its tax bills from 2002-2009. Yet he says he’d happily pay more. Except the IRS has apparently been asking him to pay more going on nine years.”

Apparently, not paying taxes in full is an annual occurrence under Buffett’s watch. Considering the size of the company, the amount of unsettled taxes could total in the tens of millions.

McCarty explained, “The rough translation of the report is that Berkshire Hathaway did not pay all the federal taxes that it was required to for 2002 through 2004. The IRS examination team caught Berkshire Hathaway on at least some issues. Instead of paying up, Berkshire Hathaway is threatening the IRS with protracted litigation and is in the process of cutting a deal with the IRS Appeals office.”

He continued, “For 2005 and 2006, Berkshire Hathaway again did not pay all the federal taxes that it was required to. Again, the IRS examination team caught Berkshire Hathaway on at least some issues. Now, Berkshire Hathaway is threatening the IRS with protracted litigation and is trying to cut a deal with the IRS Appeals office.”

McCarty concluded, “And, finally, the IRS has opened another examination of Berkshire Hathaway’s tax returns for 2007 through 2009, but has not officially sent Berkshire Hathaway the bill yet for taxes that Berkshire Hathaway failed to pay for those years. One would expect they will find yet more issues.”

Now, most Americans, when they receive a tax bill from the government, they pay it. They don’t get an attorney. They don’t appeal the bill. They pay it — on time and in full. But not Buffett’s company, which apparently takes years to settle its liabilities.

Since this appears to be an ongoing pattern at the company, it becomes reasonable to ask: Is this some sort of internal company policy to delay paying taxes on time? If so, could this be construed as a form of tax evasion?

Interesting questions for the man who professes to want to pay more to Uncle Sam, and who sees fit to raise the burden on all job creators — except for perhaps his company — despite the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression.

As Mr. Buffett has seen fit to enter the political arena, in the interests of full disclosure, the American people should be alerted to his own taxing hypocrisy. Reporters should ask him, “If you’re so interested in paying more in taxes, why doesn’t your company settle its tax bills from the past decade now?”

Then they might ask him about the pot and the kettle as a follow-up.

Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government. Americans for Limited Government is dedicated to putting the principles of limited government into action. They work with local groups across the nation to promote freedom, limited government, and the principles of the U.S. Constitution. Their goal is to harness the power of American citizens and grassroots groups in order to put the people back in charge in states across the country.

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