Weather: Impacts of TS Irene on New England
After making landfall near Cape Lookout, NC on Saturday morning with sustained winds of 85 mph (gusting to 115 mph), Hurricane Irene moved up the coast, bringing heavy rain to much of New England throughout Saturday and Sunday. Irene made her final landfall as a tropical storm with sustained winds of 65 mph in Brooklyn, NY around 9 AM on Sunday, before quickly moving north through New England into Canada. Irene caused near record high tide levels of 9.5 feet at the Battery in NYC, as well as high storm surge on Long Island. In New England, the main impacts were power outages (over half a million people were without power in Massachusetts) due to trees toppled by the strong winds, and flooding due to heavy rain.
Where some earn enmity, Jobs won affection
SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Jobs — domineering, short-tempered and anything but warm and fuzzy — has done something few business people in history have accomplished: engender genuine affection.
Buffett to invest $5 billion in shaky Bank of America
Warren E. Buffett, the legendary investor, is sinking $5 billion into Bank of America in a bold show of faith in the country’s biggest, and most beleaguered, financial institution. It comes amid deepening worries about the long-term health of the company, which has already had to set aside roughly $20 billion to atone for its mortgage misdeeds at the height of the housing bubble.
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MOSCOW — Prospects seemed to dim Thursday for a timely launching of a Russian rocket that would carry U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station next month, with Russian space officials temporarily grounding a similar rocket after one crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday.
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WASHINGTON — The earthquake Tuesday in the Eastern United States was felt at 13 locations with nuclear power plants, from North Carolina to Michigan, but reactors shut down at only one, North Anna in Virginia, 10 miles from the epicenter. There was no damage to nuclear systems at any of the sites, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Irene’s approach forces East Coast to batten down
DEVIL HILLS, N.C. — John H. Woolard, who is 79 years old, cannot remember how many hurricanes he has confronted at his home, also 79, which sits on stilts overlooking the Atlantic Ocean here. Is it 12? Or 14?
Vaccine once again cleared as autism culprit
Yet another panel of scientists has found no evidence that a popular vaccine causes autism. But despite the scientists’ best efforts, their report is unlikely to have any impact on the frustrating debate about the safety of these crucial medicines.
Hurricane on the way!
Is it just us, or is the end of the world coming a year early? In the span of less than a week, the East Coast will have dealt with two rare natural disasters.
Among Rice’s diplomatic groupies: Moammar Gadhafi
When you’re the single, attractive secretary of state for the United States, you’re bound to pick up groupies in all corners of the international diplomatic scene.
Debt ceiling bill becomes law, averting default
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Tuesday to raise the government’s debt ceiling and cut trillions of dollars from its spending, concluding a long and fractious partisan battle just hours before the government’s borrowing authority was set to run out.
Trial of deposed Egyptian leader may alter region
CAIRO — The headlines of newspapers on sale in a subway station once named Mubarak, and now renamed Martyr’s, captured the moment Tuesday that could prove one of the most remarkable in modern Arab history: “The pharaoh in the cage of the accused.”
US worries about AAA, a rare rating in business
Hanging over the debt ceiling negotiations in Washington has been the threat of the U.S. losing its AAA credit rating, a coveted measure of the federal government’s financial strength. But in corporate America, the top rating long ago became an anachronism.
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WASHINGTON — The success of Tea Party-backed lawmakers in defining the terms of the debt debate in Washington has further cemented the party’s identity as part of a conservative movement insistent on deep spending cuts, lower taxes and smaller government.
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DENVER — Here is one measure of the nation’s lingering economic trouble and the political anxiety festering in state capitals over jobs and angry voters: 500.
US seeks more pressure on Syria, but options are limited
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is facing intensifying calls to punish Syria more forcefully for its bloody crackdown of protests, but officials say that without broader international support they have few options to increase pressure on President Bashar Assad’s government.
Rainstorms usher in cooler temps
After a passing low pressure system brought thunderstorms and torrential downpours to our area yesterday evening, a cooler air mass is now settling over the region. The cold front with which yesterday’s storms were associated has brought an end to the uncomfortably hot temperatures of the past few days. Instead, a more pleasant weather pattern will be in place for the remainder of the week, with overnight lows in the mid 60s, and afternoon highs in the mid to upper 70s. Skies will be mostly sunny, and an afternoon seabreeze will keep things from getting too hot.
Heat wave and fasting add to woes of Iraqis
BAGHDAD — Iraqis still live in a nation where bombings are a nearly daily occurrence, government paralysis is routine and corruption is de rigueur.
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Meetings between lawyers and staff for the NFL and its players resumed Tuesday, with lawyers drafting language for a potential deal on certain issues. Among those present were people who are concerned with drug testing and how free agency would work.
China acknowledges spill from northeastern oil rig
BEIJING — Oil that spewed from an offshore drilling rig in northeastern China for two weeks last month has spread over 320 square miles, government officials acknowledged Tuesday, amid uproar over why it took so long for fishermen, local residents and environmental groups to be informed of the spill.
Finance minister in Greece moves from crisis to crisis
ATHENS, Greece — As he approached the end of another 16-hour workday, Evangelos Venizelos had one question on his mind: Will Europe come up with the money that Greece so desperately needs? As the new Greek finance minister, Venizelos is the man in charge of steering a nearly bankrupt economy back on track — and, perhaps, preventing another global financial crisis.