September 11 News Blog

Suncoast Communities Blood Bank starts 2007 Boots and Badges

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:52:12 +0000

Suncoast Communities Blood Bank's second annual Boots and Badges Blood Drive Campaign will take place July 1 through September 11 in DeSoto and Sarasota counties. Boots and Badges is a friendly competition among local fire departments (Boots) and law enforcement agencies (Badges), their friends and supporters, to boost blood donations when the supply often runs low during the summer months. The team that donates the most units of blood wins a large a traveling trophy and bragging rights.

Last year, more than 250 blood donations were raised by the participants and the law enforcement team claimed the prize. The goal of the 2007 campaign is to include the community at large to become involved and support first responders. By giving blood, the community is recognized as honorary first responders -- responding every day, just like fire and police personnel, to medical emergencies by helping out the hospitals in need of blood for lifesaving medical care.

Blood donors are critical to the operation of DeSoto Memorial Hospital, Doctors Hospital and Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Boots and Badges will be linked to 350 community-based blood drives and is expected to result in more than 3000 units of blood.

Ex-EPA chief rejects criticism over 9/11 workers' illnesses

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:44:59 +0000

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The former chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fought off fierce criticism Monday that the agency did not do enough to protect September 11, 2001, rescue workers from toxic pollutants.

"I fully appreciate that the events of 9/11 touched raw emotions, but I am disappointed at the misinformation, innuendo and outright falsehoods that have characterized the public discussion," Christie Todd Whitman told the U.S. House Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee.

Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, a Democrat from New York, at Monday's hearing read aloud from a September 13, 2001, EPA-issued press release that said air quality near the still-burning pile of rubble at Ground Zero was "unlikely to cause significant health effects."

Health Care In Cuba More Complicated Than on SiCKO

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:44:59 +0000

HAVANA (Reuters) - When Jose Luis Cabrera had coronary

by-pass surgery after a heart attack five years ago, his wife

had to bring food and clean sheets to him in the hospital. The

TESTY CHRISTIE FUMES AT DEMS

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:44:59 +0000

June 26, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Facing an onslaught from House Democrats over air quality around Ground Zero, former EPA boss Christie Todd Whitman fired back yesterday that "the terrorists that attacked the United States" were to blame - not the government.

In a politically charged and sometimes circus-like congressional hearing into contaminants in downtown Manhattan in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Whitman blasted lawmakers who accused her of misleading the public that the air was safe - while she was hit with hisses, boos and catcalls from the crowd.

"There are indeed people to blame. They are the terrorists that attacked the United States, not the men and women of all levels of government who worked heroically to protect and defend this country," she said.

U.S. Muslims Face Isolation, Radical Threat: Study

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:44:59 +0000

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Muslim Americans must meld into U.S.

society before suspicion and mistrust lingering since the

attacks on New York and Washington isolates them and sparks

Reply All? World's Worst Email Blunders

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:04:58 +0000

A cringe-worthy book of the world's worst email blunders has been published.

Called the Great Email Disasters it lists some of the best and worst examples of people sending the wrong emails to the wrong person.

But if you are one of the unlucky ones who have clicked "Reply All" by accident, then don't worry because you are far from alone.

Armies must ready for global warming role: Britain

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:04:58 +0000

LONDON (Reuters) - Global warming is such a threat to security that military planners must build it into their calculations, the head of Britain's armed forces said on Monday.

Jock Stirrup, chief of the defense staff, said risks that climate change could cause weakened states to disintegrate and produce major humanitarian disasters or exploitation by armed groups had to become a feature of military planning.

But he said first analyses showed planners would not have to switch their geographical focus, because the areas most vulnerable to climate change are those where security risks are already high.

OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE FOR AMERICA : San Francisco Indymedia

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:04:58 +0000

an open dialog on returning a reason for believing, for

Freedom is Justice, not a censored world ruled by puppet

people in shadows without free will left un-accountable.

'Sicko' not the whole story of Cuban health care

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:04:58 +0000

HAVANA - When Jose Luis Cabrera had coronary bypass surgery after a heart attack five years ago, his wife had to bring food and clean sheets to him in the hospital. The operation itself didn?t cost the Cuban couple a cent.

?I am so grateful. They saved his life,? said his wife, Daisy Martinez, who works as a cleaner in an office. ?It would have cost a fortune in the United States.?

Hospitals in Cuba are often shabby and badly lit, and lack equipment and medicines. But the health system built by President Fidel Castro?s government has produced results on a par with rich nations using the resources of a developing country.

Delta home to internationally renowned artist

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 05:09:24 +0000

DELTA TWP Award-winning international artist Mina Greco Hall isn't your typical neighbor. The Verndale Lakes condo she shares with her husband, Lansing Community College professor John Hall, is a treasure trove of visual art, almost all of it her own. A visit there is like touring a wonderful gallery with the artist herself as your guide.

"Art is something you feel inside, an urge that you have to do," she says simply, adding that she always carries a sketch book with her.

Born in Taranto, Italy, Greco Hall knew from an early age that she was an artist. So did her family. After finishing an apprenticeship, she had her first exhibit at age 17 and sold every piece.

ARE WE READY?: A look at the risk of chemical, biological and nuclear threats

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:19:26 +0000

While traditional public health duties have consisted of education, surveillance, reporting and controlling communicable diseases, September 11 and other global terrorism events have pointed out the need for emergency preparedness for chemical, biological and nuclear threats as well.The U.S. Post Office inLa Crosse conducted a training exercise last week simulating an anthrax scare. During that exercise, the Onalaska Fire Department, the hazardous ma...

Sept. 11 exhibit coming to Aurora History Museum

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:19:26 +0000

A new traveling exhibit opening July 3 at the Aurora History Museum will document the tragic events of the day of the World Trade Center's collapse. Admission is free.

"September 11, 2001: The First 24 Hours," assembled by the New York State Museum especially for the Aurora History Museum, includes a recovered American flag, several World Trade Center souvenirs, building keys, signs, sections of the World Trade Center fa?ade, a firefighter's Scott oxygen tank, a fragment of one of the airplanes, and a timeline of events on Sept. 11.

Artifacts were recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island between Sept. 12, 2001, and June 28, 2002.

South Carolina blaze hits home with local firemen

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:19:26 +0000

CORPUS CHRISTI - Local firefighters took a time out Tuesday to remember the nine firefighters who died Monday night in South Carolina (more at Charleston's Post and Courier). The nine men were battling a massive fire at a Charleston Furniture Warehouse, when the roof collapsed on them.

It's the largest death toll for firefighters since the September 11 terrorists attacks, and Corpus Christi firefighters remember a fire very similar to Monday night's deadly blaze.

The warehouse fire that killed nine firefighters Monday night was eerily similar to one the Corpus Christi Fire Department faced before.

Mr. Mayor To Mr. President? No Way!

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:44:21 +0000

Congratulations to New York City Mayor Michael Boomberg! This week, by changing his party affiliation from Republican to Independent and touching off a storm of speculation about his possible plans to mount a third-party bid for president, the diminutive multibillionaire entrepreneur turned self-financed pol officially knocked off Rudy Giuliani as the reigning king of New York provincialist chutzpah.

It has been bad enough lo these many months watching Rudy strut around arguing that he is qualified to run the greatest nation on the planet by simple dint of the fact that he was mayor when New York suffered its most horrifying catastrophe of modern times. We get it: He lived through September 11. He rallied the troops and denounced the bad guys and generally supplied a strong, strident Daddy figure at a time when the Big Apple was scared and bleeding.

Of course, there are those who've suggested that Rudy showed a shocking lack of foresight by headquartering the city's emergency response center in the one landmark already known to be a terrorist target. Or that he could have been more on the ball about preparing the city's emergency responders to handle catastrophes by seeing to it that, say, their communications equipment was up to snuff. But why split hairs?

The Toll of a New Machine

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:44:21 +0000

The intersection of Interstate 4 and Florida's Highway 27 is a well-known spot, the point where the clutter of Orlando's theme parks exhausts itself and the old Florida of citrus groves and sandy ridges picks up.

There is a McDonald's at this intersection, and in a booth on a recent Friday, Don Vaughn is having lunch with his daughter-in-law and granddaughter. They've driven 12 miles to this McDonald's, drawn by the power of a dawning technology.

"It's fantastic," says Vaughn, a local. "I love it. It's the new age."

Thousands attend S.C. service for firefighters

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:44:21 +0000

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - Nine caskets lined the front of a coliseum Friday as thousands of firefighters from across the nation, their hats in their hands, honored nine colleagues killed in a furniture store blaze.With an orchestra playing, uniformed escorts walked the men's wives, siblings and children to their seats in a long procession of red carnations, tears and hugs.The fire Monday night created the single largest loss of firefighters' lives since the ...

Wallace pleads not guilty in vehicular homicide case

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:44:21 +0000

A Waukesha man accused of driving drunk and killing a passenger has entered a not guilty plea.During a brief appearance in Oneida County Circuit Court Friday, Tyler Wallace, 21, entered not guilty pleas on all charges and asked the court to put off a pretrial conference in this case until September so that he can undergo treatment for chemical dependency and receive trauma counseling.Wallace is charged with homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, causing injury by operating under the influence...

Clerk given house arrest for selling minor liquor before deadly crash