Overnight Price Jump Causes Gas Pain At The Pump

Pain at the Pump

MOBILE, Ala. Sept. 30 - Suffering gas pains: prices at the pump take a noticeable jump overnight.

What's driving this increase? And when could see these prices go downhill?

What a difference one day makes: the average cost of a gallon of gasoline rose three cents Friday nationwide from just yesterday, and increased even more than that close to home.

The national average for regular unleaded on Friday: $2.84 a gallon. In Mobile, a gallon rang up Friday to the highest price recorded here so far: almost $2.80 a gallon, up from $2.76 on Thursday.

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Video.

Topics: Mobile Alabama, Gulf Coast, current events, news and politics

Tomorrow, Florida Residents Can Lawfully Shoot `Em All First and Let God Sort `Em Out Later

Florida's 'Force with force' law sparks campaign to warn tourists about potential violence

TALLAHASSEE -- Warning that Florida streets have the potential to morph into the O.K. Corral, gun-control advocates will launch an international campaign to alert travelers about a new state law that allows people to use deadly force in self-defense.

On Saturday it will become legal to use force on an attacker without first trying to escape the confrontation.

Supporters say the measure, which they dub the "Stand Your Ground" law, allows residents to protect themselves by meeting force with force.

Opponents, who call it the "Shoot First Law," warn it could hand itchy trigger fingers a license to kill.

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Topics: news and politics, current events, Florida

Bennett Blasted for Referring to Economics of Liberal Abortion

Liberals and Democrats Support Abortion and Detest Crime So Why Are They Mad When Someone Discusses A Correlation In Data That Substantiates Progressive Rationale?

Democrats Demand Bennett Apology for Remark

WASHINGTON - Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats on Thursday demanded that former Education Secretary William Bennett apologize for remarks on his radio program linking the crime rate and the abortion of black babies.

Bennett responded that the comments, made Wednesday on his "Morning in America" show, had been mischaracterized and that his point was that the idea of supporting abortion to reduce crime was "morally reprehensible."

The author of "The Book of Virtues," answering a caller's question, took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book ["FREAKONOMICS"] that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up.

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Topics: news and politics, current events, books, economics

Learning From the Oil-For-Food Scandal, US Says No To UN Internet Control

U.S. Insists on Keeping Control of Internet

GENEVA - A senior U.S. official rejected calls on Thursday for a U.N. body to take over control of the main computers that direct traffic on the Internet, reiterating U.S. intentions to keep its historical role as the medium's principal overseer.

"We will not agree to the U.N. taking over the management of the Internet," said Ambassador David Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department. "Some countries want that. We think that's unacceptable."

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Topics: News and Politics, Current Events, Computers and Internet, Technology

Press Now Admits Economy Was Good So They Can Say How Hurricanes Made It Bad

After reporting economic doom for the last few years, the press now forgets how bad they said things were in order to tell us how bad things are going to get. Hey newsguys, some of us know you can't have it both ways.

Economy Was in Good Shape Before Katrina and Rita; Growth Expected to Slow in Second Half

WASHINGTON Sep 29, 2005 — The economy was growing solidly before hurricanes Katrina and Rita, whose double blow is expected to make for rocky business activity in the months ahead.

A Commerce Department report released Thursday showed that gross domestic product grew at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter confirming that economic activity was humming along at a respectable pace before the disasters struck.

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News Tension: 100
Gravity: Losing their footing
, Current Events, In The News, News, Gulf Coast, Hurricane

How to Build a Hurricane-Proof House

IN THE NEWS

In 2005, home improvement guru Bob Vila's nationally syndicated television program featured the rebuilding of a hurricane damaged house in Florida.

With concrete walls measuring 6 inches thick, shatterproof windows and an elevated foundation, the new home is designed to withstand a category 5 hurricane.

Bob Villa's Web page linked in the story below features a number of articles and video clips from the show.

Rebuilding to Beat a Hurricane
(BobVilla.com) -- Bob is in hurricane battered Punta Gorda, Florida, to build a storm-ready home in season 1 of Bob Vila. Bob visits two homes in the same neighborhood, one that was completely destroyed by hurricane Charley in August 2004, the other that was built to exceed hurricane codes and was left unscathed by hurricane winds and water from the same storm. Read full story.

UPDATE, August 2007:

On the Discovery Channel program Build It Bigger, host Danny Forester explores the construction of heavy duty modular homes and their journey from factory to final site.

See: Hurricane-Proof Homes

There's also some video from the show at the Discovery Channel video browser.

Also see Safeway Homes, a Lexington, Mississippi factory where modular hurricane proof homes are made.

Media links: The Clarion-Ledger.

Tags: In The News, Gulf Coast, hurricane, technology

MAINTAIN THE TENSION: VISIT OUR ADVERTISERS

Books from Amazon.com:

21st Century Complete Guide to Hurricane Survival: Practical Emergency Plans and Protective Measures with Official Preparedness and Survival Plans at Home or Away, Building Standards, and Hurricane History and Data (CD-ROM)

Hurricane Resistant Construction Manual

Hurricane Survival Made Easy: A Guide for Hurricane Preparedness

Making Buildings Safer for People During Hurricanes, Earthquakes and Fire

Dead Deer With IV Found in Back of Stolen Ambulance Driven By Thief Dressed as Doc

At first, it was just a guy, dressed like a doctor, driving an ambulance reported stolen but the dead deer with an IV made it weird.

Cops in North Carolina thought it was odd enough a Jacksonville [Florida] man was driving an ambulance reported stolen hours earlier.

Odder still was that he was wearing a makeshift doctor's uniform consisting of a stethoscope, a pager-like gadget and latex gloves stuffed in his back pocket.

But then things started getting really strange when they saw a dead deer, fully stretched out and wedged in the back. Some said there was an intravenous line attached to the animal and there was evidence a defibrillator had been used.

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Tags: news and politics

Sunken Vessels, Fuel Tanks, Create Major Hurricane Cleanup Headaches

MOBILE, Ala. Hurricane Katrina's deadly debris-scattering slam into the Gulf Coast left messy fuel spills, leaky sunken vessels and toxic chemical threats across a broad, battered shoreline.

The multi-agency task force attempting to carry out the cleanup faced a storm of new obstacles with the arrival of Hurricane Rita, which spread more debris as it churned in early today (Saturday) from the Gulf of Mexico.

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Tags: Gulf Coast, Mobile Alabama, Hurricane