In the News, July 21, 2008

Air Force B-52 bomber crashed off the island of Guam

At least two people from the bomber's six-man crew were recovered from the waters, but their condition was not immediately available, the Coast Guard said.

Six vessels, three helicopters, two F-15 fighter jets and a B-52 bomber were involved in the search, which had covered about 70 square miles of ocean.
The B-52 bomber based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana was en route to conduct a flyover in the Liberation Day parade celebratings the day when the U.S. military arrived on Guam to retake control of the island from Japan.

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Curiosity Jarred the Cat

Photo courtesy of Vancouver Fire Department Truck 85

Two men arrived at Vancouver Fire Station 85 with a cat whose head was trapped in a mason jar. The men came home from a weekend camping trip to find their cat, named Ralph, stuck in the jar.

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Sarah Jessica Parker's art-competition reality show has found a home at Bravo.

Bravo has picked up Parker's "American Artist." Aspiring artists compete to produce various styles of artwork (painting, sculpting, etc.), which is then judged by a panel of experts. SJP's Pretty Matches production company is helping develop the project.

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Hurricane Season

The US is watching three tropical storms currently.

Bertha continues to churn in the North Atlantic, after bringing power failures and heavy rain to Bermuda, and surfer-friendly waves and swimmer-unfriendly riptides to the US East Coast. Its closest land point is Newfoundland, and it’s projected to move toward Iceland in the next few days.

A disturbance that started in the Gulf of Mexico has moved into the Atlantic, and picked up strength off the Carolinas. Cristobal will bring more high surf and heavy rains. The National Hurricane Center projects the storm as moving along the East Coast, offshore from Nova Scotia by Tuesday.

NOAA's National Hurricane Center watches the storms. Look out for #1, in the lower left.

Fausto is a hurricane and moving farther away from Baja,Cal.

A system in the Caribbean, south of Jamaica and east of Honduras, could make a name for itself. It’s headed toward the resorts on the Yucatan coast, then into the Gulf of Mexico. It has the potential to threaten the Texas coastline in a big way by midweek. The next name on the list is Dolly. To get more current maps, go to www.nhc.noaa.gov