OAKLAND, Caif. -- Law enforcement officials urged patience while they investigated details surrounding the fatal New Year's Day shooting of a 22-year-old man by a transit agency police officer.
Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Chief Gary Gee said on Sunday that the agency is "committed to completing an unbiased, thorough and detailed investigation" of the shooting death of Oscar Grant.
"This case is not even four days cold. We're in the early stages of the investigation and we will do a very thorough job," he said.
Several unanswered questions remained after BART officers went to Oakland's Fruitvale station to investigate reports of a supposed brawl on a train on which Grant was riding around 2 a.m. Thursday.
A friend of Grant's who was with him on the crowded Oakland train station platform at the time of the shooting said Grant pleaded with officers not to harm him.
"Oscar yelled, 'You shot me! I got a four-year-old daughter,"' said Fernando Anicete. "Oscar was telling us to calm down and we did. We weren't looking for any trouble."
Anicete was among more than 50 people attending a tearful news conference in Oakland on Sunday where Grant's family announced they planned to file a $25 million claim against the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency this week. A claim is the first step in the process of suing the agency. more
video of shooting
Every day, we wake up with a choice. We can choose to embrace the day as a new opportunity to learn, grow, and make a positive impact on the world, or we can let fear, doubt, and negativity hold us back. It's easy to get caught up in the challenges and obstacles we face, but it's important to remember that these challenges are what shape us into who we are. Each obstacle is a chance to learn something new, to become stronger, more resilient, and more capable than we were before. But we don't hav
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for a Japanese bluefin tuna
TOKYO — Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for a Japanese bluefin tuna at a Tokyo fish auction Monday, about ten times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade, market officials said.
The 282-pound premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.
Yoshida said the extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year's new year event at Tokyo's Tsukiji market, the world's largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.
Typical tuna prices at Tokyo fish markets are less than $25 per pound. But bluefin tuna is considered by gourmets to be the best, and when sliced up into small pieces and served on rice it goes for very high prices in restaurants.
Premium fish — sometimes sliced up while the customers watch — also have advertising value, underscoring a restaurant's quality, like a rare wine.
Thousands of tuna were auctioned at Monday's festive new year sale, which often brings unusually high prices.
"It was the best tuna of the day, but the price shot up because of the shortage of domestic bluefin," Yoshida said, citing rough weather at the end of December. Buyers vied for only three Oma bluefin tuna Monday, compared to 41 last year.
A similar size imported bluefin caught off the eastern United States sold for 1.42 million yen ($15,400) in Monday's auction.
Due to growing concerns over the impact of commercial fishing on the bluefin variety's survival, members of international tuna conservation organizations, including Japan, have agreed to cut their bluefin catch quota for 2009 by 20 percent to 22,000 tons.
The 282-pound premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.
Yoshida said the extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year's new year event at Tokyo's Tsukiji market, the world's largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.
Typical tuna prices at Tokyo fish markets are less than $25 per pound. But bluefin tuna is considered by gourmets to be the best, and when sliced up into small pieces and served on rice it goes for very high prices in restaurants.
Premium fish — sometimes sliced up while the customers watch — also have advertising value, underscoring a restaurant's quality, like a rare wine.
Thousands of tuna were auctioned at Monday's festive new year sale, which often brings unusually high prices.
"It was the best tuna of the day, but the price shot up because of the shortage of domestic bluefin," Yoshida said, citing rough weather at the end of December. Buyers vied for only three Oma bluefin tuna Monday, compared to 41 last year.
A similar size imported bluefin caught off the eastern United States sold for 1.42 million yen ($15,400) in Monday's auction.
Due to growing concerns over the impact of commercial fishing on the bluefin variety's survival, members of international tuna conservation organizations, including Japan, have agreed to cut their bluefin catch quota for 2009 by 20 percent to 22,000 tons.
A woman drowned trying to save her dog
PLAINSBORO, N.J. — New Jersey authorities say a woman drowned trying to retrieve her grandson's dog from a frozen pond.
Authorities say 61-year-old Janet Howard was walking a German Shepherd named Apollo on Saturday when it wandered onto the ice covering Plainsboro Pond. Police speculate that Howard went after the dog but the ice broke, plunging her and the animal into the water about 25 feet from shore.
A passer-by on a bicycle heard Howard's cries and tried to help her, but he also fell through the ice.
He fought his way back to shore and raced home to call 911. Rescue workers later found Howard about 4 1/2 feet beneath the surface. She was taken to Princeton Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The dog somehow reached the shore and ran home.
Authorities say 61-year-old Janet Howard was walking a German Shepherd named Apollo on Saturday when it wandered onto the ice covering Plainsboro Pond. Police speculate that Howard went after the dog but the ice broke, plunging her and the animal into the water about 25 feet from shore.
A passer-by on a bicycle heard Howard's cries and tried to help her, but he also fell through the ice.
He fought his way back to shore and raced home to call 911. Rescue workers later found Howard about 4 1/2 feet beneath the surface. She was taken to Princeton Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The dog somehow reached the shore and ran home.
Bedbugs are biting in Cincinnati
When complaints about the bloodsucking insects first trickled in to Cincinnati's public health department three years ago, officials assumed it was an anomaly -- or perhaps the overactive imagination of a bug-phobic public. After all, Cimex lectularius had all but vanished here by the 1950s because of the frequent use of DDT and other now-banned pesticides.
But that trickle of complaints has grown into a flood: A recent public survey found that 1 in every 6 people here has had a run-in with the biting bugs in the last 12 months.
Dozens of fire stations in Cincinnati have had to dump furniture or have their living quarters exterminated because firefighters unknowingly brought the eggs in on their boots or pant legs. Assisted-living complexes have spent tens of thousands of dollars on pest-control companies because, the thinking goes, visitors may have carried in the bugs on their purses or bags.
City health department officials said they now receive more frantic calls about the insects than about mice, rats and cockroaches combined.
If things continue, "we won't be able to keep up with the requests for inspections," said Camille Jones, assistant Cincinnati health commissioner and member of a city-county bedbug task force. "It's a problem that we expect to only get worse."
Cincinnati is not alone in its itchy woes. Reports of a welt-covered public are coming in from college campuses, high-end hotels and even movie theaters across the country.
University officials at Texas A&M in College Station have flown in bedbug-sniffing dogs to root out the insects. The University of Florida in Gainesville reportedly has spent tens of thousands of dollars to clear dorm rooms and campus apartments of infestations.
In New York, there were 8,830 complaints about bedbugs in fiscal 2008, which ended June 30, up from 1,839 in 2005, according to the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
The bugs have shown up in unexpected places: An executive with Fox News told the New York Times that the Manhattan newsroom had to be exterminated for bedbugs and have its furniture replaced after an employee tracked the insects in from home.
Task forces aimed at eradicating the bugs and educating the public have been established in numerous states -- including Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Ohio.
In California, the bugs have become such a problem that the state's Department of Public Health started surveying local public health agencies in 2007 to get a handle on the scope of the infestation. Among the reasons cited for the return of the bugs: the DDT ban and an increase in international travel.
Often mistaken for ticks, adult bedbugs are about a quarter-inch long and reddish-brown. They are active mostly at night, and their bites can leave itchy welts on the skin.
During the daytime, they tend to hide near places where people sleep -- such as the seams of mattresses -- or in wall cracks or beneath furniture. The eggs are white, sticky and about the size of a speck of dust, so people can unknowingly spread them from room to room or even across town. more
Saturday, January 3, 2009
John Travolta's Son, 16, Dies in Bahamas
Police in the Bahamas say John Travolta's teenage son has died after injuring himself at the actor's vacation home. Police spokeswoman Loretta Mackey says 16-year-old Jett Travolta hit his head in a bathtub Friday morning. She said he was declared dead at Rand Memorial Hospital on Grand Bahama Island.
Jett was the oldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, who also have an 8-year-old daughter.
A spokeswoman for the hospital in Freeport said she could not release any information because of privacy concerns.
Jett was the oldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, who also have an 8-year-old daughter.
A spokeswoman for the hospital in Freeport said she could not release any information because of privacy concerns.
Friday, January 2, 2009
New ignition lock laws aim to stop drunk drivers
CHICAGO – Motorists convicted of driving drunk will have to install breath-monitoring gadgets in their cars under new laws taking effect in six states this week.
The ignition interlocks prevent engines from starting until drivers blow into the alcohol detectors to prove they're sober.
Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska and Washington state began Jan. 1 requiring the devices for all motorists convicted of first-time drunken driving. South Carolina began requiring them for repeat offenders.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been conducting a nationwide campaign to mandate ignition locks for anyone convicted of drunken driving, claiming doing so would save thousands of lives. But critics say interlocks could lead to measures that restrict alcohol policies too much.
Users must pay for the fist-sized devices, which in Illinois cost around $80 to install on dashboards and $80 a month to rent; there's also a $30 monthly state fee. And they require periodic retesting while the car is running.
"It's amazingly inconvenient," said David Malham, of the Illinois chapter of MADD. "But the flip side of the inconvenience is death."
Other states with similar laws include New Mexico, Arizona and Louisiana. Most other states give judges the option of forcing convicted drunk drivers to use the devices. In practice though, they are rarely ordered unless laws mandate them, according to MADD.
Until now, that's been true in Illinois, said MADD national CEO Chuck Hurley.
"Illinois has excellent law enforcement," he said. "But the judicial system leaks like a sieve. This law will change the catch and release system to one where people are at least caught and tagged."
In Illinois, the interlocks are mandated only for the five to 11 months licenses are suspended with a first DUI. Drivers can opt not to install them, but then would be banned from driving during the suspension period.
Motorists in Colorado get a similar choice — install the devices or get a longer suspension. more
The ignition interlocks prevent engines from starting until drivers blow into the alcohol detectors to prove they're sober.
Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska and Washington state began Jan. 1 requiring the devices for all motorists convicted of first-time drunken driving. South Carolina began requiring them for repeat offenders.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been conducting a nationwide campaign to mandate ignition locks for anyone convicted of drunken driving, claiming doing so would save thousands of lives. But critics say interlocks could lead to measures that restrict alcohol policies too much.
Users must pay for the fist-sized devices, which in Illinois cost around $80 to install on dashboards and $80 a month to rent; there's also a $30 monthly state fee. And they require periodic retesting while the car is running.
"It's amazingly inconvenient," said David Malham, of the Illinois chapter of MADD. "But the flip side of the inconvenience is death."
Other states with similar laws include New Mexico, Arizona and Louisiana. Most other states give judges the option of forcing convicted drunk drivers to use the devices. In practice though, they are rarely ordered unless laws mandate them, according to MADD.
Until now, that's been true in Illinois, said MADD national CEO Chuck Hurley.
"Illinois has excellent law enforcement," he said. "But the judicial system leaks like a sieve. This law will change the catch and release system to one where people are at least caught and tagged."
In Illinois, the interlocks are mandated only for the five to 11 months licenses are suspended with a first DUI. Drivers can opt not to install them, but then would be banned from driving during the suspension period.
Motorists in Colorado get a similar choice — install the devices or get a longer suspension. more
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