Gulp — that’s all it took for a hulky python in the Australian wilderness to take out a terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed. Warning, the jump has pictures, so if you’ve just had your breakfast, you might wanna wait a while. Click here for more.
By John Worthen
For Between Editions
It’s chaos in Florida, as a wide-spread blackout has brought life in much of the state to a standstill. This includes the major metro area of Miami, where school children are not being allowed to leave their buildings, so as to “avoid the dangers in the streets,” according to one school official in an interview with the Miami Herald newspaper.
The paper reports as many as 600,000 without power in the Miami area.
People are stuck in elevators, traffic jams are stalling city streets, and I’m glad I’m in El Dorado right now.
UPDATE: Most power has now been restored. Click here for more.
By John Worthen
For Between Editions
The Smackover Police Department is still seeking information on the whereabouts of Laura Lee Smith “Bethany.” Smith, 26, is a white female, 5’ 8”, 162 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.
She is wanted on forgery and failure to appear charges, though Smackover Police Chief Michael Fife said he is ultimately worried about her safety.
Fife said that Smith has a history of drug abuse.
“Her family just want to make sure she’s safe,” Fife said. “I’m also worried about her. While I would like to have her in custody, I also want to make sure she’s OK. I’m afraid if she isn’t found, she may wind up dead.”
Smith was last seen between 4-5 a.m. on Jan. 29, when a Union County Sheriff’s deputy responded to a disturbance call at a residence at 5709 N. West Ave., El Dorado, according to a police report.
A vehicle driven by Smith Jan. 29 was later located and recovered by the Union County Sheriff’s Office on Arkansas 335, according to a police report. An El Dorado man was at the wheel.
Police did not say how the man gained possession of the vehicle.
Anyone with information on Smith should call the Smackover PD office (725-3571) or the Union County Sheriff’s Office (864-1970) immediately.
Early this morning, portions of Interstate 30 in Texarkana, Ark., were closed after a truck hauling chicken parts overturned. The roadway has since reopened. Click here for more.
Police in Fullerton, Calif., are searching for a man who allegedly stabbed two people inside a movie theater — during a horror film, no less.
One of the victim’s sustained a punctured lung and was sent to a local hospital. The other was stabbed in the arm, according to a local television station. Click here for more.
By John Worthen
For Between Editions
I often take a stroll around the neighborhood at lunch, just to clear my head for the afternoon rush, or slump, as the case may be.
Today, I couldn’t help but notice numerous obstacles in my way. What if I’d been in a wheelchair, I thought. There would have been no way to navigate around the large branch piles on Jackson St., or the misshapen, torn edges of a large slab at the corner of Elm and Madison streets.
Has anyone else had similar sidewalk encounters?
Perhaps our city fathers should do more walking.
A jewel heist that would make even James Bond proud went down Sunday night in Milan, Italy. Apparently, the thieves tunneled through the bottom of a jewelry store, busted up through the cellar, and tied up shocked employees so they could make away with the loot. Click here for more.
The least-watched Oscars ceremony ever was in 2003, when there were 33 million viewers.
I am always curious about who wins, but sitting through hours and hours of boredom to find out just seems pointless.
I haven’t really cared to watch the Oscars in several years. I think with more than 200 channels, and mounds of books to catch up on, I have better things to do than watch rich, famous people strut around in designer outfits that cost more than my house.
Awards shows are so 20th century. Just in case you’re wondering who won, click here for the results.
Ticket prices are going up to $45 for general admission for the upcoming football season. Let’s see, with gas at near $4 in the Spring (yeah, it’s probably gonna happen) and the cost of a coke and hot dog set at nearly $8, expect to mortgage your home before you go to a Hog game.
Click here for more from the U of A.
Vladimir Putin
By John Worthen
For Between Editions
I’ve been studying Russian President Vladimir Putin for the past couple of years. Something about the man just fascinates me — and not necessarily in a good way. You see, Putin is an old KGB man who remembers well the days of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War with the United States.
Some say he’s returning Russia to a country more in line with the Cold War than 21st century democracy; others say that’s exactly how he wants it.
It’s true that Putin has run Russia with a secret fist that’s been known to quash resistance and silence those who speak out against the government. So when the New York Times published a piece this weekend detailing this very thing, I took special note to read it.
An excerpt from the article:
“Over the past eight years, in the name of reviving Russia after the tumult of the 1990s, Mr. Putin has waged an unforgiving campaign to clamp down on democracy and extend control over the government and large swaths of the economy.
“He has suppressed the independent news media, nationalized important industries, smothered the political opposition and readily deployed the security services to carry out the Kremlin’s wishes.”
It’s a very sobering read. Click here for more.
Sorry for the outage this afternoon. Apparently we’ve had some kinks in our system, which caused the blog to be knocked out for a little while. Hopefully we are back up and running now. Thanks for reading.
Just for fun, I looked up the record high for today’s date in history, thinking that our warm temperatures today might just be newsworthy. Well, it’s not quite that warm yet. Back in 1918, the temperature on Feb. 25 was a balmy 89 degrees. Bet the folks made several trips to the old ice house that day.
Today’s high will top out in the upper 70s.
Corn seeds
The folks in Norway are preparing for doomsday. In a large ice cave there, millions of seeds are stored in case a nuclear war or large-scale natural disaster wipes out all the crops and other seeds on Earth. There are other seed storage vaults around the world. But, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown, they are easily destroyed by bombs.
The Norway vault is located deep inside a “Doomsday Cave,” which is said to be nuclear-proof. Click here for more.
By John Worthen
For Between Editions
The infamous writers strike that shut down shows like the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live, programs whose very existence rely on individuals who take pen to paper and grind out funny jokes, is finally over.
For fans of SNL like myself, it’s a time to rejoice. The New York Times has an interview with SNL creator Lorne Michaels, who explains that it may not be all cupcakes and tea when the famous variety show makes its return Saturday evening.
Click here for more.
Our servers were knocked out this morning at approximately 11 a.m. after a bolt of lightening struck near our building. We’re back now.
The big news of the day is the arrest of Robert Dujuan Loggins, 26, of El Dorado, who was involved in an hours-long standoff with El Dorado police Thursday morning. El Dorado Police officers were serving a warrant on Loggins for failure to appear.
Loggins hid in his attic while the SWAT team surrounded his home. SWAT officers fired several rounds of tear gas into the house before Loggins finally surrendered to police at approximately 11 a.m.
Look for more in tomorrow’s edition of the News-Times.
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