Residents race to fill sandbags as flooding threatens North Dakota

The Red River Valley area in North Dakota and Minnesota is experiencing some of the worst weather lately. They are experiencing some very bad flooding because of all of the rain they have recieved lately. The Red River as of Monday was supposed to crest at about 40 ft during the weekend. Flood stage starts at 17 ft. The River continues to rise as they keep getting the worst types of weather when in flood stages. They need more than 1 million sandbags to save more than 6,000 homes that are in danger. As of now they only have 310,000 sandbags ready to go. That is definetly not enough to have when they need 1.5 million to be on the safe side. The National Guard and FEMA have been helping out. Yet, it is still not enough. Citizens have really stepped up and have been going out to help sandbag as well. Hopefully it will be enough to save those homes that people are so desperately trying to save.

I agree with Lauren on this subject. I also love the fact that people are giving up their time to go and help when people are in need. This is a crisis that needs to be taken care of as much as we possibly can. We can't really control and really know how Mother Nature is going to change and affect us, but we can prepare for it as best as we can and hope that it is all enough. It's quite amazing what some rain and snow can do to a River. Its quite amazing what mother nature can do when you let it. I cannot believe that all of this flooding and crisis has happened in such a short amout of time. It looks like the Red River Valley might even have more flooding than their record from years ago. The river is going to crest pretty high and hopefully all of the efforts to save those houses with sandbags and levies will be enough. It will be a devastating thing to clean up when it is all over, as well. Hopefully someone is watching out for them from upstairs.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/03/23/dakota.flooding/index.html?iref=newssearch

Air Force jet crashes in California

An F-22A fighter jet crashed near Edwards Air Base in California on Wednesday. It is one of the most expensive Air Force Fighter, at $150 million. It is a single-seater, and crashed at about 10:30 a.m. The condition of the pilot is still unknown. The Fighter was on a training mission while it crashed. It ended up crashing about 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base. The plane was designed in the 1980s.

I think this is a great loss. I don't understand how we can have such a great and powerful military, yet these types of things still happen. It is very unfortunate that that soldier in the Fighter lost his life while on a training mission. Hopefully, figuring out how this happened will help the military make their Fighters better so that this doesn't happen again. It makes you wonder how these things happen when they do. What could have possibly gone wrong to make this plane crash? Will investigators ever know the real reason? How will they know what really went wrong? What was going on with the pilot that caused the Fighter Jet to crash? Hopefully everything will be figured out so that the family of the pilot and the military will figure out all of this information so they can all rest easy.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/25/california.crash/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Alaska volcano back on eruption watch

Researchers have put an alert out on Mount Redoubt because of the increase in seismic activity recently. Researchers have raised the alert level to "watch". No eruption has happened yet, but researchers say that things can change rapidly so people should always be on alert. "Watch" level, or orange level, means that the mountain is exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with an increased potential of eruption. Mount Redoubt is 100 miles from the largest city in Alaska, Anchorage. That last time it erupted was in December 1989, and it lasted until April 1990.

I think volcanoes are amazing things. People should be watching out for activity so that they don't get caught off guard and become in more danger than they were. I think it is good that researchers are watching the volcanoe just in case something happens. Sometimes volcanoes show activity but nothing ever ends up happening. Hopefully everyone that is in the path if something happens will be well informed before danger becomes evident. Hopefully everyone will have a chance to get to a safe area before something happens, if something does. It is very good that researchers and scientists are watching volcanoes around the world so that people have a way to know when they might need to get away from the area in danger.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/03/22/alaska.volcano/index.html

FAA: 17 killed in Montana plane crash

A plane that was supposed to be flying to Bozeman, Montana, crashed into a cemetary in Butte, Montana Sunday. The plane left from Orville, California at 11 pm PT, it was supposed to be flying to Bozeman, Montana but was rerouted to Butte instead. It ended up crashing 500 feet short of the Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, Montana. At least 17 people were killed. The plane was manufactured in 2001 and is registered with the Eagle Cap Leasing in Enterprise, Oregon, said the Federal Aviation Administration. They are not sure on why they plane crashed, the National Transportation Safey Board is still investigating the cause. Several children were on board on their way to a ski vacation, according to The Montana Standard newspaper.

This is a terrible accident. Its amazing to me how something like this can happen and it already be in the news literally 12 hours later. Airtravel, while fun and easy, is also unreliable at times. I don't understand how something like this can just happen. I agree with Amanda http://current-events-7.blogspot.com/ when she says that they need to have regulations on checking planes so this kind of thing doesn't happen so often. They crashed literally 500 feet short of the runway. Just 500 more feet and they all would have been fine. Those 17 lives that were lost would all still be here with their families and friends. Those children would be hitting the slopes down the mountains in Montana. Unfortunately, those things did not happen. This plane crashed, for no reason known yet. It is a very sad event. Something that makes you really sit down and think about things. There were a couple of eye-witnesses, they said that they just saw the plane nosedive out of now where and went to try the survivors if there were any, unfortunately there was nothing they could do to help the victims. It was already too late by the time they made it to the plane that had crashed. Its a was a terrible accident. Hopefully the National Transportation Safety Board will find a cause and put some more perspective into what happened to those 17 people. Hopefully some closure will be found for the families and friends grieving their deaths tonight.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/22/montana.plane.crash/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Robert Gibbs takes verbal slap at Cheney

This article is about President Obama's Press Secretary, Robery Gibbs, and his comment about former Vice President Dick Cheney. Gibbs said a sarcastic statement about Cheney on Monday during a Press Conference on terrorism. "Well, I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy, so they trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal," Gibbs said. Gibbs said this after Cheney had said that President Obama's policies had made the country not as safe as before. Gibbs also said that he thought President Obama was doing a great job keeping the country safe and secure. Cheney came back and Gibbs by saying, "I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoy, of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11," defending the Bush administration.

I think it is sort of funny that there is a little bit of political drama/sarcasm going on in the White House these days. It lightens the mood during such rough economic and other times of our country. I think that people shouldn't take comments like these so seriously when they are said. Sometimes, they are said in good natured humor, not to acutally insult the person they are said about. Such nonsense is not really news. It's just another silly thing that the press can obsess about for a few days before someone else says something silly or something that makes them look ignorant that they can report on, until the next big thing comes in. I don't really think that it matters the Gibbs was just making a little sarcastic comment after Cheney insulted the Obama administration. Gibbs was just trying to counter act what Cheney had said to make Cheney look bad. I don't believe that we should be wasting our time reporting on things that are not really important. Yes, it's fun to see who is making a fool of themselves these days, but we should be reporting on more important issues, like iraq, and they economy.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/16/gibbs.cheney/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Source: Mullen offers Obama update on Mexico

President Obama was briefed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen Saturday about the recent drug wars in Mexico. President Obama is interested in how the United States can help out in Mexico. President Obama was interested in what way that we can possibly use our military forces to help Mexico out. Mullen briefed obama on how we can possibly help Mexico with our intelligence on fighting terrorism. Mullen has stated that Mexico could possibly borrow from us our intelligence and equipment to help them fight these drug wars that are affecting their country.

I believe that we should try and help Mexico in their time of need during these drug wars. I do not believe that we should send any type of military help other than intelligence and information. We do not need to be losing our family members in another country that does not want us there in the first place. Mexico is not threatening our way of life so there would be no need to send any type of military action on them. Yes, we should try and help Mexico officials in stopping the drug wars because of the thousands of Americans that travel on vacation to Mexico each and every year. We do not want any one from our country being caught in the middle of some fight between drug gang leaders and losing their lives over just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. We should not get into another war like in the middle east to try and stop these drug wars, but we should try and share our intelligence on fighting terrorism with the Mexican government so that we can travel to our favorite Mexican cities and not feel like our lives are being threatened by these drug gangs fights. We should be able to travel safely and not being worried.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29577612/