Hurricane Katrina

New Orleans, in shambles, looked at the bright side late yesterday, figuring the city had dodged a bullet when Hurricane Katrina jogged to the east before heading north around the eastern edge of Lake Pontchartrain...

Today, city officials are reassessing the situation... Levees that appeared to have held back the storm's waters are now breaking and the downtown is flooding, forcing WWL-TV to evacuate their headquarters on Rampart Street, 5 blocks from the Mississippi. The station crew has temporarily moved to the station's antenna facility in Gretna.

The 17th Street Canal levee has also broken. Marshal law has been declared in Jefferson Parish and there is word that new flooding has made all roads into and out of the city of New Orleans impassable.

Hundreds still are trapped on roof tops and waters are rising around the Louisiana Superdome, forcing rescue workers to take refuge on the upper decks of neighboring I-10.

Meanwhile, 300 airboats that are normally housed off the Florida Everglades are headed for New Orleans to help with water rescues.

West Florida Coastal 'Dead Zone'

About 20 dead sea turtles have washed ashore in Pinellas County, Florida over the past three days, an extremely high number that has doctors and scientists puzzled.

"It may or may not be associated with red tide," said Dr. Janine Cianciolo of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. "They tend to show symptoms of what's called a red tide intoxication, but you have to take a lot of samples and they must go through testing to actually determine that."

Recent underwater videos show a massive die-off of sea life along the west Florida coast.

"Right now, anywhere we go from shore to 20 miles offshore, from Sarasota to Tarpon Springs, we can't find a single creature alive on the bottom right now," said dive instructor Michael Miller. "All the coral, all the sponges, all the crabs, not a single living thing, all the star fish, the brittle stars, everything's dead," said Miller.

U.S. Building South American Stronghold

According to an article in the Bolivian newspaper, El Deber, the U.S. military is building a large base in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia. The base will permit the landing of large aircraft and is capable of housing up to 16,000 troops.

A contingent of 500 U.S. troops arrived in Paraguay on July 1st with planes, weapons, equipment and ammunition. The U.S. embassy in Paraguay denied that a base was being built and described the military activity as routine.

The Paraguayan senate approved the entrance of the troops in May of this year, granting them total immunity, free from Paraguayan and International Criminal Court jurisdiction.
With Bolivia’s recent uprisings, their enormous gas reserves, and a presidential election on the way, their is speculation, the U.S. might intervene. U.S. suggestions that there might be Al Qaeda training grounds near Paraguay are expected to work to the the Bush administration’s advantage should it wish to make a case for military operations in the region.

Over the past two years, the U.S. has been pressuring Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Paraguay into signing a deal which would grant immunity to U.S. military. The Bush administration threatened to deny the countries up to $24.5 million in economic and military aid if they refused to sign the deal. So far, Paraguay is the only country to accept the offer.

West Florida Sea Life Head South

The Englewood, Florida Sun-Herald reports that a bizarre freeway of fish swimming by the thousands along the shore of Englewood Beach on Thursday morning left crowds of beach-goers agog and marine biologists bewildered. Witnesses reported a wide variety of sea creatures swimming south in a narrow band close to the beach at mid-morning. Included in the swarm were large groups of shrimp, blue crabs the size of dinner plates, grouper, snapper, red fish and flounder. They were joined by more usual species, including sea robins, needlefish and eels. The fish were moving in a narrow band in about 18 inches of water. The moving mass of sea life stretched for approximately a mile. Some fish washed ashore, then fipped and struggled until they flopped back into the water to rejoin the swarm. More than 100 pelicans bombarded the fish, but no sharks or other predators were visible.

Ring of Fire

Stan Deyo was a guest on Coast to Coast AM last night and discussed new temperature data from the Pacific Ocean indicating potential massive plate movement along the west coast of the U.S. and Canada... Deyo, whose been researching the temperature fluctuations for 11 years, was able to predict the western Pacific quake that created the tidal wave that wiped out Sumatra. Deyo suggests that a massive quake or series of quakes could occur within the next eight weeks...

NASA — Shuttle Repairs

As NASA prepares to send astronauts out on a tether to repair caulking on the Shuttle Discovery, NASA TV coverage is coming under scrutiny. Last night, live coverage was suddenly blacked out after an unidentified object entered the camera shot from lower left and, at high speed, entered the Earth's atmosphere...

Explorations

Today is the first day... as Casey O'Connor and friend, Joss Langdale, embark on a journey to rediscover meaning in a world that seems on the verge of self-destrucion.