Capt_Picard

Could you send out a warning 24 hours before the update...

It could help...

I've had taht for years... fun still!

I think the Trek Life is making fun of the hard core, I can't believe that guy is a bigger geek the me, fan.

Ken Schram Commentary: They're Getting To Me

 

September 22, 2005

 

By Ken Schram

 

SEATTLE - Okay, I'll admit it. They're getting to me. I keep getting e-mails from these smug, holier-than-thou do-gooders are positively gleeful about the rising cost of gasoline. That's because in their world, anyone who commutes alone in a car is irresponsibly stupid. And those who drive trucks or SUV's? Why, they're practically categorized as eco-terrorists. Sure, we should all be smarter about what our engines are doing to the environment, but the idea that there's some snide, self-appointed Earth monitor applauding as I spend $40 to fill up my 10-year-old sedan, leaves me just a little PO'd. As these folks work themselves into a joyous lather over the idea of gas hitting $5 - or (perish the thought!) -- even $10 a gallon, I wonder if they've given any thought as to how much they'll end up paying for their tofu and soy. Or have they deluded themselves into thinking that all their organic produce is delivered by some magical hybrid semi? Meanwhile, the oil companies (and we know what wonderful environment stewards they are!) are reaping obscene profits. I find no small irony in knowing that those who cheer for higher gas prices are in effect cheering for big oil. The only satisfaction I get after reading emails from these pretentious tree-huggers is that one press of a button deletes their thoughts, and my expletive. Want to share your thoughts with Ken Schram? You can e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com

So, what do you think?

When some guy says they only watch Voyager to see Seven and you tell them that you just watch TNG to see Trio's mother.

Doesn't look good!

1 Million Told To Evacuate Ahead Of Rita

 

September 21, 2005

 

By KOMO Staff & News Services

 

GALVESTON - Hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated and as many as 1 million other people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as Hurricane Rita turned into a 150-mph monster that could pummel Texas and bring more misery to New Orleans by week's end.

All of Galveston, vulnerable sections of Houston and Corpus Christi, and a mostly emptied-out New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders, one day after Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys as a far weaker storm and caused minor damage.

Having seen what 145-mph Hurricane Katrina did three weeks ago, many people were taking no chances as Rita swirled its way across the Gulf of Mexico.

"After this killer in New Orleans, Katrina, I just cannot fathom staying," 59-year-old Ldyyan Jean Jocque said before sunrise as she waited for an evacuation bus outside the Galveston Community Center. She had packed her Bible, some music and clothes into plastic bags and loaded her dog into a pet carrier.

The federal government was eager to show it, too, had learned its lesson after being criticized for its sluggish response to Katrina. It rushed hundreds of truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals to the Gulf Coast and put rescue and medical teams on standby.

"You can't play around with this storm," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on ABC's "Good Morning America." He added: "The lesson is that when the storm hits, the best place to be is to be out of the path of the storm."

By early afternoon, Rita was a Category 4 storm centered more than 700 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, with winds of 150 mph. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore Saturday along the central Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi. But even a slight rightward turn could prove devastating to New Orleans.

Meteorologist Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Rita could strengthen into a terrifying Category 5 with wind over 155 mph as it moves over the warm waters of the gulf.

Galveston County, population 267,000, was ordered evacuated, along with low-lying, flood-prone areas of Houston, which at its lowest point is 6 feet above sea level. Altogether, as many as 1 million people in the Houston-Galveston area were under orders to get out, said Frank Michel, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White. Houston is about 50 miles northwest of Galveston.

Along the Louisiana coast, some 20,000 people or more were being evacuated or were warned to leave.

Galveston, situated on an island 8 feet above sea level, was the site of one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history: an unnamed hurricane in 1900 that killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people and practically wiped the city off the map.

The last major hurricane to hit Texas was Alicia in 1983. It flooded downtown Houston, spawned 22 tornadoes and left 21 people dead. The damage from the Category 3 storm was put at more than $2 billion. Tropical Storm Allison flooded Houston in 2001, doing major damage to hospitals and research centers and killing 23 people.

"Let's hope that the hurricane does not hit at a Category 4 strength and let's hope the lessons we've learned - the painful, tragic lessons that have been learned in the last few weeks - will best prepare us for what could happen with Rita," Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said in New York.

The death toll from Katrina along the Gulf Coast climbed past 1,000 Wednesday to 1,036. The body count in Louisiana alone was put at 799 by the state Health Department.

In New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers raced to patch the city's fractured levee system for fear the additional rain from Rita could swamp the walls and flood the city all over again. The Corps said New Orleans' levees can only handle up to 6 inches of rain and a storm surge of 10 to 12 feet.

"The protection is very tenuous at best," said Dave Wurtzel, a Corps official handling some of the repairs.

Engineers and contractors drove a massive metal barrier across the 17th Street Canal bed to prevent a storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain from swamping New Orleans again, and worked around the clock to repair the damaged pumps, concrete floodwalls, earthen berms and channels that protect the below-sea-level city.

In addition, the corps had 800 giant sandbags of 6,000 to 15,000 pounds each on hand, and ordered 2,500 more to shore up low spots and plug any new breaches.

The federal government's top official in the city, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, said the preparations in and around New Orleans included 500 buses for evacuation, and enough water and military meals for 500,000 people.

Buses stood by at the city's convention center to evacuate the 400 to 500 residents Mayor Ray Nagin estimated were left in the main part of the city, on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Two busloads left on Tuesday. But almost no one showed up Wednesday morning.

"The majority of people who are back in the city came with their own vehicle. We expect them to go out in their own vehicle," said Spc. Amber Mangham, a military police officer at the convention center.

The evacuation order meant that for the second time in 3½ weeks, many New Orleans residents were forced to decide whether to stay or go. Also, many Katrina victims still in shelters faced the prospect of being uprooted again. At the Cajun Dome in Lafayette, emergency officials arranged to take the 1,000 refugees from the New Orleans area out on buses if Rita tracks north.

"I don't think I can stay for another storm," said Keith Price, a nurse at New Orleans' University Hospital who stayed through Katrina and had to wade several miles through chest-deep water to reach a friend's apartment on higher ground. "Until you are actually in that water, you really don't know how frightening it is."

Along the Texas coast, authorities rushed to get the old and infirm out of harm's way, three weeks after scores of sick and elderly nursing home patients in the New Orleans area drowned in Katrina's floodwaters or died in the stifling heat while waiting to be rescued.

In Galveston, the Edgewater Retirement Community, a six-story building near the city's seawall, began evacuating its more than 200 nursing home patients and retirees by bus and ambulance.

"They either go with a family member or they go with us, but this building is not safe sitting on the seawall with a major hurricane coming," said David Hastings, executive director. "I have had several say, `I don't want to go,' and I said, `I'm sorry, you're going."'

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston discharged 200 hospital patients healthy enough to go home and evacuated others by helicopter, ambulance and buses. "There are going to be some people who are too sick to evacuate and we are going to keep them here," said spokeswoman Jennifer Reynolds-Sanchez.

About 80 buses began leaving Galveston at midmorning, bound for shelters 100 miles north in Huntsville. Dozens of people lined up, carrying pillows, bags and coolers, to board one of several yellow school buses in the city of 58,000.

"The real lesson (from Katrina) that I think the citizens learned is that the people in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi did not leave in time," said Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas. "We've always asked people to leave earlier, but because of Katrina, they are now listening to us and they're leaving."

Crude oil prices rose again on fears that Rita would smash into key oil isntallations in Texas and the gulf. Hundreds of workers were evacuated from offshore oil rigs. Texas, the heart of U.S. crude production, accounts for 25 percent of the nation's total oil output.

As Rita swirled away from Florida, thousands of residents who evacuated the Keys began returning to find that the storm had caused little more than minor flooding. Crews worked to restore electricity, store owners pulled the plywood off windows on the main drag, Duval Street, and seaweed and sand were cleared from the streets.

"I'm turning on the A/C and putting a vacancy sign up. We're really lucky," said Mona Santiago, owner of the Southernmost Point Guest House, as she swept water off the front porch. "The sun is coming out. We're getting ready for business."

Rita is the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, making this the fourth-busiest season since record-keeping started in 1851. The record is 21 tropical storms in 1933. The hurricane season is not over until Nov. 30.

Way to go... he should have won this back 38 years ago I think.

I wish I had knowen... I haven't seen Star Trek on TV since the end of Enterprise.

Katrina Forecasters Were Remarkably Accurate

 

September 17, 2005

 

By KOMO Staff & News Services

 

MIAMI - For all the criticism of the Bush administration's confused response to Hurricane Katrina, at least two federal agencies got it right: the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center.

 

They forecast the path of the storm and the potential for devastation with remarkable accuracy.

 

The performance by the two agencies calls into question claims by President Bush and others in his administration that Katrina was a catastrophe that no one envisioned.

 

For example, Bush told ABC on Sep. 1 that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." In its storm warnings, the hurricane center never used the word "breached." But a day before Katrina came ashore Aug. 29, the agency warned in capital letters: "SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA COULD BE OVERTOPPED."

 

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield also gave daily pre-storm videoconference briefings to federal officials in Washington, warning them of a nightmare scenario of New Orleans' levees not holding, winds smashing windows in high-rise buildings and flooding wiping out large swaths of the Gulf Coast.

 

A photo on the White House Web site shows Bush in Crawford, Texas, watching Mayfield give a briefing on Aug. 28, a day before Katrina smashed ashore with 145-mph winds.

 

The National Weather Service office in Slidell, La., which covers the New Orleans area, put out its own warnings that day, saying, "MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS ... PERHAPS LONGER" and predicting "HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS."

 

Mayfield and Paul Trotter, the meteorologist in charge of the Slidell office, both refused to criticize the federal response.

 

But Mayfield said: "The fact that we had a major hurricane forecast over or near New Orleans is reason for great concern. The local and state emergency management knew that as well as FEMA did."

 

And the risk to New Orleans in particular was well-recognized long before Katrina.

 

"The 33 years that I've been at the hurricane center we have always been saying - the directors before me and I have always said - that the greatest potential for the nightmare scenarios, in the Gulf of Mexico anyway, is that New Orleans and southeast Louisiana area," Mayfield said.

 

The hurricane center and the weather service have not been without critics. Some private meteorologists laud the accurate forecasts but wonder why those dire predictions were not issued earlier. They also argue that residents were bombarded with too much information from several sources.

 

As early as three days before Katrina pulverized the Gulf Coast, the hurricane center warned that New Orleans was in the Category 4 hurricane's path. Storm-track projections released to the public more than two days (56 hours) before Katrina came ashore were off by only about 15 miles - and only because the hurricane made a slight turn to the right before hitting land just to the east of New Orleans.

 

That is better than the average 48-hour error of about 160 miles and 24-hour error of about 85 miles.

 

Two days before the storm hit, the hurricane center predicted Katrina's strength at landfall; the agency was off the mark by only about 10 mph. That kind of accuracy is unusual, because forecasters find it particularly difficult to predict whether a storm will strengthen or weaken.

 

AccuWeather Inc. senior meteorologist Michael Steinberg said emergency managers and the public could have been given an earlier warning of Katrina's threat to New Orleans. He said the private company had issued forecasts nearly 12 hours earlier than the hurricane center warning that Katrina was aiming at the area.

 

He said that difference was significant because it would have given more daylight hours for evacuations.

 

Mayfield said hurricane watches and warnings are issued so as to give 36 and 24 hours' notice, respectively. Lengthening that time could mean larger areas than necessary would be evacuated, he said. That could cause larger traffic jams and put people in danger of being stuck on the road when the hurricane hit.

 

Trotter also wanted to make sure the public knew of the Category 4 hurricane's threat beforehand. His forecasters publicly warned that a hurricane of that magnitude could cause widespread destruction of buildings, hurl small cars into the air and cause the levee system to fail.

 

But Trotter went even further and called Katrina "A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969." That storm wiped some towns off the map along the Gulf Coast and killed 256 people.

 

Mayfield also did something he rarely does before a hurricane hits: He personally called the governors of Mississippi and Louisiana and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin two days ahead of time to warn them about the monstrous hurricane. Nagin has said he ordered an evacuation because Mayfield's call "scared the hell" out of him.

 

"I just wanted to be able to go to sleep that night knowing I had done everything I could," Mayfield said.

Joe Zimmimermen!

SNES

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past!

Now I have a reason to get my family away from the TV. I'll threaten them I'll turn it to the Emmy's. I wounder if Shanert is going to give his CD's to the US Army?

Alaska Earthquake... cause a Tsunami that hit many places in the Pacific rim.

Report 1

It's A Razor-Thin Line

 

September 1, 2005

 

By Ken Schram

SEATTLE - It's a razor-thin line between compassion and contempt. There are the people who contact me wanting to know where they can send money to help those who've been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. And there are the people who contact me to say: "Screw 'em. Everyone was told to evacuate. Those who were stupid enough to stay don't deserve 'free handouts." It's a razor-thin line between looting and surviving. I'm not talking about the low-life's helping themselves to electronics and jewelry. But if pilfering bread, diapers and something to drink is looting, then I'd bet we'd all be looters in similar circumstances. Also interesting is how the media fuels the nation's racial imagery. Here's one news photos of a white couple with the caption: "Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store..."

Here's another photo of a black man with the caption: "A young man walks through chest-deep water after looting a grocery store..."

It's a razor-thin line between selfish and selfless. As in those who think if the rest of the world doesn't help us now when we need help, it can go to hell the next time something happens and it expects us to help. Yes, it's a razor-thin line. And all it takes is a hurricane to show how close to the edge we really are. Want to share your thoughts with Ken Schram? You can e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com

Report 2

Ken Schram Commentary: It's About People, Not Politics

 

September 2, 2005

 

By Ken Schram 

 

SEATTLE - I'll be blunt. I've never had high expectations of President Bush's leadership. But then I never expected he'd be completely worthless at a time when the country needed him most. I'm just not up to being polite after so many days of watching the inept, incompetent and insensitive government reaction to the deplorable conditions in Louisiana and Mississippi. Days of doctors begging for generators and fuel to keep hospital patients alive; days of people abandoned without food and water; days were thugs and criminals were allowed to gain a violent foothold in the midst of chaos and despair; days where the sick lay dying and the dead lay untended. And what was the initial White House response to concern that there were too many days with too little help? It was: Don't turn this into something political. Excuse me? What a profusely pitiful attitude. This isn't about politics. It's about people. And it's about a Bush administration that doesn't know the difference. It's about a President who doesn't have the ability to lead a nation in a time of crisis and catastrophe. I honestly didn't think that George Bush could disappoint America more than he already has. I was wrong. Want to share your thoughts with Ken Schram? You can e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com

Listen to report 2 here So, what do you think?

Thatwas a great pome and it is very true... send it to CNN or ABC and see if they put it on the air. It might help people if they heard it.

Q!

When I first saw the damage this did to FL I knew it was only going to get bigger and stronger. Just to tell you all we could see more hurricanes like this in the coming years and we were lucky. The Katrina lost it's punch a little bit before it made land fall, but it was very close to landing with winds above 175 MPH. I would like to ask the mods and all members to do what they can to help the people that must live the next months rebuild lives and families.

Well at least if a state has a problem there are at least 49 other states ready to help!

From the National Hurrican Center

ZCZC MIATCPAT2 ALL

TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM

BULLETIN

HURRICANE KATRINA ADVISORY NUMBER  24

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL

4 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

 

...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA HEADED FOR THE

NORTHERN GULF COAST...

 

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF COAST

FROM MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA

BORDER...INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN.

PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE COMPLETED THIS

EVENING.

 

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND A HURRICANE WATCH ARE IN EFFECT FROM

EAST OF THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA BORDER TO DESTIN FLORIDA...AND FROM

WEST OF MORGAN CITY TO INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA.

 

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS ALSO IN EFFECT FROM DESTIN FLORIDA

EASTWARD TO INDIAN PASS FLORIDA...AND FROM INTRACOASTAL CITY

LOUISIANA WESTWARD TO CAMERON LOUISIANA.

 

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE

INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED

BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

 

AT 4 PM CDT...2100Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE KATRINA WAS LOCATED

NEAR LATITUDE 26.9 NORTH... LONGITUDE 89.0 WEST OR ABOUT 150 MILES

SOUTH OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

 

KATRINA IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 13 MPH...AND A GRADUAL

TURN TO THE NORTH IS EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS.  ON THIS

TRACK THE CENTER OF THE HURRICANE WILL BE NEAR THE NORTHERN GULF

COAST EARLY MONDAY.  HOWEVER...CONDITIONS ARE ALREADY BEGINNING TO

DETERIORATE ALONG PORTIONS OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF

COAST...AND WILL CONTINUE TO WORSEN THROUGH THE NIGHT.

 

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 165 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS.

KATRINA IS A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON

THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE.  SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH ARE LIKELY

UNTIL LANDFALL.  KATRINA IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AT CATEGORY

FOUR OR FIVE INTENSITY.  WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER FLOORS OF

HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN THOSE NEAR

GROUND LEVEL.

 

KATRINA IS A LARGE HURRICANE.  HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD

UP TO 105 MILES FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS

EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 230 MILES.  SUSTAINED TROPICAL STORM FORCE

WINDS ARE OCCURRING OVER THE SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA COAST.  SOUTHWEST

PASS...NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER...RECENTLY REPORTED

SUSTAINED WINDS OF 48 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 53 MPH.

 

A NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER PLANE REPORTED A MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE OF

902 MB...26.64 INCHES.

 

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 18 TO 22 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE

LEVELS...LOCALLY AS HIGH AS 28 FEET...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS

BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE

CENTER MAKES LANDFALL.  SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA

COULD BE OVERTOPPED.  SIGNIFICANT STORM SURGE FLOODING WILL OCCUR

ELSEWHERE ALONG THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST.

 

RAINFALL TOTALS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF

15 INCHES...ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE PATH OF KATRINA ACROSS THE GULF

COAST AND THE TENNESSEE VALLEY.  RAINFALL TOTALS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES

ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE OHIO VALLEY INTO THE EASTERN GREAT LAKES

REGION TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY.

 

ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL BE POSSIBLE BEGINNING THIS EVENING OVER

SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF LOUISIANA...MISSISSIPPI...AND ALABAMA...AND

OVER THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE.

 

REPEATING THE 4 PM CDT POSITION...26.9 N... 89.0 W.  MOVEMENT

TOWARD...NORTHWEST NEAR 13 MPH.  MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...165 MPH.

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE... 902 MB.

 

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE

CENTER AT 7 PM CDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 10 PM

CDT.

 

FORECASTER PASCH

 

$$

NNNN

Hurricane Katrina to hite Gulf!

This could be the most powerful storm to ever hit the US so far in known history. This topic is for get out all the information to everyone has on this storm. Right now it looks like the winds could get to 185 MPH at land fall and the hurricane force winds would cover over 200 miles north or east of the point of land fall.

OK, I made it into an MP3, but first I think you all might want to listen to this. It was at my high school and was taped in 2003. Click here to listen and chose file m3rd_1337.mp3.

I have an update to this story.

No Murder Charges Filed In Death Of Spanaway Boy

 

August 23, 2005

 

By Keith Eldridge

 

TACOMA - Pierce County prosecutors will file assault but not homicide charges against a man they say punched one 12-year-old boy and chased another before that boy ran into Spanaway traffic and was killed. Deputy prosecutor Jerry Costello says they can't prove that Mario Haley committed homicide and caused the death of Garnet Willis on July 15. 22-year-old Mario Haley, of Lakewood and 22-year-old Tyrone Sherrod, of Tacoma were arrested the Friday morning after the Garnett ran into traffic on SR-7, where he was hit and killed. Haley told KOMO 4 News Tuesday that he's sorry about what happened. But the boys' parents are angry that Haley won't be charged with murder in the death of Garnett. They say it's justice denied. "I was just sick, sick to my stomach," said Christina Graeber, Garnett's mother. With Garnett's photo next to her alongside the spot where Garnett was killed, Christina Graeber can't believe no murder charges are being filed against Mario Haley. "I guess it was their lucky day. But luck runs out," she said. But Haley says Garnett's death was by no means intentional.  "I just wish that the parents could understand that what happened was a complete accident," Haley said. "I didn't mean for nobody to get killed." In his first ever interview, Haley told KOMO 4 News his version of what happened that night. He says Garnett and his cousin were firing bottle rockets near traffic along busy Pacific Avenue in Spanaway. Haley and his companion Tyrone Sherrod got out of their car and confronted the boys. Garnett ran, but Haley caught Garnett's cousin, Jon Winterhawk. "I turned around and looked at his cousin and I said: 'What are you guys doing?' " Haley said. "(Jon) said: 'Oh we're not, we're not, we're just shooting fireworks.' And that's when I punched him and that's when I could see the crunch and his cousin had got hit by the car." Contrary to earlier reports, the prosecutor says Haley was not chasing Willis and can't be charged in his death. "I don't see sufficient evidence to show that Mario Haley forced him to run into that roadway," deputy prosecutor Jerry Costello said. "He didn't physically push him, corner him in such a way that he had no other place to go." But Haley is being charged with fourth-degree assault for hitting Jon Winterhawk. Haley's passenger Tyrone Sherrod is not being charged at all as he didn't hit either boy. Haley wanted to send a message to Willis' family: "I just hope you guys can understand that it was a complete accident and that I'm not a bad guy. My past is my past and I just hope you guys can come to understand and hopefully forgive me." But Graeber said: "I'm trying to find it in my heart and I know I have to move on, but I have a lot of unanswered questions." While Haley has his son to play with and enjoy, Christina Graeber has only a photograph and memories of her son. Haley is due in court Sept. 1 on the assault charge, which is a gross misdemeanor and punishable by up to a year in jail. As for Garnett's family, they're still trying to pay for his funeral amid all the grief. An account is still set up at Wells Fargo Bank.

Another great actor lost... I never did try the gombo.

I would have to say F.C. The open was great and the probe that came out of Picard's check was a great effect and scare.