A more detailed USGS map shows the epicenter to be south of Pomona.
The websites of LA-based media are getting hammered but you might be able to get through:
It’s always good to see justice catch up with a corrupt politician – regardless of their party affiliation:
In a 28-page indictment from a federal grand jury, Stevens was charged with seven counts of making false statements on his Senate financial forms.
Federal investigators had been looking into improvements made to his home in Alaska.
Stevens has been the subject of a wide-ranging federal investigation focusing on Alaska state lawmakers and an energy company in the state. FBI agents searched his Alaska home in July 2007.
You may remember that his home was raided just about a year ago:
Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, is under scrutiny from the Justice Department for his ties to an Alaska energy services company, Veco, whose chief executive pleaded guilty in early May to a bribery scheme involving state lawmakers.
Contractors have told a federal grand jury that in 2000, Veco executives oversaw a lavish remodeling of Stevens’s house in Girdwood, an exclusive ski resort area 40 miles from Anchorage, according to statements by the contractors.
The indictment concerns seven “false statements” related to the remodeling of his home:
From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said Stevens concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.” The indictment released Tuesday said the items included: home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, electrical wiring; as well as car exchanges, a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools.
No comment, yet, from the Senator or his staff:
The Department of Justice has announced a 1:20 p.m. ET press conference to discuss the details. Stevens’ Washington office is shut down right now and no one is answering phone calls, and a spokesman in Alaska declined to answer questions.
I think rendition to Egypt sounds like fair treatment for the senator.
A minor setback for Jane Novak’s effort to free Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani:
The Court of Appeals, specialized in terrorism issues, delayed looking into a request by the defense lawyer of journalist Abdul-Karim al-Khaiwani to release him until November 2008.
The court took the decision in an appeal session on Tuesday on the case of 15 people, called Sana’a Second Cell, convicted by a primary court of forming an armed group to attack country’s interests and supporting rebels in Sa’ada, north of Yemen.
The first convict Jafar al-Marhabi was sentenced to death and other 13 were sentenced to different terms in jail. Al-Khaiwani was sentenced to six years term in jail over “writing articles against the president and possessing CDs supporting al-Houthi’s rebellion and threatening the country’s interests”. The court quitted one of the convicts after he died inside the detention unit.
Jane, who blogs at Armies of Liberation, sent the following message via Facebook this morning:
What a disaster! Al-Khaiwani’s appeal is postponed until November. Even the court says he was sentenced to jail for writing articles. He is doing well, but I’m concerned for his health. Any ideas? There’s over 300 of us, what can we do as a group that would bring pressure or attention on the regime and the case?
One thing you can do to help is join the Campaign For a Free Media in Yemen group on Facebook. It has additional links to an online letter writing campaign and supportive bloggers.
When that dorky friend of yours stops answering phone calls, showing up for work, or even bathing you’ll know why:
The Star Trek universe will appear for the first time in a massively multiplayer online game. Everything from the elegant domes of Starfleet Academy to the ancient temples of Vulcan, from the towers of Qo’noS to the Fire Caves of Bajor, from the mysterious Mutara Nebula to the unexplored voids of deep space, all will be represented in stunning 3-D graphics. Immerse yourself in the future of the Trek universe as it moves into the 25th century: a time of shifting alliances and new discoveries.
Adventure in the Final Frontier: Explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations in an expanding vast universe. Make contact with alien races, discover resources and uncover mysteries that will change the future of the Star Trek universe.
You Are the Captain: Command your own starship as a Federation Captain or a Klingon Warrior. Outfit it with the systems that you need to make your mark in the galaxy. Customize your ship as you see fit. Recruit, train and mold your crew into an elite force for exploration and combat.
Surface, Shipboard and Deep Space Adventures: Command your vessel in thrilling space battles, or beam down to planets with your away team for face-to-face confrontations. Missions will take you and your friends into space, planetside and even inside starships!
Start planning your interventions now.
Cuil, pronounced cool, was cooked up by some former Google engineers:
Cuil had kept a low profile while Patterson, her husband, Tom Costello, and two other former Google engineers – Russell Power and Louis Monier – searched for better ways to search.
Now, it’s boasting time.
For starters, Cuil’s search index spans 120 billion Web pages.
Patterson believes that’s at least three times the size of Google’s index, although there is no way to know for certain. Google stopped publicly quantifying its index’s breadth nearly three years ago when the catalog spanned 8.2 billion Web pages.
Cuil won’t divulge the formula it has developed to cover a wider swath of the Web with far fewer computers than Google. And Google isn’t ceding the point: Spokeswoman Katie Watson said her company still believes its index is the largest.
Jermaine Gonzales has additional screenshots and you can, of course, give it a try yourself.
I’m still running a few test queries. I think they have some interesting interface ideas but, like others, I fail to see Google-beating relevancy. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Of course, the counterterrorism forces of nearly every government on the planet are going to be on some form of heightened alert during the Olympics.
Government officials have been quietly stepping up counterterror efforts out of a growing concern that al Qaeda or similar organizations might try to capitalize on the spate of extremely high-profile events in the coming months, sources tell ABC News.
Security experts point to next month’s Olympics as evidence that high profile events attract threats of terrorism, like the one issued this past weekend from a Chinese Muslim minority group that warned of its intent to attack the games.
Anti-terror officials in the U.S. cite this summer and fall’s line up of two major political parties’ conventions, November’s general election and months of transition into a new presidential administration as cause for heightened awareness and action.
While we tend to associate terrorism alerts with Islamic terrorism (for good reason) there’s a significant threat posed by homegrown wackos. Securing the conventions is going to be a huge and difficult job.
-
Recent Interviews
Michael Ross
A look at current intelligence
issues with a former Mossad
combatant
Dr. Steven Metz
An Army War College
professor looks at our response
to insurgency
Joshua Foust
Perspectives on COIN from a
fellow at the American Security
Project-
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
A CT expert's take on
radicalization and terrorist
strategy
-