By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainnment Writer

INDIO, Calif. - “Coachella, I am here.” Prince hit the stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with that announcement, heralding his arrival as the much-anticipated headliner of the summer festival.

Shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, Prince strutted onto the stage wearing white pants and a white shirt with glittery fringe. His performance, the centerpiece of the three-day festival, was announced only two weeks ago, immediately making an already very hip festival of 125-plus bands significantly more in-demand.

And Prince knew it.

“You are the coolest place on earth right now!” Prince declared to a sea of tens of thousands.

Prince, who had been sought out to perform at Coachella since the festival was founded nine years ago, told the crowd that when he agreed to perform, he informed the organizers that he would not only play, but party too.

True to his word, Prince then launched his band — complete with a horn section and background singers — into “Jungle Love.” Morris Day came out to sing his song, while Prince strolled around the stage with his guitar.

For the beginning of the show, Prince preferred to let his guitar do the talking. He also welcomed the singer and drummer Sheila E, who took the lead for a song and then joined Prince in an extended jam.

Finally, Prince satisfied the crowd with a celebratory performance of “1999.” His classic “Little Red Corvette” soon followed.

One of the big surprises of Prince’s concert was his cover of Radiohead’s “Creep,” which was sure to be one of Coachella’s most talked-about performances. With some lyrics adjusted, a ripping guitar solo and extended falsetto crooning for a finale, Prince’s “Creep” had the crowd slack-jawed.

To close the set, he gave another unique take on a song not his own: the Beatles’ “Come Together.” He urged the audience — whom he called his “choir” — to sing “Come together, yeah” over and over.

And just as trepidation was beginning to take hold in the crowd that Prince might actually leave without playing “Purple Rain,” he returned to confirm that even in the desert, it could rain purple.

Even after the encore, though, he came back for more.

“They’re telling me that we got to go, but I can’t leave!” Prince shouted. He then flew through a torrid version of “Let’s Go Crazy.”

Prince had widely been considered the one act most all concertgoers — a diverse 60,000 of indie rockers, electronica dancers and pop fans — were certain to see. And by the end of “Let’s Go Crazy,” Prince had seemed to put his stamp on Coachella lore.

“From now on, this is Prince’s house,” he shouted before triumphantly strutting off stage and tossing his guitar 30 feet behind him.

Source:news.yahoo

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Sunday brushed aside a challenge from Hillary Rodham Clinton to debate before the May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.

 On Saturday, Clinton said she wants Obama to face off with her in a debate without a moderator, Lincoln-Douglas style.

“I’m not ducking. We’ve had 21″ debates, Obama said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“For two weeks, two big states, we want to make sure we’re talking to as many voters on the ground, taking questions from voters,” he said. “We’re not going to have debates between now and Indiana.”

The more open style of debating where each side presents an argument gets its name from the famed debates that took place during the 1858 U.S. Senate race in Illinois between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas.

Trailing in delegates and the popular vote, Clinton has been stepping up the pressure on Obama for more debates in advance of primaries on May 6 in Indiana and North Carolina.

Obama was planning to return to his home in Chicago on Sunday and had no public events scheduled. Clinton was spending the day campaigning in North Carolina.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said superdelegates should make known their choices on the Democratic nominee for president by the end of June. Ultimately, he said he believes their decisions will be based on who is more electable, rather than necessarily who has the most pledged delegates, because that is what party rules stipulate.

“This is essentially pretty close to a tie here,” Dean said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“What’s going to happen in the last nine primaries is there’s going to be some feeling at some point that one of these candidates is more likely to win than the other and that person will get the nomination. I can’t tell you who that is, I have no idea who that is, but that’s what’s going to happen,” Dean said.

Dean also said he expected the party to heal from the bitter primary race if superdelegates make their decisions in June and that he believes Michigan and Florida delegates will be “seated in some way.”

“If you go into the convention divided, it’s pretty likely you’ll come out of the convention divided,” he said.

The Democratic Party stepped up its attack on Sen. John McCain, using a new party ad to cast the presumed Republican presidential nominee as a commander in chief who would keep troops in Iraq for 100 years. The ad is part of a half-million-dollar, three-week national cable television campaign aimed at linking the Arizona senator to the policies of President Bush.

The ad set to begin airing Monday accuses McCain of wanting to remain in Iraq for “maybe 100″ years, a link to a remark McCain made in January while campaigning in New Hampshire. The ad concludes, “If all he offers is more of the same is John McCain the right choice for America’s future?”

Since then, McCain has repeatedly said he has no intention of extending the war into the next century, but would keep a U.S. military presence in Iraq much as the United States has in Germany, Japan and South Korea.

The Democratic candidates have also acknowledged they would keep non-combat troops in Iraq to ensure its stability. But they have said they would begin withdrawing combat troops promptly upon becoming president, a step McCain has said would be precipitous.

The DNC has been organizing a drumbeat against McCain at the state party level to coincide with McCain’s travels across the country.

Meanwhile, Obama has become a Republican target. The North Carolina Republican Party aired an ad, over McCain’s objections, that uses remarks by Obama’s former pastor to portray Obama as too extreme. The ad points out that the two Democrats running for state governor have endorsed the Illinois senator.

Freedom’s Watch, a conservative group, and the National Republican Congressional Committee are running ads in Louisiana criticizing Obama’s health care proposal and linking him to a Louisiana congressional candidate.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Source:news.yahoo

SIERRA MADRE, Calif. - A wildfire in Southern California that has scorched 270 acres and forced the evacuation of about 100 homes in neighborhoods might not be under control for days, officials said Sunday.

Firefighters originally had hoped to have the blaze contained Sunday, but gusting winds late Saturday night kept the fire burning out of control and creeping toward nearby homes, said Elisa Weaver of the Arcadia Fire Department.

The mandatory evacuation order came shortly before 11 p.m. The fire broke out on a hot, dry Saturday afternoon about 10 miles northeast of Pasadena, Weaver said.

More than 100 hikers were escorted out of a forest by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, and Boy Scouts were evacuated from a camp, Weaver said. No injuries were reported.

Containment was not expected for two to three days, Weaver said.

“I think the biggest concern is this area … has not burned in 10-plus years, so there’s a lot of fuel up there for this fire,” Weaver said.

More than 200 firefighters were aided by a dozen engines, three water tankers and three helicopters as they took on the blaze, Weaver said. She said more air support was expected later Sunday morning.

“They plan on hitting this thing at full force as soon as dawn hits,” Weaver said.

Meanwhile, two shelters have been set up in the area for evacuees.

Flames outlined steep ridges about a mile above Sierra Madre, a community of about 11,000 at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains that is popular with artists

source:news.yahoo

By BARRY WILNER, AP Football Writer

NEW YORK - Things were going so normally, so predictably at Saturday’s NFL draft. All six players the league invited to the festivities hit the stage in the first half-dozen selections. Yawn. Then came the wake-up call: trade after trade after trade, affecting 14 of the 31 first-round picks. At one point, five of seven selections had been bartered. A little while later, it was another five of six.
Jake Long just sat back and smiled — right from the outset.

The Michigan tackle already had signed with the Miami Dolphins as the top overall choice. He inked a five-year contract worth $57.75 million, $30 million of it guaranteed.

“I was a little more relaxed just knowing where I was going and just being here to make it official,” Long said. “That solidified it all. It was just breathtaking to walk out there and shake the commissioner’s hand and hold up that jersey. It was a dream come true.”

Chris Long of Virginia, Matt Ryan of Boston College, Darren McFadden of Arkansas, Glenn Dorsey of national champion LSU and Vernon Gholston of Ohio State didn’t have to wait long to walk under the floodlights, either. It was the first time since the NFL began inviting multiple prospects in 1993 and they all went at the very beginning of the proceedings.

So unlike last year, when Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn had to wait hours to be chosen.

“It’s great to see the green room empty,” said defensive end Long, who went second to St. Louis.

“It’s a blessing to be here, they only ask six guys to come,” DE/LB Gholston added. “Funny how it worked out, teams made good selections.”

After St. Louis took the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long, Ryan, who could solve the quarterback problems in Atlanta, went to the Falcons.

Following a long-standing tradition, Oakland went for the gamebreaker in running back McFadden, prompting the fans to boo loudly. Many wanted the two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up to fall to the New York Jets at No. 6.

All-American defensive tackle Dorsey was taken fifth overall by the Chiefs. Dorsey patted his heart as he held up a No. 1 Chiefs red jersey that was so small he, frankly, could never fit into it.

“There was a lot of emotion,” he said. “I told myself I was not going to cry, but you get the tears start coming and you can’t control that.”

The Jets wound up with Gholston of Ohio State, who must now learn to play in the 3-4 alignment the team prefers.

“I’m looking forward to going up against Jake Long twice a year,” he said of what will be a revival of their Big Ten rivalry.

At the seventh overall spot, the bartering began, and never really stopped. Eight of the next 15 picks were involved in trades.

New Orleans moved up to No. 7 to get defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis of Southern California, who was recruited to the school by the Saints’ new defensive line coach, Ed Orgeron. New Orleans gave up the No. 10 overall spot to New England, and its third-round slot, and got a fifth-rounder along with the chance to take Ellis.

Then Jacksonville moved up from 26th overall to eighth, where it grabbed Florida DE Derrick Harvey. The Jaguars gave the Ravens four picks to get to that spot.

Everything moved at a good pace after the NFL cut the first round from 15 minutes per pick to 10. The first round took 3 hours, 30 minutes, a significant improvement over the five-hour marathons of previous years.

The Dolphins used only a few seconds to hand in their card. The Rams and Falcons didn’t take much longer, but the Raiders used almost their entire time, as did Kansas City.

Jake Long became the first top overall pick from Michigan since Tom Harmon in 1941. He was accompanied by several family members onstage as he donned a Dolphins hat.

Then came another Long, who proudly held up a Rams jersey and pointed to the fans in the upper deck of the hall. Chris Long is the second straight defensive lineman selected in the opening round by St. Louis, following Nebraska’s Adam Carriker last year.

“I knew I was in the running, but all the guys here were great players and they could have chosen anyone,” Chris Long said. “It came down to needs.”

Ryan has an open course to starting in Atlanta, with Michael Vick in jail on dogfighting charges, and only journeymen Chris Redman and Joey Harrington to compete with.

“I have to go down and gain the respect of my teammates, do everything I can do to get on the field next year,” Ryan said.

Asked about replacing Vick in Atlanta and whether he expected to play or watch as a rookie, Ryan added: “I’ll go down there to do all I can to be successful, try to not be distracted, try to win. … There’s not a right or wrong way to do it. I want to get there and learn the offense so I have a chance to play.”

McFadden joins a crowded backfield in Oakland, where Justin Fargas recently signed a new contract and Dominic Rhodes and LaMont Jordan are on the roster.

“The time I talked to the Raiders coaching staff, they tell me they’re missing a playmaker from their offense,” McFadden said. “I feel I can add to that with my big-play ability.”

Dorsey will be a building block for the Chiefs, who are revamping their roster this offseason. Gholston could do the same for the Jets, who have lacked a true pass-rushing threat since trading away John Abraham.

Cincinnati took USC linebacker Keith Rivers ninth, then the Patriots selected another linebacker, Jerod Mayo of Tennessee. Buffalo went for Troy CB Leodis McKelvin and Denver took Boise State tackle Ryan Clady.

Carolina, looking for a complement to DeAngelo Williams, selected Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart, then dealt with Philadelphia to get Pitt tackle Jeff Otah in the 19th position. The Panthers gave up next year’s first-rounder in that trade.

Chicago took Vanderbilt tackle Chris Williams for its spotty offensive line. Chris Long’s teammate, guard/tackle Branden Albert, went 15th to Kansas City after the Chiefs traded up with Detroit. Two slots later, tackle Gosder Cherilus of Boston College went to the Lions, prompting some in the audience to chant “FIRE MILLEN” in reference to Lions president Matt Millen.

The first player from the former Division I-AA went 16th when Arizona selected CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie of Tennessee State. At No. 18, another small college guy was taken when Baltimore traded up to get quarterback Joe Flacco of Delaware with a pick Houston had owned.

After cornerback Aqib Talib, who reportedly tested positive for marijuana while at Kansas, was taken by Tampa Bay, the Falcons moved up to 21st overall. They chose Southern California tackle Sam Baker, son of Arena Football League commissioner David Baker, to help protect Ryan.

Dallas, which came into Saturday with two first-round picks, used No. 22 for McFadden’s backfield mate at Arkansas, Felix Jones, who also can return kicks. That began a run on runners, with Illinois’ Rashard Mendenhall going to Pittsburgh and speedy Chris Johnson of East Carolina taken by Tennessee at 24.

The Cowboys then traded up three spots with Seattle to get cornerback Mike Jenkins of South Florida, regarded by some as the best defensive back in the draft.

In all, 14 of the 31 first-round selections — New England forfeited its own spot because of the Spygate scandal, but had a pick acquired last year from San Francisco — were involved in trades. The Jets finished off the swapping by moving into Green Bay’s No. 30 slot for Purdue tight end Dustin Keller, bringing a chorus of boos.

The Super Bowl champion Giants took Kenny Phillips of Miami with the final pick of the opening round. Phillips was the only safety selected in the round.

For the first time since 1990 and only the second time since 1967, there were no wide receivers taken in the first round.

Several renowned college players went in the second round, which began with Miami taking Clemson DE Phillip Merling. Houston’s Donnie Avery was next, the first wideout chosen, by St. Louis.

On consecutive picks toward the end of Round 2, Baltimore grabbed Rutgers star running back Ray Rice, Green Bay selected Louisville QB Brian Brohm, and Miami got Michigan QB Chad Henne.

Source:news.yahoo

By CHRISTINE SIMMONS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush poked fun at his potential successors Saturday night, expressing surprise that none of them were in the audience at the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner.
“Senator McCain’s not here,” Bush said of GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain. “He probably wanted to distance himself from me a little bit. You know, he’s not alone. Jenna’s moving out too.”

Bush then referred to scandals that have dogged the campaigns of the two remaining Democratic candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, in explaining their absence: “Hillary Clinton couldn’t get in because of sniper fire and Senator Obama’s at church.”

During the ongoing campaign, Clinton mistakenly claimed to have landed under sniper fire in Bosnia as first lady. Obama’s longtime Chicago pastor has been criticized for his negative comments about America.

The president admitted to being “a little wistful” in his final appearance at the dinner, showing video clips of his routines from previous years. He finished by conducting the U.S. Marine Band in a medley of patriotic marches.

Bush was followed by Craig Ferguson, the host of CBS’ “Late Late Show.”

The Scottish-born Ferguson found middle ground between the tepid impersonations of last year’s entertainer, Rich Little, and the merciless satire that Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert delivered in 2006.

Ferguson, who became a U.S. citizen in February, asked Bush what he was going to do after leaving office, then suggested, “You could look for a job with more vacation time.” The president has drawn criticism for the amount of time he has spent away from the White House during his presidency.

Vice President Dick Cheney, Ferguson said, “is already moving out of his residence. It takes longer than you think to pack up an entire dungeon.”

The guest list for the dinner included plenty of VIPs from outside the Beltway: Actors Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, John Cusack, Pamela Anderson and Claire Danes, singers Ashlee Simpson and the Jonas Brothers and author Salman Rushdie were among the invitees. Washington’s power elite was still well represented, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in attendance.

During the event, the White House Correspondents’ Association presented its annual awards, announced earlier this month, to:

• Deb Riechmann of The Associated Press and Ed Henry of CNN, the Merriman Smith Award, the top journalism award for White House reporting under deadline pressure.

Riechmann, the winner in the print category, won for her coverage of President Bush’s trip to Iraq’s Anbar province last September. Henry won for reporting on the Bush administration’s contradicting assertions that top Iranian officials had authorized sending improvised explosive devices to Iraq.

• Alexis Simendinger of the National Journal, the Aldo Beckman Award for sustained excellence in White House coverage. The judges recognized her for breaking the story about the use of Republican National Committee e-mail accounts by some White House officials.

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters Paul Shukovsky, Tracy Johnson and Daniel Lathrop, the Edgar A. Poe Award for excellence in coverage of news of national or regional significance. In a series of articles, “The Terrorism Trade-Off,” they revealed a major shift by the FBI away from white-collar crimes as it ramped up its pursuit of suspected terrorists.

The White House Correspondents Association was formed in 1914 as a liaison between the press and the president. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended the dinner.

Source:news.yahoo

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The electoral road to the White House favors Democrats this fall — either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton — and has Republican John McCain playing defense to thwart a presidential power shift.
A downtrodden economy, the war in Iraq and a public call for change have created an Electoral College outlook and a political environment filled with extraordinary opportunity for the Democrats and enormous challenge for the GOP nominee-in-waiting.

Both parties count on victory in dozens of states that long have voted their way. The competition to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win is expected to play out primarily in 14 states. All but one saw the greatest action in 2004. The exception is Virginia, a longtime Republican stronghold where Democrats have made inroads.

Eight of the states went for President Bush four years ago, including the crown jewels Ohio and Florida. Six, including big-prize Pennsylvania, voted for Democrat John Kerry. In the battlegrounds, far more electoral votes, 97, are up for grabs for Democrats than the 69 available for McCain to go after. Twice as many of the closest states — decided by 2 or fewer percentage points — voted Republican in 2004; they include New Mexico and Iowa, which the GOP won by 1 point.

Both sides argue that their candidates can expand the playing field by making more states competitive than in previous elections. But they likely will only spend time and money to test that theory once they feel confident about higher priority states.

“This is going to be a tough campaign. I have no illusions how hard we have to work to win,” McCain says, a sobering assessment of a Republican’s chances when most voters say the country is on the wrong track under a GOP president.

Conversely, Democrats exude confidence that Nov. 4 will break their way — even as they continue their nomination slugfest.

“I have every reason to believe we’re going to have a Democratic president,” Clinton argues. Obama declares: “We will beat John McCain in November. You can take that to the bank!”

Recent polls, however, show McCain competing strongly with both Clinton and Obama in hypothetical matchups, and Republicans and Democrats envision a close race.

In 2004, Bush won 286 electoral votes to 251 for Kerry. This year’s Democratic nominee must triumph in all the states Kerry won, and pick up 19 more votes to prevail — or come up with another game plan to reach the magic number. McCain, for his part, must fend off Democratic challenges to hang on to the GOP advantage.

DEMOCRATIC OPPORTUNITIES:

Of the 14 battlegrounds, Bush won eight with 97 electoral votes. Half of those states were decided by only 1 or 2 percentage points, and all were under 10 points. Five have Democratic governors this year. Electoral votes are in parentheses.

Three Western states — Colorado (9), Nevada (5) and New Mexico (5) — appear obvious targets for Democrats given their gains in the region, sharp population growth and large numbers of swing-voting Hispanics. But McCain, a four-term senator from Arizona, does well among those voters, too; his Senate support for an eventual path to citizenship for illegal immigrants could help.

To the east, Iowa (7) holds promise for the Democrats; Republicans narrowly put it into their column in 2004 after years of Democratic dominance. Both Obama and Clinton competed here during the primary. McCain’s opposition to ethanol subsidies complicate his chances, nor is he a favorite of evangelicals. Though less likely to change hands, Missouri (11) is a perennial battleground.

McCain also must defend the two vote-rich prizes that decided the past two elections.

Ohio (20), a bellwether that tipped the race to Bush in 2004, may be poised for a switch, with a rash of job losses, high numbers of Iraq casualties and a series of Republican statewide political defeats in 2006, including the governor.

Florida (27), which put Bush in the White House in 2000 and voted for him again in 2004, will certainly be hard-fought, given its electoral treasure chest. Its demographics are tilting more Republican, though, and Obama has fared poorly in the primaries among Jewish and Hispanic voters. Clinton may have a better shot.

Virginia (13) is a case where Obama, who is black, might play stronger than Clinton because of the state’s large black population. The state moves into the competitive category given Democratic gains fueled by the growing Washington suburbs. Virginia also is home to large communities of military veterans who may have an affinity for McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

REPUBLICAN OPPORTUNITIES:

Kerry won six of the hard-fought states offering 69 electoral votes that McCain will try to put in the GOP column. All of those were decided by under 5 percentage points. Most have Democratic governors as well as long histories as swing states.

In the upper Midwest, Minnesota (10) has a quirky independent streak that presents an opening for McCain. It also has a Republican governor and will host the GOP’s national convention. Wisconsin (10) and Michigan (17) have high numbers of Reagan Democrats that McCain could attract. But voters in all three states are reeling from economic woes, and that works in the Democrats’ favor.

New Hampshire (4) fell to Kerry by a razor-thin margin four years ago and, Democrats captured two House seats two years later. But McCain has a close bond with the state that made him in his first presidential primary in 2000, and saved him this year.

It’s been 20 years since Pennsylvania (21) voted Republican. Further complicating McCain’s chances: The state’s economy is bad and many Pennsylvanians have died in Iraq, the war he staunchly supports. Still, conservative swaths that are home to right-leaning Democrats could give McCain an opening. As usual, the Philadelphia suburbs figure to be pivotal.

Oregon (7) has become more competitive in recent elections, but Democrats have won it in each of the last five. McCain hopes his moderate image and support for curbing climate change will tip the state to Republicans.

WILD-CARDS:

Beyond the core states, several others are worth watching.

If Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, Arkansas (6) will certainly be contested. It has voted Republican in back-to-back elections but her husband, a former governor there, carried it twice. West Virginia (5), too, could be a target given that Bill Clinton won it twice and it’s home to a large number of the working-class voters she attracts.

Should Obama be the nominee, Democrats say they hope to put solid Southern GOP states in play, those with large black populations. Among them: North Carolina (15) and Georgia (15), and possibly even Louisiana (9) and Mississippi (6). But these are unlikely targets unless the Democrats think the election is in hand.

Democrats also say they may look at Montana (3), which has a Democratic governor, and Kentucky (8), which twice voted for Bill Clinton. But they’re also long-shots.

McCain should hold his home state of Arizona (10) despite Democratic threats to play there. He sees potential opportunities in Democratic-leaning states on both coasts because of his appeal to voters across the political spectrum. These include Washington (11) and Maine (4), and, perhaps, even New Jersey (15) and Delaware (3). McCain also talks big about California (55) but the last Republican to win there was George H.W. Bush in 1988.

___

Liz Sidoti covers the presidential race for The Associated Press.

SOurce:news.yaho

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A man survived a 500-foot fall into a strip mine Friday, astounding rescuers who spent hours on a risky descent into the abyss to bring him back out.
 Police said Nathan Bowman was trespassing on coal company property around 1 a.m. Friday when he slipped and fell into the Springdale Pit, an inactive mine about 700 feet deep, 3,000 feet long and 1,500 feet wide.

Bowman tumbled down a jagged slope and then free-fell several hundred feet, his descent broken by a rock ledge not far from the bottom of the pit, said Coaldale Police Chief Timothy Delaney, who helped direct the rescue effort.

“If you look at that drop, there was no way somebody could survive that,” Delaney said.

Bowman, 23, of Tamaqua, was in serious condition Friday night at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem. The extent and nature of his injuries was not clear, although rescuer John Fowler said it appeared he suffered a number of fractures.

Bowman and a friend were walking around the pit when he went over the side. The friend called 911, and Coaldale police and firefighters began a frantic search, according to Delaney.

State police got into the act several hours later, using a helicopter, floodlights and thermal imaging to try to pinpoint Bowman’s location in the pit, about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

“It got really, really dangerous,” Delaney said. “My guys were fantastic; they were heroes, risking their lives in total darkness.”

The search was called off at daybreak. Shortly thereafter, Delaney went to the offices of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., which owns the Springdale Pit, to notify officials of the situation.

“I said, ‘Let’s take a ride over there and show me where it occurred,’” said Fowler, 40, a project manager at the company.

Their luck was better this time.

“Within about three minutes, we found him,” Fowler said. “I thought I could hear a muffled call for help. We yelled to him and asked him where he was, and he said he thought he was on a ledge.”

Fowler, who moonlights as a state firefighter instructor, and a Coaldale police sergeant scouted a relatively safe route to Bowman and stayed with him until more help arrived.

Two firefighters rappelled down to the ledge, loaded Bowman onto a basket and tied themselves to it. Then all three were painstakingly hoisted up.

Bowman was lucid when he arrived at the top of the pit late Friday morning, wanting his harness loosened, asking that someone call his brother and expressing fear about riding in a medical helicopter, said Sarah Curran Smith, a vice president at Lehigh Coal.

Bowman’s survival is “pretty unbelievable,” she said. “I think the universe has bigger plans for Nathan. I hope he realizes that.”

Bowman faces charges including defiant trespass, according to Delaney.

Source:news.yahoo

By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer
RENO, Nev. - Scientists urged residents of northern Nevada’s largest city to prepare for a bigger event as the area continued rumbling Saturday after the largest earthquake in a two-month-long series of temblors.
More than 100 aftershocks were recorded on the western edge of the city after a magnitude 4.7 quake hit Friday night, the strongest quake around Reno since one measuring 5.2 in 1953, said researchers at the seismological laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The latest quake swept store shelves clean, cracked walls in homes and dislodged rocks on hillsides, but there were no reports of injuries or widespread major damage.

Seismologists said the recent activity is unusual because the quakes started out small and continue to build in strength. The normal pattern is for a main quake followed by smaller aftershocks.

“A magnitude 6 quake wouldn’t be a scientific surprise,” John Anderson, director of the seismological lab, said Saturday. “We certainly hope residents are taking the threat seriously after last night.”

But Anderson stressed there was no way to predict what would happen, and said the sequence of quakes also could end without a major one.

Reno’s last major quake measured 6.1 on April 24, 1914, and was felt as far away as Berkeley, Calif., said Craig dePolo, research geologist with the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.

A rockslide triggered by Friday night’s quake was blamed for causing a 125-foot breach in a wooden flume that carries water to one of two water treatment plants in Reno, a city of about 210,000.

A backup pump was used to divert water to the plant, and the breach was not expected to cause any water shortages, said Aaron Kenneston, Washoe County emergency management officer.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday night’s quake was centered around Mogul, just west of Reno. The area of upscale homes along the eastern Sierra was rattled by more than 100 quakes the day before, the strongest a magnitude 4.2 that caused high-rise casinos to sway in downtown Reno.

The strongest aftershock measured 3.7 and was recorded early Saturday.

Mike Lentini of Reno said Friday night’s quake felt “like a big truck hit the building” and awakened his family.

“It’s the unknown. It’s shaking, and when’s it going to stop?” he said Saturday. “And when stuff starts falling off the shelves it’s a whole other ballgame.”

Jars of mayonnaise and bottles of ketchup and shampoo fell from shelves at a Wal-Mart store in northwest Reno. Overhead televisions swayed at a sports bar in neighboring Sparks, 11 miles east, where bartender Shawn Jones said the rumble was significantly stronger than Thursday’s event.

“The bottles were shaking, so I sent everybody outside,” he said.

Hundreds of mostly minor quakes have occurred along one or possibly more faults since the sequence began Feb. 28, said Ken Smith, a seismologist at the Reno laboratory. The quakes have occurred along an area about 2 miles long and a half-mile wide.

“We can’t put a number on it, but the probability of a major earthquake has increased with this sequence,” Smith said Saturday. “People need to prepare for ground shaking because there’s no way to say how this will play out.”

Among other things, scientists urged residents to stock up on water and food, to learn how to turn off water and gas, and to strap down bookshelves, televisions and computers.

“It’s getting a little bit frightening,” Daryl DiBitonto of Reno told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “I’m very concerned about this increase in not only activity, but also in magnitude.”

The quakes around Reno began a week after a magnitude 6 temblor in the northern Nevada town of Wells, near the Utah border. The Feb. 21 quake caused an estimated $778,000 in damage to homes, schools and historic downtown buildings, dePolo said.

Scientists said they’re unsure whether the seismic activity at opposite sides of Nevada is related.

Nevada is the third most seismically active state in the U.S. behind California and Alaska. The Wells quake was the 15th of at least magnitude 6 in the state’s 143-year history.

A magnitude-7.4 quake south of Winnemucca in 1915 is the most powerful in state history.

___

Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno contributed to this report.

SOurce:news.yahoo

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer
TIJUANA, Mexico - Massive gunbattles broke out between suspected drug traffickers who fired at each other while speeding down heavily populated streets of this violent border city early Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine.
All of the dead were believed to be drug traffickers, possibly rival members of the same cartel who were trying to settle scores, said Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja California state, where Tijuana is located.

“Evidently this is a confrontation between gangs,” Moreno told reporters.

Eight suspects and one federal police officer were injured in the pre-dawn shootings, none gravely, said Agustin Perez Aguilar, a spokesman for the state public safety department. The suspects are being held on suspicion of weapons possession among other possible charges.

Police recovered 21 vehicles, many with bullet holes or U.S. license plates; a total of 54 guns; and more than 1,500 spent shell casings at various points in the city where the battles broke out, Perez Aguilar said.

At one point, the alleged traffickers fired at one another as their sport utility vehicles sped down a busy six-lane boulevard lined with restaurants, car repair shops, medical offices and strip malls.

Bullet holes could be seen in the walls of a factory building and on the perimeter wall of a housing complex along the road, but no bystander deaths were reported. It was not clear how long the gunbattles lasted.

A mall security guard who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisals said he heard hundreds of gunshots fired, some of which passed near him.

“I hit the ground,” the guard said. When he got up again, he said he saw bullet holes in the wall behind him, a dead man lying in a pool of blood and 11 abandoned, bullet-ridden SUVs on the street.

The first shootout claimed seven victims. Three subsequent gunbattles — one outside a hospital — claimed five more, police said. The body of a man police believe to be the 13th victim turned up at a city hospital.

Tijuana, a sprawling metropolis just across the border from San Diego, California, is pervaded by frequent violence, much of it blamed on drug cartels battling for control of lucrative trafficking routes. The city is home to the Arellano-Felix drug cartel.

In January, eight people died in a gunbattle at a Tijuana safe-house apparently used by drug hit men to hold kidnapped rivals. In that confrontation, hit men holed up inside the house battled police and soldiers with automatic weapons for three hours.

Source:news.yahoo

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Hundreds of angry people marched through Harlem on Saturday after the Rev. Al Sharpton promised to “close this city down” to protest the acquittals of three police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed a groom on his wedding day and wounded two friends.
“We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians,” Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office in the historically black Manhattan neighborhood. “This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell.”

Sharpton was joined by the family of 23-year-old Sean Bell — a black man — and a friend of Bell who was wounded in the 2006 shooting outside a Queens strip club. Two of the three officers charged were also black.

The rally at Sharpton’s office was followed by a 20-block march down Malcolm X Boulevard and then across 125th Street, Harlem’s main business thoroughfare, where some bystanders yelled out “Kill the police!”

Fifty of the marchers carried white placards bearing big black numbers for each of the police bullets fired at Bell and his friends.

Sharpton urged people to return for a meeting this coming week “to plan the day that we will close this city down” with the kind of “massive civil disobedience” once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“They never accused Sean Bell of doing anything. Then why is he dead?” Sharpton asked, his voice roaring with anger. Authorities “have shown now that they will not hold police accountable. Well, guess what? If you won’t, we will!”

“Shut it down! Shut it down!” the crowd chanted, standing up and applauding wildly.

Sharpton didn’t say exactly how they would protest the acquittals of the officers who fired the 50 shots. He said Bell’s supporters could demonstrate all over the city, from Wall Street to the home of Justice Arthur Cooperman, who on Friday acquitted the three detectives after a nonjury trial.

Sitting behind Sharpton as he spoke were Bell’s parents, his sister and Nicole Paultre Bell, who took her fiance’s name after his death.

“The justice system let me down,” Paultre Bell told the crowd in a soft voice. “April 25, 2008: They killed Sean all over again. That’s what it felt like to us.”

It was her first public comment since she stormed out of a courtroom Friday after the NYPD detectives were cleared in Bell’s killing as he left his bachelor party.

One of Bell’s companions, Joseph Guzman, also spoke briefly on Saturday, saying: “We’ve got a long fight.”

Source:news.yahoo