Saturday, August 28, 2010

Hawaii beats Pearland for Little League World Series title shot.


South Williamsport, PA (Sports Network) - Noah Shackles went 2-for-2 with a homer, two RBI and three runs scored to back Ezra Heleski's two-hitter, and the Waipahu, Hawaii little league team beat Pearland, Texas, 10-0, in the United States championship game of the Little League World Series.

In the international title game, Ryota Norimatsu tied the game with an RBI single in the sixth, and Ryo Motegi's run-scoring single in the seventh won it, leading Japan to a 3-2 victory over Chinese Taipei.

In addition to striking out six over five shutout innings, Heleski went 2- for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored, while Kahoea Akau added three hits in the resounding win, helping Waipahu win its second U.S. title in three years. In 2008, this same Little League squad beat Matamoros, Mexico to win the championship.

Mason Van Noort had one of the two hits for Pearland, which came back against Georgia to reach this U.S. title game.

With two runners on and one out in the opening inning, Kaimana Bartolome opened the scoring with a two-run double. Shackles homered later in the inning to plate Bartolome for a 4-0 advantage.

Shackles scored in the third on a wild pitch, and Heleski's RBI single later in the same at-bat made it a 6-0 game. Akau's run-scoring double provided a seven-run cushion.

Three more runs from Hawaii ended the game in the fifth due to the 10-run rule. Shackles walked and scored on Cody Maltezo's triple, and Heleski followed with another RBI single. A wild pitch later scored Heleski to end the game.

Japan trailed, 2-1, heading to the bottom of the sixth, but Koutaro Kamikura singled to left to lead off the inning. Following a strikeout, Kamikura advanced to second on an error by the catcher before Norimatsu's hit tied the game.

Kamikura stayed on to pitch a scoreless seventh -- striking out two -- before Masaya Ishii singled with one down in the home half to start the winning rally. A wild pitch sent Ishii to second, and Motegi's two-out single to center won the game.


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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Houston man charged in cold case murders.


by khou.com staff
khou.com
Posted on August 25, 2010 at 10:22 AM
Updated today at 10:54 AM
HOUSTON – A man long-suspected of killing a Houston woman and an infant in 1984 was finally arrested and charged this week.

Charles Leon Smith, 56, is charged with capital murder in the slayings of 23-year-old Pamela Clarence and 1-month-old Tashona Clarence.

Twenty-six years have passed since the young mother and her baby were killed in their home in the 4300 block of Rogers, but even after the case went cold, investigators never gave up.

The murders occurred on August 2, 1984. Police said Smith and Clarence were in a relationship at the time and had recently had a child together.
But that night, when Smith went to visit his girlfriend, investigators believe Pamela Clarence confronted Smith about another relationship.
Police said Clarence had discovered Smith had another girlfriend, who’d just given birth to Smith’s son.

When Clarence told Smith they should end their relationship, police believe he snapped.
Investigators said Smith strangled Pamela Clarence with an electrical cord and then smothered Tashona with a pillow.

The bodies were later found by concerned family members.
From the beginning of the investigation, police said they thought Clarence knew her killer, and they originally identified Smith as one of two suspects in the murders.
But investigators were unable to collect enough evidence to charge either suspect, and case went cold, lost among more than 700 other killings in Houston that year.

Then, when HPD cold case investigators reviewed the murders this year and again identified Smith as a suspect, things changed.
Police said Smith was taken into custody on August 23 and confessed to his role in the crimes.
He was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning, and was behind held in the Harris County Jail without bond.


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Houston stripmall destroyed in blaze.


by Lisa Chavarria / 11 News
khou.com
Posted on August 25, 2010 at 8:23 AM
Updated today at 9:21 AM

HOUSTON—A three-alarm fire swept through parts of a southwest Houston strip mall, destroying several businesses in its path early Wednesday.
Houston Fire Department officials said the fire began inside the M. Trading Wholesale Shop on Fondren at Harwin just before 5 a.m.

The business houses wholesale supplies sold to dollar stores. HFD said there may have been hair products or chemicals on the racks that helped fuel the flames.
Two more businesses next door to the wholesale shop, Jessie’s Nail Salon and Sloreria Lee’s flower shop, were also destroyed.

The owner of Star Korean Karaoke Bar said he was inside his business when a man riding a bicycle knocked on his door and alerted him to the fire. He was able to get out safely and call 911. His business was not damaged by the flames, but may have smoke damage.

One firefighter was injured battling the blaze. He was treated at the scene for a laceration on his hand.


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Friday, August 20, 2010

Tragedy adds to family's grief



Girl takes own life after alleged drunken driver kills sister, friends
By PEGGY O'HARE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE


Bennisha Davis, 14, of Humble, who shot herself to death last week because of grief over her 13-year-old sister and 2 best friends dying in a car crash caused by a drunken driver. Bennisha and her mother survived the wreck.

The devastation, which happened in an instant, was powerful — three 13-year-old girls killed by an alleged drunken driver who later fled the country.

Now the impact of that tragedy has widened with the suicide of a 14-year-old girl who survived the wreck.

Bennisha Davis was haunted by last month's deaths of her sister and two best friends in the northeast Houston crash. The 14-year-old Humble girl could not understand why she had survived while they had not.

The grief was apparently too much for the Ross Sterling Middle School student to bear. Davis fatally shot herself in the chest Thursday inside the family's home in the 15800 block of Marsh Hawk while her mother was at work.

Her sister, Detrihanna Davis, and her two best friends, Avianca Cortez and RaShaunda Raleigh, had died after suffering fatal injuries in the wreck.
"Bennisha took it real hard when she found out about it," said her grandmother, Diane Blakes of Houston. "It just did something to her, I guess — and we weren't really aware. Well, we knew she was hurting, but we didn't know she was hurting that bad."

Blakes said she later found a note Bennisha had typed on a computer which stated she missed her sister and friends and wondered why they had died when she survived. Her note also lamented that justice might never be served since the driver who caused the crash had fled the country.

That driver, Sajan Timalshina, 26, of Spring, ran a red light just before striking the teens' car around 1:30 a.m. July 9 as they were returning home from a "teen night" event at a nightclub on FM 1960, police said. He is wanted on three charges of intoxication manslaughter, but is believed to have fled to his home country of Nepal.


Houston police detained Timalshina after the wreck, but did not immediately arrest him because they wanted to gather more evidence. Officers mistakenly believed his claim that he drank only a quarter of a beer, something that toxicology tests eventually proved false, a police supervisor later revealed.

Timalshina's blood alcohol level at the time of the wreck was between .127 and .162. The legal limit is .08.

Timalshina, who had been in Houston on a foreign student visa, remains at large. The U.S. Justice Department would not comment Tuesday on the progress of their efforts to find him.
The U.S. has no formal extradition treaty with Nepal, but Timalshina could be caught if he ever travels to a country that does have an extradition treaty, said Capt. Bill Staney of the Houston Police Department's Vehicular Crimes Division.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has publicly brought pressure on the U.S. Justice Department to bring Timalshina back to Houston. The Houston Democrat said the department could negotiate for Timalshina's return.

Though Davis was openly grieving, she never expressed a desire to harm herself or end her life, according to her grandmother and her mother, Chanel Blakes, 40, another survivor of the crash.
The girl's mother could not afford counseling, but Diane Blakes said the entire family needs it now. Davis' mother and brother are unable to stay at night in the Humble house where the girl died.


Blakes said if the police or the state had offered victims' services to the survivors of the crash and gotten Davis counseling, her granddaughter might still be alive.
Staney said his department did its best to provide the families with victims' services through the Texas Attorney General's Office.

"Everybody is so sad about this, particularly the officers who were on the scene and saw the carnage," he said.

NW Houston toddler found in hot car dead


by Courtney Zubowski / 11 News
Posted on August 19, 2010 at 7:32 PM
HOUSTON – A 2-year-old boy has died after being found locked in a hot car in northwest Houston, according to authorities.

The incident happened Thursday around 2:30 p.m. at 13813 Dentwood.
According to police, parents were arriving home from the grocery store when their 7-year-old child, who is autistic, began having seizures. While the parents went inside their home to tend to the 7-year-old, the 2-year-old boy was left locked inside the vehicle.

After going inside to help the 7-year-old , the parents realized their younger child was missing and eventually found him in the back seat of their SUV. Police said the boy was trapped inside the vehicle for about two hours.

One of the parents called 911 when they saw the toddler was not breathing. The boy was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators said the temperature inside the vehicle was 122 degrees when the toddler was found.
Neighbors of the victim’s family said it was an unfortunate incident that happened to good people.

"This is a good family, their children comes first with them," said Michael Carey. "I know for a fact that it was not intentional."

Investigators said the parents will probably not face charges, but the case will go to a grand jury.



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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Houston Area Forecast: 100% Chance of Meteors


After a week-ling lead-up, tonight, August 12/13, 2010, is finally the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. Wit this event, meteor season 2010 will kick off in a big way.

Every August, Earth passes through the stretch of space junk shed by comet Swift-Tuttle, reaching the deepest concentration of debris tonight. According to some estimates, under ideal conditions (dark country skies), one can expect to see 60 meteors per hour. The reason the meteors are called Perseids is because the meteors seem to radiate from the constellation Perseus. The best time to view the shower is in the pre-dawn hours, with 3-5am being best.

Don't want to stay up that late? Don't worry, Perseus rises in the Northeast around midnight and will climb higher as the night progresses. However, unless one lives out in the country, the early post-midnight hours will probably involve Perseus being low in a light pollution dome. To improve odds of seeing meteors, travel out of light-polluted Cleveland and to the suburbs or, even better, the country if you can. In the suburbs, just going from the front to back yard can make a dramatic difference as this will eliminate glare from those pesky street/house lights to a large extent.

Two things can ruin the meteor shower: clouds and the Moon. The clouds? Well, that's a regional thing. Check your local Clear Sky Clock to see what the clouds have in store for your location tonight. For us Northeast Ohioans, tonight is looking good. As for the Moon, that's an Earth-wide issue. The good news is that, this year, the Moon is just a few days past new, which means that there will be no Moon up during the time of the meteor shower. There will be a slight lunar glow in the South (opposite Perseus), but this will disappear about midnight, which is about the time Perseus clears the Northeast horizon.

So how about viewing tips?

First, plan to stay out awhile, as it takes the human eye about 15 minutes to get optimal night vision capability. The bad news is that, even one bright flash of white light will wipe out night vision, requiring you to start the process all over again. Next, grab a lawn chair or, even better, a lounge-type chair. Trying to lean back with a straight-back lawn chair can be a pain in the neck, literally! Eyes ready for dark and with something to sit/lay on, settle in for a night of hopeful meteor watching (or at the very least, stargazing), just try not to fall asleep and don't forget the bug spray!

Besides meteors, tonight can be a great time for binocular viewing, owing to your use of a chair. Under suburban (maybe) or rural skies (definitely), a pair of medium power (10x50) binoculars can yield some stunning wide-angle sights. For someone truly dedicated, why not try and keep a tally of how many meteors you see for every complete hour? Really ambitious? Why not try photographing the meteors?

Whatever you plan to do tonight, good luck and clear skies!

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Friday, August 6, 2010

Thousands sign on for $10 billion BP suit



By MONICA HATCHER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

TEXAS CITY — The revelation that BP's Texas City refinery emitted toxic benzene for more than a month has ignited a furor in the port community that has suffered its share of deadly industrial accidents and toxic spills.
Thousands of residents who fear they may have been exposed to the known carcinogen released at the oil refinery from April 6 to May 16 have been flooding parking lots and conference halls where local trial attorneys hosted information sessions and sought clients for class-action lawsuits against the oil giant.

BP faces the new challenge just as it is reaching a key milestone in another crisis — plugging the Gulf of Mexico well that blew out in an oil spill disaster that is costing the company billions of dollars.

On Wednesday, more than 3,400 people lined the hallways and sidewalks around the Nessler Center to sign on to a $10 billion class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Galveston federal court by Friendswood attorney Anthony Buzbee.
The lawsuit alleges the release of 500,000 pounds of chemicals - including 17,000 pounds of benzene - has jeopardized the health and property values of people who live and work in the area.

At the nearby College of the Mainland, a separate town hall meeting drew a crowd of 600.
"I've never seen anything like this," Buzbee said, looking at the lines waiting to enter a large room at the civic center where lawyers helped people fill out paperwork. "I can't believe this is mass hysteria and that everybody here is a faker," Buzbee said.
Webster-based lawyer Chad Pinkerton said he's met with about 8,000 residents over the past week. "I believe this is probably the largest prolonged release in Texas history and many, many people are sick," he said.
Word of the lawsuits spread this week, propelled in part by rumors that BP was cutting checks to head off the benzene claims from the $20 billion fund established to pay claims related to the oil spill.

BP spokesman Michael Marr said those rumors are untrue.
On Wednesday afternoon, a family used a convenience store copy machine to make dozens of copies of legal contracts. A clerk said the machine had been in constant use by would-be plaintiffs.
Lluvia Briones, 19, who signed up to join the lawsuit, said her colleagues at a Texas City fast-food restaurant were caught up in the fervor. "Everybody at work was like, 'go, go, go,' " she said.

Dozens of people the Chronicle interviewed complained of allergic reactions, sinus infections, headaches, nosebleeds and other symptoms consistent with exposure to noxious substances.
Linda Laver, 55, a former nurse, said she's enjoyed near-perfect health until she recently suffered an abscessed sinus infection, gall bladder failure and pneumonia.
"I told my doctor, 'You've known me for all these years and now all of a sudden I'm having all these things,' " Laver said as she stood in line at the Nessler Center.
Laver said she "freaked out" when she saw a Buzbee Law Firm newspaper ad describing the symptoms of benzene exposure. "It confirmed all my suspicions," she said.

Only two weeks before the well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and triggered the oil spill, BP was experiencing problems with a hydrogen compressor at the Texas City plant - itself the site of a deadly explosion in 2005 that killed 15 people.
The trouble started April 6, when the company said a fire compromised a seal on an ultracracker's hydrogen compressor. The malfunction forced the company to flare off gases. It reported the "emissions event" to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality the following day. As it worked to fix the unit over the next 40 days, the plant released 538,000 pounds of pollutants into the air, BP told regulators.

BP said it operated the ultracracker at minimal capacity, reducing production and emissions. Buzbee says the unit should have shut down completely.
Information about the release became public when BP submitted a final incident report to regulators June 4.

After investigating, the environmental commission cited BP for an "excessive release" and, two weeks ago, referred its findings to the state attorney general for possible litigation.
"Based on a review of the incidents that occurred during the past year, there appears to be a pattern of poor operation and maintenance practices" at the plant, the report said.
The report said chemical concentrations in the air did not exceed state or federal standards, but that the commission could not determine the short-term health effects of the chemicals.

Coming on the heels of the oil spill, the lawsuits add new woes for BP and may aggravate an old one: BP North America - the company's refining division - is on federal probation for a felony environmental conviction related to the 2005 explosion, which also caused a massive release of benzene and other toxins.

Any further violations could be grounds for prosecutors to ask a judge to revoke BP's probation.
Already, lawyers representing victims of the 2005 blast have said a court should revoke BP's probation based on a complaint by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that BP has failed to comply with safety agreements it made after explosion.
The company denies OSHA's claims, and a hearing is scheduled for later this month.

As to the recent emissions, BP's Marr said in an e-mail that community air quality and fence line monitors, which measure for the presence of benzene and other substances, did not show elevated readings or ground-level impact.
Other monitoring by environmental specialists similarly found that the emissions did not exceed exposure limits set by the government, he said.

"BP does not believe there was a health impact associated with this event," Marr said.
Many residents are skeptical of that claim, and are angry that the chemicals were released for 40 days without public disclosure, even to Texas City's emergency management coordinator, Bruce Clawson. Even though BP complied with state reporting requirements, under an agreement with the city, the company should have alerted officials to the situation. Clawson said he's now dealing with irate residents calling the city for details he doesn't have about the release.
Chronicle reporter Lise Olsen contributed.


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Monday, August 2, 2010

Test your hurricane IQ.




By GREG AINSWORTH


This year's hurricane season in the waters adjacent to the Southeastern United States is drawing more attention than usual, thanks to the oil spill in the Gulf. The National Hurricane Center expects a busier than average year, so it's time to energize our hurricane IQ.
Whether you call them hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones, they are the scourge of tropical locales worldwide. Ocean water temperatures of at least 80 degrees seem to be one of the key ingredients in their formation. Think hot and muggy -- and lots of evaporation. If other conditions are favorable in the atmosphere, winds near the surface may begin to converge, and a low-pressure system may form.


In the Northern Hemisphere, those cyclonic winds spiral in a counter-clockwise direction. All of that water vapor in the atmosphere rises and condenses inside thunderstorm complexes, releasing a great amount of energy in the process. Bands of thunderstorms stretching from the system's outer margins to the center of circulation help feed the massive heat engine with warm, moisture-laden air.

As the system matures, the characteristic cloud-free and relatively calm eye may form at the center of circulation. But surrounding the eye is the eyewall, where the most intense convection and highest wind speeds occur.

Hurricanes pose a major threat to life and property because of their ability to wreak havoc in so many different ways. Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is wind damage -- not surprising since a storm isn't called a hurricane until it has sustained winds of at least 74 mph. In August 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall along the Mississippi coast with sustained winds estimated at 200 mph.

An important, but often overlooked hurricane impact is the storm surge. This refers to the ocean water pushed onshore into low-lying areas by hurricane-force winds. Depending on the status of the local tides during landfall, storm surges of 15 to 20 feet are not out of the question. If you happen to live in a near-shore area at say, 10 feet above sea level, the surge can be bad news indeed. Hurricane Opal caused a 24-foot storm surge near Pensacola, Fla., in September 1995.

Even days after landfall, hurricanes, or their remnants, are still capable of producing tornadoes and flooding rains. After slamming into the coast of south Texas in September 1967, Hurricane Beulah spawned more than 100 tornadoes. Tropical Storm Claudette, whose winds didn't reach hurricane strength, nevertheless dropped 45 inches of rain on Alvin, Texas, in 1979.

For further information about these storms, check out the website for NOAA's National Hurricane Center.

Greg Ainsworth keeps an eye on local weather and climate issues. Contact him at ainsworth@theglobal.net.

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