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Until the law is changed Bush, Blair and Sharon face being arrested, charged and tried if they step foot in Belgium.
Officials said the new bill to replace the scrapped law will be drawn up in a week’s time after taking advice from relevant state bodies.
Under the new law, immunity will be accorded to foreign leaders and a direct link with Belgium must exist before victims can file a legal suit.
“The legislator will be comparable to that in other western countries,” the Belgian prime minister said.
Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel denied the law was repealed under US pressure. He insisted it was being scrapped to prevent people from abusing it for settling personal and political scores.
GREENWICH — A man who allegedly broke a door-handle off a car in Riverside Tuesday night is facing a number of criminal charges.
Dwayne Brown, 36, of West 62nd Street, New York City, allegedly damaged a vehicle on East Putnam Avenue while a passenger was trying to escape the car. Since young people were present, an additional criminal charge was filed.
Brown was charged with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, risk of injury to a minor and disorderly conduct. He was also cited with marijuana possession. Bail was set at $1,000.
Two Los Angeles police officers were nursing minor injuries today after their squad car collided with another vehicle as they responded to reports of a shooting in South Los Angeles, a traffic sergeant said.
The crash occurred at East 92nd Street and South Central Avenue around 8 p.m. Tuesday, said Sgt. N. Vargas of the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Traffic Division.
The two officers, their lights and sirens activated, were responding to a reported shooting when another vehicle made a left turn and crashed into their cruiser, she said.
The two officers were treated at the scene, then transported to a hospital, Vargas said, adding that their injuries were minor and that they had been released by early this morning.
The other motorist was not reported to be injured and was not cited, Vargas said.
No details of the reported shooting were immediately released.
August 11, 2014: The fighting in Gaza has left nearly 2,000 dead, over 96 percent of them Palestinian. Hamas says it won’t stop fighting until the Israeli-Egyptian blockade is lifted. Israel and Egypt refuse to do that until Hamas drops its support for terrorism and disarms. Since Israeli troops left Gaza (and Hamas took control in 2007) Gaza has become a sanctuary for Islamic terrorists. Most seek the destruction of Israel but a growing number seek to establish a religious dictatorship in Egypt. Hamas does not expect to get the blockade lifted but does see itself gaining respect (and cash donations along with more diplomatic support) in the Moslem world. At the moment Hamas is still designated an international terrorist organization by the UN, most Western nations and even some Moslem ones.
Israel has plenty of electronic and video evidence of Hamas using ceasefires to move weapons and personnel and prepare to continue firing on Israel. Broadcasting this evidence is opposed by Israeli intelligence officials because putting the evidence out there enables Hamas to see where and how they are vulnerable to detection. With this knowledge Hamas can better hide its activities in the future.
Hamas has fired over 3,300 rockets since July 9th. Some 70 percent landed in Israel but less than four percent hit populated areas (killing three and wounding 85 civilians) . Iron Dome intercepted about a quarter of the rockets fired at Israel as the Iron Dome computers predicted these would land in or near a populated area. About 20 percent of the rockets fired towards Israel were defective and landed inside Gaza or were aimed at targets in Gaza. This included some of the 11 percent of all rockets were fired at Israeli troops inside or near Gaza. Some 69 percent of the rockets were fired from northern Gaza (where most of the Israeli counterstrikes have been) while 13 percent were launched from central Gaza and the rest from southern Gaza. Over 80 percent of the rockets were fired from unpopulated areas but at least 18 percent were fired from locations that were clearly civilian (including schools, Mosques and medical facilities.) Hamas was believed to have had about 10,000 rockets in early July. Since then over 3,000 have been fired and over 4,000 destroyed before they could be fired. Israeli aircraft, helicopters, ships, armored vehicles and ground troops have attacked nearly 5,000 targets in Gaza since July 9th and about a third of those attacks were against rocket launching sites, often while rockets were being prepared for launch. Hamas rockets have killed three Israeli civilians and 64 military personnel (and 670 wounded) so far. Some 82,000 Israeli reservists have been mobilized and most have been sent to the Gaza border. Hamas considers each Israeli they kill a victory and plays that up in their media. The Israeli military casualty rate is about the same as the U.S. suffered at the height of the fighting in Iraq. In other words; historically quite low.
Some Israeli leaders want the ground troops to go back in and shut down Hamas once and for all. But that would involve a lot of combat and if Gaza were to be completely cleared of Islamic terrorists hundreds of Israeli troops would die and thousands wounded. Most Israeli politicians do not believe Israelis in general are willing to pay that high a price. Instead Israel will continue using its intelligence capabilities to find Hamas personnel and weapons and attack them with smart bombs and missiles. Other Islamic terrorist groups in Gaza are also being hit. But the Islamic terrorists are hiding among the 1.8 million civilians in Gaza. There are several hundred thousand buildings and hundreds of tunnels and bunkers. Less than one percent of these structures holds terrorist weapons or personnel and the Israelis already know that they cannot watch all of Gaza in great detail all the time. Israeli military leaders point out that there would be a lot of Palestinian civilian casualties because Hamas deliberately surrounds its weapons and key personnel with civilians. While some Palestinians answer the Hamas propaganda and volunteer for this duty, most do not and will flee if given a chance. For Hamas victory is simply surviving and still being able to issue victory statements. Israeli victory is suppressing terrorist capabilities. Ultimate victory is eliminating the terrorist threat but given the massive support for destroying Israel in the Arab world, ultimate victory remains a long term goal, not one that can be won right now in Gaza. Right now most media in the Arab (and Moslem) world portray Hamas as misguided but valiant fighters for a cause (the destruction of Israel) that still has a lot of popular support in the Moslem world. Most Westerners, especially journalists, don’t grasp that aspect of the situation and try to portray Gaza as a humanitarian disaster that only Israel can fix. Most Israelis are exasperated at the attitude of so many non-Moslems overseas and attributes it to ignorance, greed (oil-rich Arab states have spent billions to push the Arab point of view towards Israel) or anti-Semitism.
Despite the continued hostile attitude in the Arab world, Israel is seeing some progress. A growing number of Arab states officially classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. The most obvious of these is Egypt. This influences media coverage of the fighting in Arab media. This time around there is more emphasis on the suffering of Gaza civilians and not the Hamas fighters. Many Egyptian journalists and pundits openly call for Israel to destroy Hamas once and for all. A growing number of Arabs are giving up on Islamic radicalism as a solution for anything and many are calling for more international efforts to crush this latest round of Islamic terrorism.
Israel also wants to kill the military leadership of the Qassam Brigades (the military/terror portion of Hamas), who are believed to be the prime proponents of constant rocket attacks on Israel, despite ceasefires that the political leaders of Hamas have negotiated. The key Hamas official here is the head of the Qassam Brigades; Muhammad Deif. Israel see Deif the way the Americans did Osama bin Laden, as the one guy responsible for many attacks. There are at least ten key Qassam Brigades personnel Israel consider largely responsible for the persistent (despite five ceasefires) rocket attacks as well as the effort to send Islamic terrorists through tunnels into Israel. A growing number (up to a quarter) of the Hamas rockets are either damaged or launched incorrectly. This indicates the cumulative damage on the rocket supply and the personnel trained to launch them. In addition to a few remaining tunnels into Israel, Hamas is also believed to have several thousand rockets left and hundreds of Qassam Brigades fanatics willing to anything to launch them.
The current war between Israel and Hamas was only partly about the persistent rocket attacks against Israel. Israel made it clear, soon after the fighting broke out in early July, that one of its primary objectives was to find and destroy all the tunnels Hamas had dug into Israel over the last few years. This could only be accomplished if Israeli troops were inside Gaza and able to search for the places where the tunnels started. Hamas boasted about how it had lots of these tunnels and planned to use them to get terrorists into Israel to capture or kill Israelis. So far Israel has found and destroyed 32 tunnels that extended into Israel and several more that were just used inside Gaza. Israeli intelligence, because of the several weeks Israeli troops were inside Gaza, has a better idea where additional tunnels are and Israel is hustling to come up with more effective detection methods. Currently the best method is using a large mobile drill (normally used for digging wells) to go deep dozens of times in an area where a tunnel is suspected until it is found. That method is being used now on the Israeli side of the border but it is slow work. The most obvious opportunity here is for better sensors. One idea is a series of wireless sensors buried a few meters down all along the Gaza border that will broadcast the unavoidable sounds the Hamas men would make as they dug towards the surface to “open” a tunnel on the Israeli side. For obvious reasons the Israelis are giving out any details on this sort of thing but at the moment it’s one of the best potential solution for the tunnel threat. Meanwhile Israel is trying to make the UN and other major Hamas donors (like Arab oil states) understand that a large chunk (over $10 million in the last few years) of their aid money has gone to this enormous tunnel project and that better management of aid to Gaza could reduce the amount being spent on tunnels and terrorism in general.
The tunnels are not a new problem. The Palestinians in Gaza have been building tunnels (mainly into Egypt for smuggling) since the 1980s. The Egyptians long tolerated this because the local Egyptian police and soldiers got bribed and that kept everyone happy. But tunnels into Israel were another matter, because these were not for smuggling but for killing or kidnapping Israelis. No bribes involved here, just murder and abduction (for ransom). Israeli combat engineers had been trained to destroy discovered tunnels, which was not easy because Hamas had booby-trapped some of them.
Lost amidst all the other stories is the fact that Israeli negotiators are trying work out a deal to get back the bodies of two Israeli soldiers that Hamas made away with. Israel is offering to release 25 Palestinians from prison for the bodies but Hamas wants a whole lot more. Earlier negotiations over the remains of dead Israelis went on for years.
Another story that does not get covered is the fact that most of Gaza is unharmed. Despite the thousands of Israeli bombs, missiles and artillery shells fired into Gaza in the last month over 96 percent of the structures in Gaza are intact. Israel is using smart bombs and guided missiles meaning that most of the attacks destroy or damage individual structures, not entire neighborhoods as in the past (before smart bombs became standard). Images of all those intact Gaza towns and neighborhoods do not attract a lot of eyeballs and are not considered newsworthy. Another bit of non-news is the 40,000 tons of humanitarian aid (most of it food and medical supplies) Israel has allowed into Gaza since July 9th. Also non-news are the thousands of Israeli attacks called off at the last minute because civilians were detected in the target area.
In Egypt several thousand additional soldiers and dozens of armored vehicles have been sent to the Libyan border in the last week. This is all to deal with the growing smuggling activity there, much of it involving Islamic terrorist groups bringing in weapons stolen from army warehouses left unguarded during the 2011 revolution. Those weapons have been selling briskly on the black market in Egypt. The customers are gangsters, Islamic terrorists and people seeking some illegal protection. Meanwhile the military revealed that since the end of July soldiers and police had killed 61 Islamic terrorists in Sinai and arrested more than a hundred known or suspected Islamic terrorists there. The raids had also captured large quantities of weapons, ammo and bomb making material. Also seized was 650 kg (1,430 pounds) of marihuana. In the last year over 500 soldiers and policemen have died fighting Islamic terrorists.
August 10, 2014: Israel and Hamas agreed to another 72 hour ceasefire to begin at 9 PM GMT (11 PM local time). Hamas has fired over a hundred rockets since the latest ceasefire collapsed on the 8th.
August 9, 2014: Hamas managed to fire five more rockets into Israel, but there were no casualties or damage. Israel responded with attacks on at least 20 targets in Gaza. A bomb that hit a mosque killed three people, including a senior Hamas leader. Hamas has fired at least 70 rockets since the latest ceasefire collapsed on the 8th.
In Egypt a court dissolved the political wing of the Moslem Brotherhood (which was outlawed last September). This cuts off Moslem Brotherhood members from an legitimate participation in Egyptian politics. Earlier this year Egypt elected another military man, who replaces one who was overthrown in 2011. The government has arrested over 10,000 people since the coup a year ago but now the military is in charge legally. The newly elected president (Abdul al Sisi) is a former general and is determined to crush the Moslem Brotherhood and other more radical Islamic terrorist groups. Hundreds of Islamic radicals have been sentenced to death or long prison terms in the last year. This is all a repeat of what happened twenty years ago during the last Islamic radical uprising against a corrupt and inefficient government. The army promises it will be different this time, but they always do that and it never is. President Sisi has made it clear that he sees Islamic terrorism as the greatest danger the region faces. At the same time Sisi is making moves to get the economy going although it’s doubtful he will do anything about the corruption.
August 8, 2014: Another ceasefire ended with Hamas firing 61 rockets at Israel. These resulted in two Israelis wounded by rocket fragments. Israel promptly responded with attacks on 70 terrorist targets in Gaza. The resumption of fighting was disappointing to Egypt, which is trying to persuade Hamas to make a long-term peace deal. While the Egyptian diplomats can appeal to Hamas as fellow Arabs, Hamas tends to have difficulty of hiding their contempt for Egypt, which Hamas considers traitors for classifying Hamas as a terrorist organization and cracking down on Islamic terrorist groups inside Egypt. Many Egyptians believe Islamic terrorism is a dead end strategy, but Hamas believes just the opposite.
In Egypt (along the Gaza border) several army raids left eleven Islamic terrorists dead and several smuggling tunnels destroyed.
August 5, 2014: Israel pulled its ground troops out of Gaza as another 72 hour ceasefire went into effect. Hamas announced that former Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha was found dead in a bombed building. Several days later rumors began coming out of Gaza that Taha had been executed. Medical staff and others saw his body at the hospital and morgue and despite orders to keep quiet, began talking. Taha was apparently being punished for secretly supplying Egypt with information on Hamas activities. Unwilling to admit that such a high-ranking official was a traitor, Hamas went with the “killed by an Israeli bomb” angle after putting Taha in front of a firing squad.
In Egypt (North Sinai) soldiers killed three Islamic terrorists and captured six others who were being sought. One raid also seized an SUV and sixteen motorcycles used for terrorist attacks. Elsewhere (outside Alexandria) five policemen and four Islamic terrorists died in a clash on a road to the beach.
August 4, 2014: Iran openly boasted of sending long range rockets to Gaza and ordered that an effort be made to get modern surface to air missiles into Gaza so Hamas can shoot down Israeli warplanes and helicopters. Actually, the shoulder fired missiles have been in Gaza for some time but Israeli aircraft have effective defenses against these missiles. Iran apparently wants to get larger and more effective anti-aircraft systems into Gaza. Iran has not commented on the fact that the Hamas use of rockets this time around has been a complete failure, with only three Israeli civilian (the main target for these rockets) deaths resulting mainly because of the Israeli Iron Dome anti-rocket system.
August 3, 2014: Israel pulled most of its troops out of Gaza.
August 2, 2014: Israel announced that one of its soldiers might have been captured. It later turned out that the soldier had been killed in combat while cut off from other troops.
August 1, 2014: A ceasefire in Gaza collapsed hours after it began when more rockets were fired at Israel.
A timing problem also occurred in the aforementioned call from flight attendant Amy Sweeney. While she was describing the hijackers, according to the FBI's account of her call, they stormed and took control of the cockpit.46 However, although the hijacking of Flight 11 "began at 8:14 or shortly thereafter," the 9/11 Commission said, Sweeney's call did not go through until 8:25.47 Her alleged call, in other words, described the hijacking as beginning over 11 minutes after it, according to the official timeline, had been successfully carried out.
Multiple lines of evidence, therefore, imply that the cell phone calls were faked. This fact has vast implications, because it implies that all the reported calls from the planes, including those from onboard phones, were faked. Why? Because if the planes had really been taken over in surprise hijackings, no one would have been ready to make fake cell phone calls.
Moreover, the FBI, besides implying, most clearly in the case of Deena Burnett, that the phone calls reporting the hijackings had been faked, comes right out and says, in its report about calls from Flight 77, that no calls from Barbara Olson occurred. It does mention her. But besides attributing only one call to her, not two, the FBI report refers to it as an "unconnected call," which (of course) lasted "0 seconds."48 In 2006, in other words, the FBI, which is part of the Department of Justice, implied that the story told by the DOJ's former solicitor general was untrue. Although not mentioned by the press, this was an astounding development.
This FBI report leaves only two possible explanations for Ted Olson's story: Either he made it up or else he, like Deena Burnett and several others, was duped. In either case, the story about Barbara Olson's calls, with their reports of hijackers taking over Flight 77, was based on deception.
The opening section of The 9/11 Commission Report is entitled "Inside the Four Flights." The information contained in this section is based almost entirely on the reported phone calls. But if the reported calls were faked, we have no idea what happened inside these planes. Insofar as the idea that the planes were taken over by hijackers who looked "Middle Eastern," even "Islamic," has been based on the reported calls, this idea is groundless.
4. Was the Presence of Hijackers Proved by a Radio Transmission "from American 11"?
It might be objected, in reply, that this is not true, because we know that American Flight 11, at least, was hijacked, thanks to a radio transmission in which the voice of one of its hijackers is heard. According to the 9/11 Commission, the air traffic controller for this flight heard a radio transmission at 8:25 AM in which someone---widely assumed to be Mohamed Atta---told the passengers: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport." After quoting this transmission, the Commission wrote: "The controller told us that he then knew it was a hijacking."49 Was this transmission not indeed proof that Flight 11 had been hijacked?
It might provide such proof if we knew that, as the Commission claimed, the "transmission came from American 11."50 But we do not. According to the FAA's "Summary of Air Traffic Hijack Events," published September 17, 2001, the transmission was "from an unknown origin."51 Bill Peacock, the FAA's air traffic director, said: "We didn't know where the transmission came from."52 The Commission's claim that it came from American 11 was merely an inference. The transmission could have come from the same room from which the calls to Deena Burnett originated.
Therefore, the alleged radio transmission from Flight 11, like the alleged phone calls from the planes, provides no evidence that the planes were taken over by al-Qaeda hijackers.
5. Did Passports and a Headband Provide Evidence that al-Qaeda Operatives Were on the Flights?
However, the government's case for al-Qaeda hijackers on also rested in part on claims that passports and a headband belonging to al-Qaeda operatives were found at the crash sites. But these claims are patently absurd.
We learned shortly after the invasion of Iraq that some people in the US government did not know the difference between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims. Did such people decide that the hijackers would be described as wearing red headbands?
Cisco Cheng Dell Inspiron Mini 9 The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 doesn't advance the development of UMPCs, but it does give you a solid system and a great price.
Runs the Intel Atom platform. Weighs only 2.3 pounds. Very responsive mouse buttons. Well-priced with eValue code.
Keyboard is too small. Needs a bigger battery option. Limited to SSD hard drive option.
The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 doesn't advance the development of UMPCs, but it does give you a solid system and a great price.
Once thought to be a dying breed, UMPCs (also known as netbooks) have hung around the laptop market and are finally gaining some momentum. As more people look for inexpensive, lightweight secondary laptops to fulfill basic computing needs like Web surfing and e-mail, they are turning toward UMPCs. Recognizing this trend, Dell joins the game with the Inspiron Mini 9 ($399 direct for XP version with E-Value code, regularly $474), sharing space with such systems as the ASUS EeePC 900, the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC , the Acer Aspire One, the MSI Wind, and the Lenovo IdeaPad S10. Despite all the time Dell has had to develop a great product, the final result isn't quite enough to overtake the MSI Wind, our Editors' Choice in this category.
The Mini 9 is similar in build to its peers. It measures 6.8 by 9.2 by 1 inches, a bit bigger than the ASUS EeePC 900 (6.6 by 8.7 by 0.8 inches) but more compact than the Acer Aspire One (6.7 by 9.7 by 1 inches). Its 2.3-pound frame is in line with the other UMPCs. The MSI Wind is slightly heavier because of its 10-inch screen, while the HP 2133 Mini-Note's 3.2-pound weight can be attributed to a bigger battery and a glass screen.
Dell kept the design simple. The system's shiny black exterior stands out from the white exteriors found on the Wind, the EeePC, and the One. HP differentiates its Mini-Note with an anodized aluminum look that appeals to both consumers and business users. The Mini 9's black keyboard against the silver palm rests reminds me of old-school business laptops.
Usability is a key concern when looking at these shrunken ultraportable systems. The 8.9-inch screen is bright and nice to look at, similar to those of the ASUS 900 and the Acer One. Judging from the screen's frame, however, it could hold a 10-inch display like those found on the MSI Wind and the ASUS EeePC, which is the sweet spot for this category. Having a smaller keyboard (88 percent) than the MSI Wind and the HP Mini-Note (both 92 percent) doesn't help the Mini 9 take over its competition, either—that 4 percent margin makes a difference when you're typing. The mouse buttons, however, are better engineered and easier to click than the competition's.
As for its feature set, the Mini 9 is on a par with its peers: It has three USB ports, a 4-in-1 media card reader (SD, MS, MS Pro, MMC), VGA-out, an Ethernet port, and a 1.3-megapixel webcam. The one place where I felt Dell went awry is in opting for an 8GB solid-state drive (SSD) instead of a spinning hard drive. Capacities for SSDs are still too low and prices too high, and when you put Windows XP Home on an 8GB flash drive it leaves little room for anything else. Granted, there is a 16GB option ($40), but it pales in comparison with the Wind's and HP Mini-Note's 80GB capacities. Even ASUS realized the limitations of the 4GB SSD in its original Eee PC and added a second, 16GB module to the EeePC 900 for a total of 20GB.
Although it doesn't have a built-in ExpressCard slot like the HP and the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, Dell may be working on something more compelling for frequent travelers. If you unscrew the cover on the base of the Mini 9, there's an empty slot that says "WWAN." Nothing has been officially announced, though.
The 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 is a great pick for this system (as it is for the Wind), since it is adept at running Windows while keeping energy consumption down. The HP Mini-Note's VIA processor, on the other hand, ran warm and 'wasn't as speedy. The 1GB of memory is the maximum Dell offers (at least for now) on this configuration. Now, that's not to say you can't upgrade on your own. It's the same warning you get with the MSI Wind: No one is stopping you from popping out the 1GB SODIMM and replacing it with a $40 (street) 2GB module, but you run the risk of voiding the warranty. Dell could have surged ahead in the category by offering a 2GB configuration.
Nevertheless, the combination of the Atom processor and 1GB of memory gives you more than enough power to accomplish any general-purpose task, whether running MS Office 2007, encoding a video, running iTunes, watching YouTube, or playing online poker. Just don't do all of these things simultaneously. Dell even throws in its latest video chat client, powered by SightSpeed. Videoconferencing through this utility and the integrated webcam was as seamless as running Skype. The Mini 9 has the horsepower to run videoconferencing, but you also need a good broadband connection. Dell is offering an Ubuntu 8.04 Linux configuration, with a 4GB SSD, for $349. Then again, the price of the Acer One's Linux configuration has dropped to about the same level, and the MSI Wind's is likely to follow, so Dell doesn't have the upper hand here, either.
The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 falls well short of the MSI Wind and the HP 2133 Mini-Note because it doesn't offer an extended battery and large-enough storage options. And you'll have to punch in an E-Value code (1-DNDMXA1) to get this limited-time offer price of $399. Otherwise, the list price is the same as that of the Wind' ($474). For the average person who doesn't want to lug a 5-to-6 pound laptop (with its case and AC adapter) through airport security just to check e-mail, surf, and do some light Office tasks, a UMPC is a very viable solution. For now, that solution is the MSI Wind, but as prices come down, I'm expecting Dell to make this a close race.
Check out the Dell Inspiron Mini 9's test scores.
Bottom Line: The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 doesn't advance the development of UMPCs, but it does give you a solid system and a great price.
CAIRO (AP) — An international rights group says a Saudi-led coalition's offensive against Shiite rebels along Yemen's west coast has displaced tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians.
Thursday's report by Amnesty International says Yemeni escapees described "terrifying mortar attacks, air strikes, landmines and other dangers" as coalition forces attempt to retake the rebel-held areas along the country's west coast.
Amnesty says the coalition's offensive has sent Yemenis fleeing to government-held areas including Aden, warning that "the worst could be yet to come."
Citing the United Nations, the report says fighting along Yemen's west coast has displaced 100,000 people in recent months, mostly from Hodeida province.
The Saudi-led coalition backing an internationally recognized government has been at war with the Iran-allied rebels known as Houthis in Yemen for more than three years.
Photo by Steve Keenan of The Fayette Tribune Webster County coach Michael Gray, center, gives instruction to Dorian Groggs, left, and Pryce Gadd during the Highlanders' Class A state quarterfinal win over St. Marys March 13 in Charleston.
BECKLEY — The population of Webster County is 8,372. On March 16, it seemed every one of them made the 90-mile trip to Charleston to watch their Highlanders’ boys basketball team make history.
Amid a boisterous sea of red and black, Webster County defeated Parkersburg Catholic 47-40 for the Class A state championship, capping off an undefeated season and the school’s first state title of any kind.
“I was telling someone the other day, when I was standing on the floor before the game when they were singing the (national) anthem, I saw all the fans and it was just unreal, that feeling,” Webster coach Michael Gray said.
The Highlanders had a senior-dominated team, but a head coach is always necessary to pull it all together. Webster had that in Gray, and he has been recognized for his work by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association as the winner of the Van Meter Award.
The award, named in honor of Woodrow Wilson coaching legend Jerome Van Meter, is given annually to the top high school coach in West Virginia.
Gray beat out Parkersburg South wrestling coach Shaun Smith, Herbert Hoover softball coach Missy Smith and Martinsburg football coach Dave Walker.
It will be hard to top what they pulled off this year.
The state title win was Webster’s 28th of the year, making the Highlanders the state’s first boys basketball team to finish 28-0. The last undefeated Class A team was Paden City, which went 27-0 in 1987.
Webster went into the season with an experienced group, but was also bolstered by the return of Dorian Groggs. The senior guard missed the entire 2017-18 season because of a football injury sustained that fall.
The Highlanders immediately showed what they were capable of, scoring at least 90 points in each of their first three games. They were rarely challenged in the regular season, and put the state on notice with a 71-52 win over No. 4 Trinity Christian on Jan. 21 at the MLK Classic at Greater Beckley Christian.
It was Greater Beckley Christian that finally threatened Webster’s run at perfection. The newly-minted No. 1 Highlanders defeated the No. 4 Crusaders 65-64 Feb. 12 in Upperglade behind Cole Taylor’s shot with three seconds remaining.
The first time Webster even trailed at halftime was in its sectional championship game against Charleston Catholic. The Highlanders outscored the Irish 23-5 in the third quarter and went on to win 74-60.
A week later, Greater Beckley Christian returned to Upperglade for a Region 3 co-final. This time, Webster took control in the final two minutes and won 65-57 to secure its state tournament berth.
The Highlanders defeated St. Marys in the state quarterfinals and survived a semifinal challenge from Trinity Christian before winning 45-42 to set up the history-clinching day against Parkersburg Catholic.
Only then did they finally celebrate.
PITTSBURG — Pittsburg Police Chief Mendy Hulvey will be stepping down later this year.
According to a release from the City of Pittsburg, Hulvey has announced her retirement effective June 29 after 17 years with the department.
According to the release, Hulvey began her law enforcement career in 1985 as a police officer in Columbus, her hometown.
While serving at CPD, she was promoted to sergeant. She left Columbus to attend graduate school at California State University, in San Bernardino, California. Following graduate school, she returned to Kansas, where she served as a patrol officer with the Pittsburg Police Department starting in September 2000, the release said.
She earned a promotion to Administrative Sergeant in 2001, and was appointed the Deputy Chief of Police 2002, serving alongside Pittsburg Police Chief Michael O. Hall. Upon Chief Hall’s retirement in 2004, Mendy was promoted to Chief of Police by then City Manager Allen Gill.
During her career with the Pittsburg Police Department, Chief Hulvey led multiple efforts to improve the department’s operations.
According to the release, She was instrumental in promoting the public safety sales tax, which funded the Beard-Shanks Law Enforcement Center. She also promoted the establishment of another public safety sales tax, which has allowed for an expansion of personnel, technology and equipment for the police department.
As chief, Hulvey obtained numerous grants, including one which enabled the department to fill three unfunded officer positions left vacant due to the financial fallout from the Great Recession.
Additionally, Hulvey established the Pittsburg Police Department’s annual Citizens Academy, an educational program that allows residents, workers, and students the opportunity to learn about the functions of the police department firsthand.
Hulvey has served on the Salvation Army Board of Directors, Children’s Advocacy Center Board of Directors, Elm Acres Youth Services Board of Directors, and has served on the Juvenile Corrections Advisory Board both locally and at the State level. Hulvey has also served for many years on Grant Advisory and Review Committees through the Kansas Attorney General’s Victims Services Office.
Hulvey holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Missouri Southern State University, and a master’s degree in criminal justice from California State University, San Bernardino, California. She is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Central State Law Enforcement Executive Development program. She is also a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s prestigious National Academy program.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - On Friday evenings in Thailand, sandwiched between the evening news and a popular soap opera, is a prime-time programme that has been running for three years, or ever since the military took power in a May 22, 2014 coup.
Called “Sustainable Development from a Royal Philosophy” it stars junta leader and former army chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha speaking on a range of topics, from the virtues of modesty to the state of the economy.
The military has always played a prominent role in Thai life. But Prayuth’s show is just one of many examples of how embedded the junta has become in Thai society.
Thailand’s military government has acknowledged it wants to weaken political parties and maintain permanent influence over future elected governments, partly through a new constitution approved by Thailand’s king last month.
But data compiled by Reuters shows the military is not just trying to influence Thailand’s political life. It is leaving an imprint on nearly every institution of Thai society, with brass hats far more entrenched in senior positions than under previous military governments.