Sunday, May 25, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Woman Uses Filet Knife to Fatally Stab Pit Bulls – NBC

Woman says she acted in self defense when two pit bulls charged her as she walked her dogs

A woman used a filet knife to kill two pit bulls that got out of a yard while she was walking her dogs in a Southern California desert city.

Debbie Duran and a friend were walking her three German shepherds on Wednesday in Apple Valley when she said a pit bull charged them and began attacking her friend and her dog, Jodie. Another pit bull ran up seconds later.

"They had one thing in mind and that was to possibly kill me, to definitely kill my dogs," Duran said, adding that she carries the knife for protection.

But Kathy Suggs, the owner of the pit bulls, said Duran didn't have to kill her year-old dogs, Angel and JoJo.

"She's just here stabbing like a wild, mad lady," Suggs said. "I can't even reach in to get the dog because she's swinging the knife."

Suggs acknowledged that her pit bulls got loose through an open garage, but she believes Duran overreacted.

"This lady was walking around, I think, with the intent to kill the dog," Suggs said. "Who walks around with a butcher knife? We all walk our dogs around here."

Duran's dog suffered bite wounds to the back.

Sheriffs deputies and animal control officers questioned the women and allowed Duran to keep her knife because she was acting in self defense.

Suggs was fined $200 for having loose dogs.




"'She's just here stabbing like a wild, mad lady," Suggs said. "I can't even reach in to get the dog because she's swinging the knife.... This lady was walking around, I think, with the intent to kill the dog," Suggs said. 'Who walks around with a butcher knife? We all walk our dogs around here.'"

Duran was surely carrying the knife for protection, but unless those two particular dogs had tried to attack her before, she couldn't have been expecting them to do it. I do remember walking to a local store in my borderline dangerous neighborhood in Washington, DC carrying a hammer in my handbag. I didn't have a gun or a knife, and I wanted something in case I had to fight. Maybe Duran had experienced frightening encounters before in her area and simply came prepared. It hasn't been a month since the last pit bull attack in the news, and the famous video of a half chow dog attacking the four year old boy in California, when the loving house cat turned avenger and drove him away. Chows are often aggressive dogs, too, but pit bulls are the worst.

Dangerous dogs are kept in many homes, generally with too little obedience training, and owned by people who are often themselves afraid of attackers. That fear overrides their sense of responsibility to the community. In this case Suggs is such an owner, saying Duran “overreacted,” but not even apologizing for her dogs' behavior. The police, I notice, did not arrest Duran for carrying the knife and did charge Suggs $200.00 for “having loose dogs.”

Such dogs as the pit bull, and also the German Shepherd which Duran had with her that day, should always be firmly restrained and obedience trained. I would not be unhappy if every pit bull in the nation were euthanized, as they are basically bred to fight and kill. I know some of them are gentle, but when they aren't they are downright dangerous. A German Shepherd is different, to me, because they are highly intelligent and trainable, and if they are gently brought up, they are loving house pets. They make good police and guard dogs when used by professional handlers.

This is a short list of deadliest dogs I found on the hubpages website, “http://hubpages.com/hub/Top-10-Deadliest-Dogs.” It is called “List of Top 10 Deadliest Dog Breeds – Pit Bulls, Rottweiler, Presa Canarios, Cane Corsos, Dogo Argentinos, Fila Brasieros, Doberman Pinscher, German Shepherd Dog, Tosa inu, Chow Chow. There is also on the net a list of most banned dogs, and the pit bull is tops on that list as well. It is possible for governments to ban breeds that are especially dangerous, then, and I think we should in the US. I have personally always wanted a border collie as a guard dog because they are large enough to do some damage, one of the two top breeds on the intelligence scale, and they will bite in protection of the property or the life of their owners, but they also are gentle to children and to the average neighbor who happens to be visiting. You have to ask yourself what is a dog for, after all. If it is not to fight and kill, then you don't need a pit bull.





Peace Offering: Israeli, Palestinian Leaders Accept Pope's Invite – NBC
— The Associated Press
First published May 25th 2014

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The Israeli and Palestinian presidents will pay a symbolic visit to the Vatican next month to pray for peace after accepting an impromptu invitation from Pope Francis.

Francis issued the surprise, joint invitation after landing in Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, in a symbolic nod to Palestinian aspirations for their own state.

In another unscripted moment, he prayed at the Israeli separation barrier surrounding the biblical West Bank town and briefly donned the checkered black and white headscarf that is a symbol of the Palestinian cause.

Jubilant Palestinians cheered Francis as he arrived in Bethlehem's Manger Square, shouting "Viva al-Baba!" or "Long live the pope!" Giant Palestinian flags in red, white, green and black and the Vatican's yellow-and-white flags decorated the square, which is home to the Church of the Nativity, built over Jesus' traditional birth grotto.

At the end of Mass in the square, Francis invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres to pray with him for peace, saying: "I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of prayer."

The offices of the Israeli and Palestinian presidents quickly confirmed that they had accepted the invitation, with the Palestinians saying the meeting would take place in June.

The invitation — and the acceptances — were unexpected given Francis' insistence that his three-day visit was "strictly religious" pilgrimage to commemorate a Catholic-Orthodox anniversary. But it showed that the pope, who is named after the peace-loving St. Francis of Assisi, has been able to channel his immense popular appeal to be a moral force for peace, even though the proposed meeting will be largely a symbolic affair.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down in late April, and there have been no public high-level meetings for a year.

Peres, a 90-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, is set to step down over the summer, and the meeting would take place shortly before he leaves office.

Peres, whose job is largely ceremonial, has no authority to negotiate peace, and the meeting will be merely symbolic. But he nonetheless risks upsetting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the move.

Netanyahu has expressed anger with politicians that have reached out to Abbas at a time when the Palestinian leader is reconciling with the Islamic militant group Hamas. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group. There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office.





The Pope's offer of “his home” as a place for a “symbolic” prayer, and the immediate acceptance by both parties in the perennial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, is a little surprising. They haven't been so sanguine about interacting together for the most part. The article said that it is Shimon Peres who accepted the invitation, and the possibility that Netanyahu will be angered by his move is less surprising. Peres has no authority to conduct peace talks, the article says. I do wish it could be a true peace advance between the two nations and not symbolic. So far, Netanyahu refuses to accept Hamas as a part of a Palestinian government, and President Abbas has recently reached out to Hamas to share the government – one more stumbling block for the process. I wish someone other than the hard line Netanyahu were in power in Israel. Both Israel and Palestine need to stop putting up barriers to the peace-making process and settle things between them.





Private hospitals could relieve VA health-care woes, John McCain says
By JAKE MILLER CBS NEWS May 24, 2014

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., turned up the heat on the administration over theVeterans Affairs health-care scandal on Saturday, writing in an op-ed that President Obama was "nowhere to be seen" as accusations of misconduct at VA hospitals mounted in recent months.

He also pitched a bill that would allow veterans to seek care at private facilities outside the VA system -- an idea that's picked up support from some unlikely quarters as the taint of scandal continues to swirl around the embattled agency.

It is "the height of shame and tragedy that on this Memorial Day the nation is seized with the unfolding scandal of the government's failure to meet its highest responsibility to veterans and wounded warriors," wrote the Arizona Republican, himself a decorated veteran of the war in Vietnam.

In his opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, McCain recapped the recent allegations, including the charge that VA officials at several facilities falsified waiting lists to delay needed medical care for veterans, and the claim that dozens of deaths have been linked to the misconduct.

"America's veterans are losing confidence in the one government agency that exists solely to care for them," he wrote. "This is more than a government failure. It is a violation of a solemn vow."

McCain touted a bill he's shepherding through the Senate that would give VA administrators greater latitude to fire employees suspected of misconduct. The bill would also give "greater flexibility to veterans to get the care they need and deserve, when and where they want it, whether in the VA system or not," McCain wrote.

The idea of permitting veterans to seek care outside of the VA system has been gathering supporters since the scandal began intensifying earlier this month. Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signaled she was open to the idea on Wednesday.

"We can't have another backlog of people waiting for permission to go to a federally qualified clinic in a region," she told reporters at her weekly press conference. "We have to think in a big way because this is a very big challenge."

"An incremental approach doesn't work when you get 2 million more veterans over the past five years," she explained. "To absorb that capacity is almost impossible."

The VA has not reacted to specific legislation that would divert some of its patients to private hospitals, but in a statement released Saturday, the agency said it has "redoubled efforts to provide quality care to Veterans and has taken steps at national and local levels to ensure timely access to care."

"Each of our facilities is either enhancing their clinic capacity to help Veterans get care sooner, or where we cannot increase capacity, increasing the care we acquire in the community through non-VA care," the statement explained. "Each of our facilities is reaching out to Veterans to coordinate the acceleration of their care.

In his op-ed on Saturday, McCain also offered a more general critique of the president's approach to the controversy.

"Unfortunately, as this scandal at the VA escalated for nearly two months, President Obama was nowhere to be seen," McCain wrote. "There were expressions of anger through presidential proxies, but nothing from the commander in chief himself. And when the president finally did speak about the crisis on Wednesday, there was only a recitation of talking points, expressions of confidence in the system, without a real sense of emotion and urgency."

On Wednesday, the president said that if the allegations "prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and I will not tolerate it, period." He did not, however, demand the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, saying he wants to wait for the results of an internal investigation before meting out punishment.

McCain refrained from explicitly calling on Shinseki to step down, but he said the secretary "needs to carefully consider whether the best thing he can do now to help restore the nation's confidence in the agency he leads is to stand down from his post."




Senator John McCain has recommended a direct and simple solution to the overcrowding problem at the VA hospitals – “a bill that would allow veterans to seek care at private facilities outside the VA system -- an idea that's picked up support from some unlikely quarters.... The bill would also “give VA administrators greater latitude to fire employees suspected of misconduct. This refers to the report that officials have “falsified waiting lists to delay needed medical care for veterans, and the claim that dozens of deaths have been linked to the misconduct.” House minority leader Pelosi has said that she supports the bill.

McCain, in his op-ed article, has blamed President Obama for being “'nowhere to be seen,'" during the past two months, and says that Shinseki should “carefully consider” whether or not to “stand down from his post.” I have to agree that the controversy has gone on too long, and the bill McCain is promoting would be logical and directly helpful in solving the crisis which is one of increased demand on medical services. I am hopeful that it will be enacted speedily. I am not anxious to see Shinseki punished, because there is no information that he was aware of the misdeeds of some of his employees, and the tendency to falsify the records is described by one news article as “human nature,” given the intensity of the demands on VA doctors and hospitals.





Ukraine holds presidential vote as insurgency rages – CBS
AP May 25, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine - Long lines snaked around polling stations in Kiev on Sunday for Ukraine's critical presidential election, a stark contrast to the troubled east where heavily armed pro-Russian rebels intimidated voters by smashing ballot boxes and blocking access to voting centers.

The election came three months after the ouster of the country's pro-Russia leader, who was chased from power by months of protests over corruption and his decision to reject a pact with the European Union and forge closer ties with Moscow.

There were no immediate signs of clashes on Sunday after weeks of intense battles in a deadly insurgency. But it also appeared little voting was taking place in the east: The regional administration in Donetsk said that only 426 of 2,430 polling stations in the region were open Sunday, and none in the city of Donetsk, which has 1 million people.

There was no voting in Luhansk, the center of the neighboring province, but some stations appeared to be open across the region, according to local officials.

Polls have shown 48-year old billionaire candy-maker Petro Poroshenko far ahead of the other 20 candidates, but short of the absolute majority needed to win in the first round, so a runoff is expected on June 15.

"I am convinced that this election must finally bring peace to Ukraine, stop lawlessness, stop chaos, stop bandit terror in the east," Poroshenko said after casting his ballot in central Kiev, where many people wore the traditional embroidered shirts that have become a symbol of patriotism.

"People with weapons must be removed from Ukrainian streets, Ukrainian villages and cities," Poroshenko said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Friday to "respect the choice of the Ukrainian people" and said he would work with the winner, in an apparent bid to ease the worst crisis in relations with the West since the Cold War and to avoid a new round of Western sanctions.

Many voters appreciate Poroshenko's pragmatism and his apparent knack for compromise, making him stand out in the nation's political environment long dominated by intransigent figures. Poroshenko strongly backs closer ties with the EU, but also speaks about the need to normalize ties with Russia.

"He is a very smart man who can work hard compared to others, and he is also a businessman and knows that compromises are necessary even if unpleasant," said 55-year old Kiev teacher Larisa Kirichenko, who voiced hope that Poroshenko will negotiate a peaceful solution in the east. The long lines at some Kiev polling stations indicated a solid turnout.

Poroshenko's nearest challenger isYulia Tymoshenko , the charismatic and divisive former prime minister. The 53-year-old blond-braided heroine of the 2004 Orange Revolution, who spent 2.5 years in prison on abuse of office charges denounced as political by the West, is still admired by many for her energy and will, but detested by others over her role in political infighting that weakened the country.

Tymoshenko said after casting her ballot that Ukraine must join the European Union and NATO.

"I am convinced that Ukraine can be strong, happy and prosperous if it becomes a member of the European Union," she said. "It is time to conduct a referendum on NATO membership in order to bring peace back to the country."

Vladislav Golub, a 31-year old lawyer, said he voted for Tymoshenko because "Ukraine must stop being an oligarchic state and be part of Europe, instead of serving the interests of the Russian Federation."

Sunday's ballot is taking place despite deadly violence in the sprawling eastern regions that form Ukraine's industrial heartland, where pro-Russia insurgents have seized government buildings and fought government forces in intense battles that have raged for a more than a month and killed scores.

The interim Kiev government and the West are accusing Russia of backing the uprising after it annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March. Moscow has denied the accusations.

The rebels, who have declared the Donetsk and Luhansk regions independent, have pledged not to allow the vote, which they describe as an election in "a neighboring country." They have seized or blocked election offices and intimidated election officials and voters in the regions that have a combined population of 6.6 million. Ukrainian election officials said they have received as little as 26 percent of the election registers for the Donetsk region and 16 percent for the Luhansk region. Ukraine's deputy interior minister, Serhiy Yarovyi, said Saturday that police are ready to ensure order and security at polling stations in just nine of the 34 electoral districts in the east.

In the center of Donetsk, a team of insurgents was seen visiting polling stations to make sure they were closed. At one station in a school, Vyacheslav Kucher, 36, tested the front door and turned to his comrades to give the thumbs-up sign after finding it locked.

"I am checking to see everything is normal, to see that there is no nonsense, so this junta doesn't come to power," Kucher said. "We want to make sure nothing is working, because these are illegal authorities and we don't want this outrage."

Outside the Donetsk regional administration building, which has been occupied by government opponents since early April, a group of masked men drove up carrying confiscated ballot boxes and made a show of smashing them in front of a journalist's camera.

One polling station in the city opened in the morning, but minutes later a group of gunmen arrived and forced the election commission out, its chief, Nadia Melnyk, said on Ukraine's Channel 5.

A convoy of an armored personnel carrier and seven trucks carrying several hundred heavily armed men drove through central Donetsk early Sunday afternoon. The gunmen got out of the trucks, stood to attention and gave shots in the air in jubilation as a crowd of several thousand supporters cheered them and chanted: "Heroes!"

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that in the village of Artemivka, in the Donetsk region, gunmen stormed the building of a village council hosting a polling station and set it ablaze.

In the city of Slovyansk in the Donetsk region, which has been one of the main centers of fighting in the past weeks, artillery shelling - apparently from government forces - badly damaged a psychiatric hospital late Saturday, shattering its roof and damaging its walls.

An Italian photojournalist, 30-year old Andrea Rocchelli, was killed Saturday near Slovyansk, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Insurgents said Rocchelli died in mortar shelling by government forces and that his Russian translator also was killed.

Some parts of the Donetsk region remain under greater government control and voting took place in those locations.

In the Azov Sea port of Mariupol, 202 out of 216 polling stations were working, indicating that the situation has been brought under some degree of government control there. Just over a week ago, Rinat Akhmetov, the billionaire metals tycoon who is Ukraine's richest man, had workers from his factories in Mariupol join police to patrol the city and evict pro-Russia insurgents from the government buildings they seized.

"I want order in this country. We can't continue without a president. We need order," voter Gennadiy Menshykov said in Mariupol.

In the town of Krasnoarmeisk, in the west of the Donetsk region, a trickle of people came out to cast their ballots in a local school.





“The regional administration in Donetsk said that only 426 of 2,430 polling stations in the region were open Sunday, and none in the city of Donetsk, which has 1 million people.” “Some parts of the Donetsk region remain under greater government control and voting took place in those locations.” In Mariupol which was liberated by steel workers and police last week 202 out of 216 polling stations were open and voting occurred. In Kiev, the lines to get into the polls “snaked around the polling places” in contrast to Donetsk.

In Kiev, the leading candidate for President Petro Poroshenko voted and then spoke to the crowd, saying “'I am convinced that this election must finally bring peace to Ukraine, stop lawlessness, stop chaos, stop bandit terror in the east.... "People with weapons must be removed from Ukrainian streets, Ukrainian villages and cities.'" Putin has promised to “respect the choice” of the Ukrainians and “work with” them in establishing peace. Poroshenko is praised for being pragmatic and for his “apparent knack for compromise,” which is much needed if the warring parties are to be brought together peacefully.

Yulia Tymoshenko, who also voted, spoke out for EU and NATO membership for Ukraine. She stated that NATO membership was crucial for peace and prosperity in Ukraine. It is a fact that if NATO troops were there the lawlessness in Eastern Ukraine would go down immediately. In Mariupol and several other places where a sufficiently large government force was present the Russians have been driven out of government buildings and voting occurred. Kiev has finally started fighting the Russians in earnest, however, and that is a good sign. I hope the turnout in Kiev will be overwhelmingly large and either “the chocolate king” or Tymoshenko will be elected, as they are both Western oriented and proponents of law and order.





Sheriff: Elliot Rodger long concealed mental health issues – CBS
By REBECCA KAPLAN FACE THE NATION May 25, 2014

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said Sunday that 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, the suspected gunman who went on a shooting and stabbing rampage near a Santa Barbara university this weekend, had been able to "fly under the radar" and conceal a history of mental instability for a long time.

Deputies from Brown's department first interacted with Rodger in April after a relative expressed concern about his well-being. Rodger told "a very convincing story" to the deputies to make him believe he wasn't going to hurt himself or someone else, and he didn't meet the criteria for further intervention at that point, Brown said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"Obviously, looking back on this, it's a very tragic situation, and we certainly wish that we could turn the clock back and maybe change some things," Brown said. "It's very apparent that he was able to convince many people for many years that he didn't have this deep, underlying obvious mental illness that also manifested itself in this terrible tragedy."

Rodger is believed to have stabbed three men to death in his apartment Friday evening before going on a shooting spree through Goleta, Calif., hours after making an Internet video in which he promised to attack those who lived a life better than his own. In particular, he seemed to target women who had rejected him his whole life.

As Rodger drove around the city in his black BMW, he killed three more people and injured 13 others with a gun or his car.

Brown said Sunday that two victims are still in serious condition but the rest are in good or fair condition, or have been treated and released from the hospital.

Asked by CBS News' Major Garrett about Rodger's ability to purchase weapons, Brown said he wasn't sure deputies had checked whether Rodger had purchased any weapons. All three handguns were purchased legally in the year before the rampage.

"During the course of his interaction with mental health professionals, he apparently had never been either institutionalized or committed for an involuntarily hold of any kind. And those are the two triggers that actually would have made him a prohibited person in terms of a fire arms purchase. So he was able, sadly, to obtain those three firearms," Brown said.




Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said that in April of this year deputies were called to the family home at the request of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger's parents, who were questioning his mental health. He was able to talk to the deputies in a convincing fashion so that they left him at home with his parents. Brown stated on Face The Nation that Rodger “didn't meet the criteria for further intervention at that point.” This shows one of the problems with police officers – that despite having some training to defuse crisis situations, they are not really mental health professionals and probably should not make such a judgment. Too often when police face people in a mental health crisis they end up shooting him rather than using less lethal means to control him. As likely as not such people will be taken to jail and not medicated or taken to a mental hospital where they belong.

The sheriff admitted that his deputies dropped the ball and misjudged the situation. Unfortunately mentally ill people can be very bright and convincing. When asked how Rodger was able to purchase guns with his mental health issues, the sheriff stated that a patient has to be either hospitalized or taken under “an involuntary hold” of some kind for them to be prohibited from buying guns. Unfortunately tragedies of this kind occur, and the police have to do their best despite some failures.

I sympathize greatly with those police officers who do try to make a positive difference in the society, but face great trials. It takes a great deal of raw courage to be a police officer, and at the same time they have to try to be honest and positive in their attitudes so they can help the citizens of our society. Often it is up to the family to detect the need for hospitalization or medication and take their family members for professional treatment. A societal stigma should not continue to prevent that from happening. Physical illness doesn't cause shame, so mental illness shouldn't either.





For N.J. Mayor, The Time To Adapt To Rising Sea Levels Is Now
by NPR STAFF
May 21, 2014

Last week, scientists warned that a massive chunk of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet will eventually drift into the sea and melt, raising sea levels at least 10 feet higher than previous predictions.

Even before the announcement, scientists at the nonprofit research organization Climate Central predicted that surging seas could put the homes of nearly 5 million Americans underwater by the end of this century.

Dawn Zimmer, mayor of Hoboken, N.J., is a member of President Obama's Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience. She's one of many elected leaders in coastal areas around the country working to stave off future flooding disasters.

Zimmer says that the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy — and the four floods that have hit her city since — moved her to action. Hoboken's strategy, she tells Morning Edition's Renee Montagne, includes purchasing land and building new parks to help absorb rainwater; retaining as much rainwater as possible and updating the city's drainage and pumping systems. "We need to figure out a way to live with water," she says.

On Adaptation

We're living with climate change right now. We've had ... four major flood events [since Hurricane Sandy]. So that means people's cars are totaled, people's homes are still getting flooded. We're seeing it on a regular basis, these heavy downpours. So, to a certain extent, the climate change assessment that just came out reaffirms what we absolutely have to do. …

I'm hopeful that we're going to implement this integrated strategy that is going to allow us to live with water. [Hoboken] potentially can be a model for this. …

We have an opportunity that was impossible for other species. I'm sure that if the dinosaur could have predicted ... the ice age coming and observed it, and developed a plan, they would have done that. But they couldn't do that. We can do this. We can adapt. And we must adapt. We see it in Hoboken and Weehawken and Jersey City.

This is the no. 1 priority for me, as the mayor of Hoboken. This is the biggest challenge that our city is facing. We are living with this now and we need to figure out a way to live with water.

On Building Codes

We passed a flood-prevention ordinance that says, for future buildings, [they have] to be built with all of the utilities raised up — with the mechanicals for the elevators, for example, all raised up, so that those buildings in the future will be much more resilient.

On Federal Funding

As a member of President Obama's Climate Change Task Force, I'm continuing to advocate ... for changes in the National Flood Insurance Program, which would make it so that we could get money towards raising up our utilities. Right now ... we're paying into this system where we don't really get much out of it. So I think we really need to really try to look at those federal policies.




Dawn Zimmer, mayor of Hoboken, N.J is working toward a plan of “living with water,” she says. “Hoboken's strategy, she tells Morning Edition's Renee Montagne, includes purchasing land and building new parks to help absorb rainwater; retaining as much rainwater as possible and updating the city's drainage and pumping systems.” She also is advocating a new building code in which all the “utilities... such as the mechanical parts of elevators” will be placed at a higher position in the structure so that they won't get soaked in floods. She is trying to change the National Flood Insurance Program so that cities can get funding to make the change in the building code.

It is shocking to me that in the time elapsed since Hurricane Sandy hit the area they have already had four more floods. Flooding, though usually minor, is a common problem here in Jacksonville, FL, but it isn't due to hurricanes. It's because our storm drains are insufficient. We frequently get over 2” of rain in an hour here and the water has nowhere to go but in the streets. I think Jacksonville needs to put a flood plan into action too with the global warming problem, because the beach is only ten miles away from the center of the city, which happens to be where I live.

If we ever do get a large hurricane to come ashore here we will be inundated, as I understand we were with Hurricane Dora in 1964. A woman who was living here at that time said there was no power for two weeks and there was a great deal of flooding. This news article claimed a prediction of 10 feet higher at sea level if large parts of Antarctica melt. That's the highest figure I've seen for that, but even an extra three feet or so would cause beach house flooding. People will certainly have to stop building as close to the ocean as they do now. The city unveiled a new flood zone map just last week with new evacuation routes. They're on the ball, I think.