One of the nation’s biggest July 4th firework displays turned into a 15-second bust after a “premature ignition” caused pyrotechnics spread across five barges in the San Diego Bay to go off all at once.
Beth DeCaprio, the foundation's executive director, said the suit followed efforts to get the banks to take responsibility for the cost of caring for 48 horses, including 16 foals, that the foundation – at the banks' request – took custody of last August.
"We just hope and pray the banks will do the right thing," a tearful DeCaprio said outside the bank branches Monday.
Eight men accused of buying and training racehorses to launder drug profits for the powerful Zetas cartel are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 22 in Texas.
...Prosecutors said the evidence includes 30,000 pages of records on horses, as well as banking and auction documents and recordings of 2,000 phone calls.
Among those accused is Jose Trevino Morales, the brother of two alleged Zetas cartel leaders.
...Meanwhile, Jose Trevino Morales remains in federal custody as a flight risk pending trial on allegations that he was involved in a money laundering scheme centered on an Oklahoma horse ranch.
...The head of the agency that regulates horse racing in New Mexico told the El Paso Times on Wednesday he is deeply concerned about allegations that the notorious Los Zetas drug cartel had fixed the 2010 running of the All American Futurity, the state’s most prestigious race.
...Mares was referring to an informant’s claim, made in a federal court document, that a Zetas leader boasted of fixing the race run at the Ruidoso Downs Race Track and Casino — a race known as the Kentucky Derby of quarter-horse racing, the Times said.
...He said his staff would contact the FBI to see whether the agency plans to investigate the allegations that crews were bribed at the 2010 All American Futurity, which was won by Mr. Piloto, a horse won by Jose Trevino Morales, who allegedly ran the cartel’s U.S. horse operations.
...Late last week, officials at the Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino denied allegations that the 2010 All American Futurity was fixed, the El Paso Times reported.
“We have looked at the video tape of the 2010 All American Futurity from every angle many times in recent days and can see no evidence of any horse being held or denied a fair start,” track General Manager Shaun Hubbard said in a statement. “We can find no evidence that there was any wrongdoing by our starting gate crew.”
...Maldonado-Huitron ran a horse farm in Bastrop County, southeast of Austin, and is charged with helping the Zetas launder millions through quarter horse operations in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and California.
...Gonzalez-Falla said that Maldonado Huitron was an illiterate horse trainer who posed no threat to the Zetas. An associate of Huitron Maldonado’s from El Paso testified Monday that the trainer was actually dismissed weeks before his arrest because his horses were underperforming, which the defense attorney said meant his client was now even less important in the eyes of the cartel.
“Why on earth would they hit my client?” he asked. “What has he done? He’s a horse trainer.”
Looking ahead, two in five, or 67 of the 156 markets covered by the Zillow Home Value Forecast, are expected to see increases in home values over the next year, with the largest increases expected in the Phoenix metro (9.9 percent) and the Miami metro (6.1 percent). U.S. home values are expected to rise 1.1 percent.So, that's only just five years after the peak in 2007, and virtually-identical to the previous housing boom's five-year gap between peak and bottom (1990 to 1995). That's interesting, because the two booms were quite different in nature. I thought, for sure, this time, the collapse would last longer - at least seven years - seeing how bad it was.
Smith and the weather experts like him are the "incident meteorologists" who inform firefighters of every nuance of the weather – from heat and humidity to changing gusts of wind. They make those calls from their tents and makeshift offices in the camps where fire crews refer to them as an "IMET."
Such on-scene weather experts are essential to building strategies to fight major wildfires. Using an IMET's information, fire chiefs determine the most effective and safe ways to contain raging fires.
"You belong to them," Smith said. "For any incident, any fire, you're the weather support for that particular site."
The practice is an affront to the First Amendment, more dangerous even than outright suppression because it undermines trust in the independence and truth-telling mission of news organizations.
The Times story set off a furor within newsrooms. Some organizations immediately moved to stop the practice and even the Times said it was reviewing its policy. Editors at other news organizations reiterated to staff that it is better to lose the interview than to agree to quote approval. The Washington bureau of McClatchy, The Bee's parent company, is among those newsrooms that do not allow quote approval.
..."It's our job to hold government accountable, not to serve as its mouthpiece," said Amy Chance, The Bee's senior political editor.
"We started having blue whales on every trip we went out on," said Sherman, who runs weekend whale-watching and natural history excursions from San Francisco to the Gulf of the Farallones with the Oceanic Society. "It hasn't been this great for the past five years."
Well, we made our first visit to see Ned and it went splendidly.
Ned is looking tan and fit and has dropped a few pounds (which was needed!).
His positive attitude is remarkable, but I expected nothing less.
He is taking a horticulture class, a running/fitness class, learning how to play the bass guitar and the drums, finishing up the Great Course on calculus, and learning Mandarin (!).
He continues to maintain the bathrooms to a new level of cleanliness, which makes many people very happy, and, he is FOLLOWING ALL THE RULES.
So Mitt Romney goes to London and the first thing he says is that he finds Olympic preparations to be "disconcerting." Then he uses the wrong title to address one of his hosts. Then he brags about meeting with the head of the top-secret MI6. And then he starts talking about looking out Number 10's backside, not realizing that that it sounded like he was saying he was admiring the view from the White House's ass. He wasn't done, however, because he went to Israel where he managed to insult not only Palestinians, but also Mexicans and Ecuadorians by saying their economies weren't as strong as neighboring countries because their neighboring countries had better cultures.
A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.
"Harry, he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," Reid recounted the person as saying.
Left: Looking north, up the Sacramento River, from the Sacramento Water Intake Facility.
Boat.
Jet ski.
Beach at Discovery Park, where the American River (foreground) joins the Sacramento River (in the distance).
Underneath the I-5 bridge over the American River.
Archery area in Discovery Park.
Left: Woman archer assesses the wind.
Left: Fire!Wolf-whistlers from building sites might seem long gone, but workers have developed a new code to alert each other to passing woman.
The classic "whit-woo" indicating a female passer-by is an industry no-no, with wolf-whistlers given warnings and moved to other sites.
But workers, who declined to be named because their contracts forbid them speaking to the media, have confirmed codes exist to communicate the presence of women walking past.
"We might yell something like, 'Wayne's at the gate'," one said. Another identified "Anyone got a spanner?" was their code. Another admitted a number from one to 10, used as a rating, was still common.
Late Saturday morning, five airplanes moving in perfect formation busied themselves with writing messages to us, the little ants of Sacramento, far, far below.
It's hard to think of an activity where punctuality is more important than a Flashmob, and I could tell I wasn't going to be on time for this Zumba Flashmob (in honor of Saturday July 28th, National Dance Day). Nevertheless, Zumba is the sort of activity where one can drop in at will, or drop out as necessary, so I went anyway. Like Woody Allen says, 90% of life is just showing up. I rolled up to the west steps of the State Capitol at 9:30 a.m., half an hour after the Flashmob started.
Walking towards the Capitol, I noticed that tourists in the vicinity were shaking to the Zumba music. Encouraging! At the west steps, about 100-120 people were groovin' to the dance.
I never did see the instructional videos. It was a bit hard to follow the dances by instructors from different studios than Step One (where I go), particularly since so many of the instructors were short, and thus hard to see. Nevertheless, 90% of Zumba is just moving around. You have two legs, so you have a 50% chance of being on the right foot. Dance, I say! 
Introducing the instructors.
Left: Step One's Sherrika Darnell.
