in the news

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin held a press conference a little bit ago, and started losing control to a media pool assembled that was showing signs of panic, due to the previous incompetence in the region by the local and state government. Lt. Gen. Russel Honore stepped in and literally took over. ….Here's what he had to say: Male reporter: General, a little bit more about why that's happening this time, though, and did not have that last time... Honore: You are stuck on stupid. I'm not going to answer that question. We are going to deal with Rita. This is public information that people are depending on the government to put out. This is the way we've got to do it. So please. I apologize to you, but let's talk about the future. Rita is happening. And right now, we need to get good, clean information out to the people that they can use. And we can have a conversation on the side about the past, in a couple of months. (http://www.radioblogger.com/)

CNSNews.com) - The New Orleans police chief resigned abruptly on Tuesday, giving no reason. But as the Houston Chronicle reported, Police Superintendent Eddie Compass stepped aside on the same day that he and Mayor Ray Nagin were accused by the New Orleans Times-Picayune of embellishing stories of post-Katrina crime and mayhem at the Convention Center and Superdome.

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico. Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing .(observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story)

Hillary Clinton was asked whether she favored curbs on the Internet, after the DRUDGE REPORT made headlines with coverage of her husband's affair with a White House intern. "We are all going to have to rethink how we deal with this, because there are all these competing values ... Without any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function, what does it mean to have the right to defend your reputation?" she said.(Matt Drudge)

(CNSNews.com) - Authorities in China, where at least three journalists have been jailed this year for political "crimes" involving the Internet, clamped down further at the weekend by introducing new regulations for online news services.

(CNSNews.com) - Following five years of United Nations control and billions of dollars of international aid, Kosovo is a lawless region "owned" by the Albanian mafia, characterized by continuing ethnic cleansing and subject to increasing infiltration by al Qaeda-linked Muslim jihadists, according to a whistleblower interviewed by Cybercast News Service.

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. orders for durable goods rose a greater-than-expected 3.3 percent in August, rebounding from the biggest drop in 18 months, as businesses sought to rebuild stocks depleted by surging sales.

Orders rose in all categories except defense equipment.
The Federal Reserve's success in taming the economy's ups and downs may have also raised the risks of reckless investor behavior, Chairman Alan Greenspan said. (WSJ)

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, drawing on new research he has personally supervised, said American consumers have become enormously dependent on borrowing against their homes to fuel their spending, and that a rise in mortgage rates could trigger a spending pullback. Mr. Greenspan's new data show that borrowing against home values added a stunning $600 billion to consumers' spending power last year, equivalent to 7% of personal disposable income -- compared with 3% in 2000 and 1% in 1994 (WSJ)

Defying expectations, sales of previously owned homes rose in August to the second-highest level on record with home prices rising at the fastest pace in 26 years. The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that sales of existing homes rose 2 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.29 million units, a sales pace that was exceeded only by an all-time high of 7.35 million units in June. (MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP)

NEW YORK -- This summer's back to back superstorms are proof positive we have entered a new period of "global warming emergency," artist/citizen Barbra Streisand warns.(Matt Drudge)

Although this has been an exceptional year in terms of the number of storms, there have so far not been as many as there were in 1995, when we had 19. There have been similarly active seasons dating back decades. In both 1960 and 1961 there were two Category 5 storms in the Atlantic region and in 1933 there were 21 storms. ( Julian Heming of the Met Office in Exeter)

If you discount Ophelia, which grazed the Carolinas, three hurricanes have so far made landfall over the US this year. In 1886, records show that there were seven. (Julian Heming of the Met Office in Exeter)