Earthquake Drill?

One of the things I do almost every day, in fact sometimes several times a day, is to check the USGS website to see what kind of seismic activity there has been. If there's been a quake over 3.0 in California or in the states nearby, I post about it on the California Fire News website (If I can beat the blog owner, that is! LOL). This afternoon, shortly after peeking in on the USGS site I went over to the LOLCat's site and found this cutie and just had to share:


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This 'n That

I'm still around, still watching the news on the net and on TV. Yes, I'm still keeping track of what is going on with the cases I've posted about in the past. My brain is having trouble coming up with posts for the blog though. The story behind that is that I got fed up with the new tax hikes the federal and state governments put on cigarettes and have decided to quit smoking. Instead of buying a carton of cigarettes this last time, I bought the patches. (Dummy me, I found out after buying them that I could have gotten them for free if I had signed up for a class at a local hospital! LOL) I started using the patches when I had gotten down to the last pack of cigarettes in the last carton I bought. I managed to make that pack last for 4 days and now I'm on day 2 of having no cigarettes at all. Ugh. I still would love to have a smoke! lol...

So, anyway today's post (which is probably going to be all over the place.) is going to start off with one of the LOL Cats that I thought were really cute yesterday.

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Now for the rest of the "news"....

I've been adding a few posts to the other blog I post on, California Fire News. The posts have been mostly earthquake reports that measure over 3.0, but occasionally I find another item of interest. As for the earthquakes, one yesterday was a 4.4 on the Richter scale and it was centered near Malibu. There have been a number of small quakes in the Los Angeles area in the last week or so Hopefully this isn't a buildup to a bigger one.

As for the cases I am watching, a couple of them have been really hard to get news about them because of gag orders that the judges in the individual cases have ordered.

Sandra Cantu (victim) and Melissa Huckaby (accused murderer)
The Sandra Cantu case is one of those that have virtually disappeared from the local and national news broadcasts. The latest hearing for Melissa Huckaby was a very brief one with the defense postponing a plea from the accused and the judge, Linda Lofthus, ordering that the autopsy findings be sealed to "prevent public outrage", plus she ordered a gag order on everyone involved in the case. The next hearing will be May 22nd in the San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton. There have been a couple articles recently though. These articles are about the reward that had been offered when poor little Sandra disappeared.

Apparently there is a psychic in the Los Angeles area who thinks she deserves to get some of the reward money even though her "vision" wasn't exactly accurate and the investigators used none of the information provided by any psychics when they were searching for the child. This woman said she predicted the little girl would be found in a "barranca (A Spanish word for canyon or ravine.) and that she was killed in a church, and the killer was someone in the trailer park the little girl called home. Ok, she managed to get 2 out of 3, supposedly. But, since the Tracy police didn't use psychic predictions during the investigation, how much actual "good" did this woman do? I'd say "none".

The other article I found this morning is about the man who did do something to help the Tracy police find Sandra. This guy is the man who found that suitcase floating in that pond on the dairy. The original news reports that came out when Sandra's body was found in that suitcase said that the farm hand(s) who found it had refused the reward. Back then, the reporters said that the cops would be talking to the men. And apparently they did. The man who is receiving the reward money is Jose Luis Franco, and he'll be the recipient of a little more than $20,000. He says he'll be putting the money into a trust account to pay for the education of his four children. He's hoping that they will be able to go to college. Good for him! And good for his family!

The Public Information Officer with the Tracy Police Department, Sgt. Tony Sheneman says that the reward will be going only to Mr. Franco. Not to the supposed psychics who are trying to claim part of that reward. (Can you tell that I don't believe in a lot of the supposed psychics who claim they "solve murders"?)

Sources:
The Tracy Press (hearing and gag orders)
The Mercury News (psychic claim)
The Tracy Press (reward money awarded)

Maria Lauterbach (victim) and Cesar Laurean (accused murderer)
Now that Cesar Laurean has been extradited from Mexico and brought back to North Carolina, he's had his first hearing and an Onslow County judge issued a gag order in the case. The order states that to ensure Laurean's right to a fair trial, prosecutors, law enforcement officials and Laurean's defense attorney are not to release any information to the news media or the public that would "have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter." (Click here to read the gag order.) So, we'll get very little, if any, information about the case before it comes to trial. Whenever that will be. A date has not been set yet.

Sources:
jdnews.com
Investigation Discovery, The Criminal Report Daily (A very good overview of the case.)

Stacy Peterson (missing/murdered) and Drew Peterson (primary suspect)
Drew Peterson has been making himself seen and heard again. He was on a local morning show there in Chicago and he had the nerve to take his two teenage sons with him and put them on camera to defend their father. I suppose he thought this would be a "good move" to defend himself from the wrongful death suit that has been filed by the family of Kathleen Savio, Drew's 3rd wife who was found dead in her bathtub during a contentious divorce. As far as I'm concerned, he is exploiting those boys. They should not have been on TV defending Drew.

More news about Drew is that the authorities have not given up on searching for Stacy. The divers were out in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal again searching the other day. The searchers weren't commenting on what they were looking for nor on what they found, but they're out there... And from all the sources I've read so far, the searching has to do with the Stacy Peterson case. Plus, apparently Drew was on a talk-radio show this past week and Stacy's sister, Cassandra Cales called in and "lit into Drew". Interesting conversation... lol

Sources:
ABC 7 Chicago
The Herald News
Chicago Sun-Times (Be sure to check out the recording of the radio show and Cassandra's call.)

Caylee Anthony (victim) and Casey Anthony (accused murderer and mom of victim)
The Orlando authorities released a bunch of new documents about the case against Casey Anthony this week. Some of them are fascinating to read and have generated quite a few comments on the InSession message boards. I'm still trying to read through them, so I'll reserve any comment from me for now.. lol

George and Cindy Anthony are still trying desperately to defend their daughter, but the attorneys for Zenaida Gonzalez are asking a judge to force George and Cindy Anthony to respond to certain questions they would not answer during recent depositions. It should be interesting to see if the judge can force those two to behave themselves during a deposition. I've never seen behavior like theirs in a deposition! But then, I haven't been in that many of them.. lol..

Then we have Jose Baez giving an interview to an Orlando TV station where he says that Casey had "very compelling reasons" for her actions when referring to her partying for the 31 days that her child was missing before Cindy Anthony reported her missing. Uhm.. Yeah, right. Baez actually has the nerve to compare Casey's case to Cynthia Sommer's case. (And I'm not even going to link anything to that! Go google!) The "ugly coping" thing that Baez is trying to put out isn't going to work unless he puts Casey on the stand, in my opinion. And how many people think the guy would actually do that?

Sources:
WFTV (List of links to documents)
Orlando Sentinel (also about the documents released)
WESH (Article about the motion to compel the Anthony's to answer questions)
WESH (Article about Jose Baez interview)

Lana Clarkson (victim) and Phil Spector (convicted murderer)
The sentencing hearing for Phil will be on the 29th of this month. The only thing that I've heard since his conviction is that Rachelle and the rest of the "Phil is innocent" groupies are trying to circulate a petition to make the powers that be let him go free. Uhhh... Rachelle, do you really think that a petition is going to let your "dear hubby" out of prison? If so, I think you should sit down and think some more. I don't think it's going to happen.. Phil was convicted of 2nd degree murder and there's the added use of a gun that will extend his sentence. Rachelle, just keep up your comedy act.. You might need it one of these days to earn a living for yourself instead of living off Phil's royalties. Those just might be going to the Clarkson family when they win the wrongful death suit.

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I think I'll stop for now... Have I given you enough links and stuff to follow? lol... I think I'll go find some carrot sticks to munch on to take my mind off wanting a cigarette.............

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Magnitude 6.0 quake shakes corner of Nevada

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near the town of Wells in northeastern Nevada at dawn on Thursday, shaking residents in their beds and causing some damage, the U.S. Geological Survey and residents reported. There were no...

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A few pics of Wells Nevada Earthquake this morning + Story

Inspection crews with state agencies began examining bridges, dams and roads less than an hour after the earthquake struck shortly after 7 a.m.Seismologists with the University of Reno-Nevada are traveling to Wells to inspect the epicenter.
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I grabbed these stories off the Digg.com site because the earthquake happened where my niece lives. I tried phoning her as soon as I heard the news, but only got her voice mail. She lives on a ranch so she was probably out tending to chores on the property, taking care of the animals and such. So I called her Dad, my brother, and caught him driving down the highway in Virginia in his big rig. He said that my niece called her Mom this morning and said that she and her family were fine. I don't know if her place suffered any damage, but the pictures I've seen on a few websites show a lot of damage to the downtown district of Wells.

The Reno Gazette-Journal website has quite a few photos that show the damage. It's going to be quite a while before the city gets back to "normal".

I will try to update later after I've talked to my niece, or if I hear any any additional information.


Update ~ 2:15pm

The latest from the Reno Gazette-Journal is that there were no major injuries from the quake, and that 20 to 25 buildings in the historical downtown district suffered major damage. A quote from one of the articles I read says: Three injuries were reported, but they were “not very serious — a broken arm, some head lacerations, some difficulty breathing.” I still haven't talked to my niece, but will try calling her again this evening.

Update ~ 5:00pm

I still haven't been able to get a hold of my niece. I'm wondering if the phones are out or something. I don't have her cell number, but I have to wonder if even having her cell number would do me any good. One of the articles says that cell service is "spotty" right now. The latest news I've seen says that the town of Wells is closed until further notice. I read that they have closed off the offramps from I80 and I guess blocking other access roads into town. The only people allowed to go into town are residents. They've had at least 14 aftershocks so far. Utilities are still down, but crews are working hard to get electricity and water going again. Police are doing house to house checks to make sure no one else is injured or trapped.

Update ~ 8:30pm

I finally got a hold of my niece... She and her family are doing okay. They had some damage to their home, they're going to have to replace the chimney, and a lot of things were broken inside the house but basically they survived the main quake and all the aftershocks fairly well. They said it has hardly stopped shaking there with all the aftershocks. The animals on their ranch seem to have come through just fine too. Whew.. I can stop worrying now.