Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where you can hang out, talk about what is going on with you, listen to music, talk about the news and the goings on here and everywhere.
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News
Oh dear...
Obama approval rating dips below 40%
President Obama hit a dubious milestone today, sinking below a 40% approval rating in the Gallup daily tracking poll.
Only 39% of respondents approve of Obama's job performance in today's Gallup survey, which calculates a three-day rolling average.
The war conflict disagreement might finally be over soon.
Libya: Tripoli braces for Gaddafi’s final curtain
Nato’s war in Libya has so far been one of false starts and missed deadlines. But with rebels now inside the key city of Zawiya, potentially isolating Gaddafi’s regime in Tripoli, the conflict has entered its decisive phase – and not before time. The campaign of air strikes to stop Col Muammar Gaddafi killing his own citizens began in mid-March with high hopes the regime would not see the start of summer. President Nicolas Sarkozy gave orders for the action to be wrapped up by Bastille Day. But air strikes failed to deliver the knockout blow and there was a glimpse of French panic in a weapons drop to rebels. July 14 came and went and the Mad Dog of the Middle East was still in his bunker.
History will view July as the low point of the campaign. America reduced its contributions to a minimal supporting role. David Cameron came across as hostage to an ill-advised adventure that went against the grain of defence cuts and reduced overseas military commitments. As Gaddafi’s officials worked to secure traction on a negotiated settlement, Foreign Secretary William Hague grimly conceded Gaddafi could remain in Libya if stripped of power. Two European powers faced a watershed as Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy struggled to impose regime change by military force in their Mediterranean backyard.
With friends like these....
US thinks Pakistan let China see secret chopper
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials suspect that Pakistan allowed the Chinese military to see secret new U.S. technology — the U.S. helicopter that crashed in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Two senior defense officials said Monday that it is not certain, but that officials suspect Pakistan let the Chinese military see the aircraft. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
It's great to see a community come together, but its a shame that it took something like this. Imagine the tragedies we could avoid...
March aims to draw attention to slaying of black Mississippi man
More than 500 people, including clergymen, elected officials and mothers pushing strollers, gathered here Sunday to denounce the killing of an African American auto plant employee in what authorities say was a racially motivated hate crime.
The slaying of James C. Anderson initially attracted little notice outside the immediate area, but since a security camera recording of the June 26 incident was broadcast nationally last week, the case has drawn coast-to-coast attention.
Anderson, 49, was beaten and run over in the parking lot of a motel. Prosecutors say the 5 a.m. attack was committed by a group of white teenagers from nearby Brandon, Miss. Two 18-year-olds have been charged in the case. Deryl Dedmon, the alleged driver of the green pickup that ran over Anderson, is charged with murder and remains jailed; bond was set at $800,000. John A. Rice, originally charged with murder, now faces a charge of simple assault. He was freed on $5,000 bail.
Things that go bump in the night...
Errant blimp lands in woman’s yard
WORTHINGTON, Ohio - A 94-year-old woman who woke up to discover that a breakaway blimp from a nearby airport had landed in her backyard said she heard a bang during stormy weather but did not realize what happened until police knocked on her door about seven hours later.
The 128-foot-long blimp broke free of its moorings at a Columbus airport during strong winds early yesterday, drifted to the sky, headed eastward, and landed in Lillian Bernhagen’s backyard in Worthington, less than 2 miles from Ohio State University’s Don Scott airfield.
Galaxies Collide To Form Cosmic Exclamation Mark
VV 340, also known as Arp 302, provides a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the early stages of their interaction. The edge-on galaxy near the top of the image is VV 340 North and the face-on galaxy at the bottom of the image is VV 340 South.
Millions of years later these two spirals will merge — much like the Milky Way and Andromeda will likely do billions of years from now. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) are shown here along with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue). VV 340 is located about 450 million light years from Earth.
Because it is bright in infrared light, VV 340 is classified as a Luminous Infrared Galaxy (LIRG). These observations are part of the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) combining data from Chandra, Hubble, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and ground-based telescopes.
Kidney Donation From Deceased Marine Saves a Fellow Marine's Life
A year after Sgt. Jacob Chadwick, 23, was deployed to Iraq with Regimental Combat Team 1, he returned to his home in San Marcos, Calif., only to suffer blinding, week-long headaches: the first sign of his failing kidneys.
Last Sunday, Chadwick underwent a four-and-a-half hour kidney transplant that saved his life. His kidney donor was a fellow Marine, 24-year-old Lt. Patrick Wayland from Midland, Texas, who went into cardiac arrest on Aug. 1 at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida.
On Friday, while the Waylands were attending their son's funeral services, Chadwick was visiting the UC San Diego Medical Center to check on his measured recovery.