Local Girl Found Dead Near South Beach

After a mysterious death near the South Beach Shoal police are scrambling for answers.

Wendy W. Watson, 17, of 23 Sharkstooth St., Amnity, and a senior at Amnity High School, was found mangled after her companion, a teenager from Hartford who's identity is being withheld, reported her missing at 4 a.m.

Watson, who was described as an excellent swimmer, was swimming near the South Beach Shoal Buoy but her companion was unable to give anymore information.

According to witnesses, both teenagers had been drinking heavily before they went swimming.

The Amnity Police have speculated that the cause of death could have been a shark attack but police cheif Martin Brody said he isn't ready to give any surefire answers. "We're very busy with this and don't have time for rumors."

Brody, who is working his first Amnity summer, isn't ready to take drastic measures to prevent another shark attack; is more worried with the ongoing investigation. "Our lovely beaches will remain open for swimming pending the outcome of the investigation."

The body, was found thoroughly mangled on the beach the morning after the attack.

No charges have been made yet.

Another Death At Beach

After a body was found on South Beach this morning, their has been another death in Amnity, this time coming from Village Beach.
Alex B. Kintner, 10, of Mayfair Court, Amnity was killed while floating on a rubber raft with a group of friends.  The attack happened at approximatly 2 p.m.
This is the second attack that has happened in the water.  Early this morning, Wendy Watson, was killed, her body found mangled after washing up on shore.
A large group of people on the beach witnessed the attack, including Alex's mother, Marion Kintner, and police chief, Martin Brody.

Mrs. Kintner, was taken to Amnity General Hospital and treated for shock, she is in fair condition. 

Chief Brody is still unsure of what caused both deaths and say's it's to early to label the causes of either death.  "I've been at this job for a long long time and I've seen some pretty bizarre things.  It could be possible that people were hiding underwater.  We have had trouble with people coming over from Nantucket and causing trouble.
A special meeting has been called by Mayor Bob Farley, Brody, and the town selectman tonight.


Although a shark attack is not being cited as the definite perpetrator, Chief Brody will be asking the selectman to shut the beach down at the meeting and Ben Quint, a veteran fisherman in the Amnity region, will be offering to hunt down a shark which he believes is the murderer.   

This is a complete three-sixty from what the city was planning to do earlier when Brody stressed that the beach should stay open.  "After the unfortunate incident with the young Watkins girl we had no idea what happened and no real reason to close the beach, hindsight is 20/20 but I'm not going to blame anyone for the tragedy that occurred."

Mayor Farley was somber when talking about how the attacks affected Amnity.  "Now we know that these random acts of senseless violence, victimizing innocent, helpless citizens, do not just happen in the city."

Small children crying, cotton candy machines being searched through, and a famed beast possibly on the rampage?
One of the rarest animals in the world and the Durham Zoo’s prized possession, Fluffy a ten year old spotted leopard, has gone missing from her cage.
Fluffy, the last female of her species in the world, was first spotted missing by James Petronkis, a Newmarket resident, Petronkis visits the Durham Zoo at 7:30 every morning to see Fluffy.
After noticing that Fluffy’s cage did not have her bed of hay in it, Petronkis became worried and tried to alert zoo officials by pulling the fire alarm. A half an hour later zoo officials checked Fluffy’s cage and house and then realized that the leopard was missing.
After an hour of unsuccessful searching for the cat, Gerry Durrel, director of the Durham Zoo, called a press conference to alert the public to Durham’s missing beast. Durrel said that Fluffy’s cage did not seem to be tampered with and the fencing was unbroken.
He also said that at 7:30 when zoo officials started feeding animals they noticed that Fluffy was missing, in contrast to Petronkis’s story.
The zoo has been closed down to the public while the search for the animal continues.
There are no leads for those searching for Fluffy said Durrell and the last time the leopard was last seen was 9 p.m. the night before, in her cage.
Police Chief William Blair said that a search is underway and “We will search every inch of this zoo.”
If Fluffy does not show up at the zoo though the search will continue, “If we can’t find her in the zoo we will begin searching the neighborhood, moving farther and farther away from the zoo. “
A primary concern according to the chief is finding Fluffy before 3 p.m. when the local elementary school it let out.
According to Durham Zoo chief biologist, Kitty Smith, “these leopards had to be driven to the brink of extinction because of their appetite for young children.”
Smith described Fluffy as being black with white spots, weighting 146 pounds, and with the ability to run up to 60 miles per hour.
Blair, speaking about the animal also said that they are able to see perfectly well at night.
This is an animal that has a "kill now, ask later," approach to the world according to Smith. Meaning that finding the cat after dark or cornering the leopard is the not the way to capture it.

Hackers Said To Breach Google Password System

This article spins the world of hacking into the forefront of the news. The author of the article, John Markoff, does a good job of taking a shadowy subject that doesn't receive much attention and showing how much impact hacking can have on the world. Even major projects by Google that have the personal information of millions of users on it can be hacked and taken advantage of by people with bad intentions.
The evidence and details behind the hacking doesn't make much of a story, but a follow up when more information on the subject is uncovered should be run.

Seeking College Spot, and Finding BIgger Limbo

As a college student who went through this similar process, twice, I initially felt like I could relate to this article. I was completely wrong though, despite having to wait patiently to get back acceptance letters I as never put in the same position that students like Ms. Koski had to face.
What got under my skin in this article was how Duke was expecting to make approximately 60+ students lose their registration fees at other colleges. Students shouldn't have to pay for that, its Duke' fault for not making their minds up.
I think the writer does a good job of catching the high-stakes game of applying to college. It's a tossup and you never know what could happen.

Bread
A French man was gunned down yesterday afternoon after shooting and killing four people in Brooklyn.
The assailant, Pierre Jeantot, 36 of Nice, France, initially opened fire on New York City Poice Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle from the roof of an apartment building at 1767 W. 57th Avenue.
Jeantot fired three bullets at Doyle, striking a passing by woman, Betty B. Badluck, 63 of the Bronx, who was walking her granddaughter.
Jeantot, who is suspected of being associated with a major heroin operation providing the drug from France. Jeantot arrived in the United States on November 4th, on a flight from Paris, according to Homeland Security records.
Popeye subdued Jeantot after a lengthy train chase in which Doyle had to commandeer a vehicle and chase down Jeantot who was responsible for collision of two trains.
Police commissioner Ruth L. Ess wasn't pleased with the way things turned out saying, "It is always unfortunate when these incidents end in a loss of life. We would have preferred to see Jeantot prosecuted."
She still hailed Doyle though for his, "bravery and quick thinking under very trying circumstances."
Meat
The chase started after Jeantot opened fire from the roof of the apartment building and struck Ms. Badluck, firing two more shots at Doyle. Doyle took cover behind a tree and waited until Jeantot missed another shot before rushing the door of the building while hugging it's wall.

Doyle ran up the stairs but found nothing on the roof except the automatic rifle used by Jeantot and seven bullet casings. After finding nothing else on the roof, Doyle observed Jeantot fleeing the apartment building and running across the street. Doyle hustled back down to ground-level in pursuit of Jeantot.

Jeantot made his way to the 35th St. Train Station and was able to sneak onto the train without letting Doyle access into the train.

After getting directions to where the train was going from the ticket booth attendant, Doyle commandeered a red car and followed underneath the train tracks into oncoming traffic, heading towards the 25th Avenue Station.

On the train, Jeantot fired one shot into the chest of policeman Roland Evans, before making his way to the conductors car were he held his .44 magnum to the head of conductor Horatio C. Hornblower.

Jeantot forced Hornblower to keep the train going and skip the 25th Avenue Station stop, forcing Doyle to return to his car and follow the train.

Doyle was then side swiped twice and forced to crash into a pillar to avoid oncoming traffic and pedestrians. He than slammed into a concrete wall near the 15th Street Station before getting out to confront Jeantot.

Jeantot than shot trainman Peter Howe, who was trying to reason with Jeantot as the assassin kept his gun pointed to Hornblowers head. The stress of this insued a heart attack for Hornblower who died at the controls.

Jeantot, was unable to stop the train which smashed into the back of another train at 15th Station.

While Jeantot wandered around in a slight daze, Doyle was able to pinpoint the Frenchman from the street and confronted Jeantot at a stairway leading down to 15th Ave.

As Jeantot turned around to resume fleeing, Doyle fired one round from his .38 caliber service revolver into Jeantot's chest, killing him and ending the chase.
Bread
Evans, who was 34 and from Brooklyn, was a fifteen year veteran of the New York City Police Department.
Hornblower, thirty, was from White Plains and Howe, twenty-seven, was from Queens.
Ess called the force used by Doyle "justified under the circumstances." And said that the investigation into the crime syndicate will be continued both vigorously and thoroughly.

China's State Censors Tackle and Trip Over the Internet

From April 8th-

The Chinese governments censorship has been issue for awhile now and this article served as an interesting update on the issue.
The government has taken some very ludicrous steps to make sure that people are in line with the ideas and views of the government. Having bloggers blog about how great the government is and placing people in chat rooms to do see what people are saying about the government and promoting the government at the same time are sneaky moves.
I feel bad for the Chinese people who are forced to think what the government wants them to believe. The citizens have no say and no chance to have a say or know whats going on in the world. I think any TRUE American would agree with me on the issue of censorship though.

Aerospace Business Has Its Doubts About Administration Plans to Revamp NASA

The business of space travel is not a topic that most people are educated on. That's what drew this articles attention to me.
The most interesting part of the article to me was the section on Bigelow Aerospace. While everyone's heard of Boeing and possibly heard of Lockheed Martin, Bigelow is a new name to me in the space travel industry.
What most surprised me about Bigelow is how ambitious they are looking to become in a such a short period of time. The world economy is in ruin, prices of everything are skyrocketing, I can barely afford gas, and Bigelow Aerospace is expecting their business to rocket off the ground. Bigelow is expecting to surpass both Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and the rest of the established space travel industry in a five year period. That is a gutsy move, and I for one might have found a company to invest in.

U.S. Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric

From April 6th-

Now I'm not one to usually get involved or interested with the "War on Terrorism." To me it's pretty much America Tries to Do a Crusade and we all know how all the other Crusades turned out.
This little piece though about an American being targeted by America hit me oddly though. It's not even the fact that we are targeting one of our own, because I'm completely fine with that, but that fact people are even making a stink of it. Al-Awlaki is not an American in my book. Once you turn against your country you are stripped of being a member of that nation. I mean Hitler was a Jew but no one classifies him as a Jew. Al-Awlaki is in the exact same boat, perhaps a smaller one, in my book.
I approve of the US governments decision on this one, anyone who goes out of his way to harm our nation, "American" or not, needs to pay for it. Al-Awlaki is a modern Benedict Arnold.

Where a Cellphone Is Still Cutting Edge

From April 9th-

I found this to be one of the more interesting articles I've seen since I started this blog. Not only does it have great facts and interesting information it shows a great contrast between the "West" (more like just America) and everyone else.
I never knew that a cellphone could be used in all the different ways that people use them for in poor countries. For example, I think the idea to use a cellphone like a credit card/bank account in brilliant. Just imagine how much easier banking and bills would be! I mean I thought the purpose of a cellphone was to text, play games, and have cool ringtones! (Joke)
Another thing that blows me away in this article is that fact that more people have cellphones then have toilets. I never really thought about it but having a cellphone is A LOT more important than having a toilet in the modern world but I've just taken having a toilet around me for granted.
America really does look at the world the wrong way, our society is to engaged in luxury rather than doing things cheap which is what made are country so great in its early days.

Europe Unifies to Assist Greece With Line of Aid

The status of the EU's economy seems to be better than it appeared when Greece first broke news of their enormous debt. It still is worrying though that such a large part of the EU is facing debt of over forty-million euros.

One of the things that popped into my mind while reading this article was that Greece just hosted the Summer Olympics in 2004. Before the Olympics their was a lot of doubt whether the Greeks could build the necessary athletic complexes needed and whether or not Athens was clean or safe enough. Maybe the biggest worry that people should have had was whether or not Greece had the money to afford those Olympics and if this fallout from Greece will make other countries rethink their plans to host major sporting events in the future. I'm looking at you South Africa, seriously though, do we really think South Africa can afford to host and build the complexes necessary for the World Cup this summer?