Obama support in Building Homes

The Obama administration unveiled Monday $600 million in financial aid for five more states with high unemployment that have been slammed by the housing bust.
The funding is for North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina and Rhode Island.
It comes on top of the $1.5 billion in funding announced last month by the Obama administration for Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada, which all have deeply depressed home prices.
After that announcement, lawmakers in other states pressed Obama officials for additional aid. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who was among those pushing for more help, called the funding "a smart investment that will help Rhode Island and other states that have been hit hardest by the recession."
The new money is going to housing finance agencies in states with the most people in counties with unemployment rates above 12 percent. The agencies will design programs that need to be approved by the Treasury Department.
Ohio got the largest share of funding, at $172 million, followed by North Carolina at $159 million and South Carolina at $138 million.
Oregon and Rhode Island are due to receive $88 million and $43 million respectively.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, called the announcement "a victory for Ohio communities."
It's the latest tactical chance for the Obama administration, which has been under pressure to do more to tackle the foreclosure crisis after its original plan fell flat. On Friday, the administration launched a plan to reduce the amount some troubled borrowers owe on their home loans and give jobless homeowners a temporary break.
Administration officials cautioned that the plan won't stop all foreclosures or help all troubled homeowners. Instead, officials said their goal is to meet their original target, announced last year, of helping 3 million to 4 million borrowers avoid foreclosure.

David Mikael Taclino
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Christian Militia in US?

Nine suspects tied to a Midwest Christian militia that was preparing for the Antichrist were charged with conspiring to kill police officers, then attack a funeral using homemade bombs in the hopes of killing more law enforcement personnel, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The Michigan-based group, called Hutaree, planned to use the attack on police as a catalyst for a larger uprising against the government, according to newly unsealed court papers. U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said agents moved on the group because its members were planning a violent mission sometime in April.
Members of the group, including its leader, David Brian Stone, also known as "Captain Hutaree," were charged following FBI raids over the weekend on locations in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
The idea of attacking a police funeral was one of numerous scenarios discussed as ways to go after law enforcement officers, the indictment said. Other scenarios included a fake 911 call to lure an officer to his or her death, or an attack on the family of a police officer.
Once other officers gathered for a slain officer's funeral, the group planned to detonate homemade bombs at the funeral, killing more, according to the indictment.
After such attacks, the group allegedly planned to retreat to "rally points" protected by trip-wired improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, for what they expected would become a violent standoff with law enforcement personnel.
"It is believed by the Hutaree that this engagement would then serve as a catalyst for a more wide-spread uprising against the government," the indictment charges.
According to investigators, the Hutaree view local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel as a "brotherhood" and an enemy, and planned to attack them as part of an armed struggle against the U.S. government.
The indictment charges members of the group conspired "to levy war against the United States, (and) to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States."
Eight suspects have been arrested by the FBI, and one more is being sought. Of the eight captured, seven were arraigned Monday in Detroit and ordered held pending a bond hearing Wednesday.
The charges against the eight include seditious conspiracy, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, teaching the use of explosives, and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction — homemade bombs. All seven defendants in court on Monday requested to be represented by the federal defender's office.
The arrests have dealt "a severe blow to a dangerous organization that today stands accused of conspiring to levy war against the United States," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday.
Stone's ex-wife, Donna Stone, told The Associated Press before the arraignments that her former husband was to blame for pulling her son into the Hutaree movement. She said David Brian Stone legally adopted her son, David Brian Stone Jr., who is among those indicted. She said the marriage lasted about 10 years.
"It started out as a Christian thing," said Donna Stone, 44. "You go to church. You pray. You take care of your family. I think David started to take it a little too far. He dragged a lot of people with him."
Another son of David Brian Stone, Joshua Matthew Stone, also was indicted and is a fugitive, said Detroit FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold.
On its Web site, Hutaree quotes several Bible passages and states: "We believe that one day, as prophecy says, there will be an Anti-Christ. ... Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment." There's also a picture on the site of 17 camouflaged men, all holding large guns.
The group didn't return an e-mail sent by The Associated Press, and attempts by telephone to reach the Stones went unanswered.
FBI agents in Michigan swarmed a rural, wooded property Saturday evening in Adrian, about 70 miles southwest of Detroit. The same night in Hammond, Ind., law enforcement agents flooded a neighborhood, startling workers at a nearby pizzeria. And in Ohio authorities blocked off streets and raided two homes.
Outside Adrian, two ramshackle trailers sat side-by-side on Stone's property. A long gun leaned against a washing machine that sat in the yard, and on top of a nearby canister was another long gun.
Heidi Wood, who lives near the property, said Monday morning she hears gunshots "all the time."
Her mother, Phyllis Brugger, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, said Stone and his family were known as having ties to militia. They would shoot guns and often wore camouflage, the women said.
"Everybody knew they were militia," Brugger said. "You don't mess with them."
In Hammond, 18-year-old George Ponce, who works at a pizzeria next door to a home that was raided, said he and a few co-workers stepped outside for a break Saturday night and saw a swarm of law enforcement.
"I heard a yell, 'Get back inside!' and saw a squad member pointing a rifle at us," Ponce said. "They told us the bomb squad was going in, sweeping the house looking for bombs."
He said another agent was in the bushes near the house, and law enforcement vehicles were "all over." He estimated that agents took more than two dozen guns from the house.
In Ohio, one of the raids occurred at Bayshore Estates, a well-kept trailer park in Sandusky, a small city on Lake Erie between Toledo and Cleveland. Neighbors said the man taken into custody lived in a trailer on a cul-de-sac with his wife and two young children.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
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Coach "K" ? NCAA Final Four Update

He had snipped away at the nets, bear-hugged his players and high-fived all the hands that dangled over the railings after Duke advanced to the Final Four.
Still, as Mike Krzyzewski jogged up the Reliant Stadium tunnel following the Blue Devils’ 78-71 victory over Baylor, it didn’t take him long to realize that something was missing.
“Hey Coach!” an usher yelled. “You forgot your wife.”
Krzyzewski couldn’t help but chuckle as he turned and saw his bride, Mickie, trotting toward him. Somehow, amid all the hoopla, he had neglected to share the moment with the person he loved the most.
“Sorry about that,” Krzyzewski said as he pecked Mickie on the lips. “It was all so crazy out there.”
The Blue Devils had reached the Final Four 10 times under Krzyzewski before Sunday – but all of those appearances were before 2004. In other words, by beating Baylor in the South Regional final, Duke ended its five-year drought of advancing to college basketball’s final weekend.
“It’s good for us to get this, but we’re happy for him, too,” center Brian Zoubek said of Krzyzewski. “This is not just another Final Four to him.”
Indeed, as much heat as the senior class of Zoubek, Jon Scheyer and Lance Thomas had taken for their early NCAA tournament exits, even more criticism had been directed toward Krzyzewski.
Duke has won just one ACC title since its last Final Four appearance, and only three Blue Devils players in the last five years have been first-round selections in the NBA draft.
With Roy Williams and the North Carolina Tar Heels dominating Tobacco Road – before this year, Duke lost four straight home games to its heated rival – there were those who questioned whether the Hall of Fame coach had “it” anymore.
“Through all the struggles we’ve had as a senior class, he’s been right there with us,” Zoubek said. “He’s been fighting for us. He’s had to deal with all the criticism and the hatred and everything that comes along with not doing as well as people had hoped.”
Some Blue Devils fans were also peeved that Krzyzewski agreed to coach the United States in the 2008 Olympics because they thought it took away from his work at Duke.
Scheyer said he never sensed that Krzyzewski was “worn down” by the barbs that were thrown his way. If anything, they made the coach stronger.
“It hasn’t been good having sad locker rooms at the end of every season,” Scheyer said. “But the one thing that’s unbelievable about coach is the passion that he brings into every season, every game. Never once can I say that he hasn’t had that.”
Anyone who needed to be reminded of just how good of a coach Krzyzewski truly is needed only to watch Sunday’s game against Baylor. The Bears were bigger, stronger, longer and glaringly more athletic than the Blue Devils, but the pesky zone defense that worked so well for Scott Drew’s squad all season didn’t seem to rattle Duke.
The Blue Devils had no problem finding open looks during a game in which they shot nearly 50 percent (11-for- 23) from 3-point range. They also didn’t back down from a menacing Bears squad that was as physical of a team as they’ve seen all season
Duke scored 23 second-chance points against Baylor and out-rebounded the Bears 43-37.
“We had to work harder than any game this year to get this win,” Scheyer said. “We had to play our butts off.”
That’s part of the reason why this has been one of Krzyzewski’s more impressive coaching jobs.
Other than Kyle Singler – who scored just five points Sunday – Duke doesn’t have any players who are headed for NBA stardom. And Scheyer joked about how one analyst referred to him and his teammates as “alarmingly un-athletic.”
Plus, this was supposed to be a transition year for the Blue Devils, who lost two of their top players (Gerald Henderson and Elliot Williams) from last season.
When Duke was awarded a No. 1 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament, critics whined that the Blue Devils were undeserving because their conference was as bad as it’s been in years. Yet here are the Blue Devils, the only No. 1 seed that’s still alive heading into the Final Four in Indianapolis.
As much credit should go to the Blue Devils, equal praise should be heaped on Krzyzewski, who continues to maximize the potential of a squad that takes pride in its resolve.
“I’ve never had a group exactly like this one,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re not a great team, but we’re a really good team, and we have great character. To be around that character on a day-to-day basis is so fulfilling to me.”
When Krzyzewski finally reached the locker room Sunday, he told his players not to worry about West Virginia, their next opponent.
Not yet, anyway. He said he wanted his team to relish in the moment, to sit back and absorb what it accomplished in the face of doubters. Duke’s players said they hope their coach takes time to do the same thing.
“This is special for Coach, because for four years he’s watched us blossom into what we are now,” Thomas said. “But this team still has a lot more in the tank.”
Krzyzewski, it now appears, does, too.


David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
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Youngest Sailor to Quest the World Alone

Abby Sunderland, 16, who cannot legally drive a car but is two months into a quest to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone, on Tuesday will face by far her most daunting challenge yet: the rounding of Cape Horn.

While her friends back home in Southern California are savoring the pleasures of spring, Sunderland is pondering the treacherous passage between South America and Antarctica. With its mountainous, heaving seas and gale-force winds, Cape Horn is a mariners' graveyard, regarded as the Mt. Everest of the yachting universe.

Reached this week via email the budding adventurer from Thousand Oaks claimed she was not afraid.

"I understand very well how dangerous the ocean is, and especially where I am, and I sail carefully and never forget how fast things can turn bad out here," she responded, from a position west of southern Argentina and 700 miles from Cape Horn. "But fear would just get in the way. When things are going on, you don't have time to be scared about it; you have to just get your head around everything and deal with it."

If Sunderland is successful it will mark her first major milestone and the beginning of a long, easterly Southern Ocean traverse aboard a 40-foot yacht named Wild Eyes. Her voyage is controversial because of her age, but also because she'll be entering this notoriously inhospitable stretch as the Southern Hemisphere summer fades to autumn and savagely cold and stormy weather begins to set in.

"My biggest hope is that she has he maturity to wait out any nasty weather rather than push too hard for a record and risk getting into trouble," says Charlie Nobles, executive director of the American Sailing Assn.

Sunderland, who lives in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and embarked Jan. 23 from Marina del Rey, Calif., is one of two 16-year-old girls attempting nonstop, unassisted solo-circumnavigations, subsiding on freeze-dried food and desalinated water, while accepting only verbal or online guidance from home-based teams.

Australia's Jessica Watson began her odyssey from Sydney last October and rounded Cape Horn on Jan. 13. Soon afterward she endured 70-knot winds that threatened to capsize her 34-foot pink sloop.

Watson, now more than 18,000 miles along and crossing the Indian Ocean, is five months older than Sunderland, so Sunderland will become the youngest if she completes her trip within five months of Watson's ending date. (Abby's brother Zac, who completed his voyage at 17, briefly held the distinction as being the youngest sailor to solo-circumnavigate the planet but he made several stops. England's Mike Perham, who is slightly younger, stole that honor weeks later.)

Abby Sunderland's trip was delayed by about two months because of boat issues. Her parents assure, however, that she'll listen closely to weather experts and scurry to the nearest port if conditions become too harsh.

Meanwhile, the intrepid mariner is faring reasonably well. "I miss my family, and my dog, and my friends," she wrote, adding that thoughts often turn to her 5-year-old sister, Katherine. They share a bedroom and Katherine idolizes Abby, and has not slept in the room alone since Abby's departure.

Aside from bouts of loneliness, the eldest Sunderland daughter--one of seven children, with an eighth on the way--insists she's relishing the experience of a lifetime. "Everything around me is so amazing, just standing out on deck is exhilarating," she explained. "Every day there are new experiences, and they always seem better than the last; everything from squalls to gales, to just racing along."

Her parents, on the other hand, are besieged by the same type of angst as when Zac was braving gales and encountering ghost ships carrying suspected pirates.

"I have definitely been recruiting the people in my life who pray," said the mother, Marianne, in reference to a recent convergence of severe weather fronts that were falsely predicted to slam Wild Eyes. "But I am super-impressed with how Abby has handled everything, from the boat and its workings to the loneliness and monotony of everyday life at sea. But I'll be glad when she has rounded the Horn and can get back up into some calmer waters."

Abby might get to see her father before she rounds Cape Horn. Laurence Sunderland has flown to Argentina and hired a captain to take him out to try to photograph Wild Eyes before his daughter attempts the passage, but that might prove difficult as 20- to 25-knot winds and large swells are in the forecast through Tuesday.

After she gets around South America's tip, Abby will turn to the north and attempt to outrun a building Antarctic storm. Ultimately, she'll cross the southern Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, pass between Australia and New Zealand and cross the Pacific on a northeast course toward home.

That's a lot of water to cover and, given her late start, perhaps a lot of icebergs to dodge as well.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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Associated Press and "The Pacific" Interview

Assigning a reporter to ask other people's questions in an interview is a bit like asking a taxi driver to turn the wheel over to a passenger.

But when the AP gathered questions via Facebook last week for me to ask of Dr. Sidney Phillips, it turned out to be an interesting change of pace — and a reminder that curiosity, whether that of a reporter or news consumer, is the basis of journalism.

Those interested in the veteran's perspective on war and more included students at a preparatory school in Georgia, a woman whose father was a Marine in the Pacific and an Egyptian who had served in his country's army and had once lived in the United States.

The questions sent to AP were thoughtful and, when I put them to Dr. Phillips, drew interesting and sometimes very personal answers. When asked what helped keep Phillips going and on mission throughout World War II, the veteran cited the trust and support of his fellow Marines. Then he added colorful examples of how that translated.

"Those guys would say, 'Phillips, you're so dumb you couldn't pour urine out of a boot with directions on the heel,' " he recalled in response to a question that Melanie York Shepherd submitted on behalf of a class at the Savannah Christian Preparatory School. "That meant they liked you. ... When shelling would get unbelievable, there's one guy that would say, 'Everybody stay calm. Don't lose your head and go to pieces.' Marines are a different group of people."

Phillips, who is played in HBO's miniseries by Ashton Holmes, was 17 when he enlisted the day after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He fought on Guadalcanal and joined in the invasion of another island in the Pacific theater, New Britain.

On his return to Mobile, Ala., he became a physician and raised three children with his wife, Mary, who died in 2000.

Facebook user Sharol Olson Ulrich, whose father landed on Guadalcanal, asked if Phillips still considers himself a Marine.

"Oh, absolutely," he said. "Once a Marine, always a Marine."

"The Pacific" debuted March 14, with new episodes airing at 9 p.m. EDT on Sundays through May 16.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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