September 2009 - Posts
By Leo Juarez, NBC News Producer
CHICAGO – You might think with all the star power surrounding Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics – with President Barack Obama expected to join first lady Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey in Copenhagen – that there would be a groundswell of support for the effort here in the Windy City.
There just might be, but that depends on which poll you believe.
This week, the Chicago 2016 bid committee trumpeted a Zogby poll showing that 72 percent of Chicagoans "back the bid" (to use the committee's slogan).
But that is a far cry from a Chicago Tribune poll released earlier this month that had locals split down the middle, with just 47 percent for the bid versus 45 percent against it.
I did my own highly unscientific poll this week and heard arguments on both sides. Everyone agreed the president's in-person pitch could not hurt Chicago's chances, and that the games could show the world the best the city has to offer. But that publicity is not free, and concern lingers about a projected budget that already exceeds $2 billion and cost overruns that have been a staple of recent Olympic history.
CONTINUED >>
By John Baiata, NBC News’ Senior Editor
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Political activism from rock stars has a long lineage. You can trace it all the way back to George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh" in 1972, the "No Nukes" concert in New York in 1979, "LIVE AID" and "We Are the World" in the 1980's, and many more. Today such activism is ubiquitous. Concert-goers are urged to support a wide range of causes, and artists' web sites act as grass-roots organizations for a multitude of high-minded projects.
But no band – and no band leader – embodies this ideal more today than U2 and Bono. The band supports the efforts of Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the Chernobyl Children’s Project. Bono has used his fame to put considerable pressure on countries to reduce the burden of debt on developing countries and to draw attention to the fight against AIDS in Africa with his RED project.
 |
| Evan Agostini / AP |
| Lead singer Bono of the rock band U2 performs with the band during their 360 world tour stop at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ on Thursday. |
U2 was the first big band to play in Sarajevo after the Bosnian war, launched an effort to put thousands of musical instruments back in the hands of New Orleans artists after Katrina, and have been very vocal in their support of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Many of their songs over the years have drawn on socio-political events for inspiration – from the fighting in Northern Ireland to the civil war in El Salvador.
The band’s latest world tour, in support of their most recent album, "No Line on the Horizon," has drawn praise from critics. The tour’s latest stop, at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, sold out for its two nights. With 84,000 attendees per night, that’s more over 160,000 to rally to the cause(s) in just two nights. (According to U2's Web site, they broke every record for attendence in the stadium - breaking the record previously set by Pope John Paul II in 1995.) Do the math for the rest of the tour, and you begin to understand the extent of the band’s reach, and that of others with similar followings.
But what’s the real draw, the music or the message?
CONTINUED >>
By John Yang, NBC News Correspondent
PITTSBURGH – There are many groups protesting many things outside the G-20 summit: Iraq War veterans against the war, Tibetans against China's policies on Tibet, anarchists against just about everything. But students promoting hula-hoops?
A small band of young people marched through the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Oakland, home of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University, gyrating their hips and carrying signs with anti-war messages: "Out of Uniform and into Hoops," "Put Down Your Arms and Pick Up Your Hoops."
A message with a grin.
With riot police
turning back hundreds of protesters trying to march on the first day of the international summit, we’ll see how the rest of the day develops. Stay tuned.
Related link: What is the G-20?
CONTINUED >>
By Sandra Lilley, NBC News Producer
NEW YORK – Ingrid Hong, a petite insurance agent with two grown children, rose early Wednesday morning and left her Queens, New York residence with a placard – and a mission: "We encourage people to get peace by meditation and no killing – but mainly, we urge people to keep a vegetarian diet."
Hong was among hundreds who braved the crowds and the police barricades to come to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across from the United Nations, on Wednesday to try to compete for attention with the headline-generating protests associated with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
She is part of a group called "The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association," which advocates what they consider a simple solution to combat global warming. "According to a U.N. report," Hong explained, "livestock farming contributes more greenhouse gases than the energy sectors…We want the government to encourage organic farming."
 |
| Michael Nagle / EPA |
| Demonstrators protest against Iran in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations headquarters on Wednesday. |
Hong and others in her group occupied a prominent position next to a police barricade at the entrance to the plaza. Amid somber and occasionally graphic posters of wounded and dead Iranian protesters, the vegan group’s placards, "Be Veg, Go Green, Save the Planet," seemed to inspire many walkers to stop and chat. "You go!" shouted a well-dressed middle-aged woman. "I’m a vegan myself! Way to go!"
CONTINUED >>
By Sandra Lilley, NBC News Producer
NEW YORK – Yussif Ali did not mind waking up at 2 a.m. this morning to come from his native Boston to Dag Hammarskold Plaza, next to the United Nations, to support a world leader he respects.
"I set aside two doctor appointments today to come see [Moammar] Gadhafi’s first time visiting the United States. To me, he’s a hero," the union carpenter said.
While many Americans associate Gadhafi with the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, (Libya formally admitted responsibility for the attack in 2003), Ali and hundreds of others who gathered across the street from the U.N. on Wednesday have a very different view of the Libyan leader.
 |
| Bebeto Matthews / AP |
| Supporters of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi watch a broadcast of his address to the United Nations General Assembly at Dag Hammarskold Plaza in New York on Wednesday. |
"I’m a black American and taking lives of innocent people is wrong and unforgiveable and I see no excuses," said Ali, who has been a member of The Nation of Islam for more than 25 years. "But I don’t believe Col. Gadhafi gave anyone a direct order. You have a lot of radical people you can’t control."
An imposing phalanx of hundreds of Nation of Islam supporters dressed in dark suits flanked the walkway that led to a podium at the end of the plaza. A large JumboTron television had been set up to allow those assembled to watch Gadhafi’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
CONTINUED >>
By Jeff Rossen, NBC News Correspondent
BEDFORD, N.Y. – "What is that terrorist doing here anyway," one Bedford resident said to us, referring to Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan leader who erected a tent in this ritzy town.
We're about an hour north of New York City where Gadhafi pitched a tent on Donald Trump's property. Yes, Trump lives here – so does Martha Stewart (told ya it's ritzy).
Turns out, Gadhafi prefers tents to hotels. Apparently he hates riding in elevators, ruling out many of the city's high-rise hotels. So, he sets up tents wherever he goes. He did so in Paris and Rome, and tried to pitch one in Central Park. But the city denied his request. So he tried to pitch one in Englewood, N.J. The neighbors and even the governor pitched a fit. No go there either.
So, the Libyan government apparently made a deal with the Trump Organization to allow Gadhafi to set up his famous tent on the Trump estate in Bedford. The Trump Organization denied that they knowingly rented the property to the man President Ronald Reagan famously called "the mad dog of the Middle East." Rather, it said part of the estate, "was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship to Mr. Gadhafi."
Either way, there is no "Welcome" mat here. One Bedford neighbor just told me, "He's a criminal. He’s a terrorist. He needs to go back where he belongs. We don't want him here."
CONTINUED >>
By Ron Allen, NBC News Correspondent
NEW YORK – It’s been a very difficult day covering the 9/11 anniversary events.
We have been positioned on the tenth floor balcony of an office building across the street from ground zero. It’s a very good vantage point to see the World Trade Center site, but today it has been a very hard place to broadcast from. Mother Nature bestowed a wet, rainy day on New York City for this somber day.
The winds have been gusting all morning. Rain has been falling and blowing sideways. Tents are useless – a couple of them blew dangerously over the balcony to the street below. But it’s the best place to see ground zero in its entirety.
I've been up on this balcony every few years since the Sept. 11 attacks. I was living in London when the attacks happened and suddenly found myself on my way to Pakistan and Afghanistan for several months. After several years of reporting from overseas, I returned to New York.
I can see the progress at ground zero. And I can also see the overwhelming amount of work left to rebuild.
CONTINUED >>
By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent
SARASOTA BAY, Fla. – Off of Florida’s Gulf Coast, lives perhaps the most unusual wild dolphin: "Beggar."
It’s a nickname earned years ago when this highly intelligent bottle-nosed dolphin learned there’s more than one way to satiate his appetite.
Beggar, you see, has turned the tables and trained humans.
They come almost every day and fall into his trap.
This aging dolphin listens for the propeller of an engine, swims up alongside a boat, rolls to his side, and with his etched smile, appears to stare right into the eyes of those on board. And so the seduction begins.
Beggar wants food.
Routinely, excited kids and adults succumb to his charm, reach into a cooler, and pull out something to eat.
And that’s the problem say federal authorities.
Feeding human food to a dolphin can be dangerous, mostly to the dolphin.
"He's gotten chips, sandwiches, pickles, sardines, beer," said Randall Wells, a biologist with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.
Human food can make a dolphin ill. "It might even kill him," said Wells.
CONTINUED >>
The Bureau of Land Management's roundup of Pryor Mountain's wild mustang herd began on Thursday. NBC News' Kerry Sanders reports on the heated debate over the roundup of the wild horses from Britton Springs, Wy.
By Petra Cahill, msnbc.com
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will round up about 190 wild horses in the Pryor Mountains along the Montana-Wyoming state line on Thursday – much to the chagrin of horse advocates.
A federal judge rejected a request by two Colorado-based advocacy groups, the Cloud Foundation and Front Range Equine Rescue, to halt the action.
The wild horse advocacy groups argued that gathering the herd could end up ruining one of the most genetically pure herds of Spanish colonial horses in the country.
But the Bureau of Land Management, which operates the 38,000-acre Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, says there are too many horses on the range. The agency’s Web site says that it is necessary gather the herd of wild horses and reduce their numbers in order to "achieve a thriving natural ecological balance" in the Pryor range.
The roundup had been delayed while U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan considered an injunction, but he denied the request Wednesday.
The Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range was created in 1968 to protect an icon of the American West – the wild mustang.
But while the herd has grown to approximately 190 horses, the Bureau of Land Management says that the ideal number of horses for the range is about 120. The BLM has culled the herd before, in 1997, 2001 and 2003.
The horse advocacy groups opposed the roundup this year because they say the action is "unprecedented in size and scope."
The BLM will use a helicopter and wranglers on horseback to drive the horses into corrals Thursday. They plan to capture the range’s entire population, with 70 adult horses and their foals to be put up for adoption and sale on Sept. 26.
The remaining 120 horses would be returned to the range and freed after some of the mares are given a contraceptive vaccine.
Watch the video link above to see NBC News’ Charles Hadlock report on a recent prayer vigil and group ride held by advocates from the Cloud Foundation for the mustangs in the Pryor Mountain range.
And see NBC News’ Kerry Sanders report on the roundup of wild mustangs on the Today Show on Friday morning.
Click here for more information about how to adopt one of the horses.
By George Lewis, NBC News Correspondent
ANTIOCH, Calif. – This unincorporated corner of Antioch, California, zip code 94509, has 101 registered sex offenders, if you check California's "Megan's Law" database.
Phillip Garrido, suspected of kidnapping, raping and imprisoning Jaycee Lee Dugard, is one of them. Kids in the neighborhood nicknamed him "Creepy Phil" because of his strange behavior.
Garrido and his wife Nancy have pleaded not guilty to 29 criminal charges, including forcible abduction, rape and unlawful imprisonment. They are being held without bail at the El Dorado County Jail in Placerville, Calif., in the county where Dugard was abducted in 1991.
In 1977, Garrido was convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman in Reno, Nevada. He got out on parole eleven years later. In court documents from his trial, Garrido is quoted at length about his sexual attraction to children, something he blamed on heavy drug use when he was a young man.
A neighbor, Betty Unpingco, remembers a few years ago when Garrido helped set up stereo speakers for her son's high school graduation party. He kept lingering around the party, looking at the teenagers in a strange way, Unpingco recalled.
"Somebody informed us that he was down the street," Unpingco said, "and he was motioning for young girls to come over and talk to him."
That's when Unpingco told her children to be careful about "Creepy Phil."
And then, she discovered his name on the database of sex offenders.
"We instituted the buddy system after that," Unpingco said, meaning that her children were told not to go outside the house alone, always with at least one sibling.
CONTINUED >>
