Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/165064795?client_source=feed&format=rss
apple news conference apple news apple iphone apple iphone chris christie cnet tampa bay rays
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Test Driving The Nissan Leaf
Robert Siegel test drives the Leaf, Nissan's electric plug-in vehicle, with Carlos Ghosn, chief executive officer of Nissan and Renault.
Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR NEWS. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
I'm Robert Siegel with an automotive take this week on All Tech Considered.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIEGEL: The other day, Carlos Ghosn, the president of Nissan, talked with me about his company's one-year-old plug-in electric car, the Leaf, and about the federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for people who buy one. Carlos Ghosn let me take a test drive.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CLOSING)
CARLOS GHOSN: Good. OK, so yeah, with pedal on the brake. Put on the brake.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPS)
GHOSN: Here we go. Ah.
SIEGEL: And I had an important vocabulary question for the Nissan CEO.
One of these cars is called a Leaf. What do you call two of them?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
GHOSN: One of these cars is called Nissan Leaf.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
GHOSN: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SIEGEL: Excuse me, yeah.
GHOSN: Very important, it's the Nissan Leaf. Two cars are two Nissan Leafs. You know, Leafs. You cannot use leaves.
SIEGEL: It's not Nissan Leaves.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SIEGEL: I drove the Leaf around Washington for about 20 minutes with Carlos Ghosn selling me on it from the passenger seat. Ghosn is spelled G-H-O-S-N. He describes himself as a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese origin. He's the boss of both Nissan and Renault. And he's very proud of the Nissan Leaf which, unlike the Chevy Volt, has no internal combustion engine at all.
And also unlike the Volt, the Leaf's battery isn't so big that it divides the rear into bucket seats. It's a five-seater. It has great acceleration. And, of course, it's very quiet.
GHOSN: And the pleasure of driving electric cars is something unique.
SIEGEL: A fully charged battery delivers 100 miles on average. Ghosn said he had Nissan engineers drive as inefficiently as they could - up hills, air conditioning on high - and they still got at least 50 miles to a charge.
GHOSN: Depending on how you drive, you're going to be between 50 and probably 110 or 120, because some people beat the 100 miles also.
SIEGEL: Charging the battery is supposed to take 17 to 20 hours on ordinary household current, seven hours if you attach it to the 220-volt outlet that you plug a washer or dryer into. And as you'll hear, something a lot faster is on the way.
Carlos Ghosn told me when we sat down in the studio that most American Leaf owners - and there are about 8,000 of them - recharge the battery long before it loses all of its charge.
GHOSN: Which is normal, it's like the portable phone. You don't charge the phone when it's empty, you charge it at night when you come back. You just recharge it. You want to make sure that the second day when you wake up, everything is ready for you.
SIEGEL: You raise an interesting comparison because if I owned a plug-in rechargeable car, and I forgot to recharge it as often as I forget to recharge my cell phone, I'd be in a lot of trouble.
GHOSN: Yeah, you'd be in a lot of trouble if you completely use the battery potential, which today from everything we're seeing is not the case. You know, on average, people using the battery at probably 40 percent of its potential, which means even if you forget one day, it can run another day without having to charge it.
SIEGEL: But does your experience show so far that the system of active recharging is sufficient? Or at some point do you have to develop some way to passively recharge the car?
GHOSN: We have a lot of research taking place. We have a fast-charging system that we are developing where you'll be able to recharge the battery up to 80 percent of its potential in 26 minutes. On top of this, in our labs, we are looking at a completely different way to recharge the cars.
SIEGEL: Is it clear to you that today's Leaf buyers are early adopters or are they the market, period? Are they environmentally conscious people who are going to spend 30,000-plus for a car?
GHOSN: You know, the profile so far - and we're talking about 55 percent of the owners are males, 80 percent of them never owned a Nissan before.
SIEGEL: First - this is the first Nissan that they're buying.
GHOSN: This is the first Nissan. A lot of them used to have a hybrid before, so they are moving up the chain. A lot of them also are buying the car not only because it's environmentally friendly, but also because the total cost of ownership is very attractive. The total cost of ownership takes in consideration the price of the car, but also the cost of electricity compared to fuel, in order to run the car.
SIEGEL: How critical to sales of the Leaf is the federal tax credit or, for that matter, our state tax - tax benefits?
GHOSN: Oh, well, I think the consumer incentive which is offered by federal government or by the state government extremely important. Because what we want is kind of jumpstart the sales in order to get, as fast as possible, the scale that would allow us to cut the cost of the cars and of the battery. So, we think this is going to be important in the midterm.
But I don't think we need it for the long term, because when we get a level of scale that we estimate between 500,000 and one million cars a year - globally, not in the United States - we will be very competitive without the incentive offered by the government.
SIEGEL: How long will it take you to reach that point, do you think?
GHOSN: Well, we hope that within the next five years this volume will be reached.
SIEGEL: Until Nissan reaches that point, where it's seeing half a million vehicles sold worldwide, is it losing money per unit that it's selling? Is it treading water? How close-run a thing is this?
GHOSN: No. No, it's not losing money. But we're saying when the system will be able to sustain itself without government incentives.
SIEGEL: Would you be losing money though without those government incentives?
GHOSN: Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm saying.
SIEGEL: You would.
GHOSN: But without government incentive, yes, that we will not have even have launched the technology.
SIEGEL: I don't have to tell you, there are furious arguments in the country right now about whether the government should be in the business of picking winners and encouraging particular technologies as opposed to others. What would happen if the government said, look, the auto companies, they're doing all right. They have profits. They can invest them in new projects. Let them go ahead.
GHOSN: Yeah. Well, I think in this case, you'll have electric cars in other countries and not in the United States.
SIEGEL: But you know what their critique is. Their critique is you start by helping young industries in need of some assist - or young projects - and then it's not too long before you're protecting old industries from foreign competition in one way or another. When - is this really something that one phases out as quickly as, say, five years?
GHOSN: I think one of the good roles of governments across the planet is to facilitate the emergence of technology that are considered as for good for the countries. Because in the case of the electric cars, not only you are cutting on oil imports, not only you are reducing the emissions, but also you're creating jobs. Because, in fact, what you're doing here is you are substituting oil imports by creating battery plants in the United States.
You're creating a new technology. We're going to be creating 1,400 jobs into the battery plants in Tennessee. And all the oil that would have been consumed by, you know, combustion engine is being in a certain way replaced by jobs and by technology in Tennessee. So, I think the trade off is an interesting one.
SIEGEL: Carlos Ghosn, thank you very much.
GHOSN: Thank you.
SIEGEL: Carlos Ghosn, the president of Nissan and Renault, on the electric plug-in the Nissan Leaf.
Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/21/142609004/test-driving-the-nissan-leaf?ft=1&f=1007
terrell owens carrie ann inaba california earthquake california earthquake jenna lyons jenna lyons stephen sondheim
Monday, November 21, 2011
Experts say new Wood inquiry won't lead to charges (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Legal experts say that a new inquiry into the 30-year-old death of actress Natalie Wood is highly unlikely to lead to charges against the late actress's husband, Robert Wagner, or anyone else.
"Based on what we've heard so far, the chances (of the investigation leading to criminal charges) are zero to nothing," Laurie Levenson, a professor of law at Loyola University, told TheWrap. "I would classify this as silliness -- not the drowning, which was tragic, but the idea that 30 years later a witness comes forward and tells what he calls the real story and that leads to criminal charges. As a prosecutor, you just roll your eyes."
Indeed, leading criminal lawyers told TheWrap that the only crime that would circumvent the statute of limitations would be murder. And that would require the emergence of multiple witnesses and compelling physical evidence.
"Unless there's something earth-shattering, some DNA evidence on a body that's probably badly decomposed, they don't have a case," Steve Meister, a Los Angeles defense attorney and former prosecutor, told TheWrap.
Furthermore, the man who helped prompt the new inquiry, boat captain Dennis Davern, is compromised as a trial witness, the experts agreed. Davern admitted he lied to police in years past, has a book out on the "West Side Story" star's death and says he was drunk on the night in question.
"You'll need a lot more than the captain's testimony to make a case," Jerod Gunsberg, a Los Angeles-based criminal attorney, told TheWrap. "It would not take much to discredit him on the stand."
Though the book in question, "Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour," was published in 2009, Davern has made frequent references to it in interviews, and his co-author, Marti Rulli, has been a constant presence on television and in print.
It was not by accident that Alan Nierob, a spokesman for Wagner, floated the idea that such a witness to an alleged crime might be trying to profit from the investigation being reopened.
In a statement, Nierob said "(The Wagner family) fully support the efforts of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and trusts they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30-year anniversary of her tragic death."
NOT SELLING STORY
Rick Kramer, a spokesman for Davern, told TheWrap that the captain did not come forward to make a buck off the case. He said Davern has no plans to sell his story to the media and points out that the book is out of print and available only in electronic form.
"Dennis has been hoping for an investigation for decades, and he will do anything that he can to be of service," Kramer said.
"As for his credibility, that's not his concern. That's up to the prosecutors and the detectives."
Kramer added, "Nobody would put themselves through this kind of public scrutiny for a book that is several years old and out of print."
Not that Davern faces any legal penalties for changing his story. Lawyers tell TheWrap that lying to investigators is not perjury, it is merely a misdemeanor carrying with it up to a year in prison, and the statute on those offenses expired decades ago.
Police say that the other two witnesses to what happened on the actress's boat, the Splendour, during an allegedly booze-filled Thanksgiving weekend three decades ago, Wagner and their guest, actor Christopher Walken, are not suspects in the case. At least they aren't suspects for now.
Moreover, neither man has yet to offer a substantially different account of what happened the night Wood died in the chilly waters off the coast of Catalina Island, although Wagner did subsequently admit in his 2008 autobiography, "Pieces of My Heart," that there was an argument leading to a smashed wine bottle on the night his wife went missing, something he did not initially share.
The legal opinions underscore a question many have posed since the L.A. Sheriff's department reopened the investigation into the 1981 death last week: Why the new inquiry? And why now?
In a front-page story this weekend, the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It is unclear what compelling evidence -- if any -- prompted the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to reopen the case, and what accounts for the peculiar timing."
A sheriff's department spokesman said media interest led to multiple new witnesses coming forward with information.
But others say the entire enterprise smacks of a publicity stunt for CBS and Vanity Fair, and a welcome distraction for a sheriff's department dogged by allegations of deputy misconduct inside the Los Angeles County Jail System.
The department has been smarting from a Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry that turned up instances of sheriff's deputies using excessive force with inmates and accepting bribes from prisoners to smuggle in cell phones. Talking about Natalie Wood allows the department to turn attention away from the scandal.
"It's a very good time to have a distraction," Gunsberg said. "The department has been getting hammered in the press. I'm not saying there's a correlation, but the timing is interesting."
Lt. John Corina, a spokesman for the department, strongly refuted any allegations that the investigation was a stunt.
"I think that's ridiculous," Corina told TheWrap. "We're just going through the case again because new information has come forward. Really, it's our obligation. It has nothing to do with what's going on in our custody facilities. We wouldn't do something like that."
EVIDENCE CHANGES
Attorneys agree that the sheriff's department may have been right to make fresh inquiries, given Davern's recantation.
There is a chance that simply by relaunching the investigation, fresh evidence of foul play or at least some explanation of the circumstances surrounding Wood's mysterious drowning might emerge.
"Evidence does change -- its not static," Ronald Richards, a Beverly Hills criminal defense attorney, told TheWrap. "It could be something was said during the new investigation that was not what the police were originally told, or there could be computer models or DNA evidence that were not available at the time that could provide more proof of what happened."
Indeed, police have said that multiple individuals have come forward with information. One, Marilyn Wayne, who was moored near the Splendour on the night of Woods' death, says she heard a woman crying for help, saying she was drowning.
A slurred man's voice replied, "Oh, hang on, we're coming to get you," Wayne said in a statement accompanying the public petition to reopen the case.
That's certainly compelling. However, Richards said that the more time that passes between a crime and an investigation, the better it generally is for a suspect.
Moreover, the claims that Davern has made in his book and recent media appearances do not necessarily point to murder.
He claims that Wagner is "responsible" for his wife's death and that he was slow to notify authorities that Wood was missing and to turn on a searchlight to look for the actress. That, attorneys tell TheWrap, is more in line with a charge of involuntary manslaughter, not murder, and the statute on those charges ran out more than two decades ago.
Davern has further adjusted the chronology of events that evening, saying that Wagner and Wood retreated to the rear of the boat after Walken retired for the evening and continued to have a heated argument.
Given that Davern claims he heard a loud thump, the possibility that their disagreement may have been physical has been raised.
That still may not be enough to prove a murder charge, though.
"You need evidence that someone hit her over the head or that she was flailing about in the water while (Wagner) yelled 'Drown, drown," Levenson said. "You need better evidence to show that they didn't make a better effort to save her when they should have. You don't have the smoking gun."
Even though Davern describes a vicious row, with Wagner smashing a wine bottle and accusing Walken of wanting to sleep with Wood, that does not necessarily mean that he killed his wife.
"The odds are still pretty good that this was an accident -- that someone who couldn't swim fell in the water and drowned," Richards said.
kandi burruss occupy portland occupy portland the hunger games patriots neil degrasse tyson neil degrasse tyson
Officials say power lines likely caused Reno fire
Officials say power lines likely caused Reno fire
SCOTT SONNERSCOTT SONNER, Associated Press?
?Water from a fire department hose forms a cloud above a home burning on Star Meadows Loop during the Caughlin Fire in southwest Reno, Nev. Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. The blaze raged through more than 400 acres, claimed at least one life, injured several others, destroyed 20 homes and blanketed Reno and its suburban enclaves in a fiery curtain as violent winds sidelined firefighters and rescue helicopters. (AP Photo/Reno Gazette-Journal, David B. Parker)
Water from a fire department hose forms a cloud above a home burning on Star Meadows Loop during the Caughlin Fire in southwest Reno, Nev. Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. The blaze raged through more than 400 acres, claimed at least one life, injured several others, destroyed 20 homes and blanketed Reno and its suburban enclaves in a fiery curtain as violent winds sidelined firefighters and rescue helicopters. (AP Photo/Reno Gazette-Journal, David B. Parker)
Firefighters battle a 400-acre brush fire in south Reno, Nev., on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. The fire raged through more than 400 acres, claimed at least one life, injured several others, destroyed dozens of homes and blanketed Reno and its suburban enclaves in a fiery curtain as violent winds sidelined firefighters and rescue helicopters. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
Crews work on downed power lines as a 400-acre brush fire burns in south Reno, Nev., on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. The fire raged through more than 400 acres, claimed at least one life, injured several others, destroyed dozens of homes and blanketed Reno and its suburban enclaves in a fiery curtain as violent winds sidelined firefighters and rescue helicopters. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
Firefighters work to protect a home in the path of a 400-acre brush fire in Reno, Nev., on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. The fire raged through more than 400 acres, claimed at least one life, injured several others, destroyed dozens of homes and blanketed Reno and its suburban enclaves in a fiery curtain as violent winds sidelined firefighters and rescue helicopters. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
A Reno firefighter tries to save an outbuilding as a house burns in a 400-acre brush fire in south Reno, Nev., on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. The fire raged through more than 400 acres, claimed at least one life, injured several others, destroyed dozens of homes and blanketed Reno and its suburban enclaves in a fiery curtain as violent winds sidelined firefighters and rescue helicopters. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
RENO, Nev. (AP) ? Fire investigators in Reno say arcing power lines likely caused the wind-fueled wild fire that destroyed 15 homes and damaged at least 40 more.
Reno Fire Chief Mike Hernandez says the 2,000-acre fire is now 65 percent contained.
He expects that to climb to 90 percent or better by Sunday. Hernandez says the nearly 10,000 people who were evacuated on Friday can start to return to their homes.
Hernandez says there's no official cause yet, but all signs point to the power lines. He says investigators ruled out the possibility that teenage partiers or a homeless campfire was to blame.
Associated Press
andy rooney groupon ipo groupon ipo breeders cup 2011 gwar gwar san diego weather
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Amazon Pays $201.70 To Build $199 Kindle Fire (NewsFactor)
A teardown of the new Kindle Fire tablet performed by IHS iSuppli researchers found that it costs Amazon $201.70 to make a device that began retailing this week for $199. "Amazon makes its money not on Kindle hardware, but on the paid content and other products it plans to sell the consumer through the Kindle," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of teardown services for IHS.
However, the Kindle Fire hardware cost breakdown released by the analyst firm Friday only tells part of the story. Amazon had not disclosed what it is costing the online retail giant to roll out the tablet from a software perspective -- including software design, development and testing.
"We can safely assume that launching such devices from a software perspective requires a serious long-term commitment to morphing Android into what Amazon is looking for," said Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC.
According to Hilwa, a development team of a few hundred people would ultimately be needed to support an ongoing product such as the Kindle Fire, including the requisite maintenance as well as product evolution.
"I have no specific information on this, but I have always imagined that the team working on iOS at Apple, end-to-end, well exceeds a thousand people," Hilwa said. "Doing the estimates for things like that is complex because of shared resources in an organization."
Display and Touch-screen Costs
IHS iSuppli noted that its preliminary cost calculations for the Kindle Fire only account for hardware and do not include additional expenses such as software, licensing, royalties, marketing or other expenditures. However, Rassweiler compared Amazon's strategy of selling its new tablet at a loss to the business models followed by wireless carriers such as AT&T or Verizon.
"They sell you a phone that costs them $400 to $600 or more to make for a price of only $200," Rassweiler said. "However, they expect to more than make up for that loss with a two-year service contract."
According to IHS, the new Kindle Fire's single most-expensive subsystem is its display and touch screen, which has a combined cost of $87 and accounts for 46.9 percent of the device's total bill of materials. Featuring E Ink's FFS technology, the displays are being manufactured by LG Display as well as E Ink Holdings.
Semiconductor Suppliers
The dominant semiconductor supplier behind Amazon's Kindle Fire is Texas Instruments (TI), which supplies the OMAP4430 processor responsible for delivering the new tablet's core multimedia functionality as well as other parts. TI reaps $24 for every Kindle Fire sold, which is equivalent to 12.9 percent of the device's total.
TI's OMAP4430 is also found in a number of other electronic gadgets, including Research In Motion's PlayBook tablet as well as in smartphones such as the Motorola Droid Bionic XT875 and LG Optimus 3D P920. The 1-gigahertz dual-core chip features an IVA 3 hardware accelerator as well as an SGX540 3D graphics core, IHS researchers said.
The Kindle Fire's memory subsystem -- which consists of 8GB of eMMC NAND flash memory as well as 4 gigabits of low-power DDR2 DRAM memory -- costs Amazon $22.10, or 11.9 percent of the total. According to IHS researchers, Samsung is supplying the NAND flash chips while Japan-based Elpida makes the new Kindle Fire's DRAM memory components.
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111118/bs_nf/81071
oyster festival oyster festival hopkins hopkins mlk mlk the big year
Natalie Wood detectives face conflicting accounts
FILE - In this April 9, 1979 file photo, actress Natalie Wood is shown at the 51st Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Los Angeles sheriff's homicide detectives are taking another look at Wood's 1981 drowning death based on new information, officials announced Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - In this April 9, 1979 file photo, actress Natalie Wood is shown at the 51st Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Los Angeles sheriff's homicide detectives are taking another look at Wood's 1981 drowning death based on new information, officials announced Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - The 55-foot yacht "Splendour," belonging to actor Robert Wagner and his wife, actress Natalie Wood, sits in the waters off Catalina Island in Santa Catalina, Calif., near the site where Harbor Patrol personnel and lifeguards discovered the body of Wood, an apparent drowning victim, Nov. 29, 1981. Los Angeles sheriff's homicide detectives are taking another look at Wood's 1981 drowning death based on new information, officials announced Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Harrington, File)
FILE - A Dec. 1, 1981 file photo shows actress Natalie Wood. Dennis Davern, captain of the yacht Splendour, which Wood was aboard on the night she died, said on national TV Friday, Nov. 18, 2011 that he lied to investigators about Natalie Wood's mysterious death 30 years ago and blames the actress' husband at the time, Robert Wagner, for her drowning in the ocean off Southern California. A Los Angeles County sheriff's detective will speak to reporters Friday about the decision to take another look at the Oscar-nominated actress' nighttime demise. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In a Nov. 28, 1981 file photo, "Prince Valiant," the inflatable dinghy used by 34-year-old actress Natalie Wood on the yacht Splendour, sits pierside in Catalina Island, Calif. Yacht captain Dennis Davern said on national TV Friday, Nov. 18, 2011 that he lied to investigators about Natalie Wood's mysterious death 30 years ago and blames the actress' husband at the time, Robert Wagner, for her drowning in the ocean off Southern California. (AP Photo/Harrington, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Natalie Wood's drowning death nearly 30 years ago came after a night of dinner, drinking and arguments but the question remains ? was it anything more than a tragic accident?
Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht shared by Wood, her actor-husband Robert Wagner and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981.
Two sheriff's detectives are now diving into the mysterious events on the yacht Splendour, although whether they reach any different conclusions than their predecessors remains to be seen. They recently received new, seemingly credible information and heard from potential witnesses who weren't included in the original investigation of Wood's death, sheriff's Lt. John Corina said Friday.
But he said nothing has happened to changed the official view that Wood's death was originally an accidental drowning. Wagner, the star of "Hart and Hart" is not considered a suspect, he added.
Corina released few details about who investigators have contacted or plan to re-interview, but the inquiry will certainly lead them to speak with the three survivors of the trip ? Wagner, Walken and skipper Dennis Davern.
Wood's sister, Lana, was not on the boat, but told CNN's Piers Morgan on Friday that she has spoken with Davern many times and believes her sister did not fall off the boat.
"I don't think she fell, I don't know if she was pushed, I don't know whether there was an altercation and it happened accidentally but she shouldn't have died and that does stay with me and hurt," Lana Wood said.
"I would prefer to always believe that RJ (Wagner) would never do anything to hurt Natalie and that he loved her dearly, which he did, and I don't believe that whatever went on was deliberate. I've always cared about him. I always will care about him," she said.
The captain said on NBC's "Today" on Friday that Wagner is to blame for the Oscar-nominated actress' death in the chilly waters of Southern California in November 1981, but didn't offer many specifics. For years he has maintained that he heard the famous couple arguing on the boat before Wood went missing and Wagner refusing to immediately search the waters nearby for his wife.
Davern's account is dramatically different from what he told investigators after Wood's body was found in 1981, when no mention of an argument between the couple was made. Wood was wearing a nightgown, wool socks and red down coat when she was found floating off Santa Catalina Island.
The renewed investigation comes at a time when plenty of attention was sure to be focused on Wood, whose beauty and acting in films such as "West Side Story" and "Rebel Without a Cause" made her Hollywood royalty. Her death stunned the world and CBS' "48 Hours Mystery" has been looking into the case for a special airing on Saturday.
Sheriff's officials denied the renewed attention prompted their review, which could take months.
"We're not concerned with the anniversary date," Corina said. "It may have jarred some other people's memories."
Davern and Wagner agree on one point about the fateful night ? there was a heated argument on the yacht after the group returned from dinner on Catalina. All had been drinking, and here is where the three men's accounts begin to differ.
Davern said he heard Wagner and Wood arguing and its outcome had horrific consequences.
Was that fight "what ultimately led to her death?" Davern was asked by "Today" show host David Gregory.
"Yes," Davern replied.
"How so?"
"Like I said, that's going to be up to the investigators to decide," Davern responded after a long pause.
Wagner acknowledges a fight took place on the Splendour, but in his best-selling 2008 memoir "Pieces of My Heart," he wrote that the fighting was between him and Walken. The disagreement began over the acting profession and led to Wood retreating to her cabin, while the dispute raged on between Wagner and Walken. Later Walken went to bed, according to Wagner, who, after staying up with Davern for a while, went looking for his wife and couldn't find her on board. He then noticed that a dinghy attached to the boat ?and his wife ? was gone.
Walken, who has rarely spoken about the events that led to Wood's death, denied in a 1982 interview on "Good Morning America" that he and Wagner quarreled.
"No, that's not true," Walken said when asked if a fight was the reason Wood left the yacht. "They were very good to me, that family, and that's not true.
"We were having a Thanksgiving weekend, a good time," he said.
But Walken told sheriff's detectives that there was an argument, according to a 2000 Vanity Fair piece that included statements from a report by the investigating detective. It also included comments from Davern, who told the magazine that he heard Wagner and Wood fighting before she went missing.
The detective, Wagner and Walken and coroner's officials all have maintained that Wood's death was an accident, possibly caused by her trying to secure the dinghy to the side of the yacht.
"The people who are convinced that there was something more to it than what came out in the investigation will never be satisfied with the truth," Walken was quoted in the Vanity Fair piece as saying during an interview in the 1980s. "Because the truth is, there is nothing more to it. It was an accident."
Wagner too addressed the uncertainty about what happened in his book.
"Nobody knows," he wrote. "There are only two possibilities; either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."
Wagner said through a spokesman that his family trusts the sheriff's department to conduct a fair investigation into Wood's death.
The couple were married twice, first in 1957 before divorcing six years later. They remarried in 1972.
___
Associated Press writer Denise Petski contributed to this report.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .
Associated Presspaw paw paw paw baltimore orioles rosh hashanah rosh hashanah amanda palmer listeria monocytogenes
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Idaho man charged with trying to assassinate Obama
This image provided by the U.S. Park Police shows an undated image of Oscar Ortega. U.S. Park Police have an arrest warrant out for Ortega, who is believed to be connected to a bullet hitting an exterior window of the White House Friday and was stopped by ballistic glass. An additional round of ammunition was also found on the exterior of the White House. The bullets were found Tuesday Nov. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/U.S. Park Police)
This image provided by the U.S. Park Police shows an undated image of Oscar Ortega. U.S. Park Police have an arrest warrant out for Ortega, who is believed to be connected to a bullet hitting an exterior window of the White House Friday and was stopped by ballistic glass. An additional round of ammunition was also found on the exterior of the White House. The bullets were found Tuesday Nov. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/U.S. Park Police)
State Police in Indiana, Pa., arrest a suspect in connection with the White House shooting, at the Hampton Inn along Indian Springs Road in Indiana, Pa., Wednesday, Nov. 16. 2011. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, was arrested without incident, according to police. (AP Photo/The Indian Gazette, Tom Peel)
Pennsylvania State Police Bomb squad investigator examines personal belongings of Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez , arrested in connection with shots fired at the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011 in Indiana, Pa. (AP Photo/The Indiana Gazette, James J. Nestor)
Law enforcement officers photograph a window at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, as seen from the South Lawn. A bullet hit an exterior window of the White House and was stopped by ballistic glass, the Secret Service said. An additional round of ammunition was found on the White House exterior. The bullets were found Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
Law enforcement officers photograph a window at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, as seen from the South Lawn. A bullet hit an exterior window of the White House and was stopped by ballistic glass, the Secret Service said. An additional round of ammunition was found on the White House exterior. The bullets were found Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
BOISE, Idaho (AP) ? An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House believed he was Jesus and thought President Barack Obama was the Antichrist, according to court documents and those who knew him. At one point, he even suggested to an acquaintance the president was planning to implant computer tracking chips into children.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate the president or his staff. He is accused of firing nine rounds at the White House last Friday night ? one of them cracking a window of the first family's living quarters ? when Obama and the first lady were away. If convicted, Ortega faces up to life in prison.
Ortega was arrested Wednesday at a western Pennsylvania hotel when a desk clerk there recognized him and called police.
Ortega's public defender, Christopher Brown, declined comment after his first court hearing in Pennsylvania. Ortega's mother has said he has no history of mental illness, though when authorities were looking for him, they reported he had "mental health issues."
In Idaho Falls, where Ortega is from, a computer consultant told The Associated Press that the two met July 8 after Ortega asked for help editing a 30-minute infomercial. Monte McCall said that during the meeting at Ortega's family's Mexican restaurant, Ortega pulled out worn sheets of yellow paper with handwritten notes and started to talk about his predictions that the world would end in 2012.
"He said, 'Well, you know the president is getting ready to make an announcement that they're going to put GPS chips in all the children, so they're safe,'" McCall said. "... And then he said, 'That's just what the Antichrist is going to do to mark everybody.'"
Kimberly Allen, the mother of Ortega's former fianc?e, said he had been well-mannered and kind in the four years she had known him. But he recently began making statements to her daughter that were out of character, including that he believed he was Jesus. Allen said the family was worried when he went to Utah recently, where he said he had business, and didn't come back. Ortega's family reported him missing Oct. 31.
Allen said they were flabbergasted to hear he was wanted in Washington.
"I believe that the boy needs help," said Allen, of Shelley, Idaho.
Her daughter, Jessica Galbraith, was engaged to Ortega and is the mother of their 2-year-old son. She declined to comment Thursday except to say: "I love him, and I'm here for him."
It was unclear why or when they split.
Reached by the AP on Thursday, Ortega's mother said she didn't have anything to say. She earlier told the Post Register in Idaho Falls her son has no history of mental illness.
"He has different ideas than other people, just like everyone, but he was perfectly fine the last time I saw him," Maria Hernandez told the newspaper. "He might be saying weird stuff that sounds crazy, but that doesn't mean (he) is crazy. He might be confused and scared."
At his first appearance in court in Pennsylvania, Ortega sat quietly, his hands free but his feet shackled. He said only, "Yes, ma'am" when he was asked if he understood that he would be going back to Washington to face the charge.
According to a court document released after the hearing, authorities recovered nine spent shell casings from Ortega's car, which was found abandoned near the White House shortly after the shooting. An assault rifle with a scope was found inside.
A person who knows him subsequently told investigators that he had become increasingly agitated with the federal government and was convinced it was conspiring against him, the document said. Others told investigators that Ortega had reportedly said Obama was the Antichrist and the "devil." Ortega also apparently said he "needed to kill" the president.
Authorities said Ortega was clad in black when he pulled his car within view of the White House on Friday night, fired shots and then sped away. The White House has not said whether the Obamas' daughters, Sasha and Malia, were there at the time or commented on the shooting.
Ortega was questioned by police on Friday morning, before the shootings, just across the Potomac River from Washington in Arlington, Va. Police said they stopped him after a report of suspicious behavior, but let him go after photographing him because they had no reason to make an arrest.
Ortega has an arrest record in three states but has not been linked to any radical organizations, U.S. Park Police have said.
This is not the first time the White House has come under attack.
In the last 40 years, the landmark has faced threats ranging from a stolen helicopter that landed on the grounds in 1974 to a man who wielded a sawed-off shotgun on a sidewalk outside in 1984. In 1994 alone, there were five threats including a plane crash on the lawn and a suspected drive-by shooting. Another man fired at least 29 rounds from a semiautomatic weapon, with 11 striking the White House.
Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who served on the presidential details for Obama and President George W. Bush, said Friday's shooting would likely mean tighter security and coordination.
"They do an exhaustive review of their security procedures every time something like this happens," said Bongino, who recently left the Secret Service to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland. "Nothing ever works perfectly. They will undress this completely and then they will find out when they rebuild the incident exactly what they could have done better."
___
Gresko reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh, Kevin Begos in Indiana, Pa., Eric Tucker in New Orleans, Matt Apuzzo and Brett Zongker in Washington contributed to this report along with Associated Press researcher Monika Mathur in New York and AP photographer Haraz Ghanbari in Washington.
Associated Presselizabeth warren coptic church steve bartman columbus day columbus day mark davis bank holidays
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)