Former President Clinton remembered the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones as someone who gave him “16 years of astonishing friendship.”Clinton says he first met Tubbs Jones in Cleveland in 1992 while campaigning for president. He joked that Tubbs Jones always had a long list of things the president “could improve on.”

Clinton joined his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in honoring Tubbs Jones at Public Hall in Cleveland.

Governor Strickland, Senator Sherrod Brown and former Congressman Louis Stokes also made comments at today’s memorial service.

The 58-year-old Tubbs Jones died August 20th from a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm. She was the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress.

Crowds are lining up at the Cleveland National Air Show to experience a virtual urban warfare game that is sponsored by U.S. Army recruiters and has attracted protests.Officials say that as many as 180 people an hour are taking part in the Virtual Army Experience, which puts users inside a military Humvee during a simulated battle with Iraqi insurgents.

The game unfolds inside a 10,000-square-foot bubble tent at the airshow at Burke Lakefront Airport.

The group Veterans for Peace has said that the simulators desensitize children to killing. It tried earlier this month to raise enough opposition to keep the game away. Instead, officials raised the minimum age for participants to 17 from 13-years-old.

The Army defends the Virtual Army Experience as “a messaging tool.”

On the Net:

Cleveland Air Show: http://www.clevelandairshow.com/

State police stepped in to defuse tensions at an anti-illegal immigration rally in the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Shenandoah, where an immigrant was beaten to death last month.The rally attended by hundreds had been going on for about an hour when five people arrived hoisting a Mexican flag and shouted at the crowd. They included Crystal Dillman, whose fiance, Luis Ramirez, was beaten to death July 12. Three teenagers have been charged in the case.

About a dozen state troopers stepped in between the groups. Sgt. Dave Holt says there were no injuries or arrests at the event.

The rally was sponsored by Voice of the People USA, which opposes rights for illegal immigrants. Founder Daniel Smeriglio condemned illegal immigration but decried violence and prefaced his remarks with a moment of silence for Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Many people held signs accusing local and national politicians of failing to enforce illegal immigration laws, which they said had strained communities like Shenandoah.

Information from: Pottsville Republican and Herald, http://www.republicanherald.com

Employees, patients and doctors at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Pittsburgh are getting preventive treatment for whooping cough after an outbreak was traced to several workers at an outpatient clinic.Officials say tests confirmed 11 cases of the respiratory bacterial infection among employees at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System facility in the city’s Oakland neighborhood.

Three more employees have symptoms, but tests are pending to confirm if they have whooping cough - a highly contagious illness also known as pertussis.

No patients were found to be ill with pertussis, but the agency says 52 patients were offered a protective dose of an antibiotic. Employees, doctors, interns and medical students are taking a 5-day course of antibiotics.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator said his agency’s response to hard-charging Hurricane Gustav will be decidedly better than its much-criticized performance three years when Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans.

The Bush administration and FEMA had been widely criticized for a slow and disorganized reaction to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Asked whether FEMA could be believed because many residents have been let down by federal responses to such disasters in the past, R. David Paulison said people should make up their minds at observing FEMA’s actions.

GOP officials thinking about scrapping the Republican convention agenda and turning the event into a service event — a massive telethon to raise funds for hurricane relief, a senior John McCain campaign source said.

The source said Sen. McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, said he understands the importance of not having a party during what is shaping up to be a calamitous storm, which is now at a dangerous Category 4 level.

“He wants to do something service-oriented if and when the storm hits and it’s as bad as its expected to be now,” the source said.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis will meet Sunday with convention officials to review options and the latest on the storm and he will then consult with McCain and then make any changes they think are needed, NNN has learned.

We have linked to the web cam page for the state of Lousiana, from this link you can watch the evacuation live as it happens from web cams operated by the state. The evacuation from Gustov is expected to be the second largest evacuation of all time, second to Katrina, which happened only 3 years ago. Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Naigens said “THIS IT THE MOTHER OF ALL STORMS RUN FROM IT.”   

http://www.dotd.louisiana.gov/press/traffic_cameras/no_cameras.asp

The 7 a.m. forecast for Hurricane Gustav calls for its landfall to be just east of Morgan City early Monday afternoon as an intense Category 4 hurricane, a track that would bring hurricane force winds over most of the New Orleans area.

The eastern jog also would increase the potential for storm surge flooding of West Bank communities. The Slidell office of the National Weather Service this evening warned that it expects between 15 feet and 20 feet of storm surge near and to the right of the hurricane’s center as it goes ashore.

While it’s still unclear how high the water would be on the West Bank, farther away from the storm’s center, it could be high enough to overtop the incomplete levee system in that area.

Moving the diagonal path Gustav will take closer to New Orleans also increases the potential of surge water rising in Lake Borgne, the Industrial Canal and Lake Pontchartrain, which could test levees and walls in St. Bernard, eastern New Orleans and the Lower and Upper 9th Wards, as well as areas south of Slidell and Madisonville.

Heavy rainfall also is expected to accompany Gustav, with between 10 and 15 inches of rain expected in areas nearest its center.

Tropical storm force winds are expected to reach the coast early Monday morning, followed by hurricane force winds only a few hours later, the National Weather Service said.

Gustav continues to confound expectations. Senior Hurricane Specialist Jack Beven, in a discussion message accompanying the forecast, said the rapid intensification of Gustav over the past 24 hours, from tropical storm strength to maximum sustained winds of 150 mph as it hit the Cuban coast west of Havana, apparently occured despite 20 mph wind shear was occurring.

The storm weakened slightly while crossing the western end of the island, but is still packing 140 mph winds, making it a strong Category 4 hurricane. And the forecast calls for Gustav to intensify to Category 5 strength of 155 mph by 7 p.m. Sunday, as it moves over deep, warm water in the loop current in the central Gulf.

After Gustav makes landfall, forecasters warn, it will move very slowly northwest, its center crossing over Alexandria at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday and reaching Interstate 20 just west of Marshall, Texas, a day later. Gustav will be a tropical storm, with 60 mph winds, at Alexandria, and a tropical depression when it moves into Texas.

We have added local links to this stry for those seeking more informaion from the list below.

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President Bush has declared emergencies in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, the four states in Hurricane Gustav’s path.

The president ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in the areas where Gustav, now a dangerous Category 4 storm, is headed.

Bush checked in with the four governors whose states are in Gustav’s potential route.

Hurricane Gustav “could be as bad as it
gets”, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Saturday, predicting, “We could see
tidal surges of as much as 15 to 20 feet. We could see flooding even worse than
we saw in Hurricane Katrina.”

He said all interstate highways will be put in “contraflow” mode by 4
a.m. CT, turning them all into escape routes out of Louisiana.