9/ 1/05 Thursday
New Orleans descended into anarchy today as corpses lay abandoned
in street medians, fights and fires broke out, cops turned in their
badges and the governor declared war on looters who have made the
city a menacing landscape of disorder and fear. "They have M-16s
and they're locked and loaded," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said of 300
National Guard troops who landed in New Orleans fresh from duty in
Iraq. "These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more
than willing to do so, and I expect they will."
Congress rushed to provide a $10.5 billion down payment in relief
aid for Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina today as President
Bush ordered new action to minimize disruptions in the nation's
energy supplies. The Senate approved the measure this evening, and
the House will convene at noon on Friday to speed the measure to
Bush's desk. "Don't buy gas if you don't need it," the president
urged consumers already hit by sharply rising prices.
The state of Texas agreed today to take in three times more
refugees from Hurricane Katrina than officials initially expected,
bringing the total number of evacuees to nearly 75,000. Texas Gov.
Rick Perry announced that 50,000 more refugees would relocate to
Texas, with plans to house 25,000 each in San Antonio and Dallas.
Those people would join 23,000 others who are already being sent
from New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston.
9/ 2/05 Friday
To cries of "Thank you, Jesus!" and catcalls of "What took you so
long?," a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and
medicine rolled through axle-deep floodwaters today into what
remained of New Orleans and descended into a maelstrom of fires and
floating corpses. "Lord, I thank you for getting us out of here!",
Leschia Radford shrieked amid a throng of tens of thousands of
storm victims outside the New Orleans Convention Center.
Scorched by criticism about sluggish federal help, President Bush
acknowledged the government's failure to stop lawlessness and help
desperate people in New Orleans. "The results are not acceptable,"
Bush said today in the face of mounting complaints from Republicans
and Democrats alike. Bush promised to crack down on crime and
violence, rush food and medicine to the needy and restore
electrical power within weeks to millions of customers across the
Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Texas opened two more giant centers for victims of Hurricane
Katrina after refugees filled Houston's Astrodome to capacity.
Mayor Bill White declared that the city's convention center and an
exhibition hall would accept more hurricane survivors, and
conventions for the coming weeks would be canceled.
National Guardsmen helped evacuate the mass of storm refugees from
the Superdome today, where thousands were stuck in knee-deep trash
and blacked-out, putrid bathrooms. "This was the worst night of my
life," one mother said.
It began, fittingly enough, with jazz from New Orleans natives
Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis. But "A Concert for
Hurricane Relief," a heartfelt and dignified benefit aired on NBC
and other networks tonight, took an unexpected turn thanks to the
outspoken rapper Kanye West. Appearing two-thirds through the
program, he claimed "George Bush doesn't care about black people"
and said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the
less well-off as slow as possible."
9/ 3/05 Saturday
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died this evening of cancer,
ending a 33-year Supreme Court career during which he oversaw the
court's conservative shift, presided over an impeachment trial and
helped decide a presidential election. His death creates a rare
second vacancy on the nation's highest court. Rehnquist, 80, was
surrounded by his three children when he died at his home in
suburban Arlington. His wife died in 1991.
The last bedraggled refugees were rescued from the Superdome today
and the convention center was all but cleared, leaving the heart of
New Orleans to the dead and dying, the elderly and frail stranded
too many days without food, water or medical care. No one knows
how many were killed by Hurricane Katrina's floods and how many
more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are
everywhere: hidden in attics, floating among the ruined city,
crumpled on wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.
President Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the
Gulf Coast today as his administration intensified efforts to
rescue survivors and send aid to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast
in the face of criticism it did not act quickly enough. "In
America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of
need," Bush said.
Mississippi hurricane survivors looked around today and wondered
just how long it would take to get food, clean water and shelter.
And they were more than angry at the federal government and the
national news media. Some people were disgusted by reports of
looting in New Orleans and upset at the lack of attention hurricane
victims in their state were getting.
9/ 4/05 Sunday
New Orleans turned much of its attention today to gathering up and
counting the dead across a ghastly landscape awash in perhaps
thousands of corpses. "It is going to be about as ugly of a scene
as I think you can imagine," the nation's homeland security chief
warned. As authorities struggled to keep order, police shot eight
people, killing five or six, after gunmen opened fire on a group of
contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs,
authorities said.
Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist's death created
upheaval in Washington, as President Bush and the Senate scrambled
to deal with court's first double vacancy in 34 years. Rehnquist's
body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court Tuesday and
Wednesday. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery
following funeral services Wednesday.
With a shattered New Orleans all but emptied out, an unprecedented
refugee crisis unfolded across the country today, as governors and
emergency officials rushed to feed, clothe and shelter more than a
half-million people dispossessed by Hurricane Katrina. In Texas,
where nearly a quarter-million refugees have filled the state's
relief centers, Gov. Rick Perry ordered emergency officials to
airlift some evacuees to other states willing to take them. Among
the states that have offered help are West Virginia, Utah,
Oklahoma, Michigan, Iowa, New York and Pennsylvania.
The Bush administration kept its Hurricane Katrina response and its
public relations campaign in overdrive today, even as first
confirmation came from Washington of a dreaded statistic - that the
storm probably killed thousands of people. Responding to
accusations of racial insensitivity, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said, "Nobody, especially the president, would have left
people unattended on the basis of race."
9/ 5/05 Monday
A week after Hurricane Katrina swept through, engineers plugged the
levee break that had swamped much of the city and floodwaters began
to recede, but along with the good news came the mayor's direst
prediction yet: as many as 10,000 dead. Crews had put up metal
sheets and dropped 3,000-pound sandbags from helicopters onto the
17th Street canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain to plug the 200-
foot-wide gap, and water was being pumped from the canal back into
the lake.
Seizing a historic opportunity to reshape the Supreme Court,
President Bush swiftly chose conservative John Roberts as chief
justice today and weighed how to fill another vacancy that could
push the nation's highest court to the right on issues from
abortion to affirmative action. Polished and plainspoken, Roberts
had been on a likely track to be confirmed as an associate justice
and it appeared Bush turned to him for the top job to avoid an
acrimonious fight at a volatile moment. Bush was on the defensive
about the administration's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina
and his poll ratings had fallen to their lowest point of his
presidency.
Like estranged in-laws at a holiday gathering, President Bush and
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco kept their distance as both toured a
relief center for storm victims today. At their next stop, the
Republican president kissed the Democratic governor on the cheek,
but it wasn't clear whether they had made up. State and federal
officials are all facing public criticism for a slow response to
the crisis. Behind the scenes, each suggests the other is to
blame.
The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon raised $54.9 million for the
Muscular Dystrophy Association and more than $1 million for victims
of Hurricane Katrina. Lewis, 79, decided to devote the two-day
telethon to both children with muscular dystrophy and Katrina
victims after seeing reports from the Gulf Coast.
9/ 6/05 Tuesday
As flood waters receded inch by inch today, New Orleans Mayor C.
Ray Nagin authorized law enforcement officers and the U.S. military
to force the evacuation of all residents who refuse to heed orders
to leave the dark, dangerous city. Nagin's emergency declaration
released late today targets those still in the city unless they
have been designated by government officials as helping with the
relief effort.
The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane
Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to
dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security workers to support rescuers in the
region - and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal
documents. Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security
Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made
landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these
employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's
response for victims.
President Bush intends to seek as much as $40 billion to cover the
next phase of relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina,
congressional officials said, as leading lawmakers and the White
House pledged to investigate an initial federal response widely
condemned as woefully inadequate. One week after the hurricane
inflicted devastation of biblical proportions on the Gulf Coast,
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the total tab for
the federal government may top $150 billion. At the same time,
senators in both parties said they suspect price gouging by oil
companies in the storm's aftermath.
Bob Denver, the bumbling namesake of "Gilligan's Island" who
embarked on what was supposed to be a three-hour tour and endeared
himself to generations of TV fans, has died at age 70. He died
Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina
of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his
agent, Mike Eisenstadt, said today.
9/ 7/05 Wednesday
Using the unmistakable threat of force, police and soldiers went
house to house today to try to coax the last 10,000 or so stubborn
holdouts to leave storm-shattered New Orleans because of the risk
of disease from the putrid, sewage-laden floodwaters. "A large
group of young armed men armed with M-16s just arrived at my door
and told me that I have to leave," said Patrick McCarty, who owns
several buildings and lives in one of them in the city's Lower
Garden District. "While not saying they would arrest you, the
inference is clear."
Dispossessed families of Hurricane Katrina will receive debit cards
good for $2,000 to spend on clothing and other immediate needs, the
Bush administration announced today, working to recast a relief
effort drawing scant praise from Republicans and scathing criticism
from top congressional Democrats. President Bush is "oblivious, in
denial, dangerous," when it comes to the plight of the storm's
victims, charged House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Her Senate
counterpart, Sen. Harry Reid, asked pointedly whether the chief
executive impeded relief efforts by remaining at his Texas ranch
last week while the storm churned toward the Gulf Coast.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was buried as President Bush led
the nation in bidding farewell to the man who orchestrated a
dramatic states rights power shift in a third of a century on the
Supreme Court and settled the acrimonious 2000 election in Bush's
favor. With more laughs than tears, family and friends spoke
poignantly of Rehnquist's final days - when he cracked jokes in the
face of death - and proudly of the imprint of his 33 years on the
high court.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today he will veto a bill that
would have made California the first state to legalize same-sex
marriage through its elected lawmakers. Schwarzenegger said the
legislation, approved Tuesday by lawmakers, would conflict with the
intent of voters when they approved an initiative five years ago.
Proposition 22 was placed on the ballot to prevent California from
recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or
countries.
9/ 8/05 Thursday
More stragglers seemed willing to flee the filthy water and stench
of death today as increasingly insistent rescuers made what may be
their last peaceful pass through swamped New Orleans before using
force. "Some are finally saying, `I've had enough," said U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Michael Keegan.
"They're getting dehydrated. They are running out of food. There
are human remains in different houses. The smells mess with your
psyche."
Vice President Dick Cheney today toured parts of the ravaged Gulf
Coast, claiming significant progress but acknowledging immense
obstacles to a full recovery. "We can do it," he said, first in
Gulfport, Miss., and then in New Orleans, where he stood on a
bridge on a levee on the edge of a flooded section of the city.
Acting with extraordinary speed, Congress approved an additional
$51.8 billion for relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina
today. President Bush pledged to make it "easy and simple as
possible" for uncounted, uprooted storm victims to collect food
stamps and other government benefits. "We're not asking for a
handout, but we do need help," said Sen. Trent Lott - whose home
state of Mississippi suffered grievously from the storm - as
lawmakers approved the bill just a day after Bush requested more
aid on top of the $10.5 billion already provided. The measure
includes $2,000 debit cards for families to use on immediate needs.
9/ 9/05 Friday
The Bush administration dumped FEMA Director Michael Brown as
commander of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts today, then abruptly
scrapped plans to give $2,000 debit cards to displaced storm
victims as it struggled to get a grip on the recovery operation.
Buffeted by criticism, President Bush stirred memories of the 2001
terror attacks as he hailed the "acts of great compassion and
extraordinary bravery from America's first responders," then as
now.
Alarming predictions of as many as 10,000 dead in New Orleans may
have been greatly exaggerated, with authorities saying today that
the first street-by-street sweep of the swamped city revealed far
fewer corpses than feared. "Some of the catastrophic deaths that
some people predicted may not have occurred," said retired Marine
Col. Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security chief.
The federal government's relief agency said today it will
discontinue its program to distribute $2,000 debit cards to
hurricane victims and use bank deposits instead, two days after
hastily announcing the novel plan to provide quick relief. The
Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will scrap the program
once officials finish distributing cards this weekend at shelters
in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, where many of the evacuees were
moved. No cards will be issued to victims in other states.
With the flood waters of Katrina yet to recede, Randy Newman sang
about a long-ago hurricane in "Louisiana 1927" to open a one hour
benefit program spread across dozens of television networks this
evening. Dr. John ended a show suffused with the spirit of a
musical city singing a song that's only a wish now: "Walkin' to New
Orleans."
9/10/05 Saturday
Cadaver dogs and boatloads of forensic workers fanned out today
across New Orleans to collect the corpses left behind by Hurricane
Katrina. Cleanup crews towed away abandoned cars and even began
readying a hotel for reopening. Despite missing 300 officers from
his 1,750- strong force, Police Chief Eddie Compass was upbeat as
he reported that 200 arrests had been made since the hurricane.
One storm could end up costing almost as much as two wars. Although
estimates of Hurricane Katrina's staggering toll on the treasury
are highly imprecise, costs are certain to climb to $200 billion in
the coming weeks. The final accounting could approach the more
than $300 billion spent in four years to fight in Afghanistan and
Iraq. Analysts inside and outside government agree that the $62
billion that Washington has spent so far was merely the first
installment of perhaps an unparalleled sum.
Holding up pictures of their loved ones and signs that read
"Preserve Sacred Ground," more than 500 relatives of Sept. 11
victims rallied at the World Trade Center site today against a
proposed museum. Family members worry the International Freedom
Center will take attention away from those who died in the attack.
They said the museum should not be allowed to show exhibits about
struggles for freedom around the world.
9/11/05 Sunday
Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Katrina's onslaught, today was
marked by signs that hopelessness was beginning to lift in the
shattered city of New Orleans. While the final toll from the
disaster remains unknown, there were indications New Orleans had
begun to turn a corner. Workers were picking up trash, a small
miracle under the circumstances. The airport opened to cargo
traffic. A bullhorn-wielding volunteer led relief workers in a
chorus of "Amazing Grace."
Thousands of triumphant Palestinians poured into abandoned Jewish
settlements early Monday, setting empty synagogues on fire and
shooting in the air, as the last Israeli soldier left the Gaza
Strip, completing Israel's pullout after 38 years of occupation.
Palestinian police stood by helplessly as gunmen raised flags of
militant groups in the settlements and crowds smashed what was left
in the ruins or walked off with doors, window frames, toilets and
scrap metal. Initial plans by Palestinian police to bar the crowds
from the settlements for the first few hours quickly disintegrated,
illustrating the weakness of the Palestinian security forces and
concerns about growing chaos after Israel's departure.
Weeping relatives marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack
today with prayers, solemn remembrances and heartfelt messages to
their dead brothers and sisters at the site where the World Trade
Center collapsed in a nightmarish cloud of dust and debris four
years ago. In a ceremony lasting longer than four hours, more than
600 relatives read the names of the 2,749 victims who died at the
trade center. Several blew kisses to the sky after reading a loved
one's name, while others left the microphone sobbing. Several held
up photos of their loved ones.
President Bush, eager to show hands-on leadership in the Gulf Coast
hurricane recovery effort, joined commanders working from a
military ship docked in flooded New Orleans today. The president
visited firefighters who have been battling the blazes that
persistently erupt across the city, then was sleeping on the USS
Iwo Jima. The amphibious assault ship is serving as a control
center in the relief efforts.
Damage to Gulf Coast refineries and pipelines by Hurricane Katrina
pushed retail gas prices to historic highs in the past two weeks,
with self-serve regular averaging more than $3 a gallon for the
first time ever, according to a nationwide survey released today.
The weighted average price for all three grades surged more than 38
cents to nearly $3.04 a gallon between Aug. 26 and Sept. 9, said
Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of
7,000 gas stations around the country.
9/12/05 Monday
The bodies of more than 40 mostly elderly patients were found in a
flooded-out hospital in the biggest known cluster of corpses to be
discovered so far in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. The exact
circumstances under which they died were unclear, with at least one
hospital official saying today at least a few of the patients were
dead before the storm, and another saying the rising temperature in
the hospital afterward likely contributed to some of the deaths.
Mike Brown, the subject of blistering criticism after Hurricane
Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and overwhelmed the government's
response, quit today as director of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. The White House moved quickly to replace him,
installing a top agency official with three decades of firefighting
experience as acting director. Some of Brown's critics agreed with
his decision, saying it would put the focus on efforts to manage
the aftermath of the disaster, including helping the thousands of
people left homeless.
Supreme Court nominee John Roberts pledged to judge with humility
and "without fear or favor" if approved as the nation's 17th chief
justice and youngest in 200 years. "I have no agenda," he told the
Senate Judiciary Committee at the opening of confirmation
hearings. "I have no platform. Judges are not politicians who can
promise to do certain things in exchange for votes," said the 50-
year-old appeals court judge and former Reagan administration
lawyer, picked by President Bush to succeed the late Chief Justice
William Rehnquist.
President Bush, ducking low-hanging tree limbs and electrical
wires, rode in an open truck today for his first close-up look at
New Orleans' ravaged, trash-strewn, flooded neighborhoods. He
denied that poor, black victims of Hurricane Katrina were ignored
because of their race. After a federal response criticized as slow
and inadequate, Michael Brown, the embattled director of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, announced his resignation in
Washington. His departure had been expected after he was stripped
of his onsite command of the hurricane relief effort three days
earlier.
9/13/05 Tuesday
Chief Justice-nominee John Roberts repeatedly refused to answer
questions about abortion and other contentious issues at his
confirmation hearing today, telling frustrated Democrats he would
not discuss matters that could come before the Supreme Court. "I
think nominees have to draw the line where they are most
comfortable," said Roberts, who also sidestepped questions about
civil rights, voting rights and the limits of presidential power in
a long, occasionally antagonistic day in the witness chair.
President Bush for the first time took responsibility today for
federal government mistakes in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and
suggested the calamity raised broader questions about the
government's ability to handle both natural disasters and terror
attacks. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response
capability at all levels of government," Bush said at a joint White
House news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
In a day of reckoning across battered New Orleans, the owners of a
nursing home were charged in the deaths of dozens of patients
killed by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, the death toll in
Louisiana jumped to 423, and the mayor warned that the city is
broke. Mayor C. Ray Nagin said the city was working "feverishly"
with banking and federal officials to secure lines of credit
through the end of the year, but for now, it is unable to make its
next payroll.
9/14/05 Wednesday
Hurricane Ophelia lashed the North Carolina coast with high winds
and heavy rains today, beginning an anticipated two-day assault
that threatened serious flooding and an 11-foot storm surge. "If
you have not heeded the warning before, let me be clear right now:
Ophelia is a dangerous storm," Gov. Mike Easley said from Raleigh,
appealing especially to those in flood-prone areas to evacuate.
The putrid air rising from New Orleans' slowly receding floodwaters
was found today not to be overly polluted, encouraging news for a
mayor weighing the reopening of the French Quarter and other dry
parts of the city. Mayor Ray Nagin had said a clean bill of health
for the air would allow the tourist-friendly French Quarter and
central business district to reopen as early as Monday. And while
the Environmental Protection Agency still found the floodwaters
contained dangerous levels of sewage-related bacteria, the air
pollutants were determined to be at acceptable levels.
More than a dozen highly coordinated bombings ripped through
Baghdad today, killing at least 160 people and wounding 570 in the
capital's bloodiest day since the end of major combat. Many of the
victims were day laborers lured by a suicide attacker posing as an
employer. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attacks in the
name of Sunni insurgents, saying it was a retaliation for the rout
of militants at a base close to the Syrian border.
Delta Air Lines Inc. snatched pillows from most of its domestic
passengers, and Northwest Airlines Corp. quit offering pretzels.
They slashed thousands of jobs and pressed remaining workers to
take pay cuts. They renegotiated debt and dropped money-losing
flights, but it wasn't enough to keep both airlines out of
bankruptcy court, today. Ultimately, both were undone by spiking
fuel prices after Hurricane Katrina. Their other problems - heavy
debt, mounting pension obligations, labor costs higher than their
peers - were serious enough, but could be addressed later. But not
the fuel.
9/15/05 Thursday
In a big step toward restoring the pulse and soul of New Orleans,
today the mayor announced plans to reopen over the next week and a
half some of the Big Easy's most vibrant neighborhoods, including
the once-rollicking French Quarter. The move could bring back
more than 180,000 of the city's original half-million residents and
speed the revival of its economy, which relies heavily on the
bawdy, Napoleonic-era enclave that is home to Bourbon Street, Mardi
Gras, jazz and jambalaya.
President Bush promised this evening the government will pay most
of the costs of rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast in one
of the largest reconstruction projects the world has ever seen.
"There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this
great city will rise again," the president said. Standing in
Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter, Bush
acknowledged his administration had failed to respond adequately to
Hurricane Katrina, which killed hundreds of people across five
states. The government's costs for rebuilding could reach $200
billion or beyond.
Suicide bombers inflicted another day of mayhem in the capital
today, killing at least 31 people in two attacks about a minute
apart that targeted Iraqi police and Interior Ministry commandos.
The carnage left nearly 200 people dead just two days. A dozen
bombings during a nine-hour spate of terror Wednesday killed at
least 167 people and wounded nearly 600 - Baghdad's worst day of
bloodshed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
9/16/05 Friday
President Bush today ruled out raising taxes to pay the massive
costs of Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government
spending must be cut to pay for a recovery effort expected to swell
the national debt by $200 billion or more. Hours earlier, Bush
vowed to help rebuild the region with an eye toward wiping out the
persistent poverty and racial injustice that exist there.
The nearly 200,000 residents returning to some of New Orleans
neighborhoods beginning next week will face military checkpoints, a
lack of clean tap water and a dusk-to-dawn curfew that could keep
the good times from rolling for a while. "It's ridiculous, the
curfew," said Franco Valobra, owner of a jewelry and antique shop
in the French Quarter, which is world-famous for its naughty
nightlife. "Once it's open, it's open."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger confirmed an open secret, telling
supporters that he's running for re-election next year - an early
announcement designed to re-energize his sagging political
momentum. "I'm going to follow through with this here. I'm not in
there for three years. I originally got into this ... to finish
the job. I'm in there for seven years," he told an enthusiastic
crowd of about 200 invited guests. "Yes, I will run for governor."
9/17/05 Saturday
A weakened levee system and a lack of drinkable tap water will make
it "extremely problematic" to follow the New Orleans mayor's
timeline for allowing residents to return to the evacuated city,
the head of the federal disaster relief effort said today. Coast
Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen said federal officials have worked with
Mayor Ray Nagin and support his vision for repopulating the city,
but he called Nagin's idea to return up to 180,000 people to New
Orleans in the next week both "extremely ambitious" and "extremely
problematic."
Iran's president proclaimed his country's "inalienable right" to
produce nuclear fuel, defiantly rejecting a European offer of
economic incentives if the Mideast nation would halt its uranium
enrichment program. In a fiery speech to the U.N. General
Assembly, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied his nation had any
intention of producing nuclear weapons. To prove that, he offered
foreign countries and companies a role in Iran's nuclear energy
production.
Iraq's president extended a hand to those opposed to his U.S.-
backed government, urging them to participate in the political
process but insisting that they give up violence. President Jalal
Talabani, however, stuck to his government's position that there
can be no compromise on the principles of federal democracy, which
is enshrined in a constitutional draft that Iraqis will vote on
next month.
9/18/05 Sunday
Afghans chose a legislature for the first time in decades today,
embracing their newly recovered democratic rights and braving
threats of Taliban attacks to cast votes in schools, tents and
mosques. Violence in the hours before voting began and during the
day killed 15 people, including a French commando in the U.S.-led
coalition that is helping Afghans build a democracy after a
quarter-century of conflict. But there were no signs of a
spectacular attack threatened by Taliban militants to disrupt the
vote.
Thousands of tourists jammed a highway today after they were told
to evacuate the lower Florida Keys because Tropical Storm Rita
developed over the Bahamas and moved toward the vulnerable, low-
lying island chain. A hurricane watch was posted for the entire
Florida Keys, which means hurricane conditions of winds of at least
74 mph are possible by late Monday.
Thousands of residents began returning to homes in the New Orleans
suburbs today to find debris-strewn yards and homes without power
or working sewers. But amid the damage, a few gas stations were
open, along with a handful of coffee shops and burger joints and
signs of rebuilding.
9/19/05 Monday
Under pressure from President Bush and other top federal officials,
the mayor suspended the reopening of large portions of the city
today and instead ordered nearly everyone out because of the risk
of a new round of flooding from a tropical storm on the way. "If
we are off, I'd rather err on the side of conservatism to make sure
we have everyone out," Mayor Ray Nagin said.
Residents boarded up windows today and evacuated the low-lying
Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Rita gathered strength in the
Bahamas, threatening to grow into a hurricane with a potential 8-
foot storm surge. In New Orleans, the mayor suspended his plan to
start bringing residents back to the city after forecasters warned
that Rita could charge through the Gulf of Mexico and possibly
reach his city's already weakened levees. Oil prices surged on the
possibility that oil and gas production would be interrupted once
again.
Two Democrats who might seek the White House again in 2008
criticized President Bush for his response to the devastation of
Hurricane Katrina, assailing the suspension of wage laws while
urging a concerted effort to aid the poor. Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts and former Sen. John Edwards spoke separately today
on the government's handling of the catastrophe and on the broader
issue of poverty in the United States.
Martha Stewart's euphemism for prison was to call it "Yale." She
explained her coping mechanism in an appearance on David
Letterman's "Late Show" to promote her two new TV shows. The
former convict said she accepted her five-month prison sentence for
lying to authorities about a stock deal instead of waiting for the
appeal because she wouldn't have been able to do her shows with the
uncertainty.
9/20/05 Tuesday
Rapidly strengthening Hurricane Rita lashed the Florida Keys today
and headed into the Gulf of Mexico, where forecasters feared it
could develop into another blockbuster storm targeting Texas or
Louisiana. Thousands of people were evacuated from the Keys and
low-lying areas of northern Cuba. On the far side of the Gulf of
Mexico in Texas, Galveston started evacuations and officials made
plans to move refugees from Hurricane Katrina who had been housed
in the Houston area to Arkansas.
The Army Corps of Engineers raced to patch New Orleans' fractured
levee system today and residents were forced to decide yet again
whether to stay or go as a new, rapidly strengthening hurricane
threatened to flood the city anew. "First it was come back, then
it was go," said Karen Torre, who returned to her home today to
haul away debris and clean rotted food from her refrigerator before
leaving again. "We're just trying to do what they tell us and get
a few things done in between."
The war in Iraq passed a sobering milepost today when U.S.
officials reported 12 more Americans were killed - eight of them
members of the armed forces, raising to more than 1,900 the number
of U.S. service members who have died in the country since the
invasion. A Diplomatic Security agent attached to the U.S. State
Department and three private American security guards were killed
when their convoy was hit by a suicide car bomber Monday in the
northern city of Mosul, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said. The four
were attached to the U.S. Embassy's regional office in Mosul.
The Federal Reserve boosted interest rates to the highest level in
four years despite the effects of Hurricane Katrina, saying fallout
from the storm didn't pose a "persistent threat" to the nation's
economic health. The Fed made clear that fighting inflation
remained its No. 1 job.
9/21/05 Wednesday
Gaining strength with frightening speed, Hurricane Rita swirled
toward the Gulf Coast a Category 5, 175-mph monster today as more
than 1.3 million people in Texas and Louisiana were sent packing on
orders from authorities who learned a bitter lesson from Katrina.
"It's scary. It's really scary," Shalonda Dunn said as she and her
5 and 9-year-old daughters waited to board a bus arranged by
emergency authorities in Galveston. "I'm glad we've got the
opportunity to leave. ... You never know what can happen."
Searchers smashed through doors in New Orleans today, bringing
their hunt for the dead to homes that had been locked and to blocks
hardest hit by Katrina's flooding. Behind those doors, officials
said they expected a sharply escalating body count even as the
overall death toll passed 1,000. "There still could be quite a
few, especially in the deepest flooded areas," said U.S. Coast
Guard Capt. Jeffrey Pettitt, who is overseeing the retrieval of
bodies. "Some of the houses, they haven't been in yet." Officials
said searchers are beginning to find more children.
Hundreds of Iraqi civilians and policemen, some waving pistols and
AK-47s, rallied today in Iraq's southern city of Basra to denounce
"British aggression" in the rescue of two British soldiers. The
Basra governor threatened to end all cooperation with British
forces unless Prime Minister Tony Blair's government apologizes for
the deadly clash with Iraqi police. Britain defended the raid.
9/22/05 Thursday
Hurricane Rita closed in on the Texas Gulf Coast and the heart of
the U.S. oil-refining industry with howling 140 mph winds today,
but a sharper-than- expected turn to the right set it on a course
that could spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit. The
storm's march toward land sent hundreds of thousands of people
fleeing the nation's fourth-largest city in a frustratingly slow,
bumper-to- bumper exodus.
John Roberts' nomination as chief justice cleared a Senate
committee on a bipartisan vote of 13-5 today, with next week's
confirmation so certain that Republicans and Democrats turned
increasing attention to President Bush's choice to fill a second
Supreme Court vacancy. Before the committee vote on Roberts, Sen.
Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said, "I will vote my hopes and not my fears,
and I will vote to confirm him." Kohl was one of three Democrats
on the Judiciary Committee who supported Roberts' nomination along
with all 10 Republicans on the panel.
Drivers, homeowners, airlines and businesses will end up paying
higher fuel bills if Hurricane Rita magnifies the damage last
month's Hurricane Katrina inflicted on the oil-refining industry.
Most of the refineries on the Texas and Louisiana coasts were shut
down today, and oil and natural gas rigs stood empty on the Gulf of
Mexico as Rita bore down on the heart of the nation's energy
industry.
9/23/05 Friday
Hurricane Rita steamed toward refinery towns along the Texas-
Louisiana coast with 120 mph winds today, creating havoc even
before it arrived: levee breaks caused new flooding in New Orleans,
and as many as 24 people were killed when a bus carrying nursing-
home evacuees caught fire in a traffic jam. Rita weakened during
the day into a Category 3 hurricane after raging as a Category 5,
175-mph monster earlier in the week. But it was still a highly
dangerous storm.
Hurricane Rita's wind-driven storm surge topped one of New Orleans'
battered levees and poked holes in another today, sending water
gushing into already-devastated neighborhoods just days after they
had been pumped dry. An initial surge of water cascaded over a
patched levee protecting the impoverished Ninth Ward, flooding the
abandoned neighborhood with at least 6 feet of water.
Heavy fighting surged today in the Euphrates River city of Ramadi,
police and hospital officials said, and the U.S. military reported
the deaths of two more soldiers around the militant stronghold,
scene of nearly one-quarter of 29 American deaths this month. In
Baghdad, a suicide bomber on a public minibus set off an explosives
belt as the vehicle approached a busy terminal today, killing at
least five people and wounding eight, police said.
9/24/05 Saturday
Hurricane Rita pummeled east Texas and the Louisiana coast today,
battering communities with floods and intense winds, but residents
were relieved the once-dreaded storm proved far less fierce and
deadly than Katrina. After the storm passed, authorities pleaded
with the roughly 3 million evacuees not to hurry home too soon,
fearing more chaos.
The millions of Texans who fled Houston and other Gulf Coast cities
to avoid Hurricane Rita are likely to pay higher prices for
gasoline - if they can find it - on their return trips home. And
even if Rita's damage to Texas and Louisiana oil refineries and
pipeline operations proves to be less than was feared, motorists
around the country still face the prospect of at least another
short-term spike in pump prices, analysts said.
Hurricane Rita left floodwaters lapping at the high-water marks set
by Katrina just three weeks ago, raising questions about how
swiftly New Orleans can recover from its epic flooding and
providing a grim reminder that the city remains in peril even as it
seeks to rebuild. Despite the setback, Mayor Ray Nagin said today
that he hoped to resume a plan to move residents back into
neighborhoods that remained relatively dry, including the city's
business district.
Crowds opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House
today, shouting "Peace now" in the largest anti-war protest in the
nation's capital since the U.S. invasion. The rally stretched
through the day and into the night, a marathon of music,
speechmaking and dissent on the National Mall. Police Chief
Charles H. Ramsey, noting that organizers had hoped to draw 100,000
people, said, "I think they probably hit that."
It's not often that a Nobel laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners,
Grammy winners, Academy Award winners and just about every other
kind of winner share a single stage. But a benefit for Hurricane
Katrina relief efforts, sponsored by The New Yorker as part of its
annual New Yorker Festival, brought an eclectic and star-studded
cast of performers to Manhattan this evening. The lineup included
Toni Morrison, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Kevin Kline, Richard Ford,
Willem Dafoe and lots of zydeco music. Most of the evening's
entertainment celebrated New Orleans culture.
9/25/05 Sunday
For the storm-shattered Gulf Coast, the images were all too
familiar: tiny fishing villages in splinters. Refrigerators and
coffins bobbing in floodwaters. Helicopters and rescue boats
making house-to-house searches of residents stranded on the
rooftops. But as the misery wrought by Hurricane Rita came into
clearer view - particularly in the hard-to-reach marsh towns along
the Texas-Louisiana line - the lasting signs that emerged a day
after the storm's 120-mph landfall were of an epic evacuation that
saved countless lives, and of destruction that fell short of the
Katrina-sized fears.
The 14-hour lines of traffic fleeing Houston - complete with cars
that ran out of gas - show that four years after the Sept. 11
attacks, it is difficult to evacuate a major metropolitan area.
Experts say the consequences could be far more deadly in the event
of a radiological or other terrorist strike.
Retail gas prices dropped an average 20 cents in the past two weeks
because of decreased demand and a comeback by Gulf Coast refineries
that were hurt by Hurricane Katrina, according to a nationwide
survey released today. The weighted average price for all three
grades declined to $2.84 a gallon for the two weeks ending Sept.
23, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg
Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country.
9/26/05 Monday
Hurricane Rita's path of devastation along the Texas-Louisiana
coast became shockingly clear today, as rescuers pulled stranded
bayou residents out on skiffs and Army helicopters searched for
thousands of cattle feared drowned. Crews struggled to clean up
the tangle of smashed homes and downed trees. The hurricane
slammed low-lying fishing villages, shrimping ports and ranches
with water up to 9 feet deep. Seawater pushed as far as 20 miles
inland, drowning acres of rice, sugarcane fields and pasture.
Army Pfc. Lynndie England, whose smiling poses in photos of
detainee abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison made her the face of
the scandal, was convicted today by a military jury on six of seven
counts. England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy,
four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an
indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.
President Bush urged Americans today to cut back on unnecessary
travel to make up for fuel shortages caused by Hurricane Rita as he
prepared to take his seventh trip to the Gulf Coast. Bush said the
government was ready to release fuel from its emergency oil
stockpile to alleviate high prices. And he suggested he would name
a federal official to oversee the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast
- after local officials first produce a vision for their rebuilt
communities.
Former FEMA director Michael Brown said today he should have sought
help faster from the Pentagon after Hurricane Katrina hit, and
accused state and local officials of constant infighting during the
crisis, according to congressional aides. Brown is continuing to
work at the Federal Emergency Management Agency at full pay, with
his Sept. 12 resignation not taking effect for two more weeks,
9/27/05 Tuesday
A combative Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New
Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for
the dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance
today before Congress. In response, lawmakers alternately lambasted
and mocked the former FEMA director. House members' scorching
treatment of Brown, in a hearing stretching nearly 6 1/2 hours,
underscored how he has become an emblem of the deaths, lingering
floods and stranded survivors after the Aug. 29 storm. Brown
resigned Sept. 12 after being relieved of his onsite command of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency's response effort three days
earlier.
Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned today after four
turbulent weeks in which the police force was wracked by desertions
and disorganization in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. "I served
this department for 26 years and have taken it through some of the
toughest times of its history. Every man in a leadership position
must know when it's time to hand over the reins," Compass said at a
news conference. "I'll be going on in another direction that God
has for me."
Iraqi and U.S. forces claimed a major blow against one of the
country's deadliest insurgent groups, saying they killed the No. 2
leader of al-Qaida in Iraq who masterminded a brutal escalation in
suicide bombings that claimed nearly 700 lives in Baghdad since
April. The attacks also wounded 1,500 in the capital, according to
an AP tally.
Army Pfc. Lynndie England, who said she was only trying to please
her soldier boyfriend when she took part in detainee abuse at
Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, was sentenced late today to three years
behind bars. England's sentencing wrapped up the last of nine
courts-martial of low-level soldiers charged in the scandal, which
severely damaged America's image in the Muslim world and tarnished
the U.S. military at home and abroad.
9/28/05 Wednesday
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted by a Texas grand jury
today on a charge of conspiring to violate political fundraising
laws, forcing him to temporarily step aside from his GOP post. He
is the highest-ranking member of Congress to face criminal
prosecution. A defiant DeLay said he had done nothing wrong and
denounced the Democratic prosecutor who pursued the case as a
"partisan fanatic.". He said, "This is one of the weakest, most
baseless indictments in American history. It's a sham."
Saying they were caught off-guard by the number of people in need,
FEMA officials closed a relief center early today after some of the
hundreds of hurricane victims in line began fainting in triple-
digit heat. The midday closing of the Houston disaster relief
center came as officials in areas hit hardest by Hurricane Rita
criticized FEMA's response to the storm, with one calling for a
commission to examine the emergency response.
Former FEMA director Michael Brown was warned weeks before
Hurricane Katrina hit that his agency's backlogged computer systems
could delay supplies and put personnel at risk during an emergency,
according to an audit released today. An internal review of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency's information- sharing system
shows it was overwhelmed during the 2004 hurricane season. The
audit was released a day after Brown vehemently defended FEMA for
the government's dismal response to Katrina, instead blaming state
and local officials for poor planning and chaos during the Aug. 29
storm and subsequent flooding.
Bowing to pressure from Sept. 11 families, Gov. George Pataki today
removed a proposed freedom center from the space reserved for it
near the planned World Trade Center memorial, saying the museum
project had aroused "too much opposition, too much controversy."
Pataki initially said the state would help the International
Freedom Center find another home, but center officials said they
weren't interested and considered the project dead.
9/29/05 Thursday
After nearly three months behind bars, New York Times reporter
Judith Miller was released today after agreeing to testify about
the Bush administration's disclosure of a covert CIA officer's
identity. Miller left the federal detention center in Alexandria,
Va., after reaching an agreement with Special Counsel Patrick
Fitzgerald. She will appear Friday morning before a grand jury
investigating the case.
John G. Roberts Jr., a conservative protege of the late William H.
Rehnquist, succeeded him today and became the nation's youngest
chief justice in two centuries, winning support from more than
three-fourths of the Senate after promising he would be no
ideologue. Roberts, at 50, becomes the 17th chief justice,
presiding over a Supreme Court that seems as divided as the nation
over abortion and other tumultuous social issues. The court opens
a new term on Monday.
Machinists at Boeing Co. approved a new labor contract today,
ending a four-week strike that shut down the company's commercial
airplane assembly plants. About 80 percent of those voting
accepted the three-year pact, said Mark Blondin, president of
Machinists District Lodge 751. Approval cleared the way for
workers to return to their jobs as early as tonight.
Three suicide attackers exploded near-simultaneous car bombs in the
heart of bustling, mainly Shiite Baghdad today, killing at least 60
people and wounding 70 amid a new surge of violence before an Oct.
15 referendum on Iraq's constitution. Apparently aimed at killing
a large number of Shiite civilians, the string of bombings started
just before sunset when the first blast ripped through an open-air
market crowded with Iraqis buying vegetables. The next bomb
exploded at a bank just yards away, followed by a third on a nearby
street of clothing shops.
9/30/05 Friday
Sunni Arab opposition to Iraq's draft constitution has increased
the potential for instability and called into question U.S. hopes
for substantial troop cuts next spring, the top U.S. commander in
Iraq said today. Gen. George Casey, speaking at a Pentagon news
conference with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said his
prediction in July that "fairly substantial" troop withdrawals
could begin next spring was based on a key assumption: that
satisfactory progress on the political and security fronts would
continue.
Out of jail after 85 days, New York Times reporter Judith Miller
testified before a grand jury today, setting the stage for
prosecutors to decide whether to charge anyone in the Bush
administration in the leak of a CIA operative's name. Miller, who
had been in jail for refusing to testify, was the final holdout
witness whose testimony Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said he
needed before concluding the probe into who leaked the identity of
Valerie Plame.
Sunni insurgents hit two Shiite towns in two days with brutal
bombings that killed more than 110 people, apparently aiming to
scare Shiites away from a crucial vote on Iraq's new constitution.
In the latest attack, a car bomb ripped through a fruit and
vegetable market crowded with Friday morning shoppers. Destroyed
stalls lay in pools of blood in the al-Sharia market in the
southern city of Hillah, in Iraq's Shiite heartland. The scenes
mirrored the devastation in Balad, the Shiite town in the middle of
a Sunni region north of Baghdad hit by a triple suicide bombing
Thursday, a far more lethal attack.
The White House today criticized former Education Secretary William
Bennett for remarks linking the crime rate and the abortion of
black babies. "The president believes the comments were not
appropriate," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
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