A Marine jet fighter crashed into a residential area near Marine Air Station Miramar today. The press is reporting that at least three people have died. The pilot survived.
A Top Gun pilot ejected moments before his fighter jet crashed into a heavily populated residential neighbourhood in San Diego, California, last night killing at least three people on the ground.
Two houses burst into flames when the F-18 plane plummeted to earth two miles short of a Marine Corps air base of Miramar.
The stunned pilot parachuted to safety and was seen staggering dazed near the crash site in the San Diego suburb of Universal City but later city officials said three people on the ground had been killed and a fourth was missing.
(The Daily Mail is confused. Miramar is not the base where Top Gun is located. Miramar is a Marine Air Station now, Top Gun relocated in 1996 to Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada.)
The AP report is here.
Barack Obama tried to assure gun owners that there was no need to run out and buy guns in advance of him taking office. Gun buyers, however, were not buying what Obama had to say. Sales are way, way up.
“I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment,” Obama said at a news conference. “Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven’t indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word.”
But National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said it’s not Obama’s words — but his legislative track record — that has gun-buyers flocking to the stores.
“Prior to his campaign for president, his record as a state legislator and as a U.S. Senator shows he voted for the most stringent forms of gun control, the most Draconian legislation, gun bans, ammunition bans and even an increase in federal excise taxes up to 500 percent for every gun and firearm sold,” Arulanandam said.
Background checks jumped by 49 percent in the week Obama won the election. I can tell you that I was trying to buy a spare magazine for my normal carry pistol and ended up talking with a gun store owner in North Carolina. He was swamped with customers. (I eventually found a spare magazine locally, even though my carry piece has been out of production for a number of years.)
I also bought a Bushmaster. I figured it might become hard to buy soon, it being an “ugly gun”. I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect I am not. It appears that a very large number of people have the same suspicion. Despite Obama’s assurances.
The Tribune Company has filed for bankruptcy. The parent company for the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune is filing Chapter 11 in Delaware, where the company is incorporated.
Tribune’s debt has become more burdensome over the last six months as advertising revenue at its eight daily newspapers and 23 television stations has fallen sharply. Industry projections are for further declines over the next six months to a year.
The company said it plans to file in Delaware, where it is incorporated.
“The focus of the filing today is 100% on relieving the pressure on the company from its debt,” Zell said in the interview with reporters from Tribune newspapers. “By virtue of the filing today we will suspend making interest payments, which should give us added flexibility in order to continue moving forward.”
Yet, while they are talking about many creditors getting hosed with paybacks of much less than what is owed – and some getting nothing – they are also saying that they may acquire other newspapers while undergoing this bankruptcy.
Anyone else see a problem with this?
The Tribune Company owns the Chicago Cubs – which has been valued at something like one billion dollars. And that team has been excluded from the bankruptcy.
Again, anyone else see a problem here?
Presumably, some of the creditors who are going to get the shaft are those same banks who have been bailed out at taxpayer expense. And the Tribune Company is sheltering an asset that appears to be able to pay off a large portion of what is owed.
I think we have a problem here. What do you think?
