Authorities searching for missing St. Helena Island woman

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2012/08/25/2185737/authorities-searching-for-missing.html#storylink=cpy

Authorities searched by land, air and sea this weekend for a St. Helena Island woman missing since early Friday, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office .

Zenobia Pauline Simmons, 46, was last seen Friday morning at her Vineyard Point Road home. She was reported missing at about 6:30 p.m. after family members could find or reach her, Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Sgt. Robin McIntosh said in a news release.

At this point, authorities do not believe foul play is involved, McIntosh said.

Investigators say Simmons is not employed in the area in the area and does not have access to a vehicle. She left behind her personal belongings, including her cell phone, according to family members.

Simmons travels back and forth between St. Helena and Atlanta and arrived in the area on Wednesday, according to her sister, Lillian Simmons.

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2012/08/25/2185737/authorities-searching-for-missing.html#storylink=cpy

Bus slams into tanker on a Chinese highway, killing 36

Two members of punk rock band flee Russia

(Reuters) - Two members of Russia's anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot have fled the country to avoid prosecution for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin at a church altar, the band said on Sunday.

Should Kids Be Fined If They Skip School?

A funeral instead of a wedding: Empire State Building slay victim Steven Ercolino and girlfriend Ivette Rivera 'always wanted to get married'

A cousin of Ercolino said Rivera was 'the love of his life.' Rivera's brother said 'everything they did, they did together as a couple.'

via Facebook

Ivette Rivera and Steven Ercolino in a photo taken from Facebook.

They were soulmates from the start.

Steven Ercolino knew instantly that Bronx-born beauty Ivette Rivera was the one who would share his life, walk down the aisle with him, grow old beside him.

“They always wanted to get married,” his brother Paul said wistfully Saturday at the family home in Warwick, Orange County. “He didn’t have a ring, I don’t think.”

Wedding plans were replaced with funeral arrangements as the two families mourned the brutal loss of Ercolino, 41, killed by five gunshots from a grudge-nursing former co-worker.

Don't forget insurance for your college-bound kids

Powerful typhoon Bolaven crashes into southern Japan

High waves pound against a seawall in Okinawa prefecture in Southern Japan. Source: AP

ONE of the most powerful typhoons in decades has hit Japan's Okinawa prefecture with meteorologists warning it could bring record rain and wind to the southern region and waves of up to 13 metres.

Who’s Your Daddy? A Mobile Paternity-Testing Truck Offers Answers on the Go

Getting your DNA tested is almost as easy as hailing a cab, at least in New York City.




 
 Kul Bhatia / Getty Images

A mobile clinic run by the New York company Health Street, roams around the city housed in a 28-ft RV displaying the slogan: “Who’s Your Daddy?” You’ll need a prescription from a doctor for the testing — they do paternity and other familial DNA tests — and the company offers the service on the spot for $299 and up. A technician collects your sample in the RV, then sends it to a laboratory in Ohio, and results are available in three to five business days.

You Are Drinking What?

With water in short supply across the country, it's time to take a serious look at recycling sewage

Almost 60% of the continental U.S. is now living through drought conditions, and half of all counties have been declared disaster areas. From coast to coast, cities and towns are placing restrictions on water consumption. With the nation so hot and dry and no end in sight, some are calling for a drastic solution: drinking our own wastewater—that is, what we usually flush down our toilets.

Not directly, of course. But drinking recycled wastewater is a relatively cheap and effective means of obtaining a lot of water. If all the wastewater dumped into waterways or the ocean were recycled instead, the U.S. would increase its water supply by as much as 27%, according to a report released earlier this year by the National Academy of Sciences. Nationally, that amounts to 12 billion gallons.

Alex Nabaum

The process for recycling wastewater is more rigorous than for "regular" tap water, with stronger filtration.

As the NAS report noted, "With recent advances in technology and treatment design, potable reuse can reduce the concentration of chemical and microbial contaminants to levels comparable to or lower than those present in many drinking water supplies."

Recycled wastewater is also cheaper than other alternatives. Desalination—turning seawater into drinking water—sounds more palatable, but estimated costs can run one-half to two-thirds more than for a recycled wastewater facility. That is largely due to the amount of filtration required: Wastewater has roughly 1,000 parts per million of salt, but seawater has roughly 35,000 parts per million. Desalination is also, of course, limited to states near seawater.

Fear of a Black President

As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America’s original sin, slavery. But as our first black president, he has avoided mention of race almost entirely. In having to be “twice as good” and “half as black,” Obama reveals the false promise and double standard of integration.

 

Bill Sanderson

The irony of President Barack Obama is best captured in his comments on the death of Trayvon Martin, and the ensuing fray. Obama has pitched his presidency as a monument to moderation. He peppers his speeches with nods to ideas originally held by conservatives. He routinely cites Ronald Reagan. He effusively praises the enduring wisdom of the American people, and believes that the height of insight lies in the town square. Despite his sloganeering for change and progress, Obama is a conservative revolutionary, and nowhere is his conservative character revealed more than in the very sphere where he holds singular gravity—race.

When Spike Lee Became Scary

The director's movies aren't actually that incendiary, but media's reception of Do the Right Thing 23 years ago created an unfair image that persists today: that of a reckless provocateur.
Universal