Thursday, July 28, 2011

Drought-stricken Texas welcomes Tropical Storm Don | Reuters

(Reuters) - As much of Texas suffers through one of its worst droughts, many rain-starved Texans are doing something they thought they would never do -- looking forward to the arrival of a tropical storm.

"Someone's going to get it. We hope that it's us," is how Danielle Hale sums up the situation. She is the Emergency Management Director on Corpus Christi, right in the middle of the area where Tropical Storm Don is expected to come ashore on Friday night.

Parts of Texas are 15 inches short their average rainfall for this time of year. Don's expected 5 to 7 inches of rain and the fact that the storm was not seen bringing damaging winds or a destructive surge, makes it a perfect storm for a state sick of water rationing, brown lawns and dying crops, Hale said.

"We're not anticipating any evacuation orders," Hale said. "The worst we expect is maybe some beach access roads may have to be closed heading into Friday evening.

International Space Station Will Be Sunk Into the Ocean in 2020 [Update: Not Quite] | PCWorld

How the debt-ceiling crisis could affect ordinary Americans

AFP: US soldiers arrested over new Fort Hood plot: report

US soldiers arrested over new Fort Hood plot: report

(AFP) – 1 hour ago 

WASHINGTON — Three US soldiers were arrested for allegedly plotting a new attack on Fort Hood, the Texas base where a former Army psychiatrist went on a deadly rampage in 2009, a report said Thursday.

Fox News, citing an unidentified army source, said that a US soldier who had gone missing without official permission was captured off the base and is being held by police in Killeen, Texas.

The television network said that two more soldiers were arrested when they were found with weapons and explosives. It said it had the men's names but was withholding them.

A US Army spokesman at the base could not immediately be reached for comment early Thursday.

On November 9, 2009, Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who was set to deploy to Afghanistan, allegedly shot dead 12 soldiers and one civilian before police bullets wounded him.

Hasan, who goes on trial on March 5, faces the death penalty if convicted. Investigators allege that Hasan had contact with key Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, a US citizen who is at large in Yemen.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

Report: Explosives found in AWOL soldier's car near Ft. Hood - On Deadline

By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY

Updated 59m ago

Updated at 9:38 a.m. ET: KCEN-TV reports that explosives were found in the soldier's car. The TV station quotes Ft. Hood officials as saying the soldier is not stationed there.

Original posting: An AWOL soldier described by police as armed and dangerous has been arrested inKilleen, Texas, near Ft. Hood.

There are conflicting media reports surrounding the arrest.

Fox News, in its report, quotes an Army source as saying a U.S. military serviceman has been arrested in Killeen for allegedly planning another attack on the Army base.

KCEN-TV, meanwhile, says an AWOL soldier was arrested in the town on a warrant on child porn charges. KCEN says police considered the soldier armed and dangerous.

It was not immediately clear if the soldier is the same one identified in the Fox report. KCEN did not mention any plot involving Ft. Hood.

Fox News, quoting another unidentified source, also reports that two other U.S. soldiers were arrested earlier today when they were found in possession of weapons and explosives.

Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army military psychiatrist, is on trial for killing 13 people and wounding 30 in the Ft. Hood shooting in November, 2009.

Economy still stagnant; GDP growth likely slowed in Q2 - Jul. 28, 2011

NEA And Sequoia Put $18M In Brand-Focused Social Media Platform Hearsay Social - The Washington Post

Hearsay Social, a SaaS dashboard for national businesses and their local branches to manage Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages, has raised $18 million in new funding med by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with existing investor Sequoia Capital participating. In conjunction with the funding, NEA partner Jon Sakoda is joining the Hearsay Social Board of Directors. To date, Hearsay Social has raised $21 million in funding.

Hearsay Social, which launched to the public in February, aims to help big brands who have local branches (i.e. Starbucks, BestBuy), manage Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages. Because of the highly distributed nature of some companies that have local branches, managing social media pages for stores or offices that are still in compliance with a company’s regulation is a challenging process.

For Big Oil, $100 Oil Is Window Dressing - TheStreet

Heavy rains cause landslides in South Korea - The Globe and Mail

Oil Market Watches Washington, Tropical Storm

By KONSTANTIN ROZHNOV

LONDON—Oil futures were mixed as investors followed developments in the Gulf of Mexico, where the watch area for tropical storm Don was extended, and Washington, D.C., where lawmakers are still at loggerheads over an agreement to raise the debt ceiling.

In mid morning, the front-month September Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was 30 cents, or 0.3%, higher at $117.73 a barrel. The front-month September contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading down 29 cents at $97.11 per barrel.

Worries that tropical storm Don, which has already prompted the evacuation of nonessential personnel from several oil and gas platforms, could affect oil production are supporting prices, said Andy Sommer, senior oil analyst at EGL.

The storm's current path also seems to be a concern for oil-refining assets, said Olivier Jakob, managing director of consultancy Petromatrix.

Despite the concerns over the storm, many market participants are on the sidelines as U.S. politicians have yet to reach an agreement to raise the country's borrowing limit ahead of the Aug. 2 deadline, analysts said.

"Investors are starting to take some risk off the table as the deadline on the U.S. debt extension comes closer," Mr. Jakob said.

Meanwhile, the price difference between the Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude contracts widened after the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday reported an unexpected increase in the country's oil stocks, pushing U.S. crude lower relative to Brent.

In mid morning, Brent was trading at a premium of $20.65 a barrel to WTI.

"Unless something truly untoward were to take place regarding one of the pipelines bringing crude oil down from Canada or unless suddenly one of the other pipelines in the Midwest were suddenly to be reversed allowing crude to move from Cushing to the Gulf, this spread is going to widen further and perhaps dramatically," Dennis Gartman wrote in his daily Gartman Letter report.

The current situation is such that "if one is a buyer of crude futures one buys Brent; if one is a seller, one sells WTI," Mr. Gartman added.

The ICE gasoil contract for August delivery was down $2.25, or 0.2% at $972.25 per metric ton, while Nymex gasoline for August delivery was 135 points, or 0.4% higher at $3.1558 per gallon.

Write to Konstantin Rozhnov at konstanin.rozhnov @dowjones.com