Clear 365 Blogs

11/13: The Publicer Observer on upcoming news and a photo roundup

Nov. 13, 2009

The Public Observer offers a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images by The Associated Press.

OBAMA HEADS TO CHINA

President Barack Obama will continue his trip to Asia with APEC meetings in Singapore this weekend before heading to China for events in Shanghai and Beijing. Obama will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao before heading off to Seoul, South Korea.

The Chinese are ramping up for Obama's arrival Sunday with "Oba Mao" T-shirts and a statue of him that bursts into flames in Beijing.

"He's so hot right now, so I wanted to translate that through my work," said artist Liu Bolin.

Obama returns to Washington on Nov. 19.

SARAH PALIN IS "GOING ROGUE"

Former Alaska governor and ex-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will release her new memoir Tuesday in which she writes of her teenage daughter's pregnancy without mentioning the father of her grandson and soon-to-be Playgirl cover model, Levi Johnston. The 413-page "Going Rogue" contains 68 color photos and recounts tension between the Palin camp and those who ran Sen. John McCain's campaign for the presidency. The omission of Johnston from the book might have some merit, he has warned Palin to stop attacking him publicly or else he might dish some dirt that "will hurt her."

Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters will air interviews with Palin in the coming week and she will embark on an approximately three-week book tour starting Nov. 18.

WORLD FOOD SUMMIT

A three-day United Nations food summit will be held in Rome starting Monday and will attempt to gain commitments from world leaders to help the world's 1 billion hungry people feed themselves. A draft declaration obtained by The Associated Press does not include a 2025 deadline for eradicating hunger, which was a goal sought by the United Nations. 

PHOTO ROUNDUP

Here are some recent images taken by The Associated Press.

Veteran Mario Morrone of Philadelphia pays his respects Wednesday to friends who died while serving in Vietnam during a Veterans Day visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Omm Ahmed, right, a woman militant in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), poses for a portrait Thursday in a house of a fellow fighter in the Gaza Strip. Founded in 1969, the DFLP is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist, secular political and military organization. Approximately 40 women militants for the DFLP started training 6 months ago as a response to Israel's January offensive. They range in age from 17 to 53 and many are married with children. (AP Photo/ Tara Todras-Whitehill)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, toasts Mikhail Kalashnikov, who invented the AK-47 assault rifle, during festivities Tuesday to celebrate his 90th birthday at the Kremlin in Moscow. The AK-47 is one of the world's most popular and reliable rifles. (AP Photo/Natalia Kolesnikova, Pool)

 

Joe Cada poses for photos Tuesday after winning the 2009 World Series of Poker at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Cada defeated Darvin Moon to win $8.5 million. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Manjit Singh grimaces as he pulls a double decker London bus for some 21.2 meters by his hair to set a new Guinness world record in London on Thursday. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Diana Kubasova of Latvia, a candidate for the 2009 Miss Earth beauty pageant, plants a Palawan Cherry sapling Tuesday at the Nuvali upscale real property development at Sta. Rosa, Laguna province south of Manila, Philippines. More than 80 beauties from all over the world are vying for the Miss Earth title, an international beauty contest with a unique advocacy to save Mother Earth. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Fireworks are seen at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany on Monday during the commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov.9, 1989. (AP Photo/Gero Breloer)

A pair of Passion butterflies perch on flowers Wednesday at a Houston park. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Traffic backs up as a turkey makes its daily walk across a busy Rt 462 near Lancaster, Pa. on Tuesday. A pair of turkeys , who live in the wild, travel back and forth early and late in the day in search of food neighbors put out for the birds. (AP Photo/Intelligencer Journal, Marty Heisey)

 

President Barack Obama speaks Tuesday at a memorial services at Fort Hood, Texas. In the foreground is a photo of Sgt. Amy S. Krueger. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

A seagull flies along the Alabama Gulf Coast at sunrise Tuesday as Tropical Storm Ida makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

The Copacabana beach is seen Tuesday during a blackout in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A massive power failure threw Brazil's largest cities into darkness Tuesday night along with other parts of the country affecting millions of people. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Australian explosives detection dog Sabi is photographed Wednesday at Forward Operating Base Ripley in Tarin Kowt, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan. Sabi disappeared more than a year ago during a fierce battle between Australian troops and militant fighters. Sabi was with a joint Australian-Afghan army patrol that was ambushed in restive Uruzgan province in September 2008, but there was no sign of Sabi after the battle that followed - until now. (AP Photo/Andrew Mearse, Pool)

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

11/6: The Publicer Observer on upcoming news and a photo roundup

Nov. 6, 2009

The Public Observer offers a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images by The Associated Press.

FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL ANNIVERSARY

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall will be remembered Monday in Germany with ceremonies to commemorate the dismantling of the Cold War symbol. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will lead the U.S. delegation.

Check out this photo essay about the Berlin Wall by The Economist:

OBAMA HEADS TO ASIA

President Barack Obama will be in Asia starting Thursday to meet with foreign leaders and to attend regional economic summits. Obama starts out his trip in Tokyo and then will head to Singapore for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, before heading to China and then South Korea.

VETERANS DAY

U.S. military veterans will be honored Wednesday during Veterans Day. Obama has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until Veterans Day as a tribute to the soldiers killed in the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting rampage.

PHOTO ROUNDUP

Here's a look at recent images taken by The Associated Press.

Performers fill the streets Monday during the Day of the Dead parade in San Francisco's Mission District. Day of the Dead is a ritual celebrated by the indigenous people of Mexico for over 3,000 years, this celebration is held to honor and communicate with those who have passed into spirit world. It is believed that on the Day of the Dead it is easier for the souls of the departed to visit the living. (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)

In this photo provided by the Bedford County, Pa. District Attorney's Office,Tina Griekspoor is seen holding a sign Tuesday in front of the Bedford County courthouse in Bedford, Pa. Bedford County District Attorney Bill Higgins says in exchange for Griekspoor and her mother Evelyn Border, both of Bedford, agreeing to hold the signs, he'll ask for probation instead of jail when they plead guilty. The mother and daughter were sentenced to be outside the court for forty-one-and-a-half hours, until 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Higgins says they swiped a gift card that a girl set on a shelf while a WalMart employee helped her. (AP Photo/Bedford County District Attorney's Office)

Hundreds of imported vehicles are parked in a storage lot Monday after being unloaded from freight ships in Elizabeth, N.J. After months of roller coaster-like sales, the auto industry offered signs of recovery from its yearlong slump on Tuesday, as most automakers reported higher October sales in the U.S. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Delegates dressed in traditional Ndebele outfits stand against a wall ahead of the Institute of African Royalty launch Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa. The kings, queens and chiefs of Africa say they have a role to play in democracy and development on the continent and that former South African President Nelson Mandela is their role model.Two dozen traditional leaders from across the continent gathered on a Johannesburg university campus to launch the Institute, which they say will be a combination of think tank and lobby group. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

In this photo provided by Carnival Cruise Lines, Academy Award winning actress Marcia Gay Harden reads Friday from "The Dream Plucker of Perrysport," which is claimed to be the world's largest children's book, to students from Brooklyn's PS23 at Rockefeller Center in New York. The 15 1/2-foot tall by 20-foot wide book was created by Carnival Cruise Lines to celebrate the upcoming U.S. debut of its new ship the "Carnival Dream." (AP Photo/Carnival Cruise Lines, Ray Stubblebine)

A Palestinian demonstrator gestures atop a separation barrier, moments after knocking down a segment of the concrete wall, during a protest Friday against the barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin, near Ramallah. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he does not want to run for another term in the January elections, blaming a stalemate in Mideast peace talks on Israel and the United States. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Yellow mums flourish in the front yard of a residence Friday in Roswell. (AP Photo/Roswell Daily Record, Mark Wilson)

 

A model wears lingerie Friday during the Ordifen Cup for Innovative Undergarments Elements Design 2009 at China Fashion Week in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas throws the Health Care bill to the crowd on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday during a health care reform rally. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The snow covered Wilder Kaiser, part of the Kitzbueheler Alps, is reflected Thursday in lake Schwarzsee in Kitzbuehel, Austrian province of Tyrol. (AP Photo /Kerstin Joensson)

 

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez celebrates after winning the Major League Baseball World Series on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies in New York. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

 

Myanmar's detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, right, walks Wednesday with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell after their meeting at the Inya Lake Hotel, in Yangon, Myanmar. Campbell met Suu Kyi on Wednesday in a visit that marked the highest-ranking talks between an American and Myanmar's detained opposition leader in 14 years. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

The moon rises Tuesday above the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

10/30: The Public Observer on upcoming news and a photo roundup

IMAGE GALLERY

RELATED VIDEO

Oct. 30, 2009

The Public Observer offers a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images by The Associated Press.

30th ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS

Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979 and ended up holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The hostage crisis prompted then-President Jimmy Carter to approve a risky rescue attempt that had to be aborted after three of eight military helicopters failed before reaching Tehran. The long captivity and rescue debacle politically wounded Carter, who lost the White House to GOP challenger Ronald Reagan in November 1980. The hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981, just hours after Reagan was inauguarated. The anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis comes at a time when tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high, this time over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

AFGHANISTAN RUNOFF ELECTION

Voters in Afghanistan will vote next Saturday (Nov. 7) in a presidential runoff election pitting incumbent President Hamid Karzai against former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. The first round of balloting on Aug. 20 was tainted by fraud and United Nations-backed election monitors threw out more than a million votes. The Taliban have threatened to violently disrupt the elections and made good on the threat earlier this week when they killed five U.N. election workers and three Afghans in a brazen attack in Kabul.

GOVERNOR ELECTIONS

Voters will head to the polls in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday in gubernatorial elections that have drawn interest from President Barack Obama. Obama campaigned for Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds in Virginia recently and has endorsed New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election bid. Deeds is trailing in the polls and Corzine is in a tight race. Critics of the Obama administration are looking at the races as a referendum on the president's popularity, but most political experts say that state races tend to focus largely on local issues.

PHOTO ROUNDUP

Here's a look at recent photos taken by The Associated Press.

Malaysian ethnic Chinese walk barefoot over burning coals Monday, the final day of the Nine Emperor Gods festival at a temple in Kuala Lumpur. The men have abstained from meat for the past nine days in order to purify their bodies in preparation for this painful ritual, in which women are barred from participating. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Children prepare to fly a kite Wednesday in Bhubaneswar, India. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)

Hudson, a two-year-old Polar Bear devours a pumpkin Wednesday at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill. With Halloween nearing, several of the animals, including lions, tigers, polar bears, brown bears, and gorillas were given pumpkins to enjoy and play with as part of the zoo-wide behavioral enrichment program. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

A Great Blue Heron flies south Monday against a Florida sunset at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Bono of the Irish rock band U2 performs Sunday during their 360 world tour stop at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

A cone of moisture surrounds part of the Ares I-X rocket during lift off Wednesday on a sub-orbital test flight from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

 

In this photo provided by StarPix, Marisa Miller on Monday models a Harlequin Fantasy Bra designed exclusively for Victoria's Secret by Damiani in New York. Valued at $3 million, the Harlequin Fantasy Bra features a very rare, 16-carat heart-shaped champagne diamond pendant. Surrounding this jewel are more than 2,300 brilliant cut white, champagne and cognac colored diamonds. The weight of the entire bra totals nearly 150 carats. (AP Photo/Marion Curtis, StarPix)

 

In this publicity image released by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Regis Philbin, dressed as Jon Gosselin, left, and Kelly Ripa, dressed as Kate Gosselin from the TLC reality show, "Jon and Kate Plus 8," are pictured Friday during the Halloween celebration on "Live! with Regis and Kelly." (AP Photo/Disney-ABC Domestic Television, David M. Russell)

 

President Barack Obama salutes Thursday as a carry team moves the transfer case containing the remains of Army Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind., during a somber event at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del. Griffin was killed in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

People rush an injured child to a hospital after an explosion Wednesday in Peshawar, Pakistan. A car bomb tore through a market in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in the country. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Clouds are colored Tuesday by the early morning sunrise in Calais, Vt. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Images of Saint Jude, the saint of lost causes, are attached to stalks Wednesday in front of a church in Mexico City. Thousands flocked to the church of Saint Jude Thaddaeus Wednesday as part of an annual pilgrimage in his honor. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

10/23: The Public Observer on upcoming news and a photo roundup

Oct. 23, 2009

The Public Observer offers a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images by The Associated Press.

IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Iran plans to respond in the coming week to a United Nations-drafted proposal to ship much of its uranium to Russia for enrichment, an attempt to allay Western fears by curbing Tehran's potential to make a nuclear weapon.

DARFUR PEACE TALKS

The United Nations will broker peace talks mid-week aimed at resolving the long-running conflict in western Sudan that has killed an estimated 300,000 people in the Darfur region over the past six years. The conflict between rebel groups and government forces allied with the Janjaweed militia also has created some 2.7 million refugees.

KARADZIC GENOCIDE TRIAL

The U.N. war crimes tribunal will start a trial in The Hague, Netherlands on Monday accusing wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic with genocide. Karadzic, who is defending himself, plans on boycotting the start of his trial, claiming that he has not had enough time to prepare his defense. He was arrested in July 2008 in Belgrade while disguised as a New Age guru. Karadzic is charged with 11 counts of genocide and war crimes for allegedly orchestrating the 1992-95 Bosnian war that killed an estimated 100,000 people.

PHOTO ROUNDUP

Here's a look at recent images taken by photographers for The Associated Press.

Hungarian firemen repeat their fireman-oath Monday during a protest in downtown Budapest, Hungary. Thousands of fire fighters gathered together protesting for higher wages and against the government's austerity measuresin the planed 2010 budget. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

A male Red Headed Agama, also known as the Red Headed Rock Agama, stands on a rock Monday in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa. The lizards are a medium-sized lizard growing to lengths of between 13 and 15 inches (33 to 38 centimeters). The males color may change based on it's mood, with aggression often being a cause of the change. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

A Somali Islamic fighter cleans his rifle Monday near the front line in south Mogadishu. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor)

Felix, a female African elephant, eats a pumpkin Friday at the The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

Natalie Anne Innocenzi, 16, reacts Tuesday to being chosen the 2010 Rose Queen by the Tournament of Roses Association in Pasadena, Calif. Innocenzi is a student at Arcadia Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A 70-foot female blue whale, that officials believe was struck by a ship, is seen washed ashore Tuesday on the Northern California coast near Fort Bragg, Calif. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say the whale was spotted on the shores near Fort Bragg in Mendocino County on Monday night, hours after an ocean survey vessel reported hitting a whale a few miles away. The dead animal has a gash on its back estimated to be more than 8 feet long. (AP Photo/Larry Wagner)

 

Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou, who plays the role of high priestess, right, gives the flame to Ino Menegaki during the lighting ceremony Thursday for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games at the temple of Hera in Ancient Olympia, western Greece. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

People walk through the woods Monday to attend the coronation of Charles Wesley Mumbere as King of Rwenzururu in Kasese in western Uganda. An African man who worked for years as a nurse's aide in the United States, caring for the elderly and sick, is back in his homeland after he was crowned king of his people in the mountains of western Uganda. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

 

Samuel Bagdorf of San Francisco, who suffers from anxiety disorders, exhales Monday after smoking his marijuana pipe at the San Francisco Medical Cannabis Clinic in San Francisco. Pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow medical marijuana, prosecutors were told Monday in a new policy memo issued by the Justice Department. Under the policy spelled out in a three-page legal memo, federal prosecutors are being told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

 

Smoke billows from a gasoline warehouse and distribution center, belonging to the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. and owned by Gulf, as it covers San Juan from Catano, Puerto Rico on Friday. An explosion at the Gulf gasoline facility rocked the neighborhood outside Puerto Rico's capital, causing at least some minor injuries and forcing evacuations as firefighters raced to prevent additional blasts. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

Tracking the stimulus via $1 billion LA freeway project

A surveying tripod sits on the Sunset Boulevard overpass above Interstate 405 in West Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 14, 2009. The federal stimulus package includes $189.9 million to help build a 10-mile carpool lane on the interstate's northbound lanes as part of a $1.034 billion project. (Clear365/Paul Chavez)

LOS ANGELES -- Everyone who lives in this sprawling metropolis at the end of the desert shares one common experience: the freeway.

The network of multi-lane highways that criss-cross the Los Angeles basin can either help you sail across town in 20 minutes or leave you mired in clutch-burning traffic for what seems like a hellish eternity.

Besides being a conduit for getting from San Pedro to Hollywood, the freeway has become a part of the Los Angeles landscape, as ubiquitous as the beach, the palm trees and the walls of the San Gabriel Mountains. The author Joan Didion in her 1970 novel "Play It As It Lays," wrote of the cultural significance of the freeway, which becomes a refuge for the book's tragic heroine, Maria Wyeth, who rides the freeway alone in her car to escape her disintegrating life. In a 1970s Esquire magazine article, Didion called the freeway "the only secular communion that Los Angeles has."

It's a theme expanded upon by David Brodsly in his 1981 essay book, "L.A. Freeway": "Every time we merge with traffic we join our community in a wordless creed: belief in individual freedom, in a technological liberation from place and circumstance, in a democracy of personal mobility. When we are stuck in rush-hour traffic the freeway's greatest frustration is that it belies its promise."

The freeway has been frequently on my mind since Monday, when I joined the ProPublica Reporting Network, a citizen journalism project run by the nonprofit, New York-based investigative reporting group ProPublica. I specifically volunteered for ProPublica's "Adopt a Stimulus Project."

The idea is simple. Pick a transportation project slated to receive money from the federal government's $787 billion stimulus package and then monitor it to make sure that taxpayers' money is being put to good use.

Earlier this week, I adopted the Interstate 405 HOV Expansion Project. The $1 billion project is the nation's largest highway transportation project receiving stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The $189.9 million earmarked by the federal government is sorely needed since the cash-strapped state hasn't been able to pony up the $614 million approved by voters in a bond measure for the project.

The project will add a carpool lane along 10 miles of the northbound I-405 between Interstate 10 and the U.S. 101 Ventura Freeway, one of the most congested corridors in the nation. Construction will run along a stretch of freeway that includes on- and off-ramps to Santa Monica Boulevard, UCLA, the Skirball Cultural Center and the Getty Center art complex.

This particular stretch of freeway also is rather infamous: O.J. Simpson in his white Ford Bronco took the I-405's Sunset Boulevard exit during his widely televised 1994 police chase; UCLA students in 1966 blocked the 405's northbound lanes at Wilshire Boulevard to protest an outrageous decision to send USC to the Rose Bowl, and comedian Bill Cosby's son, Ennis Cosby, was shot and killed in January 1997 near a Sepulveda Pass freeway exit after his car got a flat tire.

Thanks to ProPublica, I've been teamed up to monitor the I-405 project with Albert Kaplan, a retired executive from the technology sector. Over the course of a few days, we learned that the I-405 project is currently in the surveying stage and that construction isn't slated to start until the fall. This, despite a May 8 media event with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa where they announced the "groundbreaking" for the project.

We also found out that Kiewit Pacific Co. was awarded a $739 million bid for the construction of the project. The $1.03 billion total cost of the project reflects the base cost of $739 million, plus additional costs, including right of way enhancements and project support, according to Helen Gilstrap, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is the lead agency in the federal, state and local project.

There's also been some discrepancy over the number of jobs the project will create, with Schwarzenegger claiming the project will create 18,000 jobs based on a state formula. Federal government estimates use a different formula that add up to nearly 7,000 fewer jobs. For a detailed report, read this ProPublica article on our findings that was filed by Amanda Michel, who runs the group's "Adopt a Stimulus" citizen journalism project.

It's still too early to come away with any real conclusions about the effects so far of President Barack Obama's stimulus package. If the I-405 project provides any lesson, it's that benefits from the stimulus package won't appear overnight or even within the next few weeks, but may take at least a few more months, if at all.

In the meantime, Kaplan and I will continue to work with ProPublica to monitor the project. If you have any tips or comments please feel free to pass them along. I can be reached via e-mail at paul.chavez@clearwire.com.

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

10/16: The Public Observer on upcoming news and a photo roundup

Oct. 16, 2009

Clear365 News Editor Paul Chavez offers a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images produced by The Associated Press in this installment of The Public Observer.

PAKISTAN GROUND ATTACK AGAINST TALIBAN

The Pakistani military will soon launch a major ground attack in in the northwest region of South Waziristan to drive out the Taliban. The military has been bombing targets in South Waziristan for months and announced two weeks ago that it would forge ahead with a ground campaign. Since that announcement, Pakistan has been rocked by a series of terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings, that have left more than 170 people dead.

WINDOWS 7

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday will release it latest operating system, Windows 7. 

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN TRAVELS TO EASTERN EUROPE

Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic from Tuesday through Thursday to shore up relations with allies concerned over a recent U.S. decision to scuttle plans for a Eastern Europe-based missile defense shield. The trip is another in a series of domestic and foreign visits that Biden has embraced as he defines his role as vice president.

PHOTO ROUNDUP

Here's a look at some recent images taken by The Associated Press.

Gnomes giving the Hitler salute are seen Wednesday in the installation 'Dance with the Devil' by German artist Ottmar Hoerl at a square in Straubing, southern Germany. The exhibition with 1.250 gnomes opened Thursday.

 

Farmers demonstrate Friday on the Champs Elysee in Paris by burning tires and straw. Farmers blocked off the famous avenue to protest grain prices that have fallen below the cost of production.(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

 

A maple leaf falls on a crisp autumn day Wednesday in Freeport, Maine. Peak foliage color has arrived along Maine’s Downeast coast and the central interior of the state, according to the fall foliage report from the state Department of Conservation. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Australia's Lauren Mitchell performs on the beam during women's qualifying for the World Gymnastics Championships at the O2 Arena in London on Wednesday. The Championships are being held at the venue that will host gymnastics and basketball at the London 2012 Olympics. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

 

Tyren Scott, 9, of Paulina, La., asks President Barack Obama a question during a town hall meeting Thursday at the University of New Orleans in New Orleans, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

An artist works on an idol of Hindu goddess Kali in Calcutta, India on Monday. Kali, the goddess of destruction will be worshiped on Oct. 17. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

A woman walks in a park Tuesday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark returns to Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in their quarter final match Friday at the Japan Women's Open tennis tournament in Osaka, Japan. Wozniacki won 6-2, 7-6, 6-2. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

 

In this image rendered from video and released by KMGH-TV in Denver, a hot-air balloon is seen over Colorado, near Fort Collins. Larimer County sheriff's spokeswoman Eloise Campanella says the device, which is shaped like a flying saucer, has the potential to rise to 10,000 feet. Authorities thought a 6-year-old boy was inside the balloon and launched an intense search to find him. Turns out he was not in the balloon, but was hiding at home. (AP Photo/KMGH-TV)

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

10/9: The Public Observer on upcoming news and a photo roundup

Oct. 9, 2009

The Public Observer takes a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images taken by The Associated Press.

HEALTH CARE REFORM

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a 10-year, $829-billion health care reform proposal that would extend coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans. The bill's main author, Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., got a boost for his plan in recent days when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the health care bill would reduce the federal deficit by $81 billion over the next 10 years.

SECRETARY CLINTON TRAVELS TO EUROPE, RUSSIA

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton leaves later today for a five-day overseas trip that includes visits to Switzerland, Britain and Ireland before going to Russia. Clinton will be pressing Moscow for a strong commitment on possible tough new sanctions if Iran fails to come clean about its suspect nuclear program.

TURKEY AND ARMENIA RAPPROCHEMENT

Foreign ministers from Turkey and Armenia will sign a deal Saturday (Oct. 10) in Zurich, Switzerland, to establish diplomatic ties between the two countries, even though a major dispute remains over the World War I-era massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire. Armenia calls the slayings a genocide, while Turkey claims the death toll is inflated and the victims died as a result of civil war.

So-called "football diplomacy" has helped warm relations, with Turkish President Abdullah Gul visiting Armenia a year ago for a soccer match between the two countries. Armenian President Serge Sarkisian said he would attend a World Cup qualifier Wednesday (Oct. 14) between the two nations, if there was progress on opening a shared border.

NEW SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS

The United Nations will elect five new members into the UN Security Council on Thursday to replace the five outgoing nations with terms expiring this year. The UN Security Council is comprised of five permanent members -- the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China -- and 10 non-permanent members. The five permanent members have veto power over Security Council decisions, which are binding on all UN member states.

'WIZARD OF WESTWOOD' TURNS 99

John Wooden, the legendary college basketball coach who lead UCLA to 10 national championships, turns 99 on Wednesday and a site has been set up to wish him Happy Birthday.  Wooden also has a new book coming out next week called "A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring."

PHOTO ROUNDUP

Here's a look at recent images taken by photographers for The Associated Press.

A woman looks at the moon through a sieve, a ritual performed before breaking fast, on the Karwa Chauth festival Wednesday in Allahabad, India. Married Hindu omen fast throughout the day and break it in the evening after looking at the moon through a sieve to seek long life for their husbands. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Amparo Martinez, left, watches as her daughter, Sorayo Martinez, 4, is given a dose of swine flu vaccine Tuesday in Oregon City, Ore. Children and health workers are the first to receive vaccines from the first batch to hit Oregon. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

 

Sean Tucker flies his Oracle Challenger bi-plane inverted over US Marine Corps Major Nathan Miller, flying an F/A-18 Blue Angel #5 on Thursday over San Francisco Bay. The U. S. Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron Blue Angels and Tucker are preparing for two air shows this weekend for Fleet Week San Francisco 2009 festivities, which celebrate the area's long naval history. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

 

Palestinian children visiting the Marah Land Zoo outside Gaza City on Thursday look at a donkey painted in a zebra-like pattern. Zoo keepers have found a creative way to draw crowds to the Gaza zoo that suffered losses during the war with Israel. Zoo workers replaced two zebras that died of hunger during the January war with donkeys painted black and white. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

 

An unidentified man sits on a bench in front of the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J., on Wednesday with the New York skyline in the distance. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

 

Models present creationby British fashion designer Alexander McQueen for his Ready to Wear Spring Summer 2010 fashion collection, presented in Paris on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

 

Kalamazoo Wings ice hockey players practice on pink ice at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, Alaska, on Tuesday. The pink ice is part of the Alaska Ace's "Paint The Rink Pink" promotion, designed to focus attention on breat cancer awareness and raise money for the fight against the disease. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)

 

A physically disabled Afghan girl waits Tuesday at the International Committee of the Red Cross orthopedic center in Kabul, Afghanistan. The center, which provides new limbs, wheelchairs and physical therapy for the disabled, has registered 91,000 disabled since 1988 and about 80 percent of them are victims of war and conflict. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

 

The body of an unidentified man hangs from his neck under a bridge on the old Rosarito highway as authorities stand by Friday in Tijuana, Mexico. Authorities found the dead man beaten, naked and castrated, and have not identified him but believe he is Rogelio Sanchez, a Baja California state government official who went missing this week. No suspects were named. The homicide is characteristic of Mexico's brutal drug gangs, which often dump mutilated victims in public places. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

10/2: The Public Observer on upcoming news and a photo roundup

Oct. 2, 2009

Clear365 News Editor Paul Chavez takes a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images by The Associated Press in this installment of The Public Observer.

DALAI LAMA VISITS U.S. CAPITAL

The Dalai Lama will be in Washington D.C. from Monday through Saturday, but he won't be meeting with President Barack Obama. It's the first time since 1991 that the Tibetan Buddhist leader will not be greeted by the sitting U.S. president. Supporters of the Dalai Lama hope that Obama will meet with the exiled spiritual leader later this year, after Obama makes his first presidential visit to China.

CHINA, JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA TALKS

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will host a bilateral meeting Friday with new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in Seoul. Both will then travel the next day to Beijing for three-way talks Oct. 10. Both talks likely will focus on North Korea's nuclear threat and increased regional cooperation.

SUPREME COURT STARTS NEW SESSION

The first Monday of October marks the traditional opening of the U.S. Supreme Court's new term. The new session will be the first for Obama-appointed Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who participated in a court argument last month that technically was part of the previous term. The high court this term will consider if strict local and state gun control laws violate the Second Amendment and also will decide if police can talk to suspects who acknowledge understanding their Miranda rights, but who do not invoke them by asking for an attorney or requesting that the questioning end. Other interesting cases on the docket include whether a life sentence for juveniles is unconstitutional and if a black man's conviction by an all-white jury in Michigan should be overturned due to what an appellate court called "systematic exclusion" of blacks from the county's jury pool.

NOBEL PRIZES ANNOUNCED

Winners of the Nobel Prize will be announced next week starting with the medical prize announcment Monday, followed by physics Tuesday, chemistry Wednesday and literature Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics prize will be announced the following week. A Danish literature professor, Anne-Marie Mai, has revealed that she nominated singer Bob Dylan for the literature prize. Each winner receives $1.4 million.

PHOTO ROUNDUP

Here's a look at recent images taken by The Associated Press.

An elderly Afghan roadside banana vendor waits for customers Wednesday in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Hindu devotees dressed as Hindu gods Ram and Hanuman are seen Tuesday near the immersion ground in Bhubaneswar, India. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)

This photo provided by the San Diego Zoo shows an 8-week-old giant panda cub Tuesday during a veterinary examination. (AP Photo/Ken Bohn, San Diego Zoo)

Women members of the militia, a civilian reserve force under China's military, march past Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on Thursday during a military parade marking China's 60th anniversary. China celebrated its rise to a world power over 60 years of Communist rule, staging its biggest-ever parade of military hardware with over 100,000 marching masses in a display that stirred patriotism, and some unease. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

This undated artist's rendering provided by the journal Science shows the probable life appearance in anterior view of Ardipithecus ramidus also known as "Ardi". The story of humankind is reaching back another million years with the discovery of "Ardi," a hominid who lived in what is now Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago. (AP Photo/Science, J.H. Matternes)

Elizabeth Smart, right, arrives at the federal courthouse with her mother, Lois Smart, left, and her father Ed Smart on Thursday prior to her testimony in a competency hearing in Salt Lake City for her alleged kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell. Smart, 21, was abducted from her home in 2002 and was spotted nine months later by a observant citizen walking the streets with Mitchell and his wife in Sandy, Utah. (AP Photo/Colin Braley)

A large Golden Orb Spiders crawls on the face Thursday of a Sydney Wildlife World keeper in Sydney, Australia. The Wildlife park is holding a survey to establish which of the two types of animals the public find more creepy, snakes or spiders. A poll has revealed that most people (87 percent) would not know how to identify a dangerous snake if they saw one, even though Australia has five of the top 10 most deadly snakes in the world. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

Manhattan College center Kevin Laue is shown at a recent practice with his team in the Bronx borough of New York. Born without a left hand, the 6-foot-11 center from Pleasanton, Calif., is now a freshman at Manhattan College, having earned a scholarship to play for the Jaspers and a chance to live out the dream of anyone who has been told they couldn't play a sport they loved because of a physical defect. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)

Canadian billionaire Quebec-born philanthropist Guy Laliberte crew member of the 21st mission to the International Space Station, ISS, jokes as he wears a clown nose prior to the Wednesday launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Laliberte is due to stay at the International Space Station for nine days, before returning to earth on a Soyuz capsule on Oct. 11. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)

An unidentified 7-year-old boy shows a tattoo on his abdomen in this undated photo provided by the Fresno Police department. Enrique Gonzalez, the boys father, and fellow gang member Travis Gorman allegedly held the boy down while Gorman applied the tattoo. A judge decided Friday that placing the small tattoo on the boy did not rise to the level of aggravated mayhem, which carries a potential life sentence. (AP Photo/Fresno Police department)

A Barack Obama impersonator poses next to a cardboard cutout image of Michelle Obama as Rio residents celebrate the nomination to host the 2016 Olympic Games at the Copacabana beach, in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. Nearly 50,000 people erupted in celebration when Rio was announced host, jumping and cheering in a Carnival-like party on Copacabana beach.(AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes)

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

9/25: The Public Observer on upcoming news and a pictorial roundup

Sept. 25, 2009

The Public Observer takes a look at upcoming news and offers a photo roundup of recent images taken by The Associated Press.

GERMANY ELECTION

German voters will head to the polls Sunday in parliamentary elections that pit Chancellor Angela Merkel and her center-right Christian Democratic Union party against the center-left Social Democrats of challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier, her foreign minister. A poll published Friday showed a tight race with Merkel's conservative party holding a slight edge. The key question that voters will answer is whether or not Merkel can end her "grand coalition" of left and right to form a new central-right government.

The economy is the focal point of the election with Merkel advocating tax cuts to spur the German economy while Steinmeier claims that tax cuts are unrealistic due to the government's increased debt from the economic crisis.

FIVE + 1 MEET ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS

Representatives of the five permanent member of the United Nations Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France -- plus Germany will  meet Thursday in Geneva with Iran to discuss Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The talks will be the first between Iran and the United States in three decades. The United States, France and the U.K. on Friday issued a joint statement at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh revealing a nuclear enrichment plan that Tehran had kept secret from international inspectors until Monday. President Barack Obama said Friday that the underground facility "is inconsistent with a peaceful program" and gave Iran notice to come clean with its nuclear efforts and intentions or face severe punishment. The U.K., France Germany and the United States have pledged support for tough new sanctions on Iran if it doesn't stop enriching uranium at military levels and longtime Iranian protector Russia also said this week that harsher sanctions would be in order.

U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL REVIEWS ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday will receive the so-called Goldstone Report on the winter military conflict between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The 575-page report found that both the Palestinians and Israelis perpetrated war crimes and that some of the actions by both sides may have risen to crimes against humanity status. The fact-finding mission and subsequent report was lead by Justice Richard Goldstone, formerly a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the chief prosecutor of the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and a governor of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamil-dakwar/goldstone-report-is-not-t_b_300294.html

The report recommends that the Human Rights Council should formally submit the report's finding to the International Criminal Court and urged the Security Council to require Israel to launch an internal investigation within three months into the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

EU's LISBON TREATY

Voters in Ireland will cast ballots Friday on the Lisbon Treaty that was created to reform the way the European Union operates. Irish voters rejected the treaty in June 2008, but the Irish government strongly backs it and wants it signed into law. The treaty, which will streamline the EU's decision-making process, must be ratified by all 27 members and nearly all of the others already have done so. Opponents of the treaty see it as a threat to national sovereignty. For more on the Lisbon Treaty, review this Q&A provided by the BBC.

PHOTO ROUNDUP

Here's a look at some recent images taken by photographers for The Associated Press.

A Honda employee demonstrates Honda's new "personal mobility" device at a press conference Thursday in Tokyo. Honda's new "personal mobility" device looks like a unicycle, but all you need to do to zip around in it _ sideways as well as forward and back _ is lean your weight into the direction you want to go. The U3-X _ available for a test-run for reporters in Tokyo on Thursday _ was designed to take up the same amount of space as a human being to be safe and unobtrusive enough to mingle with pedestrians, according to Honda Motor Co. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment (Airborne), based at Fort Richardson, Alaska, fire a 120mm mortar Wednesday during a fire mission at the combat outpost Zerok in East Paktika province in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh)

A washed out bridge is shown Monday in Douglasville, Ga. Heavy rain caused flooding in and around the Atlanta area. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Wearing ghillie suits, Iranian troops march Tuesday during a military parade ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. The troops marched in front of the mausoleum of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A person takes pictures in front of the Sydney Opera House during a dust storm Wednesday in Sydney, Australia. Flights were diverted and ferries canceled as a blanket of red dust shrouded most of Sydney after the weather system moved in from central Australia. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

With temperatures hovering in the mid-90's, Carol Phillips and her daughter, Elizabeth, 6, spent the last day of summer playing in the Sacramento River on Monday at Discovery Park in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

A model wears a creation part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2010 fashion collection, presented Thursday in Milan, Italy. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Zaurbek Sokhiev, right, from Uzbekistan defeats Jacob Herbert from U.S. in the 84 kilo freestyle class at the wrestling world championships finals Tuesday in Herning, Denmark. (AP Photo/POLFOTO, Claus Bonnerup)

U2's Bono attends the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting on Thursday in New York.(AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)

A strip of gold bearing a biblical inscription in Latin, part of a recently discovered hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold is displayed Thursday at Birmingham Museum in Birmingham, England. Amateur treasure hunter Terry Herbert was prowling English farmland in Staffordshire, England, with a metal detector when he stumbled upon what has been described as the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered, a massive collection of gold and silver crosses, sword decorations and other items, British archaeologists said Thursday. Translation reads "Rise up, O Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy face." (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Michele Wright kisses the top of the casket holder her son, U.S. Army 1st Lt. David Wright II, as her husband Moore Police officer Tim Wright wipes his eye during a graveside service Tuesday at IOOF Cemetery in Norman, Okla. Wright was one of two soldiers killed Sept. 14 by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/The Oklahoman, Chris Landsberger)

Spanish national basketball team players, from left, Jorge Garbajosa, Pau Gasol and Sergio Llull celebrate the European basketball championship title Monday in the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid. Spain beat Serbia 85-63 on Sunday to capture the European basketball championship. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor

Clear365: About the G20

ABOUT THE G20

The Group of 20 (G20) is made up of the world's major economies and first met in Berlin in December 1999 in response to the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. The G20 is an offshoot of the G8, the rich countries' club,  and the expanded roster was created to give emerging national economies a voice in global economic governance.

The G20's full membership lists is: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union is represented by the country holding the EU presidency.

At G20 meetings, top officials from the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank also participate.

DID YOU KNOW?

G20 member countries represent around 85 percent of the global economy and 2/3 of the world's population.

HOW IT WORKS

The G20 world leaders, including President Barack Obama, will sign off on a communique at the end of the summit that will state the G20's consensus goals and plans of action. Finance ministers from the G20 countries met before the Pittsburgh summit and have been working on the communique. The final version likely will see the world's leaders pledging to maintain their stimulus commitments through 2010 to allow the global economy to fully heal. Washington also has been pushing for new macro-economic policy and oversight to promote "sustainable and balanced growth,'' which would attempt to eliminate troubling economic bubbles and financial flows to prevent another financial meltdown. The balanced growth policy also would seek to end large economic imbalances, such as China's giant trade surplus, record budget deficits in the United States and the world's reliance on U.S. consumers.

The G20 leaders also are attempting to limit bankers' pay, a move that has been heartily endorsed, in particular, by European leaders. Obama also is proposing that G20 countries move toward eliminating government subsidies on oil, coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Finally, the G20 likely will set new greater capital standards for banks as part of its financial regulatory reform effort.

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 News Editor