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Quick guilty plea in 'Barefoot' case in Bahamas

NASSAU, Bahamas — The teenage fugitive police have dubbed the "Barefoot Bandit" pleaded guilty to a minor offense in the Bahamas on Tuesday and is expected to be deported soon to the United States to face prosecution.

Colton Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to illegal entry into the country at his first court appearance in the Bahamas, where police ended the 19-year-old convict's alleged two-year crime spree by capturing him following a high-speed boat chase.

The charge stemming from his alleged crash of a stolen plane on Great Abaco Island carries a $300 fine or three months in jail, followed by deportation. His lawyer, Monique Gomez, said the U.S. Embassy would pay the fine.

The shackled teen smiled after the judge read the sentence. Bahamian police had earlier said that he would face other charges including illegal weapons possession related to a string of break-ins, boat thefts and thefts during his weeklong hideout in the country. It wasn't immediately clear why those charges were not filed.

Prosecutors in the U.S. are preparing cases against him, however. Harris-Moore is suspected in about 70 property crimes across eight states and British Columbia, many of them in the bucolic islands of Washington state. He is accused of stealing a plane from an Indiana airport to fly to the Bahamas.

His arrest came as a relief to residents on his native Camano Island, Washington, where authorities say he learned to dodge police.

"There's a lot of relief throughout the community," said real estate agent Mark Williams. "I think the man's luck just wore out. You run through the woods long enough, you're going to trip over a log."

Residents of the rural island also lashed out at the teen's mother this week, saying her decision to hire a well-known Seattle lawyer suggests she's trying to profit from a crime spree that police say took her son from the cedar trees in Washington to the bright beaches of the Bahamas.

"Of course she wants the money. She doesn't work," said Joshua Flickner, whose family owns an island grocery store. "What makes me more angry than the fact that she's trying to profit off this is that there's any profit to be had."

The mother's attorney downplayed any profit motive, saying Pam Kohler contacted him for advice after being inundated by requests from news reporters as well as inquiries about book and movie deals.

"Her feelings are relief and exhaustion," O. Yale Lewis said. "Obviously, there is enormous interest in this story, and she wants to be careful about how to proceed. But her first concern has been to make sure her son is safe.

"And I think she hasn't given much thought beyond that," he said.

Harris-Moore told police in the Bahamas that he came to the country, located off the Florida coast, because it has so many islands, airports and docks, according to an officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The teenager claimed that he told islanders he was trying to get to Cuba so he could throw police off his trail, but he intended to make his way to the Turks and Caicos Islands southeast of the Bahamas, the officer said.

The suspect learned from the Internet that the British territory has a small police force and no marine defense force, according to the officer.

Harris-Moore spent Monday being questioned by investigators. Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade described him as eloquent, calm, cooperative and "obviously a very intelligent young man," but declined to say whether he made any confession.

Kohler's older sister, Sandra Puttmann, of Arlington, was the first relative to hear from Harris-Moore after his arrest Sunday. She said he was "holding up" but scared now that he's in custody for the first time since he walked away from a halfway house south of Seattle.

Harris-Moore didn't have his mother's phone number, she said. She gave it to him, but as of Monday night, he still had not spoken with Kohler.

"I'm so glad he got through to me," Puttmann said. "At least he heard a friendly voice. We cried together."

Puttmann declined to divulge further details of what she described as their brief phone conversation Sunday. But she angrily criticized news stories about her nephew, saying reporters typically gloss over his difficult upbringing.

Police routinely accused him of stealing even when he hadn't and school officials didn't give him a chance, she said — something police and school officials have adamantly denied.

Harris-Moore told a psychologist in 2008 that his mother was abusive when she'd been drinking, according to a court document cited Monday by The Herald newspaper of Everett. His father left when he was a toddler, and his stepfather died when he was 7, Kohler has said.

Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, said Tuesday she expected Harris-Moore to be flown first to the southern district of Florida. Typically, defendants make an initial court appearance in the closest federal jurisdiction to the country deporting them.

She said the U.S. Marshals Service would then fly Harris-Moore to Seattle, where he faces a federal complaint of interstate transportation of stolen property alleging that he took a plane from Idaho and crashed it in Washington.

"Exactly when he would arrive here is a moving target as far as I know," she said.

The Marshals Service in Seattle did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

13/07/10 · 0 comentarios · Autor: Fmassicis ·

New BP cap set for slow tests of how it holds oil

NEW ORLEANS — With a tight new cap freshly installed on its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP planned gradual tests starting Tuesday to see if the device can stop oil from pouring into the sea for the first time in nearly three months.

The cap would be just a temporary solution, but it offers the best hope yet for cutting off the crude that has fouled the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

Engineers will slowly shut down three valves that let oil flow through the 75-ton capping device to see if it can withstand the pressure of the erupting crude and to watch if leaks spring up elsewhere in the well. National Incident Commander Thad Allen said the process of closing the valves, one by one, would start later Tuesday.

If pressure inside the cap stays in a target range for roughly six hours after the valves are closed, there will be more confidence the cap can contain the oil, Allen told a news briefing at BP's U.S. headquarters in Houston. That target range is 8,000 to 9,000 pounds per square inch, he said. Anything lower could indicate another leak in the well.

Allen and BP officials repeatedly cautioned there are no guarantees about the delicate work a mile below the sea. Allen urged Gulf Coast residents watching the possible fix evolve to be patient.

"They ought to be interested and concerned but if they hold their breath, they'll run out of oxygen. I won't be," Allen told The Associated Press after the briefing.

The tests could last anywhere from six to 48 hours, Allen and BP said.

Kent Wells, a senior vice president at the oil giant, declined to talk about BP's next steps until the test results are in hand.

"It's not simple stuff. What we don't want to do is speculate around it," Wells said in a BP news briefing.

The cap's installation Monday after three days of undersea preparations was good news to weary people on the coast from Texas to Florida, who have waited for BP to make good on its promise to clean up the mess.

"Hopefully this is the moment when they get it cut off," said Prentiss Ming, 23, a Pizza Hut manager from Pensacola, Fla., who was on the beach there. "But you can't really believe it."

Still, even if the oil is stopped, the consequences are far from over.

"I ain't excited about it until it's closed off completely," said James Pelas, 41, a shrimper working on his boat at a marina in Venice, La. "Oil's scattered all over the place."

The cap will be tested by closing off three separate valves that fit together snugly, choking off the oil from entering the Gulf. BP expects no oil will be released into the ocean during the tests, but remained cautious about the success of the system.

Pipes can be hooked to the cap to funnel oil to collection ships if BP decides the cap can't take the pressure of the gusher, or if low pressure readings indicate oil is leaking from elsewhere in the well.

Even if the cap works, the blown-out well must still be plugged. A permanent fix will have to wait until one of two relief wells being drilled reaches the broken well, which will then be plugged up with drilling mud and cement. That may not happen until mid-August.

Even if the flow of oil is choked off while BP works on a permanent fix, the spill has already damaged everything from beach tourism to the fishing industry.

Tony Wood, director of the National Spill Control School at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi said the sloppiest of the oil — mousse-like brown stuff that has not yet broken down — will keep washing ashore for several months, with the volume slowly decreasing over time.

He added that hardened tar balls could keep hitting beaches and marshes each time a major storm rolls through for a year or more. Those tar balls are likely trapped for now in the surf zone, gathering behind sand bars just like sea shells.

"It will still be getting on people's feet on the beaches probably a year or two from now," Wood said.

But on Monday, the region absorbed a rare piece of good news in the placement of the 150,000-pound cap on top of the gushing leak responsible for so much misery.

Around 6:30 p.m. CDT, live video streams trained on the wellhead showed the cap being slowly lowered into place. BP officials said the device was attached around 7 p.m.

Residents skeptical if BP can deliver on its promise to control the spill greeted the news cautiously.

"There's no telling what those crazy suckers are going to do now," Ronnie Kenniar said when he heard the cap was placed on the well. The 49-year-old fishermen is now working in the Vessel of Opportunity program, a BP-run operation employing boat owners to lay boom, ferry coast guard officers and deliver supplies.

As of Tuesday, the 84th day of the disaster, between 90.4 and 178.6 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico

13/07/10 · 0 comentarios · Autor: Fmassicis ·

Hal Steinbrenner still in charge

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- With the passing of George Steinbrenner, his son Hal will remain in charge of the New York Yankees.

As his health declined in recent years, George Steinbrenner ceded control and Hal Steinbrenner took authority of the Yankees, keeping his father's mantra of winning as the club's top priority, but doing it with a much different style.

Hal Steinbrenner is expected to keep the Yankees' payroll at the top of Major League Baseball, but he may try to be a little more prudent than his father. Hal also isn't ever going to have the bombast that made his father famous, as he rarely talks with the press.

Hal Steinbrenner, along with his brother Hank, first took control of the Yankees in the winter of 2007. Hank Steinbrenner, who had more to do with the day-to-day operations initially, quickly earned the nickname "Baby Boss" because of his outspokeness during the Joe Torre contract negotiations and Alex Rodriguez's steroid admission. Hal Steinbrenner mostly kept silent.

In November 2008, MLB approved Hal Steinbrenner as the controlling interest of the Yankees. George Steinbrenner remained chairman of the team, with his sons as co-chairs. Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees explained at the time, was named the controller because he would be in charge of the overall business and financial operations, while Hank Steinbrenner was to oversee the baseball operations.

Hank Steinbrenner has now receded into the background with Hal Steinbrenner being much more involved in day-to-day operations of the team. Hal Steinbrenner works more closely with Yankees team president Randy Levine on the Yankees' financial responsibilities. Hal Steinbrenner effectively allows general manager Brian Cashman to run the baseball operations. Cashman still needs to gain approval on financial layouts, but he isn't being told whom to sign, as was the case when George Steinbrenner was in charge.

Hal Steinbrenner, 40, rose to power reluctantly. As recently as five years ago, it looked as if George Steinbrenner's then son-in-law Steve Swindal would be next in line to run the franchise. After Swindal and Steinbrenner's daughter, Jennifer, divorced, Swindal left the organization.

Prior to Swindal leaving, the Steinbrenner sons did not show a strong desire to be in charge, raising the specter of the team eventually being sold.

Their father, before starting the YES Network, once had serious discussions about selling the team to Cablevision. The deal, though, never happened, leaving Hal Steinbrenner in charge of his father's legacy.

13/07/10 · 0 comentarios · Autor: Fmassicis ·

Algún error encontrado en la Templati

Quick guilty plea in 'Barefoot' case in Bahamas

New BP cap set for slow tests of how it holds oil

Hal Steinbrenner still in charge

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