Newletter 8/19/05 -- Under Attack

[Patsy Stone]

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Tonight on Countdown
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Attackers fired at least three rockets from Jordan on Friday, with one narrowly missing a U.S. Navy ship docked in a Jordanian port and killing a Jordanian soldier, and another falling close to a nearby airport in neighboring Israel, officials said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9004040/

A decorated Marine doesn't qualify as a Texas resident any more because of the time he spent serving in Iraq. That's what Carl Basham says officials told him when he tried to enroll in Austin Community College. http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3733831

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

The man is Judge Joseph Force Crater, a New York State Supreme Court justice. And "missingest" is what newspapers called him when he vanished in 1930. The case has been the subject of rumors and butt of jokes ever since. The clue that may lead to the discovery of his remains is a note left by a woman who died earlier this year. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9006026/

A Siberian tiger attacked and killed a teenage girl who was posing for photos at a family-run animal sanctuary Thursday in southeast Kansas, authorities said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9005475/

Raiders receiver Randy Moss admits he has used marijuana since entering the NFL seven years ago and still smokes it "every blue moon." "I have used, you know, marijuana ... since I've been in the league," Moss said in an interview for HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" scheduled to air Tuesday. "But as far as abusing it and, you know, letting it take control over me, I don't do that, no." http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-0508190165aug19,1,6457878.story?coll=chi-sportsnew-hed

Plans changed yesterday, but tonight we will run with this story.... LaChania Govan is our guest: It's not hard to commiserate with LaChania Govan's complaints about Comcast. The 25-year-old Elgin woman said that when she called to complain about persistent problems with her digital recording system, she was put on hold, disconnected, even transferred to the Spanish language line. (Note to Comcast: She doesn't speak Spanish.) After the aforementioned problems forced her to make dozens of calls to the cable company in July, her August bill arrived. In place of her name were these words: Bitch Dog. http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0508180108aug18,1,6645349.story?coll=chi-techtopheds-hed

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
Yesterday it was the crazy woman kidnapping young lawn mowers, today it's this: A woman incensed at utility tree trimmers was arrested after allegedly chasing workers with a chain saw and twisting the fingers of an arresting officer, police said. Diane Kaiser, 57, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, theft and resisting arrest. She posted bail and was released. "The woman apparently has had some issues with PG&E," Fremont police Sgt. Jeff Swadener said. "She likes her trees." http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TREE_TRIMMER_ATTACK?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
Tree lady can spend some time thinking about her overreaction... in the Big House.

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

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More:
Pope Benedict, making a historic visit to a synagogue once destroyed by the Nazis, on Friday said Christians and Jews must join forces so the "insane racist ideology" that led to the Holocaust never resurfaces. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9002640/

A court on Friday convicted a Moroccan man suspected of helping the Sept. 11 hijackers of membership in a terrorist organization and sentenced him to seven years in prison. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9003736/

Northwest Airlines Corp. has made what it called its "last best offer" to mechanics who could walk off the job as early as midnight Friday, a union official said Friday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9001752/
Israeli troops quickly cleared out a synagogue full of dozens of opponents to the Gaza pullout on Friday, avoiding a repeat of previous day's violence in which youths holed up on a rooftop pelted soldiers with acid, oil and sand. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8931552/

Gunmen seized three Sunni Arabs hanging posters urging people to vote in the constitutional referendum, drove them to a mosque and shot them dead Friday, an official of their political party and witnesses said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9005694/

Dennis Rader began serving a life sentence Friday for the BTK sex-murders that terrorized Wichita for 17 years. He was led into a maximum security prison a day after relatives of his 10 victims finally got a chance to vent their anger on what one called "this social sewage." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9005119/

A tornado killed one person and damaged or destroyed dozens of homes as it roared through this southern Wisconsin city late Thursday in what one witness described as an explosion across the sky. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9003116/

The Walt Disney Co. said Friday it has hired an auditor to investigate claims that its Chinese contractors pay workers below minimum wage, demand excessive overtime and cheat labor monitors by faking pay slips. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9004945/

Hey, good news, sometimes summer does bring some unexpected treats. First, an actual tense thriller, "Red-Eye," which stars the It Girl of the moment Rachel McAdams. Also, another really fine documentary, this one about grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell, "Grizzly Man." For those looking for a bit of R-rated raunch, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" may be just the thing. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4515000/