First, efforts to rescue the 6 miners that are trapped 1,500 hundred feet below ground by a cave in are not going well.
As the rescue stretched into the night, workers were unable to make significant progress and the initial effort was declared a failure.
"I'm very disappointed. That's one step backward," Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a part owner of the Crandall Canyon mine, told reporters at an evening briefing.
More than 16 hours after the collapse, searchers had been unable to contact the miners and could not say whether they were dead or alive. If they survived, Murray said, they could have enough air and water to last several days.
"They could have been struck by material and injured or killed, but we don't know that yet," he said.
Rescuers planned to spend the night bulldozing a road outside the mine to make way for a drilling rig that can punch holes large enough to improve ventilation and determine whether the men were alive, Murray said.
They also planned to continue drilling from inside and outside the mine, he said.
We will bring more on this in the morning...
Second, reports are that the rebuilding of the Minnesota bridge that collapsed last week, is to be "fast tracked".
MINNEAPOLIS - A plan to replace the bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River last week is on the fastest of fast tracks: State officials want the span open by the end of next year, and contractors interested in the job must contact the state by dawn Wednesday.
State officials have an ambitious schedule to award contracts to replace the bridge next month, even as search crews remained stymied in their efforts to recover at least eight missing victims from the depths of the Mississippi River. Five people are confirmed dead.
A brutal winter could throw the state's rapid reconstruction schedule off. But other conditions are favorable — including a construction industry with plenty of available resources to take on such a daunting challenge.
"It is doable. It is a bit fast, but this is an emergency," said Khaled Mahmoud with the Bridge Engineering Association in New York. "And if we are ever good at anything, it's responding to emergencies."
We will also continue updating this as we get news, from what I have heard on television, 5 are confirmed dead, 100+ injured, a few in critical condition and 5 still missing.
Third which I already posted about here, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, the man that had his "story" published by TNR, horrible accusations about what he and his fellow soldiers did, has RECANTED his story.
Better yet, he did so, while at the same time, TNR was vouching for the published stories.
Thats it for now. Rest well and I will update what needs updating tomorrow morning.
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