Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Top 3 Stories 1-17-2012
Top 3 T.V New Stories
1) There were 5 more bodies pulled from the water around the evacuation point on the ship Con Cordia. There has been 11 bodies recovered so far. The Captain has been placed under house arrest, after an audio tape has released by the Coast Guard. The ship tipped on its side on Friday off the Island of Gigilio. The bodies were found wearing their life vest. The audio tape released by the Coast Guard reveals the argument that took place between them and the Captain of the ship. They were instructing the Captain to reboard the ship and give them information about the passengers remaining on the ship. The Captain said he was coordinating the evacuation from his life boat. They told him several times that he is obligated to stay with the ship to assist passengers in the evacuation, but again he refused. He was placed under house arrest and many are upset about the decision not to immediately jail him.
2) The Ocean Liners being produced today are larger and larger. The Titanic had 3,320 passengers aboard it when it when down. The Con Cordia had over 4,000 passengers. The largest Ocean Liner has 8,702 passengers. The Emerald Princess is about to sail and holds around 4,000 passengers, about the same as the Con Cordia. A representative for the Cruise lines pointed out that over 16 million people cruise every year safely. As ships are being built bigger, to hold more passengers, it is becoming tougher and tougher to carry out an evacuation plan. The Con Cordia is a $450 million ship and will likely be repaired and sailed again in the future.
3) Candidate Mitt Romney was asked today about the amount of taxes he paid. He says he pays around 15%. That is about less then half of what the middle class American family with household income of 45,000 will pay this year. Romney said most of his income comes from investments and speaking engagements. Although he is quick to point out that he does this very little. Democrats point out that Romney claims he made very little, when his idea of a little is 374,000 proceeds last year from speaking. The 15% Romney pays is typical of the high power and rich tax base.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Today's Top 3 News Stories 1/16/2012
1. Cruise co. blames captain as 6th body found
The Costa Concordia cruise ship lies in the harbor of the Tuscan island of Giglio, Jan. 15, 2012, after it ran aground and keeled over after hitting underwater rocks on January 13. (Getty)
(CBS/AP)
Nate and Cary Lukes, who were on the Costa Concordia with their four daughters, describe the "pandemonium" on the ship.
ROME - The jailed captain of the cruise ship that capsized off Tuscany made an unauthorized deviation from the programmed course, a blunder that led to its deadly crash against a reef, the ship's Italian owner said Monday.
Rescue operations were halted temporarily after the Costa Concordia shifted in rough seas and fears mounted that any further shifts could cause some of the 500,000 gallons of fuel on board to leak into the pristine waters off the island of Giglio that are a protected dolphin sanctuary.
Search efforts resumed later Monday, according to Reuters.
The confirmed death toll rose to six after searchers found the body of a male passenger wearing a life vest in the corridor of the above-water portion of the ship. Sixteen people are unaccounted for, including two American passengers.
Cruise ship family: "Pandemonium" on board
Grounded ship may have been too close to shore
Ship disaster raises cruise safety questions
Grounded ship may have been too close to shore
Ship disaster raises cruise safety questions
Chances that they would be found alive three days after the ship was speared by the reef and toppled to one side grew slimmer.
The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, was arrested and jailed early Saturday, a few hours after Friday's night shipwreck a few hundred meters off Giglio, a tiny island of fishermen and tourist hotels near the Tuscan coast in west central Italy.
Prosecutors who are investigating the captain for manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a shipwreck stepped up their scathing criticism of his conduct.
"We are struck by the unscrupulousness of the reckless maneuver that the commander of the Costa Concordia made near the island of Giglio," prosecutor Francesco Verusio told reporters. "It was inexcusable."
A judge on Tuesday is expected to decide if the captain should be charged and remain jailed in Grosseto on the mainland.
Costa Crociere SpA chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi said the company would provide him legal assistance, but he disassociated Costa from his behavior, saying it broke all rules and regulations.
"Capt. Schettino took an initiative of his own will which is contrary to our written rules of conduct," Foschi said in his first public comments since the grounding.
At a news conference in Genoa, the company's home base, Foschi said that Costa ships have their routes programmed, and alarms go off when they deviate. Those alarms are disabled if the ship's course is manually altered, he said.
"This route was put in correctly upon departure from Civitavecchia," Foschi said, referring to the port outside Rome. "The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa."
Schettino claims the rock that tore open his ship was not marked on his charts and that he was not too close to shore.
Foschi didn't respond directly to prosecutors' and passengers' accusations that Schettino abandoned ship before all passengers had been evacuated, but he suggested his conduct wasn't as bad in the hours of the evacuation as has been portrayed. He didn't elaborate.
The Italian coast guard says Schettino defied their entreaties for him to return to his ship as the chaotic evacuation of the 4,200 people aboard was in full progress. After the ship's tilt put many life rafts out of service, helicopters had to pluck to safety dozens of people remaining aboard, hours after Schettino was seen leaving the vessel.
The captain has insisted in an interview before his jailing that he stayed with the vessel to the end.
Foschi defended the conduct of the crew, while acknowledging that passengers had described a chaotic evacuation where crew members consistently downplayed the seriousness of the situation as the nearly 1,000 foot-long ship lurched to the side.
"All our crew members behaved like heroes. All of them," he said.
He noted that 4,200 people managed to evacuate a lilting ship at night within two hours. In addition, the ship's evacuation procedures had been reviewed last November by an outside firm and port authorities and no faults were found, he said.
Costa owner Carnival Corp. estimated that preliminary losses from having the Concordia out of operation for at least through 2012 would be between $85 million and $95 million, though it said there would be other costs as well.
Why the ship sailed so close to the dangerous reefs and rocks that jut off Giglio's eastern coast is not clear, but there have been suspicions the captain may have ventured too close while carrying out a maneuver to entertain islanders and passengers.
Residents of Giglio said they had never seen the Concordia, which makes a weekly Mediterranean cruise that passes the Tuscan coast, come so close to the dangerous reef area near the southern tip of the island.
Foschi said only once before had the company approved a navigational "fly by" of this sort — last year on the night of Aug. 9-10. In that case, the port and company had approved it.
The rescue operation was called off briefly at midday Monday after the Concordia shifted a few inches in rough seas. Just beyond where the gashed ship lies, the seabed drops off quickly by some 65-100 feet; if the Concordia suddenly drops, any divers participating in the rescue operation could be doomed.
There are also rising fears that any significant movement could send some 500,000 gallons of fuel into the pristine waters around the island of Giglio, which is a protected sanctuary for dolphins and other sea creatures popular with scuba divers.
Even before the accident there had been mounting calls from environmentalists to restrict passage of large ships in the area.
Costa executive Costa said that the Rotterdam, Netherlands, based Smit, one of the world's biggest salvagers, will try to salvage the 1,000 foot cruise liner and would provide a study by Tuesday on how to extract the fuel.
Smit has a long track record of dealing with wrecks and leaks, including refloating grounded bulk carriers and securing drilling platforms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A spokesman for Smit, which is part of dredging and maritime services giant Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the Concordia salvage.
2. Jake: Math prodigy proud of his autism
Watch the Segment »
At age two, Jake Barnett was diagnosed with autism and his future was unclear. Now at age 13, Jake is a college sophomore and a math and science prodigy. Jake says his autism is key to his success. Morley Safer reports.
(CBS News)
Jake Barnett is one in 10 million. The Indianapolis 13-year-old has been acing college math and science courses since he was eight years old. Now Jake is a college sophomore taking honors classes in math and physics, while also doing scientific research and tutoring fellow students. No one could have predicted that Jake would even make it to college. At age two, Jake began to regress - he stopped speaking and making eye contact. The diagnosis: autism. Jake is proud of his autism. "That, I believe, is the reason why I am in college and I am so successful," he tells Morley Safer.
The following script is from "Jake" which aired on Jan. 15, 2012. Morley Safer is the correspondent. Katy Textor, producer.
Child prodigies have long been a source of great fascination. We wonder, "How can so much talent reside in such a young body, so much genius?" In a moment you'll meet Jake a 13-year-old math and science prodigy who is confident he may one day challenge some of the established theories of physics.
Jake: Hanging out with a teenage Einstein
What's it like to spend time with a teenage genius? Morley Safer and producer Katy Textor did just that.
What's it like to spend time with a teenage genius? Morley Safer and producer Katy Textor did just that.
The source of that talent and that confidence comes from our most remarkable organ, the one we understand least, the brain. What is it about Jake Barnett that had him taking college courses at age eight and getting As and by 12, doing paid scientific research, and today, at age 13, an honors college sophomore lecturing the crowd at his university science symposium.
[Jake Barnett: And do any of you want my resume at all?]
The untied shoelaces reveal either your average teenager, or the first telltale signs of the absentminded professor, or both.
Surrounded by researchers often twice his age, Jake is presenting his summer physics research project on PT symmetric lattice systems.
[Jake Barnett: This has implications in fiber optics, electromagnetic signals, anything that requires like a light going through a cable.]
Jake Barnett: Every number or math problem I ever hear, I have permanently remembered.
Morley Safer: You just never forget? They never slip out the back door of your brain?
Jake Barnett: No.
Safer: Is it fun for you to do it? Do you get a kick out of it?
Jake Barnett: Yeah.
For Jake, fun is reciting from memory the infinite series of numbers known as pi.
Jake Barnett: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950...
Jake memorized more than 200 of pi's numbers in an afternoon.
Safer: Enough, enough.
And he did it, just to test himself.
Jake Barnett: You want me to go backwards from there?
Safer: Well, sure.
Jake Barnett: ...32397985356295141.3.
Safer: Bravo.
2. Calif. killings suspect's dad also homeless
Refugio Ocampo, 49, father of Itzcoatl Ocampo, the man suspected of killing homeless men in Southern California, talks about his son in Fullerton, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. (AP)
(AP)
YORBA LINDA, Calif. - Just days before being arrested, a Marine veteran suspected in the deaths of four homeless men in Southern California visited his father, who is himself homeless, warning of the danger of being on the streets and showing him a picture of one of the victims.
"He was very worried about me," Refugio Ocampo, 49, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I told him, `Don't worry. I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me."'
The father also said his son came back a changed man after serving in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as his family life frayed and he struggled to find his way as a civilian.
The father said he lost his job and home, and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping repair.
His 23-year-old son, Itzcoatl Ocampo, is awaiting charges in connection with the serial killings of four homeless men since late December.
He was arrested Jan. 13 after a locally known homeless man, John Berry, 64, was stabbed to death outside a Carl's Jr. restaurant in Anaheim. Bystanders gave chase, and police made the arrest.
Refugio Ocampo said that on Jan. 11 his son came to him with a picture of the first victim, 53-year-old James Patrick McGillivray, who was killed on Dec. 20.
"'This is what's happening,"' the father quoted his son as saying.
Itzcoatl Ocampo had been living with his mother, uncle, and younger brother and sister in a rented house on a horse ranch surrounded by the sprawling suburbs of Yorba Linda. At the humble home, his mother, who speaks little English, tearfully brought her son's Marine Corps dress uniform out of a closet and showed unit photos, citations and medals from his military service.
The son followed a friend into the Marine Corps right out of high school in 2006 instead of going to college as his father had hoped. Itzcoatl Ocampo was discharged in 2010 and returned home to find his family in disarray, the father said.
That same month, Itzcoatl Ocampo's friend, Cpl. Claudio Patino IV, 22, of Yorba Linda, was killed in combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
"Once he received the news he was never the same," said the suspect's younger brother, 17-year-old Mixcoatl Ocampo. He said his brother visited Patino's grave twice a week.
Refugio and Mixcoatl both described a physical condition Itzcoatl suffered in which his hands shook and he suffered headaches. Medical treatments helped until he started drinking heavily, both said.
"He started drinking like crazy, too much, way too much," the father said.
A neighbor who is a Vietnam veteran and the father both tried to push Itzcoatl to get treatment at a Veterans hospital, but he refused. Refugio Ocampo said he wanted his son to get psychological treatment as well.
"He started talking about stuff that didn't make any sense, that the end of the world was going to happen," he said.
SOURCE:http://www.cbsnews.com/
Top 3 T.V. News Stories 1-16-2012
2) The Republican presidential field is now down to 5 after Huntsman has abandon hope of going on in the race. The remaining 5 candidates will be working hard in South Carolina to win a position here. When Huntsman withdrew, he endorsed Mitt Romney, stating that he is the best chance of defeating President Obama.
Gingrich is still using negative campaigning to sway voters. Santorum is very close to overthrowing Gingrich in the poles, so some very targeted campaigning will be aired about Santorum from the Gingrich camp.
3) Hundreds of protesters lined the streets in front of the capital today. They are protesting the new law requiring pictured identification at voting sites. Seven states have passed such a law in the last year. The law was pushed through by Republican legislatures, saying they are trying to prevent fraudulent voting. Protesters claim they are trying to exclude certain populations from voting. The law will not be in effect for the primaries this week, due to hold on the law.
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