Phoning It In

Speaking of misguided votes on important issues, as we just were, incumbent state legislators -- who, being professionals, you'd think would be at least a little smarter than your average amateur juror -- have begun groveling before the voters to apologize for their votes in 2003 eliminating rate regulation of behemoth telephone monopolies like Bell South.

Jacksonville's Times-Union reporter J. Taylor Rushing has the story:

Nov. 1 was the trigger date for a 2003 state law that allowed a $344 million increase in basic local phone rates by Florida's major phone companies -- BellSouth, Sprint and Verizon. In Jacksonville that means BellSouth customers will see rates go up by $3.14 a month over the next three years.

It has been documented as the largest phone rate increase in Florida history. Under what legislators describe as a little-noticed clause in the law, phone companies also are now allowed to automatically increase their rates by up to 20 percent a year with no state regulation.

* * *
Phone companies largely pushed through the 2003 law on the argument that it would promote competition and lower prices. But state senate President Tom Lee, who studied earlier versions of the law for years, said that hasn't happened, and companies have actually pushed for federal laws to stifle competition.

* * *
Some legislators were frank Tuesday and said they didn't notice the deregulation clause.

"I really regret that I even voted for this," said Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville. "That's one piece that I didn't realize until it was too late. I just never saw it."

If you don't like it, just turn to the 'competition' .... a Dixie Cup and a thread.

'Charnel House Charlie'

"Charnel House Charlie" Reaffirms the Culture of Death
Florida Attorney General, and would-be governor, Charlie Crist yesterday reaffirmed his commitment to a culture of death, by a divided vote of his brain, 7 to 5:

Florida should stick to allowing juries to recommend executions by a simple majority, not a unanimous vote, Attorney General Charlie Crist said Tuesday, urging legislators to reject the Florida Supreme Court's call to tweak the state's capital punishment laws in favor of unanimous juries.

Florida is the only state in the nation that kills convicted defendants on the recommendation of a bare majority of jurors.

headline edited 11-4-0

The Dogs of Wind

Sunday's Pensacola News Journal finally addresses the scandalous "depopulation" of Citizens Property wind insurance customers to unproven start-ups. We wrote about this as it was happening more than three months ago.

In a prominent article aptly titled "Citizens Shifting Risk, But To Whom?" Leslie Conn more or less fingers the real culprit behind this scandal-in-waiting: the state legislators we have been sending to Tallahassee:

Citizens Insurance's transfer of 25 percent of its policies to private firms is raising concerns that Florida homeowners could be exposed to financially shaky insurers.

The concerns arise chiefly from a Citizens program called "depopulation."

Approved by the Legislature in 1996, the program allows the state-run insurance company of last resort to offer financial incentives to private companies that agree to handle or "take out" some of Citizens' riskiest homeowners policies for at least three years.

* * *
Six of the 10 companies taking over Citizens policies this year were licensed in Florida less than a year ago. Only one of the 10 companies, Service Insurance, has earned a secure rating from A.M. Best., which is widely considered an industry leader among financial ratings firms.

As Conn reports, since the first of the year Citizens Property "has moved 242,000 of its approximately 1 million policies into the hands of smaller, Florida-based private companies." Higher-risk barrier island homeowner wind insurance policies were among the first to be transferred.

Most of the private companies to which Citizens Property has handed off its own policies are start-ups with no meaningful track record. Many, as local insurance agents like David Ratcliffe have been warning Pensacola Beach customers for some time, exist only 'on paper.' They aren't fully staffed or reliably rated, and most have no experience handling storm claims. Yet, "the state is encouraging us to do business with them," says Ratcliffe.

Pensacola Beach resident Monica Kellner is among the "depopulated" customers. She told Conn that after Hurricane Dennis -- a relatively small, abbreviated, but intense storm -- ripped off her roof, collapsed interior ceilings, and damaged house contents, dealing with her new insurance company "turned out to be a nightmare."

"I've turned Florida Peninsula in to the Department of Financial Services, and they just blow off the state," she said.

Even today the new company's self-promoting description of its claims practices speaks, tellingly, in the future tense:

"... adjusters will be extremely familiar with our policy and will be outfitted with the latest automated tools for increased efficiency and accuracy."

Yet, it seems, Florida Peninsula may not be among the worst. Conn reports that two of the new companies already have been rated by A.M. Best as financially "vulnerable," five more (including Florida Peninsula) haven't been rated at all, and two have refused altogether to meet with the insurance rating service so it could review finances, accounting practices, and risk management policies.

How on earth can the state legislature countenace, much less mandate as it does, Citizens paying multi-million dollar rewards, for such behavior?

There are other scandalous aspects to the depopulation mess. One that got a lot of ink a month ago was the conflict of interest exposed when some Citizens' staff and then-board chairman Ed London were caught planning a new start-up company of their own to nuzzle up to the Citizens feeding dish.

That was nipped in the bud, but as Conn notes in her article others have left Citizens' employ to start up new insurance companies. If they survive three years, they collect tens of millions in state subsidies. If not, they can always take the company into bankruptcy or shut down Florida operations, as 44 companies did after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

This is known in some quarters as gambling with the house's money. On the street it's called "heads they win, tails you lose."

Conflicts of interest at Citizens are getting the Florida legislature's attention. But the bigger problem is the systemic one created by legislators themselves: state law mandates that Citizens Property Insurance "depopulate" policies even to untested, unrated, inexperienced private insurance companies. Citizens is required to pay them tens of millions of dollars in bonus incentives after only three years. Then the law lets new companies surrender their policies -- as many have done -- back to Citizens. And the cycle repeats -- another go 'round of depopulation, another round of incentive payments, etc. etc.

If well-established, financially solvent companies in the private market "have no capacity left to write policies," as Citizens' press secretary Justin Glover says, then it's time for the Florida legislature to recognize that throwing tens of millions of dollars away every year to subsidize shaky new companies is no answer. We need to make a full-fledged commitment to building a competent, sound, reliable, and efficient state-owned insurance company.

In hurricane-prone Florida, that's as much a public infrastructure need as publicly-financed highways, police, and fire protection.

Adding 'A' Plus 'A'

No one outside special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's tight-lipped and discrete circle of bird-dogs really knows what the future holds in the investigation of the Bush administration's scurrilous outing of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. But the usually reliable Archpundit and the always insightful Billmon are putting "A" and "A" together.

It spells Karl Rove.

From the October 28, 2005 indictment of I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby:

21. On or about July 10 or July 11, 2003, LIBBY spoke to a senior official in the White House (“Official A”) who advised LIBBY of a conversation Official A had earlier that week with columnist Robert Novak in which Wilson’s wife was discussed as a CIA employee involved in Wilson’s trip. LIBBY was advised by Official A that Novak would be writing a story about Wilson’s wife.

From Fitzgerald's Washington D.C. press conference, October 28, 2005:

FITZGERALD: * * * We can't talk about information not contained in the four corners of the indictment.

QUESTION: Is Karl Rove off the hook? And are there any other individuals who might be charged? You say you're not quite finished.

FITZGERALD: What I can say is the same answer I gave before: If you ask me any name, I'm not going to comment on anyone named, because we either charged someone or we don't talk about them. And don't read that answer in the context of the name you gave me.

From the Associated Press, August 27, 2003, via Archpundit:

When asked, Fitzgerald would not comment on whether "Official A" was Ryan.

From Fitzgerald's Chicago press conference, April 3, 2002, also via Archpundit:

But despite branding two of Ryan's former top aides and his campaign committee as corrupt, Fitzgerald would not say if the investigation will eventually reach Ryan. The vast majority of the corruption uncovered so far happened under his watch when he was secretary of state from 1990 until 1998. The governor has not been accused by prosecutors of any wrongdoing in the past, and Tuesday's indictments did not include him.

"I cannot answer that question," Fitzgerald said when asked about any Ryan involvement. "We cannot discuss people not charged in the indictment."

Plus, further history, December 17, 2003(free subscription required):

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan was charged today in a federal racketeering indictment with conspiracy and fraud while he was governor and secretary of state.

Ryan allegedly engaged in a pattern of corruption that included performing official government acts, awarding lucrative government contracts and leases and using the State of Illinois for his own benefit, members of his family, his campaign organization and certain associates, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office.

Adding it all up is Billmon:

[Karl] Rove, er, I mean, Official A, on the other hand, is treated with studious neutrality. His paragraph in the indictment is carefully phrased to make no inference whatsoever about whether he told Novak or Novak told him that Joe Wilson's wife worked at the CIA:

"On or about July 10 or July 11, 2003, LIBBY spoke to a senior official in the White House (“Official A”) who advised LIBBY of a conversation Official A had earlier that week with columnist Robert Novak in which Wilson’s wife was discussed as a CIA employee involved in Wilson’s trip. LIBBY was advised by Official A that Novak would be writing a story about Wilson’s wife."

In other words, someone has tried very hard to keep Official A on ice, so to speak, while roasting Libby over an open Plame/Flame. Of course, that doesn't mean Fitzgerald will indict Rove, but it's the most tangible evidence that Rove remains in deep legal doo doo.

Also, the fact that it was Libby who ferreted out the info on Plame signifies nothing. Scooter committed no crimes in asking; his contacts committed no crimes in telling. The crime was talking to the press, and based on the evidence that's come to light so far, Libby and Rove are dead even on that score. Scooter talked to Miller, Turdblossom talked to Novak, the both talked to Cooper.

The real question, then, is whether Libby passed along what he learned to Turdblossom. And that, too, is left carefully indeterminate in Scooter's indictment.

The Libby Indictment (Updated)

Right here (pdf format)

Or here for an html version.

2 perjury counts, 2 false statement counts, 1 obstruction of justice count.

Update

I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby resigns as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Exhibit A

“I fear the ACLU more than I fear al-Qaida.”

- - Dover school board member Ron Short

The idiots running the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania, should be Exhibit A in the trial challenging their attempt to force Creationism into the biology class curriculum. The board members are living proof against "intelligent design."

Trouble is, it's almost as hard for Darwinian evolutionists to explain how anyone this stupid could have genes that managed to survive 130,000 years Yesterday, the case descended into farce both inside and outside the federal courtroom.

The York Daily Record's Mike Argento has the dope from the inside the courtroom:

It was surely one of the most anticipated moments in the history of federal jurisprudence, the appearance, finally, of former Dover Area School Board member Bill Buckingham at the Dover Panda Trial.

And it did not disappoint. It was, in the truest sense of the word, unbelievable.

Really.

Unbelievable.

At the onset of his stay on the witness stand, Buckingham raised his right hand and swore, or affirmed, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then, for the record, he stated his name.

"William Buckingham."

By the time he left the stand, six hours later, I almost expected the judge to ask him for a photo ID to make sure he was indeed William Buckingham.

It seems Buckingham was caught in a web of lies, told some new whoppers under oath, got caught again, and then blamed all the prevarications "and just plain weird memory" on his addiction to oxycontin.

Speaking of a dope, outside the courtroom another defendant school board member fighting the Age of Enlightenment, Alan Bonsell, admitted he sent a mass mailing to local voters attacking the American Civil Liberties Union "for working with a group that has defended terror suspects and has defended a group that advocates sexual relationships between men and boys." His letter went out over the names of other school board members, none of whom, it seems, were aware of it.

The ACLU was founded in 1920. It is dedicated to working "daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Our job is to conserve America's original civic values - the Constitution and the Bill of Rights."

In Bonsell's letter to Dover voters, he attacked the ACLU as a "terrible organization" that "couldn't have come to Dover and sued the district unless it got someone from within the community to sign on to the lawsuit."

Referring to some of the controversial cases in which the ACLU has been involved, Bonsell said, “I think the ACLU is a very terrible organization.”

Fellow board member Ron Short was one of those signers who hadn't read the letter, but he told the local newspaper he "absolutely" approved of it anyway.

"I fear the ACLU more than I fear al-Qaida,” he said.

Someone should tell Mr. Short that one of the 'terrible people' the ACLU is representing is Creationist sympathizer and oxycontin addict Rush Limbaugh . In fact, Mr. Short's school board ally, Bill Buckingham, may yet need the ACLU himself.

Power Play

"Bush -- apparently unaware of frustrating supply breakdowns just a few miles away -- assured South Florida that federal aid was coming."

The Miami Herald:

At a food-distribution center in Pompano Beach, the president hugged and consoled hurricane victims standing in line for barbecue served by volunteers from Tennessee. After posing for snapshots and signing autographs, Bush -- apparently unaware of frustrating supply breakdowns just a few miles away -- assured South Florida that federal aid was coming.

* * *
Broward officials said they had received just half of the water, ice and ready-to-eat meals sought from state and federal coordinators -- 76 of 153 trucks requested. Late Thursday afternoon, Broward officials bought 50 truckloads of ice and water from suppliers as far away as Texas and Virginia.

From the Ft. Myers News-Journal:

A third of all homes darkened by Wilma across South Florida had power restored, FPL said, including Miami-Dade, where 357,800 out of 956,500 affected homes were back online. In Broward, 20 percent of the homes affected by the blackout had had service restored. About the same percentage was reported in Palm Beach County.

Geisha Williams, the FPL vice president in charge of the restoration, said she thought “a great majority” of darkened homes would be back within two weeks. The utility predicts that 95 percent of darkened homes will be fixed by Nov. 15 and that all Broward and Miami-Dade homes should be back by Nov. 22, two days before Thanksgiving.

And, from the St. Petersburg Times

Even as power was restored to some, thousands of others remain in high-rises with no working elevators. "It is widespread," said Pompano Beach Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Brian Schafer.

Many of them are elderly and cannot easily get food and water, he said. Some also rely on electric wheelchairs and scooters with batteries that are running out.

Utility workers are concentrating on areas with high-rises, Schafer said. "It becomes more critical as time goes on."

Many high-rises, like the 29-story Pompano Beach Club, have working generators to keep an elevator going, but without power they have no way to pump water to their upper floors. City water pressure only gets it so far.

The Man Who Came To Dinner

Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff acknowledged this week that he's extended Michael Brown's 'contract' another thirty days. Brown, who supposedly resigned a month ago, apparently hasn't finished eating FEMA.

What lawsuit is this guy threatening Chertoff with?

T.S. Beta

Are hurricanes God's way of teaching us Greek?

Here's T.S. Beta. No danger to the Gulf, but likely to become a hurricane before landfall in Nicaragua.

AP reports in the Bradenton Herald, that "Beta is the season's 23rd tropical storm, the most since record keeping began in 1851."

Next up: Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon.

Meirs Withdraws

The actual letter without the White House masthead, or any other, was first reprinted in the Washington Post but subsequently disappeared and an html substituted, presumably to hide the fact that it was a file copy and not on original letterhead.

Meirs WithdrawsTold To Withdraw Nomination

Edited and reformatted 11-4-05 after the Post took down the original

The Responsibility Fashion

"We did not perform to where we want to be," the governor said at a news conference Wednesday in Tallahassee, adding that criticism of the federal response was misdirected. "This is our responsibility."

-- Palm Beach Post, Oct. 27, 2005

Let's give the governor the benefit of the doubt. Assume Jeb Bush meant the "royal we" when, as so many Florida newspapers are claiming today, he 'took responsibility' for the state's confused, slow, and inadequate preparations for Hurricane Wilma.

Rantings Prof nevertheless "smells a rat." He thinks Jeb's "defending FEMA to protect his brother politically."

A politician playing politics when he "takes responsibility" for something? You think?

This 'taking responsibility' thing - lots of politicians are doing it these days. Like Donald Rumsfeld, for Abu Grahib. And George Bush for ruining FEMA. And Louisiana Governor
Kathleen Blanco for that state's Katrina mistakes. And drunk-driving Texas congressman Kevin Brady. And Koffi Annan for allowing American corporations to bribe their way into oil-for-food money. And -- well, we could go on and on.

Suddenly, it's all the fashion. But what does it really mean?

Writer-editor Doug Cooper over at Dysblog last month posted a transcript of Karl Rove's explanation to George Bush. Here's an excerpt:

GEORGE: So, what does this involve?

KARL: Well, you go out in front of the cameras, and you say: "I take full responsibility."

GEORGE: That's it? I don't have to do anything?

KARL: No, that's it.

GEORGE: That's not a lot of work.

KARL: No work at all.

GEORGE: Well, I don't like it. But if you insist...

KARL: I insist.

GEORGE: Okay. Okay. "I take full responsibility." That's how you say it?

KARL: Perfect.

GEORGE. Gotcha. (pause) Um, Karl?

KARL: Yes, George?

GEORGE: This "taking responsibility" thing. What does it actually mean?

KARL: Nothing, buddy. Nothing. Just words. I suggest you practice in front of the mirror.

Same Storm, Different Ledes

Is South Florida's water bottle half full or half empty? They report, you decide:

Broward County Sun Sentinel :

Three days after Hurricane Wilma stomped through the region, essential supplies remained scarce Wednesday, government officials apologized for the slow response, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency offered financial relief to individuals.

Ft. Myers News-Press:

Signs of recovery abounded Wednesday in Southwest Florida, three days after Hurricane Wilma ripped through the region and across the state.

Lakeland Ledger:

Frustration mounted on the third day of recovery from Hurricane Wilma, with the scramble for gas, water, ice and food causing long lines and traffic snarls, which prompted renewed criticism of storm planning and response.

Palm Beach Daily News:

Palm Beach showed signs of a slow recovery from Hurricane Wilma Wednesday with the restoration of water service by West Palm Beach and isolated reports of power returning, though electricity is still out throughout most of the area.

Naples News:

Taking flak for shortages of aid in Southwest Florida and elsewhere, federal officials and Gov. Jeb Bush acknowledged Wednesday there were glitches in Hurricane Wilma response efforts.

Tallahassee Democrat:

Declaring the state a "no-criticize zone" for the recovery from Hurricane Wilma, Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that frustrated residents should blame him - not the Federal Emergency Management Agency - for shortages of ice, water and food at besieged distribution centers in southeast Florida.

St. Petersburg Times:

Complaints about the slow pace of recovery after Hurricane Wilma have exposed two problems: The state wasn't as prepared as it thought and neither were residents of South Florida.

Miami Herald:

It was another day of tedium and anxiety Wednesday for the millions still without power. Phones remained largely inoperable, and panic set in as gas stations went empty. The statewide death toll climbed to 10.

Orlando Sentinel:

Frustrated victims of Hurricane Wilma lined up again Wednesday for gas, water, ice and food, as Gov. Jeb Bush admitted that the state should have done a better job of funneling supplies to South Florida.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez called the relief process "flawed," adding that he was "frustrated, disappointed, angered" with the delivery of supplies.

Associated Press (Lara Jakes Jordan):

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday asked victims of Hurricane Wilma to have patience for relief efforts as he surveyed crumpled boats, shattered mobile homes and snaking lines of cars at fuel stations along the storm's path.

Palm Beach Post:

For residents with gaping roofs from Hurricane Wilma, officials Wednesday offered a partial fix, but less than during prior storms.

FEMA reactivated Operation Blue Roof, assigning the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews the mission of sealing storm-strafed roofs in Palm Beach County with plastic tarps. But the emergency management agency has not said whether it also will distribute self-help tarps, a key relief measure that it took in years past.

Associated Press (Erik Shelzig):

With many Floridians still struggling to find food, water, ice and gas in the wake of Hurricane Wilma, Gov. Jeb Bush took responsibility for frustrating relief delays in a state all too familiar with powerful storms.

Key News:

Waves of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach county residents began rolling into the Upper Keys on Wednesday to buy gasoline, food and other provisions in short supply after Hurricane Wilma left most of South Florida without power.

Walmart Shines Image While Slicing Benefits

"Our critics are correct in some of their observations. Specifically, our coverage is expensive for low-income families, and Wal-Mart has a significant percentage of associates and their children on public assistance."

-- Walmart vice president M. Susan Chambers

Walmart Watch has received from an anonymous source and publicly released a Memo to the Board from company vice president M. Susan Chambers in which she outlines strategies for making more cuts in company employee benefit costs while trying to counter critics who say Walmart exploits its labor force.

As New York Times reporters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and New York summarize, "The theme throughout the memo was how to slow the increase in benefit costs without giving more ammunition to critics who contend that Wal-Mart's wages and benefits are dragging down those of other American workers."

Among the strategies the memo to the board suggests are --

• Somehow discouraging more senior workers from staying with the company because, Ms. Chambers wrote, "the cost of an associate with seven years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an associate with one year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity;"


• Charging employees a higher deductible;


• Requiring employees to pay more for spouses' health insurance;


• Cutting 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent;


• Cutting company paid life insurance policies to a maximum of $12,000 rather than a benefit equal to the employee's annual salary;


• Incorporating physical activity in all jobs;


• Promoting health savings accounts, to which employees would contribute pre-tax dollars;


• "Dissuading unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart;"


• Encouraging small clinics to locate inside Walmart stores; and


• Offering "limited funding" for new employees to buy private health insurance after 30 the first days, so Walamrt could make the 'powerful' public claim it "offers associates access to health insurance after they've worked with us for just 30 days."
  

According to the Times, Walmart employees "earn on average around $17,500 a year" ... Currently, "less than 45 percent of its workers receive company health insurance" ... and the new benefits policy being proposed could cost employees "out-of-pocket expenses of $2,500 a year or more."

In an interview with the Times, Ms. Chambers admitted that "46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid."

Comment
There is no better reason than an accident of history that health insurance for most Americans is tied to their employment. Far better, and cheaper, coverage could be offered through a national single-payer health insurance plan proposed two years ago by a panel of eminent physicians and health care professionals.

Wouldn't it make more sense -- and be better for the company's image -- if Walmart took the lead in urging Congress at long last to adopt that meaningful reform of our health care system?

South Florida Mess

Abby Goodnough and Joe Treaster report from Miami for the New York Times:

South Florida was a coast-to-coast mess on Tuesday as millions of people remained without power, huge lines formed for basic supplies and drivers wove through packed, debris-strewn streets with no traffic signals.

Despite Gov. Jeb Bush's assurances that recovery from Hurricane Wilma would proceed smoothly after lessons learned from seven previous storms, the government response looked frayed. In Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, people lined up for ice and water only to learn that government deliveries of both were late.

* * *
Many busy intersections had no police officers to guide impatient drivers. Schools and most businesses remained closed as dazed multitudes wandered in search of food, gasoline and cellphone reception.

* * *
A day after Hurricane Wilma struck, leaving at least six dead, power had been restored to several hundred thousand households and businesses by Tuesday evening. But 3.1 million still had no electricity, including about 93 percent of customers in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. Eleven other counties also reported power failures, many of them widespread. Officials at Florida Power and Light said some customers might have to wait four weeks.

About midday, Allen Breed of the Associated Press was reporting:

The mayor of Miami-Dade County warned that emergency supplies were dwindling Wednesday, a new blow to victims of Hurricane Wilma who had hoped to avoid another frustrating day of long lines for food and water.

At least one distribution site in Miami-Dade was out of supplies, and the other 10 were running low with material from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.

"We are not hoarding supplies anywhere. They have been distributed," he said. "When this inventory runs out at these different distribution centers, we do not know and FEMA cannot tell us when they will be resupplied."

* * *
There were signs of progress Wednesday in Florida: More streets were cleared of debris, a few restaurants opened and domestic flights resumed at Miami International Airport. Even trash removal returned to some areas.

Many residents, however, shared frustration over what they felt was the slow pace of aid. Trucks carrying the first wave of relief - food, ice and water - either arrived much later than local officials expected Tuesday or didn't show up at all.

One of those blogging Wilma, Pamibe from Pompano Beach, managed to get one message out after the storm, explaining, "I’m running a laptop off the car battery, since there’s no power, no battery backup, no DSL… not alot of anything except fools running up and down the roads sightseeing."

Similarly, Blog Wilma used a laptop and a dial-up connection to report, "Wow this storm was way worst then I originally thought. This is the first time my neighborhood has lost power in years, and has seen so much damage. South Florida got hit hard."

Neither has been heard from since Monday.

2,000 (Updated)

Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005:2,000.

UPDATE

Pensacola News Journal
Wednesday, October 26, 2005:

"News of Spears' death -- the first in Iraq from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties -- spread as the Department of Defense announced on Tuesday that the U.S. death toll in Iraq had reached 2,000.

"Although the Defense Department has not named Spears as that fatality, its official listing identifies a Sunday killing as the 2,000th death. It is the only death the Department of Defense has listed for Sunday.

"Neither of which matters much to the family or friends grieving him."

The Pensacola News Journal has more.

Reformatted 11-04-05