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Final Cut -- My Best Friend for Congress
http://lab.wgbh.org/open-call/election2008/final/my-best-friend-for-congress
Enjoy... and don't forget to vote!
Don't veer off the road in North Dakota
ICBM rocket booster found in ditch
By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer
There's plenty to talk about at the weekly women's coffee klatch in the small town of Parshall, and no one bothered to mention the unarmed booster rocket for an intercontinental ballistic missile lying in a ditch where an Air Force truck overturned.
"We talked about the oil boom, weddings — everything under the sun," Arlene Zacher said Saturday. "But nobody ever mentioned that missile. I guess that shows that people aren't worried about it — I'm certainly not."
The Air Force said a truck carrying the booster for a Minuteman III overturned Thursday a few miles east of Parshall in northwest North Dakota, but there was no danger to the public.
The truck and booster rocket, which is 66 feet long and weighs 75,000 pounds, were still sitting along the road Saturday, under armed guard.
"The scene is still in the assessment phase," said Maj. Laurie A. Arellano, an Air Force spokeswoman. "It's still on its side in the ditch."
Arellano said the wreck would stay there for a least a few more days.
"It has to be 100 percent stable for movement. It's not a quick process — we have to make sure everything is stable first," Arellano said.
The truck was traveling from Minot Air Force Base to a launch facility in northwestern North Dakota when it crashed on the gravel road Thursday morning between Parshall and Makoti, about 70 miles from the air base. Two airmen in the vehicle were not seriously injured, the Air Force said.
Zacher said residents of Parshall, a town of about 1,000 people, are used to missiles being transported in the area, and they trust the Air Force.
"If there is a problem, they will take care of it," she said. "They do a very good job."
In Makoti, a farming community of about 145 people, Darwin Quandt said he wasn't worried.
"They're moving them things around all the time, so we're used to it," Quandt said.
"As long as it ain't going off, we're OK," he said. "And if it did, it wouldn't matter anyway."
Can you "ace" Obama's Final Exams?
The New York Times has published the Professor's final exams -- don't cheat!
Halldór Laxness, J. Edgar Hoover, and a certain senator from Illinois
From icelandreview.com:
Secret FBI Documents on Laxness Arrive in Iceland
Thirteen FBI documents on the travels and behavior of Icelandic Nobel-laureate Halldór Laxness during the Cold War arrived in the mail yesterday. Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir requested from US authorities in January that they would allow the author’s family to view the documents.
“I haven’t had time to look at them,” Gísladóttir told Fréttabladid. “I will send them to his family and let them decide what they want to do.”
Laxness’s son-in-law, Halldór Thorgeirsson, had not yet received the documents when Fréttabladid contacted him, but said he doubted that they were authentic. “This data is probably not of any significance. But the fight isn’t over. We will continue to request access to the documents until they give up.”
The secret FBI documents on Laxness first made the news when literary scholar Chay Lemoine received an answer from the office of Barack Obama in regards to his request to access to the documents. Obama’s office said that after looking into the matter, Lemoine would not be allowed to view them.
Click here to read more about this story.
The Chosen One joins the Lutheran Church of Iceland
"My Best Friend for Congress" wins WGBH's Open Call!
Because of your support -- and the time you took to vote -- WGBH selected my documentary pitch, "My Best Friend for Congress," for their Open Call grant!
The production window is narrow, with a final cut due in June. Rarely in the film industry do you get the greenlight to shoot this quickly, so I am quite excited to jump right this journey with George.
I hope I will have your eyes both online (and on PBS if we're lucky) in the next couple months. I'll keep you posted.
Check out the winning entries at: http://lab.wgbh.org/open-call/election2008/production
Again... THANK YOU! I owe all of you!
Vote for Mike
http://lab.wgbh.org/open-call/election2008/sample-reels/my-best-friend-for-congress
Every single vote counts. Last vote tallied on May 9, 2008.
Winner receives a grant to produce the pitch, possibly to be televised nationally on PBS!
Thanks!