linda mcmahon

Linda McMahon, former WWE CEO and wife of wrestling legend Vince McMahon, is a Republican Senate candidate and stirring up some buzz today. She claims she fed the New York Times their current story about Democratic candidate Richard Blumenthal’s exaggerated Vietnam service,Apparently she claims a blog post on her website brought the information about her opponents military service to light, but she took the post down after handing the story off to the Times. The story was initially reported by Kevin Rennie, who has confirmed that the story was “fed to the paper by the Linda McMahon Senate campaign.”

The campaign of World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run against Blumenthal, is doing little to discourage suggestions it provided the sort of opposition research to The Times that is known around campaigns as an “oppo dump.”3″ />

Shawn McCoy, a McMahon spokesman, told POLITICO: “As we have researched Dick Blumenthal’s record, we’ve discovered some very troubling disparities between what he’s said and the facts. This is a serious blow to his credibility.”

Making the claim more explicitly, McMahon’s campaign website has re-posted, as an “In Case You Missed It,” a blog entry by Kevin Rennie of South Windsor, a lawyer and a former Republican state senator and representative:
Linda McMahon for Senate 2010 today announced that former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Kevin O’Connor has given his support to Linda’s candidacy for U.S. Senate.

“Linda McMahon has proven herself an exceptionally strong, exciting and impressive candidate for U.S. Senate,” said former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Kevin O’Connor. “I am supporting Linda because I believe her business experience and common sense approach to issues will bring a fresh – and much needed – perspective to policymaking in Washington.”

west virginia

12 killed in West Virginia mine blast; more trapped

MONTCOAL, W.Va. — An explosion rocked a remote coal mine with a history of safety problems Monday, killing 12 workers and trapping others thousands of feet underground.

Though the cause of the blast was not known, Massey Energy’s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine has a history of violations for not properly ventilating highly combustible methane gas, safety officials said.

Nine miners were leaving on a vehicle that takes them in and out of the long shaft, when a crew ahead of the them felt a blast of air and went back to investigate, said Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

They found nine workers, seven of whom were dead. Two others were injured. Two other nine-person crews and a safety inspector who had been working alone were believed trapped, perhaps about a mile and a half underground, said Stricklin.

MSHA officials didn’t yet know what caused the blast, but federal records say the Eagle coal seam 30 miles south of Charleston releases up to 2 million cubic feet of methane gas into the mine every 24 hours, which is a large amount, said Dennis O’Dell, health and safety director for the United Mine Workers labor union.

In 2006, 12 miners died in a methane explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia.

In the past year, federal inspectors have cited Massey and fined the company more than $382,000 for repeated, serious violations involving its ventilation plan and equipment at the mine run by subsidiary Performance Coal.

The mine is located in a swath of Raleigh and Boone counties that includes a string of mine operations in the heart of coal country.

“If you’re from here, you’re part of a coal-mining family,” Grace Lafferty of nearby Harper told the Charleston Gazette. The mine has about 200 employees, most working underground.

A bulk of the coal is removed with a machine called a longwall miner. Hydraulic roof supports shield the miners and equipment as the machines cut deeper into the mountain, with the roof in the mined-out areas caving in by design after workers move on, according to Massey’s Web site.

Massey Energy ranks among the nation’s top five coal producers and is among the industry’s most profitable. The MSHA fined Massey a then-record $1.5 million for 25 violations that inspectors concluded contributed to the deaths of two miners trapped in a fire at a different mine in January 2006.

reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – The euro fell against both the dollar and yen on Tuesday on renewed worries about Greek debt while world shares were flat with Europe higher.

Jitters about Greece returned to the market after a newspaper report said it was seeking $5 billion to $10 billion from U.S. investors to help cover its May borrowing requirement. ]

The process of seeking the funding looks likely to be akin to an emerging market, including a roadshow.

Greece was also reported separately to be seeking to amend the deal struck late last month with European Union partners to provide an emergency safety net.

One result was a sell-off in the euro, which was down half a percent against the dollar at $1.3417 and around 1 percent against the yen at 125.94 yen.

“There’s speculation that the financial situation in Greece will become increasingly difficult,” said Lutz Karpowitz, currency strategist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. “Negative news about Greece will continue to pressure the euro.”

Euro zone government debt also fell. The June Bund future was down 64 ticks on the day at 122.80.

The interest rate-sensitive two-year Schatz yield was up 5.5 basis points at 1.03 percent. The 10-year Bund yield was up eight basis points at 3.163 percent.

Five-year Greek credit default swaps — the cost of insuring Greek debt — rose to 354 basis points from 347 basis post on Friday, the last day they were priced.

Euro zone bonds were also catching up from the long Easter weekend, which saw some positive U.S. economic data, including on jobs.

EUROPE STOCKS RISE

Word stocks as measured by MSCI (^MIWD00000PUS – News) were flat to higher, with European stocks holding up the benchmark.

European shares hit a new 18-month high, tracking gains in the United States, where sentiment was boosted by a stronger labor market.

The FTSEurofirst 300 (^FTEU3 – News) index of top European shares was up half a percent after rising 1.4 percent in the previous session to its highest close since September 2008.

The European benchmark is up more than 70 percent from its low of March 9, 2009.

Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei average fell 0.5 percent, but only after successive days of 18-month highs.

massey energy

Massey Energy: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

MONTCOAL, W.Va. — An explosion at a remote coal mine with a history of safety problems killed 25 workers and at least four others were still missing early Tuesday more than a thousand feet underground in the worst U.S. mine disaster since 1984.

Rescuers had been making their way to the area where the miners were believed trapped at Massey Energy Co.’s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine, where the blast occurred around 3 p.m. Monday. However, safety officials said at a news conference that the search was suspended because rising methane gas levels in the mine made it a high risk for another explosion.

Earlier, Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said officials hoped some of the missing survived the initial blast and were able to reach airtight chambers stocked with food, water and enough oxygen for them to live for four days. However, rescue teams made it to one of two nearby shelters and it was empty. The gas levels prevented them from reaching the second.

Massey Energy and safety officials confirmed that 25 bodies were found. The death toll had risen from seven earlier in the day to 12 at about midnight. A total of 29 miners were in the area when the blast happened, he said.

“It does not appear that any of the individuals made it to a rescue chamber,” Stricklin said at a news conference. “The situation is dire.”

State mining director Ron Wooten said though the situation does not seem promising to reach the four still missing, rescuers wouldn’t give up.

“We haven’t given up hope at all,” he said.

In 1984, 27 were killed by a fire at Emery Mining Corp.’s mine in Orangeville, Utah.

Benny R. Willingham, 62, who was five weeks away from retiring, was among those killed in West Virginia, said his sister-in-law Sheila Prillaman.

He had mined for 30 years, the last 17 with Massey, and planned to take his wife on a cruise to the Virgin Islands next month, she said.

“Benny was the type — he probably wouldn’t have stayed retired long,” Prillaman said. “He wasn’t much of a homebody.”

Prillaman said family members were angry because they learned of Willingham’s death after reading it on a list Massey posted, instead of being contacted by the company, which said it wouldn’t release names until next of kin were notified.

Though the cause of the blast was not known, the operation about 30 miles south of Charleston has a history of violations for not properly ventilating highly combustible methane gas, safety officials said.

Miners were leaving on a vehicle that takes them in and out of the mine’s long shaft when a crew ahead of them felt a blast of air and went back to investigate, Stricklin said.

They found nine workers, seven of whom were dead. Others were hurt or missing about a mile and a half inside the mine.

Massey Energy, a publicly traded company based in Richmond, Va., has 2.2 billion tons of coal reserves in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia and Tennessee, according to the company’s Web site. It ranks among the nation’s top five coal producers and is among the industry’s most profitable. It has a spotty safety record.

In the past year, federal inspectors have fined the company more than $382,000 for repeated serious violations involving its ventilation plan and equipment at Upper Big Branch, which is run by subsidiary Performance Coal Co. The violations also cover failing to follow the plan, allowing combustible coal dust to pile up, and having improper firefighting equipment.

The mine has had three other fatalities in the last dozen years.

Methane is one of the great dangers of coal mining, and federal records say the Eagle coal seam releases up to 2 million cubic feet of methane gas into the Upper Big Branch mine every 24 hours, which is a large amount, said Dennis O’Dell, health and safety director for the United Mine Workers labor union.

The colorless, odorless gas is often sold to American consumers to heat homes and cook meals. In mines, giant fans are used to keep methane concentrations below certain levels. If concentrations are allowed to build up, the gas can explode with a spark roughly similar to the static charge created by walking across a carpet in winter, as at the Sago mine, also in West Virginia where 12 were killed in 2006.

Since then, federal and state regulators have required mine operators to store extra oxygen supplies. Upper Big Branch uses containers that can generate about an hour of breathable air, and all miners carry a container on their belts besides the stockpiles inside the mine.

Rescuers trying to reach the trapped miners had found evidence that some workers took emergency oxygen supplies from a cache in the mine, Stricklin said.

West Virginia requires all underground mines to have wireless communications and tracking systems designed to survive explosions and other disasters. However, Stricklin said much of the network near the missing men was likely destroyed in the explosion.

Blankenship said the names of the dead and injured would not be released until next-of-kin were notified.

“West Virginians are tough, we will bind together,” said U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, whose district includes where the mine is located.

The mine, which cannot be seen from the road, has 19 openings and roughly 7-foot ceilings. Inside, it’s crisscrossed with railroad tracks used for hauling people and equipment. It is located in a mine-laced swath of Raleigh and Boone counties that is the heart of West Virginia’s coal country.

The seam produced 1.2 million tons of coal in 2009, according to the mine safety agency, and has about 200 employees, most of whom work underground on different shifts.

In each of the last three years, Massey has had multiple operations cited by MSHA as repeat violators of safety and health rules and ordered to improve their conditions. Upper Big Branch was not one of them.

Last year, the number of miners killed on the job in the U.S. fell for a second straight year to 34, the fewest since officials began keeping records nearly a century ago. That was down from the previous low of 52 in 2008.

chris kanyon comes out

The news that Chris “Kanyon” Klucsarits is dead as of a day ago has set off many fans who are concerned over the constant deaths of pro wrestlers at young ages. In particular, there’s been many wrestling deaths at age 40 or younger including Klucsarits’ recent suicide in New York. Also with his recent death, searches have increased for the news of “Chris Kanyon comes out” in reference to Kanyon openly admitting he was gay.
Reportedly, shortly after he announced he was gay, he was released by his pro-wrestling employer, World Wrestling Entertainment. Kanyon cut a post-match promo in 2006 when he told a wrestling house show audience that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon released him because he was gay.

According to the Online World of Wrestling, Chris Kanyon comes out news was not the first news of an openly gay professional wrestler. Simon Sermon who wrestled in the AWA, NAWA and other circuits, is part of a DVD called “Changing Perceptions: Profile of an openly gay pro wrestler”, and is reportedly the first wrestler to openly come out with regards to his homosexuality. Kanyon was likely more well known in wrestling than Sermon, depending on which wrestling leagues were followed at the time. Many will claim that Chris Kanyon, who also wrestled as a character named “Mortis”, may have struggled with his identity throughout his wrestling career and it was wrestling that ultimately did him in.

While the reports of Chris Kanyon Klucsarits’ death has shocked many fans, some have tried to point the finger at his former employer. However, it was ultimately his choice to claim his life. It’s hard to blame WWE or pro-wrestling at this point, although you can surely add them to the list of issues Kanyon may have had to deal with. WWE puts its sports entertainers on a round-the-year schedule that is grueling and stressful on both the mind and body. In the instance of another wrestler who was part of a double-murder suicide, Chris Benoit, it was learned that internal issues were at play. Close friends to Klucsarits have indicated that he had threatened or discussed suicide before, and struggled with bipolar disorder as well as depression before his suicide.

source http://sports.gather.com

WWE Breaking Point

Another big event from WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) is on its way to give us a another jam pack action this weekend, Breaking Point 2009 will surely not going to fail us of giving a total entertainment. Exciting matches are on line, awaiting to give excitement and thrill. Breaking Point will feature the fights of some WWE superstar and ECW brands. There is Undertaker who will fight in a heavyweight submission fight. Also include in the matches are WWE Champion Randy Orton and John Cena who will face each other inside the ring in “I Quit” match. Other big names in the matches are Chris Jericho and Big Show who will fight for the tag team.So if you want a total weekend night entertainment don’t miss to watch WWE Breaking Point live stream on Sunday, September 13.

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WWE Breaking Point was first posted on September 14, 2009 at 12:22 pm.
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