Jackson Free Press

Clinton pushes democracy in Kenya, seeks Somalia stability

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Kenya to press the country's leaders on the importance of democratic elections.

Clinton is meeting top Kenyan officials on Saturday and urging them to avoid a repeat of the 2007 presidential vote when national polls are held next year. The 2007 vote resulted in widespread violence.

She will also meet members of Somalia's transitional government and regional leaders as they prepare to hold elections in 2013.

Clinton arrived in Kenya from Uganda on Saturday and is on the fourth leg of an 11-day tour of Africa. The trip began in Senegal and will take her next to Malawi and South Africa.

At arm's length: Do digital devices make us miss the action we are recording for tomorrow?

LONDON (AP) — Matthew Driller was holding a navy umbrella, blocking the view of spectators standing five deep and waiting to see the Olympic women's cycling road race flash past. The police came by, signifying that the leaders were closing. The crowd leaned in. "Don't worry," Driller said. "I'll move it before they come."

He did, and the first thing Jane Armston did was raise her camera, trading one obstruction for another. And understandably so: She needed to capture an image.

"It's just to have to say you were there and show people you were there," she said.

At the Olympics, it's a scene repeated hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times a day.

We can film anything today, from anywhere, by simply extending our arm and aiming a device at the subject of interest. Then, almost as quickly, we can beam those images to the world. But is this progress? Are we starting to experience things through miniature screens rather than actually living them by being there? We are taking pictures, but we are distancing ourselves even further from the things we are taking pictures of?

Wind-whipped wildfires destroy dozens of homes in Oklahoma as temperatures hit 113 degrees

NOBLE, Okla. (AP) — The gusty, southerly winds that whipped wildfires through rural woodlands north and south of Oklahoma City started to die down early Saturday, but not before burning dozens of homes.

Hundreds of people were told Friday to leave their homes in at least four counties, while smoke and flames prompted authorities to close parts of Interstate 44, the main roadway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and two state highways. I-44 reopened late Friday night.

"A man refused to leave. From what I know, he wanted to protect his property, but your life has to be more valuable than property," Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel said late Friday night.

The sheriff said at least 25 homes, a daycare center and numerous outbuildings had burned in a fire that may have been deliberately set near Luther, a town about 20 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.

Deputies were looking into reports about someone in a pickup truck who was seen throwing out newspapers that had been set on fire. By Friday night, the blaze had spread across 80 square miles, but officials said it had calmed some due to lighter winds and higher humidity.

Vertical skydiving record broken as 138 skydivers hit speeds of 220 mph in snowflake formation

OTTAWA, Ill. (AP) — Falling at speeds of up to 220 mph, nearly 140 skydivers shattered the vertical skydiving world record as they flew heads-down in a massive snowflake formation in northern Illinois.

Three judges representing the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the international air sports agency, certified that 138 skydivers created the formation Friday evening over Ottawa, about 80 miles southwest of Chicago. It took 15 attempts over three days for the team to break the previous record of 108 skydivers, which was set in 2009.

"I feel amazing," Rook Nelson, an organizer and the owner of Skydive Chicago where the record was broken, said shortly after he made the jump. "There was a lot of emotion and a lot of days where we should have got it. But we dug down deep and stuck at it."

Following months of planning, tryouts and camps to decide who could take part in the dangerous challenge, the record breakers squeezed into six aircraft and launched themselves into the air at 18,500 feet. Flying at such a high altitude presents a risk of altitude sickness, so the skydivers and pilots used oxygen tanks aboard the planes.

Four camera operators shooting video and stills jumped with the 138 participants to record their achievement for the FAI judges. Those images are key, said co-organizer Mike Swanson, a professional skydiver who base jumped from Willis Tower and its fellow Chicago skyscraper Trump Tower for the movie "Transformers 3."

Going out in style: Phelps looks to close brilliant career with 18th Olympic gold medal

LONDON (AP) — One more race. Two more laps. And, in all likelihood, an 18th gold medal for Michael Phelps.

His final Olympics is turning into quite a victory lap.

Phelps will wrap up his swimming career Saturday with the butterfly leg of 4x100 medley relay, an event the U.S. men have never lost. That streak should carry right on with the Americans sending out an imposing quartet that includes three gold medalists (Phelps, freestyler Nathan Adrian and backstroker Matt Grevers), plus a guy who won bronze (breaststroker Brendan Hansen).

"I don't think Michael is going to let anything go wrong in that race," said Eric Shanteau, who swam on the U.S. relay in Friday's prelims.

Indeed, it's unfathomable to think the Phelps era could end with anything less than a performance that puts him atop the podium one last time, with yet another gold medal around his neck.

Obama, Romney seek foothold from better-than-expected jobs report; campaign messages unchanged

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sputtering along, the economy is offering some hope but no illuminating help to voters who are mired in a weak jobs recovery and flooded with familiar promises from President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. A new employment snapshot seemed too mixed and middling to jolt a consistently close race.

Three months shy of Election Day, the latest numbers out Friday showed monthly job creation was higher than expected — but unemployment rose, too. That gave each candidate political room to see only what he wanted, and to stick with the fundamental economic argument that he thinks will win the White House.

"It's another hammer blow to the struggling middle-class families of America," Romney said of the pace of job growth, assailing Obama's record from a Las Vegas trucking business. At the White House, Obama surrounding himself with some of those families, playing up 29 straight months that private employers have added jobs.

"Those are our neighbors and families finding work," Obama said. "But, let's acknowledge, we've still got too many folks out there who are looking for work."

Fittingly, the two men spoke over each other on television, holding events at the same time.

Paging Mr. Bolt ... and Mr. Blake ... and Mr. Gatlin: Men's 100 meters begins

LONDON (AP) — All anyone's talking about ahead of the men's 100 meters is the showdown between Olympic champion Usain Bolt and world champion Yohan Blake, a pair of Jamaicans who train together.

As the premier track and field event of the London Games gets started with opening heats Saturday, it seems everyone has an opinion about who's going to win — and the answers tend to be Bolt or Blake.

There are other contenders. There's the third Jamaican in the field, Asafa Powell. There's U.S.-record holder Tyson Gay, surgically repaired hip and all. And there even is another past Olympic champion, Justin Gatlin of the U.S., who walked off the stage in Athens eight years ago with the 100 gold.

But in 2006, Gatlin tested positive for excessive testosterone, leading to a four-year ban that prevented him from defending his title in Beijing.

Now 30, his prime years perhaps in the past, Gatlin has picked up his career. And guess what? He still believes he has a shot to reclaim his crown, even if he readily admits it's a long shot.

Jackson siblings Janet, Randy and Rebbie say estate executors have harmed the family

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Janet, Randy and Rebbie Jackson say the executors of Michael Jackson's will are causing harm by damaging "fundamental family relationships" and isolating matriarch Katherine Jackson "from anyone questioning the validity of Michael's will."

The Jackson siblings released a statement late Friday through an attorney amid a fight over their brother's will with the executors of his estate.

On Thursday a judge named TJ Jackson, a cousin to Michael Jackson's three children, as co-guardian with Katherine Jackson, who was named their sole caretaker in the disputed will.

Janet, Randy and Rebbie Jackson accuse the executors of a "relentless" negative media campaign and say they have been barred from visiting their 82-year-old mother or Jackson's children.

"The effect of that notice not only is to damage fundamental family relationships, it is also to isolate Katherine Jackson from anyone questioning the validity of Michael's will," reads the statement by Janet Jackson's attorney, Blair G. Brown, released on behalf of Janet, Randy and Rebbie Jackson.

The Onion's image of plane about to hit Chicago skyscraper sparks some public ire post-9/11

CHICAGO (AP) — The satirical newspaper The Onion is attracting some public ire for an image that shows an airliner about to crash into Chicago's Willis Tower, the tallest building in the country.

The image, in a video on The Onion's website showcasing its stories, shows an airplane emblazoned with the company name Sears flying toward the iconic black skyscraper, which for decades was named Sears Tower and headquarters to the retail chain. A narrator intones, "Sears extremists fly a plane into Willis Tower."

The image generated more than 3,200 responses on The Onion's Facebook page by Friday evening, many denouncing the use of an image reminiscent of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

In response to questions about the criticism and using such an image, The Onion marketing director Grant Jones stuck with the newspaper's tone. He wrote in an email that, "9-11 must never be the fodder for jokes. Perhaps you didn't see the news that humor died after 9-11."

Jones called the blurb "a very important story," then added: "We're surprised other major news sources are not giving it the coverage it deserves."