NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Evidence mounts for El Nino
Could mean end to
drought, but also
massive storms
BRIEFLY
Amid wave of stabbings, Netanyahu
accuses Arab leaders of incitement
Putin craze takes hold in Middle East
AP Photo/Nick Ut,File
In this Feb. 2, 1998 file photo, work crews attempt to repair a damaged pier caused
by waves that reached 15 feet from the massive El Nino-driven storm in Ventura, Calif.
NASA via AP
These false-color images provided by NASA satellites
compare warm Pacific Ocean water temperatures from
the strong El Nino that brought North America large
amounts of rainfall in 1997, left, and the current El Nino
as of Oct. 1, 2015, right.
crops, pushed houses off hill-
side foundations and washed
out highways. Damage was
estimated at more than $500
million.
The 1982-83 tempests left
36 people dead, damaged or
destroyed more than 7,900
homes and businesses, and
caused $1.2 billion in losses,
according to the weather
service.
The NASA lab has been
observing El Nino and other
ocean trends for decades. In
1992, JPL, in collaboration
with France, launched the
¿rst in a series of satellites
capable of observing the
phenomena on a global basis.
Still, El Ninos can be
unpredictable. Some have
produced little rain, and
some of the most damaging
storms have come in non-El
Nino years.
In the last 65 years, there
have been just six strong
El Ninos and only two
produced major precipitation
statewide, according to the
California Department of
Water Resources.
Weather models this year
show a 60 percent chance
of above-average rainfall in
Southern California, but that
¿gure declines farther north,
Boldt said.
From the San Francisco
Bay Area to Sequoia National
Park, there’s a 50 percent
chance of above-average
rainfall. From Eureka to
north of Reno, Nevada, that
estimate drops to 33 percent.
It’s likely to be drier in the
Paci¿c Northwest and the
northern Rocky Mountains.
California public agencies
have been warned to prepare
for large storms. Boldt said he
can’t count all the meetings
he’s been to with emergency
managers and local of¿cials.
“That’s been pushed hard,
and people understand this is
going to potentially be a bad
winter for water issues,” he
said.
State of¿cials are watching
weather models and updating
emergency plans, said Kelly
Huston, deputy director with
the Governor’s Of¿ce of
Emergency Services.
“We worry that people
won’t take it seriously
because they’re so desperate
for water,” Huston said. “If
it downpours heavily over
a short period of time, it’s
going to be dangerous, not
just a welcome relief they
perceive to be helping the
drought.”
Democratic debate a breakout chance for O’Malley
DES MOINES, Iowa
(AP) — Stuck far behind
Hillary Rodham Clinton and
Bernie Sanders in the race for
the Democratic presidential
nomination, Martin O’Malley
needs a breakout moment in
the party’s ¿rst debate to catch
up to the front-runners.
And he knows it.
“This will really be the
¿rst time that nationally voters
see that there’s more than one
alternative to this year’s inev-
itable front-runner, Secretary
Clinton,” O’Malley said.
“It’s a very, very important
opportunity for me to not only
present my vision for where
the country should head, but
also 15 years of executive
experience, actually accom-
plishing the progressive things
some of the other candidates
can only talk about,” he said.
The former governor of
Maryland and mayor of Balti-
more got into the race at the
end of May, after telegraphing
for some time his plans to seek
the White House in 2016. The
entries of the two others who
will be onstage Tuesday night
in Las Vegas, former Virginia
Sen. Jim Webb and former
Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln
Chafee, were surprises to
most.
But all three have one thing
in common — an inability
so far to generate any of the
enthusiasm among voters
that has pushed Sanders into
and kept Clinton at the top of
the ¿eld. All three poll in low
single digits in early prefer-
ence surveys, well below even
Vice President Joe Biden, who
has yet to say if he’ll make a
late entry into the race.
O’Malley has been openly
critical of the Democratic
National Committee and the
decision to hold six primary
debates, with four scheduled
in early primary states before
the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1.
He has mounted a push for the
party to expand the number,
even encouraging protests
in front of Democratic Party
headquarters.
The party hasn’t budged,
but O’Malley is undaunted. He
has campaigned aggressively
in Iowa and New Hampshire,
far more than Webb or Chafee.
He is critical of Clinton for her
Page 7A
JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians carried out three
stabbings Monday in Jerusalem, leaving a teenage Israeli
boy in critical condition, and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu angrily accused the country’s Arab leaders of
helping incite weeks of violence. Two of the attackers,
both teenage boys, were killed.
In a ¿ery speech at parliament, Netanyahu accused Arab
parties of “undermining” the country. He called on Israel’s
Arab citizens to “kick out the extremists among you.”
Netanyahu spoke on another bloody day, the latest in a
monthlong wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
In a new setback for efforts to restore calm, the Quartet
of Mideast mediators — the U.S., the U.N., the European
Union and Russia — postponed a trip to the region. Edgar
Vasquez, a spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau
of Near East Affairs, said it was at the request of the
Israeli government due to the circumstances.
Israeli police reported three separate stabbings across
the city, including an assault by two attackers in the
east Jerusalem area of Pisgat Zeev. Police said the pair
seriously wounded a 20-year-old man before attacking a
teenage boy on a bicycle.
By BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES —
Evidence is mounting that
the El Nino ocean-warming
Shenomenon in the 3aci¿c
will spawn a rainy winter in
California, potentially easing
the state’s punishing drought
but also bringing the risk of
chaotic storms like those that
battered the region in the late
1990s.
In the clearest warning
yet that Southern California
could be due for a deluge,
meteorologists said in a
report last week that the
already strong El Nino has a
95 percent chance of lasting
through the winter before
weakening in the spring.
“This is as close as you’re
going to get to a sure thing,”
said Bill Patzert, a climatolo-
gist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, calling this El
Nino “too big to fail.”
“In the abstract,” he said,
“El Nino seems like our
savior.” But if Àoods and
mudslides develop, it’s “not
going to look like the great
wet hope charging across the
landscape on a white horse.”
A strong El Nino arrives
about once every 20
years. Ocean temperatures
show this one to be the
second-strongest
since
such record keeping began
in 1950, said Eric Boldt,
a meteorologist with the
National Weather Service.
That would make it weaker
than the El Nino of 1997-98
but stronger than the El Nino
of 1982-83.
Both of those winters
were known in California for
relentless rain, strong winds
and heavy snow. Waves
pounded the coast, mudslides
rolled down mountainsides
and Àoods swamped homes
and claimed lives.
Storms blamed on El
Nino in 1997-98 killed at
least 17 people, wiped out
strawberry and artichoke
East Oregonian
AP Photo/Jim Mone
In this photo taken Aug. 28, 2015, Democratic presiden-
tial candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley
speaks in Minneapolis.
recent shifts on policy issues,
among them her opposition to
the Trans-Paci¿c Partnership
trade deal, which he calls a
“reversal.”
O’Malley also touts his
executive experience in
dealing with issues such as
gun control, in which Sanders’
record matches more with his
largely rural home state than
his place in the race as a liberal
¿rebrand promising political
revolution.
“We have to draw
contrasts,” O’Malley said.
“I think we can do it in a
respectful way.”
Expect Chafee, the former
senator and governor from
Rhode Island, to go after
Clinton for her 2002 vote
to authorize the war in Iraq.
Chafee, at the time a Repub-
lican, opposed the invasion
and he’s said Clinton’s
support for the war, which
she has more recently called
a “mistake,” is at the center of
his decision to run.
Webb, a Vietnam veteran
and former Virginia senator,
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has deep experience on
military issues and foreign
policy and has been critical
of Clinton’s handling of the
conÀict in Libya. Last year
he said the Obama adminis-
tration’s unilateral decision
to use military force in Libya
was improper.
One unknown is whether
any of her challengers will
poke at Clinton for her use
of a private email account
and server while serving as
secretary of state. It’s been a
constant refrain from the GOP
candidates, and the Repub-
lican National Committee
released a new television
ad Monday that focuses on
Clinton saying she didn’t send
any classi¿ed information via
the server.
Neither Chafee nor Webb
has campaigned as much
as the others in the race, but
the highly rated Republican
debates have proven that a
good night can lift a candidate.
Carly Fiorina has emerged as
a contender in the GOP race
after two strong showings.
BEIRUT (AP) — Amid the ornate walls of Damascus’
famed Omayyad Mosque, preacher Maamoun Rahmeh
stood before worshippers last week, declaring Russian
President Vladimir Putin a “giant and beloved leader” who
has “destroyed the myth of the self-aggrandizing America.”
Posters of Putin are popping up on cars and billboards
elsewhere in parts of Syria and Iraq, praising the Russian
military intervention in Syria as one that will redress the
balance of power in the region.
The Russian leader is winning accolades from many
in Iraq and Syria, who see Russian airstrikes in Syria as a
turning point after more than a year of largely ineffectual
efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to dislodge the Islamic
State militants who have occupied signi¿cant parts of the
two countries.
The reactions underscore that while the West may
criticize Putin for supporting Syrian President Bashar
Assad, there is some relief in the region at the emergence
of a player with a coherent — if controversial — strategy.
“Putin does more than just speak,” said Sohban Elewi
of Damascus, summing up the views of Syrians on
opposing camps who regard U.S. policy in Syria and Iraq
as fumbled and confused.
Princeton economist wins Nobel for
work on consumption and poverty
Angus Deaton has dug into obscure data to explore a
range of problems: The scope of poverty in India. How
poor countries treat young girls. The link between income
inequality and economic growth.
The Princeton University economist’s research has
raised doubts about sweeping solutions to poverty and
about the effectiveness of aid programs. And on Monday,
it earned him the Nobel prize in economics.
For work that the award committee said has had
“immense importance for human welfare, not least in
poor countries,” Deaton, 69, will receive a prize of about
$975,000 from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Deaton’s research has “shown other researchers and
international organizations like the World Bank how to go
about understanding poverty at the very basic level,” said
Torsten Persson, secretary of the award committee.
U.S. dentist not wanted in Zimbabwe
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe is no longer
pressing for the extradition of James Walter Palmer, an
American dentist who killed a well-known lion called
Cecil, a Cabinet minister said Monday.
Palmer can now safely return to Zimbabwe as a “tourist”
because he had not broken the southern African country’s
hunting laws, Environment, Water and Climate Minister
Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri told reporters in Harare on
Monday. Zimbabwe’s police and the National Prosecuting
Authority had cleared Palmer of wrongdoing, she said.
Through an adviser, Palmer declined comment.
Palmer was identi¿ed as the man who killed Cecil in
a bow hunt. Cecil, a resident of Hwange National park
in western Zimbabwe, was well-known to tourists and
researchers for his distinctive black mane.
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Terence Olridge was
heading to his job as a police of¿cer when he and a
neighbor were involved in an argument that escalated into
a shootout in a normally quiet neighborhood in suburban
Memphis, authorities said.
Shot multiple times, Olridge tried to make it back to
his house to get help. He was later taken to a hospital,
where he died Sunday afternoon — becoming the second
Memphis police of¿cer to be killed in a shooting in less
than three months, police said.
Details about what caused the altercation between Olridge,
31, and Lorenzo Clark, 36, in the suburb of Cordova, on a
street lined with similar looking single family homes with
garage doors and trees in the front yard, are still not clear. At
least two garage doors have bullet holes in them now.