Category Archives: Current Events

Will Maria Shriver’s marriage survive Arnold Schwarzenegger’s admission of infidelity? I hope so (Part 19)

Christina Schwarzenegger The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA.

Arnold Schwarzenegger & Family Out For A Walk In Santa Monica

The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA.

(// May 23, 2009- Photo by FlynetPictures.com)

Hot Topics-Arnold’s Love Child – The View

Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life?

Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments:

“Like a lot of you I’m in transition: people come up to me all the time, asking, what are you doing next?” she said, adding: “It’s so stressful to not know what you are doing next when people ask what you are doing and they can’t believe you don’t know what you are doing.”

“I’d like to hear from other people who are in transition,” she said. “How did you find your transition: Personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, financial? How did you get through it?”

Mrs. Shriver has asked for spiritual input and I personally think that unless she gets the spiritual help that she needs then she will end up in the divorce court. I am starting a series on how a marriage can survive an infidelity. My first suggestion would be to attend a “Weekend to Remember” put on by the organization “Family Life” out of Little Rock, Arkansas. I actually posted this as a response to Mrs. Shriver’s request on you tube.

I got a lot out of this article and I wanted to share it with you and here is the last portion below:

Her Husband Wouldn’t Speak to Her—for Three Years


“I can’t believe we’re having so much fun in our 60s”

The following years were sweet for the Sims. “We thoroughly enjoyed our time together,” June says. “We talked and talked.” They took rides together in a golf cart on their 160 acres and walked hand-in-hand through the woods. June describes Lamar as being more patient, more understanding, more affectionate—different in every way. At one point Lamar said, “I can’t believe we’re having so much fun in our 60s.”

In later years, the Sims...

In their later years, the Sims enjoyed riding their
golf cart around their 160 acres.

“He was always telling me, ‘I love you,’” June says, “and every night he’d go to bed and say, ‘I really appreciate all you do.’”

On June 21, 2004, Lamar and June repeated their marriage vows in a pastor’s home—just as they had done 41 years earlier. “I was about in tears,” June says, “and so was he because it was so precious that we were doing it again.” As Lamar and June drove back to their home from the pastor’s house, they talked about the good times in their marriage.

In July 2006 Lamar became short-winded when he walked from his parked truck into the house. With June’s prompting, he saw a doctor who sent him to an oncologist, who found cancer in the spleen.

“The doctor said his spleen had to go,” June says. “It was six times larger than it was supposed to be.” Lamar’s spleen was removed a few weeks later, but other complications set in and, as June says, “It was all downhill.”  Lamar died from pneumonia just five months after visiting the oncologist.

“I wondered why God gave you to me”

Realizing that time was short for Lamar, daughter Carol had a heart-to-heart conversation with him. “I know that you know that everybody is a sinner,” she said, “and we need Jesus and He’s the only way to heaven.” She asked Lamar to ask Jesus into his life if he had any doubts. Unable to speak, Lamar nodded.

Although not sure when Lamar actually accepted Christ, June has peace about his salvation. During the last year of his life he told June that he had been watching her sleep. “I wondered why God gave you to me,” he said. The next morning he repeated, “I just wonder why God gave you to me.”

“I’ve asked God that same question,” June says. “I think it was so he could get saved.”

During Lamar’s final hours, June and their four grown children sat with Lamar in the hospital and sang songs, beginning with “Amazing Grace” and continuing through every hymn they could recall from memory.   They read Scripture to him and reminisced over the good times they had enjoyed over the years.

June remembers leaning across Lamar and whispering into his ear that she loved him and appreciated all that he had done for her. He nodded.

Lamar took his last breath at 4:30 a.m. on Monday, January 22, 2007, just five months after he first visited the oncologist.

“We don’t want to miss out on what God has to teach us, even during the hard times”

June is grateful that she did not divorce Lamar … and so are her children and grandchildren.

The Sims set an example...

The Sims set an example of commitment and
faithfulness in marriage for their family.

At one time, daughter Wanda and her husband separated. “I wanted out,” Wanda says. Then she remembered how June would tell her to put her feelings aside and seek what God wanted her to do.

“Because my Mama could go through what she did with Daddy,” she says, “[I knew] the Lord would also give me the strength to be able to make it through with my husband.” Wanda has a strong marriage today and attributes that to her mother’s example.

June and Lamar’s youngest daughter, Shirley, says that her mother’s faithfulness also changed her life. “The Lord used it to bring me to a personal relationship with Him,” she says, “to start dealing with my anger and bitterness, to bond my husband and me together … and basically turn my life 180 degrees.” Shirley says her mom’s example has caused her to look at her own marriage as a life-long covenant.

June’s children have seen what God did in their parents’ lives and they are striving to be what God wants them to be. They’ve all said, “We don’t want to miss out on what God has to teach us, even during the hard times.”

Throughout the last seven years of Lamar and June’s marriage, their children expressed over and over how glad they were that their parents were still together. After Lamar died, they all sent June a note that said, “Thank you for hanging in there and showing what real love is.”

“He was the spice of my life”

Today June cherishes a letter that Lamar gave her shortly before he died. He wrote, “I would like to thank you for all the good and wonderful years. Words can’t tell you how I really feel.  Our love just grows and grows.”

In December 2007 June mailed a Christmas letter to her friends and family that expressed what God had done in her life and marriage. “Especially during those last seven years, Lamar and I shared such a deep, passionate love relationship,” she wrote. “He was my soul mate, my lover, my best friend. He was the spice of life. He kept me laughing.

“The days and months immediately following Lamar’s death were especially tough. The silence was deafening. I missed (and still do) hearing him say each morning, ‘I love you, Darling,’ or each night, ‘Thank you for all you do,’ or ‘The best thing I ever did was to marry you.’”

Chip Ingram – How to Break Through Conflict (pt 3)

It’s hard to keep your objectivity when you are hurt, wounded or tired. When we lose objectivity, there are several common responses to conflict that just don’t work and can even make things worse. Here are a few more conflict resolution tools from guest speaker Tim Lundy. Download the full message for free at the Venture Christian website: http://www.venturechristian.org/files/sermons2/t032011.mp3

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The clip above has some material that originally came from a video from Family Life. I have mentioned this organization several times in this post. Contacting “Family Life” (out of Little Rock, Arkansas) would be a great place for Arnold and Maria to begin their recovering. I am hoping that Maria realizes that this family is worth saving. It will take a lot of forgiveness and she will have to turn to Christ for his supernatural help to make it happen.

image
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver and family – “The Longest Yard” Los Angeles premiere, May 19, 2005

Benefits of Attending a Weekend to Remember

Kate Middleton and Prince William: Marriage made in Heaven? (Part 40)

[2011] The Royal Wedding – MARRIAGE part 1

The Archbishop: “I pronounce that they be man and wife together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” . They’re now man and wife.

[2011] The Royal Wedding – MARRIAGE part 2
photo

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I really do wish Kate and William success in their marriage. I hope they truly are committed to each other, and if they are then the result will be a marriage that lasts their whole lifetime. Nevertheless, I do not think it is best to live together before marriage like they did, and I writing this series to help couples see how best to prepare for marriage.

 Twice in the Song of Solomon, we are warned not to “Arouse or awaken love before its time.” Solomon does it right by waiting in order to give himself fully to his bride. My challenge to you is to avoid any contact that would arouse or lead to arousal before it’s time. I promise you, it will be worth the wait! (Dr Gary Smalley)

In some of the bad marriages that I have seen, I ask the question, “Did you fall into premarital sex?” Usually, the answer is yes, and I tell them, Your relationship probably wouldn’t have endured to the altar if you hadn’t had premarital sex. You just kept spraying lighter fluid on this thing.” But the real coals and embers weren’t there. (Pastor Tommy Nelson)

When we date seriously, or are engaged, we are trying to build a relationship suited to lifelong commitment to each other. We have to expend a great deal of effort learning to communicate deeply with each other, build healthy spiritual habits, and serve others as a team. Lack of sexual self-control will inhibit development in all of these areas. This is one of the worst consequences of immoral sex: At the very time we most need personal and spiritual development, our loss of self-control blocks our progress. (Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt, The Myth of Romance)

Chip Ingram – Two Biblical Requirements to Resolve Conflict (pt 4)

To resolve conflict effectively and Biblically there are two absolutes that both parties must agree on – do you know what they are? Without this framework, you can try all kinds of things to avoid or resolve conflict in your marriage and relationships, but you probably won’t be successful. Listen and discover the common ground that can literally transform even the most challenging points of conflict. Want to learn more? Download the full message from guest speaker Tim Lundy for free at: http://www.venturechristian.org/files/sermons2/t032011.mp3

Weekend to Remember Story – Dennis Rainey

Kate Middleton and Prince William: Marriage made in Heaven? (Part 39)

Waity Katie May Become Queen

photo

Viewing the flypast

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, flanked by bridesmaids and a page boy, watch the Royal Air Force flypast over Buckingham Palace, following their marriage at Westminster Abbey, 29 April 2011.

Prince William and Kate moved in together about a year ago. In this clip above the commentator suggested that maybe Prince Charles and Princess Diana would not have divorced if they had lived together before marriage. Actually Diana was a virgin, and it was Charles’ uncle (Louis Mountbatten) that gave him the advice that he should seek to marry a virgin.

I really do wish Kate and William success in their marriage. I hope they truly are committed to each other, and if they are then the result will be a marriage that lasts their whole lifetime. Nevertheless, I do not think it is best to live together before marriage like they did, and I writing this series to help couples see how best to prepare for marriage.

 The Houston Chronicle reported that couples who live together before marriage have an 80 percent greater chance of divorce after they are married than those who don’t cohabit first. A Washington State researcher discovered that women who cohabit with a man are twice as likely to experience domestic violence as are married women. The National Center for Mental Health revealed that the incidence of depression among cohabiting women is four times greater than that among married women, and two times greater than depression among unmarried women.

In a survey of more than 100 couples who lived together, 71 percent of the women said they would not live-in again. In practice, cohabiting couples who marry —many of whom already have children —are about 33 percent more likely to divorce than are couples who don’t live together before their nuptials Virgin brides, on the other hand, are less likely to divorce than are sexually experienced women who entered marriage. Evidence strongly suggests that, while test driving a car might be a good idea, “trying out” one’s future partner is not. (From the book “Sexual Intimacy in Marriage” by William Cutrer, MD and Sandra Glahn)

Chip Ingram – How to Break Through Conflict (pt 3)

It’s hard to keep your objectivity when you are hurt, wounded or tired. When we lose objectivity, there are several common responses to conflict that just don’t work and can even make things worse. Here are a few more conflict resolution tools from guest speaker Tim Lundy. Download the full message for free at the Venture Christian website: http://www.venturechristian.org/files/sermons2/t032011.mp3

Weekend To Remember Conference Testimony

Here’s a couple who went to a FamilyLife Conference and how it made a difference in their marriage.

Will Maria Shriver’s marriage survive Arnold Schwarzenegger’s admission of infidelity? I hope so (Part 18)

Christina Schwarzenegger The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA.

Arnold Schwarzenegger & Family Out For A Walk In Santa Monica

The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA.

(May 23, 2009- Photo by FlynetPictures.com)

Schwarzenegger’s Love Child Bombshell

Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life?

Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments:

“Like a lot of you I’m in transition: people come up to me all the time, asking, what are you doing next?” she said, adding: “It’s so stressful to not know what you are doing next when people ask what you are doing and they can’t believe you don’t know what you are doing.”

“I’d like to hear from other people who are in transition,” she said. “How did you find your transition: Personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, financial? How did you get through it?”

Mrs. Shriver has asked for spiritual input and I personally think that unless she gets the spiritual help that she needs then she will end up in the divorce court. I am starting a series on how a marriage can survive an infidelity. My first suggestion would be to attend a “Weekend to Remember” put on by the organization “Family Life” out of Little Rock, Arkansas. I actually posted this as a response to Mrs. Shriver’s request on you tube.

I got a lot out of this article and I wanted to share it with you and here is the first portion below:

Her Husband Wouldn’t Speak to Her—for Three Years

Even in the silence, June Sims continued serving her husband as she waited for God to answer her prayers.Mary May Larmoyeux.

For 20 years, their marriage and family seemed solid. June and Lamar Sims raised their children in church and attended a parenting seminar. But the good life began to change when their engaged daughter revealed she was expecting a child.

“That really threw Lamar for a loop,” June recalls. “He thought none of that would happen with our kids.”

June and Lamar Sims

June and Lamar Sims,
shortly after June’s
graduation from high
school in 1963.

Lamar became angry at God. He stopped going to church, didn’t want blessings at meals, and removed pictures of missionaries from the family refrigerator.

The unexpected pregnancy began a series of crises in Lamar’s life. Over the next several years, he had back surgery, two hip replacements, lost his job, and was forced to go on disability. In addition, a child ran away from home, and another daughter went through several years of rebellion. 

Lamar’s anger and bitterness increased, and it became more and more difficult for June to be around her husband. Nothing she said or did would please him.

After 34 years of marriage, Lamar said he wanted a divorce. “I don’t love you. I don’t need you. I don’t want you,” he told his wife.

But June still loved Lamar, and she didn’t want to end their marriage. When she refused to divorce Lamar he said, “Well, just leave me alone.”

And so Lamar and June continued living in the same house, but they didn’t speak.

For three years.

“June, why are you doing this?”

During these years of silence, Lamar and June communicated by writing notes to one another and leaving them on the refrigerator door. Even though Lamar did not want a relationship with his wife, he asked her to continue cooking for him. So, after coming home from work, June prepared dinner for him and then ate her meal in her bedroom. This arrangement went on for about two years when Lamar said that he didn’t want June cooking for him anymore.

June continued to wash Lamar’s clothes, cut the yard, and serve him in other ways to prevent herself from becoming bitter. “My poor daddy would come out and he’d just cry, ‘June, why are you doing this?’” Her parents and children (who were now adults) begged her to divorce Lamar. They feared she was in danger and envisioned her living in misery. 

“They thought I was just being foolish.” June says. “They’d say things like, ‘God doesn’t want you to suffer like this,’ or ‘God doesn’t work that way,’ or ‘God gives you common sense.’” Although June realized her loved ones meant well, their comments put a lot of pressure on her. She knew she had to please God and believed He wanted her to remain in the marriage.

As June confined herself to her bedroom, she was alone with God and the Word. “I was in His classroom,” she says, “and I had ears to hear. God was in the pruning process in my life.”

In the beginning she thought that her marriage problems were all Lamar’s fault, but as she turned to God she saw ways that she had failed her husband. “I had not put him first,” June says. “I put the kids before him … and church, too.” She also says she didn’t show him proper respect. June realized that she had looked to Lamar to make her happy when true happiness comes from God.  

“Keep me in the fire … ”

As weeks turned into months, June focused less on earning Lamar’s love and respect and more on allowing the Lord to shape her into His image. She kept a journal, and one of her entries read:

I’m not going to ask You to shorten the days of my adversity if these days mean knowing You better. If these days mean You’re changing me, keep me in the fire until Your work in me is complete … Just give me the grace and the strength to remain faithful and true in You to glorify You. I want to learn all You want me to learn. I don’t want this to be wasted time.

On another day she wrote: Lord, I cannot change this man but You can change me.

When June found herself dwelling on the things that Lamar had done that upset her she would immediately start praising the Lord out loud. She eventually accepted the fact that Lamar might never be a part of her life and was satisfied with just the Lord.

After three years, God had a final lesson for June: dealing with unforgiveness.  In her mind she imagined telling Lamar how he had hurt her. “I forgave him,” she says, “and released him from it.”

Shortly after that, she actually spoke to Lamar and asked him if they could get some emergency lights that burned on gas. He simply answered, “No.”  But since they were talking, she told Lamar that she still loved him and had not meant things that she had said in anger.

Lamar sternly replied, “June, you think things are going to get better, but they are not.”

But June also recalls that there was something different after this short conversation. She sensed a softness in her husband.

“June, if you’ve got time, come here a minute”

A few days after their brief conversation, Lamar spoke again to June. In a soft voice he asked if she and her father would clear off a hillside on their property where he wanted to plant grass for the deer. “I knew he wasn’t going to thank me,” she says, “but I did it as unto the Lord.”  Sure enough, after June and her father cleared the hillside, Lamar showed no appreciation.

About six weeks later, she was stunned to hear Lamar say, “June, if you’ve got time come here a minute.”

He continued, “I’ve been thinking. I know that I said things to hurt you and you said things to hurt me but if you want to we’ll try to make a go of it.” June said she wanted to try to make the marriage work, even though Lamar said he didn’t know if he would ever love her again.   “And it wasn’t two weeks before he was calling me darling and telling me he loved me,” she says.

June purposefully focused on his good qualities and says doing this revolutionized their marriage. “It was almost like we were in a contest,” she says, “to see who was going to outdo the other.” The more she showed respect to Lamar, the more he wanted to show his love to her. She also made sure Lamar knew how much she appreciated him.


Weekend To Remember Conference Testimony

Here’s a couple who went to a FamilyLife Conference and how it made a difference in their marriage.

Chip Ingram – Three Ways to Improve your Conflict Resolution Skills (pt 2)

Why is conflict so hard to resolve? Whether in your marriage or other relationships – conflict can be a huge barrier that most of us would rather avoid. I want to share with you some common mistakes in conflict resolution and three important realizations that will bring fresh perspective to even the most difficult conversations. If you want to learn more, you can listen to the full message on conflict resolution from our guest speaker Tim Lundy here: http://www.venturechristian.org/files/sermons2/t032011.mp3

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The clip above has some material that originally came from a video from Family Life. I have mentioned this organization several times in this post. Contacting them would be a great place for Arnold and Maria to begin their recovering. I am hoping that Maria realizes that this family is worth saving. It will take a lot of forgiveness and she will have to turn to Christ for his supernatural help to make it happen

For small group of CIA veterans, the death of Osama bin Laden was revenge for two CIA deaths

1998 Embassy Bomber Killed By U.S. Airstrike in Somalia Jan 10, 2007

CBS News Investigative Reporter Phil Hirschkorn reports Mohammed, known as Haroun Fazil to his fellow terrorists, had a key role in the twin truck bombings of two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998, which killed 224 people and injured thousands. He’s also trained Islamic militants in Somalia and allegedly organized more recent attacks on Israelis tourists in Kenya. Read Hirschkorn’s report.

The Associated Press reported tonight:

– For a small cadre of CIA veterans, the death of Osama bin Laden was more than just a national moment of relief and closure. It was also a measure of payback, a settling of a score for a pair of deaths, the details of which have remained a secret for 13 years.

Tom Shah and Molly Huckaby Hardy were among the 44 U.S. Embassy employees killed when a truck bomb exploded outside the embassy compound in Kenya in 1998.

Though it has never been publicly acknowledged, the two were working undercover for the CIA. In al-Qaida’s war on the United States, they are believed to be the first CIA casualties.

Their names probably will not be among those read at Memorial Day celebrations around the country this weekend. Like many CIA officers, their service remained a secret in both life and death, marked only by anonymous stars on the wall at CIA headquarters and blank entries in its book of honor.

Their CIA ties were described to The Associated Press by a half-dozen current and former U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because Shaw’s and Hardy’s jobs are still secret, even now.

The deaths weighed heavily on many at the CIA, particularly the two senior officers who were running operations in Africa during the attack. Over the past decade, as the CIA waged war against al-Qaida, those officers have taken on central roles in counterterrorism. Both were deeply involved in hunting down bin Laden and planning the raid on the terrorist who killed their colleagues.

“History has shown that tyrants who threaten global peace and freedom must eventually face their natural enemies: America’s war fighters, and the silent warriors of our Intelligence Community,” CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a Memorial Day message to agency employees.

These silent warriors took very different paths to Nairobi.

Hardy was a divorced mom from Valdosta, Ga., who raised a daughter as she travelled to Asia, South America and Africa over a lengthy career. At the CIA station in Kenya, she handled the office finances, including the CIA’s stash of money used to pay sources and carry out spying operations. She was a new grandmother and was eager to get back home when al-Qaida struck.

Shah took an unpredictable route to the nation’s clandestine service. He was not a solider or a Marine, a linguist or an Ivy Leaguer. He was a musician from the Midwest. But his story, and the secret mission that brought him to Africa, was straight out of a Hollywood spy movie.

“He was a vivacious, upbeat guy who had a very poignant, self-deprecating sense of humor,” said Dan McDevitt, a classmate and close friend from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, where Shah was a standout trumpet player.

Shah — his given name was Uttamlal — was the only child of an Indian immigrant father and an American mother, McDevitt said. He had a fascination with international affairs. He participated in the school’s model United Nations and, in the midst of the Cold War, was one of the school’s first students to learn Russian. From time to time, he went to India with his father, giving him a rare world perspective.

“At the time, that was unheard of. You might as well have gone to Mars,” said McDevitt, who lost touch with his high school friend long before he joined the agency.

Shah graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston and Ball State University’s music school. He taught music classes and occasionally played in backup bands for entertainers Red Skelton, Perry Como and Jim Nabors. His doctoral thesis at Indiana’s Ball State offered no hints about the career he would pursue: “The Solo Songs of Edward MacDowell: An Examination of Style and Literary Influence.”

“He was one of our outstanding people,” said Kirby Koriath, the graduate student adviser at Ball State.

Shah and his wife, Linda, were married in 1983, the year he received his master’s degree. In 1987, after earning his doctorate, Shah joined the U.S. government. On paper, he had become a diplomat. In reality, he was shipped to the Farm, the CIA’s spy school in Virginia.

He received the usual battery of training in surveillance, counterespionage and the art of building sources. The latter is particularly hard to teach, but it came naturally to Shah, former officials said. Shah was regarded as one of the top members of his class and was assigned to the Near East Division, which covers the Middle East.

He spoke fluent Hindi and decent Russian when he arrived and quickly showed a knack for languages by learning Arabic. He worked in Cairo and Damascus and, though he was young, former colleagues said he was quickly proving himself one of the agency’s most promising stars.

In 1997, he was dispatched to headquarters as part of the Iraq Operations Group, the CIA team that ran spying campaigns against Saddam Hussein’s regime. Around that time, the CIA became convinced that a senior Iraqi official was willing to provide intelligence in exchange for a new life in America. Before the U.S. could make that deal, it had to be sure the information was credible and the would-be defector wasn’t really a double agent. But even talking to him was a risky move. If a meeting with the CIA was discovered, the Iraqi would be killed for sure.

Somebody had to meet with the informant, somebody who knew the Middle East and could be trusted with such a sensitive mission. A senior officer recommended Shah.

The meetings were set up in Kenya, former officials said, because it was considered relatively safe from Middle East intelligence services. It was perhaps the most important operation being run under the Africa Division at the time, current and former officials said. Among the agency managers overseeing it was John Bennett, the deputy chief of the division. He and his operations chief, who remains undercover, were seasoned Africa hands and veterans of countless spying operations.

Because of the mission’s sensitivity, Shah bottled up his normally outgoing and friendly personality while at the embassy.

“This is the glory and the tragedy of discreet work,” said Prudence Bushnell, the former ambassador to Kenya. “You keep a very low profile and you don’t do things that make you memorable.”

Officials say Shah was among those who went to the window when shooting began outside the embassy gates. Most who did were killed when the massive bomb exploded. He was 38. Hardy was also killed in the blast. She was 51.

The U.S. government said both victims were State Department employees. But like all fallen officers, they received private memorial services at CIA headquarters. Every year, their names are among those read at a ceremony for family members and colleagues.

Hardy’s daughter, Brandi Plants, said she did not want to discuss her mother’s employment. Shah’s widow, Linda, sent word through a neighbor that the topic was still too painful to discuss.

Shah’s death did not stall his mission. The Africa Division pressed on and confirmed that the Iraqi source was legitimate, his information extremely valuable. He defected and was re-located to the United States with a new identity.

Bennett later went on to be the station chief in Islamabad, where he ran the agency’s effort to kill al-Qaida members by using unmanned aircraft. He now sits in one of the most important seats in the agency, overseeing clandestine operations worldwide. His former Africa operations chief now runs the agency’s counterterrorism center. Both have been hunting for bin Laden for years. Both were directly involved in the raid.

Shah and Hardy are among the names etched into stone at a memorial at the embassy in Nairobi, with no mention of their CIA service. Shah is also commemorated with a plaque in a CIA conference room at its headquarters. Both were among those whose names Panetta read last week at the annual ceremony for fallen officers.

“Throughout the effort to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida, our fallen colleagues have been with us in memory and in spirit,” Panetta said. “With their strength and determination as our guide, we achieved a great victory three weeks ago.”

Bin Laden said the embassy in Nairobi was targeted because it was a major CIA station. He died never knowing that he had killed two CIA officers there.

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Death Toll from Joplin Tornado revised from 142 to 139 with only 100 missing

Clothes hang on a makeshift rack outside a destroyed ...Clothes hang on makeshift rack

Clothes hang on a makeshift rack outside a destroyed home in Joplin, Missouri May 28, 2011. Seven more people were confirmed dead over the last 24 hours, bringing the number of fatalities from the powerful Joplin tornado to 139, the city said on Saturday.

The Associated Press reported tonight:

JOPLIN, Mo. – The numbers look increasingly bleak for families hoping for the best after a monster tornado that devastated the town of Joplin, as the city has raised the death toll to at least 139 and state officials say 100 people are still missing.

Thousands more people far beyond Joplin had been waiting for good news about a teen believed to have been ejected or sucked from his vehicle on the way home from graduation. Several social-networking efforts specifically focused on finding information about Will Norton.

But his family says he, too, is among the dead — found in a pond near where his truck was located.

“At least we know that he wasn’t out there suffering,” his aunt Tracey Presslor said, holding a framed portrait of her 18-year-old nephew at a news conference. “Knowing that he was gone right away was really a blessing for us.”

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr said Saturday during a news conference that the death toll rose by three to at least 142, but later revised that figure down to 139 without elaboration.

Mike O’Connell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, told The Associated Press on Saturday that he could not confirm the city’s updated death toll number. He said the state of Missouri currently places the death toll at 126, saying they have no reason to raise that number.

State officials say there are 142 sets of human remains at the morgue handling those killed by the storm and some could be from the same victim.

If the death toll does stand at 139, it would place this year’s tornado death toll at 520 and make 2011 the deadliest year for tornadoes since 1950. Until now, the highest recorded death toll by the National Weather Service in a single year was 519 in 1953. There were deadlier storms before 1950, but those counts were based on estimates and not on precise figures.

On Saturday night, the Department of Public Safety made public a list of 73 people who had been confirmed dead and whose next of kin had been notified.

The tornado — an EF-5 packing 200 mph winds _also injured more than 900 people. Tallying and identifying the dead and the missing has proven a complex, delicate and sometimes confusing exercise for both authorities and loved ones.

Missouri officials said Saturday that the number of people unaccounted for stands at 100. The Missouri Department of Public Safety said that within that number, nine people have been reported dead by their families, but state officials are working to confirm those.

Newton County coroner Mark Bridges said most, if not all, of the people brought to the temporary morgue could be identified this weekend. He described officials there as “making real good progress.”

After a mistake immediately after the storm — four people thought they had identified one person’s body, only to be wrong — authorities are relying instead on dental records, photos and unique tattoos or piercings, Bridges said. They’ve also used DNA tests in a handful of cases, he said.

“We learned the hard way at the start,” he said. “It’s bad for the families.”

Asked about calls to open the morgue to all families of the missing, Bridges said doing so would be impractical. He described the site as a number of dark, refrigerated trailers holding body bags.

“There’s no place to let them into,” he said.

There have been 1,333 preliminary tornado reports in the U.S. through May 27, officials said, while the average number of confirmed tornadoes in a single year during the past decade has been 1,274.

Presslor said Saturday that the family received confirmation of his death late Friday night. She said her nephew’s body was not found sooner because there was so much debris in the pond.

Family members had previously told The Associated Press that Norton and his father were still on the road when the storm hit. Mark Norton urged his son to pull over, but the teen’s Hummer H3 flipped several times, throwing the young man from the vehicle, likely through the sunroof.

Mark Norton remains in the hospital and is “having a really tough time” after being told his son’s body was found, Presslor said.

About a dozen of Norton’s classmates stood in the back of the room as she spoke. His funeral arrangements are pending.

Presslor thanked the thousands of people who posted good wishes for Norton on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, and thanked all those who helped look for him. She urged those volunteers to keep looking for other people still missing.

“Please don’t give up,” she said.

A member of emergency personnel leads a rescue ...

Member of emergency personnel

A member of emergency personnel leads a rescue dog through a destroyed home in Joplin, Missouri May 28, 2011. Seven more people were confirmed dead over the last 24 hours, bringing the number of fatalities from the powerful Joplin tornado to 139, the city said on Saturday

 

 

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Oklahoma Tornado 5-24-2011 – Devastating AERIEL Damage View A half a mile wide went through a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on May 24th 2011. Truck marked, lies on its side A truck marked with an ‘x’, lies on its side in a field following a tornado in Piedmont, Okla., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. The […]

 

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First Person video of Joplin MO tornado 5/22/11 The video i took while at Fastrip on east 20th street. We huddled in the back of the store until the glass got sucked out , then ran into the walk in storage fridge. Sorry for the lack of visuals but the audio is pretty telling of […]

 

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Destructive Joplin Missouri Torando On May 22, 2011 a destructive and sadly a deadly tornado tore through the town of Joplin, MO. Here is video of the tornado entering the southwest side of town. Filmed by TornadoVideos.net Basehunters Colt Forney, Isaac Pato, Kevin Rolfs, and Scott Peake. Missouri tornado filmed by storm chasers At least […]

 

Pictures of Tornado damage in Joplin, MO May 22, 2011

  Destroyed helicopter lies on its side A destroyed helicopter lies on its side in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornadomoved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses Emergency personnel walk Emergency personnel walk through […]

 

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 The last video listed does not have very good pictures but you hear when the tornado hits a building where people inside are filming. The sounds are just horrible and a cold feeling went through my body just listening to it. Joplin, Missouri tornado damage from the air Tornado damage of Joplin, Missouri. Aerial coverage […]

 

At least 89 dead, but still counting in Joplin, MO

USC Football and Lane Kiffin Slammed by NCAA as appeal is shot down

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104091164_crop_340x234Stephen Dunn/Getty ImagesLane Kiffin Gets What He Deserves As NCAA Rejects USC Football AppealTennessee Volunteer fans all over the nation are smiling.  It could be a “I love life” smile or a “I’m having such a great day” smile, but it’s most likely an “evil” smile.  Congrats though, after being stabbed in the back, it’s nice to see the back-stabber fall flat on his face.

The NCAA rejected an appeal by USC to lessen its punishment for improper recruiting.

USC will not be able to participate in any post-season games for the second straight season.  They will also lose 30 scholarships for the next three years.

Just smile with the Vol fans.  USC head coach Lane Kiffin is getting what he had coming to him.

READ MORE: 10 Mistakes USC Can’t Make Again

Kiffin fooled America in his departure from the Oakland Raiders.  He put on some sad puppy dog eyes, brought his wife on live television, and told the world that he wasn’t treated fairly by Al Davis.  Davis repeatedly exclaimed Kiffin was a liar, but it’s Al Davis so most people sided with Kiffin.

During his days in Tennessee the truth came out about Kiffin being a scumbag.  As soon as he put on orange for the first time he started preaching how Alabama was going down and he openly accused other schools including Florida and Urban Meyer of recruiting violations (how ironic).

After winning over recruit after recruit selling Tennessee dominance over the next decade, he split for USC after just one year.

Just to add more to Kiffin’s dirty resume, according to ESPN’s Chris Low, “Kiffin told recruit Alshon Jeffrey that if he chose the Gamecocks, he would end up pumping gas for the rest of his life like all the other players from that state who had gone to South Carolina.”

Poor Monte, he builds up such a good name for the Kiffin’s and Lane just blows it up.

Joplin tornado death toll 139

Hospital workers walk away from the Joplin Regional ...

Hospital workers walk away in Joplin, Mo

Hospital workers walk away from the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through much of the city,damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses

The Associated Press reported today that death toll from Joplin, Mo., tornado climbs to 139

The death toll from the monster tornado last week in Missouri has risen by seven to at least 139, city spokeswoman Lynn Onstot said Saturday.

The state has been working to pare down the list of people missing and unaccounted for in the wake of the deadliest single U.S. twister in more than six decades. It said Friday that the original list of 232 missing or unaccounted for residents had dropped to 156 by Friday, and planned to give an updated total later in the day.

Missouri Department of Public Safety deputy director Andrea Spillars said Friday that at least 90 people on the initial list had been located alive. But at least six others were identified as among the dead, and some new names had been added to the scroll of the missing. Authorities had cautioned for days that while they believed many on the list were alive and safe, others likely had been killed.

City manager Mark Rohr acknowledged Friday afternoon that there may be “significant overlap” between the confirmed dead and the remainder of the missing list. Still, search and rescue crews were undeterred, with 600 volunteers and 50 dog teams out again across the city.

“We’re going to be in a search and rescue mode until we remove the last piece of debris,” Rohr said.

The tornado — an EF5 packing 200 mph winds — was the deadliest since 1950 and more than 900 people were injured. Tallying and identifying the dead and the missing has proven a complex, delicate and sometimes confusing exercise for both authorities and loved ones.

Earlier Saturday, a family member said that a teenager believed to be ejected or sucked from his father’s car on the way home from graduation in the massive tornado has been confirmed dead. Will Norton’s aunt, Tracey Presslor, said Saturday that the family received confirmation of his death late Friday night.

Family members had previously told The Associated Press that Norton and his father were still on the road when the storm hit. Mark Norton urged his son to pull over, but the teen’s Hummer H3 flipped several times, throwing the young man from the vehicle, likely through the sunroof.

Several social-networking efforts specifically focused on finding information about Norton

 

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  Destroyed helicopter lies on its side A destroyed helicopter lies on its side in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornadomoved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses Emergency personnel walk Emergency personnel walk through […]

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At least 89 dead, but still counting in Joplin, MO

    Volunteer firefighters William Jackson Volunteer firefighters William Jackson, left, and Ashley Martin, center, from Oklahoma, and Johnny Ward of Joplin look through the wreckage of a home whereit was feared a pregnant woman as feared to be trapped following a tornado in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through […]

A man walks past destroyed vehicles in the parking ...

Man walks past destroyed vehicles

A man walks past destroyed vehicles in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado movedthrough much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses.«

65 tornadoes in Arkansas this year, past average was 26

 

 

Destroyed vehicles are piled on top of one another in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses.

 

Destroyed vehicles are piled on top of one another in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses. Photo by The Associated Press.

ArkansasKTHV Channel 11 in Little Rock reported:

 This quieter weather is welcome after the severe weather season the state has seen.

According to the National Weather Service the first tornado this weather season hit on February 24th, just southwest of Wye and since then the state has seen much more.

“We’re almost at 65 and we’re not even half way done with the average by the way is 26,” Chief Meteorologist Ed Buckner says. 
According to NOAA there has been 11-EF-0’s, 46-EF 1’s, 7-EF 2’s and just southeast of Reform Arkansas an EF 3. That was all before the latest rounds of storms this week.

“It’s normal to see some severe weather in the springtime, but the extent of severe weather is obviously far from normal,” Buckner says.These tornadoes have caused large amounts of damage and before this week’s storms, tornadoes alone took 7 lives and caused more than 26 injuries.

There hasn’t been much of the state that hasn’t seen some kind of damage from either tornadoes or straight line winds. From 113 miles per hour winds measured in Craighead County to 100 mile per hour in Ashdown and Hope.

One thing is for certain you cant predict exactly what mother nature has in store for us next.

Buckner adds,”Iur weather season is March, April and May with a secondary severe weather season in the fall so we’re not done for the year once May ends.”

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  Destroyed helicopter lies on its side A destroyed helicopter lies on its side in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornadomoved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses Emergency personnel walk Emergency personnel walk through […]

 

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May 23, 2011 – 6:50 am

Emergency personnel walk through a neighborhood ...

Emergency personnel walk

Emergency personnel walk through a neighborhood severely damaged by a tornado near the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011.A large tornado moved through much of the city, damaging a hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses

Scottie Pippen’s story

“I’m just proud I had the opportunity to coach him,” said Scottie Pippen’s high school coach, Donald Wayne. “Hopefully other kids who come through Hamburg can see through Scottie that if you work hard and follow your dreams, anything can happen.”

Scottie Pippen“I hope I had a little bit of an impact on him, but I don’t know,” said Wayne of Pippen. “He and I talked about the other day; he’s just a blessed person. He put in the time and worked hard to get where he’s at right now.”
(Andy Hayt/NBAE/Getty Images)

Scottie Pippen | Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame | Class of 2010

By Adam Fluck | 08.10.10

Hamburg High School basketball coach Donald Wayne didn’t know it at that time, but a senior point guard of his in 1983 was about to change the way he thought about coaching.

The player’s name was Scottie Pippen and he was in his third season of playing for Wayne. Pippen had improved significantly since first taking the floor under Wayne’s direction as a sophomore. As a senior, he made the all-district team and led his team to the state tournament. But he didn’t seem to have what it took to play at the next level, or at least that was how most local colleges felt.

At some point that season, the two had a player-coach conversation that Wayne recalled this week. He describes it as a moment he will never forget from his nearly 30 years of coaching.

“If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that when a kid tells you he wants to play in the NBA, you don’t laugh at him,” said Wayne. “That’s something Scottie told me when he was in high school. That helped me understand it’s good for these kids to dream and believe. Anything can happen when you put your work in and do what you’re supposed to do—it’s just a matter of who you are, where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.”

Scottie PippenPippen grew a remarkable six inches from his freshman to sophomore year UCA and quickly began to develop as a player. He also added some much needed bulk, just as Wayne had recommended.
(UCA Sports Information )

The youngest of 12 children, Pippen came to Wayne as a very undersized player. But, given he was only 15 years or so of age at the time, there was ample opportunity to address that.

“He was barely 6-2 and if his socks were wet, he might have weighed 140 pounds,” said Wayne of meeting him as a 10th grader.

While Wayne couldn’t control Pippen’s height, he did see an opportunity to add some muscle to his lanky frame.

“The weakest part of his game was his strength,” said Wayne, who also coached a few of Pippen’s older brothers. “If you played for me, you had to work with the weights. He didn’t like it at first, but not too many kids did at that time. If the kids wanted to get on the floor, they had to lift weights. Scottie did and got stronger. Eventually, he turned out to be a pretty good point guard.”

Wayne liked what he saw in Pippen and decided to try and help him play at the collegiate level. Having played himself at Henderson State, located just over an hour to the southwest of Little Rock, he put a call into his college coach, Don Dyer, who by then had moved on to coach at Central Arkansas.

“He had seen some of our teams from Hamburg play before, so he knew I wouldn’t call him up just for the sake of trying to help a kid play,” Wayne said of reaching out to Dyer. “Scottie got to a point in high school where he was very determined to play college ball. But he wasn’t very flashy at that time and the other nearby colleges weren’t interested in him.”

After meeting with Pippen and his older brother, Billy, one afternoon in the spring of 1983, Dyer decided to allow Pippen to walk on that fall and serve as the team manager with an opportunity to earn playing time, and possibly, an eventual scholarship.

“Having played point guard myself in college, I saw some traits in him that made me believe he could play at that level,” said Wayne. “Scottie could handle the ball and shoot it as well. He ran our offense very well and didn’t take bad shots. He was a pretty decent sized guard for back then in high school, but had he grown earlier, I think he may have gotten some more attention.”

As Wayne alluded, Pippen grew a remarkable six inches from his freshman to sophomore year in Conway and quickly began to develop as a player. He also added some much needed bulk, just as Wayne had recommended.

“I hope I had a little bit of an impact on him, but I don’t know,” said Wayne. “He and I talked about the other day; he’s just a blessed person. He put in the time and worked hard to get where he’s at right now.”

Wayne and Pippen have stayed in contact over the years, with Wayne among Pippen’s distinguished guests at the United Center when the Bulls retired Pippen’s No. 33 in December 2005. He was also on the Central Arkansas campus in January of this year when his collegiate jersey was sent to the rafters.

On Friday, when Pippen and the Class of 2010 are enshrined into basketball’s Hall of Fame, he’ll be there as well.

“I’m just proud I had the opportunity to coach him,” said Wayne. “Hopefully other kids who come through Hamburg can see through Scottie that if you work hard and follow your dreams, anything can happen. It’s going to feel good to see him go into the Hall of Fame because it’s such a big honor. I know how much Hamburg is proud of him. Everyone that knows him and is around him should be. It’s hard to imagine him having a better career.”