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On the Radar: L.A. gridlock, tropical weather, Burress to leave prison
Three stories you need to know today:
L.A. gridlock: The mayor of Los Angeles will hold a press conference on Monday to explain measures the city will take when the 405 Freeway, Southern California's busiest traffic artery, is closed for a weekend in July.
On the weekend of July 15-18, a 10-mile section of Interstate 405, also known as the San Diego Freeway, will be closed to take down the Mulholland Drive overpass in a plan to add a carpool lane and other improvements.
Transportation officials warn of multi-hour traffic delays in Los Angeles County and beyond during the weekend closure and warn residents to plan ahead.
Some just plan on hunkering down.
"We'll be landlocked and isolated. We're going to Ralph's early, stocking up and not leaving the house for two days," Gerald Silver of Encino told the Los Angeles Daily News.
Tropical weather: A large area of disturbed weather in the western Caribbean Sea stands a 40 percent chance of becoming the season's first tropical cyclone in the next two days, the National Hurricane Center reports.
An Air Force Reserve "hurricane hunter" aircraft will fly into the system Monday to take measurements, according to the NHC.
Forecasters warn that even if the system does not reach tropical cyclone status, it's still likely to bring drenching rains, flash flooding and mudslides to parts of Jamaica and Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced after the January 2010 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince.
The British Red Cross warned last week that the coming of the rainy and hurricane seasons to Haiti bring new fears of an increase in cholera. One treatment center reported a 50% increase in the past week.
Ex-Giant Burress to be released: Former NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress is expected to leave a New York prison Monday after serving 20 months on a weapons charge stemming from a shooting incident at a nightclub.
The former New York Giants player accidentally shot himself in the leg with a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol he was carrying in his waistband. The incident occurred in November 2008, in the VIP area of the Latin Quarter nightclub in Manhattan.
Burress was not licensed to carry a pistol in either New York or New Jersey, where he lived.
In August 2009, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted criminal possession of a weapon and agreed to serve two years under a plea agreement.
He spent the last 20 months at the Oneida Correctional Facility in Rome, New York.
Burress became a hero to New York Giants fans in the 2008 Super Bowl when he caught the game-winning touchdown pass from quarterback Eli Manning with 35 seconds remaining in the game.
On Twitter
What is wrong with me? Was enjoying Elis and Akmed when ACP started up again. I shoud get a busier job.
Geez, it is not the end of world. Stay home and enjoy your family, Get a map go a different way, pack your bags and leave the area for a few days. This is down right silly, I think you all need a life, not a highway.
The excuses
Testimony earlier in the trial in Orlando revealed that Anthony lied to her parents and avoided them for 31 days in the summer of 2008 while Caylee was supposedly missing.
During the second week of the trial, jurors learned more about what Anthony told her parents during that time and what she was actually doing.
From the witness stand Tuesday, Anthony's mother described heated confrontations with her daughter on July 15, 2008, after she learned Anthony had been lying about her whereabouts for a month.
The stories began with Anthony saying she was having a sleepover with a nanny named Zenaida "Zanny" Gonzalez. Then, Anthony said she was out of town on a work trip to Tampa, Florida.
By the fourth week, Anthony's story was that she was out of town visiting an old boyfriend named Jeffrey Michael Hopkins.
Too many excuses.
Not me folks , sounds like some one I know though
Cindy Anthony caught her daughter in her lies by discovering she was, in fact, in Orlando with a different boyfriend. By the time her mother called 911 to report Caylee missing, Anthony had a new story.
"I know who has her. She's been my nanny for about a year-and-a-half, almost two years," Anthony told the operator in the July 15, 2008, call, which jurors heard Tuesday.
When asked by the operator why she waited so long to report her daughter missing, Anthony replied, "I have been looking for her and have gone through other resources to try to find her, which was stupid."
The characters
In the following days, Gonzalez's alleged role would expand from an occasionally-mentioned nanny to a central character in Caylee's disappearance.
When initially questioned by Orange County Detective Yuri Melich on July 16, 2008, about Gonzalez, Anthony provided a description of her without hesitation. That interview was played Wednesday.
Anthony said she'd known Gonzalez for four years after they met working together at Universal Studios. She provided a physical description of Gonzalez, her address, even her mother's name.
Other characters were also fleshed out. Hopkins, a former Universal Studios co-worker, according to Anthony, lived in Jacksonville and had a son named Zachary who played with Caylee.
And then there was Juliette Lewis, another co-worker at Universal, who now lived in New York, Anthony said. She also had a daughter Caylee's age.
Anthony claimed she called Lewis and Hopkins when she realized Caylee was missing. But prosecutors claim Anthony was not looking for her daughter in the month she was missing.
20 months for shooting yourself in the leg ? Here in SC you get...a limp.
From the headline it sounds like releasing Burress from prison on a sunny creates traffic.
Born and raised in SoCal. I remember many summers working for my dad and brother and the 2+hour commute times along this very hwy. One reason, after entering the military and getting out, I vowed never to return to SoCal. With everyting else including the recent attack of the Giants fan (never in my day), I made the right choice.
I've lived in DC, but have driven through NYC and LA fairly recently. I know DC is rated as being worse in terms of traffic, but having been stuck in LA traffic for 2 hours going 20 minutes away (not rush hour, no accidents), I can tell you that DC does not even compare. My sympathies go out to LA, but it's also time to start thinking about light rail/underground systems like the rest of the country.
Anthony's frustration level with her parents, particularly her mother, was rising around the time Caylee disappeared, friend Amy Huizenga testified Tuesday.
"I remember she told me her mom had told her she was an unfit mother. She was extremely upset about that," Huizenga said.
But Anthony also was agitated at her mother because she had to cancel plans "fairly frequently" when no one was available to watch her daughter, Huizenga testified.
In late June, Huizenga said, Anthony told her that she was keeping Caylee away from her parents, as they were having marital problems and were considering divorce, and "she wanted to keep Caylee out of the drama."
'Fessing up
On Thursday, Melich described the day Anthony was finally forced to admit her lies, at least in part. On July 16, 2008, Melich worked with Universal Studios to scour the employee database.
Anthony was in the database, but she hadn't been affiliated with Universal for years. Melich also found no record of Gonzalez or Lewis.
A Jeffrey Hopkins was found, but never worked for the company at the same time as Anthony. Gonzalez's supposed apartment had also been found vacant.
Anthony voluntarily met Melich at Universal Studios to discuss the matter. Melich testified Thursday that he watched Anthony try to enter the park without a badge, then attempted to lead him to her office before being forced to admit she didn't have one.
CLOSE THE 405.....are they insane. LA is already horrible. to force all that traffic to the I5 is just nutz!
Atlanta gives LA a run for the money on crappy traffic. We have public transportation in Atlanta proper, just not in the suburbs. Atlanta metro is the size of the state of Delaware without trains or buses. Atl needs to take after NYC or Chicago. Maybe less people would drive if they had other options available. Yes, I know, the country is penniless. Wah Wah. And that's why we will continue to pay $4/gal for gas; we gotta pay our masters after all. We have had road closures for over a year due to construction and repaving. Do what Atlantans do. Just stay home for the weekend and wait for it to pass. It's just a weekend, LA will manage.
@CSinSC:
A limp? Lmao! That's excellent:
Ah, I do so love the witty reparté between Ahkmed and Cesar. And I love JIF continuing the saga....but aren't they in low-riding convertibles?
Thanks-a-mundo for the article post.Much thanks again. Really Cool.