Adeltrud Laught blog

Safety questions surround fatal San Diego voyage

The safety practices of a foundation that pairs volunteer boat captains with special-needs people who want to learn how to sail are under scrutiny after a sailboat on a sponsored trip capsized, killing a man and his son.

The 26-foot MacGregor boat overturned Sunday in San Diego Bay, killing the two men and sending eight others into the cold water. Some of the 10 people aboard were not wearing life jackets, said San Diego Harbor Police Chief John Bolduc, whose agency is leading the investigation.

Investigators were trying to determine the position of a retractable keel and whether passengers exceeded the boat's weight limit. The boat went down in calm seas near a buoy marking the way from a protected inlet to the channel of the bay.

Bolduc said the trip was sponsored by an Indiana-based nonprofit group that provides sailing trips to people with disabilities, but declined to name it.

Two government officials familiar with the investigation said it was the Heart of Sailing of Bloomington, which serves children and adults with developmental disorders like autism and Down syndrome. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The voicemail box was full at the charity's headquarters Monday night. An email sent after-hours was not immediately returned.

The group's website says Heart of Sailing was founded in 2004 by George Saidah, a software entrepreneur and sailor who was motivated by his experience with a loved one with a cognitive disorder. The website boasts "a 100 percent satisfaction and safety record."

Its San Diego schedule called for seven voyages Sunday.

The water temperature at the time was in the high 50s, low enough for hypothermia to begin setting in before help arrived.

Chao Chen, 73, and his son, Jun Chen, 48, of San Diego, died Sunday night. They were among seven members of one family aboard, said San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesman Maurice Luque.

Another person, who was not identified, was in "rather serious condition" on Monday, Bolduc said.

Among those thrown into the water were two young adults with undisclosed special needs, and a 10-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy who were wearing life jackets, authorities said.

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Associated Press writers Robert Jablon and Gillian Flaccus contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

David Greenspan Is Time-Traveling Actor in 'Go Back to Where You Are', Beginning March 24

intimate Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Obie Award winner Lisa Banes, Obie nominee Tim Hopper, Tony Award nominee Stephen Bogardus, Obie winner Mary Shultz, Brian Hutchison and Michael Izquierdo are among the players joining Greenspan, whose chorus boy is transported to modern-day Montauk, Long Island.

Leigh Silverman (Well) directs the production, to play to May 1. Opening night is April 12.

Greenspan is the five-time Obie Award-winning actor-playwright (author/performer of She Stoops to Comedy, performer in The Wax and director of Kate's Diary, all at PH; plus Coraline; Some Men; The Argument; The Myopia; The Boys in the Band).

Here's the play in a nutshell, according to Playwrights Horizons: "A forgotten chorus boy (Greenspan) from the theatre of Ancient Greece, stuck in a lonely purgatory these past 2,000 years, is sent back to Earth on a mission from God. He now finds himself among a vacationing family in Montauk, caught off-guard by his re-discovered ability to feel love. Go Back to Where You Are is a melancholy comic romance, told with Greenspan's unique brand of theatrical wit and exquisite lyricism."

The production features scenic design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Theresa Squire and lighting design by Matt Frey. Production stage manager is Kyle Gates.

Obie Award winner Lisa Banes appeared in My Sister in This House, PH's Isn't It Romantic (Drama Desk nomination), Broadway's Present Laughter and Arcadia and Off-Broadway's Look Back in Anger (Theatre World Award); Tony nominee Stephen Bogardus' credits includes Love! Valour! Compassion!, PH's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Broadway's James Joyce's The Dead, Irving Berlin's White Christmas and Falsettos, Obie Award winner Tim Hopper's resume includes More Stately Mansions, PH's Three Changes, Broadway's Present Laughter, Off-Broadway's Almost an Evening, The Dying Gaul and Picasso at the Lapin Agile; Brian Hutchison was in PH's People Be Heard, Broadway's Exit the King, Looped and The Invention of Love; Michael Izquierdo appeared in New Jerusalem at CSC, Mother Courage at The Public; and Sustained Excellence Obie Award winner Mary Shultz was featured in PH's Small Tragedy, The Wax and Little Egypt, Off-Broadway's Slavs! and Mad Forest.

For tickets or information, visit www.TicketCentral.com, call (212) 279-4200 (noon-8 PM daily) or visit Ticket Central Box Office, 416 W. 42nd Street (between Ninth & Tenth Avenues).

For more information, visit playwrightshorizons.org.

McDermott's 21 leads Creighton 84-76 CBI win

Doug McDermott scored 21 points and Creighton spoiled former coach Dana Altman's return to the Qwest Center with an 84-76 victory over his Oregon Ducks in Game 1 of the College Basketball Invitational championship series Monday night.

McDermott scored nine straight points in a 12-0 run that gave the Bluejays a 58-41 lead four minutes into the second half. The Ducks got no closer than four points the rest of the way.

Gregory Echenique added 15 points and Josh Jones and Jahenns Manigat had 11 apiece for the Bluejays (23-14).

Joevan Catron led Oregon (19-18) with 15 points and nine rebounds. Garrett Sim and Jay-R Strowbridge had 14 points apiece and Johnathan Loyd and E.J. Singler 10 each for the Ducks.

Game 2 is Wednesday in Eugene, Ore., and a third game, if necessary, would be played there Friday.

Altman, Creighton's all-time winningest coach with 327 victories and seven NCAA tournament appearances in 16 years, left the 6,000-student Jesuit school last April for a $1.7 million-a-year offer from Oregon. The move came as a big surprise to his players and Creighton fans.

But in his first trip back to Omaha — one he said he dreaded — he got a warm reception from the CBI single-game record crowd of 12,381. Fans on the floor rose and clapped as Altman walked out of the tunnel to the court. He and his staff shook hands with the Bluejays' staff, and Altman got a quick hug from his Creighton successor, Greg McDermott.

Altman again received long and loud ovation when his name was announced during pregame introductions.

The Bluejays, who have scored at least 82 points in their four CBI games, made nine of their first 10 shots.

Antoine Young gave a quick look to Altman after he made a pull-up jumper in the lane. Then Manigat, the last player recruited by Altman for Creighton, made his third 3-pointer, and the Bluejays' fifth in the first 5 1/2 minutes.

Oregon trailed 44-37 at half and hung around to make a game of it after Doug McDermott fueled Creighton's hot start to the second half.

Strowbridge finished a 16-5 spurt with a layup off a steal, pulling Oregon within 63-57. The Ducks missed four of their next five shots and committed a turnover, and the Bluejays were back in front 70-59 after Kenny Lawson put back his own miss with a dunk.

The Bluejays were up 79-72 before Strowbridge's 3-pointer cut it to four points with 1:30 left

Josh Jones's 3-pointer made it 82-75 with 1:21 left. Oregon's E.J. Singler had a chance to get Oregon within four points, but McDermott blocked his layup try with 40 seconds left, all but ending the Ducks' comeback hopes.

Telecoms lift Wall Street but gains limited

U.S. stocks edged higher on Monday, lifted by strength in the telecommunications sector and an eighth straight monthly rise in consumer spending, but concerns about overseas turmoil kept gains in check.

Japan's nuclear disaster and civil unrest in the Middle East and North Africa have increased market volatility in recent weeks, making investors cautious as they watch headlines closely for trading cues.

The benchmark S&P 500 has recaptured losses in the wake of the earthquake in Japan, making it more difficult for investors to find value in stocks.

"If there really is an impact from the earthquake, it is hard to say it's discounted anymore," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

"You've got earnings season coming up so unless there is a dramatic development in Japan or in the Middle East, that is going to be the next big story that has an impact on the market."

U.S. consumer spending rose slightly more than forecast in February, while inflation accelerated at its fastest pace since June 2009.

The S&P telecom index (.GSPL) rose 1.6 percent after Robert W. Baird upgraded a number of companies, including Dow components AT&T Inc (T.N) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), saying after AT&T's deal to buy T-Mobile USA was completed, both AT&T and Verizon should benefit from one less competitor.

AT&T rose 2.2 percent to $29.47. Verizon gained 1.2 percent to $37.73.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 21.26 points, or 0.17 percent, to 12,241.85. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) rose 1.87 points, or 0.14 percent, to 1,315.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) added 1.31 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,744.37.

Eastman Kodak Co (EK.N), up 9.1 percent at $3.71, was the second-most active stock on the New York Stock Exchange after a U.S. trade panel in the United States last week agreed to review a case that could bring the struggling photography company hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.

The case stems from a patent claim against Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Research in Motion Ltd (RIM.TO)(RIMM.O). Apple shares added 0.5 percent to $353.36. But U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion shed 0.9 percent to $56.40.

Plutonium found in soil around the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex added to mounting problems in Japan's battle to contain the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl.

Rebels advanced toward the birthplace of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Monday, firing mortars and heavy machine guns in sporadic clashes with loyalist forces.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)

U.N. urged to toughen stance on Ivory Coast

last resort," while France criticized the U.N.'s Ivorian mission for not doing enough to protect civilians so far.

"There is a U.N. force on the ground. I think it should, without doubt, play its role more efficiently because it has a mandate that allows it to use force if ... there is violence," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told France 2 television. The remarks were reported on France's RFI website.

Some 462 people have been killed since a disputed November election, which was claimed by incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo despite U.N.-certified results showing that he lost to his rival Alassane Ouattara. Gbagbo says those results were rigged.

African states, the United States and the European Union have all recognized Ouattara as the legitimate winner of the poll, and ECOWAS has said repeatedly that force may be needed to remove Gbagbo from power.

"The (ECOWAS) leaders have agreed they will apply to the U.N. for a mandate for military intervention as a last resort," James Victor Gbeho, president of the ECOWAS Commission, told reporters on the sidelines of an ECOWAS summit.

Diplomats at the meeting said the aim of the appeal was to give the existing U.N. peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast more scope to prevent further civilian casualties.

INDISCRIMINATE SHELLING

U.N. diplomats and Ivory Coast's pro-Ouattara U.N. envoy have repeatedly called for a more robust application of the local U.N. mission's mandate, but U.N. officials say there are limits to what the force can do, precisely because of a concern to avoid civilian casualties.

A U.N. human rights officer said security forces loyal to Gbagbo were shelling neighborhoods seen as pro-Ouattara, and had killed 50 people in past week, bringing the confirmed death toll from the conflict to 462. Another 450,000 people have fled their homes.

"(Gbagbo's) special forces have been firing and launching explosives indiscriminately on part of the population suspected to be pro-Ouattara," Guillaume N'Gefa, a U.N. human rights official based in Abidjan told a news conference.

"We have registered ... from these indiscriminate attacks 50 deaths, including five children, and many dozens of wounded."

Gbagbo's government has repeatedly denied allegations its forces have used heavy weapons against civilians, and accuses the U.N. mission of siding with "rebels" trying to oust him.

The conflict and the impact of sanctions have strangled supplies of Ivorian cocoa exports, lifting prices for the raw material in chocolate on international markets.

Ouattara has been recognized as Ivory Coast's president by world leaders but Gbagbo, with the backing of much of the armed forces, has refused to stand down and has accused the international community of interfering in a sovereign matter.

The U.N. mission said earlier this week it was monitoring efforts by Gbagbo's camp to repair an MI-24 attack helicopter and ready some BM21 multiple rocket launchers, and would "take action" within its mandate against any attempt to use them.

ECOWAS also put out a statement condemning Gbagbo's camp for hate speech against West African immigrants, who Human Rights Watch (HRW) says have been killed by pro-Gbagbo youth militias.

(Writing by David Lewis, Tim Cocks and Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)