Morning Roundup for July 10th, 2009 - Featured News and Public Events
From The New York Times, on the H1N1 Summit:
The Obama administration warned Americans on Thursday to be ready for an aggressive return of the swine flu virus in the fall, announcing plans to begin vaccinations in October and offering states and hospitals money to help them prepare.
"The potential for a significant outbreak in the fall is looming," President Obama said by telephone link from Italy to the White House's H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit, held at the National Institutes of Health.
With good planning, "we may end up averting a crisis," Mr. Obama said. "That's our fervent hope."
The summit meeting was jointly led by the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius; the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano; and the secretary of education, Arne Duncan. It gathered health and school officials from across the country and took questions by video link from the governors of several states, most of whom wanted to know who would pay for preparations like the vaccination drive.
From the Associated Press, on the best part of waking up:
Customs agents discovered an extra ingredient in a shipment of Colombian coffee: nearly a half-ton of cocaine.
U.S. Customs officer Troy Simon said Thursday it was his agency's biggest cocaine find at the Port of New Orleans since more than two tons turned up in a transformer shipment about 10 years ago.
He said officers opened the shipping container Monday after a gamma-ray scan showed squarish shapes on top of the rounded burlap bags of coffee beans.
They turned out to be 15 duffel bags.U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Virginia Dabbs says they held 400 packages of cocaine weighing a total of 994 pounds.
Public Events
2:30 PM EDT
U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen will participate in a Change of Command ceremony for the Coast Guard’s Pacific Area in which Vice Admiral Jody Breckenridge will relieve Vice Admiral David Pekoske
Parade Field
Coast Guard Island
Alameda, Calif.