MBN, Monte Bubbles Network

Written by Joyce L Chow & William Hoehne February 19,2006

MBN

Amphibious Ready Group To Philippines

US Team and NBC both Tanking

Walter Mayer crashes following police chase

BREAKING NEWS: TEN DEAD IN HELO CRASH

Metal Count

Nissan Open

Editorial on American Sports

Team To Philippines

Sailors and Marines from the Forward Deployed Amphibious Ready Group and elements of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade were called upon yesterday to help the victims of a mudslide on southern Leyte Island in the Philippines, U.S. 7th Fleet officials reported. USS Essex, USS Harpers Ferry and elements of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade immediately left port Subic Bay en route to the disaster zone area."Our primary mission is to provide as much assistance as possible to the victims of this tragic event," said Capt. Mark E. Donahue, commodore, Amphibious Squadron 11, the task group commander of the Forward Deployed ARG. "We are here to prevent the further loss of life and to mitigate any further suffering." Continuous days of heavy rain and flooding hit Leyte Island, about 420 miles southeast of Manila, and led to the landslide, which has washed away the farming village of Guinsahugon as well as two other villages.

The United States has authorized the Philippine Red Cross to use about $50,000 of emergency relief funds already granted to the Red Cross from an earlier disaster to aid in this disaster. The Philippine Red Cross has asked the United States for helicopter support to assist with rescue and relief operations in the area. Just as in Operation Unified Assistance, a multi-nation effort to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami, the ships of the Forward Deployed ARG will use various ship-to-shore assets to get landslide victims the assistance they need in the form of food, water and medical supplies, officials said.

During the tsunami operation, USS Essex and USS Fort McHenry delivered about 6 million pounds of relief supplies. Fort McHenry also provided humanitarian assistance after a series of early December 2004 typhoons and tropical storms caused massive flooding and landslides on the island of Luzon. During that humanitarian assistance effort, Fort McHenry delivered 30,000 pounds of supplies and helped treat 100 patients, according to U.S. Embassy officials in the Philippines. USS Essex, USS Harpers Ferry and elements of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrived in the Philippines yesterday to conduct Exercise Balikatan 2006, an annual Philippines-U.S. bilateral combined exercise, which was scheduled Feb. 20 through March 5. The purpose of the exercise is to further develop the Philippines military's crisis action planning, enhancing its ability to effectively conduct counterterrorism operations, and promote interoperability.

Also emphasized in the training events will be cooperation and execution of humanitarian and civic assistance, officials said. "The strong partnership and professional ties between the Philippines and U. S. military will be instrumental in providing rapid and valuable relief assistance," said Donahue. "We are fortunate to be at the right place to help our friends and their families in their time of need." The Forward Deployed ARG is part of Task Force 76, the Navy's only forward-deployed amphibious force, which has its headquarters at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan, with an operating detachment in Sasebo, Japan.

 US Team and NBC both Tanking

Shani Davis would have been a feel-good story about the first black athlete to win an individual gold in the Winter Olympics, but his painful NBC interview to feel much kinship with him.

Those who were still watching, that is. Ratings on NBC have been dropping fast,and, without Kwan not around to anchor women's figure skating the worst seems yet to come.

America loves its stars, but so far the country's biggest names have been its biggest busts. Kwan made a graceful exit even before she could make a graceful appearance. Hedrick began with one gold medal and talk of matching Eric Heiden's record of five, but is 0-for-2 since and may end up being remembered more for his sniping at Davis for being unpatriotic.

Hard to get mad at the snowboarders even though they don't understand that a gold medal means more to most Americans than style points and partying.

Almost half the American medals so far -- six of 13 -- have been won in a sport that wasn't even part of the Olympics until 1998. Take them away and this team more resembles the American teams that won a total of 13 medals in 1994 and 1998 than the team that rocked Salt Lake City with a record 34 medals in 2002.

As an Olympics, Turin has been so-so for the United States.

 Walter Mayer crashes following police chase

Walter Mayer, the banned Austrian ski coach whose presence at the Olympics touched off anti-doping raids and an IOC investigation, was taken into protective custody after crashing his car into a police barrier Sunday evening to end a bizarre chase.

Mayer was not injured in the accident, in which he struck a police car at an impromptu roadblock set up in the town of Paternion in the southwestern province of Carinthia, about 15 miles from the Italian border, police said.

The unusual chain of events began when Mayer -- returning to his native Austria just hours after Italian authorities raided Austria's biathlon and cross country team quarters for banned substances -- pulled over to the side of the road and took a nap in his car, a police statement said.

A suspicious local resident alerted police that a man was sleeping in a car with the engine turned off, and when officers arrived on the scene to wake him up, Mayer sped away, striking and slightly injuring an officer, the statement said.

The officers on the scene then called for backup, and authorities parked an empty police vehicle across the highway as a roadblock. Mayer then slammed into the squad car, totaling both vehicles.

Police said Mayer was taken into protective custody. It was unclear whether he would face criminal charges, and authorities declined to say whether they searched his vehicle for doping substances or equipment.

Mayer, the nation's former Nordic team coach who was banned from the Olympics under suspicion of performing blood transfusions at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, triggered the latest investigation after he showed up in Turin, arousing suspicion among officials of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The Austrian Ski Federation said Sunday night it had ended its relationship with Mayer effective immediately. In a brief statement, federation president Peter Schroecksnadel cited the accident as the reason. He did not elaborate.

Ten Dead in Crash

DOD Identifies Marine and Air Force Casualties The Department of Defense announced today the death of eight Marines and two airmen who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

All 10 died Feb. 17, when two CH-53 helicopters crashed into the Gulf of Aden in the vicinity of Ras Siyyan, northern Djibouti, while flying a training mission in the Godoria Range area.

The Marines and airmen were deployed to Djibouti as part of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

The Marines were assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464, Marine Air Group 29, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, New River, N.C.

1st Lt. Brandon R. Dronet, 33, of Erath, La.

Sgt. James F. Fordyce, 22, of Newton Square, Pa.

Lance Cpl. Samuel W. Large, Jr., 21, of Villa Rica, Ga.

Sgt. Donnie Leo F. Levens, 25, of Long Beach, Miss.

Cpl. Matthieu Marcellus, 31, of Gainesville, Fla.

Sgt. Jonathan E. McColley, 23, of Gettysburg, Pa.

Lance Cpl. Nicholas J. Sovie, 20, of Ogdensburg, N.Y.

Capt. Bryan D. Willard, 33, of Hummelstown, Pa.

The airmen were: SrA. Alecia S. Good, 23, of Broadview Heights, Ohio. Good was assigned to the 92nd Communications Squadron, Fairchild Air Force Base,Wash.

Staff Sgt. Luis M. Melendez Sanchez, 33, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Sanchez was assigned to the 1st Communications Squadron, Langley Air Force Base, Va.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

Germany Seven Gold Seven Silver Four Bronze

Norway Two Gold Seven Silver Seven Bronze

United States Seven Gold Four Silver Two Bronze

Russia Six Gold Two Silver Five Bronze

Canada Two Gold Six Silver Five Bronze

Austria Four Gold Five Silver One Bronze

Switzerland Two Gold Two Silver Four Bronze

South Korea Three Gold Three Silver One Silver

Italy Three Gold Four Bronze

China One Gold Two Silver Four Bronze

Netherlands Two Gold Two Silver Two Bronze

Sweden Two Gold One Silver Three Bronze

France Three Gold Two Bronze

Finland Two Silver Three Bronze

Czech Republic Two Silver

Australia One Gold

Slovakia One Silver

United Kingdom One Silver

Bulgaria One Silver

Ukraine One Bronze

Latvia One Bronze

Nissan Open

Rory Sabbatini -13

Adam Scott -12

Craig Barlow -11

Fred Couples -10

Lee Westwood -9

John Rollins -9

Carl Pettersson -8

Tom Lehman -8

Dean Wilson -8

Trevor Immelman -8

Editorial on American Sports

What do Bodie Miller, Tiger Woods, Shani Davis and Michelle Kwan have in common? The same thing all athletes in our country seem to have in common today.

It is all about them and not the team or country. Tiger Woods could be the greatest golfer that ever lived but he is more concerned with making money playing in tournaments outside of this country then playing ones in this country.

Bodie Miller blames everyone but himself about losing.

Shani Davis only plays for himself even though the Olympics is about team and country.

Kwan simply quits when the going gets hard.

Basically they represent the professional athlete in this nation.

To condemn them for simply being what others are is wrong.

Instead condemn a system where you is more important then us.