Yesterday at 2:53pm EST my phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Sweetie” (it was my mom), “There’s been an earthquake”

My heart stopped.
“Where was it centered?”
“I don’t know”
“How big?”
“They’re saying it was in the 6’s and…”
“Where are you?”
“Driving home from …”
“How are the dogs?”

By now I was shrieking, I barely heard her empty assurances that they must be okay and that she would try to get a hold of someone nearby.

I hung up and rushed to my computer, certain that the worst had happened. Another major Quake…

When I was 8 the ‘94 Northridge Quake destroyed most of my known world. My family was homeless for 9 months and all of our parks were turned into National Guard relocation facilities. For a while I slept with my tennis shoes on—in case I had to climb out of my room the next morning.

It is impossible to describe the relief that washed over me when I finally got through to the LA Times website and saw that it was only a 5.8 (later lowered to a 5.4) with horizontal motion and centered in Chino Hills about 55 miles from my home in the San Fernando Valley. Read More »

It’s the news with Kandy Korrespondent!

First Lady Laura Bush made a surprise visit to Afghanistan over the weekend to call attention to the need for continued international commitment to the country’s war against the Taliban. The former schoolteacher paid special attention to the increased presence of girls in local schools. Under the Taliban, girls were banned from schools. According to the United Nations, 35% of all students are now girls. Mrs. Bush stated, “We want that to be 50-50.”

Her visit comes at a strategic point in the US-led war on the region. On June 3rd, Army General David McKiernan took over NATO command in Afghanistan; McKiernan led American troops into Iraq in March 2003. Violence is also on the rise- over 8,000 were killed in attacks last year—the most since the 2001 invasion. Read More »

This past Wednesday afternoon, my boyfriend, Alec, and I decided to head to the local Starbucks to do some reading and writing. The sky was pretty dark—but that’s typical of a June in Virginia—hot and humid in the morning, thunderstorm in the afternoon.

We had gone a few miles when giant raindrops began to pelt our windshield accompanied by increasingly strong winds. Branches and leaves blew past the windows, traffic lights swung violently, and our poor little Saturn coupe began to shutter in the face of the growing gale. Pulling up to an intersection we noticed a diagonal dark cloud directly above us lit up by a strange pink glow.

I turned to Alec; the word scarcely needed saying—Tornado.

Wordlessly, he swung the car around and we headed back. The storm quickly overtook us, flooding the windshield and reducing visibility to zero. We finally made it back and ran from the car to the house where Alec’s brother and mom hugged us in relief. But it was short-lived, the phone rang (the last call before we lost all service)—it was Alec’s little sister. Her afternoon activities had been canceled and she had been walking home when the storm hit. All around us large branches littered the sidewalk and street—and the storm was only getting worse. Read More »

Bye-bye Hillary… As more and more news outlets and political insiders come out in support of Senator Barack Obama as the democratic presidential nominee, pressure is mounting for Clinton to drop out so that the democratic party can turn their focus onto defeating McCain—whom many are calling Bush III.

This week’s Economist led with an article entitled “Almost there: Barack Obama deserves the nomination. It is not yet clear whether he deserves the presidency”. The article went on to state:

“As The Economist went to press, Mrs Clinton was publicly still promising to keep on fighting right the way to the Denver convention. That remains her right. But it is hard to see what she, her party or her country can gain from the struggle.”

The New York Times—who had endorsed Senator Clinton– posted a rather scathing editorial in which all but call upon her to drop out, stating that while it is her right to continue the fight,

“Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake — for herself, her party and for the nation — if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing racial undertones.” Read More »