Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Life is wild at JSC!


NASA Johnson Space Center employees have learned that if a fawn is curled under a tree, it doesn't need a blanket; it's not abandoned. They now know that orange cones on a parking lot may be protecting a killdeer's nest.
And if they give their lunch leftovers to the ducks, the birds will start going to the cafeteria around noon every day for more handouts.

Oh, and those eggs in the outdoor ashtrays? Left by muscovies. The JSC Safety Action Team's wildlife committee will take care of the awkwardly placed nests.

The 1,580-acre JSC site in the Clear Lake area, where engineers, astronauts and other personnel work on out-of-this-world projects, is also a wildlife refuge. Gulf Coast prairie and marsh grasslands fill the undeveloped areas, which are much the same as they were before JSC opened in the 1960s. A pond surrounded by green space also sits in the center of the campus.

White-tailed deer are easy to spot. Grazing along Avenue B at Gate 4, they barely acknowledge the traffic. On a recent tour, the chair of the wildlife committee noted that she needed to remind employees to watch for deer crossing the road, especially at dawn and dusk.

Stephanie Walker, who is also a wildlife rehabilitator, says fawns begin to appear around the buildings in June.

"We usually see four or five. You never know if you are seeing the same ones," said Walker, who estimates about 150 deer in four or five groupings make JSC their home. The mothers sometimes settle their young ones under bushes near a building or maybe even in a parking lot while they forage.
"We figured out that these deer are so acclimated to people that when they are taking their fawns somewhere safe, it is actually safer for them to leave them among all these people than out in the back area where there are coyotes and things," Walker said.

When Walker gets a call about lone baby deer, she checks to make sure the animal doesn't look dehydrated or have fire ants on it.
"But usually no. They are just sitting out there waiting for mom," Walker said.
Big, small problems

A few years ago the animals were part of a Texas A&M study to evaluate the effectiveness of a contraceptive in white-tailed deer population control.
Researchers estimated about 170 deer were on the property, which is surrounded by an 8-foot fence. When the three-year study ended in 2008, about a quarter of the females had been given the single-dose contraceptive, which stabilized the population, said Roel R. Lopez, associate professor of A&M's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences.
While deer are the biggest wild animals at JSC, Walker deals with everything from rabbits to geckos.

Her duties have including finding ways to discourage skunks from nesting under buildings, taking baby squirrels that have fallen from their nests to the Wildlife Rehab & Education Center in Houston and reminding everyone that it is not safe to throw sandwiches to alligators sunning in a canal.
"We don't want to encourage them to think of people as a place where you get food," Walker said.

If there is a bigger problem, Walker usually gets Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens involved because most of the wildlife is protected by federal and state regulations.

But that isn't always necessary. When Walker discovered a nest of great horned owls next to construction site, the workers started at the other end of the project to give the young birds time to fledge, she said.

"The guys there were very interested in the owls, so they were willing to coordinate their work in other areas until the babies had flown off," Walker said. "We had lots of people watching those babies."

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Breaking: Explosions rock Belvieu plant!



Multiple explosions, fire at Mont Belvieu plant

Credit: AIR 11
A fire at Enterprise Products in Mont Belvieu was burning out of control more than an hour after witnesses heard multiple explosions.

by Michelle Homer / khou.com
khou.com
Posted on February 8, 2011 at 1:05 PM
Updated today at 1:39 PM


MONT BELVIEU, Texas – Several explosions at a Mont Belvieu plant were followed by flames that could be seen from miles around.
The explosions happened at Enterprise Products at 135 Sun Oil Road around 12:25 p.m.


Witnesses reported seeing workers fleeing from the Chambers County plant. Other workers were being told to stay inside.
The company hasn't released any details about injuries. An employee, who didn't want to be identified, said at least one contractor has not been accounted for.


The employee said the explosion happened in a subsection of the plant.
Chambers County officials say there's no known threat to the public at this time.

They have not called for evacuations.
State Highway 146 is closed near the plant.

The fire was still burning out of control nearly an hour after it began. The flames could be seen 25 miles away in Houston.

A Houston caller named Pat said she was talking by phone to a relative inside the plant when the first set of explosions happened. There were three more explosions while they were still on the phone. "Anywhere from eight to 11 explosions," according to Pat.

READ MORE AT KHOU

Monday, February 7, 2011

Fiery wreck in Katy claims one - sends another to hospital.


Fiery Katy wreck leaves 1 dead, 1 hospitalized
by khou.com staff
khou.com


KATY, Texas – One person was dead and another in the hospital Monday after a driver crashed into a tree in Katy.

Police said an Infiniti was traveling north on Katy Hockley Road near Pecan around 2:30 a.m. when the driver failed to make a turn in the road, struck a curb and crashed into a tree.

Police said the car burst into flames, severely burning the passenger, who died at the scene.

The driver, a 26-year-old male, was found lying on the ground upon officers’ arrival. He was airlifted to the hospital in unknown condition.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the crash. It was not known whether charges would be filed.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Controversy surrounds teen beating by Houston police



(CNN) -- Houston's mayor and police department were on the defensive Friday, two days after graphic video came out showing several police repeatedly kicking and beating a 15-year-old burglary suspect as he lay on the ground.
An internal police investigation of the incident last March led to the firing of seven police officers, said spokesman John Cannon of the Houston police department.

Two successfully appealed and returned to their jobs, said Houston NAACP President D.Z. Cofield.

Five other officers were disciplined in other ways, Cannon said. And a Harris County grand jury indicted four of the officers this summer, based in part on the video.
Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos opposed the video becoming public and felt doing so might prejudice potential jurors and force the indicted officers' trials to be moved out of the county.

Quanell X, a local activist, got hold of the surveillance tape showing the scene outside a storage facility and gave it to the media.
He said he had every right to obtain the footage and make it public.

"I will show my people what they deserve to see, and let the public see what you don't want them to see," Quanell X said.
Mayor Annise Parker said the police leadership and city acted properly.

"I resent any implication that we were trying to hide the tape," she said.
After viewing the footage, Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland Jr. fired the seven officers and a grand jury called for misdemeanor charges against four of them in June.

Lykos told reporters Thursday there was not sufficient evidence to pursue more serious charges, such as aggravated assault.
"Without revealing what was presented to the grand jury, in order to have aggravated assault you have to have serious bodily injury or impairment or use of a deadly weapon," she said. "None of that was apparent in this case."

The tape, first shown Wednesday on CNN affiliate WTRK, shows the 15-year-old boy -- being chased by police and falling to the ground after being upended by a moving police car. He then falls face first and places his hands on the ground.

A disciplinary letter from McClelland, dated June 23 and posted online less than two weeks later by CNN affiliate HTRK, says that the boy had his hands behind his head and neck area, in an obvious position of surrender.

Then, the letter adds and the tape shows, Officer Raad Hassan "then ran toward (the boy) and kicked him a total of 15 times," then later kicked him more times in the groin area even after he "was handcuffed and no longer a threat."

READ THE FULL STORY ON CNN

Controversy surrounds teen beating by Houston police



(CNN) -- Houston's mayor and police department were on the defensive Friday, two days after graphic video came out showing several police repeatedly kicking and beating a 15-year-old burglary suspect as he lay on the ground.
An internal police investigation of the incident last March led to the firing of seven police officers, said spokesman John Cannon of the Houston police department.

Two successfully appealed and returned to their jobs, said Houston NAACP President D.Z. Cofield.

Five other officers were disciplined in other ways, Cannon said. And a Harris County grand jury indicted four of the officers this summer, based in part on the video.
Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos opposed the video becoming public and felt doing so might prejudice potential jurors and force the indicted officers' trials to be moved out of the county.

Quanell X, a local activist, got hold of the surveillance tape showing the scene outside a storage facility and gave it to the media.
He said he had every right to obtain the footage and make it public.

"I will show my people what they deserve to see, and let the public see what you don't want them to see," Quanell X said.
Mayor Annise Parker said the police leadership and city acted properly.

"I resent any implication that we were trying to hide the tape," she said.
After viewing the footage, Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland Jr. fired the seven officers and a grand jury called for misdemeanor charges against four of them in June.

Lykos told reporters Thursday there was not sufficient evidence to pursue more serious charges, such as aggravated assault.
"Without revealing what was presented to the grand jury, in order to have aggravated assault you have to have serious bodily injury or impairment or use of a deadly weapon," she said. "None of that was apparent in this case."

The tape, first shown Wednesday on CNN affiliate WTRK, shows the 15-year-old boy -- being chased by police and falling to the ground after being upended by a moving police car. He then falls face first and places his hands on the ground.

A disciplinary letter from McClelland, dated June 23 and posted online less than two weeks later by CNN affiliate HTRK, says that the boy had his hands behind his head and neck area, in an obvious position of surrender.

Then, the letter adds and the tape shows, Officer Raad Hassan "then ran toward (the boy) and kicked him a total of 15 times," then later kicked him more times in the groin area even after he "was handcuffed and no longer a threat."

READ THE FULL STORY ON CNN

Thursday, February 3, 2011

NASA mulling keeping shuttles in service until 2017



NASA is studying plans to keep the space shuttle Endeavour in flight-worthy condition after its last scheduled mission. The ‘what if’ NASA study comes as United Space Alliance proposes a plan to continue flying Endeavour and Atlantis as commercial space vehicles.


The story, reported by msnbc, says the review includes the potential for keeping Endeavour – the youngest shuttle in the fleet – in operation through 2017. The shuttle, along with its sisterships, is currently due for retirement later this year and eventual transfer to a museum.


Another lifeline study for Endeavour? (Guy Norris)

The proposal — called Commercial Space Transportation Service, or CSTS — would use Endeavour as well as a sister shuttle, Atlantis, to fly two missions a year from 2013 to 2017 at an annual cost of $1.5 billion. United Space Alliance, the contractor that currently manages the shuttle program on NASA’s behalf, has offered the proposal for the second round of funding from the space agency’s Commercial Crew Development initiative, also known as CCDev 2.

NASA could award as much as $200 million in the second round of the CCDev initiative. During the first round, the agency distributed $50 million in stimulus funds to five companies to advance the development of crew-capable replacements for the shuttles.
Some of the recipients of first-round funding — such as the Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp. — have made proposals for second-round funding as well. The second-round competitors also include SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, which are already receiving NASA funds to build spacecraft for transporting cargo to the space station.
United Space Alliance is the only venture proposing to keep the shuttles operating rather than retiring them this year, as currently planned.

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