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BMW has built the first of their Hydrogen 7 cars for public use, and handed the first set of keys over to U.S. funny-man, Will Ferrell. 25 of the first 100 cars will be handed out to celebrities in order to promote their hydrogen cars in a predictable PR stunt that we just walked straight into. Another 25 will be used for evaluation purposes and testing. Other lucky celebrities include Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori, Richard Gere, Sharon Stone and An Inconvenient Truth producer, Davis Guggenheim, as well as more unusual names like German Federal Minister […]

HUNTINGTON — After a camera lowered through a fourth bore hole again showed no signs of six workers trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine, officials on Sunday acknowledged what many had already feared. “It’s likely that these miners may not be found,” Rob Moore, vice president of mine owner Utah Energy Corp., said during a Sunday afternoon news conference. Video from the latest bore hole drilled from the top of the mine into caverns below showed extensive damage to that area of the mine, and oxygen levels measured at 7 or 8 percent — not enough to support life. Work […]

BY ANDY STERN/ PRESIDENT SERVICE EMPLOYEE INTERNATIONAL UNION As I write I’m thinking about the mine workers’ union members I used to know when I worked in Pennsylvania in the 1970s. Back then, most of the coal industry was unionized, and bright young miners like Cecil Roberts, who is now the United Mine Workers president, got together to make their union stronger and more effective. When they couldn’t get the coal companies to protect their lives on the job, the miners went out on several long national strikes to win, among other things, expanded safety rights. They had safety committees […]

BY EVA LIAO BEIJING — I’ll admit it: In times of desperate measure, somewhere between Last Call and beddy bye, I’ve patronised some of the many Chinese fast food joints Philly has to offer. Places with names like Mr. Chow, Mr. Wong and David’s Mai Lai Wah taste best right around 3 A.M. And that’s all well and good, as long as nobody is laboring under the delusion that this is what Chinese food really tastes like — because, almost without exception, Chinese food in America is about as ‘real’ as the tits hanging on Anna Nicole, RIP. Truth is, […]

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The problem-plagued effort to rescue six miners trapped in a Utah coal mine suffered its most grave setback Thursday night, when a seismic shudder sent rock tumbling onto rescue workers, killing three and injuring six, authorities said. The mountain “bump” occurred about 6:30 p.m., as the group of more than 100 rescue workers continued to carefully tunnel through the collapsed Crandall Canyon Mine. Since Aug. 6, when a predawn cave-in buried the miners, regular seismic tremors have slowed the dig to a virtual crawl. There has been no indication of whether the trapped miners are alive, and officials emphasized that […]