Your WBFJ Family Station Forecast: Clouds this morning, then clearing skies. Breezy and warmer… High 82. Scattered showers and thunderstorms after midnight. Breezy…Low 60
Gas prices have risen some 19 cents over the past week. The average for regular unleaded nationwide = $3.75…Statewide= $3.71…Triad= $3.65.
The National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report over the weekend into the fatal plane crash in High Point. The pilot, Marcia Salmons-Keaton, 50, of Fuquay-Varina, her last communication to the tower was confirmation of the controller's assigned coordinates for the next landing attempt. The plane did not have a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder. A full report is expected in 8-12 months. BTW: Pilot Marcia Salmons-Keaton, 50, of Fuquay-Varina, and passenger Thomas Littlejohn III, of Winston-Salem, died on March 30 after a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron 58 crashed into a home on Dairy Point Drive. There were no signs of distress on the radio recordings. NTSB Preliminary Report:
www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20110330X93656&key=1
(NEW) A powerful aftershock hitting northeast Japan earlier today. The 6.6 magnitude earthquake generated a landslide while knocking-out power to over 200,000 households and businesses. The evacuation zone near the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant has been expanded. BTW: The magnitude of the latest quake was lowered from 7.1 to 6.6. http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/11/japan.quake/index.html?hpt=T1
CONGRESS AVOIDED A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN LATE FRIDAY NIGHT BY REACHING A LAST MINUTE BUDGET AGREEMENT, THE DETAILS OF WHICH WILL BE RELEASED TODAY. The President and congressional leaders agreeing to cut some $38 billion dollars in federal spending, averting the first ‘partial’ federal shutdown in 15 years.
SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON HAS DENOUNCED THE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIAN MINORITIES AROUND THE WORLD IN HER PRESENTATION OF THE 2010 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT. Clinton specifically mentioned the assassination Pakistan's Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, who was the only Christian ever to be part of Pakistan's cabinet. FYI: Clinton criticized Pakistan's blasphemy law which makes speaking out against Islam a punishable offense in the country.
Wilkes County man (Jason Mitchell Norman) is one of 20 recipients of the Carnegie Medal…an award given to those who put themselves in harms way to save others. Norman carried a woman from a burning building in 2009. http://www.journalnow.com/
At the box office: ‘Soul Surfer’ (the true story of Bethany Hamilton landing at #4 this weekend. Details and theater info online: http://www.soulsurferthemovie.com/
SPORTS: South African Charl Schwartzel winning the Masters in Augusta. BTW: He didn’t get the ‘green jacket’ but Ryo Ishikawa will be donating his $93,000 dollar prize money to Japan disaster relief.
