John Fontenot's Page

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.
The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.
The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m. Monday, Monroe police dispatchers sai… Continue

GULF SHORES, Ala. – Forced to perform a painful kind of environmental triage, emergency workers concentrated on protecting marshes and inlets from the approaching BP oil slick Thursday and left one of the Gulf Coast's biggest tourist attractions — its white-sand beaches — largely undefended.
As BP struggled a mile underwater to cut and cap the blown-out well, the decision to sacrifice parts of the shoreline — made weeks ago by state and Coast Guard officials — came under fire from Alabama's gove… Continue

NEW YORK – Terror can come cheap.
Confessed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad appears to have financed his failed plot with a wad of $100 bills, but the amount of money needed to execute the scheme was fairly modest.
There was his plane ticket to the U.S. from Pakistan, as well as a return flight to the United Arab Emirates, at a cost of less than $800 each way. Add to that his living expenses, including three months rent for a Connecticut apartment at a little less than $1,200 per month.
His c… Continue

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are trying to learn the causes of the drastic stock market sell-off to ensure that high-tech trading is monitored and average investors are protected in the wilds of Wall Street.
Sens. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., and Mark Warner, D-Va., are working with Senate Banking Committee members to use a pending financial regulation bill to address the Dow Jones industrial average's sudden, brief drop of almost 1,000 points Thursday. The House has scheduled a hearing on the sudden plunge f… Continue