11/06/2012
Mike Wegart, 30, stands in line to vote at the Venice Beach lifeguard station in Los Angeles. Polls indicate President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney are in a tight race as the 2012 election nears its end. 
Obama supporter Tonya Lewis rallies for votes outside a polling station in Tampa, Florida. 
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan leaves a campaign plane in Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday. 
President Obama greets supporters outside a campaign office in Chicago Tuesday. 
A jogger on The Strand in the Los Angeles area community of Hermosa Beach passes a directional sign to a polling place at sunrise. 
The stage is set for Obama's election night event in Chicago. 
James Tate, 45, holds a sign in support of the Republican ticket in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 
A nun waits in line to cast her vote in Janesville, Wisconsin. 
Children's books about politics line a wall where citizens wait to cast their vote in Janesville, Wisconsin. 
Volunteer David Bowser peeks outside the Pinellas County Democratic Party headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida. 
Election inspector Jim Nodorft prepares to hang the U.S. flag outside the Smelser Town Hall as polls opened at 7 a.m. in Georgetown, Wisconsin. 
People head to a polling station at Washington's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library on Tuesday. 
The sunrise is visible through a bus window on Election Day in Chicago. 
Voters enter Washington Mill Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, to cast their ballots Tuesday. 
Rain doesn't deter voters from waiting in line Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Sunshine State -- with its 29 electoral votes -- will be a key player in determining the next president. 
A young girl peers out from under a voting booth as her mother casts a ballot at the Bishop Leo O'Neil Youth Center in Manchester, New Hampshire. 
William Carpenter, an assistant fire chief, puts up an election rules sign at the entrance of a firehouse polling station Tuesday in Port Royal, Virginia. 
Poll worker David Smith uses a tape measure to mark a boundary at a Bowling Green, Ohio, school to keep local politicians 100 feet away from where voters cast ballots. 
Precinct official Bill Partlow inspects a voting machine before polls open Tuesday in Pineville, North Carolina. 
Voters in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, wait to cast the first Election Day ballots of the U.S. presidential race shortly after midnight. For the first time in the village's history, there was a draw, with Obama and Romney each receiving five votes. 
Some evacuations ahead of snowy nor'easter
 David Friedman / NBC News Richard Mele of Breezy Point, N.Y., on Tuesday looks over some fishing tackle he salvaged from his flooded home. By Miranda Leitsinger and Miguel Llanos, NBC News BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- With a nor'easter expected by Wednesday afternoon, residents of the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy were urged to leave and, in some cases, ordered to. Some airlines also announced cancellations at New York area airports starting Wednesday afternoon. People still in low-lying areas of Staten Island and the Rockaways are being urged to leave, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday. He also ordered parks and beaches closed on Wednesday. In New Jersey, Brick Township ordered mandatory evacuations, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported. That area of Ocean County was where Sandy made landfall on Oct. 29. The developing nor'easter is expected to track farther offshore than earlier thought, but that will mean even colder air along the coast. Gusts up to 50 miles per hour and several inches of snow are possible in New York City and along the New Jersey coast starting Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service warned Tuesday. "It's going to impact many areas that were devastated by Sandy," said National Weather Service forecaster Bruce Terry. "It will not be good." Outside of Manhattan, New York residents are still facing a power outage as temperatures drop and the region braces for another storm. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports. Some coastal flooding is also a possibility in places like Breezy Point in the Rockaways. Richard Mele, a 68-year-old retired New York City firefighter, was pumping out water from his flooded basement in Breezy Point to try and salvage any keepsakes ahead of the nor'easter. "There's no stopping this water from coming again tomorrow," he said, as a generator hummed in the background and while standing in front of a table bearing rare wooden, handmade fishing lures. The ground is so saturated that Mele can't get the water out permanently. "It's going to rain three inches," he said. "It's going right in my basement." "When it rains it pours," he added. "We're down and it's just going to keep kicking us." Michele Nagel, in her 40s, said she'd close the windows and that was about it. View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com. "Everything we own is outside on the porch. It's all awash, literally, it's awash," she laughed. "Nothing else you can do." The worst flooding is expected "at high tide, mainly along northern and northeast-facing beaches," weather.com reported, "but will be much lower than the magnitude of Sandy's coastal flooding." Temperatures across the Northeast have been dipping into the low 30s, and nearly one million homes and businesses remained without power as of Tuesday morning. The updated forecast now calls for snow. "Cold air will wedge itself along the I-95 corridor to bring some accumulating snows from Delaware to Maine," the weather service's prediction center stated. "A few inches are possible" in cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia, it added. From weather.com: Storm's city-by-city forecasts The incoming storm will create additional storm surge, wind, and more power outages for the already besieged East Coast. Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore reports. In Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., Laura DiPasquale on Monday frantically searched dozens of trash bags that volunteers had stuffed full of her household belongings and brought to the curb, trying to make sure nothing she intended to keep had gotten tossed out with debris. "I don't know where anything is; I can't even find my checkbook," she told The Associated Press. "I have no idea what's in any of these bags. And now another storm is coming and I feel enormous pressure. I don't know if I can do this again. It is so overwhelming." Want to help the recovery? Here's how Sandy roared ashore as a rare hybrid superstorm after killing 69 people in the Caribbean and then merging with a strong North Atlantic system. It killed at least 113 in the United States and knocked out power to millions of people while swamping seaside towns and inundating New York City's streets and subway tunnels.  Residents across the Northeast pick up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy killed more than 100 people in 10 states and left a trail of destruction. More than 217,000 people had registered for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and about $199 million in has been provided, Reuters reported. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. More content from NBCNews.com:
 |
Police make arrest in mysterious highway shootings
| By NBC News staff Police have arrested a 43-year-old Michigan man in connection with dozens of shootings that terrorized commuters across metropolitan Detroit and resulted in at least one injury, authorities said Tuesday. Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth said officers executed a search warrant late Monday night in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where the shootings began last month. Charges are pending, according to The Detroit News. "Potential evidence has been seized during this arrest and will be evaluated by our crime laboratories," the sheriff's department said in a statement. "Additionally, the suspect is known to have driven a vehicle matching the vehicle description provided by one of the victims." The shootings started Oct. 16 in Wixom, a blue-collar community northwest of Detroit. The shooter targeted vehicles along the I-96 corridor and connecting roads in Livingston, Ingham and Shiawassee counties, police said. On Oct. 27, a man driving to Detroit for the World Series was shot in the hip on I-96 in Livingston County, according to NBC affiliate WDIV-TV in Detroit. Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com The 100-mile-long crime scene sliced through suburbia, shopping malls and farm pastures. Shootings had occurred during the day, at night, on weekdays and on weekends, spreading fear through the region and prompting the creation of a task force. NBC News' Cate Cetta and Sevil Omer contributed to this report. More content from NBCNews.com:
|
Voting in Sandy-struck areas: 'First step toward recovery'
 David Friedman / NBC News With debris from Superstorm Sandy piled up outside, Breezy Point residents enter their polling place at St. Genevieve Church on Tuesday. By Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- Many people living in the cities and towns devastated by Superstorm Sandy broke off from their cleanups and searches for keepsakes to vote Tuesday in the presidential election, with one man noting it was "the first step toward recovery." Election officials in New Jersey and New York made special provisions for voters who lost their homes after Sandy pounded the Northeast, leaving many homeless and without gas to fuel their cars, and polling stations without power. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo allowed people in the disaster areas to vote at any polling station they could get to, while in New Jersey, they could do so by email or by hitching a ride with troops or aid groups to the voting booths, according to NBC New York. Kieran Burke temporarily halted the search for his wife's engagement ring -- a day after firefighters found her wedding ring -- to vote at St. Genevieve's Catholic Church, the replacement polling site just down the road from Breezy Point, N.Y., where the community's 2,200 homes were either destroyed by fire or damaged by flooding. "The world isn't going to stop because of what happened here, and if we expect to get on our feet we have to vote for the people we think are going to best represent us," said Burke, a 40-year-old fire marshal, who lost his home in the fire triggered by Sandy. "What we have is either gone or needs attention. But going forward, you know, if we just ignore this process, then you really can't complain about what the outcome is." View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com. The Big Day is here: What to watch for when results roll in Outside of the church-turned polling station -- where sanitation workers had cleared large piles of household items, such as chairs and a child's rocking horse -- others agreed about the importance of voting. "Voting is the first step toward recovery," said Tom Frank, 51, who is unemployed and came with his partner Michele Nagel and their three-year-old daughter, Samantha, to vote. "From the storm and then economically ... this is moving forward," he added.  David Friedman / NBC News Michele Nagel, Tom Frank and their daughter Samantha Nagel Frank, after voting on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, at St. Genevieve Church in the Roxbury neighborhood of Breezy Point, N.Y. "The first thing we're doing today is taking care of this and then the mess," chimed in Nagel, a director of youth programs at the Fashion Institute of Technology, laughing. On their minds were "the ability to rebuild quickly and not have that interference from the city or any of the government offices that might be interested poking their noses around here," she said. "We want to build our community the way that it was." Related stories
Temperatures, meantime, across the Northeast have been dipping into the low 30s, and nearly one million homes and businesses remained without power as of Tuesday morning. "It feels extra important today because you have the opportunity to influence the state of things right now, which is a disaster," Renee Kearney of Point Pleasant Beach, a 41-year-old project manager for an information technology company, told the NBC New York. One displaced voter heads to the polls in New Jersey town devastated by Sandy Nikolas Policastro, 20, voted at a 38-foot mobile polling station in Ocean County, N.J., set up by the local board of elections. "I feel it's important to have a voice. Everyone can complain that the president and Congress aren't doing a good job, but if you don't vote, then you don't have a say," he said. But for some, the cleanup continued unabated and voting was not a top priority. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy In Breezy Point, many residents were clearing out their homes and were upset about the lack of help being provided by the American Red Cross or other government agencies. Much of the cleanup there, like elsewhere, is left up to the home owners and their friends. Richard Mele, a 68-year-old retired New York City firefighter, was pumping out the water from his flooded basement to try and salvage any keepsakes ahead of the nor'easter. He said he would vote on the way out later Tuesday.  David Friedman / NBC News Breezy Point resident Richard Mele, 68, looks over some fishing tackle he salvaged from his flooded home on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Breezy Point, N.Y. He said voting was not his top priority. "We've got a lot more important things to worry about, you know," he said, as a generator hummed in the background and while standing in front of a table bearing rare wooden, handmade fishing lures. "This is my whole life here, you know what I'm saying. My house is gone." The water would re-enter his basement on Wednesday, he added. "It's going to rain three inches, it's going right in my basement." "When it rains it pours," he said. "We're down and it's just going to keep kicking us." NBC News' John Makely contributed to this report. |
Staten Island 'desperate' for underwear, official says
 Seth Wenig / AP A sign directs people to a polling site in a school that also serves as a donation site for victims of Superstorm Sandy in the Midland Beach section of Staten Island, N.Y., on Tuesday. By Miguel Llanos, NBC News Hundreds of families on the south shore of Staten Island, one of the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy, have received more than enough donations of most kinds of clothing but are in desperate need of underwear, the borough president said Tuesday. "What we do need right now ... is underwear. Undergarments for children and adults," Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro told "Good Day New York," a local TV program on Fox. "That's what we need. That's what we're in desperate need of." "It's like a third world nation," he said of the destruction on the island's south shore. Donation centers have had to stop taking shirts and pants because of a deluge of those items, Molinaro added. "I have a warehouse full of clothing," he said. Molinaro added that many families are refusing to leave their damaged homes due to fears of looting, even with the danger of a nor'easter on the horizon. NBC 4 New York reports on looting fears; view more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com. Molinaro said he would be working to convince those people to get to shelters. "I've got to get them out of their homes by tonight," he said. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday said that police would be urging some areas along Staten Island's southern shore to evacuate before Wednesday's forecast arrival of the nor'easter. Molinaro also had nothing but praise for the relief effort, after initially ripping into the American Red Cross for not getting donations to the area for four days. At the end of the long interview, Molinaro reiterated his major plea. "We do need undergarments, badly," he said. More content from NBCNews.com:
|
Gunman kills 1, wounds 4 at Calif. company, police say
| Fresno authorities said that one person is dead and four others are wounded, including the suspected gunman, in a workplace shooting at a food service company. By NBC News and wire services One person was killed and four were wounded Tuesday by a gunman at a food service equipment company in Fresno, Calif., police said. The suspected gunman, a co-worker of the victims, was found outside the plant with "appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer told reporters. Two of the victims are in critical condition: A 34-year-old worker at the plant who was shot in the head and a 28-year-old male employee who was hit in the neck, Dyer said. A 32-year-old woman was shot in the lower back, but is in good condition, police said. The suspect was identified as Lawrence Jones, 42. He has an "extensive criminal history," Dyer added.  KSEE 24 First aid responders treat a person at the scene of the shooting in Fresno, Calif., Tuesday morning. The shooting occurred at the Apple Valley Farms plant in the central part of the city. Apple Valley Farms, Inc., is a food service equipment company that was established in 2005, according to online business records. A call to the company went to a voicemail recording that said "due to an emergency we are closed for the day." The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. More content from NBCNews.com:
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)