When Jack Slivinski Jr., a member of Philadelphia's elite fire rescue squad, killed himself last June, friends and family partly blamed the humiliating suspension he endured after he posed barechested for a firefighters' fund-raising calendar without department permission.
However, few people were aware that the caring, 32-year-old former Marine had been quietly drowning in survivor's guilt in the seven years since his supervisor suffered fatal burns racing into a collapsing building to rescue Slivinski and another firefighter, unaware they'd both gotten out. Read more...
It was such a clear day, perfect weather for a private pilot who was flying his little Piper plane north of Washington, D.C.
Only trouble was, he had not watched a television or heard the radio all day, and it was Sept. 11, 2001. So he got quite a shock when he turned to see an F-16 flown by Lt. Col Dean Eckmann hovering right on his wing. Read more...
Since the book leaked, much of the coverage on Dick Cheney’s memoir has focused on the portions he devotes to national security and foreign affairs during his time as vice president.
But Cheney’s political career began well before 2000, and “In My Time” includes more than a few behind-the-scenes nuggets spanning his time in the Nixon, Ford and first Bush administrations, as well as his tenure as a member of Congress from Wyoming. Read more...
Hurricane Irene never reached above a Category 3 hurricane as it moved up the eastern seaboard. But media coverage of the storm easily reached Category 5 proportions.
On one hand, columnist George Will dubbed it “synthetic hysteria,” while the Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz noted, "Cable news was utterly swept away by the notion that Irene would turn out to be Armageddon." Read more...
If this was a test, the collection of East Coast governors known for their national ambitions passed.
With the memory of Hurricane Katrina forever serving as an object lesson in crisis management gone awry, the group of potential 2016 contenders whose states stud the coastline — Republicans Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie and Democrats Andrew Cuomo and Martin O’Malley — appear to have endured Hurricane Irene with burnished reputations after an uncommonly ferocious storm where executive missteps could have cost even more lives. Read more...
The only thing worse than getting flooded out of your home once is getting flooded out of it twice. Or, for that matter, over and over again.
Margaret Wert bought her Wayne, New Jersey house in 1999, relying on assurances from her realtor that any occasional flooding would only amount to an inch or two of water. A week after closing, Hurricane Floyd put four feet of water in her basement. Read more...
Joining us on the Squawk News line with more on the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, Joe Allbaugh. Thanks for joining us this morning. Read the transcript and watch the video.
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