The Lo Zone

A 3-year-old boy, his throat slit, dies along with his brother, mother and aunt while his father is serving in Iraq. Hikers find a librarian and her daughter shot to death along a trail. A group of young men are fired on when they pull their car into a driveway.

The crimes left nine people dead in as many days, stunning this generally peaceful region. Law enforcement officials said they couldn't recall a similar string of multiple homicides in the Seattle area.

"What's really strange about them, besides the quantity, is that every one of these cases is very bizarre," King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said. "We just don't have that."

The Seattle area is no stranger to horrific crimes — serial killers Gary Ridgway and Ted Bundy, for example, and the unsolved assassination of federal prosecutor Tom Wales in 2001.

In a dramatic turnaround from her first murder trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday in the drowning of her (FIVE!!!!!) children in the bathtub.

Byron Harmon is the author of two earlier novels, All The Women I’ve Loved (Pocket, 2002) and Mistakes Men Make (Pocket, 2005). He is the executive producer for the WCBS TV Early Morning News in New York City.

An eighth day of intense heat pushed electricity usage to a peak of 50,270 megawatts — a record for California...

[...]

Meanwhile, utilities in the St. Louis area and New York City labored to restore power to hundreds of thousands whose electricity was knocked out by storms and equipment failures.

[...]

Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power in California on Sunday because of heavy electricity use and high temperatures that caused transformers and other equipment to overheat.

Some 50,000 customers in northern California still were without electricity, including 35,000 in San Jose and the East Bay, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. About 20,000 Los Angeles customers also remained without electricity.

A nursing home patient in Stockton died from heat-related stress Sunday after the Beverly Healthcare Center's air conditioning gave out, police said.

Among possible heat-related deaths was a man in his 40s found on a lawn Sunday in Fresco County with a body temperature above 109 degrees. Also, a 73-year-old woman died in Yolo County after passing out in a car without air conditioning and a woman collapsed and died while walking from her home to a drugstore not far from Death Valley National Park, where temperatures hit 125 degrees Sunday.

[...]

In Arizona, authorities said heat may have contributed to the deaths of as many as four other men in the Phoenix area over the weekend. The deaths came during a three-day streak of record-breaking temperatures in Phoenix. The temperature soared to 114 degrees Sunday, breaking the record of 112 set in 1906.

Isn't it?

“I didn’t even know that Christian fiction existed,” she said. “I knew that I wanted write a book that was entertaining, compelling and put God in the middle and still have the book be a page-turner.”

Since those early days, Murray’s books have regularly earned her spot on the Essence magazine’s bestseller’s list and garnered her a nomination for a 2001 NAACP Image Award.

The Wheatley Book Award honors the memory of the late African-American poet Phillis Wheatley. The award recognizes literary excellence and achievement that transcends cultural boundaries and perceptions, according to Max Rodriguez, the former publisher of QBR—The Quarterly Black Book Review and founder of the Harlem Book Fair. Past recipients include Dr. Maya Angelou, Maryse Conde, Carol Jenkins and Haki Madhubuti. In addition to Murray, this year’s honorees are Walter Dean Myers, author of the 1993 biography of Malcolm X; Omar Tyree, the outspoken author of 13 books that mainly focus on urban hip-hop culture; Chester Higgins, a photojournalist whose works have appeared in the New York Times, Black Enterprise and Art News; and Jan Carew, an educator and author whose works incorporate some of his experiences as an educator and author in Europe, Guyana and the U.S.

"They're pulling out their hair, they're crying, they're saying 'What's going on?' They're being rejected from the American Embassy," [...] "The American Embassy is still saying, 'We will call you.' That's all that they will say."

July 12 - Hezbollah gunmen kill three Israeli soldiers and kidnap two. Israeli forces retaliate by pounding Lebanon. Beirut International Airport is bombed. The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon urges Americans to review their security and travel plans.

July 13 - The embassy urges American citizens to avoid nonessential travel in Lebanon.

July 14 - The embassy authorizes the families of embassy staff members and non-emergency American employees to leave. It urges Americans in Lebanon to evaluate their security and consider departing, and it advises those who remain to keep low profiles and vary times and routes for all required travel.

July 15 - The embassy announces that it's working with the Department of Defense on a plan to help American citizens depart Lebanon through the island nation of Cyprus. The State Department reminds Americans that it doesn't provide free transportation for evacuees, but says it's authorized to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need.

July 16 - U.S. Marine Corps helicopters begin ferrying small numbers of Americans from the embassy compound north of Beirut to Cyprus.

July 17 - The Pentagon announces that it's contracted a Greek cruise ship, the Orient Queen, escorted by an American destroyer, to evacuate Americans from Lebanon. There are an estimated 25,000 Americans in Lebanon; the ship can carry 750 passengers.

July 18 - The embassy announces that it's "monitoring the situation in Lebanon closely" and "reviewing all options" for assisting Americans who want to leave. The embassy says further information will be released by the media and in embassy announcements and warden messages. Americans who wish to depart are told that they should prepare passports and other important travel documents, including birth certificates, marriage certificates and medical records. Those who leave will be allowed one small suitcase.

Americans seeking U.S. Embassy for help in leaving the country had been asked to sign promissory notes...

Hours later, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reversed course.

"We want to do everything we can to facilitate the departure of American citizens from Lebanon," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "Today's step removes one potential worry for our citizens at this difficult time."