NASA to fix cabin leak aboard shuttle

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- With a launch countdown looming, NASA scrambled to fix a cabin leak aboard space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday.

Endeavour's planned liftoff is August 7.

The leak was traced overnight to one of two pressure-relief valves in Endeavour's crew cabin, located behind the toilet but separate from the bathroom plumbing, said NASA spokesman George Diller.
NASA decided late Wednesday afternoon to replace the bad valve with one taken from space shuttle Atlantis. The newly installed component will be tested Thursday.
A problem with one of two thermostats for one of Endeavour's auxiliary power units also cropped up. Engineers initially thought both thermostats would need to be replaced, but they concluded that the faulty one is good enough to fly as is and, besides, the system has built-in redundancy, Diller said. These units generate power for the shuttle's crucial hydraulic systems.
All the extra work can be completed in time for Endeavour's planned liftoff Tuesday, Diller said, but it will be tight and anything else -- like more thunderstorms or mechanical problems -- could force NASA to postpone the flight to the international space station.
Storms already interrupted work at the shuttle launch pad and forced a one-day postponement for the launch of NASA's Mars lander, Phoenix, now scheduled for Saturday.
The shuttle countdown is expected to begin on time Saturday night, and managers will assess the workload Sunday and decide whether a Tuesday launch is still achievable, Diller said. Phoenix may factor into that decision. NASA has only three weeks to launch the Mars lander before standing down for two years, and officials may decide to put Phoenix ahead of Endeavour.
NASA needs at least two days between launch attempts for the lander and the shuttle.
Endeavour will carry Barbara Morgan, a schoolteacher-turned-astronaut who was Christa McAuliffe's backup in 1986. McAuliffe was aboard the Challenger when it broke apart shortly after liftoff. E-mail to a friend

(www.cnn.com)

Mortgage Lender Says It Will Close

By ERIC DASH
Published: August 3, 2007
American Home Mortgage Investment, the troubled mortgage lender based in Melville, N.Y., will close today, making it the latest company to fail this year as loans made to home buyers, some even with solid credit histories, go bad.
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In a news release issued last night, American Home Mortgage said that that it would lay off all but 750 of its 7,000 employees “in light of liquidity issues resulting from disruptions” in the secondary mortgage market.
“Conditions in both the secondary mortgage market as well as the national real estate market have deteriorated to the point that we have no realistic alternative,” Michael Strauss, the chief executive of American Home Mortgage said in a statement.
The company said it was shutting down all but its thrift and servicing businesses “to preserve the value of its remaining assets.”
On its Web site last night, the company said it was no longer taking any loan applications.
Calls to A.H.M. offices and e-mail messages were not returned last night.
While the problems facing A.H.M. were widely known, the speed of the company’s unraveling came as a surprise.
Last Friday, the company halted its quarterly dividend payment in a last-ditch effort to come up with capital. Several big investment banks issued margin calls on the debt that the company used to buy mortgage-backed securities, which included its loans and those made by other lenders, and it said it was unable to finance mortgages.
“The disruption in the credit markets in the past few weeks has been unprecedented in the company’s experience and has caused major write-downs of its loan and security portfolios,” A.H.M. said in securities filings. This “consequently has caused significant margin calls with respect to its credit facilities,” the filing said.
Reports of A.H.M.’s plans to shut down were first reported on the Web site for Newsday.
A.H.M. is the latest home lender to fall this year and comes as other companies in the mortgage business are sounding alarms.
Yesterday, Accredited Home Lenders Holding, a San Diego-based subprime mortgage company being acquired by Lone Star Funds, said that its own sale was in jeopardy and that bankruptcy was possible. Its shares lost more than a third of their value.
“Several of our competitors have recently stopped originating loans or sought protection under bankruptcy laws,” Accredited Home Lenders said in public filings. “We may suffer a similar fate.”
Meanwhile, Michael Perry, the chief executive of IndyMac Bancorp, another mortgage company, told employees it was making “very major changes” to its lending standards in what he suggested would be a prolonged disruption in the secondary mortgage markets. Unlike previous ones that lasted few weeks or so, IndyMac has “to be prudent and assume that this present disruption, which appears broader and more serious, might take longer to correct,” he wrote.
But the end of American Home came abruptly. Until recently, it was one of the fastest-growing and largest mortgage companies in the country. It specialized in adjustable-rate mortgages that in the first few years required borrowers to pay the interest or a minimum payment that was even smaller than that. It catered to homeowners with high credit scores and had an extensive network of retail branches, mortgage brokers and correspondent banks.
California, Florida, Illinois, Virginia and New York accounted for 46 percent of the loans American Home Mortgage held for investment at the end of March. A third of the mortgages were pay-option loans that allowed borrowers to make less than the interest payment on the loan by adding the deferred payments to the principal amount of the loan.
At the start of the year, A.H.M. seemed to defy the problems that were plaguing its industry. In the first three months, the company made $16.7 billion in home loans, up 27.2 percent from the same period in 2006.
And as recently as late June, the company said it expected to pay a dividend even though it would lose money in the second quarter because of rising delinquencies on its home loans and demands by investors that it buy back defaulted mortgages.
Those loans were popular with affluent borrowers and speculators during the housing boom, when rising home prices made them seem safe. Now, however, as home prices fall, defaults are rising.

(http://www.newyorktimes.com/)

Survivors, witnesses tell of escapes from Minneapolis bridge collapse

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Some dropped with the collapsing bridge into the waters of the Mississippi River and swam to safety, while others leaped from their cars over yawning gaps of asphalt to solid ground.

Vehicles are scattered along the broken remains of the Interstate 35W bridge.

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Survivors and witnesses cried and hugged each other as rescue crews tried to save who they could and gauge the scope of the catastrophic collapse of the eight-lane bridge. At least seven people died.
Dennis Winegar of Houston, Texas, said he felt the Interstate 35W bridge start to shake. "I slammed on my brakes and saw something in front of me disappear and then my car pointed straight down and we fell." He estimated they dropped about 50 feet.
"I just reacted, put my foot on the brakes and started praying we didn't flip over," he said. "When I got out ... there was a car lodged underneath me and one right next to me."
His wife, Jamie Winegar, said everyone around them got out of their cars and tried to help each other off the bridge. "There were a bunch of people right around there helping everyone. Angels is what I call them." See the twisted remains of the bridge »
Peter Siddons was on his commute home north when he heard "crunching" and saw the bridge start to roll and then crumple, he told the Star Tribune. "It kept collapsing, down, down, down until it got to me."
His car dropped with the bridge but stopped when his car rolled into the car in front of him. He got out of his car, jumped over the crevice between the highway lanes and crawled up the steeply tilted section of broken bridge and jumped to the ground. See where it happened »
"I thought I was dead," said the senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. "Honestly, I honestly did. I thought it was over."
Caught on the span was a school bus filled with children on their way back from a day of swimming, said Ryan Watkins, one of the children. He said the bus bounced twice and stopped, its front door wedged against a concrete traffic barrier. They fled through the rear door. Watch a witness describe what he saw from his window »

(www.cnn.com)

Papers: Court date set

Court hearing ushers Tevez towards door

A High Court judge yesterday pushed Carlos Tevez one step closer to Manchester United, when he set a date for the player's owners to serve an injunction on West Ham – pervent them from halting his move. But the sub-plot before Mr Justice Blackburn in the Chancery Division of the High Courts of Justice was even more dramatic. Tevez's "owners", led by Kia Joorabchian, produced a secret document that seriously questioned the credibility of West Ham over the player's ownership. The club will get the chance to put their case when the injunction is heard over three days from August 22 and Joorabchian aims to subpoena chairman Eggert Magnusson and chief executive Scott Duxbury to give evidence.
Harry Harris, Daily Express

The Daily Express also report that Sir Alex is resigned to losing Alan Smith. A number of clubs have expressed interest in the striker, with Everton thought to be the current front-runners.

Yesterday's press conference by the manager provided plenty of fuel for the tabloids, with The Daily Star leading on Sir Alex's comments on Gabriel Heinze's rumoured move to Liverpool. The United boss said the Merseyside club can "do what they like" to try and prize the defender away from Old Trafford. They won't get their man, he asserts.

Meanwhile, The Sun have printed extracts from former Sheffield United boss Neil Warnock's book. Warnock was disappointed by Sir Alex's team selection on the final day of last season and says United's failure to beat West Ham ultimately condemned the Blades to relegation. "I felt really let down… I found myself cheering for Chelsea [in the FA Cup final]."

The Mirror claim Owen Hargreaves will make his debut this weekend… but not in the Community Shield. Instead, the former Bayern Munich midfielder is expected to turn out for the Reds on Saturday when Sir Alex takes a United XI to Peterborough.

Round up by Nick Coppack

(www.manutd.com)