Heavy rains, mud slides wash away Christmas spirit in California

LOS ANGELES -- Many Californians who endured flooding, mud slides and evacuations during a weeklong onslaught of rain now must clean up or even rebuild -- and some may not be able to spend Christmas at home.

The storm's push across the West left a muddy mess Thursday across southern California and the threat of avalanches in Nevada, where Clark County officials urged residents of Mt. Charleston, near Las Vegas, to leave after snowslides near two mountain hamlets.

Preliminary damage estimates throughout California were already in the tens of millions of dollars and were expected to rise. The inland region of southern California east of Los Angeles was among the hardest-hit areas, especially San Bernardino County.

In Highland, people were literally chased from their homes by walls of mud and water. They returned Thursday to find as many as 70 homes, some with Christmas presents under the tree, inundated with mud several feet deep. Highland officials estimate the storm caused $17.2 million in damage to homes, cars and a bridge that was washed away.

Leslie Constante burst into tears when she approached her parents' house and saw a red tag slapped on the garage, meaning authorities deemed it unsafe to enter. Out front, a holiday display with two reindeer was enveloped in mud several feet deep.

"My mom and dad worked so hard for this," said Constante, 29.

Many drivers were rescued from swamped cars. The body of Angela Wright, 39, of Menifee was recovered from a car swept off a flooded road Wednesday near Canyon Lake in Riverside County, the coroner's office said. She is the only known fatality.

In Riverside County, the damage estimate was nearing $30 million.

In Orange County, spokesman Howard Sutter issued a preliminary damage estimate of $23 million, adding that it is expected to rise. The upscale community of Laguna Beach suffered an estimated $4 million in damage to 46 businesses and 20 homes. A section of the city's popular beachfront park was washed away.

When the sun came out Thursday, however, volleyball players quickly filled what was left of the park.

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Firms licensed to do business in countries on U.S. terror list

An obscure Treasury Department office has granted licenses to major U.S. companies to do business with companies in Iran and other nations deemed state sponsors of terrorism, under a federal law that allows certain products to be exported to those countries, Treasury officials said Thursday.

The officials' remarks came after the New York Times Web site reported that the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control had granted nearly 10,000 licenses to companies to sell goods as varied as popcorn, chewing gum, cigarettes and body-building supplements.

Under federal law, U.S. companies can trade with blacklisted countries if the Treasury approves the transactions as medical or humanitarian necessities, especially in relieving famine.

In the past, the Treasury has also let U.S. companies do business with foreign firms accused of selling banned technology to blacklisted nations - sometimes as a result of political pressure.

A Treasury official said Thursday evening, after the publication of the Times article, that "the great majority of the authorized exports" are mandated under federal law, which requires that Treasury allow exports of agricultural commodities, medicine and medical goods to Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

"Because the U.S. has the toughest and most comprehensive sanctions against Iran, allowing for the exportation of food, medicine and medical devices is consistent with our objective of not hurting the Iranian people," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that all licenses granted "advance our national security and foreign policy goals."

According to the Times report, the recipients of these licenses included Kraft Foods, Pepsi and a subsidiary of Citigroup, as well as lesser-known firms.

The definition of a humanitarian or medical necessity under the federal law is so broad that companies have been able to sell products that seem not to meet those criteria. For example, the Treasury approved sales of luxury food products to chain stores in Iran owned by blacklisted Iranian banks, according to The Times.

Stuart Levey, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement Thursday night that allowing "the export to Iran of food items like hot sauce or salad dressing from the U.S. is required by statute and, in any event, is trivial in the context of our Iran policy."

The transactions have not been free of political interference.

In 2003, long before Levey took his post, the Treasury had planned to deny a medical waste plant exemption requested by a Honolulu firm seeking to buy parts from a Chinese company that had been accused of selling missile technology to Iran and Pakistan.

But Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) intervened on behalf of the Honolulu firm, whose owner was a political supporter and financial contributor. A Treasury official confirmed the account.

An Inouye spokesman, Peter Boylan, told the Times that the senator's advocacy on behalf of the firm had nothing to do with the political contribution.

Boylan told the Post in a statement Thursday that the firm "committed to the transaction prior to implementation of the ban and without the [parts] his business would have failed immediately and more than 90,000 pounds of untreated medical waste would have been left unattended on the docks of an Oahu port." ]

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Sick Holbrooke a 'tough son of a gun' : Obama

US President Barack Obama said Monday that critically ill veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke was a "tough son of a gun" and would put up a tremendous fight for his life in a Washington hospital.

Holbrooke, who has undergone many hours of surgery for a torn aorta, serves as the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, after a career spanning nearly 50 years at the pinnacle of US diplomacy.

"We are thinking and praying for you and for Richard every single day," Obama told members of Holbrooke's family at a diplomatic holiday reception at the State Department.

"Richard is relentless, he never stops," Obama said. "America is more secure and the world is a safer place because of the work of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.

"He is a tough son of a gun so, we are confident that as hard as this is, that he is going to be putting up a tremendous fight."

Earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Canada that Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war, remained in stable but "very critical condition."

"He's had excellent care including many hours of surgery in the last three days," Clinton said.

"He is stable but still in very critical condition and we appreciate the outpouring of support and concern that has been evidenced from around the world."

Holbrooke, 69, fell ill on Friday, during a meeting at the State Department.

Appleby named PGA Comeback Player of the Year

Australian Stuart Appleby was named the US PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year on Monday after bouncing back from the worst season of his career to make golf history.

Appleby, who turns 40 in May, fired a final-round 59 to win the Greenbrier Classic on August 1, becoming the first player from outside the United States and only the fifth ever to fire the lowest score recorded in any PGA round.

Appleby had not broken 65 in a tour event since 2006, a span of some 358 rounds, and his prior career-low round was a 62 at Las Vegas in 2003.

AFP/Getty Images/File – Australian Stuart Appleby,
pictured in September 2010, was named the
US PGA Tour Comeback Player of the

The magical moment followed a season of frustration in 2009, one that saw Appleby finish 137th on the US PGA money list, forcing him to use a one-time exemption for being among the top 25 in career money to return in 2010.

The move led to the magical round at White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, to win the Greenbrier and a 38th-place showing on the 2010 tour in a year he capped with a victory in the Australian Masters.

"Stuart showed great perseverance in returning to the winner's circle at the Greenbrier Classic in a historic manner," US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said.

Players voted the honor to Appleby ahead of American Rocco Mediate and India's Arjun Atwal.

Atwal became the first player from India to win a PGA event when he won the Wyndham Championship only three weeks after Appleby won the Greenbrier title. It was the first US PGA title by a Monday qualifier in 24 years.

Atwal had lost his tour card the month before because he was unable to win enough money to retain his medical exemption from an injury-filled 2009 beyond eight events. The victory gave him a two-year tour exemption.

WTO panel backs US tariffs on Chinese tires

The World Trade Organization has ruled that Washington acted within its rights when it raised import taxes on Chinese tires to reduce their flow into the United States.

The trade panel dismissed China's complaint that the higher tariffs breached WTO rules.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington called the ruling released Monday "a major victory for the United States and particularly for American workers and businesses."

The dispute focused on a three-year tariff approved in September 2009 by President Barack Obama. U.S. imports of low-grade Chinese tires rose threefold to about 46 million tires between 2004 and 2008.

China can appeal the panel's verdict within 60 days to an appellate hearing panel of the WTO, the Geneva-based organization that oversees the rules of global trade.

Obama had imposed a tariff on imported tires from China. The tariffs started at 35 percent in the first year, which began in September 2009. They then fell to 30 percent in the second year and will drop to 25 percent in the third year. The United Steelworkers Union pushed for the penalty tariffs, saying a surge of tire imports from China had cost 5,000 U.S. tire workers their jobs since 2004.

The union complained after tire imports from China more than tripled from 2004 to 2008, and its market share of tires sold in the U.S. nearly quadrupled in that time.

The White House and members of Congress are under political pressure to slow Chinese imports into the United States.

In addition to union complaints, U.S. manufacturers contend China is keeping its currency, the yuan, undervalued by as much as 40 percent to make Chinese products cheaper in the United States and American goods more expensive in China.

The administration has been pressing the Chinese to move more quickly to allow the yuan to appreciate in value against the dollar. But since Beijing pledged increase currency flexibility in June, the yuan has risen in value by only about 3 percent.

The U.S. House passed legislation in September that would give the government more powers to issue tariffs against products from China and other countries that manipulate their currencies to gain trade advantages.

The Senate has yet to take up the legislation. But Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Monday they had filed the text of the House bill as a proposed amendment to a tax agreement currently being debated in the Senate. That measure would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years.

Both Snowe and Brown said it was important to U.S. workers that the Senate pass the currency bill before it adjourns for the year.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who has been pressing Beijing on the currency issue, was scheduled to hold talks Tuesday with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. Wang is leading a high-level Chinese delegation that will hold two days of talks on trade with administration officials in Washington beginning Tuesday.

Snow in northwest Indiana traps some motorists

Authorities were working frantically Monday to reach motorists in snow-covered northwest Indiana who were trapped in their cars in biting temperatures.

LaPorte County sheriff's Deputy Andy Hynek said officials don't know how many people were stranded, but that some had been stuck for as long as 12 hours and many were in a 10-mile stretch of U.S. 30.

"All the way across U.S. 30 is at a standstill and all of those vehicles are occupied," Hynek said.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for parts of northern Indiana, where heavy lake effect snow was expected to drop an additional 5 to 10 inches Monday. Overnight temperatures had dipped into the low 20s with wind chills around 5.

Indiana authorities were having a hard time reaching motorists as snow plows struggled with the high drifts and roadways that were clogged with nearly 100 abandoned cars and some jackknifed semitrailers. But the wind was causing the greatest trouble.

"As soon as the plows go through an area, the wind is blowing fresh snow right back into the roads," state highway department spokesman Jim Pinkerton said. "It is just really difficult for us to keep up against that wind and snow."

LaPorte and Porter counties issued emergency orders telling drivers to stay off the roads as the area had winds up to 30 mph.

"The problem is people are leaving their houses for reasons that they don't need to leave," Hynek said. "That's why we issued the state of emergency."

The lake-effect snow in Indiana was separate from the powerful weekend storm that carried snow and high winds across much of the upper Midwest, said National Weather Service meteorologist John Taylor.

Flights were canceled, major highways had been closed in several states and at least six weather-related deaths were reported. Schools in Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and other states shut down Monday because of the snow and low temperatures.

As temperatures in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn struggled to reach double-digits Monday morning, Jeff Smith was digging out his car in his driveway — with no gloves or hat.

"Gloves make it hard to shovel and my hair is still wet. So it's either you get a cold or you mess up your hair, so I risk the cold," said Smith, 57, a 30-plus-year Ford Motor Co. employee who's glad that his job is close to home.

The storm was headed northeast toward Canada, according to the National Weather Service, with some snow possible Monday in Michigan and through parts of Pennsylvania and New York. Nearly 2 feet of snow fell in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin during the weekend.

In Minneapolis, heavy snow caused the inflatable roof of the Metrodome to collapse Sunday. Video inside the stadium aired by Fox Sports showed the inflatable Teflon roof sagging before it tore open, dumping massive amounts of snow across one end of the playing field.

No one was hurt, but the Vikings' game against the New York Giants had to be moved to Detroit's Ford Field. The day of the game had already been pushed back from Sunday to Monday because the storm kept the Giants from reaching Minneapolis on time. Stadium officials were trying to repair the roof in time for the Vikings' next home game, Dec. 20 against Chicago.

In the Chicago area, only a few inches of snow fell, but wind gusts of up to nearly 50 mph blew the roof off a building at Navy Pier and canceled at least 1,375 flights at O'Hare International Airport and more than 300 at Midway International Airport. The cancelations left some travelers stranded overnight at O'Hare, where officials set up about 200 cots.

On Monday, about 75 flights were canceled, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride said.

Associated Press writers Jeff Karoub in Dearborn, Mich., Andale Gross in Chicago, Dirk Lammers in Sioux Falls, S.D., David Goodman in Detroit, Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee and Patrick Condon in Minneapolis contributed to this report.