UPDATE: The watch area has been reduced but some East African countries have issued tsunami warnings. ==================================== Remember the massively destructive Indonesian tsunami in 2004? The same area has just had two major earthquakes (8.6, 8.2) and a tsunami watch has been issued. So far, no damage has been reported. BBC CNN

UPDATE Orlando Sentinel: Like two worried parents with a wayward child, George Zimmerman’s lawyers stood puzzled in front of the Seminole County Courthouse on Tuesday and admitted they’d lost control. Zimmerman has not talked to or communicated with them since Sunday, said Craig Sonner, one of his lawyers. Worse, Zimmerman has done two dangerous things, his lawyers said, He telephoned a special prosecutor who’s trying to put together a criminal case against him, and he called Sean...

Rick Santorum just flew the white flag. Televised announcement imminent from Gettysburg PA. The New York Times

UDDATE: AP and Memeorandum have finally noticed. Jerusalem Post: A gunman opened fire at a crowd of parents and children outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France on Monday morning, killing four people. Eyewitnesses said the unknown assailant drove up to the Ozar Hatorah school’s entrance on a black scooter around 8:00 a.m. and fired at the gatherers with a heavy-calibre firearm and a pistol. Yonathan Sandler, a 30-year-old teacher from Jerusalem; his two children Aryeh, 6, and Gavriel,...

Washington Post: Romney wins GOP caucus in American Samoa Hawaii’s polls have closed.

10:49 pm UPDATE – CNN just called MS for Santorum. 10 PM UPDATE – Alabama has been called for Santorum. Polls have closed in Alabama and Mississippi. About half the vote is in in MS while only a small percentage of AL is in. 3-Way Split Too Close To Call between Santorum, Romney & Gingrich. Romney tends to win urban and suburban areas where the vote is slower to come in. Time will tell….

Remember the old story about the Emperor with no clothes? President Barack Obama is speaking to AIPAC now. I am not watching but do see the Tweets. Obama isn’t pleasing anyone. He has no clothes. The Hill suggests that Obama’s speech is critical for retention of the Jewish vote in 2012. This is ridiculous because almost nobody trusts Obama or believes what he is saying (based on experience with what he has done).

Andrew Breitbart died suddenly last night. http://www.forward.com/articles/152273/ http://www.breitbart.tv/in-memoriam-andrew-breitbart-1969-2012/ With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart. Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles. We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior. Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live...

UPDATE: With 68 percent of the vote in, Romney has 42 percent to Santorum’s 37 percent. In Michigan, according to CNN TV, 40 percent of the vote is in and Romney has 41 percent to Santorum’s 38 percent.

The Arizona Republic: Giffords stepping down from Congress Jan. 22, 2012 11:52 AM The Republic | azcentral.com U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords announced on YouTube today that she is stepping down from Congress in a two-minute video where she thanked the community for the support as she recovered from the shooting. Giffords said she plans to focus on her recovery. Giffords’ YouTube Post (makes me want to cry also). GabbyGiffords Tweet Attn media: For full details on Rep. Giffords’ plans to step...

Israeli Ambassador to the USA Dr. Michael Oren (a native of New Jersey) spoke this evening at Cincinnati’s Mayerson JCC. It is still rather icy out and over 700 people came to hear him. These are not his exact words, just my notes on some things he said: Someone asked how we live with uncertainty – we do it every day and have done so since 1948. Keeping in mind what Iran has done without nuclear weapons, can you imagine what Iran will do with them? We want Bashar Assad to go....

Perry to endorse…Newt Gingrich! The New York Times: Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is poised to end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, according to two Republicans close to Mr. Perry, a decision that comes two days before the South Carolina primary.

To see what the New Hampshire Primary looks like from New Hampshire, visit the website of the Union-Leader.

Another Obama Chief-of-Staff bites the dust….. From a New York Times Breaking News Alert: William M. Daley, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Stepping Down, White House Officials Say William M. Daley, President Obama’s chief of staff, is stepping down, White House officials confirmed Monday. The news was first reported by The Los Angeles Times. Mr. Daley, a former commerce secretary and the son and brother of Chicago mayors, was named to the post by Mr. Obama on Jan. 6, 2011. Jacob J. “Jack”...

A post to We Are For Israel by my friend Rabbi David Jay Kaufman of Des Moines IA: So here we are with the Iowa Republican Caucus tomorrow. Friday night, we hosted Shmuel Rosner, who is in town for the Caucus and spoke about the Arab Spring at my congregation. Yesterday, I was among about forty Jews, hosted by the Chabad rabbi and a Conservative Jewish supporter of Gingrich, who met with Newt for a little over a half an hour. Tonight, I will hear from Mitt Romney at a larger gathering, hosted by...

AP: Penn State fires coach Joe Paterno, president Graham Spanier Penn State trustees fired football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier amid the growing furor over how the school handled sex abuse allegations against an assistant coach. The massive shakeup Wednesday night came hours after Paterno announced that he planned to retire at the end of his 46th season. But the outcry following the arrest of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges proved too much...

The New York Times: Joe Paterno’s tenure as coach of the Penn State football team will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks, in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal that has implicated university officials, according to two people briefed on conversations among the university’s top officials. The board of trustees has yet to determine the precise timing of Paterno’s exit, but it is clear that the man who has more victories than any other coach at college football’s top level and who made...

ABC’s Good Morning America: U.S. authorities are scrambling to sort through information that the CIA developed in the past 24 hours indicating that at least three individuals entered the U.S. in August by air with the intent to launch a vehicle-borne attack against Washington, D.C. or New York around the anniversary of 9/11, according to intelligence officials. Officials say the alleged terror plot was initiated by new al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor, who...

UPDATE: The New York Times: After the shooting the police seized a 32-year-old Norwegian man on the island, according to the police and Justice Minister Knut Storberget. He was later identified as Anders Behring Breivik and was characterized by officials as a right-wing extremist. The man was arrested in connection with both attacks. CNN: [Update: 10:20 p.m. ET, 4:20 a.m. Oslo] At least 80 people are dead as a result of a rampage Friday on Norway’s Utoya Island, police said Saturday. Norwegian...

Breaking News Alert The New York Times Friday, July 15, 2011 — 4:28 PM EDT —– Les Hinton, Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Says He Is Resigning Les Hinton, the chairman of Dow Jones, announced his resignation on Friday, joining Rebekah Brooks, the embattled chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper operations, in the exodus of top officials from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Mr. Hinton, a long-time confidant of Mr. Murdoch, ran News International, the British...