Breaking the Bubble

Hurricane Dean makes second strike in Mexico

Hurricane Dean made a second landfall after first making contact with Mexico along the Yucatán Peninsula Aug. 21. It threatens to trigger floods and mudslides in the eastern state of Veracruz as it blasts Mexico with pounding rain and winds of 160 kilometres per hour said the Australian Broadcasting Company Online. Last-minute evacuations were made of some of the more than 10,000 people ordered to head to safer ground, as Dean hit shore about 65 kilometres south-southeast of the port city of Tuxpan.

"What keeps us in a state of alert is the enormous amount of water," said Fidel Herrera, Veracruz state Governor.

The Petroleos de Mexico state oil company had earlier evacuated all 18,000 personnel from its offshore oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a production drop of two million barrels day. In Nautla, a small community near where the storm hit land, residents were riding it out in an emergency shelter set up in a sports centre. Herrera declared a state of emergency in eighty-nine Veracruz municipalities, saying a total of 3.5 million people were potentially at risk.

Falcons' Vick to plead guilty to dogfighting

Atlanta Falcons' star quarterback Michael Vick settled months of doubts about dogfighting allegations and may have put his formerly promising career in serious jeopardy, as he announced that he intends on Monday, August 27 to accept a plea bargain and enter a guilty plea.

According to the Washington Post, Vick will plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy and will face a possible recommended sentence of 12-18 months in prison. But even when he is freed from prison, he may not be able to resume his football career without serving a lengthy suspension from the NFL by commissioner Roger Goodell.

Vick originally entered a not guilty plea in July but changed his mind after his co-defendants made plea deals that included incriminating testimony against Vick.