Utah avalanche was largest in modern history

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The avalanche near Salt Lake City last year that carried enough rock, dirt and debris to bury New York's Central Park under 66 feet of rubble was North America's largest such disaster in modern history, according to University of Utah scientists.

The April 2013 rockslide sent 165 million tons of debris into a nearly mile-deep pit where it cracked bedrock and triggered unprecedented earthquakes, the researchers said in a newly published study.

"We don't know of any case until now where landslides have been shown to trigger earthquakes," said Jeff Moore, assistant professor of geology and geophysics.

There were no injuries or deaths as the slide temporarily shut down a copper mine, burying 14 giant haul trucks and leading to a series of layoffs and buyouts at Kennecott Utah Copper Corp.

"It was a creeping movement that had been developing over many months along an old fault line," Moore said Tuesday. Kennecott had been monitoring the area and evacuated workers ahead of the danger, he said.

The disaster didn't involve a volcanic explosion and was actually a pair of related slides about 90 minutes apart, said Moore, who co-authored the study together with Kris Pankow, associate director of the university's seismograph stations.

The peer-reviewed research was published Monday in the Geological Society of America's magazine, GSA Today.

The debris slides falling as fast as 100 mph crashed to earth with such force that they registered as magnitude-5 earthquakes and then triggered 16 smaller quakes where the bedrock cracked, Moore said.

Mother Nature has put on bigger shows, the scientists noted.

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington unleashed a landslide 57 times larger than Kennecott's.

Another slide about 8,000 years ago at the mouth of Zion Canyon in southern Utah was five times as large.

Orange Bowl: Clemson takes down Ohio State

Stanton Seckinger took a six-yard pass from Tajh Boyd into the end zone Friday, giving No. 12 Clemson a lead to hold for more than six minutes. Mission: accomplished.
Boyd finished 30-of-39 passing for 371 yards as the Tigers defeated No. 7 Ohio State 40-35 in the Orange Bowl.

Tajh Boyd (AP Photo)

Game details | Cotton Bowl: No. 9 Missouri steals one from Oklahoma State
Sammy Watkins had a record-setting night with 16 catches for 227 yards, converting Boyd's throws into big gains.
Boyd's pass to Seckinger put the Tigers (11-2) ahead to stay. Watkins caught two touchdown passes, plus became Clemson's career receptions leader and set an Orange Bowl record for yardage.
Martavis Bryant caught two more TD passes for the Tigers, who won their first Orange Bowl in 32 years.
Braxton Miller threw for 234 yards and Carlos Hyde ran for 113 more for Ohio State (12-2), which wasted a nine-point second-half lead. Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer lost for the first time in five career trips to the Bowl Championship Series.
For the second time in three years, Clemson fell apart at the Orange Bowl. Only this time, the Tigers found a way to recover. And thanks to Boyd, Watkins and plenty of others, the end result was Clemson's biggest win in a generation.
Miller was intercepted twice in the final 3:12, dooming the Buckeyes. Boyd threw an interception to give Ohio State the ball back, but Miller was picked again — Stephone Anthony made the play for the Tigers — and Clemson ran out the clock.
The Buckeyes had a 29-20 lead in the third after Hyde picked up 31 yards on 4th-and-inches, then went airborne to break the plane of the goal line on the next play.
Then the mistakes started coming in bunches by Ohio State. A fumbled punt return and an interception led to touchdown grabs by Watkins and Bryant, putting the Tigers up entering the fourth.
Hyde caught a 14-yard scoring pass from Miller with 11:35 left, giving the Buckeyes a one-point lead, but Clemson and Boyd went on one last scoring march to give the Tigers the BCS win they've been seeking for years.
When Clemson played in the Orange Bowl two years ago, the Tigers gave up 21 points in the final 2:29 of the first half, letting a close game get blown wide open on the way to a 70-33 loss to West Virginia.
End-of-half mistakes cost Clemson again.
Boyd's three-yard touchdown pass to Bryant had Ohio State facing a 20-9 deficit, but two scores in a 3½-minute span gave the Buckeyes a 22-20 halftime lead. Clemson left Jeff Heuerman wide open down the middle for a 57-yard touchdown pass from Miller, making it a one-score game. And on a drive aided by a 15-yard penalty against Clemson's Darius Robinson, Miller ran in from 3 yards with 12 seconds left to give the Buckeyes their first lead.
And Ohio State had to feel fortunate.
Boyd went 48 yards untouched — his longest career run — for a touchdown that opened the scoring. The Buckeyes tied it on the ensuing drive, catching a break when a third-down sack by Vic Beasley that would have forced a punt was rendered moot by his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Heuerman pulled off a fake punt later in the drive, and Miller eventually rumbled 33 yards to tie the game.
Boyd found Watkins for a 34-yard score to put Clemson back on top. Ohio State answered with a safety, sacking Boyd one play after Armani Reeves brilliantly downed a punt at the 1, putting the ball on the turf with his left hand as his right hand was touching the orange paint in the Clemson end zone.
Contributing: Associated Press

Brunch Recipes Worth Waking Up For

There's no better way to end a lazy morning than with a hot brunch. Skip the usual mad dash of a breakfast routine in favor of this languorous ritual that begs for more time preparing and enjoying the first meal of the day. New twists on classics like baked eggs with rosemary and parmesan cheese will give your brunch a kick. When you're not sure if you're in the mood for breakfast or lunch, combine the two in dishes like pizza topped with bacon and a fried egg.
Whether you're entertaining friends or just spending a quiet morning with the kids

 http://www.kitchendaily.com/read/6-brunch-recipes-worth-waking?ncid=webmail9

Oklahoma beats Alabama, 45-31, in Sugar Bowl

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- In the final year of the BCS, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops won the one major bowl that had eluded him, and proved a point about parity in the process.

After taking the past month to cultivate a young quarterback who was still coming into his own, Stoops brought a confident and motivated Sooners squad to the Sugar Bowl, where they stunned 16-point favorite Alabama 45-31 on Thursday night.

Freshman Trevor Knight completed a Sugar Bowl-record 32 passes for 348 yards and four touchdowns for 11th-ranked Oklahoma, outshining Heisman Trophy runner-up AJ McCarron, who saw his otherwise charmed college career come to a sour end with No. 3 Alabama.

The convincing victory also gave Stoops an I-told-you-so moment, backing up his comment last offseason that the gap between the Southeastern Conference and other top leagues like the Big 12 is not as great as some "propaganda" makes it out to be.

"I have the utmost respect for Alabama, and I think this shows that obviously we can play with anybody," Stoops said. "So, enough of that. And I just watched them go through their entire conference and play pretty well. I'm not pointing any fingers. But I think sometimes the comparisons aren't necessarily very true."

Stoops became the first coach to win all four BCS bowl games, having already won the Orange, Rose and Fiesta bowls.

Before the game Stoops had provided an element of mystery by declining to say whether he would start Knight or junior Blake Bell, or how much he'd play either one.

Alabama led 7-0 - having scored on the opening drive - before Stoops made his decision know by sending Knight out with the offense for Oklahoma's first series. Knight had played behind Bell much of the season. His completion percentage entering the game was 52.2. He had completed 47 passes all season - before a breakout performance in which two of his TDs went for more than 40 yards.

"It's huge for our program, to get a win like this after no one gave us a chance all year," Knight said. "We've got to ride this into next year. We can't settle with this. ... We want the big one."

Oklahoma (11-2) needed him to play that well in the 80th Sugar Bowl, the first in which quarterbacks for both teams threw for more than 300 yards.

His Big 12 team vanquished an Alabama (11-2) squad that had been ranked No. 1 much of the past three seasons, winning the previous two national titles before its shot at a third straight was derailed by Auburn on the last play of the Iron Bowl in late November.

Coach Nick Saban didn't find his team, favored by 16 points, was too deflated from its loss to Auburn to play up to its standard.

"I actually thought that the players responded in practice pretty well for this game," Saban said. "We put over 500 yards of offense up. Somebody had to do something right. I don't think that we played as well on defense as we're capable of or should have."

McCarron passed for 387 yards and two TDs, but his two interceptions set up Oklahoma TDs. He was also sacked seven times, fumbling on the last one, and Geneo Grissom returned his second recovery of the game 8 yards for a score, sealing Alabama's first two-game skid since its Sugar Bowl loss to Utah in January 2009.

"Put it all on me. I had two turnovers, (Oklahoma) ended up scoring 14 points, and we lost by 14," said McCarron, who won 36 of his first 38 games before losing his last two. "I wish it wouldn't have happened, but I'll definitely take the loss and definitely take the blame, because a lot of it is probably my fault."

Freshman Derrick Henry's 43-yard run in the third quarter pulled Alabama to 31-24. But Alabama was unable to add another score before Knight found his groove again.

He lofted a perfect pass to Lacoltan Bester for a 34-yard gain to the Alabama 9. Shortly after, Knight rolled left all the way to the sideline before rifling a touchdown strike to Sterling Shepard, making it a two-touchdown game again with 10:44 left.

Henry pulled Alabama within a score once more when he turned his first career reception into a tackle-shedding 61-yard TD with 6:22 to go, but Oklahoma didn't fold.

Early on, Alabama looked sharp, leading 7-0 when T.J. Yeldon scored from the 1.

Soon after, Landon Collins intercepted Knight's tipped pass, but Oklahoma got it right back on Gabe Lynn's interception on the next play. One play later, Knight found Bester for a 45-yard score.

Jalen Saunders first TD reception from 8 yards out gave Oklahoma a 14-10 lead, but McCarron's 67-yard TD to DeAndrew White gave the Tide the lead right back.

With the game tied at 17, Alabama appeared on the verge of another go-ahead score when Yeldon fumbled on the 8. Instead, Oklahoma took the lead for good when Knight hit Saunders in stride down the right sideline for a 43-yard score.

Busy winter storm brings snow, cold to Northeast

BOSTON (AP) - A blustering post-Christmas snowstorm that has dropped nearly 2 feet of snow just north of Boston, shut down major highways in New York and forced U.S. airlines to cancel thousands of flights nationwide is continuing its bitter cold journey through the Northeast.
The brutal weather - which brought plummeting temperatures to some areas that forecasters predicted could see highs just above zero and wind chill readings of minus 10 degrees and colder by early Friday - dumped 21 inches of snow in Boxford, Mass., late Thursday night and 18 inches in parts of western New York near Rochester. In Central Park early Friday, the National Weather Service said just over 3 inches of snow had fallen.
The snowfall, frigid cold and stiff winds extended Christmas break for some students while posing the first test for New York City's new mayor and perhaps the last challenge for Boston's outgoing one.
U.S. airlines canceled more than 2,300 flights due to snowfall and low visibility.
"It's been a tough road," said traveler Heather Krochuk, of Toronto, Canada, inside a Boston hotel Thursday night after her flight home out of Logan International Airport got canceled in what's turned into a 36-hour trip from Seattle, where she spent Christmas with her husband, Ron.
But, she said, "we have a place to sleep that isn't the airport."
Snow began falling overnight Wednesday in parts of New England and New York state, but the brunt of the storm began late Thursday.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Cape Cod, coastal areas north and south of Boston and part of Maine as well as New York's Long Island.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said state offices that closed early Thursday would remain closed on Friday. He said National Guard members and state police were on standby for any high tide flooding in vulnerable coastal areas, but no mandatory evacuations had been ordered.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered three major highways in his state, stretching from Long Island to Albany, closed overnight. The highways were expected to reopen at 5 a.m. Friday.
As of late Thursday in Connecticut, about 3 inches of snow had fallen in Hartford County, and 3 inches were reported in East Hartford and Simsbury. Parts of New Hampshire had 5.5 inches, and areas of Rhode Island had more than 2.
Outreach teams looked to get homeless people off the frigid streets of New York City and Boston.
Staff members at the Pine Street Inn were keeping the Boston shelter open 24 hours and said they would turn no one away, even if it meant setting up extra cots in lobbies and other common areas.
The heavy weather began rolling in just a day after New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was sworn in to lead the nation's largest city and a few days before Boston Mayor Thomas Menino ends 20 years in office on Monday.
De Blasio, who as public advocate in 2010 criticized his predecessor Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his handling of a large snowstorm, dispatched hundreds of plows and salt spreaders on the streets as soon as the snow started falling Thursday night. Forecasters said that while only 3 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park by early Friday, up to 8 inches were still expected in the city.
"If you don't need to go out, please don't go out," de Blasio said at a press conference Thursday evening, urging residents to use mass transit. "Stay off the streets, stay out of your cars."
Across the region, state and local police were busy responding to accidents and reports of stranded vehicles.
Amtrak planned to run trains on all of its Northeast lines on Friday but operate on a modified schedule, spokeswoman Christina Leeds said.
As the storm approached, a worker at a suburban Philadelphia salt storage facility was killed when a 100-foot-tall pile of road salt fell and crushed him. Falls Township police said the man was trapped while operating a backhoe. There was no word on what may have caused the accident.
Douglass Bibule shopped for rock salt and other supplies at a home improvement store in Watertown, N.Y.
"Well, there will be some shoveling that I will have to do and some sanding," he said. "I've got to go home and do some stretching exercises to make sure I don't hurt myself while doing that, and do a little shopping to make sure that we have all the supplies that we need. We need food because we have three older children at home."
The snowstorm worked its way east from the Midwest, where it dropped up to a foot of snow on Michigan and more than a foot in parts of Illinois, prompting the cancellation Thursday of hundreds of flights at both Chicago airports.
Nearly 17 inches of snow fell in some of Chicago's northern suburbs, and more than 12 inches of snow was recorded at Midway International Airport.

Robin Roberts publicly acknowledges girlfriend

After an incredibly difficult year that included battling a rare blood disorder called MDS and receiving a successful bone marrow transplant, Robin Roberts is looking back on 2013 with gratitude.

In an end-of-year Facebook post on Sunday, Dec. 29th, the 'GMA' host writes:

"At this moment I am at peace and filled with joy and gratitude. I am grateful to God, my doctors and nurses for my restored good health," she wrote. "I am grateful for my sister, Sally-Ann, for being my donor and giving me the gift of life. I am grateful for my entire family, my long time girlfriend, Amber, and friends as we prepare to celebrate a glorious new year together. I am grateful for the many prayers and well wishes for my recovery. I return every one of them to you 100 fold. On this last Sunday of 2013 I encourage you to reflect on what you are grateful for too."

Though the two have been together for 10 years, PEOPLE reports, this is the first time she is publicly revealing the very special woman who has been by her side in sickness and in health: Amber Laign.

Media Bistro reports that Laign is a licensed massage therapist and a San Francisco Bay area native. Laign and Roberts reportedly met through mutual friends.

Jahi McMath's Family Wants To Transfer Her To Nursing Home

 
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A lawyer for the family of a 13-year-old girl who was declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy says Jahi McMath's relatives want to transfer her to a nursing home that is willing to keep caring for her.
But lawyer Christopher Dolan said Thursday that doctors at Children's Hospital Oakland need to insert breathing and feeding tubes into the girl before the nursing home can take her.
Dolan declined to name the care facility, but said it is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and is not equipped to perform surgeries.
Children's Hospital wants to take Jahi off life support, a move that her family opposes.
A judge this week gave the hospital permission to proceed after 5 p.m. on Monday to give the girl's mother time to appeal.