Theresa Maggio

The newlyweds were very young, barely past 18 years of age. They had 200 guests at their reception. The waiters had cleared the antepasto plates and were about to serve the main course when the bride's father, noting the groom wasn't at his place, asked the waiters to hold dinner till the groom came back. But after a  Read More 

From La Repubblica:
The desperate crossings continue without letup. Today 4,500 migrants were saved at sea and along with one corpse were brought to Sicily. THe Italian Navy and Coast Guard, with an assist from a Frontex Euro border guards) ship and a non-governmental organization ship saved 4500 hundred lives in 35 rescue operations in the Straitof Sicily today.  Read More 

From La Repubblica:
PALERMO - Noureddin Atta, a confessed human trafficker from Eritrea arrested in Italy in 2015, said that sometimes the migrants don't have the money for the trip across the desert, or they make it across the Sahara but cannot find the money to cross the Mediterranean. These people are consigned to Egyptians who pay around $15,000 per migrant. They come prepared to harvest organs and transport them in thermal bags. Read More 

From The Guardian:
Italy has begun to salvage the bodies of people killed in the Mediterranean’s deadliest
modern shipwreck, in an operation that experts say is of historic scale.

The Italian navy has pulled the boat to the surface, more than 14 months after it sank in April 2015, killing about 800 people who were sailing  Read More 

From La Repubblica:
A Zodiac rubber raft full of immigrants flipped over 20 miles from the Libyan coast today and ten women were drowned, while 107 survivors were saved by the coast guard. A new tragedy that happened the same day in which the sunken fishing boat that went down 18 April 2015 in the Strait of Sicily,  Read More 

The last two rescues were the ship's 14th and 15th.
From a gray rubber raft they saved 132 migrants: of them 1 were women and 31 children, 28 of whom were unaccompanied, the youngest ten years old. Most were from Guinea-Conakry, Ivory Coast and Mali. They spent between three days and and 2 weeks in a hangar on the  Read More 

Bernie, get back in there and fight. I'm writing you in if you don't run. A lot of other people feel the same way. Click on the caption to see the petition.

From The Guardian:
Ship crews have pulled more than 2,000 refugees from overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean, Italy’s coastguard has said, as people-smugglers stepped up operations during two consecutive days of good weather.

More than 7,100 people have now been rescued from international waters since Thursday, many of them on the dangerous journey from Libya.

 Read More 

Funny, he even has a Coca Cola flavor.

Last night Palermo province was pounded by hail and thunderstorms. The hail destroyed vineyards in Corleone and peach orchards elsewhere.

Tens of fires, temperatures above 115 degrees, the sirocco blowing red sand from the Sahara have forced authorities to close nursery schools, day care centers and parts of the Palermo-Messina freeway today. Because of high winds, firefighting airplanes cannot fly.
Update: a trusted Palermo source on Palermo in Bianco e Nero's Facebook page says the column of smoke on Monte Pellegrino means thefires are menacing Santa Rosalia's sanctuary. Fires have broken out in the city in the neighborhoods of Partanna Mondello, Addaura, Vergine Maria. The Rotoli cemetery may go up in flames. People who live near the Cathedral in downtown Palermo have been evacuated. Read More