Morning Buzz: Aug. 6, 2007

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today on Palestinian turf, making Olmert the first Israeli prime minister to visit a Palestinian town in seven years.  The two leaders are expected to discuss the creation of a Palestinian state and prepare for the planned Mideast conference in the United States in November. While there has been a lot of focus on the region recently, with the latest headlines discussing a trip to Israel by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. News reported that it might just be talk, with the two sides no closer to reaching a final peace.

Crews continue to sift through the rubble of the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. The bridge, which was accustomed to carrying 140,000 vehicles a day, fell into the Mississippi River during Wednesday evening's rush hour. Five people were killed, and eight are still missing. Civil engineers were baffled by the collapse; it could take up to 18 months for an investigation to be completed. The Minnesota bridge collapse has turned lawmakers' attention to the nation's crumbling infrastructure. Many more people use highways than the system was intended to handle when it was first constructed, leading to heavy congestion in most major cities and significant wear and tear. And the highway system isn't alone. U.S. News reported on aging water and sewer systems in May. 

Not only are social-networking sites like MySpace popular with users; they are also becoming increasingly fun for computer hackers, who exploit sensitive and personal information that users type into the sites. This and other security red flags were discussed at the Black Hat and Defcon hacker conferences last week in Las Vegas.  One hacker pointed out a MySpace flaw that would allow intruders to take over personal websites and add in malicious code. Others at the conference discussed the vulnerabilities of public wireless Internet networks. For a more detailed description of hackers, U.S. News reported on the computer underground.