Atlantic

The federal government spends $20 billion every year on kidney dialysis programs, but 1 in every 4 patients dies anyway. Investigative reporter Robin Fields of the public interest research group ProPublica Communications dissects the problems in a report appearing online in the Atlantic . Highly recommended reading. In preparation for the release of the article, the umbrella group Kidney Care Partners prepared a response to the article. That is available at the ProPublica website.

Unusually warm ocean waters and favorable atmospheric conditions are expected to create an above-average number of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean this season, national weather forecasters predicted. In its latest outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there was a strong likelihood of seven to 11 hurricanes - including three to six major hurricanes with winds of at least 111 mph. Forecasters cite the convergence of several factors in May that should generate an above-average number of tropical storms over the next six months.

Hurricane Earl, never a threat to the U.S. mainland, flung its 75 m.p.h. winds farther into the open Atlantic south of Bermuda today and appeared headed for an early demise in the vastness of the cool sea.

Virgin Atlantic Airways has tapped fashion designer Vivienne Westwood to redesign its uniforms the airline announced Thursday. The partnership between the two British brands will result in newly designed -- and eco-friendly -- uniforms for about 7,500 employees, including pilots, cabin crew and ground crew. According to the announcement, Westwood's goal with the redesign is "a futuristic look, which references her enduring interest in '40s French couture cutting techniques as well as the Savile Row tailoring heritage.

Three Dutch balloonists trying to fly from North America to Europe ditched today in the Atlantic, a spokesman for the flight's control center reported. No information was available immediately on the fate of crew members Henk Brink, 43, his wife Evelien, 30, and Evert Louwman, 45. The balloon Flying Dutchman, which set out Sunday from St. John's, Newfoundland, went down about 870 miles southwest of the Irish coast.

If you've always wanted to hear Rush without Geddy Lee's grating voice, here's your chance. Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson's side project adds a hint of grunge to the clinical chops while the standard quasi-intellectual posturing of the Canadian band is supplemented by the title track's use of W.H. Auden's mini-epic of a murderous misfit. But, as with Rush, it's intellect without emotion.

Two Germans were picked up in the Atlantic by an oil tanker after their hot-air balloon splashed down during the first-ever transatlantic race in such craft, a Canadian Coast Guard official said in Halifax. The German balloon had ditched in mid-ocean about 740 miles off Newfoundland.

Blind sailor Jim Dickson was forced Friday to abort his solo attempt to cross the Atlantic when his special voice-activated navigation system failed, his spokesman said. Dickson set out from Portsmouth on Tuesday in his 36-foot sloop Eye Opener for what he had hoped would be a monthlong voyage to Plymouth, England, in a bid to become the first blind person to sail across the Atlantic alone.

The "I Swear" Kentucky heartthrob is back with yet another album full of songs expressing utter devotion and rapt attention to his sweetheart. "Love Is Our Business" adheres to the romance-novel fantasy formula that's helped him sell some 15 million albums in recent years, but it has enough lyrical spunk and musical kick to make it stand out. The only place anything remotely resembling pain or regret sneaks in is in the post-breakup ballad "When Your Arms Were Around."

After swirling around the Atlantic at hurricane strength for a week, Hurricane Earl has been downgraded to a tropical storm, the National Hurricane Center said.

The message was clear and it came with accent, attitude and a side of sauce: Don't even start with the insulting line of questioning that would somehow suggest La Salle - La Salle! - is an underdog being overshadowed in the NCAA tournament by Florida Gulf Coast. It could be misconstrued that way as No. 13 La Salle (24-9) prepares for Thursday night's West Regional semifinal game against No. 9 Wichita State (28-8) at Staples Center. In any other year, La Salle would be the darling of this dance.

Miss America is headed back home.  After a six year stint in Las Vegas, the Miss America Organization announced that it will move its namesake pageant back to Atlantic City, N.J., this September. The pageant also signed a three-year renewal of its TV deal with network partner ABC. Miss America's roots in Atlantic City extend back to 1921, when organizers hoped that an annual beauty pageant could extend the summer vacation season at the seaside resort town for another week into September.

The recent death of an Irish terrorist has raised the possibility of a resolution of a tangled legal controversy pitting the U.S. Department of Justice against a college that sponsored a research project about the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland. But it will not be simple. In 1998, the governments of Britain and Ireland and Protestant and Catholic politicians in Northern Ireland signed the Good Friday Agreement. The historic compact was designed to bring a definitive end to sectarian violence that had cost more than 3,000 lives, and to establish a new political order in which pro-British Protestants would share power with Catholic nationalists.

The Atlantic Ocean Reports from Britain and America Andrew O'Hagan Mariner: 354 pp., $15.95 paper The British writer Andrew O'Hagan is probably best known in the United States for his fiction; his novels include "Our Fathers," "Personality" and "Be Near Me," which was long-listed for the Man Booker and won a 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. And yet his first book, "The Missing" (1996), is one of those great, unheralded works of nonfiction, blending reportage with a point of view so personal, so idiosyncratic, that it blurs the lines of genre in an unanticipated way. A meditation on what it means it be "missing," it is less about the criminal, or legal, ramifications of its subject than an inquiry into disappearance in both the physical and philosophical sense.

MEXICO CITY - In a surprising climax to a case that has strained Franco-Mexican relations for years, Mexico's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of Florence Cassez, a young French woman serving a 60-year sentence for her involvement with a Mexican kidnapping ring. Cassez, 38, was arrested in 2005 along with her Mexican boyfriend, whom authorities said was the head of a kidnapping group called the Zodiacs. Although Cassez lived in a compound where victims were held, she maintained that she had committed no crimes.

Rick Ross is taking his imprint, Maybach Music Group, from Warner Bros. to Atlantic Records. The rapper confirmed what he called "the biggest move of the year" on a Miami radio show earlier this week.  "I'm excited for this year we got coming up, man," he said. "This is really huge. MMG, we just merged with Atlantic Records. . . . We gonna leave it right there. I'm signed as a solo artist to Def Jam. And Meek Mill, Wale, we all MMG at the end of the day. " The move prompted rumors that Warner's urban music division would be shuttered.

Regarding the article on Tony's flight, Orange County Section July 3: " 'I flew air transport across the Atlantic in World War II, and I can tell you it can get hairy out there,' said McElroy, 52, of Fountain Valley." Let's see now--52 years old in 1989 made him 4 in 1941. Sure you did, Mr. McElroy. ROBERT G. CAMPBELL Fullerton

Georges, the seventh tropical storm of the Atlantic season, formed Wednesday in the eastern Atlantic and was expected to grow into a hurricane. The storm was hundreds of miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands and moving west at nearly 20 mph. Georges had wind blowing at 40 mph, barely over the minimum tropical storm strength of 39 mph.

Delta Air Lines Inc. agreed to buy the 49 percent stake in Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. held by Singapore Airlines Ltd. for $360 million to boost its share of the lucrative trans-Atlantic travel market. Delta and Virgin Atlantic, the biggest long-haul rival to British Airways at London's Heathrow airport, will also begin a joint venture on 31 roundtrip daily flights between the U.K. and North America, the companies said today in a statement. The deal positions Atlanta-based Delta to grab a bigger slice of the world's biggest market for premium passengers.

In a move to capture more European travelers, Delta Air Lines agreed Tuesday to purchase a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways. Atlanta-based Delta will pay Singapore Airlines $360 million to buy its share of the London-based airline, leaving Virgin Group and its founder, Richard Branson, with the majority 51% stake. Under the deal, Delta and Virgin Atlantic will be able to operate and share in the cost and revenues of a total of 31 peak-day round-trip flights between Britain and North America, including 23 from London's Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest airport.