They fear that stubborn squatters could face the same fate as Katrina victims.

“Stay and die” is the warning from weather officials who say that Hurricane Ike, which is steaming toward the Texas Gulf Coast, could be a deadly monster as sinister as his evil cousin, Katrina. “All neighborhoods … and possibly entire coastal communities … will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide,” the advisory from the National Weather Service said. Read more about the warning and how people are reacting here.

Comedian’s family expected that he would pull through from illness

A public memorial is scheduled for this coming weekend at Chicago’s House of Hope after star comedian Bernie Mac’s death due to complications from pneumonia. Funeral arrangements for the popular performer and actor are pending, Mac’s daughter, Je’niece Childress, says. Family members expected that Mac, whose real name was Bernard McCullough, would overcome the illness when he came down with pneumonia three weeks ago. “He had sarcoidosis, but it was in remission,” Mac’s sister-in-law Mary Ann Grossett tells People. “But because he had it, his immune system was compromised.” Of Mac’s wife since 1977, Rhonda McCullough, Grossett adds: “She’s devastated, however, she’s at peace about his transition because of her faith in God. Her faith is what is sustaining her.  Services are scheduled for noon Saturday in the 10,000-seat House of Hope, 752 E. 114th St., Chicago, said Danica Smith, Mac’s publicist. Donations in Mac’s honor may be sent to the Bernie Mac Foundation for Sarcoidosis, 40 E. 9th St., Suite 601, Chicago, IL 60605, Smith said. See more on Bernie Mac at BET.com/News.

A 22-year-old man is being held without bail for his recent comments

A 22-year-old Maine man with a SUV wired with red and yellow flashing lights and packed with weapons – including a loaded 9 mm handgun, knives, armor-piercing ammo and a machete – body armor and camouflage clothing stood before a judge Thursday to face charges that he had threatened to assassinate Sen. Barack Obama. Raymond Hunter Geisel (above) was arrested in downtown Miami Saturday and was ordered held at the Miami Jail without bail by a federal magistrate yesterday. Geisel, who told authorities that he was originally from Bangor, Maine, but was now living in a houseboat in the Florida Keys, said his handgun was for training for the bail bondsman class; the knives were for protection; and the machete was for cutting thickets in Maine. He allegedly made the threat against Obama in a bail bondman class in Miami, calling the senator a racial slur and saying, “If he gets elected, I’ll assassinate him myself.” Geisel denies he ever made threatening comments about Obama. The Associated Press, citing court documents, said that he told the Secret Service in an interview that if he “wanted to kill Senator Obama he simply would shoot him with a sniper rifle, but then he claimed that he was just joking.”