WASHINGTON(AP) -- The debateover how many U.S.troops will remain inAfghanistan after2014 comes down torisky business.

There is a riskthat leaving too fewtroops after 2014would stop or stall thealready slow develop-ment of the Afghanarmy and police,whose competence -and that of the Afghangovernment as awhole - is crucial toending the war suc-c e s s f u l l y .

On the other hand, keeping too many foreign troopsbeyond 2014 might only prolong Afghanistan's dependenceupon them, while Western forces absorb even more casu-alties. Perhaps the greatest risk is that a wrong calculationby the U.S. on troop levels could enable the Taliban and affil-iated insurgents to regain lost territory and influence.

President Barack Obama has pledged to wind downthe 11-year-old war, even as Congress presses for anaccelerated withdrawal. The intent, approved by NATO in2010, is to remove combat forces by the end of 2014 but tocontinue yet-to-be-defined security assistance.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has described thebroad outlines of a post-2014 plan that amounts to a scaled-down version of what U.S. and NATO forces are alreadydoing: fighting terrorists, training and assisting the Afghanforces, and providing logistical support.

Panetta won't say how many forces would be neededfor that set of missions, but analysts estimate as many as10,000 to 15,000.

Military commanders have laid out options for a post-2014 force ranging from about 6,000 to 15,000, andPanetta and other members of Obama's national securityteam are debating that issue now, with a decision expectedby the end of the year.

But the final number for the end of 2014, and howquickly the military gets to that level, depends on how theWhite House assesses the political and military risks of hav-ing too few troops there to keep the terrorists at bay, or hav-ing too many to satisfy war-weary and budget-consciousAmericans.

Underlying that debate is perhaps the starkest risk -that by pulling out troops too quickly, Obama would becomethe president who lost the war and enabled another devas-tating attack on America.

There are currently about 66,000 U.S. troops inAfghanistan, and commanders would like to maintain as biga force as possible through most of 2013. But others arguethat as support for the war continues to erode in Congressand across America, significant cuts must be made at somepoint next year.

A Pew Research Center poll in early October foundthat 60 percent of respondents favored removing U.S.

Place

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Circulated Weekly To Cities In Florida Volume 731 Issue 448 Established 1998 December 3, 2012

R I S K I S AT H E A R T O F D E B AT E

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troops fromAfghanistan as soonas possible, with 35percent saying theyshould stay until thecountry is stable.That's a nearly com-plete reversal from aSeptember 2008 PewResearch poll thatshowed 33 percentwanted troops out assoon as possible and61 percent said theyshould stay until thecountry has stabilized.

"You don't wantto keep everything inplace and then fall offa cliff at the end of2014," former

Pentagon policy chief Michele Flournoy said in an interviewwith The Associated Press. "You want to gradually stepdown your residual presence so you have confidence in it,and so you've had a chance to work through some of theissues and challenges that emerge as we go into the latterstages of transition."

Flournoy, who has been mentioned as a possibledefense secretary after Panetta steps down, said the mili-tary will likely reduce the force in several steps next year,leaving time between cuts to reposition troops.

Any substantial reductions are likely to take place earlyin the year and again toward the fall, so that the military canmaintain a consistent troop strength during the peak fightingseason that runs from roughly April to October.

"It's very hard to be repositioning your force as you'refighting. So they'll argue for having a plateau during the fight-ing season and then taking a steeper drawdown," Flournoysaid.

The troop totals also depend on several outside fac-tors, including the commitment of NATO partners and thedesires of the Afghan government.

So far, Obama has revealed little of his thinking aboutthe drawdown. But during an October presidential debatehe signaled an inclination for a deep reduction, saying,"There's no reason why Americans should die whenAfghans are perfectly capable of defending their own coun-try."

Panetta's description this week of the three missions hewould like U.S. troops to continue after 2014 suggests aneed for a fairly substantial presence.

Some experts argue that the U.S. would have to main-tain as many as 30,000 troops in order to continue targetingthe terror groups that - if left unchallenged - could regain ter-ritory and once again become a threat to the U.S. and otherWestern nations.

Military analysts Frederick and Kimberly Kagan lay outa case for keeping such a large counterterrorism force,complete with drones, airstrikes and special operationsforces bolstered by enough support troops to provide pro-tection on the bases.

RISK IS AT HEART OFDEBATE ON TROOP

WITHDRAWALThe debate over how many U.S. troops will

remain in Afghanistan after 2014 comes down

to risky business. Page 1

SYRIA MOVING CHEMICALWEAPONS COMPONENTS

U.S. and allied intelligence have detected

Syrian movement of chemical weapons compo-

nents in recent days. Page 2

US, RUSSIA SET FOR SUR-PRISE SYRIA MEETING

The top U.S. and Russian diplomats will hold a

surprise meeting Thursday with the United

Nations' peace envoy for Syria, signaling fresh

hopes of an international breakthrough.. Page 3

FLORIDA ACCIDENTSTATISTICS

Accident Statistics from Florida Department

of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Page 4

FLORIDA ACCIDENTREPORTS

This Weeks Accident Reports from Various

countys in Florida. Page 5

BRINKSMANSHIP ONOBAMA MEDICAID EXPAN-

SION FOR POOR

It's health care brinksmanship, with hundreds

of billions of dollars and the well-being of mil-

lions of people at stake Page 7

E5 STATES TO INCREASECLASS TIME IN SOME

SCHOOLSOpen your notebooks and sharpen your pen-

cils. School for thousands of public school stu-

dents is about to get quite a bit longer.

Page 7

STUDY CONTENDS GRANDCANYON AS OLD AS

DINOSAUR ERA

The awe-inspiring Grand Canyon was probably

carved about 70 million years ago, much earli-

er than thought.. Page 8

STUDY: LIKE A TREE,GROWTH RINGS SHOW

LOBSTER AGE

Scientists have figured out how to determine

the age of a lobster - by counting its rings, like

a tree. . Page 8

Continued on page 3

U.S. soldiers with stand guard as they watch the transfer ceremony of secu-rity responsibilities from NATO troops to Afghan security forces in Qalat, Zabulprovince south of Kabul, Afghanistan. The debate over how many U.S. troopswill remain in Afghanistan after 2014 comes down to risk. Leaving too fewtroops in place could stall progress for Afghan security forces. But keeping toomany troops there might prolong Afghanistan’s dependence on the U.S. mili-tary and NATO.

WEEKLY NEWS DIGESTTHE

2 Legal Street News Monday December 3, 2012

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET

EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANETh t t p : / / w w w . s i e r r a c l u b . o r g /

S Y R I A M O V I N GC H E M I C A L W E A P O N S

C O M P O N E N T SWA S H I N G -

TON (AP) -- U.S.

and allied intelli-

gence have detect-

ed Syrian move-

ment of chemical

weapons compo-

nents in recent

days, a senior U.S.

defense official

said Monday, as

the Obama admin-

istration again

warned the Assad

regime against

using chemical

weapons on Syrian

r e b e l s .

A senior

defense official

said intelligence

officials have detected activity around more

than one of Syria's chemical weapons sites in

the last week. The defense official spoke on

condition of anonymity because he was not

authorized to speak publicly about intelligence

matters.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton,

in Prague for meetings with Czech officials,

reiterated President Barack Obama's declaration

that Syrian action on chemical weapons was a

"red line" for the United States that would

prompt action.

"We have made our views very clear: This is

a red line for the United States," Clinton told

reporters. "I'm not going to telegraph in any

specifics what we would do in the event of cred-

ible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted

to using chemical weapons against their own

people. But suffice it to say, we are certainly

planning to take action if that eventuality were

to occur."

She didn't address the issue of the fresh

activity at Syrian chemical weapons depots, but

insisted that Washington would address any

threat that arises.

The sen-

ior defense

official said

the U.S. does

not believe

that any

Syrian action

beyond the

movement of

components

is imminent.

Syria is

believed to

have several

hundred bal-

listic surface-

t o - s u r f a c e

m i s s i l e s

capable of

c a r r y i n g

chemical warheads.

Its arsenal is a particular threat to the

American allies, Turkey and Israel, and Obama

singled out the threat posed by the unconven-

tional weapons earlier this year as a potential

cause for deeper U.S. involvement in Syria's

civil war. Up to now, the United States has

opposed military intervention or providing arms

support to Syria's rebels for fear of further mili-

tarizing a conflict that activists say has killed

more than 40,000 people since March 2011.

Clinton said that while the actions of

President Bashar Assad's government have been

deplorable, chemical weapons would bring

them to a new level.

"We once again issue a very strong warning

to the Assad regime that their behavior is repre-

hensible, their actions against their own people

have been tragic," she said. "But there is no

doubt that there's a line between even the hor-

rors that they've already inflicted on the Syrian

people and moving to what would be an inter-

nationally condemned step of utilizing their

chemical weapons."

Czech Republic's Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, left, and US Secretary ofState Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, arrive for their press conference in Prague,Czech Republic, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. Secretary of State Clinton is lobbying theCzech Republic authorities to approve an American contract bid for an expansionof a nuclear power plant.

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Street News Monday, December 3,2012 3

DUBLIN (AP) -- The top U.S. andRussian diplomats will hold a surprisemeeting Thursday with the UnitedNations' peace envoy for Syria, signal-ing fresh hopes of an internationalbreakthrough to end the Arab country's21-month civil war.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton, Russian Foreign MinisterSergey Lavrov and mediator LakhdarBrahimi will gather in Dublin on the side-lines of a human rights conference, asenior U.S. official said. The officialspoke on condition of anonymitybecause she wasn't authorized to speakpublicly on the matter. She provided fewdetails about the unscheduled get-together.

Ahead of the three-way meeting, Clintonand Lavrov met separately Thursday forabout 25 minutes. They agreed to hearBrahimi out on a path forward, a seniorU.S. official said. The two also dis-cussed issues ranging from Egypt toNorth Korea, as well as new congression-al action aimed at Russian officials accused of complic-ity in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The former Cold War foes have fought bitterly over howto address Syria's conflict, with Washington harshly crit-icizing Moscow of shielding its Arab ally. The Russiansrespond by accusing the U.S. of meddling by demand-ing the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regimeand ultimately seeking an armed intervention such asthe one last year against the late Libyan strongmanMoammar Gadhafi.

But the gathering of the three key international figuressuggests possible compromise in the offing. At theleast, it confirms what officials describe as an easing ofsome of the acrimony that has raged between Moscowand Washington over the future of an ethnically diversenation whose stability is seen as critical given its geo-graphic position in between powder kegs Iraq, Lebanonand Israel.

The threat of Syria's government using some of its vaststockpiles of chemical weapons is also adding urgencyto diplomatic efforts. Western governments have citedthe rising danger of such a scenario this week, and offi-cials say Russia, too, shares great concern on thispoint.

On Thursday, Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister FaisalMekdad accused the United States and Europe of usingthe issue of chemical weapons to justify a future militaryintervention against Syria. He warned that any suchintervention would be "catastrophic."

In Ireland's capital, one idea that Brahimi could seek toresuscitate with U.S. and Russian support would be thepolitical agreement strategy both countries agreed on inGeneva in June.

That plan demanded several steps by the Assad regimeto de-escalate tensions and end the violence thatactivists say has killed more than 40,000 people sinceMarch 2011. It would then have required Syria's oppo-sition and the regime to put forward candidates for atransitional government, with each side having the rightto veto nominees proposed by the other.

If employed, the strategy would surely mean the end ofmore than four decades of an Assad family member atSyria's helm. The opposition has demanded Assad'sdeparture and has rejected any talk of him staying inpower. Yet it also would grant regime representativesthe opportunity to block Sunni extremists and others inthe opposition that they reject.

The transition plan never got offthe ground this summer, partlybecause no pressure wasapplied to see it succeed by adeeply divided international com-munity. Brahimi's predecessor,former U.N. Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan, who drafted the plan,then resigned his post in frustra-tion.

The United States blamed thecollapse on Russia for vetoing athird resolution at the U.N.Security Council that would haveapplied world sanctions againstAssad's government for failing tolive by the deal's provisions.

Russia insisted that theAmericans unfairly soughtAssad's departure as a precondi-tion and worried about openingthe door to military action, evenas Washington offered to includelanguage in any U.N. resolutionthat would have expressly for-

bade outside armed intervention.

Should a plan similar to that one be proposed, theObama administration is likely to insist anew that it beinternationally enforceable - a step Moscow may still bereluctant to commit to.

In any case, the U.S. insists the tide of the war is turn-ing definitively against Assad.

On Wednesday, the administration said several coun-tries in the Middle East and elsewhere have informallyoffered to grant asylum to Assad and his family if theyleave Syria.

The comments came a day after the United States andits 27 NATO allies agreed to send Patriot missiles toTurkey's southern border with Syria. The deployment,expected within weeks, is meant solely as a defensivemeasure against the cross-border mortar rounds fromSyria that have killed five Turks, but still bring thealliance to the brink of involvement in the civil war.

The United States is also preparing to designate Jabhatal-Nusra, a Syrian rebel group with alleged ties to al-Qaida, as a foreign terrorist organization in a stepaimed at blunting the influence of extremists within theSyrian opposition, officials said Wednesday.

Word of the move came as the State Departmentannounced Clinton will travel to the Mideast and NorthAfrica next week for high-level meetings on the situationin Syria and broader counter-terrorism issues. She islikely then to recognize Syria's newly formed oppositioncoalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrianpeople, according to officials.

The political endorsement is designed to help unite thecountry against Assad and spur greater nonlethal andhumanitarian assistance from the United States to therebels.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pauses during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels,

Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings Institutionin Washington, said that arguments for maintaining a forceof 30,000 beyond 2014 are unrealistic in light of otherObama administration priorities. He said it's important to letthe Afghans know that the U.S. will not abandon them, butalso noted that how much progress Afghan forces makeover the next year will also be an important factor.

If they improve, he said, there may be a greater incli-nation to stick with the mission, but if they don't, "you couldask yourself why do we waste more time, resources andblood over achieving gains that are probably going to beephemeral and fleeting anyway."

Army Maj. Gen. James Huggins, who returned inSeptember from a one-year tour as commander of allied

forces in southern Afghanistan, said fears of abandonmentare real.

Huggins recalled a former district governor in theAfghan province of Kandahar, who fought with the U.S.-supported mujahedeen against the Soviets in the 1980s,telling him last year that the Taliban was able to seize powerin 1996 because the U.S. abandoned Afghanistan shortlyafter the Soviet army withdrew in defeat.

At a public symposium on the war on Friday, Hugginssaid the number of allied troops in his sector fell from a peakof 25,000 to 13,800 as of Oct. 1. He said he was "a little con-cerned" with that lower number. He did not express a viewon the prospect of further reductions in 2013.

Members of Congress want to accelerate the troopwithdrawal. The Senate voted 62-33 on a non-binding res-olution that would speed up the pullout by an unspecifiedamount. And while the House voted in May to maintain aforce of 68,000, there have been indications more recentlythat support for that may be faltering.

In September, Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., a defensehawk and chairman of the House Appropriations subcom-mittee that oversees defense spending, said the U.S.

Continued from page 1

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4 Legal Street News Monday December 3, 2012

F L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C SData From the Official Website of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. www.flhsmv.gov

______________________________________Legal Street News Monday, December 3, 2012 5THIS WEEK

A U T O A C C I D E N T S I N S O U T H F L O R I D A

Wet roads make for a slip-pery South Florida

commute

Delray Beach Fire-Rescue sent along this image ofa rollover crash during which a black pickup trucklanded on its roof.

Two occupants were removed from the truck andtaken to Delray Medical Center with injuries thatwere not life-threatening, agency spokesman Capt.Curtis Jepsen said.

Boca Raton Fire-Rescue also responded to thecrash that happened on a rainy morning on thesouthbound lanes of I-95 north of the CongressAvenue exit.

November 29, 2012

Pedestrian dies whilecrossing I-95 in Fort

Lauderdale

November 30, 2012

Novmber 30, 2012

Jacksonville man criticallyinjured when hit by Jeep in

Orlando

Earlier crashes slow I-95near Broward Boulevard

December 1, 2012

Serious crash blocks I-4east in Lake Mary

Florida motorcycle crash

November 28,2012

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. --- A former Waterloo residentdied following a motorcycle crash in Florida whereshe had been living.According to the Florida Highway Patrol, LuHaddeman, 72 and recently of Largo, Fla., was apassenger on a BMW motorcycle that was involvedin an accident with a car Sunday evening.Paramedics took Haddeman to Bayonet PointHospital, where she died. The man who was drivingthe motorcycle, 75-year-old George Tacott ofClearwater, was also treated at the hospital for seri-ous injuries.

I-95 in Delray Beach,Wednesday, 8 a.m.

FORT LAUDERDALE—The Florida Highway Patrol is attempting to notifyrelatives of a pedestrian who died in an early morn-ing crash Wednesday on I-95 in Fort Lauderdale.

The male victim was struck when he tried to crossthe northbound lanes of the Interstate near DavieBoulevard at around 3 a.m. and died at the scene,Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Wysocky saidThursday.

November 30, 2012

A Jacksonville man was critically injured Sundaywhen he was hit while standing at a traffic accidentscene in Orlando.Ken Samsudean Jr., 25, was standing at the acci-dent scene after his car struck another vehicleabout 2 a.m. when a third car hit him and two oth-ers, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.Investigators said Samsudean struck a car frombehind on Colonial Drive at Constantine Avenue.He and the other driver, Christopherr Lacasse, 25,of Winter Springs and a third driver who stopped,Ronald Dorsey, 32, of Orlando, were standing atthe scene when they were hit by a Jeep drivenby Eric Anderson, 28, of Orlando.The others received only minor injuries.Samsudean was taken to Orlando RegionalMedical Center, the Highway Patrol said.

December 2, 2012

December 1, 2012

November 28, 2012A crash that closed all northbound lanes of

Interstate 95 in Jupiter for more than an hour hasbeen cleared, Florida Highway Patrol reports.

The driver in the wreck had to be cut out of hisvehicle, but did not suffer life-threatening injuries,Palm Beach County Fire Rescue spokesman Capt.Albert Borroto said. He was flown by Trauma Hawkto St. Mary’s Medical Center.

The wreck just north of Indiantown Road hap-pened in the wake of an earlier traffic backup,according to FHP spokesman Lt. Tim Frith. Thatback up began around 10 a.m. when drivers calledin reports of a disabled vehicle on the roadside witha person, possibly a homeless person, underneath.Troopers stopped there to tell the person to move,Frith said.

About 10:15 a.m., as traffic was slowed north ofthat incident, a small vehicle ran into the back of aparked truck in the northbound lanes just north ofIndiantown, Borroto said. The patient had to be cutout of the vehicle due to heavy damage.

Rain showers passing over South Florida have leftarea roadways wet and slippery. A series of pre-dawn crashes have already been cleared. Amongthem, according to the Florida Highway Patrol,was a pedestrian fatality reported shortly after 3:15a.m. along I-95 through Fort Lauderdale.

Other crashes and incidents being reported by FHPand Florida's Department of Transportation,include:

Crash westbound I-595 west of University Drive inDavie, partially blocking a right lane.

Crash on eastbound I-595 near University Drive inDavie, no travel lanes blocked;

8:06 a.m., crash southbound I-95 after YamatoRoad in Boca Raton, no travel lanes blocked;

8:04 a.m., injury crash southbound I-95 afterCongress Avenue in Boca Raton, blocking a leftlane with southbound traffic backed up until AtlanticAvenue.

Delays were easing on both sides of Interstate

95 near Broward Boulevard following crashes earli-

er Tuesday morning that delayed traffic in both the

north and southbound directions.

By 8:40 a.m., vehicles involved in the earlier

crashes were cleared from the travel lanes but resid-

ual and volume-related delays were persisting.

Other crashes and incidents being reported on

area roadways on Tuesday by the Florida Highway

Patrol and Florida Department of Transportation

include:

8:38 a.m., hit-and-run crash on southbound I-95

near Broward Boulevard;

8:34 a.m., crash on northbound I-95 approach-

ing Sample Road causing delays back to Sample

Road;

7:57 a.m., crash on southbound I-95 near

Broward Boulevard, blocking a right lane.

Crash clears; Interstate 95re-opened in Jupiter

Traffic caused by construction and debris in theroad may delay Monday morning commuters inMiami-Dade and Broward counties.

In Miami-Dade:• A crash on the southbound Interstate 95 expresslane flyover is now clear.• A crash on Northwest 57th Avenue andNorthwest 202nd Street is causing a roadblock atthe intersection.• A crash on Southwest 40th Street and Southwest57th Avenue is causing no roadblock.• Roadway debris on westbound State Road 836and southbound State Road 826 is blocking thecenter lane.• A crash with injuries on eastbound State Road836 and Northwest 57th Avenue is blocking the leftlane.A crash on southbound Interstate 95 and theRickenbacker Causeway is causing no roadblock.• A crash on westbound Bird Road and Southwest97th Avenue is blocking the right lane.

In Broward:• A large tarp on northbound Interstate 95 andOakland Park Boulevard is blocking the left lane.

Traffic alert: Crashes,debris in Miami-Dade,

Broward may slow drivers

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On Interstate 4, a medical chopper blocked theeastbound lanes after a serious crash near the StateRoad 417 exit ramp in Lake Mary. Further details onthe crash were not immediately available.

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detractors, but on Wednesday in Missouri it wasbeing promoted as the opposite. Missouri's hospitalassociation in released a study estimating that theeconomic ripple effects of the Medicaid expansionwould actually create 24,000 jobs in the state. TheUniversity of Missouri study found that about160,000 state residents would gain coverage.

"This is not a political issue for us ... this is the realworld," said Joe Pierle, head of the MissouriPrimary Care Association, a doctors' group. "Itmakes no sense to send our hard-earned federaltax dollars to our neighbors in Illinois."

By Thursday, Gov. Jay Nixon, D-Mo., hadannounced his support for the expansion, but hefaces a challenge in persuading Republican legisla-tive leaders.

In Florida, where GOP Gov. Rick Scott says he isrethinking his opposition, the state could end upsaving money through the Medicaid expansion,said Joan Alker, executive director of theGeorgetown University Center for Children andFamilies, which studied the financing. The reasonis that Florida would spend less on a state programfor people with catastrophic medical bills.

Back in Washington, Health and Human ServicesSecretary Kathleen Sebelius says states can takeall the time they need to decide. They can even geta free trial, signing up for the first three years of theexpansion and dropping out later.

But she hasn't answered the one question thatmany states have: Would the Obama administra-tion allow them to expand Medicaid just part way,taking in only people below the poverty line? Thatmeans other low-income people currently eligiblewould be covered entirely on the federal govern-ment's dime, and they would be getting private cov-erage, which is costlier than Medicaid.

Matt Salo, executive director of the NationalAssociation of Medicaid Directors, says he doesn'tthink states will get an answer anytime soon.

"This is a game of chicken that we're seeing," saidSalo. "Are the states bluffing, or are these statesreally serious? And at what point does the adminis-tration rethink things, and decide it's worth getting

6 Legal Street News Monday December 3, 2012________________________________________________________

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Healthcare Providers: If you are a healthcare provider locat-ed in the United States, contact us by

calling 1-877-30-DR-USA (1-877-303-7872).

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's health care brinksman-ship, with hundreds of billions of dollars and thewell-being of millions of people at stake.

President Barack Obama's health care lawexpands Medicaid, the federal-state health programfor low-income people, but cost-wary states mustdecide whether to take the deal.

Turn it down, and governors risk coming off as cal-lous toward their neediest residents. Not to mentionthe likely second-guessing for walking away from apot of federal dollars estimated at nearly $1 trillionnationally over a decade.

If the Obama administration were to compromise,say by sweetening the offer to woo a reluctantstate, it would face immediate demands from 49others for similar deals that could run up the tab bytens of billions of dollars.

As state legislatures look ahead to their 2013 ses-sions, the calculating and the lobbying havealready begun.

Conservative opponents of the health care law areleaning on lawmakers to turn down the Medicaidmoney. Hospitals, doctors' groups, advocates forthe poor, and some business associations arepressing them to accept it.

"Here's the big thing: The state does not want toexpand Medicaid and get stuck with the bill," saidDr. Bill Hazel, Virginia's health secretary. "Our leg-islators do not like to raise taxes to pay for a bene-fit someone else has promised. The concerns wehave ... are around federal solvency and the abilityof the federal government to meet its commitment."

Medicaid covers nearly 60 million low-income anddisabled people but differs significantly from stateto state. Under the health care law, Medicaid wouldbe expanded on Jan. 1, 2014, to cover peoplemaking up to 138 percent of the federal povertyline, or about $15,400 a year for an individual.

About half the 30 million people gaining coverageunder the law would do so through Medicaid. Mostof the new beneficiaries would be childless adults,but about 2.7 million would be parents with childrenat home. The federal government would pay the fullcost of the first three years of the expansion, grad-ually phasing down to a 90 percent share.

The Supreme Court said states can turn down theMedicaid expansion. But if a state does so, manyof its poorest residents would have no other way toget health insurance. The subsidized private cover-age also available under Obama's law is only forpeople making more than the poverty level,$11,170 for an individual. For the poor, Medicaid isthe only option.

Although the health care law fully funded theMedicaid expansion and Obama has protected theprogram from cuts, the federal government's unre-solved budget struggles don't give states muchconfidence.

Most states, including Republican-led Virginia, areconsidering their options.

A recent economic analysis by the nonpartisanKaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institutefound that states will receive more than $9 fromWashington for every $1 they spend to expandMedicaid, and a few will actually come out ahead,partly by spending less on charity care. States arecommissioning their own studies.

So far, eight states have said they will turn downthe expansion, while 13 states plus the District ofColumbia have indicated they will accept it. Theeight declining are Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,Maine, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, andTexas. Nearly 2.8 million people would remainuninsured in those states, according to UrbanInstitute estimates, with Texas alone accounting forclose to half the total.

Hospitals aren't taking "no" for an answer in thestates that have turned down the expansion.Although South Carolina's Republican Gov. NikkiHaley has had her say, the Legislature has yet tobe heard from, said Thornton Kirby, president ofthe South Carolina Hospital Association.

Hospitals agreed to Medicare cuts in the healthcare law, banking on the Medicaid expansion tocompensate them.

"We've got a significant debate coming in January,"said Kirby. "There are a lot of people tuning in tothis issue."

In Maine, Democrats who gained control of theLegislature in the election are pushing to overcomeRepublican Gov. Paul LePage's opposition.

"Obamacare" was once assailed as a job killer by

B R I N K S M A N S H I P O N O B A M A

M E D I C A I D E X P A N S I O N F O R P O O R

www.veteransvoice.org

Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Dr. Bill Hazel speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Richmond, Va.Conservative opponents of President Barack Obama's health care law are leaning on lawmakers to turn down the Medicaid money.Hospitals, doctors' groups, advocates for the poor, and some business associations are pressing them to accept it. “Here's the bigthing: The state does not want to expand Medicaid and get stuck with the bill,” said Dr. Bill Hazel, Virginia's health secretary. “Ourlegislators do not like to raise taxes to pay for a benefit someone else has promised. The concerns we have ... are around federalsolvency and the ability of the federal government to meet its commitment.

_____________________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, December 3, 2012 7

5 STATES TO INCREASE CLASS

T I M E I N S O M E S C H O O L S

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Open your notebooks andsharpen your pencils. School for thousands of pub-lic school students is about to get quite a bit longer.

Five states announced Monday that they will add atleast 300 hours of learning time to the calendar insome schools starting in 2013. Colorado,Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York andTennessee will take part in the initiative, which isintended to boost student achievement and makeU.S. schools more competitive on a global level.

The three-year pilot program will affect almost20,000 students in 40 schools, with long-termhopes of expanding the program to include addi-tional schools - especially those that serve low-income communities. Schools, working in concertwith districts, parents and teachers, will decidewhether to make the school day longer, add moredays to the school year or both.

All told, education officials expect to provide nearly6 million more student learning hours next year.

"I'm convinced the kind of results we'll see over thenext couple of years I think will compel the countryto act in a very different way," said EducationSecretary Arne Duncan.

A mix of federal, state and district funds will coverthe costs of expanded learning time, with the FordFoundation and the National Center on Time &Learning also chipping in resources. InMassachusetts, the program builds on the state'sexisting expanded-learning program. InConnecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy is hailing it as anatural outgrowth of an education reform law thestate passed in May that included about $100 mil-lion in new funding, much of it to help the neediestschools.

Spending more time in the classroom, officials said,will give students access to a more well-roundedcurriculum that includes arts and music, individual-ized help for students who fall behind and opportu-nities to reinforce critical math and science skills.

"That extra time with their teachers or within astructured setting means all the world," saidColorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. "It means itallows them to continue the momentum they hadthe day before. It means they don't slip back overthe summer. It allows them to really deliver."

The project comes as educators across the U.S.struggle to identify the best ways to strengthen apublic education system that many fear has fallenbehind other nations. Student testing, teacher eval-uations, charter schools and voucher programs joinlonger school days on the list of reforms that havebeen put forward with varying degrees of success.

The report from the center, which advocates for

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- State police resumed mov-ing millions of pounds of explosives Monday thathad been haphazardly stashed in warehouses inLouisiana, prompting hundreds to evacuate fromharm's way in case any of it exploded.

The transfer of 6 million pounds of artillery propel-lant began again at daybreak at Camp Minden,which is in north Louisiana's Webster Parish. Itstarted Saturday. A state police spokesman saidthe work is suspended at night.

About half the 800 residents in nearby Doyline,about 40 miles south of the Arkansas line, heededstate police warnings to evacuate until the stashcould be divided into smaller quantities. Authoritieswere dividing the explosives into amounts thatwould be too small to pose a serious threat to thetown if it were to ignite; there was enough ammuni-tion to pack dozens of tractor-trailers.

The material was stored on property leased byExplo Systems Inc., which became the subject of acriminal investigation following an explosion inOctober.

Boxes and small barrels of the M6 artillery propel-lant were found both outdoors and crammed intounauthorized buildings leased by Explo at CampMinden, a former Army ammunitions plant, statepolice superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson saidSunday.

The company's "careless and reckless disregardmade it unsafe for their own employees, for school-children in Doyline, for the town of Doyline,"Edmonson said.

The company is located on a portion of the formerammunition plant's 15,000 acres that is leased forcommercial use. Other sections are used forLouisiana National Guard training.

Capt. Doug Cain, a state police spokesman, identi-fied the product as M6 propellant, used in how-itzers and other artillery. The pellets are largelycompressed nitrocellulose, also known as guncot-ton.

Authorities had initially estimated the total at 1 mil-lion pounds after an investigator looking into anOct. 15 explosion at Explo Systems saw cardboardboxes on long rows of pallets behind a building.They found more stacked in sheds and warehous-es when crews returned Saturday to begin movingthe boxes into bunkers about two miles away onthe former munitions site, which covers nearly 23.5square miles just north of Doyline.

"It wasn't in their storage magazines. They had ithidden on the property, away from the storagemagazines where we would expect to find it," Cainsaid.

Edmonson said "it was stuffed in corners. It wasstacked all over."

He said that in two days, crews had moved nearlya million pounds from the tightest-packed buildingsinto approved containers and onto 27 tractor-trail-ers to move to storage bunkers. Another 250,000pounds had been moved a safe distance from thebulk of the material.

It won't all have to be moved into bunkers to letpeople return home - the evacuation could be liftedonce the propellant is divided into amounts thatwon't threaten the town if some ignites, with eacharea a safe distance from the others, Edmonsonsaid.

Company officials could not be reached Sunday.The owners reportedly are returning Monday froma business trip to South Korea, but the managerhas been working with state police from the start,Edmonson said.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks at Lincoln High School in Gahanna, Ohio. School for thousands of public school students isabout to get quite a bit longer. Five states announced Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, they will add at least 300 hours of learning time to thecalendar in some schools starting in 2013

T O W N E V A C U -

A T E S ; P O L I C E

R E L O C A T E

E X P L O S I V E S

extending instruction time, cites research suggest-ing students who spend more hours learning per-form better. One such study, from Harvard econo-mist Roland Fryer, argues that of all the factorsaffecting educational outcomes, two are the bestpredictors of success: intensive tutoring and addingat least 300 hours to the standard school calendar.

More classroom time has long been a priority forDuncan, who warned a congressional committee inMay 2009 - just months after becoming educationsecretary - that American students were at a disad-vantage compared to their peers in India andChina. That same year, he suggested schoolsshould be open six or seven days per week andshould run 11 or 12 months out of the year.

"I think this is the kernels of a national movement,"he said Monday as he announced the initiative.

But not everyone agrees that shorter school daysare to blame. A report last year from the NationalSchool Boards Association's Center for PublicEducation disputed the notion that Americanschools have fallen behind in classroom time,pointing out that students in high-performing coun-tries like South Korea, Finland and Japan actuallyspend less time in school than most U.S. students.

The broader push to extend classroom time couldalso run up against concerns from teachers unions.Longer school days became a major sticking pointin a seven-day teachers strike in September inChicago. Mayor Rahm Emanuel eventually won anextension of the school day but paid the price inother concessions granted to teachers.

Just over 1,000 U.S. schools already operate onexpanded schedules, an increase of 53 percentover 2009, according to a report being releasedMonday in connection with the announcement bythe National Center on Time & Learning. The non-profit group said more schools should follow suitbut stressed that expanded learning time isn't theright strategy for every school.

Some of the funds required to add 300 or morehours to the school calendar will come from shiftingresources from existing federal programs, makinguse of the flexibility granted by waivers to No ChildLeft Behind. All five states taking part in the initia-tive have received waivers from the EducationDepartment.

LOS ANGELES (AP) --

The awe-inspiring Grand

Canyon was probably carved

about 70 million years ago,

much earlier than thought, a

provocative new study sug-

gests - so early that dinosaurs

might have roamed near this

natural wonder.

Using a new dating tool,

a team of scientists came up

with a different age for the

gorge's western section, chal-

lenging conventional wisdom

that much of the canyon was

scoured by the mighty

Colorado River in the last 5

million to 6 million years.

Not everyone is con-

vinced with the latest view-

point published online

Thursday in the journal

Science. Critics contend the

study ignores a mountain of

evidence pointing to a geolog-

ically young landscape and

they have doubts about the technique used to date it.

The notion that the Grand Canyon existed during the

dinosaur era is "ludicrous," said geologist Karl Karlstrom of

the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

How the Grand Canyon became grand - with its vertical

cliffs and flat plateaus - has been debated since John Wesley

Powell navigated the whitewater rapids and scouted the sheer

walls during his famous 1869 expedition.

Some 5 million tourists flock to Arizona each year to mar-

vel at the 277-mile-long chasm, which plunges a mile deep in

some places. It's a geologic layer cake with the most recent

rock formations near the rim stacked on top of older rocks that

date back 2 billion years.

Though the exposed rocks are ancient, most scientists

believe the Grand Canyon itself was forged in the recent geo-

logic past, created when tectonic forces uplifted the land that

the Colorado River later carved through.

The new work by researchers at the University of

Colorado Boulder and California Institute of Technology

argued that canyon-cutting occurred long before that. They

focused on the western end of the Grand Canyon occupied

today by the Hualapai Reservation, which owns the Skywalk

attraction, a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that extends from

the canyon's edge.

To come up with the age, the team crushed rocks collect-

ed from the bottom of the canyon to analyze a rare type of min-

eral called apatite. The mineral contains traces of radioactive

elements that release helium during decay, allowing

researchers to calculate the passage of time since the canyon

eroded.

Their interpretation: The western Grand Canyon is 70

million years old and was likely shaped by an ancient river that

coursed in the opposite direction of the west-flowing Colorado.

Lead researcher Rebecca Flowers of the University of

Colorado Boulder realizes not everyone will accept this alter-

native view, which minimizes the role of the Colorado River.

"Arguments will continue over the age of Grand Canyon,

and I hope our study will stimulate more work to decipher the

mysteries," Flowers said in an email.

It's not the first time that Flowers has dug up evidence for

an older Grand Canyon. In 2008, she authored a study that sug-

gested part of the eastern Grand Canyon, where most tourists

8 Legal Street News Monday, December 3, 2012

S T U D Y C O N T E N D S G R A N D C A N Y O N

A S O L D A S D I N O S A U R E R A

S T U D Y : L I K E A T R E E , G R O W T HR I N G S S H O W L O B S T E R A G EPORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- For the first time, scientistshave figured out how to determine the age of a lobster -by counting its rings, like a tree.

Nobody knows how old lobsters can live to be; somepeople estimate they live to more than 100.

But knowing - rather than simply guessing - their ageand that of other shellfish could help scientists betterunderstand the population and assist regulators of thelucrative industry, said Raouf Kilada, a research associ-ate at the University of New Brunswick who was the leadauthor of a scientific paper documenting the process.

Before now, scientists deduced a lobster's age judgingby size and other variables. But it's now known that lob-sters and other crustaceans, such as crabs and shrimp,grow one ring per year in hidden-away internal spots,Kilada said.

"Having the age information for any commercial specieswill definitely improve the stock assessment and ensuresustainability," he said after presenting his findingsThursday at a scientific conference in Portland.

Scientists already could tell a fish's age by counting thegrowth rings found in a bony part of its inner ear, ashark's age from the rings in its vertebrae and a scallopor clam's age from the rings of its shell.

But crustaceans posed a problem because of the appar-ent absence of any permanent growth structures. It wasthought that when lobsters and other crustaceans molt,they shed all calcified body parts that might record annu-al growth bands.

For their research, Kilada and five other Canadianresearchers took a closer look at lobsters, snow crabs,northern shrimp and sculptured shrimp.

They found that growth rings, in fact, could be found inthe eyestalk - a stalk connected to the body with an eye-ball on the end - of lobsters, crabs and shrimp. In lob-sters and crabs, the rings were also found in the so-called "gastric mills," parts of the stomach with threeteeth-like structures used to grind up food.

To find the growth bands, the scientists dissected theeyestalks and the gastric mills, cut out sections and

viewed them under microscopes.

Lobsters don't lose reproductive capabilities or organfunctions or exhibit signs of aging as they get older, butnobody knows for sure how old they can live to be.

"We've thought lobsters could live to 100 years old, andthis new aging technique will be a way to documentthat," said Bob Bayer, executive director of the Universityof Maine's Lobster Institute.

The paper was published in this month's CanadianJournal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, a well-regard-ed peer-reviewed scientific journal based in Ottawa,Ontario, that has been published since 1901. Kilada'swas one of more than 50 scientific presentations at theconference, attended by more than 100 lobster scientistsfrom the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Bayer agreed that this is the first time scientists have adirect method to place an age on crustaceans.

"Right now we're just guessing at their age," he said.

Kilada said he saw lobster specimens that were 16 or 17years old during his research. He estimates that thereare lobsters 60 or 70 years old living in the wild.

Susan Waddy, a lobster researcher with Canada'sDepartment of Fisheries and Oceans, said she has keptlobsters in her laboratory that are more than 30 yearsold. She suspects they live to be 40 or 50.

"We know they don't live forever," she said.

photo a young lobster is seen on Friendship Long Island,Maine. Scientists have now figured out where the growth ringsare to determine the age of a lobster. Researchers found thatgrowth rings found in the eyestalk - a stalk with an eyeball onthe end connected to the body of lobsters, crabs and shrimp. Inlobsters and crabs, the rings are also found in teeth-like struc-tures in their stomachs used to grind up food.

go, formed 55 million years

ago. Another study published

that same year by a different

group of researchers put the

age of the western section at

17 million years old.

If the Grand Canyon

truly existed before dinosaurs

became extinct, it would have

looked vastly different

because the climate back then

was more tropical. Dinosaurs

that patrolled the American

West then included smaller

tyrannosaurs, horned and

dome-headed dinosaurs and

duckbills.

If they peered over the

rim, it would not look like

"the starkly beautiful desert

of today, but an environment

with more lush vegetation,"

said University of Maryland

paleontologist Thomas Holtz.

Many scientists find it

hard to imagine an ancient Grand Canyon since the oldest

gravel and sediment that washed downstream date to about 6

million years ago and there are no signs of older deposits. And

while they welcome advanced dating methods to decipher the

canyon's age, Karlstrom of the University of New Mexico does

not think the latest effort is very accurate.

Karlstrom said it also defies logic that a fully formed

canyon would sit unchanged for tens of millions of years with-

out undergoing further erosion.

Geologist Richard Young of the State University of New

York at Geneseo said his own work suggests there was a cliff

in the place of the ancient Grand Canyon.

Flowers "wants to have a canyon there. I want to have a

cliff there. Obviously, one of us can't be right," he said.

Whatever the age, there may be a middle ground, said

Utah State University geologist Joel Pederson.

Researchers have long known about older canyons in the

region cut by rivers that flow in a different direction than the

Colorado River. It's possible that a good portion of the Grand

Canyon was chiseled long ago by these smaller rivers and then

the Colorado came along and finished the job, he said.

Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Indian reservation in Arizona. A new study published in the journal Science Thursday, Nov. 29,2012, suggests the western Grand Canyon formed 70 million years ago. Some scientists disagree and believe the canyon was main-ly carved by the Colorado River in the past 5 to 6 million years