WKNJ News Sources Citations

8/7/2019 WKNJ News Sources Citations

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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/newark_airport_in_line_for_upg.html

Newark airport in line for upgrades in time for 2014 Super Bowl in East Rutherford

Published: Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 8:53 PM

Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger By Steve Strunsky/The Star-LedgerNEWARK Well-healed football fans flying in for Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 andmaybe even the players themselves will have a new, $9 million private jetterminal at Newark Liberty International Airport, under a deal approved by the PortAuthority of New York and New Jersey today.

Signature Flight Support Corp., which provides fueling, limousines, lounges andother services for private jets and passengers at 104 locations in 14 countries, willreplace its current terminal at Newark with a more upscale, state-of-the art facilityunder a deal to extend its lease on 11 acres and hanger space through 2024.

Signature handled players from the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts whoflew into Miami International Airport in 2010 for Super Bowl XLIV, said PatrickSniffen, a spokesman for the Orlando, Fla., company, whose jet-setting clients alsoinclude business executives and wealthy individuals.

"One of the things were keenly experienced at is handling Super Bowl traffic, andweve done that at a number of locations around the country, most recently inDallas," last February, Sniffen said. "Weve had some serious VIP traffic coming infrom the Middle East as well."

Sniffen said travellers using the new terminal would enjoy plush seating, wi-fiaccess, hi-definition television and other amenities.

State officials have cheered Super Bowl XLVIII, scheduled for February 2014 at theNew Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, as an investment and employmentboon to the state. The new terminal for Signature is the latest in a series of SuperBowl-related improvements at the airport, including a $34 million facelift for theNewark Liberty International Airport Marriott announced last month.

The Port Authoritys aviation director, Susan Baer, told agency commissioners attheir meeting in Manhattan today that Signature would spend another $2 million toupgrade its ramps before the big game, and make another $4 million inimprovements afterward. She said the project would create 80 temporary jobs,including 30 for construction workers and generate $19.5 million in economicactivity.
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^I focused first on the fact that the 2014 Super Bowl will be held in NJ, which manypeople (including myself) probably did not yet know. I included the emphasis onhow good that will be for the state, and then discussed the key features of theplanned renovations to the airport which were inspired by the Super Bowl news. The

article was written so succinctly that I didnt have to reword anything extensively.http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/verizon_offers_5k_reward_for_i.html

Verizon offers $5K reward for information on robbery, shooting of employee inIrvington

Published: Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 7:53 PM

Aliza Appelbaum/The Star-Ledger By Aliza Appelbaum/The Star-Ledger

IRVINGTON Verizon is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to thearrest of the person who robbed and shot a company employee in Irvington, Essex

County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said.

The employee, Rasheed Deans, 33, was repairing a utility pole on Montrose Terraceabout 9:50 a.m. Monday, Fontoura said, when he was approached by a teenagerwearing a black face mask, light-colored jeans and a white hooded sweatshirt.

The teen had a gun and demanded that Deans turn over his wallet. Deans did soand attempted to run away, but the robber fired the gun, a semi-automatic, and hithim once in the lower back. He was taken to University Hospital in Newark, wherehe was treated and released.

Having a company offer to pay the reward for an employee is unusual, but notunheard of, said Kevin Lynch, a spokesman for the sheriffs office.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Irvington police at (973)399-6600 or the anonymous Crime Stoppers Hotline at (973) 877-8477.

^This was a simple and straightforward crime story that is still open and requestingassistance, as well as offering a reward for helping lead to the criminals capture. Ihad to deliver almost all of the details in a very similar order because they werepertinent to gaining a clear understanding of the event, except for a fewunnecessary things such as the Sheriffs name, the exact time and street on whichthe shooting occurred, or the spokesmans quote.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/education/30paddle.html?ref=us

Schools Under Pressure to Spare the Rod Forever

Ben Sklar for The New York Times

By DAN FROSCHPublished: March 29, 2011

When Tyler Anastopoulos got in trouble for skipping detention at his high schoolrecently, he received the same punishment that students in parts of rural Texashave been getting for generations.

Jennifer Zdon for The New York Times

Faculty and students from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans demanded thatArchbishop Gregory Aymond reverse his ban on corporal punishment .

Tyler, an 11th grader from Wichita Falls, was sent to the assistant principal andgiven three swift swats to the backside with a paddle, recalled Angie Herring, hismother. The blows were so severe that they caused deep bruises and the boywound up in the hospital, Ms. Herring said.

While the image of the high school principal patrolling the halls with paddle in handis largely of the past, corporal punishment is still alive in 20 states, according to theCenter for Effective Discipline, a group that tracks its use in schools around thecountry and advocates for its end. Most of those states are in the South, where

paddling remains ingrained in the social and family fabric of some communities.

Each year, prodded by child safety advocates, state legislatures debate whethercorporal punishment amounts to an archaic form of child abuse or an effectivemeans of discipline.

This month, Tyler, who attends City View Junior/Senior High School, told his story tolawmakers in Texas, which is considering a ban on corporal punishment. The sameweek, legislators in New Mexico voted to end the practice there.

Texas schools, Ms. Herring fumed, appear to have free rein in disciplining a student,as long as you dont kill him.

If I did that to my son, she said, Id go to jail.
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Steve Harris, superintendent of the City View Independent School District in WichitaFalls, declined to comment in detail on the case, but noted that his investigation of the school had found no wrongdoing. Corporal punishment, Mr. Harris pointed out,has long been one of the tools in the tool box we use for discipline.

Indeed, up until about 25 years ago, corporal punishment in public schools could befound in all but a handful of states, said Nadine Block, the Center for EffectiveDisciplines founder.

Prompted by the threat of lawsuits and research that questioned its effectiveness,states gradually started banning the practice.

According to estimates by the federal Department of Education, 223,190 childrenwere subject to corporal punishment in schools in the 2005-6 school year. That wasnearly a 20 percent drop from data gathered a few years earlier, Ms. Block said.

In Texas, at least 27 out of about 1,000 school districts still use corporalpunishment, said Jimmy Dunne, founder and president of another group that isagainst the practice, People Opposed to Paddling Students.

That is enough to prompt advocates like Mr. Dunne to push to end the practicethere. One bill being considered would permit corporal punishment only if parentsspecifically consent to it for their children. Another would ban corporal punishmentin schools outright.

Hitting children in our schools with boards is child abuse, and it promotes childabuse at home, said Mr. Dunne, a former math teacher in Houston. Parents seeits legal in schools and think its O.K. to do at home.

In New Mexico, where more than a third of the states school districts permitcorporal punishment, according to a local childrens legal services group, legislatorsapproved a paddling ban this month. Gov. Susana Martinez has not indicatedwhether she will sign the bill.

Opponents of the measure, like State Senator Vernon D. Asbill, worried that a banwould tie teachers hands and make it harder for them to control students.


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With parental supervision and parental approval, I believe its appropriate, saidMr. Asbill, a longtime teacher and school administrator from southern New Mexico.The threat of it keeps many of our kids in line so they can learn.

But Senator Cynthia Nava, a school superintendent from Las Cruces and proponentof the ban, said schools were no place for violence of any sort. Its shocking to methat people got up on the floor and argued passionately to preserve it, she said.We should be educating kids that they cant solve problems with violence.

Calls to end corporal punishment have gotten louder of late, even in states unlikelyto pass a paddling ban. In Mississippi, the family of a teenager paddled in schoolfiled a federal lawsuit last year over the incident. The lawsuit, filed against the TateCounty School District, claims that corporal punishment is unconstitutional becauseit is applied disproportionately to boys.

The teenagers lawyer, Joe Murray, is also representing the family of anotherstudent who was paddled at the same high school this month. In that case, the boywas struck so hard that he passed out and broke his jaw, Mr. Murray said.

An administrator who oversees the school district, James Malone, would notcomment on either case, but said boys typically got into trouble more often thangirls.

In Louisiana, where corporal punishment is also legal, controversy erupted this yearafter the board of trustees for St. Augustine High School, the only Catholic school inNew Orleans -- and perhaps the country -- that still paddled its students, decided toban the practice. St. Augustine was under pressure from Archbishop GregoryAymond of New Orleans, who has said that paddling promotes violence.

But the predominantly African-American schools administration and alumni want

the practice reinstated. They argue that paddling for minor offenses has beeninstrumental in helping St. Augustine build character and achieve high graduationrates.

The schools students have also voiced their support, holding a march in NewOrleans to demand that the archbishop reverse his position.


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Jacob Washington, a senior and the student body president, helped organize themarch.

This is a tradition for the school, he said on the eve of the rally. Its how the

school has been run for 60 years. Just the seniors alone we can tell the differencebetween our class and some of the newer students who didnt receive the samediscipline.

^This was a good article, but so long and drawing from so many individual sourcesand cases that I had to distill it to the most basic establishment of the issue,mentions of places in which the punishments remain legal, the main arguments onboth the pro and con sides, and then a few specific examples of controversial newbills and bans on paddling.

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Court Weighs Bias Claim

Justices Skeptical of Arguments to Allow Class-Action Status in Wal-Mart Suit

By JESS BRAVIN And ANN ZIMMERMAN

WASHINGTONA class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. appeared

unlikely to survive after Tuesday's Supreme Court arguments, where justicessuggested the suit was unfair both to the nation's largest retailer and many of thewomen who allegedly were victimized.

The lawsuit accused Wal-Mart of systematically paying as many as three millioncurrent and former female workers less than men and providing them feweropportunities for promotion. Wal-Mart denies the claims, which could total billions of dollars in back pay and punitive damages, and says it has a strict antidiscriminationpolicy.

The case potentially could set new standards for future employment class action.Much of corporate America, including Altria Group Inc., General Electric Co.,Microsoft Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc., has backed Wal-Mart, arguing that a plaintiff victory could open the door to unprecedented liability.
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But civil rights, women's rights and labor rights groups have sided with theplaintiffs, contending that a sweeping class action is one of few effective toolsagainst ingrained discrimination in the workplace.

The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the suit, filed in 2001, couldproceed in its current form. It has yet to go to trial because Wal-Mart contends thealleged victims, who worked in 170 job classifications across 3,400 stores, have toolittle in common to qualify for a single class action suit.

The plaintiffs allege that regardless of the varying job classifications and storelocations, the women all suffered from the same discriminatory practices in acorporate culture "rife with gender stereotypes."

On average, each woman who worked at Wal-Mart would be entitled to about$1,100 in back pay, according the plaintiffs' brief filed with the Court.

At Tuesday arguments, conservative justices challenged the lawsuit's premise,which alleges that Wal- Mart maintained a "pattern and practice" of discriminationa legal standard for liabilityby granting local managers wide discretion inemployment decisions.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy pressed Joseph Sellers, the attorneyrepresenting a half-dozen women who seek to represent the massive class. On theone hand, the plaintiffs allege that "Arkansas knows everything," Kennedy said,referring to Wal-Mart's home state. But on the other, individual managers have toomuch autonomy.

Mr. Sellers argued the two pieces fit together. He said corporate policy gave localmanagers unfettered discretion to underpay women. And prejudice against women,was part of what he contended was a centralized corporate culture the companycalls "the Wal-Mart Way."

Because the plaintiffs' claims are based on statistical evidence of pay andpromotions that favor men over women, Justice Samuel Alito asked if that meant"every single company" in the country could potentially be in violation of the CivilRights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.

Possibly so, Mr. Sellers said.


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Liberal justices were more open to the plaintiffs' theory. The common policy, JusticeElena Kagan said, permitted "excessive subjectivity," allowing gender discriminationto influence employment decisions.

To qualify as a class action, Justice Kagan said, plaintiffs need only show "that thereis a practice, a policy of subjectivity that on the whole results in discriminationagainst women, not that each one of those women in the class were themselvesdiscriminated against."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg questioned whether the plaintiffs, seeking a proceduraladvantage, had cut thousands of alleged victims out of potential remedies. The suitwas filed under a provision that makes it easier to certify a class action, but limitscompensatory damages.

Justice Ginsburg said that for women who no longer work at Wal-Mart, thosecompensatory damages for past wrongs are more important than ensuring futureopportunities at the company. " They're not interested in" an injunction againstfuture discrimination, "but everyone's interested in money," she said .

The plaintiffs say their statistical and anecdotal evidence should be enough to gettheir case before a jury. They say, for instance, that while women outnumber men2-1 in Wal-Mart's hourly positions, the ratio is reversed in management ranks. Andthey say that such practices as holding staff meetings at Hooters restaurantssupports their claim regarding the company's allegedly discriminatory culture .

Wal-Mart responds that the plaintiffs' statistics don't show that disparities betweenmen and women are caused by discrimination, and dismisses the anecdotes as"widely divergent, and often entirely unique, events."

The allegation: The six named plaintiffs allege that they and potentially more than

a million other female Wal-Mart workers were paid less than men and were offered fewer opportunities for promotion, the result of a a corporate culture "rife withgender stereotypes." They are seeking back pay and punitive damages.

Wal-Mart's response: The retailer says it has a strict antidiscrimination policy and that the claims are too diverse to qualify as a single class-action suit. "Wal-Mart isworking hard every day to ensure more women are represented in our


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management ranks," Gisel Ruiz, a company executive vice president, said in astatement.

"Our theory is that WalMart provided to its managers unchecked discretionthat

was used to pay women less than men who were doing the same work in the samefacilities at the same time, even though those women had more seniority and higher performance."

Joseph Sellers, plaintiffs' lawyer

"I'm getting whipsawed here. On the one hand, you say the problem is that they were utterly subjective, and on the other hand you say there is a strong corporateculture that guides all of this. Well, which is it?"

Justice Antonin Scalia

Wal-Mart also claims that its statistical study done on a store-by-store basis showsno pay disparity between male and and female workers.

"The case doesn't look promising for plaintiffs based on the questions the justicesasked," said Alexandra Lahav, a professor of law at the University of ConnecticutSchool of Law.

The justices also are considering whether back pay can be awarded in class actionsuits where injunctive relief is sought. Until now, all courts have agreed that it can."Removing back pay would be a huge change," Ms. Lahav said.

U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins, in San Francisco, granted the case class status inJune 2004. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco voted 6-5 topermit the class action to proceed, with some modifications.

The appeals court said women who left Wal-Mart before the original suit was filed inJune 2001 shouldn't be considered part of the class, but left it up to a trial judge toconsider whether to certify their claims under a different legal standard. It alsoruled that the trial judge must use new legal standards in considering whether thewomen could pursue punitive damages.


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More than 100 women gave depositions telling similar stories to the namedplaintiffs. "We talked to hundreds more, but many were too scared to stand up,"said Betty Lawrence, a plaintiffs lawyer.

More

"Wal-Mart is working hard every day to ensure more women are represented in ourmanagement ranks," Gisel Ruiz, a company executive vice president, said in astatement. "We continue to have strong anti-discrimination policies in place, astrong record of advancement of women and we are always looking to be better."

^This was another interesting, but long and complex, story. It came out rather longeven in my own wording, but I did highlight only about half of the article at first tonarrow it down to the most crucial information. I then pulled the key facts out of that half and blended them together in a logical flow so that people will understandwhats happening and why, what the plaintiffs seek, and what Wal-Marts rebuttalsare to their accusations. I wanted to include some specifics, such as the Hootersmeetings, in order to add some color, but also point out that as confident as theplaintiffs may feel about their case, its definitely in jeopardy of not even qualifyingas a class-action suit, let alone being awarded to them.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703739204576229053002458270.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

Colorado Abuzz Over Beer Bill

Groceries, Convenience Stores Push to End Sales Rules Based on Alcohol Content

By STEPHANIE SIMON

DENVERA fight brewing in the Colorado legislature has lawmakers bitterly dividedover beer.

The state House of Representatives is expected to begin debate soon on a bill thatwould dismantle Colorado's great beer divide, which since 1933 has limited the saleof beer with higher alcohol content to liquor stores, restaurants and bars .

Supermarkets and convenience stores, meanwhile, have had a monopoly on beerwith less than 3.2% alcohol by weight, which is equivalent to 4% by volume. Now,they want the opportunity to cash in on sales of the stronger stuff.
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In 2010, Coloradans purchased nearly six million gallons of lower-alcohol beer,compared with 104 million gallons of higher-alcohol brews.

Colorado's beer laws, enacted after Prohibition to keep the most intoxicating brews

away from teens, have created unusual situations. The Coors Light sold insupermarkets is made with a shorter fermentation period, which produces a loweralcohol content, than the Coors Light sold in liquor storesthough the brewer saysthere is no difference in taste, and the packaging is nearly identical.

Only four other statesUtah, Oklahoma, Indiana and Kansashave similar rules.

Groups representing supermarkets and convenience stores are planning petitiondrives, newspaper ads and automated phone calls to drum up public support for

their push to eliminate the beer divide, said Mark Larson, who runs a tradeassociation for Colorado convenience-store owners. Their rallying cry: "Let beer bebeer!" Mr. Larson said.

He and others maintain that the 78-year-old rules are anachronistic and confusingto shoppers.

On the other side, liquor-store owners predict financial disaster if they lose theirmonopoly on stronger brews. Beer accounts for 60% to 70% of sales at most liquorstores in the state, said Jeanne McEvoy, who runs an industry trade group. Shepredicts that as many as 700 of Colorado's 1,660 liquor stores would go out of business if the rules were changed, throwing thousands of people out of work.

Colorado's 130 craft breweries are also fighting to keep the status quo . Theproposal would greatly expand their potential market, by letting them sell their full-strength beers to chain groceries. But the brewers prefer to market their beer toindependently owned liquor stores, some of which are enormous50,000 squarefeetand stock scores of niche brands and seasonal brews. Supermarkets don'thave the shelf space, so if big grocery chains came to dominate the beer market,

consumers might have less exposure to local products, said John Carlson, executivedirector of the Colorado Brewers Guild.

"I'm not saying it will be Armageddon," said John Bryant, president of Oskar BluesBrewery in Longmont, Colo. "But it would change the dynamics of craft breweries inColorado."


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The beer-sales debate has been complicated by Gov. John Hickenlooper'sintervention on a related issue.

Convenience- and grocery-store owners have long complained that pubs andrestaurants, which are supposed to serve only stronger beers, routinely (andillegally) serve lighter offerings as well. So state officials spent six months draftingrules that, for the first time, required brewers to report the alcohol content of eachproduct.

At the last minute, Mr. Hickenlooper, a former brew-pub owner, struck down theregulation, calling it too much red tape.

Outraged convenience- and grocery-store lobbyists accused Mr. Hickenlooper of backing up his brew-pub buddies. The governor, a Democrat, said he would do thesame for any industry snarled in excessive regulation.

State Rep. Larry Liston, a Republican who is spearheading the drive to change thebeer rules, says debate in the House is likely to be intense. "This is a monumentalundertaking," he said. And no, he won't be knocking back a cold one to help himthrough the coming floor flight.

"Ironically, I'm not really a beer drinker," he said. "I prefer a nice glass of wine."

^I presented the case of the convenience store and supermarket owners first,followed by that of the other groups who oppose changing the rules. This way thestory doesnt confuse people too much by jumping back and forth between bothsides of the debate. I think my condensation of the original piece effectivelysummarizes it. As a conclusion to emphasize the unusualness of Colorados beerlaw, I tossed in the fact about the other four states that such legislation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704559904576230254215149020.html?mod=WSJ_World_LeadStory

Allies Intensify Call for Gadhafi to Step Down

By JAY SOLOMON
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LONDONU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the political leader of Libya's rebel movement Tuesday in a bid to further strengthen the coalition seekingto oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Mrs. Clinton's Monday engagement with Mahmoud Jibril , a former head of Libya'seconomic planning office, marked their second meeting in a little more than a week.

A senior U.S. official who took part in the meeting said Mrs. Clinton is seeking togain a "clearer picture" of Libya's opposition leadership and gain a sense of how apost-Gadhafi government might look .

Hillary Clinton, at a London summit with U.K. leader David Cameron, left, said theU.S. hasn't made a decision about arming the Libyan opposition.

Mrs. Clinton is in London to take part in a 40-nation summit Tuesday that will lookinto ways to better implement a United Nations resolution aimed at protectingLibyan civilians from Col. Gadhafi's violent crackdown on antigovernmentprotesters.

The meeting also is seeking to strengthen the unity and profile of the LibyanNational Council, an umbrella political organization representing the rebel forces .Mr. Jibril was recently chosen as the de facto prime minister of the Council.

Mr. Jibril also met with U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague ahead of theconference. Mr. Hague said that he discussed logistics over humanitarian and"priorities for international assistance," according to a Foreign & CommonwealthOffice statement.

Mrs. Clinton will meet with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and Mr. Hague beforetaking part in the conference.

The Obama administration has taken a relatively cautious approach towardembracing Libya's opposition leadership since the rebellion against Col. Gadhafibroke out last month.

France and Qatar have already formally recognized the Libyan National Council asthe legitimate leadership of Libya. And a number of foreign governments haveopenly called for the arming of the rebel movement.


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U.S. officials have said in recent days that Washington is still studying both theissue of the formal recognition of the Council as well as the possibility of armedsupport. U.S. President Barack Obama also said in a Monday speech on Libya thathis administration is seeking ways to make available to the Council more than $30

billion in Col. Gadhafi's funds recently frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department .

"This is one of the issues that still needs to be sorted out" legally and logistically,said a senior U.S. official traveling with Mrs. Clinton Tuesday. "We have anincreasingly clear sense of a number of the Libyan [opposition's] leaders."

The official said the State Department is seeing to dispatch its special envoy toLibya's opposition movement, Christopher Stevens, to Benghazi in the coming days.Mr. Stevens "will establish a systematic channel" to the Libyan National Council, theAmerican official said.

Alistair MacDonald contributed to this article.

^As usual, I wound up highlighting passages throughout the article that struck meas being necessary and then arranging the information from those passages intomy radio news story, changing the order of fact presentation when I saw fit. It wasvery difficult to rephrase most of the sentences in a way that would make moresense than they already did or sound even more appropriate to the different format,but I tried to do so, rather than simply copying and pasting the abridged article.

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At Plant, a Choice Between Bad, Worse

Japan Vows to Keep Dousing Reactors, at Risk of Spillover of Toxic Runoff; FloodedPump Rooms

By ANDREW MORSE And MITSURU OBE

TOKYOWorkers at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant positioned sandbagsand concrete barriers around drains leading from contaminated reactors Tuesday,setting a last line of defense against highly radioactive water that has floodedreactor buildings and threatens to spill into the ocean.
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Plutonium was found in soil samples from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant,signaling that a reactor core may have partly melted.

Workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant are battling to keep pools of radioactive

water from flooding into the ocean. Meanwhile, small amounts of plutonium havebeen found in the soil around the plant.

At the same time, Japanese officials said Tuesday they would keep dousing theplant's stricken reactors with watera course of action that could raise those waterlevels further.

At the heart of the day's official moves lies a calculated choice between bad andworse: To meet their goal of keeping reactors cool enough to forestall a nuclear

catastrophe, officials appear willing to risk letting some highly radioactive waterspill out of vents that are positioned some 50 to 70 yards from the sea.

The efforts by the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., orTepco, underscore how the 18-day crisis is moving into a new phase that could takemonths to resolve. Workers have largely stabilized the temperatures of nuclearmaterial at the plant, and reduced the possibility of a catastrophic event such assignificant melting, in part by spraying facilities with vast amounts of water.

Workers are still probing for the source of the plutonium found Monday at theFukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Possible scenarios :

1. Some of the plutonium found is believed to have been there before the nuclearcrisis started and is unconnected to the current situation. Tokyo Electric Power Co.says three of five samples are "equivalent to the fallout observed in Japan when theatmospheric nuclear test was conducted in the past."

2. Heating of spent fuel rods

A likely source of the plutonium, experts say. As it decays, uranium in fuel rodsproduces some plutonium, which might have been borne aloft by steam in spent-


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fuel containment pools, or in water that splashed out as workers doused the spentfuel rods to keep them cool.

3. Partial melting of fuel in reactors 1 or 2

Decaying uranium in the fuel rods of reactors 1 and 2 would also produceplutonium. A partial melting in No. 2 is already considered the likely source of thestrong radiation readings there and could also account for the plutonium. However,experts say that if partially burned fuel accounted for the plutonium found on thesite, radioactivity levels would likely be much higher than they now are

4. Partial melting of fuel in reactor No. 3.

Reactor No. 3's mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel contains plutonium, and any breach inthe reactor's containment unit might account for a plutonium release. Governmentand company officials say they don't have indications of such a breach, though, andexperts say this is among the least likely scenarios.

That water has flooded the turbine buildings of three of the complex's six reactorsand is filling trenches that lead outside the buildingsand stand, in one case, withina few inches of running over. At two of the reactor units, there is currently nowhereto relocate the water.

The plant's cooling pumps, too, are located within these flooded zones. Workers willcontinue to face difficulties in their all-important goal of starting the pumps as longas the areas are flooded with radioactive water.

Of particular concern is the runoff at reactor No. 2, which has risen to within aboutthree feet of spilling out of an outside shaft. Readings of radiation in this water areat least 1,000 millisieverts an hourfour times the level emergency work crews atthe site are allowed to experience in a full year. Those levels may be higher still, butauthorities say 1,000 millisieverts is the upper limit of their measuring devices. Itisn't clear why meters that are available to measure higher concentrations haven'tbeen used.

Officials from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, or NISA, say the water-filled trench at reactor No. 2 has a capacity of about 6,000 cubic meters, theequivalent of more than two Olympic-sized swimming pools.


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Despite concerns over spillage, officials said their main goal lies elsewhere. "Our No.1 priority is to cool the fuel to prevent any more damage" to the complex's fuelrods, said senior NISA regulator Hidehiko Nishiyama. "Within the limitation of thatpriority, we can adjust the amount of cooling water to reduce the amount of

contaminated water spilling out."

The tradeoffs were already apparent Tuesday, as the government said it pulledback its use of cooling water to the troubled No. 2 unit. The temperature in thatreactor rose to about 150 degrees Celsius on Tuesday morning, from 130 degreesearly Monday.

Chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said a drop in water use was likely thereason. Later Tuesday, temperatures at reactors Nos. 1, 2 and 3 all fell slightly, withthe No. 2 reactor at about 142 degrees, Tepco said. Temperatures at all threereactors remained well below the 1,000-plus-degree level at which radioactivematerial can be damaged to a dangerous degree .

Separately on Tuesday, government and utility officials continued to hunt foradditional signs of plutonium isotopes at the Fukushima Daiiichi site, as well as theirsource. Mr. Edano, the government spokesman, said the presence of plutoniumoffered further proof for previous speculation that fuel in at least some of thereactors had melted. But experts said the amounts of plutonium remained low.

In a sign the country's partisan rancor is returning, Prime Minister Naoto Kan facedquestions from Japan's Parliament on Tuesday over whether his visit to the complexon March 12 delayed vital repair efforts.

Government officials dismissed the claims, saying the trip was brief, Mr. Kan metwith only two people at the plant and didn't divert resources from the repair effort."This quake, tsunami and the nuclear accident are the biggest crises for Japan'' indecades, he said, reiterating a line he has used many times in recent days. "We willcontinue to handle it in a state of maximum alert."

The U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday it has shipped a robot to Japan, alongwith several "radiation hardened cameras" as test of whether such devices could behelpful to the Fukushima workers trying to survey areas of the complex whereradiation levels are too high for them to go.


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An Energy Department spokesman said the U.S. the first robot is a test to see if theJapanese workers can make use of U.S. designed remote controlled machinesdesigned to conduct environmental cleanup "in environments that are obviouslyquite different than the nuclear reactor in Japan."

The plant's troubles came on a day when fears eased in other parts of the nationover nuclear contamination. Findings of radiation in food and water have droppedafter a series of low-level findings last week that extended worries over the nation'sfood supplies. Atmospheric radiation has also dropped .

The Japanese government monitors radiation levels around the country.

The ocean surrounding the stricken plant also appeared to be clearing of radiation.Tepco said Tuesday that a sample of seawater taken Monday from a nearbydischarged outlet showed the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 stood at 27.9times the allowable limit, down from 250 times on Sunday and 1,850.5 times onSaturday. About 1.5 kilometers north, the level of concentration fell to 665.8 timesthe allowable limit, from 1,150 times on Sunday.

Officials are now turning to the question of where to store radioactive water.

At reactor No. 1 on Tuesday, three pumps pushed water into the condensation unita vessel housed within the unit's turbine building, which usually serves to convertthe steam that powers turbines back into water.

Plant operators can't do the same at reactors 2 and 3, however, because thosecondensation units are already full. Until those can be safely drained, officials havenowhere to sluice the radioactive water.

Rebecca Smith, Stephen Power and Juro Osawa contributed to this article.

^This was a very important and involved article that wound up being my longeststory yet (I hope that a page is an acceptable length for the station or that, if not,they will simply cross out the lines that need to be removed in the interest of time.The stories will remain informative even if a portion or even half of each one is cutout. I first addressed, for most of the write-up, the facts about the nuclear reactorsand the dangers of all the flooding and potential spillage versus those of failing tocool down the fuel (causing a nuclear meltdown.) I then briefly mentioned thediscovery of plutonium, and the reduction in various other radiation levels beingfound throughout the country. Organizing the story into those three sections wasthe best way to maintain control of it. I did my best to omit unnecessary details and


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simplify the scientific language as much as possible, and utilized numerous pointsthat stress the serious danger of the situation.

JGR unsure of root cause with engines

By David Newton

ESPN.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Joe Gibbs Racing officials are scrambling to uncover the causeof an unusually high number of engine issues during the first five races of the SprintCup season.

JGR had two issues this past weekend at Auto Club Speedway in California. Theengine in Joey Logano's Toyota had to be replaced on Saturday when valve leakage

was discovered following the final practice.

Denny Hamlin's engine failed 105 laps into the race due to an unrelated value trainissue, leaving last year's Chase runner-up with a 39th-place finish that dropped himto 21st in points.

In all, JGR has had three engine failures in races and three more engines replacedprior to a race because problems arose. Last season, the organization had only twoDNFs due to engine failure between Hamlin, Logano and Kyle Busch.

"Is there concern? Of course," said Jimmy Makar, JGR's senior vice president of raceoperations. "We've had a lot more issues than we'd like to see, this early in theseason especially.

"Probably the bigger issue is for the most part they are non-related. That makesthings harder to figure out. If you had the same thing happening over and overagain you could focus on it."

Makar said only Hamlin's failure on Sunday showed signs of a potential bad part. Hesaid the batch that the part came from would be quarantined for this weekend'srace at Martinsville Speedway to see if any issues arise.


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"It seems like every weekend there is something going on," Makar said. "It's very,very odd. We've been through cycles before where we've had valve springs andthings that you come to expect to fail. We really haven't had these kinds of issues,certainly not this time of the year."

More alarming, Makar said there were very few changes made to the engines duringthe offseason. He said the organization purposely left things the way they were,with minor adjustments to improve fuel mileage that may have cost Hamlin thechampionship last season, before experimenting with new ideas.

"The few small changes we made you wouldn't have thought would have causedany of these problems," Makar said.

Hamlin's California engine was pulled and taken to Toyota Racing Development inCosta Mesa, Calif., as part of an agreement with TRD even though JGR builds its ownengines.

TRD and JGR officials huddled over Hamlin's car for a long time after it was taken tothe garage. Makar said JGR is working closely with TRD on the issues.

Richard Childress, the owner of Richard Childress Racing, said his Chevroletorganization likely would share what it learned from several engine issues earlierthis year. Makar said it is not unusual for different manufacturers to do that whencommon engine components are involved.

Hamlin said the problems concern him because they impact his position in thestandings.

"I'm worried a little bit more," said Hamlin, who had to have an engine replacedbefore one of the qualifying races at Daytona. "It's frustrating because you want todo the best you can each week ... and the team did a great job setting up the carand we had a fast car.

"It doesn't matter in the end if you can't finish the way you're supposed to."


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Busch was the only JGR driver who didn't experience engine problems at California.He led a race-high 151 laps and appeared headed for victory before a late cautionallowed Kevin Harvick to take the win.

But Busch had an engine failure at Las Vegas that left him 38th.

"That's the weird thing about it," Makar said. "You come with three engines, oneblows up, one has other issues in practice and one comes back with no problemswhatsoever. How do you make rhyme or reason with that? I wish it was an easything finding out what it is."

Makar also wishes he could guarantee this isn't a long-term problem.

"That's the million-dollar question," he said. "At this point, we still don't know. Everyweek it seems to be a different problem."

^This one was fairly easy. I pulled out the facts that would give someone the mostconcise picture of what is taking place, and combined them into one paragraph.They were mostly near and the beginning and already in a good logical order; I onlyneeded to reword it slightly to be comprehensible to a radio audience that mightnot follow NASCAR but would probably not mind hearing about a problem like this.

'Mad Men' delayed until 2012 due to ongoing contract negotiations

March 29, 2011 | 9:06 am

Latimes.com: Entertainment news

Weiner Due to continuing contract negotiations between "Mad Men" creator MattWeiner and AMC, the series will not return until early 2012, the network said onTuesday. AMC announced that it has officially authorized production of the show's

fifth season, triggering its option with "Mad Men's" production company, Lionsgate,but confirmed that the show won't be back until next year. "While we are getting alater start than in years past due to ongoing, key non-cast negotiations, 'Mad Men'will be back for a fifth season in early 2012," the network said in a statement.

But according to The Daily and Deadline Hollywood, many issues have yet to beresolved between the parties, including AMC's desire to integrate more product


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placement into the series, add more commercials and trim the running time by twominutes. Two years ago, Weiner had a similar dispute with AMC over those twominutes, and both sides eventually agreed to let the episodes run over into the 11p.m. time slot so that extra commerical time could be added without making thescripts any shorter. AMC has been using product placement in the series since itsfirst season.

Sources tell Deadline Hollywood that Weiner is threatening that negotiations maycollapse as a result of AMC's demands. Poised to become the highest-paidshowrunner on basic cable, he is also looking for a deal that would pay him $15million a year, or more than $1 million per episode.

Someone call Don Draper in to buy everyone a dry martini and help them brokerthis deal!

^I decided to simply convey the demands of both parties and let the listeners knowthe basic facts about the successful shows current status (i.e., that its entering itsfifth season but wont return until next year, and that according to entertainmentnews sources, the contract between AMC and the creator is in danger.)

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