Proposed air pollution reforms controversial

(U-WIRE) COLUMBUS, Ohio – Heated… Proposed air pollution reforms controversial

(U-WIRE) COLUMBUS, Ohio – Heated controversy is focused on the New Source Review program, which was written into the Clean Air Act in 1977.

The program forces newly-constructed pollution sources to install the best available pollution control technology. It also forces existing pollution sources, like coal-fired power plants, to install the best available controls whenever they make modifications beyond routine maintenance and will significantly increase their emissions. The program was created to eventually clean up emissions from pollution sources as older and dirtier facilities die off.

On Dec. 31, President George W. Bush and the Environmental Protection Agency published finalized revisions to the program.

These rules are published in the Federal Register for a comment period. The rules attempt to clarify the modifications that can be made at existing pollution sources without triggering the need to install the best available pollution controls.

The responses so far have been heated.

Nine Northeastern states and Pennsylvania have filed suit in federal court to prevent any of the revisions from being implemented.

Environmentalists not associated with the EPA have said these revisions to the NSR program are serious changes to the Clean Air Act that will give existing pollution sources more flexibility in terms of what constitutes routine maintenance, and when they are forced to install the best available pollution controls.

-Tom Lotshaw, The Lantern (Ohio State University)

Study shows college freshmen are studying less

(U-WIRE) UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – According to a study from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California Los Angeles, college freshmen are studying less than in past years, and high school grade inflation is rising, the study reported.

The UCLA study was based on responses from 282,549 students at 437 public and private colleges and universities.

According to the study, only 33.4 percent of college freshmen reported spending six hours per week or more studying or doing homework during their senior year in high school.

The study also said the percentage of first-year college students who study less than one hour per week has nearly doubled during the past 15 years, from 8.5 to 15.9 percent.

-Michele Jarchin, Daily Collegian (Pennsylvania State University)

Powell: Iraq has ability to launch attack

(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the U.N. Security Council Wednesday in an effort to convince the world that Iraq has the ability and wherewithal to unleash weapons of mass destruction and that the country has ties to terrorism networks.

Powell presented a series of evidence, including recordings and photographs from intelligence sources, that he said act as proof that Saddam Hussein has violated an agreement to comply with weapons inspectors and is stockpiling deadly tools of warfare.

Throughout his speech, Powell reiterated that he was not providing speculation, but rather facts proving that Iraq is in violation of U.N. resolutions on weapons policy. He said that while some information is classified, all relevant intelligence would be given to weapons inspectors.

The United Nations, he said, has an obligation to see that Iraq complies with Resolution 1441. The resolution was passed last fall and gave the country one last chance to comply with weapons inspectors.

But his hour-plus presentation did not provide the “smoking gun” that some were looking for, analysts said. Instead it underlined the administration’s point that Saddam continues to defy the U.N. and that even a unanimous Security Council resolution, backed by the threat of force, has not been enough to persuade him to cooperate with inspectors.

– Carolyn Polinsky, U-WIRE (DC BUREAU)

Local draft board is rested and ready

CHICAGO – As U.S. troops are deployed in greater numbers abroad and reservists are called to active duty every week, the Selective Service System is poised to do its job: Draft young American males into the military.

It has been 30 years since Uncle Sam last sent induction letters telling nervous recipients they’re in the Army now, but officials say he can be as efficient as ever supplying needed manpower against Iraq, North Korea or whomever.

Nearly 2,000 local draft boards have been maintained at full strength throughout the nation, for any necessary rapid, military mobilization, according to Army Lt. Col. Dianna Cleven, the service’s Region I director for a 17-state area that includes Illinois.

The boards will make the decisions on military-eligibility of draftees, who get classified on the basis of physical and mental health. They also have the power to grant deferments to conscientious objectors and other special categories, such as divinity students and hardship cases.

For young American males who don’t see the armed forces in their future, all of this may have an ominous ring despite assurances from American military leaders, including U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, a draft is not necessary at this time. An act of Congress, plus approval by President George W. Bush, would be required for conscription to begin.

But according to Cleven, who operates out of a command center on U.S. Navy property in North Chicago, the Selective Service System will be ready to swing into action if called. She has 12 full-time employees at her disposal, plus 142 reservists, to help administer responsibilities that include registration of 18-year-old males as well as the ongoing training of new board members.

– Mike Conklin, Chicago Tribune (KRT)

St. Louis University takes lead in smallpox research

ST. LOUIS – Chris Pixton rolled up his sleeve and let Sharon Frey poke his shoulder with a needle loaded with a drop of smallpox vaccine.

Pixton was the 165th subject in the latest St. Louis University study on the effectiveness of a vaccine not used in decades. Researchers already have vaccinated several hundred people and now are conducting their fourth vaccination study.

With its complex of offices, laboratories and hospitals, St. Louis University has become a leading center nationally for smallpox research.

Vaccine deliveries have begun so state health departments can inoculate thousands of hospital workers. They would serve in the front lines if a smallpox outbreak occurred, vaccinating the public and caring for the ill.

As the threat of war and terrorism looms, the work under way in St. Louis has grown in urgency. Researchers are looking for ways to protect the public from an act of bioterrorism that may be extremely unlikely, but potentially catastrophic.

Smallpox is highly contagious. If terrorists were to bring the virus to the United States, it could spread quickly. And smallpox is deadly; about 30 percent of those who become ill could die.

To deal with the threat, the Bush administration is vaccinating military personnel and asking health-care workers to volunteer for vaccinations. The president himself was inoculated.

But many health care workers are reluctant to be vaccinated. That’s because the smallpox vaccine is fraught with many disturbing unknowns.

A pilot study on a small number of subjects vaccinated previously has been completed. Now, researchers here and at six other centers are inoculating more than 900 people.

Studies of smallpox vaccine conducted decades ago looked at how often people suffered severe or lethal side effects after inoculation. For every million people vaccinated, about two died. Mild side effects were far more common.

– Alan Bavley, Knight Ridder Newspapers

North Korea reactivates nuclear facilities

TOKYO – North Korea announced late Wednesday that it had reactivated and placed on a “normal footing” the nuclear facilities at the center of its weapons development program.

Analysts said the move, which the State Department characterized as “a very serious development,” was designed to coerce attention from a Bush administration more focused on potential war with Iraq.

Both countries were labeled part of the “Axis of Evil” by President Bush in his State of the Union address last year, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is said to believe his government will also be targeted by Washington for war.

In a statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry released on the official Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang said it is “now putting the operation of its nuclear facilities for the production of electricity on a normal footing after their restart.”

A State Department official, speaking on background, demanded that the North “reverse this action” and “visibly, verifiably and irreversibly dismantle its nuclear weapons program.”

North Korea has already thrown out inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Administration and said it will walk out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. The IAEA is scheduled to meet in Vienna next Wednesday to discuss asking the U.N. Security Council to consider political or other sanctions against the Pyongyang government.

– Michael Zielenziger, Knight Ridder Newspapers