Congress moving toward quick fix to flight delays

By Richard Cowan and Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate moved quickly late on Thursday to end air traffic controller furloughs that were causing widespread airline flight delays related to last month's automatic federal spending cuts.

Without any debate, the Senate unanimously passed legislation giving the Department of Transportation flexibility to use unspent funds to cover the costs of air traffic controllers and other essential employees at the Federal Aviation Administration.

The House of Representatives, which is expected to approve the measure, could take it up on Friday, capping a feverish effort by Congress to end the flight delays that were snarling traffic at major U.S. airports and angering travelers.

Some Senate aides said the measure would also give the FAA flexibility to keep open nearly 150 "contract towers" at smaller airports that are staffed by non-FAA employees who help control takeoffs and landings.

Explicit language to keep open those towers was not included in the measure, however, according to the aides, and it was not clear how the agency would handle the matter.

"I'm delighted that the Senate has just passed a bipartisan bill to resolve a serious problem confronting the American traveling public and our economy," said Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, one of a handful of senators who wrote the legislation.

The bill moved with lightning speed in the Senate where legislation often bogs down for weeks or months. It was passed after a day of furious negotiations between lawmakers and the Obama administration.

The bill, if passed by the House, would close another chapter in a series of Washington battles over budget and taxes that have been waged since 2011.

The cause of the air traffic controller furloughs was the controversial "sequestration" that took effect on March 1, requiring across-the-board spending cuts among most federal agencies. With those cuts starting to bite, a public backlash prompted Congress to reconsider, and fully fund high-profile FAA operations.

Lawmakers are eager to fix the air travel problem before they head out of town for next week's congressional recess. They are concerned about deepening public resentment over the delays caused by the furloughs of controllers.

Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, who also negotiated the legislation, applauded its quick passage, but added, "It does nothing for other essential government operations and employees that also desperately need relief."

ANGRY TRAVELERS

Airline passengers have grown increasingly irritated over the past week with delays at major hubs like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Some have reported delays of several hours in takeoff times and planes being put in holding patterns in the air. Many pilots blame furloughs for landing delays.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said on Thursday that many of the 1,978 controller trainees were now working full shifts by themselves to help cover staffing shortages.

Airline executives had ratcheted up their complaints. "This is government not working - capital letters, exclamation point - when we're sitting here holding the traveling public hostage in the midst of sequestration," JetBlue Chief Executive Dave Barger said on a conference call on Thursday.

The FAA has said it had no alternative to furloughing controllers this week after Congress failed to come up with a budget deal that would have averted the $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts between March 1 and September 30.

At the same time, the FAA has emphasized that passenger safety is not at risk. Airlines for America, the trade organization for U.S. airlines, also said on Thursday the furloughs had not created a safety issue.

While Republicans joined the effort for a quick fix, many were skeptical about whether the White House and FAA were taking advantage of flexibility they already had.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of maximizing the disruptions to try to shift budget blame on Republicans, an allegation the administration has denied. Republicans have created a Twitter hashtag, #Obamaflightdelays, for people to complain about the delays.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican, sent a letter on Thursday to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking for internal documents discussing budget flexibilities. The Department of Transportation said it was reviewing the request.

But a congressional aide involved in the original automatic spending cut legislation that was enacted in August 2011 told Reuters the administration could not under current law shift money from outside accounts to fund the air traffic controller account.

SEQUESTRATION FALLOUT

Without the legislation, the FAA said it would have to furlough 47,000 employees for up to 11 days through September 30 in order to save $637 million that is required by the sequestration.

Of those 47,000 workers, almost 15,000 are full-time air traffic controllers or trainees.

The FAA issued an update that said more than 863 delays in the system on Wednesday were attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furloughs.

An additional 2,132 delays were attributed to weather and other factors, the FAA said. The agency said it would work with airlines to minimize delays.

Airlines, many of which are reporting earnings this week, have pushed the government to quickly ease the flight delays caused by the furloughs.

Jeff Smisek, chairman and chief executive of United Continental Holdings Inc, said his company's network operations center was working around the clock to minimize the impact of fewer controllers.

"We are disappointed that the FAA chose this path, that maximizes customer disruptions and damage to airlines instead of choosing a less disruptive method to comply with the budget obligations," Smisek said on a conference call.

The proposal being weighed would not spare other agencies and federal programs from the across-the-board reductions.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Doug Palmer, Thomas Ferraro, David Lawder, Karen Jacobs and Nivedita Bhattacharjee; Writing by Karey Van Hall; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-moving-toward-quick-fix-flight-delays-000258160.html

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Senate passes bill to ease FAA furloughs

WASHINGTON (AP) ? With flight delays mounting, the Senate approved hurry-up legislation Thursday night to end air traffic controller furloughs blamed for inconveniencing large numbers of travelers.

A House vote on the measure was expected as early as Friday, with lawmakers eager to embark on a weeklong vacation.

Under the legislation, the Federal Aviation Administration would gain authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts that are flush into other programs, to "prevent reduced operations and staffing" through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

In addition to restoring full staffing by controllers, Senate officials said the available funds should be ample enough to prevent the closure of small airport towers around the country. The FAA has said it will shut the facilities as it makes its share of $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that took effect last month at numerous government agencies.

The Senate acted as the FAA said there had been at least 863 flights delayed on Wednesday "attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furlough."

There was no immediate reaction at the White House, although administration officials participated in the negotiations that led to the deal and evidently registered no objections.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key participant in the talks, said the legislation would "prevent what otherwise would have been intolerable delays in the air travel system, inconveniencing travelers and hurting the economy."

Senate approval followed several hours of pressure-filled, closed-door negotiations, and came after most senators had departed the Capitol on the assumption that the talks had fallen short.

Officials said a small group of senators insisted on a last-ditch effort at an agreement before Congress adjourned for a vacation that could have become politically problematic if the flight delays continued.

"I want to do it right now. There are other senators you'd have to ask what the hang-up is," Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said at a point when it appeared no compromise would emerge.

For the White House and Senate Democrats, the discussions on legislation relating to one relatively small slice of the $85 billion in spending cuts marked a shift in position in a long-running struggle with Republicans over budget issues. Similarly, the turn of events marked at least modest vindication of a decision by the House GOP last winter to finesse some budget struggles in order to focus public attention on the across-the-board cuts in hopes they would gain leverage over President Barack Obama.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that represents FAA employees, reported a number of incidents it said were due to the furloughs.

In one case, it said several flights headed for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York were diverted on Wednesday when a piece of equipment failed. "While the policy for this equipment is immediate restoral, due to sequestration and furloughs it was changed to next-day restoral," the union said.

It added it was "learning of additional impacts nationwide, including open watches, increased restoration times, delays resulting from insufficient funding for parts and equipment, modernization delays, missed or deferred preventative maintenance, and reduced redundancy."

The airlines, too, were pressing Congress to restore the FAA to full staffing.

In an interview Wednesday, Robert Isom, chief operations officer of US Airways, likened the furloughs to a "wildcat regulatory action."

He added, "In the airline business, you try to eliminate uncertainty. Some factors you can't control, like weather. It (the FAA issue) is worse than the weather."

In a shift, first the White House and then senior Democratic lawmakers have signaled a willingness in the past two days to support legislation that alleviates the budget crunch at the FAA, while leaving the balance of the $85 billion to remain in effect.

Obama favors a comprehensive agreement that replaces the entire $85 billion in across-the-board cuts as part of a broader deficit-reduction deal that includes higher taxes and spending cuts.

One Senate Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, noted that without the type of comprehensive deficit deal that Obama favors, a bill that eases the spending crunch at the FAA would inevitably be followed by other single-issue measures. She listed funding at the National Institutes of Health as one example, and cuts that cause furloughs of civilians who work at military hospitals as a second.

At the same time, Democratic aides said resolve had crumbled under the weight of widespread delays for the traveling public and pressure from the airlines.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., involved in the discussions, said the issue was big enough so "most people want to find a solution as long as it doesn't spend any more money."

Officials estimate it would cost slightly more than $200 million to restore air traffic controllers to full staffing, and another $50 million to keep open smaller air traffic towers around the country that the FAA has proposed closing.

Across the Capitol, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said, "We're willing to look at what the Senate's going to propose."

He said he believes the FAA has the authority it needs under existing law to shift funds and end the furloughs of air traffic controllers, and any legislation should be "very, very limited" and direct the agency to use the flexibility it already has.

In a reflection of the political undercurrents, another House Republican, Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, said FAA employees "are being used as pawns by this (Obama) administration to be able to implement the maximum amount of pain on the American people when it does not have to be this way."

The White House and congressional Democrats vociferously dispute such claims.

___

Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Henry C. Jackson and Alan Fram in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-25-FAA-Furloughs/id-8d58bdd932e7459eac9f100d6252cd53

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Bush 43: 'History will ultimately judge ... I'm a content man' (CNN)

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Letters to the Editor for April 26, 2013 | Baker City Herald | Baker ...

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I?m supporting Richard McKim for school board

The election for school board position 4 is upon us.? There are several candidates. I believe Richard McKim is the most outstanding candidate and deserves my vote and yours. Richard is highly qualified and comes from a family line of school board members.? Please mark your ballot for Richard McKim.

Virginia Kostol

Baker City

Two votes for Cassidy, McKim for school board

Kevin Cassidy and Richard McKim will get our votes for Baker School District 5J board of directors.

They each have a child in the Baker schools. They are very concerned with the quality of education for our students. They have no hidden agendas. We are very pleased that they will devote their time and energy to improve and enrich the education of our young people.

John and Frances Burgess

Baker City

U.S. action on climate change is essential

On April 10 the idea that ?If the U.S. shows leadership (on climate change) other nations will follow? was scoffed at because the majority of the poor world will not be able to act and it is expensive. Apparently since big poor nations can?t act, we should dismiss the issue too. The idea that the United States should not spend money on solving a global issue we created is terribly myopic.

I offer one reason why U.S. leadership can make a difference. Publicly funded American research provides affordable and often life-saving tools the entire world enjoys routinely. In fact, publicly funded research and engineering projects are a hallmark of American prosperity. Examples include the Panama Canal, modern hydroelectric and nuclear electricity, the space program, the Internet, and the human genome project. These assets paid for by the American taxpayer, continue to pay dividends today the world over. Even the extraction of the very oil that causes climate change is subsidized!?

Public funding for renewable energy is an essential investment that already offers exportable technology poorer nations cannot replicate. Technological solutions researched by America will become cheaper and more enticing once the legwork has been done. We are still known as an innovation economy. There are riches to be made and a planet to be saved in this endeavor. In this ever-changing society, I find it odd that the technologies that threaten our long-term prosperity are the same technologies that we hold so dear.

When ecosystems can no longer provide the necessary water and air filtration, food and natural resources we are accustomed to, we will see economic collapse. I urge the reader to trust the science which has long been in. Energy and emission solutions are a responsibility that comes with the privilege to exhaust an entire planet?s worth of cheap energy in 200 years. This is not a political issue, but one of equity. We are right to be concerned about our children and grandchildren. But their economic problems will stem from ecological and environmental deficits, not simply monetary ones.

Eric Layton

Baker City

Source: http://www.bakercityherald.com/Letters/Letters-to-the-Editor-for-April-26-2013

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Selig: MLB won't interrupt season for Olympics

NEW YORK (AP) ? Major League Baseball won't change its schedule to boost the sport's chances of getting back into the Olympics.

Baseball was an Olympic medal sport from 1992-2008, then was dropped for last year's London Games. IOC President Jacques Rogge says baseball should make its top athletes available, as they are in basketball and hockey.

"Look, we can't stop our season in August. We just can't," baseball Commissioner Bud Selig told the Associated Press Sports Editors on Thursday. "You can't say to your fans: 'We'll see you in the next period of time. You're club loses some players but yours doesn't.'"

The IOC board meets next month to select one or more sports for consideration by September's IOC general assembly. In an effort to boost the chance of readmission for 2020, the international baseball and softball federations are merging.

Some have suggested major leaguers could play in the Olympics during an extended All-Star break. Selig was clear that MLB's schedule will not be interrupted, and that weather made an earlier start or later ending impossible.

"Do I wish I could? Yes," he said. "But is it practical? No."

The sport launched its own international event in 2006, the World Baseball Classic. The first two tournaments were won by Japan, and the Dominican Republic took this year's title last month.

Many top American pitchers didn't play for their national team, including David Price, Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver, Clayton Kershaw and Matt Cain. Some clubs were reluctant to have their players participate.

"They just didn't want to take a chance," Selig said. "And frankly, if I were running a club, I wouldn't either."

He does hope to add another international competition.

"My ultimate goal, I hope I live long enough to see it, is a true World Series," he said. "We have a ways to go."

On another international matter, Selig would like to institute a worldwide amateur draft for 2014. Under baseball's labor contract, MLB must notify the players' association by June 1 of its intent to start an international draft for next year, and the union would have until June 15 to veto it.

"We met with the players' association last week, had extended conversations on the topic," said Rob Manfred, an MLB executive vice president. "I think it's within the realm of the possible that we will have an agreement by June 1."

Union head Michael Weiner responded in an email to The Associated Press: "We have begun discussion, but I wouldn't prejudge the results."

Selig expects MLB executive vice president Joe Torre and his committee to make a proposal on expanded video review by umpires for 2014 when owners meet in New York on May 8-9. Selig does not plan on trying to make the NL use the designated hitter, which was adopted by the AL for the 1973 season.

"I'm going to leave things the way they are. And I do not think it's bad for baseball," he said.

Now 78, Selig once again insisted he will not accept a new contract when his current term expires in December 2014. He became acting commissioner in 1992 and said he would never take the job permanently, then did in 1998. After signing each of his previous extensions, Selig said he planned to retire when it concluded. He changed his mind in 2006 again in 2009, signing a deal that took him through 2012. In January 2012, he accepted a deal adding another two years.

"Done on Dec. 31, 2014. I'll assure you of that," he said.

He wouldn't commit to resolving the dispute between Oakland and San Francisco on the Athletics' desire to build ballpark in San Jose, which is part of the Giants' territory. Selig established a committee in March 2009 but wouldn't commit to a resolution while he's commissioner.

"Time will tell. I'm not going to set a time limit," he said. "We're in intense discussions with all the relevant parties."

The dispute appears to be in the same situation as Pete Rose's application for reinstatement. After agreeing to a lifetime ban in 1989 following an investigation of his gambling, Rose asked Selig in 1997 to lift the suspension.

"I keep saying it's under review. It is. And that's where it is. I'll let you draw your own conclusion," Selig said.

He will not put a timetable for deciding how much of the Los Angeles Dodgers' new broadcast agreement will be subject to revenue sharing.

Selig maintained he understands the anger of Miami Marlins' fans at the decision by owner Jeffrey Loria to sell most of the team's high-paid stars during the offseason ? after a last-place finish in the first season of the team's new ballpark, largely financed with public money. He rejected the possibility Loria will sell the team after 2014, the last year Loria would have to share proceeds with Miami-Dade County.

"The owners deny that emphatically," he said. "They've said it publicly. They've said it privately."

As for the New York Yankees, Selig doesn't believe the sale of a share of the YES Network to News Corp.'s Fox division signals the Steinbrenner family would entertain bids for the franchise. As for the Mets, Selig said the team's finances have stabilized following several years of turmoil in the fallout from the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.

"I have absolutely not a scintilla of doubt that their finances are doing fine," he said. "The situations they faced have been resolved."

Baseball's security officials met Thursday but Selig said no changes are expected in the rules on bags fans can bring to ballparks, generally limited to 16 inches by 16 inches by eight inches. The meeting was scheduled before two bombs were set off at the Boston Marathon last week.

"I wouldn't say that Boston has changed anything," Selig said. "Each club makes its own decision."

He deflected questions about baseball's probe of Biogenesis of America, the closed Florida anti-aging clinic accused in media reports of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs to players. Baseball sued the clinic and its backers and has purchased documents that included players' names.

"We have the toughest drug-testing program in American sports. To enforce that program, we have to be aggressive and thorough, and that's what we're doing," he said.

Selig expects his task force in diversity in the game to produce initiatives. MLB says about 8.5 percent of players on this year's opening-day rosters identified themselves as African-American or black, about half the figure from the mid-1970s.

"Will do better," he said. "I can assure the result of everything we're doing you will see now in the next two or three years, or maybe better than that."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-25-BBO-APSE-Selig/id-1824a847d7ea4639b128bbbaa58feeaf

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Betaworks acquires Instapaper, promises continued development

If you're the sort who likes to catch up on web articles through a dedicated reader app, you're likely familiar with Instapaper and its lone creator, Marco Arment. His solo work makes for a cohesive experience and a great story, but it also involves a lot of strain -- enough so that Arment is selling majority control of the app to Betaworks, the owner of Bitly and Digg. Thankfully, this shouldn't represent a classic acquire-and-absorb deal that ultimately kills the original brand. Arment says he'll remain involved as an advisor, and the takeover is arranged with promises that Betaworks will add staff and continue building the read-it-later tool. While neither side has said just where they'll take Instapaper with more resources, there's a real chance that competitors like Pocket will feel some added pressure.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets

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Futurity.org ? How to tame 'triple negative' breast cancer

When given in higher doses, tamoxifen shows promise for women with basal-like breast cancer, sometimes known as triple-negative disease, a subtype that has a poor prognosis because it is notoriously resistance to treatment. (Credit: iStockphoto)

U. ROCHESTER (US) ? Scientists have discovered how to exploit tamoxifen?s secondary activities to treat more aggressive breast cancers.

Tamoxifen is a time-honored breast cancer drug used to treat millions of women with early-stage and less-aggressive disease.

Published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, the research is a promising development for women with basal-like breast cancer, sometimes known as triple-negative disease?a subtype with a poor prognosis because it is notoriously resistant to treatment.

In fact, basal-like cancers lack the three most common breast cancer biomarkers?the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor, and theHer2/neu receptor?and and without these receptors, the usual front-line treatments are not effective.

Until recently, tamoxifen was known primarily for its ability to block estrogen receptors on the outside of cancer cells. But new studies have suggested that when tamoxifen is given in higher doses, it works through a second mechanism of action independent of the estrogen receptor.

Led by doctoral student Hsing-Yu Chen and Mark Noble, professor of biomedical genetics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, researchers studied the molecular mechanism that allows basal-like breast cancer cells to escape the secondary effects of tamoxifen, and discovered that two proteins are critical in this escape. One protein, called c-Cbl, controls the levels of multiple receptors that are critical for cancer cell function. A second protein, Cdc42, can inhibit c-Cbl and is responsible for the tumor?s underlying resistance.

The team also discovered that targeting Cdc42, and thus inhibiting the inhibitor, with an experimental drug compound known as ML141 restored c-Cbl?s normal function. Through additional work in animal models and in human cell cultures, the team demonstrated that when ML141 is paired with tamoxifen, it enhances the ability of tamoxifen to induce cancer cell death and suppress the growth of new cancer cells. Neither drug alone had the same effect on basal-like breast cells.

Noble believes there is considerable value to targeting Cdc42, because elevated levels of the protein have been observed in multiple types of cancer. (In this context, scientists are also studying the potential for tamoxifen as a therapy for other cancers.)

The powerful ML141-tamoxifen drug combination looks like it has two more important features: It selectively targets cancer cells while sparing normal, healthy cells; and it appears to cripple cancer stem cells, the primitive cells responsible for initiating new tumors and for fueling the bulk of the tumor cell population.

?Our work is very exciting because our approach simultaneously addresses two of the most critical challenges in cancer research?to increase the utility of existing therapies and to discover new vulnerabilities of cancer cells,? Noble says.

?Based on these discoveries, we are already pushing forward with new compounds and with new approaches that might make clinical translation of this discovery much more rapid than would occur with traditional drug-discovery approaches.?

The National Institutes of Health, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the US Department of Defense, and the New York State NYSTEM initiative funded the research.

Source: University of Rochester

Source: http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/how-to-tame-triple-negative-breast-cancer/

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