Air controllers to get more rest between shifts

The Federal Aviation Administration has acknowledged a widespread problem with tired controllers. In recent months there have been five instances of controllers dozing off while on duty. The latest happened early Saturday on a late-night shift in Miami.

STORY: Another air-traffic controller discovered sleeping on jobThe new rules will give controllers at least nine hours off between shifts, compared with eight now. Controllers won’t be able to swap shifts to get a long weekend unless there’s at least nine hours off from the end of one shift to the start of the other. More managers will be on duty during the early morning hours and at night to remind controllers that nodding off is unacceptable.

View the Original article

Red River Valley flood fight shifts north of Fargo

By Scott Olson, Getty Images

A cemetery sits under flood water in the yard of a rural church April 10 near Gardner, North Dakota. The Red River crested yesterday about 25 miles south of Gardner in Fargo, North Dakato at 38.5 feet.

EnlargeCloseBy Scott Olson, Getty Images

A cemetery sits under flood water in the yard of a rural church April 10 near Gardner, North Dakota. The Red River crested yesterday about 25 miles south of Gardner in Fargo, North Dakato at 38.5 feet.

Fargo officials said the metropolitan area appears to be in good shape, but urged residents not to travel outside the city. About 60 miles of roads were closed in Cass County, where Fargo is located, and another 10 miles of roads were washed over, officials said. Interstate 29 north of Fargo was closed for about 25 miles.

Some tributaries of the Red River were at record levels.

"In the southern part of the valley, it's quiet," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said Sunday. "In the northern part of the valley, especially in Cass County, they're having extreme problems."

About 425 National Guard members were on duty in Cass County and were ready to help with evacuations if needed, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said Sunday. He said there haven't been "many very serious situations," but officials were monitoring the rise of overland flooding.

"Things are pretty rough in the county," Dalrymple said.

One man was rescued by a Cass County Sheriff's Department airboat Sunday when he became stuck in his tractor near Argusville after the flooded road gave out beneath him, National Guard officials said. Five other people and a dog near Argusville were evacuated by airboat when a dike reportedly gave way.

Residents in Harwood, north of Fargo, and Casselton, west of Fargo, were told to stop using water because their sanitary sewer systems were starting to back up. Several other communities asked citizens to restrict use of water.

The National Weather Service reported Sunday that the river crested in Fargo about 6:15 p.m. Saturday at a level of 38.75 feet. The only higher floods were 40.84 feet in 2009, 39.72 feet in 1997, and 39.10 feet in 1897. Flood stage for the river is 18 feet.

This spring's flood threat was set up by high moisture in the soil after back-to-back wet years, followed by an extremely snowy winter. The Red River Valley's extremely flat topography also makes it prone to flooding in any year.

Heavy rain fell at times in the Fargo area on Sunday, but the weather service said it shouldn't impact the Red River level. Dry weather was forecast for most of the week.

"We're still looking at high waters for a while," said Jim Scarlett, weather service meteorologist. "The threat is not over, but it's subsiding."

Scarlett said the added rain would prolong overland flooding in the county "and that's a bad thing."

Fargo and Moorhead officials reported few problems with clay levees and sandbag dikes. About 10 people reported minor problems with pumps overnight, said Tim Mahoney, Fargo deputy mayor.

"Tomorrow we'll talk about plans for taking sandbags out of the neighborhoods. Do some things to promote more normal activities," Mahoney said.

Fargo was already scraping mud off the streets from the delivery of clay and sand. In one neighborhood, city commissioner Mike Williams said, "You could eat off the street."

Fargo was trucking some of its clay to Harwood for the construction of levees, Mahoney said.

"They're in a fight," the deputy mayor said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters

View the Original article

As Battle Rages Over This Year's Budget, House Panel Shifts Focus to 2012 GOP Budget

Graphic shows President Barack Obama and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan projected budget deficit for fiscal years 2011-2021. (AP)

Even though Congress is still locked in a showdown over this year's budget, House Republicans have already begun to push for passage of their proposal for next year's budget -- a proposal that supporters say will check the nation's spending binge, while critics describe it as an assault on the elderly and the poor.

The sweeping $3.5 trillion federal budget blueprint by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., lays the groundwork for a decade of cuts in spending, taxes and deficits. It would be tempered by a shift of costs to future retirees and features a reshaping of the government's two chief health care programs for the elderly and poor, Medicare and Medicaid.

Though the blueprint covers the entire reach of government, much of Wednesday's House Budget Committee debate focused on health and other social programs, from which Republicans were proposing to wring hundreds of billions in savings over the next 10 years. Ryan said that with sky-high deficits, the government needs to limit its mission to programs that are truly needed.

"We don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls people to lives of complacencies and dependencies, into a permanent condition where they never get on their feet," he said.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the panel's top Democrat, said Republicans are protecting tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor. The Republican budget proposes whittling the current 35 percent top tax rate on individuals and businesses to 25 percent.

"It doesn't reform Medicare, it deforms and dismantles it," Van Hollen said of the GOP's budget. As for Medicaid, the budget "rips apart the safety net" for poor and older people, he added.

The proposal is a non-binding road map whose taxing and spending changes are supposed to be enacted later in the year in future legislation. But Ryan's plan has no chance of being approved by the Democratic-run Senate, making it more of a statement of priorities that candidates are likely to embrace or attack during the 2012 campaigns.

As committee debate extended into the afternoon, Republicans batted down a parade of Democratic amendments that, like the budget itself, were designed to underscore political points. By party-line votes, the panel rejected one amendment blocking tax cuts for millionaires and another rejecting reductions in Medicaid benefits for elderly nursing home residents.

"It's unconscionable that Republicans are abandoning our seniors, including our sickest and most frail seniors, for a political cause" of reducing the size of government, Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., said.

Republicans castigated Democrats for trying to curb the blueprint's tax cuts, saying today's level of taxes and regulation make it harder for businesses to create jobs.

"Why don't you guys like small-business people?" asked Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.

Liberal lawmakers bashed Ryan's proposal Wednesday as declaring war on the elderly and the poor.

"It is a disgrace to allow insurance companies to make more on the backs of seniors," Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said.

But Ryan says his plan will save the health programs for the elderly and poor.

"We're saving Medicare, we're saving Medicaid and we're getting the debt paid off," he told Fox News.

White House spokesman Jay Carney made clear the president isn't a fan of Ryan's plan.

"Any program or plan that reduces our deficit must reflect American values of fairness and shared sacrifice," he said. "Ryan's plan fails this. It cuts taxes for millionaires and special interest while putting a greater burden on seniors, families struggling with children's disabilities and students who count on Pell grants."

But Ryan disputed that description.

"We repair the social safety net. And when it comes to taxes, we get rid of all these loopholes and deductions, which is what mostly wealthy people lose and lowering taxes as a consequence to get economic growth in this country."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet View ArticleLeave a CommentSort: NewestSort: Oldest Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. You must login to comment.

View Article

View All Comments

Latest Politics VideosMore »

View the Original article

Private Sector Leads Way on Economy in March, Focus Shifts to Sustaining Momentum

AP

Friday: President Obama gestures while speaking at a UPS facility in Landover, Md.

WASHINGTON -- With the economy showing signs of life in a new government report Friday, politicians on both sides sought to claim credit while turning their attention to ways to keep heading in that direction.

The jobless rate in March ticked down to a two-year low of 8.8 percent as the economy added 216,000 new jobs at the fastest two-month pace since before the recession began, offsetting layoffs by local governments, according to the Labor Department.

President Obama said despite the good news, "we have to keep the momentum going." He said he won't "rest until everyone who wants a job can find one."

The president, speaking at a UPS facility on a private-public partnership to assist companies' in creating fuel efficient vehicle fleets, said transitioning to a clean energy economy will help in that direction. 

"First, it reduces the chance that our families, our businesses and our economy will be held hostage to the whims of the oil market. Second, investments in clean energy have the potential to create an untold number of new jobs and new industries right here in the United States," Obama said.

Obama's chief economic adviser Austan Goolsbee told Fox News that the top priority is getting people back to work but he didn't offer specifics on how the administration planned to do that. Goolsbee pointed to the tax deal Obama struck with Republicans late last year that cut the payroll tax for 150 million workers, saying that improved after-tax wages at time when energy and food prices are on the rise.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a tweet that with the economy showing signs of strength, "it's imperative we find common ground and not do anything to jeopardize recovery."

That was a not-so-veiled reference to the contentious budget negotiations between House Republican leaders and Senate Democratic leaders over what and how much to cut from current spending levels as a government shutdown looms next Friday.

House Republicans have passed a budget plan to slash $61 billion; Democrats are willing to cut $33 billion; but Tea Party activists and freshman lawmakers elected with their support are insisting on $100 billion in cuts.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi also made political hay out of the jobs report, crediting President Obama and congressional Democrats for taking steps to get the economy back on track and warning that Republicans are hellbent on sabotage by passing legislation that she claims would destroy more than 1 million jobs.

"Now is the time for Republicans to join Democrats to create jobs, strengthen the middle class, and responsibly reduce the deficit instead of threatening our economic growth and our families' economic security," she said in a statement.

Republicans, who also cheered the economic news, fired back that runaway federal spending, higher taxes and burdensome regulations are threatening to derail the recovery.

"Decreasing unemployment numbers are always welcome news," said Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chairman of the House Small Business Committee. "But this number could be better and more Americans could be back to work faster if we eliminate excessive government spending, lower taxes and remove government regulations that are strangling job creation and halting economic growth."

Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, added that the tax code should be overhauled.

"While we have taken a good first step in restoring confidence to job creators, we must continue to remove the impediments to sustained economic growth," he said. 

The second straight month of brisk hiring is the latest sign that the economy is strengthening nearly two years after the recession ended.

Private employers, the backbone of the economy, drove nearly all of the gains. They added 230,000 jobs last month, on top of 240,000 in February. It was the first time private-sector hiring topped 200,000 in back-to-back months since 2006 -- more than a year before the recession started.

The unemployment rate dipped from 8.9 percent in February to 8.8 percent in March. The rate has fallen a full percentage point over the last four months, the sharpest drop since 1983.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, sought to claim party credit for the falling unemployment rate.

"Since Republicans convinced our colleagues across the aisle not to raise taxes, America has added nearly 650,000 jobs and the unemployment rate has dropped from 9.4 percent to 8.8 percent," he said in a statement.

"Nevertheless, Washington's regulatory uncertainty is keeping many job creators on the sidelines and many millions of Americans unemployed," he added. "If we really want to kick our economy into high gear, we need to reign in federal bureaucrats who are making it difficult to predict future energy and health care costs, as well as access to credit."

Economists predict employers will add jobs at roughly the same pace for the rest of this year. That would generate about 2.5 million new positions. But that will make up only a small portion of the 7.5 million jobs that were wiped out during the recession.

And the economy faces other pitfalls. Local governments, wrestling with budget shortfalls, cut 15,000 workers last month and are expected to keep shedding jobs. Home prices are falling amid weak sales and a record number of foreclosures. Higher food and gas prices are leaving consumers with less disposable income to spend on other goods and services.

Campaign for America's Future, a progressive group, said layoffs by federal and local governments are sabotaging the recovery.

"To no one's surprise, the federal and state governments are sending out pink slips," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the group. "This means cops, teachers and firefighters are losing their jobs at time when where are no other jobs available. The economy is not firing on all cylinders, which is why this is the worst time to lay off middle class Americans."

The number of unemployed people dipped to 13.5 million in March, still almost double since before the recession began in December 2007.

Including part-time workers who would rather be working full time, plus people who have given up looking altogether, the percentage of "underemployed" people dropped to 15.7 percent in March.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned that the turmoil in the Middle East, the nuclear crisis in Japan and the fiscal problems in Western Europe has undermined the global economy and could imperil the U.S. economic recovery.

"If these problems were to spill over to the U.S. economy, causing growth to slow below its potential rate of growth of between 2.5 - 2.75 percent, they could upset the modest job gains we've seen thus far," the chamber said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet View ArticleLeave a CommentSort: NewestSort: Oldest Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. You must login to comment.

View Article

View All Comments

Latest Politics VideosMore »

View the Original article