No answers in mad cow case
Washington The government closed its investigation into the nation’s first domestic case of mad cow disease Tuesday, saying it could not pin down how a Texas cow was infected with the brain-wasting ailment.
Officials continue to believe the 12-year-old Brahma cross cow ate contaminated feed before the United States banned ground-up cattle remains in cattle feed. The only way the disease is known to spread is through eating brain and other nerve tissue from infected cows.
Steve Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said the most likely culprit was tainted feed eaten before a 1997 ban. The Texas cow tested positive in June.
New rules drafted for power plants
Washington The Bush administration has drafted regulations that would ease pollution controls on older, dirtier power plants and could allow those that modernize to emit more pollution, rather than less.
The language could undercut dozens of pending state and federal lawsuits aimed at forcing coal-fired plants to cut back emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, said lawyers who worked on the cases.
The draft rules, obtained by the Washington Post from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, contradict the position taken by federal lawyers who have prosecuted polluting facilities in the past, and parallel industry’s line of defense against those suits.
The utilities, and the proposed new rules, take the position that decisions on whether a plant complies with the regulations after modernization should be based on how much pollution it could potentially emit per hour, rather than the current standard of how much it pollutes annually. Under the new standard, a modernized plant’s total emissions could rise if the upgrade allowed it to operate longer hours.
EPA spokeswoman Eryn Witcher said the administration believes the existing power plant rule is no longer necessary because of other regulatory initiatives.
‘Testament’ statue unveiled in Little Rock
Little Rock, Ark. Nearly half a century after they faced down a mob to integrate Little Rock Central High School, the Little Rock Nine stood together outside the Statehouse Tuesday and unveiled statues of themselves in that defiant walk. Some cried as they pulled away the sheets draping their individual statues and saw themselves as they were in 1957.
The location of the statues is heavy with meaning. The nine stand just outside the governor’s office, where in 1957 Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent black school children from attending previously all-white Central High following a 1954 Supreme Court ruling. When the nine entered, they were under the armed guard of federalized troops.
The sculpture of the students, by John and Cathy Deering, is called “Testament.” It shows the Little Rock Nine walking together, a representation of that walk through the pressing mob to their first day of classes with whites.
U.S. boosts its aid to the world’s poor
Washington The United States has significantly increased its foreign aid to poor countries but ranks 12th among the 21 richest nations in its overall performance in helping the world’s poor, according to a widely watched annual report released Tuesday.
Denmark ranks as the most generous country in the world, spending 89 cents per person each day in government aid and 1 cent per person each day in private giving, according to the survey by the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy Magazine.
The United States spent 15 cents per person each day in government aid to poor nations and six cents per person daily in private giving, the report found. The foreign aid statistics are based on 2003 data, and do not include the outpouring of charity sparked by December’s South Asian tsunami. The United States has pledged $950 million for tsunami relief.