2012 News Blog @newzblogz.com

WASHINGTON - The Senate easily defeated conservative Republicans' efforts to curb the Medicare program's spiraling growth as debate on a $2.9 trillion budget outline for 2008 entered a third day Thursday.

And a vote was likely Friday on a bid by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to put lawmakers on record in favor of increasing taxes on tobacco to pay for a big boost in a popular program providing health insurance for children from poor families.

On Medicare, the Senate voted 74-23 to dismiss a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to trim $34 billion from the program's $2.2 trillion budget over the next five years. His plan was aimed at reducing payment increases to Medicare providers and was roughly half the size of the cost curbs President Bush proposed in February.

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LOS ANGELES - Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is cooking up kinder, gentler menus. As part of a new initiative to fight animal cruelty, Puck said Thursday he will no longer serve foie gras, the fatty liver produced by overfeeding ducks and geese.

His 14 fine-dining restaurants, more than 80 fast-casual eateries and 43 catering venues will use only eggs from hens that have lived cage-free; veal from roaming calves; and lobsters that have been removed from their ocean traps quickly to avoid crowded holding tanks.

Puck said guests at his restaurants want to know their food is made with fresh, organic ingredients and that the animals were treated well.

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WASHINGTON ? Senators face votes regarding taxes on tobacco products and large estates as a $2.9 trillion Democratic budget outline nears a final vote.

Democratic supporters of cutting the estate tax were to vote Friday on a move by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to permanently lower taxes on large estates. Kyl's amendment mirrors a plan popular with Democrats.

Another vote was likely Friday on a bid by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to put lawmakers on record in favor of increasing taxes on tobacco to pay for a big boost in a popular program providing health insurance for children from poor families.

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* Where: Auditorium of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston main campus

* When: 7 p.m. March 23

* Information: www.visualstudies.uh.edu

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WASHINGTON The Senate easily defeated conservative Republicans' efforts to curb the Medicare program's spiraling growth as debate on a $2.9 trillion budget outline for 2008 entered a third day Thursday.

Also, a vote was likely today on a bid by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to put lawmakers on record in favor of increasing taxes on tobacco to pay for a big boost in a popular program providing health insurance for children from poor families.

On Medicare, the Senate voted 74-23 to dismiss a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to trim $34 billion from the program's $2.2 trillion budget over the next five years. His plan was aimed at reducing payment increases to Medicare providers and was roughly half the size of the cost curbs President Bush proposed in February.

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TALLAHASSEE -- Calling it a big mess that needed to be cleaned up, Florida lawmakers on Thursday repealed a controversial merit pay plan for public school teachers and replaced it with a program that gives more power to local school boards.

The measure now heads to Gov. Charlie Crist, who said the previous merit pay plan needed to be fixed because it based teacher bonuses on how students performed on standardized tests.

''This is a great first step in recognizing the value our teachers have in shaping the future of our children,'' Crist said in a statement. ``Teacher performance bonuses provide incentive for our teachers to remain in the classroom.''

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Ixil region, Guatemala - Yes, Augusto Pinochet, poster child for Latin American dictators who murder and torture thousands and then enjoy impunity and power for decades afterward, has finally been laid to rest.

But his ignoble legacy lives on in a lesser-known Guatemalan general whose regime, during its bloodiest period, averaged more deaths and disappearances per month than Pinochet's entire reign: Efran Ros Montt.

So who is this Ros Montt?

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WASHINGTON - Senators face votes regarding taxes on tobacco products and large estates as a $2.9 trillion Democratic budget outline nears a final vote.

Democratic supporters of cutting the estate tax were to vote Friday on a move by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to permanently lower taxes on large estates. Kyl's amendment mirrors a plan popular with Democrats.

Another vote was likely Friday on a bid by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to put lawmakers on record in favor of increasing taxes on tobacco to pay for a big boost in a popular program providing health insurance for children from poor families.

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LOS ANGELES - Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is cooking up kinder, gentler menus. As part of a new initiative to fight animal cruelty, Puck said Thursday he will no longer serve foie gras, the fatty liver produced by overfeeding ducks and geese.

His 14 fine-dining restaurants, more than 80 fast-casual eateries and 43 catering venues will use only eggs from hens that have lived cage-free; veal from roaming calves; and lobsters that have been removed from their ocean traps quickly to avoid crowded holding tanks.

Puck said guests at his restaurants want to know their food is made with fresh, organic ingredients and that the animals were treated well.

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When you enter the polls April 3, you will be asked to decide the future of New Richmond?s schools. It will be up to voters whether a proposed $92,850,000 referendum will pass or fail.

Before you decide, here are the facts about the upcoming New Richmond School District Referendum.

The first referendum question is the ?big? question, which includes land acquisition, building new schools and updating current schools.

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LOS ANGELES -- Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is giving his menu an animal-friendly makeover.

As part of a new initiative to fight animal cruelty, Puck says he will no longer serve foie gras, the fatty liver produced by overfeeding ducks and geese.

His restaurants, fast-casual eateries and catering venues will also only used eggs from hens that have lived cage-free, veal from roaming calves, and lobsters that have been removed from their ocean traps quickly to avoid crowded holding tanks.

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LOS ANGELES ? Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is cooking up kinder, gentler menus. As part of a new initiative to fight animal cruelty, Puck said Thursday he will no longer serve foie gras, the fatty liver produced by overfeeding ducks and geese.

His 14 fine-dining restaurants, more than 80 fast-casual eateries and 43 catering venues will use only eggs from hens that have lived cage-free; veal from roaming calves; and lobsters that have been removed from their ocean traps quickly to avoid crowded holding tanks.

Puck said guests at his restaurants want to know their food is made with fresh, organic ingredients and that the animals were treated well.

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After a flurry of carnage, the head of Caltrans has agreed to implement some immediate safety upgrades to Highway 12, including its first sections of median, according to a letter obtained Thursday by MediaNews.

Safety work will begin as early as Sunday, wrote Caltrans Director Will Kempton in a Wednesday letter sent to local lawmakers and transportation officials. The document, obtained by a Capitol source close to negotiations, detailed numerous short-term and long-term safety upgrades to Highway 12, including the near elimination of passing, widening of roads and rumble strips.

Kempton leapfrogged some of the bigger projects to the front of Caltrans priority list.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is cooking up kinder, gentler menus. As part of a new initiative to fight animal cruelty, Puck said Thursday he will no longer serve foie gras, the fatty liver produced by overfeeding ducks and geese. His 14 fine-dining restaurants, more than 80 fast-casual eateries and 43 catering venues will use only eggs from hens that have lived cage-free; veal from roaming calves; and lobsters that have been removed from their ocean traps quickly to avoid...

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support for their own plan that would spend $50 billion on

children's health care over five years.

Their proposal would reverse cuts in President Bush's

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Governor's school funding plan facing some opposition

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ARMONK, N.Y. ? IBM Corp. is pledging that by 2012, it will have reduced its greenhouse gas footprint by 7 percent since 2005, primarily through energy conservation.

The technology company made the vow Thursday as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's voluntary "Climate Leaders" program, in which more than 100 companies have committed to reducing their output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

IBM's first such pledge was a 4 percent decrease from 2002 to 2005; the company says it achieved a 6.2 percent reduction.

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MILAN --El fútbol italiano puede limpiar su imagen si obtiene la sede de la Eurocopa 2012, indicó el miércoles el jefe de la federación italiana de ese deporte Luca Pancalli.

"La Eurocopa 2012 no es sólo una competencia deportiva. Representa una oportunidad para redescubrir la credibilidad que busca el fútbol italiano", dijo Pancalli.

El balompié italiano se ha visto sacudido por numerosos escándalos desde el año pasado, incluyendo arreglo de partidos, apuestas ilegales, fraude, uso de drogas y el asesinato de un policía en febrero en disturbios de hinchas a las afueras de un estadio en Sicilia.

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NEW PORT RICHEY - You can learn French or tax law, watch foreign films or listen to fiddlers. Oh, and you can borrow books - any of nearly 91,000.

The New Port Richey Library, often described as the "jewel of Main Street," continues to grow and last year got nearly 357,000 visits. But the downside of all this success: little room on the shelves, waiting lists for computers, crowded events and a lack of parking.

Now, the call is out once again for a bigger library, this time from a citizens advisory board that presented the library's five-year plan to the City Council on Tuesday night. Its ideas for relieving the growing pains include:

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Click photo to enlargeEAST SIDE: Construction has been steadily increasing on the city's East Side as the population rises.«123»Although more people are moving into El Paso and fewer are leaving, the county isn't growing quite as rapidly as others in Texas, U.S. Census estimates released Wednesday indicate.

Experts say that growth in attractive job sectors and the arrival of around 4,400 soldiers and their families at Fort Bliss have lessened the years-long drain on migration from El Paso.

More attractive work in El Paso has been key for Richard Comaduran, a construction consultant who returned after working in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and has found a burgeoning marketplace as Fort Bliss expands.

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Our recent report on a Marco snowbird photographing a large python got the attention of WINK-TV News. The WINKers came down and interviewed Norm Dearth about this python picture, then aired a story, noting that many of these exotic snakes are released by people who thought they?d make great pets, until they got 12-feet long.

Check out the photo of the eagle with this column. Norm?s eagle eye and first-rate camera caught the bird as it was about to consume a fish. He made the picture along the south end of Dogwood Drive.

Norm and his wife Alma are good examples of how our wildlife is great for our economic well being. This was their first visit to the Marco area. Did they like it?

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DENVER ? The governor's plan to bring in $84 million more a year in tax dollars for schools appears to be running into trouble at the state Capitol.

Sen. Abel Tapia, the chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said Wednesday that support for the politically charged plan is "sporadic" even among majority Democrats.

"I don't think it will go anywhere this year," said Tapia, D-Pueblo, who supports the plan.

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SHELBY ? No decision on student housing plans was the answer Shelby School officials gave to the audience at the board?s regular meeting at Benona Elementary School Monday night.

Prior to the public comment session, Superintendent Dana McGrew said the recently formed community committee met March 12 and ?brainstormed? 17 ideas on how the district might be able to save money. The idea list was handed out at the door before the meeting. The community committee grew out of a Feb. 12 forum, including closing outlying elementary buildings.

?No decision has been made at this time,? McGrew said.

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Paul McCartney's next album won't be available at Tower Records because the venerable music chain is as dead as the 8-track. But the album will be available with an optional cup of coffee at Starbucks. The company's Hear Music division announced Wednesday that it will release the latest album by the former Beatle this summer.

The currently untitled album will be "available at all traditional music retail outlets and Starbucks locations internationally," according to a press release.

That comment rings with a bit of triumphant humor for Starbucks. "Traditional music retail outlets" like Tower have been wilting. Last week at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, musician David Byrne pointed out as much, noting that in his neighborhood in New York, there are no more Towers, Coconuts or Sam Goodys. Only a single Virgin store remains.

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Between 2000 and 2006, Milwaukee County lost 25,067 residents, according to new estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

While the decline isn't surprising - the county still had 915,097 residents - the numbers provide the broadest brush strokes yet to how we live, not just in Wisconsin but around the country.

Americans still like the suburbs, the exurbs, the South and the West, fast-growing places that lure new residents and jobs, and where new housing is built every day.

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ARMONK, N.Y. (AP) ? IBM Corp. is pledging that by 2012, it will have reduced its greenhouse gas footprint by 7 percent since 2005, primarily through energy conservation.

The technology company made the vow Thursday as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's voluntary "Climate Leaders" program, in which more than 100 companies have committed to reducing their output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

IBM's first such pledge was a 4 percent decrease from 2002 to 2005; the company says it achieved a 6.2 percent reduction.

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MONTPELIER, Vt. - Nine state attorneys general have asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to change its rules to allow consideration of a potential terrorist attack on a reactor when it decides whether to extend a plant's license.

Reports by the National Academy of Sciences, the NRC's staff and outside experts have shown that the pools where reactors store highly radioactive spent fuel "are susceptible to fire and radiological release from a wide range of conditions," seven of the attorneys general wrote in a March 16 letter to the NRC.

They added that those conditions include "natural phenomena, operator error, equipment failure, or intentional attack. The environmental impacts of a fire in a spent fuel pool may be severe, extending over a geographic area larger than a state's legal boundaries and continuing for decades."

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The recent buzz surrounding the massive launch of Vista, Microsoft's newest operating system, is a telltale reminder of the ever-increasing importance of technology in our lives. Boasting points for the new system is its capacity to comprehensively integrate our digital lives-pictures, finances, music-into our daily lives. But the launch signifies something different for the Information Technology (IT) professional. It represents another challenge in keeping up with the frenetic pace that te...

For IT workers, staying relevant is critical to staying employed. As we dig in to 2007, the forecast for technology is an expansive one, as increasingly advanced computer systems are being rapidly integrated into a more diverse scope of businesses, industries, and home applications. This signifies nothing short of an explosion in job opportunity in tech careers - but only for the worker who is willing to use education to keep up the pace.

Decoding the numbers

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Amateur athletes of all stripes — from 5-year-olds chasing soccer balls to grownups playing softball — could score more desperately-needed sports fields if county officials accept the recommendation to drop efforts to lure another professional sports team to San Antonio.

County Commissioners interviewed this week agreed that funding new youth and amateur sports complexes would be a natural place to spend the venue tax that now pays for the AT&T Center, and had been considered to help bankroll a pro sports team.

"Now that one is a no-brainer, as far as I'm concerned," said Commissioner Paul Elizondo.

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Philip S. Moore, Inside Tucson BusinessIn the battle between the Town of Sahuarita and the developer of Rancho Sahuarita over the future of the town’s wastewater treatment and reclamation facility, Sahuarita’s voters sided with the developer.Of the 3,313 votes tabulated n 42.2 percent of registered voters n 56.5 percent favored developer Robert Sharpe’s initiative requiring the Town of Sahuarita to get voter approval to expand the town’s wastewater management ar...

While the vote derails the town’s plan to comply with the Pima Association of Government’s updated water quality management plan, little else will change, according to Barbara Dolan, spokeswoman for the Town of Sahuarita. Ongoing efforts will continue to boost the plant’s capacity to 800,000 gallons by next year and to about 1.5 million gallons by 2012.“The vote may become an issue if anyone decides they want to develop the affected private and state land, outside the se...

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Senate backs requiring English competency for graduation

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SPLOST III passed by an overwhelming 92 percent margin Tuesday.

The Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Tift County education had little trouble passing. Of 1,268 votes cast, 1,174 — or 92.59 percent — voted to pass the SPLOST which will extend the current 1-cent sales tax to June 30, 2012. Only 94 voters elected to oppose the sales-tax referendum.

“I’m ecstatic about the election and the opportunity that voters have given the Tift County Board of Education and the confidence that they have shown in our elected officials,” said Tift County Superintendent Patrick Atwater.

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HONOLULU (AP) -- Representatives voted Tuesday to give Maui hospitals some independence from the statewide hospital system in response to complaints that patient needs aren't being met. In an 8-1 vote, the House Health Committee endorsed the idea of setting up a hospital system for Maui that would take over management from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, which claims to be the fourth-largest public hospital system in the nation, overseeing 12 facilities. The bill already passed by the...

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The House on Monday unveiled a state transportation budget that plugs part of a projected $2 billion shortfall in highway projects by doing the same thing the governor would do: Borrow more money.

House budget-writers want to borrow an additional $1.1 billion and pledge more of the state gas tax to make payments on the loans. That?s the same approach suggested by Gov. Chris Gregoire, who in December was faced with escalating cost estimates for what is now $13 billion worth of projects the state will build through 2021.

The Senate?s majority Democrats are working on their own transportation budget proposal .

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Here is just a short report on how good Wal-Mart is for its employees. This report came out of the Boulder Weekly newspaper:

"Executives from Wal-Mart announced Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2007, that they are joining with the union leaders in an effort to provide 'quality, affordable' health care for their workers by 2012. Apparently, the company needed some good press after losing a court ruling that clears the way for a massive sexual discrimination lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart by female employees. If the multi-billion dollar retailer wanted to give its employees decent health care, it wouldn't need five years to get the job done."

Why is it that now the Wal-Mart executives have decided to associate with the unions? They have never before wanted to do this.

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— Democrats are using the same tricks as President Bush in their rival plan to balance the federal budget by 2012: ignoring long-term costs of the war in Iraq and the need to fix a tax law that threatens unsuspecting middle-class families.

Bush used phantom savings to claim he can balance the budget while extending his tax cuts into the future. Democrats would use that money to increase spending on education, health research and other domestic programs while claiming to be budget balancers.

"They say they balance, but they do it by leaving out things," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said on PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" when Bush's budget came out Feb. 5. "They leave out fixing the alternative minimum tax. They leave out realistic war cost."

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NEW YORK, March 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CIT Group Inc. , a leading global provider of commercial and consumer finance solutions, today announced the price to be paid pursuant to its Purchase Offer dated March 13, 2007 (the "Purchase Offer") to purchase for cash any and all of its outstanding 7.75% Senior Notes due April 2, 2012 (the "Securities").

The Purchase Price (as defined in the Purchase Offer) per $1,000 principal amount excluding accrued interest is $1,122.26. The accrued interest is $36.81, resulting in the total consideration to be paid of $1,159.07 per $1,000 principal amount tendered. The purchase price was determined on the basis of the bid-side yield to maturity of the 4.625% U.S. Treasury Note due February 29, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. New York City time today, which was 4.470% plus a fixed spread of 50 basis points, for a purchase offer yield of 4.970%.

The offer will expire at 5:00 p.m. New York City time on March 21, 2007 (the "Expiration Date") unless extended or earlier terminated by CIT in its sole discretion. Holders of the security wishing to sell must follow the instructions set forth in the Purchase Offer.

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Baseball: Buster Posey was named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list. The award is given by the Greater Wichita (Kan.) Area Sports Commission to the best collegiate catcher. The sophomore catcher, who switched from shortstop last year, is hitting .382 with 31 RBIs. He also is helping FSU's pitchers post a 2.63 ERA and has thrown out almost 43 percent of would-be base-stealers. The watch list will be narrowed to 10 semifinalists on May 17. The three finalists will be announced May 30. The winner...

Gene DeFilippo, the Boston College athletic director who presided over the school's controversial move from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference, has been given a five-year contract extension through 2012, the school announced Tuesday. In addition to the sometimes tumultuous conference switch, DeFilippo also has supervised major upgrades to the athletics facilities. BC has been recognized as one of the top 20 athletic departments in the country by U.S. News & World Report, and its gradu...

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DENVER, March 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ProLogis announced today that it has priced an offering of $1.1 billion aggregate principal amount of 2.25% convertible senior notes due 2037. The Company also has granted to the initial purchasers an option to purchase up to an additional $150 million aggregate principal amount of notes.

The notes are senior unsecured obligations of ProLogis. The Company plans to use the proceeds from the sale of the notes to repay a portion of the outstanding balance under its revolving lines of credit and for general corporate purposes.

The notes will bear interest at a rate of 2.25% per annum and mature on April 1, 2037. Prior to February 1, 2012, upon the occurrence of specified events, the notes will be convertible at the option of the holder into cash, common shares or a combination of cash and common shares, at the election of the Company, at an initial conversion rate of 13.0576 shares per $1,000 principal amount of notes. The initial conversion price of approximately $76.58 represents a 20% premium to the closing p...

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At a gas station 175 miles north of Tampa, there's something motorists won't find anywhere else in the state.

A retail pump dispensing ethanol.

The lone outlet says a lot about Florida's aspirations for alternative fuel and the promises surrounding ethanol. For all the hype about how good ethanol can be, it has problems that must be overcome before it can be sold for mainstream use.

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The refining industry should "rise to the challenge" of dealing with global warming and help shape discussions on the issue, Tesoro Corp. Chief Executive Officer Bruce Smith said Tuesday.

"It's vital that our voice be heard and not overlooked," Smith told delegates to the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, whose annual meeting ended Tuesday in San Antonio.

In a message that's somewhat unusual for the chief of a Fortune 200 refiner, Smith said, "The issues that are dominating the political agenda today are global warming and the call for alternative fuel development.

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Tacoma schools will likely continue to shrink by hundreds of students in each of the next six years, but the decline won?t last forever, according to a recently completed enrollment forecast.

Demographer Les Kendrick projects Tacoma?s enrollment slide will bottom out around the year 2013, with about 26,475 students, then stabilize or begin inching upward.

Fewer students still might mean near-term budget cuts and school closures in the state?s third-largest district ? but ultimately he predicts things are bound to turn around.

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Voters supporting a 1-cent sales tax for education in Henry County breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday, when they learned that construction of new public schools would be aided by a third round of Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax collections.

The SPLOST III referendum received about 72 percent of the favorable vote on Tuesday — 3,588 to 1,391— with fewer than 5 percent of the county’s more than 100,000 registered voters turning out. Provisional ballots had not yet been counted.

The referendum extends the current five year 1-cent sales tax for education through 2012 and will raise an estimated $300 million.

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McLennan County commissioners Tuesday passed a resolution in support of establishing a local water conservation district — a concept that next will be tested in the state Legislature.

The district will give local control to a groundwater plan that otherwise would be regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

“I would think the general public would want local control,” Commissioner Ray Meadows said. “Instead of calling with a problem and getting a recording at a state agency, they could call and talk to a real person at the county level.”

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The Florida Department of Transportation won't announce its decision for the future of the Flagler Memorial Bridge until late fall or early winter, a consultant to the DOT said Monday.

But Paul Cherry, project engineer for DOT engineering consultant Kimley-Horn, laid out what he said is the most likely scenario for the bridge. Cherry spoke at a Palm Beach Civic Association forum at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea.

Though rehabilitation is being considered, replacement of the existing span is more likely, he said.

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There's really no good way to complete that thought. And even if someone made one up, you wouldn't read it here. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has it right when he calls adults who would sexually abuse children "monsters."

"Not in Texas," he says.

Yet that doesn't mean Mr. Dewhurst and the Legislature should rewrite Texas law to punish these monstrous acts with the death penalty, a punishment reserved for the most heinous crimes that result in a victim's death.

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NEW BEDFORD, MASS.The two might seem as unlikely together as a hand-stitched double-breasted suit jacket with a pair of work pants: Anthony Sapienza, the son of a factory manager, and Warren Pepicelli, who grew up on the union side, pounding the pavement as a business agent in Boston, walking from one of the city's 60 women's garment factories to another.

But Sapienza, president of the Joseph Abboud suit factory, and Pepicelli, who runs its union, are working hand in glove. Union and management are collaborating to revamp timeworn garment-making methods in favor of manufacturing techniques pioneered at Toyota Motor Corp. Their goal: Survival in the face of cheaper foreign competitors.

The U.S. garment manufacturing industry has bled jobs for decades, as work moved first to cheaper labor in Mexico, then to Asia. As Chinese manufacturing becomes increasingly skilled and sophisticated, the few U.S. factories that remain are vulnerable, and their managers know it.

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How wounded does a soldier have to be to qualify for a special traumatic-injury insurance benefit?

More wounded than Hobart, N.Y., resident and Iraq veteran Peter Tiller, at least according to a letter denying his Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance claim.

A few months after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a bone in Tiller’s lower left leg was shattered by a roadside bomb but was spared from amputation.

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Entrepreneur and philanthropist George Peabody said education is a debt due from present to future generations. In an increasingly competitive global economy where nations like China and India are rising to challenge American leadership, we must ask ourselves: Are we adequately preparing our children for the intellectual demands of the modern workplace and a far more complex society?

A new study released jointly recently by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, finds that this country is failing to prepare students to compete in the knowledge-based workforce of the 21st century. The U.S. Chamber and CAP dont often agree on public policy matters, but we are united in our concern over the woeful state of American education.

In a state-by-state assessment of education systems, we found there is not a single state in the country where a majority of students are proficient in reading or math. One-third of all ninth graders will not graduate in four yearsalmost half of all minority students will not. At least 40 percent of our students enrolling in college have to take at least one remedial course when they get there.

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A trial date was set Monday for the St. Louis teenager accused of a triple murder on Belleville's west side.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Milton Wharton set a trial date for Darrell Lane, 17, of St. Louis, for Nov. 5. A pretrial conference is set for April 16.

Lane was charged in June with the March 2, 2005 stabbing deaths of sisters Doris Fischer, 79, and Dorothy Bone, 82, and their hairdresser Michael Cooney, 63, at Cooney's home-based hair salon at 7813 W. Main St. in Belleville.

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CHATSWORTH ? Murray County voters are being asked today if they want to continue an educational SPLOST for the next five years to pay for a new high school.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The proposed five-year Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax is expected to collect approximately $30 million. Collection would begin on July 1. Collection on the current five-year SPLOST will end June 30. That SPLOST is expected to collect $22 million in all and has paid for Bagley Middle and Woodlawn Elementary schools.

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Lennox International Inc. has named Todd Bluedorn chief executive, effective April 2.

The Dallas-based heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment maker said Monday that Mr. Bluedorn will succeed Bob Schjerven, who in September announced plans to retire.

Lennox said Mr. Bluedorn will be paid a salary of $800,000. He also will get a $100,000 sign-on bonus and stock awards covering 111,143 shares, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

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ROCKFORD — City Council unanimously passed its 2007 budget Monday with one sizeable amendment.

The aldermen agreed to designate $1 million for neighborhood roads. This is in addition to $2.4 million that will be available if the 1 percent sales-tax referendum passes this spring.

This is a big deal, thats about $70,000 per ward, said Ald. Jeff Holt, D-11.

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Dave Syversons bill is something that the city requested.

REGISTER STAR SPRINGFIELD BUREAU

SPRINGFIELD — State lawmakers will consider this week whether to help Rockford enjoy additional tax revenue more quickly, potentially spurring capital construction, if next months sales-tax referendum is successful.

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