| German carmakers lead in reducing CO2 emissions
BMW AG, Volkswagen AG and other German carmakers cut carbon-dioxide emissions more than European rivals last year as they struggle to reach planned European Union targets. German brands sold domestically had 2 percent lower CO2 output last year, a greater reduction than French and Japanese models sold in Europe's largest economy, said Matthias Wissmann, president of the VDA German automobile manufacturers' association, at a briefing today in Berlin. The European Union plans a cap on carmakers that will force them to reduce CO2 emissions, a gas linked with global warming. The draft proposal, which is being negotiated this year among European lawmakers, will reduce the carbon emissions to an average 130 grams per kilometer (0.6 mile) for a manufacturer's fleet by 2012, with an additional 10 grams coming from improvements in tires, air conditioning and other vehicle parts.
Resident reports bullets hit house on Levin Street in Alexandria
Alexandria police were slated to collect bullets from an air conditioner at a Levin Street residence today where the bullets reportedly lodged during a shooting incident Monday. The Levin Street resident called police about 7 p.m. Monday to report someone had shot at her house. .
Galen Culver Reporting
They come from the small rodeos, from all night carpools, and drive-thru breakfasts' two hundred bull riders qualified for the Challengers Tour Championship in Oklahoma City. As Galen Culver reports, every one of them is hoping to repeat what one east Texas cowboy did last year; come from nowhere to win.
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July 2007
Of the 99 estuaries that had adequate data for evaluation, 64 estuaries have moderate to high level nutrient related impacts. "The team of scientists that worked on this assessment concluded that most of the problems in the estuaries are related to human activities," said lead report author Suzanne Bricker, Ph.D., of NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment. "These impacts are occurring in a watershed that currently supports 53 percent of the nation's population, and excluding Alaska accounts for only 17 percent of the nation's land mass. The scientists' assessment is that the ecological health of our coastal waters is seriously threatened by nutrient pollution. We need to comprehensively address the influx of excess nutrients from upland watersheds to protect our nation’s estuaries." While moderate-to-high-level nutrient-related impacts were reported in systems from all coasts, the Mid-Atlantic region, stretching south from Cape Cod to the Chesapeake Bay, is the most impaired.
Middle-class autoworkers cling to way of life amid benefit cuts
Just two weeks after his 18th birthday, Randy Horter started his first factory job, helping make clutches and air conditioning systems at an auto parts plant. Since then, the 49-year-old Chrysler line worker has cobbled together a career working at various manufacturing plants and made a nice, middle-class life with his wife, Candace, who works at the same Chrysler plant in Belvidere, Ill. The couple earns about $75,000 a year, unless one or the other is laid off. They own two used cars and their home. Between them, they raised five children, now grown, and were hoping to start preparing for retirement. .
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