News Briefs | Nov. 19

Local

St. Louis Metro presents cost reduction options

In response to the recent decision by St. Louis residents to vote down Proposition M and withhold additional funding for public transportation in the city, St. Louis Metro is examining cost-effective methods to preserve as much of its current system as possible.

On Nov. 14, staff at Metro presented two cost-reduction options. These plans, which were presented to the Operations and Strategic Planning Committee of the Metro Board of Commissioners, included cuts in administrative costs related to bus and rail transport as well as long-term reduction plans that would sustain Metro’s present funding.

The issue will be taken up again later in the month and at Metro’s December committee meeting. (Dan Woznica)

National

California begins preparations for rising sea levels

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently ordered that the state of California begin to prepare for the impact of rising sea levels from global warming.

“The longer that California delays planning and adapting to sea level rise the more expensive and difficult adaptation will be,” Schwarzenegger said.

California’s coastline on the Pacific Ocean spans some 800 miles, and Schwarzenegger’s executive order calls for an investigation of how rising sea levels would impact the lives of Californians living on the coast.

Part of the investigation will also cover how high sea levels could potentially rise. In San Francisco, the sea level has risen seven inches in the past 100 years, and experts in global warming say that rates like this one could continue to increase if effective measures are not taken to prevent climate change. (Dan Woznica)



Democrats grant Lieberman leeway

With the results of the general election giving Democrats decisive majorities in both chambers of Congress, many were left wondering the fate of Sen. Joseph Lieberman.
Lieberman (ID-Conn.), who lost the Connecticut Democratic primary in 2006 but won the election as an independent, had faced potentially serious repercussions from Senate Democrats for throwing his hat in with Republican Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid.

Lieberman’s saving grace was that he caucused with the Democrats consistently throughout his tenure, according to experts.

Senate Democrats voted secretly 42-13 to let Lieberman keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Democrats imposed a minor chastisement by removing him from the Environment and Public Works Committee, for which he chaired a subcommittee. (Michelle Merlin)

 

International

Rubber duckies measure rate of Greenland’s melting

In response to recent satellite measurements indicating that Greenland’s ice cap is melting much faster than expected, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Greenland have devised an experiment that uses rubber ducks to measure Greenland’s rate of melting.
The experiment, which began last August, started when scientists released 90 yellow rubber ducks into melted water flowing through a chasm in Greenland’s largest glacier. 

The ducks were each inscribed with an e-mail address and an offering of a reward in three languages to anyone who picked up one of the toys and responded to the scientists with their location of retrieval.

The idea is that the ducks are a cost-effective method of charting previously undocumented ocean currents, which could provide important evidence of Greenland’s glacial melting.

Scientists estimate that if Greenland’s ice cap were to melt entirely, the worldwide sea level could rise by 24 feet. (Dan Woznica)