National Hurricane Center posts best-ever storm prediction accuracy

By Ken Kaye

Sun Sentinel

(MCT)

The National Hurricane Center again broke accuracy records while predicting the tracks of 16 tropical systems in 2008, according to a report released Thursday.

The center reduced the mean track error to 55 miles when storms are 24 hours from landfall compared with a long-term error of 67 miles.

In the past 15 years, the center has improved track predictions by about 50 percent largely because models continue to be more sophisticated, said James Franklin, author of the report and team leader over the center's hurricane specialists.

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(c) 2009, Sun Sentinel.

Visit the Sun-Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.SunSentinel.com

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Small School Store Fire Causes Evacuation

By James Brierton
ST. JAMES (TheMatadorOnline.com) - A small fire in the Smithtown High School East school store caused a brief evacuation of the school Monday.

Around noon, smoke began pouring out of the microwave in the school store. As a precaution, the fire alarm was activated and students and staff evacuated the building.

Despite a cool breeze and some light rain, students and staff stood in staging areas around the building for much of seventh period as the situation was brought under control. The St. James Fire Department could be seen arriving on the north side of the building around 12:30 p.m.

No damage was reported to the school store and no one was injured in the incident.

Live: Fire Alarm Activation

Live Posts:
During Monday's brief evacauation, TheMatadorOnline.com's James Brierton sent updates from his wireless device to the Web.

12:20 pm : students and staff remain outside high school east much of seventh period after an activation of the fire alarm shortly after noon. The cause of the activation remains unknown. No fire department personnel can be seen from my vantage point on the north side of the building. Updates on thematadoronline.com as we get them.- james brierton reporting

12:30 pm : one fire truck and a chief's vehicle have arrived on the north side of the building. No visible signs of a fire.

Apx. 12:40 pm : All students and staff have returned to the building

During breaking news events such as on Monday, TheMatadorOnline.com uses remote access to our newsroom to post updates through what is called 'Live Blogging.' Short segments of information, rather than complete articles, are sent from our reporters in the field to the Web. At the conclusion of the incident, the newsroom compiles all the reports and puts together a finished publication.

Cost of college, economic woes have high school seniors weighing options

From left, Alden Mitchell, 16, Rachel Brown, 17, and Sheri Park, 18, critique paintings during an advanced placement art class at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California, on April 15, 2009. Brown is a senior who is currently deciding on colleges for the next school year. This is the time of year that students and parents must finally commit to the school of their choice. (Gary Reyes/San Jose Mercury News/MCT)

By Dana Hull
San Jose Mercury News
(MCT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Mike Maietta was eating lunch when he got a text message from his mom.

"Notre Dame," it said. "Big envelope!"

Mike, a senior in high school, whooped for joy. The big envelope meant the storied Catholic university in South Bend, Ind., had offered him a coveted slot in its Class of 2013. But the $51,300 annual price tag is a formidable obstacle. So Mike and his parents are considering offers from several other colleges and calculating the costs _ tuition, housing, holiday trips home.

This year, money is the driving factor for a growing number of high school seniors, who are spreading out the acceptance letters and crunching the numbers to decide what colleges to attend this fall. Layoffs, plunging home values and decimated college savings accounts have vastly changed family finances.

"We're ecstatic that Mike got into so many great schools," said Michael Maietta, his father, an engineer at Microsoft. "But if you consider going to school out of state, you've got to think about all of the other costs: moving, flying back and forth for the holidays. You're looking at about $3,000 a year just for travel."

More than 7.6 million students have filled out the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a 19.9 percent increase over last year.

The federal Department of Education this month urged college financial aid officers to give more help to families suffering from the recession. And a record 30,428 students applied for 2,300 slots at Stanford, in part because the university boosted financial aid for families earning below $100,000.

Students have until May 1 to decide on a school, and many campuses require "matriculation deposits" up to $400 to secure their slots for the fall. As families weigh their options, some are going back to financial aid offices in hopes that packages can be boosted.

"The most heartbreaking appeals at this point are from families where parents are just being told about layoffs in the last few weeks," said Karen Cooper, director of financial aid at Stanford. "Even those who thought they had a plan in place are scrambling to come up with new options."

Mary Nucciarone, an assistant director of financial aid at Notre Dame, said several families of admitted students are asking the university to consider new information.

"Loss of bonus income, loss of home equity, decrease in assets, mortgages underwater," she said. "People are coming back to us and saying, 'Did you consider this?'"

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Santa Clara University, where tuition, room and board top $46,000 a year, is concerned accepted students may choose more affordable alternatives instead. So nearly 400 alumni volunteers are now telephoning every admitted student; the most highly valued prospective students receive calls from President Michael Engh or Provost Lucia Albino Gilbert.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Mike Maietta got into eight colleges, and narrowed his top choices to a final five: Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Loyola Marymount, Gonzaga and the University of San Diego.

As the Maiettas turn the options over in their minds, numerous factors come into play. Loyola Marymount and Gonzaga offered Mike partial scholarships, but Notre Dame and Vanderbilt did not. Loyola, in Los Angeles, is within driving distance. But the cost of housing at Gonzaga, in Spokane, Wash., is slightly cheaper.

"Fifty thousand dollars a year is a lot of money," said Mike, who wants to study mechanical engineering. "I'd like to go to Notre Dame or Vanderbilt, but I can see myself at LMU."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Rachel Brown was ecstatic when she got a thick envelope from New York University; she's always wanted to live in Manhattan. But given tuition and the cost of living in New York, she's seriously considering the University of California-San Diego.

"The tuition for NYU is like twice as much as UCSD," said Rachel, 17, who is struggling to decide. "My mom doesn't want me to have a big debt when I graduate, and I don't want that either. I'd have to take out a loan for like $15,000 ... I'm going to check and see if there's any way that NYU can offer me any financial aid."

Jonathan Kaslow got into nine colleges, including Occidental, George Washington University and Lewis & Clark. But he's pretty much decided on UCSD.

"The cost of the private schools just isn't worth it," said Jonathan, who plans to study political science. "My mom got laid off from Sun Microsystems and is completely flipping out about money. I can see myself at UCSD, and sometimes Southwest has $40 fares so it won't cost too much to fly home."

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© 2009, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).

Visit MercuryNews.com, the World Wide Web site of the Mercury News, at http://www.mercurynews.com.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): COLLEGECOSTS

School strip-search case reaches Supreme Court this week

By David G. Savage

Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

SAFFORD, Ariz. _ When Savana Redding, now 19, talks of what happened to her in 8th grade, it is clear the painful memories linger.

She speaks of being embarrassed and of fearing and distrusting a nurse, and of staying away from school for two months. And she recalls whispers and stares from others in the small eastern Arizona mining town of Safford after she was strip-searched in the nurse's office because a vice principal suspected she might be hiding an extra-strength ibuprofen in her underwear.

This week, the Supreme Court will hear her case. Its decision, the first to address the issue of strip-searches in schools, will set the legal limits, if any, on the authority of school officials to search for drugs or weapons on campus. And while Savana's story provokes outrage from many who hear it, the school district warns that its ability to keep all drugs out of its schools must be preserved.

Matthew Wright, the school district's lawyer, said the vice principal was concerned because one student had gotten seriously ill from taking unidentified pills.

"That was the driving force for him. If nothing had been done, and this happened to another kid, parents would have been outraged," Wright said. "If there are drugs and weapons at school, how much do we want to tie the hands of the administrators?"

Only once has the high court ruled on a school-search case, and it sounds quaint now. It arose in 1980 when a New Jersey girl was caught smoking in the bathroom, and the principal searched her purse for cigarettes.

The justices upheld this search because the principal had a specific reason for looking in her purse. However, they did not say how far officials can go _ and how much of a student's privacy can be sacrificed _ to maintain safety at school. That's the issue in Safford Unified School District v. Redding.

Savana was an honors student, shy and "nerdy" when the 8th grade began in the fall of 2003, she said.

She first learned she was in trouble when Kerry Wilson, the vice principal, came into a math class one morning and told her to come with him to the office.

He was in search of white pills. "District policy J-3050 strictly prohibits the non-medical use or possession of any drug on campus," he said later in a sworn statement.

Wilson knew a boy had gotten sick from pills he obtained at school. And that morning, another 8th-grader, Marissa Glines, was found with what turned out to be several 400 mg ibuprofen pills tucked into a folded school planner. A few days before, Savana had lent Marissa the folder. The vice principal also found a small knife, a cigarette and a lighter in the folder. When asked where she got the pills, Marissa named Savana Redding.

These "could only be obtained with a prescription," Wilson reported. Marketed over the counter as Advil and Motrin with recommended doses of 200 to 400 mg, they are commonly used for headaches or to relieve pain from menstrual cramps.

Savana, however, said she knew nothing of the pills in Marissa's folder.

"He asked if he could search my backpack. I said, 'Sure,' " she recalled. When nothing was found, Wilson sent Savana to the nurse's office, where the nurse and an office assistant were told to "search her clothes" for the missing pills.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Savana said she kept her head down, embarrassed and afraid she would cry. After removing her pink T-shirt and black stretch pants, she stood in her bra and panties. She was told to pull her underwear to the side and to shake to see if any pills could be dislodged.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

It was "the most humiliating experience" of her life, she said.

"We did not find any pills during our search of Savana," Wilson reported.

Upset and angry, Savana's mother, April Redding, complained to the principal's office, then to the superintendent's office nearby. Both denied at first knowing that a student had been strip-searched.

"It was wrong. I didn't think anything like that could happen to my daughter at school," she said. "Why didn't they call me? I couldn't get them to explain it."

Contacted at the school last week, Wilson declined to discuss the case, as did other school officials.

When no one apologized, April Redding sued the school district. Her lawyers say the strip-search goes far beyond the bounds of reasonableness, especially when there was no imminent danger.

April Redding says she had a simple goal. "I wanted a judge to say what they did was wrong," she said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

After the strip-search, Savana refused to return to the middle school. She did not want to be in the presence of the nurse or the office assistant who humiliated her. She went to an alternative high school in Safford, but dropped out before graduating. She is taking psychology classes at nearby East Arizona College.

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© 2009, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

EPA declaration sets stage for more regulation

By Jim Tankersley

Tribune Washington Bureau

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ The federal government's declaration Friday that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health marked a first step toward likely regulation of the tailpipe emissions of cars, power plants and factories that scientists blame for global warming.

The decision by the Environmental Protection Agency was a clear break with the Bush administration, which downplayed concerns about global warming, and set the stage for a possible national standard for vehicle emissions and other federal efforts to curb such pollution.

The Obama administration already is developing a plan to make the U.S. auto fleet cleaner by regulating carbon dioxide emissions from tailpipes. But the move Friday also gives it the capacity to either regulate larger emissions producers like power plants or prod Congress to set limits, which the administration would prefer.

Lawmakers have begun debating legislation that would crack down on power plant emissions, which generate twice as much greenhouse gas as cars and trucks. But the prospect of the White House taking action could push Congress to come to an agreement.

"The Obama administration now has the legal equivalent of a .44 magnum" to fight global warming, said Frank O'Donnell, president of the environmental group Clean Air Watch. "The bullets aren't loaded yet, but they could be."

Environmentalists celebrated the EPA's action as the clearest signal yet that the Obama administration is prepared to act boldly to combat global warming. O'Donnell called the move "a landmark moment in environmental history."

But critics say the EPA decision, and the regulations that could accompany it, could chill an already recessionary economy.

"An endangerment finding would lead to destructive regulatory schemes that Congress never authorized," a group of eight leading conservative and free-market activists warned the EPA in a letter this week. They added that "the administration will bear responsibility for any increase in consumer energy costs, unemployment and GDP losses" that result.

In its ruling, the EPA declared that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases endanger public health. "In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem," the agency declared. "The greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act."

The ruling includes a lengthy summation of scientific warnings about human contributions to climate change, and of the potentially devastating impacts that could result.

But in finding that greenhouse gases endangered public health "within the meaning of the Clean Air Act," the EPA also moved beyond what most Americans think of as air pollution, said Bill Farland, a former top EPA scientist who is now senior vice president for research and engagement at Colorado State University.

The EPA is equating otherwise benign gases that are leading to rising temperatures with traditional pollutants such as smog and lead, he said.

"Clearly, you can expose animals and humans to (carbon dioxide) without a harmful effect," Farland said. "On the other hand, in today's society there's mounting information that if you continue to release CO2, it's going to be problematic from a climate change perspective."

Friday's decision said that automobiles, which produce about 20 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, contribute directly to climate change. The administration is expected to develop vehicle emissions limits along the lines of strict regulations that California and other states are attempting to adopt.

Some industry groups said the text of the decision appeared to give the administration an "off ramp" to avoid widespread regulation.

William Kovacs, a vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the finding allows the EPA to delay emissions limits until technology improves and compliance costs fall, a move he said would avoid "disastrous" regulations that would all but put the EPA in control of the entire economy.

Obama often links carbon emissions limits _ and the price increases they would assuredly impose on fossil fuel energy _ with the creation of millions of jobs through renewable energy development. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a press release Friday that global warming "has a solution _ one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country's dependence on foreign oil."

The next move belongs to Congress. The House will reconvene Monday after a two-week break, with a major climate bill on its agenda. One of that bill's drafters, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Friday called the EPA decision a "game-changer" that will force representatives to assume that if they don't limit emissions, the administration will.

Markey was echoed by the Senate's lead climate bill drafter, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who said that if Congress fails to pass a climate bill, "then I will call on EPA to take all steps authorized by law to protect our families."

The EPA will accept public comments on its finding for two months, and it has scheduled public hearings in suburban Washington and in Seattle. Industry groups will ramp up their economic warnings. The Sierra Club on Friday launched a campaign to generate a half-million comments in support of the finding and other parts of Obama's climate agenda.

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© 2009, Tribune Co.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Motorcyclist Killed in Saint James Motor Vehicle Crash

***UPDATE***
Serkan Senal, 30, of 19 Orchid Drive, Port Jefferson Station, has been identified as the motorcyclist who was killed in a motor vehicle crash in Saint James on April 19. Valerie Campbell, 19, of 26 Cambon Place, Nesconset, has been identified as the driver of the 2004 Jeep. The investigation is continuing.

ST. JAMES (Suffolk County Police Department) - Suffolk County Police Fourth Squad detectives are investigating a motor vehicle crash that killed a motorcyclist in Saint James today.

The motorcyclist whose identity has not been released pending notification of his family was riding a 2005 Suzuki motorcycle eastbound on Route 25 in Saint James at approximately 1:55 p.m. At the intersection of Route 25 and Cambon Place, the motorcycle struck a 2004 Jeep that was proceeding northbound on Cambon Place.

The motorcyclist and the driver of the Jeep were transported to Stony Brook University Medical Center where the motorcyclist was pronounced dead at 2:20 p.m. The driver of the Jeep was treated and released.

Both vehicles were impounded for safety checks. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Fourth Squad at 631-854-8452.