LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “The question is: Is it a good thing to basically trick people into getting something that’s good for them?” Jeremy Pincus, of Forbes Consulting Group, on a government plan to automatically enroll citizens in a long-term health insurance program Article, this page
Times Square aids in good riddance
NEW YORK - Scores of New Yorkers and tourists seeking a fresh start in 2010 came to Times Square on Monday to put their bad memories through the shredder at the third annual Good Riddance Day.
Participants lined up near the booth where discount theater tickets are sold and pitched their bad memories into an industrial-sized shredder. A Dumpster and a sledgehammer were available for items that couldn’t be shredded, which included an old computer and a tin of fattening office snacks.
The winner of a $250 prize for most creative item shredded was 12-year-old Alissa Yankelevits of Los Angeles, who is visiting her grandparents in New York. She shredded the memory of a counselor on a school trip who was later featured on the TV show America’s Most Wanted.
Good Riddance Day was organized by the Times Square Alliance as part of the buildup to Thursday’s ball-drop celebration.
Child’s injury interrupts Obama’s golf
KAILUA, Hawaii - President Barack Obama interrupted a golf game in Hawaii and hurried to his vacation home after the child of a family friend suffered a minor injury Monday.
The presidential motorcade rushed back to the Obama vacation home after the president received word that the son of Eric Whitaker, an Obama friend who was golfing with the president, received minor injuries. An ambulance later followed with flashing lights.
The ambulance left after about 15 minutes, and Obama returned to the golf course within an hour. White House spokesman Bill Burton said the child is fine and was back at the home playing with friends.
Members of the first family were unharmed, a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a reluctance to discuss personal matters involving the president.
The first family is renting an oceanfront vacation home in Kailua on the island of Oahu.
Wild-horse roundup begins in Nevada
LAS VEGAS - A two-month capture of about 2,500 wild horses from public and private lands in northern Nevada began Monday.
Federal officials said the roundup is needed because the 850 square miles of land is overpopulated and could become unlivable to wildlife and livestock within four years.
Bureau of Land Management spokesman JoLynn Worley said the agency began gathering horses Monday in the eastern part of the Black Rock Range, a stretch of mountains more than 100 miles north of Reno, Nev.
A contractor was using two helicopters under the bureau’s supervision to move the horses to corrals, Worley said. The animals were then being trucked to Fallon, Nev., for immunizations and veterinary care, she said.
Worley said officials won’t know how many horses were captured on Monday until early today.
Long-term plans call for the mustangs to be placed for adoption or sent to holding facilities in the Midwest.
Unsafe Lake Champlain Bridge blasted
CROWN POINT, N.Y. - Controlled explosions have brought down the Lake Champlain Bridge between New York and Vermont.
Snow fell and a small group of onlookers watched as the 2,184-foot-long span between Crown Point and Addison, Vt., was dropped into the water and ice at the narrow south end of the lake Monday morning.
There was a sharp concussion followed by billowing smoke as steel and concrete fell.
The 80-year-old bridge was closed Oct. 16 when engineers deemed it wasn’t safe because of severe erosion to its concrete piers.
Debris will be removed by the spring, when construction is to begin on a new span expected to open in summer 2011.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 12/29/2009