QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You always know that there’s going to be a year when you have a failed crop or some sort of disaster. Normally you can manage one year, but when you go to two or three years, you’re left questioning your choice of occupation.”
Kent Walker, a wheat farmer in Frederick, Okla., as fears of a third-straight year of drought ripple through the Plains Article, this page
9/11 museum to charge admission fee
NEW YORK - Faced with hefty operating costs, the foundation building the 9/11 museum at the World Trade Center has decided to charge an admission fee of $20 to $25 when the site opens next year.
The exact cost of the mandatory fee has not yet been decided.
Entry to the memorial plaza with its twin reflecting pools will still be free.
The decision to charge for the underground museum housing relics of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has been met with dismay by some relatives of 9/11 victims.
Memorial foundation head Joseph Daniels said Saturday that the museum has little choice. It’s expected to cost nearly $60 million a year to operate the site.
Daniels said the museum will be free during certain hours every week.
Cool weather slows California wildfire
CAMARILLO, Calif. - A big cool-down in weather calmed a wildfire burning in Southern California coastal mountains Saturday, and firefighters worked to cut miles of containment lines while conditions were favorable.
High winds and withering hot, dry air were replaced by the normal flow of damp air off the Pacific, significantly reducing fire activity.
The 43-square-mile blaze at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains was 30 percent surrounded, fire officials said.
The humidity level rose so much that an overnight effort to burn away fuel at one section of the fire did not work well, said Tom Kruschke, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman.
Despite the favorable conditions, evacuation orders remained in place for residences in several areas as nearly 1,900 firefighters using engines, bulldozers and aircraft worked to corral the blaze.
Firefighting efforts were focused on the fire’s east side, rugged canyons that are a mix of public and private lands, Kruschke said.
The National Weather Service said an approaching low-pressure system would lead to a 20 percent chance of showers this afternoon, with the likelihood increasing into the night and on Monday.
Cell-phone thefts spur ‘kill switch’ talk
SAN FRANCISCO - Disturbed by the nationwide epidemic of cell-phone robberies and thefts, law enforcement officials across the country are looking to the wireless industry to help find a cure.
In San Francisco, where half the robberies were phone-related last year, District Attorney George Gascon is calling on companies in nearby Silicon Valley to create new technology such as a “kill switch” to permanently and quickly disable stolen smart phones, making them worthless to thieves.
The prosecutor said he’s recently had two discussions with Apple, maker of the popular iPhone, and has talked informally with Google, creator of the Android, the world’s most popular operating smart-phone platform.
He said he also wants to meet with Samsung, the global smart-phone market leader.
Nearly 175 million cell phones - mostly smart phones- have been sold in the U.S. in the past year and account for $69 billion in sales, according to IDC, a Massachusetts-based research firm.
Almost one out of three robberies nationwide involves the theft of a mobile phone, reports the Federal Communications Commission.
NRA’s LaPierre: Never give up your gun
HOUSTON - The public face of the National Rifle Association implored members Saturday to never give up their weapons in the wake of recent gun-control efforts in Congress that he said will “destroy us and every ounce of our freedom.”
“We will never surrender our guns, never,” Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told several thousand people during the organization’s annual member meeting, which is part of the yearly NRA convention held this year in Houston.
LaPierre said the “political and media elites” have tried to use December’s mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school and other recent ones “to blame us, to shame us, to compromise our freedom for their agenda.”
More than 70,000 NRA members were expected to attend the three-day convention, which began Friday.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 05/05/2013