My Two Cents

"If you want to protect your child, watch your neighbors, theuncle, the guy in the park, the teacher at school. Don't waste …

EPA issues 1999 enforcement report

The EPA recently released its "Annual Report on Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Accomplishments in 1999." During FY99, the EPA's priority industry sectors included chemical preparation, industrial organic chemicals, and petroleum refining, among others. Of interest to chemical engineers might be that the 20 pollutants with the largest reductions reported by FY99 enforcement settlements included NO, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) waste, intermediate chemicals, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ignitable solvents, carbon dioxide, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), ammonia, and particulate matter. The compliance activities resulting from FY99 criminal …

Consumers may get ray of good news: lower prices

American consumers hit by a seemingly endless stream of bad news, from vanishing jobs to shrinking retirement accounts, may be in for a small dose of relief: lower prices at stores. The Consumer Price Index, the country's most closely watched inflation gauge, probably will show a dip of 0.5 percent in October, after being flat in September, when that report is released Wednesday, according to economists' forecasts.

Even with the price reprieve, consumers are in no mood to go on a shopping spree. They have been cutting back sharply on spending because of the strains from job losses, shrinking nest eggs and falling home prices.

The retrenchment jolted the …

Conroy, Clavell lead morning line for best-sellerdom

There are few surprises in book publishing these days, for theentertainment packagers mastered the industry long ago. Publishersmight argue otherwise, but the best-seller list is fairly wellorchestrated months before its candidates reach bookstores.

After The Hunt for the Red October made him a household word,for instance, Tom Clancy could have translated the Manhattan phonebook into Urdu and made it a best-seller. His second novel, RedStorm Rising, a commendable commercial World War III yarn publishedAug. 4, now has 420,000 copies in print and owns the No. 1 spot onjust about everybody's best-seller list.

If anyone can unseat Clancy, Pat Conroy will. In …

Appalachian State Stuns No. 5 Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - What was supposed to be a tuneup turned into a stunner: Appalachian State 34, No. 5 Michigan 32. Julian Rauch's 24-yard field goal with 26 seconds left Saturday put the Mountaineers ahead of the Wolverines and Corey Lynch blocked a field goal in the final seconds to seal one of college football's biggest upsets.

"We're still sort of shocked," coach Jerry Moore said after being carried off the field by his players.

The two-time defending champions from former Division I-AA were ahead of the nation's winningest program 28-14 late in the second quarter, then their storybook afternoon seemed to unravel late in the fourth quarter.

Mike Hart's …

Senator: US must compete with China on energy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic majority leader of the U.S. Senate, just back from China, said the United States must compete with the Asian nation to be a global leader on renewable energy.

Harry Reid led a bipartisan delegation of 10 senators on a taxpayer-funded trip to China that included meetings with top Chinese government officials and business leaders. The …

FEDERAL COURT

Federal Court