Alton
voters give blessing to tax revolt - "Voters
overwhelmingly have backed the town selectmen's decision to
withhold from the state $544,000 meant for redistribution to
other communities under the new school-funding law. After
three hours' debate, the town moderator asked the residents:
Did they support withholding their state property taxes? And
did they want town officials to continue their lawsuit
against the state?"
Teen Indicted for Columbine Threat
-
"A federal grand jury on Monday indicted a Florida teen-ager accused of sending a computer threat that shut down
Columbine High School for two days and Texas man who made unrelated
threats in September..."
Southeast
groundwater pollution feared
- "Rivers and streams in
north Florida often disappear into the ground, only to
reemerge in another location, a result of the porous rock
formations that lie just underneath the ground. Recently a
University of Florida geologist found evidence that the
river and stream water feeding Florida's many springs
travels through a different underground system that could
lessen the quality of drinking water in north Florida and
throughout the Southeast..."
The
Bottled Water Craze -
"Next to the hand-held cellular telephone, one other symbol of
the '90s has emerged as the most ubiquitous accouterment of people
around the globe, from cosmopolitan world capitals to the most
primitive remote villages of Third World countries..."
Anthrax
Threat Closes Ala. Clinic - "An abortion clinic where a
bomb killed a security guard in 1998 was evacuated Monday following
a claim that an anthrax-laced letter was delivered with the day's
mail. Other clinics and offices around the nation received similar
threats Monday, the latest in a series that date back several years.
Some of the letters were determined to be hoaxes while testing
continued on others..."
Dead Dolphins Wash Ashore in Fla.
- Scientists are trying to learn why dead dolphins are washing up on
northwest Florida shores. Over the weekend, three dolphin carcasses
a day washed ashore and over the last month, the average has been about one daily. Most were full-grown, had bellies full of fish and many of the
females were pregnant, said George Gray, coordinator for a Fort Walton Beach wildlife rescue group. That evidence rules out various
sicknesses...
Deep
Damage -
"Without question, humans dominate the Earth. But is
that a good thing for the planet? Two years ago, researchers
Peter Vitousek, Harold Mooney, Jane Lubchenco and Jerry
Melillo published a report in the journal Science on
"Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems." That
overview detailed how we have altered the environment by
transforming approximately half of the earth's land surface,
driving about a quarter of bird species to extinction and
increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide by nearly 30 percent
since the industrial revolution..."
