WASHINGTON, D.C. -- If running an agency with 55,0000 employees and a $70 billion budget is overwhelming, you would never know it from the casual, upbeat entrance of Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx.
"I've heard people say 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.'? You know, there's only so much you can do in one day," said Foxx during an interview with NBC Charlotte at DOT headquarters in Washington.
Secretary Foxx's first week on the job began with a deadly plane crash in San Francisco.
"I was in Target buying shower curtains for my kids and I got the call and rushed here to the crisis management center and from there continued to follow details of the incident."
The pull of this job is enormous, especially tough when those you love the most have yet to make the move to DC.? Foxx's wife, Samara, and his two kids will join him later this summer.? Foxx spoke about the demands of his job.?
"In some ways this role will be more taxing in terms of the day and travel and the work that goes on behind the scenes to make things happen in this department and elsewhere. But in other respects, there are other responsibilities I don't have that I had as mayor. There are parades that I don't have to attend and dinners that I don't have to go to."
With few hours for fun, it is almost cruel that the Washington Nationals' ballpark is next door to DOT Headquarters.? But there are perks.?
Proximity to the President is a given as a cabinet secretary and, for the first time recently, Foxx traveled onboard Air Force One.
"It was an opportunity to spend some quality time with the President and talking about some of the infrastructure issues that are so important to both of us."
Those issues include navigating the congested? DC streets. "I'm reminded every day how easy Charlotte is to get around,." Said Foxx.
For this Charlotte native, it is clear, Carolina is never far from his heart or his mind.? But Secretary Foxx plays it coy when it comes to his future.?
When asked about speculation that he might run for governor in 2016, he simply smiled and responded,? "Oh, you know, I love North Carolina." ?
Thanks to a generous donation, a local foster family is now the proud owner of a custom-made playhouse.?...
LITTLE ROCK, AR - The Willow Springs Water Park in the southern section
of town has been shutdown by the Arkansas Department of Health after a
swimmer is diagnosed with parasitic meningitis....
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS --?Happening right now,?40,000 families in Northwest Arkansas are struggling to make ends meet, and when school comes around - it's hard to get everything ready for the...
LOWELL, AR-- Emergency crews worked with American Environmental
Recycling Technology(AERT) to tear down the silo that exploded Thursday....
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A 68-year-old veteran was driving a mule-drawn
wagon across the country when he was hit by a pick-up truck while
traveling though Ozark....
SPRINGFIELD, MO -- The term "helicopter parent" was introduced to the
Merriam Webster Dictionary in 2011 as a "parent who is overly involved
in the life of his or her child."...
HARRISON, AR-- It wasn't Santa but a would-be burglar who got caught on camera and in a chimney trying to bust into a pawn shop....
LOWELL, AR-- Fire crews spent the night watching over a silo
after a Thursday morning explosion at the Advanced Recycling and
Environmental Technologies(AERT) plant in Lowell....
GENTRY, AR -- An emotional day in a small town, as a young soldier was laid to rest after losing his life serving our country....
The top stories of the day for Thursday, July 25th....
In a segment called "90 Seconds with Derrick Rose" with CNN's Pedro Pinto, the 24-year-old point guard was asked a series of rapid fire questions, including "who is the best player in the league right now?" Not surprisingly, D-Rose said "Derrick Rose."
If you're wondering why we say "not surprisingly," let's not forget that...
He's the youngest player to win the MVP award at 22
He's the only other player, aside from LeBron, to win the Most Valuable Player award in the last five years (2010-11 season)
He was an All-Star for three straight seasons prior to his injury
He also won Rookie of the Year (2008-09 season)
He still has four years to catch up to LeBron in rings
While conventional wisdom says LeBron is the best in the NBA, we can understand why Rose would say he was the best. Confidence and bravado is everything in the L, folks!?
RELATED:?The 25 Best Scoring Point Guards in NBA History
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) ? New York Giants safety Will Hill has been suspended for four games by the NFL for violating the league?s substance of abuse policy, his second drug suspension in two years.
Hill will miss the first four games of New York?s season, and be eligible to return in time for the Oct. 6 game against Philadelphia. He is still allowed to take part in training camp and preseason games.
He was suspended last year for violating the league?s performance enhancing drug policy, testing positive for Adderall.
Last season Hill apologized for his actions.
?I received a doctor?s prescription for Adderall prior to signing with the Giants,? Hill said. ?Shortly after signing with the team, I was in a meeting with (director of player development) Charles Way, who reviewed the list of the league?s banned substances. I knew at that point that this may be an issue. I was tested and the results came back that Adderall was in my system. I appealed but lost the appeal. I accept full responsibility for this situation, and it won?t happen again.?
(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Workers at Pine Ridge Ranch Camp had just 40 minutes to evacuate 179 people, most of them children as firefighters struggle to contain an early-season blaze; and, Caleb Medley was shot in the head in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting and was in a coma when his son was born four days later. Caleb's wife Katie believes their son, Hugo, has helped her husband heal.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Seafood continues to be a proven strong nutrient-rich food providing essential vitamins, minerals and omega-3 fatty acids, but consumers and some toxicologists still keep a watchful eye on safety, according to new research.
If needed, I can install Sony Vegas Pro 12 + 5GBs of Royalty Free Sound Effects.
The case itself cost $200+ and is brand new (freshly installed components). The case is Matte Black and looks like something Batman would own. I have also cleaned and applied some High-Quality Noctua TIM to the H80i. Temps are very nice ;) I have all boxes except the case box (alas, shipping and delivery was terrible), so if you buy this computer you gotta carry it (about ~20lbs)
Need to save up for University tuition. Very clean, used in a 10c sterile room. I will install Windows 7 Ultimate and give you the computer clean as a whistle. It'll be like buying a brand new computer! This computer is capable of 3-way SLI or XFire.
I can remove the HDD and knock $100 off the listed price.
This computer can run every game you throw at it @ Ultra. I get over 60FPS on Battlefield 3 on a 64-player server (CPU intensive). I also play Skyrim with over 160 HD mods + a High Qualiy ENB (pics provided) and get 60FPS solid (v-sync). Crysis 3 runs around 40FPS on MAX settings (very respectable).
Here is a video of BF3 running on said 64-player server: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGBQquF93UI
If you want more pictures or videos, just ask.
WEI:
7.6 CPU @ Stock 7.9 Graphics 7.9 Memory 7.9 Hard Drive
Case: NZXT Phantom 630 Full Tower Case - Three 200mm Fans, One 140mm Fan CPU: Intel i5-3570k - Can be overclocked (4.8GHz stable tested) RAM: 8GB Patriot Viper RAM @ 2133 MHz - High Speed RAM for Editing CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i - Multi-color LED - Water Cooling kit for the CPU (keeps it cool) GPU: MSI HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 - High Quality PCB (can overclock like crazy) PSU: Corsair AX760 Platinum PSU - Has 90+ Efficiency, save $$$ on your power bill Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth z77 - High quality MB, can overclock and keep everything stable (has a shroud that cools all components) SSD: Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM ODD: Generic ODD - Modisc LG OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
I've taken care of this computer for the duration I had it (~1 month). I have stress tested the CPU to 4.8GHz, which is very respectable considering the IHS on Ivy Bridge CPUs are garbage (sorry Intel). If you have any questions or concerns, or will simply like to see a video of the PC in action, e-mail me. I will reply usually within 15 mins. I also take custom requests, such as installing programs etc.. E-mail me if you have one.
Mothers who report symptoms of depression are more likely to display obesity-promoting practices and have children who are overweight or obese than mothers who say they are not depressed, according to a new study.
Researchers at the Children?s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx asked 401 mothers to rate themselves on symptoms of depression like loss of interest, fatigue, low energy and poor concentration. The mothers whose symptoms suggested moderate to severe depression were more than 2.5 times more likely to have overweight or obese 5-year-olds. (Mothers with mild depressive symptoms were also found to have greater odds of having an overweight or obese child but the difference was not statistically significant.)
The list of possible explanations for the correlation is long. The researchers found that the children of the depressed women (all low-income, the majority of whom were Hispanic and black Bronx residents, all with children who had been patients at Montefiore?s family care center), were more likely to consume sweetened drinks and less likely to eat breakfast (studies show that skipping a morning meal can actually make weight control more difficult) than the children of nondepressed mothers. The depressed mothers were also less likely to restrict their child?s food intake and model good eating habits. Adding to the mix, their children got less sleep (sleep deprivation is linked to childhood obesity), less outdoor playtime (which, of course, also impacts weight) and more screen time.
?We?ve known that many mothers experience feelings of sadness and depression and that many of them suffer in silence,? said Rachel S. Gross, attending pediatrician at the Children?s Hospital at Montefiore and the lead author of the study. ?There?s a lot of research linking maternal depression with children?s mental, social and behavioral problems, but this is a body of work showing it relates to physical health as well.?
Hope Reeves is a One-Page Magazine columnist for The New York Times Magazine.
Senior moment? Stereotypes about aging can hurt older adults' memory, but there's an easy fixPublic release date: 1-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Suzanne Wu suzanne.wu@usc.edu 213-740-0252 University of Southern California
Scientists show that attributing every forgetful moment to getting older can actually worsen memory problems -- and reveal a surprising twist that can improve performance
Of the many negative stereotypes that exist about older adults, the most common is that they are forgetful, senile and prone to so-called "senior moments." In fact, while cognitive processes do decline with age, simply reminding older adults about ageist ideas actually exacerbates their memory problems, reveals important new research from the USC Davis School of Gerontology.
The study, forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science, is an extension of the idea of "stereotype threat" that when people are confronted with negative stereotypes about a group with which they identify, they tend to self-handicap and underperform compared to their potential. In doing so, they inadvertantly confirm the negative stereotypes they were worried about in the first place.
The results highlight just how crucial it is for older adults, as well clinicians, to be aware of how ageist beliefs about older adults can affect older adults' real memory test performance.
"Older adults should be careful not to buy into negative stereotypes about aging attributing every forgetful moment to getting older can actually worsen memory problems." said Sarah Barber, a postdoctoral researcher at the USC Davis School and lead author of the study.
However, there is a way to eliminate the problem, the study reveals: "No one had yet examined the intriuging possibility that the mechanisms of stereotype threat vary according to age," Barber said.
Barber and her co-author Mara Mather, professor of gerontology and psychology at USC, conducted two experiments in which adults from the ages of 59 to 79 completed a memory test. Some participants were first asked to read fake news articles about memory loss in older adults, and others did not. Notably, the researchers structured the test so that half of the participants earned a monetary reward for each word they remembered; the other half lost money for each word they forgot.
In past tests, 70 percent of older adults met diagnostic criteria for dementia when examined under stereotype threat, compared to approximately 14 percent when not assessed under threat.
But the latest research shows that stereotype threat can actually improve older adults' performance on memory tests, under certain conditions.
For participants who had something to gain, being confronted with age stereotypes meant poorer performance on memory tests. They scored about 20 percent worse than people who were not exposed to the stereotype.
But when the test was framed in terms of preventing losses due to forgetting, the results flipped: participants reminded of the stereotypes about aging and memory loss actually scored better than those who were under no stereotype threat.
"Stereotype threat is generally thought to be a bad thing, and it is well established that it can impair older adults' memory performance. However, our experiments demonstrate that stereotype threat can actually enhance older adults' memory if the task involves avoiding losses," Barber said.
Older adults, it seems, respond to stereotype threat by changing their motivational priorities and focusing more on avoiding mistakes. The study is part of a critical body of work on risk taking and decision making among older adults from the USC Davis School of Gerontology, named for AARP founder Leonard Davis and the leading research center in the world on aging and its biological, psychological, political and economic dimensions.
"Our experiments suggest an easy intervention to eliminate the negative effects of stereotype threat on older adults clinicians should simply change the test instructions to emphasize the importance of not making mistakes," Barber said.
###
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers T32-AG00037, R01-AG025340, R01-AG038043 and K02-AG032309).
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Senior moment? Stereotypes about aging can hurt older adults' memory, but there's an easy fixPublic release date: 1-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Suzanne Wu suzanne.wu@usc.edu 213-740-0252 University of Southern California
Scientists show that attributing every forgetful moment to getting older can actually worsen memory problems -- and reveal a surprising twist that can improve performance
Of the many negative stereotypes that exist about older adults, the most common is that they are forgetful, senile and prone to so-called "senior moments." In fact, while cognitive processes do decline with age, simply reminding older adults about ageist ideas actually exacerbates their memory problems, reveals important new research from the USC Davis School of Gerontology.
The study, forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science, is an extension of the idea of "stereotype threat" that when people are confronted with negative stereotypes about a group with which they identify, they tend to self-handicap and underperform compared to their potential. In doing so, they inadvertantly confirm the negative stereotypes they were worried about in the first place.
The results highlight just how crucial it is for older adults, as well clinicians, to be aware of how ageist beliefs about older adults can affect older adults' real memory test performance.
"Older adults should be careful not to buy into negative stereotypes about aging attributing every forgetful moment to getting older can actually worsen memory problems." said Sarah Barber, a postdoctoral researcher at the USC Davis School and lead author of the study.
However, there is a way to eliminate the problem, the study reveals: "No one had yet examined the intriuging possibility that the mechanisms of stereotype threat vary according to age," Barber said.
Barber and her co-author Mara Mather, professor of gerontology and psychology at USC, conducted two experiments in which adults from the ages of 59 to 79 completed a memory test. Some participants were first asked to read fake news articles about memory loss in older adults, and others did not. Notably, the researchers structured the test so that half of the participants earned a monetary reward for each word they remembered; the other half lost money for each word they forgot.
In past tests, 70 percent of older adults met diagnostic criteria for dementia when examined under stereotype threat, compared to approximately 14 percent when not assessed under threat.
But the latest research shows that stereotype threat can actually improve older adults' performance on memory tests, under certain conditions.
For participants who had something to gain, being confronted with age stereotypes meant poorer performance on memory tests. They scored about 20 percent worse than people who were not exposed to the stereotype.
But when the test was framed in terms of preventing losses due to forgetting, the results flipped: participants reminded of the stereotypes about aging and memory loss actually scored better than those who were under no stereotype threat.
"Stereotype threat is generally thought to be a bad thing, and it is well established that it can impair older adults' memory performance. However, our experiments demonstrate that stereotype threat can actually enhance older adults' memory if the task involves avoiding losses," Barber said.
Older adults, it seems, respond to stereotype threat by changing their motivational priorities and focusing more on avoiding mistakes. The study is part of a critical body of work on risk taking and decision making among older adults from the USC Davis School of Gerontology, named for AARP founder Leonard Davis and the leading research center in the world on aging and its biological, psychological, political and economic dimensions.
"Our experiments suggest an easy intervention to eliminate the negative effects of stereotype threat on older adults clinicians should simply change the test instructions to emphasize the importance of not making mistakes," Barber said.
###
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers T32-AG00037, R01-AG025340, R01-AG038043 and K02-AG032309).
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The Rev. Rob Schenck, of Faith and Action, an opponent of same-sex marriage, prays outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, June 26, 2013.
By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News
Opponents of same-sex marriage are gearing up for a national?battle?to block gays and lesbians from tying the knot, saying the country?is ?perilously close? to legalizing such unions in all 50 states after recent Supreme Court decisions.
Those rulings?last week?allowed same-sex marriage to resume in California?(the Proposition 8 case)?and struck down a 1996 law, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which barred federal recognition of gay and lesbian marriages in the District of Columbia and the 13 states where such unions are legal.
?It?s very?difficult?to read the majority opinion in the Windsor case?(DOMA)?and not conclude that a majority of the court wants to impose same-sex marriage,? said Frank Schubert,?political director?of the National Organization for Marriage, which has?led?the fight?to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.
?We need to redouble our efforts to engage the American people in a large movement to preserve marriage,?one that would serve notice to the court that if they seek to constitutionalize same-sex?marriage?they risk a massive public revolt,? he added. ?It?s imperative on us to mobilize people across?the country who believe in marriage and to explain to them how close we are to losing it.?
In the days since the court decisions,?groups opposed to same-sex marriage have been meeting to craft the contours of what that national battle may entail, said Schubert. He declined to provide specifics but said it could include legislative and court actions.??
One thing is clear: they?ll need money to do that, Schubert said, particularly given how successful the same-sex marriage camp has been at raising cash for state by state contests.
All of the four votes on the issue last November went to the same-sex camp, which significantly outraised groups fighting gay marriage.
John Milburn / AP file
?One thing we need to do is figure out a way to tap into the broad community of faith and raise money,? Schubert said Friday. ?And if we're not successful at that, then we're going to have a very difficult time being competitive in the state campaign marketplace.?
Other opponents of gay marriage have announced plans in the wake of Wednesday's rulings:?House Rep. Tim Huelskamp?(R-KS) introduced legislation on Friday to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman, while?Indiana?Gov. Mike Pence?urged?the state legislature to approve a popular vote?for?2014?to ban?gay marriage.
?Pence wrote online?that he was disappointed with the?court?decisions but grateful that the justices??respect the sovereignty of states on this important issue. These decisions preserve the duty and obligation of the states to define and administer marriage as they see fit.?
Thirty-five states have done just that, and the justices didn?t touch DOMA?s Section 2 ? which allows states to define marriage.
But questions quickly arose in the aftermath of the rulings about how gay and lesbian couples who legally wed in one state would be treated in another where same-sex marriage is banned.
?It?s a very natural follow-up lawsuit,??said?Ken Klukowski, director of the Family Research Council, in a speech on Thursday.??I would be concerned as to how that case would come up. So I think we are right now one case away from Section 2 of DOMA likewise being struck down.?
With that in mind, NOM's Schubert said they have to adapt to the ?new reality? and see what ?changes we need to make in our approach.?
"We?ve got to meet the challenge of making this a national issue because that's what it is now,??he?said. ?The reality prior to these decisions was that??if you want to win on marriage, you have to win it at the state level. And that is certainly still true,?but it?s also true that we are perilously close to having the United States Supreme Court impose a view of marriage that we very much disagree with.?
Ryan Anderson, who opposes same-sex marriage and is a fellow at conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, said in an opinion piece published in The Daily Caller that those who share his views would need to ?take a long view? that didn?t ?look to immediate wins or losses.?
He?wrote?they would have to ?redouble? their??efforts at explaining?what marriage is, why marriage matters and what the consequences are ofredefining marriage. The left wants to insist that the redefinition of marriage is ?inevitable,?? he wrote.
While opponents plot the way forward, same-sex marriage supporters said the wins gave them fuel. They aim to have a majority of Americans living in states where same-sex marriage is legal by 2016, and they believe the Supreme Court will ultimately give a final resolution to the issue.
They celebrated Wednesday night, but already had plans to get back to work the next day, said Marc Solomon, national campaign director for Freedom to Marry. They, too, are focusing on state contests ? such as trying to reverse bans in Michigan and Ohio, as well as push through same-sex marriage in Illinois and New Jersey.
?We need to put together smart, strategic campaigns but at the center of those campaigns are loving and committed couples who are making the case,? he said. ?Honestly,?that?s the secret weapon that our side has that our opponents don?t have. We have families who can share their real stories about why marriage is important to them ? and our opponents can point to some amorphous fear that they have.?
Though the court?s decisions were disappointing for the anti-gay marriage side, Schubert did see a potential silver lining to them as they work to make their national case.
?We have an opportunity to play in states that are much stronger for us and?(to)?be able to engage people there in a way that we couldn?t before because in?the past there's not?been a credible threat to marriage in?Texas or?South Carolina?or any of these other states. Now there is,??he?said.??Now the wolf is at the door and we are going to meet the challenge as?aggressively as we can."
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 28 people were killed and dozens wounded in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked a largely Shi'ite Muslim neighborhood, police said.
The blast appeared to be the latest in an escalating campaign of gun and bomb attacks by militants on ethnic Hazaras in Quetta because they belong to Pakistan's Shi'ite minority.
Mir Zubair, Quetta's police chief, said a suicide bomber riding a bicycle had detonated his explosives when he was stopped at a barrier in the Hazara Town district, a Hazara enclave on the western edge of the city.
"The dead included nine women, a girl and a 14-year-old boy," Zubair told reporters.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group which has carried out many gun and bomb attacks on Hazaras in Quetta, said it was behind the bombing. A spokesman for the group called the Express News television channel to make the claim.
The group is aligned with the Takfiri Deobandi school of Islam, which sees Shi'ites as infidels.
Lashkar has intensified its campaign in Quetta this year. Earlier this month, it claimed responsibility for an attack in which a suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying women students in Quetta and then gunmen stormed a hospital treating survivors. More than 20 people were killed from various ethnic groups.
Lashkar said it had carried out the hospital assault in retaliation for a police raid on the outskirts of the city in which several militants had been killed.
The bus-and-hospital attack was the biggest since bombings in the city at the start of the year killed almost 200 people in Hazara neighborhoods, briefly drawing global attention to the growing campaign of persecution of Hazaras by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
ROADSIDE BOMB
In a separate blast earlier on Sunday, 14 people were killed in the northwestern city of Peshawar when a roadside bomb attack narrowly missed a passing convoy of security forces but ravaged a busy market area, police said.
Two paramilitary personnel riding with the convoy were wounded but the brunt of the blast was borne by passers-by in the tense Badhber neighborhood of Peshawar, a frequent scene of attacks on the police and army by Pakistan's Taliban militants.
"The blast was so powerful that it destroyed 10 shops and eight vehicles," said Mir Ajab Khan, the head of a police station in Badhber.
All the dead were civilians apart from a policeman. Four children and a woman were among those killed. Health officials said 25 people were wounded.
"Some of the wounded were brought in critical condition and have been shifted to an intensive care unit of the hospital," said Mohammad Iqbal Afridi, medical superintendent of the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.
A senior official with the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) said two of its men had been wounded.
"All the FC men remained unhurt in the attack except two who suffered injuries and were admitted to the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar," the official said.
A spate of attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks has underlined the challenge militancy poses to the new government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who won a landslide victory in May 11 general elections.
Before the election, Sharif said he would be willing to negotiate an end to years of fighting with the Taliban in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan. But the group withdrew an offer of talks after a May 28 U.S. drone strike killed deputy leader Wali-ur-Rehman.
The group has since vowed to "teach a lesson" to Pakistan and the United States for the killing. It believes the Pakistani government cooperates with Washington on drone attacks.
Known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban have carried out many attacks against the Pakistani military and civilians. It is a separate entity to the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban is closely aligned with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
(Reporting by Jibran Ahmed; Writing by Matthew Green; Editing by Andrew Roche)
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The ballpark at Harbor YardImage: Flickr/paulhadsall
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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BRIDGEPORT, Conn. ? Tiffany Mellers jogs behind her two daughters as they pedal their bikes along a ribbon of packed sand along Long Island Sound. ?They are good girls,? Mellers said. ?They deserve a healthy life.?
Behind them, a 500-foot tall candy-stripe smokestack, a fixture of Bridgeport?s waterfront for nearly five decades, rises in the distance. A third generation of residents is now growing up in its shadow.
But today this old giant is merely a vestige of the region?s coal-fired past. New England is virtually coal-free.
For some, the red-and-white stack of Harbor Station conjures memories of a prosperous industrial past. But for Mellers, it?s a reminder that this largely poor and minority city has borne a heavier pollution burden over the past half-century than its wealthier neighbors. Nearly 40 percent of children in Bridgeport grow up in poverty, more than three times the rate in the rest of Fairfield County. And 14 percent ? substantially higher than the national average ? have asthma, including Mellers? two daughters.
Today, Harbor Station looks lifeless as Tiffany and her daughters play on the beach. Like most of New England?s coal plants, it now runs infrequently. Last year, it operated at only 4 percent of its capacity, down from about 86 percent in 2008.
Jeff Kohut, a lifelong Bridgeport resident, said the last time he can remember smoke spewing from the plant was two years ago, during a waterfront baseball game.
??Going back to the 1960s and early 1970s, Bridgeport was quite prosperous in an industrial sense. There were more factories and smoke-belching power plants,? Kohut said. ?Even back then it was considered sort of the dirty ragamuffin step child of Fairfield County, so the negative environmental image goes quite a way back.?
A changing fuel mix Last week President Obama launched a major drive to limit carbon pollution from power plants in a bid to stem climate change. At the program's core: A directive to develop federal carbon emissions rules for new and existing power plants.
New England, in some ways, is ahead of the curve. Many aging New England coal plants, which emit large quantities of soot and mercury as well as planet-warming greenhouse gases, have retired in the past decade or converted to natural gas. Of the six still connected to the region?s electric grid, two are in the process of closing.
Stringent environmental regulations and a steep drop in the cost of natural gas in recent years caused this dramatic change in the region?s energy profile.
The change comes with tradeoffs. Tax rolls will take a hit in some communities, while an increased reliance on natural gas has some experts raising questions about the role this alternative fossil fuel, which comes with its own set of environmental issues, should play in the transition from coal.
?Natural gas is killing coal plants, but more natural gas infrastructure may be adverse to health and climate in the long run. That?s the paradox,? said N. Jonathan Peres, an attorney for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation.
In 2000, coal accounted for roughly 18 percent of the region?s electricity generation while natural gas accounted for about 15 percent. In 2012, just 3 percent of New England?s electricity was generated by coal, while 52 percent came from natural gas. Another 13 percent was from renewable fuels, such as hydroelectric and solar power.
The New England trend mimics a nationwide one. In 2003, coal provided 51 percent of all electricity in the United States, compared with 37 percent last year.
?A collapse in gas prices and minimal load growth in the region have done a lot to displace what coal there was,? said David Schlissel, a regulatory attorney and electric utility rate consultant in Massachusetts.
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