Cousin Sam: In the news, Tuesday, May 7, 2013

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from KREM 2 News

3 women missing for a decade found at Ohio home

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from Money Talks News

Ask Stacy: Do Unpaid Bills Ever Expire?
A reader recently received a bill in the mail from 2006. Does she have to pay?

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from Nature News and Comment

Most Europeans share recent ancestors
Whether they are a Serb and a Swiss, or a Finn and a Frenchman, any two Europeans are likely to have many common ancestors who lived around 1,000 years ago. A genomic survey of 2,257 people from 40 populations finds that people of European ancestry are more closely related to one another than previously thought, and could help to bring about new insights into European history.

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from NPR

Cry For Help Led To Freedom For Missing Women In Cleveland

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from The Spokesman-Review

Frantic 911 call leads to 3 missing women in Ohio

Critter cams provide peek into the lives of bears

Otter woos gun makers to set up shop in Idaho
Governor sends personal invitation to 79 firearms, ammunition businesses

Is this Mercury a star?
Though in a state of disrepair, one vintage car could be tied to legendary customizers

Abortion protest prompts complaints at Bloomsday

Adult bacteria may help babies
Reduced allergies linked to parents sucking on pacifier

Dinosaur skeleton headed back home

Database tracks migrant fatalities
Hundreds die yearly in Sonora Desert

Online sales tax bill passes Senate
Measure may face opposition in House

Cicadas to swarm the East
Brood has been underground since ’96 and is ready to mate

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In brief: From Wire Reports:

Five climbers killed by volcano eruption

MANILA, Philippines – One of the Philippines’ most active volcanoes spewed huge rocks and ash after daybreak today, killing at least five climbers and trapping more than a dozen others near the crater in its first eruption in three years, officials said.

Rescue teams and helicopters were sent to Mayon volcano in the central Philippines to bring out the dead. At least seven were injured from a group of about 20 mountaineers who were caught by surprise by the sudden eruption, Albay provincial Gov. Joey Salceda said. Clouds have cleared over the volcano, which was quiet later in the morning.

The climbers who died were struck by huge rocks, guide Kenneth Jesalva told ABS-CBN TV network by cellphone from a camp near the crater. They included a German, an Austrian and a Filipino.

The injured included foreigners and Filipino guides.

The head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Renato Solidum, said today’s eruption was normal for the restive Mayon, about 212 miles southeast of Manila. It has erupted about 40 times during the last 400 years.

Agency wants PG&E to pay $2.25 billion

SAN FRANCISCO – California regulators recommended Monday that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. pay a record $2.25 billion fine for decades of negligence that led to a deadly gas pipeline explosion that leveled a San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood.

The penalty would be the largest ever imposed on a utility company by a state regulator, officials said.

The California Public Utilities Commission’s investigators said the fine was an appropriate remedy for dozens of safety violations extending back several decades, and said the company’s shareholders should shoulder the cost, not the utility’s customers.

“This is going to send a very strong deterrent message to PG&E that this kind of conduct and culture will not be tolerated,” said Brig. Gen. Jack Hagan, director of the commission’s Safety and Enforcement Division.

The 2010 pipeline rupture in San Bruno sparked a gas-fueled fireball that killed eight people, injured dozens more and consumed 38 homes in the quiet bedroom community.

PG&E will file its proposal later this month, and a judge from the utilities commission is expected to make a final decision about how much to fine the company later this year.

Ammonium nitrate blamed for blast

AUSTIN, Texas – A store of ammonium nitrate is what exploded April 17 at a Central Texas plant, killing 14 people, injuring hundreds and devastating an adjoining town.

The finding was expected, and officials had said they were focusing their investigation on the explosive chemical used in many fertilizers, said Rachel Moreno, spokeswoman for the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office. A spot where the ammonium nitrate was stored is now a 90-foot-wide crater, Moreno said Monday.

However, the ignition source for the explosive chemical remained undetermined Monday. Findings on the cause of the blast on the outskirts of the small town of West initially had been expected Friday.

However, the investigation will take one to two extra weeks to complete, with dozens of investigators combing through plant wreckage and the adjoining wrecked neighborhood, Moreno said.

Taliban take credit for rally explosion

PARACHINAR, Pakistan – A bomb blast tore through a political rally held by an Islamist party in northwest Pakistan on Monday, in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban that killed 16 people and underscored an increase in violence ahead of the Saturday vote.

The explosion, at a rally held in the village of Sewak in the northwest Kurram tribal area, was the latest attack on candidates, political offices and election-related events as the vote approaches.

Much of the violence is believed to have been carried out by the Taliban against three liberal and secular parties. But Monday’s blast targeted a gathering of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, which generally has a more favorable relationship with the militant group.

The bomb, which was apparently planted near the main stage of the rally, killed 16 and left 44 wounded, said Umar Khan, a doctor at the nearby Sada hospital where many of the wounded were initially taken.

Two party leaders who were speaking at the event escaped unharmed.

Wal-Mart Stores tops Fortune 500 again

NEW YORK – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is once again leading Fortune magazine’s list of the 500 biggest U.S. companies by revenue, as the world’s biggest retailer succeeded in posting strong growth despite a challenging economy for its shoppers.

The Bentonville, Ark., company posted revenue of $469.2 billion for 2012.

ExxonMobil is back at No. 2, but energy companies continue to dominate the list with Chevron, Valero Energy and ConocoPhillips’ spinoff Phillips 66 all in the top 10.

General Motors and Ford Motor Co. both slipped in the annual ranking but remain near the top, near General Electric and Warren Buffett’s industrial conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway.

Apple has jumped 11 spots to crack the top 10 for the first time, landing at No. 6, while Facebook debuted at No. 482.

FDA proposes warning for indoor tanning

WASHINGTON – Indoor tanning beds would carry new warnings about the risk of cancer and be subject to additional regulations, under a proposal unveiled by the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA wants all tanning beds to carry language warning people under the age of 18 about the risks of indoor tanning. The agency would also require manufacturers to submit their beds for federal review before marketing them.

The action is aimed at curbing cases of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, which have been rising for 30 years.

The risk of melanoma is 75 percent greater in people who have been exposed to ultraviolet radiation from indoor tanning.

Ex-finance chief floats dismantling eurozone

BERLIN – The left-wing opposition politician who was Germany’s finance minister when the euro was adopted says it’s time to think about abandoning the common currency in the wake of southern Europe’s enormous economic problems.

Oskar Lafontaine says on his website that struggling eurozone countries can’t devalue their currencies to help them cope with the economic crisis that has seen several slip into recession.

Large port to require cargo ships to plug in

LONG BEACH, Calif. – In less than a year, many of the diesel-powered cargo ships docking at California ports won’t just tie up; they’ll also plug in.

The Port of Long Beach, the second-busiest in the U.S., on Monday showed off electrical plug-ins at its wharves that comply with new state guidelines coming in 2014.

Those guidelines require ports at six major California ports from San Diego to Oakland to eventually require shippers to shut off their diesel and use electricity to run on-board systems for 80 percent of all their port visits, or face stiff fines.

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Assad chemical arms use ‘likely’
White House also backs Israeli strikes

Fate of bombing suspect’s body unresolved

Air Force sexual assault leader charged in battery of woman