9/11 firefighters lost lung capacity

Firefighters who inhaled toxic dust after the collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers in 2001 suffered a sudden loss of lung capacity 12 times the normal rate that occurs each year as people age, according to a study of 12,000 firefighters released Tuesday.

Respiratory tests taken a year after the attacks showed the average firefighter exhaled about 23 cubic inches less air in one second than before the Sept. 11 attacks, a 9 percent decrease, the study found.

Dr. Gisela Banauch, lead author of the study and a pulmonary critical-care specialist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, said the decreased lung capacity does not put the firefighters at an immediate risk for death. But it does increase their risk for eventually developing conditions that could narrow the airways, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Dust from the World Trade Center buildings contained pulverized concrete and glass, asbestos, hydrocarbons and other hazardous chemicals.

New York

Heat wave settles over eastern U.S.

A wave of hot weather blamed for as many as 164 deaths in California settled over the eastern half of the nation Tuesday, bringing temperatures over 100 degrees to cities from Chicago to New York.

People on Chicago's South Side were evacuated from buildings by the hundreds, one day after the power went out for 20,000 customers.

With a disastrous 10-day power outage in Queens still fresh in memory, New York City adopted energy-conservation measures. Thermostats in city offices were set at 78, up from the usual 72, and lights were turned down at landmarks such as the Empire State Building. And in Ohio, farmers used fans and cold showers to try to keep their cattle cool.

3rd day of heavy rain brings floods

A third day of heavy rain caused widespread flooding around El Paso on Tuesday, swamping mountainside homes, forcing evacuations and closing major roads.

Emergency crews juggled an onslaught of distress calls, but there were no immediate reports of serious injuries. Authorities said at least 60 people had been rescued, some standing on roofs, others atop cars.

The parched region had less than an inch of rain in the first six months of the year. But it may have gotten as much as 6 inches since Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

ACLU accuses mayor of profiling

The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday accused the city's black mayor of racial profiling in a crusade to stem crime in Mississippi's capital.

The accusations against Mayor Frank Melton are based on complaints from people who say they were pulled over by police on the basis of their race and searched without probable cause, the ACLU's national racial-profiling coordinator, King Downing, said at a news conference. Downing said the mayor's race should make him "more sensitive to the problems this is creating."

Melton said Tuesday that he wasn't interested in the ACLU's complaints against him or the police, and denied he had violated anyone's civil rights.

"We have 26 people that have been killed in Jackson this year. We have 300,000 people killed across America each year. The majority of them are African American and it's time to do something different," Melton said. "I want to know what the ACLU wants to do besides criticize."

Melton took office last July; he won 88 percent of the vote on a tough-on-crime platform.

Also

Video-game deaths: A jury in St. Augustine, Fla., recommended the death penalty for two men convicted in the August 2004 beating deaths of six people in a dispute over an Xbox video-game system. A third defendant was sentenced to life in prison.

Tropical storm: The third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Chris, had maximum sustained winds of nearly 60 mph Tuesday. Long-range forecasts put the storm anywhere from south of Cuba to Florida by late in the weekend.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times