Navy loses round in sonar dispute

The Navy must follow environmental laws placing strict limits on sonar training that opponents argue harms whales, despite President Bush's decision to exempt it, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The Navy is not "exempted from compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act" and a court injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in a 36-page decision.

"We disagree with the judge's decision," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "We believe the orders are legal and appropriate."

Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore said the military was studying the decision.

The president signed a waiver Jan. 15 exempting the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from a preliminary injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California. The Navy's attorneys argued in court last week that he was within his legal rights.

Environmentalists have fought the use of sonar in court, saying it harms whales and other marine mammals.

Sacramento, Calif.

Lost skiers followed TV survival lessons

Two skiers who disappeared near Lake Tahoe during a winter storm were rescued Monday morning after they burrowed into snow caves and huddled together for warmth, authorities said.

Patrick Frost, 35, and Christopher Gerwig, 32, both of San Francisco, were spotted by the crew of a Placer County Sheriff's Department helicopter about seven miles from the Alpine Meadows ski resort, just west of Lake Tahoe.

They were taken to Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital, where a spokeswoman said they had suffered "really minor, minor" frostbite to their toes.

"We really couldn't see more than 10, 15 feet in front of us," Frost told KTVU-TV as the two left the hospital Monday afternoon. "We never ever considered giving up. We were going to make it."

Frost and Gerwig told rescuers they unintentionally skied out of bounds and became lost during a storm Saturday.

The men thought they could walk to safety and followed a waterway toward a reservoir, sheriff's officials said.

"They just made snow caves and cuddled for warmth," sheriff's Lt. Jeff Ausnow said. "They said they kind of got their knowledge of building snow caves from the Discovery Channel."

Pasadena, Calif.

Beatles song has ticket to ride

NASA beamed a song directly into deep space for the first time ever Monday — and quite appropriately it will be the Beatles' "Across the Universe."

The transmission took place over the space agency's Deep Space Network and commemorated the 40th anniversary of the day the Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASA's founding.

The song is traveling across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles per second and is aimed at the North Star, Polaris, which is 431 light-years from Earth.

Sir Paul McCartney said he is excited that the tune, written primarily by fellow Beatle John Lennon, is being beamed into the cosmos. "Amazing! Well done, NASA!" McCartney said in a message to the space agency. "Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul."

Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, said, "I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe."

Washington

Blue-crab harvest second-lowest ever

Last year's harvest of blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland was the second-lowest on record, state officials said Monday, as environmental damage, drought and past overfishing drove down harvest of the state's most valuable seafood catch.

About 21.8 million pounds of blue crabs were caught by watermen during the April-to-December season, officials at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources said. That was 6 million pounds less than last year, and just above the all-time-low, 20.2 million pounds in 2000.

Natural-resources officials said that, in response, Maryland will soon begin seeking input from watermen, scientists and other experts about altering the rules that govern crab harvests.

Pittsburgh

Floor's collapse tied to design, materials

A design flaw and the use of the wrong type of steel caused a section of concrete floor to collapse at the city's convention center last year, according to a report released Monday.

A 30- by 60-foot slab of concrete gave way under the weight of a tractor-trailer in the loading area and fell to a walkway about 30 feet below at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on Feb. 5. No one was injured, but the center remained closed for more than a month.

An engineering firm hired to investigate the collapse, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, said a slotted bolt connection used to attach a support beam to an expansion joint was inappropriate given the friction that would develop with temperature changes.

Jackson, Miss.

Obesity bill offered, but no one's biting

A state lawmaker wants to ban restaurants from serving food to obese customers — but please, don't be offended.

He says he never even expected his plan to become law.

"I was trying to shed a little light on the number one problem in Mississippi," said Republican Rep. John Read of Gautier, who acknowledges that at 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds, he'd probably have a tough time under his own bill.

More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi are considered obese, according to a 2007 study by the Trust for America's Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention.

The state House Public Health Committee chairman, Democrat Steve Holland, of Plantersville, said he is going to "shred" the bill.

"It is too oppressive for government to require a restaurant owner to police another human being from their own indiscretions," Holland said.

The bill had no specifics about how obesity would be defined, or how restaurants were supposed to determine if a customer was obese.

Chicago

Woman suspected of duping colleges

A woman suspected of stealing other people's identities and duping some of the country's top universities into admitting her and giving her student loans has been arrested in a Chicago suburb, federal investigators say.

Esther Elizabeth Reed, 29, was arrested on a federal warrant Saturday in Tinley Park, said Malcolm Wiley, spokesman for the Secret Service.

Reed used sophisticated scams to steal identities she used to gain entrance to California State University at Fullerton, Harvard and Columbia University, where she studied criminology and psychology, investigators said.

Reed also used the stolen identities to obtain more than $100,000 in student loans, according to the Secret Service.

Seattle Times news services