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Show World&Nati on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 Page 12 Fed probe urged on cancer chemical in Marine water WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina congressman said Thursday that he wants an investigation into reports that levels of a cancer-causing chemical in tap water at a Marine Corps base were downplayed and then omitted from official documents. Democratic Rep. Brad Miller called for the probe by his House science subcommittee Thursday — a day after The Associated Press reported on new documents that indicate massive fuel leaks at Camp Lejeune and high concentrations of benzene found in a water well there in 1984. "I am just disbelieving of their failure to act. It may have been worse than a failure to act. They may have acted to minimize or prevent the risk from being disclosed," Miller told the Associated Press on Thursday. "It is hard to imagine they would let this go on. There was too much information that they had to have consciously disregarded." Benzene, a carcinogen, is a natural part of crude oil and gasoline. Drinking water containing high levels of it can cause vomiting, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions and death. Longterm exposure damages bone marrow, lowers the number of red blood cells, and can cause anemia and leukemia, according to the EPA. In 1984, an environmental contractor found benzene at 380 parts per billion at a well near a fuel farm. When a draft report was turned in, the level was changed to 38 parts per billion. The company's final report on the well, issued in 1994, did not mention the benzene. The Marine Corps had been warned nearly a decade earlier about the dangerously high levels of benzene, which was traced to massive leaks from fuel tanks at the base on the North Carolina coast. The benzene was discovered as part of a broader, ongoing probe into that contamination. Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich., the Chair Emeritus of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the Marines and their families "deserve to know exactly what was in the water." "I want to know whether there are still toxic chemicals contaminating the water at Camp Lejeune. If there are, what is the Navy's plan for dealing with them?" Dingell said. Health officials believe as many as 1 million people may have been exposed to tainted water at the base before the wells closed two decades ago. MARINE MASTER SGT. JERRY ENSMINGER, in a Feb. 16, 2009 photo, is at his home in Elizabethtown, NC. with some of his documentation related to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. Ensminger lost his 9-year-old daughter Janey, seen in photo at left, to leukemia and believes the government knowingly exposed military families to carcinogenic contaminates. AP photo Pennsylvania school uses webcams to spy on students at home PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia school district used the webcams in school-issued laptops to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a federal lawsuit. Lower Merion School District officials would not comment on the accusation, but angry students have already responded by putting tape on their laptop cameras and microphones. Sophomore Tom Halpern described students as "pretty disgusted," and noted that his class recently read "1984," the George Orwell classic that coined the term "Big Brother." "This is just bogus," said Halpern, 15, of Wynnewood, as he left Great Summer Jobs in California for the largest family-owned pest control company in the US. 100% commissions up-front. Gas & cell phones paid. Check out www.clarksummerjobs .com or call now 877-899-1205 m ■■ + • :• CLARK :• PEST CONTROL ■ ay. King Crossword — Answers Solution time: 21 mins. _i00 H I D L E 0 DAD 9E1m ©© ■ SEWER TEARS PVC L I E 0 kaolzI±No - 1- W101*W ■ I L01: 1 ,- e L03001 L02 AWE SHONE SHE TONA L LLYWOO ILL M I PE I I F EG DUES M 1 1 11 (51- r) Puzzle! AMSTERDAM (AP) — Yvo de Boer, the top U.N. climate change official, told The Associated Press Thursday that he was resigning after nearly four years, a period when governments struggled without success to agree on a new global warming deal. His departure takes effect July 1, five months before 193 nations are due to reconvene in Mexico for another attempt to reach a binding worldwide accord on controlling greenhouse gases. De Boer said from Bonn, Germany that he was announcing his departure now to allow U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to find a successor well before the Mexico conference. The media-savvy former Dutch civil servant and climate negotiator was widely credited with raising the profile of climate issues through his frequent press encounters and his backstage lobbying of world leaders. But his constant travel and frenetic diplomacy failed to bridge the suspicions and distrust between developing and industrial countries that barred the way to a final agreement at the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December. De Boer told the AP he believes talks "are on track," although it was uncertain that a full treaty could be finalized at the next high-level conference in November. The partial agreement reached in Copenhagen, brokered by President Barack Obama, "was very 0•-tk Crossword than police, enter into the home either electronically or physically without an invitation or a warrant," Walczak said. The school district could not immediately confirm whether it has the ability to activate the webcams remotely, a spokesman said. "We can categorically state that we are and have always been committed to protecting the privacy of our students," said the spokesman, Doug Young. The affluent district prides itself on its technology initiatives, which include giving Apple laptops to each of the approximately 2,300 students at its two high schools. "It is no accident that we arrived ahead of the curve; in Lower Merion, our responsibility is to lead," Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley wrote on the district Web site. McGinley did not immediately return messages left Thursday by The Associated Press. The Robbinses said they learned of the alleged webcam images when Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, told their son Blake that school officials thought he had engaged in improper behavior at home. The behavior was not specified in the suit. "(Matsko) cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor plaintiff's personal laptop issued by the school district," the suit states. The behavior was not specified in the suit, which did not make clear whether the family had seen any photographs captured by school officials. Matsko later confirmed to Michael Robbins that the school had the ability to activate the webcams remotely, according to the suit, which was filed Tuesday and which seeks class-action status. The Robbinses declined to speak with an Associated Press reporter at their home Thursday. Their lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman, did not return messages. The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the privacy of the home when it ruled in 2001 that police could not, without a warrant, use thermal imaging equipment outside a home to see if heat lamps were being used inside to grow marijuana. Ton UN climate official resigning before Mexico conference 9 MEI Elm0 Answers To Today's Harriton High School on Thursday with his taped-up computer. "I just think it's really despicable that they have the ability to just watch me all the time." The school district can activate the webcams without students' knowledge or permission, the suit said. Plaintiffs Michael and Holly Robbins suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations, according to the suit. Such actions would amount to potentially illegal electronic wiretapping, said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which is not involved in the case. "School officials cannot, any more DUO ERR cRESTWOODs significant," he said But he acknowledged frustration that the deal fell short of consensus and was merely "noted" rather than formally adopted by all countries. "We were about an inch away from a formal agreement. It was basically in our grasp, but it didn't happen," he said. "So that was a pity." He said the disappointing Copenhagen outcome was unrelated to his decision to quit, and that he had begun looking for a new job last year before the summit. But de Boer appeared to be more disheartened by the snail-paced negotiations than he was ready to admit. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHIEF Yvo de Boer addresses a press conference in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 4. De Boer defended the findings of an U.N. panel on climate change Thursday. AP photo Son of top drug suspect sent to US from Mexico MEXICO CITY (AP) — A man accused of being an influential, second-generation member of the Sinaloa drug cartel was extradited from Mexico to the United States on Thursday on charges he helped move tons of cocaine from Colombia to California, New York and Chicago. Vicente Zambada Niebla was turned over to U.S. authorities at the international bridge connecting Matamoros to Brownsville, Texas, Mexico's attorney general's office announced. Zambada's father, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, controls the cartel along with Mexico's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, according to law enforcement officials. The younger Zambada assumed major new powers in the Sinaloa cartel in 2008, with control over logistics and the authority to order assassinations, authorities say. Zambada Niebla was arrested last year at a home in an elite Mexico City neighborhood. The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced Thursday afternoon that ZambadaNiebla had arrived in Chicago and was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo. Zambada-Niebla, 34, is one of three dozen defendants indicted in Chicago in August 2009 on what prosecutors described as the largest international narcotics conspiracy cases in Chicago's history. 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