Cameron reaches deepest spot
Cameron reaches deepest spot
HONOLULU (AP) — Hollywood icon James Cameron has made it to Earth’s deepest point.
The director of “Titanic,” “Avatar” and other films used a specially designed submarine to dive nearly seven miles, completing his journey a little before 8 a.m. Monday local time, according to Stephanie Montgomery of the National Geographic Society.
He plans to spend about six hours exploring and filming the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of Guam.
“All systems OK,” were Cameron’s first words upon reaching the bottom, according to a statement. His arrival at a depth of 35,756 feet came early Sunday evening on the U.S. East Coast, after a descent that took more than two hours.
The scale of the trench is hard to grasp — it’s 120 times larger than the Grand Canyon and more than a mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall.
Cameron made the dive aboard his 12-ton, lime-green sub called “Deepsea Challenger.” He planned to collect samples for biologists and geologists to study.
“It’s really the first time that human eyes have had an opportunity to gaze upon what is a very alien landscape,” said Terry Garcia, the National Geographic Society’s executive VP for mission programs, via phone from Pitlochry, Scotland.
Highway bill a
headache for GOP
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill that Republican leaders were promoting as the centerpiece of their job-creation agenda has instead turned into one of their biggest headaches, thanks largely to tea party conservatives who want to get the federal government out of transportation programs and hand them over to the states.
The House and Senate are heading toward a showdown next week that could result in a cutoff of federal highway and transit aid to states just as the spring construction season starts.
The government’s authority to spend money from the trust fund that pays for transportation programs, as well as its power to levy the federal gasoline and diesel taxes that feed the fund, expire on March 31.
Democrats estimate as many as 1.8 million jobs supported by those programs are at risk.
Neither side wants a shutdown, but House Speaker John Boehner has been unable to recruit enough Republicans to pass the GOP’s overhaul of federal highway programs.
The biggest group of holdouts are conservatives who want highway programs to be paid for entirely by federal gas and diesel taxes even though that might mean a nearly 40 percent cut in spending because revenue from those taxes has declined.
Doctors doubt Cheney favoritism
CHICAGO (AP) — Doctors say it is unlikely that former Vice President Dick Cheney got special treatment when he was given a new heart that thousands of younger people also were in line to receive.
After spending nearly two years on a waiting list, Cheney received a transplant Saturday.
The 71-year-old underwent surgery at the same Virginia hospital where doctors implanted a small heart pump that has kept him alive the past few years.
Cheney was recovering Sunday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. He had severe congestive heart failure and had suffered five heart attacks over the past 25 years.
Dr. Allen Taylor, cardiology chief at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, said Sunday that the heart transplant waitlist is “a very regimented and fair process, and heavily policed.”