NORTHWEST

FEDS SHUT DOWN DRUG-SMUGGLING TUNNEL UNDER U.S.-CANADIAN BORDER

LYNDEN, Wash. – Federal agents have shut down an elaborate, 360-foot drug smuggling tunnel dug underneath the American-Canadian border – the first such passageway discovered along the nation’s northern edge, officials said yesterday.

Five people were arrested on marijuana trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney John McKay said in this border town about 90 miles north of Seattle.

The tunnel ran from a Quonset hut on the Canadian side and ended under the living room of a home on the American side, 300 feet from the border. Built with lumber, concrete and metal reinforcing bars, it was equipped with lights and ventilation, and ran underneath a highway.

The passageway was 3 1/2 to 4 feet high and wide, and ran anywhere from 3 to 10 feet below ground, authorities said.

“They were smart enough to build a sophisticated tunnel. They weren’t smart enough to not get caught,” Mr. McKay said. He said authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for six months and sealed it shortly after it opened Wednesday.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

LAWMAKERS AGREE TO EXTEND DAYLIGHT SAVING BY FOUR WEEKS

House and Senate negotiators agreed yesterday to extend daylight-saving time by four weeks as part of a sweeping energy bill. The provision is designed to save energy, but Rep. Edward Markey, a Democrat of Massachusetts, one of the sponsors, said, “The beauty of daylight-savings time is that it just makes everyone feel sunnier.”

Under the measure, clocks would be turned forward an hour on the second Sunday of March and turned back the first Sunday of November. Currently, daylight-saving time runs from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. The extension would become effective one year after the enactment of the energy bill.

The extension was approved as congressional negotiators worked on an overhaul of American energy policy that is a priority of President Bush’s and seeks to address the public’s concerns about high energy prices.

But before the extension of daylight-saving time can become law, negotiators must deal with other issues that doomed energy legislation two years ago – most notably a dispute over whether to give legal protections to producers of a gasoline additive, methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, that has been blamed for fouling water supplies across the country.

House Republicans are exploring creating an industry-funded cleanup program. But Democratic lawmakers complained yesterday that they feared the fund would fall far short of the estimated $25 billion or more needed for cleanup of contaminated sites nationwide, thus forcing taxpayers to cover the bulk of the costs.

– Los Angeles Times

SOUTHEAST

CDC: LEVELS OF CHEMICALS IN AMERICANS’ BODIES ARE DROPPING

ATLANTA – Americans have lower levels of lead, secondhand-smoke byproducts, and other potentially dangerous substances in their bodies than they did a decade ago, according to perhaps the most extensive government study ever of exposure to environmental chemicals.

“These data help relieve worry and concern,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said yesterday.

The CDC released its first National Report on Exposure to Environmental Chemicals in 2001 and has updated it every two years. For its latest findings, the CDC took blood and urine samples from about 2,400 people in 2001 and 2002, and tested for 148 environmental chemicals, including metals, pesticides, insect repellants, and disinfectants. The CDC stressed that the presence of an environmental chemical in blood or urine “does not mean that the chemical causes disease.”

In the early 1990s, 4.4% of American children ages 1 to 5 had elevated lead levels. That dropped to 1.6% between 1999 and 2002, according to the latest study.

“This is an astonishing public health achievement” that is related to the removal of lead from gasoline and other efforts to screen and treat children for lead exposure, Ms. Gerberding said.

– Associated Press