Brian_Kerhin's Blog

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I have a question about a recent Associated Press article saying that the United Nations, based on fertility trends, now projects that the world's population will hit 7 billion in 2012. How are these fertility rates calculated?

Kirsten Moseng
Bottineau, N.D.
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The U.N. Population Division uses current national fertility rates as determined by individual governments or, when necessary, calculates national rates itself by drawing on registration records that note each birth and the mother's age, and producing a total average number of births through all childbearing years. In countries with no reliable registration records, it estimates fertility rates based on data from censuses that ask questions about numbers of births, or on national health agency surveys that ask similar questions.

As for projecting future fertility rates, the division uses a historical template, past patterns of fertility declining from, say, five children per woman to three and then two as countries develop. Those trend lines are applied to forecast future fertility declines in developing countries with high fertility rates today.

Charles J. Hanley
AP Special Correspondent, International Desk
New York City

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Are killer bees vulnerable to colony collapse disorder? Why or why not?

Kathleen R. Knese
Columbus, Ohio
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One of the problems with colony collapse disorder is that scientists still don't have a good handle on what it is, what causes it and how it differs from other bee problems. Given that, there's a general sense that killer bees - Africanized honeybees - are experiencing the collapse disorder less, says University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum.

Why? If scientists knew that answer, they'd be much closer to solving the collapse disorder mystery. One possibility - more an idea than anything that's been tested - has to do with size, Berenbaum says. Killer bees are slightly smaller than the commercial, more-common Italian bees. And some people - especially in the organic beekeeping community - suggest that smaller bees are less vulnerable to mites, which transmit all sorts of nasty bee diseases.

Killer bees have established strongholds in all of Arizona, most of Texas, and parts of Nevada and New Mexico with sporadic sightings in Oklahoma and Arkansas, according to the National Agricultural Pest Information System.

Seth Borenstein
AP Science Writer
Washington, D.C.

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Please explain the earned income tax credit. And how can I find out if I qualify?

Donna Dalzell
Lexington, Ky.
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The earned income tax credit, or EITC, is a refundable credit for people who work but don't earn a big salary. A "refundable credit" means that it counts toward a refund, unlike many deductions.

To qualify for EITC, a taxpayer must meet certain income requirements. In general, a credit is available for a single person who earned less than $33,995 in 2008 and has one child. There is a sliding scale, so a single person with more than one child, or a married couple who file a joint return may still qualify for a credit if they earned more. Married people who file separate returns may not claim the EITC.

Taxpayers with no children can qualify if they earned less than $12,880. The EITC is phased out for people who earn more than $41,646, and is not available for anyone with investment income over $2,950.

The Internal Revenue Service Web site has an easy-to-use calculator to help you find out if you qualify for the EITC. Go to www.irs.gov and click on the "Individuals" tab, where you will find a link to the calculator. To claim the EITC, fill out Schedule EIC with your 1040 or 1040A form.

Eileen AJ Connelly
AP Personal Finance Writer
New York City

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By The Associated Press

Countless shelves of peanut butter have been cleaned out during the recall - one of the largest in U.S. history - forced by a salmonella outbreak. But couldn't the peanut products have been irradiated instead - and all that food been saved?

A possible alternative to simply tossing out peanut products inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions

In the last presidential election, how many cases of voter fraud were detected involving ACORN? In which states? How many people were prosecuted?

Perry Penton
Marietta, Ga.
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During the 2008 presidential election, law enforcement agencies in about a dozen states including Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin investigated fake voter registration cards submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN. No criminal charges were filed against the nonprofit organization, which collected 1.3 million registrations in a nationwide get-out-the-vote effort.

The agency said the bogus cards represented less than 1 percent of those collected. The problem forms - some bearing names such as "Mickey Mouse" and "Donald Duck" - were completed by lazy workers trying to get out of canvassing neighborhoods, ACORN officials said. Since the 2004 presidential election, ex-employees have been convicted of submitting false registrations in states including Florida and Missouri.

Deborah Hastings
Associated Press National Writer
New York

Regarding the salmonella problem with peanuts, what would be wrong with using irradiation to make the products edible once again?

Richard L. Hunt
West Linn, Ore.
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Irradiation can be used to kill food-poisoning germs in a variety of foods, from ground beef to fresh spinach and lettuce. But particularly high-fat foods - like peanuts and peanut butter - are very difficult to irradiate. The fat becomes oxidized, acquiring something of a metallic taste and even going rancid.

Food safety experts say the best protection is proper manufacturing hygiene. Peanuts are roasted at relatively high temperatures, enough to kill a certain amount of salmonella. (It takes a higher temperature to kill salmonella in a dry food like a peanut than in a moist food like meat.) But care must be taken to protect against post-roasting contamination. And if peanuts get wet, salmonella can grow into concentrations harder for roasting to kill. Both of the nation's salmonella outbreaks from peanut butter involved, among other problems, factories with leaky roofs.

Lauran Neergaard
Associated Press Medical Writer
Washington, D.C.

I recall reading sometime around 2001 about a long-distance swimmer and scuba diver, Fred Baldasare, I believe, who was going to attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida totally underwater, without surfacing. Was his attempt successful?

Chad Steenerson
Terre Haute, Ind.
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"Human Submarine" Fred Baldasare says although it has been a lifelong dream of his to swim underwater from Havana to Miami Beach, he says an attempt would be too expensive and he's getting too old.

"I don't intend to try it any more," Baldasare, 84, said in a telephone interview from his home in Ocala, Fla.

"It is too difficult to raise the money," he said, adding he made multiple trips to Cuba several years ago to try to set up a 250-mile scuba swim and planned to use the Gulf Stream to push him along. "And I'm getting a bit too old."

"I never made a swim unless I was sure I could do it," he said.

As late as January 2008, Baldasare said that he still planned to set the record for the longest underwater swim with the Cuba swim.

The reason he started scuba swims: "I was a little bit crazy."

On July 11, 1962, Baldasare became the first person to swim the English Channel underwater, covering the 22 miles in 18 hours 1 minute.

Ron Word
Associated Press Writer
Jacksonville, Fla.

Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions

It's classic barroom debate fodder: Is it easier to hit a home run off a blazing fastball or off a pitch that's served up more gently?

Curiosity about the physics of the long ball inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions

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With so much concern paid to toys made in China that contain lead paint, how are we to know that dishes and cookware also made in China are free from lead? Is this dangerous for us?

Jane Rink
Terre Haute, Ind.
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Lead in cookware and dishware has been found in ceramics from China, Mexico and India. The lead comes from varnish or glaze that gives the product a shiny finish. If the temperatures used to "cure" or "seal" the varnish are high enough, the cookware will be safe and the metal will not leach into food or liquids.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it tests imported ceramicware to measure whether lead might leach into food. And the FDA has put out alerts warning about excessive lead in ceramicware from China, among other countries.

China has set safety standards on how much lead and other potential toxins are allowed in products. However, with large numbers of small, often loosely run operations in the country focused on cost-cutting and profits as they manufacture everything from ceramics to food, it's hard to police every step of the process.

The FDA is also involved, but as seen in recent problems with lead paint in toys and other tainted imports, American government agencies lack the manpower to inspect all shipments.

In the absence of firm controls either in China or the U.S., a consumer may be better off buying from large, reputable retailers, which usually do a better job making sure their suppliers observe quality and safety standards.

"More reputable stores would install a tighter quality control system to screen out defective products," said Chen Shih-Fen, a professor at the University of Western Ontario who specializes in outsourcing interactions between Western buyers and Chinese subcontractors.

In short, there is no sure way to guarantee that the products you are using are completely safe, unless you have them tested. Here are a few home test kits that have been reviewed by Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports:

Audra Ang
Associated Press Writer
Beijing

You're struggling to make ends meet, but each month you manage to scrape together your mortgage payment, if just barely. Are there any programs out there that might help you lower your payments to something a little more affordable?

That's one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions

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I just read your article about Canada withdrawing from Afghanistan. I was wondering: How many other countries have armed forces in Afghanistan?

Jonathan Bucko
Appleton, Wis.
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There are 40 nations with troops in Afghanistan - a number admirably large but also potentially misleading.

There are roughly 65,000 international forces here, but half of those - some 33,000 - are American. The British have 9,000, so the two allies account for two-thirds of all foreign troops.

Germany, France and Canada have roughly 3,000 each, and Italy has 2,300. So those six countries account for more than 80 percent of the force.

And all of those percentages will soon grow; President Barack Obama just this week approved the deployment of 17,000 additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

On the other end of the scale, Austria and Georgia each has one soldier here. Ireland has seven and Iceland eight.

All soldiers face the danger of ambushes and roadside bombs, but only a handful of countries truly carry the fighting load. That list includes the U.S., Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, France and Australia, in roughly descending order.

The coalition is fragile. Canada and the Netherlands are expected to draw down forces in the next couple of years. The U.S. will miss that fighting power, but America is adding so many more troops that it could easily make up shortfalls.

The NATO-led mission posts more details about the its troops numbers at this Web site, though it does not include roughly 12,000 troops in the separate U.S.-led coalition:

Wrangling over a massive economic stimulus plan has dominated President Barack Obama's first few weeks in office, with lawmakers hurrying to approve a package aimed at creating millions of jobs.

Has anything similar been happening in statehouses far from Washington? Have individual state governments been pursuing stimulus packages of their own?

That's one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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Can a country decide that it wants to buy crude oil from a particular country - one that is not hostile to it? Since the U.S. is pumping millions of dollars into Iraq, it would seem that we could purchase from them and help grow their economy. Can that happen?

Gene Smith
Virginia Beach, Va.
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The U.S. buys the fossil fuel from numerous countries, including several that have less-than-peachy relationships with Washington, like Libya and Russia. (In the case of Libya, imports have grown recently as relations with the U.S. have improved.) The U.S. does not buy oil from Iran, however.

In practice, several mercantile exchanges - not to mention OPEC - are the real masters over crude trading and pricing across most of the world. Energy companies essentially sell a product over which they have no price control.

Iraq is part of OPEC, and as such has a say in the cartel's production guidelines. The U.S. has no control over how Iraq's OPEC representative votes, or which countries get to buy Iraq's oil.

The U.S. imports only a small fraction of Iraq's oil - in the case of last November, about 14.3 million barrels of the 52.8 million barrels Iraq produced.

Ernest Scheyder
AP Energy Writer
New York

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We are hearing a lot about the federal stimulus package. My question is: What are individual states doing to help their citizens? I am not talking about public assistance programs, but things like tax cuts, job creation, etc.

Jessie Sellers
Lebanon, Ore.
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A handful of states have initiated their own stimulus packages by accelerating government building projects and giving incentives to certain industries aimed at creating jobs.

In Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire asked last month for a $1.2 billion economic stimulus package that taps unemployment reserves to boost jobless benefits and gives displaced workers a stipend if they go back to school. And New Jersey approved Gov. Jon Corzine's proposal to give businesses a $3,000 grant for every new employee they hire and keep for at least a year.

But states are restricted in what they can accomplish. They can't print money. Forty-nine states have laws requiring their budgets to be balanced, so they can't borrow as freely as the federal government.

And dramatic improvements to a state's economy - much like the nation's - won't happen overnight. While North Carolina officials said speeding up $740 million in construction projects will generate at least 25,000 jobs, the hiring may take several months and help only a small percentage of the nearly 400,000 people are out of work in the state.

Other states face such large budget shortfalls they don't have the money for their own plans, or they're waiting for details of the federal stimulus package before framing their own proposals. In other cases, politics has intervened: A stimulus plan by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been stalled by a budget impasse with leaders of the state Legislature.

Gary D. Robertson
Associated Press Writer
Raleigh, N.C.

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In many of the very first news articles about the miracle crash landing in the Hudson River, the only major injury reported was two broken legs. I've never seen any follow-up on that passenger.

Why was this passenger so unlucky? Where was he or she sitting? Did it happen during the landing or the evacuation? Is there any lesson learned that would benefit the rest of us?

Milton Williamson
Denham Springs, La.
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An emergency medical services worker who responded to the scene of the river landing reported seeing a woman with two broken legs. That turned out to be incorrect. It was later determined that nobody aboard US Airways Flight 1549 was seriously hurt when the plane crash-landed in the Hudson - the worst injuries were minor cuts.

Joshua Freed
AP Airlines Writer
Minneapolis

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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

It seems simple enough: Infect mosquitoes with bacteria that shorten their life spans, keeping the bugs from reaching the age when they're most likely to spread dangerous diseases.

But wait - bacteria? Will that end up infecting people that get mosquito bites - and shorten their life spans too?

Concern about developments in mosquito research inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions

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What's happened to Obama's Senate office personnel in Illinois and Washington, now that he's president? What about the staffs of others in the administration who came from the Senate, like Hillary Clinton?

Ken Cooper
Lawrenceville, Ga.
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The federal payroll for President Obama's Senate staff, both in Washington and Illinois, ended the day he resigned from the Senate after his election. Some members of his Senate staff, such as legislative director Christopher Lu, are now working in the new administration. Lu is Obama's Cabinet secretary, serving as the president's liaison to the members of his Cabinet.

Other likely places of employment for former members of Obama's Senate staff, both in Washington and in Illinois, include the offices of Obama's replacement, Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., other Senate or House offices in Washington, and any number of Washington lobbying and government relations firms, trade associations or public relations agencies.

The same thing is true for staff members of other former senators, like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, who resigned their Senate seats to join the new administration. Their Senate staffs were out of jobs when Clinton and Biden left the Senate, but many no doubt ended up on the payroll of the new administration, or in other Senate or House offices.

David Pace
News editor for election projections, special projects and technology
AP Washington

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I am a layman to medical science, but am alarmed by the use of a bacterium to shorten the life span of mosquitoes, as part of an effort to stem the spread of dengue.

What is the impact on other living creatures (like mammals - including humans) should they be stung by the mosquitoes infected with the bacterium? Will the bacterium infect them and similarly shorten their life span?

It looks to me like we are potentially facing a problem worse than the current dengue epidemic.

Ge Chye
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You're already surrounded by creatures carrying this family of bacteria, called Wolbachia. It's one of the world's most common parasites but it only infects invertebrates, including up to 60 percent of insect species as well as spiders, mites, shrimp and parasitic worms. Wolbachia has never been found to directly infect humans, or any mammal.

The weird ways that different Wolbachia strains work - some kill male insects, others let females reproduce without males - have captivated scientists who are exploring how to harness the bacteria for good.

One attempt: Scientists infected the kind of mosquito that carries devastating dengue fever with a fruit-fly strain of Wolbachia that cuts the bugs' life span in half. That's important because old mosquitoes, not young ones, usually spread diseases like dengue or malaria.

They are doing lots more testing to be sure there's no problem with species-jumping - and to make certain this approach really would cut dengue's spread - before any such mosquitoes are released into the wild.

Lauran Neergaard
AP Medical Writer
Washington

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News stories often announce that a given number of viewers (say 200 million people) watched a specific televised event. How do they come up with those numbers and are they accurate?

Glen Rogers
Springfield, Ill.
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The numbers come from Nielsen Media Research, a company that attaches monitoring devices to TV sets in some 16,000 homes nationwide and asks families to record who is watching. From that information, the company estimates how many people are watching nationally, in much the same way that an opinion poll works from a scientific sample.

There are weaknesses: Nielsen doesn't regularly measure viewing in public places, missing people who are watching a game at a bar or following CNBC at work.

Nielsen estimates how many people are watching a show during an average minute, and also how many people tune in for at least part of a show. The first number is smaller, and is used as the industry standard.

Two hundred million? Only in a network executive's dream. TV's most popular show, "American Idol," averages fewer than 30 million viewers. The numbers could be much larger if you included viewers outside the U.S., but it's extremely difficult to calculate worldwide viewing estimates; different countries have different systems, and not all are considered reliable.

David Bauder
AP Television Writer
New York

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A baby's citizenship usually has something to do with the country where she's born, or the one where her parents are citizens. But what if she begins life on a trans-Atlantic flight, thousands of feet in the air?

That's one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions

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I live in a state that uses ice-melting salts on the roads during winter snows. When the roads dry, vehicles whip up clouds of this salt dust and it enters my car's heating system where I breathe it in. Are there any adverse health effects from breathing in this salt dust?

Dallin Katt
Burlington, Wis.
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There is very little research on the health effects of inhaling road salt.

Generally, road-salt dust would fall into a larger category of air pollution known as particulate matter. That includes dust stirred up by highway traffic and released into the air by industries such as rock quarrying and gravel mining.

If inhaled, these particles can irritate airways and aggravate asthma.

In 1999, the Colorado towns of Basalt, Aspen and Minturn asked the state's Transportation Department to stop spraying magnesium chloride deicer on roadways after about 10 residents complained of respiratory problems, including asthma. But a study by the health department found deicers actually generate less particulate matter than the other common melting agent, sand.

A fuller answer to the question depends on what type of salt is being used, and what other ingredients it includes.

Some road salts can include heavy metals. Others are mixed with chemicals to prevent corrosion and clumping. The health effects of these chemicals are difficult to determine, because it would depend on their concentration in the salt and how often they were inhaled. However, the levels found in road salt are unlikely to pose a significant health risk.

The primary health concern stemming from the use of road salt has been contamination of drinking water supplies, according to studies. Runoff from roadways and unlined storage piles can taint underground water supplies. If consumed, the salt-laden water can contribute to high blood pressure and pose a risk to those with the condition, much like eating too much table salt.

These risks, however, are likely outweighed by the risks of driving on slick roads.

Dina Cappiello
AP Environment Writer
Washington

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A lady on a Northwest Airlines flight gave birth to a baby over the Atlantic Ocean en route from the Netherlands to Boston. What is this baby's citizenship, and what birthplace will be listed on the birth certificate?

Ken Cooper
Lawrenceville, Ga.
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A seemingly simple question - with a complicated answer.

Baby girl Sasha was born Dec. 31 when Northwest Airlines Flight 59 was in Canadian airspace. Her mother, a woman in her 30s, is from Uganda.

Canada considers the child a Canadian citizen. Sam Bhoi Omara, who runs the consular section at the Uganda Embassy in Washington, said the infant is also eligible for Ugandan citizenship, provided that the mother is a Ugandan national and she files papers seeking a Ugandan passport on her behalf.

Uganda doesn't permit dual citizenship, so the child would automatically lose her citizenship in the African country if she acquires citizenship of another country.

It's not clear whether Sasha's family has decided to keep Canadian citizenship for the girl or intends to pursue Ugandan citizenship for her. (Omara said nobody has thus far applied for a Ugandan passport for Sasha or sought any services on her behalf from the mission.)

Dr. Paresh Thakkar, a retired family practice doctor who was returning from an annual trip to India and helped deliver the baby, says the child was born as the airplane flew over Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia.

A spokeswoman for Canada's Immigration Ministry confirmed that baby Sasha was born over Nova Scotia and directed further questions to provincial officials. She warned, however, that provincial officials were unlikely to give us details on the official city of birth because of privacy laws.

Officials in Nova Scotia didn't return calls seeking further information. Northwest also didn't respond to calls and e-mails, and U.S. customs officials referred questions to Canadian authorities.

Rodrique Ngowi
Associated Press Writer
Boston

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What is the correct way to pronounce "Carnegie," as in the philanthropist responsible for libraries and other institutions?

Sam Jensen
Portland, Ore.
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"Carnegie" has multiple acceptable pronunciations, depending on the specific use of the word.

The philanthropist Andrew Carnegie used his native Scottish pronunciation: kahr-NAY'-gee. Both the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where Carnegie grew up, say it that way, too.

However, New York's Carnegie Hall and Carnegie Deli use the pronunciation KAHR'-nuh-gee, as does the Carnegie Endowment in Washington.

Various spokespeople attribute the differences to regional variations - and even personal preferences.

Barbara Worth
Assistant Managing Editor/News Wires
AP Broadcast, Washington

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Amazingly, every passenger and crew member survived the splashdown of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. But the sight of that half-submerged Airbus A320 raised a worrisome question: Were any pets traveling in the cargo hold beneath the cabin?

That's one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions

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Have there been any whisperings or evidence to suggest that Russia is currently arming the insurgents who are attacking NATO troops, much as the U.S. supplied insurgents during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?

Lucas A. Gualtieri
Columbus, Ohio|
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In the 2½ years I've been reporting for The Associated Press from Afghanistan, I've never heard even a hint of rumor that Russia might be cooperating with Taliban militants.

Russia, in fact, would have little to gain from helping the Taliban. Russia worries a lot about Sunni radicalism in its own Muslim-dominated regions and has raised concerns that the Taliban were inspiring or even supporting those radicals.

Also, Russia in November allowed Spain and Germany to use Russian rail lines to ship supplies for the NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, however, still has many relics from the decade that the Soviet Union spent occupying it.

Children in Kabul play on burned-out Soviet tanks. Those same tank hulls litter main roads throughout northern Afghanistan. A few Afghans still speak Russian, and I've met with an Afghan air force general who trained in the Soviet Union to become a cosmonaut. (He never made it into space).

AK-47s, also known as Kalishnikov rifles, are a dime a dozen in Afghanistan - another relic of the Soviet invasion, though the Russians say the Afghan government is buying AKs made outside of Russia, since the Soviets licensed the design to other countries.

But even the ubiquitous AK is starting to be replaced in some quarters, as the United States provides M-16 and M-4 rifles to the Afghan army.

Jason Straziuso
AP Correspondent
Kabul, Afghanistan

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I almost hate to ask, but in the recent crash in the Hudson, were there any pets trapped in the undercarriage of the plane?

Bev Sawyer
Pawleys Island, S.C.
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Yet more good news on last week's splash landing in the Hudson River, just a few hundred yards from the Manhattan skyline:

"We have confirmed there were no pets on Flight 1549," US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant said.

Unlike some other airlines, US Airways doesn't transport pets in the cargo compartments of its aircraft, Durrant went on to explain. Dogs, cats and other pets would only have been allowed in the passenger cabin - and this particular flight had none aboard.

The airliner made an emergency landing in the water after both of its engines failed, for reasons still being investigated. All 155 people on board survived.

Harry R. Weber
AP Airlines Writer
Atlanta

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The earth's atmosphere has gone through many warming and cooling cycles and is currently believed by many to be warming. What evidence would indicate that a cooling cycle has begun?

Terry Hoffman
Kaneohe, Hawaii
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First, it would have to get cooler - for many years and worldwide.

The overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that the world is now warming for man-made reasons, due to greenhouse gases. That's based on decades of observations, measurements of heat reaching the surface and an understanding of the physics of the atmosphere.

Something similar and just as scientifically robust would be required to indicate that a cooling cycle has begun.

"It would take actual observations to say that we're cooling; it would take many decades of that," said Andrew Weaver, a climate expert at the University of Victoria in Canada.

Worldwide - and records need to be global - 2008 was tied for the eighth warmest year in records that go back to 1880, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. True, last year was a tad cooler than 2007 or the record-setting year of 2005, but it was close to a full degree warmer than the 100-year average.

In fact, eight of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the other two weren't much earlier - 1997 and 1998. You can see the top-10 rundown here:

It takes an enormous staff to maintain the White House. But do any of the mansion's butlers, chefs or handymen actually call the residence of presidents home?

That's one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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Now that prices for a barrel of oil and a gallon of gasoline have dropped so sharply, is there something the average consumer can do to "hedge" the price of fuel, the way the airlines do? Is there any sort of mechanism for this that's at a scale appropriate for individuals and families?

Douglas Olson
Laurel, Md.
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Airlines and other energy-intense industries use a complex system of financial instruments to protect themselves against rising fuel costs by locking in prices as early as possible. Their hedging methods have been described as everything from gambling to buying insurance.

Because even a price change as small as a penny could cost millions when buying enormous amounts of fuel, the complexity of hedging is worth it for large companies. But for individual consumers it doesn't make much sense to constantly troll through trading data.

The average American could, in theory, buy a year's supply of gasoline at current prices and stockpile it. Though local planning boards, not to mention the FBI, might frown on having a storage tank next to your kids' swing set.

There are other options, though. Through an exchange traded fund, or ETF, retail investors can pool resources to buy crude oil and reap the benefits - or suffer the repercussions - when prices change.

Many ETFs, such as the U.S. Oil Fund, tend to mirror the price of crude, and could in theory be sold for a profit if prices flirt with $150 per barrel again. That way investors can offset price jumps at the pump.

"When you know you have these expenses, you can use the ETF to hedge them out," said Paul Justice, an ETF strategist at Morningstar. "You just have to anticipate how much you are going to spend."

Buying a five-year ETF might seem like a good move right now, but like any investment it's a risk because no one knows where crude prices could go in the future, he said. Justice cautions that oil-related ETFs can be a "risky proposition" and should only be used by those confident enough to ride the market.

Ernest Scheyder
AP Energy Writer
New York

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Does anyone live in the White House other than the president and his family? Members of the White House staff, for example?

Felix Jimenez
Los Angeles
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President George W. Bush and his family are the only residents of the White House, according to first lady Laura Bush's spokeswoman. The next inhabitants are expected to follow that tradition. President-elect Barack Obama's mother-in-law will also be living at the White House with Michelle Obama and the two children, at least temporarily.

But that's not to say the two-century-old compound is ever empty or dark. Military aides assigned to the president work in shifts; the family quarters have butlers and valets available at all hours. And it's not uncommon to find White House political aides at their desks late into the evening or very early in the morning.

The White House encompasses a small army of workers, from the four florists and five chefs to the four calligraphers and four curators. The payroll also includes 33 handymen who tend to the six-level, 132-room mansion and its 31 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, three kitchens, three elevators, movie theater and bowling alley. And they're available 24 hours a day.

The White House compound also features sleeping quarters across Pennsylvania Avenue at Blair House, the official government guest house. Other visitors sometimes stay in the private residence of the White House itself. But only the president's family calls 1600 Pennsylvania home.

Philip Elliott
Associated Press Writer
Washington

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We recently returned from a vacation in Mexico. On Jan. 3-4, we spent 15 hours to cross the border into the U.S. at the Columbia Bridge outside Laredo, Texas. This leads me to suspect that the highest volume of border crossing into Mexico probably happens the weekend before Christmas, and the highest volume into the U.S. happens the weekend after New Year's.

When does the highest volume of crossings across the U.S.-Mexico border occur, so we can avoid those days in the future?

Richard Capestani
Texas City, Texas
---

The busiest traffic days crossing the Colombia-Solidarity Bridge in Laredo come around the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Heading south into Mexico traffic peaked on Dec. 20, the Saturday before Christmas, when it was five times higher than any other day in 2008, according to the City of Laredo Bridge System. The next busiest days were Dec. 19 and Dec. 21. Returning north into the United States, the heaviest traffic came the day after New Year's and the day after Christmas, followed by Jan. 3, Jan. 4 and Dec. 27, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Not surprisingly, other heavy traffic days on the bridge track other holidays, especially Holy Week, leading up to Easter.

Similar holiday traffic snarls are common at crossings all along the U.S.-Mexico border. Last Memorial Day, border traffic kept an AP reporter in El Paso from getting to work; she called in "stuck in Mexico."

Christopher Sherman
Associated Press Writer
Harlingen, Texas

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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

More than 100 ships - including huge supertankers - have come under siege from pirates over the past year in the waters off East Africa. Since the problem doesn't seem to be going away, why don't the ships recruit mercenaries to defend their property?

That's one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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During the years when it existed, I visited the Berlin Wall three times. Each time, after climbing the observation platform, our guide called our attention to the wide band of bare ground on the East Berlin side. Each guide said that land was heavily mined as a deterrent to would-be escapees.

When it was clear that the Berlin Wall was about to come down, I expected to hear about the hasty removal of the mines, but I don't recall hearing about this.

Is it possible this was well covered by the media but I wasn't listening? Were the mines removed under cover of darkness without being reported? Or was the existence of a mine field was just a rumor that turned out to be untrue?

Ben Feld
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There were really two borders between East and West Germany: the 856-mile strip between the two countries that stretched from the Baltic Sea to the border with Czechoslovakia, and the 96-mile line that surrounded West Berlin - an enclave inside the communist east.

The highly fortified main border between the two countries was widely mined and booby-trapped, but the Berlin border was not.

Defenses at the Berlin Wall centered on guard towers within sight of one another, searchlights and regular patrols. The so-called "death strip" on the East German side of the wall had barbed wire and alarm wires - which initially activated lights and a siren when tripped by a would-be escapee, but were in the 1980s changed to simply trigger a silent alarm in the nearby guard towers.

Gerhard Saelter, the Berlin Wall Foundation's main researcher, says there was no known discussion among East German officials of mining the Berlin death strip, and that while many people believed it was mined, he has not been able to pinpoint the source of the misinformation.

After the fall of the Wall in 1989, no mines were found, though World War II-era bombs have been discovered in the former death strip area during construction - still a relatively common occurrence all over Germany.

An estimated 136 people lost their lives at the Berlin Wall - including escapees shot by East German border guards, border guards themselves killed and people who died for other reasons near the wall - and a total of some 700 to 800 people are estimated to have died along the border between East and West Germany.

David Rising
AP Correspondent
Berlin

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It seems that we hear every day about pirates taking another ship off Africa, and of the warships in the area. My question is: Why don't the owners of these ships protect their own property and bring mercenaries with them?

Keith Bartlett
Lafayette, La.
---

Having armed mercenaries on ships is a dangerous, slippery slope.

Much of the problem lies with the cargo. In November, pirates seized their greatest prize yet, the supertanker MV Sirius Star, which is loaded with 2 million barrels of oil. The vapor from that cargo is highly flammable; a firefight on board the tanker could cause an explosion.

There is also the problem of keeping the pirates off the ships - once they're on board, they will very likely fight back and people will die. Pirates travel in open skiffs with outboard engines, working with larger ships that tow them far out to sea. They use satellite navigational and communications equipment and have an intimate knowledge of local waters, clambering aboard commercial vessels with ladders and grappling hooks.

Any blip on an unwary ship's radar screens, alerting the crew to nearby vessels, is likely to be mistaken for fishing trawlers or any number of smaller, non-threatening ships that take to the seas every day.

It helps that the pirates' prey are usually massive, slow-moving ships, such as the Saudi supertanker.

By the time anyone notices, pirates will have grappled their way onto the ship, brandishing AK-47s.

Beyond that, the bandits are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and grenades - weaponry that is readily available throughout Somalia, where a bustling arms market operates in the capital, Mogadishu.

Elizabeth A. Kennedy
AP Acting Chief of Bureau
Nairobi, Kenya

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I'm curious about the criteria used to determine whether a city makes it onto AP's stand-alone dateline list. Are you allowed to share?

Nicole La Rocque
Charlottesville, Va.
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Criteria that influence selections of standalone cities - ones that are used in datelines without being followed by a state or country name - aren't secret. The "datelines" entry in the AP Stylebook explains that the population in and around the city, the frequency of the city in the news, the uniqueness of the name and the association of the name with its state or nation are considerations.

The stylebook lists 30 U.S. cities and 28 foreign cities that stand alone. But stay tuned; others are likely to be added this year.

David Minthorn
AP Manager for News Administration
"Ask the Editor" columnist, APStylebook.com
New York

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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

The slew of ads warning Americans of the coming switch to digital TV is a media onslaught reminiscent of a hard-fought political campaign - albeit without the mudslinging. But who's footing the bill for all these consumer alerts?

Curiosity about the money behind the ad blitz inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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Considering how big an aircraft carrier is these days - about 6,000 people - what kind of medical and dental staff do these vessels have?

Gary Forte
Selma, Ala.
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An aircraft carrier has about 60 onboard medical and dental staff. The total includes several surgeons, five dentists, a general practitioner, a psychologist and a physical therapist, according to the Navy.

Each carrier has a medical "ward" with 40 to 60 beds, an operating room, laboratories, three-bed intensive care unit, two "isolation rooms" with four beds each and a pharmacy. And if that isn't enough, sailors are flown by jet or helicopter to the closest hospital.

Elliot Spagat
AP San Diego Correspondent

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Who is paying for all the advertising regarding conversion to digital television?

Scott T. Holland
Ottawa, Ill.
---

Cable TV operators, broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers, community groups and the government have collectively spent at least $1.3 billion to tell consumers about the transition to digital television, which will occur after Feb. 17, 2009. Congress approved another $1.5 billion for a program offering $40 coupons to consumers to help pay for digital-to-analog TV converters.

Broadcasters spent over $1 billion on consumer education, which includes airtime donated by TV stations, according to the National Association of Broadcasters. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the cable industry trade group, said it has spent $225 million on educational spots, mostly on TV. Individual cable and satellite TV companies also did their own ads.

Congress also appropriated $35 million for the Federal Communications Commission to pay for consumer outreach, education and consumer call centers. The FCC has spent $355,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland in three races. Unluckily, the car has crashed twice.

The FCC also advertised in the AARP's magazine, paid for its commissioners to attend town hall events and, among other efforts, hired a public relations agency.

Consumer electronics makers spent millions to run radio and print ads, as well as give out educational brochures featuring Florence Henderson, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

Deborah Yao
AP Business Writer
Philadelphia

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How, and by whom, are the members of the Obama transition team paid?

Wayne Brenholt
Chetek, Wis.
---

Members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team are paid through a combination of taxpayer dollars and private donations. They earn salaries comparable to those they made while working on the political campaign.

The 1963 Presidential Transition Act allows the General Services Administration to set aside taxpayer dollars to pay for staff and office space for the incoming administration. This year, that'll amount to more than $8 million.

The rest of the money comes from the Obama-Biden Transition Project, which accepts donations up to $5,000 to pay for expenses before Obama takes office on Jan. 20.

A handful of aides are still on the campaign payroll, answering political questions and wrapping up what remains of the massive organization.

Obama won't be paid during the transition. He hasn't received a federal paycheck since resigning his U.S. Senate seat.

Philip Elliott
AP Writer
Washington

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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

Wherever people live and work, garbage accumulates - in massive quantities, if they don't have a way to get rid of it all.

So what happens to all the trash that piles up on the Navy's aircraft carriers - floating cities that can spend months at a time at sea?

Curiosity about aircraft carrier garbage inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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Will global warming shift enough weight from the glaciers to the oceans to affect volcanic and related subterranean activity? If so, has this been factored into climate change scenarios?

Don Becnel
New Orleans
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Historic evidence suggests that the change in ocean mass from melting ice could have some small effect on certain volcanoes, based on an increase in volcano activity that happened at the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, according to a study in the journal Science in 1979.

The idea is that added pressure would melt some of the Earth's mantle, and the melted mantle could then spew forth from volcanoes, said study co-author Stephen Self, a volcano expert at the Open University in Milton Keynes, England.

But climate change is gradual and this effect would only occur in volcanoes that were already on the verge of erupting, or those that frequently blow, Self said. And the theory is not universally accepted - other scientists say they haven't seen enough evidence yet. Even Self said he'd give it about a 60 to 70 for credence on a scale of 1 to 100.

As a result, this is not generally factored into climate change scenarios.

Seth Borenstein
AP Science Writer
Washington

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Our nuclear aircraft carriers are like small cities at sea. How do they dispose of sewage and trash?

Bill R. Jones
The Dalles, Ore.
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Hazardous materials - like chemicals, oils, paints and medical waste from on-board hospitals - are stored on board and dumped on land. Same goes for plastics, which are heated and melted into giant discs for storage until the carrier hits land.

Metal and glass is shredded on board and dumped at sea, at least 12 miles offshore, said Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown. Biodegradable material, like food, paper and sewage, is processed into a pulp-like substance and thrown into the sea at least three miles offshore.

The Navy has 10 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers - two based in San Diego, two in the Seattle area, one in Japan and the rest in Virginia. No. 11, the USS George H.W. Bush, is being built in Newport News, Va., and will be commissioned next month.

Elliot Spagat
AP Correspondent
San Diego

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I am a real-estate agent and I have a client who recently had an incorrect, negative entry removed from a credit report. They checked their score again, and it had gone DOWN by 50 points, even though nothing changed on the report other than the error being removed.

This meant my client no longer qualified for a particular mortgage.

Is anyone responsible for regulating credit scores?

Carol Skees
Albuquerque, N.M.
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Three national credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - generate credit reports, which are used to determine credit scores, also called FICO scores.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the three bureaus to give you a free copy of your report once every 12 months. You're also entitled to a free report if your score resulted in a company taking negative action against you, such as denying you a job or a loan.

If you notify a credit bureau of an error, FCRA requires the credit bureau to investigate it, usually within 30 days. The company that provided the information in dispute must also investigate.

If the company confirms there was an error, it's required to notify all three credit bureaus. Once your credit report is corrected, the impact on your score should be immediate, according to John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit.com.

You can also request that the credit bureau send a corrected report to prospective lenders.

If you can't get a negative item removed from your report, you have the right to attach a brief statement (100 words or less) to your credit file. But Ulzheimer cautions that the note might be irrelevant since most lenders only look at your score.

Errors in credit reports are common and can happen for any number of reasons, including mistaken identity, out-of-date information or mere typos. So it's important to check your report regularly - and especially before you apply for a new loan.

Your client's score might have gone down if the item in error was an account in good standing, such as a credit card with a high limit. Her score might also have dropped for reasons unrelated to the error that was corrected.

In very rare occurrences, the removal of an error might lower a score by giving more weight to other, more negative factors in your report, said Barry Paperno, a spokesman for Fair Isaac Corp., the company that developed the FICO score. Even in such a circumstance, he said, a 50-point drop is unlikely.

Candice Choi
AP Personal Finance Writer
New York

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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

What do jet fuel, bubble gum and the bristles in your toothbrush have in common?

They all have ingredients that can be traced back to the same raw material. (Hint: It's a liquid, it's found underground and it's often accused of being "crude.")

They're also part of the answer to one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestion@sap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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With Russia, Venezuela and other countries now "flirting" with Cuba, why doesn't the U.S. put an end to the embargo and other sanctions and fully open up to that country, in order to weaken Russia and Venezuela's political power in the region? Wouldn't it be a smart move at this time?

Nanne Diesen
Houston
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President-elect Barack Obama will have broad leeway over how to enforce the U.S. sanctions against Cuba once he takes office on Jan. 20. But the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 says the embargo itself will stand as long as Fidel and Raul Castro are in power. Raul Castro succeeded his brother Fidel as president following his retirement in February.

For the embargo to end, Helms-Burton would first have to be repealed, then a majority in Congress would have to vote to eliminate the trade sanctions.

Obama has said he wants to maintain the embargo as leverage until Cuba frees all political prisoners, but he's declared he would "immediately" lift all restrictions on family travel and remittances. He has also expressed willingness to talk directly with Raul Castro.

But lessening or elimination of the U.S. sanctions wouldn't necessarily weaken the influence of Russia and Venezuela in the region. That's especially true of Venezuela, which provides Cuba with nearly 100,000 barrels of petroleum daily on highly preferential terms.

Anita Snow
AP Chief of Bureau
Havana

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I am curious to learn exactly what's made from a barrel of crude oil. What products - including waste products - come from oil once it's been refined?

Rick Bodman
Catawissa, Pa.
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When most people think of a barrel of oil, visions of gasoline and diesel tend to dance in their heads. Refiners use the fossil fuel to make those products, as well as kerosene, jet fuel and propane.

But petroleum - a Greek word meaning "rock oil" - can also be used to produce thousands of everyday items, including bubble gum, deodorant, tires, ammonia, surfboards, polyester, paint, carpet and crayons.

Grandpa's heart valve? It was made with oil.

Sarah Palin's trendy eyeglasses? There's oil in there somewhere.

Asphalt is partially made with oil, which is why many cities put paving projects on hold earlier this year when crude costs flirted with $150 per barrel.

The plastics industry uses an enormous amount of oil to make toys, shopping bags, sporks, shower curtains, traffic lights and toothbrush bristles, among other items.

For more information on what oil can be turned into, and how it is processed, go here: http://tinyurl.com/6mq5nz

Ernest Scheyder
AP Energy Writer
New York

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Although some spam is something I can live with, recently it seems like my inbox is flooded with junk. Has the number of spammers increased, or have they just gotten better at bypassing barriers? Is the government doing anything to crack down on this invasion? Is there anything I can do about this besides changing e-mail addresses?

Janet Hart
Brimfield, Ill.
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Sadly, the amount of spam is still increasing year by year, and volumes are approaching 200 billion messages per day, according to Secure Computing Corp. There's an annual boom in messages around the holidays, and you're probably seeing that right now.

The federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 has had a minimal effect at best. It has led to charges against some high-profile spammers, but given how easy it is to set up as a spammer, this is a game of whack-a-mole.

As an individual user, it's not easy to set up an efficient spam filter on your computer. However, today's Web-based e-mail services like Yahoo Mail and, in particular, Google's Gmail, are very good at shunting spam away from the inbox.

You don't need to give up your old e-mail address to use them, either. You can set up the Web-based service to fetch your regular mail from its so-called POP server - check the "Options" or "Settings" menus to find out how to configure this.

Peter Svensson
AP Technology Writer
New York

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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

If troubled automakers and banks need government bailouts, why not give their customers federally financed vouchers to help cover car and mortgage payments - so both consumers and companies could benefit from the money?

Curiosity about bottom-up bailouts inspired one of three questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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Can service stations tamper with their pumps to reduce the amount of gas that goes into your car for each gallon you buy? If so, is anything done to prevent this?

Harold Smith
High Point, N.C.
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Gas pumps are typically inspected on an annual basis by an official from the county Department of Weights and Measures.

Inspectors make unannounced visits to gas stations to check for evidence of tampering, leaks or other malfunctions at pumps. They place a seal on each dispenser that breaks if anyone tries to change the calibration of the pump. Stations are fined $300 for the first violation and $600 for each subsequent violation.

But Ross Andersen, director of the Division of Weights and Measures of New York state, said consumers should feel confident that they are getting what they pay for, citing 95 percent statewide compliance. He added that, in two-thirds of the New York cases where consumers received an inaccurate amount of gasoline, they received more than they paid for - not less.

Deborah Jian Lee
AP Business Writer
New York

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If the government wants to bail out banks or remove the bad mortgage debt that they hold, why can't they let the homeowners do it? Instead of handing $20 billion in federal money to Citibank, give Citibank mortgage customers vouchers they can use to help pay off their mortgages. The taxpayers get help paying for their homes and Citibank gets its bailout!

Likewise, couldn't the government bail out the auto industry by giving every American a voucher check that would help pay for the purchase of a new GM, Ford or Chrysler car?

Is there any reason these ideas wouldn't work just as well as giving money directly to the companies?

Skyler President
Spring Hill, Fla.
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You're hardly alone. Many politicians - including President-elect Barack Obama - want some bailout money to go directly to consumers.

But there are drawbacks to the bottom-up approach.

In some instances, the government has bought troubled assets at low prices, or acquired stock of bailed-out companies - approaches that could ultimately benefit the government and taxpayers if the assets gain in value and companies recover. Vouchers for consumers don't offer the same kind of potential investment return.

However, distributing vouchers could yield other benefits. Direct aid to consumers could reduce foreclosures, or boost the auto industry - or even help the environment, if the vouchers included incentives for consumers to buy fuel-efficient cars.

"All programs so far are dealing with the supply side of the market, including the proposed auto bailout," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist with IHS Global Insight. "We now need some demand-side solutions."

Vouchers, though, would raise fairness questions.

"The issue is where do you begin and end in handing out vouchers," said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor. "If you're behind on your payments and get a mortgage, and your neighbor who makes the same money and is current in his payments doesn't, your neighbor will feel he's being mistreated."

And what about consumers who don't qualify for vouchers because they get mortgages or buy cars from companies that aren't being bailed out?

"Why should borrowers who have loans from Citibank get support and not those who have mortgages with another lender?" said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody's Economy.com.

Also, vouchers may not give the government the leverage it seeks to bring about structural and other changes at the bailed-out companies - changes many say are needed to get the companies on better financial footing, Hoyt said.

Mark Jewell
AP Personal Finance Writer
Boston

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Recent news stories discuss the effect of Barack Obama's tax policies on "working families" at certain income levels. What is the Obama tax plan for retired couples or retired single people with various incomes?

Marian Hills
Wilmington, N.C.
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Obama said he plans to eliminate income taxes for seniors who make $50,000 or less. The idea behind the plan is that most seniors are living on fixed incomes while costs for food, energy and health care go up and up.

Most low- and moderate-income seniors already owe no income tax, so they wouldn't benefit from the proposal. The Obama plan would award tax cuts averaging $1,400 to 7 million seniors who tend to be comparatively well off but not rich.

Many policymakers say such special tax treatment for seniors is a bad idea.

For starters, seniors already get preferential tax treatment. They get to claim an additional standard deduction and only a portion of their Social Security benefits are taxed. Many don't pay payroll taxes because their income is from investments rather than wages.

Also, as a group, seniors tend to be better off than the rest of the population. Many have paid off their mortgages, and their kids are usually grown, so they're not saddled with day care or college costs.

Andrew Taylor
Associated Press Writer
Washington

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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

Today I'm talking about FOX 11's practice of naming winter storms. Here's a blog recently posted, and then I'll reply.

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Hurricanes are named - SNOW IS NOT!

Your childish attempt to increase advertising revenue by oversensationalizing snow is NOT appropriate. By raising people's fears over minor, trivial amounts of snowfall is irresponsible. I encourage anyone who is involved in an accident caused by a person that this irresponsible station caused to panic unnecessarily should sue not only the insurance of the other driver, but also this station that contributed to the accident.

I will NEVER watch your news again until this childish little game is stopped and I will encourage EVERYONE I know to join the boycott. GROW UP!

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First, thanks for the feedback. We know not everyone is going to like everything we do. But this does give me a chance to discuss how and why we name storms.

* It is a tool to distinguish between smaller storms, which aren't named, and larger ones, which are. We have a set definition of when to name storms:

"A storm will be named when winter weather is expected to make a significant impact on most of our area. (An impact to life, travel and property) The factors may include: 5" of accumulated snow in 24 hours; blowing and drifting snow that would reduce visibilities; ice or sleet accumulation of a quarter inch or more and/or a significant mix of precipitation."

* It gives the producers, anchors and writers an easy way to refer to the storm. It's very conversational to say something along the lines of "Snowstorm Zachary hit hardest in Kewaunee County, where 10 inches of snow fell." And it makes it easy to refer to and compare with previous storms.

* It's an easy way to know how many big storms we have had. By the time we would get to "Mary", you'd easily be able to figure out it's the 13th storm of the season.

* I don't see how it's an attempt to increase advertising revenue. The weather department picks the names. They are not sold to or by anyone. Recently we have been using people names. For many years, we used community names. We started with "Z" one time. One year, we used Packers' players names.

* It is certainly not designed to raise fears or cause panic. Just like the "Severe Weather Index", it is a tool used to differentiate between levels of severe weather. A named storm will cause bigger problems than one that's not named; it's meant to educate, not raise fears unnecessarily. And I really don't think any car accidents are caused by a storm being named.

It's something different - and it's been a tradition at this station for more than 20 years. It's just something we do in our coverage. You don't have to like it, of course, but it's not going to go away.