Lower Heating Costs Predicted
With oil prices plummeting, the government said people will get a break this winter in heating costs. And next year's gasoline prices should average less than $2.40 a gallon. The Energy Information Administration revised its short-term energy outlook Wednesday to reflect the dramatic drop in crude oil prices.
It said people using fuel oil will still pay on average nearly $1,700 this winter, a 13 percent increase over last winter. But that's nearly $700 less than what was projected only a month ago. Households that heat by natural gas will pay only slightly more than last year - about $890 for the October through March heating season.
Paranoia On The Rise, Experts Say
If you think they're out to get you, you're not alone.
Experts now say that paranoia may be a lot more common than previously thought. British psychologist Daniel Freeman, for example, said nearly one in four Londoners regularly have paranoid thoughts.
A British survey of more than 8,500 adults found that 21 percent of people thought there had been times when others were acting against them. Another survey of about 1,000 adults in New York found that nearly 11 percent thought other people were following or spying on them.
Experts warn that paranoia can be stressful, and result in more social isolation, hostility and possibly even crime.
In a 5-4 decision, the court vacated a preliminary injunction imposed by a lower court in response to complaints by environmental groups that the Navy's use of loud, mid-frequency sonar during submarine-detecting exercises violates U.S. environmental laws. It was the first decision of the court's current term.
The sharply divided court did not rule on the merits of the environmental groups' claims but said the lower court "abused its discretion" by imposing the restrictions.
The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and was joined by justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote a partial dissent, which was joined in part by Justice John Paul Stevens. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a separate full dissenting opinion that was seconded by Justice David H. Souter.
At issue in the case is the Navy's use of a type of sonar that can detect quiet new submarines deployed by China, North Korea and other potential adversaries. Environmental groups sued the Navy to demand restrictions on 14 training exercises scheduled from February 2007 to January 2009 in the waters off Southern California, which are shared by 37 species of marine mammals including whales, dolphins and sea lions.
A U.S. district court issued an injunction requiring the Navy to shut down its mid-frequency sonar when a marine mammal was spotted within 2,200 yards of a vessel and to power down the sonar by 75 percent when certain water conditions were detected. An appeals court later upheld the injunction, and the Navy brought the case, Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, to the Supreme Court.
Roberts noted in his opinionthat the parties strongly disputed the extent to which the Navy's training exercises harm the marine mammals or disrupt their behavioral patterns. The Navy claimed it has used mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar in such exercises off the Southern California coast for 40 years "without a single documented sonar-related injury to any marine mammal," Roberts wrote. At most, that type of sonar might cause temporary hearing loss or brief disruptions of the mammals' behavioral patterns, the Navy asserted.
The plaintiffs in the case, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, contended that sonar can cause much more serious injuries than the Navy has acknowledged, including permanent hearing loss and decompression sickness, and that it can lead to mass whale strandings. Certain species such as beaked whales are especially susceptible to mid-frequency sonar, but the Navy would not necessarily be able to detect their injuries because these whales dive deeply and spend little time at the surface, the environmental groups argued.
The Navy contended that to obtain a preliminary injunction, the plaintiffs had to demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable injury, not simply the possibility, and that the alleged injuries were too speculative to justify the injunction.
"Even if MFA sonar does cause a limited number of injuries to individual marine mammals, the Navy asserts that plaintiffs have failed to offer evidence of species-level harm that would adversely affect their scientific, recreational and ecological interests," Roberts wrote.
The majority agreed that the standard used by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in upholding the preliminary injunction was "too lenient" and said the plaintiffs needed to demonstrate that irreparable injury was likely without the restrictions.
"Even if plaintiffs have shown irreparable injury from the Navy's training exercises, any such injury is outweighed by the public interest and the Navy's interest in effective, realistic training of its sailors," Roberts wrote.
"For the plaintiffs, the most serious possible injury would be harm to an unknown number of the marine mammals that they study and observe. In contrast, forcing the Navy to deploy an inadequately trained antisubmarine force jeopardizes the safety of the fleet."
The opinion added that "active sonar is the only reliable technology for detecting and tracking enemy diesel-electric submarines" and that the president has declared the training "essential to national security."
Roberts concluded: "We do not discount the importance of plaintiffs' ecological, scientific and recreational interests in marine mammals. Those interests, however, are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines."
In his dissent, Breyer said the Navy has been training under the appeals court's restrictions since February. He called for modifying the court's Feb. 29 order to keep the provisional conditions in place until the Navy completes "an acceptable" environmental impact statement.
Writing separately, Ginsburg disagreed that the restrictions were an abuse of discretion. She also offered a sharply different reading of an environmental assessment of Southern California training exercises issued by the Navy in February 2007 .
Roberts said the assessment concluded that the exercises "would not have a significant impact on the environment." But Ginsburg wrote that it "predicted substantial and irreparable harm to marine mammals."
She continued: "Sonar is linked to mass strandings of marine mammals, hemorrhaging around the brain and ears, acute spongiotic changes in the central nervous system, and lesions in vital organs."
She said the Navy's environmental assessment forecast that the exercises would result in "564 instances of physical injury, including permanent hearing loss . . . and nearly 170,000 behavioral disturbances," of which "more than 8,000 . . . would also involve temporary hearing loss." In addition, the assessment predicted 436 instances of the highest category of harm, termed "Level A," to Cuvier's beaked whales, of which fewer than 1,121 may exist off California, Oregon and Washington combined, Ginsburg said.
"In my view, this likely harm . . . cannot be lightly dismissed, even in the face of an alleged risk to the effectiveness of the Navy's 14 training exercises," Ginsburg wrote. "There is no doubt that the training exercises serve critical interests. But those interests do not authorize the Navy to violate a statutory command, especially when recourse to the Legislature remains open."
Report: Body By Abdul's Home 'Idol' Singer
Celebrity gossip site TMZ.com is reporting that the woman found dead in a car near Paula Abdul's home Tuesday night was a former contestant on "American Idol."
TMZ identified the woman as Paula Goodspeed, who was a contestant on Season 5 of the show in 2006. The Web site is featuring a video of Goodspeed's audition. It reported that during the audition for "Idol," Goodspeed said that she was an artist and the first picture she ever drew was of Abdul.
According to TMZ, "American Idol" produced a 3-minute, 40-second featurette on Goodspeed and her passion for Abdul, and when the singer failed to make the cut, show host Ryan Seacrest proclaimed, "And the love affair is over."
Not yet identified by police, Goodspeed was found dead in a car parked near a home belonging to the "American Idol" judge, police confirmed on Wednesday. The death appears to be a suicide, Capt. Jim Miller told KTTV-TV. He said the woman, who was in her 30s, had an infatuation with Abdul.
Police spokeswoman Julianne Sohn said officers responded to a call about 6 p.m. Tuesday and arrived in the Sherman Oaks area to find the body. Public records show Abdul owns a home near the site where the body was found. The woman was reported missing on Tuesday afternoon by a family member in neighboring Ventura County.
Authorities said they could not yet release the woman's identity Tuesday morning because her family hadn't been properly notified. Ventura County Sheriff's Department Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said relatives hadn't seen the woman since about 11 p.m. on Monday and were concerned she might try to hurt herself.
Lisa
Wire Reports: AP, UPI, Reuter's
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