3:10 to Area 51

Attn: Energy and conspiracy beat reporters

            A proposed 300-mile railroad line probably won’t make stops for passengers at the super-secret Area 51, but it will carry spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to the underground burial facility that’s being developed at Yucca Mountain.

            Both Area 51 and Yucca Mountain are located within the same sprawling Nevada Test Site that was used in the 1950s for atomic bomb research (more than 800 underground and 100 above-ground blasts). UFO buffs believe captured space aliens are kept at Area 51, but more likely it has been used for top secret research and development of experimental aircraft and weapons, including stealth aircraft technology.

            The proposed rail line will stretch across a 300-mile route between Caliente, Nev., a small town near the Utah border, and the Yucca Mountain site. The end points are just 117 miles apart, but goes through difficult terrain which may account for the extra 183 miles. Curiously, the Dept. of Energy application for a construction permit indicates that the proposed railroad will also “provide common carrier rail service to communities situated along the proposed line” but there’s hardly any communities in the vicinity.        

            Nevada policymakers have fought tooth-and-nail for several decades to block the Yucca Mountain project. DOE’s application with the Dept. of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Board for a construction permit provides Yucca Mountain’s foes with an opportunity for denying and delaying the project’s inevitable completion.

            STB announced Friday (April 11) that it has set a July 15 deadline for receiving public comments relating to the proposed rail line. The comment period is longer than usual, the STB said, because “the DOE application is extensive and replies to it may be numerous.” Under law, STB must issue a construction permit if the proposed rail line is consistent with “the public convenience and necessity,” and further meets the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. (Area 51, also known as Groom Lake, is exempt from NEPA by presidential order.)

            The proposal makes clear that interstate shipments of nuclear and radioactive waste caskets—at least the final part of the trip—will follow a Union Pacific rail line to Caliente. The line is a link between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, and runs adjacent to the chemical and biological weapons stockpiles at Tooele Army Depot.

             The 2000 Census put Caliente’s population at about 1,100 persons but there’s no way to be sure. The polygamous cult headed by Warren Jeffs, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (not affiliated with the Mormon Church), owns a hotel in Caliente which has been used for conducting marriages between under-age girls and older men.

No free lunch
Attn: Education editors

            Providing low-income children with free lunches is profitable for most school districts around the nation, according to a study released Friday (April 11) by the USDA’s Food & Nutrition Service. The same report indicates, however, that lunch service profits are eaten up by breakfast and a la carte food services in most school districts.

             The 244-page study examines food service costs at selected school districts and found the average cost for serving a lunch to a child, including administrative and overhead expenses, was $2.28. Federal payments in the form of cash and commodity food distributions, was $2.50—leaving school districts with a 22¢ per meal profit. 

            Four out of five of the school districts provided lunches at an average cost that was below the federal subsidy.

City/assignment editors: Are school lunch programs in the public school districts in your reader/viewer territory making a profit or losing money? The USDA study explains which costs should be included in your calculations. What are the school district’s foodservice expenses? How many students are fed each day? How much does the school system receive in USDA food commodities and cash payments? Conduct your interview (and bring your photographer) over lunch with officials in the school cafeteria.

News tips:

Government Accountability Office: Economic factors influence the number of media outlets in local markets, while ownership by minorities and women appears limited and is difficult to assess 

House Energy & Commerce Committee: Documents provided by Merck and Schering-Plough raise new questions regarding study of Vytorin and generic simvastatin

National Security Archive: Declassified documents describe use of U.S. reconnaissance satellites to support domestic law enforcement efforts