NYC St. Paddy's parade as lively as ever
NEW YORK -- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar joined along as Manhattan's Fifth Avenue came alive with the sound of bagpipes, trumpets and lots of green Saturday at the 257th running of New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade.
Several bagpipe bands led a parade made up of more than 100 marching bands after Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke briefly, calling it a "day of inclusion" and adding: "We're all immigrants."
Mayor Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, marched with police Commissioner James O'Neill under sunny skies as some spectators sipped coffee to stay warm.
An estimated 150,000 marchers were expected to make the 1.4-mile trek past Central Park, the Cathedral and Trump Tower.
A big event since the mid-1800s, the yearly parade has been a celebration of Irish culture and of Irish immigrants, who once faced nativist calls for their exclusion from the workforce -- and from the country -- when they began arriving in the city in waves during the Irish famine.
Hyundai, Kia air bags under U.S. review
DETROIT -- The U.S. government's road-safety agency said Saturday that it wants to know why air bags in some Hyundai and Kia cars failed to inflate in crashes, leaving four people dead.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it's investigating problems that affect an estimated 425,000 cars made by the Korean automakers.
In documents posted on its website Saturday, the safety agency says the probe covers 2011 Hyundai Sonata midsize cars and 2012 and 2013 Kia Forte compacts. The agency says it has reports of six front-end crashes with significant damage to the cars. Four people died and six were injured.
The problem has been traced to electrical circuit shorts in air-bag control computers made by parts supplier ZF-TRW. The federal safety agency now wants to know if other automakers used the same computer.
On Feb. 27, Hyundai recalled nearly 155,000 Sonatas due to air bag failures, which the company blamed on the short circuits.
Hyundai's sister automaker Kia, which sells similar vehicles, has yet to issue a recall.
Scientists to study storage of plutonium
CARLSBAD, N.M. -- The U.S. Department of Energy has commissioned a national group of scientists to study the viability of diluting surplus weapons-grade plutonium and storing it permanently at the federal government's underground repository in New Mexico.
The panel of about 15 scientists from universities, corporations and laboratories around the nation will evaluate the storage potential at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation's only facility for permanently disposing of tons of Cold War-era waste contaminated with small amounts of plutonium and other man-made radioactive elements.
The scientists held their first meeting in November in Washington, D.C., then gathered again last week in Carlsbad, where officials gave presentations and fielded questions on the feasibility of taking plutonium to the repository, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reports.
Experts estimated about 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium exist around the world, mostly in the U.S. and Russia.
Attack sub Colorado goes into service
GROTON, Conn. -- The U.S. Navy's newest attack submarine, the USS Colorado, joined the fleet Saturday in a ceremony at Connecticut's naval submarine base.
Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said the submarine is a "marvel of technology and innovation." U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said the people of Colorado are proud that the submarine will silently protect the nation's interests.
Annie Mabus, the daughter of former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, gave the order to bring the ship to life before the crew boarded the vessel at the end of the ceremony, a Navy tradition.
The 377-foot-long sub weighs about 7,800 tons submerged. It can fight submarines and surface ships, conduct surveillance and deliver special operations troops. It has two large tubes that can launch six Tomahawk missiles each.
It's the first attack submarine where sailors use an Xbox gaming system controller to maneuver the photonics masts, which replaced periscopes, according to Cmdr. Reed Koepp, the Colorado's commanding officer. Other submarines have joysticks.
Koepp leads 130 men. Women serve on submarines but they haven't been assigned to the Colorado. One-fifth of submarine crews are integrated.
A Section on 03/18/2018