What's New

Keeping the canyon clean

Grand Canyon National Park will begin construction this year on a $1 million wastewater treatment system at the entry point for most of the park's visitors.

Until the late 1990s, an old system had allowed waste from a series of lagoons to flow, barely treated, into the surrounding landscape, including habitat for elk and deer. The new system is planned to treat the water to much higher standards. Water will still spill into the forest, but it will be a far lower threat to plants and animals. Since the late 1990s, the park has averted discharge from the lagoons by trucking the waste to its new wastewater treatment plant near Grand Canyon Village at a cost of $100,000 to $125,000 a year.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Starting next month, Internet service providers with customers in Pennsylvania will be legally responsible for blocking access to child pornography. The new law, with penalties that include prison time for repeat offenders, is believed to be the first of its kind.

Prosecutors would, after obtaining a court order, give ISPs a list of websites and other items to block. Despite this, child pornographers – many of whom operate overseas – may quickly move to other sites.

The law has the blessing of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. But ISPs, which serve as conduits and do not actually control content, consider it impractical.

Women nationwide have had more success becoming police officers than firefighters. As of last year, 15.3 percent of New York City's police officers were women, compared with less than 0.3 percent of its firefighters. The fire department is among many in the country targeted by harassment complaints from female officers.