Author: Dan Springer

Shell Oil Company was all set to begin exploring the petroleum-rich arctic waters off the northwest coast of Alaska. But then the major spill in the Gulf of Mexico happened.

In response, President Obama issued a 30-day moritorium on new drilling permits and environmental groups sued to permanently block the plans. The moritorium is set to expire at the end of May.

The administration had already approved Shell’s plan to drill five exploratory wells this July in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. And the Justice Department defended that decision to a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland. Late last week the panel denied a request from Alaska Natives and environmental groups for an injunction to halt the drilling.

Residents of Point Hope, Alaska say a major spill would destroy their way of life. For thousands of years the eskimos have been living off what they can catch in the Arctic ocean. Bowhead whales, seals and fish comprise 75% of their diet.

Shell officials say while the ice and harsh winter conditions do present challenges in the Arctic, drilling can be done safely. In fact, Pete Slaiby, Shell Alaska V.P., tells Fox News the drilling depth in the Arctic is far more manageable than exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. The B.P. blowout happened at 5,000 feet, whereas the deepest exploratory well in either the Chukchi or Beaufort seas would be 150 feet. 

Also, Slaiby says Shell has promised to have an oil spill response vessel in place for the duration of the drilling. Given the disaster in the Gulf, environmentalists are unswayed. The Center for Biological Diversity has given the Interior Department notice it plans to sue arguing the need for more research into the impacts of a major spill in the Arctic.

What’s at stake? According to the Minerals Management Service, there are 27 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the U.S. portion of the Arctic ocean. That’s 11 billion barrels more than has been produced on Alaska’s North Slope over the last 3 decades.

Shell has already spent over $3.5 billion on leases, equipment and research for its Arctic exploration. Now it must wait to see what the courts and Obama Administration will do next.

The Exxon Valdez disaster happened 21 years ago, but with the devastating spill unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico many are fearing a repeat.

It was March 24, 1989 when the tanker hit a reef dumping 11 million gallons of Alaska crude into the pristine Prince William Sound. 1,300 miles of shoreline were blackened killing an estimated 250,000 birds and more than 1,000 sea otters. It also shut down one of the most important fisheries in the United States.

The cleanup took four years at a cost of $2-billion. And while the government declared the job done in 1992, restoration work continues to this day. Of the 31 species that were impacted, 10 are fully recovered including bald eagles. Another 19 species are listed as recovering and two have never returned, pigeon guillemots and pacific herring.

The fishing town of Cordova which was ground zero for the economic blow has adapted. Those with worthless herring permits either went out of business or switched to fishing halibut and salmon both of which are plentiful again. Many of the fisherman received large compensation checks from Exxon including Ken Adams who was paid $500,000 for his losses. In all, it’s estimated that Cordova and the fishing industry lost $160-million due to the spill.

Most troubling is the amount of oil that still lingers in the environment. NOAA recently finished a study in which it dug 9,000 holes along hundreds of miles of Alaska shoreline. Researchers found oil present in half of the holes and now estimate that 21,000 gallons of oil remain in the soil and may stay there for a hundred more years.

There’s debate about whether to bring heavy equipment in to dig the oil out or just leave it. Scientists know that as long as the oil stays it impacts species. Otters, for example, are diggers. They look for food in shallow water and along the coast. They are continuing to be exposed to the toxic Exxon Valdez oil.

Exxon officials say the company has spent $4.3 billion since the spill. It’s gone to cleanup, compensating fishermen, settlements with state and federal governments and fines. Out of the devastation has come many new safeguards.

Under the Oil Pollution Act, oil tankers must have double hulls, tugs are required to guide tankers out of Valdez and there is much more of a spill response team in place. And some of the lessons learned from the Exxon Valdez are helping in the response in the Gulf.

An oil spill expert has been sent to consult and a spill response group just flew thousands of gallons of chemical dispersant to the region. Alaskans know all too well, the extent of the damage done when oil reaches land.

Bottled water has become a four-letter word in parts of the environmental community. But in Cascade Locks, Oregon where unemployment is at 18-percent the locals see a real four-letter word–jobs.

Nestle wants to build a $50-million water bottling plant near the Columbia River and take nearly 14 million gallons of water per month from a nearby spring. The plant would create construction jobs and 50 permanent positions making it instantly the city’s biggest employer. The company would also become the city’s biggest taxpayer generating close to $1 million for Cascade Locks.

But the environmental group Food and Water Watch is fighting the plant. Leaders say the bottled water industry is bad for the planet on many levels. In 2008 8.7 billion gallons of bottled water were sold in the U.S. Most of it was originally public water sold to companies like Nestle and then sold for a big profit to consumers.

Food and Water Watch has launched a national campaign called “Take Back the Tap” aimed at getting people to drink tap water instead of H2O out of a bottle. The message hammers away at the bottled water industry pointing out all the oil and water needed to make the bottles. And studies that show only about one-quarter of the bottles produced end up getting recycled.

Nestle and others in the industry say they are responsible stewards of the environment putting millions of dollars back into water projects and leading the research on developing a bio-degradeable bottle. While they don’t discourage people from drinking tap water, company officials say many people refuse to do it and for them it’s either bottled water or a less healthy sugary soda drink.

Complicating matters in Cascade Locks, the spring in question feeds a state-run fish hatchery which raises endangered sockey salmon that are trucked in from Idaho’s Snake River. The city of Cascade Locks would replace the diverted water with some of its well water.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is currently testing the well water to see if it’s suitable for the fish. If it’s determined to be OK the state will likely sign off on the water transfer. That is unless public opposition grows.

Right now almost all of the opposition is coming from environmental groups in Portland and beyond. Cascade Locks city leaders and and an overwhelming majority of residents are currently backing the bottling plant.

They acknowledge that the spring water is a public resource and they believe it can be managed to help the whole community. The tax revenue alone might be enough to allow them to reopen their high school which was shut this year due to lack of tax base. Students are being bussed 25 miles to the closest school.

Parents of school children in Seattle are learning a shocking lesson, when it comes to some very important decisions they don’t have a say. The mother of a 15-year old girl recently discovered that Ballard High School helped her daughter get an abortion and never informed her.

But it doesn’t end there. The school can also send children off campus for mental health care and drug addiction treatment without their parents ever knowing. Supporters say the confidentiality allows teens who are too afraid to tell mom and dad to get necessary treatment.

Parents signed consent forms for off-school treatment thinking it was limited to emergency health care when the parents could not be reached.  But the teen health clinics at 14 Seattle schools are about much more. They have a full-time registered nurse, counselor and nursing assistant on hand to help kids with more sensitive issues.

When the 15-year old girl’s pregnancy was confirmed, they counseled her on the options. The mother says they encouraged her to have an abortion and not tell her parents. She claims her daughter was told that if she informed her parents they would have to pay for the abortion, otherwise it’s free.

The teen clinics are administered by the King County Health Department. Officials say school clinic workers are supposed to encourage girls to include their parents in the decision. They will not comment on the specifics of the case.

As for the fact the girl was called a taxi and transported by herself to a clinic to have her abortion then driven back to finish her school day, officials say that’s not unusual. They would not say how many girls have been helped to have an abortion.

Washington State is one of thirteen states that does not have either a parental consent or parental notification law. Girls of any age can obtain an abortion without having to tell a parent.

State lawmakers included mental health care and drug counseling on the list of services kids can get without parental notification.

The mother of a 15-year old Seattle girl is furious because her daughter had an abortion with some assistance from the nurses at her school and she was never informed. She only found out after the fact when her daughter had an unrelated health problem and finally revealed she had terminated a pregnancy.

The girl attends Ballard High School in Seattle which has a teen health clinic inside. The clinic is run by Swedish Medical Center and administered by the King County Health Department.

According to the girl’s mother, who did not want to give her name, her daughter was given a pregnancy test at the school clinic which was positive. She was then told by the nurse that she could have an abortion at a nearby clinic without her parents’ knowledge.

The girl then called a taxi, which picked her up at the school and drove her by herself to the abortion clinic.

The mother acknowledges she signed a consent form at the beginning of the school year giving the school permission to administer health care off campus. She assumed that meant in cases of emergency. Nowhere on the form is abortion mentioned.

A King County Health official would not speak about any of the details surrounding the case, but did say that no laws were broken. In Washington State a girl of any age can get an abortion without her parent’s being notified. It’s one of 15 states without either parental consent or parental notification laws.

The county health official also says that schools have sent kids in taxis in the past when they’re taken off campus for medical procedures. James Apa, a Health Department spokesman says it’s one of several modes of transportation used.

Note: In an earlier version of this story I incorrectly reported that the girl’s abortion was performed at a Planned Parenthood clinic. I have since learned that the procedure took place at a different private clinic in Seattle.

When birds and planes collide, the results can be disastrous. Last year a flock of canada geese cut both plane engines of flight 1549 leading to the dramatic crash landing in the Hudson River. And this week two planes hit geese and had to return to the airport, one in New Jersey the other in New York.

Now, researchers are testing a radar system aimed at giving pilots an early warning before hitting birds. The first radar units were placed at Sea-Tac airport in Seattle in 2007.  Officials say the system is very good at detecting birds in a seven mile radius around the airport. The problem right now is the system is too good. It has trouble distinguishing between a species of bird that could cause a problem and one that is no threat.

Until they work through some of those technical issues, the system will not be used to alert air traffic controllers and pilots. Currently, the radar information is being used by wildlife biologists so they can monitor birds 24-7 in real time. They then go out and harass the birds away from the runways.

The information is also stored allowing biologists to create forecasting models to predict when birds are likely to be present around the airport. Migratory patterns and feeding schedules are being better understood and that can help airports avoid problems.

In 2009 there were 10,000 bird strikes reported in the U.S. aviation industry an increase of 3,000 from the previous year. And officials say only about 20-percent of the strikes get reported. While most strikes are barely noticeable to pilots, some damage to the plane does occur about 10-percent of the time.

Bird detecting radar systems are also being tested at airports in Chicago, Dallas and New York. The goal is to have some kind of bird warning system in place alerting pilots in two years.

The Aryan Nations is looking for a new headquarters. But when the group targeted John Day, a small city in eastern Oregon, the residents banded together in opposition. John Day is a town of 1,900 in a county with only around 8,000 people. It’s over 95 percent white, conservative and rural.

Paul Mullet, the leader of Aryan Nations 88, says he believes John Day’s values fit with his group of Neo-Nazis. He’s finding out he was wrong. The outcry was immediate following an article in the local newspaper, the Blue Mountain Eagle. The paper sponsored two informational meetings to inform local residents about the Aryan Nations beliefs and activities.

The town’s response was immediate. The Grant County Human Rights Coalition was quickly formed and began passing out “No Hate” signs and green ribbons as a way to show solidarity. Restaurant owners said they would refuse to serve the Aryans and people promised they would not sell their land to the group.

The Aryan Nations has been based in northern Idaho since its founder, Richard Butler, moved there from California in 1974. The group has since been fractured and has been mostly underground since Butler’s death in 2004. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks hate groups, says there are at most 100 Aryan Nations members currently in the U.S. split between about a dozen groups.

Aryan Nations 88 is an offshoot of the original Aryan Nations and may have five members including its self-proclaimed leader, Paul Mullet.

Joe Roy of the SPLC says Mullet first came to his attention in 2000 when Mullet was passing out white supremacist literature in Minnesota. He moved to Idaho after Richard Butler’s death. And now he says the group needs a new compound where they can build a school and create an all-white society.

But the people of John Day are determined to do everything within the law to keep that from happening.  The town is already struggling. Two of the timber mills recently shut down leaving just one open. There used to be ten in operation. Unemployment is at 14 percent. The mayor says if the Aryans moved in that would be the final nail in the coffin for his city.

SLIDESHOW: Town Unites Against Racism

A member of Team U.S.A. has been charged with domestic assault just days before the Winter Olympic Games come to a close. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Bill Schuffenhauer, 36, and booked him on one count of assault. Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair tells Fox News that the RCMP were called to 2300 block of Nordic Drive shortly before 11p.m. Wednesday night.  That’s in a suburb just south of Whistler Village.

A member of the Integrated Security Unit, which has been assembled to secure the Olympics, separated a man and a woman who were fighting outside a townhouse. The RCMP interviewed the woman and determined that an assault had taken place. LeClair says the woman had minor injuries. They arrested the man, booked him for assault and released him after he posted a $500. cash bond. He was ordered to have no contact with the woman.

While the RCMP is not releasing the man’s name, the U.S. Olympic Committee has confirmed it’s Bill Schuffenhauer. The USOC issued a statement which read, “We understand Bill Schuffenhauer, a member of the U.S. Bobsled team, was detained and released by authorities in Whistler. At this point we are awaiting further details.”

Schuffenhauer was a member of the bobsled team that won a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. It was the first medal for the U.S. in bobsled in 46 years of competing. Schuffenhauer is listed as a pusher, 6 feet, 220 lbs. He’s from Ogden, Utah. On the website he says he “enjoys spending time with his fiance Ruthann and two children.”

He’s scheduled to compete in the 4-man bobled event Friday.

The RCMP has recommended a charge of assualt, but the Crown will likely determine whether to file in a week.

The U.S. men’s hockey team beat Switzerland Wednesday 2-0 and will play for an Olympic medal. If they win their next game Friday, they will play for gold.  Goalie Ryan Miller pitched a shutout and Zach Parise scored both goals for Team U.S.A.

Miller, who stopped all 19 shots he faced, is clearly the most important American player on the ice. He almost single-handedly beat Team Canada in a huge upset Sunday.

And that U.S. victory over Canada has apparently tweaked many northern neighbors. The crowd at the game Wednesday was clearly rooting for the Swiss.  There were many Americans in the stands, but they were outnumbered by the hockey-crazed Canadians who cheered every save by Switzerland’s goalie Jonas Miller.

And there were many. Hiller was busy facing 44 shots as Team U.S.A. had chance after chance turned away. The U.S. also got a couple bad breaks. An apparent goal at the end of the second period was ruled to have crossed the line just fractions of a second after time expired. And a third period goal was waved off by a high sticking penalty call.

But Zach Parsie finally scored a goal that would stick in the third period then added an empty netter with less than a minute remaining.

Team U.S.A. was not picked to be much of a threat to win a medal considering the strength of the teams from Canada, Russia, Sweden and the Czech Republic. But thanks to the upset of Canada, the U.S. received a buy and perhaps more importantly got on the side of the bracket that did not have the most powerful teams.

In fact, either Russia or Canada will be eliminated tonight as they square off in a quarterfinal match that many anticipated would be the gold medal game.

Just a few blocks from where the world has gathered to celebrate some of the planet’s best athletes is an area of Vancouver that is practically Third World. It’s the Downtown Eastside. There are 1,500 homeless, 5,000 drug addicts and 10,000 working poor. Walk down East Hastings in the middle of the day and you’re likely to see dozens of mentally ill, numerous drug deals and even a heroin addict shooting up on the sidewalk. A United Nations spokeswoman called it one of the worst areas of blight in the world.

Leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver and British Columbia leaders decided it was time to attack the problem. The government has spent tens of millions of dollars buying hotels and converting them to welfare housing. Homeless shelters were given money to keep their doors open 24-7 during the Games. And the area is crawling with police.

For the most part the extra attention has worked.  Crime is down and there have been no headlines about a tourist who wandered into the wrong area and got mugged or worse.  While you still see scores of homeless and mentally ill, having the shelters stay open all day has helped.  As we shot video for our story, a Vancouver woman came up to me and said it was the first time she’s walked the area in years. And she felt safe.

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee is even giving away some event tickets to shelter residents. Go into a shelter and you’ll see a new television on with the Olympic games playing.  In many ways it has been an extraordinary effort to conceal Vancouver’s most troubling social wart. The question many are asking is, ‘What happens when the Olympics are over?’

Many homeless we interviewed who said life had improved in recent weeks also believe the government just wants to keep them out of sight during the Games and when they’re over things will return to normal. But British Columbia Premiere Gordon Campbell says that’s not going to happen. He insists that the effort was not tied to the Olympics and government is trying to change the culture in the Downtown Eastside.

The proof will be in the funding. The government, which has run up a huge deficit preparing to host the Games, has signaled much of the cash flow will end in April.

Long Track Speed Skater Denny Morrison blasted the very program aimed at helping him and other Canadian athletes perform well in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Morrison, who finished ninth in the 1,500 meter race Saturday night, says the $113-million ‘Own the Podium’ program is partly to blame because it prevented him from training with the world’s best skaters.

American Shani Davis finished with the silver medal. Davis also won a gold in the 1,000 meter long track event.  Under ‘Own the Podium,’ only Canadian athletes could train in the Olympic venues leading up to the Games except where the I.O.C. required practice time be afforded to other countries. Morrison, who came into the Olympics favored to win two medals and is going home empty-handed, previously trained extensively with Davis, who has won gold and silver. Morrison says that practice time with the world’s best lifted his performance and having it cut off hurt him this week.

His coach says “bunk.” Marcel Lacroix dismissed the excuse, pointing out that Morrison set a world record and took silver and bronze in last year’s world championships under the current training program.

But as the Olympics enter the final week, there is considerable discussion among Canadians about the slow start. At this writing Canada has 8 medals and has fallen into fifth place in the medal quest just behind South Korea which had a big Saturday night on the short track. The U.S. is exceeding expectations with 24 medals including 7 golds. Germany is a distant second with 14 medals.

The Canadian Olympic Committee expected the host country to earn between 28 and 34 medals, still mathematically possible but getting more unlikely by the hour.

One Canadian sports columnist wrote that ‘Own the Podium’ is a good program with a terrible name. The plan to boost funding for coaching and training in an effort to give athletes the best shot at performing well is done in several countries. But the name, some feel, sends the message to the athlete that if they don’t medal, they’ve failed.

That sentiment was on full display after Canadian Melissa Hollingsworth, the gold medal favorite in women’s skeleton, bounced off the walls during her final run and finished 5th. Afterwards she tearfully told reporters that she felt like she let her entire country down by not medaling.

While some Canadian athletes are obviously feeling the pressure to perform, some competitors have taken their shots. Speed skater Apolo Ohno, who has won a silver and bronze so far, recently poked fun at the Canadian Olympic Committee saying he had no problem with Canada owning the podium, so long as the U.S. could rent it for the month of February. So far that seems to be happening.

Canada’s drive for gold in the 2010 Winter Olympics appears to have backfired. Not only is the host country 4th overall in medals at the half-way point, they may have ticked off the very country they need for future success.

In several sports, including luge, American and Canadian athletes have shared training facilities in an effort to cut into some of the built in advantage enjoyed by European countries. According to Sandy Caligiore, spokesman for U.S.A. Luge, the U.S. and Canada have always made deals when either was hosting the Olympic Games. For example, when the Olympics were held in Lake Placid and Salt Lake City, the Canadian Luge team was given extra training time on the U.S. track. Canada did the same when the Olympics were held in Calgary.

But when the Canadian Olympic Committee launched the “Own the Podium” program all the deals went away. Canada spent an extra $113-million on the effort and decided it would maximize its home turf advantage. It would adhere to I.O.C. requirements, but no more.

After the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a practice run, much was made about the amount of training time Canada gave the rest of the field leading up to the Games. Caligiore says Canada gave competing nations exactly what the I.O.C. required. The lack of flexibility has upset some luge teams. As for the relationship between the U.S. and Canadian luge teams, Caligiore says it has been hurt, but it’s too early to tell how badly.

Canadian luge officials, on the defensive since the death of a Georgian slider, are fighting back.

Chris Donan, spokesman of the Canadian Luge Association, says the real issue is the lax qualifying standards that allow inexperienced athletes from small countries to make it to the Olympics. Nineteen-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed February 12th. during a training run down the luge track.

Werner Hoeger, a Venezuela luge team member, crashed during a training run on the same track in November, suffering a concussion and losing consciousness. Afterwards he filed a formal complaint alleging the track was dangerous.

But according to John Gibson, a spokesman for VANOC, which organized the Games, Hoeger was primarily concerned about getting more time to train on the luge track leading up to the Olympics. Gibson says the luge federation denied his request because it would have given Hoeger training time not afforded to the other athletes.

Hoeger is 56-years old and had placed 40th and 32nd respectively in the two previous Winter Olympics. According to VANOC he was crashing repeatedly during his training in November, even when taking off from the women’s start line.  Canadian luge officials have been criticized for not permitting competing teams more time to practice on their track, which was completed in 2007. Some have even suggested that the country’s effort to “own the podium-” a $113 million effort at extra training to look good on Canada’s home soil- led officials to deny other athletes critical training time.

VANOC and Canadian luge officials say they have provided as much or more access to their luge run as any previous host country.  They welcomed other luge teams in November 2008, and February and November of last year for a week at a time.

Over that span there were 5,588 practice runs. Some countries chose not to send their sliders. Prior to these Olympic Games, the luge federation only required a host country to provide one week of practice time to other nations.

Gibson says the Olympic luge track is actually safer than the average track around the world. Of the 30,477 runs, there have been 340 crashes (1.1%). A typical track sees crashes at a 2-3 percent rate.

When asked why they made several changes to the luge track after the Georgian’s death, Gibson says it was the I.O.C.’s decision to help lugers from a “psychological standpoint”.

The I.O.C. raised the fence where Kumaritashvili left the track, changed the ice profile and had male competitors start from the women’s starting line.

The drama unfolding at the Richmond Oval Wednesday night was palpable. American speed skater Chad Hedrick had just completed the race of his life. He finished the 1,000 meter race in 1:09:32 and was sitting in second place. His teammate, Shani Davis seemed not to notice. He was deep in concentration as he warmed up just inside the track. Davis and Hedrick are not friends, they are rivals.

It started 4 years ago in Turin when Hedrick criticized Davis for not skating in the team relay saying the U.S. was leaving a medal out on the ice. Davis was furious. He had told the team early on that he would not skate in the relay so he could focus on the individual races. From there a feud was born.

Davis shunned the team choosing to go it alone. He is a separate entity. He trains by himself in his hometown of Chicago as the other U.S. skaters all work out at the U.S.O.C. facility in Salt Lake City. The relationship between Davis and the U.S. skaters and coaches has been described as frigid at best.

So the questions swirled as Davis stepped up to the starting line last night. Would he defend his gold medal performance turned in at the Turin Games? And if he did, would his fellow U.S. skaters even acknowledge the feat. He would become the first back to back gold medal winner in the 1,000 meters in Olympic history.

At the race’s half way point it seemed like Davis would fall short. He was well off the pace set by Hedrick and South Korea’s Mo Tae-Drum. But then Shani Davis, as the exceptional athletes always do, found another gear. He blew past the finish line in 1:08:94 to capture the gold. As he skated around the rink in his victory lap, there was a mixture of relief and joy etched on his face. And then, one by one, the U.S. coaches came up to congratulate him. Someone handed him the American flag which he held up high over his head in his fist choosing not to drape it over his shoulders as so many other athletes do.

Chad Hedrick was waiting. He had just been bumped down from silver to bronze by a man he considers a nemesis who happens to skate for the same country. Then as they got their flowers on the podium these two bitter rivals each held one side of the American flag and smiled. Gold and bronze were secured and perhaps a feud was put in the past.

The top women ski jumpers are once again left out in the cold, but they’re not about to go away quietly. In 2006, the International Olympic Committee denied their petition to be included in the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. The I.O.C., which governs the Olympics, ruled that there were not enough top quality female ski jumpers in the world. But comments from some officials raised questions, such as the assertion that having women ski jumpers is “not appropriate from a medical point of view.”

Instead of skiing away quietly, the women fought back. First, they went to Canada’s Human Rights Commission. Then they filed a lawsuit in British Columbia which is hosting the Games. There, they were vindicated. The judge ruled the women ski jumpers were victims of discrimination, but he could not force the I.O.C. to include them. The women continue to push forward even as they watch with envy as other premiere athletes go for gold in Vancouver. Pointedly, they held a news conference at the same time a male ski jumper from Switzerland was winning the first gold medal of the Games.

The I.O.C. in an effort toward gender equality decided in 1991 that whenever a sport was added for men, it would also be open for women competitors. The problem for the female ski jumpers is that the I.O.C.’s own rule change did not apply to Olympic sports that were in the Games prior to 1991. Ski jumping falls into that category.

Currently, there are 160 women in 18 countries registered with the ski jumping federation. The women also now have ways to qualify the best of the best. In fact, an American, Lindsey Van is the current World Champion. The number of competitors in women’s ski jumping is actually higher than female participants in several olympic sports including bobsled, luge and snowboard cross.

An I.O.C. official told me off the record that 2014 in Socki, Russia is looking much better for the lady jumpers. In 2012 the Youth Olympic Games will have female ski jumpers for the first time and that is likely a precursor to full I.O.C. acceptance.

Two members of the U.S. Men’s Olympic hockey team have been told by the International Olympic Committee that they must cover or remove slogans from their goalie helmets.  Starting goalie Ryan Miller has “Miller Time” on the back of his helmet and the words “Matt Man” somewhere else. Jonathan Quick has the words “support our troops” on his goalie mask.

According to an I.O.C. official the slogans violate rule #51 which bars advertising, demonstrations and propaganda from being worn by any olympic athlete. A team U.S.A. official speaking off the record said Miller will comply with the rule and cover the “Miller Time” words considering it could be viewed as an endorsement for Miller beer. But the goalie told the Associated Press that he would not remove “Matt Man”. The words are a tribute to his cousin, Matt Schoals who died from cancer. Miller, the starting goalie for Buffalo and perhaps the brightest star on the U.S. team, has a foundation devoted to raising money for cancer research in memory of his cousin.

When asked if Miller was going to remove the “Matt Man” from his helmet, the team official clammed up saying we’ll all know soon. The U.S. team plays it first game in the 2010 Olympics today at noon P.S.T. against Switzerland.

Backup goalie Jonathan Quick is not dressing today so his “support the troops” helmet won’t get near the ice. The team official wasn’t sure what quick planned to do, but did add that he doesn’t see a problem with the message, it can be viewed as a political statement. He says it’s absolutely not propaganda.

U.S. downhill skier Lindsey Vonn received some good news today. Her first race, which was supposed to be today, has been postponed until Thursday due to poor weather conditions. Vonn, 25, has been battling a badly bruised shin injury and welcomes the extra time to heal. According to Doug Haney of the U.S. Olympic Committee says Vonn is scheduled to take her first training run Sunday.

On Thursday, a dejected Vonn broke the news about her injured shin. She told reporters she hurt it a week earlier while training in Austria. She indicated that the pain was excruciating and could be enough to keep her from her quest for five gold medals. Friday, the news was slightly better as she tweeted that the pain had eased to the point where she thought she could grit her way through it.

That was music to the ears of Vonn’s eight sponsors who are ready to capitalize on her rising stardom. She was recently featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in the Olympic preview issue and then a week later appeared in the swimsuit edition.

There has been some talk that the shin injury might cause Vonn to scale back on the number of races she skis keeping her from her drive for five. But USOC’s Haney says that has not been decided and as far as he knows she plans on racing all the events she qualified for. We should know a lot more about the reigning downhill world champion’s chances after her training run Sunday. The delay was all caused by the rain and fog blanketing Whistler, which forced the cancellation of all downhill runs today.

Nineteen year old short track speedskater J.R. Celski of Federal Way, Washington is perhaps the most unlikely Olympian competing in the Vancouver Games which kick off today with the opening ceremony. Five months ago Celski suffered what many thought was a career ending injury, surely a season ending one. He crashed into the boards during a race at the U.S. Olympic Trials and sliced his leg with his own skate. The gruesome cut went all the way to the bone and just missed his femoral artery by an inch.

His surgeon told him he could forget about the Olympics even though he had already qualified based on finishing second at the World Short Track Championships earlier in the year. It would be two months before Celski was even allowed to lace up his skates. Since mid-November he’s been trying to regain strength and technique. His coach says Celski is about 95-percent back on both. The hardest hurdle has been mental. J.R. admits that he fears re-injuring the leg. When he takes a corner at 40 M.P.H. he wonders what will happen when he’s stuck in a pack of racers jockeying for position.

His team doctor, 5-time gold medal winner at the 1980 Olympics Eric Heiden, says before the injury Celski was certainly among the fastest skaters in the world and expected to medal. But now the challenge is to overcome fear and avoid hesitation. In a sport measured in hundredths of a second, any holding back will mean failure.  Celski says he is ready to compete. He’ll be on the ice Saturday in the quarterfinals of the 1500 meter short track race. It will be his first competition since the injury.

Some would say he’s already won just by getting to the starting line.

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With the Winter Olympic Games set to begin with the opening ceremony this Friday in Vancouver, British Columbia, U.S. officials are on heightened security alert. A security coordination center is now up and running in Bellingham, Wash., about 20 miles south of the Canadian border.

It will house 70 federal, state and local agencies for the duration of the Games. Agents will be able to share and act on intelligence as well as monitor cameras mounted on aircraft, at border crossings and along the vast land border.

Officials say there has been no specific threat aimed at the Olympics and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is in charge of security in Vancouver, has set the threat level at “low.” But authorities on both sides of the border have their guard up.

Just last week the Director of U.S. Intelligence told Congress he is “certain” Al Qaeda will attempt a terror attack in the U.S. within the next three to six months.

Security planning has been in the works for five years. In addition to the coordination center, Homeland Security has increased assets at the northern border. Customs and Border Protection now has eight aircraft and 10 boats for patrol. The agency has boosted the number of agents at border crossings by 20 percent to handle the increased traffic. They’re expecting 45,000 cars a day to pass from Canada into the U.S., which is comparable to a busy day during the summer. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which went into effect last June, requires that people have a passport, passport card, Nexus card or enhanced driver’s license. Customs officials say they will be able to quickly run names and passport numbers through the nation’s terror watch list.

The land border, a vast 4,000 stretch of largely unguarded territory between the two countries, remains a concern for many. Security has improved since 9/11 as Homeland Security beefed up technology by deploying numerous drones, cameras and motion sensors along the border. But drug and human smuggling continue. Unlike the southern border, much of the area between Canada and the U.S. is open and marked by a three foot high sign in the middle of wilderness.

  The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing new regulations that would reduce the amount of ground level ozone by 10%-20%. Officials say it would save lives and billions of dollars on health care costs. But critics say the financial costs will be astronomical without the health benefits that are being touted.

    The current allowable concentration of ozone over an 8 hour period is 75 parts per billion. That number was set by the Bush Administration which lowered the allowable level from 85 parts per billion. The E.P.A. under president Obama wants to see the level capped at between 60 ppb and 70 ppb. If adopted most metropolitan areas of the country would be out of compliance and be required to come up with plans to meet the stricter requirements.

   The American Lung Association has been pushing for the tougher standards citing the growing number of asthma cases in the U.S. Currently, one out of every ten kids suffers from asthma. But critics point out that the asthma rates have been going up even as ozone levels have been coming down. Ground level ozone is 25-percent less than in 1980 thanks in part to tougher regulations and improved technology aimed at reducing smog emitted from cars.

    The E.P.A. itself doesn’t have a very firm grasp on the costs or the benefits of its proposal. The agency figures the price tag at somewhere between $19-billion and $90-billion, while projecting improved health could save $13-billion or possibly $100-billion and as many as 5,700 lives– unless it only saves 1,700.

     If the regulations are passed several regional planners told Fox News the first thing they would consider is reformulating gasoline. California did it and was successful in reducing smog, but it did increase the cost of gas 15-cents a gallon and still several parts of the state can’t meet current standards during the summer.

   Leaders would also look to enforce tighter emission standards on big manufacturing businesses and utilities which would likely result in higher prices for goods and electricity. And if all else fails to bring a region into attainment, some say the only answer is to get people out of their cars. Vehicle exhaust is by far the largest contributor of ozone. Transportation officials in the Seattle area have been working on a number of stategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled. Among the ideas being considered, impose highway tolls and tax people for the miles they drive-not by the fuel they consume.

   The E.P.A. opened a public comment period on the proposal this week. Under the Clean Air Act it can change the regulations in 60 days. The agency has already signaled that it would want to fast track implementation.