NJ's Christie looks to recover after staff shakeup

NJ's Christie looks to recover after staff shakeup, A wounded Chris Christie is working to move beyond the most challenging test of his political career, while the New Jersey Republican governor's critics promise to keep probing a traffic scandal that rocked his administration this week and threatens to tarnish his national image ahead of the next presidential contest.

Christie's allies suggest the worst is behind him, although federal prosecutors are examining the case and thousands more internal documents are scheduled for release on Friday.

"I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team," the famously blunt Christie said Thursday while facing reporters.

Christie had previously assured the public that his staff had nothing to do with lane closings last fall that caused major backups at the George Washington Bridge. But after documents revealed Wednesday that his administration may have intentionally caused the traffic jam to exact political retribution, the governor fired a top aide and jettisoned his chief political adviser.

Christie adamantly denied any personal "knowledge or involvement" in the lane closures, a passionate pronouncement that satisfied some critics in the short term but creates political risk amid ongoing investigations. Democrats and Republicans said the governor's 2016 presidential prospects could be severely undermined, if not crippled, should new evidence emerge that contradicts this week's denials.

"Unless something new develops, I think he'll survive," said former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, a Republican whom Christie has described as a mentor. "But if there's a pattern of these things, if other incidents emerge with similar characteristics, that's going to be a real problem."

David Axelrod, a top adviser to President Barack Obama's campaigns, said Christie handled the high-profile news conference "as well as he could."

"Unless smoking gun turns up tying him 2 scheme, or others arise, he lives to fight another day," Axelrod wrote on Twitter.

Christie said he fired Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly "because she lied to me" when he demanded weeks ago that anyone who knew anything about the episode come forward. He also cut ties to former campaign manager Bill Stepien, asking him to withdraw a bid to become the next state GOP chairman.

The governor said he was disturbed by the "callous indifference" Stepien displayed in emails released this week. Stepien had widely been seen as a potential campaign manager for Christie if he runs for president and had been tapped to serve as a senior political aide on the Republican Governors Association, which Christie will lead for the next year.

Christie said he is still looking into the episode and will take action against other senior staff members if warranted.

Some Republicans defended the governor, who faced reporters for nearly two hours Thursday and then traveled to Fort Lee, a borough near the entrance to the bridge, to personally apologize to the mayor and community residents. Documents show that Christie's aides appeared to close the lanes to punish the mayor for refusing to endorse Christie during his recent re-election campaign.

"He apologized, took full responsibility and acted decisively in firing those responsible," said Fred Malek, a top Republican financial donor. "If anything, it serves to reinforce his image as a strong and effective governor."

The issue is far from over for Christie.

Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature could spend months investigating the case, forcing Christie and his staff to defend themselves. U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman is reviewing the case and the general inspector of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the bridge, also is investigating. In Washington, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, has demanded answers about the debacle.

Political strategists suggested the episode offers future opponents a readymade line of attack — who likes a traffic jam? — that strikes at the very heart of the inclusive political brand Christie has worked to cultivate. Driven by partisan politics, the lane closures clogged one of the world's busiest bridges for days, delaying children from getting to school and first responders from emergencies.

The bridge affair also reinforces a negative stereotype from critics who say Christie's no-holds-barred approach makes him nothing more than a bully in a state known for its tough guy politics. And it comes on the eve of a second term that was designed to be a springboard to a national campaign.

In less than two weeks, Christie plans to celebrate his inauguration at Ellis Island, gateway for millions of immigrants and so a symbolic location designed to showcase his ability to appeal to a broad swath of voters. He will also outline his second-term priorities in the coming weeks and begin an aggressive national travel schedule as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

Whether the traffic scandal will define Christie's future is hard to tell. But it raises the question of whether Christie can become a breakthrough figure in the Republican Party at a time when many Americans bemoan dysfunctional government or simply become part of the gridlock.

"Abuse of power by government officials is wrong, whether it's closing lanes in Fort Lee, using the IRS to target political opponents, or waiving the law regarding Obamacare," said Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots, lumping together the New Jersey scandal with incidents that have dogged Obama's second term. "Gov. Christie held some subordinates accountable. Time will tell whether this is enough."

House passes bill targeting health care law

House passes bill targeting health care law, The House has passed a bill that would impose new security requirements on the Obama administration's implementation of the health care law.


The vote was 291-122. Republicans say the bill was necessary to deal with potential security breaches, though they have offered no examples of cases in which personal data had been compromised.

They cited the case of Target Corp., which was the victim of hacking last year.Democrats say the bill is designed to scare Americans from enrolling for coverage.

The administration opposes the bill, which stands no chance in the Democratic-led Senate.
The House voted more than 40 times last year to repeal, replace or undo parts of the law. Republicans see the law's troubles as paying political dividends in this election year.

Fla. parents of sick children seek use of new pot strain

Fla. parents of sick children seek use of new pot strain, Parents of children suffering from severe epilepsy and other illnesses got a sympathetic reaction on Thursday from Florida lawmakers considering the legalization of a new marijuana strain that shows promising results for controlling seizures.

"We don't have time to wait," said Paige Figi, the mother of a 7-year-old girl for whom the strain "Charlotte's Web" is named.

Figi, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, told lawmakers during a three-hour committee hearing that her daughter could not leave Colorado, where "Charlotte's Web" is legal, because of her dependence on the specialized strain, which does not get users high.

Its use has helped reduce her daughter's seizures to one or two a month, compared with hundreds previously, she said.Figi's appearance came as organizers in Florida work to put a proposed constitutional amendment to allow medical use of marijuana on state ballots during the November congressional election, the latest effort in a national campaign to reform laws banning the drug.

Florida state officials are fighting the ballot initiative, which is also opposed by Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican leaders of the state legislature.

The use of "Charlotte's Web" is viewed by Florida lawmakers as a separate issue from legalizing the medical use of marijuana, and state legislators have invited parents to testify about uses for the marijuana strain.

The strain is low in THC, the psychoactive compound that gives users the feeling of being high. The product, which has no value to traditional marijuana consumers and comes as an oil, is high in the compound cannabidiol, or CBD, which helps calm seizures.

Figi said doctors are advising patients to move to Colorado, which legalized marijuana for recreational use as of Jan. 1. She said there are hundreds of families with children suffering from Davet Syndrome and other forms of seizures that have responded to marijuana when all else failed.

Coy Browning and his wife, Elizabeth, brought their 21-month-old daughter, Isla Grace, to the hearing. Browning, a lawyer in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, said he bought a home in Breckenridge, Colorado, so his daughter can get the drug if Florida does not legalize the marijuana oil.

"If I have to, once it gets bad enough, I'll have my wife take her out there," said Browning.

Another parent, Renee Petro of Tampa, said her son, Branden, developed a condition called FIRES — fibril infection-related epilepsy syndrome — about four years ago.

Now 12, she said, her son "talks about killing himself, constantly. He says he's tired of being sick, and would rather 'be up there.'"

Petro said she will move to Colorado, if necessary. Several other parents who testified said they know families whose children have died from illnesses that might be helped by the "Charlotte's Web" strain.

A Republican lawmaker, Rep. Charles Van Zant, a Baptist minister, told the parents he is adamantly opposed to any kind of legalization of marijuana for non-medical purposes.

But he agreed with their testimony.

"I think this is not substance abuse," said VanZant. "It's using substances wisely."

Drug probe undercuts Hagel pep talk to nuke force

Drug probe undercuts Hagel pep talk to nuke force, Moments before he launched a carefully planned pep talk to members of the Air Force's nuclear missile force, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was undercut by yet another sign of trouble in their ranks: a drug probe of two missile officers.

Hagel flew here Thursday to deliver a message he felt needed to be heard by men and women who sometimes tire of toiling in a job that can seem like military oblivion. He wanted to buck them up, while also insisting they live up to their own standards, which he said should never be compromised in a business as potentially dangerous as the launching of the world's deadliest weapons.

"We depend on your professionalism," he declared to an assembly of members of the 90th Missile Wing, which operates 150 Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles, one third of the entire ICBM force.

What Hagel did not count on was the news — disclosed just as he was preparing to deliver his words of praise and encouragement — that two Minuteman 3 launch control officers at an ICBM base in Montana had been removed from duty because they were under investigation for illegal narcotics.

Details of the illegal narcotics case were not released, but the two officers were members of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations was handling the probe.

Hagel did not mention the news, which he was told about by aides while he was visiting a missile launch control center in "Flight Echo" of the 319th Missile Squadron at a remote site just across the state line in his home state of Nebraska. The Pentagon's press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said Hagel was the first defense secretary to visit an ICBM launch control center since Caspar Weinberger in 1982. Since then, defense secretaries have visited ICBM bases but none has ventured to a launch center, a pill-shaped capsule buried at least 60 feet below ground.

In his speech later back at F.E. Warren, Hagel stepped lightly on the sensitive issues of misbehavior and occasional performance, training and leadership lapses in the ICBM force.

"You are doing something of great importance to the world," Hagel told the group. Lest they sometimes doubt that importance, he said, "You have chosen a profession where there is no room for error — none."

Hagel made no direct reference to problems revealed in the past year by The Associated Press, including an unprecedented sidelining last spring of 17 launch control officers at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., after commanders deemed them unfit to fulfill their duties, which include the potential launching of nuclear war, and none in his audience asked his views on the state of their profession.

One asked Hagel what the future holds for ICBMs, and the Pentagon chief said the Obama administration was committed to preserving all three legs of the strategic nuclear triad: ballistic missile submarines, heavy bombers and ICBMs. He said the Pentagon was making progress on a study it began last year to determine what kind of missile should replace the Minuteman 3, which was first deployed in 1970 and is approaching obsolescence.

Some have questioned whether the U.S. can afford to further modernize its ICBM force at a time of shrinking defense budgets.

"You are doing something of great importance for the world," Hagel said. At the same time, he said he realizes that their jobs must be carried out in isolation, with little public recognition or acclaim.

"No fanfare, no TV cameras," Hagel said.

The unsung nature of their work, coupled with increasing talk about ICBMs being an expendable element of the U.S. nuclear force, has weighed on the morale of many in the missile force. The AP disclosed in November that a RAND Corp. study of the ICBM force had detected signs of "burnout" among a sample of missile launch officers and some missile security forces.

In an apparent allusion to breakdowns in discipline, Hagel said, "How you do the job really is as important as the job itself."

F.E. Warren Air Force Base, which is headquarters for the organization in charge of all 450 U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles, has more than 3,000 enlisted airmen and officers and saw 12 courts-martial in 2013, compared with nine the year before, 12 in 2011 and eight in 2010, according to Air Force statistics provided to the AP last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

In each of the past four years, the courts-martial rate at F.E. Warren was higher than in the Air Force as a whole, the statistics show.

Drug offenses have been at or near the top of the list at F.E. Warren. Of the seven top offenses that led to courts-martial there last year, for example, the most common was "use of controlled substances," and also on the list was the distribution of controlled substances, according to statistics provided by the Air Force Legal Operations Agency. In 2012 the top offense in courts-martial was "wrongful use of marijuana."

Scientists: Americans are becoming weather wimps

Scientists: Americans are becoming weather wimps, We've become weather wimps.

As the world warms, the United States is getting fewer bitter cold spells like the one that gripped much of the nation this week. So when a deep freeze strikes, scientists say, it seems more unprecedented than it really is. An Associated Press analysis of the daily national winter temperature shows that cold extremes have happened about once every four years since 1900.

Until recently.

When computer models estimated that the national average daily temperature for the Lower 48 states dropped to 17.9 degrees on Monday, it was the first deep freeze of that magnitude in 17 years, according to Greg Carbin, warning meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That stretch — from Jan. 13, 1997 to Monday — is by far the longest the U.S. has gone without the national average plunging below 18 degrees, according to a database of daytime winter temperatures starting in January 1900.

In the past 115 years, there have been 58 days when the national average temperature dropped below 18. Carbin said those occurrences often happen in periods that last several days so it makes more sense to talk about cold outbreaks instead of cold days. There have been 27 distinct cold snaps.

Between 1970 and 1989, a dozen such events occurred, but there were only two in the 1990s and then none until Monday.

"These types of events have actually become more infrequent than they were in the past," said Carbin, who works at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. "This is why there was such a big buzz because people have such short memories."

Said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the private firm Weather Underground: "It's become a lot harder to get these extreme (cold) outbreaks in a planet that's warming."

And Monday's breathtaking chill? It was merely the 55th coldest day — averaged for the continental United States — since 1900.

The coldest day for the Lower 48 since 1900 — as calculated by the computer models — was 12 degrees on Christmas Eve 1983, nearly 6 degrees chillier than Monday.

The average daytime winter temperature is about 33 degrees, according to Carbin's database.

There have been far more unusually warm winter days in the U.S. than unusually cold ones.

Since Jan. 1, 2000, only two days have ranked in the top 100 coldest: Monday and Tuesday. But there have been 13 in the top 100 warmest winter days, including the warmest since 1900: Dec. 3, 2012. And that pattern is exactly what climate scientists have been saying for years, that the world will get more warm extremes and fewer cold extremes.

Nine of 11 outside climate scientists and meteorologists who reviewed the data for the AP said it showed that as the world warms from heat-trapping gas spewed by the burning of fossil fuels, winters are becoming milder. The world is getting more warm extremes and fewer cold extremes, they said.

"We expect to see a lengthening of time between cold air outbreaks due to a warming climate, but 17 years between outbreaks is probably partially due to an unusual amount of natural variability," or luck, Masters said in an email. "I expect we'll go far fewer than 17 years before seeing the next cold air outbreak of this intensity.

And the scientists dismiss global warming skeptics who claim one or two cold days somehow disproves climate change.

"When your hands are freezing off trying to scrape the ice off your car, it can be all too tempting to say, 'Where's global warming now? I could use a little of that!' But you know what? It's not as cold as it used to be anymore," Texas Tech University climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe said in an email.

The recent cold spell, which was triggered by a frigid air mass known as the polar vortex that wandered way south of normal, could also be related to a relatively new theory that may prove a weather wild card, said Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis. Her theory, which has divided mainstream climate scientists, says that melting Arctic sea ice is changing polar weather, moving the jet stream and causing "more weirdness."

Ryan Maue, a meteorologist with the private firm Weather Bell Analytics who is skeptical about blaming global warming for weather extremes, dismisses Francis' theory and said he has concerns about the accuracy of Carbin's database. Maue has his own daily U.S. average temperature showing that Monday was colder than Carbin's calculations.

Still, he acknowledged that cold nationwide temperatures "occurred with more regularity in the past."

Many climate scientists say Americans are weather weenies who forgot what a truly cold winter is like.

"I think that people's memory about climate is really terrible," Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler wrote in an email. "So I think this cold event feels more extreme than it actually is because we're just not used to really cold winters anymore."

Former Bank of Israel head gets Fed vice chair nod

Former Bank of Israel head gets Fed vice chair nod, President Barack Obama intends to nominate Stanley Fischer, a former head of the Bank of Israel, to be vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, replacing Janet Yellen, who is ascending to the central bank's chairmanship.

Fischer, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, is considered a leading expert on monetary policy. He was a long-time professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Departing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was one of his students.

Obama also is nominating Lael Brainard as a Fed governor. Brainard served as the undersecretary for international affairs at Treasury during Obama's first term. She left the administration recently. He also is renominating Jerome Powell to the Fed for a second term.

"These three distinguished individuals have the proven experience, judgment and deep knowledge of the financial system to serve at the Federal Reserve during this important time for our economy," Obama said in a statement.

In selecting Fischer, Obama is tapping someone with extensive experience in global economics to serve on the Fed's seven-member board. Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank and deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. He led the Bank of Israel from 2005 until 2013.

During his time as the No. 2 official at the IMF from 1994 to 2001, Fischer dealt with a number of countries in financial crises. The 1997-98 Asian currency crisis forced a number of nations to seek support packages from the IMF to stabilize their currencies and emerge from deep recessions.

"He is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading and most experienced economic policy minds, and I'm grateful he has agreed to take on this new role, and I am confident that he and Janet Yellen will make a great team," Obama said.

Obama praised Brainard as "one of my top and most trusted international economic advisers during a challenging time not just at home, but for our global economy as well."

Economists said they did not expect Fischer, 70, to dissent from the activist approach to Fed policy that Bernanke and Yellen have supported. That effort has kept interest rates low in an effort to stimulate growth and fight high unemployment in the wake of the 2007-09 recession.

Critics of this approach have worried that the central bank's low interest rate policies, including massive purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, could be setting the stage for future economic problems. The concern is that the prolonged period of low interest rates could trigger unwanted inflation down the road and also threatens to build up bubbles in assets such as stock which could destabilize financial markets.

David Jones, chief economist at DMJ Advisors and the author of several books on the Fed, said that Fischer had an excellent reputation in the field of monetary policy and would bring expertise in global economics.

"The White House has reached out to someone who has a wealth of not only theoretical experience but practical experience in monetary policy," Jones said.

In addition to serving as Bernanke's faculty adviser when he was writing his doctoral thesis at MIT, Fischer also taught Mario Draghi, the current head of the European Central Bank. He also wrote or co-authored a number of influential college economics textbooks.

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University, said that Fischer's selection to be a top official at the U.S. central bank after he had headed Israel's central bank followed a pattern set recently by Britain. That country tapped Mark Carney, who had been head of the Bank of Canada, to take over this year as the new head of the Bank of England.

"I think we are going to see more and more such moves," Sohn said. "Because of globalization, the world economy is now very interconnected."

During his time as head of Israel's central bank, Fischer earned praise for his handling of Israel's economy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

After leaving the IMF in 2001, Fischer worked from February 2002 to April 2005 at U.S. banking giant Citigroup, holding various positions including president of Citigroup International.

US economy adds 74K jobs, rate falls to 6.7 pct.

US economy adds 74K jobs, rate falls to 6.7 pct.,  U.S. employers added a scant 74,000 jobs in December, the fewest in three years. The disappointing figure ended 2013 on a weak note and raises questions about whether the job market can sustain its recent gains.

Economists cautioned that cold weather likely played a role in the sharp slowdown in hiring. Job gains had averaged 214,000 in the previous four months.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate fell from 7 percent in November to 6.7 percent, its lowest level since October 2008. But the drop occurred mostly because many Americans stopped looking for jobs. Once people without jobs stop looking for one, the government no longer counts them as unemployed.

The proportion of people either working or looking for work fell to 62.8 percent, matching a nearly 36-year low. Last month's expiration of extended unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans could accelerate that trend if many of them stop looking for work. They had been required to look for work in order to receive benefits.

The stock market fell in early trading. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 46 points to 16,398 . And the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.88 percent from 2.97 late Thursday.

It's unclear whether the sharp hiring slowdown might lead the Federal Reserve to rethink its plan to slow stimulus efforts. The Fed decided last month to pare its monthly bond purchases, which have been designed to lower interest rates to spur borrowing and spending.

"I don't think the Fed is going to be panicked by this," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

Naroff suggested that the 6.7 percent unemployment rate — a drop of more than a full percentage point since 2013 began — will eventually lead many employers to raise wages.

"It doesn't change what they're thinking," Naroff said of the Fed.

Many economists said they would want to see more data before concluding that the economy had lost momentum.

"We stop short of making larger observations based on this number," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at brokerage firm BTIG. "The economy, based on any number of other indicators, has been picking up steam of late which makes today's number..curious."

Unusually cold weather might have slowed hiring in December. Construction companies, which are heavily dependent on weather conditions, cut 16,000 jobs, the biggest drop in 20 months.

Michael Hanson, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, estimated that the cold weather lowered hiring by about 75,000 jobs.

It would still be a weak report even if those jobs were added back in, Hanson said. But he cautioned against reading too much into a single month's jobs report.

"It's a warning sign that things maybe weren't as strong as we thought," Hanson said. But "it's really hard to make an inference from one number."

Other economists were also skeptical. Mark Vitner of Wells Fargo noted that several industries reported unusually steep job losses. Accounting and bookkeeping services, for example, lost 24,700 jobs, the most in nearly 11 years.

And performing arts and spectator sports cut 11,600, the most in 2½ years. The movie industry shed 13,700 jobs.

"These are not the areas that tend to sway the employment report," Vitner said.

Health care cut 6,000 positions, that industry's first monthly cut in 10 years. It could raise questions about the effect of President Barack Obama's health care reform.

Vitner noted that health care layoffs had been announced over the fall and that these figures appear to be "genuine."

Transportation and warehousing cut some jobs, suggesting that shippers hired fewer workers for the holidays. Governments cut 13,000 positions.

Despite December's sharp slowdown, monthly job gains averaged 182,000 last year, nearly matching the average monthly gains for the previous two years.

One bright spot was manufacturing. Factories added 9,000 positions, the fifth straight gain. Still, that's down from 31,000 in November. Retailers added 55,000 jobs.

Recent data have painted a picture of an economy on the steady rise. Exports hit a record level in November, lowering the U.S. trade deficit. Businesses have ordered more manufactured goods. Auto sales reached a six-year high in 2013.

Analysts now estimate that the economy expanded at a healthy annual rate of 3 percent to 3.5 percent in the October-December quarter. That's up from earlier forecasts of a 2 percent rate or less. It would follow a strong 4.1 percent growth rate reported for the July-September quarter.

US government cuts Obamacare website contractor

US government cuts Obamacare website contractor, The U.S. government will end its contract with CGI Federal, the IT contractor responsible for building the troubled Obamacare website, the Washington Post reported on Friday in its online edition.

The paper, quoting a person familiar with the matter, said U.S. health officials were planning to sign a one-year contract instead with Accenture, after concluding that CGI has not been effective enough in fixing the problems with HealthCare.gov.

The federal government is ending this business with CGI as the contract period is set to run out at the end of February, the paper said. It also said the government had the option of renewing the contract.

Fort Lee's bond to bridge at heart of scandal

Fort Lee's bond to bridge at heart of scandal,  When Mayor Mark Sokolich's annual Christmas card showed up in mailboxes a few weeks ago, some residents took careful note of the photo selected for the front: the steely silhouette of this borough's treasured, and sometimes detested, George Washington Bridge — and a Revolutionary War cannon firing off a shot, as if to warn off unseen enemies who might try to threaten it.

"My opinion, just as a recipient of the card, I think the photo speaks for itself," said Tom Myers, a fourth-generation resident, town cultural officer and student of Fort Lee's history, chuckling at the thought.

Until a political scandal centering on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enveloped this town of 37,000, many people knew little more about Fort Lee than do the thousands of drivers whose cars speed — or, too often, crawl — across its landmark bridge each day. The town was just the blur of glass high-rises and brick Cape Cods on the other side of the guardrail.

But to people who live in this New York City bedroom community defined by both a feisty pride and frustration over the mixed blessings of its chokepoint locale, the scandal is the reminder they did not need of how the bridge dictates the rhythm of everyday life — and the lack of recognition the town gets for the challenges that poses.

"We endure combat here every single day dealing with that bridge traffic," Sokolich said Thursday, when he stepped before television cameras to respond to allegations that Christie's top aides orchestrated a plan to clog the borough streets with traffic as a form of political payback. "So ... to deal with it from a man-made standpoint, yes, it's very frustrating. It is."

To those who know Fort Lee, rather than merely pass through it, the borough boasts a distinct identity, shaped by location and history. The borough distinguished itself first as the site of a Revolutionary War encampment used to stage a crucial, but unsuccessful attempt by George Washington's forces to turn back the British. A century ago, Fort Lee briefly reclaimed fame as the nation's pre-Hollywood capital of movie-making, where celluloid dramas shot atop the rocks of the Palisades gave birth to the term "cliffhangers." And it has long defied stereotypes of suburban sameness as a settling place for immigrant up-and-comers, with aging Italian and Jewish populations now giving way to Koreans and other Asians.

But the bridge to Manhattan is what puts the "gateway to New Jersey" on the map every waking day, and defines its modern-day consciousness.

The bridge's outline stretches across the insignia of both Fort Lee's fire department and its sister ambulance corps, as well as the police department's Web page. Each of the 20 cabs at Babe's Taxi, which has operated from the foot of the bridge since 1947, crosses the bridge at least 10 times a day, ferrying residents to and from New York's hospitals, nightclubs and museums.

People know here to set the clocks early to leave time to get their kids to school in the morning because of rush-hour New York-bound traffic. On their way to stop for coffee at Washington Bridge Plaza, they pass the Bridge Hand Car Wash and the just-opened G.W. Grill, where a DJ sets up on Fridays and Saturdays in front of a 10-foot airbrushed mural of the bridge twinkling at night.

In the shadow of the world's busiest river crossing, owner Don Sposa stood at the window of the bridge-themed restaurant Thursday, marveling at the majesty and frustrations of the span and now, the unseemly notoriety it has delivered to this often overlooked town.

"We need it. I guess we have to love it," he said of the bridge. "We have no choice."When the marvel of engineering over the Hudson River opened in 1931, it was touted for its promise, soon colored by political reality.

Franco Pietropaoloa, a barber in downtown Fort Lee for 55 years, says a fellow hair clipper, now dead, often recalled that, at its opening, bridge operators promised that once its construction was paid off, crossing the George Washington would be a free trip.

"Now the bridge is $13. It's a disgrace," Pietropaoloa said.

When the bridge was under construction, local officials and developers foresaw a land boom for what was then still a town with farms and some unpaved roads. The borough took on heavy debts to pay for new streets and pipes. But the Great Depression erased those hopes and Fort Lee spent the 1950s in receivership. Development kicked in only in the 1960s, when builders began putting up apartment towers for New York commuters.

But once Fort Lee got its bridge and figured out how to leverage its location, life became governed by the incessant thrum of its traffic. That explains much about the reaction here to the allegations of political mischief.

"The tie-up was horrific," said Suzanne Miller, a retired accountant sipping her coffee in a bakery blocks from the bridge Thursday. She recalled the days in September when Christie allies ordered entry lanes to the span closed suddenly. A drive from home to the shop three blocks away that would normally take a minute took 20.

Miller noted that she voted for Christie in November because he seemed like somebody who got things done. "That's what I liked about him. He didn't take too much B.S. He told it like it was. I thought he was different."

Now, though, reading news accounts of how the traffic slowed an ambulance crew from reaching a 91-year-old woman who later died, she is doubtful, thinking about her own 96-year-old mother in town. "I'm not amused."

"It's wacko. I've never seen anything like it," said Melissa Kelly, a singer who lives in Fort Lee, recalling how a house guest was forced to walk across the nearly mile-long bridge to Manhattan because of the frozen traffic. "Who are these people? Who are they? Why do they do these crazy things?"

But others took Christie at his word Thursday when he apologized and said he had no knowledge of his aide's misdoings. They chalked it up to politics, and some pointed out that life here has long meant complaining about traffic, no matter whose fault it is. Most recently, some residents have complained mightily about a pair of 47-story glass towers going up just south of the bridge, and the traffic the new residents will add to the borough's roads.

"This is what Fort Lee is going to become more and more, and you have to get used to that," said Susan Boni, the owner of the Frames of Mine shop, within sight of the bridge, who lived in the town for 25 years.

Boni applauded Christie's apology Thursday, accepting it as a sign of leadership and responsibility, and felt ready to move on. Then she heard that he was planning to helicopter into the borough to deliver his apology personally and started imagining the traffic that, hours later, true to her prediction, locked up borough streets.

"I heard this morning that he's coming to Fort Lee and I thought, ugh, there goes my day."

Feds recognize same-sex couples in Utah

Feds recognize same-sex couples in Utah,  The Obama administration extended federal recognition to the marriages of more than 1,000 same-sex couples in Utah that took place before the Supreme Court put those unions in the state on hold.

The action will enable the government to extend eligibility for federal benefits to these couples. That means gay and lesbian couples can file federal taxes jointly, get Social Security benefits for spouses and request legal immigration status for partners.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their benefits while courts decide the issue of same-sex marriage in Utah.

The decision came days after Utah officials said they would not recognize the marriages. The office of Gov. Gary Herbert told state agencies this week to put a freeze on proceeding with any new benefits for the newly married gay and lesbian couples until the courts sort out the matter.

Neither Herbert nor Attorney General Sean Reyes had immediate comment on Holder's announcement.

More than 1,000 gay and lesbian couples took home marriage licenses from local clerks after a federal judge overturned Utah's same-sex marriage ban on Dec. 20. Utah voters approved the ban in 2004.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court put a halt to same-sex marriages in Utah while the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers the long-term question of whether gay couples have a right to marry in Utah.

State agencies aren't supposed to revoke anything already issued, such as a marriage certificate or a driver's license with a new name, but they are prohibited from approving any new marriages or benefits. State officials said the validity of the marriages will ultimately be decided by the appeals court.

Holder's declaration marked the latest chapter in the legal battle over same-sex marriage in Utah that has sent couples and state officials on a helter-skelter wave of emotions over the last three weeks.

Federal government agencies have previously confirmed that same-sex couples in other states are entitled to federal benefits, but this is the first time Holder has come out publicly and issued this kind of guidance, said Douglas NeJaime, a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine.

"Symbolically, it's an important step that the federal; government has taken," NeJaime said.

But it's not surprising, he said. The federal government has been making clear for several years that same-sex marriages should be honored.

"The fed government has been pushing up against the states that do not recognize same-sex marriages already," NeJaime said. "This is another step in that direction."

Holder said in a video on the Justice Department's website that the government will coordinate among agencies in the coming days to make sure Utah couples get the federal benefits they are entitled to.

The attorney general said that "for purposes of federal law, these marriages will be recognized as lawful and considered eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages."

Holder's declaration was greeted with applause among same-sex couples in Utah.

"It gives me hope moving forward in the appeals process," Moudi Sbeity said. "It shows that there really is a social and cultural shift in viewpoints and mindsets toward marriage equality."

Sbeity and partner Derek Kitchen are among three couples who brought the Utah lawsuit that led to the surprise Dec. 20 ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby, who said the state's ban on same-sex marriage violated gay and lesbian couples' constitutional rights.

Sbeity said he hopes Holder's declaration will persuade Herbert to shift the state's position. "I'm sure he doesn't want 1,300 lawsuits on his desk," Sbeity said.

Several hundred same-sex marriage supporters were planning a rally at the Utah State Capitol on Friday afternoon. Organizers planned to deliver a petition to the governor and state attorney general asking them to let the federal judge's ruling stand and allow gay marriages to continue.

Tim Wagner of Salt Lake City, one of the organizers of the rally said Holder's announcement was "pretty amazing" and a great thing for the newly married couples.

"It sounds like our national attorney general actually sees the law in the way it should be acknowledged," Wagner said. "The law is on the side of rights and the people who want to love the people they love."

On Thursday, the Utah attorney general issued legal advice to local clerks, advising them to finish paperwork for same-sex marriages completed before the Supreme Court issued a temporary halt.

Reyes' new advice was issued to clear up some confusion and only applies to marriages that were solemnized, said his spokeswoman, Missy Larsen.

"As long as the marital ceremony happened prior to the stay, then the marriage can receive documentation," Larsen said.

The attorney general's office said Thursday's guidance was not a decision on whether the marriages are valid.

Utah University investigating possible sperm swap at clinic

Utah University investigating possible sperm swap at clinic, The University of Utah is investigating what it calls "credible information" that a woman at a Salt Lake City area clinic was artificially inseminated with sperm, not from her husband, but from a part-time lab employee.

The school released a statement saying no records remained at the now-closed lab, Reproductive Medical Technologies Inc, to prove the woman's claim, and that the part-time employee died in 1999.

A University of Utah spokeswoman on Friday declined to comment beyond the statement, which said the university did not own or operate the lab, but contracted with it for specimen preparation and semen analysis.

"Through genetic testing, a woman who received artificial insemination in 1991 discovered the biological father of her child was not her husband, as she had assumed," the university statement said. "She traced the genetics of her child to a man who was a former employee of a now-defunct medical lab, Reproductive Medical Technologies Inc."

Three of the clinic's owners were faculty or staff at the University of Utah, which also owned an adjacent lab, and the employee whose sperm was involved also worked part-time at RMTI between 1988 and 1993, the statement said.

The university said it had been unable to determine how the sperm could have been swapped, but said there was no evidence that any other couples were affected.

It said it was offering free paternity testing for women who received artificial insemination at RMTI or at the adjacent university-owned lab between 1988 and 1993.

Civil rights sit-in pioneer Franklin McCain dies

Civil rights sit-in pioneer Franklin McCain dies, Franklin McCain, who helped spark a movement of nonviolent sit-in protests across the South by occupying a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in 1960, has died, his son said Friday. He was 73.

McCain died of respiratory complications late Thursday, Frank McCain of Greensboro said Friday.

Franklin McCain was one of four freshmen students from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro who sat down at the local "whites only" lunch counter on Feb. 1, 1960.

"The best feeling of my life," McCain said in a 2010 interview with The Associated Press, was "sitting on that dumb stool."

"I felt so relieved," he added. "I felt so at peace and so self-accepted at that very moment. Nothing has ever happened to me since then that topped that good feeling of being clean and fully accepted and feeling proud of me."

McCain, Joseph McNeil, David Richmond and Ezell Blair Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan) planned their surprise action carefully. They bought school supplies and toiletries so that their receipts would offer proof that the lunch counter was the only part of the store where racial segregation still ruled.

The young men stayed until the store closed but returned the next day and subsequent days. They were joined by more protesters, whose numbers built to at least 1,000 by the fifth day. Within weeks, sit-ins launched in more than 50 cities in nine states. The Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro was desegregated within six months.

The sit-in led to the formation in Raleigh of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which became the cutting edge of the student direct-action civil rights movement. The demonstrations between 1960 and 1965 helped pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

"To the world, he was a civil rights pioneer who, along with his three classmates, dared to make a difference by starting the sit-in movement," McCain's family said in a prepared statement. "To us, he was 'Daddy' - a man who deeply loved his family and cherished his friends."

McCain graduated in 1964, became a research chemist and sales executive, and moved to Charlotte. His wife of 48 years, Bettye, died a year ago. He served on his alma mater's board of trustees, then spent four years on the governing board of the 17-campus University of North Carolina system. His term on the public university board ended last year.

"What I think people should remember most about Franklin is that his courage and commitment to doing what was right didn't end at Woolworth's," said state university system president Tom Ross, who grew up in Greensboro. "That commitment continued throughout his life, and he channeled it in ways that really mattered, particularly in his service and devotion to our university and to higher education."

Richmond died in 1990. McNeil is now 71 and Khazan is 72, said Steffany Reeve, a spokeswoman for the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, which occupies the former Woolworth's store.

Damage-control scramble followed NJ lane closings

Damage-control scramble followed NJ lane closings,  Officials squabbled over media leaks and worried about bad publicity in the days after lane closings near the George Washington Bridge caused huge traffic jams that now appear to have been politically orchestrated by members of Gov. Chris Christie's administration, documents released Friday show.

In the documents, officials appointed by Christie seemed more concerned about the political fallout than the effects of the gridlock in the town of Fort Lee during four mornings in September.

The thousands of pages were released by a New Jersey legislative committee investigating the scandal, which could haunt Christie's expected run for president in 2016. The documents mostly involve the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that runs the bridge.

Lawmakers are looking into allegations that Christie loyalists engineered the tie-ups to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie for re-election.

The documents show that the traffic mess created tension between New York and New Jersey appointees at the Port Authority, with the New York side angrily countermanding the lane closings.

In the correspondence, Port Authority chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee, suggested that the authority's executive director, Patrick Foye, who was appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, had leaked to a reporter an internal memo ordering an end to the lane closings.

Samson called that possibility "very unfortunate for NY/NJ relations."

On Thursday, Christie moved to contain the damage from the scandal, firing his deputy chief of staff, cutting ties to one of his chief political advisers and apologizing for the traffic jams. Two Christie appointees at the Port Authority resigned last month as the scandal unfolded.

Christie has denied any involvement in the lane closings, and the two batches of documents released on Wednesday and Friday do not implicate him.

The latest documents contain several emails from Port Authority media relations staff to higher-ups reporting on calls from reporters with questions about the closings. The agency did not respond to those calls.

It was Foye's Sept. 13 email that ordered the lanes reopened that generated deep discussion. In it, Foye called the decision to close the lanes "abusive" and added, "I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates federal law."

Bill Baroni, the Christie-appointed deputy director who has since resigned, forwarded a copy of the angry email to Christie's scheduling secretary.

Later that morning, Baroni emailed Foye: "I am on my way to office to discuss. There can be no public discourse."

Foye responded: "Bill that's precisely the problem: there has been no public discourse on this."

Baroni later authorized a statement for reporters explaining that the closings were part of a traffic study.

In recent weeks, there have been questions about the whether the closings were part of a legitimate study.

Christie himself said on Thursday: "I don't know whether this was a traffic study that then morphed into a political vendetta or a political vendetta that morphed into a traffic study."

The newly released documents show that there was, in fact, a traffic study that was done, or at least a preliminary one. Two versions turned up in the documents — one was six pages and the other 16. Both were dated Sept. 12, the day before the lanes reopened.

The documents include study findings that Baroni gave to lawmakers at a hearing last year: When the lanes were closed, the main bridge traffic moved a bit faster, but local traffic had major delays.

Michael Cassidy, a University of California-Berkeley engineering professor who occasionally works with the California Department of Transportation, told The Associated Press that the preliminary study appears to be a legitimate internal report of the sort transportation officials often circulate among themselves.

"It could well be a good-faith effort, if not the finest in the annals. I cannot say this is not a study," he said. "You wouldn't want to publish it in an academic journal."

How to deal with the fallout from the traffic jams became an issue.

In an Oct. 9 email exchange under the subject "morning clips," Philippe Danielides, a senior adviser at the Port Authority, asked David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the agency who has since resigned, "Has any thought been given to writing an op-ed or providing a statement about the GWB study? Or is the plan just to hunker down and grit our way through it?"

"Yes and yes," Wildstein replied.

In a Sept. 17 email, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak appears to send Wildstein a response to be sent to a reporter writing about the lane closings. "Traffic studies or pilots are done all the time," he wrote. "They're temporary, and if they're not done, how can the effectiveness of a new approach be tested?"

The documents also showed confusion from some Port Authority employees as the closings were starting.

One employee asked, "What is driving this?" Another responded that he was wondering the same thing: "It seems like we are punishing all for the sake of a few."

And another employee passed along a complaint from a woman who said that her husband, who had been out of work for more than a year, was 40 minutes late for a job interview because of the tie-ups.

One Port Authority police officer went searching for answers.

"The undersigned inquired if this is a permanent plan or temporary," Capt. Darcy Licorish wrote in an email recounting her meeting with the bridge manager. "The manager could not supply an answer to that or other questions. Inquiry was also made as to the notifications of the township. No answers could be supplied."

Larry Speakes, former Reagan spokesman, dies at 74

Larry Speakes, former Reagan spokesman, dies at 74,  Larry Speakes, who spent six years as acting press secretary for President Ronald Reagan, died Friday in his native Mississippi. He was 74.

Speakes died at home in Cleveland, Miss., where he had lived the past several years. Bolivar County Coroner Nate Brown said Speakes had Alzheimer's disease.

"He died in his sleep and it was a natural death," Brown said.

Kenny Williams of Cleveland Funeral Home said Speakes was buried in North Cleveland Cemetery during a private service Friday morning, a few hours after dying.

Speakes became Reagan's acting spokesman after Press Secretary James Brady was injured during an assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981.

After resigning his White House job in 1987, Speakes worked for Merrill Lynch in New York. He returned to Washington in 1988 and worked in public relations for Northern Telecom and the U. S. Postal Service, retiring in 2008.

Speakes grew up in Merigold, Miss., and graduated from the University of Mississippi. He worked for two Mississippi newspapers, the Oxford Eagle and the Bolivar Commercial, before going to Washington in 1968 as press secretary for U.S. Sen. James O. Eastland, D-Miss.

In 1974, Speakes worked as press secretary for the special counsel to President Richard Nixon during the Watergate hearings. After Nixon resigned, Speakes became assistant press secretary for President Gerald Ford.

Speakes worked as press secretary for Ford's vice presidential running mate, Bob Dole, during the 1976 campaign. After Democrat Jimmy Carter won the election, he moved to the Hill and Knowlton public relations firm in Washington. Speakes worked for Reagan's transition team after Reagan won the 1980 election, then became deputy press secretary under Brady.

Speakes is survived by a daughter, Sandy Speakes Huerta of Cleveland, Miss; sons Scott Speakes of Cleveland, Miss., and Jeremy Speakes of Clifton, Va.; six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Dial 9 before 911? Hotel death prompts petition

Dial 9 before 911? Hotel death prompts petition, Hank Hunt's granddaughter tried calling 911 from the East Texas hotel room where she could hear her mother dying, just as she was taught to do in an emergency. She didn't know she had to dial 9 on the hotel phone first.

"Papa," Hunt remembers the 9-year-old telling him later. "I tried, but it wouldn't work."

Now Hunt has launched a national push to require hotels and other businesses to do away with dialing anything before calling 911. So far, an online petition for a federal law has gotten 390,000 signatures, and one 911 advocacy group says Hunt has hit on a perhaps under-documented issue.

"I never dreamed that it would take a life of its own like this," Hunt said this week. "There's been a lot of good people out there helping us."

Hunt's petition calls for "Kari's Law," in honor of his daughter, Kari Hunt Dunn, who was stabbed to death inside a Baymont Inn hotel, allegedly by her estranged husband. The law as described by the petition would require hotels and motels to upgrade to "Enhanced 911" systems that would let guests call for help just by dialing 911 and give the operator the caller's exact location.

The National Emergency Number Association, a group representing 911 call takers and industry professionals, says such changes are long overdue. Government affairs director Trey Forgety said the association did not know exactly how many callers try to dial 911 and fail. But officials hear "with some regularity" from member law enforcement agencies about callers who couldn't get through, he said.

"If it makes it onto our radar a few times a year, then it does sort of beg the question: How many identical situations are out there that we just don't hear about?" Forgety said.

Police in Marshall, about 150 miles east of Dallas, say Brad Dunn entered a room in the Baymont Inn where Kari Dunn and their three children were staying. Hunt said Brad Dunn took his estranged wife into the bathroom, leaving the children outside.

Det. Sonya Johnson said that as Brad Dunn began stabbing Kari Dunn, their eldest daughter tried to call for help. Four times, Hunt said, she dialed 911. Each time, it came up with static. Hunt said the children eventually ran into the hallway and found someone in a nearby room to call 911.

Brad Dunn would flee with their younger daughter and was arrested in a neighboring county. He's now accused of murder and being held on $5 million bond. His attorney, Scott Rectenwald, declined to comment.

Hunt and Johnson could not say how much extra time it took to call 911 due to the delay, or whether that time could have saved Kari's life.

"We have no sense of knowing, because she never did make the call," Johnson saidThere were no immediate figures available on how many hotels require guests to dial 9 to make outside calls. Wyndham Hotel Group, which owns the Baymont Inn brand, said in a statement it was "looking into the issues that have been raised in the petition," but declined to say how many of its hotels require guests to dial 9 or what changes it was making.

Hotel experts say an industry-wide change could be made without a national law.

Don O'Neal, a Dallas-based hotel technology consultant for more than 30 years, said one hotel he worked with recently made 8 the code for outside calls — but programmed 911 calls to work without a prefix.

A handful of hotels either use old systems or more basic phone systems that aren't intended for hospitality use.

"If this particular hotel did not have it set up properly, it was strictly because they didn't have the programming done, or else they had a telephone system that was not very current," O'Neal said.

One issue is that a direct-dial system might notify police, but not a hotel's front desk, about an urgent situation to which staff could respond more quickly, said Chad Callahan, safety and security consultant for the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Callahan said he didn't think a law was necessary.

"Working together on these things, hotels can be reasonable about it," Callahan said. "As long as they understand it, they'll probably do the right thing in most cases."

But NENA officials said some requirements are needed for all businesses that serve guests.

"The brand knowledge of 911 is one of the highest in the world," said Ty Wooten, the group's education director. "When you put anything or do anything that requires someone to do something other than dialing 911, it lends itself to potential problems."

____

Congress is majority millionaire

Congress is majority millionaire, For the first time in history, a majority of the members of Congress are millionaires. According to Open Secrets' analysis of financial disclosure data, 268 of 534 current members of Congress had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012. Open Secrets calls this "a watershed moment at a time when lawmakers are debating issues like unemployment benefits, food stamps and the minimum wage, which affect people with far fewer resources, as well as considering an overhaul of the tax code."

We've always known that certain members of Congress are wealthy. Rep. Darrell Issa, for example, had an average net worth of about $464 million in 2012. But now, even fewer representatives and senators can reasonably relate to the middle class, not to mention citizens living in poverty. For what it's worth, there are slightly more wealthy Democrats in Congress than Republicans. Congressional Dems' median net worth was $1.04 million in 2012; Republicans' was $1 million.

The poorest members of Congress are Rep. David Valdao, who's in debt due to loans for his family dairy farm, and Rep. Alcee Hastings, who's in debt over legal bills dating back to the 1980s.

Of course, most of congressional members' wealth comes from investments and book deals, not government salaries. As Open Secrets illustrates, GE is the most popular investment among congressional members.

Meanwhile, Congress has yet to reinstate benefits for the long-term unemployed, which lapsed just before the new year. The Senate may reach a deal today to extend benefits for 1.4 million Americans, Reuters reports.

RI woman finds wrong body in her mother's casket

RI woman finds wrong body in her mother's casket, A woman wants answers after discovering the wrong body in a casket that should have contained her mother, who died unexpectedly while on vacation in St. Maarten.

Lisa Kondvar, of Warwick, and her family discovered another woman's body in the casket at a New Jersey funeral home last month. The body of her mother, Margaret Porkka, had been prepared at a funeral home on the island.

"I looked up, and I was like, 'Good God, are you kidding me?' I was stunned," Kondvar said by telephone Friday.

The family proceeded with the wake, with the casket closed, because they discovered the mistake just before calling hours were about to begin.

The relatives believe a hospital or funeral home confused Porkka's body with that of a Canadian woman who died on the island around the same time. They also think Porkka's body was cremated in Ottawa.

The family wants to know for sure and will take possession of the ashes if they are determined to be those of Porkka, Kondvar said.

The two dead women bore no resemblance to one another and were of different frames and heights, she said. The family has hired a detective and is looking for an international attorney.

St. Maarten Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams said Friday the government there has formed a committee to investigate the case at the request of U.S. officials and will conduct a DNA analysis to verify the identities of both bodies.

She said the women were in their 80s and died Nov. 29 from natural causes and their bodies were flown to the U.S. on the same airline. She said the body flown to Canada was cremated.

Emerald Funeral Home director Orlando Vanterpool said he took the bodies to the airport on the same day and the air trays containing the bodies were identical.

"To my knowledge, we sent the correct human remains," he said. "Everything was regulated with the government. All the paperwork was in order, but apparently somewhere, somehow, something happened."

Vanterpool said he would give the family a refund if the government determines a mistake was made.

Kondvar said her sister wasn't allowed to see the body on the island and the funeral home wouldn't release it unless the family wired $7,000 in cash because it wouldn't accept a check or credit cards.

Vanterpool said Emerald Funeral Home has a policy of not releasing human remains until the necessary payments have been made, especially if the remains are being flown abroad.

St. Maarten, which is part of the Netherlands, shares a Caribbean island with St. Martin, a French dependency. Porkka and the family were there over Thanksgiving.

Kondvar said her 82-year-old father, who lives in Englewood, N.J., and couldn't make the trip to St. Maarten, is distraught after being unable to say goodbye to his wife of more than 60 years.

"He's very angry and very bitter," she said.

Kondvar said a cause of death for her mother hasn't been provided and the death certificate issued in St. Maarten listed her as a man.

Air Force drug probe grows to 10 officers, 6 bases

Air Force drug probe grows to 10 officers, 6 bases, An Air Force investigation into alleged drug use in the ranks has expanded to include 10 officers at six bases in the U.S. and Britain.

Nine lieutenants and one captain are being investigated for illegal possession of recreational drugs, Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Brett Ashworth said Friday. The case began with the investigation of two officers at Edwards Air Force Base in California and quickly widened to several other bases because of the airmen's contacts with others about drug possession, he said.

The probe surfaced Thursday as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming to give a pep talk to members of the nuclear missile force. Initially, officials revealed that two nuclear launch control officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana were being investigated for drug use.

On Friday, Ashworth said the probe now includes officers at Edwards and Malmstrom as well as at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Royal Air Force base Lakenheath in eastern England, which hosts U.S. Air Force units and personnel.

No other details about the investigation, which is being conducted by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, are being released.

White House weighs in on Kimmel China controversy

White House weighs in on Kimmel China controversy, The White House has weighed in on a petition calling for the government to crack down on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," a television talk show that sparked a furor in China in October with a joke about killing Chinese people to avoid paying down U.S. debt to the country.

More than 105,000 people signed on to a White House petition calling for an apology after the show, broadcast on ABC, included a segment where Kimmel asked a group of children how the United States should pay back the $1.3 trillion it owes to China, the world's second-largest economy.

A 6-year-old said, "Kill everyone in China." Kimmel replied: "That's an interesting idea."

Afterwards, Chinese-American groups protested outside the California headquarters of ABC, which is owned by Walt Disney Co, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry complained. ABC and Kimmel apologized for the segment.

The White House, which accepts petitions and responds to the most popular ones, noted that ABC and Kimmel have "already apologized independently" and said that the comments "do not reflect mainstream views of China in the United States."

"As the president has stated publicly, the United States welcomes the continuing peaceful rise of China," the White House said in its official response to the petition.

However, the White House also noted that the U.S. Constitution protects free speech and that the federal government cannot force ABC to "cut the show" as the petition had requested.

"It may be upsetting when people say things we might personally disagree with, but the principle of protected free speech is an important part of who we are as a nation," the White House said.

Neiman Marcus: Hackers may have stolen card data

Neiman Marcus: Hackers may have stolen card data, Luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus said on Friday that hackers may have stolen customers' credit and debit card information, the second cyber attack on a retailer in recent weeks.

The data breach comes after Target Corp on Friday said an investigation found a cyber attack compromised the information of at least 70 million customers, in the second-biggest retail cyber attack on record.

Neiman Marcus does not know the number of customers affected by the intrusion, company spokesperson Ginger Reeder said.

Neiman Marcus said its credit card processor alerted the retailer in December about potential unauthorized payment card activities and the U.S. Secret Service is investigating.

A third-party forensics firm confirmed the cyber-security intrusion on January 1, the company said.

Reeder declined to comment if the breach was related to the Target cyber attack.

Arkansas lt. gov. says he'll resign over ethics case

Arkansas lt. gov. says he'll resign over ethics case, Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mark Darr said Friday he would leave office Feb. 1, giving in to pressure from Democrats and fellow Republicans who said his impeachment was inevitable over ethics violations tied to his campaign and office spending

The state Ethics Commission last month had fined Darr, a Republican, for 11 separate violations, including making personal use of more than $30,000 of his campaign funds. The Office of Legislative Audit said Darr improperly spent $3,500 on his state credit card and improperly filed for an equal amount in travel reimbursements.

Darr signed a letter Dec. 30 in which he agreed to pay the $11,000 Ethics Commission fine, and he has pledged to reimburse the state for findings in the legislative audit. Darr insisted the violations were unintentional and had vowed to stay in office.

A day after the former pizza shop owner agreed to the Ethics Commission's fines, Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe and Republican members of the state's congressional delegation called for Darr to resign.

Darr's refusal to step down prompted legislative leaders to begin researching options for impeachment. House Majority Leader Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, said Darr's impeachment was inevitable if the lieutenant governor didn't quit.

House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, planned to appoint a committee to recommend procedures for impeachment, a process that hadn't been attempted by state lawmakers since 1871.

Darr was elected in 2010 as part of a Republican sweep into state and congressional offices. In 2013, he announced a run for Congress, but he dropped out of the race in August amid questions about his spending.

The lieutenant governor's job is a mostly ceremonial position whose duties include presiding over the state Senate and casting the rare tie-breaking vote in the 35-member chamber. He's paid nearly $42,000 a year.

Darr tangled with Beebe during the 2013 regular legislative session when he signed into law a bill that kept secret the list of residents with permits to carry concealed weapons. Beebe had left the state, which enabled Darr to act.

Beebe had planned to let the bill become law without his signature, but Darr said his passion for the Second Amendment prompted him to sign it.

"I always thought we had a pretty decent relationship," Beebe said at the time. "Obviously, I'll be much more careful. You can't turn your back now."

The Ethics Commission found that Darr violated portions of the Arkansas code 11 times. The panel said it determined that he had made personal use of $31,572.74 of his campaign funds, received excess contributions to retire his campaign debt, didn't maintain adequate records, failed to itemize loan repayments and accepted improper reimbursement for travel expenses.

Darr's ethics case is similar to one earlier this year involving former Democratic state Sen. Paul Bookout. In that case, Bookout resigned without public pressure from Beebe. Bookout accepted the Ethics Commission's findings and agreed to pay $8,000 in fines and to repay campaign contributors.

Darr's refusal to leave office threatened to overshadow GOP efforts in November to build on recent electoral gains, including the party's takeover of the state Legislature in the 2012 election. It had also undermined Republican efforts to tie Democrats to recent scandals, including Bookout and former state Treasurer Martha Shoffner's resignation over charges she accepted $36,000 from a broker who did business with the state. Shoffner, who faces trial in March, acknowledged taking the money and quit her post but said the money didn't influence her decision to steer state investments to the broker.

Missing plane found in Idaho; 5 aboard dead

Missing plane found in Idaho; 5 aboard dead,  The wreckage of a small plane that crashed in the central Idaho mountains more than a month ago, killing a Silicon Valley executive and the four others aboard, has been located following a persistent online and ground search that included the brother of the pilot, officials and family members said.

Debris from the single-engine plane was located Saturday, but Valley County Sheriff's Lt. Dan Smith said an incoming storm may delay recovery efforts.

The aircraft had been carrying the 51-year-old pilot, Dale Smith, a software executive from San Jose, Calif.; his son, Daniel Smith and his wife, Sheree Smith; and daughter Amber Smith with her fiance, Jonathan Norton, officials said.

The plane was flying from eastern Oregon, where the family had been spending the Thanksgiving holiday, to Montana, where Daniel and Sheree Smith live, when it disappeared Dec. 1, in the mountains 150 miles northeast of Boise.

Dale Smith's wife, Janis, said her husband's brother, Dellon Smith, was one of the private searchers who located the wreckage. Dellon Smith told her the plane had broken apart and was buried in snow. He told her it was obvious from the crash site that those aboard died quickly, she said.

"It's a real sense of closure to know exactly what happened and to know that they didn't suffer at all," she told The Associated Press.

Authorities had suspended the official search for the aircraft in mid-December, but volunteers, including friends and family, continued with a private search that used online analysis of satellite and other images of the terrain.

In this case, a pilot thought he spotted reflecting metal and the online searchers began studying landscape photos of that area, Janis Smith said. That led to a ground search.

"Dellon and his crew spent the entire day, from 3am onward trying to find the right location," she wrote on the plane search Facebook page. "The snow was very deep and the going was very slow. Less than two hours before they needed to wrap up the search for the foreseeable future," they found the wreckage.

Dale Smith reported engine trouble and sought information about a backcountry landing strip where he hoped to put the plane down safely.

Janis Smith said it appears the plane crashed moments after the last communication. She said the plane had caught fire.

According to Federal Aviation Administration records, Smith, an executive and co-founder of San Jose-based SerialTek, obtained his pilot's license in 2005.

Rand Kriech, who co-founded SerialTek with Smith in 2007, said he got a call Friday evening, telling him the wreckage had been found.

The private search initially involved hundreds of online volunteers analyzing satellite images of the terrain, looking for clues like damaged trees that might indicate a crash site, and posting that information back to the search website, Kriech said in a telephone interview.

His daughter, Kayla Kriech of San Ramon, Calif., said she was one of the administrators of the search website.

Satellite images were often unclear and cloud cover was a problem, so the search evolved, she said.

Volunteer pilots strapped tiny GoPro cameras to their aircraft, flew assigned grid patterns, and then grabbed screen shots every eight seconds or so from the video, Kayla Kriech said.

Information from those images was then analyzed.

One of those online volunteers was Sylvia Leach, who said she was a stay-at-home mom from the Aspen, Colo., area and joined the online effort after hearing about the missing family from a blog.

Leach said she spent several hours daily looking for the crash site.

"It wasn't an obsession, but I just knew that if it were my family, I'd want somebody to do the same for me," she told the AP.

Documents reveal anger, chaos in Christie bridge scandal

Documents reveal anger, chaos in Christie bridge scandal, Documents related to the bridge closure scandal engulfing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie revealed on Friday that authorities were deeply divided about the shutdown, with one warning it was illegal and risking people's lives.

More than 1,000 pages of anxiously awaited documents subpoenaed by New Jersey lawmakers investigating the massive, four-day traffic jam on the George Washington bridge were made public after revelations that Christie's staff appeared to have orchestrated the closure as political payback.

Christie, seen as a likely contender for the White House in 2016, has said he knew nothing about the plan until damaging emails from his staff were revealed on Wednesday. He fired a close aide and publicly apologized for the fiasco.

The documents, many subpoenaed from former Port Authority executive David Wildstein, cast new light on the turmoil within the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency overseeing the nation's busiest bridge.

On the fourth day of the shutdown, Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, lashed out in an email to executives, including Port Authority Chairman David Samson, and ordered the lanes reopened.

"I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates Federal Law and the laws of both states," Foye said in the email.

"I pray that no life has been lost or trip of a hospital- or hospice-bound patient delayed," said Foye of the traffic jam that delayed ambulances, including one called for a 91-year-old woman who later died.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat who chairs the Transportation Committee, said the documents raise more questions than they answer about whether Christie knew about the traffic tie-up.

"Included in these documents is a reference to what appears to be a meeting between Port Authority Chairman David Samson and the governor one week before Bridget Kelly issued the order to cause ‘traffic problems' in Fort Lee," Wisniewski said in a statement.

"By submitting these documents, Mr. Wildstein is telling us they are related to the lane closures in some way. The question that demands answering is - how?"

The documents show chaos and anger, but fail to clear up whether the epic tie-up was the result of what Christie said may have been a Port Authority traffic study.

In a September 6 email, Port Authority executive Daniel Jacobs, general manager of transportation, asked Gerard Quelch, in charge of planning and operations: "What is driving this?"

Quelch responded: "That is my question as well. A single toll operation invites potential disaster… It seems like we are punishing all for the sake of a few."

What is clear is that Port Authority police and bridge authorities had little advance notice of the shutdown, which they warned would paralyze Fort Lee, where three major roadways converge in an approach to the bridge.

"The 'test' was a monumental failure. Fort Lee is not happy," Bob Durando, director of the bridge, wrote in an email to a Port Authority traffic engineer.

There also appears to have been a concerted effort to keep the matter quiet. On the day he ordered the lanes reopened, Foye in an email told Wildstein's boss, Bill Baroni: "We are going to fix this fiasco."

Baroni wrote back: "I'm on my way to the office to discuss. There can be no public discourse."

Foye's response: "Bill that's precisely the problem: There has been no public discourse on this."

Christie said he was "blindsided" by the revelation that Kelly called for trouble at the commuter choke point, apparently to retaliate against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not having endorsed Christie's re-election campaign.

Christie had counted on his victory in November to show bipartisan appeal to increase his chances of winning his party's nomination for president, political experts have said.

Any implication in the documents released on Friday that Christie or his staff knew more about the plot than they have acknowledged could cause the scandal to dog Christie.

"He's not fully in control of this story anymore," said Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University. "Because he took such a firm stand yesterday and was emphatic that this was it, any information that shows otherwise will continue the story and force him to put more time on it."

Christie has long cultivated an image as a brash, tough-talking leader willing to buck his party for the good of his constituents. On Thursday, however, he took a more humble tone, saying: "I am not a bully."

U.S. attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman, whose job Christie held before being elected governor, has opened an investigation into the decision to close the bridge lanes.

The governor also faces a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday by Rosemarie Arnold, a lawyer charging that area residents suffered financially from being trapped in traffic.

Wildstein has admitted to ordering the lane closures and resigned his post. Appearing before the panel on Thursday, he declined to answer questions, invoking the constitutional protection not to say anything that might incriminate him.

Christie cut ties with a senior adviser and fired his then deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly, who wrote to Wildstein in August: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." Wildstein, a Christie appointee, replied: "Got it."

Court upholds approval of BP settlement over 2010 oil spill

Court upholds approval of BP settlement over 2010 oil spill, Over BP's objections, a federal appeals court on Friday upheld a judge's approval of the company's multibillion-dollar settlement with lawyers for businesses and residents who claim the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cost them money.

BP has argued that U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier and court-appointed claims administrator Patrick Juneau have misinterpreted settlement terms in ways that would force the London-based oil giant to pay for billions of dollars in inflated or bogus claims by businesses.

During a hearing in November before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a BP lawyer argued that Barbier's December 2012 approval of the deal shouldn't stand unless the company ultimately prevails in its ongoing dispute over business payments.

But the divided panel ruled Friday that Barbier did not err by failing to determine more than a year ago whether the class of eligible claimants included individuals who haven't actually suffered any injury related to the spill.

Affirming Barbier's initial ruling in 2012, the court said in its 48-page majority opinion that it can't agree with arguments raised by BP and others who separately objected to the settlement.

"No case cited by BP or the Objectors suggests that a district court must also safeguard the interests of the defendant, which in most settlements can protect its own interests at the negotiating table," the ruling says.

The majority rejected BP's request for the panel to "find an intraclass conflict of interest because the claimants allegedly include persons and entities that have suffered no injury."

"In support of this allegation, BP presents us with a series of economists' declarations that had not been provided to the district court when the class was certified," the ruling says.

One of the three appellate judges, Emilio M. Garza, disagreed with the majority in a 14-page dissent. Garza said the "attempted global settlement fails in a narrow, but significant, regard" and should be vacated so it can be fixed.

Plaintiffs' lawyers have argued that BP simply undervalued the settlement and underestimated how many claimants would be eligible for payments.

"Today's ruling is an enormous victory for the Gulf, and an important step forward in ensuring that every eligible claimant is fully compensated according to the objective, transparent formulas spelled out in the settlement agreement that BP co-authored and agreed to," said plaintiffs' attorneys Steve Herman and Jim Roy, who negotiated the settlement and urged the 5th Circuit to uphold it.

BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said the company "is assessing its legal options and the further implications of the Fifth Circuit's decision."

BP will continue to press its position on the proper interpretation of the settlement agreement's provisions requiring a causal nexus between a claimant's injury and the spill," he said.

In October, a different 5th Circuit panel threw out Barbier's rulings on the dispute over business payments and ordered him to change the calculation of some damages. Last month, Barbier rejected BP's argument that the settlement shouldn't compensate businesses if they can't directly trace their losses to the spill. BP has asked the other panel to overturn that ruling.

The settlement doesn't have a cap, but BP initially estimated that it would pay roughly $7.8 billion to resolve the claims. Later, as it started to challenge the business payouts, the company said it no longer could give a reliable estimate for how much the deal will cost.

Obama says Sharon dedicated his life to Israel

Obama says Sharon dedicated his life to Israel,  President Barack Obama on Saturday remembered former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "commitment to his country," and Vice President Joe Biden will lead the U.S. delegation for the memorial service.

The Israeli soldier-turned-politician-turned statesman died on Saturday, eight years after a stroke put him in a coma. He was 85.

"We join with the Israeli people in honoring his commitment to his country," Obama said in a written statement. Obama also used the occasion to reaffirm "our unshakeable commitment to Israel's security."

"We continue to strive for a lasting peace and security for the people of Israel," Obama said.Biden said he looked forward to the opportunity "to pay respects to the man and to pay tribute to the unshakeable partnership between the United States and Israel."

Tributes poured in from Secretary of State John Kerry, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and other Washington leaders.

Kerry said he would never forget meeting "this big bear of a man" after Sharon became prime minister.

"In his final years as prime minister, he surprised many in his pursuit of peace and, today, we all recognize, as he did, that Israel must be strong to make peace, and that peace will also make Israel stronger," said Kerry.

Since becoming America's top diplomat last year, Kerry has made 10 trips to the Middle East in hopes of brokering a lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

"It was an honor to work with him, argue with him, and watch him always trying to find the right path for his beloved country," added Clinton.

Bush, who held office simultaneously with Sharon, called him a friend and "man of courage."

"He was a warrior for the ages and a partner in seeking security for the Holy Land and a better, peaceful Middle East," Bush said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Israel "has lost one of its greatest sons and America a friend."

VA under fire for proposed disability filing rule

VA under fire for proposed disability filing rule, For veterans seeking disability compensation, the application process is supposed to be so easy that a handwritten note on a napkin will initiate a claim or an appeal. A proposed rule from the Obama administration would change that, and veterans groups are sounding the alarm.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says the many ways that requests for disability compensation arrive actually hamper its ability to administer benefits, and they contribute to a claims backlog that has about 400,000 veterans waiting more than 125 days for a decision. At times, workers spend so much time trying to figure out what's being claimed and trading letters with applicants that it's slowing down decisions for everyone.

The VA's solution: Require veterans to use a standard form when they file for disability compensation — or appeal a decision, and throw in some incentives for those who use a computer.

The response to the proposed rule from the nation's major veterans groups?

"Draconian" and "heavy-handed," said the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "A seismic change" that will "poison" the disability claims process, said the American Legion. "The most serious, egregious attack on a veteran-friendly disability claim system in VA history," declared the law firm of Bergmann & Moore, which specializes in pursuing disability claims.

The critiques recently submitted in response to the proposed regulation point to one of the sharpest policy disagreements that veteran groups have had with the Obama administration.

Both camps have generally agreed on the need to transform how disability claims are managed; namely, the need to move to a computer system instead of relying on paper records to track a veteran's injuries, illnesses and service. So far, the burden has been on the VA to transform. The proposed regulations would place more of the burden on the veteran.

"VA believes that using a standard form is a minimal burden to place on claimants," the proposed rule states.

But for veterans, a major advantage of the current system is that once the VA makes its decision, benefits generally accrue back to when a veteran first initiated his or her claim, usually months and sometimes years earlier.

Indeed, submitting what are referred to as "informal claims" has become a standard practice for veterans because it locks in the effective date of their claim even as they gather supporting evidence such as military records and doctor's exams for the more formal application. Then, if the application is approved, the veteran often ends up getting a sizeable lump-sum payment in addition to a monthly award.

Under the proposed regulation, the first communication from a veteran may not trigger anything. Those veterans who put their claims in writing would have to completely fill out a standard form, and the clock that determines how far back the government will pay, won't begin ticking until the VA receives the successfully completed form.

The veterans groups say it's perfectly reasonable for the VA to use a standard form to enhance efficiency, but they worry that the time it takes to gather records and successfully complete the standard form could lead to substantially less money for veterans. They worry that the omission of a single entry could take months to resolve.

"A combat veteran of two tours in Iraq is defeated by a bureaucratic requirement to fill in all the boxes of a claim form," said the VFW's William Bradshaw in the organization's formal response.

They argue that veterans who are the most vulnerable — the homeless, those with traumatic brain injury and those with a limited education — would have the most trouble meeting the new standard.

The VA is trying to get more veterans to file disability claims electronically, so it will maintain a more relaxed standard for those who use its computer system. Even if the form is incomplete, the veteran will have a full year to finish it, and the VA will still consider the initial unfinished submission as the starting date for when benefits accrue.

But the veterans groups oppose that approach. They said that such favorable treatment for computer users ignores that millions of veterans, particularly the elderly, don't have computers or ready access to the Internet.

The VA said that veterans who don't have a computer can go to the closest VA facility to get help. It said numerous veteran organizations can also assist in filing claims electronically.

The VA said it has no fixed timeline for issuing a final rule. If the VA goes ahead with the regulation, it would take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

US warns Americans of possible terrorism at Sochi

US warns Americans of possible terrorism at Sochi, The U.S. State Department warned Americans of the potential for terrorism at the Sochi Olympics but said it was not aware of any specific threat to U.S. citizens.

In a travel warning Friday, the department urged Americans to be vigilant about personal security at the Olympic Games, set for Feb. 7 to March 14, and flagged the possibility of petty crime, inadequate medical care and hotel shortages.

It also highlighted a Russian law, much criticized by rights groups, that would make it a crime to publicly promote the equality of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

"Large-scale public events such as the Olympics present an attractive target for terrorists," the State Department wrote in the travel warning, saying that Russian authorities have said they are taking appropriate security measures.

However, the department noted what it described as "acts of terrorism" in Russia during the final three months of last year, including three suicide bombings that targeted public transportation in city of Volgograd, 600 miles from Sochi.

"There is no indication of a specific threat to U.S. institutions or citizens, but U.S. citizens should be aware of their personal surroundings and follow good security practices," it said.

The warning also highlighted the danger of petty crime and the possibility that political demonstrations — which the Olympic charter bars at the site of the Games, but which Russian authorities say may take place seven miles from Sochi in the village of Khost — could unexpectedly turn violent.

It also noted that Russia's State Duma lower house of parliament passed a law in June banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" to minors which, in the U.S. government's view, applies to Russian citizens and foreigners.

"Russian citizens found guilty of violating the law could face a fine of up to 100,000 rubles ($3,100). Foreign citizens face similar fines, up to 14 days in jail, and deportation," it said.

10 Things to Know: This Week's Takeaways

10 Things to Know: This Week's Takeaways, On Tuesday, the whirlpool of cold air plunged temperatures into the single digits and teens from Boston and New York to Atlanta, Birmingham,

Nashville and Little Rock — places where many people don't know the first thing about extreme cold. Authorities reported at least 21 cold-related deaths across the country since Sunday, including seven in Illinois and six in Indiana.

Damage-control scramble followed NJ lane closings

Damage-control scramble followed NJ lane closings,  Officials squabbled over media leaks and worried about bad publicity in the days after lane closings near the George Washington Bridge caused huge traffic jams that now appear to have been politically orchestrated by members of Gov. Chris Christie's administration, documents released Friday show.

In the documents, officials appointed by Christie seemed more concerned about the political fallout than the effects of the gridlock in the town of Fort Lee during four mornings in September.

The thousands of pages were released by a New Jersey legislative committee investigating the scandal, which could haunt Christie's expected run for president in 2016. The documents mostly involve the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that runs the bridge.

Lawmakers are looking into allegations that Christie loyalists engineered the tie-ups to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie for re-election.

The documents show that the traffic mess created tension between New York and New Jersey appointees at the Port Authority, with the New York side angrily countermanding the lane closings.

In the correspondence, Port Authority chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee, suggested that the authority's executive director, Patrick Foye, who was appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, had leaked to a reporter an internal memo ordering an end to the lane closings.

Samson called that possibility "very unfortunate for NY/NJ relations."

On Thursday, Christie moved to contain the damage from the scandal, firing his deputy chief of staff, cutting ties to one of his chief political advisers and apologizing for the traffic jams. Two Christie appointees at the Port Authority resigned last month as the scandal unfolded.

Christie has denied any involvement in the lane closings, and the two batches of documents released on Wednesday and Friday do not implicate him.

The latest documents contain several emails from Port Authority media relations staff to higher-ups reporting on calls from reporters with questions about the closings. The agency did not respond to those calls.

It was Foye's Sept. 13 email that ordered the lanes reopened that generated deep discussion. In it, Foye called the decision to close the lanes "abusive" and added, "I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates federal law."

Bill Baroni, the Christie-appointed deputy director who has since resigned, forwarded a copy of the angry email to Christie's scheduling secretary.

Later that morning, Baroni emailed Foye: "I am on my way to office to discuss. There can be no public discourse."

Foye responded: "Bill that's precisely the problem: there has been no public discourse on this."

Baroni later authorized a statement for reporters explaining that the closings were part of a traffic study.

In recent weeks, there have been questions about the whether the closings were part of a legitimate study.

Christie himself said on Thursday: "I don't know whether this was a traffic study that then morphed into a political vendetta or a political vendetta that morphed into a traffic study."

The newly released documents show that there was, in fact, a traffic study that was done, or at least a preliminary one. Two versions turned up in the documents — one was six pages and the other 16. Both were dated Sept. 12, the day before the lanes reopened.

The documents include study findings that Baroni gave to lawmakers at a hearing last year: When the lanes were closed, the main bridge traffic moved a bit faster, but local traffic had major delays.

Michael Cassidy, a University of California-Berkeley engineering professor who occasionally works with the California Department of Transportation, told The Associated Press that the preliminary study appears to be a legitimate internal report of the sort transportation officials often circulate among themselves.

"It could well be a good-faith effort, if not the finest in the annals. I cannot say this is not a study," he said. "You wouldn't want to publish it in an academic journal."

How to deal with the fallout from the traffic jams became an issue.

In an Oct. 9 email exchange under the subject "morning clips," Philippe Danielides, a senior adviser at the Port Authority, asked David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the agency who has since resigned, "Has any thought been given to writing an op-ed or providing a statement about the GWB study? Or is the plan just to hunker down and grit our way through it?"

"Yes and yes," Wildstein replied.

In a Sept. 17 email, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak appears to send Wildstein a response to be sent to a reporter writing about the lane closings. "Traffic studies or pilots are done all the time," he wrote. "They're temporary, and if they're not done, how can the effectiveness of a new approach be tested?"

The documents also showed confusion from some Port Authority employees as the closings were starting.

One employee asked, "What is driving this?" Another responded that he was wondering the same thing: "It seems like we are punishing all for the sake of a few."

And another employee passed along a complaint from a woman who said that her husband, who had been out of work for more than a year, was 40 minutes late for a job interview because of the tie-ups.

One Port Authority police officer went searching for answers.

"The undersigned inquired if this is a permanent plan or temporary," Capt. Darcy Licorish wrote in an email recounting her meeting with the bridge manager. "The manager could not supply an answer to that or other questions. Inquiry was also made as to the notifications of the township. No answers could be supplied."