(Continued from page 28)

statesman among trainers, said of horse racing's drug problems. "Now it's just gotten darker."
• Lukas, who will run 20-1 Optimizer in the Belmont, didn't mention his own record. He has had almost as many violations as O'Neill, though spanning a longer career with a larger stable and including none in the last 13 years.
• ___

• JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- More than a year after a tsunami devastated Japan, killing thousands of people and washing millions of tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. government and West Coast states don't have a cohesive plan for cleaning up the rubble that floats to American shores.
• There is also no firm handle yet on just what to expect.
• The Japanese government estimates that 1.5 million tons of debris is floating in the ocean from the catastrophe. Some experts in the United States think the bulk of that trash will never reach shore, while others fear a massive, slowly-unfolding environmental disaster.
• "I think this is far worse than any oil spill that we've ever faced on the West Coast or any other environmental disaster we've faced on the West Coast" in terms of the debris' weight, type and geographic scope, said Chris Pallister, president of a group dedicated to cleaning marine debris from the Alaska coastline.
• David Kennedy, assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Ocean Service, told a U.S. Senate panel last month that in most cases debris removal decisions will fall to individual states. Funding hasn't been determined.
• ___

• MADRID (AP) -- Spain is under rising pressure to find a lifeline for its deeply troubled banks.
• Politicians in Europe and investors around the world are worried that the recession-hit country can't come up with the money needed to save its banks without bankrupting the government. Expectations are rising that Spain's leaders will have to seek an international bailout for banks crumbling under the weight of bad real es

(Continued on page 30)