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ers but are pressing regulators not to require modifications to tens of thousands of existing cars, despite a spike in the number of accidents as more tankers are put into service to accommodate soaring demand for ethanol, the highly flammable corn-based fuel usually transported by rail.
• Derailments have triggered chemical spills and massive blasts like one in July in Columbus, Ohio, that blew up with such intensity that one witness said it "looked like the sun exploded." Some communities with busy railways are beginning to regard the tankers as a serious threat to public safety.
• "There's a law of averages that gives me great concern," said Jim Arie, fire chief in Barrington, a wealthy Chicago suburb where ethanol tankers snake through a bustling downtown. "Sometimes I don't sleep well at night."
• He's not the only one. The town's mayor is trying to build a national coalition to push for safety reforms.
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• JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Reflection over Sept. 11 quickly past, the race for the White House is returning to fierce form, with negative ads free to fly again and the candidates spreading out from Florida to Ohio to Nevada.
• In a campaign speech and a new TV ad, President Barack Obama was accusing Republican nominee Mitt Romney of failing to explain how he would pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts.
• Eying the possible electoral paths to victory, both campaigns are jockeying more in Wisconsin, a state that has long swung to Democrats in presidential elections.
• Romney, in the midst of a campaign week that has slingshot him across the nation, was holding one event Wednesday -- at his own campaign office in Jacksonville, Fla. He was expected to make the case that the nation's debt is undermining job creation and economic growth.
• Obama was heading west, to Nevada, where he planned to hit Romney and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan with charges of secrecy. The Obama campaign says the two Republicans are refusing to tell voters how they could pay for tax cuts that disproportionately help the wealthy without having to gut deductions for middle-class taxpayers.
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