Friday,  March 15, 2013 • Vol. 14--No. 239 • 43 of 49 •  Other Editions

(Continued from page 42)

tive affairs staffer at the White House responsible for staying in contact with their panel.
• Not a single one could, said Rep. Greg Walden, who heads the House Republicans' campaign arm.
• "I shared this story with a Democratic colleague the other night," Walden said in an interview. "He said, 'We face the same problem.'"
• If President Barack Obama's dinners and lunches and his unprecedented three days of visits to Capitol Hill stand any chance of bearing fruit, it will be up to him to put the entire force of his White House operation behind opening lines of communication with Congress.
• It's a task that many lawmakers say has not always been a top priority for the White House.
• ___

Boeing says 787 commercial flights will resume in weeks, not months, a third of tests done

• TOKYO (AP) -- Boeing said Friday it sees commercial flights of its grounded 787 jets resuming "within weeks" even though it has not pinpointed the cause of battery overheating.
• Boeing Co. Chief Project Engineer Michael Sinnett outlined a fix centered on a new design for the lithium-ion battery system that has many layers of safeguards to prevent overheating. It also has measures to contain any problems if malfunctions do occur.
• "We could be back up and going in weeks and not months," Sinnett told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. A third of safety tests have already been completed. A Japanese official said it was possible flights could resume next month.
• The 787 fleet was grounded worldwide by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, its counterparts in Japan and other nations in January, following a battery fire in a Dreamliner parked in Boston and an overheated battery that led to an emergency landing of another 787 in Japan.
• All Nippon Airways, a major Japanese carrier, was the launch customer for the technologically advanced Dreamliner planes. With Japan Airlines another customer, about half the 787 jets in use are with Japanese carriers.
• ___


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