Sunday,  Nov. 17, 2013 • Vol. 16--No. 124 • 24 of 29

(Continued from page 23)

that has forced Obama to reverse himself on part of the law and sent many Democrats scrambling into political self-preservation mode ahead of next year's congressional elections.
• Rahall was among 39 Democrats who, despite an Obama veto threat, voted Friday for a GOP measure that would let insurers continue selling policies to individuals that fall short of the health care law's requirements. It was approved 261-157.
• "I'm concerned about my integrity with voters who have returned me here 38 years. They know me enough to know I wouldn't purposely mislead them," Rahall said this past week. "They have that confidence in me, and I want them to continue to have that confidence in me."
• ___


With chemical weapons up in smoke, Army now turns to destroying incinerators that ended them

• ANNISTON, Ala. (AP) -- The Pentagon spent $10.2 billion over three decades burning tons of deadly nerve gas and other chemical weapons stored in four states -- some of the agents so deadly even a few drops can kill.
• Now, with all those chemicals up in smoke and communities freed of a threat, the Army is in the middle of another, $1.3 billion project: Demolishing the incinerators that destroyed the toxic materials.
• In Alabama, Oregon, Utah and Arkansas, crews are either tearing apart multibillion-dollar incinerators or working to draw the curtain on a drama that began in the Cold War, when the United States and the former Soviet Union stockpiled millions of pounds of chemical weapons.
• Construction work continues at two other sites where technology other than incineration will be used to neutralize agents chemically, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• At the incinerator complex at the Anniston Army Depot -- where sarin, VX nerve gas and mustard gas were stored about 55 miles east of Birmingham -- the military this week said it's about one-third of the way into a $310 million program to level a gigantic furnace that cost $2.4 billion to build and operate.
• ___

2 centers in Virginia team up in $30 million effort to

(Continued on page 25)

© 2013 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.