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After Malaysia Airlines jet disappears many wonder why airplane transponders can be shut off
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ever since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, a fascinated public has asked: Why can somebody in the cockpit shut off the transponder?
• It turns out there are several legitimate reasons why a pilot might want to shut off this key form of communication that allows air traffic controllers to identify and track airplanes.
• Authorities believe that Flight 370's transponder was intentionally shut off, delaying search and rescue efforts and helping to conceal the plane's location -- a mystery unsolved more than 10 days after the Boeing 777 vanished.
• It's rare for a pilot to turn off a transponder during flight, but occasionally there is cause.
• -- Sometimes a transponder malfunctions, giving out incorrect readings.
• ___
Illinois voters to choose Republican nominee who will try to win back governor's office
• CHICAGO (AP) -- Illinois voters will choose a Republican on Tuesday to try to win back the governor's office in a race that already has drawn intense interest from labor unions worried that the leading candidate could weaken them in the same way GOP governors have in other states across the Midwest.
• At the front of the four-person pack is Bruce Rauner, a multimillionaire venture capitalist who has said he would model his governorship after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Rauner faces three longtime lawmakers for the nomination: state Sens. Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard, and state Treasurer Dan Rutherford.
• Rauner, Dillard and Brady spent Monday traveling the state to meet with voters and urge them to go to the polls. Organized labor, meanwhile, was encouraging members to pull Republican primary ballots and cast their vote for Dillard, who has been endorsed by three of the state's largest public-employee unions.
• The typically left-leaning unions spent more than $6 million on the GOP primary, both in anti-Rauner and pro-Dillard ads. Rauner has raised more than $14 million, including $6 million of his own money -- more than any candidate seeking a gubernatorial nomination in state history.
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