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• CHICAGO (AP) -- The crash of a Chicago commuter train that derailed and plowed up an escalator at one of the world's busiest airports would have been far worse, and likely fatal, had it not happened how and when it did, a transportation expert says.
• Federal investigators are staying mum about what may have caused the Chicago Transit Authority train to jump its tracks around 3 a.m. Monday, screech across a concrete platform and crash up a heavily used escalator that takes travelers and workers into O'Hare International Airport. Investigators were expected back on the scene Tuesday.
• "It is a miracle that nobody died," said Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation expert at DePaul University.
• Had the crash occurred during the day, when the trains are often full and the escalator packed with luggage-carrying travelers, far more people likely would have been injured, some even killed, he said. The crash injured more than 30 people, all of whom were on the train, though none suffered life-threatening injuries.
• "A train running up a (crowded) escalator could have been a worst case scenario," Schwieterman said. "When pedestrians are hit by a train, it is usual fatal."
• ___

• GALVESTON, Texas (AP) -- Cannon booms reverberate across the Houston Ship Channel, a scare-tactic to keep birds away from oil-slicked beaches. On a mainland shore near a line of refineries, crews scour the sand for quarter-sized tar balls that have washed ashore.
• Far on the horizon a few ships floated outside the channel, among the dozens of vessels waiting for the U.S. Coast Guard to reopen one of the nation's busiest seaports after a barge collision dumped as many as 170,000 gallons of heavy oil into the water.
• Three days after the collision, the cleanup effort is still going on in earnest. But authorities hope the channel's closure could end sometime Tuesday, allowing more than 80 stranded ships to resume activity.

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