All I said was “Zoe got a hold of a Sharpie marker”. That’s all I needed to say. Moms all over Northeast Wisconsin responded with a “been there” and a helpful hint or two to remove the offending marks.

So here’s a list I compiled from email, voice mail, facebook and actual face-to-face encounters.

WD-40 (which it seems is made from fish oil_
Toothpaste
hairspray (cheaper the better)
vodka (the older the better)
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (lots of votes. don’t use on skin)
Zout laundry spray
Rubbing Alcohol
Peanut Butter (for stains on clothes)
Spin n Span
Mom’s Magical Goop
Motsenbockers #3
“Awesome” (at Dollar Tree)

Thank you! And stay tuned… I’ll let you know if it works!

By The Associated Press

Instead of figuring out where to put nuclear waste, why can’t we just find a way to neutralize it so it’s no longer hazardous?

Curiosity about what to do with nuclear waste inspired one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you’d like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

You can also find Ask AP on AP Mobile, a multimedia news portal available on Internet-enabled mobile devices. Go to http://www.apnews.com/ to learn more.

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How can animals not only drink and live in but even thrive in water that is so contaminated that it would make humans very sick, or kill them, if consumed? I don’t mean fish but mammals, reptiles and amphibians that can survive on water in polluted lakes, canals, rivers and ponds that are unsafe for human consumption.

Jeff Vanderslice
Plantation, Fla.

—
Actually, animals often don’t thrive in polluted waters, said Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program.

Seals near Central Asia’s Aral Sea and whales near the St. Lawrence Seaway along the U.S.-Canada border have had problems because of pollution, and mink near Lake Michigan don’t reproduce because of dioxin and PCBs, or polychlorinated vinyls, Birnbaum said. Amphibians are disappearing all over the world, for a combination of various and sometimes still unknown reasons.

The real issue, though, is that science looks at animals and people differently. In animals, we look for immediate events, like mass fish die-offs. In people, we look at the long-term chronic effects, like cancer. Rarely do we study cancer or other chronic effects in wild mammals, Birnbaum said.

It’s also worth noting that different species have different tolerances to toxicity.

Seth Borenstein
AP Science Writer
Washington

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How come, with all our technology and great scientific brains, we can’t figure out how to neutralize nuclear waste? What is the problem (in terms a layman can understand)?

Margaret Tabar
Pontiac, Mich.

—
The federal government and the nuclear industry figure it will take decades to create the kind of technology that would reduce the volume and radio-toxicity of high-level nuclear waste so that it can be recycled to obtain more energy and improve waste disposal, according to Steve Kraft, senior director of used fuel management at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

The reason no plan has been developed to take care of waste? “It’s extremely complicated,” said Ed Lyman, senior staff scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Nuclear waste is a mixture of many different radioactive isotopes, all with specific properties. No one-size-fits-all solution exists to convert those into less hazardous materials,” he said.

Lyman said the problem with reprocessing spent nuclear fuel is that it can be hazardous, expensive and time-consuming – taking thousands of years to fully recycle the waste. And there’s another big potential problem, Lyman said: Plutonium that can be generated by the process can be used to make a nuclear bomb.

Kraft said that, for now, waste can be safely stored at nuclear power plant sites or central facilities. And no matter what technology is developed in the future, there always will be material that will have to be disposed of in a repository.

Mark Williams
AP Energy Writer
Columbus, Ohio

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The NFL seems to issue thousands of dollars in fines to its players every week for various infractions. What happens to that money?

Pedro Rivas
Chicago

—
Player fines collected by the league are used in part to support the Players Assistance Trust, an organization that provides assistance to retired players who are in financial distress. They also go to charitable initiatives supporting youth and education programs and sports-related medical research.

Barry Wilner
AP Football Writer
New York

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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

Do you remember September? Let me refresh your memory. It was sunny and nice with above average temperatures. Boy did that change in October. October turned out to be a cool, cloudy and wet… Just the opposite of September.

In fact, temperatures ran more than three degrees below average, making it the 13th coolest October on record.

Meanwhile, October was the second wettest on record with more than 5 inches of rain. We more than doubled the average rainfall for the month. And when it wasn’t raining, chances are it was cloudy. 18 of the 31 days in the month were considered cloudy. It is a touch above average. There are 15 cloudy days in an average October.

If you are hoping that this trend comes to a halt, keep your fingers crossed. November is the cloudiest month of the year with an average of 19 days shielded from the sun.

It begs the question why. Why does it tend to be cloudier in the Fall and Winter than in the Summer?

The answer may partially come down to stability. The atmosphere tends to be more stable during the winter months. Therefore, when we see clouds we often see what is known as stratus clouds. They are the low lying clouds which can blanket an entire area.

This hypothesis may not be the only reason behind the cloudy weather. In November specifically, there maybe more cloudy days due to the weather pattern. Systems coming from Canada may draw in moisture from snow on the unfrozen landscape.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut

The sixth graders at Johnston-Montessori Elementary School in Appleton are learning about weather and the changing of the seasons.  I was glad Mrs. Pomplun and Mr. Appleton invited me to talk about some of the weather whys.  The students had some great questions including whether Appleton ever had a tornado touch down. (In 1984 a strong F4 tornado touched down in the Fox Valley and tore through part of the Outagamie County airport)  They also wanted to know about forecasting and what education is needed to be a meteorologist.  They even gave me a nice parting gift of a signed pumpkin complete with meteorological terms.  The pumpkin has a new home on the weather deck!  

By The Associated Press

What ever happened to the hole in the ozone layer?

A decade or two ago, alarm bells were sounding about this growing environmental worry. But you don’t hear so much about it these days. Is it less of a problem than it used to be? Did it go away entirely?

Curiosity about the ozone layer inspired one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you’d like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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Rep. Joe Sestak was elected to Congress in 2007 after retiring from the Navy as an admiral. There have been several generals who have been elected president, but how many military officers with at least one star – brigadier general or rear admiral – have served in Congress after their military careers were over?

Chad Steenerson
Terre Haute, Ind.

—
Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., served in the Navy for 31 years and rose to the rank of three-star admiral. He is the only three-star officer to be elected to the House, according to the Office of the House Historian.

It’s unclear how many military officers with at least one star have served in the House. There does not seem to be an authoritative log, and the Office of the House Historian does not have a comprehensive list. Those elected to the House with at least one star include the late Rep. Sonny Montgomery, D-Miss., who was a two-star officer. Andrew Jackson, also a two-star officer, served in both chambers of Congress.

At least 91 senators, including Jackson, have had at least one star, according to the Senate Historical Office. Sens. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., and Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., were among those who were two-star officers.

Ann Sanner
Associated Press Writer
Washington

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A number of years ago, the biggest environmental problem was the hole in the ozone layer. Has that hole completely gone away? If so, how was that problem fixed?

Daniel Lippman
Washington

—
The “hole” is actually a huge area of depleted ozone high in the stratosphere over the South Pole. It forms every year because of airborne man-made chemicals. Ozone shields Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays, so its depletion is hazardous.

In 1987, 193 nations agreed to cut emissions of ozone-eating chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. That began a slow-motion fix of the problem that’s still ongoing. That’s probably why you don’t hear as much about the ozone layer as you used to.

Earlier this year, a NASA study used computer modeling to look at what would have happened if the release of CFCs hadn’t been curtailed. In that scenario, two-thirds of the ozone layer would have vanished by 2065 and the hole in the layer would have covered the Earth, NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman said. This would have pushed the world’s temperature up an extra 4 degrees, Newman said.

While cutting CFC emissions helped, the problem hasn’t gone away – the hole still appears every August or so, growing to its maximum size in September or October before breaking up. You can track the latest ozone hole data at http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

Malcolm Ritter
AP Science Writer
New York

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I’m curious if anyone has ever challenged the legal right of a credit bureau to collect and sell private and financial information about a consumer. What gives a company the right to assemble my information and resell it for a profit? It should be up to me to decide what creditors I provide as a credit reference when applying for loans, credit cards and jobs.

Much of the information they collect seems to be incorrect and nearly impossible to rectify.

And who decided that computers should generate a score to determine a person’s creditworthiness?

Sheryl Smith
Madeira Beach, Fla.

—
There have been numerous suits filed against credit reporting agencies regarding the accuracy of their information, but challenging their right to operate would be futile.

The reason: The Fair Credit Reporting Act, first passed in 1970 and amended several times since, includes a congressional finding that the agencies “have assumed a vital role in assembling and evaluating consumer credit and other information on consumers.” The idea is that the banking system depends on this information to evaluate credit worthiness, and that credit is a vital part of the economy.

This law does, however, require these companies to maintain accurate records and respect consumers’ privacy rights, and it restricts access to medical information. It also spells out a consumer’s right to access his credit reports and dispute inaccurate information.

These agencies use the information they collect to calculate your “credit score,” a number that ranks a person’s credit worthiness. FICO, a company formerly known as Fair Isaac, developed the first and most commonly used scoring system.

The systems are designed to examine factors like payment history and credit usage to predict how likely you are to pay back loans. More recently, some employers have started using credit reports as one way to evaluate potential workers.

Eileen AJ Connelly
AP Personal Finance Writer
New York

====
Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

Just one month ago we were still officially in the season of summer. The high temperature was 74°, and many trees still had green leaves. Since then a lot has happened:

-Green Bay witnessed a trace of snowfall on three occasions.
-High temperatures were below average for 21 straight days
-Coldest Temperature: 27°
-Leaves reach peak colors

But what maybe just as noticeable is a loss of daylight. Days are getting shorter and shorter. Tonight’s sunset is 6:00 PM. It is about an hour earlier than it was a month ago. In fact, tonight’s sunset will be the earliest since the beginning of March.

Not only is the sun setting early, but it is rising late. The sun won’t rise until quarter after 7 tomorrow, leaving us with under 11 hours of daylight. That mark will continue to get lower as we head towards the winter solstice around the third week of December.

However, well before we get there, Daylight Saving Time will end. In fact, it will occur not this weekend, but the following weekend. What it means, is that at 2 AM on November first, clocks should be turned back one hour and we gain an extra hour of sleep.

Here is an easy way to remember this: In Autumn we “fall back” and hour and in spring we “spring forward” an hour. As for remembering what day to turn back the clocks, that shouldn’t be to hard either. It occurs during the late night hours of Halloween and the early morning hours before the Packers take on Brett Favre and the Vikings at Lambeau.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut

The whole ordeal was pretty uneventful.. Until I met Laurie.

She was wearing a pink hat to cover the fact that she had lost her hair.

But what was most memorable about meeting her was her positive attitude.

She told me (in the 4 minutes or so that we talked) that she had originally gone in for a colonoscopy. (If I remember correctly, it was because a family member had been diagnosed with colon cancer.)

After the all clear on the colonoscopy.. Her docs suggested while she was there she should have a mammogram.

And that’s when they found the breast cancer.

Laurie looks like she’s my age. Her kids are older.. Maybe in middle and high school. But my age!

That’s when it hit me .. How lucky I was to have that piece of good news in my hand.

But it was lucky for her, too, that her doctor urged her to get that mammogram.

It actually took me a year to finally do it. My doctor’s office kept calling to remind me and I kept putting it off. I don’t know what I was worried about. I was in and out of there in about 20 minutes. And it DID NOT HURT. I repeat.. DID NOT HURT. Maybe it’s because I breast fed my children.. but it was a piece of cake.

 
So here’s my October is Breast Cancer Awareness message for you. GET A MAMMOGRAM.

Laurie did.. And it saved her life.

At one point Hurricane Rick was one of the strongest hurricanes ever in the Eastern Pacific. Chances are that we won’t see another hurricane as strong as Rick this year. While the season isn’t over yet, it only has around another month and a half left. Most of the activity in the season occurs in August and September with the least activity in November. The reason behind this is water temperatures. Tropical systems thrive off warm waters, and without them they wouldn’t develop.

The Eastern Pacific tropical season started in mid-May and since then there have been 17 named storms. Fortunately most of the storms haven’t affected land. Hurricane Jimena has been the exception to this. Jimena reached category four strength before weakening to a category 2 as it made landfall over the Baja California Peninsula.

Up to this point the Eastern Pacific tropical season has been fairly seasonable. There have been 7 hurricanes so far. Up to this point in the season there are typically 9 hurricanes. The image below has more statistics regarding what has been a seasonable year.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic tropical season hasn’t been quite as seasonable. It took what seemed like forever to get the first storm of the season. Tropical storm Ana first developed in mid August. Ana was the first storm in what turned out to be an active week. Around the same time tropical storm Claudette developed and Hurricane Bill formed. Claudette caused problems for the southeastern United States and Bill eventually strengthened to a category 4 hurricane. However, Bill caused only minor problems for the eastern seaboard before eventually making landfall in Newfoundland as a category 1 hurricane. Since Bill conditions have been very quiet.

There have been only 2 hurricanes in the Atlantic this year which is well below average. Note the image below for more statistics.

So why has it been such a quiet year? Many climate experts will blame El Niño conditions for the calm Atlantic tropical season. El Niño often produces wind shear over the Atlantic. Wind shear is detrimental to the formation and existence of tropical systems.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut

Hurricane Rick, was once a category 5 hurricane with wind speeds of 180 mph. The image below was taken on Saturday when Rick was the second strongest Eastern Pacific hurricane on record.

That was Saturday, but as of Monday afternoon, Rick has weakened to a category 2 hurricane with wind speeds of 105 mph. Below is a satellite image, which shows that Rick’s eye is no longer visible.

Wind shear has helped cause the tropical system to lose strength. Wind shear is great for the development of mid-latitude cyclones, but for hurricanes it is just the opposite. Wind shear will continue to be a problem and sea surface temperatures will steadily decrease over the next two days as Rick approaches the Baja Peninsula.

Rick is finally expected to reach the Baja on Wednesday morning as a category 1 hurricane with wind speeds between 74 and 95 mph. The consensus of the models point Rick towards making landfall near the tourist areas of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Cabo on the Baja’s southern tip.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut

It’s tour time here at FOX 11 when school groups visit and check out what it looks like behind-the scenes and how we do the weather.  The first-graders from Pioneeer Elementary in Ashwaubenon are learning about weather through the Einstein Project  and they had a lot of questions for me.  One student wanted to know how tornadoes start and another offered an opinion saying, “You look older in person.”  First-graders are a very honest bunch. 

The favorite part of  the tour is when the kids get to draw in the chroma-key wall…the green screen we use as background when we use our weather graphics.  The students did great and I may be calling them to fill in for me sometime.