By The Associated Press

Wind and solar power get a lot of attention when the future of energy comes up for discussion. But are there any plans to generate more power by building new nuclear plants?

Curiosity about nuclear power 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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Concerning the carbon dating of the supposed bones of St. Paul from a sarcophagus in Rome:

Since St. Paul was supposedly beheaded and there are bone fragments from his head thought to be in the church of St. John Lataran, are there any plans by the Vatican to do DNA testing on those fragments to see if they match up with the bones in the sarcophagus?

Michele Howard
Troy, N.Y.
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At the moment, there are no plans to do any further tests on the material taken from the sarcophagus, according to Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, the archpriest of the basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, where the tomb lies.

But he added: “Perhaps something will follow.”

Even if more tests are conducted, we’ll only hear about the results from the pope himself. The results of the first tests were kept under pontifical secret, and not a word leaked until Benedict’s surprise announcement on June 28 that the testing “seems to confirm” that the bones belong to the Apostle Paul.

The Vatican is keen to avoid another repeat of the decades-long and very public dispute over the remains of St. Peter, whose tomb, according to tradition, lies underneath St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

After Pope Pius XII ordered the grottoes under St. Peter’s excavated in 1940, and a tomb found at the site was declared to be that of St. Peter.

Years later, Pope Paul VI declared that bones of an elderly man found at the site were those of Peter.

But the Vatican announcement at the time was met with deep skepticism, and one of the four original archaeologists involved, the Rev. Antonio Ferrua, later said he was “not convinced” that they were the saint’s bones.

Nicole Winfield
Associated Press Writer
Rome

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Has there been any talk of starting any new nuclear power plants?
Derek Rogers
Sacramento, Calif.
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Yes, there certainly has been a lot of talk. But, as they say, what really talks is money.

Nuclear plants cost between $6 billion and $8 billion each, and that has proved a serious hurdle, even for the biggest utilities that badly need to build them.

In April, the first of a slew of next-generation reactors was put on hold in Missouri because of the $6 billion price tag.

Over the last two years, more than two dozen applications for new reactors have been submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That may not sound like a lot, but to put it into context, there had been no such applications since 1979 – not coincidentally, the year of the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant.

To close the gap in cost, power companies are seeking $122 billion in loan guarantees from the Energy Department. Congress has approved only $18.5 billion.

Four companies were singled out recently by the Energy Department for loan guarantees. Those companies want to build nuclear power plants in Maryland, Texas, Georgia and South Carolina.

Utilities are under pressure to build, with demand for electricity expected to grow 21 percent by 2030.

The Nuclear Energy Institute expects as many as eight new nuclear reactors will be online by 2016.

Charles Sheehan
AP Energy Editor
New York

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With the news that Kim Jong Il supposedly has pancreatic cancer, is there a chance Euna Lee and Laura Ling could be released if something should happen to him? Would his younger son be more inclined to release them if he took over?

Ryan Himel
Windsor, Calif.
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Unfortunately, we know very little about the youngest son, Kim Jong Un, rumored to be in line to succeed his father as leader of North Korea, so it’s hard to gauge how he might handle Washington’s requests for the journalists’ release.

However, given his youth – he’s 26 – and apparent political inexperience, it’s likely Jong Un would have a tight circle of hand-picked military and political advisers giving him guidance should he take over as leader. Those advisers are likely to ensure he sticks to the party line established by his father, leader Kim Jong Il.

A South Korean newspaper, the Dong-a Ilbo, reported last month that Jong Un is already overseeing the case of the two American journalists, who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and “hostile acts.” AP has not been able to verify the report.

Jean Lee
AP Chief of Bureau
Seoul, South Korea

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

We’re 20° below our normal high for today in Green Bay and NE WI. This will probably be a record-breaking day for many cities in the area for the lowest maximum temperatures.  The current record in Green Bay is 66° set in 1924; in Appleton it’s 70° last set in 1939 and in Oshkosh the record is 65° set in 1939.  For other cities check the map below. 

These records may fall today

These cool conditions are the result of an upper level low pressure area spinning to the north which is feeding in clouds and cool air.  Eventually the system will move to the east but we can expect another cool day Saturday before sunshin on Sunday.

Stubborn System keeps us cloudy and cool

When you look back at the year as a whole, we have actually been quite cool.  Taking it month by month shows that temperatures were above average only in the month of February.  See more here

Have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you Monday!

Dramatic pirate attacks were a regular occurrence off the coast of East Africa earlier in the year. So why has piracy fallen from the headlines in recent weeks? Have the attacks suddenly become less frequent?

Curiosity about the drop-off in pirate attacks 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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By going into bankruptcy, will GM and Chrysler have their government loans “forgiven,” so that the American people won’t get that bailout money back?

Penni Jones
Tucson, Ariz.
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It’s unclear if the American people will get their money back. The Obama administration has said there is a “reasonable probability” that the government will recoup the billions of dollars in loans to General Motors and Chrysler.

GM is expected to receive about $50 billion in government loans, and Chrysler has taken in about $15.5 billion in federal aid. Under the new ownership structures, the U.S. government will own 61 percent of the new, post-bankruptcy General Motors and an 8 percent stake of Chrysler.

Ron Bloom, a top adviser on the Obama auto task force – an agency formed to manage the automakers’ restructuring – told a Senate committee on June 10 there was “a reasonable probability that we can get most if not all of our money back.” Bloom said the government will look to sell its holdings in the companies as soon as possible but much will depend on the strength of the financial markets.

Obama administration advisers have said they hope to get back as much taxpayer money as possible but they never envisioned recovering a significant portion of the funding provided by the Bush administration last December to keep the companies afloat – about $17 billion in total.

Ken Thomas
Associated Press Writer
Washington

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Maybe it is just me, but I have not heard of one successful or even attempted pirate attack in months. Why has this slowed down so much? Does it have to do with increased violence in their homeland?

Chuck M.
Baton Rouge, La.
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Pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia’s east coast have dropped off sharply in recent weeks, but nobody says piracy is over in the region.

International navy patrols in the gulf have helped to thwart pirate activity, and seasonal monsoons that whip up winds and waves have forced pirates to curb operations. The skiffs they use to pursue and board ships are vulnerable in the rough weather.

However, the monsoons are expected to subside by September, and most experts predict attacks will escalate around that time.

Military vessels are hard-pressed to cover the vast expanse of ocean along Somalia’s coastline, and pirates using “mother ships” have shown more reach and versatility in finding new areas to prowl.

Also, the fundamental problems behind the piracy – Somalia’s internal chaos and lack of effective law enforcement – suggest the phenomenon will endure for a while.

Christopher Torchia
AP Chief of Bureau
Istanbul

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With the recent high-profile sex scandals of Gov. Mark Sanford and Sen. John Ensign, the name of former Rep. Mark Foley has come up, since he was in a scandal of his own a few years back. What is Foley doing these days?

Daniel Lippman
Washington
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Former Rep. Mark Foley remains in the Palm Beach, Fla., area, dabbling in real estate investments, just as he did before becoming a congressman in 1994.

Foley rides his bicycle along the water and works out at a local gym. Last year, he bought a condo unit in a downtown West Palm Beach high-rise.

His public appearances at lavish galas are rarer than they used to be. He has also largely stayed out of the media spotlight since resigning from Congress in 2006. He does, however, have a presence in the social networking world, maintaining a Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/kwebg4

Foley left Congress after being confronted with salacious e-mails and instant messages he sent to underage, male congressional pages.

Brian Skoloff
AP Correspondent
West Palm Beach, Fla.
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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

Why do I ask for advice when I’m not really sure I want it?  Here’s a GOOD example. I blogged about my daughter watching “So you think you can dance.” Today I got a hand written letter IN THE MAIL from a a viewer who said I already answered my own question when I said the show was “adult.”  She advises me to NOT let my daughter watch the show.

Well here’s the problem. I don’t plan to stop watching it and my daughter is already hooked.    I sincerely appreciate the fact that someone responded to my dilemna.. however, I think I did figure it out for myself. 

Not that I don’t want YOUR feedback…

     Wimbledon is one of my favorite sporting events of the year.  I generally watch hours of tennis during the fortnight, once even subscribing to HBO (where they used to show much of the early action) just to watch Wimbledon.   I lived in England for four years growing up (and actually went to grade school in the town of Wimbledon for about four months), and though I never got to go to the tournament-the year I was old enough, I got pneumon- I did watch Davis Cup tennis at the facility.  I thought nothing would ever top last year’s finals between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, but this year’s gentlemen’s finals sure came close. 

      Five sets of tremendous tennis, with a fifth set that went longer than many full matches.  That’s some serious drama.  Federer’s win over Andy Roddick cements him as perhaps the greatest player in the open era, with 15 majors, besting the 14 of Pete Sampras.

     What strikes me is the similarities between Sampras and Federer.  Both had big serves, tremendous ground strokes, great net play, and couldn’t play on clay.  Sampras never did get his French Open, while Federer got his this year.  I had the chance to hang out with Sampras at an event in Houston years ago when he and Andre Agassi were trading titles after Agassi’s comeback, and found him very low key, focused and polite.  However, you could tell there was a burning desire to win that went with it.

      Tennis isn’t a sport that a lot of people follow like they used to.  However, it has what I love about sports: the man on man competition, hand-eye coordination, 140 mph serves, power and finesse, no ties; it’s great.  Perhaps the personalities just aren’t as compelling, but the tennis is just as good.  Hopefully Nadal’s knees allow him to be the main competition to Federer for the next couple of years.

By The Associated Press

The U.S. government has been plunging deeper and deeper into debt, and the White House expects the budget deficit to get close to $2 trillion by the end of the year.

With all this demand for borrowed money, how does the government manage to avoid driving up interest rates?

That’s 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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According to a recent AP article, poppy eradication in Afghanistan is inefficient and hasn’t done anything to reduce the Taliban’s drug profits. Why not replace poppies with another crop or shut off supply routes? Also, who are the principal users of opium – surely not the U.S.?

Vita Zemaitis
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Your second question is easier than your first. Most of Afghanistan’s opium/heroin over the last several years has been going to Europe. But U.N. drug officials say more of the drugs are being bought by users in Pakistan and Iran – traditional transit points to Europe.

And why not just replace poppies? If only it were so simple.

First, the Taliban controls much of southern Afghanistan, where most of the poppies grow. There is no government in the area, and until this year there haven’t been enough U.S. or NATO troops to cover the south. Second, poppies command a very high price and grow well in the arid climate here, so it’s a great crop from the farmers’ point of view. Third, farmers say that Taliban militants force them to grow poppies under threat of death, a claim that seems likely to be true.

U.S. and NATO military forces have started attacking drug supply warehouses and convoys in the last six months. Before that, it was the military’s view that drugs were a problem for law enforcement – which doesn’t exist in southern Afghanistan.

When the drug mafia-Taliban nexus became too obvious – and profitable – to ignore, NATO command gave troops the green light to attack the narco-barons.

Jason Straziuso
AP Correspondent
Kabul

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How does the government manage to borrow a trillion or more dollars per year but not drive up interest rates?

Dan Punzak
Springfield, Ill.
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Skittish investors have flocked to the safe haven of U.S. government debt – especially during the height of the financial crisis last fall – and that high demand has driven down interest rates on Treasury bonds, notes and bills. The average interest rate, for instance, on Treasury bills in May was just 0.515 percent, way down from 1.994 percent a year earlier.

The decline in rates has made it cheaper for Uncle Sam to service the national debt, which stands at a staggering $11.3 trillion. As investors feel increasingly comfortable with taking on risk, they’ll shift money away from bonds, notes and bills, and rates will creep up.

One of the dangers: If gigantic U.S. budget deficits persist, that might spook investors. The White House estimates that the government will rack up an unprecedented $1.8 trillion budget deficit this year. That would be more than four times last year’s all-time high.

If investors who put money into this government debt view it as significantly riskier than it is now, they could demand a much higher return from the U.S. to hold that debt. And if the country’s borrowing costs go up, that could ripple throughout the economy, raising interest rates for home buyers, car buyers, students and businesses.

Jeannine Aversa
AP Economics Writer
Washington

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Do civil union participants pay the same “marriage penalty” to the IRS as married heterosexuals? And when a civil union is dissolved, is the legal process the same as when a married couple gets divorced?

Tom Jeffs
Edison, N.J.
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Under federal law, the IRS does not accept joint tax returns from any same-sex couple, whether they are united by marriage, civil union or domestic partnership. In the eyes of the IRS, same-sex partners face the same disadvantages or advantages as single people in similar financial circumstances.

As for civil unions, the legal process for dissolving them – in the states that offer this option – is the same as for dissolving a marriage.

David Crary
AP National Writer
New York

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

So you think you can dance? My daughter does. She’s 7 and I caught her in her room the other night dancing “hip hop.” For her, that meant putting on a leopard print top, black pants and some crazy knee high socks. I wish I had my video cam handy. Funniest part is that the music wasn’t hip hop. It was her “sleepy time” music.

But the moves. Oh the moves. I don’t know WHERE they come from. I mean, I’m not sure I can move my body like that. And I KNOW her father can’t! She’s definitely inspired by the FOX show “So you think you can dance.” We watch it together. I love it. She has grown to love it. Probably because she believes she can or will soon be able to dance like them. She’s already asked to take lessons. AGAIN. First time around she hated them. So.. we’ll see.

Anyway.. what I’m wondering is.. the moves seem a little INAPPROPRIATE for a 7 year old.. And.. Do I tell her? I mean she’s SEVEN. Not SEVENTEEN! (and even then..)
She’s just imitating what she sees. And I thought I was watching a family appropriate show. The dancers are amazing, and strong, and beautiful and talented. But some of the choreography is a little “grown up.”

Once.. My daughter was inspired to “put on a show” for my friends. They haven’t stopped talking about it. The other little girls were jumping up and down and twirling like little girls. My daughter’s moves were a little more.. (how should I put this).. “suggestive.”

We have certainly seen our fair share of up and down temperatures over the past month. Just last week, we reached a high of 95°, but today saw near record low high temperatures. It is fluctuation in our air temperatures that have also been drastically influencing water temperatures.

The unseasonably warm temperatures that we witnessed last week allowed Lake Michigan’s sea surface temperatures to climb 10-20°. What makes this hard to believe is that water carries properties where it takes a lot of energy to warm it up and cool it down. Nevertheless, last weeks hot and sunny conditions allowed temperatures to climb quickly at the waters surface.

Since our latest cooling trend has taken over, the cooler waters from deeper parts of the lake have had time to mix with the warmer water at the surface. The result is cooler water temperatures at the surface. That might not exactly be music to your ears if you plan on being out on the water for the holiday weekend. The good news is that while water temperatures have dropped since last week, they are still tolerable. The Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District measured a water temperature of 71° at the mouth of the Fox River. Meanwhile a water temperature of 65° was recorded at Long Tail, a popular destination for boating in the southwestern corner of the Bay. Just by comparison, most pools are heated to 80° for comfortable swimming.

With temperatures approaching the upper 70s this weekend under plenty of sunshine, water temperatures in the Bay will likely range from around 65° to 72°. However, on the other side of the Door County Peninsula, water temperatures will be far from comfortable. At Whitefish Dunes State Park, the Lake Michigan water temperatures will hang in the upper 50s to lower 60s.

As for inland lakes, the Otter Street Fishing Club has confirmed that the Lake Winnebago water temperature has ranged from 71 to 75° recently. Lakes across northern Wisconsin aren’t quite as warm. The DNR has reported that in Minoqua, water temperatures were near 80° last week, but have now fallen to the low to mid 60s. As temperatures warm up this weekend, these lakes will warm up quicker because they don’t occupy the volume of water that Lake Winnebago does.

The bottom line is that water temperatures have fallen since the record high heat of last week. But on the same token, as long as you don’t plan on being in the water along the shores of Lake Michigan, water temperatures will be tolerable for the holiday weekend.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut