By The Associated Press

Wind power has its fans, but the turbines that turn breezes into energy are also generating concerns: Some worry that the huge contraptions might put wildlife at risk.

So has anyone considered illuminating them with floodlights or painting them hot pink, so animals know to stay away?

Curiosity about more wildlife-friendly wind farms 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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Where do the funds for my unemployment check come from?

Javier Gamez
Pico Rivera, Calif.

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Unemployment insurance is funded by a combination of state and federal taxes levied on employers. The federal tax is equivalent to 0.8 percent of the first $7,000 of wages, or a maximum of $56 per employee, according to the Labor Department. State taxes vary.

The federal taxes pay for the administration of the program and have also been paying for emergency extended benefits, as Congress has added up to 53 weeks of extra benefits on top of the 26 weeks provided by most states. State taxes pay for the first 26 weeks.

But those taxes haven’t been able to keep up with the record number of Americans receiving unemployment insurance, as joblessness has soared during the current recession to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent. As a result, extended benefits are now being paid out of federal income tax revenue.

Many states are also borrowing from the federal government as their unemployment insurance trust funds have been depleted – another cost ultimately being borne by the taxpayer.

Christopher S. Rugaber
AP Economics Writer
Washington

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Following up on the issue of wind farms potentially harming birds and sea life, from a previous Ask AP:

Have the makers of wind turbines done anything with their designs to try to prevent this? Such as by using sounds, bright fluorescent paint or floodlights that might keep animals safe? It seems like this might reduce opposition to these projects.

Bob Enger
Los Angeles

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Turbine manufacturers and wind farm developers are experimenting with techniques to try to reduce bird and other wildlife injuries.

One idea is to determine wildlife migratory patterns before work is started so turbines can be located outside those pathways. Another is to shut down turbines temporarily when birds are migrating through the area.

Some companies are testing radar to detect the presence of birds and then tilt turbine blades to allow for safer passage. Others have painted blades and adjusted blade speeds, but the jury is still out whether those steps have been successful, said Dave Stout of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Manufacturers have designed turbines with fewer places for birds to nest, and towers that are 200 feet or taller also have been fitted with lights to comply with a Federal Aviation Administration regulation.

Stout heads a committee of industry, environmental and academic groups that is drafting recommendations for protecting wildlife at wind farms. The proposal will be sent to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar next month for review.

Sandy Shore
AP Energy Writer
Denver

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Will the proposals in Congress for health care reform reduce or eliminate costs related to workers’ compensation claims? And will they reduce costs for Veterans’ Administration and federal employee health care?

Rowland Driskell
Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

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First of all, workers’ compensation is largely handled by the states, not by the federal government. And there’s nothing in the health care bills in Congress that would affect the federal employee health plan.

As for veterans, President Barack Obama has said the proposed health care overhaul would not change how they get their VA medical services. He’s told veterans that there’s no discussion in Washington that involves taking away veterans’ health benefits.

Republicans and some veterans organizations, however, have expressed concern that veterans could be subjected to a 2.5 percent tax targeting individuals who don’t have acceptable health insurance, unless it is specifically written into legislation that health care from the VA would be considered acceptable.

Donna Cassata
AP Health Care Policy Editor
and
Kimberly Hefling
AP Veterans’ Affairs Writer
Washington

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

It took awhile, but September has finally delivered a month with above average temperatures. The average temperature this month (considers highs and lows) is running 3.1° above normal. The last time we had an above average monthly temperature was February.

The month isn’t over yet, but the surplus of 3.1°, makes this month the warmest, when compared to average, since October of 2007.

So far in September we have seen 6 days in the 80s and 15 days in the 70s. However, it hasn’t just been warm here in Northeast Wisconsin. The entire state of Wisconsin and Minnesota has been running warmer than normal.

In Rhinelander, temperatures are nearly 5 degrees above normal, and in Duluth temperatures are 8 degrees above normal. Duluth is on its way to one of the warmest September’s on record. There will however, be a shot of cold air standing in its way.

A Canadian low pressure system will pull in the coolest air the Great Lakes region has seen in months for the start of the next work week. Temperatures will fall into the 50s in Duluth, which could be just enough to keep the city from achieving a new record.

Until Next Time,

Meteorologist Andrew Thut

And now a story about impatiens. In my previous post I shared a photo of my poor attempt at starting plants from seed. In fact, it looked as if all the impatiens seedlings drowned. Then one day I noticed that something was growing. And check this out. From ONE seed.. I got this an entire container full of pink impatiens.

Just imagine what I can do next year with an ENTIRE SEED PACKET of impatiens seeds!!!

And that is my story of my $1 impatiens.

Along the way Good Day Wisconsin’s executive producer also tried to grow flowers and veggies from seed. You’ll soon read why she failed. You’ll also learn how she found a way to still gardens on a budget.

AND NOW A WORD FROM DANIELLE:

I also started planting seeds when Rachel did, but I didn’t have the patience to keep up with them.
But to be honest, I didn’t give them the care they needed, plus my dog Lambeau got hungry and ate some of the seeds, dirt and all.
So I decided to scratch the seeds and buy plants with buds already on them, those she stayed away from for the most part, except she did get to a hosta I bought before I got it planted in the ground.
I started enjoying planting when I was in high school, my friend Cara and I got a job at a local greenhouse and learned so much. We worked throughout the winter, ironically, planting seeds. And once spring came, that’s when we got to see all of our hard work come to life, the colors and smells throughout the greenhouse were amazing.
I learned a lot in the many years I worked there, but I also have learned a lot while planting at home.
Here are some of my tips, wait until the end of May and early June to get things planted. This is also safe, considering we get frost sometimes late in May.
Watch for sales, I didn’t buy any plants that were full price.
My best purchase, a flat of impatiens for $10.

Another thing I learned, shop around. I probably bought flowers from 6 different stores and greenhouses.
I also fertilized on a weekly basis, from June through August.
And if you’re planting in large containers, instead of filling it all with potting soil, my dad found some styrofoam for me, so we broke that down and filled the containers about 3/4 of the way and then added soil to the top, so I saved on potting soil and if you have to move the container, it’s much lighter.

Today is the first day of fall. For many of you .. It’s harvest season. The tomatoes are ripe on the vine! So how did your garden do this year? Were you successful? We expected to see a lot of first time gardeners this year with people trying to save money. First lady Michelle Obama tried to inspire us at the beginning of the growing season by showing off the White House garden. So.. I decided to give it a try. But remember this picture from an earlier blog?

“Diseased” is how horticulturist Mark Konlock described my seeds. But I persevered. I transplanted the good ones. Took some fresh seeds and planted them directly in the ground. And look! Some success! (Despite the efforts of one very annoying rabbit)

I also bought some starter tomato plants from a neighbor with a bright green thumb. $1.25 each and they are amazing. Especially the ones I planted directly in the ground and not in containers. (Yellow Pear on left. Brandywine on right)

So here’s what I learned:

*Gardening takes a lot of time and WATER!!!

*You CAN save $$.

*BUNNIES destroy plants.

*The “fruits” of your labor are very rewarding.

We’ve been getting a few phone calls and emails at the station, asking us to air the Vikings-Lions game this Sunday, but due to the NFL’s rules, we can’t.

There are a variety of rules governing the broadcasts, which network they are on and which games can be shown.

One of those states, basically, that when a team is playing at home on one network, another network can’t air a different game at the same time.

Which is brings us to this Sunday.

A) The Packers are at home against Cincinnati at noon. For AFC vs. NFC games, the game is assigned to the network of the visiting team. In this case, CBS gets the game.

B) The Vikings play at Detroit at noon. Both are NFC teams, so the game is on FOX.

C) It is a CBS doubleheader Sunday, meaning FOX stations can only air one game.

D) Because the Packers are at home, we can’t air any of the noon NFC games. (The other choices, incidentally, are New Orleans vs. Philadelphia, St. Louis vs. Washington, Carolina vs. Atlanta, and Arizona vs. Jacksonville)

E) FOX 11 is airing the Seattle vs. San Francisco game at 3 pm. The other possibility would be Tampa Bay vs. Buffalo, but we were assigned the other game by FOX.

F) The rules governing broadcast stations do not affect the NFL Sunday Ticket package (in terms of out-of-town teams), so you might be able to find a sports bar showing the Vikings & Lions.

I hope that helps explain the situation this Sunday.

As for getting to watch the Vikings or Lions, there are several games we plan to air. Assignments change based on records, etc. and the NFL’s flexible scheduling rules kick in for the last seven weeks (but that’s another column). Our initial schedule this week had us airing the Tampa-Buffalo game, for example, but then changed this week.

Here’s the tentative list of games on FOX 11 for the rest of the season, but – and I can’t stress this enough – these are not written in stone for the non-Packers games.

WEEK 3 Sunday 09/27/09
Noon – Green Bay @ St. Louis

WEEK 4 Sunday 10/04/09
Noon – Detroit @ Chicago
3PM – Dallas @ Denver

WEEK 5 Sunday 10/11/09
Noon – Minnesota @ St. Louis

WEEK 6 Sunday 10/18/09
Noon – Detroit @ Green Bay

WEEK 7 Sunday 10/25/09
Noon – Green Bay @ Cleveland
3PM – Atlanta @ Dallas

WEEK 8 Sunday 11/01/09
Noon – Minnesota @ Green Bay
3PM – NY Giants @ Philadelphia

WEEK 9 Sunday 11/08/09
Noon – Green Bay @ Tampa Bay

WEEK 10 Sunday 11/15/09
Noon – Detroit @ Minnesota
3PM – Dallas @ Green Bay

WEEK 11 Sunday 11/22/09
Noon – San Francisco @ Green Bay

WEEK 12- Thursday 11/26/09
11:30AM – Green Bay @ Detroit

WEEK 12 Sunday 11/29/09
Noon – Chicago @ Minnesota
3PM – Game assignment is TBD due to Flexible Scheduling

WEEK 13 Sunday 12/06/09
Noon – St. Louis @ Chicago
3PM – Minnesota at Arizona

WEEK 14 Sunday 12/13/09
Noon – Green Bay @ Chicago

WEEK 15 Sunday 12/20/09
Noon – Green Bay @ Pittsburgh
3PM – Game assignment is TBD due to Flexible Scheduling

WEEK 16 Sunday 12/27/09
Noon – Seattle @ Green Bay

WEEK 17 Sunday 01/03/10
Noon – Game assignment is TBD due to Flexible Scheduling
3:15PM- Green Bay @ Arizona

And, finally, if you are curious about game distribution, here’s a link you might be interested in. A fan creates national maps based on the network assignments. It gives you an idea of who is seeing which game.

http://the506.com/nflmaps/

As always, if you have any questions, please let me know.

The dry weather continues in Northeast Wisconsin. We haven’t seen rain since late August. Our stretch without rain has reached 20 days. We haven’t seen a longer period without rain yet this year. The closest mark is 18 days, which occurred in early April. In fact, this dry stretch is the longest since 1999.

It is officially the driest start to September on record in Green Bay, Appleton, Manitowoc, Oshkosh, Rhinelander and Wausau. That covers the majority of Northeast Wisconsin. So far, on the month, Green Bay is running around 2 inches below average when it comes to rain.

While the period without rain seems extremely long, it doesn’t even compare to the longest stretch without rain. From late September through mid November in 1952, no rain was reported for 54 days. We aren’t even half way there. If we were to tie this record, we wouldn’t have any rain until October 22 (more than a month away).

Our last day with precipitation was Saturday, August 29th. It was a gloomy and cool day with steady rain through the afternoon. However, the rainfall from the night before may have been even more memorable. Strong storms rumbled through the area during the evening, and to our luck, many people took pictures and uploaded them to our website at the link here. Below is one of the pictures which displays the gust front that was visible in the Fox Cities.

On the same night, the thunderstorms also caused problems for area high schools as many prep football games were delayed. Fortunately, rain will not be a problem this evening, as high schools take to the field again. Expect mostly clear skies with temperatures falling from the low to mid 60s to the mid 50s by the end of the game.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut

When it comes to producing a tsunami, does it matter if an earthquake is moving the seafloor up, down or side to side?

Curiosity about what sorts of seaquakes would set off a tsunami alert 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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When was the last time the federal budget was balanced at $0.00, and under what president?

Richard A. Stanley
Greenfield, Ind.

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The budget has never been balanced at exactly zero, though Woodrow Wilson came close in 1913 and 1914, when the deficit was less than $1 million.

Given the size of the economy, the deficit fluctuates a lot and it’s impossible to predict what it will be with any certainty, mostly because tax collections depend a lot on the economy and how the stock market is doing.

For four years from 1998 to 2001, under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the U.S. government ran surpluses ranging from $69 billion to $236 billion. Those surpluses went away with the recession of 2001, the popping of the stock market bubble and a wave of spending in the wake of 9/11. Tax cuts also contributed to the returning deficit.

In 2001, Bush supposedly inherited surpluses projected at $5.6 trillion over 10 years. But those guesses were way off as they were based on revenue models that turned out to be very flawed.

Andrew Taylor
Associated Press Writer covering the federal budget
Washington

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Recent news reports of earthquakes at sea have been a mixed bag in terms of whether a tsunami alert was sounded.

As I understand it, tsunamis only result from earthquakes that cause the sea floor to drop, not from quakes involving lateral plate movement. Is there something in seismic readings that indicates an earthquake’s origin, and thus whether a tsunami alert is needed?

Michael Buerger
Bowling Green, Ohio

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Seismologist Paul Richard of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University says the main reasons for issuing an alert are the size and location of an earthquake. The question is whether the quake is located in an area that has been associated with tsunamis in the past, and whether it is powerful enough to cause another one.

A tsunami can be caused by movement of the seafloor up or down, and it is also possible for a lateral quake to generate one if it results in an underwater landslide. Thus a calculation that seismic movement was lateral would not be sufficient to deny a warning, he said.

“Just the size of the earthquake is usually enough to set the ball rolling,” Richard said.

Randolph E. Schmid
AP Science Writer
Washington

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Included in General Motors’ effort to restructure itself is getting rid of its Saturn division. There had been talk of it being sold to a group run by Penske. What is the current state of Saturn?

Stephan Vertal
Forest Grove, Ore.

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As part of its government-backed reorganization, GM is shedding four brands: Hummer, Saab, Pontiac and Saturn. In June, GM announced a tentative agreement to sell Saturn to the dealership chain Penske Automotive Group Inc., owned by auto racing magnate Roger Penske.

GM and Penske are still ironing out the final details of the sale, which is expected to close in the coming months. For now, the agreement calls for Penske to get the rights to the Saturn brand as well as all 350 Saturn dealerships in the U.S. The division has about 13,000 employees, which Penske said he would retain at least in the near term.

Saturns are built alongside other GM vehicles at several factories across North America. Initially, GM will continue to supply Saturns for Penske on a contract basis, although Penske has said he is in talks with other car manufacturers about building Saturn cars in the future.

Dan Strumpf
AP Auto Writer
New York

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

    First of all, I like Chad Ochocinco’s (ne Johnson’s) antics.  I think it helps make the NFL fun.  He reminds everybody that though the NFL is big business, it’s just a game, where players who can back up their mouths with their play are allowed to talk a little junk.  With the Bengals coming to town, Ochocinco has promised that if he scores, he’s headed for a Lambeau Leap.  I, for one, would love to see him try a Lambeau Leap, just to see the reaction of the Lambeau faithful.

     Two years ago he jumped into the Dawg Pound in Cleveland after scoring against the Browns, and earned a beer bath for his troubles.  I have a feeling the fans around the end zone will be saving a brewski for a Lambeau Field baptism if Ochocinco makes good on his promise to make the leap. 

      That being said, I don’t know if he will get the chance.   The Bengals aren’t a very good football team, and this year the Packers are just better.  It’s a game the Packers should win going away, and  I think they will.  I talked to members of the defense on Wednesday who say they will be focusing on stopping the run.  Does that mean Ochocinco will be ignored?  No, but it doesn’t mean he’s going to have a free roll to the end zone.  However, if he does get there, I suggest the fans give him a welcome into the stands worthy of an interloper who is stealing a venerable tradition.  I’ll let the fans decide just what that is.

The Station Fire, which is located just northeast of Los Angeles, has now burned more than 250 square miles. The good news is that as of Friday afternoon, it was 71% contained. Last week at this time it was around 40% contained. The fire has put a major burn scar over the Angeles National Forest. The false-colored satellite image below displays the burned acreage in the pink shaded area.

For more information on the Station Fire, visit the incident website.

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut

This past summer was the 7th coolest on record in the state of Wisconsin, but now we are making up for it with a pro-longed period of mild and dry days. We have been spoiled lately in Northeast Wisconsin as a stagnant air mass has continued to deliver dry days. One after another, each day this month has almost seemed like a carbon copy of the prior day.

The dry period started on August 30th and has continued through today, meaning our stretch of days without precipitation is at 13. That streak rivals one of our driest periods. In April, Green Bay didn’t receive and precipitation for the first 18 days of the month. Oddly enough, the area received more than 2.5 inches of rain in the last half of the April, putting the total rainfall above average for the month.

A similar story in September certainly wouldn’t hurt. We need the rain. Most of the area is under abnormally dry conditions with a moderate drought north of Green Bay and a severe drought over Marinette County. For more on the drought conditions, see the map below, or check out the La Crosse National Weather Service Drought Page.

Severe drought in Marinette County

With not a drop of rain falling this month, we are currently running more than an inch below average when it comes to precipitation. It makes this September one of the driest on record. In 1967, the first day of rain all month came on September 15th. We will make a push for that record as the next chance of rain comes on the 15th, with only a few isolated showers possible.

Creeping up on a record

Until Next Time,
Meteorologist Andrew Thut