Took firstborn to doctor yesterday to see what’s up. She was home from school all week with a sore throat, then fever, then cough. Doctor checked her out and said “yep, it could be swine flu.”

 So it it?? We’ll never know. We could have gotten a culture taken and sent off to the lab. But the results take 5 to 7 days!! By then I hope to have her BACK IN SCHOOL where she belongs. I talked to another doc who said there is a “rapid” test but it’s not very accurate.

The vaccine isn’t available around here. And the treatment can give you the same symptoms as the flu itself.
What??!!!

So.. We walked out with advice to get rest and plenty of fluids. I felt so bad for bringing my germ infested daughter to the doctor’s office.

And I feel bad for Bella. She LOVES LOVES LOVES school. And was so excited to start second grade. Her new school outfit has been sitting out all week long. Waiting. I mean she loves school so much that she squealed when I told her I was picking up some homework from her teacher and bringing it home with me.

Bottom line. Lots of questions about the H1N1 and we will hopefully get some answers next week. Dr. Al will join us live on Good Day Wisconsin on Tuesday with some helpful information. Until then.. Wash your hands thoroughly. (I know that’s what he would say)

By The Associated Press Some proponents of a shift to greener energy have looked to wind power as an abundant and renewable source of power. Yet efforts to build “wind farms” in breezy areas a few miles offshore have run into problems as locals worry about the impact of massive turbines on wildlife, boats and planes.

These sorts of concerns have delayed one such project, off the coast of Massachusetts. And those delays have 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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I’ve heard that the number of living U.S. veterans has been steadily declining in recent decades. Why has this happened?

Linda Johnson
Del Rio, Texas
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The number of living veterans in America has been dropping over the last several decades because the military has never produced as many vets as it did in the 1940s.

There were more than 12 million people in uniform at the peak strength of the armed forces in 1945 – a draft military that fought World War II. When the war ended, the size of the military dropped to 2.5 million by the next year, according to Pentagon data.

There were some increases in the force during the Korean conflict, when the military peaked at 3.6 million in 1952, and for the Vietnam War when it hit 3.5 million in 1968. But the size of the armed services has remained pretty much around the million to 1.4 million mark ever since the post-Cold War drawdown of the 1990s.

There are 1.4 million people in the active duty all-volunteer Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force today. Meanwhile, as the active forces have gotten smaller, aging veterans have been dying at a rate of well over 630,000 a year since the start of this decade.

The Defense Department says it’s highly unlikely that the U.S. will ever have a military as big as it did for World War II, largely due to technological advances that have made combat less manpower-intensive.

Pauline Jelinek
Associated Press Writer, covering the Pentagon
Washington

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For more than five years, developers have tried to start a major wind farm off Cape Cod and Nantucket in Massachusetts. Some residents oppose the project and there have been many delays.

What’s the status of “Cape Wind” and when will it be built?

Daniel Lippman
Washington
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The plan to build 130 wind turbines across a 25-square-mile swath of federal waters about five miles from the Cape Cod coast is still on, though it’s been mired in legal and regulatory battles.

Opponents of the project, in the works since 2001, claim the wind farm would pose a risk to birds and sea life and a danger to boats and planes. Opponents lost one of their most powerful political allies with the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, an avid sailor and Cape Cod resident. Supporters say the project will provide cheaper energy, reduce pollution and create green jobs.

Developer Cape Wind Associates LLC hopes the nation’s first offshore wind farm – estimated to cost $1.2 billion – will be operational by the end of 2011. The company says it could provide up to 420 megawatts of power, or 75 percent of Cape Cod’s power demands.

Mark Pratt
Associated Press Writer
Boston

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I haven’t heard anything at all lately about Amanda Knox. Is her murder trial still ongoing?

Guy Scribner
Chattanooga, Tenn.
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The murder trial of Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend in Perugia, central Italy, will resume on Monday after a summer break that lasted almost two months.

More witnesses, including forensics and DNA experts, will be heard by the eight-member jury in the next hearings, scheduled for twice a week. Closing arguments by prosecutors and defense teams should begin some time in October. It is not clear when a verdict will be handed down.

In November, it will be two years that Knox, 22, and Raffaele Sollecito, 25, have been jailed on charges of murder and sexual violence for the 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher, Knox’s roommate. Knox and Sollecito both deny wrongdoing.

Marta Falconi
Associated Press Writer
Rome

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

Look at the list of the highest-grossing movies in the nation’s history, and you’ll see most have something in common: They came out in the past 20 years.

Of course, that has a lot to do with the rising price of movie tickets. So why isn’t movie popularity measured by the number – rather than total value – of tickets sold?

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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Do sitting Supreme Court justices have Secret Service or special security personnel with them when they travel to give a speech or make an appearance?

Susan Miller
Monroe, Mich.

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The Supreme Court has its own police force, and officers often accompany justices to local appearances. When justices speak at events outside Washington, the court coordinates security with the U.S. Marshals Service and local police.

Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said that, as a matter of policy, she does not discuss specific security arrangements.

The Secret Service provides security to the president, the vice president and their families; former presidents and their families; presidential and vice presidential candidates and their spouses near elections; and visiting heads of state or other distinguished foreign visitors. It is not involved in Supreme Court security.

Mark Sherman
Associated Press Writer, covering the Supreme Court
Washington, D.C.

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Why is the weekly box office calculated by the value of movie tickets sold, not by the number of tickets? The way it is, newer movies will always beat older movies that were extremely popular. It would seem fairer to judge popularity by tickets, not ever-changing dollars.

Glynn Moore
Augusta, Ga.

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Movies are judged by their box office revenues for a number of reasons, including promotional ones. It’s more impressive to have money records continually broken (i.e. “Best weekend opening ever!”) than to endlessly repeat, “`Gone with the Wind’ was still bigger.”

From a budgeting, profit and expense perspective, dollars also make more sense for studio and theater owners.

U.S. theater owners do count the number of tickets sold, but they don’t share that information – they only share revenue data. But every quarter, most members of the National Association of Theatre Owners divulge their average ticket price, which allows others in the industry to estimate attendance overall.

Theatrical moviegoing has declined over the long run, but it’s hard to say that movies are any less popular.

The peak in movie theater attendance in the U.S. and Canada was in 1947, with an estimated 4.74 billion tickets sold, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles weekly box office stats. Last year, theaters sold just 1.34 billion tickets. But 60 years ago, people didn’t have TVs to watch older movies, video rental kiosks, DVDs, Blu-ray discs or the Internet. Movies also had several re-releases in theaters, something that is uncommon today.

Adjusted for inflation, the most-seen movies in theaters are “Gone with the Wind,” “Star Wars,” “The Sound of Music,” “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial,” “The Ten Commandments,” “Titanic,” “Jaws” and “Doctor Zhivago.”

Ryan Nakashima
AP Business Writer, covering the entertainment industry
Los Angeles

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Considering John Yettaw was recently released from Myanmar with the assistance of Sen. Jim Webb, is he subject to any charges in the U.S.? The nature of his act seems to suggest someone of questionable mental health. Will there be any psychological monitoring or testing of Yettaw?

Stephan Vertal
Forest Grove, Ore.

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There is no federal criminal investigation of Yettaw for sparking an international incident when he swam to the home of Myanmar’s detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

He said he did so because he had a vision that she would be assassinated.

The visit led to a trial in which Suu Kyi was sentenced to an additional 18 months of detention for breaching the terms of her house arrest. The trial of Suu Kyi, who has already spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, sparked global condemnation.

Myanmar authorities threw Yettaw in prison, but he was released and deported after the intervention of Sen. Jim Webb.

Webb said Yettaw had suffered a “medical incident” just before leaving Myanmar. While in custody in a Yangon jail during his trial, he had a seizure and was hospitalized for a week. He also reportedly suffers from diabetes and asthma.

As for his mental condition, Yettaw has claimed to have had a traumatic childhood, including having his father walk out on the family. According to his wife, he received a head injury during military service that caused blackouts and seizures. She also said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Devlin Barrett
Associated Press Writer, covering the Justice Department
Washington, D.C.

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

It might feel like summer just started, but today marks the official start of the meteorological Fall. It leaves behind a season full of records.

The average temperature during the meteorological summer, which runs from June through August, was 65.2°. That number may not mean a lot to you, but it means that this summer was the 12th coolest on record!

Not only was it cool, but we haven’t had a lot of precipitation. When you don’t get precipitation, it is hard to get severe weather. The only reports of severe weather this summer were on July 27th, when Green Lake County experienced a weak tornado and small hail. It was the first time on record, that there was no report of severe weather in the month of June.

The National Weather Service, in Green Bay, only issued 29 severe weather warnings this summer. The next fewest ever issued in a summer was 83 in 1997.

Of course it is still possible to get severe weather over the next couple of months, but attention will start to shift towards cooler temperatures.

The average high for this time of year is 75°, but by the last day of the meteorological fall, which is November 30th, the average high is only 35°. During the same time period, the average low falls from 53° to 19°.

If you aren’t quite ready for the cooler temperatures, the good news is that warm weather is ahead over the next week. Meanwhile, the Climate Prediction Center, thinks that above average temperatures will continue over the next three months. This doesn’t mean that every day will have warm temperatures, but as a general consensus, the CPC believes that temperatures will trend warmer than cooler.

But even with above average temperatures, the mercury will continue to slide over the next few months, and the form of precipitation will shift from rain to snow. In fact, Green Bay has even seen a trace of snow by the third week of September. However, on average the first measurable snowfall, doesn’t occur till November 11th.

Until Next Time,

Meteorologist Andrew Thut