Storm cleanup continues

Storm cleanup continues
ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- The last of hundreds of stranded motorists were freed but Pennsylvania highways remained shut Friday as crews struggled to clear ice and snow following a monster storm that has been blamed for at least 24 deaths in the Northeast and Midwest.
Gov. Ed Rendell publicly apologized for Pennsylvania's "totally unacceptable" handling of the storm and a tie-up on a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 78, which stranded hundreds of motorists for as long as 24 hours. He blamed an "almost total breakdown in communication" among state agencies.
State Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler said I-78 and large portions of I-81 and I-80 would remain closed so workers could clear them. The icy mixture, up to 6 inches thick, became rock-hard as overnight temperatures plummeted to the low teens and single digits.
The sprawling storm system, which caused deaths from Nebraska to New England, blew out to sea Thursday, leaving huge snow piles, frigid temperatures and tens of thousands without power.
Preserved frog could be25 million years old
MEXICO CITY -- A miner in the state of Chiapas found a tiny tree frog that has been preserved in amber for 25 million years, a researcher said. If authenticated, the preserved frog would be the first of its kind found in Mexico, according to David Grimaldi, a biologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the find.
The chunk of amber containing the frog, less than half an inch long, was uncovered by a miner in Mexico's southern Chiapas state in 2005 and was bought by a private collector, who lent it to scientists for study.
A few other preserved frogs have been found in chunks of amber -- a stone formed by ancient tree sap -- mostly in the Dominican Republic. Like those, the frog found in Chiapas appears to be of the genus Craugastor, whose descendants still inhabit the region, said biologist Gerardo Carbot of the Chiapas Natural History and Ecology Institute. Carbot announced the discovery this week.
The scientist said the frog lived about 25 million years ago, based on the geological strata where the amber was found.
Babies form memoriesearly, but quickly forget
SAN FRANCISCO -- Adults thinking back rarely can remember anything before preschool, but those bright infant eyes staring back at mommy and daddy really are forming memories. It's just that babies also forget. In fact, babies' rate of forgetting is even faster than that of adults, Patricia J. Bauer of Duke University said Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Bauer was part of a panel discussing "infant amnesia," the puzzling inability of people to remember events early in life.
Researchers have long speculated that babies' brains were simply unable to form memories, but Bauer said new research indicates that is incorrect.
While rates of memory development vary among infants, all babies are extremely intelligent, added Lisa M. Oakes of the University of California, Davis. "The task they have before them is overwhelming."
Infants are very good at extracting information from their environment, said Oakes.
Korean War soldier's remains identified
WASHINGTON -- The remains of an American soldier reported missing in action during the Korean War more than 50 years ago have been identified and returned to his family for burial, the Pentagon said Friday.
Army Cpl. Jimmie L. Dorser of Springfield, Mo., will be buried with full military honors Saturday in Lake Forest, Calif.
Dorser was a member of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, which was organized into the 31st Regimental Combat Team. The team was engaged against the Chinese People's Volunteer Forces along the Chosin Reservoir area in northcentral North Korea from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1, 1950.
The unit was forced to retreat under intense enemy fire, and many men were reported missing in action.
In 2002, a team of U.S. and North Korean investigators excavated a mass grave on the eastern side of the Chosin Reservoir, where they recovered Dorser's remains and those of four others.
Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory identified Dorser by using DNA and dental comparisons. The other remains have yet to be identified and will undergo further analysis.
More than 33,000 U.S. troops were killed in the Korean War, which began in June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. U.S. forces intervened on behalf of the South while Chinese forces backed the North.
More than 8,100 Americans who fought in the Korean War remain unaccounted for.
Associated Press