Report: Operators cause most Predator crashes

Report: Operators cause most Predator crashes

MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. — As the U.S. military scrambles to get more robotic warplanes like the Predator drone aloft, it is confronting an unexpected adversary: human error.

The drones are prized by the Pentagon for their ability to provide reconnaissance imagery and close-air support to ground commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But an Air Force researcher has found that operator mistakes are responsible for a growing number of Predator mishaps in recent years, a period in which the drones have been flown by increasingly inexperienced crews.

“The Air Force has increased the sheer volume of pilots put through the training pipeline and shipped them off to war with the bare minimum training required,” researcher Lt. Col. Robert P. Herz said in an e-mail.

Zimbabwe opposition gets a surprise win

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s main opposition party won the top job in parliament Monday, scoring a surprise victory that could give President Robert Mugabe’s foes leverage in power-sharing talks.

It is the first time since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980 that the speaker’s post has not been held by an ally of the autocratic Mugabe.

The election of Lovemore Moyo of the Movement for Democratic Change on a 110-98 vote brought cheers, with opposition legislators breaking into a song declaring “ZANU-PF is finished!” The result indicated some members of the ruling ZANU-PF may have voted for Moyo in the secret ballot.

Mugabe’s party had held a parliamentary majority since independence, but it emerged from March elections with 99 seats in the 210-seat legislature, just behind the 100 held by the Movement for Democratic Change. A splinter opposition party has 10 seats and an independent one.

Gay foster ban on ballot

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A proposal aimed at effectively banning gays and lesbians from becoming foster or adoptive parents was cleared Monday to appear on this fall’s ballot in Arkansas.

The measure would prohibit unmarried couples living together from fostering or adopting children, and Arkansas doesn’t allow gays to marry or recognize gay marriages conducted elsewhere.

Secretary of State Charlie Daniels certified the proposed initiated act for the Nov. 4 ballot after verifying that the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee had submitted 85,389 valid signatures of registered voters. Supporters needed to turn in at least 61,974 valid signatures.

Still in Katrina’s wake

NEW ORLEANS — Herreast Harrison wanted to rebuild after Katrina and thought she did everything right: She hired a contractor who seemed kind and listened to Christian music on the job. Months later, she claimed, he pocketed $57,000 and walked off with work undone, leaving a mess behind.

Harrison said it took thousands more to put things straight.

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, complaints about contractors continue, swamping legal aid attorneys and watchdog groups alike. Victims are left coping with shoddy work, incomplete work and sometimes outright fraud.

“It seems like it’s going on and on,” said Cynthia Albert, a spokeswoman for the local Better Business Bureau.

Katrina, which pummeled southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, destroyed or damaged most of the occupied housing in New Orleans in August 2005. Long after the floodwaters receded, ravaged neighborhoods provided ample opportunity for shady operators to make a fast buck off desperate people.

Reactor now a landmark

RICHLAND, Wash. — The world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor, built in 13 months to produce plutonium for an atomic bomb during World War II, is now a National Historic Landmark, the federal government announced Monday.

The Hanford nuclear reservation’s B Reactor produced plutonium for the first man-made atomic blast, the Trinity test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, and for the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945. The designation doesn’t guarantee that the reactor will never be torn down but very likely opens the door for more public tours and moves it closer to becoming a museum.

History buffs, former weapons workers and local officials have been seeking recognition for the plant for six years to help save it from being dismantled or permanently cocooned as part of the cleanup of the highly contaminated complex in south-central Washington state.

Associated Press