Airborne

Building on one of its all-time success stories, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it plans to adopt a more stringent health standard for airborne lead to protect the nation's children. Under the long-awaited proposal, the amount of lead allowed in the air would be dramatically lower than the current limit, which was adopted 30 years ago. Nationally, airborne lead has dropped nearly 98% since the original standard prompted the phase-out of leaded gasoline.

Teams will fan out across the Sierra Nevada on Thursday to perform their final snow survey of the season, a closely watched rite of spring that helps determine how much water will flow to farms and cities in coming months. But 18,000 feet above the Sierra slopes, an airborne experiment is underway that could revolutionize that ritual. Starting in early April, researchers have made weekly flights over the upper Tuolumne River basin, taking sophisticated instrument readings of the snow depth and reflected sunlight.

Regarding Congressman Dornan's lawsuit against United Airlines, it is clear that United made a mistake in forcing him to leave the plane. They should have waited until they were airborne. JACK MILLER, Tustin

With a new plan to fix the problem-plagued lithium-ion battery systems on its grounded 787 Dreamliner passenger jets, Boeing Co. said the fleet should be airborne again within weeks. The aerospace giant's plan to fix to the 787 battery system involves insulating and spacing out parts, reducing charging levels so the battery cannot be overcharged and enclosing the lithium-ion batteries in stainless-steel cases so very little oxygen can get at them. FULL COVERAGE: Boeing's troubled Dreamliner Boeing revealed its planned fixes Friday morning in Tokyo (Thursday night Pacific time)

Regarding your column on federal oversight of supplements ("Supplements need strong FDA medicine," Consumer Confidential, Sept. 3): I know that the owner of that bogus product, Enzyte with Smiling Bob, is going to jail, and a big decision just came down against Airborne for colds. So I was surprised that, in the store yesterday, Airborne was still there on the shelf, and last night watching TV, I saw a commercial with Smiling Bob for Enzyte. How is that possible? Scott James Los Angeles -- The Food and Drug Administration is an incredibly dysfunctional agency that cannot effectively regulate the food and drugs it already is charged to monitor.

Ted Thackrey Jr.'s story (April 25), "Rescuers Parachute Into Sea," was more graphic than television and more dramatic than fiction. Courageous crews of airborne paramedics, an aerial emergency physician and flight personnel pitting their skill and the mighty craft of industry and war against the limits of distance and the sea should bring pride and perhaps some comfort to travelers and taxpayers. A current Paul Simon song refers to ". . . the way we look to us all" on video, but this story pulled together images of events beyond the capacity of the minicam.

I enjoyed the article headlined "A Fresh Start" (Dec. 21). How wonderful that this home was remodeled to be a safe and secure home for disenfranchised women. However, the article said the house now has "excellent airflow, which helps prevent the spread of hepatitis." This is not correct. Perhaps you meant tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a communicable disease spread by an airborne process. Hepatitis is spread by human secretions, such as feces, blood, sperm, etc. Good hand washing and the use of barrier methods during sexual intercourse and not sharing needles can aid in diminishing the spread of hepatitis.

When Gen. David H. Petraeus took command of the war in Iraq at its low point in 2007, he sent a blunt e-mail to a fellow officer about the task ahead: "We're going to get one last shot at this and we need to make it really count," he wrote. "It's not business as usual." Petraeus could make the same statement today after being chosen by President Obama to take over in Afghanistan. Once again he is being put in charge of a faltering war by a president desperate to see quick results.

I first got to know Robert Bucksbaum when I discovered that my favorite neighborhood theater, the Majestic Crest in Westwood, wasn't owned by a corporate theater chain but by one man who was so crazy about movies that he'd bought his own movie theater, making him one of the few individual theater owners in America. Our paths have continued to cross, since Bucksbaum -- who's something of a baseball fanatic as well -- manages our local Little League's summer All-Star team, which, thanks to some stellar play from a great bunch of kids, including his twin boys and my son, ended up winning the District 25 championship.

There are frequent fliers, and then there are people like Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom. Both men bought tickets that gave them unlimited first-class travel for life on American Airlines. It was almost like owning a fleet of private jets. Passes in hand, Rothstein and Vroom flew for business. They flew for pleasure. They flew just because they liked being on planes. They bypassed long lines, booked backup itineraries in case the weather turned, and never worried about cancellation fees.

"Les Misérables" production designer Eve Stewart went straight to the source: Victor Hugo's 1,200-page novel. She didn't just read the book, she channeled it by transcribing key descriptive passages, word for word, onto crib sheets that would inform the look for the musical's film adaptation from director Tom Hooper. Thanks to London-born Stewart's visceral designs, Hugh Jackman's Jean Valjean gets a mud bath, Anne Hathaway's Fantine has a run-in with rotting fish and scores of revolutionary Parisians lose their furniture.

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The big bang theory seemed to be fool's folly going into the final lap Sunday afternoon. Talladega was more tame than treacherous, belying its marketing plan of mayhem. And then: BOOM! Race leader Tony Stewart went airborne trying to block the charge of Michael Waltrip, setting off the smoke and the carnage of 25 bumper cars spinning out of control. It led to a pertinent question in the hazy aftermath: What's the point of it all? "It's not safe," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

Passenger seats on three American Airlines flights came loose as the planes were airborne, but the troubled airline said Tuesday that it had found the source of the problem - an improperly installed clamp. Seats came loose on a flight Wednesday between Vail, Colo., and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, followed by similar problems on a flight Saturday and another Monday, the airline said. The seat problems come as American Airlines, whose parent company, AMR, filed for bankruptcy last year, is mired in a labor dispute with its pilots.

Re "L.A., restart your engines," Oct. 1 Living a block away from the 405 Freeway, I was looking forward to a nice, quiet weekend, when we wouldn't hear any of the normal 405 traffic or construction. And guess what? The freeway was indeed very quiet. But the helicopters that flew overhead every few minutes interrupted the peace I thought we'd get. Over a 35-minute time period Saturday morning, I counted 15 flyovers. Frank Ponder Los Angeles ALSO: Letters: What would Lincoln think of the GOP?

British tycoon Sir Richard Branson has made a career out of bucking conventions — opening a recording studio in a country estate, building an affordable, premium airline service with soft violet mood lighting and seat-back entertainment screens, and even launching a space tourism company. Now Branson's Virgin Group is breaking the mold in the movie business. Virgin's America, Atlantic and Australian airlines have teamed up with the company's new film and TV company to shoot a half-hour movie filmed and edited entirely aboard regularly scheduled commercial flights — believed to be a first.

A scary crash in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach made it clear that despite a new, safer car in the Izod IndyCar Series, certain dangers remain inherent in the sport. The new car, which includes extra body work around the rear wheels, was rolled out this season after Dan Wheldon was killed in October in a multicar wreck in Las Vegas, one in which Wheldon's car and others got airborne after hitting cars around them. Yet in Sunday's Long Beach race, Marco Andretti's car briefly got airborne after he slammed into the rear of Graham Rahal's car as they approached a corner.

ROME -- A year after the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank in Italy, drowning 32 passengers and crew, the ship's owner acknowledged Saturday that efforts to salvage the wreck were behind schedule, even as survivors of the disaster expressed anger at being told to keep away from anniversary ceremonies. Executives from Costa Crociere, the Italian firm that operated the Costa Concordia, said that its attempt to right the half-submerged ship onto an undersea platform and float it off for breaking up has been slowed by the difficulty of drilling into the soft sand and tough granite below the ship.

The product: Dust, cigarette smoke, pollen and pet dander: With so many irritants floating around our homes and work places, clean air is a hot commodity. Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on furnace filters and air cleaners each year. Though some consumers are simply trying to bring a little extra freshness into their lives, many others hope that their investment will help relieve their asthma or allergies.

A 300-pound metal pipe encased in concrete hurtled through the air and crashed through the roof of a home next door to a synagogue in Santa Monica, prompting an ultimately unfounded bomb scare. In the end, authorities concluded that it was a "freak industrial accident" that sent the pipe flying early Thursday morning. "We're absolutely positive it was not a terrorist act or a hate crime," said Santa Monica Fire Capt. Judah Mitchell. Authorities initially feared that a pipe bomb had exploded next to the Chabad House synagogue, a modest blue building on 17th Street between Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard.

A Boeing 747 jumbo jet outfitted with a massive laser gun failed to knock out a dummy missile over the Pacific Ocean, marking the second consecutive setback for a key missile defense program that is years behind schedule and plagued with cost overruns. The heavily modified 747, dubbed Airborne Laser Test Bed, was unable to fire the laser gun because its onboard sensors could not accurately track the missile, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said. It was the second time in as many months in which the laser failed to hit the target.