Mercury

The Phoenix Mercury is the WNBA champion for the second time in three seasons, leaning on its "big three" to pull out a 94-86 victory over the tenacious Indiana Fever in the deciding Game 5 on Friday night at Phoenix. League and finals most valuable player Diana Taurasi scored 26 points, Cappie Pondexter had 24, and Penny Taylor sank two crucial free throws with 37.7 seconds left as the Mercury held off a late rally to win the intense series, 3-2. Tammy Sutton-Brown scored 22 points, and Jessica Davenport had a career-high 18 for Indiana in its first finals appearance.

The Los Angeles Times won Newspaper of the Year for 2011 among the state's largest daily newspapers and a total of 20 journalism awards as part of the annual Better Newspaper Contest, officials announced Saturday. The Times won first-place awards among newspapers with a circulation of 150,000 or more in the following categories: local government coverage, investigative reporting, sports, and arts and entertainment. The paper also received second prize for design and general excellence in the contest sponsored by the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., a nonprofit trade group.

Finally, some sanity regarding smokestack emissions. After decades of political squabbling, on Wednesday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, which will dramatically cut the amount of highly toxic mercury and about 70 other pollutants released in the United States. The rules target the emissions from coal-fired power plants. Mercury is the key element addressed by these rules, but it's only one of many chemicals -- plus fine particulate matter, which plays a role in asthma and other respiratory illnesses nationwide -- that are regulated by MATS.

The smallest planet in the solar system keeps serving up big surprises. Scientists working on the Messenger mission to Mercury have found that the planet has unexpected inner layers and craters with tilted bottoms, and it may have been geologically active far later into its life than previously imagined. In the first of two studies released Wednesday by the journal Science, a team led by MIT geophysicist Maria Zuber scanned the surface of Mercury's northern hemisphere and found the planet's surface to be unusually flat when compared with the terrain of the moon or Mars.

Prodded by consumer and dental activists, the Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the scientific evidence underlying its pronouncement less than 18 months ago that dental fillings containing mercury do not cause harm to patients. An advisory panel of outside experts will meet next week to reexamine the basis of the FDA's conclusions in the latest chapter of a lengthy battle with groups who believe the agency is understating possible links between the mercury in dental amalgam and neurological and other health problems.

The smallest planet in the solar system keeps serving up big surprises. Scientists working on the Messenger mission to Mercury have found that the planet has unexpected inner layers and craters with tilted bottoms, and it may have been geologically active far later into its life than previously imagined. In the first of two studies released Wednesday by the journal Science, a team led by MIT geophysicist Maria Zuber scanned the surface of Mercury's northern hemisphere and found the planet's surface to be unusually flat when compared with the terrain of the moon or Mars.

After a 6 1/2 -year wait as a small craft voyaged through space, planetary scientists finally got an up-close look at Mercury's pockmarked surface this week — at the pale, spidery impact crater named Debussy, at chains of smaller craters around the north pole they'd never seen before and at other heretofore mysterious polar regions. Images taken by the Messenger spacecraft — the first ever to orbit the hot, tiny planet — began arriving Tuesday. The first, received by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., at 5:20 a.m. Tuesday, captured areas that might host water in the form of ice. It was soon followed by hundreds more, some of which NASA released Wednesday.

French police suggested that mercury found in the car of a Russian lawyer who defends Kremlin foes was spilled accidentally. Karina Moskalenko has said she fears the mercury might have been planted to frighten or poison her. A Paris police official said the mercury in the car in Strasbourg, France, came from a barometer that broke while being transported by the car's previous owner, an antiques dealer.

After the final buzzer sounded, Sparks forward Candace Parker untucked her jersey in frustration. She had seen the Sparks fluctuate between two phases: allowing Phoenix to dictate its fastbreak system before the Sparks fought to chip away the deficit. The end result -- a 103-94 Game 1 loss Wednesday to the Mercury in the Western Conference finals in front of 6,389 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion -- was a reflection of what Parker described as "allowing them to play their game." It also resembled a broader theme, one she and other teammates noticed throughout the season when the Sparks sputtered to an 8-13 record despite boasting five Olympians.

The San Jose Mercury News laid off 15 newsroom staffers and lost five other editors and reporters through resignations this week. The reductions leave the paper with 153 editorial staffers, according to the San Jose Newspaper Guild.

Eight percent of women of child-bearing age in this country have mercury levels in their blood that could cause lower IQ in their children. That fact alone justifies the tough but achievable regulations issued this week by the Obama administration to control mercury pollution from coal-fired plants. Industry complaints shouldn't convince anyone otherwise. Despite the cries of outrage from conservative Republicans, the regulations are neither job-killers nor the result of Democratic regulatory overreach.

The Obama administration has adopted tough new limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants, winning praise from environmentalists and public health advocates but sparking warnings from industry groups that contend the new regulations are too expensive and will place dangerous pressure on the nation's electrical grid. The update to the Clean Air Act comes after a relentless 20-year battle in Washington. It marks the first time the Environmental Protection Agency has curbed power plant emissions of mercury, a known neurotoxin that can be profoundly harmful to children and pregnant women.

  The federal EPA issued bold  regulations limiting emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxins from the nation's power plants.     ALSO: EPA issues strong limits on mercury emissions from smokestacks  

Finally, some sanity regarding smokestack emissions. After decades of political squabbling, on Wednesday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, which will dramatically cut the amount of highly toxic mercury and about 70 other pollutants released in the United States. The rules target the emissions from coal-fired power plants. Mercury is the key element addressed by these rules, but it's only one of many chemicals -- plus fine particulate matter, which plays a role in asthma and other respiratory illnesses nationwide -- that are regulated by MATS.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Wednesday announced a tough new rule to limit emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances from sources such as power plants, a landmark measure that could prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Though mercury is a known neurotoxin that can be profoundly harmful to children and pregnant women, there has never been a federal rule setting a standard for its release into the air from power plants.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the mercurial strongman extolled at home as the "Dear Leader" and reviled abroad as a tyrant, has died at 69, North Korean media reported Monday. Kim's death was announced by state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. No cause of death was reported, but Kim was believed to have suffered in recent years from diabetes and heart disease. The diminutive leader was believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but nonetheless appeared in numerous photos released by state media as he toured state facilities and in recent months embarked on rare trips outside North Korea -?

Parents have become increasingly worried about the use of mercury as a preservative in children's vaccines. After all, the heavy metal can impede brain development, and children receive almost two-dozen vaccine doses by the time they begin kindergarten. Now comes a reformulated vaccine that may ease, if slightly, some parental fears. The Food and Drug Administration last week approved a new version of the vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus that contains only 0.

Re "EPA Targets Mercury 'Hot Spots' at Power Plants," March 16: The Environmental Protection Agency has released its long-awaited rule to address increasing concerns about mercury contamination of the nation's air, water and food supplies. The rule will permit three times the amount of mercury from U.S. power plants as allowed under the Clean Air Act. Mercury, a heavy metal, presents serious adverse health effects, especially to children and fetuses. Because their brains and nervous systems are still developing, children are in far greater jeopardy than adults.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected Friday to approve a tough new rule to limit emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances from the country's power plants, according to people with knowledge of the new standard. Though mercury is a known neurotoxin that can be profoundly harmful to children and pregnant women, the air pollution rule has been more than 20 years in the making, repeatedly stymied because of objections from coal-burning utilities about the cost of installing pollution-control equipment.

In the modern pantheon of the world's dictators, Moammar Kadafi stood apart. Far apart. Erratic and mercurial, he fancied himself a political philosopher, practiced an unorthodox and deadly diplomacy, and cut a sometimes cartoonish figure in flowing robes and dark sunglasses, surrounded by heavily armed female bodyguards. He ruled Libya with an iron fist for 42 years, bestowing on himself an array of titles, including "king of culture," "king of kings of Africa" and, simply, "leader of the revolution.