National News

The chairman of the Armed Services Committee said the best thing for the country would be for him to serve the next two years without the distraction of a campaign.

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Students of color have long been punished in far higher numbers than white students in Seattle. The Education Department is looking at whether black students are disciplined more frequently and more harshly than white students for the same behavior.

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Feeding on flowers with caffeinated nectars gives bees a memory boost, new research shows. Turns out, other studies have found humans can get a similar boost in short-term memory with caffeine — if they're exhausted.

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If you go back and the read the congressional record for yesterday’s session of the U.S. Senate, you’ll see the word "drone" mentioned 489 times. Sen. Rand Paul held the floor for almost 13 hours yesterday, filibustering President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan to run the CIA.

Brennan was confirmed, but Sen. Paul was questioning how the administration uses drones, specifically against Americans. It was a debate about the military use of drone technology but there is a small and growing civilian market in drones.

No jet engines. No hellfire missiles.

So far, just cameras mounted on a thing that looks like an Erector Set with small rotors on top. About the size of the top of a small coffee table. You can get an idea of what these civilian drones look like by clicking through the slide show above.

“Ten years ago, this was unobtainable. You know, this stuff was military industrial stuff, tens of millions for each sensor and today it’s pennies and it’s in your pocket," said Chris Anderson, the CEO of the drone-making firm 3D Robotics, who was until fairly recently the editor of Wired magazine.

Anderson said his business model is simple -- “the beauty of hardware is that the business model could not be more head-slappingly obvious. You charge more than it costs. That’s it.”

The company posts their designs online and charge around $500 to $700 to purchase a pre-built drone from them. For Anderson, the future of drones is about looking beyond military use and the stigma attached to them.

“Remember the Internet used to be a military technology. Computers were invented to calculate artillery trajectory. We forget that. GPS was designed for those cruise missiles," said Anderson. He points to a tradition civilians repurposing military technologies for personal uses. “And so if we do our job right, someday, people won’t associate drone use with military because the vast majority of drones that they see will be civilian.”

And when it comes to privacy concerns, he’s not worried. “How do you feel about camera phones? These are just camera phones with wings.”

So what will fill the R&D space of 3D Robotics in 10 years? Anderson hopes that first and foremost, we’ll forget that drones used to be military. Instead, drones will be commonplace -- he likens them to a personal computer.

“We’re at the level right now where it’s clear that you can have such a thing as a personal drone, that drones can be cheap and easy," he said.

.@kairyssdal flying a drone at @3drobotics vine.co/v/bHMP91DTY5O

— Marketplace(@MarketplaceAPM) March 4, 2013

Commercial fishermen have the highest rate of on-the-job fatalities of any occupation in the country. The winches that shrimpers use to pull in their nets pose particular hazards, an analysis of deaths and injuries finds.

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It will take more than a week for Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which began Saturday, to cover nearly 1,000 miles. But every minute counts — and several mushers are trying out special pants that allow them to race without stopping for bathroom breaks.

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China's so-called fan subtitle groups are trying to change the country's thinking. Every week, thousands of young Chinese gather online to translate popular TV shows like The Newsroom into Mandarin. Some do it for fun, but others see it as a subtle way to introduce new ideas about free thought and questioning authority into Chinese society.

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Some have proposed a culinary approach to the millions of locusts that made their way from Egypt to Israel this week: Eat 'em up. Plenty of world cuisines can offer inspiration, but there's a catch: Rabbis don't agree locusts are kosher.

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The nomination survived an epic, nearly 13-hour filibuster by Sen. Rand Paul, who demanded an explanation of the Obama administration's targeted killing program.

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America's still-awful job market, in two charts.

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Since she made the announcement a few weeks ago, there's been a big debate about Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to force all employees to work on-site. Some have argued that working at home doesn't hamper productivity, others say the ban isn't such a big deal.

Writer Tim Sniffen has his reasons for opposing the work-at-home ban. Listen to the full audio to hear his letter to Mayer.

An influential cleric said Ahmadinejad, a close ally to Hugo Chávez, should have left religion out of his letter to the Venezuelan vice president.

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Syrian rebels have captured a provincial capital, Raqqa, in the north of the country. The Syrian government has responded with airstrikes, which has set off an exodus of refugees heading to the Turkish border.

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Thousands of Venezuelans have been lining the streets of Caracas, grieving the death of their-larger-than-life leader, Hugo Chavez. The outpouring of emotion reflects the huge impact that "El Comandante" had on Venezuelans — and gives a sense of the void he'll leave behind.

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In 1957, Sen. Strom Thurmond prepared for his filibuster against civil rights legislation with steam baths — to become dehydrated so he wouldn't need a bathroom break. He got at least one chance to relieve himself, however. This week, Sen. Rand Paul gave up when nature's call became too urgent.

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For more than a century, neurons have been the superstars of the brain. Now researchers say that when they placed human versions of another type of brain cell into mice brains, the mice grew up to be faster learners. This supports the hypothesis that these glial cells — and not just better-known neurons — play an important role in learning.

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For more than a century, neurons have been the superstars of the brain. Now researchers say that when they placed human versions of another type of brain cell into mice brains, the mice grew up to be faster learners. This supports the hypothesis that these glial cells — and not just better-known neurons — play an important role in learning.

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In the natural gas fracking debate, all eyes are on Harrisburg, Pa. Any day, the state supreme court will rules in a case that goes to the heart of this drilling boom: Who makes the rules? Can companies drill and frack wherever they want?

This whole fight began where fracking in the East began: Washington County, west of Pittsburgh. Eight years ago, drillers poked the first holes into the Marcellus Shale formation. And the natural gas boom was on.

"Right along the ridge there is a water impoundment, says Joanne Wagner, a local mom. She's standing on a snowy hill, pointing out all the pipes and equipment the drilling has brought.

She calls it industrial spaghetti -- which localities here and elsewhere want to push away from homes and schools.

The fear is air and water pollution.

"A friend of mine who no longer lives there has kids my childrens' age, around 8 and 10, with documented exposure to toxins in their blood and urine tests," Wagner says.

The suspected source here is open pits for frac wastewater. Fracking a well takes millions of gallons of water -- plus sand and chemicals -- shot underground. Natural gas comes back up, along with water laced with chemicals and compounds. That contaminated water has to go somewhere

One water pit leaked. It's about a mile from her kids' school.

"They know that exposure to benzene is cancer-causing," she says. "My friends and their children have exposure to benzene. So what am I supposed to do?"

The drilling company that first came here to lease land is Range Resources. Spokesman Matt Pitzarella attributes any problems to "early days." Bumpy start.

"Everything always evolves," Pitzarella says. "And it always improves. And through repetition, all of the engaged parties -- including the industry -- gets better at what it is that we do."'

Several townships here aren't convinced. They've passed restrictions on where gas equipment and waste pits can go. Andrew Schrader's a supervisor in Cecil township. He says these zoning restrictions also apply to office buildings, factories and adult bookstores.

"Zoning says you have to allow for everything in your community," he says. "But you control by putting it in the proper areas."

By picking a fight with drillers, political ping pong ensued. Industry allies at the state capitol passed Act 13. It preempts, or undercuts, local restrictions.

Drew Crompton is chief of staff to the bill's chief architect, Republican senator Joe Scarnati. "It was becoming more of the trend for local governments to enact their own individual and often overly burdensome regulation on shale development," he says.

Historically, states regulate oil and gas activity. And industry wants to keep it that way.

In 2005, Congress gave fracking an exemption from federal drinking water rules. But with states in charge -- does it invite conflicts of interest?

A fossil fuel company flew Act 13 author Scarnati to the 2011 Super Bowl. One study finds 40 percent of regulators in big drilling states have industry ties.

Douglas Shields is former head of the Pittsburgh city council, which passed its own frack ban.

"In Pennsylvania, there are no limits on campaign contributions whatever," he says. "If someone wants to write you a check for $5 million tomorrow, there's no limit.

State law trumped the townships, and the townships struck back, in court. Shields says remember, this is Pittsburgh.

We don't like being told what to do," he says. "And we don't like it when people tell us that we have no rights at the local level to decide anything.

The townships won -- in lower court. The case was appealed, and now the state supreme court will rule any day.

This is not just a Pennsylvania thing: cities and towns and a few states have all passed rules with a common argument: drillers can't go wherever they want.

Meantime, much of Washington County stands divided. Mom activist Joanne Wagner is criticized as a not-in-my-backyard whiner. The driller, Range Resources, faces several lawsuits.

And some are making money.

New tractor owner George Skovran has a well on his property yielding royalty checks. He's buying a car for his wife, too. "She deserves a new car ... before it breaks down. Of course I'll buy myself a new truck, too."

In the end, it comes down to drilling companies -- their trucks, rigs and waste pits -- and whether they're perceived as good neighbors.

If not, they invite more restrictions that could stop the natural gas revolution in its tracks.

The Palm Beach County beaches were closed earlier this week as a precautionary measure after thousands of migrating sharks were spotted near shore.

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"Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?" the attorney general asks. "The answer to that question is no."

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