Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- Professor Peter Furth has ridden his bicycle to work at Northeastern University each day for the past six years. The two-mile trip through the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, is usually without incident.

Furth's journey is worlds apart from his former Boston commute, which for 13 years was a battle with drivers who wanted him on the sidewalk.

"I've had motorists that drive a couple of inches from my elbow, trying to scare me," he said.

Furth would catch up with drivers at stoplights and ask them whether they knew how close they'd come to hitting him. Invariably, they would say, "Yes, move over."

It's a cultural thing, he said.

In the town of Cambridge, motorists see bicyclists all over the place and are considerate. In Brookline, only every now and then does someone honk or yell.

In the southern part of Boston, it's not quite war, but the relationship isn't very friendly.

Although the street signs say "Share the road," there's still a long road to travel before that sign reflects the reality, bicyclists say.

Motorists often see bands of bikes on the streets on the final Fridays of each month as cyclists across the nation gather for evening group rides called Critical Mass.

The purpose, advocates say, is to make cars and trucks more aware of bicyclists.

But to some drivers, Critical Mass participants are nothing more than spandex-wearing, stop-sign-running Lance Armstrong wannabes who slow traffic.

'They think they own the road'

It's somewhat symbolic of the tension on the roads.

"The roads were made for cars," KTAR-FM radio guest host John Hook said in Phoenix, Arizona, last month. "And bicyclists share the road, but sometimes they think they own the road."

One caller to the program was a long-haul truck driver who accused many bicycle riders of failing to respect the law and not riding with the flow of traffic.

A caller who identified himself as Jeff said he witnessed an incident in which a pack of bicyclists almost hit a car that had the right of way. Then the riders screamed at the motorist.

"I actually think the bikes are more disrespectful to the cars than the cars are to the bike," Jeff said.

The number of cyclists is increasing.

Although bike sales took a dip during the recession of 2009, more than 18 million were sold each year for the seven previous years, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

About 27 percent of adults in the United States bike at least once a summer, according a survey released in 2008 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Most bicyclists ride for recreation or exercise, while a small percentage ride to work. In Portland, Oregon, which is ranked second on Bicycling magazine's list of Top 50 Bike Friendly Cities, more than 6 percent of residents commute by bike to work. That's up from 1 percent two decades ago.

See a map of the top 10 bike-friendly cities

Things are looking up, at least in the eyes of cyclists. Many cities are putting in bike lanes and paths.

Google adds bike routes to maps

More than $730 million in federal stimulus funds has been allocated for bike and pedestrian projects, according to AmericaBikes.org.

Washington is getting into the act. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood drew cheers from the cycling world in March when he blogged that the administration was "integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects" and advising state departments of transportation to treat biking and walking "as equals with other transportation modes."

That drew an outcry from industry, which saw the new policy as taking money away from large transportation construction needs.

"Treating bicycles and other non-motorized transportation as equal to motorized transportation would cause an economic catastrophe," Carter Wood, a senior adviser at the National Association of Manufacturers, told The New York Times. "If put it into effect, the policy would more than undermine any effort the Obama administration has made toward jobs. You can't have jobs without the efficient movement of freight."

Five blocks of controversy

Michael Ritchey is an avid biker and believes that bike lanes are good idea. He just thinks the project to add them to a five-block stretch of Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, is folly -- and dangerous.

Hillsborough Street is one of the main arteries in Raleigh and borders the northern part of North Carolina State University and its 30,000 students. There are bars and shops and small restaurants. And lots of cars.

The city, working with the state, has decided to redo the four-lane road, and when the project is done, there will be two lanes for cars, a center median and bike lanes on each side. Ritchey, who owns Global Village Organic Coffee and is a weekend cyclist, fears that bikers will get hurt.

"They are putting [the bike lanes] in the wrong place," he said. "It's more of a symbolic gesture."

And it doesn't help that the relationship between cars and bicyclists in the city is "antagonistic at best," he said.

Ritchey is worried that distracted college students won't be on the lookout for bikers and someone will get hurt when a car door opens at the wrong time or someone texting will have an accident (he's seen that twice with cars). He said one of his business neighbors opposes the projects because he fears that he will lose parking spaces in front of the bar.

City councilwoman Nancy McFarlane points out that the bikers are already there on Hillsborough and other in-town streets, and the city of 348,000 is growing quickly. Many people are moving into the downtown area, and last year, the city revised its comprehensive plan.

"The old one was all about the car, and we want to become a multimodal city," she said. "That includes bikes, buses and light rail."

Steve Waters is one resident in favor of bike lanes. The freelance programmer works at home and uses his bike for short errands. He said that although some Hillsborough Street business owners might be concerned about losing money because of less car traffic, the opposite is likely to happen.

"It enhances the local economy," he said. "It's all about creating options."

Bicycling.com: The best road bikes of 2010

Not every street should get a bike lane

Although opponents say the money is better spent on other road projects, cycling advocates say the lanes are needed to make the roads safer and less congested.

Denver, Colorado, is ranked 12th on Bicycling magazine's list. The city has little room for new roads, municipal bike planner Emily Kreisa said. She said Denver is interested in using bicycles to eliminate congestion and to help the environment, but they don't just add a bike lane anywhere.

Bicycling.com: Five cities to watch

"We look at the traffic volume, the turning issues and how much room we have in the right of way," she said. "In choosing any kind of [project], the first thing is what is the connection to the system, then what is the characteristic of the road and then how do we need to provide for the cyclist."

Denver received $250,000 of stimulus money for cycling projects and is going to add 11 miles of bike lanes. The city is using its own funds to paint sharrows (painted bike symbols on the asphalt with arrows showing cyclists the way) to connect the roads of the network.

Kreisa, who bikes 10 miles to work, says Denver is by far the easiest place she has commuted on two wheels.

"I've had one person honk at me and one person tell me to move over to the right," she said of her two years in the city. "There are a lot of active people here who are also cyclists."

Response: Number of U.S. bicyclists is increasing, according to government study. More than $700 million in stimulus funds is being used for bike and pedestrian projects. Critics question project in North Carolina that would add bike lanes to busy street. Cities should choose wisely where to add lanes, paths, expert says.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- Like many big cities in America, Atlanta is surrounded by a circular highway that connects with various freeway arteries that go through the downtown area. Weekday mornings and early evenings, no matter which highway you're on, or what direction you're going, you'll likely end up stuck in some hot traffic hell.

Dana Jones, 26, used to drive from the south end of the city by the airport to a northern suburb at peak commuting times, right through the daily mess.

"There were so many people out," Jones says. "You get road rage because nobody will let you in; nobody will merge right. It's just aggravating."

Despite the perils of a long commute, most people in the United States drive to work, according to the American Community Survey (PDF). In fact, more than 75% of Americans make the trek to work alone.

The stress of waiting in gridlock can get intense if you're in a hurry, leaving you feeling frustrated and anxious about the traffic. That stress can translate into deeper health hazards. Try to distract yourself with your smartphone, and you can put yourself and other drivers in even more danger.

Longer commutes may steal health and fitness

Road rage: An 'emotional spin cycle'

LeeAnne Minnick was sitting in gridlocked traffic, waiting to get on an on-ramp, in a line of cars that had pulled over to let an ambulance pass. Suddenly, another driver darted out behind Minnick to tail the ambulance, taking advantage of the cars that had been moved, to enter the freeway.

"That incensed me," says Minnick, who makes a lengthy commute from Athens, Georgia, to Atlanta -- about a 70-mile trip -- three days a week. "I immediately flew into a rage over it."

That happened a couple months ago, and Minnick still sounds irritated when she describes it. She doesn't act aggressively toward other drivers, but she does get bothered by disrespectful behavior on the road.

It's easy to get lost in a cycle of emotions where you're talking to yourself and ruminating about traffic situations, says Leon James, professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and co-author of "Road Rage and Aggressive Driving."

"Impatience, if you don't handle it at the beginning, tends to turn into resentment and anger," James says.

The back seat of the car is what James calls the "road rage nursery." It's where kids hear their parents cursing out other drivers and expressing their disbelief about everyone else's poor skills on the road. Children learn the culture of aggressive driving in this way, he says.

"We use it as an opportunity to disrespect everything and say bad words that we would be shocked to say in any other place."

Another problem is that after a bad commute, people tend not to let it go, James says. They walk into the office and complain about their experiences, which leads to entire conversations about bad traffic and bad drivers. This venting may feel good in the moment, but it reinforces the emotions for the next driving trip, he says.

James' solution: Monitor your traffic emotions. You might try keeping a diary of how you feel every day after your commute, or just keep a mental note about your state of mind. What are your negative thoughts while on the road? Are they justified?

Confronting your internal dialogue about commuting frustrations may help. You may realize that your negative thoughts may not be proportional to the offenses you perceive from other drivers.

James recommends asking yourself: "Am I the kind of person who thinks these things about people?" and "Is this the kind of person I want to be?"

Suicides outpace car crashes as leading cause of death from injuries

Stress: When driving kills slowly

Traffic situations may trigger in us primal instincts that evolved in humans to promote survival, so that we can protect ourselves against threats, experts say.

The "aggressive, combative, competitive frame for driving" may be linked to our evolutionary past, but it could have implications for cardiovascular disease, says David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah.

In one experiment, Strayer and colleagues ran a simulation where people drove under the assumption that they were late to a meeting, and there was a financial incentive to get there before other people. One group drove in high-density traffic, another had an easier traffic environment. Some people were told there was a time limit.

Men more then women got into aggressive driving mode, showing an elevated blood pressure when under pressure to weave their way through heavy traffic. In general, both men and women who adopt an aggressive driving persona seem to show this, Strayer says.

"In the simulator studies we've done, they'll actually start driving by cars and flipping them off and honking at them," Strayer says. "That's just a computer, a computer rendition!"

Long-term stress increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, he says. Research on the precise level of cardiovascular risk is limited, but recent data doesn't paint a flattering picture for the vehicular commuter.

A 2012 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the farther people commute by vehicle, the higher their blood pressure and body mass index is likely to be. Also, the farther the commute, the less physical activity the person was likely to get.

Experts recommend making the extra effort to avoid peak driving hours. You may even end up getting home at the same time as if you had left earlier.

"Maybe it is better off to say, 'I'm going to put the radio on a station that's nice, and kind of chill out for the 30 or 40 minutes, rather than aggressively try to get home and beat everyone else,'" Strayer says.

Distractions: When driving kills quickly

People get bored while driving for a long time. They want something else going on while they're just looking at cars crawling around them. But some forms of entertainment are far more dangerous than others.

Strayer and colleagues used a driving simulator to look at just how distracting technology can be in the car. A 2008 study from his group, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, found that people made more errors driving while talking on a cell phone than while chatting with another passenger.

The impact of those errors is more than you might imagine. The researchers showed in a 2006 study (PDF) that talking on a cell phone, in terms of how it impairs driving, is comparable to a blood alcohol level of .08, which is the legal limit in the United States.

About one in three fatalities on the road can be linked to some kind of distraction; some estimates put this figure even higher, Strayer says.

Distractions in your car can slow everyone else down, too, Strayer says. Computer modeling shows that if one car is not keeping up with the flow of traffic, the number of vehicles per lane, per hour, declines as more drivers are distracted. That can add precious minutes onto the commute you're complaining is too long anyway.

We all know that texting while driving is risky. But even hands-free, voice-activated interaction with phones can be distracting, Strayer says. Some conversations are not mundane -- you may find yourself in a heated argument or in the middle of a breakup talk (not to mention a breakup text).

What are the precise demands on your brain with voice-activated systems and what are the consequences of that? Bryan Reimer, research scientist at the MIT AgeLab and associate director of the New England University Transportation Center, is looking into this question.

Reimer is working with Toyota's Collaborative Safety Research Center to study the visual and nonvisual demands of your attention while driving. Results should be out sometime next year.

"If you feel anxiety and your phone goes off, that's a problem," Strayer says. With all of the notifications barraging our smartphones from e-mail, text, social media and calendars, "It's a little unclear what long-term consequences of that are."

Changing your commute?

After several years, the daily drive to and from work in high-traffic areas can really get under some people's skin.

"It was something that was taking an enormous toll on my overall happiness, on my ability to deal with stress, on the amount of free time that I had," says Micah Puett, who used to live in Atlanta and worked for Turner Broadcasting in the 1990s.

It wasn't until Puett moved to Denver and found himself in a similarly perilous commuting situation that he realized how much the driving was affecting him. He made a bold choice: centralizing where he lives and works.

Puett now lives in a more urban neighborhood of Denver, where he can walk and bike around. In the warmer months, he'll ride a motor scooter, and two weeks might pass without him using a car. Since he is a contractor, Puett can be selective about which companies he works for based on travel time. (He'll accept longer commutes if they're short-term commitments.)

"Having lived the way I live now, you couldn't pay me enough for me to live out in the suburbs, or live anywhere, and commit to a 45-minute or hourlong commute every day," he says. "There's no amount of money that I would accept to do that."

But there are plenty of people who don't -- or can't -- draw that line. Ramona Patrick is the principal of an elementary school and drives 55 miles through Los Angeles to get to work Monday through Friday. She'll leave later in the evening to avoid traffic, but "your life is either on the road or at work."

And Minnick says she loves her job enough to make the trek from Athens three times a week. Podcasts and audio books help her get through.

"I would never say that this is fun," she says of her commute. "I feel like I've done a good job of making it more enjoyable. I'm really good at knowing what's going to make me happy for two hours."

Response: Despite the perils of a long commute, most people in the United States drive to work. Impatience -- if not handled early on -- can turn into resentment and anger, experts say. Long commutes linked to high blood pressure and higher body mass index, study finds.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(Rolling Stone) -- For me Ronnie's passing is the end of an era.

Ronnie Montrose gave me my first break as a songwriter, as a front man, as a recording artist and as a touring artist, and for that I will always be grateful. The first Montrose album was the first album I ever recorded and it still stands as one of the best recordings I have ever been a part of. I wrote songs with him, but it was his trip. He's the guy that got me to sing with him. I had no experience whatsoever; I just wrote the first four songs in my life, which were "Bad Motor Scooter," "Make It Last," "One Thing on My Mind," and "I Don't Want It," played them for Ronnie upon first meeting, shook my hand, and said, "Let's start a band." I went from zero to a hundred.

I saw him at Winterland with the Edgar Winter Group, [touring in support of] They Only Come Out at Night, with "Free Ride" and "Frankenstein." I didn't know who he was; I didn't know anything about him. I had a soul band -- we were playing Tower of Power and James Brown -- and we sat there and watched Edgar Winter. I told my guitar player, "I want you to be like that" -- like Ronnie Montrose. And he's going, "I don't want to play that kind of music," and I'm going, "Well, I do." We got into it. It broke my band up, seeing Ronnie for the first time. I said, "I'm going to be like that guy. I'm going to play guitar like that and I'm going to sing like...the way I sing."

I was talking to a guy a couple of days after the show, and he said, "That's Ronnie Montrose, and that was his last show. He lives in Sausalito." I lived in San Francisco, and I said, "Do you have his address?" because I didn't even have a phone. He gave it to me, and I went and knocked on his door, dressed like David Bowie -- big old high heel platform shoes, satin pants, probably had make-up on, with a Les Paul and a notebook pad with all kinds of lyrics in it. I said, "I'm Sammy Hagar. I heard you're looking for a singer." He said, "Come on in. You got any songs?" I played him my four songs, we shook hands, and he said, "Let's start a band. Do you know any drummers? I've got a bass player, Bill Church." I had a drummer, Denny Carmassi -- wasn't in my band, but he was my favorite drummer around town.

Within a month we were signed to Warner Bros. Records, Ted Templeman producing, and the first Montrose album was born a month after that. It was the fastest thing I've ever done in my life. Like I said, I went from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye -- all because of Ronnie.

He was a changeling. Ronnie never liked to stick with anything. We made one of the greatest hard rock/heavy metal albums of all time with that first Montrose album, and then he didn't want to do that anymore. "Nah, nah, we've got to have better songs, we've got to change our image, that kind of music is out." Boy, he was just laying it on us. Ronnie really liked to change -- immediately. We butted heads and I got thrown out of the band [after one more album, 1974's Paper Money], but I carried on with that "first Ronnie Montrose" I saw. What I learned from Ronnie Montrose, I still utilize today when I step on a stage. I try to keep the energy up and the entertainment high.

The first time Eddie Van Halen and I met, it was around 1977. We were on a stadium show with Boston, Black Sabbath, myself, Van Halen. He came to my dressing room, and said, "I'm a Montrose freak, I love the band!" And Ted Templeman told me, when he signed Van Halen, they were called something else, and he wanted to name them after the guitar player. He said on the first Van Halen record, he took the first Montrose record in there and said, "Boom. We're going to have eight great songs, they're going to be this long, they're going to be this tempo." And pretty much patterned the whole thing after it -- right down to saying, "Why don't you guys get Sammy Hagar to sing in this band? He's been thrown out of Montrose." That's a true story!

Eddie had a totally new twist on the whole guitar style thing, but as far as the chording goes -- not his soloing as much as the chording -- yeah, he took some of that big open chord thing [from Montrose]. The big open A, the big open D, the big open E. Everything as open as you could make it, to make it as heavy as possible with one guitar. And that was pretty much Ronnie's style, too. And of course the fire, too -- Van Halen came out with all that fire, which is Ronnie. Ronnie was full of fire, man.

[I last spoke to Montrose] a couple of weeks ago, and about a week before that, and then four or five days before that. We were talking a lot, because we were planning a Montrose reunion for my birthday in Cabo this year. Montrose, the whole band, has not been there. Denny's been there, Bill's been there, Ronnie's been there -- but [the whole band together] has never been there. I said to Ronnie, "Come on, man. We're all getting old. Let's do this again while we can." And he was in, we were all in. On my 65th, on October 13th, I was planning on coming out with Montrose, doing the whole first album, then going in with my other band, and then bringing Chickenfoot out. I was going to try to [cover] my whole four decades for the fans that night, without nobody knowing. And Ronnie was in. It's crazy. I even played back on my message box, February 10th -- "Hagar, Ronzo...call me back!" It was all good. It's f***ed up that those songs will never be played by those four members again. Songs can go forever, but we can't.

[I would like Montrose to be remembered] as one of the pioneers of American heavy/hard rock. And certainly, one of the great hard rock guitar players. But he was more than that -- he was really versatile. But if you're going to remember him for anything, put on that first Montrose record.

The only positive I can grab onto is the fact that the music will live on. It's a shame to lose Ronnie and I'm so sorry for his loved ones. Rest in peace.

As told to Greg Prato

See the full article at RollingStone.com

Copyright © 2011 Rolling Stone.

Response: Sammy Hagar: Ronnie Montrose gave me my first break as a songwriter, as a front man. Hagar: [I would like Montrose to be remembered] as one of the pioneers of American heavy/hard rock. Haragr: But he was more than that -- he was really versatile.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- Three crew members aboard a U.S. Navy helicopter that crashed in the Red Sea on Sunday were found alive and in stable condition, the Navy said. Two others remained missing.

The MH-60S Knighthawk was operating with the guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence when it went down in the central Red Sea, which lies between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Search efforts are under way for the two remaining crew members.

The cause of the crash is under investigation; however, the Navy said it "was not due to any sort of hostile activity."

Helicopter crashes outside Phoenix with no apparent survivors

Four die in North Sea helicopter crash

Five dead in Pennsylvania helicopter crash

Response: Three crew members were found in stable condition. The crash "was not due to any sort of hostile activity," Navy says.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:"She was a professor?"

That's what an astonished caseworker at Adult Protective Services asked about Margaret Mary Vojtko when informed of the 83-year-old woman's destitute situation, according to an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Vojtko died September 1 of a massive heart attack.

Yes, she was a professor. An adjunct professor of French at Duquesne University. Until she was not renewed this year, with neither due process nor severance pay.

She taught students for 25 years, with no health benefits, no retirement benefits, and low wages.

The minimum pay for adjunct faculty at Duquesne used to be $2500 per course. After an ongoing effort by the United Steelworkers to unionize adjuncts there, the university paid $3,500 per course.

Vojtko's situation was not unusual for adjuncts in academia. That is why many have taken the hashtag #iamMargaretMary to tweet their indignation at her working conditions, lack of support and lack of respect.

The dirty little secret is that higher education is staffed with an insufficiently resourced, egregiously exploited, contingent "new faculty majority." In addition to the 49.3% of faculty in part-time positions (70% in community colleges), another 19% are full-time, nontenure-track. (These numbers do not include graduate assistants or postdocs.)

Adjunct professors, like many hard-working Americans, are the working poor. They are one step away from "We don't need your services anymore" or one medical emergency away from being destitute, like Vojtko.

If Vojtko was good enough to be entrusted with teaching Duquesne undergraduates, how can the university justify not providing her (and her adjunct colleagues) with health care and other basic benefits?

If American higher education says to students and society that a college education is the path to the middle class, how can we justify such treatment of these professionals, with advanced degrees, who are teaching the students?

We are living a lie that cheats these professors and the students they teach, particularly in access universities and community colleges where adjunct faculty numbers, like percentages of lower-income students, are highest and instructional spending per student is lowest.

The story is not just about Duquesne. Certainly, the institution's wealth ($171 million endowment, tuition over $28,000) and Catholic status (Catholic social doctrine supports collective bargaining rights) make the situation -- and Duquesne's refusal to recognize a union that adjunct faculty voted for overwhelmingly -- particularly indefensible.

Duquesne University's administration has provided a response to the situation, suggesting that there were caring responses by people within the institution to Vojtko's circumstances. However, acts of charity are not conditions-of-employment justice for hard-working adjunct professors.

The larger issues are not about individual responsibility or culpability for actions toward Vojtko, but rather, about collective responsibility for the structural conditions of work that contributed to her circumstances, and that leave significant segments of the academic workforce with no benefits and low pay.

So Duquesne should recognize the adjunct union, bargain in good faith, grant benefits and set up a professional development fund in Vojtko's name. But this story speaks more broadly about a horrible reality in higher education.

Adjunct professors, as part of a growing army of working poor, are at the center of the academic labor movement, just as fast-food workers are now at the center of the larger labor movement. We are in the midst of deciding the extent to which we are an inclusive society that will live up to our nation's promise that hard work pays off.

The question is: How will we treat working people?  Will we, the richest nation on earth, continue to structure employment in ways that reduce large segments of society to near Dickensian conditions of existence? Or can we muster the collective will to appropriately remunerate and honor the work of all working Americans?

In academia, that means tenure stream faculty, staff, students, administrators, and communities must recognize in Vojtko's fate the ugly and diminished future of higher education and choose, in big ways and small ways, a more equitable path.

Adjunct professors have taken initiatives to change the status quo. Some have joined advocacy groups, such as the New Faculty Majority. Some are involved with caucuses within unions and professional associations where they gather data about pay and working conditions, define best practices, and work to ensure that adjunct faculty are not discriminated against.

Adjuncts are organizing for benefits, a living wage, and conditions that will benefit their students and their schools. In Pittsburgh, as in Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington, there are union campaigns for adjunct unions in private (often wealthy) universities. There is also much organizing in public institutions, and in units that combine adjunct with full-time and tenure track faculty.

No one deserves the treatment and fate experienced by Margaret Mary Vojtko, who escaped the 21st century equivalent of Victorian poorhouses in a cardboard casket. American higher education can and should do better for those who teach our students.

Response: Margaret Mary Vojtko, who taught at a university for 25 years, died in poverty. Gary Rhoades: Adjunct professors are paid very little and have no benefits. He says the dirty secret in higher education is that adjuncts are used a lot. Rhoades: Adjunct faculty do not deserve to be the new working poor in society.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:Hong Kong (CNN) -- Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua have pulled off an audacious transfer coup by signing former France international Nicolas Anelka from English team Chelsea.

Images of the striker were splashed across the Shanghai team's official website Monday, together with a statement saying the 32-year-old would be joining the club in January on a two-year contract.

The move was later confirmed by Chelsea, who signed Anelka for Â£15 million in 2008 but accepted his transfer request with his current deal to expire at the end of this season.

"This is not only good for Shenhua but also beneficial for Chinese football," club spokesperson Ma Yue told CNN.

"The joining of Anelka to Football Association Super League will promote the League's brand for sure."

No details were given about how much the contract was worth, but a club official denied reports that Anelka's weekly salary would be as high as Â£200,000 ($312,000).

Anelka has rarely featured for Chelsea this season under new manager Andre Villas-Boas, and was almost certain to leave Stamford Bridge during European football's January transfer window after asking to leave.

The Versailles-born player, who became a Muslim in 2004, has scored 59 goals in 184 games for the club.

Having played for some of Europe's top teams, including Spain's Real Madrid and England's Arsenal and Liverpool, Anelka's transfers have so far totaled almost $133 million, making him one of the world's most expensive players in those terms.

However, his questionable attitude during his early career led to him being nicknamed "Le Sulk" at Arsenal and being banned for 45 days at Real after refusing to train.

In 2008, Anelka moved to Chelsea in a Â£15 million deal from Bolton, where he resurrected his career after a short spell in Turkey with Fenerbahce. He helped the London club win the domestic championship in 2009-10.

Anelka's international career came to a controversial halt during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when he was sent home in disgrace after clashing with coach Raymond Domenech. He was given an 18-match ban after refusing to apologize, but said he had already decided to retire from the national team.

Reports have also linked Shenhua with another veteran Chelsea striker, Didier Drogba -- a target of Chinese rivals Dalian Aerbin.

Meanwhile, Shenhua owner Zhu Jun said last week that former France international Jean Tigana will become the club's new coach, according to the Shanghai Daily website.

"Tigana should be in the city by the middle of this month. He had already made a one-year coaching plan for the team," Zhu said.

Shenhua finished 11th in the 16-team Chinese Super League this year, having been runners-up in 2005, 2006 and 2008.

CNN's Haolan Hong contributed to this report.

Response: English Premier League side Chelsea confirm Nicolas Anelka will move to China. Shanghai Shenhua earlier claimed to have signed Frenchman on a two-year deal. Images of the 32-year-old were splashed across the Shanghai team's official website. The striker has rarely featured for Chelsea this season under manager Andre Villas-Boas.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- Removing a stranded U.S. minesweeper from an environmentally delicate reef off the Philippines may take until April, the state-run Philippines News Agency reported Wednesday, citing the Philippines Coast Guard.

The U.S. Navy is preparing to extract the USS Guardian from the Tubbataha Reef, a Philippine national park and UNESCO World Heritage site where the 224-foot-long ship ran aground on January 17.

The Navy plans to cut the 1,312-ton minesweeper into pieces and then, with the help of two contracted crane ships, lift the pieces and carry them away.

Philippines Coast Guard Rear Adm. Rodolfo Isorena said Wednesday that he hopes the salvaging will begin soon so that further damage to the reef will be limited, the Philippines News Agency said.

One of the crane ships has arrived in the area, about 80 miles east-southeast of Palawan Island in the Sulu Sea, and the other is on its way, the news agency reported.

Navy spokesman: Reef's location misplaced on chart

The ship is estimated to have damaged about 4,000 square meters (about 43,000 square feet) of the reef, the news agency said. Various U.S. officials, including Navy Vice Adm. Scott Swift last month, have apologized to the Philippines for the incident, which the U.S. Navy and the Philippines Coast Guard are investigating.

Philippine officials said last month that the country would seek compensation for reef damage. The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Harry Thomas Jr., assured the Philippines on Monday that the United States "will provide appropriate compensation for damage to the reef caused by the ship."

The reef is home to a vast array of sea, air and land creatures, as well as sizable lagoons and two coral islands. About 500 species of fish and 350 species of coral can be found there, as can whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles and breeding seabirds, according to UNESCO.

Originally, only the ship's bow was on the reef, but waves pushed the entire ship onto it. The ship's wood-and-fiberglass hull was penetrated, allowing a significant amount of water into the ship, the Navy said.

Crews have been working to remove hazardous materials from the vessel and anything that could still be useful to the Navy. The Navy has reported no oil slicks; the ship's 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel have been removed.

One of the environmental concerns is that algae will grow on dead or scarred corals, park Superintendent Angelique Songco said.

"Their presence makes it hard for other corals to regenerate as they cover the substrate," Songco wrote in an e-mail to CNN on Wednesday. "We expect an increase in the incidence of grazer fish species in the area that feed on the algae. Hopefully they are hungry enough to control algae populations to enable hard corals (to) take root in the substrate.

"So you see, the balance we have been trying to maintain has been upset. For that particular area at least, coral evolution starts all over again -- but not until salvage operations are over."

The salvage operation also may hurt tourism, because it will happen at the start of the park's main tourism window of March to early June, Songco said.

Songco said she hasn't heard of any pre-booked tourists canceling. But the park, which is celebrating its 25th year, will have to close two of its 15 major diving sites during the operation, she said.

"We will not (be) able to offer divers the full measure of the Tubbataha experience," she said.

CNN's Brad Lendon contributed to this report.

Response: The USS Guardian ran aground on a reef off the Philippines on January 17. The U.S. Navy plans to cut the ship into pieces, then haul them away. The Navy is awaiting the arrival of a crane ship. The U.S. has assured the Philippines of "appropriate compensation" for reef damage.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:Seychelles (CNN) -- The pristine waters of the Seychelles, a glittering necklace of coralline and granitic islands scattered on the Indian Ocean, have long beguiled jet-setters and eco-conscious visitors from around the world, turning the idyllic archipelago into a popular travel destination.

But as well as boosting the tiny nation's tourism revenues, the high seas off the east coast of Africa have also helped create another strategic industry: fishing.

A major economic pillar, fishing is the second biggest contributor to the Seychelles' finances after tourism. Over the last two decades, the sector's products have accounted for more than 90% of the country's merchandise exports by value, supplying international markets with items such as canned tuna, also known as the Seychelles' "blue gold."

But in recent years, the fishing industry has come under severe threat as a result of the ongoing risk posed by Somali pirates roaming the waters off the Horn of Africa.

"It's a big problem," explains major Jean Attala, deputy operations officer of the Seychelles coast guard. "Anything that disrupts the tourism or fishing industry or the maritime equilibrium is a very big problem for us," he adds.

Read this: The global cost of piracy

To deal with the threat of piracy, the country's authorities had to change the way they manage their waters in recent years. As part of this increased security drive, the Seychelles coast guard has intensified its patrolling efforts, with fast-attack armed vessels monitoring a newly defined zone for fishing.

But there are just four such vessels in the Seychelles' entire fleet. It's a small nation in terms of landmass, but with its oceans, it is nearly twice the size of France. "This is not adequate to cover such a large area," says Attala. "We need more assets and build up more our capacity to deal with the issue."

Local fishermen are restricted from sailing beyond the designated area's perimeter, several dozen miles outside the main port.

Analysts say that fishing boats are of particular importance to pirates because they can be used as floating bases from which to launch further attacks.

But while the measure seems to be working -- there have been no successful attacks in nearly a year -- the restrictions on the movement of Seychellois fishermen has created another problem.

"There's no fish," explains local fisherman Patrick Pierre. "Every boat is fishing in the same place," he adds.

Pierre, who's been casting his nets for 12 years now, says his job was hardest during the worst period of the piracy -- in 2007 and 2008. Since then, the Seychelles has been at the forefront of the global fight against piracy but the new rules mean fewer fish and less money.

Latest African gold rush: Hotels

Joram Madnack is the general manager of the French-owned Indian Ocean Tuna, one of the world's largest tuna canneries and the biggest employer in the Seychelles. He says fish intake has fallen nearly 25% in the last five years.

"The impact has been on the price, which for some places has gone up by 70%-80% compared to 2007 prices," explains Madnack.

According to a recent report by the World Bank, piracy costs the global economy an estimated $18 billion a year. The increased costs come as shippers are forced to change trading routes, sending fuel bills soaring, as well as pay higher insurance premiums and security bills for guards on board.

But the threat of Somali piracy is also damaging the economies of neighboring countries, particularly in the key sectors of tourism and fishing. Since 2006, the year the World Bank report takes as the starting point of piracy, exports of fish products from piracy-hit countries have declined by 23.8%. In Seychelles, the impact has been even greater, with exports collapsing by nearly 30%.

"We now fish where we are allowed to fish," says Peter Sinon, the country's minister of natural resources and industry. "It has made the industry more costly in terms of going out there [and] be secure to bring in what usually was our daily supply of protein," he adds.

Watch video: protecting "blue gold" from pirates

And although many of the pirates have now gone, the fishermen say their industry still hasn't recovered.

For people like Pierre, the fight against piracy and the introduction of fishing zones has proven to be a double-edged sword.

The protection is still necessary, he says, acknowledging that today he is safer. Yet, he and other local fishermen miss the freedom to sail about and return with a big catch.

"Five years ago, there was a lot of fish," says Pierre. "We could go anywhere we wanted without the fear of piracy and everything."

Teo Kermeliotis contributed to this report.

Response: Seychelles' fishermen have been targets of Somali pirates. Piracy forced authorities to introduce zones that restrict fishermen's movements. Attacks have decreased, but restrictions hurt fishing industry.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Rob Thomas is a busy guy -- so busy, he apparently hasn't had much time to check in with his Matchbox Twenty bandmates.

Rob Thomas prefers to focus on the "musician" side of his career, rather than "celebrity."

We only know this because we ran into guitarist Paul Doucette at the BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills several weeks ago, where he was picking up a plaque for songwriter of the year.

"We're interviewing Rob about his solo album," I told him.

"Hey," Doucette exclaimed. "Tell that guy to call me, would you? I didn't even know he was in L.A.!"

By the time we met up with Thomas the next day, he and Doucette had already connected over drinks somewhere between midnight and the morning -- musician's hours.

Thomas recently released "Cradlesong," his second solo CD. Even though he's clearly excited about it, he spends as much time talking about Matchbox Twenty as he does the solo album he's in town to promote. For the 37-year-old singer-songwriter, it's all interconnected. One has fed into the other since he gained household name status a decade ago, after scoring a massive, Grammy-winning hit with Carlos Santana on "Smooth."  Watch Thomas describe the difference between being a celebrity and a musician »

The following is an edited version of the interview.

CNN: Who has given you the best piece of advice?

Rob Thomas: Carlos [Santana] will constantly send you messages out of nowhere. Carlos will call me at 10 at night and be like, "Listen, I had a dream about you, and so much good is happening, but there's dark forces at work, and when you get out of here, I have this woman who wants to cleanse you." I think Carlos' most important piece of advice ever was that he taught me the difference between being a celebrity and being a famous musician.

CNN: But some artists don't have that kind of success, and they try for celebrity instead.

Thomas: Sure, and sometimes that works -- but none of my favorites have done that.

I remember when Matchbox Twenty started years ago, and we had a lot of success, but nobody knew who we were. The first time we did an interview with MTV, it was about how no one knew who we were. We had sold 8 million records. I don't know if we were being naive at the time, but we thought we'd won because our songs were more famous than we were.

I'm much more known for the music that I make than what I do with my life. It's never, "Oh yeah, I've been seeing you in [the New York Post gossip column] Page Six at these clubs that you go to" or "I know who you're sleeping with."

CNN: When you became famous for being Rob Thomas the solo artist, did that cause problems within the band?

Thomas: No. I think the guys would rather it be me than them. None of them want the job, and they realize that it's working now. They have a singer. I can go out and do it [publicity] for them, and they're fine with it. They can stay home.

I think there's nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity. If I'm not out supporting my work, I really don't want people to see me. I go to movie premieres -- my wife and I -- all the time, and nine out of 10 of those movie premieres, much to my publicist's dismay, I get there, but I sneak around the pictures and get into the party [using the back entrance]. If I have a record coming out, I'll go in front of the cameras, and I'll say, "Hi! Hey, I'm at this movie premiere." I liken it to being a switch that I can move on and off.

CNN: What has doing a solo project enabled you to do that you can't do with a band?

Thomas: I get to pick my own schedule, and that's nice. Matchbox Twenty -- it's four lead singers, there's four front men, and everybody's tastes, everybody's schedule, everybody's personal life comes into account when you're doing something like that. We all live [in four different cities] ... so we literally have to pull ourselves up from all over the country and go somewhere, just to get us into a room to write. And you have to not think you're so great so you don't get upset when somebody doesn't like your stuff.

Like "Her Diamonds" -- one of the singles on this solo album -- is one of my favorite songs that I've ever written, and the guys loved the song, but didn't want to play it. [They said,] "When you do a new solo record, you should put it on there. It doesn't sound like a song we would do right now." And they were right. When we put together the last Matchbox record, it was much more of a rock record.

CNN: What's the most surprising thing on your iPod?

Thomas: Britney Spears. Come on! "Toxic," man, is just one of the baddest tracks ever! I remember the first time we listened to "... Baby One More Time." ... We were like, "Oh, let's go play Britney Spears on the piano!" And we all come over drinking, and after a couple of minutes, we're like, "This Britney Spears is a lot harder than we thought!"

CNN: Whose career would you like to emulate?

Thomas: Tom Petty is a famous musician. He's not a music celebrity. When Tom Petty walks down the street, you know that it's Tom Petty, but it would be like, "Oh my gosh, it's Tom Petty! I love Tom Petty, right on!" It would never be like, "Aaaaaaaah!" -- and 3 million teenage girls follow him down the street.

Response: Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty has new album out, "Cradlesong". Thomas says Matchbox Twenty is still very much together. Singer: "Nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity".


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:LONDON, England (CNN) -- The 2002 World Cup tournament was the first one held in Asia and was instrumental in bringing the world's attention to the continent's footballing talents.

Michael Chopra was the first player of Indian parentage to play and score in the English Premier League.

It was seen as Asia's chance to show the rest of the world what it had to offer on the pitch and with South Korea reaching the last four of the tournament, the rest of the world was impressed.

However, since then few footballers of Asian origin have made an impact outside of the Asian Federation Cup (AFC) -- the largest league in terms of area and population.

A new initiative, spearheaded by Chelsea FC, has been launched in the UK to search for talented youngsters from backgrounds not commonly found among today's top footballers such as India and Pakistan.

See a gallery of the best Asian players

Chelsea have teamed up with the Football Association (FA),  anti-racism campaigners Kick It Out and the Asian Media Group for the The Search for an Asian Star event to be held in May at Chelsea's training ground in Stamford Bridge, London.

The search is aimed at players in the under 12, 13 and 14 age groups and is open to players based in London and the south-east of England who hail from Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi backgrounds.

"We realize there is a lack of representation of players from Asian backgrounds within the game and we hope that the competition will help inspire Asian youngsters," former Chelsea and England full-back Graeme Le Saux told thefa.com.

"We want to show that race is no barrier to joining our club and that opportunities for Asian players do exist. It is important all clubs share our ambition that players should only be judged on their talent and their potential."

Response: A new initiative is launched to find the Asian football stars of the future. Players aged 12 to 14 will be put through their paces by Chelsea FC staff. English football currently boasts very few players of Asian descent.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:Jerusalem (CNN) -- The Israel Chamber Orchestra performed works of Adolf Hitler's favorite composer Richard Wagner in Germany on Tuesday in the composer's home town of Bayreuth.

Israeli orchestras have held back from performing Wagner's music in the past because of its use in Nazi propaganda during World War II . The 19th century composer was known for his anti Semitic views and performances of his music in Israel are considered insensitive to survivors of the Holocaust and many other Israelis.

Conductor of the orchestra Roberto Paternostro said on Israeli TV it was time to separate Wagner's world view from his music. "He was a great composer and the aim in the year 2011 is to divide the man from his art," he said.

This was the first time an Israeli orchestra played Wagner in Germany.

Uri Hanok head of the Holocaust Survivors Union to Prevent the Playing of Wagner, told CNN, "When I heard that an Israeli orchestra was to play Wagner in Germany I could not sleep. Wagner despised Jews, it was evident in all his writings. While there are still survivors alive, his music should not be played in Israel and certainly not by an Israeli orchestra."

Paternostro said at a news conference, "There wasn't a moment when I had any doubts about this project it was my greatest conviction to bring these two sides Israel and Wagner together." Paternostros mother and other relatives were Holocaust survivors. "I know that in Israel this is not accepted, but many people have told me its time we confront Wagner especially those in the younger generation" the conductor said.

Israel's state owned TV and radio still keep Wagner off the air. In 2001 the world renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim angered many Israelis when he played Wagner's music in Israel.

Response: Conductor says it is time to separate Wagner's world view from his music. The 19th century composer was known for his anti Semitic views. Performances of his music in Israel are considered insensitive to survivors of the Holocaust.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- American Airlines has found cracks in large pylons that hold engines onto the wings of two of its 767-300 aircraft, according to the airline and to the planes' manufacturer.

Concerned the problem may exist on other airline fleets, Boeing says it plans to advise airlines to inspect the parts more frequently than the current recommendation of every 1,500 takeoff and landing cycles.

"This is considered a safety issue. You're talking about the strut that connects an engine to the wing," said Boeing spokesperson Peter Conte.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner said the problem was first discovered on one of its 767-300s about two weeks ago during a maintenance check targeting other parts of the aircraft. The airline then found cracking on one more 767-300 after inspecting a total of 56 aircraft -- 767-300 and 767-200s -- a process American Airlines completed Monday night.

"We found these issues when it's best to find them, which is early on," said Wagner. The airline has sent the first damaged pylon to a metallurgy lab to try to determine why it cracked.

"Until that metallurgy testing is completed no one knows what the cause is," said Wagner. The damaged planes were among American's older aircraft, Wagner added.

American flies Boeing 767-300s on international routes as well as long-haul domestic routes. The 767-200s fly primarily transcontinental routes.

Airlines have previously found similar cracks at the holes where the pylon attaches to the wing, which led Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration five years ago to recommend checks every 1,500 cycles. At that time, when the FAA issued an airworthiness directive it said, "We are issuing this (directive)  to prevent fatigue cracking in the primary strut structure and reduced structural integrity of the strut, which could result in separation of the strut and engine."

Response: American Airlines found cracks on two 767-300 aircraft. Boeing plans to advise airlines to inspect the parts more frequently. Cause is still unknown, testing is underway.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- It has been three days since Chris Stevens and three other Americans lost their lives in Benghazi, Libya. I lived and worked for four years in Libya, leaving hurriedly last year in an evacuation as the civil war began. I sit safely now in my new home in Qatar, and those who shared my Libyan experiences -- and who knew Chris -- are now spread out around the world. I know from their e-mails that, like me, they are also unspeakably sad.

Every life on this good earth is precious, and all four Americans who lost their lives at the U.S. Consulate were in Benghazi to help the Libyan efforts. They will be very, very much missed.

Because I knew and worked with Chris, I understand firsthand that the world has lost a true hero, and we seem to have precious few of those. Chris was smart, supportive, kind, approachable, very passionate about reestablishing a relationship between the United States and Libya and improving the lives of the Libyan people. He was a perfect candidate for his new role as ambassador. When someone like that is taken away, you don't just mourn the loss of a colleague or friend, you mourn the greater loss for our planet.

We were both originally from northern California, but Chris and I first met in Libya, arriving around the same time in 2007. I was there as the new director of the fledgling American School of Tripoli and Chris had just been appointed U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission. The United States and Libya had reestablished diplomatic relations in 2004, but the U.S. Liaison Office had just been upgraded to a full embassy in 2006. Because no ambassador had yet been named, as deputy chief, Chris served as acting ambassador until the arrival of Ambassador Gene Cretz in January 2009.

Working in Libya at that time was challenging. The infrastructure that the West left behind had long disappeared during the 30 years of sanctions, and we were all scrambling to develop our institutions and businesses from the ground up. Chris built a team of embassy personnel, negotiated with a quixotic Libyan government, helped the returning U.S. companies and served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American School.

He loved the school and in an e-mail earlier this year shared how much he was looking forward to witness its eventual reopening.

During the two years we worked together, I watched Chris serve with aplomb, patience, and an easy smile. If you sat and talked with him, it was clear that he was well-read and a deep thinker, but he was always humble.

He was also extremely comfortable whether he was speaking with VIPs or Libyan farmers. I had the good fortune to sit with him on the Fulbright Scholarship Committee that helped Libyans further their education in America, one of the many tangible ways he demonstrated his dedication to the Libyan people.

He traveled across the sparsely populated country savoring the rich archaeological sites, and broke bread with Berbers in their cave homes. Always gracious, he hosted receptions for Libyan ministers and businessmen and, just as often, was in khakis and a T-shirt, holding informal embassy gatherings on the roof of his villa, smiling and making sure that everyone was included.

What really made Chris exceptional to me, however, was his ability to distance himself. Not the aloof kind of distancing that you might expect from someone in his position, but the kind where one puts emotion and ego aside in order to truly listen, to understand, and then to find a way to build bridges. It is extremely rare to find someone who can do that, consistently rising above the fray, and that's what makes his death so especially painful.

Of course I feel anger at those horribly misguided people who are responsible for this tragedy, but I am also trying to rise above it, like Chris would. For those who find this yet another reason to vilify Muslims, I point to other examples of seemingly senseless violence like the Aurora movie theater shootings or the attack on Gabrielle Giffords, neither of which had anything to do with Islam.

We live in a world where frustration and anger override the sanctity of life. We live in a world where it's easier to get our hands on weapons than to give each other a helping hand. We live in a world where too many people use religion as a vehicle for hatred, rather than love.

I was extremely fortunate for a few years to have lived and worked under the light of Chris' grace and vision. I know he touched all who knew him. As I continue to watch the Libyans, who have only known oppression, try to dig out of the void left behind in the wake of Moammar Gadhafi's fall, I will always remember Chris and the legacy he has left them.

We are all better for having known Chris. My hope is hope that Libya will flourish for its people and that we, each in our own way, will make him proud.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Judith Drotar.

Response: Judith Drotar knew Christopher Stevens when she worked at American School of Tripoli. She says he was kind, smart, approachable and had passion for helping U.S.-Libya relations. She says they met when he was Deputy Chief of Mission; he helped her establish the school. Drotar: He had rare talent for listening, building bridges. His killing a profound loss.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- A blast of Arctic air Tuesday morning has much of the nation -- from the Great Lakes to Oregon and down to Texas -- in its cold, icy grip.

Snow covers a golf course in Summerlin, Nevada, near Las Vegas, on Monday.

The temperature at International Falls, Minnesota, was 26 below zero at 8 a.m. Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.

To the south in Minneapolis, below-zero temperatures were leaving roadways covered in black ice, sending drivers spinning into numerous accidents, CNN affiliate KARE-TV reported Tuesday.

Black ice, nearly invisible on roads, can form when car exhaust freezes on snow-covered pavement in sub-zero conditions, KARE said. Twin Cities drivers could find a little hope in the day's forecast high -- 4 degrees above zero by the afternoon.

Temperatures hovering as low as 23 below zero have parts of Montana frozen in their tracks, according to CNN affiliate KFBB-TV.

The forecast high Tuesday for Great Falls: 5 degrees.

But regions of the nation far from Montana, and not as well equipped to deal with wintry weather, are also caught in the cold blast.  Watch the mess in Portland, Oregon »

WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, predicts the temperature will barely get above freezing, to 36 degrees, on Tuesday. A winter weather advisory is in effect for northern Texas.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, residents saw a rare snow accumulation.

Snow-covered grounds were a treat for iReporter Rena Moretti, who's lived in Las Vegas on and off for about 10 years.

"It's unbelievable. If it snows it never sticks. I've never seen it like that," she said.   Watch snow delight skiers but frustrate motorists in Nevada »  In Denver, Colorado, where the temperature was minus 4, KMGH warned residents to expect more snow, with 2 to 3 feet expected in some parts of the Rocky Mountains.  Watch ice cause havoc on Colorado roads »

While the snow is forecast to end Tuesday, the cold air mass should stick around all week. The station also warned commuters that driving would be a mess Tuesday morning.

In Omaha, Nebraska, the frigid weather had shelters sending out crews looking for the homeless, according to KMTV.  Watch blizzards shut down North Dakota »

"We've had people that have been trying to make it here ... either have been too intoxicated or just too cold and just fallen down and haven't been able to make it," says Siena Francis House worker and guest Jerry Rayburn.

According to the National Weather Service, the entire state of Iowa could be in for heavy snowfall Tuesday. Chicago, Illinois, no stranger to cold weather, is expecting a high of 22 degrees with snow, according to WGN.

Meanwhile, on a frontal boundary, West Virginia and western Tennessee are on the alert for possible freezing rain, the weather service reports. And KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, said freezing rain and sleet were moving across the state.

In New England, socked by a powerful ice storm last week, temperatures were warming back up into in the 40s and 50s, WCVB in Boston, Massachusetts, reported.

But electricity may not be restored to some customers until the weekend, the station reported.

One town, Lunenberg, Massachusetts, said school students would be getting an extended Christmas break, with classes not resuming until the new year, WCVB reported. Debris-clogged roads were blamed.

"They're passable for vehicles and emergency vehicles, but they're not passable for buses. That represents a danger, so, we can't get the kids safely to school, even if we were able to open school," School Superintendent Loxi Joe Calmes said, accoding to WCVB.

Meanwhile, a cold, wet storm blew into Southern California. Twenty-four-hour rainfall totals were 1.44 inches at Los Angeles International Airport, almost 1 inch in Palm Springs, and an inch in San Diego, the weather service reported Tuesday morning. iReporters share their weather observations

Where is it not so cold? It was 69 degrees in Miami, Florida, early Tuesday morning, according to WFOR.

The price for the warm weather -- possible thunderstorms, says the National Weather Service.

Response: NEW: Black ice plagues Minneapolis in sub-zero temperatures. NEW: Storm-struck Massachusetts city closes schools until new year. Large swath of the United States beset by very low temperatures. Even places such as Las Vegas, Nevada, and Dallas, Texas, in wintry grip.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, once dubbed "America's Sheriff," turned himself in Tuesday to a Colorado federal prison to begin serving his 5 1/2-year sentence for a witness tampering conviction.

Carona, 55, will serve 66 months in a minimum-security facility called "The Camp" at the Englewood federal prison in Littleton, Colorado, said John Sell, a corrections spokesman. The prison is 15 miles southwest of Denver.

Carona will have to serve at least 85% of his sentence, spokesman Thom Mrozek of the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Central District of California told CNN.

Carona was sentenced in April 2009 in federal court in Santa Ana, California. He was convicted of trying to persuade a former assistant to lie to and withhold testimony from a federal grand jury investigating claims of corruption in Carona's campaign and his administration, according to a statement by Mrozek.

Carona was also ordered to pay a fine of $125,000, according to Mrozek.

During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence of a wide-ranging corruption scheme in which Carona used illegal campaign contributions and personally accepted cash bribes, Mrozek's statement said.

According to the U.S. attorney's office's press release, U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford sentenced Carona and called witness tampering "a very serious offense." The judge added that "lying will not be tolerated in this courtroom, especially by law enforcement, especially by the highest-ranking law enforcement official in the county," according to the prosecutors' statement.

During the trial, prosecutors said they presented evidence of a secretly recorded meeting in August 2007 in which Carona tried to persuade former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl to lie to a grand jury that Carona thought had subpoenaed Haidl, according to Mrozek.

In papers filed with the court before the 2009 sentencing, prosecutors charged that Carona received or solicited cash and other items of value worth at least $432,144, according to Mrozek's statement. The FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation into Carona.

California news outlets have referred to Carona as "America's Sheriff" and have credited former CNN host Larry King with the nickname. In 2002, then-Sheriff Carona appeared on "Larry King Live" because he caught the kidnapper and killer of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, whom Carona dubbed "America's Little Girl." King called Carona and the girl's mother, both guests, "genuine American heroes and heroines," according to a CNN transcript.

Response: Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona reports to a minimum-security prison. He will serve a 5 1/2-year sentence for his conviction on witness tampering. CNN's Larry King is credited with dubbing him "America's Sheriff".


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- American Airlines will cancel more flights from its daily schedule through mid-November.

"American Airlines is extending its previously announced schedule reductions through the first half of November by approximately 1%," said American spokesman Matt Miller in a statement. "Although we are beginning to see improvements in our operations, we are taking this proactive step to allow us to get our performance back to the levels our customers deserve and expect."

The new cuts of about 31 flights per day out of the airline's total network of 3,500 daily flights will not affect holiday travel, Miller said. Previously, the airline announced an up to 2% reduction in the number of seat sales through the end of October.

The airline declared bankruptcy last year and has been mired in contract negotiations with unions. Airline executives convinced a bankruptcy judge to throw out the pilots' contract last month.

In the past month, more than 1,000 American flights have been canceled and 12,000 delayed.

Some travel agents and business travelers have told CNN they can't count on American flights to take off or -- when they do take off, to land on time. Some American customers are starting to book flights on other airlines.

Airline management blamed the situation on pilots filing what it claims are frivolous reports about aircraft problems as part of a slowdown. The pilots' union denied management's assertion, arguing that company mismanagement has led to increased maintenance problems.

"These mechanical items are all of American management's making," American Airlines Capt. Carl Jackson, a representative of the Allied Pilots Association, told CNN on Thursday as several dozen American pilots conducted an informational picket at Washington's Reagan National Airport.

"They have old planes," Jackson said. "They have a shortage of mechanics, here in the near term it's going to be a severe shortage of mechanics, and we're just trying to do the best we can to get the public safely to where they need to be."

The airline also faced questions about its maintenance after seats on three American Airlines flights have come loose in flight, requiring the airline to fix floor mounts in 48 of its 757s to prevent seats from coming loose again.

Although American management and pilots resumed negotiations last week, the three major American employee unions have already reached conditional agreement with US Airways, should a merger of the two airlines take place.

American to fix seats in 48 757s

Who wants to fly American Airlines?

How would you save American Airlines?

Response: About 1%, or 31 flights per day, will be canceled, American Airlines says. American extends capacity cuts through mid-November. The airline is struggling with chronic delays and labor issues.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- Record prize money and an extra rest day for finalists -- U.S. Open tennis chiefs have taken note of player complaints and made significant changes for 2013.

The tournament's women's final will now be held on a Sunday and the men's title match on a Monday, while the total prize purse will increase by $4 million.

"I'm pleased that the USTA has modified the U.S. Open schedule to include a day of rest between the semifinals and final," defending men's champion Andy Murray said on the New York grand slam's website.

"Together with the prize money increase, it's good that they've taken on board the players' concerns."

Record Australian Open prize money heads off player unrest

Women's champion Serena Williams was also happy with the changes, which mean the female players will play their last-four matches in Friday's afternoon session.

"Both the prize money increase and the addition of a day of rest are great for the players," the American said. "These moves make the tournament stronger than it's ever been for all players."

Previously the finals had been held the day after the semis, prompting criticism that the schedule favored players seeded in one half of the draw who get an extra 24 hours' recovery time.

How 'Big Four' earned a pay rise for tennis colleagues

The men's final has actually been played on a Monday for the past four years due to weather disruptions earlier in the tournament, which has affected players who have been involved in the Davis Cup teams final the following weekend.

The new schedule means that there will be no evening session on the second Saturday of the two-week tournament.

"We recognize the increased physicality required to compete at the highest level of the sport, and we have responded to the players' request for a scheduled day of rest between the singles semifinals and finals," said USTA president Jon Vegosen.

"The record increase in U.S. Open prize money and the changes in the next year's schedule are aimed at rewarding the players' talents and accommodating the rigors of the modern professional game."

How tennis aced austerity

The USTA increased the base prize money by $2 million this year, and the 2013 doubling of that figure will mean a 34% increase since 2011.

There will be a total $29.5 million on offer, plus a bonus pool of $2.6 million based on results in the seven-week North American swing of men's and women's hard-court tournaments leading up to the season's closing grand slam at Flushing Meadows.

Players have been pressing for a better distribution of prize money among the players knocked out in the early rounds of the four grand slams, and the USTA said it is in talks with them about how best to do this.

Response: An extra $4 million will be on offer for the 2013 U.S. Open tennis tournament. Organizers have also agreed to schedule a day of rest between finals and semis. Defending champions Andy Murray and Serena Williams welcome the changes. There will be a record $29.5 million in prize money -- a 34% increase since 2011.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN)More than 4,600 people dead. More than 9,000 injured. Eight million affected across Nepal. One million children urgently in need of help.

Those are the startling numbers that indicate the scale of the devastation from the huge earthquake that struck the Himalayan nation on Saturday.

And some of the grim figures are likely to get even worse as hopes of rescuing any more survivors diminish every hour.

Heartbreaking scenes of suffering and loss are playing out across this shell-shocked nation as it reels from its deadliest natural disaster in more than 80 years.

As the country coped with the fallout of the quake, another natural disaster struck Tuesday afternoon in a popular trekking area north of Kathmandu, and up to 200 people were feared missing as a result of a landslide, a trekking association official said.

It happened around 4 p.m. in Langtang National Park, said Ramesh Dhamala, president of the Trekking Agents of Nepal. Laxmi Dhakal, spokesman for Nepal's Home Ministry, said  he was aware of reports about the landslide but wasn't immediately able to confirm details.

Quake relief efforts continued Tuesday, but officials warned that they were hampered by problems of getting aid into the country and then delivering it to some of the remote communities in desperate need.

In Kathmandu, a capital city of shattered temples and toppled houses, some people paid their last respects to loved ones taken by the quake.

By the Bagmati River, which winds through the city, more than a dozen funeral pyres burned Monday.

As workers stoked the flames for the Hindu cremation ceremonies, some mourners shaved their heads in a traditional show of mourning from children who lose their parents.

Alongside their father, two teenage brothers from the Gurung family, Ishan and Iman, said goodbye to their mother, Ishara.

"We never imagined this would happen to us. This much pain," said Ishan, the elder of the two.

Elsewhere in the city, many shaken residents are sleeping in the open. Some have lost their homes, others are afraid to stay in buildings that may be vulnerable to aftershocks.

Large encampments of tents have sprung up in open areas, including a wide space belonging to the military in the center of the city that is typically used for parades. One of the grand gates to the field is now just a pile of rubble.

Kisnor Raj Giri, a 22-year-old man from Kathmandu who lost members of his extended family in the quake, said he was too scared to return home.

He is camping out at the military grounds with thousands of others even though frequent rain has made the nights an ordeal.

"Many people are crying, sharing their hardships," he told CNN on Monday evening.

The elements showed no mercy to the homeless masses on Tuesday as thunderstorms rumbled over Kathmandu. More bad weather is forecast for the region in the coming days.

But in one piece of good news, Turkish and Chinese rescue crews helped pull free a 21-year-old man trapped under rubble near a city bus park in a 13-hour rescue operation.

Houses and families ripped apart by earthquake

The death toll has now climbed above 4,600 in Nepal, officials said Tuesday evening, as rescue and relief efforts continue.

Nepal army Lt. Col. A. J. Thapa told CNN's Sumnima Udas that the first 72 hours after the earthquake is the time when the most lives can be saved.

"This is not the time to rest and lament," he said. "This is the time to go out and save lives."

Thapa said an entire military post was lost during an avalanche.

"Remember we are not an outside force that has been parachuted into an area to help," he said. "We are victim ourselves. ... Despite the fact that soldiers have their families and houses are down, we are trying to build morale, maintain morale and help themselves."

Thapa said it was fortunate that the quake struck during daylight on a weekend.

"Children were not trapped in big schools somewhere and lot of people were outside because it was daytime," he said.

Dhakal, the Home Ministry spokesman, put the death toll at 4,620, while Nepal's National Emergency Coordination Center said the number of dead was 4,727. Both sources gave the number of people injured as 9,239.

Another 72 people died in India, while China reported 25 deaths.

Most of the casualty numbers in Nepal are believed to have come mainly from Kathmandu and the surrounding area. They are expected to climb as information emerges from remote areas.

"We have incomplete information, but we apprehend the death toll will go up," Nepalese Information Minister Minendra Rijal told CNN earlier on Tuesday. "We cannot say by how much exactly."

The news agency Reuters cited Prime Minister Sushil Koirala as saying that the toll could reach 10,000 and that the country was "on a war footing" in its rescue and relief work.

In a live, televised address to the nation, the Prime Minister said the country had been stunned by the disaster and announced three days of national mourning, starting Tuesday.

The government's first priority is to continue search and rescue operations and relief efforts, he said, as he thanked all those involved. Historic and religious monuments destroyed by the earthquake will be reconstructed in time, he added.

At least 90% of 96,000 Nepali army troops have been deployed in relief and rescue operations, according to Nepal army spokesman Jagadish Chandra Pokharel.

More than 15 countries and agencies have already promised help, Koirala said, as he appealed for other nations also to come to Nepal's aid.

Even as international aid pours into the country, overwhelmed hospitals are lacking vital medical supplies, people remain buried in the wreckage of buildings and rescuers are struggling to reach hard-hit rural areas near the quake's epicenter.

"The biggest problem is reaching these villages," Matt Darvas, an emergency communications officer for the humanitarian group World Vision, told CNN from Gorkha district, northwest of Kathmandu.

Nepal struggles to cope with international aid

Nepali Home Ministry Joint Secretary Sagar Mani Parajuli, who is coordinating relief efforts, said government efforts to get aid to remote areas had been hampered by rugged terrain and poor weather, which limits the use of helicopters.

"The helicopters are small. They don't fly in windy and cloudy conditions. Given Nepal's geographical terrain, we cannot use surface transport much but are using it," he said.

"We need 150,000 tents and tarpaulins, but we don't have enough of them."

Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. resident coordinator for Nepal, told a news conference Tuesday that bringing in relief materials has been difficult because Kathmandu's international airport, which has just one runway and space for only a limited number of aircraft to park, is log jammed.

The United Nations is aware of the request for tents, he said, but is working to procure high quality ones to withstand the expected monsoon rains.

Of the 8 million people affected by the quake across 39 districts of Nepal, some 1.4 million need food aid, McGoldrick added. Nepal's population is about 31 million.

At an event in Paris, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his condolences to the people of Nepal and called the humanitarian needs "huge and urgent."

"The United Nations is supporting international operations for search and rescue and strengthening relief efforts," he said. "I count on the generosity of the international community in Nepal's hour of need and the longer term rebuilding efforts that will be needed."

A CNN team that joined a Nepalese military helicopter flight to Dhulikhel, a rural area east of Kathmandu, saw extensive damage in the Kathmandu Valley from the air, including many landslides.

On landing, the team went to a hospital where all the injured from six surrounding districts are being brought. More than 1,000 people are currently in the hospital -- three times its usual capacity -- so some of the injured are being left out in the streets.

Social media posts from Nepal

Darvas of World Vision said he had been told of frightening levels of damage in villages in the region surrounding Gorkha district, which is near the earthquake's epicenter.

They included one where 35 out of 45 homes were destroyed and another where 70% of the houses had collapsed, trapping and crushing the people inside, most of them children and the elderly.

Even though aid groups and Nepalese officials are aware of critical situations in areas spread across Nepal's mountainous terrain, they face daunting challenges getting help to them.

"Some of those villages -- several years ago, before there was vehicle transport -- used to take seven days to reach. Roads are shut now to some of those villages, so we can only imagine how long it will take to get there," Darvas said Monday.

He said injured people who had been airlifted from some remote areas were often suffering from crush injuries, lacerations and dislocations.

Looking for missing loved ones in Nepal? CNN iReport wants to help

UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, said Sunday that nearly 1 million Nepalese children urgently need assistance.

Aid groups and at least 16 nations rushed aid and workers to Nepal, with more on the way.

High-altitude rescue efforts have also been undertaken on the difficult terrain of Mount Everest, where the earthquake released deadly avalanches.

Four U.S. citizens are among those who died on Everest, according to officials and relatives.

Damage to climbing infrastructure on the mountain, not to mention the overall situation in Nepal, means the climbing season is over for the year, climber Jim Davidson told CNN from the Everest base camp, where he was evacuated after spending two days on the mountain.

China has canceled all climbs on its side of the mountain, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

Are you in Nepal or do you have loved ones affected? Please share with us if you are in a safe place.

How to help the earthquake victims

Fast facts on earthquakes

CNN's Ivan Watson and Tim Hume reported from Kathmandu; CNN's Jethro Mullen wrote and reported from Hong Kong, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Elizabeth Joseph, Pamela Boykoff, Manesh Shrestha, Sumnima Udas, Kristie Lu Stout, Anjali Tsui, Kunal Sehgal and Ingrid Formanek also contributed to this report.

Response: Death toll in Nepal climbs above 4,600, officials say, with more than 9,000 injured. Shattered villages near epicenter are hard to reach, says aid worker in the area. More bad weather is forecast for the region in the coming days.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:Mexico City (CNN) -- The runner-up in Mexico's presidential election said Friday he still won't accept a vote count, even after the country's electoral tribunal upheld the legality of the election and officially declared Enrique Pena Nieto as the winner.

Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has not conceded the July 1 election, citing allegations of electoral fraud by the victorious Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI.

The electoral tribunal on Thursday rejected a demand by Lopez Obrador's coalition, the Progressive Movement of Mexico, to invalidate the presidential election, which he lost by 6 percentage points. On Friday, it validated the final results, officially naming Pena Nieto as president-elect.

"The elections were not clean or free or authentic. As such, I will not recognize the illegitimate power that came from vote-buying and other grave violations of the constitution and the laws," Lopez Obrador said.

The candidate called on his followers to demonstrate in Mexico City's historical square, the Zocalo, on September 9.

Lopez Obrador narrowly lost another presidential race in 2006. Back then, he refused to recognize the new government and called his supporters into the streets. He went on a national tour, where he drummed up support, calling himself the "legitimate president of Mexico."

It was unclear if he would call for similar demonstrations now.

In a unanimous decision announced Thursday, the electoral tribunal ruled that the demand to invalidate the election was "unfounded."

The tribunal found that the leftist coalition that brought the charges didn't prove any constitutional violations and didn't show that the process wasn't free and fair.

Critics of the process said the irregularities included illegal campaign spending, secretive financing and coercion of voters.

Read more: Vote-buying allegations persist after Mexican election

When the allegations surfaced immediately after the vote, election officials recounted the votes in more than half of the ballot boxes individually.

Among the bigger controversies were allegations that PRI campaigners passed out hundreds of supermarket gift cards in exchange for votes.

The electoral tribunal said that the coalition could prove only that PRI officials gave the cards to supporters, and not to the general public in exchange for votes.

Pena Nieto is expected to be sworn in on December 1.

CNNMexico's Belen Zapata and Tania Montalvo contributed to this report.

Response: NEW: Mexico's electoral tribunal declares Enrique Pena Nieto as president-elect. NEW: He is expected to take office on December 1. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he will not accept the ruling. He calls for a demonstration in Mexico City's main square.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- In what is seen as a bow to international pressure to delay implementation of a ban on private security contractors, the Afghan government said Wednesday it will form a committee to plan the phasing out of those contractors without endangering development projects.

The committee is to be led by Afghanistan's minister of interior and will include representatives from NATO, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and major international donors. It will "develop plans for the disbandment of the PCSs that provide security for development projects and report on progress to the president," the Afghan government said in a written statement.

It said the phasing out of "illegal" security contractors and road convoy security companies "continues on a priority basis as laid out in the decree."

The committee will prepare a timetable for the dissolution of contractors protecting development projects and submit it to President Hamid Karzai by November 15, the Afghan government said. "Once approved, 90 days max will be given to each organization before [the] designated dissolution date. Following the completion of [the] plan's implementation, the government of Afghanistan will assume responsibility for providing necessary security for development and reconstruction projects."

The committee will examine development and aid companies and develop plans for them to shift to government security, Interior Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi said at a news conference. Convoys run by private security companies will also have to transition, he said.

"This is a very serious matter for the government of Afghanistan," Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, told journalists. "This is a fundamental issue for the people of Afghanistan, for President Karzai. This is about the exercise of sovereignty within this country. It's about the monopoly of the use of force. It's about having the responsibility for and having authority over any armed elements in this country."

The announcement was welcomed by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which issued a statement saying it supports the "principled stand" of Karzai's government regarding the proposed ban.

"We are committed to implementation of this decree with a fixed timetable and accept that the international community must respond promptly to President Karzai's long-standing concerns about the conduct of private security companies," the U.N. mission said.

Eikenberry said earlier in a statement the United States "strongly endorses" the United Nations' position.

"We will continue to work on a priority basis and in a spirit of partnership with the Afghan government and international partners to support successful implementation of the decree in a manner that increases Afghan security, strengthens sovereignty and leadership and ensures the continuous predictable delivery of critical international development assistance," he said.

The United States had previously expressed concern about Karzai's pledge to phase out the country's 52 private security companies by year's end, saying that if implemented, the move would leave critical aid personnel unprotected and unable to continue their work.

The United States has been negotiating with the Afghan government over such protection, and had been asking for clarification on which contractors would be allowed to remain in the country and under what conditions they could operate.

Earlier this month, the Afghan government clarified exceptions to the proposed ban, saying that firms offering protection to embassies and foreign diplomats would be allowed to continue to operate. The decision "addressed the concerns of NATO and foreign embassies regarding the private security companies' dissolving process," a statement from Karzai's office said.

However, it said that other private security companies not engaged in that work "are a strong threat for the national security and national sovereignty of the country" and that their dissolution would continue as planned.

Response: Afghan's president has ordered a ban on security companies. A committee will look at a timetable for implementation. The United States and the United Nations applaud the move.


Prompt:
Explain the text in one sentence.
 Text:(CNN) -- Fearing that flocks of unmanned aircraft might soon traverse U.S. skies, the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday quickly appealed a judge's ruling that the agency does not have the authority to regulate commercial drones.

The case involves Raphael Pirker, a drone enthusiast fined $10,000 by the FAA for using his 56-inch foam glider to take promotional videos of the University of Virginia Medical Center.

The FAA said Pirker's flight ran afoul of its strict rules governing the commercial use of drones.

On Friday, less than 24 hours after losing its case, the FAA said it was appealing the decision by Patrick Geraghty, an administrative law judge with the National Transportation Safety Board.

"The agency is concerned that this decision could impact ... the safety of people and property on the ground," the FAA said in a statement.

Geraghty said FAA regulations approved for manned aircraft did not apply to unmanned aircraft any more than they applied to paper airplanes or balsa wood planes.

Pirker's attorney, Brendan Schulman, called it "a tremendously significant decision for model aircraft and commercial drone operators."

"As a general matter, the decision finds that the FAA's 2007 policy statement banning the commercial use of model aircraft is not enforceable. It would appear to me to have a very significant impact on other operators," Schulman said.

But the decision confounded the FAA, which as recently as last week had publicized its restrictions on commercial use of drones.

In a press release headlined "Busting Myths about the FAA and Unmanned Aircraft," it stressed that UAS enthusiasts could not use drones for commercial purposes.

"A commercial flight requires a certified aircraft, a licensed pilot and operating approval. To date, only one operation has met these criteria, using Insitu's ScanEagle, and authorization was limited to the Arctic," the FAA's Busting Myths release said.

"There are no shades of gray in FAA regulations," the FAA continued. "Anyone who wants to fly an aircraft-manned or unmanned-in U.S. airspace needs some level of FAA approval."

The flight that got Pirker in trouble occurred October 17, 2011, when he remotely piloted a $130 RiteWing Zephyr II aircraft at the campus medical center.

The FAA investigated, and the following April it proposed a $10,000 civil penalty, saying that Pirker operated the plane "in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another."

Pirker operated the aircraft within about 50 feet of numerous individuals, about 20 feet of a crowded street, and within approximately 100 feet of an active heliport at UVA, the FAA alleged. One person had to take "evasive measures" to avoid being struck by the aircraft, the agency said.

Pirker appealed the case to the NTSB, where the case went before Geraghty. The FAA is appealing the matter to the full safety board.

Response: Raphael Pirker remotely piloted a model plane for commercial purposes. The FAA said he needed to get authorization beforehand. But federal administrative judge sides with pilot, dumps fine. FAA appealed, saying it fears the decision could impact safety.