The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, September 14, 2012 - 7A New York officially passes controversial soda-pop ban Volcanic ash spews from the Volcan de Fuego as seen from Palin, south of Guatemala City, on Thursday. Volcano in Guatemnala erupts, cities e vacuate Thousands displaced as ash reduces visibility ESCUINTLA, Guatemala (AP) - A long-simmering vol- cano exploded with a series of powerful eruptions outside one of Guatemala's most famous tourist attractions on Thurs- day, hurling thick clouds of ash nearly two miles (three kilome- ters) high, spewing rivers of lava down its flanks and prompting evacuation orders for more than 33,000 people from surround- ing communities. Guatemala's head of emergen- cy evacuations, Sergio Cabanas, said the evacuees were ordered to leave some 17 villages around the Volcan del Fuego, which sits about six miles southwest (16 kilometers) of the colonial city of Antigua, home to 45,000 people. The ash was blowing south-southeast and authori- ties said the tourist center of the country was not currently in danger, although they expected the eruption to last for at least 12 more hours. Hundreds of cars, trucks and buses, blanketed with charcoal grey cash, sped away from the volcano along a two-lane paved highway toward Guatemala City. Dozens of people crammed into the backs of trucks. Thick clouds of ash reduced visibility to less than 10 feet in the area of sugarcane fields surrounding the volcano. The elderly, women and children filled old school buses and ambulances that car- ried them from the area. Authorities set up a shelter at an elementary school in Santa Lucia, the town closest to the volcano, and by Thursday night people had started trickling in. Most were women and children carrying blankets and going into bare classrooms. Miriam Carumaco, 28, arrived to the shelter along with 16 members of her family. "We heard loud thunder and then it got dark and ash began falling," Carumaco said. "It sounded like a pressure cooker that wouldn't stop." Carumaco said parents sent their children to school despite the darkening skies, but that classes were later cancelled and teachers walked them home. The emergency agency said lava rolled nearly 2,000 feet (600 meters) down slopes bil- lowing with ash around the Volcan del Fuego, a 12,346-foot- high (3,763-meter-high) volcano whose name translates as "Vol- cano of Fire." "A paroxysm of an eruption is taking place, a great volcanic eruption, with strong explo- sions and columns of ash," said Gustavo Chicna, a volcanologist with the National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Mete- orology and Hydrology. He said cinders spewing from the vol- cano were settling a half-inch thick in some places. He said extremely hot gases were also rolling down the sides 4 of the volcano, which was almost entirely wreathed in ash and smoke. The emergency agency warned that flights through the area could be affected. There was a red alert, the highest level, south and south- east of the mountain, where, Chicna said, "it's almost in total darkness." He said ash was landing as far as 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the volcano. By Thursday evening, the ash plume had decreased to a little more than a mile high, partly due to rain, which diminished the potential risk to aviation, said Jorge Giron, a government volca- nologist. He said ash continued to fall heavily, however, and advised residents near the volcano but outside of evacuation zones to clean their water systems before using them, and to not leave their homes because of the ash. He said a red alert would be in effect until 4 a.m. local time. Teresa Marroquin, disaster coordinator for the Guatemalan Red Cross, said the organization had set up 10 emergency shel- ters and was sending hygiene kits and water. "There are lots of respiratory problems and eye problems," she said. Many of those near the volca- no are indigenous Kakchikeles people who live in relatively poor and isolated communi- ties, and authorities said they expected to encounter difficul- ties in evacuating all the affect- ed. Board of Health regulations likely to be challenged in court NEW YORK (AP) - New York City cracked down on the sale of supersized sodas and other sug- ary drinks Thursday in what was celebrated by some, as a ground- breaking attempt to curb obesity but condemned by others as a bla- tant intrusion into people's lives by a busybody mayor. Public health experts around the nation - and the restaurant and soft-drink industry - will be watching closely to see how it goes over among New Yorkers, a famously disputatious bunch. Barring any court action, the measure will take effect in March. The regulations, approved eas- ily by the city Board of Health, apply to any establishment with a food-service license, including fast-food places, delis, movie and Broadwaytheaters, the concession stands at Yankee Stadium and the pizzerias of Little Italy. They will be barred from serving sugary beverages in cups or bottles larger than 16 ounces. No other U.S. city has gone so far as to restrict portion sizes at restaurants to fight weight gain. "We cannot continue to have our kids come down with diabe- tes at age 6," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The mayor rejected suggestions that the rule constitutes an assault on personal liberty. "Nobody is banning anything," he said, noting that restaurant customers can still buy as much soda as they want, as long as they are willingto carry it in multiple containers. He said the inconvenience is well worth the potential public health benefit, and likened the city's actions to measures taken decades ago to phase out lead in household paint. Others, though, likened the ban to Prohibition. A New York Times poll last month showed that six in 10 New Yorkers opposed the restrictions. "It's aslipperyslope.When does it stop? What comes next?" said Sebastian Lopez, a college student from Queens. He added: "This is my life. I should be able to do what I want." The restrictions do not apply to supermarkets or most conve- nience stores, because such estab- lishments are not subject to Board of Health regulation. And there are exceptions for beverages made mostly of milk or unsweetened fruit juice. (Because convenience stores are exempt, the rules don't even apply to 7-Eleven's Big Gulp, even though the belly-busting serving of soda has become Exhibit A in the debate over Americans' eating habits.) Some health experts said it isn't clear whether the ban will have anyeffect on obesity. But theysaid it might help usher in a change in attitude toward overeating, in the same way that many Americans have come to regard smoking as inconsiderate. The regulations follow other ambitious health moves on Bloom- berg's watch, many of which were attacked as a push toward a "nanny state." Yet some have proved to be national trendsetters, such as making chain restaurants post cal- ories on their menus. The city has also barred artificial trans fats in french fries and other restaurant food, cracked down on smoking and promoted breast-feeding over formula. The Board of Health approved the big-soda ban 8-0, with one member, Dr. Sixto R. Caro, abstaining. Caro, a doctor of inter- nal medicine, said the plan wasn't comprehensive enough. Others spoke forcefully of the need for action to deal with an obesity crisis. "I feel to not act would really be criminal," said board member Susan Klitzman, director of the Urban Public Health Program at Hunter College. City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley called the rule "a historic step to address a major health problem of our time." The restaurant and beverage industries complained that the city is exaggerating the role sug- ary beverages have played in mak- ing Americans fat. "This is a political solution and not a health solution," said Eliot Hoff, a spokesman for an industry- sponsored group called New York- ers for Beverage Choices, which claims to have gathered more than 250,000 signatures on petitions against the plan. He said the group is considering suing to block the rule. "We will continue to voice our opposition to this ban and fight for the right of New Yorkers to make their own choices. And we will stand with the business owners who will be hurt by these arbi- trary limitations," Hoff said in a statement. Enforcement will be carried out by New York City's restaurant inspectors. Violations will carry a $200 fine. Complying might prove compli- cated for some establishments. Starbucks is trying to figure out whether the regulations bar it from selling its calorie-packed Frappuccinos in the 24-ounce size. Another issue could be iced cof- fee, which many cafes sweeten with liquefied sugar. Customers might have to add the sweetener themselves. Fast-food restaurants with self- serve soda fountains will be pro- hibited from giving outcups larger than16ounces, but people will still be allowed refills. Manhattan pizza shop owner Vinnie Siena said halting sales of large sodas will hurt his already thin profit margin, unless he raises prices. "I'm having a tough time as it is. They don't want the little guy to survive, it seems," he said. WWW.TH EBLOCKM.COM Nation says goodbye to Neil Armstrong in D.C. ceremony Buzz Aldrin, 0 John Glenn, other astronauts pay respects WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation bid farewell Thursday to Neil Armstrong, the first man to take a giant leap onto the moon. The pioneers of space, the powerful of the capital and the everyday public crowded into the Washington National Cathedral for a public interfaith memorial for the very private astronaut. Armstrong, who died last month in Ohio at age 82, walked on the moon in July 1969. "He's now slipped the bonds of Earth once again, but what a legacy he left," former Treasury Secretary John Snow told the gathering. Apollo 11 crewmates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, Mer- cury astronaut John Glenn, 18 other astronauts, three NASA chiefs, and about two dozen mem- bers of Congress were among the estimated 1,500 people that joined Armstrong's widow, Carol, and other family members in the cav- ernous cathedral. Collins read a prayer tailored to Armstrong's accomplishments and humility. A moon rock that the Apollo 11 astronauts gave the church in 1974 is embedded in one of its stained glass windows. "You have now shown once again the pathway to the stars," Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon said in a trib- ute to Armstrong. "As you soar through the heavens beyond even where eagles dare to go, you can now finally put out your hand and touch the face of God." Cernan was followed by a slow and solemn version of "Fly Me to the Moon" by singer Diana Krall. The service also included excerpts from a speech 50 years ago by John F. Kennedy in which he said America chose to send men to the moon by the end of the 1960s not because it was easy, but because it was hard. The scratchy recording of the young president said going to the moon was a goal that "will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that chal- lenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone." Shortly after that speech in1961 at Rice University, Armstrong, not yet an astronaut but always a gifted engineer, was already working on how to land a space- ship on the moon, NASA admin- istrator Charles Bolden recalled. Snow talked of the 12-year-old Armstrong who built a wind tun- nel. But most of Armstrong's friends and colleagues spent time remembering the humble Arm- strong. Snow called him a "regu- lar guy" and "the most reluctant of heroes." Bolden, a former astronaut, said Armstrong's humility and cour- age "lifted him above the stars." "No one, but no one, could have accepted the responsibility of his remarkable accomplishment with more dignity and more grace than Neil Armstrong," Cernan said. "He embodied all that is good and all that is great about America." Bolden read a letter from Presi- dent Barack Obama saying, "the imprint he left on the surface of the moon is matched only by the extraordinary mark he left on ordinary Americans." Armstrong commanded the historic landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the moon July 20, 1969. His first words after step- ping onto the moon are etched in history books: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong insisted later that he had said "a" before man, but said he, too, couldn't hear it in the recording. Armstrong and Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the lunar surface while Collins circled above the moon. In all, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon before the last moon mission in 1972. Armstrong was a U.S. Navy aviator. He joined NASA's prede- cessor agency in 1955 as a civilian test pilot and later, as an astro- naut, flew first in Gemini 8 in 1966. After the moon landing he spent a year in Washington as a top official at the space agency, but then he left NASA to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He later was chairman of two electronics companies, but mostly kept out of the public eye.