Dancing cop stops holiday traffic in Rhode Island

  RODRIQUE NGOWIPROVIDENCE -- Ah, Christmas in Rhode Island. Exquisitely decorated mansions in Newport. A red nose on the giant termite that sits atop a Providence exterminator's building. And a traffic cop, doing disco and salsa moves in the middle of rush-hour traffic.

Officer Tony Lepore is as much a holiday tradition as anything else in the state that issued the first jail sentence for speeding 108 years ago. Since 1984, he has entertained drivers, pedestrians and gawkers with dance moves in downtown Providence - all while directing traffic.

"He is a Rhode Island landmark, more or less. He's an icon, he's like a little mini celebrity," says Michelle Peterson, of Warwick. She's an emergency medical technician and the mother of three boys who was introduced to the "dancing cop" years ago by her partner in their ambulance.

This year, she took her boys to see Lepore, 65, perform and got him to pose for pictures with them.

"It feels good to see him out here; it definitely brings the holiday spirit. I think people come out here just to see him and I think it brings some people to shop so they can see him."

The routine, Lepore says, was born in the month of May of the boredom and aggravation that officers typically experience while directing rushing drivers and jaywalking pedestrians. He was inspired by classic "Candid Camera" television footage he saw a day earlier that showed police officers elsewhere directing traffic with flair.

"I didn't know if my bosses were going to like it, so a lot of times if I saw a boss come down, I'd be doing my fancy stuff, then I'd go back and do it the old-fashioned way so I don't get caught," Lepore says.

His secret didn't last long. City residents began calling the police station and raving about Lepore's moves. A few days later, The Providence Journal, the state's largest newspaper, came out with a story on the sensation.

The positive publicity encouraged officials to endorse the dancing cop, who continued to perform until he left the job in 1988, when he went into business with his brother with a food and vending service.

In 1992, Lepore says, he got a call from city officials asking him to rejoin the force to dance and direct traffic around Christmastime as they pushed to redefine the city's image and bring visitors downtown.

He signed a $1,200, 10-day contract as a reserve police officer and says he has frozen the value of the contract at the 1992 rate to encourage city officials to recall his services every year.

Standing in traffic, he adjusts his cap, shakes his hip, raises and twists one leg and spins. In one of the more unusual moves, he bends his knees, leans far back and quickly alternates support for his body by keeping one hand on the ground while motioning to the traffic with the free hand.

In one move, he goes down on his knees in homage to John Travolta's character in "Saturday Night Fever."

He says his body takes a pounding and that he has had knee surgery, pulled some muscles and even suffered stress fractures.

"This is ridiculous! Oh, man, this guy is the best," an incredulous Vik Jay, a medical student at Brown University, says after seeing the "Dancing Cop" in action for the first time. "I'm from San Francisco. I used to go to Castro Street, and this is far more entertaining than anything I saw there."

Karen DeAngelis, of Pawtucket, was on a bus when she saw Lepore perform while directing traffic. She got out to watch him before continuing her journey.

"I would come down here every year to see him if I were able to," she says. "I'm not able to, and I just so happened to be here today. He's that good and he's that entertaining, and he really cheers people up."

Lepore says his dance moves are planned to send specific directions to drivers to avoid causing confusion at the intersection.

"I do it in such a way that even the people in the cars know what I mean, 'cause every dance move means something to the driver, and I make sure that he knows or she knows what I want them to do," Lepore says.

The dancing is not a distraction and has never caused incredulous drivers to crash, he says.

"I think it would be more of a distraction if I was in a different town and they didn't know I was out there, but most of Providence, they even know me by the sound of my whistle," he said. "It's more of a spectacle where people love to just come down here and see me do it around Christmastime, and they enjoy it ... and I enjoy it."

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Taco the Emu brings highway traffic to a halt

  Eyewitness NewsSOUTH FLORIDA (WABC) -- Rush hour got a little hairy for drivers in South Florida Wednesday morning when a huge Australian bird showed up and stopped traffic.

It took several deputies to get the bird off the road and out of danger.

Taco is a 4-year-old Emu, a 5-foot-tall, flightless bird who was out looking for a mate, according to his owner.

Now, nothing on A1A resembles a female emu, but Taco isn't one to be particular.

Motorcycles seemed to draw his interest.

"It's odd," one driver said. "It's not something we see every day. I think our guys did a really good job trying to contain the bird."

Taco was interested in everything and everyone, and deputies at first had no idea what to do with him. They sort of tried to herd him off the road using patrol cars, but that didn't work.

Taco lives in a suburban backyard about two blocks away, where the uniqueness doesn't stop with the menagerie. His owner didn't answer the bell, but reportedly said the bird's antics are because of mating season.

There, Taco sat contemplating his big morning. He might not have found a mate, but he apparently had a very good time anyway.

Taco's owner was able to get him off the road by throwing a towel over the bird's head.

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Barge traffic halted near Mississippi River lock

  JIM SUHRGRANITE CITY, Ill. -- Crews scrambled to make repairs Wednesday near the busiest Mississippi River lock shut down because of damage blamed partly on the summer drought, snarling hundreds of barges and tugboats in a backlog that was growing worse by the hour.

Workers closed Lock 27 just north of St. Louis last Saturday after discovering that a protection cell - a vertical, rock-filled steel cylinder against which barges rub to help align them for proper entry into the lock - had split open, spilling into the channel tons of the rock that ultimately obstructed passage.

That damage was on an unarmored section of the protection cell that the barges don't typically make contact with because that portion often is 15 to 20 feet under water. But that part of the structure stands exposed because the river's level has been lowered dramatically by the nation's worst drought in decades, officials said.

The lingering drought also has narrowed the Mississippi - the nation's chief highway for barge traffic, leaving towboat pilots struggling to find a safe place to park their barges river as they wait out repairs. The repairs could be completed as early as Thursday, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Mike Petersen said.

As of Wednesday morning, nearly five dozen tugboats and more than 400 barges - carrying enough cargo to fill 2,400 railcars or 23,600 large tractor-trailers - were caught up in the logjam, a Coast Guard spokesman in St. Louis said.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, the number of vessels forced to park there spiked by one-third over the previous 24 hours while there was a doubling of the number of barges, hauling everything from grains to coal, fertilizer and construction materials, Lt. Colin Fogarty said.

Other barges were parking at ports up and down the river, saving fuel instead of being caught up in the snarl near Lock 27 as workers labored to clear the spilled rock, then patch the fractured protection cell in what the Army Corps cast as a temporary fix.

"Imagine taking an eight-lane highway and reducing it to a four-lane one and having a massive traffic backup. That's what we're dealing with," Fogarty said. "It's like trying to find a parking spot at the mall on Christmas Eve - chances are you're going to have to park far away, and you may not want to go at all."

Roughly half of the nation's farm exports pass through that lock now is closed at a time growers throughout the Midwest are harvesting their corn and soybeans, Petersen said.

"This literally is the artery of the nation, and when it shuts down there will be impacts," Army Corps Col. Chris Hall told The Associated Press while showing a reporter the damaged protection cell. Pointing to the idling barges awaiting passage nearby, with those vessels having no option of taking any detour around the repair work, he pressed: "This is a pretty important piece of terrain."

The trouble at Lock 27 is the latest barge-related headache brought on by the nagging drought.

Just a year since the Mississippi rose in some places to record levels, traffic along the river sometimes resembling a slow-motion freeway at times has been brought to a crawl, if not a congested mess. Several lower stretches have been closed, and barges have run aground. Other times, towboat pilots have had to wait at narrower channels for a barge to pass through in the opposite direction before easing their own way through, snarling traffic.

One estimate put barge industry losses at $1 billion the last time the Mississippi was this low, in 1988. That's why the Army Corps has scrambled all summer to dredge, clearing shipping channels of silt and sediments while knocking down shallow spots.

To compensate, many barge owners now are carrying lighter loads, costing them more per ton to move cargo but also reducing chances of running aground as crews hustle o dredge silt and other sediments from the river to clear passages.

"It's kind of bad news all around, but it's not anyone's fault but Mother Nature's," said Lynn Muench, a vice president with American Waterways Operators, a shipping industry trade group.

Martin Hettel knows the frustration. The senior manager of bulk sales for St. Louis-based AEP River Operations said that American Electric Power subsidiary has 3,250 barges and roughly 100 towboats that last year moved a combined 73 million tons of products. Much of that cargo was coal and petroleum coke, along with agricultural staples such as corn, soybeans and fertilizer.

This year, he shrugs, "it's definitely a challenge, no doubt."

"While we're confident we're able to deliver customers' freight, not just as efficiently as we would," he said, noting that the lower river levels have forced the company to reduce each of their barge's payload on average by 25 percent, about 1,500 tons. Because of the river's narrowness now, AEP's tow sizes have been cut by 30 percent.

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FAA: Tired air traffic controllers can skip work

  By JOAN LOWYWASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration announced new steps Friday to help prevent air traffic controllers from falling asleep on the job, including allowing controllers to use sick or annual leave time if they are too tired to work.

Controllers will also now be allowed to listen to the radio and read to help stay alert during overnight shifts when traffic is light under an agreement between the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

However, the policy changes don't include allowing controllers to take naps while on break or to schedule naps during overnight shifts even though sleep scientists say that's the most effective way to refresh tired workers.

Currently, controllers caught napping, even when on break, can be fired.

"While on break, air traffic controllers are expected to conduct themselves professionally and be available for recall at all times," the agency said in a statement.

Since April, the FAA has disclosed seven instances of controllers sleeping on the job and two other instances of controllers who didn't respond to attempts to contact them. In one case, two airliners landed at Reagan National airport in northern Virginia near Washington without assistance from a controller who has acknowledged dozing off.

In another case, FAA has said a medical flight with a seriously ill patient had to circle an airport in Reno, Nev., before landing because the lone controller on duty had fallen asleep.

Studies show most night shift workers, not just controllers, face difficulties staying awake no matter how much sleep they've had. That's especially true if they aren't active or don't have work that keeps them mentally engaged. Controllers on night shifts often work overnight in darkened rooms with frequent periods of little or no air traffic to occupy their attention - conditions scientists say are conducive to falling asleep.

"Air traffic controllers have the responsibility to report rested and ready to work so they can safely perform their operational duties," FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement. "But we also need to make sure we have the right policies in place to reduce the possibility of fatigue in the workplace."

John Goglia, a former National Transportation Safety Board member and a member of an FAA fatigue advisory committee, said that even with the policy changes, the agency's approach to fatigue lags far behind contemporary scientific understanding of how to prevent workers from falling sleep or becoming so tired their ability to function is eroded.

"Ironically, the information on what is an enlightened policy on fatigue resides within the FAA in all the (research) they've done over the years on fatigue," Goglia said.

After disclosure of the first few sleeping incidents, FAA officials adjusted controllers' work schedules to provide a minimum of nine hours off between shifts, an increase of an hour.

However, the agreement between the agency and the union puts off decisions on what to do about work schedules that have been criticized as especially fatigue-inducing. One common weekly schedule is called "the rattler" by controllers because it turns around and bites those who work it. But it's popular with some controllers because it effectively creates a three-day weekend.

Instead, the agency and the controllers association said they are also working on developing new work schedule "principles" aimed at reducing fatigue. They said those principles will be ready in 14 months if not sooner. And, they said, new work schedules are already being put in place in some air traffic facilities.

The FAA said it has also agreed to develop policies to encourage controllers to seek medical help for sleep apnea, a disorder that causes abnormal pauses in breathing and often prevents restful sleep. Currently, controllers diagnosed with sleep apnea aren't permitted to continue to work.

The agency said it will work to develop a process for most air traffic controllers with sleep apnea to regain their medical qualification after receiving medical treatment.

Under the agreement, the FAA is also developing a system to collect and analyze data associated with work schedules, including work intensity, to ensure that the schedules are not increasing the possibility of fatigue. Such "fatigue management" systems are commonly used in other areas of aviation, including flight crew schedules.

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Online: Federal Aviation Administration www.faa.gov
National Air Traffic Controllers Association www.natca.org

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Air traffic controller errors said a real increase

The FAA control tower at Reagan National Airport is seen in Arlington, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. Federal safety officials are investigating a report that two planes landed at the airport without control tower clearance because the air traffic controller was asleep. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

  By JOAN LOWYWASHINGTON -- A surge in errors by air traffic controllers appears to be at least partly a real increase and not just the result of better error reporting as Federal Aviation Administration officials claim, a government watchdog said Tuesday.

Also, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt disclosed that the agency is investigating two additional cases of controllers falling asleep on the job, both in January at radar centers that handle high altitude air traffic.

One controller found sleeping at his work station in Los Angeles has been suspended pending the outcome disciplinary proceedings, the FAA said later in a statement. The other controller, in Fort Worth, Texas, was observed with his eyes closed while he was supposed to be working. He was reprimanded. In all, the FAA has disclosed seven instances of controllers sleeping on the job this year.

Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel said there has been a 39 percent increase in errors at air traffic control facilities that handle aircraft at high altitudes even though there's been no change in recent years in automated error counting equipment at those facilities.

"That would indicate an absolute increase," Scovel told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation aviation subcommittee.

Overall, errors in which planes come too close together in the air increased 53 percent from 2009 to 2010. It's the job of controllers to keep aircraft separated at safe distances.

The increase in errors, as well as a series of inIt would be "cold comfort" to the family of a victim of an air crash caused by a controller error that the controller wasn't allowed to sleep on the job, Scovel said.

Greg Belenky, a sleep expert at Washington State University, said all night shift workers suffer from fatigue no matter how employers try to manipulate shift schedules. The only solution that really works, he said, is allowing brief naps during night shifts.

The head of the air traffic controllers' union said a large increase in new controllers who need on-the-job training is partly responsible for the increase in errors. The FAA plans to hire 11,000 new controllers through 2019.

All those new controllers have to receive on-the-job training from current controllers, placing a serious strain on air traffic operations, Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, testified.

Babbitt disagreed. About 25 percent of controllers are currently in training, a share that is down significantly compared with the last few years and is more in line with the norm, he said.

"We're very comfortable with that," he said.

In response to questioning by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Rinaldi acknowledged that some air traffic controllers moonlight.

He said it was more common for less experienced controllers earning lower salaries to hold second and third jobs prior to 2009, when the union and the Obama administration reached a contract agreement that increased controller salaries.

"That's stunning to me," Rockefeller said. "That's like asking for trouble. How do you make the case that this doesn't cause sleeplessness and bad judgment?"

There is no prohibition on outside jobs in the union's contract with the FAA, Rinaldi said.

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