LA Times Science Files for 2007/05/17

These are items compiled by staff of the LA Times.

• WEAR AND TEAR
  McCain: Physically fit to serve as president?
  

  WASHINGTON – As he exited the stairs of his “Straight Talk Express” campaign bus on a chilly March day in Iowa, Sen. John McCain carefully took one step at a time, his left hand gripping a rail and his right knee looking stiff. By Ralph Vartabedian, Times Staff Writer.

• ENDANGERED SPECIES
  Wrong-way whales draw a crowd
  

  WEST SACRAMENTO – Two lost humpback whales continued their four-day odyssey up a busy delta river channel Wednesday as hundreds looked on with amusement and concern. By John M. Glionna, Times Staff Writer.

• SPACE
  Planet’s icy-hot profile intrigues astronomers
  

  A hot snowball sounds as contradictory as a frosty forest fire, but European astronomers think they’ve found one orbiting a dwarf star about 33 light-years from Earth. By John Johnson Jr., Times Staff Writer.

• ECOLOGY
  Study tallies West Nile virus’ toll on North American birds
  

  Since West Nile virus began to spread across North America in 1999, it has ravaged seven different bird populations, according to a study published today. By Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer.

• ENVIRONMENT
  Company joins Navajo fight for uranium cleanup
  

  WASHINGTON – El Paso Natural Gas Co. is lending support to a new Navajo effort to force federal cleanup of one of the Cold War’s last major toxic legacies. By Judy Pasternak, Times Staff Writer.

• STEM CELLS
  Hurdle to stem cell funds cleared
  

  The California Supreme Court gave final clearance Wednesday to California’s landmark $3-billion stem cell research effort, declining to hear an appeal of two lower court rulings upholding the constitutionality of 2004’s Proposition 71. By Mary Engel, Times Staff Writer.

• FIRST RESPONDERS
  Rescuers’ alleged errors are probed
  

  State regulators have launched investigations of three cases in which ambulance and fire department rescuers in Los Angeles and Orange counties allegedly failed to provide proper patient care, a top official said. By Robert J. Lopez and Rich Connell, Times Staff Writers.

• OBITUARIES
  John Eargle, 76; award-winning audio engineer
  

  John Eargle, an award-winning audio engineer who wrote technical books on sound recording and worked as a consultant for electroacoustical product development, was found dead May 9 at his home in the Hollywood Hills. He was 76. By Claire Noland, Times Staff Writer.