Press Releases

02/22/2008

Ask AP

AP answers your questions on the news, from superdelegates to noisy newsroom bells

By The Associated Press

The Democratic presidential campaigns are keeping a close eye on the all-important delegate count -- and in a tight race like this one, they know that every last delegate matters.

Could one of the candidates get an edge -- a tiny edge -- by serving as a superdelegate and getting a vote at the Democrats' nominating convention in August?

That's one of four questions being answered in this installment of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions(at)ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line.
___
Can a candidate for a party's nomination for president be a superdelegate to the party convention?

Michael Ceriello
Vancouver, Wash.
___
Yes. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will be superdelegates at the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver. Four other Democratic presidential candidates, who have since dropped out of the race, also will be superdelegates -- Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich.

Under Democratic Party rules, all Democratic members of the House and Senate and all Democratic governors are automatically superdelegates. Former President Bill Clinton also is a superdelegate by virtue of the office he held for eight years.

Republican elected officials don't become delegates automatically, but the three top Republican Party leaders in each state go to the convention as delegates. There's nothing in the party's rules that would prevent one of them from running for president while serving as a delegate.

Stephen Ohlemacher
Associated Press Writer, Washington
___
Much has been written about hazardous fumes in FEMA trailers. What is being done to alert and possibly relocate people who purchased similar trailers on the open market for travel, and in many cases to live in?

Gene Smith
Virginia Beach, Va.
___
The Federal Emergency Management Agency halted sales of its travel trailers last year and is offering a discount to anyone who purchased one from the agency between July 24, 2006, and July 23, 2007. At the same time, FEMA is rushing to move thousands of Gulf Coast storm victims out of government trailers after a recent battery of tests found dangerous levels of formaldehyde in many units occupied by victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In addition to testing air quality, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tearing apart the trailers and mobile homes and studying the materials used to make them.
CDC Director Julie Gerberding says the study is limited to government trailers and won't address the safety of other manufactured homes. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has expressed concern, though, that the formaldehyde test results could have disturbing implications for other trailers and mobile homes used throughout the country.
A spokesman for the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association says the industry will adjust its manufacturing techniques if the government adopts stricter formaldehyde standards than those already set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Michael Kunzelman
Associated Press Writer, New Orleans
___
Before wire stories were sent electronically via e-mail or the Internet, there were bells that sounded to alert a newsroom to a breaking story. How is that done today?

Suzy Barile
Raleigh, N.C.
___
Oh, those were colorful days in the world's newsrooms ... rows of heavy, inky teletype machines rhythmically pounding out news agency reports at 66 words per minute -- an impressive speed for the time.

Teletype operators sending the news punched a series of "shift-Gs" at the start of big stories. This made bells ring in noisy "wire rooms" on the other end and sent copy boys (or girls) scurrying to see what was coming in.

By the 1970s, new technology began to replace the bells. Early computer-like devices monitored the teletype circuits for words like "bulletin" and "urgent," and alerted editors outside the wire room with lights or electronic beeps. Soon the teletype machines themselves disappeared as newswires began to go directly into newspaper and broadcast station computers, with newsfeeds at thousands of words a minute.

Today, editors use a variety of methods to keep up with breaking news. Some newsroom computers beep or flash an alert when an urgent news service item comes in. Other computer displays have a running column on one side of the screen listing the latest urgent stories.

New systems also send urgent news to editors' pagers or mobile phones, alerting them to developments they may want to relay as alerts to their own readers' e-mail and phones.

Thomas Kent
AP Deputy Managing Editor
___
The question I'm not seeing answered in the Q&A's about the stimulus is whether rebate amounts will count as taxable income for 2008.

Mike Andrews
Lawton, Okla.
___
Beginning this spring, about 130 million households will receive rebates from the government in amounts from $300 to $1,200 -- more for those with children. The rebates are not taxable, so they will not reduce the amount of your 2008 tax refund, if you are due one, or increase the amount of tax you owe.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis
Associated Press Writer, Washington