$1.50

! 2 0 1 0 M O N R O E P U B L I S H I N G C O .W W W . M O N R O E N E W S . C O M A N E M P L O Y E E - O W N E D N E W S P A P E R

BY DANIELLE PORTTEUSdportteus@monroenews.com

MILAN — Maxine Tewsley is fascinated with history.

The 8-year-old is so inter-ested that she has a blog about the subject.

With the help of her mother, Jill, the Symons Elementary School third-grader created “Maxine: Making History” in January, featuring the young girl’s take on historical places, movies, books and even vacation spots.

“I did it for fun,” she said. Her favorite post is about

Youngstown, N.Y., where the fam-ily took a trip to see Fort Niagara.

“We go there every summer,” Maxine said. “It’s such a cool place.”

Her love for history started at a young age. When Maxine was in kindergarten, Mrs. Tewsley read

her a picture book about Abraham Lincoln.

“She really has a passion for history,” Mrs. Tewsley said. “In fi rst grade, she did her 100-days-of-school project on 100 historical events with pictures.”

Maxine’s father, John, has instilled the love in his daughter because of his job as a history book buyer for Borders.

“She started writing down sto-

ries and always wanted to learn more about historical people or events,” Mrs. Tewsley said. “She was really excited about all of it, so we thought we’d start the blog.”

In one of her fi rst posts, Maxine talked about touring Rutherford B. Hayes’ home.

In the post, she writes: “Ruther-ford B. Hayes was the fi rst presi-dent to open a presidential library and museum. Lucy Hayes was the fi rst wife of a president to be called The First Lady. Rutherford B. Hayes was president during the time when there (were) lots of fi rsts. He was the fi rst president to have a phone and a typewriter in the White House. President Hayes served in the Civil War as a gen-eral for the 23rd Infantry of Ohio. He liked being called General more than he liked being called Presi-dent.”

Sunday, May 30, 2010Since 1825 — NO. 149 (USPS 359-400) MONROE, MICH.

T O N I G H T

Mostlyclear

T O D A Y

87° 67°

W E A T H E RT O D A Y ’ S O B I T U A R I E SFive sectionsBusiness ..........................................1-3DClassifi ed .........................................5-7BComment ........................................ 4-5CCommunity ................................1-3C, 6CLocal ....................................................2ALottery.................................................6ASports ....................................... 1-4B, 8B

John A. Korka, 63, of Romulus

Jimmie J. Owens, 68, of Monroe

Leo F. Stoddard, 69, of South Rockwood

Jack N. (Gramps) Cadaret, 78, of Lambertville

Carl A. Drexler, 84, of South Rockwood

Madeline M. Kahley, 92, of Tucson, Ariz., formerly of Dundee

Page 7A

! Sunnddaayy NNeewwss

T O D A YAll gave some, some gave all:! Tribute to the Fallen, 7 p.m.,

Monroe County Community College, La-Z-Boy Center, 1555 S. Raisinville Rd.

! “Honor Our Heroes,” 10:30 a.m., Eagle’s Nest Community Church, 620 E. Fourth St.

! River Raisin Battlefi eld Visi-tor Center, open house and fl ag display, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. today and Monday, 1403 E. Elm Ave.

! Memorial Day military display, noon-4 p.m. today and Monday, Triumph Academy, 3000 Vivian Rd.

Community connections:! Memorial Day clothing drive,

9 a.m.-5 p.m. today and Monday, St. Michael Catholic Church, 510 W. Front St.

! Flea market, benefi t for Milan Art Center, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Milan Art Center, 23 Wabash St., Milan.

! Classic car cruise, 2-6 p.m., J’s Smokehouse, 2070 S. Custer Rd.

M O N D A YAll gave some, some gave all: ! Memorial Day breakfast,

8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m., fundraiser for Carleton Post 4093, Veterans of Foreign Wars, hall, Carleton Ho-tel Bar, 927 Monroe St., Carleton.

! Flag retirement ceremony, after lunch, Carleton Post 4093, Veterans of Foreign Wars, hall, 700 Carleton-Rockwood Rd., Carleton.

Parades:! Rockwood, 10 a.m., Chap-

man Elementary School, 31500 Olmstead Rd., Rockwood.

! Monroe, 2 p.m., Jones Ave. and S. Monroe St.

Services:! Zion Evangelical Lutheran

Church Cemetery, 9 a.m., Tuni-cliffe Rd., Petersburg

! St. Joseph Catholic Church, 9 a.m., 2238 Manhattan St., Erie; afterward at St. Joseph Cem-etery, Erie and Cemetery Rds., Erie.

! Monroe Boat Club, 9:30 a.m., 7932 Bolles Harbor Dr.

! St. Joseph Cemetery, 10 a.m., 909 N. Monroe St.

! Roselawn Memorial Park, 11 a.m., 13200 S. Dixie Hwy., LaSalle.

! Pleasant View Cemetery, 11 a.m., Ida West and Dixon Rds., Petersburg

! Lambertville Cemetery, 11 a.m., Monroe and Dean Rds., Lambertville.

! Memorial Park, noon, First St., Luna Pier.

Parades and services:! Milan: service, 9 a.m., Earl

Gladfelter Post 268, American Le-gion, hall, 44 Wabash St., Milan; parade to Marble Park Cemetery.

! Dundee: Parade, 9:45 a.m., from Dundee High School, Ypsi-lanti St., to service at Wolverine Park, 10 a.m., behind the Old Mill, 242 Toledo St., Dundee; services afterward at Oak Grove, Maple Grove and Azalia cemeteries.

Party time: Billion Dolla Picnic, noon-9 p.m., Dog Lady Island, 7800 E. Dunbar Rd.

! Mysteries persist in oil spill disaster — Page 3A! BP’s credibility eroding at a torrid pace — Page 3A! Just how big is the Gulf spill? — Page 4D! BP had role in Exxon Valdez disaster — Page 4D

Y O U R G U I D E T O S U M M E R F U N

Cedar Point, Potter ridesHands-on tripKids collect water data. Page 1C

MMOONNRROOEE

E N T E RTA I N M E N T, PA R A D E — I N S I D E

T H E S C O O P

— Evening News photo by DANIELLE PORTTEUS

Maxine Tewsley, a third-grader at Symons Elementary School in Milan, created her own blog — with the help from her mother — about history. She updates about once a week with book reviews and movie reviews on various historical events. Maxine’s favorite part of history is Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.

You asked for it, and we lis-tened.

Starting June 6, The Eve-ning News’ TV book returns. Today is the last day listings will appear within the Enter-tainment tab.

A little more than a year ago, we consolidated our fun-nies, TV guide and weekly arts and entertainment sec-tion into one Sunday pack-age. We wanted to give you an all-in-one source for your local and regional entertain-ment news, TV listings and a dose of the day’s funnies, albeit in black and white, not the traditional splash of bright colors.

But you let us know that you missed your color com-ics in a separate section, so we brought them back.

You also let us know that you missed your smaller TV book, and now we’re bring-ing that back, too.

Beginning June 6, you’ll get a TV book in your Sun-day paper. But since more people are using their cable or satellite guides or going to the Internet to see what’s on TV, we don’t want to give you a book if you don’t want one. So during June, we’re ask-ing you to let us know if you want one delivered free with your paper. On July 11, only those subscribers who tell us they want books will get them. They’ll still be free and they’ll still include schedules and articles.

The books also will be in-serted into newspapers sold at newsstands.

We’ll include forms in the newspaper that you can re-turn to us to let us know whether you want to keep getting the TV book. You also can call our customer service representatives at 242-1100.

Without the total package, we decided to return our weekly Arts & Entertain-ment section to the Thursday paper. You’ll continue to fi nd stories about what’s playing on area stages and venues.

The weekly Monroe Pub-lic Access Cable Television (MPACT) guide also will re-main in the section.

We’re making other chang-es to the Sunday newspaper, too.

The classifi ed advertising section, which had been in

Returning by your request: the TV book

Y O U N E E D T O K N O W

Passion for the past

Maxine’s blog is available at www.maxinemakinghistory.blogspot.com. To view a picture of Maxine’s class with state Rep. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, visit www.monroenews.com.

O N T H E W E B

Youth shares history penchant with world audience

C O M I N G T H I S W E E K

If you’re a history buff like Maxine, be sure not to miss The Evening News’ cover-

age of this week’s Gen. George Custer celebrations.

I N S I D E

BP’s ‘top kill’ effort fails to plug oil leak

See CHANGES, Page 7A

See TEWSLEY, Page 7A

ROBERT, La. (AP) — BP admitted defeat Saturday in its attempt to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by pump-ing mud into a busted well, but it is readying yet another approach after repeated failures to stop the crude that’s fouling marshland and beach-es.

BP PLC Chief Operating Offi cer Doug Suttles said the company deter-mined the “top kill” had failed after it spent three days pumping heavy drilling mud into the crippled well 5,000 feet underwater. More than 1.2 million gallons of mud was used, but

most of it escaped out of the dam-aged riser.

In the six weeks since the spill be-gan, the company has failed in each attempt to stop the gusher, as esti-mates of how much oil is leaking grow more dire. The spill is the worst in U.S. history — exceeding even the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster — and dumping between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, accord-ing to government estimates.

“This scares everybody, the fact that we can’t make this well stop

fl owing, the fact that we haven’t suc-ceeded so far,” Suttles said. “Many of the things we’re trying have been done on the surface before but have never been tried at 5,000 feet.”

The company failed in the days af-ter the spill to use robot submarines to close valves on the massive blow-out preventer atop the damaged well, then two weeks later ice-like crys-tals clogged a 100-ton box the com-pany tried placing over the leak. Last week, engineers removed a mile-long

See SPILL, Page 7A

Sunday, May 30, 2010The Monroe Sunday News 7A

From Page 1A Deaths

Jack N. “Gramps” Cadaret, 78 years, of Lambertville, passed away T h u r s d a y, May 27 in Hospice of N o r t h w e s t Ohio, Toledo. He worked as a machine operator for Dana Corpo-ration for 22 years, retiring in 1981.

The son of Harvey and Ma-rie (Mundershied) Cadaret he was born Sept. 12, 1931 in Temperance. July 26, 1952 he married Lillian Houke in Lambertville. Jack served in the US Army 35th Infan-try during the Korean War earning a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. He loved hunting, fi shing, animals, and was a NASCAR Fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Sr. He enjoyed raising all kinds of wildlife, from fi sh to mon-keys to horses. He was an amazing cook; spaghetti and homemade bread being his specialty. Jack was a loving husband, father, and grand-father. He was a member of the UAW Local 12 and the

Lynn Weeman American Le-gion Post #514 in Ida.

He is survived by his lov-ing wife of over 57 years, Lil-lian, children, Jack (Carol) Cadaret of Ida, Janet (Rick) Mitchell of Temperance, Ralph (Peggy) Cadaret of Lambertville, Calvin (Bobbi) Cadaret of Lambertville, Al-len (Vickie) Cadaret of To-ledo, Valerie (Mike) Mitch-ell of Temperance, Nadine (Dan) Woodbury of Toledo, Renee (Dean) Fox of Brook-lyn, 21 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his par-ents, brothers, sisters, and son Jay. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, June 1 from 2 to 8 p.m. in the Bedford Fu-neral Chapel 8300 Lewis Ave., Temperance where funeral services will be held Wednes-day at noon offi ciated by the Rev. John Paschen, Jr. Burial will follow in Roselawn Me-morial Park, LaSalle, where military honors will be con-ducted. Memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Northwest Ohio. Online con-dolences may be shared at www.bedfordfuneralchapel.com.

Jack N. “Gramps” CadaretSept. 12, 1931-May 27, 2010

Carl A. Drexler, age 84, of South Rockwood, passed away May 26 in his brother’s home.

Carl was born Dec. 15, 1925 in Lima, Ohio to Wil-liam and Rose (Hoor-man) Drexler. He proudly served his country dur-ing WWII in the US Navy. He was em-ployed at McClouth Steel Gibraltar for over 30 years, retiring in 1982.

Carl married Virginia VanWashenova Sept. 1954 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Rockwood. She passed away May 26, 2005.

Carl has been a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church Rockwood for over 50 years, he enjoyed gardening and tending to his bee hives.

Carl is survived by his chil-dren, David Drexler of Mon-roe, Rita Drexler of Monroe, Annette (Mark) Jones of Romulus, Ruth Drexler of Monroe, and Edna Drexler of Garden City; siblings, Donald

Drexler of Clinton, James Drexler of South Rockwood, Albert Drexler of Adrian, Florence (Albert) Wright of Monroe, Vera Hartman of Adrian, and Sr. Rita Drexler of Adrian; grandchildren, Bobbiejo, William and Dustin Newman; eight great-grand-children.

He was preceded in death by his parents, spouse, and sons, Robert and Leon Drex-ler.

Family will receive friends from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 1 at Ford Chapel-Mar-tenson Family of Funeral Homes, 23620 Huron River Dr. Rockwood. Mass of Chris-tian Burial will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 2 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Rockwood, where he will lie in state at 10 a.m. The Rev James Rafferty will offi ci-ate, interment to follow at Michigan Memorial Park with military honors by the Downriver Honor Guard.

In lieu of fl owers, memori-al contributions are asked to be made to St Mary’s Catho-lic Church Rockwood Build-ing Fund.

Carl A. DrexlerDec. 15, 1925-May 26, 2010

John A. Korka, age 63, of Romulus passed away in his home on Friday May 28.

John was born on April 26, 1947 in Elyria, OH. to John and Ja c q u e l i n e (Parker) Kor-ka.

He mar-ried Barbara (Payne) Sept. 25, 1981 in Toledo. John was employed for 33.5 years at Cadillac Engine Plant Li-vonia as a Tool & Die Maker, retiring in 2000.

John was an avid Trap Shooter, his memberships included Wayne County Sportsman Club, Brest Bay Gun Club, American Trap Shooting Association and UAW Local #22.

He is survived by his wife Barbara; his father, John; step sons, Jeff Allen of Yp-silanti, Scott (Lynne) Allen

of Monroe and Chris Allen of Livermore, Calif.; sis-ters, Jacquee (Tony) Ruth-erford of Marble Head, OH. and Patti (Chuck) Savitskie of Sault Ste. Marie; niece, Amanda (Dan) Goff of San-dusky, OH.; grandchildren, Chad, Dan, Eric, Megan and Krysta; great-granddaughter Kylee. He was preceded in death by his mother Jacque-line Korka.

Family will receive friends from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 1 and 10 to 11 a.m. time of service on Wednesday, June 2nd at the Allore Cha-pel-Martenson Family of Funeral Homes, 203 E. Elm Ave. Monroe, MI 48162 (734-241-5225). Interment will follow at Roselawn Memo-rial Park LaSalle. Memorial contributions can be made to the donors choice. Those wishing to express a word of encouragement, share a memory or photo may do so at www.allore.com.

John A. KorkaApril 26, 1947-May 28, 2010

Jimmie J. Owens, 68 years, of Monroe, went home to be with his Lord on Friday, May 28. Jim passed away in his home and had been in declin-ing health for the past two years.

Jim was born Aug. 9, 1941 in Harrogate, Tenn., the son of the late Isaac Buster and Della N. (Young) Ow-ens Sr. The family moved to Monroe when Jim was a child. Jim attended Monroe Public Schools and was a 1958 grad-uate of Monroe High School. He also attended Monroe County Community College. Jim proudly served his coun-try in the US Air Force.

On April 13, 1991 at Trinity Lutheran Church, Jim mar-ried his beloved wife the for-mer Shirley E. (Kittle) Hoff-man.

Jim was a member of Trin-ity Lutheran Church and supported the mission work of the church.

Jim was employed by Ford Motor Company in Monroe for 33 years, retiring as a maintenance man in 1997.

An avid golfer, Jim en-joyed deer hunting, fi shing and bowling. He was also a lifelong camping enthusiast. Coaching was another of Jim’s joys in life. He coached softball for many years in the

Monroe area and won several state championships.

Most of all Jim loved his family, he is survived by his beloved wife Shirley, seven loving children; twin sons Steven P. and Erick J. (Tam-my) Owens Sr., Thomas K. Owens, Coralee A. Owens, Pamela E. Hoffman all of Monroe, Kenneth E. (Me-lissa) Hoffman of Saline and Carl E. Hoffman of Newport; 11 cherished grandchildren; Erick Jr., Evan, Amanda-Kaye, Anna-Allysse, Mat-thew, Patricia, Alysia, Kyle, Mark, Alicia, and Andrea, three treasured great-grand-children; Haylie, and twins; Lucas and Logan, and three brothers; Isaac “Ike” (Lynn) Owens Jr., Arthur Lee (Cindy) Owens, and Kenny M. (Liz) Owens also of Mon-roe.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday from 1 to 8 p.m. in the Bacarella Funeral Home, 1201 S. Telegraph Rd., in Mon-roe, where funeral services celebrating Jim’s life will be held on Wednesday, June 2 at 11 a.m. The Rev. Jeffrey B. Walsh of Trinity Lutheran Church will offi ciate. Inter-ment will follow at Roselawn Memorial Park where the VFW Post 1138 will conduct military honors. Memorials are suggested to Trinity Lu-theran Church.

Online condolences may be made by visiting the obitu-ary page at www.bacarellafu-neralhome.com.

Jimmie J. OwensAug. 9, 1941-May 28, 2010

Leo F. Stoddard, 69, of South Rockwood, died at 12:35 a.m. Saturday at Mercy Memorial Hospital.

Friends may call from 2 to 8 p.m. Tues-day at Rupp F u n e r a l Home, where services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednes-day. Dwight Hazard will o f f i c i a t e . Burial will be in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Flat Rock.

Born Sept. 30, 1940 in Mon-roe, he was the son of Wil-liam and Alza (Jaworski) Stoddard. He married Kath-leen J. Burns July 13, 1963 in Ecorse; she preceded him in death on Sept. 27, 1990.

He was a retired pipefi tter

with Detroit Edison.He enjoyed hunting and

fi shing.He is survived by three

daughters, Lisa (Rob) Wil-helm of Oak Harbor, Ohio, Michelle (Jeffrey) Kecskes of Monroe, Denise Stoddard of Commerce Twp.; a brother William (Patricia) Stoddard of Atlanta, Michigan; a sis-ter, Irma Heim of Taylor; three grandchildren, Nikki Wilhelm, Nate Wilhelm and Kyle Kecskes.

In addition to his wife; he is preceded in death by his parents and a brother Ervin Stoddard.

In lieu of fl owers memorial donations may be made to the Monroe County Humane Society.

Online condolences may be sent through www.ruppfu-neralhomeinc.com.

Leo F. StoddardSept. 30, 1940-May 29, 2010

Madeline M. Kahley, age 92 of Tucson, Ariz., and former-ly of Dundee, passed away Friday, May 21 at St. Mary’s Hospice in Tucson.

She was born in Belding, Aug. 20, 1917 to Leo and Ger-trud (Ingemann) Shindorf. She married Carey Junior Kahley who passed away Oct. 5, 1983. She was a for-mer longtime member of St. Irene Catholic Church in Dundee; loved dancing and with her husband they made dune buggies and raced them winning many trophies in Milan. She was also a mem-ber of the Ladies Auxiliary to the VFW in Sheridan.

Left to cherish her memo-ries are daughters Judy (Ron) Rowe of Port Clinton, Ohio; Barbara (Dick) Iott of Blissfi eld; Connie (George) Vinson of Clark Lake; sons Tom Kahley of Covina, Calif. and Larry (Sue) Kahley of

Tucson, Ariz.; one sister; one brother; 10 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by her husband Carey Kahley, four sisters and seven broth-ers. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, June 1 from 5 to 7 p,m. at the Cover Funeral Home, 297 Tecumseh Street in Dundee (734-529-3156).

There will be a prayer ser-vice Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the funeral home. Services and burial for the immedi-ate family will be held at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, June 2 at the chapel at Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery in LaSalle. Offi ciating will be the Rev. Dr. Michael Woro-niewicz, pastor of St. Irene Catholic Church in Dundee. Contributions may be made in care of Madeline Kahley to: Hospice and Palliative Care 1802 W. St. Mary’s Road, Tucson, Ariz. 85745.

Madeline M. KahleyAug. 20, 1917-May 21, 2010

Unlike most students, Maxine was excited to spend her spring break visiting historical locations.

In a post from March 23: “I am so exited for spring break! Our family still doesn’t know where we are going yet, but I think we are going to surprise my family in Youngstown, N.Y., if it’s nice. We might also go to Herbert Hoover’s house.”

Maxine typically posts on her blog about once a week. Her third-grade class visited Lansing on Tuesday, tour-ing the Capitol and meeting with state Rep. Kathy Anger-er, D-Dundee. Rep. Angerer remembered Maxine, whom she met during a ribbon cut-ting ceremony for the Milan Art Center.

Recently, Maxine wrote to President Barack Obama. At the time, her mom was unemployed and she shared her concern with the presi-dent. She did receive a letter from his offi ce thanking her for writing.

In school, Maxine’s favor-ite subject is social studies.

“I really like social stud-ies because it’s fun and in-teresting to learn about the past,” she said.

Through her studies, Maxine has taken a liking to

Abraham Lincoln. She said she loves learning about the Civil War.

“There are so many inter-esting facts from the 1800s,” Maxine said. “It’s a good time period to learn about.”

The future historian or teacher made a specifi c re-quest for her eighth birth-day.

“She specifi cally wanted a picture of Lincoln look-ing serious during the Civil War,” Mrs. Tewsley said.

The cake featured a photo of Lincoln in the center and was decorated with red, white and blue icing.

“I was kind of overjoyed and incredibly proud that she wanted Lincoln on her cake,” Mrs. Tewsley said.

“American Experience,” a history series that airs on Public Broadcasting Ser-vice, is Maxine’s favorite television show.

“I watched an interesting one on Anne Frank, and I had to write about it,” Max-ine said.

Her mom laughed at the notion her young girl enjoys watching a show that might not interest adults.

“The last one was on ho-bos, and she sat in bed and watched the whole thing,” Mrs. Tewsley said. “She’s a very unique kid.”

Tewsley (cont.)

the Sports section (B) will move to the Business sec-tion (D).

The crossword puzzle and Dear Abby, which had been featured on Page 7D, will move to Page 7C.

The weekly local Health Calendar, which had been on Page 5D, will appear on Saturdays.

The weekly local stock re-port will move from Page 6C to Page 2D in the Business section.

Sara Noel’s Frugal Living column will continue to ap-

pear in the Business section (D).

The weekly Food page will appear on Page 8C, except when it’s featured on Page 1C as it usually is once a month.

These are just some of the changes you’ll be seeing in coming months.

Please let us know what you think about these changes. You can contact Publisher Lonnie Peppler-Moyer at 240-5795 or lon-nie@monroenews.com; Edi-tor Deborah Saul at 240-5748 or saul@monroenews.com, or the customer service de-partment at 242-1100.

Changes (cont.)

siphon tube after it sucked up a disappointing 900,000 gallons of oil from the gush-er.

Frustration has grown as drifting oil closes beaches and washes up in sensitive marshland. The damage is underscored by images of pelicans and their eggs coated in oil. Below the surface, oyster beds and shrimp nurseries face cer-tain death.

President Barack Obama visited the coast Friday to see the damage as he tried to emphasize that his admin-istration was in control of the crisis. He told people in Grand Isle, where the beach has been closed by gobs of oil, that they wouldn’t be abandoned.

After BP announced the top kill failure, Obama said from Chicago that the con-tinued fl ow of oil into the Gulf is “as enraging as it is heartbreaking.”

Suttles said BP already is preparing for the next at-tempt to stop the leak that began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig ex-ploded in April, killing 11 people.

The company plans to use robot submarines to cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking and then try to cap it with a con-tainment valve. The effort is expected to take between four and seven days.

“We’re confi dent the job will work, but obviously we can’t guarantee success,”

Suttles said of the new plan, declining to handicap the likelihood it will work.

He said that cutting off the damaged riser isn’t ex-pected to cause the fl ow rate of leaking oil to increase signifi cantly.

The permanent solution to the leak, a relief well cur-rently being drilled, won’t be ready until August, BP says.

Experts have said that a bend in the damaged riser likely was restricting the fl ow of oil somewhat, so slicing it off and installing a new containment valve is risky.

“If they can’t get that valve on, things will get much worse,” said Philip W. Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama.

Johnson said he thinks BP can succeed with the valve, but added: “It’s a scary proposition.”

Word that the top-kill had failed hit hard in fi shing communities along Louisi-ana’s coast.

“Everybody’s starting to realize this summer’s lost. And our whole lifestyle might be lost,” said Michael Ballay, the 59-year-old man-ager of the Cypress Cove Marina in Venice, La., near where oil fi rst made landfall in large quantities almost two weeks ago.

Johnny Nunez, owner of Fishing Magician Charters in Shell Beach, La., said the spill is hurting his business during what’s normally the best time of year — and there’s no end in sight.

Spill (cont.)

— AP photo by JAE C. HONG

Doug Suttles, chief operating offi cer of BP PLC, looks Friday at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Louisiana.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — After 15 years, Arab nations fi nally won agreement from the United States and the other nuclear powers to take the fi rst step toward banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. Now the next move is Israel’s.

But the Israeli government rejected the resolution Satur-day, calling it “deeply fl awed and hypocritical.”

Although the United States joined the 188 other member nations of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty on Fri-day in giving a green light to a conference in 2012 “on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weap-ons of mass destruction,” se-nior U.S. offi cials appeared to backtrack afterward, setting several conditions for the talks to go ahead.

Taking the toughest line, U.S. National Security Ad-viser Gen. James Jones said in a statement Friday night that the United States has “serious reservations” about the 2012 conference and be-lieves Mideast peace and full compliance by all countries in the region to their arms control and nonproliferation obligations “are essential precursors” of a WMD-free zone. The compliance de-mand appeared to be aimed

at Iran, which the United States believes is pursuing a nuclear weapons program despite Tehran’s claims its only goal is nuclear power.

Jones also strongly defend-ed longtime U.S. ally Israel, which was singled out for not being a member of the NPT. He said the United States “de-plores” the naming of Israel, which puts prospects for the 2012 conference “in doubt.” As a co-sponsor of the confer-ence, Jones said the United States will ensure that it only will take place “if and when all countries feel confi dent that they can attend.”

Israel, which has not signed the NPT, said due to the “dis-torted nature” of the resolu-tion, it would not take part in its implementation.

“It singles out Israel, the Middle East’s only true de-mocracy and the only coun-try threatened with annihila-tion. Yet the terrorist regime in Iran, which is racing to develop nuclear weapons and which openly threatens to wipe Israel off the map, is not even mentioned in the resolution,” Israel’s govern-ment said in its statement.

It said the resolution ig-nores “the real threats” fac-ing the Middle East and “not only fails to advance regional security but actually sets it back.”

Israel key to conference on banning nuclear arms