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LIVERMORE
38 percent of cancer claims reported paid
A government program designed to compensate cancer-stricken nuclear workers has paid only 38 percent of the thousands of claims is has received since 2001.
A majority of the 148,181 claims filed by the terminally or seriously ill have languished or been denied since the government started the federal Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, the Contra Costa Times reported.
The program was created to provide money, medical expenses and lost wages to Cold War-era workers exposed to radioactive or toxic materials while on the job. However, the costs have been higher than original estimates. The U.S. initially thought that it would cover more than 3,000 workers at a cost of $13 million a year for a decade. To date, $2.8 billion has been paid, and millions more have been spent on administrative costs. The Department of Labor expects 20,000 new claims this year.
Seventy-three percent of compensation decisions for former employees of Lawrence Livermore Lab have been denials. At Lawrence Berkeley Lab, it is 76 percent.
In brief
SAN FRANCISCO
At least 10 slain over weekend in Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area was reeling Sunday from at least 10 weekend slayings, including deaths of at least three teenagers and a bystander cut down in a barrage of bullets.
The killings began Friday, with four weekend homicides each under investigation in San Francisco and Oakland, and one each in Richmond and North Richmond.
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE
Atlantis on way back to Cape Canaveral
A jumbo jet carrying the space shuttle Atlantis took off Sunday on a return trip to the shuttle's launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The modified Boeing 747 left at 6:05 a.m., said a spokesman at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base.
The jet made a planned stop at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Neb., Sunday. NASA spokesman Bill Johnson had said earlier that the jet was not expected to arrive at Cape Canaveral until at least today, with the possibility of a Tuesday arrival if weather is bad.
— From wire reports
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