Fishing practices needlessly ravage sea life, study says

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Heaps of dead fish litter the decks of commercial trawlers each summer after boat captains pull nets from the ocean in their search for shrimp.

Sucked into the expansive shrimp nets, small fish and other marine animals are the unfortunate victims of an industry that, for decades, has dragged the sea floor to scoop up the tasty crustaceans so many diners crave.

But one conservation group says fishermen need to be more careful.

Every year, tons of marine animals across the country are accidentally caught in fishing nets and killed — a wasteful occurrence that threatens to deplete marine life, according to a report this week by Oceana. Similar problems are found when commercial anglers drop rows of hooks in the ocean to catch one type of fish, but bring in other marine animals that wind up dying needlessly, the report said.

Sharks and sea turtles are among the animals that die as fishermen try to land seafood for people's tables, according to the report, which relied on federal data. Animals caught in nets or on fishing lines while commercial boats seek other species are known as "bycatch." Oceana wants tighter limits on bycatch to help protect vulnerable species.

"Whether it's the thousands of sea turtles that are caught to bring you shrimp or the millions of pounds of cod and halibut that are thrown overboard after fishermen have reached their quota, bycatch is a waste of our ocean's resources," said Dominique Cano-Stocco, campaign director at Oceana, a national conservation group that focuses on issues involving the sea.

The study by Oceana highlights nine areas of the United States that are among the worst at killing marine life while fishing for other species. Those include fisheries that target snappers and groupers, swordfish and shrimp, according to Oceana.

The study says the Southeastern shrimp trawl fishery, which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic Ocean, discards 64 percent of the marine life caught up in nets. For every pound of shrimp landed, one pound of billfish is tossed aside, according to the study. It also notes that thousands of sea turtles die annually in shrimp nets.

Shrimping is the biggest component of South Carolina's fishing industry, which isn't large by national standards but is still a notable part of the state's economy.

Each year, South Carolina's seafood harvest brings in about $25 million, federal statistics show. In addition to shrimping, fishing lands a healthy share of blue crabs and oysters, as well as snappers and groupers. Bycatch from the snapper-grouper fishery also was cited in the report as a problem.

No one disputes that shrimping snares unwanted fish in South Carolina. Typically, fishermen empty their nets on boat decks and pick shrimp from the piles of fish also caught in the netting. The unwanted fish, many of them dead or dying, are then pushed back into the ocean.

Still, shrimpers and several scientists questioned whether the Oceana report represents a fair picture of the bycatch issue in the Palmetto State.

Larry Toomer, a shrimper and restaurant owner from the Hilton Head Island area, said the state has taken steps to reduce bycatch in shrimp nets. Something must be working because sea turtles seem more abundant, he said of the federally protected species.

"I've never even caught a billfish in a shrimp trawler and I've been shrimping my whole life," Toomer said. "Shrimping does absolutely nothing to billfish. And as to turtles, we have more turtles now. We don't catch them anymore. I haven't caught a turtle in 10 years. But I've seen plenty."

The problem isn't nearly as pronounced as it once was — and many of the marine animals being caught accidentally are small, abundant species, said Toomer and officials with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Federal rules adopted about two decades ago require shrimpers to include "turtle excluder devices" in nets to allow loggerhead, leatherbacks and other sea turtles to escape if they get caught in the netting. That also allows other large species, such as sharks and rays, to get out of the nets.

The study lumps Gulf and South Atlantic shrimping together, but Gulf shrimpers have been less willing to use turtle excluder devices, said Sally Murphy, a sea turtle expert and retired biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

She and others said the amount of bycatch is dwindling because fewer people are shrimping today than they were years ago.

Despite some improvements, Oceana said the issue remains a problem.

Nationally, 17 percent to 22 percent of the marine life caught by fishermen is discarded each year, the study says, citing estimates. In 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service estimated that up to 50,000 sea turtles in the region could be killed annually by shrimp trawlers, according to the Oceana study.

"Fishermen who are required to use turtle excluder devices frequently install them incorrectly or intentionally tie them shut," the report said.

To reduce bycatch, Oceana says the United States should count the amount of marine animals unwittingly caught in commercial fishing ventures; cap the amount of bycatch allowed; and improve fishing gear to cut down on the amount of marine life accidentally killed each year. Fishing also could be done at times of the year when certain marine animals that could be needlessly caught in nets are less abundant, the group said.

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©2014 The State (Columbia, S.C.)

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APNewsBreak: Obama actions test workplace ideas

WASHINGTON — Lacking congressional support to raise wages or end gender pay disparities, President Barack Obama is again imposing his policies on federal contractors, in keeping with presidents' tradition of exerting their powers on a fraction of the economy they directly control.

Obama will sign an executive order Tuesday barring federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with each other. The order is similar to language in a Senate bill aimed at closing a pay gap between men and women. That measure is scheduled for a vote this week, but is unlikely to pass.

The president also will direct the Labor Department to adopt rules requiring federal contractors to provide compensation data based on sex and race.

He plans to sign the two executive orders during an event at the White House where he will be joined by Lilly Ledbetter, whose name appears on a pay discrimination law Obama signed in 2009.

The moves showcase Obama's efforts to seek action without congressional approval and demonstrate that even without legislation, the president can drive economic policy. At the same time, they show the limits of his ambition when he doesn't have the support of Congress for his initiatives.

Republicans say Obama is pushing his executive powers too far and should do more to work with Congress. His new executive orders are sure to lead to criticism that he is placing an undue burden on companies and increasing their costs.

Federal contracting covers about one-quarter of the U.S. workforce and includes companies ranging from Boeing to small parts suppliers and service providers. As a result, presidential directives can have a wide and direct impact. Such actions also can be largely symbolic, designed to spur action in the broader economy.

"This really is about giving people access to more information both to help them make decisions at the policy level but also for individuals," said Heather Boushey, executive director and chief economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She has been working with the administration to get compensation information about the nation's workforce.

"This is definitely an encouraging first step," she said.

Federal contractors, however, worry that additional compensation data could be used to fuel wage related lawsuits, said James Plunkett, director of labor policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

What's more, he said, such orders create a two-tiered system where rules apply to federal contractors but not to other employers. Those contractors, knowing that their business relies on the government, are less likely to put up a fight, he said.

"Federal contractors ultimately know that they have to play nicely to a certain extent with the federal government," he said.

In a separate action Monday, Obama intends to announce 24 schools that will share more than $100 million in grants to redesign themselves to better prepare high school students for college or for careers. The awards are part of an order Obama signed last year. Money for the program comes from fees that companies pay for visas to hire foreign workers for specialized jobs.

The moves represent a return to economic issues for the president after two weeks devoted almost exclusively to diplomacy and the final deadline for health insurance coverage. A trip to Asia in two weeks is sure to change the focus once again.

Still, Obama has declared this a year of action, whether Congress supports him or not.

In February, Obama signed an executive order increasing the hourly minimum wage for federal contractors from $7.25 per to $10.10. While White House officials estimated such an increase would affect only a small percentage of federal contract workers, they said the move could encourage states or individual businesses to act on their own to increase workers' wages.

Obama has also pushed his workplace initiatives beyond just federal contractors where possible.

Last month he instructed the Labor Department to come up with new workplace overtime rules for all employers, a power the administration has under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

But presidents have most direct power over the workforce that is paid with taxpayers' money.

Obama's go-it-alone strategy is hardly new.

The most enduring workplace anti-discrimination laws began with an executive order signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in June 25, 1941, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, creed and national origin in the federal government and defense industries.

President John F. Kennedy broadened that in 1961 with an order that required government contractors to take affirmative action to ensure hiring "without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin."

President George W. Bush also acted on his own when he ordered federal contractors to ensure that their workers were in the country legally by requiring the use of an electronic employment-verification system.

Jeffrey Hirsch, a former lawyer with the National Labor Relations Board, said presidential executive orders that affect federal contracting workforces can over time demonstrate that those practices are less onerous than initially imagined.

"It's an important step in implementing things in a broader scale," said Hirsch, now a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Through executive actions, Obama also has drawn attention to areas where he has chosen not to act on his own.

The White House has resisted pressure from gay rights advocates who want have Obama to sign an anti-discrimination executive order that would protect gays and lesbians working for federal contractors. The White House wants the House to approve a Senate-passed bill extending those protections to all Americans.

On Friday, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group, criticized the White House for saying such an executive order would be redundant if Congress were to pass a White House-supported bill. It's an argument the White House has not made when it comes to minimum wage or anti-"gag rule" orders imposed on federal contractors.

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Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

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Phone passwords go high tech

Traditional passwords, sometimes difficult to remember and easy to steal, are inadequate for increasing digital security needs and companies are answering the call with fingerprint sensors, voice biometrics and sound waves.

"User ID and password is how I logged into AOL in 1994," said Andrew Grochal, vice president of operations and finance at digital security company Certus Technology Systems, an early-stage startup that is testing logging onto websites and other secure locations like ATMs using high-frequency sound waves. "The user ID and password is a painful, horrible nightmare, and now everyone has a smartphone in their pocket that can send and pick up sound."

Certus works by sending a unique, one-time sound undetectable to humans ­— like a dog whistle — from a computer to a smartphone app, which then authenticates the user, said Grochal. Because the sound expires 0.3 seconds after use, Certus is significantly harder to hack, Grochal said. Another benefit of Certus, Grochal said, is not having to remember complex passwords.

"The goal is to fix both the user experience problem and the security problem at the same time," he said.

Certus has raised $375,000 from angel investors, and is running a pilot program with a local company. Grochal said the company will likely begin a second pilot in the coming months.

Digital security has begun to move beyond passwords after high profile username and password hacks with the addition of fingerprint sensors in both the iPhone and Galaxy S5, Samsung's flagship smartphone.

"Passwords are more unwieldy and less secure than some of these other methods," said Roger Kay, founder of Endpoint Technologies, a technology research and analysis firm.

Nuance, the Burlington-based company that powers Siri, added voice biometrics to its own personal assistant app last week.

"Entering a pin or a password is clunky," said Josh Lipe, director of mobile products and solutions for Nuance.

For consumers, Nuance is using the voice biometrics technology to improve personalization and understanding, but it offers voice recognition and authentication for businesses to address "increasing consumer dissatisfaction with PINs, passwords and security questions," the company said in a statement.

Lipe said voice biometrics could easily replace a pattern or PIN to unlock a phone, features that have not kept up with advancing technology. "2003 called. They want their features back," Lipe said.

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What’s causing RAV4’s tire pressure warning to light?

I have a 2005 Toyota RAV4 with 115K miles. Intermittently the dashboard's tire pressure warning light comes on, even when all tires are within 4-5 pounds. This is the indirect-type TPM system associated with the ABS brakes. I use the "blinks 3 times" method to get the light to stay off after verifying pressures. The dealer has no clue what is causing this and suggested just ignoring the light. The tire store verified that the tires are OK.

Three of my tires pass the "Lincoln's head" test, but should probably be replaced this summer. One is a warranty replacement so is a slightly different diameter than the others. I think the warranty tire was installed after this problem started but I'm not sure. Where would you start to run this to ground?

Toyota issued a brake system service bulletin in February 2006 that indicated that the Low Tire Pressure warning light can illuminate without cause due to a lack of or improper "re-initialization" after tire replacement or tire rotation. The "blinks 3 times" procedure you described is the proper re-initialization procedure, so it's time to check the tires.

Measure the rolling diameter of each tire by one of two methods. With all four tires at equal pressure, put the vehicle on jack stands and measure the circumference of each tire with a tape measure. Or park the vehicle on dead-level ground with the steering straight, mark with chalk the pavement and each tire at the tire's center-bottom point, roll the vehicle straight forward one tire revolution and recheck each tire's chalk mark. All four marks should be at bottom center of each tire. If not, mark the pavement at each tire chalk position and measure the distance between each mark with a tape measure. This will measure the circumference of each.

Since the indirect TPM system on your vehicle uses the ABS wheel speed sensors to "look" for a wheel/tire rotational speed difference caused by low tire pressure reducing the rolling circumference of a tire, I can't help but be suspicious of the warranty replacement tire. If it is more than about 3 percent larger in circumference, it may be triggering the TPM system due to its larger circumference and different rotational speed.

L L L

I would like to know what is going on with my 1998 Toyota 4-Runner. The engine makes this growling, groaning noise. It sounds like a power steering pump but the noise only appears when the weather is cold. During warm weather it hardly makes any noise. It has 160,000 miles on it, has plenty of pep and runs like a champ. I do not have any problems steering the car. Do you have any suggestions?

Have you ever had the power steering system flushed and refilled with fresh fluid? After 16 years and 160,000 miles, aerated and contaminated power steering fluid may well be causing the whine in cold weather. First, try adding a couple of ounces of SeaFoam Trans-Tune or similar power steering fluid additive. Better yet, have the system flushed and refilled with new fluid. I'll bet this stops the whine.

L L L

Recently on a road trip I was passed by a car on which one of its rear tires appeared to be bouncing up and down. A few miles up the road, it was stopped. That tire had blown out and had taken most of the back bumper with it. What causes a tire to be vibrating like that when cruising on the interstate at 75 miles an hour?

An ignorant motorist. I can't imagine the driver not feeling the vibration from that wobbling tire at that speed. Unfortunately, I've seen more than enough evidence of major problems that potentially affect vehicle safety being completely ignored by the motorist, primarily because nothing had happened yet.

In this case, I would suspect two possibilities. First, a tire that has suffered a structural failure or belt separation in the carcass or a progressive separation of the tread, which could explain the rear bumper damage. Secondly, a dead shock absorber/strut on that corner of the vehicle. The uncontrolled up-and-down movement of the wheel could lead to this type of tire failure eventually.

The moral of the story? If it doesn't look, feel, sound, smell or drive right, stop and investigate why. Not sure if anything's wrong? Have it checked out by a professional.

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Wynn urged to play with unions

The president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, who as a state senator played a key role in shaping the expanded gaming law, is calling on Wynn Resorts to follow in the footsteps of Mohegan Sun — its competitor for the lucrative Boston-area casino license — and sign a pledge to stay neutral in any future elections that would decide what unions represent workers in its casinos.

"I don't care who gets (the license), all I want them to do is stay out of it," said Steven Tolman, under whose umbrella a host of unions fall, including UNITE HERE, which represents hospitality workers in Wynn's Las Vegas casino. "Some of (the casino companies) could be supportive more of a union that might be more amenable to the company's needs. Labor harmony was in the legislation, so all that means is that they keep out of it, they allow a democratic process to take place without them interfering."

Mohegan Sun, which is proposing a casino at Suffolk Downs in Revere, has labor harmony deals with several unions, including IBEW Local 103, Teamsters Local 25, UAW and Laborers Local 22.

Both Mohegan and Wynn have reached harmony agreements with the union organizations who would build a casino, but only Mohegan has them with unions who could represent casino employees. In its license application, Wynn says it intends to enter into harmony talks on casino jobs after it receives the license.

"Since opening, Wynn has had positive union relationships at our Las Vegas location; we will have the same positive relationships in Everett," Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver said.

"We were very pleased with the positive comments made by UNITE HERE at our Surrounding Community hearing, which we believe were indicative of the nature of our long-standing agreements with labor."

Its application touts relationships with UNITE HERE's Las Vegas chapter as well as unions representing bartenders and dealers.

"Wynn Resorts has long-standing constructive relationships with organized labor in its operations in Las Vegas," the application says.

The state gaming law calls on the Gaming Commission to base its license award decisions in part on "whether the applicant has included detailed plans for assuring labor harmony during all phases of the construction, reconstruction, renovation, development and operation of the gaming establishment."

In testimony before the commission, Tolman and representatives from the UAW have praised Mohegan for reaching the labor harmony deals and criticized Wynn for not yet doing so. The UAW represents dealers at Foxwoods in Connecticut and Newport Grand Slots in Rhode Island, as well as casinos in Atlantic City, Ohio, Detroit, Indiana and Las Vegas.

UNITE HERE, which sponsored efforts to defeat Mohegan's casino at the ballot box in Revere in February, has endorsed Wynn's Everett plan, president Brian Lang said. The union flew two workers from Wynn's Las Vegas casino to a recent Gaming Commission hearing to praise the company's working conditions.

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AP reporter in stable condition in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Associated Press correspondent shot and wounded while covering preparations for elections in Afghanistan was in stable condition Saturday and receiving medical treatment at a military hospital in Kabul.

Kathy Gannon, 60, a senior correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan, suffered three gunshot wounds in the attack Friday that killed AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus in the eastern city of Khost. Gannon was expected to be transferred to a hospital out of the country in coming days.

Niedringhaus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, died instantly of her wounds. She was repatriated to her native Germany on Saturday. A funeral announcement was pending.

An Afghan police commander opened fire on the two in their car with a Kalashnikov assault rifle after shouting "Allahu Akbar" — or God is Great, witnesses said. The officer then surrendered to other police officers on hand to guard a convoy of election workers delivering ballots.

The shooting took place on the eve of the presidential election, a pivotal moment in Afghanistan's troubled history. In what promises to be the nation's first democratic transfer of power, people in large numbers on Saturday defied threats of violence to vote for a successor to President Hamid Karzai.

A Canadian who has been covering unrest in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the AP for nearly three decades, Gannon received injuries to the shoulder and wrist in Friday's attack. She often worked with Niedringhaus, who was 48.

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Startup aims to poach workers at tech bus stops

SAN FRANCISCO — Where some see a queue of engineers awaiting private commuter shuttles, one San Francisco startup sees an opportunity to lure talent from top Silicon Valley tech firms.

Software company Bigcommerce has spent the last two weeks trying to recruit talent from San Francisco's numerous techie shuttle stops and says it's since seen more traffic to its career website.

Bigcommerce executives say they want to poach employees from Google, Facebook and other tech giants, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.

They come bearing a clever hashtag (#poached), poached egg sandwiches and a $40 million Series C round of funding raised from former AOL chief Steve Case's venture capital firm.

"Are you interested in changing the world of e-commerce?" recruiter Steve Donnelly recently asked some men waiting for the Facebook bus. They declined.

Bigcommerce, based in Austin, Texas, is not the first firm to try to poach people from the bus stops. Roku tried to hire Google employees in Saratoga, Calif., who were waiting for a shuttle.

The company is opening a San Francisco office and needs to hire more than 40 engineers and product developers. Since starting its recruiting campaign at the bus stops, company officials said traffic to its career site has increased by 54 percent and application volume has grown by 150 percent.

Meanwhile, the shuttles have grown controversial in the last year, with some residents who see them as a symbol of neighborhood gentrification protesting their use of municipal bus stops for $1 per stop each day.

Bigcommerce plans to keep the effort up until it fills all of its San Francisco slots, West Stringfellow, the company's chief product officer told the Chronicle. He said he came up with the idea at a previous job when he commuted within the city, passing shuttle stops on the way.

"Every day, I would just see all this top talent hanging out on the sidewalk," he said. "I thought, if I ever have to build a team really fast, I'll just go hit those folks right where they're standing."

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5 signs US job market may finally be accelerating

WASHINGTON — Few people responded to the March jobs report with high-fives and cheers. But there may be reasons to applaud in the months ahead.

Hiring in March was close to the economic recovery's steady but hardly explosive monthly average of the past two years: 192,000 added jobs. The unemployment rate remained 6.7 percent for a second straight month, according to the government's report Friday.

That wasn't the blockbuster figure predicted by some economists, who figured hiring would take off in March after a winter when factory orders, home sales and auto buying were slowed by severe weather.

Yet tucked into the March jobs report and other recent indicators were hints of stronger job growth ahead:

Hiring over the past 12 months has outpaced population growth. More workers in the prime 25- to 54-year-old age group are finding jobs. The winter freeze was less destructive to hiring than had been assumed. Layoffs have declined since February. And an increase in hours worked suggest that incomes will rise.

Here are five signs that the U.S. job market may finally be picking up :

JOB GROWTH VS. POPULATION GROWTH

For much of the recovery, the economy suffered from a fundamental problem: We were adding more people than jobs.

Employers hired 2.4 million people in 2012. That sounds decent. But it's less impressive when you consider this: The working-age population swelled by 3.8 million that year, according to the employment report's survey of households. A similar gap existed in 2013.

The share of the population with jobs — the so-called employment-population ratio — ended both 2012 and 2013 at 58.6 percent. That was down sharply from 63 percent before the recession started in late 2007.

But encouragingly, the trend reversed itself in March: About 2.35 million people were hired over the preceding 12 months. That was slightly more than the rise in population over the same period. The employment-population ratio ticked up to 58.9 percent, its highest level since August 2009.

When an economy adds fewer jobs than people, it loses some ability to accelerate. The economy is carrying more weight and less muscle.

Some of this reflects an aging population: More baby boomers are retiring. But another factor is that some people who hunkered down at colleges during the recession have emerged with new degrees and brighter career prospects. And they've started to look for jobs.

Can the gains continue? Tough to say. But we're faring better than we should considering that the vast baby boom generation has begun to retire.

PRIME-AGE WORKERS ARE RETURNING

After the Great Recession ended in mid-2009, a declining share of 25- to 54-year-olds were working. Roughly 80 percent of this age bracket had been employed before the downturn. The figure sank as low as 74.8 percent toward the end of 2010.

But it recovered in March to 76.7 percent, the best reading since February 2009.

"People have gone back to get training and educated and will be more aggressive" and "possibly getting better-paying jobs," said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West.

WE'VE ESCAPED WINTER

Perhaps the snow trapped your car on an Atlanta freeway. Or maybe you coped with chronic school closings in Philadelphia. Maybe flight cancellations delayed your business meeting to sign a big contract.

We're still figuring out how badly the snowstorms disrupted the economy. But hiring never succumbed to the freezing temperatures as much as economists had feared. Revised figures show that 197,000 jobs were added in February and 144,000 in January — a combined 37,000 more than initially estimated.

Other corners of the economy are emerging from hibernation. Auto sales, for example, rose 6 percent to 1.5 million vehicles in March after dismal figures the previous two months.

FEWER PINK SLIPS

The jobs report provides a "net" figure. The 192,000 jobs that employers added in March results from a simple equation: Jobs filled minus jobs cut. The government calculates the total number of jobs compared with the previous month, while accounting for seasonal variations.

So when companies lay off few workers, the net jobs figure should rise. And layoffs have indeed declined. The government reports weekly on applications for unemployment benefits. These applications are proxies for layoffs. During March, 71,000 people fewer people sought benefits than in February.

LONGER HOURS

The average workweek rose to 34.5 hours from 34.3 hours in February. That doesn't seem like much — just 12 minutes more. But those extra minutes help boost incomes, Deutsche Bank economist Joseph LaVorgna said in a research note. Hourly workers are taking home more pay over the course of a week — about $17 more than they did at this time last year.

Judging from tax receipts, that's having "a significant impact on household income creation," LaVorgna said. And consumer spending is the lifeblood of growth, accounting for about 70 percent of the economy.

Higher incomes should fuel spending. Economists are already citing the auto sales as a sign of more robust spending to come. Based on March's "strong auto sales, this seems to be providing plenty of firepower for discretionary consumer spending," said Jay Feldman, an economist at Credit Suisse.

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Mohegan Tribe protects benefits with casino empire

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — A gaming slump is eating into the profits of Mohegan Sun, but the 2,000 tribal members who draw benefits from the massive casino aren't feeling the pinch — not with money coming in from a burgeoning Mohegan Tribe gaming empire.

Under a strategy that began before the downturn hit Connecticut's Mohegan Sun, one of the world's biggest casinos, the tribe's gaming company is running casinos in Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, N.J., and pursuing more projects in states including Washington, New York, and Massachusetts.

"We have to take care of their tribe membership and the benefits they are able to get, and they are not shrinking," said Mitchell Etess, CEO of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority. "If you just were to stay here, you would not have an increasing amount of revenue."

The Mohegans, who opened their flagship Mohegan Sun casino on tribal land in 1996, are among a small number of American Indian tribes — and perhaps the most ambitious — to put their gaming expertise to work at commercial casinos outside their reservations. For tribes that can pull it off, it's a way to diversify and protect against losses as the casino boom cuts into profits at individual properties.

Mohegan Sun once dominated the region's gaming market along with the neighboring Foxwoods Resort Casino, owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, and both tribes moved to expand years ago in anticipation of the competition that now has arrived in force. Mashantucket Pequot chairman Rodney Butler said if not for the 2008 downturn that dried up funding, it would have a presence by now in markets including San Diego and Philadelphia. It is now pursuing casinos in areas including Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"We knew it wouldn't last forever," Butler said of Connecticut's lock on the market. He noted Foxwoods is also building an outlet center mall. "When you look at the long-term viability as more states are expanding gaming, you're going to have to go beyond the reservation, leverage what you've built."

Nearly 240 tribes operate more than 420 gaming establishments across 28 states.

While some Western tribes have opened multiple casinos on vast reservations, very few have the experience, capital and reputation to manage or open commercial casinos, said Alan Meister, an economist with the Nathan Associates consulting firm. Tribes that do so must deal with the same tax and regulatory issues as any other private company, without the protections of sovereignty.

Others to pursue strategies similar to those of the Connecticut tribes are Florida's Seminole Indians, through their Hard Rock franchise, and Oklahoma's Chickasaw Nation, which has bought racing facilities through its Global Gaming subsidiary.

The Mohegans' expansion began in 2006 with the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs casino in Pennsylvania, and in 2012, the tribe's gaming company took over management of the Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. It is competing with Wynn Resorts for a license to open a casino in the Boston area. In addition, it's part of a group bidding to run a casino in Philadelphia, and it has a contract with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe in Washington state to build a casino. It's also pursuing a project in New York's Catskills and recently bid for the Miami Jai-Alai casino in Florida.

While the tribe's only Indian casino is in Connecticut, Etess said the gaming company reflects the family oriented values of its tribal owners, including a focus on employee culture.

"We have quarterly numbers and everything, but it's more about long-term vision. The tribe likes to say: 'Look 13 generations forward and 13 generations back,'" Etess said.

Despite the new riches, tribal medicine woman Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel said only a half-century ago tribal members had to share food to keep from going hungry. She said younger tribal members today are grateful for benefits that allow them to graduate from college without massive loans.

Although the Mashantuckets have halted payments to tribal members that once exceeded $100,000 annually, Mohegan officials say they have never emphasized large cash payments to members. In addition to what they describe as modest stipends for members, the revenue has gone toward education and health benefits, including an elder housing facility, and shoring up cultural institutions.

Tantaquidgeon Zobel said the tribe feels a responsibility to future generations.

"The generation before us had nothing and gave us this," she said.

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Angry families want GM prosecuted for defects

WASHINGTON — The families of those who died in General Motors cars with defective ignition switches want prosecutors to go after GM insiders responsible for letting the problems fester for more than decade — and perhaps for covering them up.

"The only way the public is going to be protected from this negligence by companies is if there will ultimately be prison sentences," said Leo Ruddy of Scranton, Pa., whose 21-year-old daughter Kelly was killed in 2010 when her Chevrolet Cobalt veered inexplicably off the highway and crashed.

Family members attended hearings in Washington this week that stoked those sentiments. Lawmakers confronted GM CEO Mary Barra with what they said was evidence that, in 2006, a company employee intentionally tried to conceal the switch problem. And the head of the nation's auto safety watchdog said GM withheld critical information that connected the failing switch to air bags that didn't deploy in a crash.

"I don't see this as anything but criminal," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, a former state prosecutor.

However, even if an employee or employees did conceal information, it's uncertain whether they would be charged with a crime. Legal experts say it's easier to prove wrongdoing by a corporation than by individuals. The internal documents that can be used to build a case against the company might be inadmissible as evidence against individuals. And it can be hard to prove that individuals knowingly made false statements.

The Justice Department didn't bring charges against any individuals last month when it closed a yearslong investigation of Toyota.

GM has acknowledged that in 2004 and 2005, engineers submitted proposals to fix the switches in Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other small cars, but the fixes were never implemented. GM says upper management only became aware of the problem last year. A recall of the small cars, now up to 2.6 million vehicles, began in February.

On Wednesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., accused one GM employee of a cover-up. Ray DeGiorgio, the lead switch engineer on the Cobalt, said in a deposition last year for a lawsuit against GM that he never approved a change to the ignition switch. But McCaskill produced a document from GM's switch supplier that showed DeGiorgio signed off on a replacement, but with the same part number. Failing to change a part number makes the part harder to track.

Appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," McCaskill said, "There is no reason to keep the same part number unless you're trying to hide the fact that you've got a defective switch out there that in fact ended up killing a number of people on our highways."

Paul Rothstein, a Georgetown University law professor, wouldn't speak specifically about DeGiorgio, but said someone "caught in a lie" could be more vulnerable to individual prosecution.

Barra called the failure to change the part number "unacceptable." She said the company has not yet fired any employees in connection with the recall. But she said if inappropriate decisions were made, GM will take action, including firing those involved.

"If you can go to jail for insider trading and things like that, which is just making money, if you do something that caused a loss of life ... (the penalty) should be more than just a few dollars," said Ken Rimer, whose stepdaughter died in a 2006 accident after a faulty switch prevented air bags from deploying.

But Matt Axelrod, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Washington, said prosecutors face a higher burden to prove criminal wrongdoing. "The forum before a congressional committee is different than the forum before a jury," he said.

The Justice Department hasn't confirmed that it's investigating General Motors, but a person familiar with the case said the probe is underway. The person didn't want to be identified because the investigation is private.

Two weeks ago, the Justice Department socked Toyota with a $1.2 billion penalty over its recall of millions of vehicles for unintended acceleration. But no individuals were charged, even though prosecutors discovered that some managers sought to conceal problems with gas pedals in certain cars.

Proving individual guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is much harder than prosecuting a company based on the collective knowledge of all its employees. "To charge an individual, you have to show that one individual acted illegally by himself," Axelrod said.

For now, many of the families are simply seeking more information about the fatal crashes.

Originally, Ruddy thought the power steering motor failed on his daughter's 2005 Cobalt, causing her to crash while returning home from visiting friends in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., late at night. The Cobalt was recalled in 2010 to replace faulty power steering motors. But now he thinks the ignition switch could have shut off the engine, knocking out power steering and brakes and causing her to lose control of the car.

GM took the car's event data recorder, and only recently returned it after the family contacted a Pennsylvania senator for help. The contents are now being analyzed, and the family will be looking to see the position of the ignition switch, Ruddy said.

Ruddy says the family is considering a lawsuit against GM but has yet to file one. A family friend who is an attorney is advising them on their next steps.

Rimer and his wife have already filed a lawsuit against GM. He's worried that GM might be legally protected from lawsuits arising from decisions it made before its 2009 bankruptcy.

"No money will ever bring my wife's daughter back," he said. But "unless there's a consequence for them doing something wrong, what's going to stop them from doing something wrong again?"

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Thomas Strong in Washington contributed to this report.

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