NEW YORK (CBS) -- UPGRADING AMERICA'S AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM.
Did you know that in this digital age of high-tech developments in computers and satellite-based navigation, America's air traffic control system has been in place for more than 40 years? But these days it has its hands full, controlling 5,000 planes in the air at any given time. No wonder there are so many long delays.
So the government is about to award a multi-billion dollar contract for a new satellite system to keep up with. But that's just the beginning of the price tag.
The GPS navigation system in your car is more sophisticated than the old-fashioned radar that guides airplanes in the skies over this country.
Marion Blakey, FAA Administrator said, "We're operating old 1960s technology and you can't just keep patching it up. You're going to have to make a total switch of the system."
But to retrofit every control tower and every plane that flies to accommodate global positioning satellite technology will cost an estimated 20 billion dollars.
Aviation expert, Peter Goelz said, "Everybody wants it, but no one wants to pay for it."
But to keep up with projected doubling of in air traffic, we have no choice but to do it, said Goelz. "You keep the high level of safety, and you're just getting better utilization of the airspace - and that's really the wave of the future," he said.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is skeptical.
President Patrick Forrey said, "You want to double the aircraft in the sky? Do it. You just need more controllers and more runways to land them. Otherwise, it doesn't matter what whizbang stuff you got."
THE CASE OF SENATOR LARRY CRAIG.
U.S. Senator Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, insists he did nothing wrong back in June when he was apprehended by an undercover police officer in a men's room at the Minneapolis Airport. The report said the Senator peered at him through a crack in the stall, and then from the next stall put his foot under the wall and toughed the officer's foot.
Craig responded to the report saying, "While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct at the Minneapolis Airport, or anywhere else, I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in hopes of making it go away. Let me be clear, I am not gay. I never have been gay."
Nevertheless, in the U.S. Senate where Craig is serving his third term, some of his Republican colleagues - including Minority Leader Mitch McConnel - call it a serious matter and want an Ethics Committee review.
Craig, 62, is married with three children. He didn't want the world to hear about the charges against him. He said that's why he pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and didn't tell anybody, not even a lawyer.
"I take full responsibility for a lapse in judgement I made in attempting to handle this matter myself," said Craig
Politically, it's a felony.
Political science professor at the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato, said "His political career is over."
"It's really just a question of whether he resigns his Senate seat, or whether he finishes out his current term and leaves office at the end of 2008."
And if he runs again?
Sabato said, "If he runs again, he will be defeated in the Republican primary almost certainly. I would place a major bet on that."
PRISON POPULATION EXPLOSION.
A recent study by the Pew Foundation projected that the number of people in prison in this country will grow from its present million-and-a-half to 1.7 million by the end of 2011. That's a 13 percent increase, nearly triple the expected population growth, at an estimated cost of 27 billion dollars.
The projected increase in prison population does not necessarily mean more crimes are being committed in the 50 states.
"Changes in their punishment and sentencing policies and laws that are in place in various states. The percentage of time served in prisons has been going up," said William Bales, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University.
"Everybody that comes to prison for example in Florida, will serve 85 percent of the court-imposed sentence regardless if they're a drug offender or property offender or sex offender," said Bales.
And prison is less appropriate for some kinds of offenses than others, he added.
"Better community sanctions, electronic monitoring for example has found to be effective at controlling offenders in the community versus imprisonment," said Bales.
New prisons are being built, but not fast enough to hold the projected prisoner population.
"If we don't match essentially our fiscal policy in terms of construction and operation with the demands put more and more people in prison, then prisons will just become more dangerous and volatile," said Bales.
And they're pretty volatile and dangerous as it is!
"The more people you get into a confined space, you have more problems in terms of assault and violence, not just between inmates, but also violence against correctional officers," said Bales.
A WORLD WITHOUT OIL.
Many scientists predict oil reserves will run dry in the not-too-distant future. What would a world without oil look like?
The Post Carbon Institute based in Vancouver, British Columbia is preparing for a day when oil is not so plentiful.
Institute founder Julian Darley said right now, we depend on oil for almost everything - food, transportation, water, jobs, housing and shipping.
"If you reduce the amount of energy available for transport, manufacturing, chemicals, agriculture and so forth, then fewer things will be done and that usually means less economic activity," Darley said.
Which could devastate the economy. Now, post-carbon groups are forming across the country to find practical ways to reduce our oil dependence. Donna Askins recently started a group in Elgin, Illinois after hearing a scientist speak.
"And the lecturer was the chief scientist of BP. And I was really surprised when he stood right up there in front of God and everybody and said, 'Folks. We have 41 years of gasoline left,'" said Askins.
Askins' group talks with city officials about how to make their community more self-sufficient.
"You kind of vote with your dollar. So if you're buying local produce, or otherwise supporting local goods and services, that, in effect, reduces your dependence on petroleum," said Askins.
They explore ideas like creating new currencies in case global markets falter. But first, they're taking a simple step: growing food locally.
"Here are some lettuce, spinach. Some zucchini, which I'm afraid is going to take over Manhattan in just a minute," said Askins.
Darley said it starts with food, but oil dependence affects the entire economy.
"Just about everything from rails, all the housing subdivisions, these are all part of the infrastructure which only runs because of the injection of very large quantities of energy, and it will run remarkably badly when all that goes away," said Darley.
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