Shipwrecked El Faro presents a puzzle to investigators

Shipwrecked El Faro presents a puzzle to investigators

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Federal accident investigators are considering launching another search of the wreckage of a freighter that sank in October in an attempt to locate the ship's "black box."

Tom Roth-Roffy, the lead investigator for National Transportation Safety Board, told the Associated Press that a weeks-long search found one of the El Faro's missing decks, but not the mast where the ship's voyage data recorder was attached. The agency on Sunday released the first images of the ship in its final resting place.

The lowering of higher education
Boston University

The lowering of higher education

Kevin and Marilyn Ryan

Colleges and universities have been in the news much of late. The news, however, has been strangely devoid of comment on high education's essential mission; engaging students in the world of ideas and getting them ready for their life's journey. Instead, the news reports are about date rape, binge drinking, protests and cancellation of speakers with unpopular ideas and, of course, the dangers of microaggressions and providing students with "safe spaces."

Not that long ago, getting a "college education" was a serious pursuit. Students who could do the work and hold down a part-time job were rare and much admired. Standards were high and rigorously enforced. Nowadays, one rarely hears about someone getting "kicked out of college" for poor academic performance. Today, dismissing a freshman could mean the school's loss of $200,000 over the next four years.

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