Letters: Hurricane Katrina, Bloomberg, Power Plant

Theresa Prejean of Jackson, Mississippi writes: "News flash: Hurricane Katrina did not just affect the city of New Orleans. I am sickened by the number of stories I hear on New Orleans. Give Mississippi her due. The Gulf Coast is far from recovered, but at least they are further along than New Orleans. Perhaps that's just not interesting enough news."

Michael Marks of Huntington, West Virginia criticized Steve Inskeep's interview with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "I was hoping to hear more of Bloomberg's ideas on ending poverty. Anytime a billionaire wants to speak about ending poverty I am all ears. But Steve Inskeep wanted the mayor to talk about the prospects of becoming a candidate for president. As Steve kept pressing the candidacy issue, my eyes glazed over."

Some corrections now: In a story last week about a power plant in Spain, we called it "the world's first solar thermal power plant." In fact, several of you wrote in to tell us, the LUZ power plant in southern California can lay claim to that distinction. It has been in operation since the mid-1980s.

We also had a call from Bruno Rebelle, the former Greenpeace International Program Director who was featured in a report last week. It was about the impact of global warming on nuclear power. The report described Rebelle as someone who does not oppose nuclear power. Rebelle says that is incorrect. He says he believes that any more investment in nuclear energy would be a mistake.

That story also described how the lack of cool water during a heat wave in France led to a shutdown at a nuclear reactor. That caught the ear of Mark Schneider, a Physics professor at Grinnell College in Iowa.

Schneider writes: "Your story gave the incorrect impression that cooling water is a special need of nuclear plants. All power plants that run from thermal processes – including coal, oil and natural ga—-- require cooling. And water supply is an issue that affects all of these power sources."

And we got a thank you for our story about how to spread the word on product recalls. That report mentioned AMO's Complete Moistureplus Multipurpose Solution for contact lenses that's associated with a severe eye infection.

Elizabeth Hudson in Largo, Maryland, was grateful to hear that report. She writes: "My fiancé has had such trouble with his contact lenses over the last months that he has sworn off them altogether. The recurring symptoms were (to his eye doctor) a mystery. After hearing your story, I ran to the bathroom cabinet and what did I find? The exact brand of solution subject to the recall!"

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