andard Poor's 500 rose nearly three points to 1,544. The S P is now about 20 points away from its own record high close. The Nasdaq rose nine points to 3,232. The Dow and S P gained 0.2 percent,http://asanoer.16mb.com/blog/2009/01/01/welcome-to-open-blog, the Nasdaq 0.3 percent. The catalyst for the advance was the latest evidence that hiring is picking up: a decline in unemployment applications. Kroger rose 3 percent after reporting strong earnings. Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange,http://thomaskang.com/forum/2009/08/welcome.html#comments. Volume was average at 3.5 billion shares. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. An insider's guide to politics and policy, available on the iPad or as a PDF download.
By BY JOAN LOWY and JOSHUA FREED, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) Firefighters and mechanics tried repeatedly to put out a battery fire aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner through smoke so thick they couldn't see the battery,cheap toms, according to documents released Thursday that portray the incident as more serious than previously described. The Jan,cheap toms shoes. 7 fire at Boston's Logan International Airport is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety board, which released laboratory analyses, interviews and other data it has gathered so far. It still hasn't been able to pinpoint the cause. Federal Aviation Administration officials are expected to make a decision in the next few days on whether to approve a plan by Boeing to revamp the 787's lithium ion batteries to prevent or contain future fires,cheaptomsshoessalei.com. Once the plan is approved, Boeing hopes to swiftly test the reconfigured batteries and get the planes back in the air. Dreamliners worldwide have been grounded since a second battery incident led to an emergency landing in Japan nine days after the Boston fire. The incidents have raised questions about the safety of using lithium ion batteries, which are more susceptible to igniting if they short-circuit or overheat than other types of batteries. The episodes also have called into question the FAA's process for certifying the safety of new aircraft designs. The Boston fire occurred aboard a Japan Airlines plane that had just landed after an overseas flight and was parked,http://www.gzsen.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=796949. A flight data recorder shows the battery used to start the auxiliary power unit when the plane is on the ground failed six minutes after the last of the 184 passengers walked off the plane, and one minute after the pilots left. Moments later a cleaning crew discovered smoke near a kitchen in the rear of the plane. A mechanic investigating the source of the smoke in an electronics bay found intense smoke and three-inch flames in two places on the housing covering the battery. Attempts to put out the flames with a dry chemical fire extinguisher were unsuccessful. The first firefighter to enter the plane reported seeing "a white glow about the size of a softball" through the smoke using his hand-held heat-imaging camera. He applied another type of fire extinguishing agent, which somewhat reduced the glow. An airport security camera