Video: Gov. Scott and the elephant in the room

FBI stalks gunman in Indiana hostage situation

Dozens of police and SWAT officers surrounded a real estate company office in Valparaiso, Ind., on Friday after at least three gunshots were heard. A gunman inside the building was reported to be holding as many as 15 hostages, police and witnesses said.

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Marvel Casting Round-Up: 'Thor 2,' 'Iron Man 3' Add Villains

Plus, Jon Favreau confirms that he's reprising his role as Tony Stark's driver, Happy Hogan, in 'Iron Man 3.'
By Kevin P. Sullivan


Robert Downey Jr. in "Iron Man 2"
Photo: Paramount Pictures

Although "Men in Black 3" seems poised to knock "The Avengers" out of the top spot at the box office this weekend, Marvel Studios is already well into planning its next movies.

Just last night, the studio announced casting for villains in the upcoming sequels "Thor 2" and "Iron Man 3", while Jon Favreau confirmed he would reprise his role as Tony Stark's driver, Happy Hogan.

In two separate scoops from Variety, the trade paper reported that Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen is in talks to play the villain in the Alan Taylor-directed "Thor" sequel, and that Ashley Hamilton, son of George, could join "Iron Man 3" as the villain Firepower. The identity of Mikkelsen's potential character has yet to be revealed.

And while he won't be returning to direct the third "Iron Man" movie, Jon Favreau will be coming back to reprise his role as Happy Hogan. The actor-turned-director tweeted a photo of his personalized chair from the set of "Iron Man 3."

Favreau had previously turned down an offer to direct his third "Iron Man" film, allowing "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" director Shane Black to take a crack at billionaire playboy and philanthropist Tony Stark. It was unclear whether Favreau would return to play Happy, who had a significantly larger role in "Iron Man 2," but recent word that Favreau would still be largely involved is now confirmed.

Rumors have already begun to circulate about the identity of Mikkelsen's character. The most popular theory involves a character called the Executioner, a rumor started by Bleeding Cool.

"Thor 2" is scheduled to go in front of cameras later this year for a fall 2013 release, while production on "Iron Man 3" is already under way for its summer 2013 bow.

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

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Defendant: FAMU band drum major wanted to be hazed

FILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011 file photo, Robert Champion, a drum major in Florida A&M University's Marching 100 band, performs during halftime of a football game in Orlando, Fla. Champion, who died after being hazed on a bus, asked to go through the ordeal because it was seen as an honor, said defendant Jonathan Boyce in a deposition released Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Champions' parents have said their son was a vocal opponent of the routine hazing in the band. (AP Photo/The Tampa Tribune, Joseph Brown III, File) SST. PETERSBURG OUT; LAKELAND OUT; BRADENTON OUT; MAGS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; WTSP CH 10 OUT; WFTS CH 28 OUT; WTVT CH 13 OUT; BAYNEWS 9 OUT

FILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011 file photo, Robert Champion, a drum major in Florida A&M University's Marching 100 band, performs during halftime of a football game in Orlando, Fla. Champion, who died after being hazed on a bus, asked to go through the ordeal because it was seen as an honor, said defendant Jonathan Boyce in a deposition released Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Champions' parents have said their son was a vocal opponent of the routine hazing in the band. (AP Photo/The Tampa Tribune, Joseph Brown III, File) SST. PETERSBURG OUT; LAKELAND OUT; BRADENTON OUT; MAGS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; WTSP CH 10 OUT; WFTS CH 28 OUT; WTVT CH 13 OUT; BAYNEWS 9 OUT

(AP) ? A Florida A&M drum major who died after being hazed on a bus asked to go through the ordeal because it was seen as an honor, a defendant in the case said in a deposition released Wednesday

Robert Champion, 26, had asked all season to go through the hazing ritual, known as "crossing over," defendant Jonathan Boyce said.

"It's a respect thing, you know," Boyce told detectives. "Well, he was wanting to do it all ... all season."

Champion died last November after enduring a hazing ritual conducted by other band members on a bus outside a hotel in Orlando where FAMU had played its archrival in football. His death revealed a culture of hazing in the famed band, which has performed at Super Bowls and presidential inauguration parades. An autopsy concluded Champion suffered blunt trauma blows to his body and died from shock caused by severe bleeding.

Champion's parents have said their son was a vocal opponent of the routine hazing in the band.

In an interview earlier this year, Champion's father, Robert Sr., said the reason his son was hazed was because of his opposition to it.

Prosecutors in Orlando are releasing more than 1,500 pages of evidence against the 13 people charged in Champion's death last year. Eleven defendants are charged with a third-degree felony and two are charged with misdemeanors.

One hazing ritual called "the hot seat" involved getting kicked and beaten with drumsticks and bass drum mallets while covered with a blanket on a band bus called, "Bus C," band member Marc Baron told investigators. Baron isn't charged and wasn't on the bus the weekend Champion died.

Band members enduring the hazing also must run a gauntlet to the back of the bus while being hit and kicked in a ritual called "crossing over," he said.

"You start in the beginning and you go, you try to find your way to the back," Baron said.

Asked by investigator if it was how a member earns respect, Baron said: "In a certain way respect, but it's not really respect. It's just like band credentials."

Depositions offered clues to the defenses the defendants will use.

Defendant Aaron Golson denied getting on the bus where the hazing took place. He said he got a ride back from the game with a friend.

"I don't know anything that happened with Robert," Golson said.

Golson also told detectives that Champion wasn't into the hazing rituals.

"Man, I'm shock(ed) if that happens," Golson said when told that Champion chose to get on the bus to be hazed.

Another defendant, Caleb Jackson, at first told detectives that he wasn't on the bus when Champion was beaten but then changed his story when he was told that hotel video surveillance showed him getting off the bus. At the time of Champion's death, Jackson was on probation for a felony battery charge.

"I love Robert like a brother, more than ya'll, any, everybody in this band loves this man like a brother, you know what I'm saying," Jackson said.

FAMU's famed Marching 100 band was suspended shortly after the incident, and officials have said it will remain sidelined at least through the 2012-2013 school year.

The school also tried to fire band director Julian White. White's dismissal was placed on hold while the criminal investigation unfolded, but he insisted that he did nothing wrong and fought for months to get reinstated. He announced his retirement earlier this month.

___

Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Pakistan acid women fear backlash over Oscar film

Survivors of acid attacks whose plight became the focus of an Oscar-winning documentary now fear ostracism and reprisals if the film is broadcast in Pakistan.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy made history earlier this year when she won Pakistan's first Oscar, feted across the country for exposing the horrors endured by women whose faces are obliterated in devastating acid attacks.

Her 40-minute film focuses on Zakia and Rukhsana as they fight to rebuild their lives after being attacked by their husbands, and British Pakistani plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad who tries to help repair their shattered looks.

When "Saving Face" scooped a coveted gold statuette in the documentary category in Hollywood in February, campaigners were initially jubilant.

The Acid Survivors Foundation Pakistan (ASF) had cooperated on the film but some survivors now fear a backlash in a deeply conservative society -- and are taking legal action against the producers.

"We had no idea it would be a hit and win an Oscar. It's completely wrong. We never allowed them to show this film in Pakistan," said Naila Farhat, 22, who features fleetingly in the documentary.

She was 13 when the man she refused to marry threw acid in her face as she walked home from Independence Day celebrations. She lost an eye and her attacker was jailed for 12 years.

After a long, painful recovery, she is training as a nurse.

"This is disrespect to my family, to my relatives and they'll make an issue of it. You know what it's like in Pakistan. They gossip all the time if they see a woman in a film," said Farhat, taut skin where her left eye dissolved.

"We may be in more danger and we're scared that, God forbid, we could face the same type of incident again. We do not want to show our faces to the world."

Lawyer Naveed Muzaffar Khan, whom ASF hired to represent the victims, said legal notices were sent to Obaid-Chinoy and fellow producer Daniel Junge on Friday.

The survivors, he said, "have not consented for it to be publicly released in Pakistan", adding that such agreement was required for all the women who featured in the film, no matter how fleetingly.

Khan said the producers had seven days to agree not to release the film publicly in the country, or he would go to court to seek a formal injunction.

"They (survivors) were absolutely clear in their mind in not allowing any public screening as that would jeopardise their life in Pakistan and make it difficult for them to continue to live in their villages," he told AFP.

But Obaid-Chinoy insisted the women signed legal documents allowing the film to be shown anywhere in the world, including Pakistan.

She told AFP that Rukhsana had been edited out of the version to be shown in the country out of respect for her concerns, adding she was "unclear about the allegations" and would respond to the legal complaints "when a court orders us".

Rukhsana was not reachable for comment.

Many of the women are routinely threatened by their husbands or relatives and it is a television broadcast that they particularly fear.

"The accessibility is so wide scale, the chances are their lives are going to be threatened," said the lawyer, Khan.

The producers promised that profits from screenings in Pakistan would go to Zakia and Rukhsana, but the row also hints at deeper differences between film-makers trying to tell a story and charity workers on the ground.

Some medical personnel, for example, believe it was wrong to focus on an expatriate doctor at the expense of countless local surgeons who have treated dozens of victims.

Others believe the film was too sensational and question whether it really will make a difference to the survivors struggling to live in Pakistan, where there are scores of such attacks each year.

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Ferrari crackdown: Italy declares war on tax cheats

The Ferrari races through a small Italian town, accelerating around cobbled street corners. A police officer stops the car that does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. The officer asks the driver for his license, registration ? and tax registration ID.

Across Italy police are cracking down on Ferrari and Lamborghini drivers, but not because they are driving too fast. Italy, like so much of southern Europe, is drowning in debt, so police are pursuing drivers to make sure they are declaring ? and therefore paying taxes on ? earnings that would allow them to afford cars worth as much as half a million dollars.

The targeting is part of an ongoing war on tax cheats, an attempt to shore up $2.5 trillion of the country's public debt and change a culture that has often prided itself on avoiding taxes. Tax authorities have long carried out much-publicized checks on owners of luxury cars, yachts, even nightclubs that don't issue proper receipts. But since the unelected, technocratic government took power in November, it has made enforcing tax collections a priority.

The crackdown seems to be working and -- some say ? slowly changing the tax culture. Italian officials say they have discovered more than $12 billion in unpaid taxes already this year, and have identified more than 2,000 luxury car owners who underpaid taxes.

"These people are pushed to defraud by the mirage of easy money, to allow themselves the luxuries that they would otherwise not be able to afford -- luxuries that are often the first clue" they aren't paying enough taxes, Italy's tax police said in a recent statement.

But the crackdown has triggered counterattacks. Tax collection branches of the national revenue agency have been targeted with letter-bombs and Molotov cocktails ? more than 250 attacks in the last year, the agency says. One businessman held an employee of a tax office hostage for six hours at gunpoint, saying he was desperate because he couldn't afford to pay off a $1,250 debt.

Some of the attacks have been claimed by anarchists, but the violence is a sign that regular Italians are suffering as southern Europe struggles through recession after recession. Twenty-three small business owners have committed suicide this year, according to the Small Business Association, and suicides motivated by economic difficulties increased 52 percent from 2005 to 2010.

Last week, Prime Minister Mario Monti visited the tax authority's Rome headquarters and said army and intelligence officials would support police to increase security for tax collectors. He argues that rich Italians' avoiding taxes hurts the poorest Italians and so stands by the crackdown, saying tax cheats "are giving poisoned bread to their children."

Ferraris for Fiats

Police have found owners who were barely concealing cheating. One developer in Perugia who police often saw "speeding through town" in his Ferrari, Maserati or Mercedes had registered his cars in his mother's name. Police discovered he hid 7 million euros of property sales in the last three years.

Or there was the case of the plumber in Pescara who owned three homes, used 30 bank accounts and drove a Ferrari.

"It is not enough to put your big car in a relative's name to trick the inspectors," mocked the tax police in a recent statement.

Police have arrested 80 people so far and are investigating 2,000 more.

In a conversation with ABC News, one Ferrari owner who declined to give his name admitted many Ferrari owners have reason to be scared.

"Those who declare their taxes correctly are not [scared], but many have the cars registered under other names and companies or do not declare enough earnings to be owning one," said the owner, who used to be president of a Ferrari owners club. "People are scared nowadays because of the more frequent tax checks and the cross referencing the tax agency can do with bank accounts, earnings and so on? They are worried they will be found out."

That has led many owners to try to sell their treasured Ferraris in an attempt to lower their profile. Some have even traded in their beloved cars for ? gulp ? Fiats. Another told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that he now drives around with his tax returns.

The Ferrari owner interviewed by ABC News said so many were selling their used Ferraris, the demand to buy the cars back was dropping ? and their value had decreased at least 20 percent.

"Many are trying to sell their luxury cars but they can't get the cost they paid for them," he said.

Changing a culture

Avoiding taxes is nothing new in Italy. Italians commonly encounter professionals who offer discounts to those who pay in cash or shops that do not issue receipts -- all attempts to pay less tax.

Tax authorities have attempted to find tax cheats in the past. In 2010, for example, they went after singer Vasco Rossi for creating a fictitious charter company to hide the true cost of his yacht. But this government's new austerity measures, which include laws that make it harder to hide wealth, are an attempt to force Italians to think differently about their taxes.

A widely reported tax blitz in January on Cortina D'Ampezzo, the winter playground for the rich and famous, received widespread support from Italians. Tax authorities looked into the owners of 133 Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and other luxury cars and found nearly a third of the owners declared incomes of less than $30,000 per year ? a laughable amount, considering not only the cost of their cars but the $8.95/gallon cost of gasoline.

The government has released a commercial that flips between slides of "parasites" with their Latin names underneath. Pictures of wood, fish and dog parasites begin the commercial, and the last image is of a man's face with the name "parasite of society, tax evader" written underneath.

"The culture of Italians is changing," Attilio Befera, the Italian tax agency's director, told reporters recently. "Fiscal evasion is seen as a bad thing for everyone, not a cunning habit anymore."

A leading stationary chain, he said, was selling more tax receipt rolls and booklets, and a growing number of Italians were demanding receipts.

The government has given the tax authority greater latitude: it can now access bank accounts at any time, not just when Italians were under investigation for undeclared taxes; and it uses more software and data systems that allow cross referencing bills and bank accounts with a person's annual spending habits.

Critics of the crackdown say it has been tried before and is ineffective against a massive black market that has, well, always existed in Italy. The total amount of non-taxed funds in Italy is estimated to be between $150 and $190 billion (although much of that is related to the mafia, not traditional tax cheats). The black market is as much as 17 percent of GDP, according to the national statistics agency.

It's not clear whether, as Befera insists, the crackdown will change Italians' feelings about paying taxes. He cites polls in which an overwhelming majority of Italians supported the police checks on luxury cars and high-profile businesses as a positive sign.

Of course, most people would say they want everyone else to pay more in taxes. As Befera's deputy, Marco di Capua, recently told Reuters: "Everyone's against tax evasion -- when it's someone else doing it."

As for the Ferrari owner, he admitted that his beloved car, which he has owned for more than 10 years, was a "magnet" for tax police. And he admitted that he was keeping it in the garage for now ? though not because of the tax checks.

With the recent hikes in gasoline prices, he said, "it's just too expensive to drive."

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Imgur Partners With Brisk And ?Scumbag Steve? For Meme-ified Ads

brisk_imgurImgur has built a massive audience for the sometimes amusing, sometimes adorable images and memes that it hosts. Now it faces another challenge: Making money. With 2 billion monthly page views, advertising seems like an obvious business plan. The problem, says CEO Alan Schaaf, is that "the Imgur audience has always hated ads." So yes, the company runs a banner ad on each page, but the audience probably sees it as a necessary evil. They probably won't be happy with a second ad, Schaaf says, so a different approach was needed.

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Dragon Drive! lets you take the wheel, while Nuance takes dictation

Image

Do you like your cars smart? Are you itching to drive something a bit more K.I.T.T. than KIA? Well, this summer the glory of your Hasselhoff-soaked, '80s dreams will become reality, thanks to the folks at Nuance. Utilizing the same natural-language voice software currently employed across select mobile phones and TV sets, the outfit's hatched a new platform, dubbed Dragon Drive!, specifically for connected autos. The hands-free tech will support six languages at launch, with more to come throughout the year, giving drivers the ability to dictate texts and emails, as well as manage multimedia and navigation without ever lifting a finger from the wheel. So far, the company hasn't outed any initial partners for the voice recognition service. But if you're in the market for a high-end vehicle and your very own virtual Synergy, rest assured, your needs are going to be met. Hit up the break for the official presser and video tour.

Continue reading Dragon Drive! lets you take the wheel, while Nuance takes dictation

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Golden Gate celebrates 75th with help of engineers

In a photo taken Jan. 24, 2012, the Golden Gate Bridge with the San Francisco skyline in the background is seen at dusk in a view from the Marin Headlands near Sausalito, Calif. The bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged. But as the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary, the engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been a feat unto itself. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

In a photo taken Jan. 24, 2012, the Golden Gate Bridge with the San Francisco skyline in the background is seen at dusk in a view from the Marin Headlands near Sausalito, Calif. The bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged. But as the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary, the engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been a feat unto itself. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

File - In this May 27, 1937 file photo, military biplanes fly between the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge as pedestrians walk across the span during opening ceremonies in San Francisco. The bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged. But as the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary, the engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been a feat unto itself. (AP Photo, File)

File - In this May 24, 1987 file photo, a crowd estimated at several hundred thousand jams the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco during a walk to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bridge. The bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged. But as the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary, the engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been a feat unto itself. (AP Photo/Doug Atkins, File)

File - In an Oct. 25, 1935 file photo, workers complete the catwalks for the Golden Gate Bridge, prior to spinning the bridge cables during construction in San Francisco. The bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged. As the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary, the engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been a feat unto itself.(AP Photo, File)

In this photo taken Wednesday April 25, 2012, Golden Gate Bridge chief engineer Ewa Bauer talks about the extensive seismic retrofit progam at the Vista Point on the north side of the bridge in Sausalito, Calif. The bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged. But as the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary, the engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been a feat unto itself. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

(AP) ? The Golden Gate Bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged.

But as the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary over Memorial Day weekend, the generations of engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been something of a marvel unto itself.

Crews had to install a bracing system after high winds lashed and twisted the span in the 1950s, raising fears it would collapse. Years later, they had to replace vertical cables when they were found to have corroded in the bridge's damp, foggy climate, potentially destabilizing the span.

The bridge, which rises majestically above a Civil War era fort on the San Francisco side and arches across to the Marin County headlands on the north side, is currently in the midst of a seismic upgrade that has seen many of its key structures replaced or modified. Plans for a moveable barrier to separate north and southbound traffic and a net system to prevent suicides are also moving forward.

"When (one of the bridge's designers) made his final speech during opening day ceremonies in 1937, he said, 'I present to you a bridge that will last forever,'" said Daniel Mohn, the bridge's former chief engineer, who co-authored a book about the span. "What he should have said is, 'I present to you a bridge that will last forever if properly maintained.'"

The idea for a bridge across the Golden Gate strait, where San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean, was championed by the engineer Joseph Strauss in the 1920s. Strauss's original design, submitted to San Francisco city officials in 1921, called for a hybrid cantilever-suspension bridge. The idea for a full-suspension span ? the design that was ultimately built ? came later.

At a little more than three-fourths of a mile in length, the Golden Gate Bridge would become the world's longest suspension span.

It had to be light enough to hang from its own cables, but still strong enough to withstand the strait's fierce winds and the possibility of earthquakes. Some said it was impossible.

Engineers also had to calculate all the potential forces on the bridge without the help of computers.

"In those days, you had (notebooks) and a number two pencil and you wrote it out, did all the math at your desk," said Kevin Starr, a history professor at the University of Southern California, who has also written about the bridge.

Eleven men died during construction from 1933 to 1937 ? ten of them when scaffolding fell through a safety net that had been set up to protect workers.

The conditions were difficult, cold, foggy and windy, and workers who helped construct supports for the south tower had to contend with dangerous tides.

But it was the wind that would continue to vex engineers years after the bridge's completion. In 1951, it was closed for several hours when wind gusts approached 70 mph and caused the bridge to flutter.

It was twisting so badly, Mohn recalled during a recent phone interview, that the light standards at the center of the span were striking the main cables.

"It sure almost destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge," he said. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington ? a suspension bridge whose designer also worked on the Golden Gate ? had twisted and snapped in about 40 mph winds a little more than a decade earlier. That 1940 collapse was captured on film.

Although the Golden Gate Bridge had stiffening trusses that made it less susceptible to wind, it did sustain damage, Mohn said.

Officials decided to add lateral bracing that made the trusses more stable and reduced the chances of the bridge going into a potentially catastrophic twisting motion.

The bridge would be able to withstand winds of 70 mph today although the goal is to eventually increase its tolerance to 100 mph, according to Ewa Bauer, the bridge's current chief engineer.

The wind is not the only element to take its toll on the span. The damp, foggy air has also kept its painters and engineers busy.

"You couldn't have put the bridge in a more corrosive atmosphere than in the middle of the Golden Gate with that salt fog coming in," Mohn said.

Engineers discovered in the 1970s that the bridge's suspender ropes ? the vertical cables that connect the deck to the main cables ? had corroded, some so badly that they could be picked apart with a pocket knife.

The problem in part, Mohn said, was that bridge maintenance had been neglected for many years, particularly during World War II. A design flaw also hastened corrosion.

All of the cables were replaced in the mid-1970s.

There was another scare on the bridge during its 50th anniversary in 1987 when an estimated 300,000 pedestrians gathered on the span, which was closed to vehicle traffic.

The weight of the crowd flattened out the arch of the bridge deck and caused some revelers to suffer motion sickness as the bridge swayed.

Although the bridge supported its heaviest load in 50 years that day, Mohn would later conclude the weight and movement had not exceeded its design capacity.

Today, among the engineers' most pressing concerns is the potential effect of a major earthquake.

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which occurred during a live broadcast of the World Series, caused two 50-foot sections of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to collapse.

The Golden Gate Bridge was not damaged. But the quake still spurred bridge officials to undertake a massive retrofit of the span ? a $660 million project that began in 1997 and is still underway.

Bridge pylons have been reinforced with steel and towers under the bridge's two approaches were replaced, all while keeping the bridge open and its appearance unchanged. Retrofitting the suspension span is the project's final phase although experts say its flexibility makes it less vulnerable in an earthquake.

"If I knew when an earthquake was coming, I'd get to the suspension span of the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge," said Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley who studied the Golden Gate Bridge after Loma Prieta. "They are safest places to be."

The goal is to withstand an 8.1-magnitude earthquake when the retrofit is completed years from now.

The bridge, like other infrastructure, has a lifespan. But Bauer and Mohn say with proper maintenance, the Golden Gate Bridge will endure. The retrofit project alone will buy the span another 150 years, Bauer estimated.

"I believe the bridge was built to absolute great standards of workmanship," she said on a recent morning at a vista point overlooking the span. "What we are doing right now is repairing...and you can truly do it indefinitely."

Associated Press

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