D.C. monument closed how long?
Q. The family is headed to Washington, D.C., next month. Any idea how long the Washington Monument will be closed?
A. Probably too long for you to visit this time. The famous monument sustained damage in August during a 5.8-magnitude earthquake recently. Last week, the National Park Service said it will remain closed indefinitely because needed repairs are more extensive than initially thought.
Inspections have uncovered mortar debris at the base and inside the monument. The pyramid-shaped top also cracked at some vertical joints, where mortar is missing. And the elevator that's used to reach an observation deck near the top of the 555-foot-tall monument can ascend to only about half that height.
If you want to see what the earthquake looked like from the monument's observation deck, check out video posted online by the National Park Service (available at the Standard.Net website) from a surveillance camera. The excitement starts about 1 minute, 45 seconds into the five-minute video.
Demand pushing hotel prices higher
Get ready for hotel rates to rise above pre-recession prices.
In the first week of September, the average room rate in the U.S. rose to $107, just short of the high mark of $110 set in March 2008, according to the latest statistics from Smith Travel Research Global in Tennessee.
In Los Angeles, room rates climbed to an average of $127, short of the $133 peak set in summer 2008.
Over the last three years, hotel rates have been a moving target. They dropped for 18 straight months starting in the fall of 2008, pushed down by slumping demand.
As Americans began to travel again, hotel rates started to climb, beginning in spring 2010.
And despite a still-sluggish economy, the growing demand for business and leisure travel is expected to push hotel prices even higher in the months leading up to the holiday season, said Mike Kistner, chief executive of Pegasus Solutions, a Dallas firm that provides reservation technology and marketing for the hotel industry. "While the hotel industry is strongly influenced by the economy," he said, "leisure and business travelers don't take their marching orders from it."
Iris scan coming to an airport near you?
As of yet, no airport in the U.S. uses biometric techniques -- such as voice matching, iris scans or fingerprints -- to confirm passengers' identities. But that may change.
A Silicon Valley high-tech company recently demonstrated an electronic gate at the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport that scans a passenger's iris to confirm his or her identity.
The "e-gate" developed by AOptix Technologies Inc. of Campbell has not been approved for use at U.S. airports. Company representatives say the technology is in use on a limited basis at airports in Britain and Qatar and could be ready for deployment throughout the U.S. in about 12 to 18 months.
"We are improving the passenger experience while trying to enhance aviation security," said Joseph Pritikin, director of product marketing for AOptix.
The biggest drawback to using an iris scan is confirming a passenger's identity. To do that, a record of the passenger's iris and ID must be on file. As a result, travelers would have to undergo a scan and submit personal data before going to an airport to catch a flight.
Once airport security officials have your data in a computer system, they could use it to confirm your identity at a checkpoint.
The Transportation Security Administration plans to launch a pilot program this fall to allow frequent fliers who submit personal data to the government to speed through a special security checkpoint. But that program won't use biometrics. A TSA spokesman said he couldn't comment on AOptix's technology because he had not heard about it.
-- Standard-Examiner wire services
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