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By Jeffrey Collins The Associated Press FORT BRAGG, N.C. » An Army general who admitted to im- proper relationships with three subordinates ap - peared to choke up Monday as he told a judge that he'd failed the female captain who had leveled the most serious accusations against him. Hours later, she took the stand to testify about how she can't trust people and fears her superiors are al - ways going to take advan- tage of her in the aftermath of the three-year affair. As he pleaded guilty, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair's voice halted when telling the judge why he was pleading guilty to mistreating her in a deal that included the dropping of sexual assault charges. "I failed her as a leader and as a mentor and caused harm to her emotional state," Sinclair said, his voice catch - ing as he read from a state- ment. He asked the judge for a break and took a long drink of water before continuing to read. "I created a situation over time that caused her emo - tional harm," Sinclair said, seated in his dress blue uni- form. It was the first public show of regret or sadness for a 27-year veteran who had betrayed little emotion in court hearings over the past year. The judge accepted Sin - clair's guilty pleas on sev- eral lesser charges in a deal that includes the dropping of sexual assault counts and two others that may have re - quired him to register as a sex offender. The sentencing hearing for Sinclair, the former dep - uty commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, began Monday afternoon and was expected to last until at least the next day. As many as two-dozen witnesses could be called and Sinclair's law- yer said he will either give a statement or testify. Ultimately, the judge will give Sinclair a sentence that can't exceed terms in the agreement struck between defense lawyers and military attorneys over the weekend, but has not been made pub - lic. The legal agreement is likely to require a punish- ment far less severe than the maximum penalties of 21 ½ years in prison and dismissal from the Army. Sinclair's law yer sug - gested he might walk out of court a free man, but without a career and perhaps with hundreds of thousands of dol - lars less in pension benefits. Sinclair, 51, had been ac- cused of twice forcing the fe- male captain under his com- mand to perform oral sex during the three-year ex- tramarital affair. miliTARy General chokes up as he details affair Guilty plea comes a\er sexual assault charges dropped By Connie Cass The Associated Press WA SH i NGTON » A mer i- cans of all ages still pay heed to serious news even as they seek out the lighter stuff, choosing their own way across a media land - scape that no longer relies on front pages and evening newscasts to dictate what's worth knowing, according to a new study from the Me - dia Insight Project. The findings burst the myth of the media "bubble" — the idea that no one pays attention to anything beyond a limited sphere of interest, like celebrities or college hoops or Facebook posts. "T hi s ide a th at s om ehow we're all going down nar - row paths of interest and that many people are just sort of amusing themselves to death and not interested in the news and the world around them? That is not the case," said Tom Rosen - stiel, executive director of the American Press Insti- tute, which teamed with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Re- search on the project. People today are nibbling from a news buffet spread across 24-hour television, websites, radio, newspa - pers and magazines, and social networks. Three-fourths of Ameri- cans see or hear news daily, including 6 of 10 adults un- der age 30, the study found. Nearly everyone — about 9 in 10 people — said they en- joy keeping up with the news. More than 6 in 10 say that wherever they find the news, they prefer it to come directly from a news organization. The study found rela - tively few differences by age, political leanings or wealth when it comes to the topics people care about. Traffic and weather are nearly uni - versal interests. Majorities express interest in natural disasters, local news, poli- tics, the economy, crime and foreign coverage. With so many sources and technologies, 60 per - cent of Americans say it's easier to keep up than it was just five years ago. A the same time, Jane Hall, an associate profes- sor of journalism at Ameri- can University, said no one is setting the national news agenda the way The New York Times and network evening news once did. "I do lament those times in which something could become so important that we a ll w at ch ed ," H al l sa id . "But that doesn't mean we aren't all engaged now." Three out of 4 young adults who carry cellphones use them to check the news. Most owners of tablet com - puters also use them to get updates; young people are more likely to have tablets. But the young think of news differently than pre - vious generations did, said Rachel Davis Mersey, an as- sociate professor at North- western's Medill School of Journalism. Their broader definition includes any- thing happening right now, whether it's sports or politics. "We don't see young peo- ple thinking of it as a civic obligation to keep up with news," Mersey said. "We see young people includ - ing news as part of a very complex, very diverse, very large media diet that in- cludes a diversity of sources, a diversity of platforms and really goes 24/7." iNFORmATiON Study: People still seek meaty news John Minchillo — The AssociATed Press A new York subway rider reads a newspaper on dec. 6. Nicholas K. Geranios The Associated Press BOiSE, idAHO » A bipartisan effort underway in Congress would change the way the country pays to fight cata - strophic wildfires, tapping natural disaster funds in- stead of money intended for fire prevention, lawmakers from Oregon and Idaho said Monday. Historically, as fire sea - son progressed, money set aside for forest thinning and other fire prevention efforts was syphoned to pay for bat - tling the biggest blazes. "In the past, people bor- rowed from the prevention fund to fight fires, and then of course the problem gets worse," said Interior Secre - tary Sally Jewell, who met with lawmakers to discuss the proposed budget reform. The legislation intro - duced in Congress would direct that when firefighting costs reach 70 percent of the 10-year average, firefighting agencies could dip into the government's fund for bat - tling natural disasters such as hurricanes. Republican Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho, and Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon worked together on the idea of fight - ing the season's biggest fires with natural disaster funds, thus sparing fire prevention and restoration money for that important work. "Wildfires are being al - lowed to become disasters, and they should be funded through the disaster fund," Risch said at a news confer - ence at the National Inter- agency Fire Center in Boise. "If we more effectively man- age our lands, fewer fires will become disasters." Restoration work in- cludes thinning overgrown forests, clearing under- brush and removing trees that have been attacked by insects and are more fire- prone. Jewell noted that in 2013, the fire suppression budget was exceeded by $500 mil - lion, with that money com- ing from fire restoration and prevention funds. Fire- fighting costs have exceeded their budget in eight of the past 10 years. Republican Reps. Raul Labrador and Mike Simpson of Idaho have introduced a companion bill in the House. Some opponents of the proposal worry it will lead to a budget increase for fight - ing wildfires. But the lawmakers said the government already is spending money to sup - press disastrous wildfires, and this proposal adds no new funds for that. It sim- ply offers a way to preserve fire restoration money, they said. Experts at the National Interagency Fire Center predicted a busy wildfire season in Southern Califor - nia, New Mexico and Ari- zona this year, expanding into Northern California and southern Oregon later in the year. All the moisture in the eastern United States this winter should mitigate the fire season there, the center predicted. Wyden said the budget proposal arose from a meet - ing at the fire center in Au- gust, after agencies ran out of their budgeted funds for firefighting. "Fires are now often big - ger and hotter and last lon- ger," Wyden said, in part be- cause fire prevention funds are so often redirected to firefighting. "It's time for a fresh approach." He said the proposal will prevent the "robbery" of fire restoration funds for bat - tling the largest wildfires. Jewell said the biggest 1 percent of wildfires each year eat up 30 percent of firefighting funds. WEST Congress studies new wildfire fighting funds TiMes-news, AshleY sMiTh — The AssociATed Press This Aug. 16, 2013 file photo shows helicopters battling the 64,000 acre Beaver creek Fire north of hailey, idaho. By dee-Ann durbin The Associated Press dETROiT » General Mo- tors issued a new recall of 1.5 million vehicles Monday, part of an effort to assure buyers that it's moving faster to fix safety defects in its cars and trucks. In a video message to employees posted Mon - day, CEO Mary Barra said the new recall re- sulted from a push to re- view potential safety is- sues and resolve them more quickly. It's part of the fall- out from the recall last month of more than 1.6 million small cars for de- fective engine switches. The defect is linked to 12 deaths, and GM is facing multiple investigations into how it handled the recall. GM first began in - vestigating the switches in 2004. " S o m e t h i n g w e n t wrong with our process in this instance, and ter - rible things happened," Barra said. Barra told employees that GM is undergoing an "intense review" of its re - call procedure, and that its system will change. In the meantime, she said, the company will cooper - ate fully with government investigators. "The bottom line is, we will get better as a result of this tragic situation if we seize the opportunity," she said. GM said it expects to spend approximately $300 million in the first quar - ter to repair the vehicles in the new recalls as well as the vehicles in the small car recall. CARS Another GM recall: 1.18M SUVs Gene J. PuskAr — The AssociATed Press A chevrolet logo on the grill of a 2013 Traverse at the 2013 Pittsburgh Auto show in Pittsburgh is shown on Feb. 14, 2013. 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