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News feed SAN FRANCISCO » Work- place safety officials fined a San Francisco Bay Area commuter rail line $210,000 on Thurs - day over the deaths of two track workers who were killed by a train the officials said was oper - ated by an inexperienced driver with inadequate supervision. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health said a high- ranking manager who was supposed to be in - structing the driver of the four-car Bay Area Rapid Transit train was not in the cab with the trainee when the incident occurred on Oct. 19. $210,000 peNAlty Transit agency fined for worker deaths By Alex Veiga The Associated Press C o r p o r a t e e a r n i n g s pushed U.S. stocks mostly higher on Thursday, but it wasn't an easy ride up. The stock market ap - peared set in the morning for its fourth consecutive positive open, but immedi- ately turned negative as in- vestors sold shares in Google and IBM. The market heavy- weights reported disappoint- ing earnings late Wednes- day. Earnings from toy maker Mattel and insurer UnitedHealth also dragged down stocks. But by midmorning, the market started to push higher as traders cheered upbeat results from Mor - gan Stanley, General Elec- tric and PepsiCo. "We were expecting this earnings season to be pretty volatile, and it's proven to be true so far, in that we're see - ing some differences in the results," said Paul Mangus, head of equity research and strategy for Wells Fargo Pri - vate Bank. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose two points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 1,864.85. Seven of the 10 in- dustry sectors in the S&P 500 gained, led by energy stocks. The Nasdaq added nine points, or 0.2 percent, to finish at 4,095.52. The Dow Jones industrial aver - age, however, fell 16 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 16,408.54, hurt by the big drop in IBM. U.S. stock markets will be closed in observance of Good Friday. Bond prices fell, pushing up the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 2.72 per - cent from 2.63 percent late Wednesday. After selling off Internet and biotechnology compa - nies last week on concerns the stocks were overvalued, investors turned their atten- tion this week to how com- panies' businesses are per- forming. Investors have low- ered their expectations for earnings following severe cold in much of the coun- try this winter. That harsh weather weighed on every- thing from auto and home sales to hiring. Investors are now eager to hear what CEOs have to say about business pros- pects going ahead. Thursday's trading re- flected buying and selling on earnings news, rather than a broader market theme tak- ing hold, Mangus said. "Going into this quarter, expectations are low, so if you disappoint on low expec - tations you're likely to be pe- nalized," he said. "However, they also present the oppor- tunity for some significant beats because the estimates are that low." WAll StReet US stock market ends higher as earnings pour in FReSNO » Tens of thou- sands of spring-run Chi- nook salmon are being re- leased into San Joaquin River, marking a major milestone in the federal plan to restore native fish populations to the state's second-longest river. The Bureau of Reclama - tion and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 54,000 hatchery-produced salmon into the river from a site near Fresno on Thurs - day. Though environmental- ists are celebrating the re- lease, federal water managers say the state's drought means not all of the fish will return to spawn. The San Joaquin River carried the continent's southernmost salmon run until the Friant Dam was built above Fresno to cap - ture its water for crops. The restoration effort is the result of a 2006 legal settlement that ended a de - cades-long legal tussle be- tween farmers, environ- mentalists and the federal government. ReStORAtION Salmon released in San Joaquin River By tracy Seipel Bay Area News Group Good news on two fronts for P r e s i d e nt B a r a c k Obama's health care law sur- faced Thursday after health plan enrollment numbers reported by California and the White House wildly ex - ceeded expectations. Obama announced that 8 million Americans had signed up for plans, 1 million more than projected. Meanwhile, a concerted, late-stage effort by Califor - nia's health insurance ex- change to expand outreach efforts, particularly in La- tino communities, helped boost private health insur- ance sign-ups in the Golden State to almost 1.4 million. That total exceeds the 830,000 target set by Cov - ered California, the state's health insurance exchange, for the enrollment period by 570,000. Additionally, almost 2 million Californians signed up for Medi-Cal, the state's health care program for the very poor, for a grand total of about 3.3 million new enroll - ees under both plans. "It's great to be sharing with Californians and the nation a true and important market point in history," said Peter Lee, executive di - rector of Covered California, during a Thursday morning news conference. "This has been a long time coming." Obama, in an impromptu appearance in the White House briefing room, noted that 35 percent of enroll - ees are under 35 years old, suggesting that in the final weeks of enrollment, the ad- ministration managed to sign up higher numbers of younger, healthier people, who are critical to the law's viability. Insurance industry ex - per ts say enrollment in this group needs to reach 40 percent to balance the risk pool of healthy and sick people in order to avoid pre - mium increases next year. Because older people tend to need more health care, they are more expensive to insure. "This thing is working," Obama said of the Afford - able Care Act, his signature domestic achievement, often called Obamacare. In California, young adults age 18 to 34 constituted 29 percent of those enrolled in private insurance plans. The group represents about 25 percent of the state's population but about 36 percent of those who are eligible for subsidies. And ab ou t 36 p er ce nt o f th os e newly enrolled in Medi-Cal are in the same age group. Elsewhere, the state's La - tino enrollment, which has been slower than exchange officials hoped, bumped up to 305,106, or 28 percent of the total enrollment. From the end of March through mid- April, Latino sign-ups in - creased at a rate of 30 per- cent. Lee said the exchange surpassed the base projec - tion in every racial demo- graphic category. Health care experts were thrilled with the state and national numbers. "It's a Super Bowl mo - ment, and Covered Califor- nia and the president de- serve to celebrate," said Ger- ald Kominski, a professor of health care policy at UCLA and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Re - search. Kominski and colleagues at UC Berkeley had assem- bled a series of projected en- rollment numbers for Cov- ered California through the six-month enrollment pe- riod that was extended from March 31 to Tuesday. HeAltH CARe Affordable Care Act sign-ups beat projections in US, California •••••••••••••• Elect •••••••••••••• REAL •••••• • Experience ••••••• L A R R Y OLSEN FOR Tehama County District Attorney lao4law@aol.com Learn more about Larry at: www.larryaolsen.com Paid for by the Campaign to elect Larry Olsen SATURDAY PHYSICALS Cottonwood 20833 Long Branch Drive 347-3418 Red Bluff 2450 Sister Mary Columba Drive 527-0414 www.Lassenmedical.com Clinics are 8:00am to 1:00pm accommodating the first 30 physicals on a first come, first serve basis. We accept most insurances, including all Managed Medi-Cal. Immunizations and clearance for school/sports will be available during your child's physical. 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