MERIDIAN, MISS. — America is back to working on the railroads.

For decades, stretches of track west of this town, located just east of Jackson, Miss., were so rough that trains couldn't run faster than 25 miles an hour. Lanie Keith, a locomotive engineer for the Kansas City Southern, recalls waiting for hours when trains stalled on a steep curve on a stretch of single track between Meridian and Shreveport, La.

In the last two years, however, at a cost of $300 million, track crews have transformed the 320-mile route. Installing 960,000 crossties and 80 miles of new rail, they've turned a railroad backwater into a key link in a resurging national transport network.

Keith now skims parts of the improved track, called the Meridian Speedway, at nearly 60 mph.

Coeur d'Alene Soldier Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

Then, on the way back to Bayview, he checked out the rumor that a tree had hit a woman in the Thimbleberry Campground at Farragut. Finally, he returns to Bayview and lets us know about the power being restored and the interesting little incident of the twister and the street sign. In the blogosphere, everyone can become a reporter.

Utah air violates new rules

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson called the new limits "the most stringent standards ever," and he said they will require 345 counties -- out of more than 700 that are monitored -- to make air quality improvements because they now have dirtier air than is healthy to breathe.

Some of those chronic polluters are far above the old limit.