AP answers your questions on the news, from the Bay of Valdez to emergency vehicles on 9/11

Ask AP: The Bay of Valdez, 9/11 emergency vehicles

Why is Alaska’s Bay of Valdez pronounced more like the Bay of ValDEEZ?

That’s one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.

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The recent AP article on the WTC steel returning to Coatesville, Pa., reminded me of the somber video showing row upon row of emergency vehicles that were destroyed in the 9/11 attack.

What became of these vehicles?

Bill Yagerlener

West Bloomfield, Mich.

At least 95 emergency vehicles were destroyed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, including ambulances, fire engines and ladder trucks. Some doors and other parts of the wrecked vehicles were given to museums and others were given to investigators. Most others were turned into scrap metal.

There are about 20 Fire Department and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey vehicles that are sitting in a storage room at a Kennedy Airport hangar, along with other World Trade Center artifacts. Some will eventually be moved to the Sept. 11 memorial museum, including a fire truck partially crushed by the collapse of the north tower.

Amy Westfeldt and Colleen Long

Associated Press Writers

New York

If the Spanish, in 1790, named the “Bay of Valdez” after Admiral Antonio Valdes — head of the Spanish Marines and Minister of the Indies at the time — why is it pronounced “Val-deez” instead of “Val-dez”? Shouldn’t it have the Spanish pronunciation?

Saul Garza

Dallas

You can likely blame the Spanish-American War for today’s spelling and pronunciation of Valdez (val’-DEEZ), Alaska.

The picturesque community is located in Prince William Sound, not far from where the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil in 1989.

According to the Valdez Museum and Historical Archive, Salvador Fidalgo, a Spanish cartographer, was sent to Alaska in 1790 to re-establish Spanish claim to the area. In honor of Admiral Antonio Valdes, the Minister of the Indies and head of the Spanish Marines, he named the area “Bay of Valdes.”

The small town boomed in the winter of 1897-98 as gold-seekers inundated the community to follow the “All-American Route” over the Valdez Glacier to prospects in interior Alaska.

But that was also the time of the Spanish-American War.

Rick Dunkin, the public programs manager for the Valdez Museum, says that’s when it is speculated changes were made to the town’s name out of deference to the Americans. (Alaska was still an American territory at the time.)

“It was Valdes and spelled with an ’s’ originally,” Dunkin said. “It’s speculated city fathers got together and said, ‘We’re not going to have any of that.’”

They changed the spelling and pronunciation to make it less Spanish sounding, he said.

Mark Thiessen

AP News Editor

Anchorage, Alaska

The widespread publication of the Times Square car bomb suspect’s photo, lifted from social media sites, got me wondering: Even if I have maximum privacy settings on a social network, is my profile picture public domain at all times? If I do something that’s newsworthy, does the media have the right to publish that photo?

Ron Hanson

Indianapolis

Many social networks, including Facebook, show your profile photo to the public no matter what your privacy settings are, so the safest bet is not to post a photo of yourself if you don’t want it published anywhere.

News outlets routinely lift photos and other information from social networks when someone is in the news, because they can give valuable insight into their lives. And the law affords more protections to news organizations than it does to, say, a business that uses the photos to make money or advertise a product.

While the matter is still an open question and subject to litigation, if your photo is relevant to a breaking news story, a news organization is generally able to use it — particularly if it was taken in a public place, said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. To her knowledge, she said, no one has successfully sued a news outlet over the use of a photo in a breaking news situation such as the Times Square bombing attempt.

There have been times, however, when news organizations have agreed to compensate a photographer. That has to do with copyright law.

Wendy Seltzer, senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, said photographers retain copyright unless they explicitly give or license photos to news outlets. However, news organizations can claim the right to use an image under “fair use” rules, if it’s necessary to do their reporting, she says.

Barbara Ortutay

AP Technology Writer

New York

Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.