A protester objects to Secure Communities in Boston last September. (Charles Krupa/AP)On Tuesday, a federal deportation program that scours local jails for illegal immigrants will expand into New York and Massachusetts, despite objections from the Democratic governors of those states.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said they opposed the Secure Communities fingerprint sharing program because it interferes with local policing priorities. Under the program, the fingerprints from local jails are matched against a federal immigration database. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) then asks local jails to detain people they think may be in the country without authorization, while it decides whether to try to deport them. Immigrants rights advocates say the program expels thousands of people who have no criminal records and makes witnesses to crimes afraid to come forward because they mistakenly believe they will be fingerprinted and deported.

The parents of Aimee Copeland—a 24-year-old Georgia woman who is recovering after contracting a rare flesh-eating bacteria in a zip line accident—say her condition, while critical, is "improving." They hope she will be able to breathe on her own soon.

Copeland, a graduate student at the University of West Georgia, remains hospitalized at the Still Burn Center in Augusta following the May 1 accident, which led to an infection from the Aeromonas hydrophila bacteria that claimed one of her legs and may require the amputation of her fingers.

The original gash on Copeland's leg took 20 staples to close; the bacteria, doctor's say, came from the Little Tallapoosa River where Aimee fell.

Last week, Aimee's father, Andy Copeland, said doctors told him the chances of his daughter's survival were "slim to none." On Monday, Copeland said she was conscious, and that he was able to communicate with her in the hospital on Sunday.

"She's been asking 'Where am I? How long have I been here?'" Andy Copeland said on NBC's "Today" show. "And when we told her how long she'd been there, her first concern was, 'I've got to be working on my thesis.'"

Andy Copeland said Aimee was also concerned about losing her job at Sunnyside Cafe. "It was really amazing—I think it says a lot about our daughter's work ethic."

Surgeons are hopeful they will be able to save her palms, NBC reported.

Aimee does not yet know she's lost a leg, but her father added: "My daughter's strong, she really is."

(AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach, file)

How's this for a revelation: The Kodak Eastman Co. had a small nuclear research reactor in a little-known underground labyrinth at its Rochester, N.Y., facility.

And, although locked down and under tight security, it also contained 3½ pounds of highly enriched uranium, reports the the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester. The writer succinctly notes:

That's the material that nuclear bombs are made of. Terrorists covet it.

The imaging company, which has filed for bankruptcy, used the reactor to check chemicals and other materials for impurities, as well as for neutron radiography testing, the newspaper reported. The reactor, acquired by the company in 1974, was about the size of a refrigerator and kept in a 14- by 24-foot cement-lined cavity dug below a basement of one of its research buildings.

"This device presented no radiation risk to the public or employees," company spokesman Christopher Veronda told the newspaper. "Radiation from the operation was not detectable outside of the facility."

Kodak didn't necessarily mean to keep the reactor a secret, the newspaper reported. Rather, it was just never truly public knowledge.

Although it had been mentioned in research papers, Veronda told the newspaper, the company never made a public announcement about it. And he wasn't sure the company ever notified local police, fire or hazardous materials officials that it possessed the reactor.

The newspaper acknowledged it learned of the reactor when a Kodak employee mentioned it.

As for the uranium, it is no longer at the facility. It has been shipped to a federal facility in South Carolina, the newspaper reported.