Obama told me so: 07/18/14

Friday, 18 July 2014

Why airlines didn't avoid risky Ukraine airspace

The possibility that the civilian jetliner downed over war-torn eastern Ukraine with nearly 300 people onboard was hit by a missile could have profound consequences for the world's airlines.

Airlines might have to be more vigilant about avoiding trouble spots, making flights longer and causing them to burn more costly fuel. They may even be forced to reconsider many international routes.

In the hours after Thursday's disaster involving a Malaysia Airlines jet, carriers around the globe began rerouting flights to avoid Ukraine. Some had been circumventing the country for weeks. Experts questioned the airline's decision to fly near the fighting, even as Malaysia's prime minister said that the plane's route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was declared safe by international aviation authorities.

"I find it pretty remarkable that a civil airline company — if this aircraft was on the flight plan — that they are flight-planning over an area like that," said Robert Francis, a former vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "You wonder a little bit about Malaysia Airlines, if that's true."

Violence in Ukraine has increased since late 2013 between the government and pro-Russia rebels in the eastern and southern portions of the country. Earlier this week, the rebels claimed responsibility for hitting a Ukrainian military jet with a portable surface-to-air missile; the pilot was able to land safely. And the government charged that a military transport plane was shot down by a missile fired from Russian territory.

In April, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration cautioned airlines that Russia's claim to the airspace over Ukraine's Crimea could lead to conflicting air traffic control instructions. A few weeks later, the FAA issued a tougher warning, telling pilots not to fly over the area, and the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization told governments to warn their airlines. Thursday's crash, however, occurred outside the warning areas.

Thomas Routh, an aviation attorney in Chicago, said it would be unusual for an airline to ignore such warnings, but he said it's up to airlines to decide whether a flight will be safe for crew and passengers.

"There are airlines flying through Afghanistan airspace every day," Routh said.

John Cox, a former airline pilot and accident investigator, said despite the cautions, the airspace was not closed. The Malaysia Airlines crew filed a flight plan and "Russia and the Ukraine both accepted the airplane into their airspace," he said.

Rerouting planes around war zones costs airlines money, as the planes burn more expensive jet fuel. Aviation expert Norman Shanks said many airlines continued to fly over Ukraine despite warnings because it offered a shorter route that saved money on fuel.

Greg Raiff, an aviation consultant in New Hampshire, said that if airlines must avoid flying over all the world's hot spots, flight times would be extended, requiring extra fuel and pilots. That might make some routes uneconomical, forcing airlines to abandon them.

Airlines quickly changed some routes. Snapshots from flight-tracking services showed dense traffic to the west, light traffic to the east, but very few planes over Ukraine.

Emirates airlines said that one of its jets bound for Ukraine's capital of Kiev turned around and returned to Dubai. The airline suspended all flights to Kiev indefinitely. It emphasized that flights to and from the U.S. and other European destinations don't fly over the area where the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crashed.

Germany's Lufthansa immediately rerouted all overflights to avoid eastern Ukraine, although flights to Kiev and Odessa were not affected. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said that none of its flights operated over the portion of Ukraine covered by the FAA security advisory, but added that it would stop routing flights over any part of the country.

Airlines don't always risk flying over conflict areas.

Australia's Qantas stopped flying over Ukraine several months ago and shifted its London-Dubai route 645 kilometers (400 miles) to the south. A spokeswoman declined to explain the change. Korean Air Line said it had rerouted cargo and passenger flights in early March amid the worsening situation over the Crimean peninsula.

Emirates stopped flying over parts of Syria as a civil war there expanded. Some airlines have curtailed service in Iraq, where violence has escalated between the government and a jihadist militant group. Some of the other places that the FAA also currently warns pilots to avoid parts of include Iran, Yemen, the Sinai peninsula and North Korea.

Last month, a gunman in Pakistan fired on a jetliner that was landing in Peshawar, part of the country's volatile northwest region, killing a passenger and wounding two other people. Emirates suspended flights to Peshawar, and other carriers canceled some flights while they reviewed airport security. Two weeks before that, gunmen attacked the country's busiest airport in Karachi.

Joan Lowy and Sagar Meghani in Washington and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

Grain mixed, livestock mostly higher

CHICAGO -- Grain futures were Mixed Friday in early trading on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Wheat for Sept delivery was unchanged at $5.5075 a bushel; Sept corn was 2.50 cents lower at $3.77 a bushel; Dec oats were unchanged at $3.3225 a bushel; while Nov soybeans was 1.50 cents higher at $10.9450 a bushel.

Beef higher and pork were mixed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Aug live cattle was 1.15 cent higher at $1.5180 a pound; Aug feeder cattle was 1.30 cents higher at 2.1290 a pound; Aug lean hogs loss 1.35 cents to $1.2750 a pound.

Making boat covers a challenging business

MADISON, Wis. -- Steve Griffith admits that making boat covers was kind of a career fallback plan.

"But I guess if I can't be a billionaire," he said, "I might as well make boat covers for a living."

And so he has, since 1990, when he opened Marine Tops Unlimited in Madison.

And while it might not have made him a billionaire, it has provided a comfortable living and satisfied his need to seek creative solutions and to work with his hands.

Still, he acknowledges that making custom boat covers and related boating equipment is a niche industry and not that high on most people's lists of career options.

"It doesn't seem like anyone is knocking at the door saying, 'Hey, teach me how to do this,' " said Griffith, 57. "Like the tattoo parlor next door, there are people wanting to be the next best tattoo artist every day. You don't see a lot of people saying, 'Yeah, I want to learn how to build boat covers.'

"It's a dying industry, unfortunately," he told the Wisconsin State Journal (http://bit.ly/1wrX3ps).

It's one he got into pretty much by accident and happenstance.

After graduating from Madison East High School in 1975, Griffith went to work in the parts department of a local auto retailer. He got involved with the Capital City Ski Team — now the Mad-City Ski team — and that brought him into contact with a tournament boat manufacturer in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He eventually went to work for that company, commuting from Madison for more than five years.

"I built boats for a living," he said. "I did everything from taking orders to putting them in production to laying the fiberglass to putting the upholstery in, rigging the motors and all kinds of stuff."

When that company was bought out, his job became primarily sales. Part of that job involved setting up shop at boat shows around the area, including one in Green Bay, where the neighboring booth each year was occupied by an Omro company, Marine Tops Unlimited.

One year the owner of Marine Tops, Carl Van Damme, asked Griffith if he'd be interested in trying to sell boat covers while he was going around selling other boating equipment.

"I told him, if anything, I could probably sell some boat covers in Madison for him," Griffith said. "We figured out a pricing schedule and he started to show me how to take patterns and some of the basics.

"Eventually, the boat cover market in Madison became bigger for me than traveling around trying to sell boats and everything else, so I opened Marine Tops Madison."

Marine Tops is one of three companies in the Madison area that make boat covers and related equipment. Gallagher Tent and Awning, which has been in operation since the 1880s, does boat covers along with tents and awnings. And a former Gallagher employee, Kris Stone, opened Kris' Custom Sewing in 1990.

"I wasn't sure there was that much work out there, but there are so many things to do, it's unreal," said Stone, who estimates that 60 percent to 80 percent of her work is boat-related.

"Interiors of boats are just crazy. Every boat is different and that's the challenge. There's plenty for all of us to do."

The big challenge for the custom designer is to convince a customer that it's worth it to pay extra for a boat cover designed specifically for their boat rather than picking up a cheaper, generic cover on the Internet or at a big box store.

"Boat covers aren't cheap — at least custom ones aren't," said Griffith, whose business is almost entirely boating-related. "But we live in a big box world. You can go to a big box store and get one for $100. I get them in here all the time. They last a year or two, and then they're falling apart.

"That's where you have to educate people. You have to make them understand that it's made out of better material, it's designed and engineered specifically for your boat, not to fit 10 different kinds of boats. I look at myself as a craftsman or an artist, with some of the stuff we design and build."

Scott Henrikson sees Griffith's work pretty much the same way.

Henrikson, sales manager at Skipper Bud's in Madison, observed his work on several boats and was so impressed that he hired Griffith to do some extensive work on his own boat, which doubles as his summer home.

"In my eyes, there isn't anyone around that can match the quality of the work he does," said Henrikson, who lives in Wisconsin Dells when not on his boat. "And I'm picky. When I let people do things on my boat, they need to be done right, and he definitely does that."

Henrikson's project involved redesigning the cockpit of the boat to increase the space, adding screens and privacy glass.

While some projects like that can be quite extensive and run up to $10,000 or $15,000, the bulk of Griffith's work is more modest in scale all the way down to $200 canoe covers and even less expensive repair jobs.

Most of the boats he works on are from 32 feet on down. Many trailer-able boats are dropped off at his shop, where he has two industrial sewing machines and a big, $9,000 double-needle machine capable of sewing four layers of Harley-Davidson saddlebag leather material.

"My mom taught me to do basic sewing when I was a kid, and they used to teach sewing in home ec at East High School," he said. "And a lot I've learned from trial and error. A lot of the upholstery is so intricate that it gets to be a little challenging."

A majority of jobs are done on location as Griffith regularly ventures out to the Madison area marinas, as well as outlying areas like Lodi, Merrimac and Wisconsin Dells. His service van has 226,000 miles on it and contains a sewing machine and all the equipment needed to perform most tasks.

Most of the sewing work, however, is done at the Omro shop, which has six employees.

Griffith makes a weekly run to Omro to deliver new patterns — drawn on plastic or paper much like a dress pattern — and picking up finished products.

And while he spends his time working on other people's boats, Griffith likes to look at each project as if he were going to be living with it.

"I always look at a project and say, 'What would I want it to be if it was my boat?'?" he said. "I always ask a customer where their boat is going to live, whether it's going to be on a trailer, in a garage, on a hoist or in the water.

"That all makes a difference in what kind of cover is going to serve them best. It's what's going to work best for you and what can I do to make your boat experience better."

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Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://bit.ly/1h0h8BG

An AP Member Exchange Feature shared by Wisconsin State Journal

Double disasters taint Malaysia Airlines

HONG KONG -- Hit by two astonishing tragedies in quick succession, the Malaysia Airlines brand may become the airline industry's equivalent of asbestos or News of the World: toxic to the public and, experts say, impossible to redeem.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over eastern Ukraine on Thursday with 298 people aboard by what American intelligence authorities believe was a surface-to-air missile. Just four months earlier, a Malaysia Airlines jetliner carrying 239 people disappeared about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. The jet has still not been found, a source of profound unease for travelers and the aviation industry.

"I can't comprehend of anything they can do to save themselves," said Mohshin Aziz, an aviation analyst at Maybank in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"Perception-wise it really hits home," Aziz said. "It's very challenging. It's very difficult to fight against negative perception."

Even before the Flight 370 mystery, state-owned Malaysia Airlines was in serious financial trouble. In an industry notorious for impoverishing shareholders and irking customers, Malaysia Airlines had long stood out for its years of restructurings and losses.

That disaster along with the often bumbling response of Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government deeply scarred the carrier. Now, the once proud national airline is facing the unthinkable again.

Already losing about $1.6 million a day, there will be "no miracles" for Malaysia Airlines, said Aziz. Before the Ukrainian disaster, his opinion was the airline didn't have the capacity to survive beyond a year.

The airline's share price plummeted 11 percent Friday.

Unlike Flight 370, the responsibility for which is pinned with Malaysia Airlines, the second disaster appears largely beyond the airline's control. It may, however, face questions about why it continued with flight paths over eastern Ukraine, which is the heart of a violent rebellion against Kiev, when some airlines were circumventing the country.

For air travelers in Asia, who have a multitude of options thanks to the budget airline boom, the latest incident will make the Malaysian carrier even less attractive. Its brand in the rest of the world, where it became known largely because of the Flight 370 mystery, will become more closely associated with the worst fears of fliers.

Danny Gokul, an Australian university student on a layover at Incheon International Airport in South Korea, said he had flown with Malaysian Airlines before and its service was "fantastic."

But he is now "very hesistant" about using the airline. "Flying is scary enough."

His friend, Dayne Rodgers, waiting for a flight to Brisbane, Australia said even very cheap fares might not convince him to fly with Malaysia Airlines.

"I don't know if my Mum would let me," he said.

Within Malaysia, the shock is palpably raw.

"I was stunned," said 48-year-old shopkeeper Reezal Mohamed. "At first I could not understand. It's unbelievable."

Malaysia Airlines has been in the red for the last three years. Last year, its losses ballooned to 1.17 billion ringgit ($363 million), nearly three times larger than its 433 million ringgit loss in 2012.

As a state-owned flag carrier, it is required to fly unprofitable domestic routes, and its strong union has resisted operational changes. Nimbler discount rivals such as Air Asia have expanded rapidly, while Malaysia Airlines has been like a supertanker, slow to change direction.

Seth Kaplan, managing partner of industry newsletter Airline Weekly, said the airline was in "worse shape" financially that almost any other airline before Flight 370 vanished.

"It's just hard to imagine that they could have even survived the first incident without a lot of government help and now they're going to need even more," he said.

Wright reported from Bangkok. AP Business Writer Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, AP writer Satish Cheney in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and AP Airlines Writer Scott Mayerowitz in New York contributed.

SC jobless figure unchanged for 3rd straight month

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina's unemployment rate remained unchanged for the third month in a row, holding steady at 5.3 percent in June, state officials said Friday.

In a news release, the Department of Employment and Workforce said that the number of unemployed in South Carolina went up by 630 over the last month, to more than 115,500. There were more than 2 million employed people, a drop of nearly 850 since May.

Unemployment rates went up last month in all of South Carolina's 46 counties except three. York and Aiken counties' jobless figures went down, and unemployment in Horry County was unchanged from May.

When South Carolina's unemployment initially fell to 5.3 percent in April, officials said that figure was the state's lowest level in 13 years. The rate stayed steady in May, when federal officials said South Carolina's 5.3 percent was 2.6 percent lower than a year earlier, a change that represented the largest year-to-year drop in the country.

Again last month, South Carolina's year-to-year drop of 2.5 percent was the largest in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, unemployment was 6.1 percent in June, down from 6.3 percent in May.

In South Carolina, officials said jobs in the professional and business services, education and health services and leisure and hospitality sectors were up by a combined 5,900 jobs. Since June 2013, those three sectors have increased by about 26,700 jobs.

Gold and silver prices settle lower after jump

Gold prices are settling lower to end the week, a day after concerns about a conflict between Russia and Ukraine shot prices up.

Gold for August delivery fell $7.50, or 0.6 percent, to $1,309.40 an ounce. Silver for September sank 25 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $20.89.

Markets were rattled on Thursday following news that a passenger plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine, a battleground where government troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists. Speculation that tensions between Russia and Ukraine could boil over sent traders into precious metals.

Dan Walsh, market strategist at RJ O'Brien & Associates in Chicago, says that with no escalation on Friday, traders were more willing to buy riskier assets, like stocks.

Industrial metals also settled lower Friday. Crude oil slipped to $103.13 a barrel.

Pascagoula health clinic being closed

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- The Singing River Health System's clinic in East Pascagoula is closing permanently on July 31.

The MedWorks clinic opened in 2009. It provides basic X-rays, breath alcohol tests, drug testing, hearing tests and more.

Singing River spokesman Richard Lucas told The Sun Herald (http://bit.ly/1jWZlNj ) more information will be released Friday.

The closure comes on the heels of cost-cutting measures in May that included elimination of two administrative positions — chief operating officer of programs and head of information technology position.

At that time, Lucas called it a "regular restructuring," not a response to news earlier this year of shortfalls in revenue.

In March, health system officials reported that the Jackson County hospital system has $88 million in projected revenue it would not be able to collect.

A new audit firm with for the hospital system turned up the shortfall — $27 million from last year and $61 million from the previous five years.

Kevin Holland, new CEO for the county hospital system, said the money is an accumulation of unpaid patient bills that the hospital system had believed it could collect and now does not.

The hospital system is county-owned and the taxpayers of Jackson County co-sign the hospital's debt, but it is self-supporting and does not use tax dollars to operate.

The hospital system includes Pascagoula's Singing River Hospital, the Ocean Springs Hospital and various clinics in Jackson and George counties.

BC-Noon Oil

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Carolinas opinion mixed on offshore drilling

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The Obama administration on Friday opened the Eastern Seaboard to offshore energy exploration, causing concern in the Carolinas about the effect on sea creatures and tourism but also raising the prospect of new jobs and revenue.

The administration announced sonic cannon that generate sound waves 100 times louder than a jet engine can be used to locate energy deposits beneath the ocean floor.

Katie Zimmerman of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League warned the devices also can deafen right whales.

"Once they can't hear - and that's the risk that comes with seismic testing - they are pretty much done for," she said. "Obviously we have a North Atlantic right whale population that breeds off the coast of South Carolina."

She added that spills and visual pollution could affect the state's $18 billion tourism industry.

"Even if there were oil out there, do we really want that? Do we really want to see these offshore rigs set up? Do we really want our tourism industry to suffer?" she asked.

But in North Carolina, Gov. Pat McCrory, who is the chairman of the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition, applauded the development.

"We can finally begin to assess the amount of oil or gas that could be beneath the ocean floor after decades of waiting on the sidelines," the Republican governor said in a statement. "This is an important step in the right direction toward more jobs for North Carolina and our country, as well as greater energy independence for our nation."

The town of Carolina Beach, North Carolina, earlier this year passed a resolution opposing the use of sonic cannon.

"I think it was the sense of council that we weren't supportive of the methods they were proposing," said Councilman Steve Shuttleworth. "We weren't totally closing the door on seismic testing."

Shuttleworth said town residents are "across the board on the political spectrum" and divided on offshore energy. He said it's not clear what economic benefit the community may derive and it's also unclear what environmental threats drilling could pose.

"Everyone is looking for solutions to the energy problems we have and the rising costs. We're just not sure if we're willing to sacrifice the environment locally," he said.

But South Carolina state Sen. Paul Campbell favors looking for natural gas offshore and feels it can be done safely. If it is found, studies have shown the industry could create 5,000 jobs. In North Carolina, offshore drilling, according to one estimate, could mean 35,000 new jobs and $4 billion in new tax revenue through 2030.

The Republican lawmaker, who earlier chaired a legislative committee that looked into offshore energy, said that after talking to geologists, he's convinced there is natural gas about 70 miles offshore.

"I honestly feel we can go offshore and harvest the energy," he said. "I think we're kind of foolish not to. We're becoming more energy independent in this country with fracking and everything else. I would love to see us become totally energy independent."

Two years ago the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held public hearings in both states on offshore exploration. Most of those speaking were in favor of finding out how much gas and oil there is off the coast.

Price coming down for low-income students at UMKC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The University of Missouri-Kansas City finally has some good news for its lowest-income students.

Its net price is coming down.

Net price is the cost of attendance — tuition, books, housing, food, transportation and personal expenses — minus the scholarships and grants a student qualifies for from the federal government and the university. It's the amount students and their families are expected to borrow or pay out of pocket.

In 2010-11, UMKC was one of the 10 most expensive public colleges in the country for students coming from households where the family income was $30,000 a year or less. Net price: $16,798.

The next year was worse: $18,111.

But newly released numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics show the average net price for in-state freshmen dropped 14 percent, to $15,522, in 2012-13. That's a difference of $2,589.

"What I'm pretty pleased with, even excited about, is the fact that students who have zero to $30,000 in family income are paying less," Jennifer DeHaemers, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management, told The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1qcX0jR ). And UMKC says it expects to provide more help in the future.

But even with the lower price, UMKC's low-income students on average pay more than their counterparts at the other University of Missouri System schools in Rolla, $11,127; Columbia, $12,731; and St. Louis, $9,757. UMKC's net price also remains higher than at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, $11,830; Kansas State University, $13,078; and the University of Kansas, $13,943.

The rising cost of college and pressure from the Obama administration to make college more affordable has many public colleges focused on lowering the cost for their neediest students.

It has taken three years for UMKC to see its efforts — a scholarship program that discounts the cost of tuition for low-income students, plus new endowed scholarships — work to lower its average net price.

"Our goal is to find more resources for need-based aid," DeHaemers said. "We have more need-based scholarships than we ever have had in the past."

But, she said, more are needed. "That is the way to impact the net price for students."

The school brought down its net price by making slight calculation adjustments that lowered the cost of attendance, while also giving out more need-based scholarships and continuing the Advantage Grant program that discounts the cost of tuition for Pell Grant-eligible, in-state undergraduates.

For the 2012-13 school year, UMKC awarded scholarships totaling almost $32 million to students from all income brackets.

The financial aid office also has seen an uptick in the number of low-income students who get their Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, in by March 1. Students who file forms for financial aid early are more likely to get need-based assistance from the school, DeHaemers said.

As at UMKC, net price for the lowest-income students also dropped on the university system's Rolla and St. Louis campuses.

But at the University of Missouri in Columbia, that price has crept up a few hundred dollars each of the last two years.

"Our object is not to have the net price go down but to maintain a net price that stays fairly constant and affordable," said Nick Prewett, MU director of financial aid. Keeping tuition down helps slow the rise in net price.

As of 2013, tuition at Missouri's four-year universities had increased an average of 5 percent since 2008, the lowest in the nation. State law prohibits colleges and universities from imposing tuition hikes greater than inflation.

Last year, University of Missouri System schools raised tuition 1.7 percent, but this year it will remain flat.

For the most part, the increase in net price at MU, Prewett said, is affected by larger enrollments that outpace increases in dollars available for need-based aid. Another factor is rising student costs of living that are not controlled by the university — transportation and off-campus housing, for example.

But the good news, Prewett said, is that "we are subsidizing students at a higher rate in 2012-2013 than we were in 2010-2011."

At Kansas State, the net price for the neediest students has inched up each year for the last three years.

"There is no doubt we would like to see our net price for those students go down," said Robert Gamez, associate director of student financial assistance.

But Gamez said the land-grant institution — where 80 percent of students are Kansas residents and 1 in 4 undergraduate students is eligible for Pell Grants — is challenged to lower the net price when shrinking state funding forces it to increase tuition every year.

Like UMKC, Kansas State hopes to attract more donors willing to put money toward supporting the neediest students.

"But from a fundraising perspective, it is challenging to raise dollars for need-based aid because a lot of donors focus on rewarding academic merit," Gamez said. "We definitely have our work cut out for us."

While many of these schools are focused on helping needy students pay for school, pressure is also on to increase graduation and retention rates along with enrollments and diversity on campus.

To that end, starting in 2012, the University of Kansas began a tuition reduction program similar to the one at UMKC for Pell Grant-eligible in-state students. The difference between the two schools' programs is that UMKC based its program purely on need. KU imposed academic standards requiring qualifying students to have at least a 3.25 GPA and an ACT of 22 or an SAT of 1020.

The University of Kansas shifted the focus of its scholarship dollars from solely access to merit, said Matt Melvin, vice provost for enrollment management. He said the university decided not to reach into its wallet for students with lots of need but little academic preparation to be successful.

That shift, in addition to increases in tuition and reduction in state support, has resulted in a net price for students in the lowest income bracket climbing from $10,906 in the 2010-11 school year to $13,943 for 2012-13.

"Our goal is not just to enroll students but to graduate students," Melvin said.

Melvin said public colleges and universities are "constantly in the nexus of balancing prestige, access and success. And there are not enough dollars to go around."

At UMKC, DeHaemers is expecting that next year may show another drop in net price for the lowest-income students. The school received a $175,000 matching grant from the university system that this fall will allow UMKC to dole out thousands of dollars more to low-income black and Latino students studying science, technology, engineering and math.

"It will be money they can use to cover expenses other than tuition," DeHaemers said. "That will help take the net price down."

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://bit.ly/1mmJYYJ

An AP Member Exchange shared by The Kansas City Star.

Oklahoma wheat crop worst in nearly half century

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Drought conditions that continued through spring, followed by a late freeze in April and untimely rains in June have produced the poorest Oklahoma wheat crop in nearly a half century, Oklahoma agriculture officials said.

The official forecast is for 51 million bushels of Oklahoma's top cash crop, the lowest amount since 43 million bushels were harvested in 1957, according to Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

The harvest, which began in early June, was officially considered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be 97 percent complete as of Monday, Schulte said.

"Right when it (harvest) was beginning to start we got untimely rains, and the farmers are grateful for the moisture, it just really came at a time when producers were trying to get out into the fields," Schulte said.

Mike Cassidy, co-owner of Cassidy Grain Co. in Frederick in southwestern Oklahoma where harvesting begins, said harvesting never really even began this year.

"It was wrapped up before it started," Cassidy said. "Most of the acres got abandoned, and what was cut was mostly seed wheat for next year."

Schulte said 105.4 million bushels were harvested last year, a number that was better than anticipated, but still below the average of about 118 million bushels per year during the previous five years.

Joe Kelly, who said he planted about 1,500 acres on his farm near Altus but harvested only about 700 acres, said he reaped an average of six bushels per acre, well below his normal yield of about 35 bushels.

"Worst crop I've ever had. It was pretty well a disaster all across the board," Kelly said.

Out of the approximately 4,200 bushels he harvested, Kelly said he has stored 1,700-1,800 bushels for use as seed for next year's crop.

Farmers are able to offset their losses through crop insurance and, in some instances, by using the crop in feed for livestock.

The price farmers were receiving for Oklahoma-grown wheat at mid-week, according figures provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, ranged from $6.09 to $6.29 per bushel.

Both Kelly and Schulte said it is difficult to pinpoint a price at which a farmer would break even because it depends on various factors that include the quality of the wheat, the number of bushels per acre and the world market.

"At six bushels an acre you could get $10 per bushel and not break even," according to Kelly, who said his crop cost him $80-$90 per acre.

Kelly said recent rains, including precipitation that began Wednesday across the state, is providing hope for summer crops such as cotton, and he said farmers are not giving up on their livelihood.

"In September we'll start the process again, try again," he said. "It's part of our DNA. When it gets time to plant, we plant."

US-EU trade talks sour amid chlorine chicken fears

BRUSSELS -- Visions of chlorine-drenched chickens and the prospect of genetically modified "Frankenfood" invading dinner tables across the European Union are proving serious impediments to the signing of a sweeping free trade agreement between the United States and the 28-country bloc.

Optimism that negotiations, which marked their first-year anniversary this week, would lead to a deal to create a trading bloc of 800 million people representing around half the world's economic output have faltered amid growing public opposition. Suspicions toward the U.S. following a spying scandal and electoral considerations on both sides of the Atlantic have also not helped to foster progress.

A year ago, U.S. President Barack Obama and his European peers sought an agreement to create the trading bloc by the end of 2014.

"There was much hype a year ago," economist Andre Sapir of Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel said. "That was totally unrealistic .... It will take a long time, if it can be achieved at all."

Analysts say a deal is unlikely within Obama's second term, which ends in early 2017.

And his successor will most likely face similar obstacles in Congress where lawmakers, fearing potential job losses, have proved reluctant to embrace another free trade agreement since the North American Free Trade Agreement 20 years ago. A pact between the U.S., Japan and 10 other Pacific nations has also proved elusive.

Congress has shown little inclination to grant Obama fast track authority over trade deals — the process empowers presidents to negotiate trade deals and present them to Congress with no amendments allowed. Many Democrats seeking re-election in November are fearful of drawing opposition amid concerns over jobs.

The political problems don't just lie in the U.S. Recent elections to the European Parliament saw many euroskeptics opposing more integration win almost one in three seats.

"Governments will be less willing to sacrifice fragile political capital in favor of an unpopular trade agreement from which they are unlikely to make immediate political gains," said Eurasia Group's Roldan.

A senior EU official conceded that the timeline is slipping with the European Commission — the bloc's executive branch — now hoping to conclude a deal during Obama's current term.

"That would mean no later than 2016," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the negotiations' confidentiality.

An agreement to lower tariffs and eliminate other trade barriers would, it is hoped, strengthen a relationship worth 800 billion euros ($1.1 trillion). It could also help the pair shape global trade rules on issues like safety standards to pharmaceutical regulation against the growing power of China and other emerging economies.

"That is why third countries like China, India and Brazil are so fearful of the negotiations," Bruegel's Sapir said.

However, concerns may be overdone. The two sides can't even agree on chicken meat — the EU bans U.S. poultry imports because chickens there are rinsed with chlorine to kill germs after slaughter.

"If our chickens are going to be excluded from their market because of this false prejudice, that's a big issue," said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C.

Just as thorny is Europe's refusal to allow the import of hormone-treated beef and genetically modified crops. Fears of "Frankenfood" remain a key concern of consumer groups.

"The trade deal risks undermining crucial European social, health and environmental protection, including key food safety and pollution measures, which industry claims are barriers to trade," according to the campaigning group Friends of the Earth.

EU officials reject those claims against the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership as "scaremongering,"

"There is nothing dangerous in TTIP," Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told European lawmakers this week. "We should remove protectionism, but keep protection," he said, insisting the EU won't accept lower safety standards just for the sake of concluding a deal.

In an ironic twist, opposition has grown in Germany, the country that stands to benefit most from the deal. "Chlorine chicken" has become a regular companion to discussions over the pact.

"Germans fear they will be invaded by all these genetically modified crops and steaks," said Antonio Roldan of think-tank Eurasia Group.

There's also increasing suspicion toward America after spying revelations that reportedly included wire-tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone by the National Security Agency. A recent poll for German public broadcaster ARD found 55 percent thought TTIP would be negative for Europeans.

For negotiators, there are even bigger roadblocks to overcome such as streamlining regulation and investment rules.

Amid the criticism, the Commission in January suspended talks on investment rules for a public consultation. Officials say they received more than 100,000 responses, which will take months to go through.

The rules would allow investors or firms to bring arbitration claims against a country for violations of the pact's investment guidelines.

Activists, lawmakers, unions and some officials fear the rules will curtail the right of governments to set policies by exposing them to corporate lawsuits.

"TTIP must reject all provisions that allow corporations, banks, hedge funds and other private investors to circumvent normal legislative, regulatory and judicial processes," the umbrella groups for U.S. and European unions, AFL-CIO and ETUC, recently said in a joint statement.

However, the Commission maintains the current legal situation leaves EU nations even more vulnerable to corporate claims.

The U.S. won't accept a deal without the investment rules. The Europeans, in turn, urge Washington to include financial regulation. The U.S. doesn't want that for fear of watering down its own arduously negotiated rules, such as the Dodd-Frank Act, but EU nations are keenly aware of their banks' exposure to U.S. regulations — as shown recently with the $9 billion fine on French bank BNP Paribas for sanctions violations.

Chris Rugaber and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed reporting.

GE targets late July for credit card IPO

NEW YORK -- General Electric is targeting late July for the initial public offering of its credit card business, named Synchrony Financial.

The announcement Friday, which was included in the company's second-quarter earnings report, is the first step in GE's exit from that line of business.

General Electric Co. is trying to become a more focused industrial conglomerate by shedding other divisions such as NBC Universal, real estate and some banking operations.

It said that it's on track to meet its goal of $1 billion or more in structural cost-out for the year, with $382 million of cost-out through the first half of 2014.

US stocks move higher as companies post results

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks are moving higher after Google, Honeywell and other big companies report their quarterly results.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 96 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,072 as of midday Friday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 14 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,972. The Nasdaq composite rose 49 points, or 1.1 percent, to 4,412.

Markets were recovering a day after being rattled by the downing of a passenger jet over eastern Ukraine and Israel's launch of a ground offensive into Gaza.

Honeywell International rose 1 percent after reporting that its income rose sharply in the latest quarter and beat investors' forecasts. Google also rose after reporting its results.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.48 percent.

Port authority moves toward finding new director

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- The Columbus-Lowndes County Port Authority will advertise in a maritime industry publication and work with a professional staffing agency to find a new director.

Former director John Hardy retired June 30.

The port authority manages six major facilities.

Port authority board president Roger Bell tells The Commercial Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1jYd8Dc ) the board is looking for someone with inland marine industry experience.

Bell says the ideal replacement will continue to build on Hardy's work with the LINK to expand investment on the port's east bank on The Island and acquire new land on the west bank where Kinder Morgan operates.

Bell says Hardy's collaboration with local entities was instrumental in bringing industries like Baldor, and Kinder Morgan to Columbus.

What You Might Have Missed This Week:

This week, President Obama addressed the crash of Flight MH17, talked about investing in our country's infrastructure, and continued to take important steps to respond to a changing climate -- and the First Lady hosted the Kids' State Dinner, featuring 54 delicious recipes from around the country.

Check out what else you may have missed in this week's wrap up.

President Obama on the Crash of Flight MH17

Today, President Obama delivered a statement to the press in the wake of the tragic crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17:

Yesterday, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 took off from Amsterdam and was shot down over Ukraine near the Russian border. Nearly 300 innocent lives were taken -- men, women, children, infants -- who had nothing to do with the crisis in Ukraine. Their deaths are an outrage of unspeakable proportions.

Watch on YouTube

President Obama noted that this was "a global tragedy -- an Asian airliner was destroyed in European skies, filled with citizens from many countries." And as a result, there now needs to be a credible, international investigation into exactly what happened.

West Wing Week 07/18/14 or, "Where Are You Going to Go Build Your Widgets?"

Welcome to Infrastructure & Transportation Week here at West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening infrastructurally and transportationally here at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and beyond.

Watch on YouTube

Week In Politics: Sanctions On Russia, And Invasion Of Gaza

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

Regular political commentators, E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and David Brooks of The New York Times, discuss potential U.S. actions against Russia and President Obama's reaction to Israel's ground invasion of Gaza.

Hariri proposes road map to safeguard Lebanon

Tripoli protesters slam Future, Hezbollah

Protesters calling for the release of Tripoli’s detained Islamists criticized the Future Movement Friday, accusing it...

Market Basket workers rally in support of ex-CEO

TEWKSBURY, Mass. -- An estimated 1,000 people have shown up at Market Basket supermarket chain headquarters in a show of support for the company's former chief executive.

Employees and others loyal to former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas rallied in Tewksbury on Friday to press for his reinstatement.

The new CEOs said in a letter to workers Thursday that those who walk away from their jobs could be fired.

Demoulas, a member of the family that owns the privately held chain, lost his job last month in a long-running battle with a cousin for control.

The new CEOs said the power to reinstate Demoulas lies with the board that fired him. The board plans a telephone conference Monday to discuss the workers' demand. Employee representatives were invited.

The chain has about 70 stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

China, Russia leaders seek South American inroads

BOGOTA, Colombia -- It's enough to make an aging U.S. Cold Warrior shudder.

During overlapping visits to Latin America, the leaders of China and Russia have been welcomed with open arms by governments that are among the most hostile to Washington, including Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Together with stops in Argentina and Brazil, which both have distanced themselves from the U.S. in recent years, the tours underscore the mix of ideology and economics that's allowing the two superpowers to expand their influence in America's backyard.

"These are all countries the U.S. has some real question marks about," said Kevin Gallagher, a Boston University economist and expert on Chinese-Latin American ties. "It's going to require some PR so as not to be interpreted in certain, phobic circles as an overt alignment with left-leaning governments at odds with the U.S."

Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin said their visits were focused on expanding commercial ties, not taking aim at the U.S. The timing was triggered by a summit Tuesday in Brazil of leaders from the so-called BRICS group — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

At the summit, BRICS leaders agreed to create their own development bank worth $100 billion, a move seen as a strong push against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which they perceive as too U.S.-centric.

Prior to arriving at the beach resort of Fortaleza, Putin paid his first visit in more than a decade to Cuba, where he touted a recent decision to wipe clean 90 percent of the communist-run island's $35 billion debt to Moscow and announced deals to invest in Cuba's offshore oil industry. He also made a surprise stop in Nicaragua for a meeting with the country's president, former guerrilla commander Daniel Ortega, and then signed a deal on nuclear power in Argentina.

Xi also is visiting Cuba and Argentina during his nine-day tour, as well as making a stop in Venezuela, which in recent years has signed loans-for-oil deals valued at more than $50 billion, making it the biggest recipient of Chinese financing in the region.

Of the two visits, Xi's has sparked the greatest interest. Putin's outreach seemed driven by a desire to poke at the U.S. in response to what he sees as American meddling on Russia's doorstep in Ukraine and eastern Europe. China, however, has supplanted the U.S. as the biggest trading partner in country after country.

As China's economy has soared over the past decade, its thirst for oil, soybeans and iron-ore has been a boon to South America's commodity producers. Purchases of the region's goods have surged 20-fold since 2000, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

China also is interested in being included in a proposal to build a railway that would cross South America, linking ports on Brazil's Atlantic coast to Pacific ports in Peru.

But as growth in China and Latin America slowed in the wake of the global financial crisis, frictions have emerged, especially in Argentina and Brazil, where manufacturers have started to plea for protection from a flood of cheaper, Chinese-made imports.

"The honeymoon is over and everyone is trying to manage the relationship in ways to maximize the benefits and mitigate the costs," said Gallagher.

How Xi will exercise China's increasing leverage remains unclear. During his first visit to Latin America as head of state a year ago, he visited three of the region's most-open economies — Mexico, Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago — in what many outsiders viewed as a nod toward the same free-market policies the U.S. long has endorsed in the region.

But in this second, seemingly more politicized trip, he's visiting several countries whose policies have driven away investment and are on the brink of crisis. None more so than Argentina, which is locked in a legal battle with U.S. investors to avert a second default in 13 years, and Venezuela, whose economy is being battered by widespread shortages and inflation surpassing 50 percent.

While both countries are desperate for foreign investment and have abundant oil that China could buy on the cheap, their hopes for a financial rescue may be overblown as Xi isn't immune to the challenges investors face there, said Dan Restrepo, who served as President Barack Obama's top Latin American adviser.

"If they can't attract Chinese investment right now it will really underscore how internationally isolated these countries remain from a financial standpoint," said Restrepo in a phone interview from Washington.

So far, Xi hasn't said whether he'll open his checkbook on the trip or take any swipes at the U.S. like Putin did in Cuba, when he celebrated the rise of a "politically independent, united Latin America" and criticized the half-century U.S. trade "blockade" of the island.

"Bosom friends make distance disappear," Xi, citing an ancient Chinese poem, said in a written interview with several Latin American newspapers to describe his country's state of relations with the region.

Whatever he says or does, it will be closely watched in Washington.

"There's undoubtedly a little anxiety about what might be China's intentions, capabilities and whether they will create problems for the U.S.," said Richard Feinberg, a former State Department specialist on Latin America and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "The bottom line is we're seeing a much more assertive, self-confident China."

NC unemployment rate remains flat at 6.4 percent

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's unemployment rate remained flat for June, as the number of people with full-time jobs slipped slightly from the prior month.

The state Commerce Department reported Friday that North Carolina's unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in June, which was the same rate reported for May. That was above the national average, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported at 6.1 percent.

North Carolina's jobless rate for June is 1.9 percentage points lower than for the same period a year ago.

"The worst thing about the state's unemployment situation that is revealed in this report is that the labor force is not growing," said Robert Mulligan, an economics professor at Western Carolina University. "Normally, when a labor market is recovering from a recession, it recovers much, much faster than this."

The number of people with full-time jobs in June dropped by about 8,600 from May, to 4,389,167. The number of people who were unemployed also decreased about 2,100 over the month, to 299,313.

"Unfortunately, what is happening here is that the size of the labor force is falling," Mulligan said. "Basically, what that indicates is that our recovery is lagging behind the national recovery."

Seasonally adjusted nonfarm industry employment decreased 5,800 to 4,119,500 in June. The major industry with the largest over-the-month increase was professional and business services at 3,700. The sector experiencing the largest decrease was government, with a decline of 13,300 as state and local agencies shed workers due to budget cuts.