President Obama announced that he would take several steps on his own regarding immigration issues — including the tens of thousands of children who have swarmed to the U.S. border in recent weeks.
Monday, 30 June 2014
Grain lower livestock mixed
CHICAGO -- Grain futures were lower Monday in early trading on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Wheat for Sept delivery was unchanged at $5.9375 a bushel; Sept corn was 6 cents lower at $4.3625 a bushel; Dec oats were unchanged at $3.2875 a bushel; while Nov soybeans gained 1.75 cents to $12.2975 a bushel.
Beef mixed and pork were higher on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Aug live cattle was .22 cent lower at $1.5090 a pound; Aug feeder cattle was .13 cent higher at 2.1445 a pound; Aug lean hogs gained 2.88 cents to $1.3270 a pound.
Oyster farm owners eye options after ruling
SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to consider the appeal of a popular oyster farm that federal officials want to shutter and return to wilderness along the coast of Northern California.
The justices without comment left in place lower court rulings against Drakes Bay Oyster Co.
The owners said later at a news conference in San Francisco that they would keep fighting to stay in business.
"It's not over until the last oyster is shucked," Kevin Lunny said.
Lunny said he and his lawyers are considering several options but didn't specify their next step to keep the oyster farm operating and its workers on the job along Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco.
Lunny said pursuing a legislative solution is one option because Congress could override the Department of Interior and issue the farm a permit.
Lower courts have allowed the farm to keep operating through the appeals process.
The case began in 2007 when the Department of Interior made it clear it would not renew the oyster farm's 40-year lease when it expired in 2012. the agency cited a 1976 Congressional decision to return the waters of Drakes Estero to wilderness status.
The department also cited research critical of the operation's effects on harbor seals, which use the estuary to reproduce.
Scrutiny of the research, however, unearthed errors and omissions that critics say showed park officials had an agenda to get rid of the oyster farm.
Lunny bought the oyster company in 2004, figuring he and his lawyers could negotiate a long-term lease extension.
Lunny, whose family has owned a cattle ranch overlooking the estuary since 1947, said his case is important to a dozen other families with cattle ranches within the national park who have not had their government leases renewed.
"We feel this is absolutely important fight to continue," Lunny said in his lawyer's office after the high court ruling. "Thirty workers stand to lose their jobs and this effects the ranchers within the Point Reyes Seashore."
Jessica Kershaw, a Department of Interior spokeswoman, didn't return phone and email inquiries about its plans to close the oyster farm.
Lunny's lawyer Peter Prows said he intends to speak with federal officials soon to determine the next steps.
"At the moment, the farm is open," Prows said.
The farm previously enlisted the support of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. When park service lawyers determined the agency did not have legal grounds to issue a new permit, Feinstein authored 2009 legislation allowing the Interior secretary to issue 10-year permits. Nonetheless, the department declined to issue a permit to the oyster farm.
Lunny said he had spoken Monday with Feinstein's office. The office didn't return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.
New US patent office opening in Denver
DENVER -- Denver's new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is opening Monday.
It's one of four regional patent offices being opened by the federal government to reduce a backlog and hire patent review experts who aren't willing to move to the main office in Washington, D.C.
University of Colorado law school dean Phil Weiser tells The Denver Post (http://dpo.st/1k4Bjda) that the office's opening will provide more momentum to Colorado's rising profile in the technology and intellectual property fields.
PPG Industries buying Mexico's Comex for $2.3B
PITTSBURGH -- Paint and coatings maker PPG Industries is buying Consorcio Comex SA de CV for $2.3 billion to help bolster its architectural coatings presence in Mexico and Central America.
Comex makes coatings and related products in Mexico and sells them in Mexico and Central America. Pittsburgh-based PPG makes coatings, specialty materials and glass products.
Privately held Comex, based in Mexico City, had 2013 sales of about $1 billion. Its brands include Effex, Texturi and its namesake. Comex has eight manufacturing plants and six distribution centers.
PPG plans to fund the transaction mostly with available cash and short-term investments, but may fund part of the acquisition with the addition of debt.
The deal is expected to immediately add to PPG's earnings, excluding one-time acquisition-related costs.
The transaction may take four to six months to complete.
Shares of Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries Inc. rose $5.95, or 2.9 percent, to $210 in premarket trading Monday.
Officials discuss airport security in Beirut
Officials discuss airport security in Beirut
The defense minister launches discussions over the security of Beirut’s airport, in a meeting with officials.
New York top court OKs local gas-drilling bans
ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York's top court handed a victory to opponents of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas Monday by affirming the right of municipalities to ban the practice within their borders.
The state Court of Appeals affirmed a midlevel appeals court ruling from last year that said the state oil and gas law doesn't trump the authority of local governments to control land use through zoning.
The two "fracking" cases from two central New York towns have been closely watched by drillers hoping to tap into the state's piece of the Marcellus Shale formation and by environmentalists who fear water and air pollution.
Both sides are still waiting to see whether a statewide moratorium on fracking in effect since July 2008 will be lifted.
The court in a 5-2 decision stressed that it did not consider the merits of the bans, but only the "home rule" authority of municipalities to regulate their land use. The court said the towns of Dryden and Middlefield both acted properly.
"The towns both studied the issue and acted within their home rule powers in determining that gas drilling would permanently alter and adversely affect the deliberately-cultivated, small-town character of their communities," according to the majority ruling.
Fracking frees gas from deep rock deposits by injecting wells with chemical-laced water at high pressure. It has helped boost U.S. oil and gas production to the highest level in more than a quarter-century, but has mobilized environmentalists alarmed at its rise.
Drilling opponents say more than 170 towns have passed bans or moratoriums. Another 40 towns have passed resolutions supporting gas development.
The state has its own 6-year-old moratorium on fracking for gas. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he won't decide whether to lift the ban until a health impact review launched in 2012 is completed. There's no timetable for the review.
The Dryden ban was challenged by a trustee for Norse Energy, an Oslo, Norway-based company that went bankrupt after amassing thousands of leases on New York land it was never able to develop. The Middlefield ban was challenged by Cooperstown Holstein, a dairy farm that had leased land for drilling.
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