January 2012

January 20, 2012
Carnival Ship Captain Under House Arrest as Death Toll Rises

By Andrew Davis and Chiara Vasarri
Bloomberg

The captain of a Carnival Corp. ship that ran aground off Italy was placed under house arrest hours after audio emerged of a Coast Guard official ordering him to return to his damaged ship and oversee rescue efforts.

Captain Francesco Schettino, who may face criminal charges including manslaughter, was put under house arrest late yesterday by a judge in Grosseto, Italy, his lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters in remarks broadcast on Sky TG24 television. The ruling came hours after divers discovered five more bodies on the stricken ship, bringing the death toll to 11. Twenty-eight people are missing, according to Italy’s Civil Protection agency.

Judge Valeria Montesarchio took three hours of testimony from Schettino as TV news programs and websites broadcast audio of phone conversations on Jan. 13 between Schettino and a senior Coast Guard official after the Costa Concordia struck rocks off the island of Giglio and tilted on its side with 4,200 people on board.

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January 20, 2012
N.Y.-N.J. Port Will Sell $400M

By Paul Burton

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to auction $400 million of 171st Series consolidated bonds to support capital projects.

The deal is expected to be the largest competitive transaction for the week.
The bond maturities will run from 2030 to 2042.

Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings assign double-A minus ratings to the bonds, while Moody’s Investors Service rates them Aa2.

Moody’s assigned a negative outlook last year, based on stagnant growth in the New York City area and risk from development of the World Trade Center reconstruction in lower Manhattan. The move prompted concern among authority officials about access to the capital markets.

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January 20, 2012
Push on for funds to deepen Delaware River channel

By Linda Loyd, Inquirer Staff Writer

delaware river
Tankers, such as this one heading toward Marcus Hook, could carry heavier cargo loads. (DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer)

Supporters of deepening the Delaware River navigation channel an additional five feet are making a big push now to secure federal funds that soon will be designated for navigation-improvement projects this year.

Before Christmas, Congress approved a fiscal 2012 spending plan that for the first time specified an amount, $74 million, to go for navigation construction aimed at improving traffic efficiency on U.S. rivers.

Deepening the Delaware's channel from 40 to 45 feet qualifies as such a project. The Army's office for civil works, with input from the federal Office of Management and Budget, will decide by the first week in February where the money will go.
 
January 20, 2012
Oiling the Wheels

By N.L. | CHICAGO

bp
The head of BP spoke at the Economic Club of Chicago yesterday. Photo credit: AFP

ONE might have expected a humble presentation from Bob Dudley, head of BP, who spoke at the Economic Club of Chicago yesterday. In 2010, his company was responsible for a disaster in the Gulf of Mexico when an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 men, injured 17 others, and released more oil into the ocean than any other accident in the history of the industry. But it was not to be that way. Instead, and reading between the lines, Mr Dudley had an interesting new year’s message for a country in the middle of hard economic times: you need us as much as we need you.

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January 20, 2012
Man about Town—Barry Parker Gives Us Art in New York Meatballs and Moussaka

By Barry D. Parker for NYMAR

barry photoIn a few weeks, the Norwegian American and Hellenic American Chambers of Commerce will be holding their 18th annual shipping conference. In a sign of the times, the theme of this year’s event, to be held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, is “Boom, Bust and Bankruptcy”. With such weighty matters on the agenda, NYMAR members, and their out of town visitors coming in for the big confab, should consider the distractions, and perhaps- the inspiration, provided by two exhibits illuminating the Nordic and the Greek psyches.

Scandinavia House, at Park Avenue a few blocks south of Grand Central, offers its “Luminous Modernism: Scandinavian Art Comes to America” exhibit to commemorate the 100th anniversary of a ground-breaking show that was organized by the American Scandinavian Foundation (ASF). Though it contains eight of the works displayed a century ago, it has been expanded to include work by additional artists- and additional countries; Finland and Iceland were not part of the 1912-1913 exhibit. Not too coincidentally, the 1913 “Armory” show, ascribed by art historians as the coming-out party for modern art in the States, opened several months on the heels of the ASF show.

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