NOAA-supported scientists found a large Gulf of Mexico oxygen-free or hypoxic “dead” zone, but not as large as had been predicted. Measuring 5,840 square miles, an area the size of Connecticut, the 2013 Gulf dead zone indicates nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed are continuing to affect the nation’s commercial and recreational marine resources in the Gulf. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
By hnn
A chance request in 2004 for a 19th-century German book about the Mississippi River was what alerted the National Library of Sweden that dozens of rare books from its collection had been stolen. Now that volume and another valuable antique book that contains early maps of America have been recovered and are being returned to library officials at a ceremony on Wednesday at the office of the United States Attorney in Manhattan. These books were part of sensational heist engineered by Anders Burius, a senior librarian dubbed the “Royal Library Man,” who committed suicide shortly after his arrest nine years ago. A crack in the case first came last year after a rare atlas from 1597 was recovered. Mr. Burius sold or consigned at least 13 of the books to Ketterer Kunst, a German auction house….
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
On Friday, July 12, 2013, the President signed into law:
H.R. 324, which provides for the award of a congressional gold medal to the First Special Service Force, collectively, in recognition of their dedicated service during World War II;
H.R. 1151, which directs the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to obtain observer status for Taiwan at the triennial International Civil Aviation Organization Assembly and other related meetings, activities, and mechanisms; and
H.R. 2383, which designates the new Interstate 70 bridge over the Mississippi River connecting St. Louis, Missouri, and southwestern Illinois as the “Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.”
The Coast Guard closed the Mississippi River at Vicksburg after barges hit a railroad bridge there and about 30 barges broke free from the towboat “Captain Buck Lay.”
Petty Officer Ryan Tippets says nine towboats with 134 barges were waiting to get through Sunday evening.
Every barge was accounted for, but the river remained closed with no word on when it might reopen. Tippets says three barges carried grain and the rest held coal.
Tippets says one barge sank in the traffic channel. He did not know whether it must be removed before the channel can reopen.
He says two others were partly submerged and pushed against the bank, a third was pushed up on a river dike and the rest had been collected.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/6xvMZPg7ALQ/
The Coast Guard says the Mississippi River is closed at Vicksburg because barges hit a railroad bridge there and about 30 barges broke free from their tow.
Petty Officer Ryan Tippets says 15 barges have been recovered. He says two sank and crews are working to round up the rest. He couldn’t say when the bridge might reopen.
Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace tells The Vicksburg Post (http://bit.ly/11u5lPh ) the barges were carrying coal and grain.
The bridge is used for rail traffic. It has not carried vehicle traffic since 1998.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/ub0lOhem9do/
Those fighting floods in several communities along the Mississippi River were mostly successful Sunday despite the onslaught of water, but an ominous forecast and the growing accumulation of snow in the upper Midwest tempered any feelings of victory.
The surging Mississippi was at or near crest at several places from the Quad Cities south to near St. Louis — some reaching 10 feet above flood stage. Problems were plentiful: Hundreds of thousands of acres of swamped farmland as planting season approaches; three people died; roads and bridges closed, including sections of major highways like U.S. 61 in Iowa and Missouri and crossings at Quincy, Ill., and Louisiana, Mo.
The U.S. Coast Guard said 114 barges broke loose near St. Louis on Saturday night, and four hit the Jefferson Barracks Bridge in St. Louis County. The bridge was closed about six hours for inspection but reopened around 8 a.m. Sunday. The runaway barges were corralled but authorities believe a few sank.
Flooding has now been blamed in three deaths — two at the same spot in Indiana and one in Missouri. In all three cases, vehicles were swept off the road in flash floods. High water could be responsible for two more, both in Illinois, where a decomposed body was found Thursday in an Oak Brook creek and a body was found Saturday in the Mississippi River at Cora. Investigations continue.
And the danger is far from over, as spots south of St. Louis aren’t expected to crest until next week, and significant flooding is possible in places like Ste. Genevieve, Mo., Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Cairo, Ill.
Adding to concern is a forecast that calls for heavy rain Monday night and Tuesday throughout much of the Midwest. National Weather Service meteorologist Julie Phillipson said an inch of rain is likely in many places, some places even more.
“That’s not what we want to see when we have this kind of flooding, that’s for sure,” Phillipson said.
Meanwhile, the northern Midwest has received heavy snow this month, and concerns are turning to what happens when it melts and makes its way into tributaries of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Forecasters said up to 6 inches of new snow was possible in the Black Hills area of South Dakota through Monday morning.
Hundreds of miles to the southeast, in La Grange, Mo., Lewis County emergency management director David Keith wasn’t bothered by the soggy forecast. Sandbags were holding back the murky Mississippi from La Grange City Hall, a bank and a handful of threatened homes, and the water was receding.
“What we’re worried about now is all that snow melt in North and South Dakota and Minnesota,” Keith said.
A handful of river towns are most affected by the high waters — places like Clarksville, Mo., and Grafton, Ill., that have chosen against flood walls or levees.
By Sunday, sandbagging had all but stopped in Clarksville, evidence of the confidence that the makeshift sandbag levee hurriedly erected to protect downtown would hold. Volunteers, including nearly three dozen prison inmates, worked since Wednesday, using
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/7VRW16WUcsw/
By Reuters
Filed under: Small Business, Market News, Commodities & Futures, Food & Beverage, People
By Karl Plume and Sam Nelson
CHICAGO — Torrential downpours across a broad swath of the U.S. Midwest this week are easing the worst drought in more than 50 years, flooding streams, snarling river transportation, stalling corn plantings — and changing the outlook for the American farm economy in 2013.
The Army Corps of Engineers is closing locks along a 150-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from roughly Davenport in Iowa to Hannibal, Mo. Barge traffic was backing up Thursday, as water levels were too high for barges to take on grain.
The Mississippi and other major rivers are expected to begin cresting Sunday — and likely will run over levies in some areas. That is a sharp reversal from as recently as January, when low water levels disrupted the main water thoroughfares that bring grain from the nation’s breadbasket to the world’s markets.
“These rains are really helping bring most areas out of drought status. And the rain encompasses all of the western Corn Belt that was previously dry,” said Don Keeney, meteorologist for MDA Weather Services, a widely followed commercial forecasting firm.
If the drought is ending, it would represent a sea change for the farm economy, where expectations for another dry summer had been baked in. Continued rainy weather could further delay spring plantings, cause a sharp fall in the price of farm commodities, and lower the cost of everything from hog feed to cereal ingredients.
Lower feed prices would help livestock and dairy producers, but soft grain prices could cut into farmers’ incomes and perhaps even cause farmland values to retreat from recent record highs.
An end to drought conditions would bring a burst in economic activity across the agriculture industry — from farmers in the fields to those operating grain elevators, processing companies and shippers.
“If in fact the drought is easing, and if we are migrating to a situation that might afford better yields, to my mind, for the full value chain, it’s a godsend,” said Bruce Scherr, chief executive of agribusiness analytics firm Informa Economics. “Another year like last year would be devastating.”
The 2012 drought brought corn production to only 10.8 billion bushels, a 6-year low, with yields reaching a 17-year low of 123.4 bushels an acre. The production losses added to the impact of rising exports to China and domestic demand for ethanol production to drive corn prices on the Chicago Board of Trade to an all-time high last August.
Farmers filed a record $11.8 billion in crop-insurance claims, according to Agriculture Department data. And farm income fell last year by 3 percent from a record set in 2011.
Transformation
“Isn’t it ironic that all winter we’ve been worried about dry soil, and all of that has changed in a period
From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/19/rain-ends-midwest-drought/
By hnn
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Even life-long St. Louis residents may not realize that a big battle was once fought on what is now the site of Ballpark Village, which is in the early stages of development just north of Busch Stadium.
Interestingly, this wasn’t a conflict during the U.S. Civil War, but the Revolutionary War.
The “Battle of St. Louis” — also known as the “Battle of Fort San Carlos” — took place in May 1780, and downtown looked much different 233 years ago.
“The early French city of St. Louis had a wall that enclosed it on three sides, and the fourth side was the Mississippi River,” notes Michael Fuller, history professor at St. Louis Community College-Meramec and one of the foremost experts on the battle….
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
More than half of the country’s rivers and streams are in poor biological health, unable to support healthy populations of aquatic insects and other creatures, according to a new nationwide survey released Tuesday.
The Environmental Protection Agency sampled nearly 2,000 locations in 2008 and 2009 — from rivers as large as the Mississippi River to streams small enough for wading. The study found more than 55 percent of them in poor condition, 23 percent in fair shape, and 21 percent in good biological health.
The most widespread problem was high levels of nutrient pollution, caused by phosphorus and nitrogen washing into rivers and streams from farms, cities, and sewers. High levels of phosphorus — a common ingredient in detergents and fertilizers — were found in 40 percent of rivers and streams. Another problem detected was development. Land clearing and building along waterways increases erosion and flooding, and allows more pollutants to enter waters.
“This new science shows that America’s streams and rivers are under significant pressure,” said Nancy Stoner, acting assistant administrator of EPA‘s water office. “We must continue to invest in protecting and restoring our nation’s streams and rivers as they are vital sources of our drinking water, provide many recreational opportunities, and play a critical role in the economy.”
Conditions are worse in the East, the report found. More than 70 percent of streams and rivers from the Texas coast to the New Jersey coast are in poor shape. Streams and rivers are healthiest in Western mountain areas, where only 26 percent were classified as in poor condition.
The EPA also found some potential risks for human health. In 9 percent of rivers and streams, bacteria exceeded thresholds protective of human health. And mercury, which is toxic, was found in fish tissue along 13,000 miles of streams at levels exceeding health-based standards. Mercury, which is naturally occurring, also can enter the environment from coal-burning power plants and from burning hazardous wastes. The Obama administration finalized regulations to control mercury pollution from coal-burning power plants for the first time in late 2011.
By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
American Water Receives Safety Award from Missouri Water Environment Association
VOORHEES, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– American Water (NYS: AWK) , the nation’s largest publicly traded water utility, today announced that its Contract Services Group received the 2012 Safety Award from the Missouri Water Environment Association (MWEA). The award, which recognized American Water for the highest level of safety compliance in its operation of the City of St. Charles wastewater treatment facility, is being presented today at the MWEA annual meeting.
“Safety is paramount to our company and we are honored to receive this award,” said David Choate, president of American Water‘s Contract Services Group. “Our St. Charles operations team continues to demonstrate its commitment to achieving a 100 percent safe workplace and providing operational excellence to the City of St. Charles. This award is a great example of our commitment to ensuring we have a safe workplace and an excellent safety program.”
The Safety Award is given annually by the MWEA to facilities within the State of Missouri that have the highest level of safety compliance. This is the second year American Water has won this award for its operation of the St. Charles facility, which includes the Mississippi River and Missouri River wastewater treatment plants. The two treatment facilities consistently operated better than limits set forth in the city’s operating permit, as specified by the State of Missouri Department of Natural Resources National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
American Water‘s Contract Services Group has operated and maintained the City of St. Charles wastewater treatment facilities since 1984. The facilities treated an average of 8.236 million gallons of wastewater per day in 2012.
American Water‘s Contract Services Group provides water and wastewater operations and management solutions to municipalities and industrial clients in the U.S. and Canada. The Contract Services Group is part of American Water Enterprises, Inc., the wholly owned market-based subsidiary of American Water.
Founded in 1886, American Water is the largest publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company. With headquarters in Voorhees, N.J., the company employs approximately 6,700 dedicated professionals who provide drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 14 million people in more than 30 states and parts of Canada.More information can be found at www.amwater.com.
Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for American Water.
Although the 2012 drought in the Midwest may have dimmed the memories for some of the 2011 Ohio and Mississippi River flood, engineers, landowners, conservationists, crop scientists and soil scientists haven’t forgotten. They are working hard to repair levees and restore the flood damaged Birds Point-New Madrid floodway in preparation for the next big flood which will eventually happen. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
1563 – Peace of Amboise: Rights for Huguenots
1687 – Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
1803 – Friedrich Schillerand#039;s andquot;Die Braut von Messina,andquot; premieres in Weimar
1877 – Australia beat England by 45 runs in very 1st Test match
1981 – 2 workers killed in space shuttle Columbia accident
1984 – Pitcher Denny McLain, indicted on various charges of racketeering
1929 – Herman van San, composer
1930 – Bill Henderson, Chic Ill, jazz singer (Torpedo-Dreams)
1945 – Lisa Nicole Baker, Detroit TX, playmate of the year (Nov 1966)
1962 – Jim Korderas, American professional wrestling referee
1971 – Nadja Auermann, German supermodel
1982 – Jonathan Fanene, American football player
1893 – Karel Komzak, composer, dies at 69
1905 – Makar Grigori Ekmalyan, composer, dies at 49
1934 – Anthony J Block, lawyer (Dutch strafproces), dies at 66
1969 – Theodor Schaefer, composer, dies at 65
1987 – Louis Broglie, French physicist (Nobel 1929), dies at 94
2003 – Émile Genest, Canadian actor (b. 1921)
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at HistoryOrb.Com – This Day in History
By Aimee Duffy, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Based on combined enterprise value, Kinder Morgan is the third largest energy company in North America. We tend to associate the giant with its 75,000 miles of pipelines, but in reality, its operations are incredibly diverse. Over the next few days, I’ll take a closer look at each of the midstream company’s five distinct business units. I’ve already tackled the terminals segment, and today we’ll break down the partnership’s natural gas pipeline business.
Background on the assets
Kinder Morgan, together with its master limited partnerships Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and El Paso Pipeline Partners , operates an impressive 62,000 miles of natural gas pipeline, making it the largest natural gas transporter in the United States. The pipelines reach natural gas plays and serve major consuming markets from coast to coast but are concentrated heavily along the southern border of the U.S., from Arizona to Florida. Texas is the epicenter of the partnership’s footprint, yet it’s the company’s East region that’s expected to generate the largest percentage of earnings for the segment in 2013.
Source: Kinder Morgan.
The East segment includes roughly all of Kinder Morgan‘s pipes east of the Mississippi River, from Florida to New Hampshire, while the midstream segment designates the Texas intrastate system. West denotes everything west and north of El Paso, while Central includes everything west of the Mississippi and north of the Texas/Oklahoma border. You can check out the whole map here.
Overall, the segment grew 64% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2012 and $474 million in earnings. Much of that growth can be attributed to the booming Eagle Ford Shale play, and the increase of natural gas used for power generation. Kinder Morgan hopes to continue to drive success here and is in the midst of investing $2.7 billion in its natural gas pipeline assets.
A look ahead
A big part of that investment capital is headed straight for two shale plays: the Marcellus and the Eagle Ford. We’ll get to Texas in a minute, but first let’s tackle the Marcellus, where Kinder Morgan has two of similar looping projects on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline system coming online by the end of November.
The first project is the Marcellus Pooling Point project, an $86 million pipeline expansion that will loop a line in northwest Pennsylvania with 7.9 miles of 30-inch pipe. (Looping means that new pipe will be installed adjacent to the existing line.) It will also feature upgrades to four pumping stations. The new capacity comes in around 240,000 dekatherms per day, which is roughly equal to 2.3 million cubic feet of gas, and it will feed utilities and other connecting pipelines.
The second looping project is the Northeast Upgrade, and it is much more expensive at $450 million. This project will add about 40 miles of 30-inch looped line on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline system and will have a capacity of about 640,000 dekatherms per day, which …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
The body of a slain Mississippi mayoral candidate was beaten and burned, a family member said Monday.
Marco McMillian’s godfather, Carter Womack, said McMillian’s family received the information from the Coahoma County coroner. Coroner Scotty Meredith declined to comment Monday, and a spokesman for the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department had no immediate comment.
But a person with direct knowledge of the investigation confirmed to The Associated Press that McMillian had some bruises and there were burns on at least one area of his body. The person wasn’t authorized to publicly comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was performed, but toxicology tests are pending, and authorities say it could take two weeks to get those results.
Womack said the coroner told family members that someone dragged McMillian’s body under a fence and left it near a Mississippi River levee last week.
McMillian, 34, was a candidate for mayor of Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta.
“We feel that this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found,” said a statement released by his campaign.
The slaying received significant attention, in part, because McMillian’s campaign said he was the first openly gay, viable candidate for public office in Mississippi.
Sheriff’s deputies last week charged 22-year-old Lawrence Reed with murder in the case.
An investigation began Feb. 26 after McMillian’s SUV slammed head-on into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 49 near the Coahoma and Tallahatchie county lines.
Reed was driving the car, but McMillian was not in it, authorities say. McMillian’s body was found the next day.
Reed was treated for injuries at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis. The hospital said he was released Saturday.
Reed was being held without bond Monday pending extradition to Mississippi.
Wet streets, puddles and soggy ground greeted the faithful revelers who braved rainy forecasts threatening to wash out Mardi Gras, New Orleans‘ biggest free show.
Freddie Zeigler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Slidell, La., said there’s an 80 percent chance of rain Tuesday, with showers likely hitting in the pre-dawn hours along Louisiana’s coast and moving into the metro area around sunrise. Still, lulls are predicted throughout the day.
“It’s going to be dicey though for parades, but it all depends on how fast that warm front moves to the north,” Zeigler said.
Fat Tuesday kicks off with the Zulu parade, which rolls at 8 a.m., followed by Rex two hours later.
Still, rain or shine, many revelers planned to hit the streets early Tuesday morning.
“We’re going to get here extremely early,” said Carly Gerhard, who drove with a friend from Philadelphia to New Orleans over the weekend — through storms that spawned tornadoes along the way — for her first Mardi Gras experience.
Gerhard said her most memorable experience so far has been the French Quarter.
“My favorite part was getting to Bourbon Street and seeing all the different people,” she said. “The diversity is pretty cool. We’re looking forward to the parades. We’re looking forward to it all.”
Frank Warford, of Riverdale, Ga., was holding an umbrella Monday as he walked Bourbon Street. He said he was ready to party through the rain.
“This is a party city. Everybody’s partying and having fun, catching beads like crazy,” said Warford, his neck draped in beads. “If it rains, put a hat on. It’s as simple as that.”
Katiey Diamond, of Sayreville, N.J., said rain won’t ruin her Mardi Gras.
“I’ll party if it’s freaking thundering,” she exclaimed. “We’ve got indoors. We’re good.”
Scattered showers didn’t keep revelers away Monday either as thousands flocked to the French Quarter and along the Mississippi River for Lundi Gras festivities.
As local brass bands played on stages …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
The Coast Guard says operations continue to remove oil from a leaking barge on the Mississippi River.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said early Friday that vessel traffic on the river remains restricted through the area near Vicksburg.
Crews are still trying to pump all the oil from the damaged barge onto another vessel, a process known as lightering.
A 16-mile stretch of the river was closed Sunday after two oil barges hit a railroad bridge and one of them started leaking light crude.
The Coast Guard is now allowing restricted traffic.
Southbound commercial traffic was being allowed to pass through the area during daylight hours, and northbound commercial traffic will be permitted to move at night.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
The Coast Guard is letting southbound vessels pass through a closed section of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg to test how they will affect efforts to remove oil from a leaking barge.
Chief Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski tells The Associated Press a 16-mile stretch of the river remains closed four days after two barges struck a railroad bridge.
The leaking barge is pushed against the Louisiana shore. Crews hope to start moving the oil to another barge Wednesday.
Roszkowski says southbound barges are being allowed to pass so crews can monitor the effects on cleanup operations. The Coast Guard could permit test runs with northbound barges on Wednesday afternoon.
The Guard said 7,000 gallons of crude oil were unaccounted for, but some could have seeped inside the barge.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
The Coast Guard says crews hope to start work Wednesday to remove thousands of gallons of oil from a damaged barge on the Mississippi River, but it’s not clear how long that could take or when the river will reopen.
A 16-mile stretch of river was closed near Vicksburg for a fourth day Wednesday after two barges collided with a railroad bridge and one began leaking oil.
Tugs have held the ruptured barge to the bank on the Louisiana side of the river, across from Vicksburg’s Riverwalk and Lady Luck casinos, since Sunday’s crash.
The plan is to pump the oil to an empty barge that was on site Wednesday morning, said Petty Officer 1st Class Matt Schofield.
“We’d like to be optimistic and start doing it as soon as we can, but there are a lot of things that could change between now and then,” Schofield said.
Severe weather that swept through the area overnight Tuesday shut down cleanup operations for a time, but crews were working again Wednesday morning, Schofield said.
The Coast Guard said 7,000 gallons of crude oil were unaccounted for, but it’s not clear if it all spilled into the river or if some seeped into empty spaces inside the barge. Schofield said Wednesday that oil is still seeping from the damaged barge, but crews were “able to recover it faster than it’s coming out.”
Crews have been working to contain and remove oil since the barge, owned by Corpus Christi, Texas-based Third Coast Towing LLC, struck a railroad bridge and began leaking early Sunday. The company has refused to comment.
The Coast Guard said the environmental impact has been minimal because a boom is containing the leak around the barge and the leak is slow. Crews are using a skimmer to collect the oil.
The closure has been costly for the shipping industry.
Schofield said 55 vessels, including towboats, and 834 barges were idled at the closed 16-mile stretch of the river, one of the nation’s vital commerce routes.
About 168.4 million tons of cargo a year move along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, La., and the mouth of the Ohio River, carried by nearly 22,300 cargo ships and 162,700 barges, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. About 3.6 million tons of cargo are handled annually by the port of Vicksburg.
When low water threatened to close the river earlier this month, the tow industry trade group American Waterways Operators estimated that 7.2 million tons of commodities worth $2.8 billion might be sidelined over the last three weeks of January.
Salt destined for Northern roads is moving upriver in January, said spokeswoman Ann McCulloch. “We’re still moving corn, soybeans and grain, but also coal and petroleum … stone, sand and gravel,” she said Tuesday.
Barges carry 20 percent of the nation’s coal and more than 60 percent of its grain exports, according to the group.
Ron Zornes, director of corporate operations for Canal Barge Co. of New Orleans, said each idled towboat could cost a company anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 a day. The low end would be for a single boat with a couple of barges and the high end for one in “a system of towboats that acts sort of like a bus system.”
“So if one bus is stopped, it gums up the whole system,” he said.
On the other hand, vessel traffic tends to be lower in January than during peak harvest season, when grain from the U.S. heartland is shipped south to be loaded onto massive ships near New Orleans.
Nature’s Way Marine LLC of Theodore, Ala., has been named the responsible party for the oil spill, a designation that is assigned under the federal Oil Pollution Act.
The barges were being pushed by the company’s tug Nature’s Way Endeavor. The company has declined requests for information from The Associated Press.
Companies found responsible for oil spills face civil penalties tied to the amount of oil that spilled into the environment.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said Tuesday it’s too early in the investigation to know if the company could face penalties or fines.
The Nature’s Way Endeavor was pushing two tank barges when the collision with the bridge happened about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. Both barges were damaged, but only one leaked. Authorities declared the bridge safe after an inspection.
The leaking tank, which was pierced above the water line, was carrying 80,000 gallons of light crude, authorities said. The Coast Guard hasn’t said how much oil was in the other tanks on the barge.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
New Orleans police are in the middle of an unprecedented security challenge with an estimated 150,000 Super Bowl fans packing the city during the raucous annual buildup to Mardi Gras, when thousands of revelers flock to the historic French Quarter and its restaurants, bars and strip clubs.
It all began in earnest Friday night with the first of the city’s major float-filled Mardi Gras season parades. This week, the parade schedule is on hold while the Super Bowl takes center stage. Mardi Gras preparations resume once Sunday’s game is over and the parades roll again starting Wednesday.
The city’s police force of 1,200 officers is working more than three weeks’ worth of 12-hour days, on the lookout for everything from petty crime and public drunkenness to random gunfire and the threat of terrorism. It will be an exhausting stretch that city officials say will cost the city several million dollars in police overtime.
“If we can, we’d like to give them some time down,” said police chief Ronal Serpas. “But if we can’t, they know it and they’ll stand up for it.”
It’s also a unique chance for Serpas to show off one of the strengths of a department beset by scandals involving brutality and mismanagement. City officials have carried out numerous reforms aimed at cleaning up the department, which has seen five officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings of unarmed residents after Hurricane Katrina.
For years, though, crowd control has been the department’s bright spot, especially during Mardi Gras revelry on the narrow streets of the nearly 300-year-old French Quarter, home to fancy restaurants and art galleries as well as sleazy bars and strip joints.
“I think the NOPD does take a particular pride in its long-standing history and long-standing demonstration that managing large crowds is something we do very well,” said Serpas, who is in his third year running the department.
Shoulder-to-shoulder, alcohol-fueled crowds often spill over into the neighboring Faubourg Marigny, an increasingly popular area of music clubs and restaurants. A 15-block-long stretch of Poydras Street, linking the Superdome to the Mississippi River and the massive Harrah’s Casino, is seeing increased foot traffic during sports events with the opening of more bars and restaurants in recent years. And, outside the Quarter, lavish Carnival season parades draw tens of thousands to the miles-long routes. During the final weekend of Mardi Gras, streets of the metro area can be packed with more than a million people, and more than a few will be overdoing it.
“The thing about Mardi Gras crowds is, we get this impression that some of the people may have been drinking,” Serpas deadpanned.
Police perched atop horses watch for problems on the horizon and keep people moving, while uniformed officers on foot mingle and build rapport with the partiers to keep the peace. Plainclothes officers will be on the lookout for weapons and other less visible problems. Arrest numbers vary from year to year, though police commonly arrest at least several hundred people each year during Mardi Gras-related celebrations — most for relatively minor transgressions.
Joining the department’s officers for Super Bowl week are more than 200 state troopers and about 100 officers from surrounding local jurisdictions. Also, with the Super Bowl considered a potential terrorist target, there is a beefed-up federal contingent. That includes close to 100 extra FBI personnel supplementing the regular New Orleans FBI staff of 200 agents and support staff, said Michael Anderson, the agent in charge of the New Orleans office.
That office will be home to a joint operations center where the goings-on will be constantly monitored by representatives from all involved state, local and federal law enforcement and security agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Such a center is standard operating procedure for the Super Bowl each year, Anderson said.
New Orleans police will take the lead on local crime, traffic or public disturbances, Anderson said. “If there’s any inkling of a terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack in any way,” he said, “then we kick in with our full apparatus.”
At Louis Armstrong International Airport, the Transportation Safety Administration is adding personnel and equipment to handle security checks, said TSA spokesman Jon Allen. He said there will be 11 additional checkpoint lanes added to the 14 existing lanes for passenger screening.
Five additional explosives-detecting machines have been added to screen checked baggage, and more than 100 transportation security officers will be brought in from other airports starting Sunday to help local airport staff, Allen said. The officers will stay through the middle of next week, he said.
Beyond the city’s police costs, exact security costs are difficult to determine. Federal officials declined to detail specifics, and an NFL representative would say only that the league will spend millions.
Mardi Gras season happens every year, and the city is no stranger to Super Bowls, having hosted nine — including the 2002 game that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Although security planning for the Super Bowl has grown increasingly complex since the attacks, no acts of terror or other serious problems have been reported at Super Bowls in recent years.
Most Super Bowl problems in recent years resulted from human gridlock. At last year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis, 11 people suffered minor injuries during a free outdoor concert. But officials said otherwise there were few problems.
This year, officers will be prepared to reroute or block vehicle traffic when streets are full of pedestrians. As for terrorism worries, Anderson said preparations include formation of SWAT teams and “hazardous incident teams” — specialists in hazardous materials or explosives assembled from the various federal local and state agencies.
Serpas welcomes the help, but he said much of the cooperation comes from the partiers themselves — a diverse crowd that can consist of locals and families picnicking on parade routes and a more adult, heavier-drinking crowd downtown and in the Quarter.
“You look at that parade route, and on any one block there could be 10,000 people and two cops,” Serpas said. “How do those two cops stay safe, and how does that crowd stay safe? We’re actually working together.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
(Phys.org)—The Jan. 17 issue of The New York Times celebrated “the remarkable feat of engineering” that kept the Mississippi River open to barge traffic despite extreme drought in the Midwest. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the article said, had dredged, blasted and scraped away rock obstructions along the riverbed, lowering the bottom of the channel at Thebes, Ill., by two feet.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
