HAMILTON, Ohio, March 26 (UPI) — An Ohio prosecutor said he is dropping charges against Punxsutawney Phil after the groundhog’s handler took responsibility for spring’s late start.
Prosecutor drops charges against groundhog
Tag Archives: Punxsutawney Phil
3 Companies That Could Be Hurt by Rising Natural Gas Prices
By Matthew DiLallo, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Winter just doesn’t seem to want to give way to spring this year. Where I live, we’ve been hit with more snow and a continuation of this cold winter. Frustrations with the late spring are beginning to boil over and cabin fever has gotten so bad that our beloved Punxsutawney Phil has been indicted after a botched forecast of an early spring.
Not only has the late spring caused a lot of ire among those ready for winter’s end, it’s also causing natural gas prices to head higher. While that’s a welcome sight for producers, heavy users of natural gas are not as thrilled. While these companies have enjoyed the profits made while using cheap natural gas, if prices keep going higher the situation will reverse. Here are three companies that could feel an impact if natural gas prices keep going higher.
CF Industries
The fertilizer maker is a heavy user of natural gas as a feedstock in fertilizer production. It has benefited handsomely from cheap natural gas, which drove record sales and earnings last year. It’s also betting big that natural gas prices will stay low by investing $3.8 billion to expand its operations.
The company is anticipating a very positive operating environment for the year ahead, highlighted by favorable natural gas costs. However, as of its last earnings report it had only hedged its natural gas needs through April of this year. A steady rise in price could affect its bottom line, and the same can be said for its publicly traded subsidiary Terra Nitrogen . The volatility of natural gas prices is a big risk to its results and has a real effect on the bottom line: The company’s net earnings last year jumped to $560.8 million from $508 million in 2011, with a 23% realized decrease in natural gas prices.
Dow Chemical
Dow also has big plans for cheap natural gas. The company has committed more than $4 billion to expand nat-gas use as a feedstock for the production of chemicals and plastics. Among its planned expenditures is a world-scale ethane cracker plant that comes with a $1.7 billion price tag.
For Dow, it sees the potential for these projects to deliver $2.5 billion in annual EBITDA when everything is up and running in 2017. The key to hitting that target is continued low natural gas prices. While Dow has been vocal in its disapproval of increased liquefied natural gas exports, which would raise gas prices, there’s not much it can do to stop Mother Nature from driving prices higher.
Nucor
Steelmaker Nucor will see a big increase in its use of natural gas when it completes construction of its direct reduced iron, or DRI, facility. The company also uses a lot of gas throughout its U.S. steel manufacturing operations. Low natural gas prices are critical to its success; if they continue to stay low, the company could add to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Groundhog Phil lives to see another shadow
The groundhog is off the hook.
An Ohio prosecutor who light-heartedly filed a criminal indictment against the famous Pennsylvania groundhog who fraudulently “predicted” an early spring says he has dismissed the charge. Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser says Punxsutawney Phil has a defense with teeth in it since the animal’s handler is taking the blame.
The Groundhog Day celebration about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh attracts worldwide attention each year. That stretched well beyond Feb. 2 when Gmoser last week issued an indictment as winter-like weather continued across much of the nation, even as spring began.
FLASHBACK: Phil faces death penalty over erroneous predictions
Gmoser says the tongue-in-cheek indictment generated a lot of attention, but he has a lot of “really serious work” to do and wanted to end things on a positive note.
Punxsutawney Phil's handler takes blame for faulty forecast
An Ohio prosecutor who has light-heartedly filed a criminal indictment against the famous Pennsylvania groundhog who fraudulently “predicted” an early spring said he may consider a pardon now that the animal’s handler is taking the blame.
That’s right, Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle, on Monday told The Associated Press that the animal rightly predicted six more weeks of winter last month, but Deeley mistakenly announced an early spring because he failed to correctly interpret Phil’s “groundhog-ese.”
“I’m the guy that did it; I’ll be the fall guy. It’s not Phil’s fault,” Deeley said.
As a result, Butler County, Ohio prosecutor, Mike Gmoser also told the AP he’s reconsidering the charges in light of the new evidence and may issue a full pardon.
“Frankly, he is a cute little rascal, a cute little thing,” Gmoser said, referring to Phil, not Deeley, his 63-year-old handler. “And if somebody is willing to step up to the plate and take the rap, I’m willing to listen.”
The Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, a borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, attracts worldwide attention each year. But the attention stretched well beyond Feb. 2 when Gmoser last week announced issued an indictment as winter-like weather continued across much of the nation even as Spring began.
“Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the people to believe that spring would come early,” Gmoser’s indictment said, before keeping his tongue firmly planted in his cheek by announcing plans to seek the death penalty.
Deeley tells the AP this is the second year in a row he’s misinterpreted Phil’s forecast.
“Remember, last year at this time it was 80 degrees and Phil had predicted six more weeks of winter,” Deeley said.
Under normal circumstances, Deeley’s interpretation of the forecast is infallible, as long as he clings to the gnarly, magical “Arcadian” cane while the rodent whispers the forecast into his ear. Deeley still doesn’t know what went wrong, but said the borough is nonetheless pleased to still be in the news more than six week later — “We couldn’t have generate this much publicity with a $10,000 ad campaign” — albeit with more snow on the ground canceling its local schools on Monday.
“Normally, this time of the year, nobody mentions our name so, good or bad, I guess they’re talking,” Deeley said. “This morning in bed I talked to a Philadelphia radio station.”
Extreme Weather Photos Of The Week
By The Huffington Post News Editors
This week brought several big headlines in extreme weather news:
- NOAA‘s recent “Seasonal Outlook” report predicts a spring full of droughts and floods in the U.S., Climate Central reported.
- Punxsutawney Phil was “indicted” for giving a bad prediction about an early spring and sentenced to death (but not really).
Read More…
More on Extreme Weather
Prosecutor files groundhog 'indictment'
HAMILTON, Ohio, March 22 (UPI) — An Ohio prosecutor has filed a tongue-in-cheek “indictment” against Punxsutawney Phil, accusing the groundhog of incorrectly predicting the weather.
Punxsutawney Phil 'indicted' over spring forecast
Famed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil might want to go back into hibernation.
Authorities in still-frigid Ohio have issued an “indictment” of the furry rodent, who predicted an early spring when he didn’t see his shadow after emerging from his western Pennsylvania lair on Feb. 2.
“Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the people to believe that spring would come early,” Mike Gmoser, the prosecutor in southwestern Ohio’s Butler County, wrote in an official-looking indictment.
Gmoser wrote that Punxsutawney Phil is charged with misrepresentation of spring, which constitutes a felony “against the peace and dignity of the state of Ohio.”
The penalty Phil faces? Gmoser says — tongue firmly in cheek — is death.
Punxsutawney Phil does not have a listed phone number.
Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney club that organizes Groundhog Day, said Phil has a lawyer and would fight any extradition attempt by Ohio authorities.
Deeley defended his fur-bearing associate and said the death penalty was “very harsh” given the nature of the allegations.
“We’ll have to plead our case one way or the other, but I think we can beat the rap,” Deeley said.
The vitriolic backlash on social media to Phil’s dead-wrong prognostication has not gone unnoticed in and around Gobbler’s Knob, Deeley said, and special security precautions were in place.
“Right next to where Phil stays is the police station,” he said. “They’ve been notified and they said they will keep watching their monitors.”
Winter has been dragging on in the Buckeye State and surrounding areas, with daily high temperatures this week hovering in the mid-30s and no end in sight for about 10 days, said Don Hughes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio.
A storm moving into the region Sunday could bring between 4 and 8 inches of snow, he said.
“It’s taking too long,” Hughes said, adding that he’s hearing plenty of complaints from colleagues and neighbors about the late spring. “Most people …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Betting the Kentucky Derby Future Pool
By Teresa Genaro, Contributor Early February brings Punxsutawney Phil, the Super Bowl, and a wagering opportunity that gets a little less attention than those two: the first round of the Kentucky Derby future pool. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Groundhogs split on spring predictions
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa., Feb. 2 (UPI) — Spring will arrive soon, that famous furry forecaster, Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog in Pennsylvania, indicated Saturday.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at UPI Odd News
Groundhog Day: Phil Predicts Early Spring
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Famous Groundhog Makes Prediction
Famous Groundhog Makes Prediction
AP
Close to 20,000 spectators turned out to watch Punxsutawney Phil make his annual weather forecast about the arrival of spring.What the furry prognosticator foresees …
Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL