Pipeline Politics: Keystone Is Dead (For Now). What Happens Next?

Chalk a win up for the environmentalists. On Wednesday, the White House announced that it was rejecting -- on the recommendation of the State Department -- the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would have brought 700,000 barrels a day of oil sands crude from western Canada into the U.S. In many ways the announcement -- forced by Congressional legislation passed late last year that required an expedited decision on the pipeline -- reinforces a move made by Obama in November to essentially kick the final decision on Keystone XL to 2013, after the Presidential election. But Congress forced Obama's hand, and left him little choice but to stop the pipeline for now, as the President made clear in a statement:

As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment. As a result, the Secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department's report, I agree.

So why did Obama and the State Department decide to reject the pipeline? And does this mean the Keystone issue has been settled once and for all? (MORE: Pipeline Politics: How an Oil Sands Pipeline Became Key to Environmentalism.)

While protesters like Bill McKibben have tried to make the case that allowing the pipeline to go forward would be disastrous for the climate because it would speed the development of oil sands, which have a bigger greenhouse gas footprint than conventional crude, there's little sign in the White House's public statements that preventing climate change was a main reason behind the decision. From the State Department's release:

Specifically, the Department called for an assessment of alternative pipeline routes that avoided the uniquely sensitive terrain of the Sand Hills in Nebraska. The Department estimated, based on prior projects of similar length and scope, that it could complete the necessary review to make a decision by the first quarter of 2013. In consultations with the State of Nebraska and TransCanada, they agreed with the estimated timeline.

While McKibben and his allies were able to build an impressive public movement against the pipeline -- a project most energy insiders thought was a done deal as recently as the fall -- it was concern over the local environmental impact of the pipeline in Nebraska and the upper Midwest that really galvanized opposition, rather than the larger issue of climate change. That's not a knock on the protest movement -- obviously they have concerns about the risk of pipeline safety and spills as well -- but it makes the Keystone decision less a climate victory than a victory for traditional environmental politics, as I wrote earlier.

But while building the pipeline would help Canada further develop its oil sands reserves, blocking the pipeline, even temporarily, doesn't mean Canadians will simply close up shop in Alberta. By some estimates all the crude in the oil sands is worth more than $15 trillion -- unless the price of oil suddenly plummets (unlikely) or policies are undertaken to artificially raise the cost of carbon-intensive fuels (also unlikely, at least now), I have a feeling the Canadians will find a way to keep pumping it and keep selling it. (MORE: Bienvenue au Canada: Welcome to Your Friendly Neighborhood Petrostate.)

Of course, to oil company executives and their allies in Congress, Obama's decision was a mistake no matter what his justification. Here's Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming:

His decision today is a victory for the few extreme environmental activists who have lined up to protest Keystone and a defeat for the tens of thousands of Americans who are lining up to find a Keystone job. The president chose to shore up his voting base instead of standing up for unemployed Americans.

A few things here: one, while the number of active protesters against Keystone may not be huge, neither was there overwhelming support for the pipeline. A poll by Rasmussen Reports at the end of 2011 found that 53% of Americans "somewhat favored" building the pipeline -- and that's coming from a polling service that tends to lean conservative. And then there are the job claims -- proponents of Keystone have claimed that the pipeline would create 20,000 temporary jobs in the U.S., and lead to hundreds of thousands of new jobs thanks to the lower oil prices that would result from all that Canadian oil sands lowering the price of crude. But Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations shows why those claims are ridiculous:

However, the first number refers to "person-years" of employment -- a single job that lasts two years is counted twice; and in any case, it pales compared with the overall U.S. employment challenge. The second number is more impressive but relies on an overly optimistic estimate of how much the pipeline would have reduced global oil prices. The administration's rejection of the pipeline will probably add less than a dollar a barrel to the long-term price of oil, hardly a decisive factor when prices are already around $100 per barrel.

Of course, there's little question that more Canadian oil production would trim world oil prices slightly and thus help the U.S. economy. But the net impact of the Keystone XL pipeline would have been smaller than its proponents claim.

So yes, building the pipeline would have employed some people -- just as any construction project would -- and Keystone would have facilitated the development of the oil sands, which means more oil on the market and slightly lower prices. But it's hardly an economic cure all -- and some of the conservative criticism ignores the fact that Obama has, for better or for worse, seen domestic oil and natural gas production increase under his watch. Keystone wouldn't have done much to reduce U.S. reliance on Middle Eastern oil either -- we buy oil from the world market, like everyone else, and our vulnerability has to do with the amount we're consuming, not where the oil comes out of the ground.

At the same time, the rejection or approval of the pipeline won't decide the fate of the climate alone, either. Yes it's true that the trillions of barrels of crude in the oil sands reserves represent a massive amount of carbon, and if we were to burn all of that carbon, it really would be, as James Hansen says, "game over" for the climate. But even at an accelerated rate it would take centuries to go through all that oil -- by which time we'll have had to deal with the impacts of global warming. Oil sands are a threat to the climate more because they're oil and less because they're somewhat dirtier than conventional crude.

The only way to prevent the carbon in oil from swamping the atmosphere is to vastly reduce the amount of oil we use, either through new technologies that allow us to use oil efficiently through the use of carbon-free alternative fuels or through policies that price the carbon in fossil fuels. Stopping Keystone isn't really going to do any of those things, unless it's simply part of a plan to stop all new oil development -- which, for many environmentalists, really is the aim.

All of which makes the Keystone battle more about symbolism then substance -- for both sides. And that's okay by me. Environmentalists deserve credit for flexing some political and popular muscle and putting Obama in a position where he couldn't afford to let the pipeline go forward -- though Congress, by fast-tracking the decision, inadvertently helped out. If that strategy isn't the one that will help build a vast new clean economy -- and I don't think it is -- that doesn't matter right now. As Rahm Emanuel once said, it helps to put "points on the board" in Washington -- and that's what McKibben and his allies did. You take your wins where you can get them.

That's my inexpert political analysis. But the battle over Keystone isn't over. TransCanada, the company that had been set to build the pipeline, has already said that it plans on reapplying for a permit, which today's ruling allows. Republicans in Congress have also vowed to try to take authority over the decision away from the White House, though that's unlikely to work with a still Democratic Senate. There are also other options to move crude from the oil sands, as Brad Plumer writes in the Washington Post:

One thing that's worth noting, however, is that even if the Keystone XL pipeline never comes to fruition, there are all sorts of ways for oil to get from Canada down to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Enbridge Inc. recently announced plans to reverse the flow on the Seaway pipeline between Oklahoma and Texas, which would achieve part of what the Keystone XL pipeline would've done. There are also a few other pipelines in the works, and oil companies could even start shipping by rail if they found it profitable to do so. As one analysis commissioned for the Energy Department noted, "It would take a total moratorium on new pipeline -- and also rail -- capacity" to stop the development of Canada's oil sands.

So don't think you're done reading about Keystone or oil sands. The oil industry has promised to make the pipeline an election year issue, and candidates like Newt Gingrich -- who called Obama's decision "stunningly stupid" -- will happily take that line of attack. Meanwhile greens have promised they'll keep up the fight, too, with a protest planned next week at the Capitol. The pipeline may be a symbol, but the lesson here is that symbols matter. 

Source: http://news.yahoo.com

Nieminen wins rain-delayed Sydney International

SYDNEY (AP)—Finnish qualifier Jarkko Nieminen won the Sydney International for his second ATP title, beating France’s Julien Benneteau 6-2, 7-5 on Sunday in the rain-delayed final.
Nieminen was making his 12th finals appearance, while Benneteau lost for the sixth straight time in a championship match. Nieminen, the first qualifier since Lee Hyung-taik in 2003 to win the event, also won the 2006 in Auckland.

“It was a bit strange starting the final so early, but I just tried to focus on every point and play my game,” Nieminen said. “It has been many years for me since my first title, but I never stopped believing in myself and working hard.”
Benneteau broke Nieminen’s service in the opening game, but that was the only time the Finnish left-hander lost his service in the match postponed by rain Saturday night.
Nieminen open the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday against former Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian. Benneteau will face Karol Beck on Tuesday.
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S&P, Greek standoff pressure euro zone to boost defenses

LONDON (Reuters) - Mass euro zone ratings downgrades are unlikely to shake up investors too much, but with Greek debt talks at an impasse, pressure has been loaded on the bloc to shore up its defenses and glimmers of optimism from last week have been firmly doused.

With the United States and Japan already downgraded from "AAA," the likes of France and Austria are in good company and Standard & Poor's ratings cuts had been flagged in December. Nonetheless, the upbeat tone that surrounded last week's strong Spanish bond auction now seems a distant memory.

"The euro zone crisis is now dominating market activity again, after a period in which better economic news from the U.S., and easier monetary policy in China had helped markets move higher," said Dominic Rossi, chief investment officer, equities, at Fidelity Worldwide Investment.

Shares in Asia fell more than 1 percent on Monday in reaction to the S&P downgrades and the euro hovered near a 17-month low against the dollar.

U.S. markets are closed for the Martin Luther King holiday, but the euro zone will not have to wait long for a test of investor appetite.

France will attempt to sell up to 8 billion euros of debt on Thursday and Spain will tap the market again after a successful bond auction last week where it raised twice as much as expected at lower borrowing costs.

Analysts put that success down to the flood of cheap 3-year money the European Central Bank pushed into the banking system in December. It will make the same offer in February, fostering hopes that it can avert a credit crunch and helped bolster struggling euro zone debt issuers to boot.

ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said on Sunday the central bank would do all it could to calm the situation after the downgrade.

"Everything that is within our possibilities will be done to bring about a relaxation (of the situation)," he said on television in Austria.

But the twin blows of the serial S&P downgrades and the stalled Greek bond swap talks have cast another pall of gloom. This time, Spain will try to sell longer-term debt, which could be tougher.

"While the market impact of the downgrades is unlikely to be very significant in the short term, they serve as a stark reminder that the euro area sovereign crisis is here to stay," analysts at RBS said. "We continue to expect the crisis to deepen eventually leading to further widening in spreads across countries vis-a-vis Germany."

After downgrading nine of the euro zone's 17 countries, S&P said it would decide shortly whether to do the same for the currency area's EFSF bailout fund. Ratings cuts for commercial banks are probably imminent too.

"Speculation around an EFSF downgrade will now grow, complicating its ability to raise capital and displace the ECB in the sovereign bond purchasing program," Rossi said. "Both the ECB and the IMF will get sucked further into central roles."

A senior euro zone official said the EFSF could retain its AAA rating with Standard & Poor's through higher guarantees from the euro zone's remaining triple A countries or lower lending capacity.

Still, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on German radio on Monday that German guarantees for the EFSF were sufficient.

Negotiations with the banks on a bond swap scheme designed to eat into Greece's colossal debts are expected to restart on Wednesday with Athens warning of catastrophe if they fall apart.

Without a deal, a planned 130 billion euro Greek bailout of which the bond swap is a vital part will be fundamentally holed, raising the prospect of default in March when massive bond payments are due. That, rather than the long-anticipated S&P downgrades, looks to be the bigger worry for investors.

"At this stage, there is a growing risk of a coercive rather than voluntary debt restructuring, even though the latter is still our base case," said Joachim Fels, economist at Morgan Stanley.

SENSE OF URGENCY

Euro zone leaders do seem to be gripped with a sense of urgency although they have failed for nearly three years to get on the top of the sovereign debt crisis born in Greece.

Rather than launch a broadside at S&P, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday said she and her fellow leaders must act more swiftly to impose common fiscal rules and get a permanent rescue fund up and running.

"Although nobody is excited about the S&P decision, the step may actually help to get a quick agreement on the fiscal compact," a German government official said.

While not expecting a euro zone break up, S&P blamed its leaders for focusing too much on cutting debts and not sufficiently on competitiveness and growth.

The ratings agency, and many economists, say austerity for its own sake will be self-defeating - deepening economic downturns and cutting government revenues needed to lower debt.

"Market participants are worried about a vicious circle in which they tighten, growth weakens, the deficits get bigger despite the efforts to tighten," said Jim O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The concerns were echoed by IMF Deputy Managing Director David Lipton, who said EU action was needed.

"Without.... action, Europe will be swept into a downward spiral of collapsing confidence, stagnant growth and fewer jobs," he said at a conference in Hong Kong on Monday.

Ahead of an EU summit on January 30 which will attempt to alight upon a growth strategy, shuttle diplomacy continues apace this week.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy sees Spain's Mariano Rajoy in Madrid on Monday. Italian premier Mario Monti visits Britain's David Cameron in London on Wednesday, then hosts Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Rome at the end of the week.

Aside from Greece it is Italy, facing massive bond repayments over the next three months, which poses the biggest threat to the euro zone. It was downgraded two notches by S&P.

"More than the moves on France and Austria, which are relatively symbolic and to a large extent reflected in prices already, the Italian downgrade might be key going forward," said Laurent Fransolet at Barclays Capital.

"Italy is at BBB+ now by S&P, but is on watch negative by Fitch and on negative outlook by Moody's and therefore some further downgrades are likely."

The more upbeat view is that, in the end, Europe's leaders will not allow the whole edifice to collapse, despite German and ECB reservations about many of the policy options. But even optimists say uncertainty will reign for some time.

"Some day the markets will wake up and see that Europe is not going to allow a collapse. If they get through the next six months, you can see the tide turning. Sentiment changes very rapidly," said John Fitzgerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute, a Dublin-based think tank, who also sits on the board of the Irish central bank.

Europe is the biggest threat to the global economy, JP Morgan's chief executive Jamie Dimon told German newspaper Die Welt's Sunday edition. "I thought Europe would muddle through. I still believe that," he was quoted as saying.

(Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke, Alex Smith, Nigel Stephenson, Robin Emmott, Jamie McGeever and Adrian Croft)

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Captain's conduct blasted as divers find more dead

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — The captain of a cruise liner that ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast faced accusations Sunday from authorities and passengers that he abandoned ship before everyone was safely evacuated and was showing off when he steered the vessel far too close to shore.

Divers searching the murky depths of the partially submerged Costa Concordia found the bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets, bringing the confirmed death toll to five. At least 15 people were still missing, including two Americans.

The recovered bodies were discovered at an emergency gathering point near the restaurant where many of the 4,200 on board were dining when the luxury liner struck rocks or a reef off the tiny island of Giglio. The Italian news agency ANSA reported the dead were an Italian and a Spaniard.

Still, there were glimmers of hope: The rescue of three survivors — a young South Korean couple on their honeymoon and a crew member brought to shore in a dramatic airlift some 36 hours after the grounding late Friday.

Meanwhile, attention focused on the captain, who was spotted by Coast Guard officials and passengers fleeing the scene even as the chaotic and terrifying evacuation was under way.

The ship's Italian owner, a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise lines, issued a statement late Sunday saying there appeared to be "significant human error" on the part of the captain, Francesco Schettino, "which resulted in these grave consequences."

Authorities were holding Schettino for suspected manslaughter and a prosecutor confirmed Sunday they were also investigating allegations the captain abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had escaped. According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison.

A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays, told the Associated Press they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship.

"The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off," said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.

"Normally the commander should only leave at the end," said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. "I did what I could."

Coast Guard officers later spotted Schettino on land as the evacuation unfolded. The officers urged him to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone was safely off the vessel, but he ignored them, Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo said.

Schettino insisted he didn't leave the liner early, telling Mediaset television that he had done everything he could to save lives. "We were the last ones to leave the ship," he said.

Questions also swirled about why the ship had navigated so close to the dangerous reefs and rocks that jut off Giglio's eastern coast, amid suspicions the captain may have ventured too close while carrying out a maneuver to entertain tourists on the island.

The ship's owner, Costa Crociere SpA, issued a statement late Sunday saying it was working with investigators to determine "precisely what went wrong aboard the Costa Concordia."

"While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship's master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences," the statement said. "The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain's judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures."

Residents of Giglio said they had never seen the Costa come so close to the dangerous "Le Scole" reef area.

"This was too close, too close," said Italo Arienti, a 54-year-old sailor who has worked on the Maregiglio ferry between Giglio and the mainland for more than a decade. Pointing to a nautical map, he drew his finger along the path the ship usually takes and the jarring one close to shore that it followed Friday.

The ship was a mere 150 yards (meters) from shore at the time of the grounding, ANSA quoted Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio as saying.

Schettino insisted he was twice as far out and said the ship ran aground because the rocks weren't marked on his nautical charts.

However, he did concede he was maneuvering the ship in "touristic navigation" — implying a route that was a deviation from the norm and designed to entertain the tourists.

"We were navigating approximately 300 meters (yards) from the rocks," he told Mediaset television. "There shouldn't have been such a rock. On the nautical chart it indicated that there was water deep below."

Costa captains have occasionally steered the ship near port and sounded the siren in a special salute, Arienti said. Such a nautical "fly-by" was staged last August, prompting the town's mayor to send a note of thanks to the commander for the treat it provided tourists who flock to the island, local news portal GiglioNews.it reported.

But Arienti and other residents said even on those occasions, the cruise ship always stayed far offshore, well beyond the reach of the "Le Scole" reefs.

"Every so often they would do a greeting, but not so close — far away, safely," said resident Giacomo Dannipale.

Douglas Ward, a cruise expert and author of the 2012 Berlitz guide to cruises, said the waters around Giglio are too shallow for such maneuvers.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said divers had recovered the so-called "black box," with the recording of the navigational details, from a compartment now under water, though no details were released.

Jorgen Loren, chairman of the Swedish Maritime Officer's Association, said the captain clearly deviated from the ship's intended route.

"It is remarkable because weather conditions were good and these cruise ships have the best and most modern technical equipment. All conditions were ideal," he said.

"These are well-known waters, ferries pass here every day going back and forward to the mainland," he said.

Meanwhile, rescue work continued into the night on the unsubmerged half of the Concordia, said firefighters spokesman Luca Cari. Sniffer dogs were being brought in, although it was unclear if they could adapt to working in an environment where the horizontal became the vertical, due to the 90-degree list of the ship.

Marini, the coast guard captain, held out hope there could still be survivors, perhaps holed up in the section still above water, or that some of the unaccounted passengers simply didn't report their safe arrival on land.

Earlier Sunday, a helicopter airlifted a cabin crew member from the capsized hulk just hours after South Korean honeymooners were rescued from their cabin when firefighters heard their screams.

A relative of the rescued crewman told reporters he had survived two nights in darkness and with his feet in water.

Besides the two dead discovered Sunday, the bodies of three other victims — two French passengers and a Peruvian crewman — were pulled out of the sea in the hours after the accident.

Survivors described a terrifying escape that was straight out of a scene from "Titanic." Many complained the crew didn't give them good directions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for all to be released.

"We were left to ourselves," pregnant French passenger Isabelle Mougin, who injured her ankle in the scramble, told the ANSA news agency.

Another French passenger, Jeanne Marie de Champs, said that faced with the chaotic scene at the lifeboats, she decided to take her chances swimming to shore.

"I was afraid I wouldn't make the shore, but then I saw we were close enough, I felt calmer," she told Sky News 24.

Coast Guard diver Majko Aidone, interviewed by Sky TG24 TV after his dive, explained that the first task after gaining access to a submerged space, is to tie down large floating objects, like mattresses, which could turn into dangerous obstacles.

Then, in hopes of alerting any survivors to their presence, "we make noise," he said.

Crews in dinghies climbed on board the exposed hull of the ship and touched it, near the site of the 160-foot-long (50-meter-long) gash where water flooded in and caused the ship to topple on its side.

Earlier Sunday, at a Mass held in Giglio's main church, which opened its doors to the evacuees Friday night, altar boys and girls brought up a life vest, a rope, a rescue helmet, a plastic tarp and some bread.

Don Lorenzo, the parish priest, told the faithful that he wanted to make this admittedly "different" offering to God as a memory of the tragedy.

"Our community, our island will never be the same," he said.

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JPMorgan disappoints; banks lead stocks lower

NEW YORK (AP) — A rare disappointing earnings report from JPMorgan Chase battered bank stocks on Friday and helped push the rest of the market lower. Rumors of imminent downgrades for the credit ratings of European governments drove the euro down and sent investors streaming into U.S. debt.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.96 points to close at 12,422.06, a drop of 0.4 percent. Markets were little changed late in the day after France's finance minister confirmed that Standard & Poor's had stripped the country of its AAA credit rating.

Before the market opened, JPMorgan said quarterly profit declined 23 percent from a year earlier, slightly worse than what analysts expected. The bank's stock lost 2 percent, and other large banks followed. Morgan Stanley fell 3 percent and Goldman Sachs 2 percent.

It was the first time JPMorgan missed Wall Street expectations since the final quarter of 2007, a period that includes the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. JPMorgan is widely considered one of the best-managed big banks. Traders figured that if JPMorgan had trouble as 2011 came to a close, the rest of the industry probably did, too.

"JPMorgan is the gold standard," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors. "So what happens to the banks that aren't quite as strong and aren't quite as well-managed?"

On trading desks, it's called the "cockroach theory," Orlando said. "You never see just one cockroach. If you see one, you know there's bound to be a lot more."

The euro slipped to its lowest level in 17 months after reports surfaced that S&P would downgrade European governments. After the markets closed in New York, S&P announced cuts for France, Austria, Italy and Spain.

The euro dropped 1.1 percent against the dollar to $1.27. Borrowing costs jumped for France, Italy and Spain, countries at the center of the region's debt crisis.

The dollar and U.S. Treasury prices rose as investors moved money into lower-risk assets. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 1.86 percent from 1.93 percent late Thursday.

S&P warned Dec. 5 that 15 countries that use the euro were at risk of downgrades, citing higher borrowing costs for top-rated governments and disagreements among European leaders.

A cut to France's credit rating may fail to push rates up for France because bond traders were prepared for it, said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

The danger is to the European rescue fund. France is the second-largest contributor to the fund behind Germany. Bond traders could respond to the French downgrade by raising borrowing costs for the rescue fund, in the expectation that its rating will be cut next.

"The knock-on effects are far more significant than the impact on France itself," LeBas said.

JPMorgan's results opened the earnings season for banks on a sour note. Though an increasing pace of earnings reports may help steer the markets over the coming days, Europe's debt crisis is likely to remain the focus.

In other trading, the S&P 500 index fell 6.41, or 0.5 percent to 1,289.09. The Nasdaq composite index fell 14.03, or 0.5 percent, to 2,710.67. Even with Friday's fall, all three indexes posted gains for the second straight week. The S&P 500 index is up 2.5 percent to start the year.

Among stocks making larger moves than the overall market Friday:

— Diamond Foods Inc., which makes Emerald Nuts, plunged 10 percent after The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors had opened a criminal inquiry into its financial practices. The Journal also reported that two large shareholders had dumped most of their stakes in the company.

— Safeway Inc., the grocery store chain, rose 1.8 percent. An analyst at Jefferies placed a "buy" rating on the stock on the expectation that the company will benefit from an improving job market, especially in California.

— Alpha Natural Resources fell 10 percent, the largest loss in the S&P 500. The coal company bought Massey Energy last year, and the Justice Department is considering whether to prosecute the people who ran Massey when its Big Branch mine exploded in 2010.

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Ship aground off Italy; 3 bodies found, 69 missing

The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground in the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. The luxury cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. The number of dead and injured is not yet confirmed Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo said. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) 

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Ruling over controversial pool sign stands

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A Cincinnati landlord who claimed a black girl's hair products clouded an apartment complex's swimming pool discriminated against the child by posting a poolside "White Only" sign, an Ohio civil rights panel said Thursday in upholding a previous finding.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission voted 4-0 against reconsidering its finding from last fall. There was no discussion.

The group found on Sept. 29 that Jamie Hein, who is white, violated the Ohio Civil Rights Act by posting the sign at a pool at the duplex where the teenage girl was visiting her parents.

The parents filed a discrimination charge with the commission and moved out of the duplex in the racially diverse city to "avoid subjecting their family to further humiliating treatment," the commission said in a release announcing its finding.

An investigation revealed that Hein in May posted on the gated entrance to the pool an iron sign that stated "Public Swimming Pool, White Only," the commission statement said.

Several witnesses confirmed that the sign was posted, and the landlord indicated that she posted it because the girl used chemicals in her hair that would make the pool "cloudy," according to the commission.

Hein told the commission she received the sign from a friend, and Ronnell Tomlinson, the commission's housing enforcement director, said at Thursday's hearing it was an antique. The sign says "Selma, Ala.," at the bottom, followed by the date "14 July 31."

The girl's father, Michael Gunn, in brief comments Thursday, described his shock last spring when venturing out for a lunch break by the pool.

"My initial reaction to seeing the sign was of shock, disgust and outrage," Gunn said. He also told the commission that his daughter was saddened months later to learn the reason they moved from the apartment complex "was in a way related to the color of her skin." Gunn declined to speak with reporters.

Hein's attorney, who informed the commission by email Wednesday that Hein would not attend the hearing, did not return phone and email messages Wednesday and Thursday from The Associated Press. A recording on Thursday said Hein's voicemail was full and could not accept messages.

"I was trying to protect my assets," she told the commission's housing enforcement director in a Sept. 27 interview.

Racial discrimination has particular resonance in Cincinnati, whose population is 45 percent black, far higher than the rest of Ohio, which is about 12 percent black. Surrounding Hamilton County is 26 percent black.

Cincinnati was the scene of race riots in April 2001 when police and demonstrators clashed in a blighted neighborhood following the shooting of a black suspect by police.

The commission's statement said that its investigation concluded that the posting of such a sign "restricts the social interaction between Caucasians and African-Americans and reinforces discriminatory actions aimed at oppressing people of color."

It still would be possible for the parties to reach a settlement overseen by the commission before any legal action is taken.

If those discussions don't bear fruit, the commission would issue a formal complaint and refer the matter to the Ohio attorney general's office, which would represent the commission's findings before an administrative law judge. That judge would determine any penalties, which could include a cease-and-desist order and punitive damages.

Any decision by the administrative judge could be appealed to Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in Cincinnati.

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Obama requests another $1.2 trillion to pay US costs

President Barack Obama has formally notified Congress of proposals for a $1.2 trillion (£782bn) rise in borrowing, risking another battle with Republicans.

In a letter, Mr Obama said "further borrowing is required to meet existing (spending) commitments".
Congress has 15 days to vote on the proposal, which would raise the debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion.
Last year the government came close to default in a row over the debt ceiling.
An uneasy truce between was agreed last year over long-term plans to reduce the nation's deficit.
Although the president is expected to be able to increase the debt ceiling, the issue will still give the Republicans more ammunition to claim Mr Obama is failing on deficit reduction.
Mr Obama hoped to increase the limit by 30 December, but the House and Senate requested a delay until they were back in session.
It meant that in order to pay its bills, the administration had to dip into its Exchange Stabilization Fund, a pot of money normally used by the US Treasury to maintain currency stability.
A Treasury official said other measures, such as suspending the daily reinvestments of assets in a government pension fund, may also be needed until the debt-limit increase is secured.
http://www.bbc.co.uk

Futures off ahead of factory, home price data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were lower on Tuesday as investors found little reason to make big bets in what was expected to be a light-volume session following the previous week's gains.

The S&P 500 has risen for four straight sessions and turned positive for the year on Friday. Improving economic data helped boost equities last week. The gains were amplified by the light pre-holiday trading.

Investors looked ahead to November Midwest manufacturing data, scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. EST as well as S&P/Case-Shiller home price data for October due at 9 a.m. EST and the December consumer confidence report at 10 a.m. EST.
Home prices are seen edging lower from the previous month, while the confidence reading is seen rising to 58.3 from 56.0.
The data comes after better-than-expected housing and jobless claims data last week that confirmed a slowly improving economy.
S&P 500 futures fell 3.1 points and below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures slipped 18 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were off 2 points.
Markets were flat globally following the long Christmas weekend, with European stocks dipping 0.01 percent.
Bank of America Corp is lagging behind major U.S. competitors in complying with new capital rules, leading the bank to consider even more asset sales, sources said. Shares of the Dow component edged 0.7 percent lower to $5.56 in premarket trading.

Sears Holdings Corp plans to close 100-120 Kmart and Sears full-line stores and sees its adjusted fourth-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization falling by more than half from a year ago.

Equities extended their gains to close out a fourth straight winning session on Friday after the strong economic data. In addition, investors hope Congressional approval of a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut will help boost growth in 2012.

(Reporting By Ryan Vlastelica; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)


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