SALISBURY POST
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2010 • 9A
W O R L D / N AT I O N
No injuries, oil after Gulf rig fire
Engineers remove cap from BP oil well; no more leaks expected NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Engineers removed a temporary cap that stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s blown-out well in mid-July. No more oil was expected to leak into the sea, but crews were standing by with collection vessels just in case. The cap was removed as a prelude to raising the massive piece of equipment underneath that failed to prevent the spill. The government wants to replace the failed blowout preventer first to deal with any pressure that is caused when a relief well BP has been drilling intersects the blown-out well. Once that intersection occurs sometime after Labor Day, BP is expected to use mud and cement to plug the blown-out well for good.
Israelis, Palestinians agree to work on outline of peace deal WASHINGTON (AP) — In an early sign of promise, Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged Thursday in a cordial first round of talks to keep meeting at regular intervals, aiming to nail down a framework for overcoming deep disputes and achieving lasting peace within a year.
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Boats spray down the oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on thursday. As their facilitator-in-chief, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to rise above the suspicion and skepticism that has blocked peace efforts for decades. “By being here today, you each have taken an important step toward freeing your peoples from the shackles of a history we cannot change,” she said. The eventual aim is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state beside a secure Israel.
Retailers report solid gains; worries about holidays remain NEW YORK (AP) — This year’s back-to-school season isn’t as big a bust for retailers as they feared — or as last year’s — but it’s not great either. Americans are spending only when the item and price are just right, according to August reports from major chains released Thursday that showed shoppers bought a little more than a year ago. Analysts expect stores will need to keep discounting to get shoppers to spend this fall and for the holiday season while they grapple with job worries and tight credit. “It’s a glimmer of hope that the numbers are coming in ahead of low expectations,” said Ken Perkins, president of research firm RetailMetrics. “But the back-to-school shopping season isn’t anything to get excited about. It means that Santa may not be dumping a huge lump of coal, but it sets up a very promotional holiday season.” Retailers that cautiously primed for a comeback five months ago as sales improved have been scaling back their hopes and making some tweaks to their merchandise again, analysts said. And stores will face more difficult comparisons starting this month because consumer spending had started ris-
ing by last September.
Goats rescued after 2 days on ledge of railway bridge above highway HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Two young goats wandered onto the thin ledge of a railroad bridge and spent nearly two days high above the ground until rescuers in a towering cherry picker plucked them from their perch. The rescue occurred Wednesday 60 feet above a little-trafficked rural roadway in southern Montana between Billings and Roundup, after a caller told the Rimrock Humane Society the goats were stranded on the 6-inch ledge. The young female animals weighing 25 and 35 pounds mostly stayed on the angled ledge, even though there was a wider surface area on a pillar just a few feet away. “The whole time, we thought they were going to fall off,” said Sandy Church, humane society president. “These guys are just babies.” Church said it wasn’t clear how the animals got into the predicament, but she speculated they wandered onto the ledge at night then froze when the sun rose and they discovered where they were.
ATLANTA (AP) — Could your kitchen at home pass a restaurant inspection? New research suggests that at least one in seven home kitchens would flunk the kind of health inspection commonly administered to restaurants. The small study from California’s Los Angeles County found that only 61 percent of home kitchens would get an A or B if put through the rigors of a restaurant inspection. At least 14 percent would fail — not even getting a C. “I would say if they got below a C, I’m not sure I would like them to invite me to dinner,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. In comparison, nearly all Los Angeles County restaurants — 98 percent — get A or B scores each year. The study, released Thursday, is believed to be one of the first to offer an assessment of food safety in private homes. The results were based not on actual inspections, but on an Internet quiz taken by about 13,000 adults. So it’s hard to use it for comparing conditions.
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GRAND LAKE, Colo. (AP) — A toddler was injured Thursday after being trampled by a moose in north-central Colorado. The Grand County sheriff’s office said the child was flown to Children’s Hospital in Denver. A female moose ran over the child, who is about 3, and kept running. It was unclear whether the moose was charging at the child or running for some other reason.
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An oil platform exploded and burned off the Louisiana coast Thursday, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. This time, the Coast Guard said there was no leak, and no one was killed. The Coast Guard initially reported that an oil sheen a mile long and 100 feet wide had begun to spread from the site of the blast, about 200 miles west of the source of BP’s massive spill. But hours later, Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said crews were unable to find any spill. The company that owns the platform, Houstonbased Mariner Energy, did not know what caused the fire. Mariner Energy’s Patrick Cassidy said he considered the incident a fire, not an explosion. “The platform is still intact and it was just a small portion of the platform that appears to be burned,” he said. Mariner officials said there were seven active production wells on the platform, and they were shut down shortly before the fire broke out. Photos from the scene showed at least five ships floating near the platform. Three of them were shooting great plumes of water onto the machinery. Light smoke could be seen. The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Louisiana’s Vermilion Bay. Its location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP’s well spewed oil and gas for three months. All 13 of the platform’s crew members were rescued. They were found huddled together in life jackets. The captain of a boat that was 25 miles away when it received a distress call said the workers were holding hands in the water when they were rescued.
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Airport luggage thief may have hundreds of victims Airport spokeswoman Deborah Ostreicher said airport security is why Hegstad was caught. She said passengers should always keep valuables with them, rather than in checked baggage.
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each of theft, drug possession and trafficking stolen property. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 1. King and Stacy Legg King, 39, were arrested in November after a Phoenix police officer said he saw Keith King walk into the airport, take a piece of luggage and leave. Authorities found hundreds of other bags in his home after following him there. Stacy Legg King was sentenced to 31⁄2 years in prison last month after she pleaded guilty to theft, trafficking in stolen property and a dangerous drug violation. Martos said the airport thefts should not worry passengers too much. “We don’t feel there’s necessarily a concern,” he said. “This is a contracted employee who passed a background check. Now he’s detained and arrested, so it’s not something that necessarily happens on a daily basis.”
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frame in which the items were taken. “There could very well be hundreds of victims from across the country and across the globe,” Martos said. Police plan to itemize all the goods, which include electronics, figure out a timeline of when the items were taken, and set up a hotline next week for potential victims to call. Police said Hegstad was not employed with Sky Harbor, but was working as a contract employee with Carrollton, Texas-based Elite Line Services and passed a background check before being hired. A message left at the company was not returned. Meanwhile, a man accused of stealing up to 1,000 luggage bags from Sky Harbor in an unrelated case has pleaded guilty to five charges stemming from the thefts. Keith King, 62, pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of burglary, and one count
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PHOENIX (AP) — A man who worked at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was arrested Thursday on suspicion that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of items from the luggage of passengers in a case that could include hundreds of victims from around the world. Officers saw Michael Hegstad, 23, take two boxes from a luggage conveyor belt and take out their contents on Aug. 26. He was taken into custody and admitted to repeatedly removing personal belongings from baggage, police Sgt. Steve Martos said Thursday. It was unclear whether Hegstad yet had a lawyer, and he was in the process of being booked into jail. Officers have retrieved a large amount of stolen personal items with an estimated value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and say it will take some time to find all the victims involved and the time
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