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High Lake Michigan levels helping Port of Green Bay keep up with demand Fox11online.com
The nation’s ports continue to rebound from a spring slowdown, as officials from the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) and the Port of New York and New Jersey posted strong cargo volume reports this week.
In Georgia, officials said the ports are on track for a record-setting September following a strong August, when cargo volume through GPA hit an all-time high. GPA is projecting 5% volume growth this month, with the Port of Savannah expected to move 400,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and the inland Appalachian Regional Port (ARP) projecting a similar performance to August, when volumes nearly doubled.
GPA officials said the growth is unexpected, but they credited the port’s planning and development efforts as keys to supporting it. The port is undergoing expansion projects at both ARP and the Port of Savannah, including enhancements to the Mason Mega Rail terminal in Savannah.
“The ARP and our Mason Mega Rail project are both examples of GPA’s proactive approach to planning, development, and completion of projects well ahead of demand,” said GPA Board Chairman Will McKnight. “Clearly, our ability to handle additional volumes related to exponential increases in e-commerce and a renewed demand for American-made export products is helping to produce these positive numbers.”
This week, GPA approved adding six new container storage bays at ARP, totaling 230 TEU slots to handle additional demand at the inland terminal. The added bays will increase annual capacity by 15,000 TEUs and is slated to be complete by the end of the year, officials said. GPA’s ongoing Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is 75% complete and its Mason Mega Rail Terminal project, which includes the addition of 18 working tracks and rail-mounted gantry cranes, is 50% complete.
Separately, officials at the Port of New York and New Jersey reported record-setting volume for August on Wednesday. Total monthly volume reached 688,365 TEUs, a 1.3% increase over the same period a year ago. Imports rose 7% during the month and exports fell nearly 5%. Year-to-date, imports were down nearly 5% and exports were down nearly 9%. Rail volume increased across the board, however, rising nearly 9% compared to the year-ago period and rising 1.4% year-to-date, officials said.
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Port Houston Community Grant Award Recipients Announced | Business Valdosta Daily Times
From KPBS and PRX, "Port of Entry" brings you cross-border stories that connect us.
If you were already a subscriber, the transition should be seamless for you. Just be sure to make a mental note of our new logo and name so you can find us when you need to.
For the rest of you who haven’t become loyal listeners yet, you can subscribe at www.portofentrypod.org, on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.
And if you have any border stories you’d like to share, we’d love to hear them. Call or text anytime: (619) 452-0228.
What images pop into your brain when you think about the border?
caravans of migrants…
kids in cages
maybe just the big steel fence itself?
BEAT
I think about those things, too. But I also think about a lot of people I love.
I think of my family
Dad/mom/grandparents super quick clip here?
I think of my friends….
Quick clip with Rick here?
I think of a hybrid culture that blurs the lines between us and gives birth to amazing creativity.
Like the binational, bilingual hip hop band I’m in.
Alan records clip with band here
I think of belonging, and identity, and how the labels we put on each other - mexican, american, foreign, local - aren’t always so… neat.
Ita Clip Here
Hi. I’m Alan Lilenthal, host of Port of Entry. And the border is my home.
BEAT
People like me with work and family on both sides of the border, we have to keep on crossin’ -- pandemic or not. It’s just part of who we are and how we live.
In Port of Entry, we tell stories about people like us. Gente fronteriza...y sus historias viviendo con la linea.
CLIP: BLACK LIVES MATTERS NAT
We’ve got stories about how the Black Lives Matter movement crossed the border.
CLIP: DENIS
Stories about dual citizens who vote on both sides of the border.
CLIP: OLIVIA
Stories about a mom who crosses to buy cheaper insulin to keep her diabetic son alive.
CLIP: ERIN
Stories about a guy who fell in and out of love with Tijuana, a city stuck in a constant battle with cartel violence.
CLIP: TONY
And a recurring series on music from both sides of the border.
CLIP: JORGE
Only Here is now Port of Entry.
From KPBS and PRX, we’ll be bringing you cross-border stories... that connect us.
If you were already a subscriber, the transition should be seamless for you.
Just be sure to make a mental note of our new logo and name so you can find us when you need to.
For the rest of you border dwellers who haven’t become loyal listeners yet….you can subscribe at port of entry pod dot org, on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.
And….if you have any border stories you’d like to share...we’d love to hear them. Call or text anytime: (619) 452-0228.
Robert Baratheon
HBOIf you're not a fan of how Game of Thrones panned out, it seems author George R.R. Martin isn't 100 percent satisfied with the HBO show either. He's now picked out his least favorite scene -- and it's not from the disappointing season 8.
"Where we really fell down in terms of budget was my least favorite scene in the entire show, in all eight seasons: King Robert goes hunting," Martin told James Hibberd for Hibberd's new book, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, a behind-the-scenes dive into the show.
"Four guys walking on foot through the woods carrying spears and Robert is giving Renly shit. In the books, Robert goes off hunting, we get word he was gored by a boar, and they bring him back and he dies."
Martin pointed out how the season 1 scene would've played out with a bigger budget. While final episodes of the show reportedly cost $15 million each, debut season episodes were in the $6 million ballpark.
"So I never did [a hunting scene]. But I knew what a royal hunting party was like. There would have been a hundred guys. There would have been pavilions. There would have been huntsmen. There would have been dogs. There would have been horns blowing -- that's how a king goes hunting! He wouldn't have just been walking through the woods with three of his friends holding spears hoping to meet a boar. But at that point, we couldn't afford horses or dogs or pavilions."
Here's a look at the low-key hunting scene.
Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon will be released Tuesday, Oct. 6 and is currently available for preorder.
The solar panels on the trash skimmer to be purchased by the Port of Corpus Christi will allow the device to remove trash 24 hours, seven days a week in the Salt Flats Ditch. Courtesy photo
A solar-powered trash skimmer project by the Port of Corpus Christi won recognition and money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Three grants totaling $1.4 million were awarded to the port, the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, and the American Bird Conservancy during a virtual news conference Sept. 16.
The EPA Trash-Free Waters program has issued 17 grants for a total of $7.8 million to organizations in Gulf of Mexico states.
“One of the major water issues is marine litter,” said EPA regional administrator Ken McQueen. “The groups we honor today are raising public awareness of the challenge of marine litter, and they are involving their communities in solving it.”
The Trash Free Water grants are divided among the three groups:
• Port Corpus Christi, $471,324
• Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries, $422,857
• American Bird Conservancy, $499,733
The port’s grant money will pay for a mobile trash skimming device for the Salt Flats Ditch, a natural discharge accumulation point for removing municipal trash. The trash that runs off into the ditch enters the Corpus Christi Ship Channel and then the Gulf of Mexico.
Using solar panels to power it, the trash skimmer runs 24/7 collecting trash before it can continue downstream.
Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries will expand its Up2U litter prevention program from the headwaters of the Nueces basin to six counties and 10 watersheds in the Coastal Bend. The program distributed yellow mesh bags for picking up and disposing of marine litter at collection points and cleanup events.
The American Bird Conservancy is launching an educational outreach campaign along with a website to collect data and engage the public.
Find more articles like this in News
The victim was able to wrestle the gun away from Blue, who claimed to be a police officer, the Bulletin reported. The victim also claimed Blue stabbed him with a knife, the newspaper reported. The victim then said he took control of the knife and believed he stabbed Blue before the assailant fled the scene.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde set the scene on Wednesday for a change of strategy that could align the ECB with the U.S. Federal Reserve, possibly including a commitment to let inflation overshoot after it has been low for too long.
Inflation in the euro zone has missed the ECB’s target of “below but close to 2%” for more than seven years, despite increasingly aggressive stimulus from the central bank, which has pushed its main interest rate below zero and bought more than 3 trillion euros ($3.51 trillion) worth of assets.
In her first update on the ECB’s current review of its strategy, Lagarde also raised the idea that the ECB might in future focus on achieving that elusive goal more quickly.
The ECB is widely expected to follow in the footsteps of the Fed, which said last month it would aim for inflation of 2% on average, so that periods when prices grow too slowly can be compensated for with faster increases at another time.
“If credible, such a strategy can strengthen the capacity of monetary policy to stabilise the economy when faced with the lower bound,” Lagarde told an event in Frankfurt called ‘The ECB and its Watchers’.
French central bank chief Francois Villeroy de Galhau added that the ECB’s aim is already not too different from that of the U.S. central bank and should produce similar results.
“Our inflation objective, being symmetric and medium-term -- if credibly, I stress credibly, symmetric and medium-term -- would probably achieve similar outcomes ex-post to flexible average inflation targeting,” Villeroy said.
Unlike the Fed, which has a dual role of achieving maximum employment and stable prices, the ECB’s sole goal is price stability over an unspecified “medium term”.
But Lagarde called this mandate “hierarchical”, arguing that a flexible definition of medium term allowed it to avoid tightening policy and “unnecessarily constricting jobs and growth” in case of a temporary shock.
On the other hand, the ECB’s persistent failure to meet the inflation target could feed into inflation expectations and would therefore “call for a shorter policy horizon”.
Both arguments would imply that the ECB needs to continue or even ramp up its aggressive stimulus policy as inflation is expected to lag its target for years to come.
Lagarde said the ECB needed to keep track of housing costs, which have risen in richer euro zone countries such as Germany, while also complementing its analysis with measures of core inflation and indicators of financial stability.
Speaking at the same event, German ECB policymaker Jens Weidmann seemed to pour cold water on too ambitious a review of its mission.
“We should also pay close attention to how we interpret our mandate,” the Bundesbank president said. “The more widely we interpret our mandate, the greater the risk that we will become entangled with politics and overburden ourselves with too many tasks.”
The review resumed this month after a six-month break due to the coronavirus pandemic and is expected to last a year, although updates on the new definition of the ECB’s inflation objective could come much sooner.
Editing by Alison Williams and Catherine Evans
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde set the scene on Wednesday for a change of strategy that could align the ECB with the U.S. Federal Reserve, possibly including a commitment to let inflation overshoot after it has been low for too long.
Inflation in the euro zone has missed the ECB’s target of “below but close to 2%” for more than seven years, despite increasingly aggressive stimulus from the central bank, which has pushed its main interest rate below zero and bought more than 3 trillion euros ($3.51 trillion) worth of assets.
In her first update on the ECB’s current review of its strategy, Lagarde also raised the idea that the ECB might in future focus on achieving that elusive goal more quickly.
The ECB is widely expected to follow in the footsteps of the Fed, which said last month it would aim for inflation of 2% on average, so that periods when prices grow too slowly can be compensated for with faster increases at another time.
“If credible, such a strategy can strengthen the capacity of monetary policy to stabilise the economy when faced with the lower bound,” Lagarde told an event in Frankfurt called ‘The ECB and its Watchers’.
French central bank chief Francois Villeroy de Galhau added that the ECB’s aim is already not too different from that of the U.S. central bank and should produce similar results.
“Our inflation objective, being symmetric and medium-term -- if credibly, I stress credibly, symmetric and medium-term -- would probably achieve similar outcomes ex-post to flexible average inflation targeting,” Villeroy said.
Unlike the Fed, which has a dual role of achieving maximum employment and stable prices, the ECB’s sole goal is price stability over an unspecified “medium term”.
But Lagarde called this mandate “hierarchical”, arguing that a flexible definition of medium term allowed it to avoid tightening policy and “unnecessarily constricting jobs and growth” in case of a temporary shock.
On the other hand, the ECB’s persistent failure to meet the inflation target could feed into inflation expectations and would therefore “call for a shorter policy horizon”.
Both arguments would imply that the ECB needs to continue or even ramp up its aggressive stimulus policy as inflation is expected to lag its target for years to come.
Lagarde said the ECB needed to keep track of housing costs, which have risen in richer euro zone countries such as Germany, while also complementing its analysis with measures of core inflation and indicators of financial stability.
Speaking at the same event, German ECB policymaker Jens Weidmann seemed to pour cold water on too ambitious a review of its mission.
“We should also pay close attention to how we interpret our mandate,” the Bundesbank president said. “The more widely we interpret our mandate, the greater the risk that we will become entangled with politics and overburden ourselves with too many tasks.”
The review resumed this month after a six-month break due to the coronavirus pandemic and is expected to last a year, although updates on the new definition of the ECB’s inflation objective could come much sooner.
Editing by Alison Williams and Catherine Evans
Strategic initiatives and investment in operational improvements are the Port of Oakland’s solutions to post-pandemic business recovery and future growth. That is the message the Port's maritime director delivered to the Pacific Trade Association at its Zoom meeting this month.
“We are determining our strategic initiatives right now,” said Port of Oakland maritime director Bryan Brandes. "We're continuing to spend and invest a fair amount into Port facilities to ensure that we're set up for the future."
The Port of Oakland is considering an ‘only-port-of-call' express service. It is also looking into focusing on rail within the western states, both short-haul, and into the U.S. interior as an opportunity for moving more cargo through the Port.
According to Brandes, the Port of Oakland is expecting a slight decrease in Oakland’s overall cargo volume in 2020 due to the pandemic but expects that to pick up in future years. Brandes is optimistic about Oakland’s maritime business and welcomed input from attendees as the Port continues to shape its strategy.
Fifteen transportation related infrastructure and software projects are being built in Oakland. Together they make up the Freight Intelligence Transportation System (FITS). “It’s a combined effort with the Alameda County Transportation Commission, the Port and the City,” said Brandes. “The new system will improve security, safety and the customer experience for those who are involved with the Port.”
A long-term project at the Port of Oakland is the redevelopment of the former Oakland Army Base. The Seaport Logistics Complex (SLC) encompasses the Port’s part of the former base. CenterPoint Landing is the first construction project at the SLC. The 466,000-square-foot warehouse is on 27 acres and will soon be completed.
Three, new, huge container cranes are coming into Oakland International Container Terminal (OICT) later this fall. These will be the tallest cranes Oakland has ever had at 442 feet as measured with the boom at rest, pointed skyward (301 feet at the apex). TraPac terminal operators at Oakland also have plans to either raise cranes or bring in new, bigger cranes next year, Brandes said.
Brandes highlighted the Port’s Seaport Air Quality 2020 and Beyond Plan, “This is the Port’s plan on how it’s going to sustainably grow its cargo business while at the same time be responsible to the surrounding communities regarding air quality, truck traffic control, and providing local jobs.”
The Port is continuing its negotiations with the Oakland A’s regarding a proposed baseball stadium at Howard Terminal. The project includes a residential development next to the stadium. It requires multiple approvals before it can be formally considered by the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners.
Port officials say they are committed to the growth of container cargo volume. If the ballpark project goes through, the Port plans to ensure that it does not impede maritime activities.
Brandes emphasized that the Port’s investment in its facilities is a clear sign that the Port will be improving its infrastructure in ways that support maritime growth in Oakland.
Jacqueline Smith may not be a household name – yet – but the Hudson County music scene has come to know and rely on her savvy, enthusiasm and dedication, thanks to JC Music Scene, the brand through which she shares information and foments participation on social media.
On Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, throughout the day and into each night, Smith posts news about upcoming events, recent releases, playlists, artist profiles and more.
It’s become her passion and her mission.
“I come from a media planning background, which is the very business-oriented side of the advertising business,” Smith explained. “It’s a lot of numbers and data management, and I don’t really consider myself much of a numbers person. I worked for seven or eight years in that industry and I just kept feeling unfulfilled.”
When cutbacks resulted in her losing her last job, the Jersey City resident made the decision to move forward and try something that spoke to her more.
“I was trying to figure out what I could do that would make me happier,” she said.
An opportunity came along to work part-time from home doing social media for a jewelry company.
“It was cool to have a chance to explore that world, it was new to me and exciting,” Smith said. “But it was difficult to transition within an industry. People questioned why I wanted to work in social media when that hadn’t been my background. So finally I just decided to pick a project and prove my value, and that turned out to be JC Music Scene.”
The idea of creating a networking web presence for a local music scene seemed like both a viable opportunity that could lead to a paying career, but also something that would feed the soul.
“I like working with people, I like being creative, I like music, I like the arts,'' she said. "So that all became part of how I got into it.”
Smith made it clear that she still has a day job that pays the bills, but JC Music Scene takes up much of the rest of her time, even more so since the COVID pandemic shut down the economy and made it impossible to network at shows and venues.
“I sound like I’m a crazy person when I talk about it, but I am always crawling through my social media feed every day, looking for shows, looking for bands, looking for information,” she said. “If someone follows my page and if they’re an artist, they’re in this general area, if they’re a local business, I follow them back. I make sure I’m keeping tabs on my audience, and that’s how I know so much of what’s going on.”
Besides reposting links to events, virtual performances, and even short profiles of local musicians, Smith compiles a New Music Friday playlist every week with links to the music she’s discovered. In so doing, she’s been able to bring together electronic artists and DJs, the hip-hop underground, and indie-rock artists in a way that’s never been accomplished before.
“I’ve been talking to people recently and I’ve realized that we’re in a very fortunate position in Jersey City because there have been ways here to do some live music, like at the Harsimus cemetery or some of the sidewalk shows that have been going on,” Smith said. “If you talk to musicians from Brooklyn and Manhattan, there’s not the same opportunities, not yet and not to the same magnitude. So even though it feels tiny what we’re doing, there is a small, opportunity here that is being capitalized on, which is insane to me. I feel very grateful to be a part of it.”
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Startup Scene: How her haircare business is expanding - Bizwomen The Business JournalsFRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde set the scene on Wednesday for a change of strategy that could align the ECB with the U.S. Federal Reserve, possibly including a commitment to let inflation overshoot after it has been low for too long.
Inflation in the euro zone has missed the ECB’s target of “below but close to 2%” for more than seven years, despite increasingly aggressive stimulus from the central bank, which has pushed its main interest rate below zero and bought more than 3 trillion euros ($3.51 trillion) worth of assets.
In her first update on the ECB’s current review of its strategy, Lagarde also raised the idea that the ECB might in future focus on achieving that elusive goal more quickly.
The ECB is widely expected to follow in the footsteps of the Fed, which said last month it would aim for inflation of 2% on average, so that periods when prices grow too slowly can be compensated for with faster increases at another time.
“If credible, such a strategy can strengthen the capacity of monetary policy to stabilise the economy when faced with the lower bound,” Lagarde told an event in Frankfurt called ‘The ECB and its Watchers’.
French central bank chief Francois Villeroy de Galhau added that the ECB’s aim is already not too different from that of the U.S. central bank and should produce similar results.
“Our inflation objective, being symmetric and medium-term -- if credibly, I stress credibly, symmetric and medium-term -- would probably achieve similar outcomes ex-post to flexible average inflation targeting,” Villeroy said.
Unlike the Fed, which has a dual role of achieving maximum employment and stable prices, the ECB’s sole goal is price stability over an unspecified “medium term”.
But Lagarde called this mandate “hierarchical”, arguing that a flexible definition of medium term allowed it to avoid tightening policy and “unnecessarily constricting jobs and growth” in case of a temporary shock.
On the other hand, the ECB’s persistent failure to meet the inflation target could feed into inflation expectations and would therefore “call for a shorter policy horizon”.
Both arguments would imply that the ECB needs to continue or even ramp up its aggressive stimulus policy as inflation is expected to lag its target for years to come.
Lagarde said the ECB needed to keep track of housing costs, which have risen in richer euro zone countries such as Germany, while also complementing its analysis with measures of core inflation and indicators of financial stability.
Speaking at the same event, German ECB policymaker Jens Weidmann seemed to pour cold water on too ambitious a review of its mission.
“We should also pay close attention to how we interpret our mandate,” the Bundesbank president said. “The more widely we interpret our mandate, the greater the risk that we will become entangled with politics and overburden ourselves with too many tasks.”
The review resumed this month after a six-month break due to the coronavirus pandemic and is expected to last a year, although updates on the new definition of the ECB’s inflation objective could come much sooner.
Editing by Alison Williams and Catherine Evans
The final episodes of “Game of Thrones” reportedly cost around $15 million each, a huge sum by television standards that puts the final season of the HBO blockbuster series at a $90 million budget. Compare that to the show’s debut season, where each episode cost roughly $6 million, and one gets a sense at just how massive “Thrones” became over its eight-season run. The show’s first season episode budget was far from cheap, but it wasn’t big enough to fully satisfy creator George R.R. Martin. The “Thrones” author reveals in the new book “Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon” (via EW) that a lack of budget contributed to his least favorite scene in the show’s history.
“Where we really fell down in terms of budget was my least favorite scene in the entire show, in all eight seasons: King Robert goes hunting,” Martin said. “Four guys walking on foot through the woods carrying spears and Robert is giving Renly shit. In the books, Robert goes off hunting, we get word he was gored by a boar, and they bring him back and he dies. So I never did [a hunting scene].”
Martin continued, “But I knew what a royal hunting party was like. There would have been a hundred guys. There would have been pavilions. There would have been huntsmen. There would have been dogs. There would have been horns blowing — that’s how a king goes hunting! He wouldn’t have just been walking through the woods with three of his friends holding spears hoping to meet a boar. But at that point, we couldn’t afford horses or dogs or pavilions.”
The hunting scene as depicted in the first season is a small affair, but viewers would’ve been treated to a more epic hunting party had the budget for the series bit a bit bigger from the get go. The show stayed in the $6-million-per-episode ballpark for much of its run. Starting in Season 6, the episode budget rose to $10 million.
“Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon” will be released Tuesday, October 6 and tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of “Game of Thrones.” Author James Hibberd spoke with Martin, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and all of the show’s cast members to get a complete look at how “Thrones” was created, produced, and released.
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Port looks at modernizing terminals, services | News | goskagit.com goskagit.com[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Officials on scene of Savannah Highway wreck ABC NEWS 4BY BOB KRASNER
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Suspected arson at the scene of double homicide KSLA[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Man who called cops on hockey fans resided next to murder scene months before Tampa Bay Times
GALVESTON
The Port of Galveston will install touchless bathroom fixtures, Plexiglas sneeze guards, air purifiers and infrared sterilizers in its two cruise terminals as measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19.
The Galveston Wharves Board of Trustees on Tuesday unanimously voted to spend $94,000 for the upgrades to the cruise terminals. The port will pay for the costs of the upgrades and doesn’t plan to split the costs with the three cruise companies that operate from the port.
In a separate vote, the wharves board, which governs the port, also approved a resolution urging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to come to a quick decision about what rules cruise companies and ports will have to follow to get back to business after a pandemic-induced hiatus that has left the industry badly listing.
A new announcement about the federal government’s plans to allow cruises to resume could come as soon as today. Late Tuesday afternoon, Axios, a Washington-based online news website, reported that a no-sail order would be extended to Oct. 31, the same day the cruise industry’s voluntary shutdown is scheduled to end.
The decision was influenced by the White House, which overruled a push by CDC Director Robert Redfield to ban cruises until February 2021, according to Axios.
Although the industry and federal health officials haven’t announced a date for cruises to resume, the safety enhancements to the Port of Galveston terminals would be fairly simple to accomplish and should be completed before the restart of cruising from Galveston and other U.S. ports., Port Director Rodger Rees said
“What we’re doing is making our buildings a lot more safe,” Rees said. “We’re trying to minimize the spread through the whole terminal, so we’re upgrading.”
More than 900,000 cruise passengers passed through the port’s terminals in 2019.
The port will install touchless faucets and door openers in bathrooms and install Plexiglas barriers in places where cruise passengers will be face to face with ticket-takers, security guards and other employees, Rees said. The port also will install self-cleaning devices on escalator handrails and elevator buttons, officials said.
The port has enough money to pay for the upgrades, largely through cargo business and revenues that were generated before the pandemic shut down the cruise industry.
Cruise ships haven’t sailed from the Port of Galveston since March because of a series of no-sail orders issued by the CDC and voluntarily postponements by the U.S. cruise industry. The CDC’s latest no-sail order ends today, but the cruise industry already has canceled all of its cruises through the end of October.
Disney Cruise Line, which operates seasonal cruises out of the Port of Galveston, has delayed the start of its sailings from the island until the middle of December at the earliest, officials announced in September.
The upgrades approved by the wharves board Tuesday offer some idea about what the cruise terminals will look like when passengers return, but more details about procedures and requirements cruise companies will be expected to use when cruises resume haven’t been released.
Earlier this month, a group of cruise companies representing large segments of the cruise industry told the CDC they would require mandatory COVID-19 testing of all cruise and passengers ahead of all cruise departures. Royal Caribbean Cruises, however, split from the larger industry group in its own comments to the CDC, saying it was willing to test all crew members and simply screen passengers for symptoms and exposure to COVID-19 as they board ships.
Other details, such as what procedures a cruise ship will be required to take should it return to Galveston with COVID-19 infected passengers also haven’t been finalized. A situation such as a mass quarantine would depend on agreements between cruise companies and medical providers and not necessarily involve the port or port property, Rees said.
Rees trusts that safety procedures would be published and shared before cruises resume, he said.
“I can’t imagine it’s in anybody’s best interests for there to be mysteries,” Rees said. “I think really what’s happening is that the cruise lines will be the ones putting in place procedures for the quarantining. There will have to be parts of terminals that will have to be available areas for quarantining and for examining passengers if they come in with symptoms.”
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HOUSTON – Two suspects are in custody Tuesday afternoon after Houston police responded to a reported assault and one suspect fled the scene in a car. Police chased the woman through the Katy area for about 25 minutes.
Shortly after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Houston police received reports of an assault in progress near the intersection of Kuykendahl Road and West Rankin Road, according to Lt. Bridget Lummus. A man and woman were at the scene, along with two victims who reported that they’d been pistol-whipped, Lummus said.
“As officers arrived, the female jumped in a vehicle and she took off and a chase ensued," Lummus said in a press conference Monday afternoon.
Several HPD units pursued the woman driving a white KIA sedan for about 25 minutes and Lummus said she wasn’t driving erratically or at very high speeds. The chase was on I-10 westbound and she took the exit near Highway 6. She then evaded police and made a U-turn but was finally stopped and taken into custody.
Lummus said the female suspect faces a felony charge of evading in a motor vehicle. The man she was with was also taken into custody and faces an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge.
Police say when authorities arrived, the male suspect threw the firearm over a fence but authorities have since recovered it.
Officials didn’t reveal the identities of the two suspects or their victims.
Earhart swivel bar stools by New Orleans maker Doorman Designs, in a kitchen by New Orleans-based designer Sherry Shirah.
Jacqueline Marque“We gained so much prominence from such a terrible event,” Joshi-Gupta says, “but now, our design remains in the spotlight. Like India, where I was born, people here embrace very bold design choices, particularly vibrant color—green, in every shade.”
“We are always incorporating with our tropical nature here,” agrees Sara Ruffin Costello, interior designer, author, and creative consultant. “We appreciate the interiors as much as the exteriors; how a paint color looks against the live oak trees on St. Charles or bright banana leaves through a window in the Marigny.”
St. Charles Avenue is the site of her latest interior design project—the Chloe Hotel, by the LeBlanc + Smith Group—opening inside an 1850 Victorian house next month. Costello’s guest room designs feature spindle beds, House of Hackney fabrics, and armoires that nod to Narnia. “Several are retrofitted,” she says, pulling one open to reveal the hidden bathroom. The main-floor bar room and lounge spaces feature wallpaper by Fine & Dandy & Co., Chinese Art Deco rugs and Viennese lighting by Woka. Chef Todd Pulsinelli’s cuisine and a tropical pool will draw tourists and locals alike. “The original architect, Thomas Sully, was a bon vivant,” Costello says. “We wanted to make a space that embodies his bohemian spirit, like a private club you might find in New York or London.”
New Orleans has particularly embraced more modern design in the last half-decade. Sabri and Caroline Farouki launched their firm Farouki Farouki in 2015. Their move from New York was appealing both financially and aesthetically. They designed Maypop–a Central Business District restaurant by Chef Michael Gulotta, whose cuisine is a fusion of Southern and Southeast Asian. Mekong and Mississippi river maps were printed onto birch plywood boards, and depending on where you stand, the slanted feature wall presents either waterway.
“We wanted modern, but not cold,” Caroline Farouki says, who initially worried modern might not fly. Their subsequent design of Justine, a French Quarter brasserie, confirmed that the city welcomed a progressive splash. Justine features a sidewalk-café style up front, anchored by a vintage cartoon mural of a paper tiger. Glittery maps of Paris and New Orleans by local artist Ellen Macomber fill the back walls, alongside velvet banquettes, pink neon, and custom brass vertical light installations by local firm E. Kraemer. “I think Justine hits on exactly what visitors want—that old European feel—and what locals crave: something avant-garde and modern,” says Farouki.
Something else locals are demanding is sustainability—there’s no laissez-faire attitude on climate change post-Katrina. “We have to be focused on sustainability,” says Jordan Rose, owner of GoodWood Nola, which repurposes its sawdust at a local chicken farm. Other notable efforts include mentoring post–high school students: “We want to create diversity in a white-male-dominated industry,” Rose says. His mentees learn his passion for salvaged wood, updated with midcentury leanings. GoodWood’s art-meets-function residential and commercial interiors can be seen at District Donuts restaurants and the Krewe sunglasses stores.
“Since the storm,” Rose says, “this city is proving that world-class custom furniture can be sourced sustainably, from down the street.”
Down the street at their expanded facility in Algiers, Doorman is 50% solar-powered, aiming to be at 90% by 2021. “We live one bad storm from being wiped off the map,” says Geriner. “But it gives New Orleans a scrappy spirit. Our influence is African, Haitian, Spanish, French, and it took a brave melting pot to create this wacky place. We hold true to that lineage–especially in design.”
In a typical presidential year, anyone near the vicinity of a general election debate site would know it.
But in Cleveland on Tuesday, the sidewalks leading up to the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion — where Joseph R. Biden Jr. and President Trump were to debate for the first time — were desolate in the hours leading up to the contest, save for members of law enforcement, a smattering of reporters and the occasional intrigued local.
There was no snaking security line. No packs of journalists roaming or high-profile surrogates holding court, at least in the late afternoon when this reporter finally found the debate location after searching for signs of the event along a traffic-clogged street near Case Western Reserve University, a debate sponsor along with the Cleveland Clinic.
The security barrier and heavy police presence signaled that something was going on, but the typical festive trappings of a debate or other major political event were hard to spot.
Certainly, there were pockets of protesters along several sidewalks: people wearing pro-Trump hats or carrying anti-abortion signs; conservatives who — according to their sign — had abandoned Trump; Black Lives Matter activists. A truck drove by bearing the images of Mr. Biden and Senator Kamala Harris, his running mate, and other drivers honked in support of a small group carrying Trump signs.
But most of the passers-by appeared to be medical professionals at the Cleveland Clinic, who went about their business just down the street from the debate site, their face masks a constant reminder of the extraordinary public health challenges the nation faces as the debate unfolds.
Photo by Erik Anderson
Above: A wind turbine blade at the 10th Avenue Marine terminal in San Diego on Sep. 29, 2020.
San Diego Port officials celebrated a $24 million upgrade Tuesday at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal. Changes make the port cargo facility more flexible.
That flexibility was on display as port officials showed of large blades destined to be put on electricity-generating wind turbines. The blades lay side by side on the port terminal.
“They’re 67 meters long, as you see,” said Port Commissioner Michael Zucchet. “And there’s 45 of them and as we stack them end to end you see it’s two or three football fields worth of windmill blades. And this is something that would not have been possible before the modernization project.
The blades are stacked where two long warehouses used to sit.
RELATED: Port Of San Diego Approves Controversial Marine Terminal Expansion
This port upgrade is also part of a larger plan to eliminate some of the pollution generated here. Port officials are working on replacing diesel vehicles with electric ones. The terminal is now more flexible and useful to the businesses on the bay.
“With the efficiencies that are now present on the terminal it will provide the port customers to receive oversized and non-containerized cargo,” said Dennis DuBard, a member of the port’s group of businesses on the working waterfront. “This is especially important to the shipbuilders and maintainers along the waterfront.”
This port upgrade is also part of a larger plan to eliminate some of the pollution generated here. That includes replacing diesel-powered vehicles with electric ones.
Port officials are working with the Barrio Logan community to find ways to reduce the impact of pollution on that neighborhood.
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Erik Anderson
Environment Reporter
I focus on the environment and all the implications that a changing or challenging environment has for life in Southern California. That includes climate change, endangered species, habitat, urbanization, pollution and many other topics.
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