Source: www.cbsnews.com --- Thursday, December 22, 2011
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FORT WORTH, Texas?? American Eagle has announced plans to stop flying turboprop planes from its main hub in North Texas and will switch to regional jets.
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Getting ready to brave the teeming masses at the airport later this week? Turns out you may need less courage than you might think.
The carrier, operating under bankruptcy protection, will replace turboprop planes at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with Embraer 44-seat and 50-seat jets.
American Eagle CEO Dan Garton on Tuesday notified employees of the changes, taking effect by Jan. 31, as the carrier seeks to streamline operations. The airline's parent, Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.
American Eagle uses turboprop planes to serve airports within about an hour's flight of DFW, including College Station, Longview, Lubbock, Killeen, San Angelo, Tyler, Waco and Wichita Falls.
The turboprop planes will be returned to a leasing company.
American Eagle last week stopped hiring new pilots.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45752728/ns/travel-news/
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There are historic rates of inflation for health care insurance according to an annual report by Citizen Action of Wisconsin. The group and lawmakers unveiled the findings on a conference call?Tuesday. The report finds that Wisconsin health insurance premiums have increased 182 percent over the last decade compared to 164 percent nationally. ?
Executive Director Robert Kraig?said Madison ranked best in terms of cost and quality. The report says Milwaukee and southeast Wisconsin, with a large number of for-profit insurance companies, had high costs with low quality. Areas with non-profit providers had higher quality but in the case of La Crosse coverage was very pricy. Kraig cited a lack of competition for the high costs in that city.
Democratic Congressman Ron Kind said health care exchanges ? part of the Affordable Care Act ? will bring more competition into his district and smaller markets, thus driving down costs.
Federal health reform requires Wisconsin to begin setting up these health insurance networks in 2012. But State Senate Democrat?Jon Erpenbach said ?it?s troubling,? the Walker administration is ?not working? with the federal government dealing with this issue.
Governor Walker has said he wants a ?free market? approach to care and earlier this year accepted a federal grant to begin implementing health exchanges.
Meanwhile?Wisconsin is participating in a multi-state lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act due to its provision which mandates people to buy insurance. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to take up that action this spring.
Source: http://www.wrn.com/2011/12/report-health-insurance-costs-inflating/
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? American soldiers signed over their last military base to Iraqi officials on Friday with the U.S. troop pullout drawing to an swift end nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
The few thousand remaining U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Iraq before December 31, closing a U.S. military venture that cost the lives of nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis caught up in sectarian strife.
Iraqi and U.S. officials on Friday signed paperwork for the handover of Camp Adder with a ceremony marked by army bugle calls and the lowering of flags. Only about 4,000 American soldiers remain in the country, down from a peak of 170,000.
"We have turned the last page of the occupation," Hussein al-Asadi, an adviser for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said at the base, 300 km (185 miles) south of Baghdad.
Camp Adder, a former air base in southern Nasiriyah province, will be one of the last few handed over as troops head south to the Kuwaiti border, leaving behind them housing units, generators and other material they cannot take along.
In the last month Camp Adder had turned into a ghost town. A yard was filled recently with chairs, tables and furniture handed over to the Iraqi forces. Signing over the bases usually happens before the final transfer.
The more than 500 U.S. bases at the height of the war have been whittled to a handful with daily convoys of hundreds of trucks and U.S. military vehicles crossing southern Iraq into Kuwait.
U.S. soldiers ended combat missions in 2010 and have already handed over much of the security role to Iraqi forces, but the last troops pull out of an Iraq that is still confronting a stubborn insurgency and political uncertainty.
Many Iraqis welcome the end of the U.S. military presence but fret over whether Iraq's government will manage tense sectarian relations, a fragile political power-sharing deal and an economy in dire need of investment.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta flew briefly into Baghdad on Thursday for a ceremony to officially end the war in Iraq, telling U.S. and Iraqi officials that the sacrifice was worth it to establish an independent, stable country.
Violence has fallen sharply since the days of the worst sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, an uneasy political power-sharing government of Shi'ite Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Kurds is in place and foreign oil firms are helping Iraq ramp up production.
But tensions simmer close to the surface. Minority Sunnis who once ruled under Saddam are chafing against what they see as a majority Shi'ite-led government that has marginalized them outside of power-sharing.
Hundreds of police protected a provincial council building in restive Diyala province on Friday as about 500 Shi'ite protesters rallied for a third day against an attempt, by mainly Sunni politicians, to seek more provincial autonomy.
SENSE OF SOVEREIGNTY
Desire for more autonomy has been evident for years in Iraq's patchwork of sectarian, ethnic and tribal makeup, but the Diyala drive and a call from mostly Sunni Salahuddin province for more say are intensifying regional jostling as U.S. troops leave.
"The province is passing through a very critical moment with the U.S. military walking out," said teacher Talib Hassan, 35, protesting outside the Diyala council building. "The timing of this declaration of autonomy is just attempted rebellion.
In Falluja, the former heartland of an al Qaeda insurgency that suffered some of the most vicious fighting in the war, a few thousand Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal this week, with some burning U.S. flags and waving pictures of dead relatives.
Falluja became more than any other Iraqi city a symbol for the brutality of the war after the 2003 invasion. Some in Falluja still remember what they call there the "resistance" to U.S. military incursions.
"The occupiers are leaving and so do the tanks, fighter-jets and rifles," Ahmed al-Alwani, the Imam of al-Raqeeb mosque said in speech at Friday prayers. "Do you know why Falluja was first in celebrating the U.S. withdrawal? Because it was the first in resisting them."
(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim and Fadhil al-Badrani; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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TOKYO ? A key central bank survey showed Thursday that confidence at major Japanese manufacturers fell over the last quarter, as the export-reliant country battled a strong yen and an increasingly precarious global economy.
In the Bank of Japan's "tankan" survey of business sentiment, the main index for big manufacturers fell to minus 4, in the first deterioration in two quarters. Three months ago, it stood at 2.
The figure represents the percentage of companies saying business conditions are good minus those saying conditions are unfavorable, with 100 representing the best mood and minus 100 the worst.
The result is slightly worse than Kyodo News agency's average market forecast for a reading of minus 2.
Large manufacturers also don't expect to feel better anytime soon. The central bank forecasts the index to fall to minus 5 over the next three months.
Japan has been battling a strong yen, which has hit multiple historic highs this year against the dollar. Amid Europe's debt problems and economic uncertainty in the U.S., global investors have looked to the Japanese currency as a relatively safe haven.
But Japan relies on exports to drive growth, and the yen's appreciation has hit companies such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. hard. When the yen climbs, it reduces the value of exporters' overseas profits when repatriated to Japan.
That has forced companies to shift more production overseas, prompting worries about a hollowing out of Japanese industry.
The most pessimistic of the big manufacturing group was the electrical machinery sector ? including audio and video equipment ? which tumbled to minus 21 from minus 5. Companies doing business in petroleum products and heavy machinery also recorded big declines.
The auto industry, however, showed surprising resilience. Its index jumped seven points to 20, despite the yen and recent parts supply problems due to the flooding in Thailand.
Big non-manufacturers were feeling more optimistic as well. Their confidence index rose to 4 from 1 three months earlier.
The reading for medium-sized manufacturers was flat at minus 3, while the small manufacturers index improved to minus 8, up from minus 11.
The survey, which helps guide monetary policy, showed that large companies overall plan to boost capital spending by 1.4 percent this fiscal year through March 2012. The figure is down from 3 percent in the September survey.
Large manufacturing companies assume an average exchange rate of 79.02 yen per dollar for this fiscal year, compared with 81.15 yen three months ago.
Big companies expect profits to retreat 9 percent this fiscal year after jumping 46 percent last year.
The Bank of Japan surveyed 10,846 companies nationwide. About 99 percent responded.
The bank's next policy board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
___
Follow Tomoko A. Hosaka at http://twitter.com/tomokohosaka
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PARIS ? A French court found former President Jacques Chirac guilty of embezzling public funds to illegally finance the conservative party he long led, in a historic verdict Thursday with repercussions for his legacy and France's political elite.
Chirac, a savvy world diplomat and icon of France's ruling establishment for decades, will not go behind bars but was handed a two-year suspended sentence that goes on his criminal record. Anti-corruption crusaders, long frustrated by dirty dealings in the French political machine, rejoiced at the conviction.
He's the first former French head of state to face prosecution since the World War II era. But the 79-year-old former leader did not take part in the trial, after doctors determined that he suffers severe memory lapses.
The court said Thursday it had found Chirac guilty in two related cases involving fake jobs created at the RPR party, which he led during his 1977-1995 tenure as Paris mayor. He was convicted of embezzling public funds, abuse of trust, and illegal conflict of interest.
Chirac repeatedly denied wrongdoing. It took years to get him to trial because he enjoyed immunity from prosecution during his 1995-2007 presidential tenure, during which he led France into the shared euro currency and became the global champion of opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The court said it took into account his age, health and status as a former head of state when determining the light sentence.
Unusually, the prosecutor had requested that Chirac and the nine other defendants in the complex two-part case be acquitted, saying not enough evidence proved intentional corruption. The court disagreed, saying his guilt results "from long-standing and reiterated practices" of illegal party financing.
Chirac's adopted daughter fought back tears as she lamented the ruling.
"The justice system has been very severe, but this is a fair and independent justice system. For the family, it's a great pain we have to accept," said Chirac's adopted daughter Anh Dao Traxel, her voice cracking with emotion as she spoke to reporters outside the courtroom.
"I think this decision is too, too severe for him and our family has more than ever to show solidarity and be supportive, for his health for the rest of his life," said Traxel, a former Vietnamese boat person. Chirac and his wife formally adopted Traxel after she came to Paris in 1979.
Chirac spokeswoman Benedicte Brissart declined to comment immediately, saying time was needed to go over the decision.
Chirac lawyer Georges Kiejman called the ruling disappointing and said he expected a decision later Thursday on whether Chirac would appeal.
"We have to take a step back and read this ruling, we have to speak of course with the main person involved (Chirac), and we will know tonight if he accepts this decision," Kiejman said. "What I hope is that this ruling doesn't change in any way the deep affection the French feel legitimately for Jacques Chirac."
The ruling is certain to bruise Chirac's public image. Leaving office in 2007 did wonders for his popularity: while polls showed that he was unpopular in his final years as president, those numbers soared afterward ? and even today, the avuncular former leader, who now focuses on charitable work, has been one of France's most popular public figures.
Critics had pushed for years to see Chirac answer charges of illegal party financing, frustrated by his presidential immunity and a sense that the political machine would never let the sensitive trial come to pass.
Jerome Karsenti, a lawyer for the anti-corruption group Anticor, which had argued against Chirac as a civil party to the case, said the reverberations could be widespread for France's political elites.
"This is a strong message from the court ? a message to all politicians of responsibility. It's also proof of a mature and transparent democracy that is today able to make a distinction and try a former president," Karsenti said.
"I see it as a historic and very important decision for the future of French democracy," he said.
The latest baring of France's underworld of back-room cronyism, corruption and political wrongdoing could loom large in voters minds as the French cast ballots in presidential and legislative elections next year.
The party that succeeded the RPR, President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, and the opposition Socialist Party have seen their share of scandal recently. Two longtime Sarkozy allies have been targeted since September in a case of suspected kickbacks in a 1990s French defense deal with Pakistan. Sarkozy served as budget minister at the time, but his office and allies insist he was not involved.
In Thursday's ruling, the court found that 19 totally or partially fake jobs were created to benefit Chirac. "The case and the debates established that Jacques Chirac was the initiator and principal author of crimes of abuse of trust, embezzling and illegal conflict of interest," the ruling said.
A career politician, Chirac was a debonair master of the workings of public office. He modeled himself after longtime French leader Charles de Gaulle and was nicknamed "Le Bulldozer" early in his career for his determination and ambition.
France's last leader with memories of World War II, Chirac was the first to acknowledge the nation's responsibility for the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust. But he struggled to achieve reforms to the regulated economy and failed to defuse tensions between police and minority youth that exploded into riots in 2005.
___
Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.
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(Reuters) ? Stock index futures pointed to a higher open for equities on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 up 0.6-0.8 percent.
The Mortgage Bankers Association releases at 7 a.m. ET the Weekly Mortgage Market Index for the week ended December 2 versus the prior week. The mortgage market index read 576.4 and the refinancing index was 2,834.5 in the previous week.
India suspended plans to open its $450 billion supermarket sector to foreign groups such as Wal-Mart Stores (WMT.N), backtracking on one of the government's boldest reforms in years in the face of a huge political backlash.
Citigroup (C.N) is cutting 4,500 jobs worldwide, chief executive Vikram Pandit said on Tuesday, becoming the latest large bank to trim staff.
MidAmerican Energy Holdings, part of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), is to buy First Solar's (FSLR.O) 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farm power plant in California, a source familiar with the transaction said.
Apple (AAPL.O) will be in the spotlight after HTC (2498.TW) said on Wednesday it has no plans to change fourth-quarter sales guidance, as shares in the world's No.4 smartphone maker fell over 5 percent on concern its sales decline may not moderate from a 30 percent drop in November.
General Motors (GM.N) is closing in on a package of proposed fixes for the Chevrolet Volt battery pack that engineers believe would eliminate the risk of a fire being triggered days after a crash, two people with knowledge of the situation said.
U.S. department store chain J.C. Penney (JCP.N) is to buy a 16.6 percent stake in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO.N) for $38.5 million, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the matter.
China's annual rate of export growth slowed in November versus October, vice commerce minister Chong Quan told reporters after an official media briefing. "Export growth in November was even slower than October," Chong said on the sidelines of a news conference releasing a government report on China's long-term trade development.
European stocks (.FTEU3) were up 0.8 percent after hitting a five-week high, resuming a 1-1/2 week rally on hopes euro zone leaders will agree a decisive plan to resolve the region's debt crisis at a summit later this week. (.EU)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, on a whistle-stop tour of Europe to demand dramatic action, voiced confidence in a Franco-German plan to overhaul the EU treaty after Standard & Poor's said it could cut credit ratings across the currency bloc, including the EFSF rescue fund, a move which would fundamentally weaken it.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will propose to Friday's summit a plan to impose mandatory penalties on euro zone states exceeding deficit targets, aiming to restore market confidence and prevent the region's debt crisis spiraling out of control.
Detail of treaty reform proposals was due to be presented on Wednesday in a letter to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who will chair the meeting of 27 EU leaders.
S&P cut credit ratings on Tuesday for several regional banks in North America, including US Bancorp (USB.N), PNC Financial Services Group, (PNC.N) and BB&T Corp (BBT.N) as the agency continued to apply new grading criteria announced last month.
U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as investors bet European leaders would take strong steps this week to end the region's debt crisis, including bolstering its financial rescue fund.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 52.30 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,150.13. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX)(.INX) added 1.39 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,258.47. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) dropped 6.20 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,649.56.
(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Dan Lalor)
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