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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

McConnell: Time to 'start over' on health care

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UPDATE 1-Japan May energy imports surge again after Fukushima

TOKYO, June 20 (Reuters) - Japan's coal, crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports rose sharply in May from a year earlier as all of the country's nuclear plants were idled following the disaster at Fukushima, government data showed on Wednesday.

Japan's imports of LNG were 7.06 million tonnes last month, up 16.8 percent from a year earlier, preliminary data from the Ministry of Finance showed. They rose 2.2 percent from April.

Imports of thermal coal for power generation rose 20.8 percent in May to 9.09 million tonnes from a year ago.

The last of Japan's nuclear reactors went into maintenance on May 5, pushing the country's fossil-fuel import bill higher and helping to send the country into a trade deficit for the month that was wider than projected.

Japan's imports of LNG in the year through March 2013 are forecast to rise 9 percent to 85.5 million tonnes, a Reuters poll of analysts showed last month.

Japan, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, imported 16.6 million kilolitres (3.37 million barrels per day) of crude oil last month, an increase of 7.1 percent from a year earlier, the data showed. April imports amounted to 19.157 million kl.

The country's crude cocktail price in May declined to $124.54 per barrel, from $127.05 in April, according to the ministry.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Aaron Sheldrick and Ed Davies) Keywords: ENERGY JAPAN MOF/

(osamu.tsukimori@thomsonreuters.com)(+813 6441 1857)(Reuters Messaging: osamu.tsukimori.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.

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Heady times for Cook Inlet as oil company plans to spend millions

A company poised to become the largest oil and gas producer in Cook Inlet plans to spend $500 million over the next three years to replace old facilities and ramp up production, another sign of revival for the once-quiet basin. ?

Hilcorp Energy, known for squeezing oil and gas from dwindling fields after bigger companies have moved on, plans to spend $200 million in this calendar year alone, officials said. That's about five times as much as Hilcorp predecessor Chevron spent annually in recent years, they said.

It?s been years since a single company has spent that much money in the inlet, said Bill Barron, head of the state's oil and gas division. ?

"For someone to spend $200 million or even anything approaching triple-figure millions for the inlet in operational work would be exceptional," he said.

Barron couldn't provide specifics on how much is spent in the inlet each year, saying explorers and producers keep that information private. ?

Hilcorp expects the spending -- to modernize wells, pumps, rigs and other facilities -- to boost oil-and-gas production in the inlet from about 16,000barrel of oil equivalents?a day to about 21,000 by the end of the year, said Greg Lalicker, president of the Houston-based company.

"We're fixing all the broken stuff," stripping away and replacing the 1960s "junk" left behind, such as old rigs, said Lalicker, speaking at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce's weekly luncheon Monday.

Hilcorp bills itself as the nation's second-largest privately held oil-and-gas firm. It's been working in Alaska for just over five months and has quickly built a workforce of 250, mostly Alaskans, according to company officials.

The company acquired Chevron's Cook Inlet operations early this year, including controversial oil storage tanks on the western inlet beneath Redoubt Volcano. It has?a temporary permit from the state to use one of those seven 270,000 barrel tanks. Ultimately, it plans to use two to four of the tanks. The company is working to strengthen berms and other safety measures to protect the Drift River Terminal Facility from volcanic mudflows known as lahars, according to the Alaska Public Radio Network. The volcano erupted in 2009, but the tanks weren't damaged.

Hilcorp is also in the process of?acquiring much of Marathon Oil Corp.'s Cook Inlet assets, including pipelines. That request is being considered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. If the acquisition is authorized, Hilcorp will produce about 60 percent of Cook Inlet's oil and gas, said Lori Nelson, a spokeswoman.

Making Cook Inlet attractive

New exploration tax incentives and upgraded federal estimates of untapped oil-and-gas reserves have sparked new interest in Cook Inlet, once the state's most significant oil basin before the discovery of the mammoth fields at Prudhoe Bay.

Waning interest and the lack of investment in Cook Inlet over the last several years has produced Hilcorp's biggest challenge in Alaska --?access to new equipment, including rigs. Lalicker said Hilcorp is doing all it can to build up those resources, including trying to persuade out-of-state oilfield services contractors to operate in Alaska.

"That has been the biggest drag,? Lalicker said. ?Frankly, no one has been spending a couple hundred million dollars a year (in Cook Inlet) for quite a while.

"We're working like mad to solve it, and we will solve it," he added.

Hilcorp has found that a number of oilfield contractors have moved their equipment to North Dakota, Nelson said. "We're trying to get the message out there (that) we are here for the long haul, and we want to provide them a steady business flow, and we will be busy," she said.

The money Hilcorp plans to spend this year, followed by another $150 million planned for each of the next two years, will help modernize equipment for the next 20 years.

Feeling the investment

Neal Fried, an economist with the state Labor Department, said businesses on the Kenai Peninsula are feeling the increased investment by Hilcorp and other new companies in Cook Inlet. In 2011, the industry in the region directly employed about 1,050 workers with high-paying jobs that have a multiplier effect on the economy as employees spend money at hotels, restaurants, aviation rentals and other services.

"It'd be harder to tell in Anchorage, but on the Peninsula they are very well aware of what's happening," Fried said. ????

In Hilcorp's hunt for more oil and gas production in Cook Inlet, the company also snatched up 18 tracts in Cook Inlet this winter, their first foray into exploration in the region. ??

"Those are in the long-term development plans," Nelson said. "We won't see action on those (for) the next couple years."

Other notable efforts in Cook Inlet include?an extensive seismic program being conducted by Apache Alaska, a subsidiary of the nation's largest independent oil company. The company began that work in fall. Apache is also hoping to drill its first exploration well in the basin early this fall, in an area west of the village of Tyonek. For that effort, Apache will haul up a land-based drilling rig it's been using in Fort Nelson, British Columbia, said Lisa Parker, manager of government relations for the company.

Australia-based Buccaneer, recognizing the shortage of equipment in the basin, is also?buying drilling rigs it can?use and lease to other companies. A company spokesman in April said the company had invested more than $30 million in Alaska in the previous 18 months, including spending $7.5 million to buy the land-based Glacier Rig from Glacier Drilling Company, a subsidiary of Marathon Oil.

Contact Alex DeMarban at alex(at)alaskadispatch.com

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

More Than 46 Million Americans Uninsured in 2011: Report

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Monday, June 18, 2012

G20 ramps up pressure on Europe over debt crisis

LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - World leaders stepped up pressure on Europe to do whatever it takes to combat its debt crisis after a victory for pro-bailout parties in a Greek election failed to calm markets or ease worries that wider turmoil could derail the global economy.

The world's major industrialized and developing economies are set to urge Europe to take "all necessary policy measures" to resolve a crisis that has raged for over two years, according to a draft communiqu? prepared for a Group of 20 summit in the Mexican resort of Los Cabos and seen by Reuters.

U.S. President Barack Obama, concerned Europe's woes could upend his re-election hopes, requested a meeting with its leaders on Monday evening. He will also hold one-on-one talks with Germany's Angela Merkel, who has rebuffed calls for bold new measures.

European officials rejected the notion that they were to blame for weakening growth across the globe, and played down hopes for any quick miracle cure for the 17-nation euro zone.

"Frankly, we are not coming here to receive lessons in terms of democracy or in terms of how to run our economy," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Protected by Mexican navy vessels and troops on sun-baked beaches and highways, leaders from the Group of 20 countries representing more than 80 percent of world output began a two-day meeting to prioritize growth and job creation against a backdrop of a weakening global economy.

Escalating violence in Syria and the near-collapse of a United Nations-brokered peace plan was also in focus as U.S. President Barack Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two super powers have clashed over arming Syria and U.N. sanctions. Obama said he and Putin agreed on the need to seek an end to the violence. The Russian president said he and Obama found many "common points" over Syria.

But Europe's battle against a debt crisis that has led Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek EU/IMF rescues, and forced Spain to seek aid for its banks, was set to dominate an opening discussion of G20 leaders on the global economy.

The World Bank lowered its forecast for global growth in 2012 to 2.5 percent and warned that developing countries faced a long period of financial market volatility and weaker growth.

RELIEF RALLY FLEETING

A narrow victory for the conservative New Democracy party in the Greek election on Sunday eased concerns the heavily indebted country could exit the euro zone soon but did little to calm financial markets.

After an initial relief rally, the euro fell against the dollar and Spanish bond yields hit a new euro-era high above 7 percent. European stocks ended 1.2 percent lower.

Fitch Ratings agency said the Greek result had lowered the risk of a disorderly default and the scenario of a euro zone exit, but it also warned that any new government in Athens was likely to be fragile.

"The win in Greece does not really resolve anything," said Boris Schlossberg, managing director at investment advisory firm BK Asset Management in New York. "It's still going to be tough for Greece."

Merkel, speaking to reporters after landing on the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula in the middle of the night, welcomed the Greek result but said she could not accept any loosening of the austerity measures and deep structural reforms Athens has agreed to as a condition of its two EU/IMF bailouts totaling 240 billion euros.

"The Greek government will and must deliver on the commitments it has agreed to," she said.

That puts her on a collision course with the winner of the Greek vote, conservative Antonis Samaras, who campaigned pledging to renegotiate elements of the rescue and reiterated that stance on Monday, saying "amendments" were needed to relieve "crippling unemployment and huge hardships" for Greeks.

Greece will ask to spread 11.7 billion euros in austerity cuts over four years instead of two, a New Democracy party source told Reuters in Athens.

German frustration with Greece's failure to deliver on its reform pledges has risen in recent months, as has Greek anger at the tough austerity prescribed by Berlin and its partners.

In a twist of fate, Greece's soccer team will battle Germany later this week in the quarter-finals of the European championships.

David Mackie, an economist at JP Morgan, said he expected European governments would ultimately be forced to agree to an "aggressive restructuring" of the loans they have already provided to Greece to return the country to a sustainable path.

"PERPETUAL STAGNATION"

Merkel also faces intense pressure to take stronger action for the broader bloc.

But she has rejected calls for joint euro zone bonds and the creation of a "banking union" in Europe with cross-border deposit guarantees, dismissing these as quick fixes that are bound to fail and would be rejected by German courts.

Instead, she is pushing fellow European leaders to agree a road map toward closer fiscal integration that would involve ceding sovereignty over budgets to Brussels and giving more power to the European Parliament.

By sketching out what the bloc might look like in five to 10 years, she hopes to win back the confidence of markets.

But her counterparts, notably new French President Francois Hollande, have doubts about transferring fiscal powers, and it appears unlikely that Europe will deliver a "grand bargain" at a separate summit of EU leaders on June 28-29.

In Los Cabos, leaders are set to confirm they will double the IMF's firepower with an extra $430 billion in loans even though some emerging nations are frustrated with the slow pace of winning more power at the global lender.

The G20 leaders are also expected to adopt a Los Cabos Action Plan, pledging to promote economic growth and jobs, investing in infrastructure and promoting trade, while sticking to its pledges to bring down budget deficits.

"Strong, sustainable and balanced growth remains the top priority of the G20 as it leads to higher job creation and increases the welfare of people across the world," the draft communiqu? reads. "We are committed to adopting all necessary policy measures to strengthen demand, support global growth and restore confidence."

(Additional reporting by G20 team in Los Cabos, and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York.; Writing by Noah Barkin and Stella Dawson; Editing by William Schomberg and Padraic Cassidy)

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Police: Canada suspect had $330k in cash

EDMONTON, Alberta?? The man wanted in an armored car heist at a Canadian university that left three armed guards dead was carrying $330,000 in cash and no passport when he was arrested by U.S. border officials, police said Sunday.

Travis Baumgartner was stopped Saturday near a border crossing in Lynden, Washington, southwest of Abbotsford, British Columbia.

He was driving a Ford F-150 truck with the Alberta license plate that police had been seeking, Police Supt. Bob Hassel said at a news conference. Hassel said the suspect tried to get through the border with his driver's license. He had the cash in a backpack.

Thomas Schreiber of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the suspect didn't have a gun and was arrested without incident.

Baumgartner, 21, had been on the run since Friday when four armed guards were gunned down, three of them fatally. He faces three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Hassel said the injured guard remains in critical condition.

Baumgartner was the fifth member of a G4S Cash Solutions crew that was re-loading bank machines at a University of Alberta mall and residence where the shooting happened, police said. The armored truck was found abandoned but running not far from the security company's offices. Dead at the scene were Michelle Shegelski, 26; Eddie Rejano, 39; and Brian Ilesic, 35.

Police had launched an international manhunt to find Baumgartner. Hassel said Baumgartner is currently being held at a police detachment in Langley, British Columbia, and is expected to be transferred back to Edmonton sometime in the next week.

G4S Cash Solutions spokeswoman Robin Steinberg said the company would conduct its own investigation into the shooting. Baumgartner had only been on the job for three months.

"We applaud the dedication of the Edmonton Police Service, and other law enforcement agencies in apprehending Travis Baumgartner today," Steinberg said in a statement. "Our thoughts remain with the families and friends of the victims and also with the Baumgartner family."

Guard in fatal armored-car heist caught in US

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Baumgartner's mother issued a statement Friday pleading for her son to surrender and apologizing for an argument they had.

Such shootings are rare in Canada, where residents are nervous about anything that might indicate they are moving closer to U.S. levels of gun violence. The oil boom town of Fort McMurray, Alberta, however, often has drug-related shootings, and Vancouver often has gang shootings. Gunfire at Toronto's most prominent mall this month left two dead and several injured and a shooting at an Edmonton club in 2006 left three dead.

Steven Munz, a close friend of Baumgartner, had said that Baumgartner had been on the job for only three months and wanted to eventually become a police officer, but said Baumgartner didn't believe he had what it took. Munz said he had noticed a change in his personality in the last year, and that he had been irrational at times.

In a profile on the dating website Plenty of Fish, Baumgartner bills himself as an armored car guard interested in video gaming. A photo shows him shirtless holding a cell phone. He says he has a laid back personality and a "10" physique.

"I'm a great guy. We don't come around often," he writes.

But his Facebook page is much darker, quoting the character of the anarchist Joker from the movie "Dark Knight" and musing about "popping people off."

Baumgartner lived with his mother and step-sister in Sherwood Park, a bedroom community just east of Edmonton.

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Jack Osbourne Diagnosed With Multiple Sclerosis

Ozzy's son, 26, is 'angry and frustrated' about the diagnosis, which comes just weeks after birth of his daughter.
By Gil Kaufman

Jack Osbourne
Photo:

Former "Osbournes" star Jack Osbourne has revealed that he's been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Osbourne, 26, discovered that he suffers from the central nervous system disease weeks after celebrating the birth of his daughter, Pearl Clementine, with fianc?e Lisa Stelly in April.

Osbourne told People magazine that the diagnosis shocked and angered him and has thrown him for a loop. "I was just angry and frustrated and kept thinking, 'Why now?'" he told the magazine. "I've got a family and that's what's supposed to be the most important thing."

It's unknown how the disease — which impacts the central nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord, causing problems with muscle control and strength as well as vision and balance — will impact Osbourne's health. The results vary widely from patient to patient, which some suffering only minor health problems and others become seriously debilitated.

Sister Kelly Osbourne tweeted about Jack on Sunday, writing, "Please support my brother @mrjacko in not only his bravery but honesty! I love you so much Jack & I'm so proud of you!" Jack, who has struggled with addiction in the past, kept a stiff upper lip, tweeting on Sunday that, "This is the best father's day I've ever had! Hahaha." He followed by thanking those who have reached out to him, writing, "Thank you all so much for the kind and inspirational words. It means a lot."

please support my brother @mrjacko in not only his bravery but honesty! i love you so much jack & I'm so proud of you!people.com/people/article...
— Kelly Osbourne (@MissKellyO) June 17, 2012

Mother Sharon Osbourne spoke to Britain's Hello magazine, reportedly wondering if something she did may have contributed to her son's illness. "I keep thinking, 'what did I do wrong? What did I eat or drink when I was pregnant?' I feel like it's somehow my fault." The mag also spoke to rock icon Ozzy, who wondered how his history of drug abuse didn't catch up with him before his son. "If it was me, you'd think: 'Ozzy had a reputation and it caught up with him,'" Ozzy said. "But Jack is such a good guy."

Jack said he's trying to keep a positive attitude about the diagnosis and is treating the disease using a combination of drugs, holistic therapies and lifestyle changes.

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