Free Republic

The financial woes facing Minnesota are the same financial woes facing the country as a whole. Themis, the author does an excellent job explaining what is wrong with the quick, non-thought-out solutions politicians are ready to jump and use rather than examine and address the causes of the problem.

Don’t blame a bird for the punch that the Northwest Airlines plane took in the nose on Sunday. Northwest is now examining the dented nose cone of a Boeing 757 jet that was damaged during a flight from Detroit to Tampa. Images snapped by passengers... show the front tip of the plane looking a bit like a beer cup smashed in after a football game. Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the F.A.A. in Atlanta, said pilots heard a bang when the plane was at 18,000 feet during its descent into Tampa. Its radar went out, prompting the crew to suspect...

Rival US companies Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines have agreed to merge in a $5bn deal that would create the world's biggest carrier. The directors of the two companies agreed the stock-swap deal on Monday. The combined airline, which will be called Delta, will have an annual revenue of more than $35bn and employ more than 75,000 staff. The merger could trigger similar moves by other US carriers struggling with rising oil prices, correspondents say.

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines this week are expected to announce a long-anticipated merger, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The merger may to be unveiled as early as Tuesday, The Journal reported, adding that the deal could go through without support of Delta's 6,000 pilots. Delta and its pilots were holding separate talks this weekend on a post-merger contract, while negotiations with Northwest's 5,000 pilots were to be held at a later date, the daily reported. Last week, US authorities gave tentative approval for Delta, Northwest, and four of their international partners to combine their transatlantic routes in...

....This "long-billed syndrome" has been recorded in about 160 birds, mostly in western Washington and southern British Columbia and mostly since 2000. It's also documented in more than 2,100 birds in Alaska, where the deformity seems to have started affecting lots of birds in the early 1990s. Researchers say the weird beaks appear to be concentrated in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, although reports are coming in from farther south -- from Southern California in one recent case. The cause remains a mystery. A small band of puzzled, poorly funded scientists is scrambling to find answers. Could it be chemicals?...

Virtual Mega-quake Shows Earthquake Could Inflict Major Damage On Pacific Northwest USScientists used a supercomputer-driven "virtual earthquake" to explore likely ground shaking in a magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake in the Pacific Northwest. Peak ground velocities are displayed in yellow and red. The legend represents speed in meters per second (m/s) with red equaling 2.3 m/s. Although the largest ground motions occur offshore near the fault and decrease eastward, sedimentary basins lying beneath some cities amplify the shaking in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Vancouver, increasing the risk of damage. (Credit: Kim Olsen, SDSU) ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2008) — On January 26,...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. apparently won't be rushed into a merger until the carriers' pilots have ironed out their own integration plan, highlighting the importance of successfully negotiating thorny labor issues that have plagued industry mergers in the past. "If you don't have the pilots in, the success of the merger is definitely questionable because you won't get the efficiency you need over time to make the deal worth it," said Henry Harteveldt, analyst with Forrester Research. Pilots, not to mention mechanics and flight attendants, have to be satisfied with their pay...

North by NorthwestThe planet's wandering magnetic poles help reveal history of Earth and humans Sid Perkins Hikers in the wilderness often place their faith in a trusty compass. But any navigator worth his salt knows that compasses can't truly be trusted: Only along certain longitudes in the Northern Hemisphere does a compass needle point due north. MOVED BY MAGNETISM. Explorers first found the north magnetic pole at Canada's Cape Adelaide in 1831. Blue dots (direct surface observations) and red dots (models using satellite data) denote the pole's movement since then. Green dots indicate the pole's future location if its current...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 19 -- The Pakistani army fought pitched battles with militants Wednesday in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan following an insurgent assault that killed 17 troops. The fighting in North Waziristan, an area where the al-Qaeda leadership is believed to be active, went on late into the night, residents said. A local official confirmed that at least six loud explosions were heard in the hills that surround Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. It was not immediately clear who or what had been targeted. The fighting came during a period of deep turmoil in Pakistan,...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Suicide attackers struck a police headquarters and a military convoy on Sunday in Pakistan's northwest, killing as many as 38 people in an intensifying anti-government campaign in an area long known as a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida. Militants in the Afghan border region disavowed a 10-month old truce with the government that critics said gave them a safe haven from which to launch attacks on Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The government has deployed thousands of troops to the region to thwart calls by extremists for a holy war to revenge the bloody...

Northwest Airlines is set to exit bankruptcy on Thursday, marking the end of a 20-month spell in Chapter 11 for the No. 5 U.S. carrier, and the first time in almost five years that a major U.S. airline has not been in bankruptcy. Northwest has spent the last year and a half hacking $2.4 billion off its annual costs, mostly from an aggrieved work force. Like other so-called "legacy' airlines, it has been forced to drastically slash its costs to keep pace with newer low-cost carriers and deal with wild spikes in fuel costs. [Snip] Despite major cost cuts, Northwest...

Judge OKs Northwest bankruptcy plan By VINNEE TONG, AP Business Writer 7 minutes ago After 20 months of a wrenching reorganization, Northwest Airlines got approval on Friday to emerge from bankruptcy protection into an industry besieged by higher fuel costs and crowded with competitors. Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp. announced it would exit bankruptcy on May 31, after Judge Allan Gropper approved its reorganization plan Friday. Northwest, the nation's fifth-largest airline, also plans to announce any post-bankruptcy marketing plans when it emerges. Chief Executive Douglas Steenland said the company had reached all its bankruptcy goals, which included cutting annual operating...

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines are in talks on a possible link-up, according to a newspaper report on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal, which cited sources "familiar with the matter", said representatives of the two carriers, which are numbers 3 and 5 in the United States respectively, have met regularly for weeks discussing a possible link-up after they both emerge from bankruptcy. The two airlines have been restructuring in bankruptcy since September 2005 and aim to exit this year. A Northwest spokesman declined to comment. Delta officials were not immediately available for comment. The report came in the wake...

A biography of late Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley might be turned into a movie, reports Blabbermouth.net. A press release from Arts Publications indicated that Argentinean journalist Adriana Rubio has been contacted by Philadelphia-based filmmaker Eric Moyer about making a film version of her book, Layne Staley: Get Born Again. Moyer said in a statement, "I am determined to make this film about Layne Staley, not only to celebrate his life and talent, but to warn others through his compelling story that heroin will kill you...no matter who you are." Staley died in April of 2002 after struggling with...

AMSTERDAM/MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: An edgy Dutch security apparatus, after creating the impression of a foiled terror plot when it arrested 12 Indian on Wednesday following the return of a Northwest Airlines flight to Amsterdam, late on Thursday night brought the curtains down on the high-voltage drama by releasing all of them. The 12 held were all Muslims, most of them Bohra Muslims from Mumbai. Their irrational exuberance during takeoff — when they reportedly talked on mobile phones and exchanged them around — seems to have aroused the suspicion of the air marshals. The moral of the story: there is currently zero...

Passengers aboard a Northwest Airlines plane bound for Mumbai and forced to turn back to Amsterdam said air marshals swooped after 12 people began fidgeting with mobile phones and plastic bags, Dutch media said on Thursday. The 12 were arrested on Wednesday after the plane landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Prosecution authorities said they were still holding the 12 but would not give their identities or nationalities. "I saw the air marshals run and I knew something was amiss," a 31-year-old businessman aboard the plane told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. "Some had beards, others were unshaven, one was wearing a...

"The converts are seen as the most extreme, and they're seen as the most extreme even by other Muslims who may not come from the U.K. Which is really worrying," said Anthony Glees, director of the Brunel University Center for Intelligence and Security Studies in West London. The growing number of homegrown converts in the ranks of militant Islam in Britain is raising troubling new questions not only about what it means to be British, but whether new Muslims must choose between family and faith across what many see as a yawning divide between civilizations. Britain now has perhaps 50,000...

Amsterdam, Aug. 23 (AP): Dutch police arrested 12 passengers who aroused the crew's suspicion on a U.S. airline flight to India after it returned on Wednesday to Amsterdam escorted by two F-16 jet fighters, a spokesman said. Police spokesman Rob Staenacker said he could not disclose the nationalities of the people taken from the Northwest DC-10 after it was diverted over German airspace, or the nature of the suspicions against them. ``I can tell you 12 people have been arrested,'' he said. It was not immediately clear if they had been charged. An American passenger, who identified herself only as...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- An airport spokeswoman says Dutch F-16s have escorted a Northwest Airlines flight back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

Neolithic stone carving of Big Dipper discovered in northwest China A neolithic stone carving of the Big Dipper star formation has been found on Baimiaozi Mountain near Chifeng City in northwest China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to experts. The stone carving was discovered by Wu Jiacai, a 50-year-old researcher in literature and history with Wongniute Banner of Inner Mongolia. Wu found a large yam-shaped stone, 310 centimeters long, onto which 19 stars had been carved. The representation of the Big Dipper is on the north face of the stone. The stars are represented by indentations in the stone. The...

Negotiations between Northwest Airlines (NWACQ:OTC BB) and its pilots reached a critical point Thursday as a bankruptcy court deadline for a deal expired. Meanwhile, talks between Delta Air Lines (DALRQ:OTC BB) and its pilots are headed for arbitration. In the Northwest case, it's unclear when U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper will issue a ruling on whether the airline can impose contract terms on its pilots, a move that would likely lead to a strike. Gropper didn't say when he would rule, according to a Wednesday night posting on the Web site for the Northwest chapter of the Air Line...

Came across this and thought I'd pass it along. If it's happening here, there are probably similar organizations in other states and areas. This is from their Web site: "Report Right Wing Signature Gathering Activity - Add A Button to Your Site Yesterday, I wrote the following: Progressive activists should be on the lookout for signature gatherers collecting signatures for Initiative 917 and other right wing initiatives. If you see petitioners collecting signatures for any right wing initiative, please use Permanent Defense's new reporting tool to tell us about it so we can more efficiently organize and mobilize. Permanent Defense...

The Northwest Regional Control Center will stabilize and control electricity by Polli Barnes Keller Gulf Region North U.S. Army Corps of Engineers One of many substations that allow monitoring and control of power production and transmission in the Northern Region providing a more stable electrical system. (GRD photo by by Polli Barnes Keller) Mosul, Iraq—There is no totally functioning system in Iraq designed to tie all the elements and control functions of the National Electrical Network together. The Northwest Regional Control Center, or NRCC—a $4.9M system developed to improve the reliability of the country-wide automatic monitoring and control system—is...

TWIN FALLS -- Carlos Benavides works hard every day as a maintenance man at a local hotel. He brings home about $650 every two weeks and one of his checks goes entirely to rent. His wife, Minerva, peeled so many potatoes during her 23 years at the old Simplot plant that she ended up with carpal tunnel syndrome. Other health problems rendered her disabled and brought her working days to an end. She gets a $500 disability check, but with two of their three children still living at home, their combined income doesn't go far. "Sometimes we have to go...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30, 2005 – Coalition forces today transferred command of northwest Iraq, and U.S. troops killed two terrorists Dec. 28, Multinational Force Iraq officials reported today. Command of northwest Iraq transferred from Task Force Freedom to Task Force Band of Brothers during a ceremony in Mosul. The transfer consolidates operational areas into a single multinational division under the command of Task Force Band of Brothers, military officials said. With its new command responsibilities, Task Force Band of Brothers includes the 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams from the 101st Airborne Division, 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams from the...

Northwest Airlines Corp. said it has nearly finished replacing its striking mechanics. The company has hired nearly all of the 880 in-house mechanics it needs, spokesman Bill Mellon said Wednesday. He said the majority of those are new hires, although some are returning members of the striking Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) and some are mechanics who were laid off before the strike.

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Fish advocates see the plan to demolish Condit Dam on the White Salmon River as good news for salmon everywhere, but the state Ecology Department says the project could hurt fish downstream and might violate the federal Endangered Species Act. Demolition of the 125-foot-high hydroelectric dam, owned by Portland-based PacifiCorp, is proposed for October 2008. The project would open 33 miles of steelhead habitat and 14 miles of salmon habitat in the area of the river blocked by the dam since 1913. The river forms a portion of the boundary between Klickitat and Skamania counties along the...

NEAPOLIS -- Union leaders said late Friday that they would let striking Northwest Airlines mechanics vote on the carrier's latest offer, which would save the jobs of only a fraction of those who walked out nearly two months ago. As it now stands, the offer might preserve 500 of the 4,100 jobs that members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association held when they went on strike Aug. 20, the union said.

Mechanics Union At Northwest To Allow a Vote By SUSAN CAREY Staff Reporter October 17, 2005; Page A9 The union representing striking Northwest Airlines mechanics on Friday said it decided to let its members vote on the airline's current contract offer, which would let only about 500 of the 4,400 union members return to work. If the terms are accepted in a two-week membership ratification process, the rest would receive four weeks of severance pay. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association members struck on Aug. 20 after rejecting a contract offer that would have preserved 2,750 union jobs and given up...

Yesterday, October 10, 2005, a flight from one of the Chicago area airports to a NYC airport, alerted passengers just before landing that they had lost one of their engines. The flight landed okay, but fire trucks were on the runway as the plane landed. One of the passengers heard a sound when the engine was lost (apparently when the aircraft was at least 20,000 feet in altitude). The passenger decribed the sound as a "whiz" not as a bang or "pop". Apparently a Freeper exclusive -- no other reports of this incident. The flight number was 1082.

AP Inspections at Northwest Raise Questions Sunday October 2, 4:19 pm ET Inspections During Northwest Strike Challenge Assertions That Operations Are Running Smoothly MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Reports filed by federal aviation inspectors during the first month of a strike by Northwest Airlines Corp.'s mechanics challenge assertions by executives that operations are running smoothly, according to a newspaper's review of the records. In a story for Sunday's editions, the Star Tribune newspaper reported that the inspection records -- which were reviewed by two independent aviation experts -- describe training deficiencies among replacement workers, thin staffing, maintenance blunders and mistakes in recording...

Delta and Northwest Airlines' bankruptcy filings are the latest consequences of the troubles afflicting the long-established, or "legacy," airlines. Inflexible work rules, above-market wage rates, under-funded fixed benefit pension plans, huge debt burdens, outdated business practices and high fuel costs burden the legacy carriers with enormous disadvantages relative to newer carriers who are flying by different rules. To deal with these burdens, the legacy carriers have made dramatic changes.... Sky-high fuel prices have recently made things worse, but lower fuel prices will not solve the industry's problems. In most industries, producers are able to pass on raw material price increases...

...The immediate causes of the Northwest and Delta filings are failed labor negotiations and bad luck. Northwest is struggling with striking mechanics who refused to join other unions in negotiating $1.4 billion in annual savings to prevent bankruptcy. Delta has its own high-cost union contracts and has long been bleeding cash. Hurricane Katrina and sky-high fuel costs were the tipping point. But the root of the problem for these "legacy" carriers is the burden of pension costs. And one tantalizing option is to use bankruptcy to pass them off to the taxpayer via the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC)....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Northwest Airlines Corp.(NWAC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, according to court documents. Delta, the No. 3 U.S. airline, which earlier this year said it did not have enough cash to meet its liquidity needs in 2005, filed for protection in U.S. bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York. "The action we have taken is a necessary and responsible step to preserve Delta's value for our creditors, customers, employees, business partners and other stakeholders," said Delta Chief Executive Gerald Grinstein...

CHICAGO, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The board of Northwest Airlines (NWAC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) will meet on Wednesday to decide whether the company will file for bankruptcy protection, the airline's pilots association said on Tuesday evening. The scheduled board meeting will follow a more than 50 percent plunge in Northwest's stock to an all-time low on bankruptcy fears on Tuesday, after the company missed several payments and a newspaper report said both Northwest and Delta Air Lines (DAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) might file for Chapter 11 as early as Wednesday. At the meeting, Northwest's board will "decide whether or not...

A union spokesman for striking Northwest Airlines mechanics said Saturday he doubts a deal will be reached anytime soon to end the three-week walkout. "I think it would be a miracle for us to reach an agreement during this round of bargaining," said Steve MacFarlane, assistant national director of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. Andy Roberts, Northwest vice president for operations, said no new proposals were exchanged Saturday. The two sides still expected to hold face-to-face talks sometime later in the day. Northwest is seeking $1.1 billion in annual labor cost savings and has said rising fuel prices mean it...

Alarmed by Northwest Airlines' worsening financial situation, leaders of the pilots' union -- which already joined managers last year in agreeing to $300 million in givebacks -- voted yesterday to reopen contract negotiations soon with the airline... In a filing late yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the airline said it expects its fuel costs this year to increase 50% over 2004, rising to $3.3 billion. Earlier this summer, Northwest forecast that its fuel expenses would be about $3 billion for the year. Now, the carrier says it likely will spend more than $900 million on fuel in the...

More than a week into the first major carrier strike in the U.S. in seven years, Northwest Airlines is showing every sign of surviving. At this point, some 4,400 mechanics and aircraft cleaners ought to be asking some hard questions of the union leadership that handed them their picket signs. By the end of last week, Northwest had announced that its flight-cancellation rates and number of planes out of service had recovered to acceptable levels. Northwest's replacement workers allowed the airline to complete 98% of its scheduled flights on Friday, and the carrier is in a position to begin permanently...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Police said they believe two tires may have been tampered with on a Northwest Airlines Boeing 757, an incident perhaps related to the nearly week-old mechanics strike against the nation's fourth-largest carrier. On Wednesday, Northwest employees discovered finding two landing gear tires deflated on a 757-200 aircraft during a preflight inspection at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the airline said in a statement. Northwest said no other damage was reported. The Maryland Transportation Authority Police is investigating the tire deflation as a crime, a spokeswoman said. "Based on information and evidence collected at the scene, the police believe that...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2005 – The Department of Defense World War II 60th Anniversary Commemoration Committee, in conjunction with "America's Vancouver" in Washington State, will host a commemorative event this weekend recognizing World War II veterans, their families and those who served on the home front for their service and sacrifice. The commemoration will be Aug. 28 at 1:00 p.m. at the Vancouver National Historic Reserve, home of Vancouver Barracks, Fort Vancouver and Pearson Airfield. The event is free and open to the public. No tickets or advanced reservations are required. The Pacific Northwest event is the final of six...

Northwest Airlines brought replacement workers on the job today after mechanics went on strike to protest big pay cuts and layoffs that would have cut their numbers almost in half. The nation's fourth-largest carrier has pledged to keep its planes in the air, saying it has been preparing for the strike for more than a year and a half. It said it has lined up about 1,900 replacement workers, vendor employees and managers to begin filling shifts today. While striking mechanics have ridiculed the idea that Northwest can fly without them, there were no signs of disruption in the day's...

BREAKING NEWS: Northwest Airlines mechanics walk off the job. Full article coming shortly.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2005 – With elections on the horizon, Iraqi security forces in Iraq's northwest provinces are continuing to grow in ability and confidence, a senior commander in Iraq said today. "The Iraqi security forces continue to make strides in improving security for all Iraqi citizens," Army Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of Multinational Force Northwest and Task Force Freedom, said during a news conference from Mosul. "Units of the 2nd and 3rd Iraqi Army divisions are conducting more effective combined and independent counterinsurgency operations and they're continuing to develop to be a source of pride for the country...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2005 – Through partnerships with most major U.S. carriers, the Fisher House Foundation is making it possible for Americans to donate unused airline miles to troops wounded in the war on terror and their families. The program, "Operation Hero Miles," was created in 2004, when nearly 500 soldiers per day were returning to the U.S. from Iraq for rest and recuperation. "At that time, the military would only fly service personnel to a gateway city," said Pamela Lea-Maida, administrator of Operation Hero Miles at the Fisher House Foundation. "From there, personnel had to pay the rest of...

In the airline industry, 9-11 is a dividing line as profound as the K-T boundary in paleontology. The asteroid impact 65 million years ago which caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction event ended the reign of dinosaurs. In the future, 8-21-2005 may be viewed as even more significant for the airline industry, and possibly the entire US economy than 9-11. August 21, 2005 is likely to be the first day of operation by Northwest Airlines (NWAC) after imposing 26% pay-cuts on its mechanics. Northwest claims that it has enough replacement mechanics lined up so that its’ flight schedule will not be...

SEATTLE - A federal judge struck down a move by the Bush administration to ease logging restrictions in the Northwest, saying the government failed to consider the effect on rare plants and animals. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said in her ruling Monday that under federal law, authorities had an obligation to show why the logging restrictions should be changed. The rule change, which took effect in the spring of 2004, said forest managers no longer had to look for rare species before logging. Instead, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management were to use information provided...

TEHRAN, Iran — A Northwest Airlines DC-10 (search) made an emergency landing in Tehran (search) on Sunday after reporting a technical problem in its cargo section, airport officials said. The plane was en route from Bombay, India, to Amsterdam, Netherlands, with 255 passengers and crew, according to a spokesman for the Iranian civil aviation authority. No injuries were reported. U.S. carriers do not serve Iran (search) because of American economic sanctions. Washington broke ties with Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when militants seized the U.S. Embassy and held 52 hostages for 444 days.

At the invitation of UPI, Jon Loose and I wrote this op-ed and submitted it a week ago. UPI told us that every single person who read it there said that this was not commentary but that it was news. They have told us they were assigning staff to cover this story. Since Newsmax has broken the story, I thought it time to put out information that has not yet come to light. The Cost of Life By Jon Loose and Connie Hair Hindsight is always 20/20. You see causes and proactive avenues that could have altered the outcome. Sometimes ...

MINNEAPOLIS - Each day, a little piece of aviation history takes off in Columbus, Ohio. And in Buffalo, N.Y., and dozens of other cities where Northwest flies DC-9s that average 34 years old. Some of them first flew when Lyndon Johnson was president. Northwest's DC-9s tie it for the oldest fleet among the world's 60 largest airlines, even as Northwest adds new planes.

MINNEAPOLIS -- (January 26, 2005) – Northwest Airlines today announced that it has ordered eight additional Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft. The additional A330s will fly international routes and will replace, on a one-for-one basis, DC10-30 aircraft in Northwest’s fleet beginning in 2006 and continuing through 2007. With these additional A330 aircraft, Northwest will be able to replace the DC10-30 on all trans-Atlantic routes operated by Northwest. The order includes six of the -300 series, configured with 34 seats in Northwest’s new World Business Class and 264 seats in coach class, and two of the longer-range -200 series aircraft, with 32...