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Archive for December 21st, 2011
Posted at: 12/21/2011 11:55 AM
| Updated at: 12/21/2011 2:02 PM
By: Christine VanTimmeren | WHEC.com
Whether you’re a frequent flier or someone who only travels once or twice a year – -it’s always good to know what’s new at the airport.
One of the first things you’ll notice when you come to the Rochester airport to their security checkpoint is a sign reminding parents that children 12 and under no longer need to take their shoes off.”
Something else that’s new – an app called My TSA. It’s free and it’s downloadable to your iPhone or your iPad.
The app will show you delays, wait times at security checkpoints and even the weather at any airport in the country. You can also look up items to see if they’re allowed in your carry-on.
There are also brand new scanners at the airport that no other airport in New York State has. They’re called “automated target recognition” TSA Public Affairs Manager Lisa Farbstein said, “These are new scanners. They’re very efficient. They detect things between the clothing and the body and the very most important thing you have to do is make sure you get everything out of your pockets because this machine is so sensitive it can even detect something in your pocket, say if you’ve got some tissues.”
Then there are those rules that you’ve heard before but need to be reminded of like the 3-1-1 rule. Liquids in your carry-on can only be three ounces or less, all them have to fit in a one-quart bag and only one bag per person.
And what counts as a liquid again? Farbstein said, “If you can pump it, pour it, spill it, spread it, spray it, or smear it that’s pretty much going to be a liquid.”
Another tip TSA officials recommend — if you’re traveling with gifts, consider not wrapping them. Instead, bring a gift bag and some tissue so that you’re not risking TSA officials having to unwrap your gift when you go through security. You can just wrap it in something simple when you get to your destination.
The Rochester airport will have extra staff on hand over the next few weeks to help deal with all the extra holiday travelers.
For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.
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NEW YORK — Shares of popular travel ratings website TripAdvisor sank about five percent on their first day trading publicly Wednesday, as US investors remained skittish about new tech listings.
Spun off by parent Expedia, TripAdvisor shares dropped from their last other-the-counter price of $30.25 Tuesday to as low as $28.00 before rebounding to $28.70 in thin afternoon trade.
Expedia hived off the 11-year-old company and issued 123 million new shares to existing shareholders, giving TripAdvisor a market valuation of about $3.5 billion.
Operating websites in 29 countries, TripAdvisor makes money off of the travel advertising it packages with listings and mostly user-generated reviews of hotels, flights, vacation packages and other services.
The company says its sites pull in 44 million unique views a month, enhanced by links to users’ accounts on social media websites like Facebook.
It also syndicates its content to 30,000 partner sites, such as hotels.
The company pulled in $486 million in revenues in 2010, 37 percent higher than the previous year, for net earnings of $139 million.
“We’re doing all this with a great margin… we are extremely profitable,” said president and chief executive Stephen Kaufer.
Kaufer said the listing will help the company build its business around the world, with a special eye on China, where it launched its own travel website and also bought a competing one.
“It’s a very different market; we continue to invest heavily” in China, he said.
“There’s a billion people. They’re starting to travel domestically and internationally, and we intend to help those folks.”
Parent company Expedia’s shares were up 2.9 percent during the day.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
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AAA Carolinas reports about 2.6 million North Carolinians will travel from Tuesday through Dec. 31, representing a 3.6 percent increase over last year. Ninety-two percent of those traveling will be motorists, 6 percent will fly, and 2 percent will travel by other means, AAA Carolinas projects.
“Because of the way the holidays are set up, we will see a lot of people traveling not only on New Year’s Eve and the day before, but we are going to see a lot of travel between the two holidays because they come on the weekend,” said Tom Crosby, vice president of communications for AAA Carolinas. “When you have the holidays on the weekend, most of the time you get some travel between that Monday and Friday before Christmas and New Year’s.”
Crosby also attributed the projected increase in travel to a slight improvement in the economy. AAA Carolinas also notes that average gas prices have dropped 64 cents a gallon since peaking May 6 in North Carolina.
Gas prices in North Carolina are averaging 13 cents less than pre-Thanksgiving holiday prices. Prices are expected to remain stable or slightly decrease over the holidays due to a nationwide decline in demand and congressional budget wrangling, according to AAA Carolinas.
“People aren’t going quite as far on their vacations as they have in the past, but they are taking vacation,” Crosby said. “They are saying I am not going to let the economy or my own personal situation interfere with me enjoying this holiday.”
Air travel is expected to be down slightly, with airfares up 21 percent over last year, triggered by higher jet fuel costs and reduced capacity as airlines try to increase profits, according to AAA Carolinas.
The weather, Crosby explained, is not supposed to impact motorists traveling on the East Coast.
“I think we are going to see rainy and inclement weather, but I don’t think we are going to see the freezing type blizzard that they are experiencing in the Midwest right now,” he said. “That is not in any of the long-range forecasts at this time.”
Sgt. K.G. Brown with the N.C. Highway Patrol said additional troopers will hit the roadways during the upcoming holiday weekends. She said troopers expected traffic to begin to pick up Wednesday and Thursday.
“We’ll be out checking the interstates, the rest areas at the interstates and also the major highways that run through Davidson County,” Brown said.
Brown said a “Booze It Lose It” campaign, which launched Dec. 3, runs through Jan. 2. She reminds motorists not to drink and drive and to have a designated driver if drinking.
“We try to tell everyone to allow plenty of time to travel to your designation in a safe manner,” Brown said. “Be sure to obey the laws. Speeding is probably our number one contributing factor in all collisions. We want motorists to be safe and to allow plenty of time. Fatigue also is a big factor. Stop at rest areas or stop at a store to make sure you are rested if you are in a long travel to another state.”
Davidson County Sheriff David Grice reminds motorists to make sure they give their vehicles a good inspection. Grice said it’s a good idea to make sure motorists have a spare tire, their tires have the right pressure, all lights are burning properly and fluids are checked.
“If they have to stop, pull off the road and keep a flashlight,” Grice said.
Grice noted that the sheriff’s office will have more deputies on patrol on New Year’s Eve.
“We have more people out because of partying,” he said. “We get a lot of calls about people letting off fireworks and shooting guns.”
Darrick Ignasiak can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 217, or at darrick.ignasiak@the-dispatch.com.
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In a sharp escalation of hostilities, the U.S. administration is threatening to retaliate against Europe if it goes ahead with its airline emissions trading system (ETS).
In a Dec. 16 letter to various European lawmakers and commissioners made public Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warns bluntly that Washington will “be compelled to take appropriate action” if the European Union’s ETS law goes into effect on Jan. 1 as has long been planned – and agreed to by all EU member states.
The letter comes ahead of a Wednesday decision by the European Court of Justice ruling on a lawsuit by the U.S. airline lobby that opposes the measure.
It’s also part of a broader campaign in the U.S. to void the pending requirement that all airlines taking off from or landing at European airports will be subject to its cap-andtrade emissions system.
On Dec. 7, South Dakota Senator John Thune, a Republican and ranking member of a Commerce Committee’s Aviation Operations, Safety and Security Subcommittee, introduced a bill that would prohibit U.S. airlines from complying with the measure. A similar bill previously passed in the House of Representatives. The two bills would have to be reconciled and signed by U.S. President Barack Obama to become law. The fate of the bill in the Senate is far from assured, unlike the one in the lower House controlled by Republicans.
In any case, added Pamela Campos, the U.S. Congress is powerless to affect European legislation, particularly just before the final and binding ruling on the lawsuit and days before the scheduled entry into effect of the law.
Campos, the lead attorney for U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund which is championing Europe’s initiative, said from Denver, Co., that the verdict may not address all the issues.
But she expects the court to address the issue of sovereignty.
Steve Lott, spokesperson for the former U.S. Air Transport Association – it was recently renamed Airlines for America – that filed the lawsuit in the European court in 2009, called the ETS an “illegal” tax on foreign airlines. Europe strenuously disputes the charge that it’s a tax.
Campos has noted that the U.S. imposes severe security requirements and restrictions on all passengers who land at or take off from U.S. airports.
Lott added that it’s bad policy because the cap-and-trade system diverts money that airlines could otherwise use to render their fleet more efficient – a move that has already started and will continue with more fuel efficient aircraft engines.
The U.S. also argues that only Montreal’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has the mandate to pass binding international laws governing air travel. The EU has repeated that the pressing problem of aviation emissions has been before ICAO for more than 14 years, with no results, the consequence of lobbying mostly by U.S. airlines.
Clinton said in her letter that “the EU is increasingly isolated on this issue” after an ICAO meeting in Montreal on Nov. 2 at which many countries endorsed the U.S. position.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill.
Illinois taxpayers could be on the hook for hundreds of hours that state education workers spent in planes, trains and automobiles on their way to assignments during the past two years.
In a ruling obtained by The Associated Press, an arbitrator determined last month that State Board of Education employees’ travel time is work time, and more than 200 agency professionals are due compensatory time off for off-hours travel they accrued since the agency announced it was changing its travel policy in November 2009.
The decision, which could mean days or weeks of paid time-off for hundreds of employees, comes at a difficult financial time for the state and at an agency where a staff of 450 has been reduced by 40 percent in the past decade to save money. Meanwhile, school districts are many months behind in receiving state funding and are looking for more help from the agency.
The 2009 policy change was ordered by Donald Evans, the state board’s director of human resources and professional development. It ended the practice of giving employees compensatory time off for days when they worked overtime because of travel.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers challenged the policy, complaining that travel time required to complete duties should be considered work time. When the two sides couldn’t agree on a solution, it went to arbitration.
The union represents the affected employees, known as consultants or principal consultants, who aid local schools and perform other duties. As a result of the ruling, the union asked its members in late November to document all the hours they’ve traveled since November 2009.
The state board and the union plan a Jan. 12 meeting to try to reach a settlement. The employees most likely will seek reimbursement in hour-for-hour comp time, not payments, potentially leading to big disruptions in the agency’s work.
John Little, the union’s field service director, told The Associated Press he couldn’t estimate how many hours of paid time off work the employees have coming to them as a result of the ruling. Of 320 union members, he said at least three-quarters hit the road regularly.
“That’s a whole lot of travel that comes into play,” Little said. “Even if they’re office-based, they’re required, as part of their job, to travel to schools to assist with certification, audits, financial reviews, nutrition areas.”
Consultants provide technical assistance to schools and teachers, from helping instructors with certification to visiting classrooms to assist with curriculum development, check compliance with grant spending, breakfast and lunch programs and federal requirements.
The union argues that the 2009 policy change affects more than just lost time because of travel. Little said the policy goes so far that some employees get charged vacation or personal time if they arrive at a destination after their regular start time, although some managers have allowed comp time off in such circumstances.
For example, a consultant may start work at 8 a.m. She has a 9 a.m. appointment at a school three hours away, so she leaves at 6 a.m. None of the three hours of travel counts as work time and she must take an hour’s vacation because her work didn’t start until 9 a.m., an hour after she usually punches the clock.
State Board of Education spokesman Matt Vanover said he could not comment on whether the case would be handled in that manner because it’s “hypothetical.”
Little said the union made a “very generous offer” to settle the matter before a November hearing with arbitrator Edwin Benn.
Vanover said he was “not familiar with any particular” offer. “We haven’t even begun negotiations,” Vanover said. “Our plan is to meet and see how we can settle this.”
Evans testified at the arbitration hearing that he ordered the change because agency divisions handled travel time differently. “There was nothing consistent, and it needed to be addressed,” he said.
In his ruling, arbitrator Benn noted contract language is “ambiguous.” It describes the work week as 37.5 hours and allows that “a policy regarding travel time will be approved by the employer after discussion with the union.”
But he decided that the travel time should be work time based on past practice.
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A deadly storm that halted travel throughout the Great Plains weakened Tuesday as it headed east into Missouri and toward the Great Lakes, and officials reopened interstates in areas where motorists had been forced to adjust holiday plans mid-trip.
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Authorities still were reporting snow drifts of up to 10 feet high in southeast Colorado, and Texas officials warned drivers to stay off the road in the Panhandle so crews would have a clear path to remove ice and snow. Major highways in the western half of the Oklahoma Panhandle remained closed.
Still, officials reopened Interstate 40 in the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico, and portions of Interstate 70 in western Kansas that had been closed. New Mexico reopened a closed section of Interstate 25, the main highway from Santa Fe to the Colorado line after crews cleared drifts as high as 5 feet. The storm dumped as much as 15 inches of snow as it hit parts of five states.
At least 40 people were stranded at the Longhorn Motel on Main Street in Boise City, Okla., where manager Pedro Segovia said blowing snow had created drifts 2- and 3-feet high and closed the main road.
Video: Six dead as blizzard slams Southwest, Great Plains
“Some people cannot even get out of their houses. There is too much snow,” Segovia said. “It’s was blowing. We’ve got big piles. It’s real bad.”
Receptionist MaKenzee Grove sympathized with the 50 or so people stranded at the hotel where she works in Guymon, about 60 miles east of Boise City. She too spent Monday night there.
“I have this rinky-dink car that does not do well in this,” Grove said. “If we wouldn’t have had the wind, it wouldn’t have been as bad. The winds … made the drifts really bad.”
A few guests traveling to Oklahoma City managed to leave Tuesday, but others would likely have to wait another night before all roads were clear, she said.
Clyde Mueller
/
AP
In Kansas, schools in Manhattan canceled classes Tuesday, anticipating several inches of snow. The National Weather Service reported later that 3 inches or less fell.
To the east, a cold rain pelted the Topeka area, turned into a mix of light sleet and snow without much accumulation and tapered off. Forecasters said the storm became less potent as it moved northeast toward the Great Lakes.
Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner said the patrol dealt with dozens of accidents in which motorists slid off highways Tuesday morning.
“We had ice-covered roads, covered by snow packed on top,” he said.
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The late-autumn snowstorm lumbered into the region Monday, turning roads to ice and reducing visibility to zero. Many of the areas hit Monday had enjoyed relatively balmy 60-degree temperatures just 24 hours earlier.
The storm was blamed for at least six deaths Monday, authorities said. Four people were killed when their vehicle collided with a pickup truck in part of eastern New Mexico where blizzard-like conditions are rare, and a prison guard and inmate died when a prison van crashed on an icy road in eastern Colorado.
The Colorado Army National Guard said it rescued two stranded motorists early Tuesday in eastern Las Animas County, in the state’s southeast corner, using a special vehicle designed to move on snow. Smaller highways in that area remained closed.
Video: Snowstorm threatens Southwest, Great Plains
Authorities were investigating whether severe weather played a role in the crash of a single-engine plane in eastern Texas Monday night. Five people, including two children, were killed.
Ernest Contreras, of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the crash happened Monday night just before 10 p.m. (11 p.m. ET) in a farming and ranching community in Brazos County. Everyone on the plane was killed.
Contreras said the flight originated in Atlanta, stopped in Jackson, Miss., and was headed for Waco, Texas, when it crashed.
Contreras said the severe weather may have played a role in the crash, but authorities were still investigating.
Two adults, a two-year-old child and a teenager were found dead inside the plane, while another adult was found about 50 yards away, KBTX.com reported, citing Department of Public Safety troopers.
KBTX.com said the pilot had spoken to air traffic control at Forth Worth after getting into bad weather and was told to take a specific course, but flew in the opposite direction, according to the DPS.
“It’s a pretty horrific scene over there,” Sgt. Charles Booker told KBTX.com.
Meanwhile, weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said there was a chance of snow in the Northeast for the Christmas weekend.
“There are two possible scenarios for Christmas weekend in the Northeast,” he said.
Erdman said an area including Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford, and Boston could see accumulations of snow, although also with a chance of rain.
However he said under the second scenario, the I-95 Boston-to-Washington corridor could get “predominantly rain.”
___
Associated Press writers Jeri Clausing in Albuquerque, N.M.; Roxana Hegeman, in Wichita; Terry Wallace in Dallas; Juan Carlos Llorca in El Paso, Texas; Maria Fisher in Kansas City, Mo.; and Tim Talley in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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