PEOPLExpress Coming To Pittsburgh International Airport

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – PEOPLExpress™, the iconic brand that made air travel affordable and accessible, returns to the skies June 30 with low-fare service from Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport to three cities: Boston, Newark, N.J., and Pittsburgh.

PEOPLExpress today announced its inaugural schedule, which includes four additional destinations: West Palm Beach, Fla. (July 15), Atlanta (Aug. 1), and St. Petersburg, Fla., and New Orleans (Aug. 28).

Vision Airlines d/b/a PEOPLExpress will operate scheduled flights from its base at Newport News with an initial fleet of three 737-400 aircraft, each with 150 seats – 138 with coach seating and 12 Living Large™ seats featuring more personal space for a fee. Both seating options will feature the same level of in-flight service.

Fares start as low as $76 each way.

Read more: https://www.flypex.com/

‘Bachelor’ Star Gia Allemand Dies At 29

Reality TV star and model Gia Allemand, who notably appeared on season 14 of ABC’s The Bachelor, died Wednesday of an apparent suicide in New Orleans.  She was 29.

Allemand was discovered Monday night in her home by boyfriend, NBA Pelicans player Ryan Anderson, who dialed 911, it says in the statement released by her family following her death.

“Due to a critical loss of brain and organ function, life support was withdrawn,” the statement says. “Ms. Allemand passed away peacefully with her mother, boyfriend, and other lifelong friends by her side.”

She was taken Monday night to University Hospital following “a serious emergency medical event,” her rep shared in a statement released Tuesday.  The details of her condition were not immediately disclosed.  She was later placed on life support.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/television/Bachelor-star-Gia-Allemand-dies-at-29.html#g0TyHxtYhILBopK2.99

BP Gets Record Fine In Gulf Oil Spill

English: Platform supply vessels battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon. A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire aboard the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, while searching for survivors. Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon’s 126 person crew. Français : Les restes en feu de la plateforme Deepwater Horizon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEW ORLEANS — Oil giant BP has agreed to pay the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history, totaling billions of dollars, for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a person familiar with the deal said today.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the deal, also said two BP employees face manslaughter charges over the death of 11 people in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that triggered the massive spill.

The person said BP will plead guilty to obstruction for lying to Congress about how much oil was pouring out of the ruptured well.  The person declined to say exactly how much the fine in the billions of dollars would be.

BP made a net profit of $5.5 billion in the third quarter, it reported last month.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=428304

This just in, according to Lancasteronline.com, the settlement is $4.5 billion!  Read full story:

http://lancasteronline.com/article/ap/778336_BP-agrees-to-pay–4-5B–3-employees-charged.html

Eagles Reach A New Low Under Andy Reid

Andy Reid, Philadelphia Eagles’ coach, after the Eagles’ training camp in Lehigh, Pennsylvania. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To be an Eagles fan is to be an expert in disappointment, a connoisseur of dashed hopes.

The team has suffered almost every flavor of defeat in Andy Reid‘s final season.  There was the shocking blowout in Arizona, the near-miss in Pittsburgh, the collapse against Detroit, the whipping administered by Atlanta, the failed gut-check in New Orleans.

But this one? This cruel beatdown at the hands of the hated Dallas Cowboys was a rare blend, indeed.  In an absolute must-win situation, the Eagles reached out for the faint sweet glimmer of hope, only to have it cruelly snatched away and replaced by the most bitter of defeats.

There was hope in the form of rookie quarterback Nick Foles, who led the team on two third-quarter scoring drives to take a 17-10 lead.  There was hope in the sudden competence of a defense that had been AWOL for the previous three-and-a-half games.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/20121111_Eagles_reach_a_new_low_under_Andy_Reid.html?mr=1&submit=Vote&oid=1&178713011=Y&pid=178713011&cid=8500281

Isaac Steers Clear Of Direct Blow On New Orleans

Location of Orleans Parish in Louisiana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Isaac sidestepped New Orleans on Wednesday, sending the worst of its howling wind and heavy rain into a cluster of rural fishing villages that had few defenses against the slow-moving storm that could bring days of unending rain.

Isaac arrived exactly seven years after Hurricane Katrina and passed slightly to the west of New Orleans, where the city’s fortified levee system easily handled the assault.

The city’s biggest problems seemed to be downed power lines, scattered tree limbs and minor flooding.  Just one person was reported killed, compared with 1,800 deaths from Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.  And police reported few problems with looting.  Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew just to be sure.

But in Plaquemines Parish, a sparsely populated area south of the city that is outside the federal levee system, dozens of people were stranded in flooded coastal areas.  The storm pushed water over an 18-mile levee and put so much pressure on it that authorities were considering intentionally puncturing the floodwall to relieve the strain.

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/isaac-steers-clear-of-direct-blow-on-new-orleans-1.1365207

Isaac Becomes Category 1 Hurricane Near Gulf Coast

(Updated at 1:13 p.m.) MIAMI — Isaac became a hurricane Tuesday that could flood the coasts of four states with storm surge and heavy rains on its way to New Orleans, where residents hunkered down behind levees fortified after Katrina struck seven years ago this week.

Shelters were open for those who chose to stay or missed the chance to get away before the outer bands of the large storm blow ashore ahead of a forecast landfall in southeast Louisiana on Tuesday night or early Wednesday.  However, with the exception of some low-lying areas, officials had not ordered mass evacuations.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Isaac became a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday with winds of 75 mph.  It could get stronger by the time it’s expected to reach the swampy coast of southeast Louisiana.

In Houma, a city southwest of New Orleans, people filled a municipal auditorium-turned-shelter.  However, in the bayou country of Terrebonne Parish off Highway 24, storms pose a perennial dilemma for those living a hardscrabble life.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20120828/NEWS04/120829390/updated-isaac-becomes-cat-1-hurricane-near-gulf-coast&pager=full_story

Tropical Storm Isaac Slogs Toward U.S. Gulf Coast

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Isaac churned across the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, disrupting U.S. offshore energy production and threatening to hit Louisiana on the anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The storm swiped south Florida on Sunday before moving into warm Gulf waters, where it is expected to strengthen into a hurricane.

On its current track, Isaac was due to slam into the Gulf Coast anywhere between Florida and Louisiana by Tuesday night or early Wednesday, the seventh anniversary of Katrina hitting New Orleans, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

“The weather is going to go downhill well in advance of that and that’s why today is the day of preparation,” said NHC director Richard Knabb.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/sns-rt-us-storm-isaacbre87l0ph-20120822,0,2605372.story

Vast Defenses Now Shielding New Orleans

English: Landsat 7 image of New Orleans sitting between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. The city appears a pinkish shade in the April 26, 2000 image. The image uses the ETM+ bands 7, 4, and 2. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW ORLEANS — Finally, there is a wall around this city.

Nearly seven years after flood waters from Hurricane Katrina gushed over New Orleans, $14.5 billion worth of civil works designed to block such surges is now in place — a 133-mile chain of levees, flood walls, gates and pumps too vast to take in at once, except perhaps from space.

Individual components of the system can be appreciated from a less celestial elevation. At the new Seabrook floodgate complex, climb up three steep ladders, open a trap door, and step out into the blazing sunlight atop a 54-foot tower that was not here just two years ago. From there one looks out over a $165 million barrier across the shipping canal that links Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/us/vast-defenses-now-shielding-new-orleans.html?pagewanted=all

New Orleans Newspaper Cuts Print Edition To Three Days A Week

A true-color satellite image of New Orleans taken on NASA’s Landsat 7 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW ORLEANS, La.  (Reuters) – The 175-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper will reduce the number of days it publishes a print edition to three a week, making the Louisiana city the largest in the United States without a daily newspaper.

Advance Publications, which owns the Times-Picayune, said on Thursday it made the change because of the upheaval in the newspaper industry and the necessity to focus on its digital publications.

The company said three of its newspapers in Alabama – the Huntsville Times, Mobile Press-Register and Birmingham News – would also cut back their print editions to three days a week.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/sns-rt-us-media-neworleans-newspaperbre84o03e-20120524,0,1798086.story

BP, Plaintiffs Reach $7.8 Billion Settlement

NEW ORLEANS, La. (TheStreet) — BP(BP) and the plaintiffs in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill case have reached an estimated $7.8 billion settlement.

In a news release early Saturday, the U.K. petroleum giant said it had reached the settlement with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, which represents diverse plaintiffs in the complex case.

The settlement, news of which comes just two days before the trial was scheduled to start, is subject to final written agreement, the release said.

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-times-herald/story/bp-plaintiffs-reach-78-billion-settlement/11442438

American Idol Opens To Mixed Reviews

The first week of American Idol has come to a close.  The New Jersey and New Orleans auditions are behind us now. 

Personally, I was not going to watch any more but decided, to be fair, I should at least give the new panel a chance.  Never did much care for Randy.  Loved Paula and Simon.  Kara (disliked) and Ellen, who is funny and I enjoy her show, was not really suited for AI by her own admission.

When they announced Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez I was more than a little upset.  Based on who they could have considered I felt maybe this was not such a good idea.  Really wanted Harry Connick, Jr. but he evidently had too many commitments to be a judge.

I must say I was surprised by Steven Tyler.  I think he is funny, has a good eye for talent and is very respectful of the contestants, even the bad ones.  People seem to love him or hate him.  I did see more positive comments from people than negative ones. 

Jennifer Lopez needs to say no more.  Otherwise, I think she will be fine.  I am hoping she gets tougher as the season moves along.   I think people are more evenly divided on whether they like her or not than Steven Tyler.

Some good talent so far.  Looking forward to the rest of the auditions.  350 people made it to Hollywood from what I read.  Largest group ever.  In the end, they still have to get down to 20 (new this year) so as long as AI foots the bill, who cares.

Brad Pitt throws hat in ring for New Orleans mayor!

Okay, now I have seen everything.  Celebrity do-gooder Brad Pitt has evidently thrown his hat into the New Orleans mayoral race.  His platform is:

I’m running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform.  He supposedly said this on national television.

Well alrightly then!

Stick to movies Brad.  Not sure Angie would want to live in New Orleans.  Hope you asked permision first. LOL!