| Port Authority faces $13M fee on WTC
The Port Authority is on the hook for $13.5 million in penalties for missing a deadline to turn part of Ground Zero over to developer Larry Silverstein. The estimated 45-day delay will cost the bistate agency the equivalent of 2.25 million George Washington Bridge tolls or 9 million PATH fares. Port Authority contractors missed a Dec. 31 deadline to finish excavating a 3-acre section of the East Bathtub where Towers 3 and 4 will rise, triggering $300,000-a-day fines. Officials said Friday they had wrapped up the excavation of one parcel, the 1.4-acre Tower 4 site at Liberty and Church Sts., where a 977-foot skyscraper is supposed to open by 2011. But the second parcel, the 1.6-acre Tower 3 site, has been excavated only 68 feet below street level and won't be construction-ready until it hits 80 feet.
Senator Conrad hosts energy roundtable
The new energy bill signed into law last month represents enormous progress in boosting North Dakota's economy because of its strong support for renewable fuels produced in North Dakota and the Midwest, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said. BISMARCK We are in the sweet spot, he told a group of representatives from conventional and renewable energy industries Friday, pointing to a map showing a deep color in this region. Some provisions of Conrad's BOLD (breaking our long-term dependence) energy plan are in the bill, which he called an exciting beginning. He is disappointed that a tax incentive package for the bill was defeated in the Senate by one vote. It needed a 60-vote majority and received 59. It would have extended wind energy tax credits that make building and operating wind farms financially viable, the industry representatives said.
China auto production, sales hit record 8.8 mln units in 2007
BEIJING, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Auto production and sales in China both surged more than 20 percent to a record 8.8 million units in 2007, despite slackening sales in global markets, an industry group said Sunday. China's automakers rolled out 8.88 million motor vehicles last year, up 22.02 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Total vehicle sales jumped 21.84 percent year-on-year to 8.79 million units in the world's second largest car market after the United States, twice the figure in 2003. Both the output and sales beat the prediction of 8.5 million made at the beginning of last year. Production of passenger vehicles - including sedans, sport utility vehicles and minivans - went up 21.94 percent to 6.38 million, while sales rose 21.68 percent to 6.3 million.
Bail denied again for ex-Coral Springs Mayor John Sommerer
For the second time in less than a week, a Broward judge denied bail for former Coral Springs Mayor John Sommerer, who is facing child molestation charges in a case involving a 7-year-old girl.
The victim's father told Broward Circuit Judge Cynthia Imperato on Wednesday that his daughter has been traumatized and that he thinks Sommerer, 60, is a flight risk.
"She said she feels safer with [Sommerer] being in jail," the witness said.
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