US Coast Guard Seizes 6 Tons Of Cocaine From Drug Submarine, 2 Tons Lost

Coast Guard Cutter Stratton crewmembers secure cocaine bales from a self-propelled semi-submersible interdicted in international waters off the coast of Central America, July 19, 2015. The Coast Guard recovered more than 6 tons of cocaine from the 40-foot vessel. 

(Coast Guard photo courtesy of Petty Officer 2nd Class LaNola Stone)

[From article]
A U.S. Coast Guard crew from Alameda stopped a semi-submersible vessel carrying more than 16,000 pounds of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean last month — the largest bust of its kind in Coast Guard history.
On July 18, the crew apprehended four suspected smugglers and captured 275 bales of cocaine worth more than $181 million wholesale from the self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) vessel, a low-riding vessel often used to smuggle massive quantities of narcotics across the ocean nearly undetected.
But not this time. The U.S. Navy maritime patrol aircraft found the 40-foot “narco-submarine” more than 200 miles south of Mexico.
[. . .]
After removing the majority of cocaine from the vessel, the Coast Guard Cutter Station crew left 4,000 pounds of cocaine on board to stabilize it as they towed it to shore for evidence. However, the submersible began taking on water and sank along with the 2 tons of cocaine.
[Really? Who's to know what happened to 2 tons of cocaine?]
[. . .]
There have been 25 known semi-submersible busts in the Eastern Pacific Ocean since November 2006.
[That suggests that some got through, or the cartels would have stopped trying.]

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/08/05/alameda-coast-guard-crew-seizes-8-tons-of-cocaine-from-narco-submarine/

Alameda Coast Guard Crew Seizes Narco-Submarine Carrying 8 Tons Of Cocaine
August 5, 2015 12:38 PM

CBS News San Francisco CA

Unions Shut Down Western US Ports

[From article]
PMA members stated that they cannot afford the almost $1,200 per day cost to employ International Longshore and Warehouse Union members to do little work.
After Breitbart broke the story on Thursday that union members of the ILWU planned to “walk out within the week,” the PMA employer group announced they can no longer continue to pay workers the premium pay for diminished productivity.
With ILWU members continuing to withhold the needed crane operators and slow crane movements, shippers and their customers estimated they were losing $1 billion a day. But a complete shut-down is expected to raise the U.S. economic pain to $2 billion a day.
[. . .]
In a similar series of work safe job action slowdowns in 2002, the Pacific Maritime Association closed down their operations and locked out workers for 10 days. President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to reopen the ports.
Although the Obama Administration had taken a hands-off attitude to the labor battle,

http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/02/07/1200-a-day-union-workers-force-shut-down-of-29-west-coast-ports/

$1,200-A-DAY UNION WORKERS FORCE SHUT-DOWN OF 29 WEST COAST PORTS
by CHRISS W. STREET

7 Feb 2015

Newport Beach, CA

Shipping Containers Modified For Homes In Detroit

AP Photo/Carlos Osorio). In a Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 photo, General Motors millwrights Mike Edwards, rear, and Chris Mathis work on drywall panels inside a container home being remodeled inside the GM Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant in Detroit.

[From article]
Come spring, the house-in-progress will be delivered to Detroit's North End neighborhood and secured on a foundation where a blighted home once stood. After finishing touches and final inspections, the 40-foot-long former container will feature 320 square feet of living space with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen, and will serve as home base for a university-student caretakers of a neighborhood farm and agricultural research activities.
One shipping container home won't turn around Detroit's housing woes. The city emerging from bankruptcy has roughly 40,000 vacant homes waiting to be demolished. But it's a start and, organizers hope, a model to lure and keep residents as Detroit removes blight and recovers from bankruptcy.
Shipping containers converted into living or working spaces are common in some other cities. For instance, in Salt Lake City's rundown warehouse district, a nonprofit group last year converted them into "micro-retail" spaces. A Seattle-based company designs and builds houses out of reclaimed containers.

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/27755680/shipping-container-home-readying-for-detroit-debut

Shipping container home readying for Detroit debut
By JEFF KAROUB
Associated Press
January 3, 2014

Greece To Italy Ferry Catches Fire, Ten Dead

Photo: AP

[From article]
The Italian Defense Ministry said 165 of the 478 people on the ferry had been evacuated by Sunday evening, more than 14 hours after the fire erupted.
“It will be a very difficult night. A night in which we hope we will be able to rescue all on board,” Greek Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said in Athens.
He said 10 merchant ships were in the area assisting rescue efforts, and that those who had already taken on dozens of passengers from the stricken ferry would remain in the area until the operation was over. Only then would it be determined where they would go, Varvitsiotis said.
The fire broke out before dawn Sunday on a car deck of the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic, traveling from the western Greek port of Patras to the Italian port of Ancona on the Adriatic, with 422 passengers and 56 crew members on board.

http://nypost.com/2014/12/28/1-dead-1-injured-in-greek-ferry-disaster/

Fatal fire erupts on ferry, trapping hundreds
By Associated Press
New York Post
December 28, 2014 | 11:53am

Cargo Ship Hits Brooklyn Bridge

[From article]
A cargo ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday night when its light tower clipped the iconic span, cops said.
The ship — which is named “Rainbow Quest” — was sailing south on the East River when its light tower collided with the underside of the bridge at about 11 p.m., forcing authorities to halt traffic for about two hours, according to cops.

http://nypost.com/2014/11/07/cargo-ship-hits-brooklyn-bridge-cops/

Cargo ship strikes Brooklyn Bridge
By Matt McNulty, Josh Saul and Gabrielle Fonrouge
November 7, 2014 | 11:47pm
New York Post

Tanker Ship Aground; Yellow Cabs Under Water

Yellow cabs in a parking lot are surrounded by water after Superstorm Sandy struck Hoboken, New Jersey



Beached: A 168-foot water tanker, the John B. Caddell, sits on the shore where it ran aground on Front Street in the Stapleton neighborhood of New York's Staten Island caption Fleet in the floods: 

Shipping Industry Shows Recession is Not Over


[Picture of fleet of 550 idle ships included]
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/recession_anchors_trade_eohbcwvfqxToYll4MdcZgL

Recession anchors trade
Vessels' valet parking
By PAUL THARP
New York Post
Last Updated: 7:45 AM, September 16, 2009
Posted: 12:57 AM, September 16, 2009