Crude oil leaks in Arkansas suburb after ExxonMobil pipeline ruptures

Isolde Raftery , NBC News ? ? ? 8 hrs.

An ExxonMobil pipeline rupture near Little Rock, Ark., Friday evening has resulted in a ?major oil spill,? according to the Environmental Protection Agency -- and ignited further debate over the transportation of crude oil in the U.S.

Up to 10,000 barrels could have been spilled, according to an incident report filed to the National Response Center by ExxonMobil early Saturday morning.

ExxonMobil said Sunday that 12,000 barrels of a mix of oil and water had been recovered, though there was no breakdown on how much of that was oil.

Twenty-two residents were evacuated from their homes, according to a statement on the ExxonMobil website.

Mayflower, Ark., Chief of Police Bob Satkowski told Channel 7 News in Little Rock that those residents had to leave their homes because of health risks from the crude oil fumes and possible fires. Images from local media showed crude oil snaking along a suburban street and spewed across lawns.

In a statement on the company website, ExxonMobil downplayed the environmental concerns, saying that the air quality doesn?t likely present a human health risk, ?with the exception of high-pooling areas.?

KARK, an NBC affiliate station in Little Rock, reported that part of the pipeline runs through a water source that provides drinking water to nearly 400,000 residents in central Arkansas. The 20-inch wide pipeline goes through Lake Maumelle.

The pipeline, officially known as the Pegasus pipeline, transports heavy Canadian crude oil from Patoka, Ill. down to the Sunoco Logistics Nederland terminal in Texas, which feeds into Houston area refiners, according to the Exxon website. The pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels a day, was stopped Friday. ExxonMobil did not say when it would reopen.

EPA officials said the cleanup would be long and expensive, according to KARK. It was not reported who would pay for the cleanup.

The leak was first reported at 5 p.m. Friday, when someone called the National Response Center to report a drop in pipeline pressure.

Two hours later, a caller reported that there was a ?significant amount of material release.? The caller said the oil leak lasted about three hours.

An updated report early Saturday said up to 10,000 barrels were discharged and that the product had been released ?into flume pipes and into a pond, a tributary of Lake Conway.?

Friday?s spill prompted immediate response from critics of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport about 800,000 barrels per day of Canadian crude oil to the Gulf Coast for refining.

Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey took to Facebook to lash out against Canadian crude oil.

?This latest pipeline incident is a troubling reminder that oil companies still have not proven that they can safely transport Canadian tar sands oil across the United States without creating risks to our citizens and our environment,? Markey said. He is the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee.

?Tar sands oil is already the dirtiest, riskiest oil around, and should not be getting a free ride across America,? he continued. ?It?s time that we recognize the real effects producing and burning this oil will have on our climate, and the real world damage it can cause when it is spilled in our neighborhoods.?

This has been a bad week for crude oil public relations. On Wednesday, according to Reuters, a train carrying crude oil derailed in Minnesota and spilled up to 30,000 gallons.

Last week, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration recommended fining ExxonMobil Pipeline Company $1.7 million for how the company responded to a crude oil pipeline failure in the Yellowstone River in Montana.

The Mayflower spill may be 10 times more significant than the Montana spill, which leaked 1,509 barrels.

The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill poured 260,000 to 750,000 gallons into Alaskan waters.

These spills pale in comparison, however,to the 2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill, the most significant oil spill in the U.S., which leaked 4.9 million barrels into the Gulf Coast.

Reuters contributed reporting.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a311db4/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Ccrude0Eoil0Eleaks0Earkansas0Esuburb0Eafter0Eexxonmobil0Epipeline0Eruptures0E1C91550A11/story01.htm

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Twitter Announces ?Twttr? - Will Start Charging $5 A Month If You Want To Tweet Using Vowels

Vowels aren’t really necessary in today’s digital age, are they? Twitter doesn’t think so, as it announced a new “two-tiered” service including its free model called “Twttr.” You can only tweet without vowels though. Want the vowels back? Pony up $5 a month. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me. Luckily, Twitter really cares about its users and will offer up the “sometimes Y” free of charge…forever. Also free are vowels in link URLs. Whew. If you’ve seen the text messages from anyone under 25 years old, you know that vowels often get left out already. This is pretty forward-thinking of Twitter, as it attempts to monetize its older set of users who can still speak and write using a real language. Here’s what Twitter had to say about the disruptive approach to scl ntwrkng: We?re doing this because we believe that by eliminating vowels, we?ll encourage a more efficient and ?dense? form of communication. We also see an opportunity to diversify our revenue stream. Here’s a mockup, with a condensed version of the legendary Barack Obama re-election tweet: Take that, Fcbk. How did they come up with this amazing concept? Michael Sippey, Twitter’s VP of Product shared the brainery that went behind this genius move to beef up its revenue before next year’s IPO: I was carpooling home after Twitter?s seventh birthday party with my head filled with images from our past, like our early logo where we spelled it TWTTR, in neon green toothpaste. And then Prince?s song ?I would die 4 U? came on the radio. I felt like there was something there, but I wasn?t sure what or how to bring it to market. Then later that night, I was watching ?Wheel of Fortune? with @adambain, and a contestant yelled out ?I wanna buy a vowel?. Everything just sort of clicked. Adam and I turned to each other and high-fived. It was one of those product moments that just felt like magic. The company had some other revenue-producing ideas up its sleeve and will introduce extra characters, past 140, for a price: In addition to our normal suite of Promoted Products for advertisers, we are now also offering a single character extension, expanding the length of a Tweet to 141 characters, for those moments when you need just one more character to finish your thought. The price of the extra character is based on a

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8vd59NBA09U/

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Exxon continues cleanup of Arkansas oil pipeline spill

(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil on Sunday continued cleanup of a pipeline oil spill in Arkansas that loosed thousands of barrels of heavy Canadian crude and forced the evacuation of 22 homes.

Exxon's Pegagus pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Pakota, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was shut after the leak was discovered late Friday afternoon in a subdivision near the town of Mayflower.

The company did not have an estimate for the restarting of the pipeline, which was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak. The spill comes as environmentalists are pressing the State Department to reject plan to build the 800,000 bpd Keystone pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada's oil sands to the Gulf Coast.

Exxon said that by 3 a.m. Saturday there was no additional oil spilling from the pipeline. Images from local media showed crude oil snaking along the road in a neighborhood.

"Cleanup efforts are progressing 24 hours a day," said Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers, who added the oil had not leaked into nearby Lake Conway.

"We were very fortunate that the local responders made sure the oil did not enter the water."

(Reporting by Matthew Robinson in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exxon-shuts-oil-pipeline-major-pipeline-spill-arkansas-010122537--finance.html

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284,000 College Graduates Had Minimum-Wage Jobs Last Year

A college degree doesn?t guarantee anyone a big paycheck anymore.

About 284,000 Americans with college degrees were working minimum wage jobs last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. That?s 70 percent more college grads working for the minimum wage than 10 years ago. Still, the number is down from its 2010 high of 327,000.

As unemployment skyrocketed during the economic downturn, job opportunities for everyone -- including college graduates -- narrowed and low-wage work began to replace steady middle-class jobs. Three-fifths of the jobs lost during the recession paid middle-income wages, while the same share of the jobs created during the recovery are low-wage work, according to an August study from the National Employment Law Project.

The result: Nearly half of the college graduates in the class of 2010 are working in jobs that don?t require a bachelor?s degree and 38 percent have jobs that don?t even require a high school diploma, according to a January report from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. The report called into question whether too much public money is being spent on providing students with degrees that make them overqualified for the only jobs that are available.

But it?s not only the government shouldering the cost of a college degree. Household student loan debt soared to a record in 2010, with nearly one in five American households burdened with college debt. And with the weak job market, recent graduates are going to have an increasingly tough time paying that debt off. The median wage for those with a bachelor?s degree is down from a decade ago, according to the Associated Press.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/college-graduates-minimum-wage-jobs_n_2989540.html

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Lowest Cost Raspberry Pi Microcomputer Now On Sale In The U.S. - $25 Model A Suited For Battery/Solar Powered Projects

The Raspberry Pi microcomputer prides itself on being affordable, with its tiny $35 price-tag for the original Model B Pi. But now its lowest cost board -- the $25 Model A -- has gone on sale in the U.S. The Raspberry Pi Foundation confirmed to TechCrunch that Model A can now be purchased in the U.S. via reseller Allied Electronics.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wplkJjVcjes/

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Over 50 Iranian tourists visit southern Egypt

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) ? More than 50 Iranian tourists visited sites in southern Egypt on Sunday amid tight security as part of a bilateral tourism promotion deal that has generated some controversy.

The tourists, who according to a security official arrived on some of the first commercial flights between the two countries in three decades, will be restricted in their movement following objections from some ultraconservative Sunni Muslims to receiving visitors from Shiite Iran. Members of the Salafi movement in Egypt consider Shiites heretics, and fear Iran is trying to spread its faith in the Sunni world.

After visiting the city of Aswan Sunday, the group is expected to travel to the ancient city of Luxor in a boat down the Nile on Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media.

On Saturday, a private Air Memphis flight carried eight Iranians, including two diplomats, to Tehran on the re-opened route from Egypt. The ministry of civil aviation said in a statement Sunday that the routes will operate in southern cities and Red Sea resorts, not Cairo.

Following the June election of Egypt's Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, Egypt and Iran agreed to promote tourism between the two countries, in a sign of warming relations. Diplomatic relations were frozen after Egypt signed its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and Iran underwent its Islamic Revolution.

Egypt's Foreign and Civil Aviation Ministries have set regulations restricting the number and movement of Iranian tourists in Egypt, keeping Iranian tourists from visiting the capital Cairo ? mainly because several shrines of revered Shiite figures are located there.

Iranian tourists would only be allowed to visit certain sites, such as the ancient cities of Luxor and Red Sea resort areas like Sharm el-Sheikh.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/over-50-iranian-tourists-visit-southern-egypt-201824653.html

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Syrian rebels enter strategic Aleppo neighborhood

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian rebels pushed into a strategic neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy clashes, seizing control of at least part of the hilltop district and killing a pro-government cleric captured in the fighting, activists and state media said Saturday.

There were conflicting reports about the scale of the advance into the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood by rebel forces battling to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. But the gains marked the biggest shift in the front lines in the embattled city in months.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a former commercial hub, has been a key battleground in the country's civil war since rebels launched an offensive there in July, seizing several districts before the fighting largely settled into a bloody stalemate.

The Aleppo Media Center opposition group and Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed said rebels seized full control of Sheikh Maqsoud late Friday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however, said rebels took only the eastern part of the neighborhood, and reported heavy fighting there Saturday.

Syria's state news agency SANA said government troops "eliminated scores of terrorists" in other parts of Aleppo mainly in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Said, Masaken Hanano and Bustan al-Bacha. SANA did not mention the fighting in Sheikh Maqsoud.

Sheikh Maqsoud, which is predominantly inhabited by minority Kurds, is located on a hill on the northern edge of the city. The neighborhood used to be known as "Our Lady's Mountain" and is considered one of the most strategic locations in the city because it overlooks much of Aleppo.

Activists predicted that regime forces would launch counterattacks to try to retake the area because if rebels keep holding Sheikh Maqsoud it will be easy for them to target regime-held areas with mortar shells.

The media center and the Observatory both reported that residents were fleeing the neighborhood to safer areas. The media center said regime tanks around the neighborhood were shelling the area.

An amateur video showed about two dozen gunmen standing in front of a building owned by the Syrian government. In the video, one of the gunmen claims that rebels and their "Kurdish brothers liberated Sheikh Maqsoud of Assad's criminal gangs and shabiha" or pro-government militiamen.

The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other reporting that The Associated Press did on events depicted in the footage.

Saeed, the Aleppo-based activist, said several rebel groups, including Kurdish gunmen, took control of the neighborhood after launching an attack, titled "Kurdish Fraternity," on Thursday. He said that on Saturday fighting intensified on the eastern edge of the area around an army post known as Awamid.

The Observatory said rebels captured a pro-government Sunni Muslim cleric in the fighting, killed him and then paraded his body through the neighborhood.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV identified the cleric as Hassan Seifeddine. It said he was beheaded and his head was placed on the minaret of Al-Hassan Mosque where he used to lead the prayers.

The SANA state news said Seifeddine's body was "mutilated" after the "assassination."

The reports of the mutilation of the cleric's body could not be independently confirmed.

The killing of Seifeddine comes nearly 10 days after a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in the heart of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing top Sunni preacher Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti as he was giving a sermon. The March 21 blast killed 48 others and wounded dozens.

Al-Buti, like Seifeddine, was a strong supporter of the Assad regime, which is dominated by members of the president's minority Alawite sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam. The opposition is made up of mostly Sunnis, who are the majority among Syrians.

Extremists have been playing a larger role among the rebel groups. They include the Islamic Jabhat al-Nusra, a powerful offshoot of al-Qaida in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for most of the deadliest suicide bombings against regime and military facilities and, as a result, has gained popularity among some rebels.

A photograph recently posted online by activists showed Seifeddine, who was in his late 50s and had a white beard. A banner posted over the picture said: "A wanted agent." Another referred to him as wanted by the rebels and read: "An agent of Syria's ruling gang and wanted by the Free Syrian Army."

Aleppo-based Sunni cleric Abdul-Qadir Shehabi told state-run TV that Seifeddine's son was kidnapped months ago. Shehabi also lashed out at the rebels, saying they "mutilated" Seifeddine's body.

"Is this the freedom that they talk about? This is the freedom of Satan," Shehabi said, referring to rebels who say they are fighting Assad's regime because it is authoritarian.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said Seifeddine's name had been put on an opposition "death list."

"He was the imam of a mosque. He was not armed when he was killed," Abdul-Rahman said. "We cannot close our eyes when the opposition violates human rights."

Abdul-Rahman said that although Sheikh Maqsoud is predominantly Kurdish, the eastern areas where much of the fighting occurred are inhabited by pro-regime Sunni Muslims known as the "Mardilis." Many of them came to Aleppo decades ago from Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin. He said Seifeddine was one of them.

Elsewhere in Syria, activists reported violence in areas of the southern province of Daraa, the suburbs of Damascus and the northern regions of Idlib and Raqqa. The Observatory said the heaviest clashes were in Raqqa and Sheikh Maqsoud.

Abdul-Rahman said the fighting in Sheikh Maqsoud killed 14 pro-government gunmen, seven rebels, 10 civilians and Seifeddine.

The Observatory said rebels were fighting a fierce battle around an army post known as the Camp in the oil-rich eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq.

In Damascus, residents said power was cut on Saturday in some neighborhoods. Al-Ikhbariya TV quoted Minister of Electricity Imad Khamis as saying the network suffered a technical problem that would be fixed in 24 hours. Damascus has witnessed repeated cuts in recent months.

Also on Saturday, SWR, a regional broadcaster for Germany's ARD public television network, said that one of its reporters was shot on Friday in Aleppo. SWR said the reporter, Joerg Armbruster, 65, had emergency surgery in a Syrian hospital and then was taken to the Turkish border in an ambulance on Saturday. He was to be flown to Germany for further treatment when his condition improves.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-enter-strategic-aleppo-neighborhood-115808294.html

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