Friday, April 18, 2014

Good Friday -- Active Rigs Increasing; "Indian Environmentalists" Oppose Sandpiper Pipeline

Active rigs:


4/18/201404/18/201304/18/201204/18/201104/18/2010
Active Rigs188185210175108

No RBN Energy post today.

The Wall Street Journal

Obama: health-plan sign-ups at 8 million. Premiums for 2015 will plummet. LOL.

Ukraine talks gain; Putin keeps force on table. 

Economist known for pioneering work on slanted coverage in the news media wins the John Bates Clark Medal, one of the profession's most prestigious honors.

For the first time, astronomers have discovered a world nearly the size of Earth orbiting a star wehere water might exist as a life-giving liquid.

As builders pivot from commercial to residential development, municipalities in many Western sttes face a problem: a drop in sales-tax receipts -- which they rely on to keep property taxes low -- and higher costs.

What's Barnes & Noble's survival plan? We've discussed this before.

Costs of GM recalls pile up: about $1 million per day -- providing loaner cars and insurance, to 30,000 US customers waiting replacement parts for their vehicles.

GE plans to sell of more pieces of its sprawling conglomerate: the only real winner for GE is industrial (oil services) and probably its financial services.

UnitedHealth's profit falls amid health-law changes. UnitedHealth is thefirst major health insurer to report its results for the latest quarter, the first period to reflect the Affordable Care Act.

Wal-Mart to launch money-transfer service. The new service will undercut Western Union and MoneyGram with lower and simplified fees.

Tax refunds may fuel retail windfall. Nearly 80% of the tax returns processed through Aprill 4 resulted in refunds averaging amost $3,000. That bodes well for the nation's retailers in the month ahead.

Natural-gas prices posted their biggest one-day gain in two month after a smaller-than-expected increase in US inventories reignited fears that supplies are slow. Folks are already looking ahead ot next winter. Global warming? We hardly knew ye.


The Los Angeles Times

3.3 earthquake strikes near Currant, Nevada. Senator Reid thinks this is God's wrath after the recent BLM stand-off; will ban fracking in response.

Los Angeles faces three more years of deficit.
.... lawmakers won't have the money to rebuild services cut during the recession until the 2018-19 fiscal year, unless new tax revenue is found or other programs are cut. That year, the city is expected to experience a $20.9-million surplus, he said.
... could limit Mayor Eric Garcetti's ability to expand core services during his four-year term. Garcetti has promised to take a "back to basics" approach to city government, proposing a budget with modest hikes in service — additional library hours, more code enforcement inspectors and an expansion of road repairs from 2,200 lane miles to 2,400.
Deputy Mayor Rick Cole said Garcetti is working on ways to generate savings for the city that offset Santana's projections in future years. The mayor is focusing on limiting workers' compensation costs, improving the city's purchasing process and increasing productivity through technology, he said.
Pretty aggressive agenda for a new mayor: expanding road repairs from 2,200 miles to 2,400 miles. Additional library hours. More code enforcement officers.

The Dickinson Press

Let's see if any Dickinson Baptist churches report any more suspicious kissing in cars. If there were any such stories I did not see them; at least not headline stories. I assume the kissing couple reported yesterday are "on the run."
 
Now it's "Indian environmentalists" who are battling the Sandpipe pipeline project. Nice map.I assume once they get their price, everyone will be happy.