It has been a big week for the new Williston Basin International Airport project. The airport is moving from the land acquisition phase to the construction phase as the property owners signed purchase agreements from the City of Williston and a ceremonial ground breaking was scheduled for Oct. 10, 2016.
Federal, state and local dignitaries have been invited to the historic endeavor that is being called "Taking Flight." Watch for more details in the Williston Wire.The Williston Herald is reporting:
Construction is officially due to start on Williston's new airport this fall. Airport and city officials say purchase agreements are signed for about 1,500 acres of land, and a groundbreaking date has been set for October. Negotiations with eight landowners wrapped up in mid-July, clearing the way for the relocation project to move into its first building phase. Officials, citing various loose ends that have yet to be finalized in the deals, won't yet say how much the city paid for the tracts of farm and pasture land.And this:
In the meantime, bidding will start on several facets of construction, including the terminal building foundation, preliminary road construction and other staging areas. Those projects are expected to be complete by the end of this year.
Grading work and a re-route of 59th Street will also be up for bid this year, bringing 2016’s construction costs to $18.5 million.
Kjergaard, who was among a group from Williston that met with members of the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, said project heads are hoping to pay for the first phase of construction with federal money.
As a reminder, here is the link to the Williston Airport Relocation page.The project’s total price tag has dropped to an estimated $240 million, down from $265 million that the city was banking on several weeks ago.
The U.S. economy expanded less than forecast in the second quarter after a weaker start to the year than previously estimated as companies slimmed down inventories and remained wary of investing amid shaky global demand.
Gross domestic product rose at a 1.2 percent annualized rate after a 0.8 percent advance the prior quarter. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2.5 percent second-quarter increase.Makes me wonder about the economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
| 7/29/2016 | 07/29/2015 | 07/29/2014 | 07/29/2013 | 07/29/2013 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 35 | 73 | 192 | 179 | 179 |
United Parcel Service Inc. on Friday reported profit rose 3.2% in the latest period, though higher fuel costs cut into climbing revenue from its U.S. and international package deliveries.
Oil prices rose during the latest quarter, and UPS said lower fuel surcharges in the quarter hurt results. The company’s fuel surcharges are typically tacked onto shipments to cover that cost, but they lag rising fuel prices by a couple months.
Revenue rose 2.4% in the U.S. package segment and 1.1% in the international package segment.
Over all for the June period, UPS posted earnings of $1.27 billion, or $1.43 a share, compared with $1.23 billion, or $1.35 a share, a year earlier. The per-share figure was helped by a lower share count in the latest period.You mean to tell me that with gasoline and diesel fuel at incredibly low prices, UPS is still able to "tack on fuel surcharges"? I could see that when gasoline was selling for $4.00/gallon and $100-oil, but we're seeing gasoline now well below $2.00/gallon. Obviously I'm missing something; The WSJ wouldn't report this if it weren't true.
Task Fork 6813 was disbanded May 27, 1942, once the Americal Division was up and running.My own father was serving on the USS Wakefield on the Atlantic Ocean during this time, but in 1946 was in the Pacific Theater bringing US Marines back home.
Gaudalcanal ground offensive: The 164th Infantry (North Dakota) arrived on Guadalcanal on October, 13, 1942, under air attack. Division headquarters and the 132nd (Illinois) landed on Guadalcanal on December 8, 1942. The 35th Regiment Infantry Division relieved the 132nd Infantry Regiment, in early 1943. The 132nd reached Tenaro Village by February 9, 1943, and that ended the Guadalcanal ground struggle.
Bougainville: the Americal Division moved to the Fiji Islands in March / April, 1943, and then moved to Bougainville in December, 1943 - January, 1944, first the 182nd Infantry Regiment (Massachusetts) and then the 132nd Infantry Regiment.
The division was relieved by the Australian 3rd Division on December 10, 1944, and the division conducted amphibious training and prepared to move to the Philippines.
Philippines: the division moved to the Philippines in January, 1945. The following units are mentioned by the veterans’ association: the 1st Battalion, 182nd Infantry Regiment; the 1st Battalion, 132nd Infantry Regiment; the 3rd Battalion, 164th Infantry Regiment (North Dakota).
The final GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2016 is 1.8 percent on July 28, down from 2.3 percent on July 27.
After the U.S. Census Bureau's inaugural release of its advance economic indicators report, which covers retail and wholesale inventories and foreign trade in goods, the nowcast of the contribution of net exports to second-quarter real GDP growth declined from 0.17 percentage points to –0.10 percentage points and the nowcast of the contribution of inventory investment to growth declined from –0.63 percentage points to –0.79 percentage points.I think The Wall Street Journal is a bit more optimistic.
U.S. economic growth appears to have accelerated in the second quarter after a weak start this year. Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic output, is projected to have advanced at a 2.6% annualized pace this spring, according to economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. The economy grew at 1.1% in the first three months of the year.Then this:
If the economy advanced at the rate economists forecast, it would be the fastest pace in a year. That’s significant because in the prior two quarters, U.S. output increases came in below the relatively lackluster roughly 2% pace averaged during most of the expansion, which began in 2009. An improvement in growth would suggest the economy has stabilized, as opposed to gradually slowing into a contraction.I believe 1Q16 GDP was -- after all revisions -- 0.8%. If 2Q16 GDP really comes in at 2.5% .... well, it would be interesting. And encouraging.
Microsoft is taking another almost $1 billion hit on its failed Nokia acquisition today. The software maker is "streamlining" its smartphone business, writing off $950 million and cutting 1,850 jobs. The cuts come almost a year after Microsoft wrote off $7.6 billion and cut 7,800 jobs.
Only a small number of former Nokia employees will remain at Microsoft, and the company's consumer phone making days are over.
Microsoft has wasted at least $8 billion on its failed Nokia experiment, including the costs of restructuring and severance payments for thousands of employees. Microsoft originally hired 25,000 Nokia employees as part of its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's phone business, but a series of layoffs over the past two years has triggered the end of Microsoft's mobile subsidiary.
Microsoft's Nokia phone business acquisition was always tricky and risky, but it was a deal organized by former CEO Steve Ballmer. It has been clear from the start that Satya Nadella, Microsoft's new CEO, wasn't interested in running a phone business.
Nadella announced a strategy shift away from a "devices and services" focus just a couple of months after the Nokia acquisition finalized, and last year the strategy shifted even further away from producing multiple handsets.
Many will argue Microsoft had no choice, as Nokia controlled more than 90 percent of the Windows Phone market and had been rumored to be considering switching to Android.
Google's experiment with making its own Android phones resulted in the search giant selling Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, less than two years after paying $12.5 billion to acquire it. While Google's investment was primarily driven by the need to obtain key patents, it's not clear how Microsoft has benefited from its Nokia deal.No mention of Apple or the iPhone.