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The Daily Press News

17 Aug 2015

Tianjin Port Death Toll Rises to 114

Rescue crews have found 114 bodies, with 95 people still missing, 85 of whom are firefighters, after two huge explosions  China’s Port of Tianjin where dangerous chemicals and goods are stored late Wednesday night, Xinhua news agency reports. Chinese authorities are still trying to ascertain what exactly caused a potent mix of chemicals to ignite. Authorities had earlier said that the warehouse contained calcium carbide, potassium nitrate and ammonium nitrate. The local media say that hundreds of tonnes of highly poisonous cyanide were being stored at the warehouse. The comments by Shi Luze, chief of the general staff of the Beijing military region, were the first official confirmation of the presence of the chemical at the hazardous goods storage facility at the centre of the blast.

25 Nov 2014

Vietnam Warship Visits Underscore Regional Tension

Vietnam on Tuesday showed off its two most powerful warships in the first-ever port call to the Philippines but an official said it was not trying to challenge China's superior naval forces amid tension in the South China Sea. Hanoi invited the diplomatic community to its Russian-built missile-guided frigates docked in Manila Bay at the start of a three-day goodwill visit. China lays claim to almost all of the entire South China Sea, believed to be rich minerals and oil-and-gas deposits. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims, creating one of Asia's biggest possible flashpoints. "We are trying to hold joint patrols and operations in the Spratlys, including search-and-rescue operations," said a Philippine naval official, referring to a disputed island chain.

13 May 2014

China & US Discuss Disputed South China Sea Areas

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed the South China Sea dispute with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and urged him to speak and act cautiously, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Wang urged Kerry to be objective, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing. Tensions rose in the resource-rich South China Sea last week after China positioned a giant oil rig in an area also claimed by Vietnam. Each country accused the other of ramming its ships near the disputed Paracel Islands. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, rejecting rival claims to parts of it from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. It also has a separate maritime dispute with Japan. (By Megha Rajagopalan)

18 Mar 2014

The Thad Allen No-Frills Leadership Primer

FEMA Urban Search and Rescue task forces continue search operations Sept. 6, 2005, into New Orleans neighborhoods flooded by Hurricane Katrina. The US Coast Guard helped the operations by providing boats. Credit: Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA

Every year there are countless books written about leadership and management, supplemented by a mountain of similarly themed magazine articles and scholarly treatises, eagerly snapped up by legions of wanna-be bosses and officers. As a culture, we are obsessed with leadership, especially leaders as heroic figures, and we are constantly seeking the right formula to make us so. But all those would-be captains of industry – and the oceans – might find it a lot easier to step away from the stacks and take a page from a leader extraordinaire…

04 Jul 2012

First Japanese Offshore Wind Farm

According to 'The Japan Daily Press' the Government’s feed-in tariffs have just gone into effect this month , making electricity generated from renewable resources like solar and wind to be sold at higher prices for the next 20 years. This wind farm, along with announced plans for the construction of Japan’s largest solar panel farms , is one of the first real signs that the country is making steps to reduce its reliance on nuclear power. This first wind farm will be built to the east of Tokyo, off the coast of Choshi, and there are already plans to have a second wind farm, capable of producing 2 megawatts of electricity starting next May, to be built off the coast of Kitakyushu, in southwestern Japan.

28 Apr 2011

Northrop Grumman Profit Rises

According to a report from the Daily Press, Northrop Grumman Corp. said that its first-quarter profit rose 20.9 percent after setting itself free from its shipbuilding unit, which became Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. on March 31. The company reported total profits of $530m, or $1.79 a share, up from $469m, or $1.53 a share, a year earlier.   (Source: Daily Press)

30 Mar 2011

Huntington Ingalls Goes Live

According to a report from the Daily Press, the Fortune 500 shipbuilding firm will be officially spun out from defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp. on Wednesday evening, March 30. Stock in the company will begin publicly trading under the symbol HII the following morning.   (Source: Daily Press)

31 Jan 2011

NG Shipbuilding Spinoff Gets Junk Bond Rating

According to a report from the Daily Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, the nation's three credit ratings agencies gave Northrop Grumman Corp.’s spin off shipbuilding unit a junk bond rating. Northrop Grumman is spinning off Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. into a separate, publicly traded company.  Each agency cited concerns about the company's debt, weak profit margins and the uncertainty surrounding future defense spending, the primary source of the company's revenues. (Source: Daily Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)

07 Oct 2010

Northrop Grumman Partners to Build Offshore Wind Turbines

According to an October 6 report from the Daily Press, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News shipyard and Spanish energy firm Gamesa said they have formed a new partnership to produce offshore wind turbines. Northrop and Gamesa said they are assembling a team of up to 40 engineers in Hampton Roads over the next month to begin preliminary work on the project. Neither company would say where in the region the new venture will be located. (Source: The Daily Press)

12 Nov 2009

Navy Contracts for Hampton Roads Shipyards

According to a Nov. 10 report from the Daily Press, Newport News-based Davis Boat Works Inc., Portsmouth-based Associated Naval Architects, Norfolk's Lyon Shipyard and Tecnico Corp. in Chesapeake all got a boost from the Navy last week, receiving a combined $127.4m in contracts. (Source: Newport News, Va., Daily Press)

10 Mar 2009

Northrop Creates Jobs in Newport News

According to a March 10 report from the Daily Press, among other new business investments in the city of Newport News, VA, Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is involved in a collaboration to invest $363m, generating 540 new jobs. (Source: Daily Press)

18 Jan 2009

Shipbuilders Urged to Cut the Fat

According to a Jan. 16 report from the Newport News Daily Press, a group of the U.S. Navy's top officials on Jan. 15 continued to emphasize that the service needs to reach its goal of a 313-ship fleet and urged shipbuilders to find innovative solutions on driving down costs. (Source: Newport News Daily Press)

18 Aug 2008

Shipyard Workers Rally

Union steelworkers poured through the streets of on Friday as shipyard officials and steelworkers prepare to hammer out a contract for the first time in four years. United Steelworkers Local 8888 represents roughly 7,000 workers in Northrop Grumman's shipyard, and about 500 members marched past the shipyard gates along chanting for higher wages, better pensions and an upgraded health care plan. Steelworker negotiators and company executives are expected to discuss the new contract for the first time on Sept. 3.  The current contract, signed in 2004, expires at midnight Oct. 26. That deal was signed without incident, but in 1999, the steelworkers went on strike for 17 weeks while negotiating teams tried to reach an agreement. Source:  The Daily Press

18 Jan 2008

Project for Shipyard will cost $3.08b

Workers at Northrop Grumman's Newport News shipyard will help build a new class of Navy ship beginning this year, following an endorsement by the Navy of a work-sharing agreement between Newport News and the company's Pascagoula, Miss.-based Ship Systems. The shipyard will produce four components of the LHA-6, the Navy's new generation of amphibious ships, the service confirmed Thursday. The collaboration marks the first tangible sign of Northrop Grumman's merger of two shipyard sectors into one unit. The LHA-6 is a smaller, non-nuclear powered version of an aircraft carrier. At a cost to the U.S. Navy of $3.08 billion, the 844-foot vessel can hold up to 34 aircraft and more than 3,000 troops.

15 Nov 2007

Bush Signs Defense Bill, Includes $2.8B for Aircraft Carrier

President Bush signed a defense spending bill that includes money for the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier construction in Newport News and advance funding aimed at speeding up submarine construction. The annual defense appropriations bill, which totals about $460b, includes about $2.8b for the Ford carrier, as Bush first requested in February. The Navy is hoping to build the ship for $8.1b, not counting the research and development costs for designing a new class of carrier. Outside experts warn the price is sure to rise. The $2.8b in the legislation, when combined with advance funding already allocated, would cover about 40 percent of the cost of the ship. The remaining 60 percent is due to be provided in next year's budget request.

30 Apr 2007

MarAd Lifts Ghost Fleet Moratorium

According to the Daily Press, MarAd has lifted a moratorium on the disposal of ships in the James River Reserve Fleet, clearing the way for more of the rusting ships in the ghost fleet to be removed. The agency had put a temporary freeze on ship disposal last month while state agencies nationwide disputed how the ship hulls are cleaned. The environmental dispute is holding up disposal work in California and Texas, but Virginia officials have let the work proceed. Since last year, the Coast Guard has required that ship hulls be brushed to remove marine growth that may have accumulated before it is towed to foreign waters. Some complained the process could remove lead paint or decayed metals that end up in the water.

27 Feb 2007

No Funding in '08 for Va. Ghost Fleet Removal

There won't be any Ghost Fleet ships towed out of the James River next year. MarAd, which oversees the Virginia's James River Reserve Fleet, says the most serious environmental threats have been removed, so it won't spend money next year to remove the 44 rusting ships that are still there. MarAd will focus on disposing of ships in California and Texas instead. The ships anchored off Fort Eustis are contaminated with asbestos and cancer-causing P-C-Bs. Local and state officials want to dispose of the ships as soon as possible, fearing the environmental damage that could unfold with severe weather such as a hurricane. About 55 ships have been removed from the James River fleet since 2002. Source: Daily Press

04 May 2006

Va School to Introduce Training Center in 2008

According to the Daily Press, Tidewater Community College on Wednesday announced a new training center designed to help alleviate anticipated critical workplace shortages in shipbuilding and other waterfront related work. The Maritime and Transportation Center, set to open in 2008, will operate out of a building at the community college's forthcoming campus in Portsmouth -- training workers in everything from welding to truck driving, from computer aided design to port security. Shipyard workers are expected to be in great demand over the coming decades. Baby boomers are approaching retirement age even as Navy shipbuilding is going strong with an entirely new aircraft carrier class at Northrop Grumman Newport News and continued submarine building there.

03 Jul 2006

New Hand at Helm of Norfolk Naval

The Daily Press has reported that Capt. Richard Berkey will lead the Portsmouth, Va., yard as Capt. Joseph Campbell heads to the Pentagon. Navy Capt. Richard D. Berkey assumed command of Norfolk Naval Shipyard on Friday, taking the helm from Capt. Joseph F. Campbell. The nuclear-capable shipyard, based in Portsmouth, performs maintenance jobs on both aircraft carriers and submarines. With about 7,700 employees, it is the second-largest shipyard in Hampton Roads behind Northrop Grumman Newport News, and the oldest federal shipbuilding site anywhere. In a ceremony at the shipyard's Trophy Park, Berkey became the shipyard's 102nd commander since its inception as Gosport Navy Yard in 1767.

13 Jul 2006

Another Ship to Leave Ghost Fleet

The Daily Press has reported that MarAd is scheduled to tow away another obsolete ship from the James River Reserve Fleet, which sits off the coast of Newport News, Va. The Saugatuck is a former Navy oil refueling vessel built in 1942. It's the 52nd ship to leave the fleet since 2001. Bay Bridge Enterprises in Chesapeake will dismantle the ship. Source: Daily Press

24 Jul 2006

NCL Plans SS United States Restoration

Thirt-seven years after the SS United States last sailed the seas under its own power, and four years after Norwegian Cruise Line bought the ship, a key question remains: Can the grand vessel ever make a comeback? Norwegian Cruise Line, or NCL, which bought the old Newport News-built vessel in 2003, won't reveal its plans for the ship, which likely would need hundreds of millions of dollars to refurbish. But in May, the chairman of the company that owns NCL gave boosters hope, saying "the restoration of the United States" would be the company's next project, after finishing off two planned cruise ships. Though it only carried about 2,000 passengers normally, it could be transformed into a military transport that could bring 14,000 troops to anywhere in the world in 10 days.

27 Jul 2006

Navy Ship Exits Ghost Fleet

The Orion, an obsolete Navy repair vessel built in 1943, is scheduled to depart on July 27 from the James River Reserve Fleet off Newport News. The Daily Press reported that the U.S. Maritime Administration expects to tow away the vessel at 9:30 a.m. It should pass under the James River Bridge about two hours later, depending on weather conditions. The Orion will be dismantled by North American Ship Recycling in Baltimore. It is the 53rd ship to leave the ghost fleet since 2001. (Source: Daily Press)

12 Feb 2007

Report: Shipbuilding Getting Safer

Building ships long has ranked as one of the more dangerous industrial jobs, according to a report in the Daily Press. There's just something about cutting and bending steel, welding thousands of parts, hooking up electrical systems, crawling through tight spaces and working on small platforms hundreds of feet in the air that carries risk. The job is still hazardous, but it's getting safer. Over the last 14 years, the shipbuilding and ship repair industry has seen its rate of recordable injuries and illnesses — cases that require medical care beyond first aid — fall sharply. In 1992, there were 37.8 on-the-job injuries and illnesses per 100 shipbuilding workers, Labor Department figures show. By 2005, that figure had dropped to 10.9 cases per 100 workers, a reduction of 71 percent.