Today's Train of Thought- Slim Pickens, September 12 2011

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the South Carolina-based Pickens Railway. The Railway was chartered in 1890 to operate between it's namesake of Pickens and the town of Easley, SC- just under 10 miles. The little shortline ceased passenger service in 1928 as improved roads were built throughout the region and instead the Pickens focused on freight. At various points, the Pickens was controlled by the Southern Railway and Singer Manufacturing before expanding operations some 100 years after its original charter.

In the 1990s, the Pickens expanded from their original trackage to the Norfolk Southern line between Honea Path and Belton, SC- and then on to Anderson, SC- some 28 miles total. At Anderson, the Pickens interchanges with CSX, Norfolk Southern and Greenville & Western

Up until that the 1990s expansion, the Pickens had operated with same Baldwin road switcher that the railroad dieselized with in the late 1940s- a second Baldwin was added in the 1970s and an EMD that had since been sold to another Carolinas shortline. With the expansion, the Pickens sidelined the Baldwins for a pair of caterpillar re-engined ALCo S2s. Those were in turn sidelined when the Pickens purchased eight former CSX U18Bs in 2000.

Here, Pickens U18B #9500 is caught by railpictures.net contributor Anthony Davis crossing US Highway 29 just outside of Anderson, SC after picking up a cut of ballast cars from Belton in August 2011. Interestingly, the bright orange paint scheme wasn't from the Pickens. In the late 1990s, CSX set aside their remaining U18Bs (U = General Electric's Universal Series, 18= 1800 hp, B = 4 axles) for MofW service, painting them all in a distinctive orange paint scheme. Pickens simply relettered them shortly after acquiring the GE's from CSX.

Joseph Trombino- The Brinks Guard Who Crossed Paths With Terrorists Before 9/11

While I was researching another subject, the background of an unassuming Brinks armoured truck guard piqued my attention. Francis J Trombino- known by many as simply 'Joe'- was a Korean war vet and truck driver who had been with Brinks since the late 1960s and lived most of his life in Clifton, NJ. He was killed on the morning of September 11th, 2001 when two World Trade Center towers collapsed.

But that sunny September morning was not the first time Trombino had crossed paths with terrorists. In 1993, his armoured truck had left the WTC complex a few hours before Islamic terrorist Ramzi Yousef drove an explosives-laden rental van into the underground parking garage and set the fuse.

However, before either of the Islamist attacks on the World Trade Center site, Trombino survived a deadly ambush and robbery from Weather Underground and black sepratist gunmen nearly 20 years before the 9/11 attacks.

As Trombino and fellow guard Peter Paige were picking up money from Nanuet Mall in Rockland County, NY, in October 1981 when masked gunmen burst from a nearby van and opened fire with shotguns and an M-16 rifle, killing Paige instantly. Trombino was able to get off a round before being struck in the shoulder, arm and upper body multiple times.

After swapping vehicles, the domestic terrorists would then try and shoot their way through a roadblock set up by police in West Nyack, NY, killing two police officers and wounding another before trying to flee on foot or carjack motorists.

Trombino's injuries would require multiple surgeries- he nearly lost his arm in the gunfight. Brinks reassigned him as a driver where he would continue to work for another 19 years. According to family, Joe hardly complained about the surgeries and therapy, telling them that 'These things are a part of life'.

Joe Trombno was about a year away from retirement on the morning of September 11th. According to co-workers, he stayed in the underground garage with his truck when the planes hit, calling the Brinks dispatcher and inquiring about the whereabouts of the gurads who had gone into the WTC buildings to make a pickup (they had managed to escape but had no means of communication). Trombino told the Brinks office in his last phone call that water was starting to seep in and the walls were starting to crumble around him.

Francis J Trombino left behind a wife of 42 years, two daughters and three grandchildren.

Ten Years Later

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Flight 93 crashing in a field in Shanksville, PA after passengers fought with hijackers to retake the aircraft.

It seems difficult to believe that some kids in grade school at the time of the attacks are now old enough to go to college or join the military

The terrorist assault on the United States were preceded by an attack on Afghan Mujaheddin leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, viewed by the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies as the last cohesive group standing in the way of the Taliban taking complete control of Afghanistan. Two days prior to th 9/11 attacks, the veteran Afghan fighter was killed by two suicide bombers posing as a camera crew preparing to interview him.

Massoud's death in a nation wracked by more than two decades of conflict half a world away made little, if any, news in the USA at the time. However, the Taliban's ascendancy to power and their autocratic, fundamentalist rule was very disconcerting to anybody that was even paying the slightest bit of attention.

I distinctly remember a conversation with my father about a week before the 9/11 attacks. My grandfather was from the generation that could remember exactly where they were when they heard that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. My father was from the generation that could remember what they were doing when they got the news when President Kennedy was shot. So what did that leave my generation? The space shuttle Challenger disaster? The Oklahoma City bombing?

When I went to bed the night of September 10th, 2001, my biggest concern was that I had wasted a few hours watching a rather mediocre Monday Night Football game between the Denver Broncos and New York Giants. As I mentioned last year, that all changed in the bloodiest possible manner in less than 12 hours.



And lest we forget, this is how news of the atrocity was met among the parts of the Arab Street.



Although I was several states away and literally slept through the attacks, I was in New York City several weeks after the attacks. From a distance, the Manhattan skyline looked fractured and vacant without the two iconic towers there. I felt compelled to go and see what I could of Ground Zero for myself.

Washington DC Area Firefighters try to get inferno at Pentagon under control after Flight 77 struck the building.

It seemed pretty nondescript up close- acres of debris with floodlights glaring down on the recovery site for volunteers and workers as the days got shorter. The site was surrounded by some barriers and chain link fences, many of them adorned with faded 'MISSING' posters, wilted bouquets and burned out votive candles. One of the fliers struck me as especially poignant- it was from a bagpipe player who was offering his services for free for funerals of those killed in the attacks. Even if only a fraction of the victims loved ones took him up on his offer, the piper who put up the flier would've been quite busy.

On the way to and from the barrier around Ground Zero, one could see smoke lazily drifting up from grates along the sidewalk a few blocks away. Failing to appreciate the enormity of the original WTC site, it eventually dawned on me that these were smaller, isolated fires that had been smoldering underground since the twin towers collapsed. The sickly-sweet smell from the vents was mixed in with the smell of peanuts from a streetside vendor at one corner.

9/11 Tributes Past- Tribute in Light

Even across town from Ground Zero, the walkway into Grand Central station had a massive bulletin board with 'MISSING' posters- this time they were protected from the elements. The City that Never Sleeps had managed to brush itself off and resume a semblance of normalcy, but there was an almost palpable undercurrent of sorrow and uncertainty to go with the stoicism.

[Please note that I'm not trying to make this all about "me me me", just attempting to relate my firsthand but extremely limited experiences pertaining to 9/11 -NANESB!]

I mentioned this last year, but it bears repeating for as long as my fingers can find the keyboard. It's also important to avoid sugar-coating the events of September 11, 2001, such as many in the entertainment industry referring to it in neutral terms like 'tragedy' or 'disaster'. No doubt the end result is tragic, but the Towers didn't collapse in a stiff breeze. The Pentagon didn't get that chunk torn out of due to a ruptured water main. Flight 93 didn't crash in a field in Western Pennsylvania because a bird got sucked into the engine. These were calculated, meticulously planned acts of mass murder by muslim extremists- to gloss over that or say otherwise is a piss-poor attempt at re-writing history.

This is what so many mean when they say 'NEVER FORGET'.

On the plus side, this will be the first anniversary of September 11th without Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden (may he rot in hell), who was killed in a Navy SEAL raid on his Pakistani compound in May.

Mayor Bloomberg Declines to Invite First Responders, Clergy To City's 9/11 Memorial

Oh my- isn't Micheal Bloomberg one of the founding luminaries of the 'No Labels' party? I guess those labels also include "FDNY" and "NYPD".

For the first time since the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, first responders from the New York Police Department and New York Fire Department were not invited by the city to the 9/11 Ground Zero memorial ceremonies.

The first responders are not invited to this year's September 11 memorial ceremony at ground zero, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office confirmed Monday.

It's a painful insult for many of the approximately 3,000 men and women who risked their lives, limbs and lungs on that monumental day, puncturing another hole in a still searing wound.

In a statement, Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent said the commemoration ceremony is for the victims' families.

"While we are again focused on accommodating victims' family members, given the space constraints, we're working to find ways to recognize and honor first responders, and other groups, at different places and times," Brent said.

But first responder John Feal, founder of an advocacy group for the police officers, firefighters, civilian volunteers and others who worked at ground zero, assailed Brent's response, saying Bloomberg "lives in his own world."

"The best of the best that this country offered 10 years ago are being neglected and denied their rightful place," Feal said.

Denise Villamia, a first responder who worked at ground zero for several months, cried over the phone as she recalled her "totally heartbroken" reaction to the news that she could not attend the memorial service.

"I'm crying because it's really a big betrayal on the part of the city, to rob me from my way to pay homage and to find that comfort and healing," she said. "I feel that I have been robbed of my way to pay tribute."

In addition to the victims' families, several politicians, including two presidents, are expected to be in attendance

In New York City, 343 firefighters, 60 police officers and 8 paramedics were killed in the attacks. Some of the first responders and their loved ones have been circulating a petition hoping to persuade the Mayor's office to reverse course on their decision.

The mayor of New York City also declined to invite any clergy from the ceremony, defending his decision as a matter of separation of church and state.

Longshoremen Union Blockades Washington Port, Hold Security Guards Hostage, Dump Carloads of Grain and Clash With Police

At least 500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union stormed the Port of Longview, WA, smashing windows on the property while holding security guards hostage and cutting air lines rail cars in the port and dumped grain while blocking trains from entering the port.

Approximately 50 policemen responded to the scene, although no arrests were made as the Longshoremen returned to ILWU Local 21 hall.

The Longshoreman's union assault on the port facilities is the latest in a long simmering dispute between the union and the owners of the grain transloading facility in the port, EGT Development. EGT is already using contract union labor in their facilities with 25 of the 35 jobs going to members of Local 701 of the International Union of Operating Engineers based in Gladstone, OR.

On September 1, a federal judge issued an temporary restraining order against ILWU Local 21.

A federal judge in Tacoma Thursday issued a temporary restraining order against the local longshore union that may clear the way for grain deliveries to the new $200 million EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview.

The order, which will be in effect for 10 days, prohibits union members from engaging in "unlawful ... picket line violence, threats and property damage, mass picketing and blocking of ingress and egress at the facility of EGT," U.S. District Court Judge Ronald B. Leighton wrote.

Leighton's order also restricts International Longshore and Warehouse Union members from "restraining or coercing the employees of EGT, (its subcontractor General Construction), or any other person doing business in relation to the EGT facility."

A second hearing in whether or not the restraining order was to be made permanent was supposed to be held on Thursday September 8, the same day the longshoremen stormed the port of Longview.

The day after the ILWU attacked the Longview port, a camera crew from KGW TV in Portland, OR went to the Local hall in the hopes of interviewing one of the longshoremen. What happens next is embedded in the video below and is emphatically Not Safe For Work.



Since July 11, at least 100 members of the ILWU Local 21 have been arrested around the port of Longview and attempting to block the BNSF tracks into the port. On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board filed suit against the ILWU, alleging multiple incidents of vandalism, harassment and intimidation against EGT employees. A hearing is scheduled for October 11 in Portland, OR.

Millions On West Coast, Arizona Left Without Power Overnight After Blackout Triggered in Arizona

Traffic signals, street lights and crossing signals remain dark at sunset in Cardiff, CA on the night of September 8th. Mike Blake- Reuters photo

Federal regulators are looking into the cause of a prolonged blackout that left millions of people without electricity in southern California, Western Arizona and the northern part of Baja California, Mexico on Thursday afternoon and on into the early morning hours of Friday.

Arizona Public Service Co. said that the problems began at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday when a 115-mile high-power line that runs from west of Phoenix to the Yuma area switched out of service.

APS had an employee working in the Yuma-area substation where the line connects, but officials are unsure if that worker caused the line's failure, said Daniel Froetscher, APS vice president of energy delivery.

"We don't know whether it was related, but we have been very transparent with the work we were doing there, and will investigate whether there is a relationship," he said.

Power wasn't lost immediately, with the first customer calls coming about 10 minutes after the line's failure, so APS will investigate what actually prompted Yuma-area customers to lose service, he said.

"The system has contingencies," he said. "It is designed to withstand the loss of a single line feed. For about 10 minutes or so, there were no interruptions of service. The system performed as intended."

About 56,000 APS customers lost service throughout Yuma, Somerton, San Luis and Gadsden.

Those power outages cascaded west into California, where the high-power transmission line switches from APS control to the California power grid operator.

APS will investigate what allowed the problems to spread, rather than be contained by the protections built into the power system.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, North American Electric Reliability Corp. and other entities also announced Friday they would investigate the outage, possibly leading to fines.

The cascading power failures that were supposed to be localized around Yuma instead made their way west, knocking out power at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating station.

In the San Diego area, flights at Lindbergh field were halted and classes at local schools and universities were cancelled. Some beaches were shut down as nearly 2 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the water.

Power was restored by the early morning hours on Friday, but not before restaurants in the region experienced losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in food that had to be discarded when refrigeration didn't work and labor when many eateries simply shut their doors to the public. Even though power had returned by Friday morning, hundreds of facilities had to remain closed until a health department alert regarding potentially dangerous tap water was lifted.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the designated media cheerleaders for the Obama Administration have insisted that the international power failure validates President Obama's call for additional stimulus spending to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Thursday's blackout was the most widespread since the August 2003 blackout that left a large swath of the Northeast as well as parts of the Midwest and the province of Ontario without electricity [I remember the 2003 blackout well. I was in rural upstate New York, blissfully unaware that there was any significant power outage for at least two hours until I drove into this one small town where their one stoplight wasn't working and their one policeman was directing traffic- NANESB!] That blackout left metropolitan areas such as New York City, Cleveland, Buffalo and Toronto without power at the height of rush hour.

Solyndra Raided by FBI After Bankruptcy Filing

Remember what I was saying about this not being a good month for Federally subsidised solar panel manufacturers? Looks like it's about to get worse for California-based Solyndra, Inc.

Federal agents executed a search warrant at the Northern California headquarters of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection this week despite receiving $535 million in federal stimulus loan guarantees.

The FBI and Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General confirmed that their agents were involved in the raid Thursday at Solyndra's offices in Fremont but declined to discuss what they were investigating. FBI spokesman Peter D. Lee said documents related to the search had been sealed.

Last week, Solyndra abruptly announced that it was ceasing operations and laying off 1,100 employees, a move the company attributed to intense foreign competition and a "global oversupply of solar panels." The company filed for bankruptcy Tuesday.

Solyndra spokesman Dave Miller said the federal raid came as a surprise but that the company was "fully cooperating" with investigators.

He said he did not know what the federal agents were looking for but speculated it could be related to the $535-million loan guarantee, of which the company drew $527 million.

A skeleton team of about 100 employees is still working at the factory during a "wind-down" process, Miller said.

The raid came about 16 months after Obama visited Solyndra and praised the federal government's investments in clean energy and other sectors.

It's also been revealed that company officials from Solyndra made no less than 20 trips to the White House between March 2009 and April 2011, underscoring the cozy relationship between the company and the Obama Administration.

In late May 2011, the White House highlighted Solyndra as a success story thanks to the 2009 stimulus- also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act- in a short video on the White House website.


It was also reported on Friday that officials from the Administration and Department of Energy sat in on Solyndra's company meetings.

The Energy Department was keeping a close eye on Solyndra during those crucial months – sitting in on board meetings as an observer as part of the loan restructuring, iWatch News and ABC reported Thursday. That raises key questions: Did DOE miss obvious warning signs of the company's troubles in the final months before its collapse?

Last month, after receiving close to $60 million in aid from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts before moving their facilities to China, Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy protection. Less than a week later, Intel spinoff SpectraWatt had also filed for bankruptcy.

[Hat tip- Gateway Pundit]

Nevada National Guardsmen Among Four Killed After Gunman Opens Fire on Nevada Restaurant

A gunman opened fire on a Carson City, NV International House of Pancakes restaurant, killing four people and wounding seven before turning the gun on himself. Of the 12 people the gunman shot, five were uniformed members of the Nevada National Guard who were dining together.

Because of where the Guard members were sitting and the fact they were in uniform, investigators say it appears the shooter -- Eduardo Sencion, 32, a Carson City resident who worked in nearby Tahoe and had no criminal history -- could have targeted them, Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said this evening.

"Information suggests at this point in time that the National Guard members were sitting all the way into the restaurant along the southeast side and that he entered through the front doors and traveled all the way through the restaurant to the back area," Furlong said.

"Obviously when five out of 11 of the victims are uniformed National Guard members, that's taking a priority interest in our agency," he said.

Investigators are still trying to determine what motive there might have been for the shooting rampage, the sheriff said.

"There has been some suggestion by his family members that there is some mental health issues that we are going to have to look into," he said.

Sencion allegedly walked into the restaurant shortly before 9 a.m. brandishing an AK47 and started shooting, then ended it by shooting himself in the head, police said. He was taken to a hospital where he died three hours later.

Carson City Chief Deputy Jack Freer said that the people wounded at the IHOP were taken to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno and a hospital in Carson City. He said their conditions were unknown.

Sencion worked at a family-run market in nearby Tahoe and was described by coworkers and quiet and helpful and showing no apparent signs of trouble. FBI agents were interviewing coworkers and searching Sencion's residence on Thursday, removing two computers. According to reports in the Nevada Appeal, Sencion had a US Passport that expired in 2002.

[With the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 approaching as well as the 2009 shootings at Little Rock, AR and Ft Hood, TX targeting US Soldiers in mind, it isn't beyond the pale to have considered some sort of radical Islam element to this shooting- NANESB!]

A pair of funds for the victims of the shootings as well as their families have been established- one through the Carson Medical Group and the other through the Nevada Military Support Alliance.

Sports Chowdah Update- Yaroslavl Crash Probe Continues, Two Survivors in Coma; NFL Season Opens up With Pack Attack; Woe Canada, Sox Drop 3 to Toronto

RUSSIA: Officials probing the plane crash site along the banks of the Volga river in Yaroslavl Russia have recovered the flight data recorder from the downed Yak-42 aircraft that was carrying members of the team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team of Russia's KHL.

The team was enroute to the Belorussian capital of Minsk for their season opener against Minsk Dinamo when the plane went down on Wednesday. Russian investigators from the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee have recovered the black box, but caution that the device had gotten wet after being submerged after the crash. Even with the damaged black box, officals said they had been able to recover some data.

So far it is known that the plane's engines were running at the time of impact and that the crash took place on a clear day. The runway at Yaroslavl's Tunoshna airport was about three times longer than necessary for a Yak-42 to reach takeoff speeds, but investigators are looking at insufficient takeoff speed as one of the factors. Early reports claimed that the doomed flight was overloaded and struggling to reach altitude shortly after takeoff before clipping a nearby communications antennae.

Officials allowed Tunoshna airport to reopen on Thursday, but planes were prohibited from purchasing local fuel as investigators haven't ruled out the possibility that low-grade fuel led to the crash.


In Minsk, a requiem mass was held on Thursday at the arena where the KHL season opener was slated to take place.



The deceased include the following:

Lokomotiv Players and Personnel:
Vitaly Anikeyenko
Yury Bakhvalov
Aleksandr Belyayev
Mikhail Balandin
Aleksandr Vasyunov
Josef Vasicek
Aleksandr Vyukhin
Robert Dietrich
Pavol Demitra
Andrei Zimin
Marat Kalimulin
Aleksandr Karpovtsev
Aleksandr Kalyanin
Andrei Kiryukhin
Nikita Klyukin
Igor Korolyov
Nikolai Krivonosov
Yevgeny Kunnov
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
Stefan Liv
Jan Marek
Brad McCrimmon
Sergey Ostapchuk
Vladimir Piskunov
Karel Rachunek
Evgeny Sidorov
Karlis Skrastins
Ruslan Saley
Pavel Snurnitsyn
Daniil Sobchenko
Ivan Tkachenko
Pavel Trakhanov
Igor Urychev
Gennady Churilov
Maksim Shuvalov
Artyom Yarchuk

Flight Crew
Andrey Solontsev
Igor Zhevelov
Sergei Zhuravlev
Vladimir Matyushkin
Yelena Sarmatova
Nadezhda Maksumova
Yelena Shavina

There are two survivors of the plane crash include player Alexander Galimov and flight engineer Alexander Sizov. Both of them were airlifted to Moscow for further treatment, with Galimov sustaining burns on more than 80% of his body.

The KHL plans on resuming play on Tuesday, September 13. Officials from the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl organization say they intend to rebuild after Wednesday's tragedy and claimed to have already received calls from former players offering to come back and skate for the club once again. The KHL will fund the roster for Lokomotiv under the league's current option.

RED SOX: The Red Sox continued to limp through September, dropping the final two games of their 4-game series in Toronto.

Tim Wakefield's quixotic quest for elusive win #200 continues as the bullpen squandered an 8-5 lead on Wednesday night, with Toronto coming back in the 8th inning to score 5 runs before going on to win by a 11-10 final.

On Thursday, Andrew Miller allowed 5 earned runs and 8 hits and two walks in 5 innings of work against the Blue Jays. Toronto's Ricky Romero went 6 and ⅔ innings giving up 5 hits, 3 earned runs and three walks, striking out 7 for the win.

So far, the Red Sox have only won two games in the month of September and now 3B Kevin Youkilis was not posted in the lineup for this weekend's series at Tampa Bay. There was no immediate word on why Youkilis wasn't in the Friday night lineup.

Friday night's game at Tropicana Field will feature Wade Davis (9-8; 4.5 ERA) going up against John Lackey (12-11; 6.11 ERA). First pitch is at 7:10 PM and the game will be televised on NESN.



NFL: Are you ready for some football? So was I, as it turns out.

After a prolonged, contentious and highly public feud between the NFL players association and owners, the 2011 NFL season got underway Thursday night in a contest that pitted the previous two Superbowl champions against each other.

In a little noticed move immediately after President Obama's groundbreaking jobs speech, the NFL had scheduled their season opener for Thursday night in Lambeau Field, pitting the New Orleans Saints against the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. Packers QB Aaron Rogers went 27 of 35 attempts with 312 yards and 3 TDs in Green Bay's 42-34 win at Lambeau.

New Orleans QB Drew Brees actually had the better night statistically (32-49, 419 yards and 3 TDs) but the Packer's D was able to limit a number of New Orleans drives deep into their territory to field goal attempts.

OTHER NFL NEWS- INDIANAPOLIS: Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning underwent neck surgery, his third such procedure in 19 months and will miss the season opener at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Doctors and team officials from the Colts have been very ambiguous about a timetable for Manning's return. Some of the less optimistic (but still unconfirmed) reports claim he could miss the entire season.

Manning hasn't missed a start in 14 seasons, starting in 227 consecutive games for Indianapolis.

Veteran QB Kerry Collins, who most recently saw action with Indy's AFC South foe Tenessee Titans, will be starting for the Colts while Manning is out.

OTHER NFL NEWS- CHICAGO- The NFL has no plans to sanction or fine Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs for wearing cleats and gloves adorned with the colors of the US flag. Although technically a uniform violation, the league said that players could wear customized shoes and gloves for Week 1.

NCAA Football: Possible future conference-mates Oklahoma State and Arizona met at Stillwater, OK Thursday night. The 9th ranked Cowboys (2-0) handeled the Wildcats (1-1) fairly easily, winning by a 37-14 final.

Games on tap for Friday night include Arizona state vs #21 Missouri and Louisville hosting Florida International Univ.

ELSEWHERE IN THE BIG 12: After SEC presidents and chancellors welcomed a possible move to the SEC conference by Texas A&M, the move faces a roadblock in the form of Baylor university.

Bayolr is threatening to sue if the Aggies depart the Big 12 and the SEC must reportedly obtain waivers from each school before any such move, according to an e-mail from Big 12 commisioner Dan Beebe. One SEC chancellor said that Texas A&M must resolve any pending legal disputes within the Big 12 before becoming the 13th team in the SEC.

As Texas Burns, Contract Dispute Grounds Firefighting Aircraft in California

A contract dispute with a California aviation company is keeping close to half the US Government's firefighting aircraft idle on the tarmac thousands of miles from fast-moving wildfires in Texas that have killed at least two people, scored more than 100,000 acres and destroyed nearly 1400 homes in the Lone Star state.

The U.S. Forest Service terminated the contract with Aero Union five weeks ago to operate seven P-3 Orions that are critical to the agency’s firefighting mission, leaving the federal government with 11 tankers under contract to help battle more than 50 large uncontained wildfires now burning nationwide.

That’s down from 40 tankers used by the Forest Service just a decade ago, according to Rep. Dan Lungren (R.-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Administration, who is challenging the decision to dismiss the largest provider of heavy air-tanker support to the federal government.

“We were certified to fly all season, but they just terminated us and threw 60 people out of work and left the country vulnerable to fires, as you can see right now in Texas,” said Britt Gourley, CEO for Aero Union.

“This is our 50th anniversary fighting fires for the Forest Service. It’s not quite the way we wanted to celebrate it,” Gourley said.

Gourley said the government did not provide details on why the contract was canceled, but that they did not agree with Aero Union’s 15-year maintenance plan.

“We wanted to sit down with them and ask why it was canceled and find a quick resolution, but they didn’t want to talk about it. They just said, ‘We don’t want the airplanes, have a nice life,’ ” Gourley said. “I had to let go of my staff–60 people and their families were devastated,” Gourley said. “It’s really been tragic.”

The Forest Service says it will not use aircraft that does not meet its requirements, and in this case that included the long-term airworthiness inspection program, although the company passed its annual inspection.

“Our main priority is protecting and saving lives, and we can’t in good conscience maintain an aviation contract where we feel lives may be put at risk due to inadequate safety practices,” said Tom Harbour, director of the Forest Services fire and aviation management program.

“This contract termination notwithstanding, we possess the aircraft support needed for this year’s fire season,” Harbour said.

The California-based comany has been in dire financial straights since the cancellation of the US Forest Service contract, missing their first lease payment on their space at the Chico, CA airport and had to lay off 60 employees.

In April 2011, the US State Department requested the use of two specially equipped C-130 cargo planes from the US Air Force Reserve's 302nd Airlift Wing in Peterson AFB, Colorado to combat wildfires in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. Contrast that with taking nearly two months for any kind of federal disaster declaration from the Obama Administration when those same fires jumped the border and burned thousands and thousands of acres in west Texas.

Firefighters had made inroads Wednesday against the most destructive of the nearly two dozen wildfires that have scorched the Lone Star state since Labor Day weekend. The Bartsop county complex fire, just east of the state capital of Austin, has scorched at least 34,000 acres and nearly 500 homes and is thought to have killed two people as of Thursday.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who announced his presidential bid last month, cut short campaigning in South Carolina and help a new conference in Barstop on Monday after being briefed by public safety officials (although he did attend Wednesday night's televised GOP debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA).

Other wildfires in Texas include a 7000 acre fire southeast of spicewood and a 150 acre fire in Travis County that's burned 25 homes.