FRIDAY, MARCH. 29, 2002
NATION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Gas prices rise sharply, still expected to increase
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — Drivers across the nation are digging deeper into their wallets to cover rising gasoline prices, which have leapt an average of 23 cents per gallon over the last month — the most dramatic change in more than a decade.
"It hits the pocket book," 36-year-old Cindy Trujillo said as she pumped gas yesterday in Denver, adding she recently switched from a pickup truck to a fuel-friendly Geo Metro.
“$20 to $10 makes a big difference.”
The jump to yesterday's national average of $1.35 for unleaded, according to a AAA survey, is fueled by a combination of factors.
Analysts say a recent decision by OPEC and other oil producers to hold down production, and the traditional spring rise in demand as driving time increases with the warming weather have shaped prices.
The four-week leap is the sharpest seen by the Energy Information Administration, the statistical branch of the Department of Energy, since it began keeping records in 1990.
Part of the reason is that gas prices fell to bargain levels — below $1 a gallon in some areas — in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, which hampered travel and slowed the economy.
"Now that the economy has started to recover, and we're starting to head into the summer driving season, the industry is really having to come from behind a little bit," AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said in Orlando, Fla.
Prices still are below the average of March 2001, when it was $1.43 due largely to the then-strong economy.
"It went down so low, we had a
bonus there for awhile," said Vesper Gibbs Barnes, a Boston attorney who dropped her car off at a Mobile station. "I guess I'll keep driving everywhere. I have to deal with it."
Crude oil prices have risen to about $25 a gallon since December, when OPEC decided the $20 a barrel they were earning then was too low, said Douglas MacIntyre, senior oil market analyst with the Energy Information Administration in Washington.
Every $1 increase in the price of a barrel of crude oil translates into a per-gallon hike of about 2.5 cents, he said.
Based on current trends, motorists should expect to see per-gallon prices rise another 5 cents to 15 cents over the next several weeks, he said.
Californians, who shoulder the added costs of reformulated gasoline mandated by pollution restrictions, are facing the highest prices in the continental United States.
Bay Area motorists have seen average prices rise to $1.68 from $1.42 a month ago.
Lisa Alcantara of Pacifica pumped $1.89-per-gallon premium into her Lexus SUV in San Francisco.
"It's crazy," she said. "I just have to get in my car and go and not think about it. ... There is not a whole lot you can do. We all need gas."
David Underwood, an Atlanta electrician who puts about 24,000 miles a year on his pickup truck, passes the added costs on to his customers.
"It seems like it was less than a dollar a gallon not that long ago," he said. "It seems like it's gone up real fast."
"It's very difficult for us," Yellow Cab General Manager Rebecca Escobar said in El Paso. Rising prices "cut directly into their gross profit."
But cab drivers in many areas are unable to pass on the costs due to government control of their rates.
Said one San Diego taxi driver who gave only his last name, Contreras: "$5 less for me is five less hamburgers for my kids."
How far prices will climb exactly is uncertain, said Carol Thorp, spokeswoman for the Auto Club of Southern California. Perhaps Americans who canceled travel plans last year due to high gas prices or Sept. 11 will feel the urge to hit the highways this year she noted.
"This summer is a question mark at the moment," Thorp said. "Anyone who tells you they can predict that is not correct."
John Young of St. Louis grumbled about the climbing prices as he filled up his minivan in Chicago after a family vacation trip.
"It's outrageous," Young said. "If you look at the price of wholesale gas, it's pretty much stayed the same. It's all obviously to take advantage of spring break."
The price hike had commuters in warm locales looking to more fuel-efficient alternatives.
Antonio Solares, 26, has to fill up his 1995 Ford Escort every other day for the commute between his home in Tijuana, Mexico, and his job in northern San Diego.
"I'm thinking of getting a motorcycle — seriously," Solares said at a gas station near the border.
But in Miami, William Morales was unfazed as his pumped $1 of gas into his scooter.
"They can raise the price 200 times, and it doesn't matter to me," he said. "This doesn't bother me at all."
BOSTON — A Delta Air Lines flight from Boston to Florida was aborted before takeoff yesterday after a passenger demanded to be let out and allegedly made a threat.
The Associated Press
Plane threats test security
The plane was on the runway and was supposed to head to Orlando, Fla. Instead, it taxied back to the terminal area and its 118 passengers were taken off the plane.
Richard Lamberttsen, 49, of Cocoa, Fla., was charged with interference with a flight crew, state police Sgt. Edward Principe said.
"It it was not a bomb threat," Orlandella said. "He did not have a weapon. He did not say
"He made inappropriate remarks that alarmed the captain of the plane," said Phil Orlandella, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan airport. He did not elaborate on the threat.
he was going to blow up the plane."
Luggage was rescreened and the aircraft was checked. The Delta Express plane left about three hours late.
Security has been an issue at Logan since it was the starting point for the two hijacked airliners that destroyed the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
In a separate incident, a Virgin Atlantic flight attendant was ordered held on $250,000 bail yesterday for allegedly writing a bomb threat aboard a plane in January, forcing the London-to-Orlando flight to be diverted to Iceland.
Michael Philippe, a 25-year-old French citizen, was arrested Wednesday in New Jersey and charged with interference with crew members on an international flight. He faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
During a court appearance in Newark, prosecutors gave no motive for his actions, and his
defense lawyer, David Holman, refused to discuss the case with reporters.
On Jan. 19, Virgin Atlantic Flight 27 was en route to Florida when the message, "American must die," was found on a bathroom mirror written in soap, officials said.
A second message, written on an air sickness bag, stated, "Ben Laden is the best Americans must die there is a bomb on board Al Qaida."
Philippe reported finding the threats, authorities said.
The Boeing 747 was diverted to Keflavik, Iceland, where the 322 passengers and 18 crew were questioned and asked to give handwriting samples. The plane finished the flight the next day.
Virgin Atlantic Airways said yesterday that Philippe is a French national who has been with the airline two years and had passed the airline's background checks.
Plane crashes near Seattle
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — A vintage passenger plane owned by the Smithsonian Institution crashlanded in Puget Sound near Seattle shortly after takeoff yesterday. All four people aboard were rescued safely.
The only Boeing 307 Stratoliner still in existence came down at about 1:15 p.m. near the shore of West Seattle, across Elliott Bay from downtown. It landed in the water near a barge and a waterside restaurant.
wings underwater and its tail in the air.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Aida Cabrera said those on the plane were taken to a nearby boat launch and appeared to be in good condition.
The plane began to sink, then rescue boats attached a line and pulled it near the shore. It came to rest with its nose and
Bob Horton heard the plane's engines sputter and he and wife Cathy went to the deck of their home to watch.
"At one point we were wonderl if he was going to get us," Bob Horton said. "He was sputtering and kept getting lower."
They saw the plane turning toward land with its landing gear down.
The four-engine plane hit the water with an enormous splash.
The plane had left Boeing Field-King County International Airport at 12:30 p.m. Acting airport manager Mike Colmant could not immediately confirm where it was headed or when it was scheduled to return.
Officials at Seattle's Museum of Flight identified the plane as a 1940s-era Stratoliner, the first
commercial plane with a pressurized cabin. It can hold 33 passengers and a crew of five.
The plane was based on the airframe and wings of the World War II B-17 Flying Fortress, but there was no market for the aircraft during the war immediately afterward. Only 10 were built.
Boeing employees came across the plane at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Ariz., and the company offered to restore it. Boeing flew it back to Seattle in June 1994, and after six years of work, it was rolled out of the factory last summer.
It was to be the centerpiece of the new Smithsonian museum scheduled to open at Washington Dulles International Airport in 2003. The plane is owned by the National Air and Space Museum.
Law requires filters on Internet in libraries
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Vigilant libraries can keep pornography off their computer terminals and fulfill the requirements of a federal law without stepping on the First Amendment, a librarian testified yesterday.
David Biek, a manager of the Tacoma, Wash., Public Library, said Internet filtering software kept pornography from his patrons.
Filters have "made it possible for is to continue to deliver services effectively, including the Internet," said Biek.
The law requires libraries to install filtering software on computers by July or lose federal technology grants.
The trial, which is being heard by three federal judges, stems from two challenges
filed by the American Library Association and a group of public libraries and library patrons.
The American Civil Liberties Union is arguing the case on their behalf.
The government contends that the law wouldn't force libraries to do anything — if they don't want filters, they can just turn down the federal subsidies.
They also argue that libraries spend lots of time and effort in selecting what's in their print collections, so they should be able to use the same selection criteria in judging what people can see online.
U.S. seeks death penalty for Sept. 11 suspect
Opponents of the legislation contend the filtering software often makes bad decisions, blocking sites with information on breast cancer and safe sex, for example.
The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Bush administration said yesterday it would seek to execute Zacarias Moussaoui in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks and appealed to European allies to keep cooperating with terrorism investigations despite their opposition to the death penalty.
Moussaoui, 33, should be put to death because he helped plan "the largest loss of life resulting from a criminal act in the history of the United States," prosecutors said in notifying a federal judge of their intentions.
"Zacarias Moussaoui has demonstrated a lack of remorse for his criminal conduct," prosecutors wrote in setting up a novel effort to impose the death penalty against a defendant charged with conspiracy, not murder.
The decision by Attorney General John Ashcroft, a longtime death penalty supporter, touched off immediate criticism from anti-
Officials in Moussaoui's homeland of France said they would continue general cooperation with the United States but would not turn over any documents that could be used to support his execution.
"I regret this," French Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu said of Ashcroft's decision.
terrorism allies who oppose capital punishment.
In Britain, where execution also is outlawed, a government spokesman said, "Our position on the death penalty is well known."
Traveling in Miami, Ashcroft announced his decision in a televised news conference and immediately sought to smooth relations with the allies.
"We ask our counterparts in the international community to respect our sovereignty, and we respect theirs, and to the extent that they can cooperate and help us, we welcome that cooperation." he said.
Though Moussaoui never boarded any of the hijacked airliners and was already in custody a month before the attacks occurred, prosecutors said there were several "aggravating factors" why his conduct warranted a death sentence.
"My son is a scapegoat. They can'tfind the people who are truly responsible for this crime," Aicha Moussaoui said.
Prosecutors said Moussaoui mirrored many of the activities of the hijackers.
Heattended U.S. flight schools and "enjoyed the educational opportunities available in a free society, for the purpose of gaining specialized knowledge in flying an aircraft in order to kill as many American citizens as possible," McNulty argued.
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Moussaoui participated in the
Moussaoui's mother in France accused U.S. officials of seeking revenge.
"I am mystified as to why he feels he has to hold a televised press conference other than to influence the jury pool," Dunham said. "I'll stop short of calling it unethical, but it's close to it."
The government will seek to prove that Moussaoui committed the offenses "in an especially heinous, cruel and deprived manner in that they involved torture and serious physical abuse to the victims," McNulty added.
Frank Dunham Jr., sharply criticized Ashcroft's news conference as "disgraceful conduct" that could prevent selection of an impartial jury in the Washington area where the trial is slated this fall.
The filing cited the loss of some 3,000 lives on Sept. 11, the maiming of survivors, the disruption of the economy and the killings of hundreds of New York police officers and firefighters at the World Trade Center.
planning "knowing that the act created a grave risk of death to a person," U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said in his court filing.
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