Lorik blog

Getty photographer among injured at Dallas stadium

ARLINGTON, Texas – Football fans whose flights had been canceled struggled Saturday to get to Dallas for Sunday's big game, while those already in town for the Super Bowl were contending with temperatures and snow typical of Pittsburgh and Green Bay but unusual in Texas.

A fresh blast of snow and ice canceled hundreds of flights Friday, transformed highways into ribbons of white and caused dangerous sheets of ice to fall from Cowboys Stadium, sending at least six people to the hospital. It was enough to turn the biggest week in American sports into a Super Mess.

The injured included private contractors the NFL hired to prepare the stadium for the game, authorities said. One man was hit in the head, another in the shoulder. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.

Alison Crombie, a spokeswoman for Getty Images, said Saturday one of its photographers, Win McNamee, also was hurt. He was flying home and would be assessed by his doctor there, she said.

Most stadium entrances were closed as a precaution. Officials raised the temperature inside the arena in an attempt to melt remaining ice.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area received as much as 5 inches of snow overnight — nearly twice its annual average —and by Friday morning downtown Dallas hotels were selling ski hats and scarves alongside cowboy hats. A winter storm warning was issued for suburban Arlington, home of the $1.3 billion stadium where the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers are to play Sunday.

"It looks like, `Oh, no, I'm back in Canada,'" said Sammy Sandu, a 32-year-old property developer from Kelowna, British Columbia. "It's just pouring down snow. Are we still at home, or have we left? We didn't drink that much last night, did we?"

Forecasters expected game day to be mostly sunny, with highs in the 40s, which would probably not be warm enough to melt all the snow and ice.

Sandu made it to Dallas with his father Thursday, but other members of their party weren't so lucky. His brother still hoped to arrive from Miami in time for the game, but a friend abandoned the trip after a flight from Vancouver was canceled.

The winter weather wasn't expected to faze the teams competing in the real event, nor their hardy fans, who are used to cooler climes. The temperature in Dallas on Friday stood at 20 — the same as Pittsburgh. Green Bay was slightly colder at 17.

"We deal with it very well back home," Steelers fan Alex Sax said on his way the NFL Experience fan festival in Dallas. "Here, they don't know how to deal with it. There's no plows. No salt trucks. When we drove from airport, we were the only car on the road."

Asked if the weather could affect future Super Bowl bids, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the conditions this year have been exceptional.

"We've had a winter to remember. Some would say to forget," Goodell said. "It's going to be a great weekend for us, and the weather's getting better."

The Super Bowl is scheduled to be played in Indianapolis next year and in the open-air New Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey in 2014.

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Associated Press writers Danny Robbins, Linda Stewart Ball, Jamie Stengle and Paul Newberry in Dallas and videographer Rich Matthews in Arlington, Texas, contributed to this report.

Bond-X Green®, the Environmentally Friendly Cold Patch Asphalt Repair Product, is Now Available for West Coast Consumers

NuGeneration Technologies (NuGenTec) announced today their first bulk manufacturing of Bond-X Green® on the West Coast.

Emeryville, California (PRWEB) February 1, 2011

NuGeneration Technologies (NuGenTec) announced today their first bulk manufacturing of Bond-X Green® on the West Coast.Bond-X Green® is a breakthrough in the cold asphalt industry since the product contains none of the petroleum based softeners such as diesel, toluene, kerosene, and naphthalene used in traditional asphalt that includes VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). Without sacrificing quality or increasing costs, Bond-X Green® is the ideal green solution for making roads safer, smoother and less dangerous, quickly and efficiently.Produced at the BoDean Asphalt Company in Santa Rosa, the 400 tons of the environmentally friendly cold patch asphalt repair product is ready for consumption by all organizations committed to green repair technology and VOC compliance.This first production run of Bond-X Green® is one of the many scheduled as NuGenTec introduces this green and economical cold patch asphalt repair solution to the western United States.

Bond-X Green® contains zero VOCs and is manufactured at a much lower temperature than the conventional mix, which reduces fuel consumption.Furthermore, the manufacturing process involves the use of only renewable resources with long-term sustainability as well as recyclable packaging for distribution in order to achieve a significant reduction in its overall carbon footprint.With the recently more stringent EPA and California Air Quality Management (AQMD) regulations for VOC emissions, switching to Bond-X Green® allows cities and municipalities not only to meet all regulatory standards but also exceed them substantially.Simply put, Bond-X Green® is a natural solution for compliance with California VOC regulation AQMD 1152, since it is the only cold patch product with zero VOC emissions in the market.

Given the ever-increasing environmental and health concerns of businesses, governments, organizations, and consumers, Bond-X Green® represents the only viable solution as the asphalt repair product for safer, smoother, and less dangerous roads.The product can be used to repair dangerous potholes, wide cracks, ruts, etc. within minutes on both concrete and asphalt pavements, regardless of weather conditions.Repaired areas can also be open to traffic immediately after application. In addition, Bond-X Green® is a “permanent patch” solution and should remain in the repaired area indefinitely.Cities and municipalities would save considerable labor costs as workers will not be constantly repairing an area where other types of asphalt mix were used previously.

NuGenTec offers Bond-X Green® in bulk quantities and in 60-lb bags. The company has multiple distribution points throughout California and the entire West Coast. Interested parties wishing to purchase or distribute Bond-X Green® are encouraged to contact NuGenTec at 1-800-409-3142.

About NuGeneration Technologies

NuGeneration Technologies (NuGenTec) supplies advanced green solutions to customers in high-tech, medical device, biotech, government, and semi-conductor industries. NuGenTec’s new Bond-X Green® high performance cold patch and USDA BIO-Based line are industry leaders in the quest for greener and more earth-friendly products. The company, founded in 1997, has its headquarters and R&D Labs in Emeryville, CA. It provides over 600 products and develops customized solutions for its customers with its focus on scientific and technological breakthroughs. NuGenTec employees include highly qualified and experienced chemists and engineers. Its business philosophy adapts Total Process Integration through specialty-formulated chemistries and the management team is dedicated to the innovation of new green products and processes with more than 175 years of combined experience in the specialty chemistry industry.

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Donato PolignoneNuGeneration Technologies1-888-996-8436Email Information

Failure of 9/11 health bill could hurt NY clinics

NEW YORK – The network of health centers providing free medical tests and treatment to 58,000 people exposed to World Trade Center dust faces a less certain future if Congress doesn't pass legislation aimed at helping victims of 9/11's toxic legacy.

Senate Republicans last week blocked action on a bill appropriating up to $3.2 billion for medical programs caring for people who fell ill after breathing in ash and pulverized building materials at ground zero.

The act would have guaranteed at least eight years of strong, even lavish, funding for existing health programs for 9/11 responders and other New York City residents exposed to the dust.

Thousands of people who have lingering respiratory problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments have been getting checkups, counseling, medication and other treatments at federally funded centers around New York City and its suburbs.

The centers, though, have perpetually seemed to be living on borrowed time. No law mandates that the programs must continue. Congress has chosen to fund them one fiscal year at a time, meaning there is no guarantee the money will be there a year from now.

"We don't know what the future holds," said Jeffrey Hon, World Trade Center health coordinator for the New York City Health Department.

Hon said there is no immediate danger that the services will end, but because there is no sustained budget, it is difficult to keep researchers and staff in the program or hire top medical talent.

Patients getting care never know for sure whether they will be able to turn to the same clinics for help a year down the road.

Since 2002, Congress has given the health clinics $475 million, including a $70 million appropriation for this fiscal year. A large chunk of the money remains unspent, meaning the centers could keep operating for some time even if appropriations were completely cut off.

The programs, which offer medical care free of charge, are especially valuable to ground zero cleanup workers who don't have private health insurance or whose health plans don't cover the full cost of their care.

"If these programs are no longer here, it would be a disaster," said Alex Sanchez, who developed chronic asthma, lung nodules, an upper airway obstruction and a nasty cough after working as a cleaner who swept mountains of dust from skyscrapers near ground zero.

Sanchez said that in the years it took his worker's compensation claim to be approved, the program was the only way he could afford to pay for his 14 medications.

Other workers are in a similar position now because they have lost their jobs — and their health insurance — in the recession, he said.

In addition to the health care money, the legislation would set aide $4.2 billion to compensate people who lost their jobs or suffered other economic problems because of illnesses caused by the terror attacks.

That portion of the bill would be similar in many respects to a legal settlement, also partly funded by American taxpayers, that could provide more than $800 million for people who have illnesses that might be linked to the attacks.

Nearly 10,000 people have joined the settlement so far, but thousands more believed to have been exposed to the trade center dust have either decided not to sue or filed their legal complaints too late to be included in the deal.

"There are a decent amount of people out there with real injuries who were not a part of the litigation," said Matthew McCauley, a lawyer with the firm Parker Waichman Alonso, which is among the few that have been willing to take on new claims.

He and other lawyers said most of the workers face "enormous hurdles" if they wish to try to get compensation through the courts now outside of the settlement, especially those with illnesses that might be difficult to prove are connected to trade center work.

Scientists have said that thousands of people exposed to trade center dust have developed respiratory problems similar to asthma, with a smaller number suffering more serious ailments. Many have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Doctors still don't know, however, whether there is any connection between the dust and potentially fatal illnesses like cancer.

Cancer is killing a growing number of people who were involved in the 9/11 cleanup, but researchers say the death rate so far has been similar to that of the general public.

That lack of a solid link has given some critics of the federal bill pause at allocating so many billions of dollars for treatment.

That concern doesn't carry water with people like Richard Dambakly, a former phone company worker exposed to the dust while repairing damage in lower Manhattan. He was diagnosed in early 2002 with lymphoma, an immune system cancer.

"Everyone told me the same thing. They said, you can't get sick with cancer in just two or three months," said Dambakly, who now lives in Hampstead, N.C.

"I know as a fact — a fact — that I got sick from ground zero ... I was there for four months straight, 12 to 16 hours a day. Not one day off. I was coughing so bad, I thought my chest was going to blow right out of my body.

"You're going to sit back and tell me I didn't get sick from ground zero? Take a walk," he said.

Supporters of the bill say they are trying to find a way to pass it by the end of the year.

Continental launches FareLock--guarantees a fare for 3-7 days, not just a reservation

This is sure to be dismissed as just another attempt to earn ancillary revenue, and perhaps it is just that. But Continental Airlines today announced a new option for consumers to lock in a fare for 3 days for a $5 fee, or for 7 days for a $9 fee. Continental has always allowed you to lock in a reservation for 24 hours and to cancel with no fee or penalty. But this is different.

Under the reservation lock policy, your seat was held, but the fare could go up or down while you made up your mind to book.

This new option allows you to lock in the fare as well as the reservation.

Let's say the fare on a route you wish to fly is $400 round-trip one minute, but then goes down to $200. Should you bite? But first, you have to check with your wife, or your boyfriend, or check your bank account or consult your business partners. While you're checking, the fare goes back up. We see this happen all the time.

Under FareLock, you get to lock in the lower price for 3-7 days. There's no telling if Continental will actually make money on this. If consumers consistently lock in lower fares, the airline could actually lose revenue. But if enough consumers use this option, and lock in higher fares (and don't shop around in the meantime), obviously Continental could be the winner. It's anyone's guess how this will play out, and whether or not other airlines will match this policy (some European airlines already offer it).

Sanofi extends $18.5 billion Genzyme offer to January 21

PARIS (Reuters) – Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) has extended its snubbed $18.5 billion cash bid for U.S. biotech group Genzyme (GENZ.O) by six weeks, buying the French drugmaker time to persuade its reluctant target to talk.

Only 0.9 percent of shares were tendered by a Friday deadline for the $69-a-share bid, which Genzyme has rejected as too low, and Sanofi has said it won't raise unless Genzyme's board is willing to talk.

"This gives time to pursue discussions behind the scenes," Raymond James analyst Eric Le Berrigaud said. "They will try to determine at what price Genzyme will decide to partially open the door."

A spokesman for Sanofi confirmed that the company still wanted to enter talks with Genzyme.

Sanofi could look at including a scheme linking Genzyme's value to future performance of its key experimental multiple sclerosis drug, Campath, people familiar with the situation said last week.

The idea of contingent value rights (CVRs) is favored by the Genzyme camp. Through CVRs, Sanofi could end up paying Genzyme investors more if Campath proves to be the success Genzyme expects.

"I find it surprising that they haven't raised their offer. If they are extending their offer, it's probably to negotiate a CVR," CM-CIC analyst Arsene Guekam said. "I don't expect them to raise the offer very significantly, maybe one or two euros."

Analysts widely expect Sanofi can only win Genzyme if it improves its current offer. A Reuters poll in August suggested $78 a share could succeed.

Genzyme shares have been trading at more than $70 on average since July when news broke of Sanofi's interest.

The stock was little changed at 52.69 euros ($69.51) in Frankfurt trading by 1204 GMT on Monday. Sanofi shares were 0.3 percent softer.

Sanofi's efforts to buy Genzyme could continue until May, when Genzyme holds its annual shareholder meeting, giving Sanofi a chance to try to overturn Genzyme's board.

The company said on Monday its offer would now run until January 21, "unless it is further extended."

Long takeover battles are not uncommon. U.S. industrial gases company Air Products (APD.N) has been trying to buy Airgas (ARG.N) since February, while in the drug sector, it took about eight months before Roche (ROG.VX) could buy the part of Genentech it did not already own.

Genzyme Chief Executive Henri Termeer raised the possibility of negotiating a CVR last month as a way to break the stalemate between him and Sanofi CEO Chris Viehbacher.

Sanofi's finance head, Jerome Contamine, called it "an interesting idea in principle" to resolve value disputes.

Sanofi made its interest in Genzyme known in August and put its offer directly to Genzyme shareholders in October as Genzyme's board said the price was too low to even open talks.

Termeer has said he is prepared to sell the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech he built up over 25 years, but not at $69 a share. Genzyme, the world's leading maker of drugs for rare genetic diseases, made sales in 2009 of $4.5 billion.

Genzyme became a takeover target when viral contamination at its plant in Boston led to a manufacturing crisis that caused severe shortages of two of its biggest selling drugs.

Genzyme shares fell from a peak of almost $84 before the manufacturing crisis in 2008 to $45.39 in May, their lowest level since July, 2004. Since Sanofi's interest emerged, the stock has been trading above $69 and as high as $73.23.

Buying Genzyme would give Sanofi a new and high-margin growth area as mounting generic competition will take out roughly a third of its 2008 sales base by 2013.

Sanofi head Chris Viehbacher has said he would only be open to raising the offer if Genzyme's board would discuss the company's valuation.

($1=.7580 Euro)

(Additional reporting by Noelle Mennella; Editing by James Regan and Will Waterman)