Port of LA in the news
There are two interesting news items floating around on POLA related issues.
The first item is a joint proposal (pdf overview) from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reduce air pollution. The $2 billion plan would attempt to reduce air pollution from trucks, ships and cargo handling equipment by 50% over five years. Agressive? Yes. Necessary? Yes. Will it really happen? Cross your fingers and hope for the best.
Both the Times and the Breeze have articles covering the plan.
There will be a series of four community workshops in July where public input will be sought before the plan is approved by both Harbor Comissions. The first workshop is a POLA workshop at Banning's Landing on July 10 @ 6 PM. Full schedule here.
The second item is a study (research brief - full report) by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) on the economic impact of a terrorist attack upon our nation's ports, specifically the dual ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. As would be obvious, even a brief shutdown in activity at any of America's major ports would be immeasurably disruptive to both the local and national economy. The full report, which is 296 pages long, is an in-depth exploration of a mutitude of potential scenarios and outcomes.
I still feel that although there does need to be tighter security at the Port (mainly out of concern for criminal activity and to discourage unsafe practices by workers and companies), that the threat of a WMD attack on the Port of Los Angeles may be out of the reach of any known or unknown non-state actor, and that the true defense against major terrorist attacks on key national infrastructure is not to be engaged in an ongoing and nebulous ideological conflict of the sort we've managed to get ourselves into. The classic issue of counterinsurgency warfare (and national defense against non-state warriors or terrorists is almost identical in principle) is that the defender has to defend everywhere, always and with 100% effectiveness, but the attacker(s) only need to be successful once to achieve their goals.
The first item is a joint proposal (pdf overview) from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reduce air pollution. The $2 billion plan would attempt to reduce air pollution from trucks, ships and cargo handling equipment by 50% over five years. Agressive? Yes. Necessary? Yes. Will it really happen? Cross your fingers and hope for the best.
Both the Times and the Breeze have articles covering the plan.
There will be a series of four community workshops in July where public input will be sought before the plan is approved by both Harbor Comissions. The first workshop is a POLA workshop at Banning's Landing on July 10 @ 6 PM. Full schedule here.
The second item is a study (research brief - full report) by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) on the economic impact of a terrorist attack upon our nation's ports, specifically the dual ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. As would be obvious, even a brief shutdown in activity at any of America's major ports would be immeasurably disruptive to both the local and national economy. The full report, which is 296 pages long, is an in-depth exploration of a mutitude of potential scenarios and outcomes.
I still feel that although there does need to be tighter security at the Port (mainly out of concern for criminal activity and to discourage unsafe practices by workers and companies), that the threat of a WMD attack on the Port of Los Angeles may be out of the reach of any known or unknown non-state actor, and that the true defense against major terrorist attacks on key national infrastructure is not to be engaged in an ongoing and nebulous ideological conflict of the sort we've managed to get ourselves into. The classic issue of counterinsurgency warfare (and national defense against non-state warriors or terrorists is almost identical in principle) is that the defender has to defend everywhere, always and with 100% effectiveness, but the attacker(s) only need to be successful once to achieve their goals.
8 Comments:
Any thoughts on the Breeze sale, er, potential sale?
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/3256776.html
it's too early to tell.
I think it will get bought by Singleton, the same publisher who owns the Press Telegram, Daily News, Whittier Daily News, the Pasadena paper, and pretty much every other daily paper in LA county save for the LA Times.
Buying the Breeze would circle the LA Times and make his near monopoly on the local LA newspaper market that much closer to being complete.
I feel sorry for the Breeze folks b/c Singleton has a bad reputation of slashing costs, especially salaries and positions. From what I heard, when he took over the Press Telegram in the 90s he fired everyone and had them all reapply for their jobs for less pay.
Real cut throat stuff.
you might be right. singleton has been a name bandied about. personally i would rather copley decide to keep the venture going for as long as possible.
there's no need to consolidate more papers in LA. sheesh.
I knew a reporter who used to work for the P.T. a couple of years ago who had to use a dial-up connection for the I-net. Ultimately they cut his position. Hope this doesn't happen to the D.B. folk.
what makes you think singleton will move ahead with it? What about Tribune?
Tribune is committing its cash to buying back stock from investors. Spending millions to buy another paper wouldn't make sense. Plus, I think the Tribune has had a bad (not spectacularly profitable) experience running the LA Times and the other smaller Times publications in So. Cal.
No matter what Tribune has done with what was before considered a great paper, it has fallen short of what it once was. Worst it doesn't make the money it once did and has had to resort to staff cuts.
Steve Lopez, the LA Times' California section columnist, had a great column a few weeks ago where he talked about how cheaply Tribune Co. ran things and how it was diluting its own product to make a buck.
The Breeze article mentioned Freedom Corp, the company behind the OC Register, but I don't think they honestly care what happens in LA County. The Breeze isn't a natural fit into their biz, it doesn't border the OC, y would they bother?
I could be completely wrong. Maybe Singleton is financially stretched too thin from buying all those Knight Ridder Newspapers in Nor. Cal., but in my opinion he wouldn't pass up a chance to nearly consolidate his lock on LA County's and California's newspaper biz.
the editor at the daily breeze just took a position at another copley paper in illinois. wonder what that means.
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