Friday, February 22, 2008

Cancellations Pile Up At Newark (And Other News)

---Airport delays are piling up today and cancellations are mounting -- and if it ices up late this afternoon, as the forecast indicates it might, it's going to be an air-travel nightmare. [At 9:45 a.m., Flightstats.com was reporting "excessive delays" at all 3 New York airports, and also at the 3 Washington airports, Chicago O'Hare, Philadelphia, Boston and St. Louis.]

{Update: Newark, which had a 20 percent on-time arrival rate by noon, and reported 611 arrivals and departures canceled by 5 p.m. The total number of arrivals and departures scheduled for Newark today is 1,316 -- so already, before the evening rush, nearly half of the flights into and out of Newark have been canceled.}

[Later update: By 6:30 p.m., airports throughout the entire eastern and southeastern United States, from Fort Myers to Boston, were experiencing "excessive delays," Flightstats.com reports. So were O'Hare and Las Vegas. ]

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IN OTHER NEWS ...

---Oh, great police work. And note the dateline.

---A post on the Times DealBook today says that Northwest Airlines CEO Douglas Steenland could bail out with a golden parachute worth about $7.8 million after a merger between Northwest and Delta. Last week, Steenland was busy assuring employees that they wouldn't be screwed in a merger. We shall see. Steenland, remember, was the guy in charge in 2006 when Northwest sent out that famous booklet on money-saving lifestyle tips to about-to-be laid-off employees. You know, the one that suggested people scavenge trash cans for useful objects to cut down on expenses?

---Real Dumb Magazine Selects Real Smart Cities -- Forbes Magazine comes out with a highly questionable list of the nation's "smartest cities."
...And the Columbia Journalism Review explains (well, partially, at least) why Forbes's list is stupid.

---Nobody asked me, but ... Shouldn't this guy otherwise be getting out of prison right about now for killing that girl?

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