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Show TTvw PAGE 6 SATURDAY, JULY 5, AIM ' Oil hunt on 62,000 jobs lost in June above $145 for first time Soaring fuel costs are taking some of the celebration out of the holiday weekend. Oil prices headed into the busy Fourth of July break by racing past $145 a barrel for the first time Thursday. The story was no different at the gas pump, where the national average soared to within a whisker of $4.10 a gallon. For a nation accustomed to hopping in the car or jetting on what is typically one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, the numbers are sobering: Last Independence Day weekend, drivers were paying just $2.95 a gailon for gas, about $1.15 less than today. I Oil prices are up more than 50 percent since the start of the year. Prices rose by a similar but it took almost the entire amount in 2007 year for them to make that trip. t Just this week alone, the price of a barrel of oil jumped 3.6 percent. And that was a shortened week. Melissa Nelson THE ASSOCIATED PENSACOLA, Fla. PRESS Oil companies once waters that are now Drilling activity off the Florida Panhandle has started and sputtered for decades. Some companies had leases to drill off the Panhandle before the 1981 moratorium. They were grandfathered in when the moratorium passed because they were already actively exploring in their lease areas. They continued their activity off and on into the early s. other coastal states. If oil or natural gas deposits are found in the newly opened region, experts say it could further the push to exareas everywhere. plore other It also could be a rallying point for critics, who say the new exploration isn't a license to expand exploration. With gas topping $4 a gallon, recent polls once-protect- viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career -- suicide. No more. Record crude oil prices are fueling support for oil and natural gas exploration off the nation's shores. In Florida, movement was underway even before President Bush called on Congress last month to lift a federal moratorium that's barred new offshore drilling since 1981. The early activity here stems from a 2006 Congressional compromise that allows drilling on 8.3 million acres more than 125 miles an area that had been off the Panhandle covered by the moratorium, which was enacted out of environmental concerns. In buffer exchange, the state got a along the rest of its beaches. Florida may turn out to be a prelude for 1990s. Australia-base- d In March, four companies BHP Billiton Petroleum Deepwater Anadarko E&P Co., Inc., Houston-base- d Shell Offshore Inc. and Italian oil and natural purchased leases gas company Eni SpA on 36 Gulf of Mexico tracts under the 2006 compromise. Jeb Bachmann, an analyst with New Orleans energy consultant Howard Wiel, said the four understand the shifting political and financial realities. "It gives you an indication that some of these companies believe there is some light at the end of the tunnel," Bachmann said. "There is higher pricing and a belief that higher show Americans, Floridians included, more supportive of drilling in protected areas. Some politicians including Gov. Charlie have switched sides. Crist "We think the public is way out ahead of the politicians on these issues. People are more open to offshore drilling now," said Tom Moskitis, spokesman for the American Gas Association, a trade group. At the same time, oil companies, driven by the record energy price, are more willing to risk $ 100 million or more to begin exploring new regions. The Interior Department estimates there could be 18 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas beneath the 574 million acres of federal coastal See Garance Burke THE packinghouses. As losses across the supply chain top $100 million, industry leaders are calling for a congressional investigation into the government's handling of K the outbreak, the source of which jt hasn t been determined. X the staggeringly arrogant ' greed of white collar criminals. Phillip Bennett, 59, a British ' citizen living in Gladstone, N.J., I ' had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and other charges for the eight year fraud. Bennett said he didn't mean to hurt anyone. His voice cracked when he apologized to his fam ily for their "unimaginable Phillip Bennett agony." U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said the 20 separate crimes Bennett admitted he had committed and the $1.5 billion in losses he had caused were enough to explain her ruling. ""I if"' whether Ii Thursday. was tomatoes after they've already See B5 TOMATOES, 2010. World briefing raises key rate to 4.25 percent FRANKFURT, Germany Wary of higher energy and commodity prices, the European Central Bank raised its benchmark interest rate Thursday by a quarter percentage point to 4.25 percent, a move it hopes will help curtail rising inflation in the 15 countries that use the euro. The move comes despite worries in some quarters that it could dampen growth, but ECB Presie dent Trichet said at a press conference that the fundamentals of Europe's economy "are sound" and that the bank was focused on inflation which he said could remain high "for a more protracted period than previously thought." He did not signal when rates might go up again, as he did at last month's meeting. The increase was the first since June 2007. Thursday's move was widely expected, and Trichet said the decision was unanimous among members of the bank's governing council. Jean-Claud- to meet in dark economic times Between surging oil prices, SAPPORO, Japan food inflation and a credit crunch that's depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week. The outlook has darkened dramatically since last year's summit in Germany, when the leaders declared the global economy was in "good condiwhich seemed tion" and oil cost $70 a barrel high at the time. Since then, the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has erupted, roiling markets and battering major financial firms. Oil has doubled to above $140 and food prices have jumped, hurting the poor in particular and raising the threat of political, instability. it blackened our eye?" said Paul DiMare, president of The DiMare Companies in Johns Island, S.C. "June and July are the best time of the year for tomatoes, but our movement has completely stopped in the United States." Farmers, packers and shippers fear it could take months to rebuild the $1.3 billion market I DETROIT Faced with soaring gas prices, a sputtering economy and a rapid U.S. market shift away from trucks, the U.S. auto industry's weakest player, Chrysler, may have to file for bankruptcy or sell its storied Jeep and Dodge Ram brands as early as next year, JPMorgan said International Inc. and Yum Brands Inc. resumed offering some tomatoes on their menus in the last few weeks. . But now, during one of the biggest barbecue weekends of the year, tomato farmers say their summer season has already withered despite the government's recent an nouncement that some other type of fresh produce might have caused the salmonella outbreak, which has sickened 922 people. "Now the government has a doubt as to a. Analyst: Chrysler, not GM, in danger 8 PRESS Expect The former head of Refco Inc., NEW YORK blamed for the collapse of one of the world's largest commodities brokerages, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Thursday by a judge who decried G-- ASSOCIATED fewer slices of red, ripe to the grill this weekend. a salmonella scare causing customers to shun what's a summertime favorite, tomato farmers nationwide have had to plow under their fields and leave their crop to rot in Judge sends Refco CEO to prison ECB B5 FLORIDA, Farmers blame salmonella scare for bad tomato season y But rivals GM and Ford are likely to get through the rough patch and turn a profit in gleongheraldextra.com 344-291- 0 near Florida coast 2006 compromise leaves door open for drilling The nation lost jobs for the sixth month in a row in June, a storm of pink slips drenching this year's July Fourth holiday for more than 60,000 Americans and leaving thousands more worried about the future. Weighed down by energy prices and the housing crisis, employers laid off workers in stores, factories and forsaken building sites. With more job cuts expected in coming months, there's growing concern that many people will pull back on their spending later this year when the bracing effect of the tax rebates fades, dealing a dangerous setback to the shaky economy. These worries are rekindling recession fears. In June alone, employers got rid of 62,000 jobs, bringing total losses so far this year close to a 438,000, according to staggering half million the Labor Department's report released Thursday. The economy needs to generate more than 100,000 new jobs a month for employment to remain stable. cross-countr- Grace Leong BUSINESS EDITOR National Briefing Oil rises 2008 YouTube ordered to surrender user info Joseph Menn and Jessica Guynn LOS ANGELES TIMES A billion-dollcourt clash a between old- - and giants took on unexpected privacy ramifications this week when a federal judge ordered YouTube to hand over the log-o- n names and Internet addresses of every person who has viewed material on the Web's top video site, encompassing tens of new-medi- millions of people. Viacom Inc. wants logs to help determine if unauthorized material makes up a major share of what gets watched there. The media giant, which owns the rights to such shows as "The Colbert Report" and "South Park," is suing YouTube and corporate parent Google Inc. for copyright infringement. Viacom General Counsel Michael Fricklas pledged "unequivocally" Thursday not to You-Tube- 's use the data to learn the real names of YouTube users in order to sue them for uploading unauthorized clips, as the recording industry has done to people who illegally shared music online. comThe New York-base- d pany said a protective order dictated that only its outside lawyers and experts could ac cess the raw data, and that it could be used solely to make the case against Google. But the ruling, filed late Wednesday by Judge Louis Stanton of U.S. District Court in New York, shocked privacy advocates. They fear a broader effect from Stanton's Internet finding that Protocol addresses the unique numbers assigned to each computer or device connected to the Internet need not be strictly protected because they aren't tied publicly to individual names. "It's a very important privacy moment," said Marc executive director of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. "It will remind folks that companies like Google are sitting on top of a lot of personal information that they can't always control." Viacom and YouTube are discussing a plan to replace the Internet addresses with codes, a move designed to prevent linking a YouTube log-oname with a particular computer. If that happens, Google has no plans to appeal, according to people working on the case who demanded anonymity because of the high financial stakes in the n See YOUTUBE, B5 r-- I 1 SUSAN WALSHAssociated Press Sen. John Warner, center, left, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, right, laugh during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 6. a. Senator suggests lower speed limit might mean cheaper gas H. THE Josef Hebert ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON An influential Republican senator suggested Thursday that Congress might a nawant to consider tional speed limit to save gasoline and possibly ease fuel prices. asked Sen. John Warner, Energy Secretary Samuel to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technol Bod-ma- n ogy. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit. Congress in 1974 set a national 55 mph speed limit because of energy shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline cost $1.10agalloa As motorists headed on trips for See WARNER, B5 |