The airline’s revenue climbed slightly, however, as the average fare increased almost $8 from a year ago.

Southwest said that bookings for the first three months of 2013 look strong. It said that based on bookings and ticket prices so far, a key revenue measure should rise by between 2 and 3 percent in January compared with the same month last year.

Although the rate of airfare increases has slowed since 2011, fares are still going up partly because airlines are limiting the number of flights, making seats more scarce. Southwest expects the industry as a whole to run about 1 to 2 percent fewer flights in early 2013 than in the same period last year.

Southwest, the nation’s fourth-biggest airline, will consider cramming more flights into the busier middle of the day and reducing daily flights on some routes that aren’t profitable enough.

“I hope what we have less of is eliminating nonstop service between city pairs but … that is a possibility,” said CEO Gary Kelly. He didn’t name the routes that could be affected.

On a conference call, analysts pressed Kelly on whether he might reverse Southwest’s “bags-fly-free” policy. Kelly said the policy helps his airline draw customers away from competitors — more than offsetting money lost by not charging fees — and that charging for bags now would damage the company’s image.

“Customers hate bag fees, so I think by definition there would be an impact to the brand,” he said.

Southwest reported fourth-quarter net income of $78 million, or 11 cents per share. That’s down from $152 million, or 20 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items such as fuel contracts, the net income would have been 9 cents per share, beating the 7-cents-per-share forecast among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue ticked up 1.6 percent to $4.17 billion but fell short of the $4.20 billion that analysts expected.

Expenses rose faster, however, by 3.1 percent. Labor costs rose and maintenance costs jumped significantly as the airline continued to overhaul the cabins inside many of its planes.

Spending on fuel, the airline’s biggest expense, rose a modest 0.7 percent. Southwest is forecasting a welcome drop in its first-quarter fuel bill, to $3.30 per gallon from $3.44.

The cost increases were still less than some analysts expected. Standard & Poor’s analyst Jim Corridore said he expects revenue to rise faster than most costs in 2013.

The average fourth-quarter fare on Southwest and its AirTran Airways subsidiary was $148.02, up 5.4 percent from $140.38 a year earlier.

Passengers flew 1.4 percent fewer miles on Southwest than a year earlier, and planes were less full — 79.6 percent occupancy, down from 80.5 percent.

Southwest earned $421 million in 2012, its 40th straight profitable year, a streak that Kelly called “a remarkable feat and a record unmatched in the airline industry.”

Southwest shares rose 3 cents to $11.39 in afternoon trading. They have gained about 50 percent since last August, rising along with other airline stocks. Investors have been encouraged by stronger financial performance at the airlines and the possibility that a potential merger of American Airlines and US Airways would increase the industry’s ability to raise fares.

Source – AP Dallas

Obama also named Richard Cordray to stay on as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The president used a recess appointment last year to bypass congressional opposition and install the former Ohio attorney general as head of the bureau. That appointment expires at the end of this year.

White spent nearly a decade as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, handling an array of white-collar crimes and complex securities and financial fraud cases. She brought down mobster John Gotti and won convictions in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Obama said that experience makes White well-suited to implement legislation he championed to change the behavior on Wall Street.

“I’d say that’s a pretty good run. You don’t want to mess with Mary Jo,” Obama said at the White House. “As one former SEC chairman said, Mary Jo does not intimidate easily, and that’s important because she has a big job ahead of her.”

If confirmed by the Senate, White would take over the SEC from Elisse Walter, who is serving out the rest of former SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro’s term. Schapiro resigned in December.

In 2000, White led the criminal prosecution of more than 100 people — including members of all five New York crime families — accused of strong-arming brokers and manipulating prices of penny stocks. At the time the action was called one of the biggest crackdowns on securities fraud in U.S. history.

White’s office also won a record $606 million in restitution from the securities arm of the Republic New York Corp. bank in 2001. That year, the bank pleaded guilty to conspiring with an investment adviser to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from Japanese investors.

Cordray has run the consumer bureau since last year. Senate Republicans had opposed Cordray, as well as the concept of the consumer bureau.

Before she was elected to the Senate last fall, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., conceived of the idea of a consumer protection bureau. Obama considered naming her as commissioner, but her nomination would likely have run into deep opposition on Capitol Hill.

White, 65, heads the litigation department at law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

She was the first woman to hold the position of U.S. attorney in Manhattan, one of the most prestigious positions in federal law enforcement. During her tenure from 1993 to 2002, White won convictions of white-collar criminals, drug traffickers and international terrorists. The most notable conviction was Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

She led the prosecution of Gotti when she was acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn in 1992. Gotti died in prison in 2002.

If confirmed by the Senate, White would be the first prosecutor to head the 79-year-old SEC. Most SEC chairmen have come from Wall Street or the ranks of private securities lawyers. The choice of White is likely intended to bolster the agency’s enforcement profile in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

White’s background differs sharply from that of Schapiro, who guided the agency in the four years after the crisis. Schapiro worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the securities industry’s self-policing organization. Some consumer advocates have said Schapiro’s experience as CEO of FINRA made her more likely to seek compromise and less likely to aggressively pursue misconduct.

During Shapiro’s tenure, the SEC reached major settlements with the biggest banks on Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank. But critics said the penalties were small compared with the banks’ revenues. And they complained that no senior executives were held accountable.

White would be expected to give high priority to expanding the enforcement efforts.

At the same time, much of the pressing work facing the agency involves writing new rules. The SEC is seeking stricter rules for money-market mutual funds and must get into shape the so-called Volcker Rule, which would bar banks from making certain trades for their own profit.

As head of litigators at Debevoise & Plimpton, White has represented a number of financial institutions likely to have crossed swords with the SEC in enforcement cases. Her clients also included former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, whom she represented in a 2010 civil lawsuit by then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accusing Lewis of misleading shareholders in the bank’s merger with Merrill Lynch.

White also represented the largest U.S. hospital chain, HCA, in the insider-trading investigations by the SEC and the Justice Department of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., whose family owned HCA. The investigations were closed in 2007 with no charges filed against Frist.

Source – AP Washington

In the last four months, more than 140 outbreaks in the U.S. have been caused by the new Sydney strain of norovirus. These kinds of contagious bugs cause bouts of diarrhea and vomiting.

The new strain may not be unusually dangerous; some scientists don’t think it is. But it is different, and many people might not be able to fight off its gut-wrenching effects.

It often spreads in places like schools, cruise ships and nursing homes. The new strain was blamed for a recent outbreak on the Queen Mary 2.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on the new strain Thursday.

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

Oil Drilling Contamination Cost Chevron $8.6 Billion Fine

Despite the fact that this has been reported as the highest award for damage in an environmental lawsuit, to be awarded, the original amount that was recommended was much higher, at $27.3 billion.

Chevron responded to the decision claiming that it was “illegitimate and unenforceable” and made it clear that there would be an appeal. Fearing that it could not get a fair trial in the area, Chevron has already taken the steps of removing all assets from the area.

The legal case has been working its way through courts in both the U.S. and Equador for over 17 years. The lawsuit had originally been filed against Texaco in a New York federal court back in 1993. It was dismissed after Texaco argued that the proper place for the trial to take place would be Equador. The lawsuit was refiled in 2003, two years after Chevron bought Texaco.

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention will be released on the 4th of April 2011 - Click image above for pre-order information

Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man.

In death he became a broad symbol of both resistance and reconciliation for millions around the world.

Manning Marable’s new biography of Malcolm is a stunning achievement. Filled with new information and shocking revelations that go beyond the Autobiography, Malcolm X unfolds a sweeping story of race and class in America, from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties.

Reaching into Malcolm’s troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents’ activism through his own engagement with the Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the never-before-told true story of his assassination.

Malcolm X will stand as the definitive work on one of the most singular forces for social change, capturing with revelatory clarity a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.

New York City Outdoor Smoking Ban

Places such as Times Square, all beaches and all parks will all be included as areas where smokers cannot light up. If you are a smoker and want to stop, here are a few tips for you, to get you in the right frame of mind to start the process;

When you have been smoking cigarettes for a long time, there is a great probability that it will be hard for you to quit your habit. There are a lot of people who think that they will never be able to stop their nicotine addiction. But do you know that just by thinking of quitting smoking, you are already on your way to the process of stopping? Although it may not seem much, it still counts. You will not be able to stop smoking unless you think about stopping, right?

Just thinking that you want to stop smoking is a great start towards your goal. This is the first simple step when you want to kick off this bad habit. Stopping smoking does not have to take place within a matter of one day or one week. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of smokers who have gotten through withdrawal within the duration of over 12 months.

When you decide to stop your habit, do not jump right to it immediately. You have to think about the idea of smoking fewer sticks; and act on it. If you condition your subconscious to the notion, it will get accustomed to the thought of cigarette withdrawal. It may not sound relevant however; its significance is really that big. This is due to the fact that your mind has become familiarized with the idea of smoking, other than your system. Gradually stopping smoking and thinking of actually doing it will allow your mind to get along with your decision to quit.

The second step is to think more about the downside that smoking possesses. Conjure the unpleasant thoughts of lung cancer and other sicknesses which you can get due to your nicotine addiction. You can also check out images of lungs which have been shrunk badly because of the bad effects of smoking. Imagine yourself lying in a hospital bed, hardly breathing. Doing these things will jolt your subconscious to the reality; allowing you to think rationally. When your mind is awakened to the negative outcome of smoking, you will become more determined to stop the habit.

While you are in the process of thinking that you want to quit and that smoking is bad for your health, you will also find cigarettes less tempting. What is more, there is a greater possibility that you will be able to start quitting. But if you are struggling with the concept of nicotine withdrawal, you should not panic. There are a lot of individuals like you who do not know whether they want to stop smoking or not.

The final step to this process is the actual action of stopping. This may sound like a disturbing idea; no more cigarettes to comfort your anxiety. However, the end result can be really rewarding. This goes especially when you imagine yourself breathing in clean air and not cigarette smoke.

Indiana State Police Call On National Guard

Roughly 850 Indiana National Guardsmen were called up this week to provide emergency help across the northern half of the state, including the Interstate 70 corridor across the state. “We are preparing to help in any way we can,” the National Guard spokesman said.

The state, which is facing one of the worst winter storms in recent history, continues to face blizzard-like conditions.

The Indiana troops are the latest to be called up. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn called up nearly 500 National Guard troops to assist with similar tasks.

aj. Shawn Gardner, spokesman for the National Guard in Indianapolis, said Guardsmen from 44 armories, including National Guard men and women in Richmond, have been activated to help Indiana State Police with emergency rescues of stranded motorists and to assist in other emergency medical situations.

“We are preparing to help in any way we can,” Gardner said.

Company B, 113th Support Battalion, part of the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, is located in Richmond.

The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. The National Guard of the United States is a joint reserve component of the United States Army, the United States Air Force and maintains two subcomponents: the Army National Guard of the United States for the Army and the Air Force’s Air National Guard of the United States

No Shadow for Punxsutawney Phil

Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks.

Modern customs of the holiday involve celebrations where early morning festivals are held to watch the groundhog emerging from its burrow. In southeastern Pennsylvania, Groundhog Lodges (Grundsow Lodges) celebrate the holiday with fersommlinge,social events in which food is served, speeches are made, and one or more g’spiel (plays or skits) are performed for entertainment. The Pennsylvania German dialect is the only language spoken at the event, and those who speak English pay a penalty, usually in the form of a nickel, dime or quarter, per word spoken, put into a bowl in the center of the table.

The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Groundhog Day, already a widely recognized and popular tradition[4], received worldwide attention as a result of the 1993 film of the same name, Groundhog Day, which was set in Punxsutawney and featured Punxsutawney Phil.

So the world-famous weather-reading groundhog Punxsutawney Phil predicted spring was on its way. I hope people in the Midwest aren’t believe this…

Snow Storm Images From Space

NASA “Visible and infrared images and animations of the storm’s clouds and movement are created every 15 minutes by the NASA GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. using data from GOES-11 and GOES-13, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. The GOES-13 and GOES-11 satellites that cover the eastern and western U.S., respectively, are operated by NOAA.”

Some images really give you an indication of just how huge this storm really is, with images revealing snow almost covering from coast to coast.

A large swath of blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings, freezing rain advisories, winter weather advisories and winter storm watches are in effect, stretching from new Mexico and the Southern Plains northeastward through the Midwest and into the upper Mid-Atlantic and New England. Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project

This visible image below was captured by the GOES-13 satellite and shows the low pressure area stretching from the Colorado Rockies and Texas east to New England. The image shows the storm on Feb. 1 at 1401 UTC (9:01 a.m. EST) by the NASA GOES Project, located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The GOES series of satellites are operated by NOAA. Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project.

Three images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite were combined to create this image below of the storm system. The images were captured on January 31 at 10:30 a.m., 12:05 p.m., and 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time (15:30, 17:05, and 18:45 UTC). Diagonal lines across the image show the boundaries between the overpasses. White gaps are areas where the sensor did not collect data. The image has a resolution of one kilometer per pixel. Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

National Weather Service Warnings

In many parts of the country road travel is not being advised, unless absolutely necessary, from mid afternoon Tuesday until Wednesday morning. “Unnecessary travel should be avoided at all costs this afternoon through early Wednesday morning as more than half of the fatalities in previous Illinois blizzards have occurred as a result of traffic accidents. Before making the decision to travel, consider if getting to your destination is worth putting your life at risk.”

There are current weather warnings for Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.