Spotlite for 3/8/13 [Bangor Daily News (ME)]

(Bangor Daily News (ME) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Phone app to order yellow cabs in NYC blocked NEW YORK-- A pilot program that would allow people in New York City to hail yellow cabs using a smartphone app was blocked by a judge on Thursday, handing a victory to private car companies that have said the program threatens their business.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Huff granted a request from the livery companies to freeze the new "e-hail" program that had been scheduled to begin as early as Friday.

The order will be in effect until at least March 18, when the two sides are due to return to court to argue the merits of a lawsuit brought by the livery companies against the city.

Private car companies rely on prearranged pickups. Under New York's two-prong cab system, yellow cabs handle street hails but cannot accept phone pickups; livery cars do the opposite.Longshoremen reach tentative deal at NY, NJ ports Longshoremen in New York and New Jersey, who handle shipments at the largest port on the U.S. East Coast, have reached a tentative six-year labor agreement with the New York Shippers Association, both sides said on Thursday.

The negotiations ended with a deal just before a Friday deadline. A spokesman for the International Longshoremen's Association confirmed there was a deal with port terminal operators and shippers, but declined to provide details.

Witnesses told Reuters that the mediation appeared tense, with screaming and, at one point, talk of a potential walk-out.

America's ports have been the scene of a series of increasingly heated struggles between port workers and their employers on the East, West and Gulf coasts in recent months centering on pay, workplace efficiency and automation.Bill drafted to speed Keystone pipeline decision WASHINGTON -- Proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline in the House of Representatives on Thursday outlined a new push to take the decision on the project out of the hands of the Obama administration and to limit further legal and regulatory delays.

Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., authored draft legislation that would eliminate the need for a presidential permit for the northern section of the pipeline, which would transport Canadian oil sands crude into the United States.

The State Department has been weighing TransCanada's application for a permit for the 800,000 barrel-per-day pipeline for more than four years, repeatedly delaying the process as environmentalists raised concerns about potential spills from the pipeline and its impact on climate change.

The presidential permit is necessary because the pipeline would cross the U.S.-Canadian border.

"If we see further delays as we have in the past; Congress is ready to act," Terry said in a statement. "This discussion draft is part of that process."Cubans mourn Chavez, worry about future HAVANA -- Mourners lined up across the country on Thursday as Cuba paid homage to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, amid concerns that his generous policies would not survive him.

In many cities and towns, people filed through government- arranged memorials to pay tribute to the man who poured oil and money into the island nation to help revive its economy after a near- collapse in the 1990s.

In Havana, lines stretched around the full sweep of Revolution Square, where former Cuban leader Fidel Castro used to speak to rallies of a million people, as they went to the memorial beneath a giant statue of Cuban hero Jose Marti.

Such honors were previously reserved only for commanders in Cuba's 1959 revolution, including Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine who helped lead the rebellion and years after his death remains an inspirational figure for leftists globally.

from wire service reports (c) 2013 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

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