American Airlines, US Airways announce merger

After a nearly yearlong courtship, the union became official Thursday: American Airlines and US Airways have formally announced plans to merge.

An early morning announcement by the airlines confirmed reports widely circulated after boards of both companies approved the merger late Wednesday.

The move brings stability to one of Miami-Dade County’s largest private employers more than a year after the airline and its parent company filed for bankruptcy protection, leaving the fate of thousands of employees — and the largest carrier at Miami International Airport — in question.

According to the Thursday announcement, the deal was approved unanimously by the boards of both companies, creating the world’s biggest airline with implied market value of nearly $11 billion, based on the Wednesday closing price of US Airways stock. The airline will have close to 100,000 employees, 1,500 aircraft, $38.7 billion in combined revenue.

The deal must be approved by American’s bankruptcy judge and antitrust regulators, but no major hurdles are expected. The process is expected to take about six months, according to a letter sent to employees Thursday by American CEO Tom Horton.

Travelers won’t notice immediate changes. The new airline will be called American Airlines. It likely will be months before the frequent-flier programs are merged, and possibly years before the two airlines are fully combined. The new airline will be a member of the oneWorld airlines frequent flier alliance.

And for Miami travelers, it’s unlikely that much will change at any point. American and regional carrier American Eagle handled 68 percent of traffic at the airport last year, while US Airways accounted for just 2 percent. American boasts 328 flights to 114 destinations from Miami.

“We don’t expect any substantial changes at MIA if the merger occurs because our traffic is largely driven by the strength of the Miami market and not the airlines serving it,” said airport spokesman Greg Chin.

American has said for more than a year that its long-term plan calls for increasing departures at key hubs, including Miami, by 20 percent. That pledge has already started to materialize; in recent months, the airline has added new service to Asuncion, Paraguay and Roatán, Honduras.

During its bankruptcy restructuring, about 400 American employees lost jobs, leaving American and its regional carrier, American Eagle, with 9,894 employees in Miami-Dade County and 43 in Fort Lauderdale. US Airways has few employees in the area.

“It really isn’t going to affect Miami in a very major way anytime soon,” said Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant in Evergreen, Colo. “Only because US Airways isn’t a big player in South Florida.”

At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, American and US Airways combined would still only be the fifth-largest airline after Southwest, Spirit, JetBlue and Delta, a spokesman said. The two airlines have little overlap in routes from Fort Lauderdale.

Despite the lack of major changes, Boyd said the merger would be a good development for Miami.

“It should be positive for the employees and it should be positive for the communities that the airlines serve,” he said.

Robert Herbst, an independent airline analyst and consultant, said US Airways will add a “significant amount” of destinations in the Northeast, including Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

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Come 2016, Sen. Rand Paul could be the anti-Rubio choice for tea party faithful

WASHINGTON Sens. Marco Rubio’s and Rand Paul’s delivery of back-to-back rebuttals of President Barack Obama’s speech to Congress — Rubio as the Republican response, Paul as the tea party rejoinder — raises some tantalizing questions:

With Rubio being stamped as the early favorite in the 2016 Republican White House race, is Paul emerging as a leading alternative among tea party faithful and other hard-line conservative activists?

If so, does he risk further fracturing a Republican Party that’s trying to move toward the center and soften its rough edges in the wake of Obama’s decisive re-election three months ago?

Paul, who joined Congress at the same time as Rubio in January 2011, acknowledged Wednesday that he is weighing a presidential run.

“I’m thinking about it, but I haven’t made my mind up and won’t until 2014,” Paul said in an interview. “I’m mostly concerned with trying to do my job as a United States senator from Kentucky, and making sure I’m paying attention to problems in Kentucky and to the national problems we can deal with. Being part of the national debate and doing my job as a Kentucky senator sort of overlap.”

While some analysts contrasted Paul’s hard-edged remarks Tuesday night — he rejected bipartisanship and urged voters to “send them home” if lawmakers don’t drastically cut federal spending — with Rubio’s more nuanced comments, the junior senator from Kentucky downplayed a potential competition with the charismatic Cuban-American from Florida.

“I see our responses last night as complimentary and not necessarily (indicative of) any kind of rivalry,” Paul said. “I don’t think it’s my job to characterize other senators or their voting patterns. I’ve got enough work trying to set an agenda for the direction I think the country needs to take. That’s more important than any differences or similarities with any other senator.”

A poll released last week by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm in Raleigh, N.C., placed Rubio in the lead for 2016 among Republicans at 22 percent.

He was followed by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the 2012 vice presidential nominee; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Paul placed sixth with 10 percent support among those surveyed.

Such polls, though, have little concrete meaning at this stage: Four years ago, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania had single-digit support, yet he was the next to last man standing in the hard-fought 2012 Republican primary contest won by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Whether Paul runs for president, many view him as the natural successor to former Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who reveled in his nickname, Senator Tea Party, and became a hero among conservative activists nationally for his unyielding opposition to all manner of federal spending.

DeMint, who retired last year, endorsed both Rubio and Paul in their 2010 Senate campaigns. He contributed millions of dollars to them and other conservative candidates who challenged Republican establishment choices in contentious primaries that highlighted the party’s internal splits.

But while Paul remains an unapologetic tea party booster, leading the movement’s charge within Congress could prove as much a hindrance as a help to his political ambitions.

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HIMYM Star Alyson Hannigan Files Restraining Order

Paul A. Hebert/ ETONLINE

How I Met Your Mother and American Pie star Alyson Hannigan filed a temporary restraining order on Wednesday against a man she claims has threatened to kill her.

PICS: How I Met Your Mother Set Stills

In the filings, John Hobbs is accused of harassing Hannigan, 38, on the Internet via Facebook and MySpace posts.

The papers go on to claim that Hobbs is "mentally unstable and was recently discharged from a mental hospital," requesting that he remain at least 100 yards away from Hannigan, her husband Alexis Denisof, 46, and their children Satyana, 3, and Keeva, 1.

A judge is set to determine whether or not the order should be made permanent during a March 6 hearing.

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Bloomberg plans pilot program to collect and compost food waste

In an ambitious and dramatic move to boost a dismal recycling rate, the Bloomberg Administration intends for the first time to collect and compost food waste starting with a pilot program on Staten Island.

Officials said Mayor Bloomberg will announce the initiative tomorrow in his 12th and final State of the City address at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

If the program for single-family homes in the smallest borough works, it'll be expanded citywide -- diverting about 20 percent of the garbage from the waste stream of the nation's largest metropolis. Other cities, such as San Francisco and Seattle, already turn leftovers into fertilizer.

"The administration seems to recognize it needs to polish up its record on recycling to keep up an overall impressive record on environmental and sustainable issues," said Eric Goldstein, senior attorney of the National Resources Defense Council.

"Recycling has been the soft spot....This can mark a real turning point in returning New York to a leadership role."

The city's recycling rate hovers around 15 percent, less than half the national average. When Bloomberg took office in 2002, it was 19 percent.

The mayor has pledged to double the recycling rate by 2017, which Goldstein said would not only save the environment but also save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. The city spends more than $300 million to ship 10,800 tons of trash each day to landfills. The cost goes up almost every year.

Officials on Staten Island -- many of whom took part in the fight to shut the enormous Fresh Kills landfill during the Giuliani Administration -- reacted warily.

"I think most people are not going to like it," predicted Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro. "I doubt if it's going to be successful."

As someone with experience in the recycling business, Molinari said he's worried that bins for food scraps will quickly vanish after the first collection.

"The DS (Department of Sanitation) truck comes, takes off the cover and dumps the garbage. That's the end of the pail and the end of the cover," he said.

City officials said the administration would supply rigid containers with locked tops that would be collected separately, probably starting in the spring.

"It'll be foolproof," vowed one official.

City Councilman James Oddo (R-S.I.) said he was concerned that his constituents would start getting fined if they mistakenly mix organic and regular garbage.

But officials offered reassurances on that front as well, saying there would be no fines during the pilot period.

To round out his recycling package, the mayor confirmed the worst fear of take-out joints -- he's going to ask the City Council to make New York the first major East Coast city to ban Styrofoam.

An estimated 20,000 tons of the nearly-indestructible stuff enters the waste stream each year.

Finally, the mayor wants to amend the Building Code so that 20 percent of the spaces in all new parking garages are wired for electric vehicles, creating an estimated 10,00 such spots in seven years. The city also plans to set up two sites for 30-minute electric car charge-ups, one in Seward Park for the public and another at Con Ed headquarters on Irving Place for taxi fleets.

Bloomberg's announcement will come on a propitious day, both Valentine's Day and his 71st birthday.

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AP Sources: American Airlines, US Airways to merge

DALLAS (AP) – American Airlines and US Airways will merge and create the world's biggest airline. The boards of both companies approved the merger late Wednesday, according to four people close to the situation.

The carrier keeps the American Airlines name but will be run by US Airways CEO Doug Parker. American's CEO, Tom Horton, will become chairman of the new company, these people said. They requested anonymity because the merger negotiations were private.

A formal announcement is expected Thursday morning.

The deal has been in the works since August, when creditors forced American to consider a merger rather than remain independent. American has been restructuring under bankruptcy protection since late 2011.

Together, American and US Airways will be slightly bigger than United Airlines. Travelers won't notice immediate changes. It will likely be months before the frequent-flier programs are merged, and possibly years before the two airlines are fully combined.

If the deal is approved by American's bankruptcy judge and antitrust regulators, the new American will have more than 900 planes, 3,200 daily flights and about 95,000 employees, not counting regional affiliates. It will expand American's current reach on the East Coast and overseas.

The merger is a stunning achievement for Parker, who will run the new company. Parker's airline is only half the size of American and is less familiar around the world, but he prevailed by driving a wedge between American's management and its union workers and by convincing American's creditors that a merger made business sense.

Just five years ago, American was the world's biggest airline. It boasted a history reaching back 80 years to the beginning of air travel. It had popularized the frequent-flier program and developed the modern system of pricing airline tickets to match demand.

But years of heavy losses drove American and parent AMR Corp. into bankruptcy protection in late 2011. The company blamed bloated labor costs; its unions accused executives of mismanagement.

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‘Tony Montana’ pleads guilty to millions in jewel thefts

Eight months after his arrest in a South Beach hotel, the jeweler who called himself “Tony Montana” pleaded guilty Tuesday to organizing the thefts of and later reselling millions of dollars worth of diamonds and other jewels.

Juan Guardarrama, 49, received a reduced prison sentence of 10 years in exchange for cooperating with authorities on other cases related to the criminal enterprise of stealing and fencing diamonds.

In the agreement, Guardarrama acknowledges his “willingness to cooperate in bringing to justice” others who have been involved in crimes including theft, racketeering, money-laundering and fencing of stolen properties.

The night of his arrest, Guardarrama thought he was buying more than a half-million dollars worth of stolen jewelry when he asked undercover cops whether they would “take out” a partner from his side business of growing medical marijuana in Colorado. He had earlier asked the cops if they would be interested in selling some of that marijuana in Miami.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office charged Guardarrama with more than a dozen felony counts, from racketeering and money-laundering to dealing in stolen property and soliciting first-degree murder. The jeweler, whose nickname comes from a character in the 1983 Miami crime noir film Scarface, starring Al Pacino, faced more than 30 years in prison.

On Tuesday, Guardarrama pleaded guilty to the majority of the counts related to the jewelry operation, and authorities agreed to dismiss charges related to the marijuana and soliciting murder. As part of the deal, Guardarrama will surrender about $2 million in jewelry and money that was confiscated from his apartment in Denver.

His attorney, David Raben, declined to comment after Tuesday’s hearing before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Thomas Rebull.

Detectives from a multiagency task force had been investigating Guardarrama for more than four years when the arrest took place last June at Loews Miami Beach Hotel. Guardarrama had worked as a wholesale jeweler for close to two decades, and was a familiar face in the Seybold building in downtown Miami, a hub of diamond and jewelry commerce.

But much of what Guardarrama sold was stolen. Authorities say he was a key player in orchestrating heists and robberies for international jewelry thieves who have operated in South Florida and across the country since at least 2005. He worked with a group of mostly Colombians who targeted traveling jewelry dealers for assaults, and a separate group of Cuban-born welders who blowtorched their way into jewelry store safes.

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Brooklyn perp shot after pulling gun on cops

A man was shot by police today in Brooklyn after he turned a gun on the officers, cops said.

The man, 31, tried to flee when police responded to a call at 5:45 in East New York, police said.

Police had surrounded the building when the man tried to escape out the back door.

After being told to drop the weapon he turned and pointed the gun at the officers. A plainclothes cop shot him once in the stomach.

Police recovered a revolver from the suspect and an additional weapon at the front of the building.

An officer was taken to North Shore LIJ in stable condition, being treated for tinnitus.

The suspect was taken to Brookdale Medical Center in stable condition.

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Disabled Carnival ship limping toward land

Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill on Tuesday apologized to passengers stranded after an engine room fire left 4,229 people adrift on one of the cruise giant’s ships in the Gulf of Mexico.

“No one here from Carnival is happy about the conditions on board the ship and we obviously are very, very sorry about what’s taken place,” Cahill said at a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Doral. “There’s no question that conditions on board the ship are very challenging. I can assure you that everyone on board in the Carnival team and everyone shoreside is doing everything they can to make our guests as comfortable as possible.”

Passengers aboard the fire-stricken Carnival Triumph have one more day at sea without air conditioning or widespread use of toilets before they reach land in Mobile, Ala. under the power of two tugboats. A U.S. Coast Guard vessel is escorting the ship in case of emergencies.

“If something does happen, we’re out there to help,” said Petty Officer Richard Brahm.

Cahill said the company has lined up more than 1,500 hotel rooms in New Orleans and Mobile for Thursday night and 20 charter flights to fly people to Houston on Friday. The company has canceled the ship’s Feb. 11 and 16 sailings. For those who just want to get home, Carnival is arranging for motorcoach service to Houston and Galveston.

By the time they arrive, it will have been a longer trip than they bargained for, and much less of a vacation.

The 14-year-old ship left Galveston for a four-night Western Caribbean cruise on Thursday with 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew on board; it was scheduled to return Monday morning.

But Sunday morning, fire broke out in an engine room for unknown reasons as the ship sailed off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The blaze was put out by automatic extinguishing systems, but the ship lost propulsion and was forced to operate on emergency generator power.

Since then, passengers have complained of stench, human waste in public areas, heat and long lines for food.

Texas resident Brent Nutt, whose wife is on the cruise ship, said Monday that she told him the "whole boat stinks extremely bad" and some passengers were getting sick and throwing up, the Associated Press reported. Nutt said his wife reported "water and feces all over the floor."

Jimmy Mowlam, 63, told the Associated Press his 37-year-old son, Rob Mowlam, told him by phone Monday night that the lack of ventilation onboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Triumph had made it too hot to sleep inside. He said Rob and his new bride are among the many passengers who have set up camp on the ocean liner’s decks and in its common areas.

"He said up on deck it looks like a shanty town, with sheets, almost like tents, mattresses, anything else they can pull to sleep on," said Mowlam, 63, who is from southeast Texas.

Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor-in chief of the popular website CruiseCritic.com, said many frequent cruisers take such incidents in stride – but, she said, the fact that there have been several fires on ships in recent years could be cause for concern.

In a strikingly similar case, the Carnival Splendor was set adrift in the Gulf in November 2010 after a major fire. It was out of service for about three months; the company estimated the cost was $56 million.

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Papal transition won’t lead to big changes in South Florida parishes, archbishop says

Like millions of other Roman Catholics, when Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski woke up Monday morning and heard the news that Pope Benedict XVI had announced his resignation, he thought it was just rumor.

When he realized it wasn’t, Wenski called Mary Ross Agosta, the Archdiocese’s communications director, and told her: “ ‘Get ready for a busy day.’ ’’

And so it was, as he gave interview after interview on how the pope’s resignation — the first in nearly six centuries — might affect the Church and its believers.

Wenski doesn’t anticipate “radical shifts’’ in the church with a new leader at the helm.

“Whoever comes on as pope will be Catholic, so...he’ll present the Catholic teachings and there’s not going to be any changes in those teachings, because the pope is not an absolute ruler who can make it up as he goes along,’’ Wenski said.

Still, he said, “most people live their faith on a local level,’’ so that a papal transition isn’t likely to shake things up in South Florida parishes.

Wenski, 62, said he understood how demanding the pontifical duties are.

“When the pope says he doesn’t have the strength anymore, considering my own schedule in this little archdiocese, I get it. It’s a grueling job...He embraced the suffering that comes with the job but he doesn’t have the physical health and energy to continue it.

“His doctors have been telling him to restrict his travel, and the ability to travel has become a requisite for a modern-day pope.’’

Anne Llewellyn of Plantation, a parishioner at St. Gregory the Great, applauded the pope for understanding his limitations and for making “the difficult decision for the good of the church.’’

She called Benedict “a brilliant man’’ who deserves thanks for his leadership. However, she remains “angry with the U.S. Church’’ over sex scandal cover-ups, and no longer supports the archdiocese.

Barry University theology professor Edward Sunshine acknowledged the pope’s resignation comes at a time when the church sex-abuse scandals ”have weakened the moral authority and credibility of church leaders,’’ and when 10 percent of U.S. adults identify as former Catholics.

By bowing out, Sunshine added, the pope “is setting a modern precedent that is necessary for the church to function well in the world today.”

With people living longer — Pope Benedict XVI is 85, his predecessor Pope John Paul II was 84 when he died after 27 years as head of the church — there is an increased chance of someone suffering from a debilitating condition, such as infirmity or senility, Sunshine said.

“An orderly transition of church leadership if necessary is much better than a long, agonizing wait for an infirm pontiff to die in office,” Sunshine said. “Pope Benedict has set an example for world leaders and everyone else that there comes a time when it is better to let go of power.’’

When it comes to Benedict’s successor, Karen McCarthy, of Hollywood, is hoping for someone more moderate. She’s angry about certain church positions, and no longer attends Church of the Little Flower

“The Vatican has treated women horribly, like we are less than men,’’ she said. “What they have done to the nuns is repulsive...I hope we get a more moderate pope and one in tune with the times.’’

Archbishop Wenski said he doubted Pope Benedict XVI would interfere with his successor once he leaves the post Feb. 28.

“There’s still going to be only one pope, and I don’t think there’s any danger of any polarities of power, one against another.’’

This article includes comments from the Public Insight Network, an online community of people who have agreed to share their opinions with The Miami Herald. Sign up by going to MiamiHerald.com/Insight.

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Harold and Kumar Star John Cho Becomes a Dad Again

Harold & Kumar star John Cho has welcomed his second child with wife Kerri Higuchi, People reports.

PICS: Celebs and Their Cute Kids

A rep for Cho confirmed to the news source that the couple now has a baby girl in addition to their infant son, but no further details were immediately available.

Cho, who currently stars on NBC's Go On, wed Higuchi in 2006. They announced that they were expecting their first child two years later.

The 40-year-old actor can also be seen on the big screen in the Jason Bateman starrer, Identity Thief.

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