UMaine releases offshore wind project proposal

AUGUSTA, Maine — The University of Maine and its partner companies offered a glimpse into the sole remaining offshore wind project being considered for a state contract with the release Wednesday of more details about its proposal to build two wind turbines off the coast near Monhegan Island.

The redacted version of the proposal provides a deeper look into what is already publically known about the Maine Aqua Ventus I, the project being proposed by the university and its partners, which would produce 12 megawatts of power 2.5 miles south of the island and about 12 miles from the mainland. If that's successful, developers envision eventually building one or more large commercial offshore wind farms, producing up to 500 megawatts of power, in federal waters.

Jake Ward, vice president of Innovation and Economic Development for UMaine, said the proposal highlights the university and its partner companies' strong overall approach that they believe gives them a good shot at winning a $46 million federal energy grant later this year.

"We put a solid team together with expertise both within the state and internationally both who understand this environment and how to do these types of projects," he said.

But critical information about what the project would cost ratepayers, the project's total cost and the projected economic impacts on the state, like the number of jobs expected to be created, will remain confidential until later this month.

The proposed project builds upon technology the behind a wind turbine the university launched off the coast near Castine in June called VolturnUS, a 65-foot-tall prototype that's one-eighth the size of a full-scale turbine. While the proposal is designed to generate 12 megawatts of power, the project will have a capacity of up to 25 megawatts, allowing additional test turbines to be connected in the future, according to the document.

Jeff Thaler, assistant counsel to the university said the project would allow for some power to be supplied directly to Monhegan Island, which currently relies on diesel generators that cause it to have some of the highest electric rates in the highest in the country.

Environmental groups and lawmakers called for a release of a redacted version of the proposal after it was submitted in August, saying that much information was already public and that the unusual circumstances of the bid process called for full transparency.

The university and its partners submitted their proposal following the reopening of the competitive bidding process after Norwegian company Statoil had already reached a tentative agreement with the state. That caused Statoil to announce last month that it was abandoning its project in Maine and focusing its efforts in Scotland.

The university had objected to the calls for the project's release, saying the proposal was crafted with the promise of it remaining private and that releasing information would harm its chances for the grant that five other proposed project — in Virginia, Texas, New Jersey, Ohio and Oregon — are also pursuing.

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German factory orders post strong rise

BERLIN — German factory orders in September rose an unexpectedly strong 3.3 percent on the month, thanks to a particularly robust increase in foreign demand.

The Federal Statistical Office said Wednesday that while domestic orders of big-ticket items dropped 1 percent over August, orders from outside Germany rose 6.8 percent. Economists had been predicting a lower overall rise of 0.5 percent, following drops of 0.3 percent in August and 1.9 percent in July.

UniCredit economist Andreas Rees said that the figures point to accelerating industrial demand from major export markets like France, Italy and Spain.

"Even if one cannot draw any far-reaching macroeconomic conclusions from the latest eurozone data, it is the perfect wake-up call for all the growth pessimists still out there," he said in a research note.

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Environmental crime wave costs world billions

NAIROBI, Kenya — The illegal cutting of timber and the poaching of elephants and rhinos are part of a "rapidly escalating environmental crime wave" that international governments must combat by increasing cooperation, police and environmental officials said Wednesday.

Interpol and the United Nations Environmental Program are working together to stop environmental crimes that cost tens of billions of dollars a year, said Achim Steiner, the U.N. Environmental Program's Executive Director. Some 500 law enforcement and environmental experts from around the world are meeting in Nairobi this week to try to stem the problem.

"This is a global phenomenon. This is a global market place. These are global syndicates, criminals that are engaging in this trade," said Steiner, who labeled the problem "a rapidly escalating environmental crime wave."

The demand for elephant ivory by China's rising middle class is fueling the deaths of thousands of elephants across Africa, say wildlife experts. An estimated 17,000 elephants were illegally killed in Africa in 2011, according to UNEP.

Customs officials in China this week reported busting two smuggling rings responsible for trafficking nearly $100 million worth of elephant ivory from Africa to China, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said Wednesday. The group also said Tanzanian authorities announced this week they had sized 706 tusks from the house of three Chinese traders in Tanzania's capital.

Azzedine Downes, president of IFAW, called on national leaders to commit to developing security task forces to lower environmental crime.

"People from around the world are outraged that organized criminal networks are robbing the world of our elephants, rhinos, tigers and other wildlife, purely for the profit of a very few outlaws," Downes said.

"If range state countries are willing to commit to enforcement that works across national boundaries, our supporters in non-range states are willing to step up and help fund those efforts," Downes said.

Steiner says that UNEP collaborates with China to increase public awareness that demand for ivory results in dead elephants. He said many people in the world don't understand the connection.

Kenya's attorney general, Githu Muigai, speaking at a news conference, noted that Kenyan lawmakers are considering a wildlife conservation bill that greatly increases penalties for poachers and traffickers in Kenya. He said Kenya has seen 90 elephants and 35 rhinos killed by poachers this year.

"Kenya stands at a crossroads as far as environmental criminal activity is concerned," said Muigai, who urged lawmakers to pass the proposed wildlife bill.

A new paramilitary anti-poaching team was formed in Kenya this year, and Muigai said it's having "a very significant deterrent effect."

There is no evidence to prove allegations that terror and militant groups such as Somalia's al-Shabab and Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army are poaching elephants to fund their military activities, said Jean Michel Louboutin, the executive director of police services at Interpol.

"I'm a policeman and to make such an assertion there has to be evidence, and to this stage there is no evidence," Louboutin said.

Affected countries often don't have investigative capacities to follow the environmental crime trail, said UNEP director Steiner. He said he hopes the Nairobi meeting will result in increased law enforcement capacity, because the difference between suspecting such terrorism-wildlife activity and being able to prosecute is "a long distance."

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US group leaks Google's European antitrust offer

AMSTERDAM — A U.S. consumer rights group has leaked details of Google's offer to settle a European investigation into alleged abuse of its dominant position in the search market.

John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog said Wednesday that Google's current offer, which Europe's top regulator has praised as a "significant improvement" from earlier versions, "does nothing to fix the underlying problem."

Screenshots of how search results would look under Google Inc.'s proposed settlement show the Internet giant would still give its own services pre-eminent placement in commercial searches, such as for hotels, restaurants or plane tickets. Three competitors could bid to display their services in subordinate slots. Both would be labeled as "sponsored" results.

Regular results would be displayed lower down on the page.

The European Commission began investigating Google in 2010.

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Health law clock is ticking for sickest patients

PORTLAND, Ore. — With federal and state online health care marketplaces experiencing glitches a month into implementation, concern is mounting for a vulnerable group of people who were supposed to be among the health law's earliest beneficiaries.

Hundreds of thousands of people across the country with pre-existing chronic conditions such as cancer, heart failure or kidney disease who are covered through high risk-insurance pools will see their coverage dissolve by year's end.

They are supposed to gain regular coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which requires insurers to cover those with severe medical problems. But many of them have had trouble signing up for health insurance through the exchanges and could find themselves without coverage in January if they don't meet a Dec. 15 deadline to enroll.

Administration officials say the federal exchange, which covers more than half the states, won't be working probably until the end of November, leaving people just two weeks to sign up if they want coverage by Jan. 1.

"These individuals can't be without coverage for even a month," said Tanya Case, the chairwoman of the National Association of State Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans, which represents the nation's high-risk pools. "It's a matter of life or death."

High-risk pools were created by state legislatures to provide a safety net for people who have been denied or priced out of coverage. While the Affordable Care Act will forbid insurers from turning away people in poor health, those who qualify for a subsidy must enroll through the state or federal marketplace.

More than a dozen of the 35 states that run insurance pools for people with serious medical issues will permanently close their pools within a month and half. Other states will keep their pools running for a few more months.

The federal pool covers about 100,000 people and was created in 2010 by the Affordable Care Act as a temporary bridge until the law fully kicks in. It will cease to exist at the end of December.

"I'm scared. I'm in the middle of my cancer treatment, and if my insurance ends, I'm going to have to cancel the rest of my treatment," said Kelly Bachi, an Oklahoma boat repair business owner who has breast cancer and is covered through a pool.

Cancer treatment without insurance would cost her about $500,000, she said.

Bachi has not been able to enroll via the healthcare.gov federal website, although not for lack of trying. She attempted to sign up half a dozen times, was eventually able to create an account, but was later blocked from accessing the account.

Others — including Jill Morin of Raleigh, N.C., who has a severe heart condition and is covered by her state's pool — have not attempted to enroll.

"It's the unknown, the uncertainty that gets to me," Morin, 42, said. "I don't know what my cost will be at the end of the day. I don't know if my two cardiologists and my procedures are going to be covered under the plan. There just isn't enough information on that website."

But, she said, she has no choice. She must pick a plan soon because she can't afford to go without. She plans to go to an insurance broker for advice, then contact the federal call center to bypass the online marketplace altogether.

State officials throughout the nation have been scrambling to figure out how to help people like Bachi and Morin.

Last week, the board of the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool — which covers about 11,000 people — ordered the state to create a contingency plan for its members because the state's online exchange still has not enrolled a single person.

For now, the only way to enroll for coverage in Oregon is to fill out a 19-page paper application. The state has so far received just 7,300 such applications from all Oregonians, not just those in the pool, but it has not yet processed any of them. The process takes up to several weeks, so no one has completed it and successfully enrolled, Cover Oregon spokesman Michael Cox said.

Oregon pool administrator Don Myron said he hopes to speed up enrollment for its members by mailing them a paper application and following up to make sure they filled it out.

In Indiana, the Department of Insurance extended the high-risk pool coverage until at least Jan. 31 because of difficulties with the federal health insurance exchange. Its pool covers about 6,800 people.

The move was crucial, officials said, because people in the pool were not able to schedule treatments without proof of health coverage for the coming year. Indiana will spend $6.3 million to extend the coverage.

In Wisconsin, the Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan that covers 24,500 people is rolling out an outreach effort to make sure their members are signed up by the deadline, chief executive Amie Goldman said.

The state created a worksheet and directories of carriers to help people prepare for enrollment, has sent postcard reminders and is answering questions through its Facebook page and weekly newsletters.

Many of those in high-risk pools across the nation will be shopping for insurance for the first time in years.

"Even if the technology was really perfect, it would still be hard to sign up because many people who are really sick don't respond well to change," said Linda Nilsen Solares, executive director of Portland-based Project Access NOW, which connects uninsured people with care. "Many of them are just trying to get through the day."

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Mexican Coke in US will still use cane sugar

NEW YORK — Fans of "Mexican Coke" in the U.S. need not worry about any sweetener changes.

Americans who buy the glass bottles of Coke exported from Mexico may have been dismayed by recent online reports that a Mexican independent bottler planned to switch from sugar to fructose to cut costs. Unlike the exported bottles of "Mexicoke," Coke drinks made in the U.S. are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup.

Arca Continental, the Mexican bottler, stressed in a statement that it has no plans to change the sweetener for the Coke bottles it exports. Those will continue to use 100 percent cane sugar, it said. The company's CEO said last week that the bottler could consider using more fructose, but that was only for drinks distributed in Mexico.

The company's drinks sold in Mexico are already sweetened with a mix of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.

In the U.S., Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. switched to the corn syrup, which is cheaper, in the 1980s.

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Sebelius: Couple of hundred website fixes required

WASHINGTON — Prodded to be more candid with Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday the administration's flawed health care website needed a couple of hundred fixes when it went online more than a month ago and conceded, "we're not there yet" in making all needed repairs.

At the same time, she turned aside any suggestion that the system be taken off line until it could be fixed fully. Doing so "wouldn't delay people's cancer or diabetes or Parkinson's" disease, she told the Senate Finance Committee.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and the panel's chairman, said Sebelius must be "candidly, fully totally" forthcoming with Congress about the repair effort, "so that we don't wake up at the end of November and find out we're not there yet." He referred to the administration's goal for completing the repairs.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the panel's senior Republican, was harsher.

"While I am glad that you are accepting responsibility for this disastrous rollout, I would have preferred that you and the rest of the administration were honest with us to begin with," he said.

But Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who faces a tea party-backed challenger in 2014, was harsher still. "You have said the American people should hold you accountable, which is why today I repeat my request for you to resign."

Sebelius, a former governor of the state Roberts represents, sat impassively as he spoke.

Despite the web site's well-chronicled woes, Sebelius said it has improved dramatically since the administration launched its repair effort. Echoing testimony delivered on Monday by another administration official to a different committee, she said it is now able to process nearly 17,000 registrations an hour, with almost no errors.

She said a punchlist drawn up by Jeff Zients, who was brought in to oversee repairs, contained "a couple of hundred functional fixes that have been identified and they are in priority grouping."

While progress has been made, "we're not where we need to be. It's a pretty aggressive schedule," she said.

One Democrat, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, urged Sebelius to make sure contractors who built the faulty website are held accountable. "I want you to burn their fingers and make 'em pay for not being responsible and producing a product that all of us can be proud," he said.

Republicans focused increasingly on issues of security, cost and coverage cancellations rather than the website, which Hatch said he assumed would be fixed.

Sebelius and Sen. Mike Crapo sparred after the Idaho Republican said many individuals will face far higher premiums next year when the program is in effect than they currently do.

The HHS secretary responded that the prices that insurance companies are charging are 16 percent lower than the Congressional Budget Office estimated. Crapo asked if she was saying prices would fall in 2014 compared to this year, and she conceded she was not. At the same time, she said that for the first time, the law will provide millions of Americans with government assistance in paying for insurance.

To the chagrin of increasingly nervous Democrats, Republicans are also on the attack about the millions of Americans whose health insurers have told them their current policies are being canceled. Obama has said that people who liked their coverage would be able to keep it.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, peppered Sebelius with questions about President Barack Obama oft-stated pledge that anyone who likes their coverage will be able to keep it — a promise the administration no longer makes.

Asked if that was an accurate statement, Sebelius declined Cornyn's request for a yes or no answer.

Insurers are sending cancellation notices to customers whose current policies lack enough coverage to meet the law's more demanding standards — at least 3.5 million Americans, according to an Associated Press survey of states.

The Obama administration has said people facing cancellations will be able to find better coverage from their current insurance company or on state or federal exchanges where competing policies are being offered.

Lawmakers of both parties have introduced rival bills that would let people retain their existing health insurance policies. But administration officials refused to state their views Tuesday on those proposals.

___

AP Special Correspondent David Espo and AP reporters Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

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NY judge won't stand in way of $1.8B SAC deal

NEW YORK — A New York judge who has talked tough about insider trading is stepping out of the way of a $1.8 billion criminal settlement involving hedge fund giant SAC Capital.

Federal Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan said at a Wednesday hearing that what he thought of the deal announced Monday "is not really relevant today."

Sullivan presided over a civil case brought against SAC Capital.

The Stamford, Conn.-based hedge fund was accused by the government of allowing a work culture that permitted insider trading.

Sullivan says he will sign papers clearing the way for a guilty plea to be entered by SAC lawyers on Friday before another judge.

SAC Capital is owned by billionaire Steven A. Cohen. He has not been criminally charged.

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Starbucks to hire 10k vets, military spouses

NEW YORK — Starbucks says it plans to hire at least 10,000 veterans and military spouses over the next five years.

The Seattle-based coffee company says it will develop a system dedicated to matching the skills of veterans and military spouses with jobs throughout its organization. Starbucks says it has nearly 200,000 employees worldwide.

Several companies in recent years have committed to hiring veterans or military spouses. Earlier this year, for example, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it planned to hire more than 100,000 veterans over the next five years.

Starbucks Corp., which has about 20,000 locations around the world, also says it will designate five cafes in military communities where a portion of each transaction is donated to Operations GoodJobs and Vested in Vets.

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Vt. beer's fans are trouble for neighbors

WATERBURY, Vt. — A Vermont microbrewery that makes one of the world's best beers plans to close down its retail operation to head off the trouble that's brewing with its neighbors.

Customers lined up at The Alchemist brewery on Tuesday to buy cases of Heady Topper, the double IPA that Beer Advocate magazine recently ranked No. 1 out of the top 250 beers in the world.

The hoppy concoction is so popular — sales have grown 600 percent in the two years since the brewery opened on the outskirts of Waterbury — that owners Jen and John Kimmich plan to shutter their retail operation on November 15 to avoid a neighborhood dispute.

"We've had complaints from neighbors," Jen Kimmich said. "We would have had to fight to keep on going ... We decided to close down before it turns into a large legal battle."

The couple plan to re-open the retail outlet as soon as possible and is actively looking for other locations in Waterbury, Kimmich said. While the retail end of the business is closing for now, the brewery will continue operating and will keep its staff of 25, she said.

The Alchemist has become a jewel in the frothy crown of Vermont microbreweries that had spawned a new sort of beer tourism, in which connoisseurs from around the world would come to sample prize-winning brews of Lawson's Finest Liquids in Waitsfield, the Shed in Stowe, Hill Farmstead in Greensboro and others.

Even a temporary closure was a disappointment to fans stopping by the shop Tuesday.

"It's a sad situation, it really is," said Andy McLenithan of Manchester in southern Vermont, who with his co-worker Scott Senecal had driven an hour out of their way on the trip home from building a baseball diamond in St. Johnsbury to stop at the Waterbury brewery.

Andy Ferko of nearby Bolton said he had known the Kimmichs since he used to stop by at the Alchemist, the restaurant they owned on Waterbury's Main Street until it was closed two years ago by flooding from Tropical Storm Irene.

"I come to Waterbury to go to the hardware store, the grocery store," Ferko said. Visiting with the Kimmichs as he stocked up on Heady Topper was "kind of a little social visit, too."

Ferko said his wife, Mags Bonham, was losing an outlet for her artwork, including earrings in the shape of hops kept in a display case next to the main beer counter.

While news of the closing was greeted with grief-stricken comments by customers who crashed the Heady Topper website Tuesday afternoon, it drew a big sigh of relief from Amy Kinsell, who owns the house next door to the brewery,

"The busier they've gotten, the more chaotic my life has gotten," she said in an interview on her front porch. Beer lovers can be more boisterous than considerate at times. The driveway at the Kimmichs' business is easy to miss, and Kinsell said there was one half-hour period last summer when 26 people turned around in her driveway.

When she parked a vehicle across the entrance to her driveway to slow that traffic down, people turned around on her grass, she said. Then there were the smoke and odors from the brewery's operations, and noise from the refrigerated trucks in its backyard.

There was no drowning her sorrows in her neighbor's product, Kinsell said. "I'm not a beer drinker, not a fan of any beer."

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