The food-stamp economy
On the last day of every month, shoppers at Walmart load their carts with food and household items and wait for the midnight hour. Is this the new normal in America? Full Article
Portion of Mississippi River closed due barge leak: USCG
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Fuel leaking from a disabled barge closed a small portion of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.
The river was closed between Mile 93 and Mile 95, near Algiers Point, after a barge disabled in a collision last week shifted and began spilling fuel oil again, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
"The barge shifted," the spokeswoman said. "We closed down a small portion of the river as a precautionary measure."
The leak was a setback after flows along vital shipping route began to return to normal as cleanup of the worst spill in nearly a decade progressed.
Last week the Coast Guard closed the river to vessel traffic between Mile 98 at New Orleans and Mile Zero at the Gulf of Mexico after a vessel collision spilled nearly 420,000 gallons (1,590,000 liters) of fuel oil in the river.
The river remains officially closed, but progress in the cleanup had allowed a gradual increase in traffic on this key shipping route for grain, coal and fuel exports from the U.S. heartland and crude oil imports from overseas.
(Reporting by Chris Baltimore; Editing by David Gregorio)
