The storm did millions of dollars' worth of damage to docks, fish processing plants and restaurants. But it also caused millions more in lost wages to boat employees who couldn't work for two to three weeks, to truck drivers who had nothing to transport, and to other assorted industries that service commercial fishing.

The $9.7 billion measure to fund the National Flood Insurance program, passed by Congress on Friday, did not include anything for the fishing industry; a bill the Senate passed in December would have allocated $150 million for that purpose.

Some of the worst damage to fisheries in the region occurred at the Belford Seafood Cooperative on the Raritan Bay shoreline in Middletown, where the pounding waves destroyed a 75-foot-long dock, gutted a popular restaurant, and ripped away all five garage doors and parts of the exterior of office and storage buildings. The co-op's manager, Joe Branin, estimates the damage at close to $1 million.

"We went three weeks before we were able to pack a fish," said Branin, whose business was still without electricity in mid-December. "We lost almost all our equipment. It was three weeks before anybody could do anything."

The restaurant, where diners could eat scallops and fillets literally right off the boat, had provided $5,000 to $8,000 a week in revenue that is now gone.

The co-op supported 50 families who either work directly for it or in supporting roles. Many of those workers simply did without a paycheck for weeks afterward. The situation was the same at New Jersey's Viking Village port on Long Beach Island's Barnegat Light, where boats were idled after the storm.

"We couldn't get to work for two weeks because the infrastructure was all torn up here," said Bob Brewster, who owns three of the port's 45 fishing boats and estimates he lost between $10,000 and $20,000 in lost catch. "We were just twiddling our thumbs, waiting to get back out on the water. Everybody wants to make a living, and for a while, we couldn't."

In Hampton Bays, N.Y., Doug Oakland estimated two marinas he owns suffered between $800,000 and $1 million in damage. He estimates about a dozen other marinas in the eastern Long Island community were similarly affected.

"The marinas got beat up pretty hard. There's a 75-foot section of our pier that's just gone," he said.

"There was about three to four weeks right after the storm where all the fish kind of disappeared," he said. "The first two weeks, fishermen couldn't even get out because a lot of their gear was buried in sand. With the gas shortage, there were no fuel trucks, and there really was no market to sell the fish to because nobody had power. There was no sense in even trying to catch them."

Though most of the individual boats up and down the East Coast escaped damage, they were forced to stay at the dock because of a combination of problems.

That included damage to their home ports; torn-up roads that forced street closures and kept workers, truck drivers, and customers from reaching the docks; the disruption to normal fishing patterns after the storm that saw many profitable species chased away until the following year; and even difficulty in getting in and out of ports because of new sand bars.

A strong nor'easter a week after Sandy just made things worse.

"We couldn't get trucks to transport the product," said Dwight Kooyman, who manages two of Viking Village's scallop boats. "I have five guys that work for me that couldn't work that entire time. If they don't work, they don't get paid."

They're all waiting to see whether Congress includes them in the billions of dollars in storm reconstruction aid it is considering. Less than three weeks after the Oct. 29 storm, the U.S. Commerce Department declared a fishery resource disaster for New Jersey and New York. But all that did was authorize the federal government to disburse any aid that Congress approves. Specific plans for applying for and distributing any aid to fishermen still have to be formulated.

Dale Parsons is a fifth-generation fisherman at the Jersey shore, who owns a shellfish business in Tuckerton, and who used to own a commercial hatchery for tiny clams and oysters on the edge of Barnegat Bay until Sandy destroyed it, causing several hundred thousand dollars' worth of losses.

"It was millions of oysters and clams that won't be spawned next year," he said. "Even if we rebuild right now, it will take a good year, year and a half to get it together. It's going to take a long time coming."

The damage to seafood processors and docks is only part of the industry's problems, Parsons said; he also fears reduced business from restaurants who see fewer tourists this summer and order less seafood.

"I'm just waiting to see what kind of business there's going to be in the spring," he said. "No one knows yet."

Sandy also affected recreational fishing businesses, including coastal bait and tackle shops that were flooded. New Jersey officials are soliciting damage reports from individual businesses to help make the case that they need direct federal grants, not just loans. The state's recreational fishing industry estimates it lost $160 million from the storm.

Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said charter fishing boats suffered greatly because people were just not taking fishing trips in the weeks following the storm.

"The trains weren't running, there was no gas to get out to the docks, so I'd say they lost substantial income," she said.

In some places, Sandy actually appears to have helped, rather than hurt, the fishing industry. Maryland environmental officials say an influx of fresh water into the Chesapeake Bay may benefit the oyster population by helping to keep the disease known as dermo in check.

Gibby Dean, president of the Chesapeake Bay Commercial Fishermen's Association, said the oyster harvest is the best it's been in a long time so good that people are giving up crabbing to go after oysters.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Eltman in Hampton Bays, N.Y., and Randall Chase in Baltimore contributed to this report.

___

Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

Ringed seals, the main prey of polar bears, and bearded seals in the Arctic Ocean will be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced.

A species is threatened if it's likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout a significant portion of its range.

The listing of the seals came after federal scientists did an extensive review of scientific and commercial data. It has no effect on subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives.

"They concluded that a significant decrease in sea ice is probable later this century, and that these changes will likely cause these seal populations to decline," said Jon Kurland, protected resources director for NOAA Fisheries' Alaska region.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell late Friday called the science behind the decision speculative and said the state will consider legal action. The state unsuccessfully challenged the polar bear listing.

The ringed seal population is in the millions and the bearded seal population is in the hundreds of thousands, Parnell said in a prepared statement. Neither is in decline nor will it be by mid-century, he said.

"The ESA was not enacted to protect healthy animal populations," Parnell said. "Despite this fact, the NMFS continues the federal government's misguided policy to list healthy species based mostly on speculated impacts from future climate change, adding additional regulatory burdens and costs upon the State of Alaska and its communities."

Ringed seals are the only seals that thrive in completely ice-covered Arctic waters. They use stout claws to dig and maintain breathing holes.

When snow covers those holes, females excavate and make snow caves, where they give birth to pups that cannot survive in ice-cold water and are susceptible to freezing until they grow a blubber layer.

Hungry polar bears often catch breeding females or pups by collapsing lairs.

Decreased snowfall, or rain falling on lairs instead of snow, is a threat to seal survival, the agency said.

Bearded seals, named for their thick whiskers, give birth and rear pups on drifting pack ice over shallow water where prey such as crab is abundant. When females give birth, they need ice to last long enough in the spring and early summer to successfully reproduce and molt.

The projected retreat of sea ice from shallow shelves decreases food availability, the listing petition said.

The listing is a major victory in efforts to save the animals because of the additional protections provided under the Endangered Species Act, said Shaye Wolf of the Center for Biological Diversity, who wrote the petition leading to the listing consideration.

"The seals need all the help that they can get," she said by phone from San Francisco.

The development, however, is bittersweet, she said. While the Obama administration has acknowledged the threat, not enough is being done to limit greenhouse gas pollution behind the loss of sea ice, she said.

The NOAA Fisheries decision affects four subspecies of ringed seals around the world. Arctic Ocean seals off Alaska's coast and seals on the Okhotsk and Baltic seas were listed as threatened. A subspecies in Lake Ladoga in northwest Russia was listed as endangered.

The listing covered two subspecies of bearded seals: the Beringia population, which includes Alaska, and bearded seals in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Designation of critical habitat for the seals will be considered later.

The agency said the listing decision will not mean any immediate restrictions on human activities.

It does mean that federal agencies that issue permits or pay for projects that might affect a threatened species must consult with NOAA Fisheries to make sure activities do not jeopardize the animals.

Italy's so-called "Lady of the Cells," who died on Sunday, lived through anti-Semitic discrimination and Nazi invasion, becoming one of her country's leading scientists and sharing the medicine prize for her groundbreaking research in the United States.

Her research increased the understanding of many conditions, including tumors, developmental malformations, and senile dementia.

HOUSTON (AP) -- The average price across Texas for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline increased 4 cents this week.

AAA Texas reported Thursday the average price increased to $3.07. Motorists in Texarkana are paying the most, with an average of $3.12 per gallon. Drivers in Beaumont are paying the least at $3.02 per gallon.

The average price for fuel in Texas is 19 cents less than the national average of $3.26.

AAA Texas says gas prices may be impacted by what happens regarding the "fiscal cliff" budget cuts and tax hikes that would kick in on Jan. 1 unless the White House and Congress agree on a budget deal.The group says a deal will likely been seen as an economic positive, sending prices higher, while no deal could lower prices.

The style blogger, writer and darling of the fashion set launched a fashion blog from her suburban Chicago home before she turned 12. Two years later it was getting 50,000 hits a day and she was a fixture in the front row of fashion shows in New York, Paris and Tokyo.

Profiles of the young fashionista followed in the New York Times and the New Yorker, along with stories in French Vogue and in teen magazines.

Gevinson has added editor to her credits with the publication of "Rookie Yearbook One," a compilation of articles, photographs and drawings from her Rookie website, which she started about 15 months ago.

"I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to do a print component. Each month on the site is a different theme. I eventually realized that to do a yearly book, and call it a yearbook, would be the best format," she said.

The second book, due next September, is already in the works.

Despite its young audience, the yearbook claims it is not a guide to being a teenager. But with topics ranging from family, friends, relationships, to fashion and school its appeal is obvious.

And Gevinson admits she started the website, which focuses less on fashion and more on teen life, because there wasn't an online magazine for adolescent girls that respected its readers' intelligence.

"I decided to make a website and now a book that didn't talk down to teenagers and had beautiful art, fine articles about TV and all of that."

FROM BEDROOM BLOGGER TO BOOMING BUSINESS

With more than 300 pages, 80 contributors, and articles ranging from "How to Bitchface" to "Breakup Breakdown" and "How to Approach the Person You Like Without Throwing Up," the book navigates teenage angst and a range of other topics and includes photos and graphics.

"Rookie is a place to make the best of the beautiful pain and cringe-worthy awkwardness of being an adolescent girl," is how Gevinson described it.

It has also attracted some star power, namely online interviews with "Mad Men's" Jon Hamm giving advice about love and guys, and wise words from actor Paul Rudd and producer/director Judd Apatow.

When Gevinson started her blog at 11 she saw it as an outlet that helped her get through middle school. She never expected it to mushroom into a website and the business it is today with a huge fan base.

The youngest of three children, Gevinson recently completed a tour to Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Toronto and other cities to promote the book and still manages to keep up with her school work.

Her father, a retired English teacher, oversees the business side of Rookie, and there is a staff of paid adult editors, photographers and designers who work on the website and manage its contributors.

Despite it all, Gevinson seems unfazed by her success and the celebrity status that has come with it.

"I've enjoyed feeling I make something and people understand it, and that there are other people going through the things that I go through," she said. "That to me is the most valuable thing -- being heard by people who understand it."

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)

The body of Scott Ashley Sterling, 32, was found shortly after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 22600-block of Pacific Coast Highway, Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Larry Dietz said.

Deputies dispatched to check on Sterling's welfare found his body. A friend of Sterling's said he hadn't been heard from for several days, according to a statement from the county Sheriff's Department.

Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

"Sheriff's homicide and Los Angeles County coroner's personnel at this time believe that Sterling died of an apparent drug overdose," the statement said.

Dietz said the death appeared to be accidental, but an autopsy was planned to determine the exact cause of death.

Messages left for Donald Sterling and a Clippers spokesman were not immediately returned.

In 1999, Scott Sterling, then 19, was arrested for shooting his friend with a shotgun. Beverly Hills police said Philip Scheid was shot in the legs during an argument at Donald Sterling's mansion. Scheid said he was shot from behind while running away. Sterling said he fired in self-defense after Scheid approached him with a knife. The county district attorney's office declined to file criminal charges, citing credibility problems with the victim.

Scott Sterling's father is a multimillionaire, a philanthropist and owner of a basketball team that recently had a franchise-record, 17-game winning streak. That streak ended Tuesday night with a 92-78 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

The tour begins in the late winter each year and visits virtually all major cities in the U.S., Canada and Europe. The shows culminate with the Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas every year, with this seasons finals event scheduled for March 23, 2013.

The series is sanctioned under the umbrella of the United States Hot Rod Association (USHRA) and takes place primarily in the United States. Although individual event formats can vary greatly based on the intermission entertainment, the main attraction is always the racing and freestyle competitions by monster trucks.

Online traffic forhas been absolutely massive, said Felina Martinez at online ticket marketplace BuyAnySeat.com. Not only are tickets beginning to sell out for some of the dozens of upcoming shows, the shows popularity grows each year as new competitors join the tour.

Since fans of all ages attend these events, many times with close friends and family, were proud to be able to offer them a complete selection of Monster Jam tickets, with a worry-free guarantee to protect their purchase, said Martinez.

To access the continuously updated selection ofwe have available, fans can go to BuyAnySeat.com and search for Monster Jam then select their tickets, said Martinez.

Monster Jam is a live motorsport event tour and TV series currently operated by Feld Entertainment and sponsored by Advance Auto Parts. Scheduled concurrently at different venues around the country, monster trucks face off in two different forms of competition racing and freestyle.

In the smaller shows, there is a wheelie competition or a donut contest, and sometimes both. The goal in the wheelie competition is to hit a ramp and get big air while remaining perpendicular to the ground. In the donut competition, drivers try to spin their trucks until they get dizzy, the truck can't go any more, or they think they have a good enough score to win.

Side-by-side racing is traditional heads-up tournament racing, where the first truck to cross the finish line moves onto the next round until it is eliminated or wins the Championship race.

The freestyle competition gives drivers 90 seconds, plus a 30 second bonus period, on an open floor to show off their skills as they drive their huge trucks over cars. Drivers perform stunts and tricks that make these massive high-horsepower vehicles appear to dance gracefully across the track. The freestyle competition winner is determined by three judges who each give the driver a score out of a possible 10.

If the same driver who wins racing that night also wins freestyle, they receive the Double Down trophy, named after the Double Down activities in the Las Vegas Monster Jam World Finals. (Source: Wikipedia.com)

To shop for , visit BuyAnySeat.com.

About BuyAnySeat.com: An online ticket marketplace, BuyAnySeat.com connects sports, theater and other live entertainment fans to an extensive worldwide network of ticket sellers. The sites simplified listings and navigational tools enable fans to easily locate, compare and purchase inexpensive, discounted or lower-priced tickets to virtually all advertised sports and entertainment events around the globe. The site, which is PCI-compliant and Norton Secured, also provides customers with a complete Worry-Free Guarantee on all ticket purchases. Based in Denver, Colorado, BuyAnySeat.com is a subsidiary of Denver Media Holdings. For more information, please visit .

Calvert GamwellMorning Falls3034953412

Phil Gramm, a former United States senator from Texas and economics professor at Texas A&M, has publishedattacking wind power subsidies as a distortion of the energy marketplace.

The ending of that subsidy, in the form of a tax credit, will adversely affect the wind power industry in Texas, according to a recent New York Times article.

Wind power subsidies are costly compared to other forms of energy

Gramm points out in his article that the United States has spent $24 billion since 1992 to encourage the development of a wind power industry in the form of direct spending, tax credits, loan guarantees, and other support. The subsidies cost $52.48 per million watt hours, as opposed to nuclear power at $3.10, hydropower at 84 cents, coal at 64 cents, and natural gas at 63 cents. Wind power also benefits from federal mandates as well as state support.

Wind power subsidies distort the energy market place

The problem, according to Gramm is that supporting costly wind power is displacing other, cheaper forms of energy production, such as natural gas. The subsidies are so high, Gramm suggests, that wind farm owners could actually pay utility companies to buy the electricity they generate and still make money. Additionally, wind power only works when the wind is blowing, causing utility companies that use wind to also have backup sources in case of calm weather.

Wind power in Texas depends on tax credits

that the wind power industry in Texas depends on the tax credits due to expire at the end of 2012. Texas Republicans such as Sen. John Cornyn and Gov. Rick Perry, who had previously supported the wind power tax credit, are now supporting its abolishment in the name of tax reform. Wind farms have until the end of the year to qualify for the tax credit, should it expire, thus sparking a boom in construction being rushed before the deadline. The tax credit lasts for 10 years.

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens had been proponent of wind power

Ironically, one of the most famous oilmen alive, T. Boone Pickens, had at one time been a proponent of wind power. , Pickens could not get his wind farm built in Texas due to the recession that started in 2008 and the lack of power transmission lines. An attempt by him to build a wind farm in Minnesota fared no better. Pickens appears to be withdrawing from the wind power industry and concentrating instead on natural gas.

Texas resident Mark Whittington writes about state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network.

With experience and operations in Switzerland, Morocco, and France already under their belt, the Kansas City based Web Design firm Fox Web Creations was an excellent partner for this project. CEO and Lead Developer ElAmri "Red" Rida has a personal understanding of the importance of international business and worked closely with the WTC-KC staff to develop the new site. We wanted the site to be easy to navigate, interactive and helpful to the business community. We also wanted to make sure that the staff of the WTC would be able to easily manage the content themselves, allowing them more freedom to make decisions about their content." Fox Web Creations focuses on , and on assisting small and large businesses with their internet marketing and development needs.

The new site offers everything from help with export documentation and lead generation, to trade data, visits and education, says Mehgan Flynn, Director of the WTC-KC.Were also part of the largest trade network in the world youll find World Trade Centers in 330 cities and 100 countries around the planet. The new website ties into our mission to connect the KC region to the people, data, companies and government agencies that make up the fabric of global commerce.

Some of the New Website features include:

--International market briefings

--International business workshops

--Intercultural sensitivity workshops

--Group Trade missions

As a member of the World Trade Center Association (WTCA),can also offer additional resources and services to support the business community in reaching out to international markets. The services include:

Now that the new site is launched, were gearing up for a new year of WTC-KC programs and services, says Flynn.Well continue our popular Doing Business In programs featuring various countries China, for one.And, based on a survey of our members, will be offering a series of cultural sensitivity sessions starting this April.Were also working with the state of Missouri on an intense, three-month export training program for local businesses.So the new year looks pretty full!

The World Trade Center Kansas City is a partnership of the Greater Kansas City Chamber, the Kansas City Area Development Council, and KCSmartport. Fox Web Creations is a full service , Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO/M), and Responsive Web Design (RWD) firm, located at 4345 State Line Road, in Kansas City, MO 64111. They are dedicated to assisting all businesses, regardless of size, with their web design and development needs.

Elamri RidaFox Web Creations(816) 479-5904 1

The study, published today (Dec. 12) in the journal Nature, suggests that ancient fossilized creatures found in Southern Australian sediments actually came from land, not from the ocean. If the findings are true, the fossils would have been lichenlike plants that first colonized land, not .

"We have big organisms living on land a lot further back than we thought before," said study author Gregory Retallack, a geologist and paleobotanist at the University of Oregon.

But the study has faced intense skepticism from several experts in the field some of whom have questioned not only the study's scientific validity, but also its acceptance into a prestigious scientific journal.

"I find Retallack's observationsdubious, and his arguments poor. That this was published by Natureis beyond my understanding," wrote Martin Brasier, a paleobiologist at the University of Oxford who was not involved in the study, in an email.

Primitive sea dwellers

Scientists first discovered the fossils in 1947 in the Ediacaran Hills of Southern Australia. The reddish rocks contained imprints from a strange, striated creature called Dickinsonia, as well as that lived around 550 million years ago. []

Until now, scientists had long believed the rocks were made up of ocean sediments and that Dickinsonia and other primeval creatures fossilized in the outcroppings were sea dwellers similar to jellyfish or sea pens that lived just before the began about 540 million years ago, when all the major animal groups suddenly appeared.

But when Retallack first saw the fossils, he wondered whether they were formed on land. In particular, the fossils had a reddish hue that comes from oxygen in the atmosphere reacting with iron to create rust a process that doesn't happen under the sea, he said. He also noticed that nodules throughout the rock looked strikingly similar to the rootlike structures put out by primitive lichen or fungi found in other ancient soils.

To see if some of the Ediacaran fossils were land-dwellers, he tested the rock's composition and found it was characteristic of the very first stages of soil formation on land, in which nutrients such as potassium and magnesium are depleted. A similar process doesn't happen in the ocean, he said.

In the current paper, Retallack argues that the ancient fossils are actually a primitive precursor to lichen or fungi and that they helped colonize land, paving the way for the Cambrian explosion.

Even today, are the pioneers that first take root on bare rock, creating the precursors of soil (other organisms can grow on lichens).

"One of the first things that happens when you have a piece of bare ground is some lichen come in and eventually some new stuff comes in like dandelions, and pretty soon you've got a tall Douglas fir forest," Retallack told LiveScience.

Scientists skeptical

But several scientists have called his claims into question and wonder why Nature published the piece. []

The rocks may have turned their reddish hue much more recently, some 65 million years ago, when they somehow rose above the water; in that scenario, the sediments could have been underwater at the time Dickinsonia and other Ediacaran creatures lived, Shuhai Xiao, a paleontologist at Virginia Tech wrote in an accompanying article in Nature. In addition, the chemical composition of the rocks doesn't preclude the fossils originating in the ocean.

What's more, some of the fossils are oriented as if they were dragged by current or ocean waves, Xiao wrote. Finally, many of the species Retallack reclassifies as land-dwellers are found elsewhere in the world in rocks that are unambiguously formed from ocean sediments.

Retallack's ideas "would represent a fundamental change in our picture of evolution, but they will probably face continuing skepticism because the evidence is unconvincing," he wrote.

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