Supreme Court rule for Florida property owner in land use case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a victory for advocates of private property rights, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said a Florida property owner may be owed compensation from a government agency that declined to award him a development permit for his land.

In a 5-4 ruling with the court's five conservative justices in the majority, the court said Coy Koontz could pursue a property rights claim against the St. Johns River Water Management District.

The legal issue was whether the agency's action constituted a "taking" subject to compensation, under the so-called takings clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said a government may not condition a land-use permit on an owner giving up the use of some property absent a "nexus" and "rough proportionality" between the demand and the effect of the proposed land use. He said this applied even if the permit were denied, and the demand was for money.

"So long as the building permit is more valuable than any just compensation the owner could hope to receive for the right-of-way, the owner is likely to accede to the government's demand, no matter how unreasonable," Alito wrote. "Extortionate demands of this sort frustrate the Fifth Amendment right to just compensation, and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine prohibits them."

Joining Alito's opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

The decision was the culmination of a more than 18-year battle by Koontz and his late father over the development of their nearly 15-acre (six-hectare) parcel of land.

After Florida designated much of the parcel as protected wetlands, Koontz proposed to develop about a quarter of it and dedicate the rest for conservation, only to have local officials insist that he pay money to protect wetlands elsewhere.

Koontz said no, and a trial court awarded him $327,500 for being unable to use his property. Florida's Supreme Court then threw this award out, saying that because St. Johns never issued a permit and Koontz never spent money, "nothing was ever taken."

Justice Elena Kagan dissented from Tuesday's decision, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

Kagan said the majority "threatens to subject a vast array of land-use regulations, applied daily in states and localities throughout the country, to heightened constitutional scrutiny. I would not embark on so unwise an adventure."

The case was sent back to Florida courts for further proceedings.

The case is Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 1447.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Will Dunham)

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Australia police determining owner of buried coins (AP)

PERTH, Australia – Police are trying to determine who owns a treasure-trove of gold coins unearthed from a building site on Australia's southwest coast.

Western Australia state police spokesman Gerry Cassidy said workers found the 400 British sovereigns last week while digging a ditch in the port city of Albany. They handed them to the property owner who is claiming ownership.

Cassidy said Wednesday police are checking law books to determine whether the property owner or even a museum is entitled to keep the coins, dated 1800 — 26 years before Albany was settled by Europeans.

"Police have got to work out exactly how they handle it," Cassidy said.

He said an appraiser valued one of the coins at 16,000 Australian dollars ($17,000) but did not have an estimate for all of the coins.

Brett Joins, chief executive of Wauters Enterprises, confirmed his construction company had given the coins to local businessman Paul Lionetti.

"An exhaustive search was completed of the site and no other items were found," Joins told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. Lionetti could not immediately be contacted for comment Wednesday.

Police have no theories on how the coins came to be buried in Albany.

Cassidy said the coins were found individually and did not appear to have been buried in a container.

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Coast Guard slams exploded Gulf rig's owner for 'poor safety culture'

By the CNN Wire Staff STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: Transocean this week blamed BP, saying it "set the stage for this disaster"The Coast Guard releases a report a year after an explosion started the Gulf oil spillThe probe criticizes the rig owner, Transocean, for equipment and personnel issuesA Coast Guard spokesman says "there were serious safety management system failures" (CNN) -- A Coast Guard report released Friday criticizes Transocean, the owner of the Gulf of Mexico rig that exploded a year ago, for serious flaws in its safety management system that contributed to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

"There were serious safety management system failures and a poor safety culture that Transocean had," said Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, a Coast Guard spokesman, summarizing the investigation's findings.

The April 20, 2010, explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig led to more than 200 million gallons of oil being released into the Gulf. Eleven people working on the rig died in the explosion, while another 16 were injured.

Besides the oil, hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemical dispersant went into the water as well. At the peak of the crisis, in June 2010, 37% of Gulf waters -- a total of 88,522 square miles -- were closed to fishing due to contamination.

The Coast Guard probe, one of several that delved into the incident, began six days after the incident and included seven hearings to compile information. The new report focuses on specific issues under that federal agency's purview. O'Neil said further conclusions will be released in the future.

"We didn't want to withhold what we had learned," he said, explaining that authorities thought it important to publicize "important recommendations that could be used to improve maritime safety" as soon as possible.

While noting that the events leading to the rig's sinking "were set into motion by the failure to prevent a well blowout," the report adds, "The investigation revealed numerous systems deficiencies, and acts and omissions by Transocean and its Deepwater Horizon crew that had an adverse impact on the ability to prevent or limit the magnitude of the disaster."

Specifically, the report claims that electrical equipment that might have ignited the explosion was poorly maintained and that gas alarms and automatic shutdown systems that might have prevented the blast were bypassed. In addition, on-hand personnel had insufficient training as to how and when to shut down engines and do other things that might have mitigated the disaster.

Besides Transocean, the probe also calls out the government of the Marshall Islands -- under whose flag the rig flew -- saying its "oversight and regulation of the Deepwater Horizon ... was ineffective." The republic delegated its inspections to "recognized organizations," the report says, without taking on the responsibilities itself.

In the 288-page report, investigators list 61 conclusions and offer 54 specific safety recommendations.

"We recognize that this report is important to a lot of people, particularly the families and friends of the 11 people who perished in the disaster," O'Neil said. "Nothing can bring those people back to us, but the investigation seeks to prevent a similar tragedy in the future."

Transocean did not respond immediately to requests for comment on this report. But on Thursday, Transocean issued a statement in which it blamed the oil company BP, which operated the oil well, for the disaster. This week, the two companies filed lawsuits against one another.

"The Deepwater Horizon was a world-class drilling rig manned by a top-flight crew that was put in jeopardy by BP ... through a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk -- in some cases, severely," the Geneva, Switzerland, based company said in the statement. "BP set the stage for this disaster."

CNN's Melissa Gray contributed to this report.

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Obama Targets Top Earners as Small Business Owner Sweats a Tax Hike

FoxNews.com

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President Obama was in his element on Wednesday: Shirt sleeves rolled up, lively and animated, clearly enjoying the youthful, largely sympathetic audience at Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters, and the theater-in-the-round setting that enabled him to kibitz with the company’s youthful founder and CEO, Marc Zuckerberg.

Indeed, it was in a humorous vein that the president made his case on the normally staid subject of debt reduction. The White House plan for tackling America’s looming debt crisis calls for $4 trillion in deficits to be eliminated over the next decade, in part by cutting spending but also through a tax hike. This would come in the form of allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for the nation’s top income bracket to expire at the end of 2012.

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Sidney Harman, Media Owner, Husband to Ex-Rep. Jane Harman, Dies

Associated Press

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WASHINGTON -- Audio equipment millionaire Sidney Harman, who bought Newsweek magazine last year and oversaw its merger with The Daily Beast, has died in Washington. He was 92.

Harman died Tuesday night of complications from leukemia, according to a family statement posted on The Daily Beast website. He learned of his illness about a month ago.

"He died in Washington, D.C., a city he loved and supported in so many ways, surrounded by his wife and children," the family wrote.

Harman is the founder of Harman International Industries, which was based in Washington for years before it was sold in 2007 for about $8 billion. Now, the parent company of numerous electronics brands is based in Stamford, Conn.

In the Newsweek deal, Harman paid The Washington Post Co. $1 for the money-losing newsweekly, and the Post Co. agreed to cover up to $10 million of the magazine's debt.

Three months later, Harman's negotiations helped install veteran editor Tina Brown as Newsweek's editor-in-chief to lead its merger with The Daily Beast. Harman said the merger provided an "ideal combination of established journalism authority and bright, bristling website savvy."

Harman was a philanthropist, arts patron and familiar face in Washington's social scene. He rarely missed the annual Kennedy Center Honors gala. He was married to former California Rep. Jane Harman, who recently left Congress to lead the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

In 2007, Harman gave nearly $20 million to build a new home for Washington's popular Shakespeare Theatre Company. The theater with an ultramodern glass faEcade and dark mahogany auditorium is named in his honor as the Harman Center for the Arts. At the time, Harman told The Associated Press he was particularly proud of the downtown location that could draw a young, diverse audience.

"We believe it critical to encourage the creation of new expressions of all of the performing arts," Harman said in a 2007 interview. If not, he said, "we're going to go culturally bankrupt."

Harman said he made the gift because he loves the arts, not because he wanted a building named after him.

"In truth, my wife pressed for it," he said of the arts center that carries his name. "I think she's thinking of it as a nice memorial."

Harman was born in Montreal in 1918 and moved with his family to New York. He made his fortune in the 1950s as an audio pioneer.

In 1977, he joined President Jimmy Carter's administration as deputy secretary in the Commerce Department.

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Gulf oil rig owner apologizes for calling 2010 'best year' ever

The SEC report revealed a $200,000 salary increase for Transocean President and CEO Steven L. Newman. STORY HIGHLIGHTSTransocean acknowledges words were "insensitive" in light of 11 worker deathsExecutives get pay raises, bonuses, in part for the safety record, SEC filing saysCash awards based in part on company safety recordDespite Gulf oil spill, company called 2010 "best year in safety"RELATED TOPICSTransocean Inc.U.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionGulf of Mexico (CNN) -- The owner of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded last year, killing 11 workers and leading to what has been called the worst oil spill ever, said Monday that calling 2010 its "best year" in safety "may have been insensitive."

Transocean Ltd., in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said hefty bonuses and raises to top executives were based in part on the company's "performance under safety" last year.

"We acknowledge that some of the wording in our 2010 proxy statement may have been insensitive in light of the incident that claimed the lives of eleven exceptional men last year and we deeply regret any pain that it may have caused," Transocean said in a statement to CNN. "Nothing in the proxy was intended to minimize this tragedy or diminish the impact it has had on those who lost loved ones. Everyone at Transocean continues to mourn the loss of these friends and colleagues."

The statement did not address the controversy over the decision to give out cash awards despite the oil spill disaster.

That includes a $200,000 salary increase for Transocean President and Chief Executive Officer Steven L. Newman, whose base salary will increase from $900,000 to $1.1 million, the SEC report said. Newman's bonus was $374,062, according to the report, which Transocean filed Friday.

Newman also has a $5.4 million long-term compensation package the company awarded him upon his appointment as CEO in March 2010, according to the SEC filing.

"Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate," the SEC statement reads. "As measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our company's history."

The company called that record "a reflection on our commitment to achieving an incident-free environment, all the time, everywhere," the SEC filing said.

The April 20, 2010, explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig injured 17 workers and killed 11 others, including nine Transocean employees, according to the SEC filing. It has been called the worst spill in U.S. history. The well was capped three months later, but not before millions of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf.

In January, President Barack Obama's National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released a report that spread blame for the accident among Transocean, BP -- which leased the rig -- and Halliburton, which installed the rig's cement casing.

The commission said problems with deepwater drilling are "systemic" and that only "significant reform" will prevent another disaster.

Another report released March 23 determined that the oil spill was caused by a piece of drill pipe trapped in the rig platform's blowout preventer, a device intended to stop oil from flowing into the Gulf. The report was commissioned by various U.S. agencies, including the Interior Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Interior Department has said a much broader report that relies on additional sources of data, including eyewitness accounts and photos, will be released this summer.

The oil spill has prompted a flood of lawsuits against BP, Transocean and Halliburton from a variety of plaintiffs, including owners of Gulf businesses who say they suffered heavy financial losses because of the spill.

The plaintiffs also include Transocean shareholders who contend the company falsely claimed it had remedied past safety problems with its blowout preventers before the Gulf spill.

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Despite Gulf oil spill, rig owner executives get big bonuses

Transocean declared 2010 "the best year in safety performance" in company history despite the Gulf oil spill. STORY HIGHLIGHTSTransocean executives get pay raises, bonuses, SEC filing saysCash awards based in part on company safety recordDespite Gulf oil spill, company claims 2010 "best year in safety" (CNN) -- Declaring 2010 "the best year in safety performance in our company's history," Transocean Ltd., owner of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded, killing 11 workers, has awarded its top executives hefty bonuses and raises, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That includes a $200,000 salary increase for Transocean president and chief executive officer Steven L. Newman, whose base salary will increase from $900,000 to $1.1 million, according to the SEC report. Newman's bonus was $374,062, the report states.

Newman also has a $5.4 million long-term compensation package the company awarded him upon his appointment as CEO in March 2010, according to the SEC filing.

The latest cash awards are based in part on the company's "performance under safety," the Transocean filing states.

"Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate," the SEC statement reads. "As measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our Company's history."

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