Two Louisiana Sheriffs Assassinated By Anti-Government Group Members

This is a consequence of anti-government militias operating across the nation with unfettered access to firearms. Two Louisiana sheriff deputies assassinated and two others were injured outside New Orleans. Five people are now in custody in relation to the actions:

A gunman shot and wounded a St. John Parish deputy while he was directing traffic at about 5 a.m. CDT in an off-site parking lot for the Valero Energy Corp.'s St. Charles refinery, St. John Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre said.

The gunman fled, and officers investigating the incident ended up at a trailer park in LaPlace, about 25 miles west of New Orleans. As they were interviewing two suspects, someone came out of a trailer with an assault weapon and shot dead the two officers, Tregre said.

"Two of my officers were ambushed, I want to say assassinated," he said during a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

Police have not said how the fourth officer involved was wounded.

The slain deputies were identified as Brandon Nielsen, 34, and Jeremy Triche, 27. The wounded deputies were identified as Scott Boyington and Jason Triche. The Triches are related, but Tregre could not say how.

Tregre said the wounded officers remain hospitalized and described the condition of one as "improving." He gave no details of their injuries.

More recent reports indicate that seven people are now in custody and have been indicted in relation to the shootings.

And who are the people arrested? It appears that at least one is involved in the anti-government group Posse Comitatus. Five have been under surveillance by law enforcement for making terroristic threats.

Authorities believe that suspect, Kyle Joekel, 29, may have ties to anti-government groups, in particular a loose organization known as Posse Comitatus that generally doesn't recognize authority above the level of county sheriff. The name of the group means "power of the county" in Latin, according to the Anti-Defamation League's website.

Group members refuse to recognize various aspects of federal authority, and some refuse to pay taxes. The group has been associated with citizen militias as well as neo-Nazi organizations.

Lt. Robert Davidson of the DeSoto Parish Sheriff's office told The Shreveport Times that the suspects in custody include Kyle Joekel, Brian Smith, Terry Smith, 44, and Derrick Smith, 22. Terry Smith is the father of both Derrick and Brian Smith, according to Davidson, who identified. Brian Smith and Joekel as the shooters in the incident. Davidson said he did not know the name of the other suspects.

Authorities this morning confirmed the four suspects named by Davidson, plus two women: Chanel Skains, 37, and Teniecha Bright, 21.

Joekel had had run-ins with the law in Gage County, Neb., and Marshall County, Kan., last year and was considered a fugitive in both places.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the officers and their families and friends. They were targeted by anti-government militia-types who do not consider the government to be legitimate. They lost their lives while serving and protecting others from the likes of these groups.

Bids For Tappan Zee Replacement Come In Under $5.2 Billion

I'm not quite sure that we should take this as good news: bids for the Tappan Zee bridge replacement have come in under $5.2 billion. The good news is that the building conglomerates think that the bridge could be built for less than the NYS Thruway Authority and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have estimated.

The bad news is that the bids could simply be underestimating the amounts so as to win the bid, and that the costs will end up being at or above the $5.2 billion level.

One has to wonder just how stringent the Thruway Authority will be in determining how accurate the estimated costs will be, and whether everyone inflated costs on the project. After all, one has to wonder why construction costs are as high as they are, when we aren't getting as much for our money as we should expect.

If, and it's a huge if, the bids can keep to their budget of under $5.2 billion, it should keep the overall toll increases down, and should provide an opportunity to include bus rapid transit to be rolled into the construction phase, rather than waiting until some indeterminate point in the future to have a second construction phase to link bus rapid transit or commuter rail on the bridge.

The state and Thruway Authority need to impress on the New York Congressional delegation to make sure that the federal government provides funding for the bridge, which is integral to the Interstate system and a key link across the Hudson River (the closest Interstate links are 30 miles south (George Washington Bridge) and 35 miles north (Newburgh Beacon Bridge). That makes the bridge essential to interstate traffic and it's a major bypass for truck traffic looking to avoid traffic on the George Washington Bridge heading into New England from New Jersey and points south.

Thus far, it appears that the state is hoping to get a $2 billion federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan to help cover the cost, but the bulk of the financing is going to come from bonds backed by toll hikes.

Toll hikes across the entire Thruway Authority are possible, but there's opposition to hikes across the entire system, even though the benefits are spread across the entire system. Toll hikes are also a concern since much of the currently imposed tolls are going to debt service that was rolled over and extended rather than allowing the tolls to expire across the state.

Another Major Security Blunder at JFK Airport

Just days after a jet skier was able to not only wander onto airport grounds by scaling a fence, crossing two runways, jetways, and entering Terminal 3 without setting off or alerting security officials courtesy of a $100 million security system, word comes that a gate close to the airport's fuel tank farm was unsecured and no cameras were positioned to allow security to view the location. However, there are questions as to whether the gate was unsecured or not. There are no questions, however, that there are no cameras in that area:

Gate 112 is a key location in the troubled $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System, because it provides an entryway to the Buckeye pipeline, which carries 8.4 million gallons of fuel daily through the city to the airport.

It was the target of terrorists who were busted in 2007 for plotting to blow it up.
The gate is also near an active runway, 22 Left.

PA officials — including Executive Director Patrick Foye — last night scrambled to explain the situation in a conference call.

The memo is “a lie,” Foye said, although he could not explain how it was inaccurate.
Paul Nunziato, president of the PAPD union, was brought onto the call and immediately declared the memo “is not a lie.”

The Port Authority then had Officer DeFelice call The Post, and, with a union rep on the line, said the fence has two heavy chains and that one of them was unlocked.

He claimed he called in an “unsecure” chain, and could not explain why the memo said the gate was unsecure.

He said the unlocked chain was not a security risk, but could not explain why there were two chains on the gate.

DeFelice and the union rep agreed that the lack of camera coverage on the gate was a security lapse.

The PA denied a request to immediately view the fence.

The lapse comes less than a week after the $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System was embarrassingly breached by a stranded jet-skier, who climbed over an 8-foot section of the fence and walked across two runways without being noticed, despite his wearing a bright-yellow life vest.

The gate was close to where the Buckeye gas pipeline enters the airport. If that name sounds familiar, it should.

The pipeline was targeted by terrorists in the 2007 JFK terror plot to blow up the pipeline and tank farm causing catastrophic damage to the airport and its surrounding communities. Those involved in that plot have been sentenced to prison.

It's absolutely reprehensible that no one bothered to check that the security fence was properly secured or that cameras were positioned to make sure that no one could access this sensitive location.

This once again highlights the security theater that has gone into dealing with threats against infrastructure. $100 million was spent on upgrading security at JFK airport alone, and yet it seems that there are enough holes that anyone determined to cause harm and mayhem could still achieve their goals.

Cheaper Natural Gas Contributing To Lower Emissions

Carbon dioxide levels as measured by the EPA have reached a 20 year low across the United States. The decline is due in large part to the fact that utilities across the country have shifted away from coal to cheaper natural gas. Burning natural gas releases less carbon dioxide than coal does at the smokestack, so the fact that coal use has reached lows not seen since World War II is playing a major role in the decline.

While New Jersey has barred new coal-fired plants from being built, the state’s leading electric producer still operates two major coal plants in Jersey City and Mercer County, among the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide in the state.

Most air pollution from the two Public Service Enterprise Group coal plants has plummeted in recent years following almost $1 billion in technology upgrades. But the plants still produced 4.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2010, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency database. Still, it was PSEG’s natural gas plant in Ridgefield that emitted the most greenhouse gases into the air from New Jersey with 2.6 million metric tons.

Governor Christie’s Energy Master Plan, released last year, bars new coal-burning plants from being built while calling for the state’s natural gas infrastructure to be expanded. So far it has.

A Tennessee Gas pipeline through the Highlands that carries methane mined from Pennsylvania through the controversial technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, was expanded last year despite protests from residents and environmentalists. Construction on a second pipeline expansion project through West Milford, Ringwood and Mahwah is scheduled to begin soon and will quadruple capacity.

In a little-noticed technical report, the U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that total U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. The Associated Press contacted environmental experts, scientists and utility companies and learned that virtually everyone believes the shift could have major long-term implications for U.S. energy policy.

While conservation efforts, the lagging economy and greater use of renewable energy are factors in the CO2 decline, the drop-off is due mainly to low-priced natural gas, the agency said.

A frenzy of shale gas drilling in the Northeast’s Marcellus Shale and in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana has caused the wholesale price of natural gas to plummet from $7 or $8 per unit to about $3 over the past four years, making it cheaper to burn than coal for a given amount of energy produced. As a result, utilities are relying more than ever on gas-fired generating plants.

Both government and industry experts said the biggest surprise is how quickly the electric industry turned away from coal. In 2005, coal was used to produce about half of all the electricity generated in the U.S. The Energy Information Agency said that fell to 34 percent in March, the lowest level since it began keeping records nearly 40 years ago.

The question is whether the shift is just one bright spot in a big, gloomy picture, or a potentially larger trend.

Coal and energy use are still growing rapidly in other countries, particularly China, and CO2 levels globally are rising, not falling. Moreover, changes in the marketplace — a boom in the economy, a fall in coal prices, a rise in natural gas — could stall or even reverse the shift. For example, U.S. emissions fell in 2008 and 2009, then rose in 2010 before falling again last year.

Also, while natural gas burns cleaner than coal, it still emits some CO2. And drilling has its own environmental consequences, which are not yet fully understood.

“Natural gas is not a long-term solution to the CO2 problem,” Pielke warned.

The International Energy Agency said the U.S. has cut carbon dioxide emissions more than any other country over the last six years. Total U.S. carbon emissions from energy consumption peaked at about 6 billion metric tons in 2007. Projections for this year are around 5.2 billion, and the 1990 figure was about 5 billion.

China’s emissions were estimated to be about 9 billion tons in 2011, accounting for about 29 percent of the global total. The U.S. accounted for approximately 16 percent. Mann called it “ironic” that the shift from coal to gas has helped bring the U.S. closer to meeting some of the greenhouse gas targets in the 1997 Kyoto treaty on global warming, which the United States never ratified. On the other hand, leaks of methane from natural gas wells could be pushing the U.S. over the Kyoto target for that gas.

Even with such questions, ­public health experts welcome |the shift, since it is reducing air pollution.

“The trend is good. We like it. We are pleased that we’re shifting away from one of the dirtiest sources to one that’s much cleaner,” said Janice Nolen, an American Lung Association spokeswoman. “It’s been a real surprise to see this kind of shift. We certainly didn’t predict it.”

Power plants that burn coal produce more than 90 times as much sulfur dioxide, five times as much nitrogen oxide and twice as much carbon dioxide as those that run on natural gas, according to the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain and nitrogen oxide leads to smog.

That decline is brought about by multi-year lows in the cost of natural gas as compared to coal production. It's far cheaper to burn natural gas than coal to produce the same amount of energy, which is why utilities are switching over to natural gas.

It's supply and demand - economics 101.

The coal industry is facing major problems as a result of the swift departure from coal use to natural gas. They're trying to figure out how to market and reposition coal productions so as to try and save coal industry jobs, but many of those jobs will not return unless costs for natural gas rise to the point that it becomes cost effective for coal to be mined/extracted.

Natural gas industry workers are benefiting from the coal industry woes - and regions that are rich in natural gas are seeing a renaissance. That includes locations along major oil shale deposits such as the Bakken and Marcellus fields. It's brought about windfalls to communities where natural gas is being exploited - the opposite of what is being experienced where coal mines are being closed because it isn't cost-effective to operate at current coal prices.

Environmental regulations are only tangentially affecting the job situation - it's the price of natural gas that is driving the swift turnover to natural gas for energy production.

War Crimes Abound As Syrian Civil War Drags On

It should come as no surprise that war crimes are an ongoing feature of the Syrian civil war. Whether it's the Syrian military operating at the behest of Bashar al-Assad bombarding civilian areas or his loyalist militias engaging in massacres, or rebel forces murdering captured government officials by throwing them off rooftops, war crimes are an ongoing concern and worry for Syrians and the human rights groups tracking such actions.

The only difference between the sides is the scope of the war crimes and human rights violations; the rebels have done it to a lesser degree than Assad's goon squads:

Syrian government forces and allied shabbiha militia have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and torture in what appears to be state-directed policy, UN human rights investigators said on Wednesday.

Syrian rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad have also committed war crimes but these "did not reach the gravity, frequency and scale" of those carried out by the army and security forces, they said.

"The commission found reasonable grounds to believe that government forces and the shabbiha had committed the crimes against humanity of murder and of torture, war crimes and gross violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including unlawful killing, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence, indiscriminate attack, pillaging and destruction of property," said the 102-page report by the independent investigators led by Paulo Pinheiro.

Both government forces and armed insurgents had violated rights of children during the 17-month-old conflict, it said.

Airstrikes continue to take their toll on the Syrian people.

Meanwhile, the violence continues to spill over into Lebanon while Israel, Iraq, and Turkey are all warily watching the situation. The violence in Lebanon includes a series of abductions as retaliation for relatives being captured or killed inside Syria.

At the same time, the Pentagon is warning that Iran is training militias to fight in support of Assad inside Syria.

Sitting alongside Panetta at a Pentagon news conference Tuesday, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the militia, which is generally made up of Syrian Shiite forces, is being used to take the pressure off the Syrian regime forces.

“Any army would be taxed with that kind of pace,” Dempsey said. “They are having resupply problems, they are having morale problems, they are having the kind of wear and tear that would come of being in a fight for as long as they have.”

Dempsey also said that it appears Syrian rebels were able to shoot down a Syrian warplane but said he has seen no indication that they are armed with heavy weapons or surface-to-air missiles, at least not yet.

He says the MiG fighter could have been shot down with small arms fire. Syria has blamed the crash on a technical malfunction, but Dempsey said the cause “didn’t appear to be mechanical.”

The Syrian civil war has aspects of a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar among others. Iran, both directly and indirectly, is supporting Assad's regime while Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar are supporting the rebel forces hoping to topple Assad's regime. Russia is also trying to stave off NATO or UN military action to bring the conflict to a close, which has the effect of supporting Assad and his odious regime. That compares with France and the US, which are leading efforts to bring sanctions and other actions to bear against Assad. The other actions include covert support for the rebel forces, including communications gear and logistical support at the US base at Incerlik in Turkey.

Standard Chartered Agrees To $340 Million Fine From NYS Regulator

Federal and state regulations prohibit certain kinds of conduct by banks. That includes money laundering and dealing with Iran. Standard Chartered violated both ends of that - they not only engaged in money laundering deals with Iran, but lied to regulators and sought to cover up their activities.

Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York Superintendent of Financial Services, claimed that Standard Chartered engaged in $250 billion of money laundering. There was much hand wringing, including from federal regulators who didn't necessarily like the idea of the state regulator jumping on Standard Chartered.

The bank steadfastly refused and rejected the claims.

That is, right up until the moment that the bank agreed to settle the case with New York for a civil fine of $340 million.

In addition to the civil penalty, Lawsky said the bank agreed to an outside monitor for at least two years to check on controls on money-laundering at its New York branch.

Lawsky's aggressive stance heightened his public profile just months after the Department of Financial Services, the agency he heads, was created out of the state's banking and insurance regulators.

Within minutes of the announcement, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo lauded the "effectiveness and leadership" of the new agency.

"New York needed a tough and fair regulator for the banking and insurance industries to protect consumers and investors," Cuomo said.

But Lawsky has also drawn fire by jumping ahead of a two-year probe into Standard Chartered by the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department, and New York prosecutors.

"It's very unfortunate this wasn't done as a global state and federal settlement," said Ed Wilson, a former senior attorney at the U.S. Treasury Department.

As negotiations with Lawsky progressed last week and this week, the bank held separate talks with other authorities. It had hoped to land a deal on both fronts, but Lawsky's solo announcement Tuesday made clear that had not happened.

Underscoring a continuing divide with Lawsky, the other authorities issued short statements saying they would continue to work together.

"Treasury will continue working with our state and federal partners to hold Standard Chartered accountable for any sanctionable activity that may have occurred," the Treasury Department said.

Lawsky says that the bank agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250 billion, even if the bank claims that it amounted to $14 million.

In his announcement on Tuesday, Lawsky said the bank had "agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250 billion." But he gave no details on what protections the deal gave Standard Chartered.

Standard Chartered believes that it limited its liability further by entering the deal, but what I'd like to know is where all this money is going to go. The money is being collected by the NYS DFS, and that potentially represents a windfall to the state. I'd like to see an accounting of these funds.

At the same time, there's still the potential for the Treasury Department to impose its own penalties against the bank. That could result in a comparable sum but it also highlights that banking and financial regulators have a long way to go before they can claim to have gotten these kinds of transactions to stop.

Have We Learned Anything From the Great Blackout of 2003?

Nine years ago, the Great Blackout of 2003 struck the United States and parts of Canada from Ohio to New York. 50-60 million people were thrown into darkness, including millions in the New York City metro area. I was among those who had to figure out how to get home without subways/PATH or rail signals operating. Highways and roads were jammed because traffic signals were out.

Power was eventually restored, with the outage running as long as 30 hours in some parts of the affected area, and we learned that the outage was initially due to a transmission line in Ohio failing due to a tree falling, but the outage spread as utilities failed to contain the problems. That triggered a cascading failure across the Northeast.

The utility responsible for maintaining that Ohio transmission line failed to maintain its right of way and carry out tree trimming and other preventative actions.

Has the United States improved its transmission infrastructure to the point where we don't have to worry about another catastrophic blackout? I'm not so sure. Utilities and their regulators have improved their communications to reduce the chances that a blackout in one interconnect will affect others.

But as we've seen over just the past year, utilities have repeatedly fallen short on maintaining their utility rights of way - particularly on tree trimming. Blackouts due to Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Irene, and the October blizzard of 2012 all were exacerbated by utilities that failed to deal with tree trimming issues in a systematic way. Connecticut was particularly hard hit by those storms, and CLP's disastrous efforts in restoring power were hammered by state and local officials. A failure to carry out an effective tree trimming program was identified as a contributing factor.

Regulators have to do a better job in making sure that the companies are investing in the transmission grid and responding to outages in a timely manner. They have to make sure that the utilities are investing in tree trimming programs to protect their infrastructure, though that would seem like a no-brainer since it's cheaper to protect the transmission lines through a systematic tree trimming program than trying to rebuild parts of the network during a crisis. Utilities have to upgrade and invest in technologies, and that also means that rate payers have to deal with higher costs that are passed on to them.

PSE&G has been doing a better job of trying to upgrade its infrastructure; it's currently upgrading transmission lines in Rutherford and Fair Lawn as well as building out its distributed solar power system. Con Ed is also spending on its infrastructure, but with mixed results - there are perpetual concerns of brownouts and blackouts whenever the temperatures spike during the summer because the distribution system can barely keep up with demand. That has to change.

Is Assad's Regime On Verge of Collapsing?

According to the recently defected former Prime Minister Riyad Hijab, Bashar al-Assad's regime controls no more than 30% of the country and it's on the verge of collapsing.

“Based on my experience and my position, the regime is falling apart morally, materially, economically,” the former official, Riyad Farid Hijab, said at a news conference in Amman, Jordan. “Its military is rusting, and it only controls 30 percent of Syria’s territory.”

He added that many high-level civilian and military officials in Syria — “leaders with dignity” — were waiting to defect. Mr. Hijab said he fled the Syrian capital, Damascus, because the government threatened his family and had no reasonable means to end the violence. He also urged the opposition to unify and to move ahead with plans for a transitional government and “a civilian democratic state that preserves the right, justice and dignity of all Syrians.”

But he said he had no interest in a formal position. “I have sacrificed myself in the campaign of righteousness,” he said. “I don’t want to satisfy anyone but God.”

Mr. Hijab’s claims about the weakness of the Assad government could not be independently verified, and he gave few details to support his harsh assessment. A Sunni technocrat from the eastern city of Deir al-Zour — which has been enduring shelling and fighting for weeks — Mr. Hijab was not a member of Mr. Assad’s inner circle, and he was appointed to the position of prime minister only in June.

There's no way to know for sure just how secure Assad's regime is, but there have been indications that Assad's lost control of vast swaths of the country. His security forces have been hard pressed to retain control of Syria's two biggest cities - Damascus and Aleppo. Rebels managed to assassinate key security members in a bombing several weeks ago. There have been a steady but increasing stream of defections, including Hijab.

It also appears that Assad's brother was grievously injured in that July 18 bombing. A Russian minister also indicated that Assad's willing to give up power:

Quoting Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov, the newspaper reported that Maher Assad's condition "is very serious and he is fighting for his life."

The July blast took place during a high-level meeting at the state security ministry in the capital. Among those killed were Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, former Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani, and Assad brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, who served as the country's deputy defense minister. The suicide attack was carried out by a bodyguard for the president's inner circle, a Syrian security source said at the time. Until now it was unclear whether Maher Assad had attended the meeting.

Bogdanov added that President Assad is prepared to give up power, according to the Al-Watan report. "We ask that this issue be dealt with quickly to bring about a solution to the crisis," he said. "We are speaking with the opposition and the Syrian government on a daily basis."

However, Assad's security forces continue the bloodletting and no one within the security establishment is willing to tell Assad that his time is done for the sake of all Syrians. He's apparently content to continue the violence to preserve his power. The Russians have moved to deny Bogdanov's claims, which further suggests that Assad isn't going anywhere - at least for now. They claim that Bogdanov never gave any interview to al-Watan, which other media outlets quickly re-reported.

There are also indications that Russia and Iran are busy propping up Assad's regime, even as Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are assisting the rebels.

At the same time, al Qaeda and other terror groups, including Hizbullah are looking to fill the power vacuum, which is something that Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Israel are all keenly hoping to avoid.

Meanwhile, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria from its membership as another UN official envoy is visiting Syria so as to draw attention to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria. The UN mission will fail just as surely as Kofi Annan's attempts did; Assad has no intention of giving up power, or stopping the violence, and rebel forces are just as unwilling to stop their own efforts as they continue to maintain and gain territory, even if those gains come at a significant humanitarian cost or that retribution for being part of Assad's government includes war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Port Authority Looking At JFK Airport Security Breach

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates JFK International Airport, which is in Queens alongside Jamaica Bay and the Gateway National Recreation Area. The airport is surrounded by water on two sides - where its runways are located. After 9/11, airport security was boosted and the Port Authority installed a $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System, that included scanners, cameras, and an 8 foot tall fence.

So, it's a huge question how that entire system failed when a jet skier managed to not only scale the fence, but was able to cross two active runways, enter taxiways and restricted areas before being confronted by Delta Airlines workers at Terminal 3. The jet skier's personal watercraft became disabled adjacent to the airport, so he swam to shore, jumped the fence, and then proceeded towards the airport terminals:

Castillo climbed an eight-foot-tall perimeter fence and made his way to Terminal 3. He approached a Delta Airlines worker, who alerted authorities.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is investigating and said it has increased patrols on the ground and in the water .

“We have called for an expedited review of the incident and a complete investigation to determine how Raytheon’s perimeter intrusion detection system — which exceeds federal requirements — could be improved,” the agency said in a statement. “Our goal is to keep the region’s airports safe and secure at all times.”

Castillo was charged with criminal trespass.

An Ominous Offshore Development

This summer has been warmer than usual in the New York Metro area, though that's nothing that the rest of the country hasn't experienced. However, the ocean waters off the New York and New Jersey waters is much warmer than usual.

In fact, the temperatures are running about 10 degrees warmer than they usually are. Warmer waters during the winter moderated temperatures along the coast, but during the summer that means that the shore breeze isn't cooling things down as much.

It's also meant some spectacular fishing opportunities and balmy waters for swimming, but there's a dark side.

Winter's lowest recorded ocean surface water temperature was about 40 degrees, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The surface water temperature reached the mid-70s in June and the low 80s by July. A typical water temperature in June is in the mid-60s and in the mid-70s by July.

The surface isn't the only part of the ocean that is warmer; temperatures at the bottom of the sea also are above average in places. The boundary between colder bottom water and warmer surface water, known as a thermocline, near the New Jersey coast has seemingly blurred and weakened, according to data collected by an autonomous glider that has "flown" underwater for several weeks this summer.

"We're noticing that the thermoclines are much deeper and much weaker," said Bob Schuster, a state Department of Environmental Protection section chief who works with the glider program.

"(The warmth) is much more uniform throughout the water column."

The glider, which is about to be redeployed for another three-week mission, is a part of a joint program with the DEP, Rutgers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study the amount of oxygen in offshore water. However, the glider, which is a $108,000 torpedo-like device, also measures many other physical characteristics, including temperature profiles.

The warm winter also meant that the back bay waters never got very cold and warmed up quickly once the early spring arrived. Flounder have fled the bay shallows for deeper holes near inlets or have gone out into the ocean seeking cooler temperatures. Crabs began crawling out of the mud in the middle of March, weeks ahead of normal.

Bay temperatures have been in the upper 70s to low 80s in most places since early June, but in the grass flats of Barnegat Bay, the water temperature has been just below the threshold that causes heat-sensitive eel grass to die off, said Stockton College professor and sea grass researcher Jessie Jarvis.

Sampling trips so far this summer in Barnegat Bay have shown a typical seasonal decline of the grasses, but "it's too early to tell if water temperatures are resulting in a greater than normal decline," Jarvis said.

Warmer water also affects which species hang around offshore. Fish tales, whether about sharks or large game fish swimming much closer to shore than usual, abound among fishermen this summer.

Reports of large toothy sharks can be heard in bait shops, from fishing enthusiasts and even at shore bars, but Stockton College Marine Field Station manager Steve Evert said it's difficult to believe many of the stories of rarer shark species, such as bull sharks, in the area; none of the sightings has been confirmed.

The dark side? Hurricanes love warm waters. It's what they need to sustain and grow in power.

Last year, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee hit in the New York metro area causing billions of dollars of damage in New Jersey alone. Hurricane Irene just missed a direct hit on New York City. Now, we've entered the height of hurricane season and a number of storms have already developed across the southern hurricane track into the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, but as the season wears on, the tracks tend to run up the East Coast.

Storms generally wane in power as they head north away from the warmer waters. However, if a storm were to come up north this year, it would find waters conducive to maintaining strength. That could have dire repercussions should a storm track towards the region.

Last week, the NOAA increased its predictions for named storms in the Atlantic Basin, in part because of the warmer waters:

NOAA now expects 12 to 17 named storms and five to eight hurricanes, two or three of which are likely to be major hurricanes – categories 3, 4 or 5, with winds stronger than 111 mph. A normal hurricane season produces a dozen named storms and six hurricanes, three of which are major.

The change was made in part to reflect this year’s level of storm activity, NOAA said, as well as storm-conducive wind patterns and warmer-than-normal water surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.