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Alaska cracks down on stores that target cruise ship passengers
with bogus sales
Alaska is cracking down on stores in the state's port towns that
target cruisers with misleading advertising.
The Juneau Empire today reports the state has filed lawsuits against
two separate jewelry store owners for displaying advertisements that
tout sharp discounts and "blowout sales" when regular
prices for the items did not exist. The state's assistant attorney
general tells the news outlet such advertising is deceptive and
violates Alaska's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act.
"Sometimes stores will do what essentially becomes a continuous
sale," the state's Cynthia Drinkwater tells the news outlet.
"If something is always on sale, then the sale price is the
regular price."
The Empire says one defendant with stores in cruise hubs Juneau,
Skagway and Ketchikan already has agreed to pay a $50,000 fine. The
second case, against Jewelers International, is pending.
The main streets of several Alaskan port towns including Juneau and
Ketchikan have come to be dominated by tourist-aimed jewelry stores
and trinket shops in recent years as cruise ship arrivals boomed, a
trend that has dismayed many locals and visitors alike.
-- Gene Sloan, USA Today
Message in a bottle thrown from cruise ship found ...
after five years at sea
The Baltimore Sun today has the fascinating tale of a "message
in a bottle" from a cruise ship that apparently survived more
than five years at sea as it traveled thousands of miles across the
globe.
The news outlet says the barnacle-encrusted but still sealed wine
bottle, thrown off a Royal Caribbean ship sailing in the Bahamas in
June, 2004, washed up on a beach in England in July. It was
discovered by a retired electrician walking his dog.
A note inside the bottle said it was from Daniel Knopp, a Baltimore
area resident who was 14 in 2004 when he lobbed it off a balcony on
the Grandeur of the Seas during a Caribbean cruise.
"Hello, my name is Daniel Knopp. I am on a cruise ship. I hope
whoever reads this finds great joy. God bless. I live in the
Baltimore/DC area," the note reads.
"I never thought of it again," Knopp, now 19, tells the
Sun. "I completely forgot about that day. I thought it would be
unreal if it were ever to be found, but I figured it would be
destroyed by the ocean environment."
Tony Hoskings, the man who found the bottle, spent weeks tracking
Knopp down, the Sun says.
It isn't the first time a message in a bottle has weathered an
improbable journey. In October 2008, a bottle from a Holland America
ship was found on a Caribbean island beach after surviving 35 years
at sea.
The latest weapon in the fight against Somali pirates: laser guns
Cruise ships sailing through the Middle East soon may have a new
weapon in the fight against marauding pirates: Laser guns.
The UK's Daily Express reports defense contractor BAE Systems today
unveiled a laser defense system for cruise ships and oil tankers that
can disable approaching pirates at a distance of 1,000 yards.
The Laser Dazzle System, as the weapon is being called, rolled out
today at a defense show in London. The Daily Express says it is
similar to the laser pens that mischief-makers have used to
disorientate pilots of airplanes and is designed to confuse pirates
as they prepare to board ships.
Also unveiled at the show: A radar that can spot approaching pirate
boat from 15 miles away -- further than any other commercial radar
available -- and a device that can turn off a pirate boat's engines remotely.
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