Cancellations

One of the arguments made for the 2010 healthcare law was that it attacked the problem of underinsurance -- the threadbare policies that offered such poor coverage, they allowed millions of Americans to be bankrupted by medical bills. Now, however, Democrats are confronting the fact that the law they wrote is forcing thousands of people to lose their current insurance plans because the coverage doesn't meet the new standards. It's a perfect example of the road to political hell being paved by good intentions.

At a time when the Middle East peace process appears stymied, Israel received an unexpected olive branch when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the Holocaust and expressed sympathy with its victims. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled the comments a play for public opinion and called on the Palestinian leader to "tear up" his recent pact with the militant Islamist movement Hamas. "What happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime known by mankind in modern times," said Abbas, according to a statement published Sunday by the Palestinian government news agency WAFA.

The busiest travel day of the year collided with an ugly storm that swept up from the Southeast to the East Coast, drifting into the nation's busiest airspace. The results were 667 canceled flights and 6,435 flights delayed at least 15 minutes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, according to the travel monitoring site Flightstats.com. By comparison, only 189 flights were canceled and 3,560 were delayed last year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, according to Flightstats.com.

A government study on the effects of airline mergers found that flight cancellations and delays increased when competition on a route drops. The study by the U.S. Department of Transportation's inspector general was ordered by Congress in the wake of the proposal to merge American Airlines and US Airways into the world's largest air carrier. The study looked at delays and cancellation rates when the number of airlines serving a route dropped from three to two airlines. It looked at 32.2 million flights and flight performances from 70 U.S. airports.

Getting good care when you cancel Jane Engle's well-written article regarding cancellations of hotel reservations ["Canceling Your Room?" Oct. 25] was right on point. As an attorney, I've made it a prerequisite to view the relevant cancellation provisions on websites and in written documents. One point, however, should be noted. As rigid and clear as some of the provisions may be, there is still, thankfully, a human factor that should not be ignored. My wife and I recently had planned a trip to New York City and bought "nonrefundable" tickets via Telecharge to some Broadway shows.

Storms that hit the Midwest and East Coast last month were to blame for 49,000 canceled flights, the highest number for any January in the last five years. An additional 300,000 flights were delayed last month by U.S. airlines. The cancellations last month even exceeded those caused by Hurricane Sandy in October and November of 2012, according to an analysis from MasFlight, an aviation operations technology company based in Bethesda, Md. January's airline woes cost passengers more than $2.5 billion in lost productivity, hotel expenses and meals and inflicted $75 million to 150 million in losses to the airline industry, MasFlight said.

  Airline cancellations continued to mount, with a few carriers beginning to cancel flights scheduled for Thursday. Super storm Sandy is now blamed for the cancellation of 18,100 flights, stretching from Saturday to Wednesday, according to the travel monitoring site, Flightaware.com. The canceled flights were primarily to and from storm-ravaged cities along the East Coast. About 50 or so flights were already canceled for Thursday. The website Flightstats.com has animated the effects of the storm on flights in an online video, shown above.

Super storm Sandy has led to the cancellation of about 19,500 flights since Saturday but cancellations are on the decline and two key East Coast airports reopened Wednesday. John F. Kennedy International in New York and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey reopened Wednesday for limited service, but La Guardia International Airport in New York remains closed because of flooding. It remains unclear when La Guardia will reopen and airline officials urged passengers to check on their flight status by phone or online before heading for an airport.

Getting home after the Christmas holiday continues to be a predicament as a massive storm that has now hit the Northeast grounded thousands of planes for the third straight day. As of Thursday morning, more than 800 flights had been canceled and nearly 5,000 more had been delayed, with most of the planes grounded in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and New Jersey, according to the flight monitoring site Flightstats.com. Still, the storm's effect has declined compared to Wednesday, when more than 2,000 flights were canceled and more than 12,000 were delayed as the storm cut a wide swath through the mid-Atlantic states, heading northeast.

As a nor'easter storm threatens the East Coast, the nation's airlines have canceled more than 1,500 flights scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. The cancellations, about 1,200 for Wednesday and 313 on Thursday, were primarily scheduled to fly in and out of Newark Liberty International in New Jersey and La Guardia and John F. Kennedy International airports in New York. Cancellations were also made for flights in and out of Philadelphia International, Chicago's O'Hare International and Dallas/Fort Worth International airports, according to the flight-monitoring site Flightaware.com.

WASHINGTON - Amid concerns about its effectiveness and multibillion-dollar cost, the Department of Homeland Security has canceled plans to install an automated technology that was meant to speed the 24-hour operations of BioWatch, the national system for detecting a biological attack. The cancellation of the "Generation 3" acquisition was made Thursday at the direction of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, according to a memorandum circulated by Michael V. Walter, the BioWatch program manager.

RICHMOND -- Kyle Larson's meteoric rise in the Sprint Cup Series continued Friday with an assist from Mother Nature. When qualifying for the Toyota Owners 400 was canceled because of rain, Larson earned the first pole of his Cup career because he had posted the fastest lap in the first practice on the three-quarters of a mile oval at Richmond International Raceway: 126.880 mph. He will start on the front row with Brad Keselowski, whose fastest lap...

Days after being hospitalized and forced to pull out of his Coachella performance last weekend, Chance the Rapper will miss additional shows in order to recover from “a combination of the flu virus and tonsillitis.” The 21-year-old rapper, born Chancelor Bennett, fell ill Friday night and was admitted to a hospital Sunday,  according to tweets sent on his behalf  from his management.   “On behalf of @chancetherapper and our entire...

The massive avalanche on Mt. Everest that killed 16 Nepalese mountain guides has caused Discovery to have second thoughts about its planned stunt in which jumper Joby Ogwyn was to leap off the mountain in a specially made wing suit. In a statement released Sunday, the cable channel said, "In light of the overwhelming tragedy at Mt. Everest and respect for the families of the fallen, Discovery Channel will not be going forward with Everest Jump Live. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the whole Sherpa community.

Chance the Rapper was forced to cancel his Weekend 2 appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival after he was admitted to a hospital Sunday, his management said. A little more than an hour before the Chicago emcee was to hit the main stage in Indio, the festival's official smartphone app sent a dispatch with the news. “Chance the Rapper unable to perform today,” the alert said. “Check out Classixx, Showtek, Scuba or Frank Turner instead.” FULL COVERAGE: Coachella 2014 The rapper, 21, born Chancelor Bennett, fell ill Friday night and was admitted to a hospital Sunday, according to tweets sent on his behalf from his management.   “On behalf of @chancetherapper and our entire team- We sincerely regret to have to cancel our 2nd weekend at coachella,” his management tweeted Sunday afternoon.

Miley Cyrus has been hospitalized and has canceled her Tuesday night show in Kansas City, Mo., after a "severe allergic reaction to antibiotics. " The announcement came in a statement on the website of the Sprint Center, where the "Wrecking Ball" singer was to hit the stage for a 7 p.m. show. Her rep told the Associated Press that Miley was on "medical rest" per doctors' advice.  "Kansas I promise Im as [heartbroken] as you are," Cyrus said on Twitter. "I wanted so badly 2 b there 2night.

Qantas and Virgin Australia canceled flights that were scheduled Thursday (Australia time) to New Zealand and the western Australian city of Perth as an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano continued to spread into the area and strand thousands more travelers. The cloud has also wreaked havoc in South America . Disruptions of air travel in various parts of the world could last for months, experts say. The Sydney Morning Herald dubbed the cloud over Perth the "plume of gloom" and explained that levels of ash as low as 15,000 feet posed a safety risk for airlines.

WASHINGTON — What's behind the unusually high rate of contract cancellations and settlement delays in the real estate market? With signs of recovery emerging in many parts of the country, shouldn't deals be zipping along with minimal complications? Apparently not. Nearly one-third of realty agents in a new national survey reported experiencing contract cancellations — purchases crumbling before closing — in February. That's up dramatically from a similar poll 12 months earlier, when just 9% of agents reported cancellations.

An auction of Nazi memorabilia, including items that belonged to Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering, has been called off in France following objections from Jewish groups and a prominent government official. The Paris auction company Vermot de Pas had scheduled the sale for April 26 but called it off Monday. The cancellation came soon after French culture minister Aurélie Filippetti told Le Monde she didn't want the auction to take place. The auction house said on its website that "in light of the strong emotions from numerous people, this decision seems proper and necessary.

After years of contentious debate, a long-running and sharply criticized plan to extend Orange County's toll road network to the San Diego County line has been shelved. The extension would have added miles to the county's maze of tollways but also would have cut - in the view of some - perilously close to San Onofre State Beach and one of the state's most treasured surf breaks. On Tuesday, officials with the Transportation Corridor Agencies announced they had canceled environmental studies for the massive 241 extension and said they would pursue less-ambitious alternatives.