Coast Guard U S

In a sobering self-assessment of the response to last year's San Francisco Bay oil spill, a U.S. Coast Guard study released Monday conceded that the first crews on the scene dramatically underestimated the trouble and onshore commanders failed to properly alert the public and local officials. But the 130-page report on the aftermath of the Nov.

Victims blasted a cruise ship crime-reporting deal between the industry and the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday, calling it too little, too late. The agreement to report crimes -- something the industry says it has been doing for years -- was dismissed as a last-minute attempt to stave off regulation. The agreement was sealed Monday on the eve of the third congressional hearing on cruise safety in 16 months.

The Coast Guard is removing Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. from their management role over a troubled $24-billion modernization program and may seek new bids for contracts for any incomplete projects. The deal has been criticized in recent investigations and on Capitol Hill for spiraling costs, design flaws and lax oversight.

The Justice Department is investigating a much-criticized Coast Guard contract managed by two major defense contractors over the flawed design of modified patrol boats that are a component of a $24-billion modernization project, a member of Congress and a representative for the companies said Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the Lockheed Martin Corp.-Northrop Grumman Corp. joint venture said the companies were notified in December of a probe into the program, dubbed Deepwater.

The Coast Guard suspended its search Monday for three people believed to have died when a small plane crashed off the coast here. The propeller-driven Cessna 182 left McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad at 9:45 a.m. Sunday and crashed five minutes later about one mile off the coast. The plane was registered to Leroy F. Kochert of Phoenix. The names of the three people -- a man and two women -- had not been released.

Common images of the U.S. Coast Guard's duties include boat rescues on the Great Lakes, pursuits of smugglers in the Caribbean and patrols of U.S. ports in the post-Sept. 11 security buildup. But "Coasties" are also hip-deep in one of the world's riskiest and most politically volatile missions: boarding ships in the Persian Gulf to search for contraband, weaponry and suspected terrorists.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been intercepting more boat people crossing from Cuba to the Straits of Florida in the last three months, and the U.S. Border Patrol has been processing rising numbers turning up at the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said 2,819 Cubans had reached Florida so far this year, compared with 3,076 in all of last year.

The Coast Guard Academy said it was expanding training on race relations after two hangman's nooses were found on campus, the first in the bag of a black cadet and the second in a trainer's office. "We take these incidents very seriously," said Petty Officer Gail Dale at the New London academy.

The head of the Coast Guard on Sunday defended his agency's response to the oil spill in San Francisco Bay while pledging a full investigation. "On the surface it would appear that we did everything by the book in this case as far as responding," Adm. Thad Allen said while en route from Washington, D.C., to survey the damage. "We need to recover all the information, make sure all the facts are established."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Members of Congress demanded answers Monday on the Coast Guard's response to an oil spill that dumped 58,000 gallons of fuel into San Francisco Bay, but the legislators left unsatisfied and pledged to open another federal investigation. An admiral countered that the blame rested squarely with the operators of the container ship that rammed a tower of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 7.