Obama Signs 9/11 First Responders Bill

CNN reports:

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama signed the 9/11 health bill into law in Hawaii on Sunday, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.

Obama signed the bill during his Hawaiian vacation, with no signing ceremony held. In a statement issued later, the president said he was “honored” to sign the bill, which pays for health care for responders believed to have been sickened by pollution at the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York.

“We will never forget the selfless courage demonstrated by the firefighters, police officers, and first responders who risked their lives to save others,” Obama said. “I believe this is a critical step for those who continue to bear the physical scars of those attacks.”

The bill made a long journey in order to get signed. A printed copy of the bill flew with a White House staffer from Washington to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, so Obama could sign it from his vacation rental in Kailua.

“It came out with a member of the staff so that it could be signed in a timely fashion,” Burton said.

The legislation, officially titled the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, provides health coverage to workers who helped clear the rubble and search for human remains at the site of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. The $4.2 billion legislation also reopens the federal Victim Compensation Fund to provide economic relief to those harmed by the attacks, which killed more than 2,700 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

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Rich Getting Richer: Penske Racing Signs Shell and Izod

For more than 20 years, most of the Indy racecars fielded by Roger Penske and his formidable team were painted Day-Glo orange and white and carried the Marlboro logo, a brand made by the team’s primary sponsor, Phillip Morris USA. The cars were one of the most easily recognizable in motorsports, in part because Team Penske drivers won the Indianapolis 500 several times in Marlboro colors.

But Phillip Morris dropped its sponsorship at the beginning of last season, and, like other teams, Penske has needed to piece together sponsorships to keep fielding a full three-car team. Within the last week, Penske has announced three deals that, along with Verizon’s continuing primary sponsorship of Will Power, the up-and-coming Australian driver, could benefit his team enormously.

Team Penske said Monday that Izod, which is also the title sponsor of the IndyCar series, would be the primary sponsor of the car driven by Ryan Briscoe in several races in 2011, including the Indy 500. The car driven by Helio Castroneves at Indy and in other races will be sponsored by Shell, Penske said Friday. Meijer, a retail chain in the Midwest, will be an associate sponsor of all three cars.

Izod had been the sponsor of the Andretti Autosport car driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay, another rising star. Tony Kanaan, another longtime driver on the team owned by Michael Andretti, lost 7-Eleven as his sponsor and his ride with Andretti at the end of the season. Meijer had been an associate sponsor for Marco Andretti, Michael’s son.

Sponsorship dollars, which are even more vital to success in auto racing than horsepower, have moved decidedly in Team Penske’s direction. Further, there is the strong possibility that Sam Hornish Jr., the 2006 Indy 500 champion, who has not had much success racing stock cars in the last three years, could race in the 2011 Indy 500 for Penske.

“He’s always had an open invitation to run the Indy 500 with us. Nothing’s changed,” Tim Cindric, the president of Penske Racing, said in a teleconference on Monday.

Referring to Hornish’s status as a Sprint Cup driver, Cindric added, “I think what’s changed is the fact we haven’t been able to secure a full?time Cup ride for him. And that makes things a bit more obvious. But he’s always had an open invitation with us to run Indy.”

Although the series has been energized by signing on at least three manufacturers for a new car program for the 2012 season, the imbalance in sponsorship dollars could be seen as a step back for parity in the series. The top five in last year’s standings drove either for Chip Ganassi or Penske. (Dario Franchitti, the series champion, drove for Ganassi.)

Danica Patrick finished 10th in the standings last year driving a car for Michael Andretti. Kanaan was sixth, Hunter-Reay was seventh and Marco Andretti was eighth. Mike Kelly, executive vice president of marketing for Izod’s parent company, Phillips-VanHeusen, said his company simply thought sponsoring Penske’s team was a better business opportunity.

“There’s no question he’s a contender out on the track,” Kelly said of Hunter-Reay.

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Maybach Signs Deal With Artist and Filmmaker Julian Schnabel

Mercedes and the artist and film director Julian Schnabel announced a partnership at the recent Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. The deal involves Maybach, the? company’s high-end brand, and a piece by Mr. Schnabel named “Queequeg — The Maybach Sculpture.”

Stadiums, museum galleries, professorships and curator slots often carry the names of sponsors and donors, but I’m not familiar with a work of art carrying a corporate name.

Mr. Schnabel, 59, was one of the most prominent heroes of the 1980s art world, which saw prices soar. His trademark paintings incorporated pieces of broken plates. But Mr. Schnabel, who has directed a short film documenting the Maybach brand, may be better known as a filmmaker. His first film was “Basquiat,” made in 1996, about the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Mr. Schnabel also gave the actor Javier Bardem his breakthrough role in “Before Night Falls.” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” received four Academy Award nominations. Mr. Schnabel’s new film, called “Miral,” is set to open next March.

The two-piece Maybach sculpture is named after the harpoon thrower of Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick,” and the top of the piece vaguely resembles a whale’s tail. At 3,280 pounds, the bronze-and-steel sculpture weighs about as much as an SLK sports car. The work will be part of a major retrospective of the artist’s work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

In addition, during Maybach Night at Art Basel, five Schabel pieces were auctioned off to benefit the J/P Haitian Relief Organization Foundation, established by Mr. Schnabel’s longtime friend Sean Penn.

Mr. Schnabel will also work with a program of the Wilhelm & Karl Maybach Foundation to mentor and support talented young artists.

“The Maybach Foundation’s concept of mentoring also carries great significance, as I have always felt it was important to support and promote young, talented artists,” Mr. Schnabel said in a news release. “And older artists should encourage younger ones.”

Maybach also announced a partnership with the Louvre in Paris, in which the automaker will sponsor sculpture exhibitions inside the museum’s signature glass pyramid. That space has not previously been used to display art, but it will now house a rotating series of works by artists supported by Maybach. The program will begin in January with a sculpture by Tony Cragg, an English artist, which will remain on display until October 2011. (Some of Mr. Cragg’s earlier sculptures include an assemblage of small toys including plastic cars.)

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AMP Signs Deal to Deliver Electric S.U.V.'s to Iceland

Iceland, geologically blessed with an abundance of renewable energy resources, like hydropower and geothermal, is hoping to use some of that energy to run the country’s automobiles. On Monday, Cincinnati-based AMP Holding announced it had signed a letter of intent to deliver 1,000 electric sport-utility vehicles over five years to Northern Lights Energy, a company that is constructing a network of electric vehicle charging points throughout Iceland.

AMP converts gasoline-power automobiles to electric using vehicles from manufacturers like General Motors. Founded in 2007, AMP went public earlier this year. The Northern Lights Energy deal is AMP’s biggest, according to the company’s chief executive, Steve Burns.

Mr. Burns said he expected to add 10 more employees to his current work force of 30 to handle the orders. The company plans to ship the first E.V. to Northern Lights? in early 2011 for performance testing. If the vehicles pass muster, AMP will ramp up assembly in February and aim to deliver 200 vehicles per year over the next five years.

AMP and Northern Lights expect Iceland will offer an ideal test bed for an all-electric transportation system. “The climate is perfect: not too hot and not too cold,” Mr. Burns said. “The car batteries like that. Commutes are short. Gas is expensive. Electricity is cheap. And many of the people prefer S.U.V.’s: 35 percent there compared to about 20 percent here.”

AMP specializes in converting S.U.V.’s, working primarily with the Chevrolet Equinox. It accommodates a bigger battery pack, about 50 percent larger than the one found in the Nissan Leaf, and consequently provides 50 percent more range, up to 150 miles on a charge, Mr. Burns said.

Northern Lights is building a nationwide charging network through its Icelandic National EV Project, which Sturla Sighvatsson, the company’s managing director, expects will be completed by the end of 2012.

Starting next year, a subsidiary of Northern Lights, called EVEN, will sell the electric vehicles to the public and commercial fleet customers. It will also offer access to its national charging grid through a monthly fixed fee. Mr. Sighvatsson compared this business model to the eVgo Network in Houston recently launched by NRG, a power generation company.

“This deal with AMP will ensure the Icelandic public will have access to electric S.U.V.’s over the next five years,” he said. “It’s about making electric vehicles a real option for the people here.” Northern Lights is also in talks with other electric vehicle manufacturers, including Renault and Nissan, to provide vehicles.

The Icelandic government also appears supportive of the project. While import duties on fossil-fuel vehicles are quite high, up to 45 percent of the car’s customs value, these duties are waived for E.V.’s.

Mr. Sighvatsson hopes Iceland can become a model for other countries to emulate. “Looking ahead 10 years from now,” he said, “people will look at the Icelandic market and say, ‘O.K., they did it. They made the cars available. They built the infrastructure, and the population embraced it.’ That’s the ultimate goal of our national E.V. project.”

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