Citgo

Citgo, the Venezuelan government's U.S.-based oil subsidiary, reversed course yesterday and said it will continue shipments of heating oil to poor families in the United States, including in Maryland. Former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, head of Citizens Energy, the Boston-based nonprofit that distributes the fuel, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez intervened directly. The announcement came two days after Kennedy said Citgo was suspending fuel assistance, with the company noting falling oil prices and the world economic crisis.

Citgo, the Venezuelan government's U.S.-based oil subsidiary, reversed course yesterday and said it will continue shipments of heating oil to poor families in the United States, including in Maryland. Former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, head of Citizens Energy, the Boston-based nonprofit that distributes the fuel, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez intervened directly. The announcement came two days after Kennedy said Citgo was suspending fuel assistance, with the company noting falling oil prices and the world economic crisis.

NEW ORLEANS - You could do worse than to have your kid grow up to be a professional bass fisherman. Three anglers have won more than $1 million. Two others will cross that threshold soon. The men who chase fish for a living have sponsors, TV shows, videos and how-to books. Media giant ESPN looked at the potential this year and bought the country's oldest and largest bass organization, the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, for a reported $40 million. Yesterday, as 45 anglers gathered to begin the signature event of the season, B.A.S.

Harold Eugene Platt, a financial vice president with the Cities Service (now Citgo) oil company and a World War II Navy veteran, died of complications from a stroke July 9 under hospice care at Oak Crest Village in Parkville. He was 86. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Mr. Platt attended schools in Flushing, where he met his high school sweetheart and future wife, Elizabeth Finlay. He graduated from Duke University with a business degree and joined the Navy in 1942. Later he did postgraduate work at Harvard Business School.

POLICE LOG* Linthicum A burglar who kicked out the bottom window of a garage door Thursday at Wayson's Citgo in the 500 block of Camp Meade Road stole a cash register containing $30.

Carroll Independent Fuel Co. of Baltimore has paid a $101,894 penalty under a consent agreement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency for failing to take required measures to detect and prevent fuel leaks from underground storage tanks at eight of its gas stations in Maryland. The settlement announced yesterday resolves violations in tank inspection, leak detection and control requirements at: Gibson Citgo, 210 Ridgely Ave., Annapolis; Harford Road Mobil, 9205 Harford Road; Pulaski Citgo, 9525 Pulaski Highway; Rockspring Mobil, 1467 Rock Spring Road, Bel Air; Eldersburg Mobil, 1400 Liberty Road; Jarrettsville Citgo, 1755 Jarrettsville Road; Hammonds Ferry Citgo, 722-724 N. Hammonds Ferry Road, Linthicum; and Taylor Avenue Citgo, 900 E. Taylor Ave., Towson.

A disabled Baltimore mother became the state's first recipient yesterday of subsidized heating oil through a program backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fervent critic of U.S. policies who has used his country's oil riches to burnish his image as a populist leader. For the second year in a row, Citgo Petroleum Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, is delivering discounted heating oil to low-income Americans with help from a Boston nonprofit formed by former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. Debra Henderson, 58, of Baltimore's Remington neighborhood is among as many as 15,000 Maryland households eligible to receive more than 3 million gallons of fuel oil at a 40 percent discount.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's law firm has lobbied for years on behalf of an oil company controlled by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, a strident critic of President Bush and American-style capitalism. Bracewell & Giuliani, the Houston-based firm that Giuliani joined as a name partner two years ago, handles lobbying in the Texas Statehouse for Citgo Petroleum Corp. of Houston. Citgo is the American subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, the state-owned oil company that Chavez controls.

How do you accept a gift that's tied with a ribbon of barbed wire? Very gingerly, as demonstrated by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, when faced with the quandary of allowing eligible households in his district to benefit from a subsidized foreign heating-oil project while at the same time scolding the South American president who sanctioned the plan. The New York congressman managed to accomplish both. He stopped short of saying he didn't want his constituents to receive the oil, and he managed to fire off a few well-publicized admonishments toward Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's populist leader, for referring to President Bush as the "devil."

The Great Gas Giveaway Prize Patrol? V-Power Fuel Your Drive Sweepstakes? The Gold Standard Game? You've never heard of them? That's because you live in Maryland, where a law so old that no one can even remember why it was passed prohibits oil companies from running promotional giveaways and prize games that could result in Free Staters getting free gas. Instead, oil company officials said, Marylanders are left with bobble-head dolls or Orioles tickets...

Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's law firm has lobbied for years on behalf of an oil company controlled by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, a strident critic of President Bush and American-style capitalism. Bracewell & Giuliani, the Houston-based firm that Giuliani joined as a name partner two years ago, handles lobbying in the Texas Statehouse for Citgo Petroleum Corp. of Houston. Citgo is the American subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, the state-owned oil company that Chavez controls.

How do you accept a gift that's tied with a ribbon of barbed wire? Very gingerly, as demonstrated by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, when faced with the quandary of allowing eligible households in his district to benefit from a subsidized foreign heating-oil project while at the same time scolding the South American president who sanctioned the plan. The New York congressman managed to accomplish both. He stopped short of saying he didn't want his constituents to receive the oil, and he managed to fire off a few well-publicized admonishments toward Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's populist leader, for referring to President Bush as the "devil."

A disabled Baltimore mother became the state's first recipient yesterday of subsidized heating oil through a program backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fervent critic of U.S. policies who has used his country's oil riches to burnish his image as a populist leader. For the second year in a row, Citgo Petroleum Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, is delivering discounted heating oil to low-income Americans with help from a Boston nonprofit formed by former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. Debra Henderson, 58, of Baltimore's Remington neighborhood is among as many as 15,000 Maryland households eligible to receive more than 3 million gallons of fuel oil at a 40 percent discount.

NEW YORK -- A day after he called President Bush "the devil" from the podium at the United Nations, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stood on the altar of a church in Harlem and presented himself as an angel, offering 100 million gallons of subsidized heating oil to needy Americans. "It makes us feel good to give," he told a crowd of mostly Harlem residents and Latin American immigrants waving Venezuelan flags and chanting his name. The move more than doubles the 40 million gallons in heating oil Chavez donated to eight Northeastern states last year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated refineries and caused the price of oil to spike.

Standing beside pump No. 8 at a West Baltimore Citgo gas station, a seeming attendant known by some customers as "the gas man" was offering a deal so cheap it could have been a going-out-of business-sale. "He asks you, `You want gas? I will fill you up for $10,'" said Mohammad Mehtabdin, manager of the Citgo at Princess Plaza. "Nobody will complain about that." It may have seemed like a no-brainer for the cash-strapped customers "the gas man" served that day, reeling from sticker shock over high gas prices: With a gallon of regular costing more than $3 in some areas, consumers are happy to get a deal when they find it - and the gas man's deal was a whopper.

The Great Gas Giveaway Prize Patrol? V-Power Fuel Your Drive Sweepstakes? The Gold Standard Game? You've never heard of them? That's because you live in Maryland, where a law so old that no one can even remember why it was passed prohibits oil companies from running promotional giveaways and prize games that could result in Free Staters getting free gas. Instead, oil company officials said, Marylanders are left with bobble-head dolls or Orioles tickets...

Once the start flag goes down, powerboat racers feel a need for extreme speed, and legendary driver Reggie Fountain was feeling it extremely yesterday afternoon during the Chesapeake Challenge.Entering the Offshore Class B competition, Fountain's team trailed Citgo Supergard Scarab by 11 points in the overall standings. After the first two laps of racing, Fountain said, he was dialed in and ready to make his move and pass the first-place boat, both in yesterday's race and in the standings.

Standing beside pump No. 8 at a West Baltimore Citgo gas station, a seeming attendant known by some customers as "the gas man" was offering a deal so cheap it could have been a going-out-of business-sale. "He asks you, `You want gas? I will fill you up for $10,'" said Mohammad Mehtabdin, manager of the Citgo at Princess Plaza. "Nobody will complain about that." It may have seemed like a no-brainer for the cash-strapped customers "the gas man" served that day, reeling from sticker shock over high gas prices: With a gallon of regular costing more than $3 in some areas, consumers are happy to get a deal when they find it - and the gas man's deal was a whopper.

Carroll Independent Fuel Co. of Baltimore has paid a $101,894 penalty under a consent agreement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency for failing to take required measures to detect and prevent fuel leaks from underground storage tanks at eight of its gas stations in Maryland. The settlement announced yesterday resolves violations in tank inspection, leak detection and control requirements at: Gibson Citgo, 210 Ridgely Ave., Annapolis; Harford Road Mobil, 9205 Harford Road; Pulaski Citgo, 9525 Pulaski Highway; Rockspring Mobil, 1467 Rock Spring Road, Bel Air; Eldersburg Mobil, 1400 Liberty Road; Jarrettsville Citgo, 1755 Jarrettsville Road; Hammonds Ferry Citgo, 722-724 N. Hammonds Ferry Road, Linthicum; and Taylor Avenue Citgo, 900 E. Taylor Ave., Towson.

NEW ORLEANS - You could do worse than to have your kid grow up to be a professional bass fisherman. Three anglers have won more than $1 million. Two others will cross that threshold soon. The men who chase fish for a living have sponsors, TV shows, videos and how-to books. Media giant ESPN looked at the potential this year and bought the country's oldest and largest bass organization, the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, for a reported $40 million. Yesterday, as 45 anglers gathered to begin the signature event of the season, B.A.S.