Authorities are gearing up as a threatened strike by dockworkers at ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast draws closer.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is “coordinating with partners across the supply chain to prepare for any impacts” from a possible work stoppage by workers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association as they negotiate with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), a Port Authority spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch on Friday. 

“We urge both sides to find common ground and keep the cargo flowing for the good of the national economy,” added the spokesperson, noting that $240 billion in goods move through the two ports each year and that such trade supports more than 600,000 local jobs. 

According to the union, a strike would affect ports from Maine to Texas. A stoppage could involve up to 45,000 workers at ports that account for roughly 60% of U.S. shipping traffic, leading to a major disruption of shipments, Oxford Economics said in a report.

“Even a two-week strike could disrupt supply chains until 2025,” Grace Zwemmer, associate U.S. economist with Oxford, said in the report.

Key deadline looms

The ILA has threatened to strike if a new labor agreement with East Coast port terminal and shipping companies represented by the USMX is not reached by the time the current contract expires on October 1. 

Although the sides continue to negotiate, the odds of a rare strike that threatens to shut down some of the nation’s busiest ports are rising.

“There will be a shutdown, assuming that there’s is no intervention, at midnight on Monday the 30th,” Bethann Rooney, director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the nation’s second-busiest port, told a briefing earlier in the week.

Should that occur, all activity loading and unloading cargo containers and automobiles would come to a standstill, while cruise ships would continue to operate, Rooney said.

The Port Authority isn’t involved in the bargaining between the ILA and USMX, bur rather leases space at the ports to shipping companies. Terminal operators and ocean carriers are “working to bring in as many ships as possible” ahead of a potential walkout, said Rooney. 

Those steps include “working with truckers and the rail carriers to get as much cargo out as humanly possible, as quickly as possible,” the port director said.

A race to unload

The two ports are currently unloading about 20 large container ships a week, and they expect 150,000 containers to be unloaded ahead of the strike deadline, Rooney said. 

“At the same time, ocean carriers are beginning to put essentially embargoes on export cargo “so that it doesn’t come into East and Gulf coast ports and then wind up sitting there,” she said. 

Container ships carrying imports bound for Newark and Elizabeth in New Jersey and Staten Island in New York City will end up moored at specified spots in New York Harbor or off the coast during the strike, or remain at sea until they can come in. The Coast Guard and U.S. customs and Border Protection would oversee arriving ships at the port facilities once a strike was over. 

The ILA union walked away from the bargaining table in June, declaring that a type of automation introduced at the Port of Mobile in Alabama was in violation of the current contract.

Based in North Bergen, New Jersey, the ILA represents 85,000 workers across the East and Gulf Coasts. The union is demanding sizable wage increases for its members as well as protection from job-killing automation.

The USMX has said it has not been able to schedule new bargaining sessions with the union. 

“It is disappointing that we have reached this point where the ILA is unwilling to reopen dialogue unless all of its demands are met,” USMX said Tuesday in an update. “The only way to resolve this impasse is to resume negotiations, which we are willing to do at any time.”  

Apple’s iPhone 16 lineup hit stores in some 60 countries Friday, but have not exactly been flying off the shelves. 

Some analysts attribute tepid demand for the new phones to the fact that they were missing a key feature out of the box: the tech giant’s much-hyped artificial intelligence features.  

“One of the key factors for the lower-than-expected demand for the iPhone 16 Pro series is that the major selling point, Apple Intelligence, is not available at launch alongside the iPhone 16 release,” TF International Securities Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote in a blogpost. 

Despite the company’s best efforts, the launch of Apple Intelligence is more complicated and drawn out than much of the marketing surrounding it suggests. 

The new iPhones come preloaded with iOS 18, Apple’s latest software upgrade. Contrary to earlier reports, however, iOS 18 does not include artificial intelligence enhancements. Instead, Apple Intelligence will begin with iOS 18.1, set to arrive in October, according to Apple. 

Consumers anxious to test out Apple Intelligence can download a public beta version of the software which was made available Thursday — just three days after the release of iOS 18. Apple Intelligence features integrated into iOS 18.1 include “text rewriting tools,” and a “glowy new Siri design,” the Verge reported.

iPhone 16 series first-weekend pre-order sales were down about 13% compared with those of the iPhone 15 series during the same period last year, noted Kuo. “The key factor is the lower-than-expected demand for the iPhone 16 Pro series,” she said. 

Kuo added that Apple employees, who typically have to wait several weeks after new iPhone models are released to purchase them, are able to use their employee discounts on the new phones now.

“This could be another sign that the early demand for the iPhone 16 is below expectations,” Kuo wrote in a post on X. 

Rollout of Apple Intelligence will be gradual

Once iOS 18.1 officially is officially released, Apple Intelligence will be integrated into apps like Mail and Notes. The new technology is designed to simplify daily chores like list-writing, “[harnessing] the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks,” according to Apple. 

Apple Intelligence is also expected to make Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, work better — though enhancements may likely be subtle at first. With the first iOS upgrade, Siri will be endowed “with richer language-understanding capabilities,” according to Apple in a description of the iPhone 16 on its website. Users will also be able to communicate with Siri by text as well, “and switch fluidly between text and voice as they accelerate everyday tasks.”  

Apple Intelligence will also work on iPhone 15 Pro models, once the software update arrives.

CNET senior editor Lisa Eadicicco told CBS news she’s not surprised that demand for iPhone 16 isn’t going through the roof. 

“For people looking to upgrade, it’s really not about the year-over-year improvements anymore,” she told CBS News. “I think the days of buying the latest iPhone every year are behind us. I think if you have a phone that’s several generations old, those are the people that are really going to benefit form the upgrade because you get longer battery life.” 

People only upgrade when they “need” a new phone, said Eadicicco, which is typically every three years or so, according to CNET data.

Lewis Lent was convicted for murdering two children in Massachusetts and New York, including 12-year-old Sara Anne Wood. But investigators still don’t know where he buried her. 

Here’s a timeline of this decadeslong saga.

Oct. 22, 1990: Jimmy Bernardo disappears 

James “Jimmy” Bernardo, 12, goes missing. He was last seen outside the Pittsfield Plaza Cinema Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, around 5 p.m. Jimmy never came home, and his parents called the police later that evening. 

Nov. 21, 1990: Jimmy Bernardo’s body is discovered

Hunters come across Jimmy Bernardo’s body off a dirt road in rural Newfield, New York, about 200 miles away from Pittsfield. Evidence at the scene showed he was murdered. 

Nov. 6, 1992: Jamie Lusher goes missing

Jamie Lusher, a 16-year-old with disabilities, was last seen in Westfield, Massachusetts, while biking to his grandmother’s house. Jamie’s bicycle was discovered six days later in a field off a dead-end road in Westfield.

August 18, 1993: Sara Anne Wood disappears

Sara Anne Wood, 12, was last seen making the short trek home from Vacation Bible School in the rural area of Sauquoit, New York. Her family began looking for her after she failed to return home.

Later in the day, Sara’s bike was discovered by a neighbor hidden in the brush off the side of road about a half mile down the road from the Wood family’s home. Police were called and by early evening a massive search effort began.  

 Jan. 7, 1994: An attempted abduction leads to a major break in multiple cases

Five months after Sara’s disappearance, a man attempted to abduct 12-year-old Becky Savarese as she was walking to school through downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Becky escaped the attack and later that day a 43-year-old suspect named Lewis Lent was questioned by police. 

While being questioned, Lewis Lent tells police he used to work as a part-time janitor at the Pittsfield Plaza Cinema Center, the last place Jimmy Bernardo was seen in 1990. Authorities suspected they may have more than a one-time offender on their hands and Lent was later arrested on charges relating to Becky Savarese’s case.

A teletype was sent out to law enforcement agencies across the region, including the New York State Police who arrived in Pittsfield later in the evening to question Lent about Sara Wood.  

After hours of questioning over the next two days, Lewis Lent confesses to the murders of Sara Wood and Jimmy Bernardo. Lent also told them chilling details about his “master plan”. He was building a large wooden partition in his bedroom to lock his victims in after abducting them.

Jan. 10, 1994: Investigators begin searching for Sara Wood in the Adirondack Mountains

A large, statewide search party descends upon an area near Raquette Lake in New York’s Adirondack Mountains to search an area using Lent’s description and hand drawn map of where he claimed to have buried Sara Wood. After more than 50 days of tedious searching through deep snow, authorities halted the effort.

On the same day, Lewis Lent is arraigned in Massachusetts on charges of kidnapping, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in the Becky Savarese case and pleads not guilty.

Feb. 14, 1994: Lewis Lent is indicted for the murder of Jimmy Bernardo

More than three years after Jimmy Bernardo’s death, Lent is indicted by a grand jury for kidnapping and murdering the boy. He was arraigned on the same day and pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Jan. 7, 1995: Lent is found guilty for the attempted kidnapping of Becky Savarese  

A year after Becky Savarese escaped, Lent is found guilty of her attempted kidnapping after a four-day trial. The next day, he is given a sentence of 17 to 20 years.

May 25, 1995: Sara Wood’s father bikes 600 miles to Washington, D.C.

Sara Wood’s father Bob Wood and brother Dusty Wood arrive in Washington D.C. after biking 600 miles from upstate New York to raise money and awareness for missing children and abduction prevention. This ride was turned into an annual shortened version that still continues.

June 3, 1996: Lent pleads guilty to killing Jimmy Bernardo

The day before his trial was set to begin for the murder of Jimmy Bernardo, Lent makes a surprise reversal and pleads guilty. This would not be the last time Lent surprises a courtroom. The judge immediately sentenced Lent to life in prison without parole. 

June 7, 1996: Lent arrives in Herkimer, N.Y., to face charges for the murder of Sara Anne Wood

Within days after pleading guilty to the murder of Jimmy Bernardo, Lent arrived in a bullet proof vest to a media frenzy in Herkimer County, New York, to face charges for the kidnapping and murder of Sara Wood. However, it would take months before justice can be served.

Oct. 16, 1996: Lewis Lent enters a plea

Sources from that time say  Lent intended to plead guilty at his court hearing, but changed his mind and pleaded not guilty. “It’s my understanding that when he entered the courtroom, he saw certain members of the public, especially I think her family, so he decided on that day he did not want to enter a plea,” the current district attorney of Herkimer County, Jeffrey Carpenter, told “48 Hours.”

Oct. 25, 1996: Lent changes his mind — again

Lent decided to plead guilty to the kidnapping and murder of Sara Anne Wood. However, authorities say Lent continued to deny the Wood family closure by not giving up where Sara’s body is. 

April 11, 1997: Lewis Lent is sentenced

At Lent’s sentencing hearing, the Wood family and the then-district attorney of Herkimer County gave impact statements. Despite all the requests to reveal where he buried Sara, Lent remained silent. He was sentenced to 25 years-to-life for the kidnapping and murder of Sara Anne Wood. He was sent back to Massachusetts to serve the rest of his life in prison. But the job was not finished for investigators, who continued to visit Lent in prison in hopes he would reveal where he buried Sara and perhaps disclose the murders of other victims.

July 15, 2013: Massachusetts authorities announce Lewis Lent confessed to killing Jamie Lusher

At a press conference in Westfield, Massachusetts, authorities announce Lent confessed to the murder of Jamie Lusher. In the days following this press conference, investigators searched Greenwater Pond in Becket, Massachusetts, where Lent told them he disposed of Jamie’s body. However, the search effort was unsuccessful and Jamie’s body remains missing.

As he has done many times before, Lent would later recant his confession. Authorities decided not to charge Lent with Jamie’s murder, hoping that one day he will lead them to his body. 

That same month, New York authorities were granted permission to bring Lent back to New York to point out where he said he placed Sara Wood’s body. But after three days and more than 600 miles of driving, the operation ended without finding Sara and Lent was sent back to Massachusetts. 

November 2023: Investigators search rural area in Vermont

Based on information Lent provided investigators, another search was conducted in Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, just across the Massachusetts border. The search effort, this time once again for Sara Wood, also ended with no body found.

2024: Dusty Wood continues to ride his bike for missing children

“48 Hours”‘ cameras joined Sara Wood’s brother, Dusty Wood, and other participants in the annual bike ride called the Ride for Missing Children. Refusing to let a family tragedy slow him down, Dusty pours his energy into honoring his sister and spreading awareness to help prevent the abduction of children.  

June 18, 2024: Search of former house connected to Lent

Authorities search a property in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, connected to Lent. This property had been searched before in the 1990s and belonged to a then-friend of Lent. Lent had done some work in the basement of the house.