Society ship is seizedSociety Expeditions Inc., a...

Society ship is seized

Society Expeditions Inc., a Seattle-based cruise company founded in the 1970s and known for its adventure trips to Antarctica, the Russian Far East and other exotic places, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after creditors seized its sole ship.

More than 100 passengers scheduled for a 19-day cruise were turned away in Nome, Alaska, last month when the World Discoverer was repossessed, Associated Press reported

Company officials did not return calls last week seeking comment. A posting on the company’s Internet site, www.societyexpeditions.com, said “below-budget numbers” for summer and fall bookings led to financial shortages. In its June 29 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington, in Seattle, Society Expeditions estimated its assets at less than $50,000 and its debts at $500,001 to $1 million.

Passport

crush pushes

deadlines

If you need a passport, get in line.

“We are receiving passport applications at an all-time-record rate,” said Stuart Patt, a spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. “We expected an increase but nowhere near the amount we’re getting.”

The department advises travelers to allow six weeks for a passport (although an expedited passport can be processed in two weeks for an additional $60), and that hasn’t changed, Patt said. But the increase is “pressing us to keep up within the time frames for regular service.... We used to be a little better than that.”

For information, see www.travel.state.gov/passport_services.html.

Come on

-- just a

little puff

San Diego’s airport will be one of five nationwide that will test an explosives trace detection device.

Passengers will step inside the portal, which a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman described as “like a big doorway.” Then the machine will release several jets of air as it seeks explosives traces.

The process takes 10 to 15 seconds. “It’s very painless,” said Ann Davis, of the Northeast region of TSA. The machine is to be installed at Lindbergh Field airport by month’s end.

Park yourself

at a new site

in Chicago

Chicago plans to welcome Millennium Park, its outdoor concert venue, with shows from Friday through July 18. Besides the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the 24.5-acre park, between Randolph and Monroe streets and Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive, boasts a Gehry-designed bridge, a fountain and a sculpture by Anish Kapoor. For information: (312) 742-1168 or www.millenniumpark.org.

-- Compiled by Times staff