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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The West Coast ports that are America's gateway for hundreds of billions of dollars of trade with Asia and beyond are no stranger to labor unrest and even violence.

Now, the contract that covers nearly 20,000 dockworkers is set to expire, and businesses that trade in everything from apples to iPhones are worried about disruptions just as the crush of cargo for the back-to-school and holiday seasons begins.

With contentious issues including benefits and job security on the table, smooth sailing is no guarantee.

On one side is the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, with its tradition of fierce activism dating to the Great Depression, when two of its members were killed during a strike. On the other is the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and operators of terminals at 29 West Coast ports.

Both acknowledge that they are unlikely to agree on a new contract before the current one expires June 30, but they plan to negotiate past that deadline. That would fit the pattern from contract talks in 2008 and 2002. In 2002, negotiators didn't reach an agreement until around Thanksgiving, following an impasse that led to a 10-day lockout and a big disruption in trade.

The union's total control over the labor pool means huge bargaining leverage, which negotiators have parlayed into white-collar wages and perks for blue-collar work. A full-time longshoreman earns about $130,000 a year, while foremen earn about $210,000, according to employer data. Workers pay nearly nothing for health coverage that includes no premiums and $1 prescriptions.

Neither side has publicly discussed progress on negotiations that began May 12 in San Francisco, which is headquarters to the union and the maritime association.

Twelve years ago, the shutdown had a lasting impact on how products moved in and out of the United States. Hulking cranes idled. Ships anchored in San Francisco Bay and outside ports from Los Angeles to Seattle. Economists estimated the impact at $1 billion each day.

Even after trade resumed, retailers — with their just-in-time supply chain — worried that West Coast ports risked becoming a bottleneck. Companies looked to Gulf Coast and East Coast ports, which courted them by upgrading facilities.

"They can't afford to have their goods hung up either out on the sea or on the docks," said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation.

Between 2002 and last year, the portion of shipping containers that came into the U.S. through West Coast ports dropped from 50 percent to 44 percent, according to a study by Martin Associates, a firm that analyzes transportation systems. Imports to the Gulf of Mexico and the Northeast increased.

Even so, West Coast ports handled cargo worth $892 billion in 2013 alone, according to trade data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Worries over the current negotiations have prompted some stores to route shipments away from the West Coast, Gold said. Other importers planning for fall and winter shopping have shipped early to beat the contract's expiration date.

The maritime association warns that labor peace is essential to keeping West Coast ports competitive, especially with an expansion of the Panama Canal that will allow larger vessels to reach East Coast markets directly.

The union is not persuaded, at least not publicly.

"The competitiveness argument is an old saw that gets trotted out every time there's a negotiation," said union spokesman Craig Merrilees. "The claim has generally been used in an effort to extract concessions from the union members."

One area where the Pacific Maritime Association is looking for concessions is benefits. According to the PMA, the cost of benefits more than doubled over the past decade, reaching $93,200 per registered worker in fiscal year 2013.

During these negotiations, a new incentive is in play: In 2018, a 40 percent tax on the value of "Cadillac" health plans above a certain threshold kicks in under the Affordable Care Act — and the union's coverage qualifies.

Last July, workers and retirees picketed in Long Beach and in Tacoma, Washington, complaining that some families were shouldering tens of thousands of medical bills the health plan was not paying.

Employers said legitimate claims were being paid, but they were scrutinizing tens of millions of dollars of treatments that were likely fraudulent, including phantom appointments and charges for cosmetic surgery.

Other bargaining issues include what jobs will remain under union control, the introduction of technology that could make some jobs obsolete, and on-the-job safety measures.

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Contact Justin Pritchard at https://twitter.com/lalanewsman .

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli warplanes bombed a series of targets inside Syria early on Monday, the Israeli military said, in response to a cross-border attack that killed an Israeli teenager the previous day.

In all, Israel said it struck nine military targets inside Syria, and "direct hits were confirmed."

The targets were located near the site of Sunday's violence in the Golan Heights and included a regional military command center and unspecified "launching positions." There was no immediate response from Syria.

In Sunday's attack, an Israeli civilian vehicle was struck by forces in Syria as it drove in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. A teenage boy was killed and two other people were wounded in the first deadly incident along the volatile Israeli-Syrian front since Syria's civil war erupted more than three years ago. The Israeli vehicle was delivering water as it was doing contract work for Israel's Defense Ministry when it was struck.

"Yesterday's attack was an unprovoked act of aggression against Israel, and a direct continuation to recent attacks that occurred in the area," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman. He said the military "will not tolerate any attempt to breach Israel's sovereignty and will act in order to safeguard the civilians of the state of Israel."

The sudden burst of violence has added to the tense situation in Israel, where forces have spent the past week and half in a broad ground operation in the West Bank in search of three teenage boys believed to have been abducted by Hamas militants.

Israel has carefully monitored the fighting in Syria, but has generally kept its distance and avoided taking sides. On several occasions, mortar shells and other types of fire have landed on the Israeli side of the de facto border, drawing limited Israeli reprisals. Israel is also believed to have carried out several airstrikes on arms shipments it believed to be headed from Syria to Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon.

It was not immediately clear whether Syrian troops or one of the many rebel groups battling the government carried out Sunday's deadly attack in the Golan. But Lerner said it was clear that the attack was intentional. Israel has repeatedly said it holds the Syrian government responsible for any attacks emanating from its territory, regardless of who actually carries them out.

Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel's annexation of the area has never been recognized internationally.

The incident occurred in the area of Tel Hazeka, near the Quneitra crossing. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian troops had shelled nearby targets on the Syrian border earlier in the day.

Israeli police identified the boy as Mohammed Karaka, 14, of the Arab village of Arraba in northern Israel. Local media said he had accompanied his father, the truck driver, to work.

Late Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke to the boy's father and sent his condolences.

"Our enemies don't differentiate between Jews and non-Jews, adults and children," he told an international gathering of Jewish journalists.

In his address, Netanyahu said in conflicts like Syria, where al-Qaida-inspired extremists are battling Iranian-backed Syrian troops, there is no good choice and it is best for Israel to sit back and let its enemies weaken each other.

"This is a fault line between civilization and savagery," he said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ellen DeGeneres, Steve Harvey and the soap opera "The Young and the Restless" were among the 41st annual Daytime Emmy winners.

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" received its eighth trophy as outstanding entertainment talk show at the awards ceremony Sunday in Beverly Hills.

The "Steve Harvey" show was honored as outstanding informative talk show, while Harvey won as best game show host for "Family Feud."

CBS' "The Young and the Restless" captured best drama series honors, while its star Billy Miller won the trophy for best lead actor in a drama series. Eileen Davidson of NBC's "Days of Our Lives" was named best drama series actress.

ABC's "Good Morning America" won the best morning program Emmy.

The Daytime Emmys introduced new awards for Spanish-language shows. Trophies went to Telemundo's "Un Nuevo Dia" as best morning program, to CNNE's "Clix" as best entertainment show and to Rodner Figueroa of Univision's "El Gordo y la Flaca" as best daytime talent in Spanish.

CBS, which received eight creative arts Daytime Emmys for technical achievements at a June 20 ceremony, emerged as the network leader with a total of 14 awards after Sunday's ceremony.

PBS received a combined 13 awards, with six for HUB Network; five for TOLN.com; four for ABC and three for NBC.

The ceremony, which aired on the cable news channel HLN last year and in 2012 after losing its longtime home on the broadcast networks, this year settled for streaming the proceedings online. The change in fortune reflects the dwindling daytime audience and programming shifts.

Kathy Griffin hosted Sunday's ceremony, with Billy Bush and Mario Lopez among the presenters.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Best-selling author Vince Flynn died just over a year ago, but his terrorist-fighting protagonist Mitch Rapp will live on in new books written by someone else, Flynn's publisher says.

Simon & Schuster and Flynn's estate have commissioned thriller writer Kyle Mills to complete Flynn's unfinished novel, "The Survivor," and to write two more books in the Rapp series. "The Survivor" is tentatively scheduled to hit shelves next year.

Similar deals have kept James Bond and other action heroes alive long after their creators. Flynn's longtime editor, Emily Bestler, told The Associated Press that continuing the Rapp series was a bittersweet experience. Rapp was featured in 13 of the 14 novels Flynn published in his lifetime.

"But I know that this is what he would want and know that his readers will be grateful," Bestler said.

Flynn, who sold more than 15 million books in the U.S. alone and counted Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush among his fans, was 47 when he died June 19, 2013, in his hometown of St. Paul after battling prostate cancer for more than two years. Flynn had completed only the first few chapters of "The Survivor" when he died, Bestler said.

"He would be so happy to know that Mitch Rapp has a future and that Kyle Mills is the one who will be helping that happen," Bestler said.

A Flynn fan himself, the 48-year-old Mills knows what it's like to follow in another author's footsteps. He has written 13 books, including three in the style of Jason Bourne creator Robert Ludlum, who died in 2001.

To prepare himself, Mills said he re-read every one of Flynn's books in chronological order and took 150 pages of notes on everything from his writing style to his word choice. For "The Survivor," Mills said he plans to continue with the story threads left hanging from Flynn's last book, "The Last Man," published in 2012.

"I feel pretty confident that I can produce something that people will love, because my goal is to produce something I would have loved (to read) if I hadn't been asked to write and somebody else had done it," Mills said.

Throughout the series, Rapp survives brushes with death and battles terrorists who plot to detonate a nuclear warhead in Washington, D.C., in "Memorial Day" (2004) or who seize the White House and take hostages in "Transfer of Power" (1999). Plans remain in the works to make a Mitch Rapp movie based on 2010's "American Assassin," CBS Films spokesman Grey Munford said.

Mills grew up in Oregon, the son of an FBI man, and now lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He said he worries constantly about whether Flynn's fans will accept him.

"As a Vince Flynn fan, you come to know and love that character. As an author, you need to create that," Mills said. "I'd hate to pick up a Mitch Rapp (book) and not have it feel authentic."

In a statement, Flynn's widow, Lysa Flynn, thanked Flynn's fans for their "love, support and patience."

"Vince was very proud of his team and we are confident that Kyle Mills will be a great addition. God bless and keep the faith!" she said.

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Online:

Vince Flynn's website: http://www.vinceflynn.com

Kyle Mills' website: http://www.kylemills.com

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Follow Jeff Baenen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffBaenen