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Friday, May 26, 2006

In February of 2006, the Savarino Services Construction Corp. proposed the construction of a seven million dollar hotel on Elmwood and Forest Avenues in Buffalo, New York. In order for the hotel to be built, at least five properties containing businesses and residents would have to be destroyed. It was not certain whether the properties were owned by Savarino or by the landlord Hans Mobius. The hotel was designed by Karl Frizlen of the Frizlen Group, and is planned to be a franchise of the Wyndham Hotels group.

Elmwood Avenue is known by the community as a popular shopping center, and Nancy Pollina of Don Apparel (who is “utterly against” the construction) claims it’s the only reason why students from Buffalo State College leave campus. Additionally, Michael Faust of Mondo Video said he did not want to “get kicked out of here [his video store property].”

In 1995, a Walgreens was proposed to be built on the same land, but Walgreens later withdrew its request for a variance because of pressure from the community. More recently, Pano Georgiadis tried to get the rights to demolish the Atwater House next to his restaurant on Elmwood Avenue, but was denied a permit due to the property’s historical value. He has since been an opponent to the hotel construction.

In the process of debating the hotel, it was thought that a hotel had previously existed on the proposed site, however; research done at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society had shown that no hotel had previously existed on the site.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

In his first annual State of the Union address Wednesday night, United States President Barack Obama urged Americans to overcome a deficit of trust in government and work together to solve a damaged economy and other problems.

Obama acknowledged that many Americans are frustrated and angry, doubting whether he can deliver the change he promised in his 2008 campaign. But he said change is not easy, and he will continue to pursue it. “We do not quit. I do not quit. Let us seize this moment-to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more,” he said.

In his hour-long speech before both houses of the United States Congress, the president several times confronted the public anger that has caused his approval ratings to slide. “We have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now. We face a deficit of trust-deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years,” he said.

Much of Americans’ frustration concerns the nation’s stubborn 10-percent unemployment rate. Obama called for a number of initiatives to address the problem and urged the Senate to join the House of Representatives in passing a second jobs bill. “People are out of work. They are hurting. They need our help. And, I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay,” he said.

Among the president’s economic goals are doubling U.S. exports in five years and freezing most domestic government spending for three years, starting in 2011. Obama also called upon lawmakers to continue earmark reform, saying, “Tonight, I’m calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single Web site before there’s a vote, so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.”

Obama urged Democratic lawmakers not to abandon the effort to reform the U.S. health care system, one of his administration’s main priorities. “Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people,” he said.

He called on both Democrats and Republicans to overcome their bitter partisan divisions and work together to pass legislation to solve problems. “What frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day,” he said. “We cannot wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about the other side. A belief ‘if you lose, I win.'”

On foreign policy, President Obama again pledged to remove all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of August. “But make no mistake: this war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home,” Obama said.

He also said he is confident the United States will succeed in the war in Afghanistan and that diplomatic efforts are helping isolate Iran and North Korea for their pursuit of nuclear weapons. He also addressed critics of his foreign policy agenda, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney saying, “Let’s put aside the schoolyard taunts about who is tough. Let’s reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values.”

Another plan announced by Obama is to end the U.S. military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on sexual orientation of service members that has existed since the Clinton administration saying, “This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.” He added, “It’s the right thing to do.”

Obama also addressed the recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission saying, “With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections.” In a break of decorum, Associate Justice Samuel Alito appeared to mouth the words, “No, not true”, in response, according to many commentators.File:Bob-McDonnell sm.jpg

The Republican Party’s response to the president’s speech came from the governor of the state of Virginia, Bob McDonnell. McDonnell gave the speech from the chamber of the Virginia House of Delegates. He said Democrats are spending too much and causing an unsustainable level of debt.

The newly inaugurated governor said, “What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class.”

He also said Americans want affordable health care, but do not want the government to run it.

McDonnell also criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the suspect accused of trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. He said he does not agree with the decision to try the Nigerian suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in the Detroit airliner plot in a U.S. civilian court.

McDonnell is one of several Republicans who have recently won elections in states which the Democrats swept in 2008.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Parts of a body belonging to a child have been discovered at the Haut de la Garenne in Saint Martin, Jersey, a United Kingdom Crown dependency off the coast of Normandy, France.

The Victorian building, which was originally built as a children’s care home and is now a youth hostel, has been under investigation recently as part of an inquiry into child abuse which occurred during the 1960s. The investigation has now been refocused with the aim to excavate further the grounds of the building, under the command of a specialist team from the UK who will use ground scanners and sniffer dogs to detect any other possible remains.

The body is believed to date from the early 1980s though further information about the identity of the child has not yet been released. The remains were found buried underneath a concrete floor inside the building. Today, the Guardian newspaper revealed that there are fears of a possible six further bodies buried on the site.

“There could be six, but it could be higher than that,” according to lead investigator Lenny Harper, who further said, “Allegations range from physical assaults right through to rape. It is difficult to envisage more horrific crimes than some of those that are alleged to have been carried out here.”

A helpline set up to find more information about alleged child abuse at the Haut de la Garenne and Jersey Sea Scouts has garnered a total of 140 contacts, made up of those claiming to be witnesses or victims to the crimes. The information gathered from the telephone inquiry triggered the search of the grounds.

Monday, August 11, 2008

In November 2007, a twin-engine 30-year-old Piper aircraft lost all electrical power on board shortly after departing from Kerry airport in Ireland for a flight to Jersey. Without any electrical power, the pilot was unable to use his radio to contact air traffic control. He was briefly able to re-establish contact with the tower using his cell phone, but that was also disrupted.

The report into the incident published on August 6 revealed how a quick-thinking air traffic controller in Cork started sending directions to the pilot by text message. With this assistance, the plane, with five people on board, landed safely after the undercarriage was lowered manually and air traffic control visually confirmed that it was down. Prior to lowering the undercarriage, the first officer noticed that the nose wheel had failed to retract fully and was actually at half its travel.

“In this incident the positive and proactive initiative of the ATC controller, who, on realising that mobile audio communication from the pilot was intermittent, quickly switched to texting his instructions instead”, said John Hughes, an air accident investigator who reported on the incident. “This contributed to the safe resolution of the incident and, for such, the controller should be commended for his actions.”

The pilot, aged 39 and with 1,900 hours of flying experience, succeeded in climbing to an altitude of 6,500 feet without any problems, but needed to communicate to ensure a safe landing. He originally attempted to contact Kerry airport, and after that failed he made attempts to contact Cork.

The report found that the loss of electrical power was due to the aircraft’s alternators failing to maintain the required voltage, probably due to the battery voltage being insufficient to excite the alternator’s windings. The relay may have been in poor condition after having been subjected to a heavy load following take-off, possibly contributing to the incident.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Two sinkholes have opened near the Australian northern coastal city of Newcastle, New South Wales, in the last two days. The first appeared yesterday with another opening today, both developing by houses on Lambton Parade in the suburb of Swansea Heads.

The first sinkhole measured around twenty metres across and ten metres deep, while the second sinkhole was much smaller, measuring around two metres across. The first hole swallowed tonnes of material in two hours next to a married couple’s home before they returned to discover it.

The street is over a coal mine abandoned in 1950s and this appears to be contributing to the instability of the land.

The Mine Subsidence Board is investigating the two sinkholes and safety of other homes in the area. Dozens of homes have been built over the mine since its closure. The house involved in the first, larger sinkhole dates from the 1990s, making it relatively new on the street, and the damage to it may be fixable, according to mine subsidence board members.

Sinkholes can occur naturally when bedrock erodes due to acidic rainwater seeping from the surface, or, as in this case, they can occur when houses are built on top of old mines.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

New South Wales Police are continuing the search for the man who abducted a six year old girl for a short period of time from the front yard of her Mount Austin home in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia on Sunday morning.

The girl was playing in her front yard, when abducted by a man at approximately 11:30am (AEDT) on Sunday.She tried to cling to a tree but the man overpowered her, placing her under his arm and then into the rear of his cab. The girl’s screams alerted her mother and neighbours, with her mother getting a hold of the rear tray of the Toyota Hilux and being dragged along the road before losing her grip.

It is believed a witness followed the vehicle for a short distance until losing sight of it.

The abductor returned the girl to a nearby street approximately 90 minutes after the abduction.

Superintendent Rod Smith told the media that the girl was “physically unharmed” but undergoing a “medical examination” with the family of the girl “suffering severe shock”.

The man is described to be in his 40s with a solid build and receding light hair, driving a late model Toyota Hilux, white in colour with silver standard wheels and a yellow barrel in the tray. The car is believed to have plates starting with BD or DB.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Fifteen people were shot dead on Wednesday in the western Mexican state of Nayarit. The attack occurred in a car wash in the city of Tepic, and, according to the state attorney general, was the work of a drug cartel. All 15 killed were workers at the Gamboa car wash.

“The workers were all men; they were washing cars when the gunmen, probably members of organized crime, drove up in SUVs and started opening fire,” a spokesman for the state attorney general said on Wednesday. Pictures of the scene show bodies on the roadside with blood pooling at their heads.

The massacre, which was just blocks away from federal offices, resulted in the closure of schools and businesses in the area. It is not yet clear what the motive was behind the attack, although men who work at Mexican car washes are often spies for drug gangs.

This slaying is the third major murder in six days. On Friday, cartels killed fourteen people and wounded a nine year-old boy in Ciudad Juarez, a major battleground for fighting drug cartels. Two days later, hit men killed another 14 people in Tijuana. Both cities are major cities on the United States border; however, Nayarit is a quiet resort state that has largely been free of drug violence until now.