Fair Proxy Web

Altamont fair

Expo Line crossing issue goes to mediation, for now

Justin tv jonas brothers

There’s a wee bit of a development on the California Public Utilities Commission’s hearings over the two disputed crossings along the Expo Line light-rail project in Los Angeles: the parties involved have been ordered into mediation this afternoon to try to agree on a way to solve the crossing issue at Dorsey High School.

The train, as proposed, would cross Farmdale Avenue, which runs adjacent to the high school in South Los Angeles. The Expo Line Construction Authority, which is building the line, wants to cross the street at grade, whereas community activists say that’s not safe and want the train to go under or above Farmdale.

At this point, the judge has told the parties to consider three options in their mediation: an under-crossing, over-crossing or pedestrian bridge over the tracks. If they can’t agree, hearings over the crossings will resume in September.

“I would say we’re happy to negotiate in good faith, and we intend to do that, and if we’re not able to reach an agreement then we’ll be presenting our case in September,” said Samantha Bricker, the chief operation officer of the construction authority. “Our goal is to move this project forward and complete it as quickly as possible.”

Damien Goodmon, of the Citizens’ Campaign to Fix the Expo Line, said he was pleased that the three options in mediation did not include an at-grade crossing, but he wouldn’t commit to the proposed pedestrian bridge. He would only say that that’s an option that he may take back to the community for consideration.

The pedestrian bridge, according to the construction authority, is estimated to cost about $7 million. Over- and under-crossings for the train would cost millions more, the authority says.

The other crossing dispute–at Harvard Avenue next to the Foshay Learning Center, nearby in South L.A.–isn’t on the table at this time. Again, the construction authority wants an at-grade crossing and activists don’t.

The construction authority wants to finish the Expo Line between downtown and Culver City by 2010. The PUC hearings are significant because decisions about the crossings could affect the cost of the project and lead to delays.

–Steve Hymon

photo: Expo Line Construction Authority

Related posts: Paris hilton ad for president, Restaurant.com, Bhajji, The advertiser, Mcafee site advisor

Kendra beebe

The Clone Wars: The Wayans Family

Keenan Ivory Wayans took his kids to the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which makes him much cooler than my dad.

Are the backpacks swag, or the receptacle for said swag? Either way, they’re much cooler than the plastic Sears bag I use to haul my stuff around.

Kimberly clem

Photo

Four-day work week gets A+ at college

COCOA, Florida (CNN) — Ask just about any college student, and they’ll tell you they’d jump through hoops to avoid taking a class that meets Fridays.

So, it was welcome news to students when Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida, decided to experiment with a four-day workweek. A year ago, as energy costs headed up and the school faced cuts in state funding, college President James Drake, who drives a hybrid, decided to give the shortened workweek a try.

It worked out better than anyone could have imagined, Drake says.

If it weren’t for the savings that we have netted from energy management and the four-day workweek, we would not have been able to do several of the vital things that are going to help us attract and retain even more students, Drake said.

Brevard Community College began the four-day workweek during the 2007 summer session. The following fall and spring, it added a half-day but then went back to the four-day work week again this summer. iReport.com: Are you working a four-day week?

Over that year-long period, by closing on Fridays and turning down the air conditioning and heating systems, the college saved $267,000 in energy costs. The savings allowed Brevard to hire 10 full-time faculty members. Watch: Shorter work week boosts morale, productivity

It was a great thing for me, because I became a full-time faculty, Betty Blaschak said.

Blaschak teaches at Brevard’s cosmetology school, where scissors and combs are moving a mile a minute as students learn how to style hair. Brooke Stile is one of the those students, and taking classes four days a week instead of five makes a huge difference to her.

The fact that I have that day, that one day, it’s just so much nicer, and I just don’t have to drive all that way to Cocoa, Stile said.

Stile, who is a single mom, saves a 50-mile round trip with the four days of classes. She spends the extra day with her son, which means one less day she has to pay for child care. She says she can also get more done.

The bank is only open till noon on Saturdays, so instead of doing it on Saturdays, I can do it on Fridays, Stile said. And go grocery shopping and there’s not going to be a lot of people there.

Evers, who drives nearly 100 miles a day from Orlando, Florida, to take a biology class at Brevard, saves gas and says the Friday off is a win-win.

I get an extra day to go to work, and I have an extra day to study, Evers said.

The four-day workweek at Brevard has yielded even more positive results: There’s been a 44 percent reduction in staff turnover, according to Drake.

We have had a 50 percent increase in applications for employment during the same period this year as apposed to last year, Drake said.

Mili Torres, the director of enrollment at the Cocoa campus, says her staff members rarely miss work.

Absenteeism has actually gone away almost in my department, Torres said.

However, the longer work days of a four-day workweek have created some problems for people who need child care. For them, the school provides flex scheduling, which allows staff members to come in and leave earlier or later, depending on what is convenient.

Drake says he often receives calls from other colleges and universities wanting to know how it’s working. It’s working so well that when the fall semester begins, Brevard Community College will shift to a year-round four-day workweek.

Across the country, businesses, institutions and even one state are considering or have moved to a four-day workweek.

Donetta Pritchard, who lives in Utah, has been commuting 100 miles a day for the past 14 years. Today, she’s leaving the roads a little less traveled.

In Utah, the state government has just gone into its second week of shutting down 1,000 buildings on Fridays. The state believes that it can save $3 million by moving to a four-day workweek. But just as important as the savings is how employees are affected. Watch: Utah first state to try four-day workweek

Although the change has been a welcome relief to some workers, it’s created hardships for others.

Mylitta Barrett, a single mother, says the switch means she spends less time with her three sons.

Barrett now needs a sitter in the mornings to care for her severely disabled son, Joseph, until his bus comes and says she has less time for her other boys as well.

You can’t make up the soccer game that I missed on Monday because you were working and didn’t get home until seven o’clock at night, Barrett said.

After 15 years with the state, she says she depends on the medical coverage and can’t consider quitting.

I don’t like being thrown in this position where my life is going to get more difficult because of energy savings or whatever reason they decided to do this, Barrett said.

found here.

Togo

TTFND

Or ‘ta ta for now ducks’, as the local farmers used to say to ‘you’s vicarage kiddies’ after Mass in my father’s parish in Staffordshire. I leave you with the final Lambeth Bible study from Oxford theology undergraduate Joanna Cleggs. I’ll be keeping a desultory eye on things over August so do keep commenting if you like, but I won’t be posting again until the start of September. pic taken by me on my Blackberry in Jerusalem during Gafcon. rg

Jo writes: In our final Bible Study we looked at Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter, John chapter 21 verses 15-25, in which Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, a reminder of Peter’s thrice-denial in chapter 18. The scene is set by the burning charcoal fire which appears in both chapters, but whereas in the earlier passage (18 v.18) it is used for warmth on a chilled evening that has been further marred by absence and betrayal, in the last chapter it marks a great comeback, the return of the King.

But there is another comeback which really occupies this passage - Peter’s. The painful process Jesus initiates could seem like judgement, like pouring salt in a wound. Why can’t Jesus accept the first response? Did he have to make certain? He’d asked Peter things before, and Peter was there jumping out of boats and making tents for the transfigured Moses and Elijah going out of his way because he recognised before anyone else that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.’ And yet he still rejected him. So in verse 17, Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time,’ he is probably not hurt because of the tiresome repetition. Rather the third question transports him to another time, not that long ago, but comparably distinct, one that he appears to have forgotten (verse 7).

Do you ever feel complacent about prayer? God knows anyway, what’s the point? God doesn’t need to hear that we love him; Jesus didn’t need to hear that Peter loved him. God is no better off for it. But do we know that we love, if we don’t say it? Is it possible to love something and not declare it? Isn’t it true that when we love, we want (and need) to talk about it, and as we talk, our love comes alive? (see Romans 10 v. 8-10)And so we’re back to the beginning, to words.This is a complete redemption. Jesus’ wonderful means of forgiveness is to vivify Peter. It would not be enough to say, ok I forgive you. Now off you go. Over there, away from my sight’. Thank God that God does not just forgive in an oblique way; he gives us something to do. He says, not only do I forgive what you’ve done, but I give you important things to do because you’re worth it and have something to offer’. He gives us purposes. Follow me’.As a Good Shepherd, as a servant-hearted leader, Jesus shares his ministry with Peter. That Peter will die a worse death than Jesus is not punishment, but that Jesus tells him what he is to suffer, is a lesson to us today. We’re not selling a lifestyle, Christianity is hard. I wonder if the most effective evangelism would be to ask people if they want to suffer for a compelling cause that is Truth and Right and Good (in the kalos’ sense)? It is surprising how much people are willing to die for good’ causes. Animal-rights? Amnesty international? War? Here Jesus is telling Peter he will die for this cause. He doesn’t trick him into it, he doesn’t manipulate and he doesn’t sell it as a magnificent lie. This is hard selling.

University of southern indiana

(footnote from rg: if you are visiting London in August, I recommend the butterfly exhibition just outside the Natural History Museum where my son took this picture yesterday. We stood and watched a gorgeous blue morpho butterfly hatch from its tiny blue pupa. It was the most enthralling experience.)

Related posts: Yemeni, Gta sales, Close encounters, The dark knight cast, Pleasure prints

France: Cease-fire, not peace reached in Georgia

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) — The Russian and French presidents on Tuesday announced a six-point plan of principles for settling the immediate conflict in Georgia but stopped short of tackling the issues that sparked the violence.

We have not achieved peace yet but we have achieved a provisional cease-fire of hostilities, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

The points include Russian agreements to conclude all military operations, return Russian armed forces to the line preceding the beginning of operations, and not use force again in Georgia.

In return Georgia would return its armed forces to their normal and permanent locations.

Both sides would provide free access for humanitarian assistance; and international consideration of the issues of South Ossetia and Abkhazia would be undertaken.

All we need to do now is to stop suffering, stop the death of people, Sarkozy said. Stopping the fighting is the most important objective.

He emphasized that the meeting with Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev was not intended to solve all of the issues, such as Georgia’s territorial integrity and South Ossetia’s desire for independence.

There are bigger problems relating to South Ossetia that we cannot resolve here, Sarkozy said, who arrived in Moscow as current head of the European Union.

Sarkozy said he and Medvedev agreed Georgia is an independent country and that Russia has no intention of annexing it, but Medvedev also said sovereignty is based on the will of the people and territorial integrity can be demonstrated by the actual facts on the ground.

Medvedev said earlier that he had ordered an end to military operations against Georgia, but Tbilisi reported more attacks after the statement was made. Watch Georgia’s reaction to halt in fighting

I have reached a decision to halt the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace, Medvedev said. The aggressor has been punished and has incurred very significant losses. Its armed forces are disorganized.

Meanwhile, thousands of Georgians rallied in the country’s capital, Tbilisi, following Medvedev’s announcement. Watch the rally

U.S. officials also told CNN it was considering flying aid from bases in Germany to Georgia. There was also consideration being given to sending U.S. Navy ships into the Black Sea to conduct humanitarian relief missions.

Violence has raged since Thursday when Georgia launched a crackdown on separatist fighters in autonomous South Ossetia, where most people have long supported independence.

Russia — which supports the separatists — responded Friday, sending tanks across its border into South Ossetia. The conflict quickly spread to parts of Georgia and to Abkhazia, another separatist region.

Russian said it wanted to stop Georgian military actions against its peacekeepers in the breakaway regions.

The Georgian government said despite Medvedev’s announcement, Russian warplanes struck two Georgian villages and bombed an ambulance outside the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Watch more on the fighting in South Ossetia

The Russian Defense Ministry called the Georgian claims informational provocations and believed they would continue, Interfax reported.

Medvedev warned in his announcement that when pockets of resistance and other aggressive actions occur, a decision concerning destruction had to be made.

Earlier a Georgian Interior Ministry official said Russian bombs had hit one of the three pipelines carrying oil to the Black Sea port of Poti. There was no oil in the pipeline at the time. Interactive map: See how far the Russians have advanced

UK-based energy giant BP later said it had shut down two oil pipelines in the region as a precautionary measure linked to the security situation. None of its pipelines had been attacked.

A Dutch cameraman was killed on Tuesday morning in an incident in Gori, the Dutch Foreign Ministry confirmed. He was identified as Stan Storimans, of RTL TV. The correspondent who accompanied him was also injured.

One Russian diplomat told CNN up to 2,000 people had died in the conflict. Up to 100,000 people are thought to have been displaced by the violence, which has left South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali in ruins.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a Tuesday news conference that it wanted a demilitarized zone to be created in Georgian territory before a cease-fire could take effect. Watch Lavrov speak about Georgia

The zone had to be big enough to prevent Georgia’s military from attacking the breakaway province, he added.

found here.