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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
July 17, 2012
[font size="1"]Workers use a truss to lower the 380-tons of concrete span into place. (Photo by Armando Trull/WAMU)[/font]
(Armando Trull – Washington, DC, WAMU) The Silver Line to Dulles marked a major milestone Tuesday. Construction crews are fitting into place the final span for the bridges to carry the Silver Line trains.
“This marks the completion of the aerial structure of this project through Tyson’s Corner,” says Patrick Nowakowski, the executive director of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. “We have over three miles of aerial structure and this is the last span being set into place.”
The crews are using a truss longer than a football field to lift and move the 380-ton span, made up of 12 custom-cast concrete segments. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://transportationnation.org/2012/07/17/dcs-silver-line-reaches-construction-milestone/
DC’s Silver Line Reaches Construction Milestone
[font size="1"]Workers use a truss to lower the 380-tons of concrete span into place. (Photo by Armando Trull/WAMU)[/font]
(Armando Trull – Washington, DC, WAMU) The Silver Line to Dulles marked a major milestone Tuesday. Construction crews are fitting into place the final span for the bridges to carry the Silver Line trains.
“This marks the completion of the aerial structure of this project through Tyson’s Corner,” says Patrick Nowakowski, the executive director of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. “We have over three miles of aerial structure and this is the last span being set into place.”
The crews are using a truss longer than a football field to lift and move the 380-ton span, made up of 12 custom-cast concrete segments. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://transportationnation.org/2012/07/17/dcs-silver-line-reaches-construction-milestone/
July 17, 2012
Published on Jul 17, 2012 by NewsUpdatesTV
A violent death every 74 minutes has earned Honduras the dubious title of 'murder capital of the world', with the government unable to control powerful cocaine cartels in parts of the country.
The BBC's Stephen Sackur went on patrol with police in the drug-plagued city of San Pedro Sula, dubbed 'the world's most lawless city'.
Distressing BBC News report on San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Published on Jul 17, 2012 by NewsUpdatesTV
A violent death every 74 minutes has earned Honduras the dubious title of 'murder capital of the world', with the government unable to control powerful cocaine cartels in parts of the country.
The BBC's Stephen Sackur went on patrol with police in the drug-plagued city of San Pedro Sula, dubbed 'the world's most lawless city'.
July 17, 2012
DENVER— A sheriff has warned residents in a tourist town northwest of Colorado Springs that a strong, aggressive 1.75 metre (6-foot) lizard that eats small animals — including dogs and cats — is on the loose in the area.
Teller County Sheriff Mike Ensinger said Tuesday that a 12 kilogram pet Nile monitor lizard has gone missing after breaking a mesh leash and crawling away.
Ensinger said about 400 homes in the Woodland Park area were warned. He added that the animal, which escaped Monday and is known as Dino, has not bitten any humans — yet.
“We have a 6-foot reptile out and about,” Ensinger said. “If it gets hungry enough, we don’t know what it will do.” ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1227637--cat-eating-lizard-named-dino-on-loose-in-colorado-town-police-warn
Jurassic Park in Colorado !!!: Kitteh-eating lizard on the prowl
DENVER— A sheriff has warned residents in a tourist town northwest of Colorado Springs that a strong, aggressive 1.75 metre (6-foot) lizard that eats small animals — including dogs and cats — is on the loose in the area.
Teller County Sheriff Mike Ensinger said Tuesday that a 12 kilogram pet Nile monitor lizard has gone missing after breaking a mesh leash and crawling away.
Ensinger said about 400 homes in the Woodland Park area were warned. He added that the animal, which escaped Monday and is known as Dino, has not bitten any humans — yet.
“We have a 6-foot reptile out and about,” Ensinger said. “If it gets hungry enough, we don’t know what it will do.” ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1227637--cat-eating-lizard-named-dino-on-loose-in-colorado-town-police-warn
July 17, 2012
(Guardian UK) The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America", Joe Arpaio, will be called to account in a courtroom this week over long-standing accusations that he is waging an unlawful campaign of discrimination and harassment against Latinos.
Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, will be questioned before a federal judge in Phoenix in a class action lawsuit over allegations that his so-called "crime suppression" sweeps racially profile Latinos and those who look like them rather than target any evidence of criminal activity.
The sheriff, who has endorsed Mitt Romney for president and was in the audience at the televised Republican debate in Arizona, is already the subject of a civil lawsuit brought by the justice department, in a similar but broader case accusing him of widespread civil rights abuses.
The plaintiffs, a small group claiming discrimination and harassment by Arpaio and his deputies, say they have "voluminous evidence" alleging that the sheriff's office in Maricopa County is engaged in a systematic practice of racial profiling. They allege that some sweeps or "saturation patrols" were prompted by letters from the public warning of workers "speaking only Spanish" and about "dark skinned" individuals. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/17/arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio-lawsuit
Sheriff Joe headed to KKKourt this week
(Guardian UK) The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America", Joe Arpaio, will be called to account in a courtroom this week over long-standing accusations that he is waging an unlawful campaign of discrimination and harassment against Latinos.
Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, will be questioned before a federal judge in Phoenix in a class action lawsuit over allegations that his so-called "crime suppression" sweeps racially profile Latinos and those who look like them rather than target any evidence of criminal activity.
The sheriff, who has endorsed Mitt Romney for president and was in the audience at the televised Republican debate in Arizona, is already the subject of a civil lawsuit brought by the justice department, in a similar but broader case accusing him of widespread civil rights abuses.
The plaintiffs, a small group claiming discrimination and harassment by Arpaio and his deputies, say they have "voluminous evidence" alleging that the sheriff's office in Maricopa County is engaged in a systematic practice of racial profiling. They allege that some sweeps or "saturation patrols" were prompted by letters from the public warning of workers "speaking only Spanish" and about "dark skinned" individuals. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/17/arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio-lawsuit
July 17, 2012
(Bloomberg) It is only mid-July, and Colorado has already had its most destructive wildfire in history -- some 350 houses in and near Colorado Springs burned, causing more than $110 million in damage.
This broke the previous state record, which was set earlier this summer in a fire farther up the Front Range of the Rockies. In May and June, New Mexico suffered its most devastating blaze ever -- worse than the one last year that threatened Los Alamos.
This is a scary trend.
In the 1960s, Colorado had about 460 fires a year that burned an average of 8,000 acres, according to a report compiled from state forest service records. In the past 10 years, the state averaged about 2,500 fires a year that consumed about 100,000 acres. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-16/western-u-s-will-keep-burning-unless-fire-policy-changes.html
Western U.S. Will Keep Burning Unless Fire Policy Changes
(Bloomberg) It is only mid-July, and Colorado has already had its most destructive wildfire in history -- some 350 houses in and near Colorado Springs burned, causing more than $110 million in damage.
This broke the previous state record, which was set earlier this summer in a fire farther up the Front Range of the Rockies. In May and June, New Mexico suffered its most devastating blaze ever -- worse than the one last year that threatened Los Alamos.
This is a scary trend.
In the 1960s, Colorado had about 460 fires a year that burned an average of 8,000 acres, according to a report compiled from state forest service records. In the past 10 years, the state averaged about 2,500 fires a year that consumed about 100,000 acres. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-16/western-u-s-will-keep-burning-unless-fire-policy-changes.html
July 17, 2012
from Der Spiegel:
London and the Olympic Games are clearly not made for each other. Visitors will need determination and, most of all, patience to reach the venues at all. And, for the locals, it all can't end soon enough.
It's never easy to be a Londoner, not even on a perfectly normal workday in an English summer.
Everyone, whether rich or poor, experiences the same hardships of big-city life in London. For Londoners, the day begins with aircraft noise -- which some never get used to -- partly because double- or triple-paned windows are in short supply, even in Europe's most expensive city.
In London, cars, cabs and buses are inefficient forms of transportation for medium- and long-distant trips. As a result, day after day, millions squeeze into the clattering London Underground, the oldest, probably hottest and often fullest subway system in the world. Then, after prolonged inhalation of the melded odors of perspiration and perfume, the crowds pour into downtown London's too-narrow sidewalks before disappearing into their offices. There, they can finally do what some still do very well in this massive, sometimes magnificent but often excessively wound-up city: make money. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/london-and-the-2012-olympic-games-a-match-made-in-hell-a-844599.html
A Preview of an Olympic-Sized Fiasco
from Der Spiegel:
London and the Olympic Games are clearly not made for each other. Visitors will need determination and, most of all, patience to reach the venues at all. And, for the locals, it all can't end soon enough.
It's never easy to be a Londoner, not even on a perfectly normal workday in an English summer.
Everyone, whether rich or poor, experiences the same hardships of big-city life in London. For Londoners, the day begins with aircraft noise -- which some never get used to -- partly because double- or triple-paned windows are in short supply, even in Europe's most expensive city.
In London, cars, cabs and buses are inefficient forms of transportation for medium- and long-distant trips. As a result, day after day, millions squeeze into the clattering London Underground, the oldest, probably hottest and often fullest subway system in the world. Then, after prolonged inhalation of the melded odors of perspiration and perfume, the crowds pour into downtown London's too-narrow sidewalks before disappearing into their offices. There, they can finally do what some still do very well in this massive, sometimes magnificent but often excessively wound-up city: make money. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/london-and-the-2012-olympic-games-a-match-made-in-hell-a-844599.html
July 17, 2012
(Bloomberg) The U.S. would lose 710,000 jobs and economic output would fall by 1.3 percent, or $200 billion, if tax cuts for high earners are allowed to lapse, said a report prepared for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other supporters of the tax breaks.
The study by Ernst & Young LLP supports Republican efforts to extend all of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. President Barack Obama called on Congress last week to pass a one-year extension of tax cuts for married couples making less than $250,000 a year while letting rates rise for higher earners.
“The higher tax rates will have significant adverse economic effects in the long run: lowering output, employment, investment, the capital stock and real after-tax wages when the resulting revenue is used to finance additional government spending,” wrote the report’s authors, Robert Carroll and Gerald Prante.
In addition to the Chamber of Commerce, the largest U.S. business lobby, the report was issued on behalf of the Independent Community Bankers of America, the National Federation of Independent Business and the S Corporation (SCI) Association. ........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/u-s-to-lose-710-000-jobs-from-tax-rise-chamber-says.html
U.S. Chamber of Commerce spreads the manure
(Bloomberg) The U.S. would lose 710,000 jobs and economic output would fall by 1.3 percent, or $200 billion, if tax cuts for high earners are allowed to lapse, said a report prepared for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other supporters of the tax breaks.
The study by Ernst & Young LLP supports Republican efforts to extend all of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. President Barack Obama called on Congress last week to pass a one-year extension of tax cuts for married couples making less than $250,000 a year while letting rates rise for higher earners.
“The higher tax rates will have significant adverse economic effects in the long run: lowering output, employment, investment, the capital stock and real after-tax wages when the resulting revenue is used to finance additional government spending,” wrote the report’s authors, Robert Carroll and Gerald Prante.
In addition to the Chamber of Commerce, the largest U.S. business lobby, the report was issued on behalf of the Independent Community Bankers of America, the National Federation of Independent Business and the S Corporation (SCI) Association. ........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/u-s-to-lose-710-000-jobs-from-tax-rise-chamber-says.html
July 17, 2012
(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the fifth- biggest U.S. bank by assets, cut jobs and money to pay employees as first-half revenue dropped to the lowest since 2005.
Compensation, which includes salaries, benefits, bonuses and the expense of deferred pay awarded in prior years, fell 14 percent to $7.29 billion in the first six months of the year, the New York-based bank said today in a statement. Revenue in the same period dropped 14 percent to $16.6 billion.
Lloyd C. Blankfein, 57, has cut 1,000 jobs this year to counter the slowest first-half since before he became chairman and chief executive officer in mid-2006. Trading, which contributed about 60 percent of the bank’s revenue in 2011, dropped 6 percent in the first half from a year earlier. Blankfein said last month he thinks the slowdown is a temporary reaction to the financial crisis.
The first-half compensation expense, at 44 percent of revenue, is enough to pay each of Goldman Sachs’s 32,300 employees $225,789 for the first six months of the year. The firm set aside $8.44 billion a year earlier, which was 44 percent of revenue and equal to an average $237,662 for each of the 35,500 people employed by Goldman Sachs at the time. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/goldman-sachs-cuts-pay-as-revenue-drops-to-lowest-since-2005.html
Goldman Sachs Cuts Pay as Revenue Drops to Lowest Since 2005
(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the fifth- biggest U.S. bank by assets, cut jobs and money to pay employees as first-half revenue dropped to the lowest since 2005.
Compensation, which includes salaries, benefits, bonuses and the expense of deferred pay awarded in prior years, fell 14 percent to $7.29 billion in the first six months of the year, the New York-based bank said today in a statement. Revenue in the same period dropped 14 percent to $16.6 billion.
Lloyd C. Blankfein, 57, has cut 1,000 jobs this year to counter the slowest first-half since before he became chairman and chief executive officer in mid-2006. Trading, which contributed about 60 percent of the bank’s revenue in 2011, dropped 6 percent in the first half from a year earlier. Blankfein said last month he thinks the slowdown is a temporary reaction to the financial crisis.
The first-half compensation expense, at 44 percent of revenue, is enough to pay each of Goldman Sachs’s 32,300 employees $225,789 for the first six months of the year. The firm set aside $8.44 billion a year earlier, which was 44 percent of revenue and equal to an average $237,662 for each of the 35,500 people employed by Goldman Sachs at the time. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/goldman-sachs-cuts-pay-as-revenue-drops-to-lowest-since-2005.html
July 17, 2012
NYPD Picks Up Guns In Areas Where They're NOT Stopping/Frisking
There have been a number of studies that have shown the NYPD's controversial "stop and frisk" program to be problematic: that it targets young black and Latino men disproportionately, ending up with more arrests per year than there are minorities in the city, that the drop in crime in NYC actually preceded the beginning of the policy, and so on.
And now here's a new one: the areas where the police force picks up the most guns do not correlate with the areas where the most stops take place.
Check out the map below from WNYC:
............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/1033568/nypd_picks_up_guns_in_areas_where_they%27re_not_stopping_frisking/
NYPD's 'Stop-and-Frisk' Mess Gets Messier
NYPD Picks Up Guns In Areas Where They're NOT Stopping/Frisking
There have been a number of studies that have shown the NYPD's controversial "stop and frisk" program to be problematic: that it targets young black and Latino men disproportionately, ending up with more arrests per year than there are minorities in the city, that the drop in crime in NYC actually preceded the beginning of the policy, and so on.
And now here's a new one: the areas where the police force picks up the most guns do not correlate with the areas where the most stops take place.
WNYC mapped all street stops by police that resulted in the recovery of a gun last year. The digital map shows an interesting pattern. We located all the "hot spots" where stop and frisks are concentrated in the city, and found that most guns were recovered on people outside those hot spots—meaning police aren't finding guns where they're looking the hardest.
Check out the map below from WNYC:
............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/1033568/nypd_picks_up_guns_in_areas_where_they%27re_not_stopping_frisking/
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Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,081
