In depth: Buffalo, N.Y. hotel proposal controversy

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.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced today that the HSK Kormoran has been located approximately 112 nautical miles off Steep Point Western Australia. Sonar imagery of the Kormoran shows the site consists of two main pieces at a depth of 2560 metres. A debris field 4 nautical miles south of the wreck believed to be the site of the battle.

The Kormoran (HSK 8) was a German auxiliary cruiser of Kriegsmarine during World War II. On November 19, 1941, the Kormoran encountered the HMAS Sydney. The resulting battle saw the Sydney sunk with the loss of all 645 hands, the Kormoran was scuttled by the crew with the loss of 60, 320 survivors including three Chinese prisoners of war were rescued.

The loss of the Sydney has been the subject of much controversy, speculation and conspiracy theory. There have been many searches for the two vessels, this latest search is by the “Finding Sydney Foundation”.

“Finding the Kormoran is one big step forward,” said Prime Minister Rudd. “This is an important part in resolving a 65 year old puzzle.”

Warren Snowdon Minister for Defense Science and Personnel said that the Federal Republic of Germany has been advised of the discovery and that the site is to be protected.

Finding Sydney Foundation Chairman Ted Graham says the search area for the Sydney can now be narrowed down to 300 nautical miles. “This gives us a cornerstone if you like, to start the search for the Sydney from,” said Graham. “So if we hadn’t found Kormoron it would have made it much more difficult”

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Saturday, May 14, 2005

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina —This weekend is the kick-off for two motorcycle rallies held annually in the U.S. eastern seacoast town of Myrtle Beach. Enthusiasts this year are expected to meet or exceed the 170,000 bikers that arrived last year in droves to the small resort town of 23,000. Festivities span two weeks, and extend again this year into the Memorial Day.

Leading off is the week-long Harley rally, followed by the next week’s BikeFest. In and around town, both day and night are punctured by the sounds of bike engines gunned and revved at stop lights and in parking lots. Groups of cycle riders dominate the streets.

“By Friday night, the front parking lot will be a full line of motorcycles to the corner.” said motel owner Ranjan Patel. The Super 8 motel takes up half a block at its location in the heart of the downtown motel strip. “Both sides [of Ocean Blvd] are nothing but bikes.” Both she and her co-owner husband agree, the influx of bikers dwarf in size the numbers of tourists who visit during regular summer months for ocean-side and family amusement park attractions.

The highly accesorised bikes, decked with chrome and polished to show it, flashed the townscape. Choppers made a showing, but road hogs dominated the ridership, often going twosome. Many rally goers arrived on the scene with SUV’s or big pickup trucks towing cargo trailers loaded with cycles.

Growth in the sheer size of the two rallies led police to make changes in the handling of traffic flow. During BikeFest last year, the mostly black crowd that came in on the heels of the largely white Harley rally the week earlier, were faced with confusion when the two-lane Ocean Blvd was made one-way.

A branch of the NAACP in Conway, the next town over from Myrtle Beach, alleged discrimination by Horry County and Myrtle Beach Police. They claimed authorities and police used an overwhelming and aggressive police presence, combined with a restrictive one-way traffic pattern, to intimidate and discourage the participants in the rally.

An injunction was issued earlier this week by U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten, who ruled that bikers at both rallies be treated the same. Myrtle Beach city lawyers immediately filed an appeal to the ruling at the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying “the trial court erroneously determined that the plaintiffs would likely succeed on the merits; that is, that the city of Myrtle Beach intentionally treats Memorial Day weekend tourists differently from others similarly situated because of their race.”

A plan to submit an opposition to the notice has already been announced by Michael Navarre, an attorney for Steptoe & Johnson, who represents the NAACP civil rights group. “We certainly don’t think the judge has ruled erroneously,” Navarre said, according to The Sun News.

Traffic control and safety measures were in full swing Friday morning on US-17. Both directions of the 4-lane divided highway south of Myrtle Beach had traffic cones and parking barriers set up to control traffic. Large flashing road signs on each side of the highway warned cars to use the passing lane. The warning sign flashed a message that the right lane was for motorcycle use only. Police monitored the pull-offs near a Harley dealer’s lot where popular attractions were set-up in the immediate vicinity.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Oil and gas pipelines in Mexico were attacked in six different places Monday, forcing the evacuation of approximately 12,000 residents. The six blasts were to reported to have happened at about 2:00 a.m on Monday morning.

The company who owns the pipelines, Petroleos Mexicanos, shut down all lines after the attack.

No deaths as a result of the explosions were reported, however; the blasts were blamed for the death of two 70 year old women who died from heart attacks.

Mexican officials have called the blasts “premeditated” and at least one rebel group (most notably EPR) has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

A reporter from Wikinews recently interviewed Jim Babka, chair of Libertarian organization Downsize DC. The organization claims to have arranged for 22,158 people to send a message regarding the “American Freedom Agenda Act” proposed by Ron Paul, in addition to supporting many other laws. The full text of the interview can be found below.

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Sunday, September 11, 2005

Rioting and disorder erupted in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Saturday because of a controversial decision to reroute the Orange Order parade. Loyalists attacked the police and army with blast bombs (homemade grenades) and petrol bombs. There was widespread stone-throwing, and barricades were erected on some roads that caused traffic disruptions in the city. In some places, automatic gunfire was heard, with police returning live fire.

Half a dozen police were injured, and two men were taken to hospital — one with a gunshot wound, and another was caught in the blast of an explosion.

The parade route was altered by the Parades Commission. The intended path of the original parade route was through a Nationalist part of Springfield Road, with the potential to result in rioting and violence (the route would have had to pass through a 30 foot high security barrier, one of the “Peace Lines“. Unionists called for the decision to be reconsidered by the Commission; however, no change was made. Instead of passing through Springfield Road, the Orange Order parade was required to proceed through the site of the engineering firm Mackies.

The streets of northern and western Belfast echoed with sounds of violence not commonly heard since the late 1990s and the Troubles. Petrol and blast bombs were used by rioters, and water cannon and plastic bullets were used by police. Several cars and a bus were hijacked, and roads were closed off by mobs of people. A number of buildings were set alight with fire around the outskirts of the city.

Throughout the night, violence spread to outlying towns around Belfast, including Ballymena, Ballyclare, Carrickfergus and Larne.

Police Chief Constable Hugh Orde described the rioting as perhaps the worst such situation ever seen in the United Kingdom – particularly because of the use of firearms in a public order situation. He controversially held the Orange Order responsible for the disorder, and complained about the politicians who called for people to protest. The Rev. Ian Paisley had threatened at the time of the parade rerouting decision by the Parades Commission that it “could be the spark which kindles a fire there would be no putting out”.

The response of Unionist politicians has been to accuse the police of brutal and heavy-handed tactics. Hugh Orde has praised the police for being “heroes”, and suggested that no other police force in the UK, Europe, and perhaps even the US has had to deal with such ferocity in a public order situation. Unionists described the Chief Constable’s comments as “inflammatory”.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

On Friday evening, an explosion in Chengdu, China caused partial shutdown of a facility operated by Foxconn, one of the world’s biggest electronics manufacturers and a major supplier to companies like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sony, Apple, Motorola and Nokia. Initial investigations now suggest the explosion was caused by poor ventilation, which lead to high concentrations of combustible dust.

The blast happened at 7:18PM, around the time workers change shifts. A fire followed. Emergency services had control by 7:30PM. At least three people were killed, at least fifteen injured. Foxconn halted production to investigate, saying “All operations at the affected workshop remain suspended and production at all other workshops that carry out similar processing functions have also been halted pending the results of the investigation. All other production operations in our facilities in China continue operating normally.”

On Monday, city officials gave the cause as combustible dust in the air at a polishing workshop. Hong Kong-based labor rights group Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior said they reported aluminium dust problems in March when they reviewed working conditions at Foxconn. After the explosion, they commented that workers were complaining “the ventilation of the department is poor. Workers polish the iPad cases to make them shiny. In the process, there is lots of aluminum (aluminium) dust floating in the air. Workers always breathe in aluminum dust even though they put on masks. When workers take off their cotton gloves, their hands are covered with aluminum dust.”

Foxconn responded by saying the group was trying to “capitalize on the tragic accident” and misrepresented “Foxconn’s commitment to the health and safety of our employees.”

Foxconn is responsible for making iPads and iPhones for Apple. Research group IHS iSuppli said the explosion may cause loss of production of 500,000 iPads during this quarter of the year. They said there is a larger facility in Shenzhen, but it cannot cope with re-compensating the possible loss.