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Thursday, April 9, 2009

Susan Stanton, the former city manager of Largo, Florida, has been hired as the new city manager for Lake Worth. Stanton was fired from her job as Largo’s city manager in 2007, apparently when her gender transition became public knowledge.

“We said all along that we’d pick the best candidate regardless and that’s what it’s all about, we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t,” said Jeff Clemons, the mayor of Lake Worth. He added that the city’s commission voted in favor of Stanton 4 to 1.

Stanton was the city manager of Largo for 14 years before she was fired by the city’s commissioners in 2007. Stanton alleged that when she went public, the commissioners voted to fire her. Five of the seven city commissioners voted for Stanton’s termination. According to the commission, Stanton was fired because “of poor judgment” and lack of trust.

After her termination, Stanton was in second running for the city manager position of Sarasota, but the commission instead voted in favor of Robert Bartolotta. Stanton has applied for over 100 city manager positions in Florida since 2007. She also began a campaign to enact laws to protect transgender and homosexual people from discrimination in the workplace.

Monday, September 5, 2005

Feel free to use the Wikimedia sites to solve our Wikinews crossword. Please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people; print it out and fill it in at your own leisure!

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Sunday, October 12, 2008

United States President George W. Bush deployed the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to a new role on United States soil last Wednesday, training for dealing with national crises. Critics claim that act of the Executive Branch violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits military participation in domestic matters.

In 2007, the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act was introduced; it overturned the Posse Comitatus Act by allowing the Commander in Chief to suppress ‘insurrection’ and ‘restore order’. When it was repealed in 2008, Bush stated that he did not respect the later repeal.

The combat team, renamed CCMRF (C-hemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive C-onsequence M-anagement R-esponse F-orces), has been assigned for year-long duty and training at Fort Stewart to prepare them for “civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios” such as security or natural disasters. After a year, a new unit will take its place.

CCMRF will be under the control of the Northern Command (NORTHCOM), and now has the same legal authority as a unit deployed to Iraq under the direct control of the Executive Branch. The unit will have use of engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, and a Navy weather team, as well as members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. A spokeswoman for NORTHCOM added that both wheeled and tank vehicles would be available for the CCMRF.

In July the unit was assigned a new commander, Col. Roger Cloutier. “If we go in,” he said proudly of the deployment, “we’re going in to help American citizens on American soil”. CCMRF will be training in both traffic and riot control equipment, and will be the first to use the Army’s new nonlethal package, which is intended for war-zone and not domestic use.

NORTHCOM’s September 30th statement includes a quote attributed to “future operations division chief” Colonel Michael Boatner saying, “This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance or crowd control, but will be used to support lead agencies involved in saving lives, relieving suffering and meeting the needs of communities affected by weapons of mass destruction attacks, accidents or even natural disasters.”

The action has raised concerns for some citizens like journalist Naomi Wolf, an author critical of the Bush administration, who referred to the deployment as a ‘coup’ in a well-circulated viral video and issued Americans a call to action.

NORTHCOM is a joint command established post-9/11 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities. When Hurricane Katrina damaged Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas, but were not assigned to NORTHCOM, but instead individual commands under provisional authorities.

Military officials have not yet responded to a request for comment.

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Joshua J. Goyette allegedly confessed to breaking into a Saxonburg, Pennsylvania retirement home and beating 86-year-old Gertrude “Trudy” Johanson in the early morning of June 25, 2005. The crime, which shocked the small community north of Pittsburgh, was not the only one which occurred recently at area retirement homes. Goyette is also suspected in a May incident where another apartment at the Commons of Saxonburg was broken into through a first floor window and the 90-year-old woman inside was groped while she slept.

Goyette, 25, has addresses listed in court documents in New Bedford, Massachusetts; and in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, his mother’s home.

The alleged confession was given last Thursday, June 30, 2005, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Pennsylvania state police investigators. Goyette is currently being held in the Butler County prison in lieu of $300,000 cash bond. He faces charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal mischief.

Friday, March 14, 2008

In the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, Chinese security forces tried to control Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans who were setting fire to vehicles and shops on Friday, in protest of China’s rule. At least two protesters are reported to have been shot dead by riot police.

The Chinese government reacted quickly to the protests. An eyewitness report describes hundreds of police forces barricading the city’s main square, some opening fire on protesters. Other reports suggest the city is under a sort of lockdown. “The Sera monastery is surrounded by Chinese soldiers or police,” an eyewitness told ABC News. “I went yesterday to an area nearby to meet a Tibetan friend, and I saw the monastery surrounded by them.”

The protests began rather peacefully on Monday, when a group of monks marched in Lhasa to advocate religious freedom. The march came on the 49th anniversary of Tibet’s 1959 rebellion against China. When 50 or 60 of the monks were arrested, hundreds of other monks took to the streets to demand their release. Soon, ordinary Tibetans became involved as well, and the protests grew more violent.

Around 400 protesters gathered at a market near the Jokhang temple, where they were confronted by 1,000 police, according to a witness cited by the Free Tibet Campaign. Cars, buses, and military vehicles were burned as plumes of smoke rose above the city. Protesters also set fire to shops, most of which were owned by ethnic Chinese. “Some of them are looting those shops, taking out the contents and throwing them on huge fires which they’ve lit in the street,” said James Miles, a British journalist.

Near Barkhor, one man said that two soldiers have been killed, and that Tibetans were beating Chinese residents with iron rods. Another eyewitness in Lhasa said that people were being carried away on stretchers. “People have been burning cars and motorbikes and buses,” one resident said. “There is smoke everywhere and they have been throwing rocks and breaking windows. We’re scared.”

Psurbu Tsering of the “Tibetan Association of New York and New Jersey” said his members had received phone calls from Tibet, claiming 70 people had been killed and 1,000 arrested in Tibet. These reports could not be verified.

The unrest has reportedly spread to other provinces, and even other countries. Similar protests were seen in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu, where 1,000 protesters, including monks, gathered at a rally in support of the Tibet demonstrations. Around 12 monks were injured. In the United States, six Tibetans were arrested after holding protests outside the United Nations building in New York City.

An official from the Tibet Autonomous Region accused the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, of orchestrating the protests, saying there was enough evidence to prove they were “organized, premeditated and masterminded” by Gyatso and his close supporters. A spokesperson for the Dalai Lama denied these allegations, saying the protests were “completely spontaneous”.

In a statement, the Dalai Lama called the protests a “manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people”. He insisted that both sides end the violence, telling the Chinese government to “stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue,” and he urged his “fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.”

Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency, reported in the early hours of Saturday that the situation had “basically returned to normal”, although some people had been injured and were taken to the hospital. A Chinese official said the government is “fully capable of maintaining social stability” in Tibet.

The events prompted responses from European leaders, including Dimitrij Rupel, foreign minister of Slovenia and current President of the European Council. “We would like to see some kind of reconciliation between the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan representatives,” he said.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner alluded to a connection between the protests and the 2008 Summer Olympics, which are set to occur in Beijing this August. “France can draw attention to the link between the Olympic Games and this Tibetan aspiration, which China has to take into account.” However, he will not be supporting a boycott of the games. Neither will European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who said, “As far as the Olympic Games are concerned I intend to be there.”

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Chicago’s Metra is currently considering the possibility of selling the naming rights to its train stations, rail lines, and even bridges to generate more revenue. 

The regional rail system for Chicago and its surrounding suburbs has been experiencing revenue shortfalls, along with other public transportation agencies such as the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace. They all rely on sales taxes and fares to fund their services, but the recent recession has reduced sales tax revenues, and unemployment has caused ridership to fall. Compared to 86.8 million trips in 2008, Metra reported that only 82.3 million trips were provided in 2009. As spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said, “We’re looking at any opportunity to increase non-fare revenue.”

A law approved by former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich in 2008 granted free rides to all seniors regardless of income, adding to the decreasing fare revenues as well. State lawmakers are trying to restrict the free rides to low-income seniors; Metra has not yet commented on the issue, however. 

New designs put on the agency’s website last September has attracted more traffic, and Metra is considering selling advertising space online. In addition, advertising space could be sold on the outside of train cars as well. As for the naming rights to stations and routes, Metra plans to hire a consultant that would figure out the details of such a proposal. Spokesperson Meg Reihle did not know how much money Metra could gain from the sale or which organizations would be interested in buying. 

According to Ms. Reihle, public transit agencies in other cities have sold naming rights as well, such as the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority in Cleveland and Long Island Rail Road in Long Island. TECO Energy sponsors a rail line in Tampa’s Hillsborough Area Regional Transit for US$1 million over ten years. 

Throughout its 26-year history, Metra has named several of its locomotives and renamed two stations: Ogilvie Transportation Center, which was previously named North Western Station, and Millennium Terminal, which was previously called Randolph Street. No transactions were made in renaming those two stations, however. There is also a Station named after the candy maker Mars, but that station was named before Metra took it over, and the company doesn’t pay Metra for any naming rights. 

Execuive Director Phil Pagano sees the proposal as a way for businesses to advertise themselves. “I think the business community recognizes that transit is positive for their advertising benefit,” said Mr. Pagano at a board meeting. In addition to businesses, hospitals located near the train stations could purchase naming rights as well. However, Mr. Pagano has also stated that “the agency would be selective about the type of businesses it partners with.”

Metra has said that it will be sensitive to the wishes of the communities near the stops, and town names will not be removed from station names. Rather, both the municipality and the sponsoring organization would share the naming rights, such as in renaming Naperville Station to “Naperville Boeing Station”. “I’m not sure whether [the old name] is first or second, but definitely it’s going to have to be there,” said Mr. Pagano.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

United States Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska has been indicted by federal grand jury on seven criminal counts for making false statements in his Senate financial disclosure forms. The longest-serving Republican in the Senate, Stevens is the highest-profile politician ensnared in the corruption scandal surrounding VECO Corporation and its executives’ attempts to influence politics.

VECO, a subsidiary of CH2M Hill as of September 2007, is an oil pipeline and services company. It is alleged to have funded renovations to the Stevens home in Girdwood, Alaska in 2000. The renovations include a new garage and first floor, a two story wrap-around deck, as well as new wiring and plumbing. In 2007, VECO chief executive Bill Allen pleaded guilty to charges of extortion, bribery, and conspiracy.

The 28-page indictment alleges that Stevens “knowingly and willfully engaged in a scheme to conceal” gifts from VECO, which totaled “hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value.”

A press release was issued by Stevens’ office in response to the allegations: “I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that.” And Stevens himself commented, “I have never knowingly submitted a false disclosure form required by law as a U.S. senator.” Senator Daniel Inouye, a close friend of Stevens, commented: “As far as he’s concerned, he’s not guilty. And I believe him.”

Stevens was reportedly caught unawares on Tuesday when the indictment charge was filed. “Apparently, the media knew about it before he did,” Inouye stated, adding that he had just talked to Stevens. Ted Stevens was in a meeting with other Republicans when he found out about the charge.

Stevens is the longest-serving Republican senator in history and is up for reelection this November. Calls to his office in Washington for comment were redirected to a voicemail indicating that his “office is closed.”

The United States Department of Justice says it has already obtained seven convictions in the case: Peter Kott, a former Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives; Thomas T. Anderson, a former state representative; Victor H. Kohring, another representative; James A. Clark, chief of staff to the former governor of Alaska; William Bobrick, a lobbyist; Bill Allen, VECO chief executive; and Richard L. Smith, VECO vice president of government relations.