lwsimmons.org

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.

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Fourteen countries outside of Iraq have been selected for the installation of polling stations for the Iraqi National Assembly election. Among these, Paris, capital city of France, will welcome voters from France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

While the event has not been kept secret, the French government and media have been quite discreet about it. The polling station has been installed in an unused elementary school in a calm residential neighbourhood of the XIIIe arrondissement, without fanfare. Most inhabitants are not even aware of its presence – that is, until they notice the unusual deployment of police and come across the posters written in French and Arabic. Despite the discretion, the sight of police guarding a polling station is striking in a country where elections are a calm affair on a Sunday, and polling stations, most of which are installed in schools, are only noticeable because of the official billboards carrying the candidates’ posters.

Security measures have been taken – metallic barriers prevent parking in and around the front and back entrances to the station, and CRS riot police with bulletproof vests guard the entrances.Still, overall, the security measures remain limited. Traffic flows in the street, passers-by freely walk in front of the station entrance, no display of heavy weapons. This contrasts with the use of military troops and deployments of gendarmes mobiles that France used in its Vigipirate anti-terror plan following the Islamist terror bombings that it suffered in 1995, or the typical security measures kept around possible terror targets such as the embassies of Israel and the United States of America. This time, military cars and a handful of soldiers were seen in the morning, but were gone in the afternoon.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Canadian Astral Media Inc. will buy out Standard Radio Inc., which runs many radio stations in Canada. Standard Radio Inc. is the largest privately owned multimedia company in Canada.

Montreal based Astral Media Inc. will buy all of the assets from Standard Radio Inc. for about CAN$1.2-billion. Standard Radio Inc.’s 52 radio stations, and Astral’s 29, will be brought together by Astral Media Inc. This will give Astral 81 radio stations in total. This makes Astral the largest radio operator in Canada of FM and AM radio.

“With the acquisition of Standard Radio, Astral Media will not only be acquiring the best performing radio stations in the country, we will at the same time acquire a company with similar values and culture. said Ian Greenberg, President and CEO of Astral Media.

“Over the past four decades the Slaight family has built a remarkable collection of strong radio brands and has contributed meaningfully in shaping the Canadian radio industry as we know it today. We are delighted with the prospect of welcoming Standard Radio’s employees into our team.”

Gary Slaight, President and CEO of Standard Radio also commented on the deal.

“We are looking forward to becoming a part of the Astral Media family,” said Gary Slaight, President and CEO of Standard Radio. “We are pleased to see our legacy live on with a company such as Astral that has such a strong track record and commitment to its employees and to the Canadian radio and television industries.”

All of Astral’s radio stations are run in Quebec and Atlantic Canada and it also runs various television stations across Canada. Astral also has two french channels that broadcast on Sirius satellite radio Canada.

The company hopes to finalize the deal in or before April.

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Former Zimbabwean professional footballer Adam Ndlovu has died in a car accident that also left his brother critically injured. Adam and his brother Peter, also a former professional footballer, were in the accident after failure of a tire on the BMW X5 Adam was reportedly driving. Reports also suggest an unidentified female passenger may have died in the accident.

George Bhebhe, a friend of Adam, spoke to The Zimbabwean about the circumstances of the accident. He said “Adam died early this morning when their vehicle veered off the road after a tyre burst and hit a tree 20 km from Victoria Falls. He died on arrival at hospital. Peter is in critical condition and he is at Victoria Falls hospital in Intensive Care Unit. But arrangements still being made to transfer from there to a hospital in Bulawayo or Harare”.

Both Adam and Peter played for the Zimbabwe national football team and Peter is their all time top goalscorer. During his career Peter played in the English Premier League and played for Coventry, Sheffield United, Birmingham, and Huddersfield. Sheffield United tweeted “Our thoughts are with former player Peter Ndlovu, who has been critically injured in a car accident in his native Zimbabwe. #sufc”

Adam formerly played for the Zimbabwean team Highlanders and at the time of his death coached Zimbabwe Premier League team Chicken Inn, based in Bulawayo.

Friday, April 22, 2005

“Those who are in power are to be held responsible, and that includes me,” Canada’s Prime Minister, Paul Martin, told his nation in the first live address by a PM in ten years. “If so much as a dollar is found to have made its way into the Liberal Party for ill-gotten gains, it will be repaid to the people of Canada.” [1]

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper described Mr Martin’s broadcast as “a party leader playing for time, begging for another chance”.

“After the Prime Minister has shut down the democratic process here … my guess is there will be more people that are calling for some accountability, perhaps in the form of an election,” New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton said.

A series of opinion polls show that in an election held today, a minority Conservative government would probably result, reports The Australian.

Monday, July 19, 2010

A person has died after being involved in a collision between a bus and a bicycle in Hampshire in the south of England, United Kingdom. The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was cycling in the seaside resort of Southsea when a number 700 Stagecoach single-decker bus, which was travelling from Brighton to Southsea, collided with her bicycle at approximately 1315 BST (1215 UTC) on Saturday. A helicopter transported the woman to Southampton General Hospital, where she died at approximately 1630 BST (1530 UTC) on the same day.

None of the occupants of the bus were injured. The 53-year-old bus driver has now been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Hampshire Constabulary is requesting any witnesses to the accident to contact them. PC Phil Hunt also mentioned: “We are also trying to trace the passengers, who left the scene before we could speak to them.”

The road traffic accident occurred in an area where Portsmouth City Council had been intending to place a new cycle route, but the plans to do so were cancelled last week. The plans, which would have cost £250,000 (US$382,373, €296,481, A$441,126), were said to have been cancelled due to financial difficulties.

Portsmouth Cycle Forum vice chair Jon Spencer has stated: “Sadly, we’ve had to wait less than a week for a brutal illustration of why we need this cycle route.” The vice chair of the local cycling group continued: “The road at Clarence Pier is very narrow, very crowded by parked cars and very busy. It is the most popular part of the seafront but at the moment it is a no-go area for cyclists. The city council are obviously happy for this to remain the case.”

John Holland, the chair of the Forum, wrote on PompeyBUG, a local cycling Internet forum: “Portsmouth Cycle Forum is very sad to learn of the death in a road accident of a woman cyclist at Clarence Esplanade on Saturday 17 July. Our thoughts lie with her family and friends to whom send our deepest condolences. The cyclist was involved in collision with a bus in the vicinity of Pier Road and Clarence Esplanade, close to Clarence Pier.

“This terrible accident is yet another reminder that large vehicles, busy traffic and cyclists are not a happy mix. Whilst it will be some time before the details are made public, we urge the Portsmouth City Council to press ahead with making this section of our seafront much safer and calmer for all. Almost exactly one year ago, a cyclist was seriously injured Clarence Esplanade when a car reversed blindly from a parking bay into the road.

“Portsmouth City Council is on the verge of postponing Phase 2 of the Southsea Seafront Cycle Route. Had this been in place yesterday then this awful incident might have been avoided. We urge councillors to think again. A safe and segregated cycle route can be built – one which doesn’t loose any car parking, one which doesn’t stop people looking out to sea from their cars, one which doesn’t involve cycling on the promenade. We will be pushing hard for this – we don’t want any more injuries and fatalities on our seafront roads.”

Friday, December 12, 2008

A US$14 billion bailout package deal for the “Big Three” United States automakers — Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors — has been rejected in the United States Senate after failing a procedural vote.

The bill was rejected after bipartisan discussions on the bailout broke down when Republican Party leaders insisted that the United Auto Workers (UAW) union agree to increase wage cuts by next year in order to bring their pay into line with those of Japanese automobile companies in the United States. The UAW refused to meet the demands.

The final vote count in the Senate was 52-35, eight short of the 60 needed to pass. Only ten Republicans joined forty Democrats and two independents in voting for the bill. Three Democrats voted with thirty-one Republicans against it.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said that he was “terribly disappointed” by the failure of the bill to pass. “I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It’s not going to be a pleasant sight,” Reid said. “Millions of Americans, not only the auto workers but people who sell cars, car dealerships, people who work on cars are going to be directly impacted and affected.”

Republican Senator Bob Corker was also unhappy about the rejection. “We were about three words away from a deal. We solved everything substantively and about three words keep us from reaching a conclusion,” he said.

Some Democrats now want U.S. President Bush to reserve a portion of the $700 billion bailout package earmarked for Wall Street to assist the flagging car industry.

Stock markets worldwide fell dramatically on the news, with Japan’s Nikkei average losing 484.68 points, or 5.6 percent, reaching a level of 8253.87 points. Shares in the auto companies Toyota, Nissan and Honda all dropped by no less than 10 percent apiece. European stocks, such as those in the United Kingdom and Germany, also lost ground, with the FTSE-100 index of leading shares falling 176.3 points to a level of 4,211 at midday.