While the Volcano in Iceland remains active and harmful to Iceland and the World's economy, Britain has decided to reopen Heathrow Airport. According to The Washington Post, Britain backed off on its own no-fly rule and allowed flight operations to resume.
The problems caused by the eruption of the volcano in Iceland have caused an estimated 300,000 flights to be cancelled and almost a billion in economic damage. New York City, alone, has suffered over $250 million in economic damage.
The British Civil Aviation Authority maintains that test flights of planes in low levels of ash were successful. But given the known dangers of such flight attempts, and the varying skills of pilots in what is an unusual situation, it would seem to tempt fate to invite flights while the airspace is far from clear of volcanic ash.
While the British CAA has been accused by some of overreacting to the volcano in Iceland, reopening due to economic and family pressure, not discounting such issues, is dangerous if as it appears, CAA officials aren't clearly sure of the level of safety in the European airspace.
The decision to reopen Heathrow at this time is a risky one. We can only pray to God that it was the right one.
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums breaks tie; money for campaigns and IRV
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums made a rare visit to the Oakland City Council tonight, Tuesday, and for the purpose of breaking a tie vote on an alternative created by Councilmember Jean Quan to a resolution that if passed would have taken money from the Oakland public campaign financing program and put it into a plan for educating voters on the new Instant Run-Off Voting system.
Quan's alternative split money $100,000 for campaigns, and $100,000 for IRV education. The current City of Oakland program provides just over $200,000 for public campaign financing. In other words, the city helps you by providing matching funds.
The Mayor stepped forward after a lively but brutally nasty two-minute statement by Oakland's number one gadfly Sanjiv Handa. Sanjiv accused the City of Oakland and its City Council of being "greedy" because incumbent councilmembers running for reelection didn't want to have competition. While this space agrees with Sanjiv in principle, Handa's anger, with him almost shaking at the podium, was unnecessary.
After saying that he was a proponent of public financing "going way back to the 60s," and giving the signal that he was going to cast a vote against the amendment, he voted for it, making no one happy, as such votes tend to do.
Dellums tie-breaker decreased public campaign financing assistance by $100,000. After Mayor Dellums pointed out that the City of Oakland did not have to get into the business of edcuating voters because non-profit organizations were doing it, Dellums essentially voted against his own principles and logic.
Stay tuned.
Quan's alternative split money $100,000 for campaigns, and $100,000 for IRV education. The current City of Oakland program provides just over $200,000 for public campaign financing. In other words, the city helps you by providing matching funds.
The Mayor stepped forward after a lively but brutally nasty two-minute statement by Oakland's number one gadfly Sanjiv Handa. Sanjiv accused the City of Oakland and its City Council of being "greedy" because incumbent councilmembers running for reelection didn't want to have competition. While this space agrees with Sanjiv in principle, Handa's anger, with him almost shaking at the podium, was unnecessary.
After saying that he was a proponent of public financing "going way back to the 60s," and giving the signal that he was going to cast a vote against the amendment, he voted for it, making no one happy, as such votes tend to do.
Dellums tie-breaker decreased public campaign financing assistance by $100,000. After Mayor Dellums pointed out that the City of Oakland did not have to get into the business of edcuating voters because non-profit organizations were doing it, Dellums essentially voted against his own principles and logic.
Stay tuned.
Oakland uptown beating shows young black male problem
The terrible death of 59-year-old Tiansheng Yu one again sheds light on a problem that has plagued Oakland for some time, yet many don't want to talk openly about it. This space has, and will continue to do so.
The City of Oakland has a problem with young black men who just walk around picking people who they think are welcome targets for violence.
I blogged about this problem many times. In the case of the "mugging over at Wayne Avenue in 2007,"a man who lived on the 300 block of Wayne Avenue in Adams Point was mugged at gunpoint. Someone in the area two black men do the crime in what was described as an "underlit driveway."
In 2006, a young woman walked around China Hill, Haddon Hill, and Grand Lake posting a letter called Muggings on Athol.
The letter, as I wrote then in Oakland Focus, stated a painful fact: that whites are the targets of assault and theft crimes committed by African Americans in the area. She wrote:
All of this happens while I have walked as a black man in Oakland without incident. Not once. The problem isn't just one of race but of fear. A friend of mine who's blonde, white, and female had a job in downtown Oakland where she walked home at midnight for year. But when someone tried to talk to her, rather than react in fear, she held her head up and said hello to them. She never, in six years of this practice, had a problem.
The point is, the kids attack because they think they can get away with it. They think the person's scared and will not face them or fight back. Or they think the person will not talk to them. The best way to combat this is to simply be aware and not afraid. But mostly aware. Awake to the fact that a young black man might just hit you from the side.
We have to get back to the days when we told kids what we expected from them without fear. That's the time I grew up in. So, today, I don't expect to be called the N-word. I don't care to hear someone call me "OG"; I'm not anyone's Original Gangster.
There are a lot of us as black men in Oakland who feel this way. But what has to happen is others who aren't black have to take up the same behavior as we do. It's your town too.
Stay tuned.
The City of Oakland has a problem with young black men who just walk around picking people who they think are welcome targets for violence.
I blogged about this problem many times. In the case of the "mugging over at Wayne Avenue in 2007,"a man who lived on the 300 block of Wayne Avenue in Adams Point was mugged at gunpoint. Someone in the area two black men do the crime in what was described as an "underlit driveway."
In 2006, a young woman walked around China Hill, Haddon Hill, and Grand Lake posting a letter called Muggings on Athol.
The letter, as I wrote then in Oakland Focus, stated a painful fact: that whites are the targets of assault and theft crimes committed by African Americans in the area. She wrote:
We are faced with two decisions: 1) Either move out of Oakland , or 2) Stay and fight back. We've chosen to try option #2 and have contacted the police, the mayor's office, Pat Kernigan's office, and are now contacting the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council of the Oakland Police Department to formally organize a Neighborhood Watch Program. We want to try and combat this before we resign ourselves to abandoning Oakland.
All of this happens while I have walked as a black man in Oakland without incident. Not once. The problem isn't just one of race but of fear. A friend of mine who's blonde, white, and female had a job in downtown Oakland where she walked home at midnight for year. But when someone tried to talk to her, rather than react in fear, she held her head up and said hello to them. She never, in six years of this practice, had a problem.
The point is, the kids attack because they think they can get away with it. They think the person's scared and will not face them or fight back. Or they think the person will not talk to them. The best way to combat this is to simply be aware and not afraid. But mostly aware. Awake to the fact that a young black man might just hit you from the side.
We have to get back to the days when we told kids what we expected from them without fear. That's the time I grew up in. So, today, I don't expect to be called the N-word. I don't care to hear someone call me "OG"; I'm not anyone's Original Gangster.
There are a lot of us as black men in Oakland who feel this way. But what has to happen is others who aren't black have to take up the same behavior as we do. It's your town too.
Stay tuned.
Toby Gerhart is the NFL's 21st Century Jim Brown
See > nfl, nfl draft, toby gerhart, 2010 nfl draft, jim brown , small luxury hotels, new york city
Thoughts on Stanford's Running Back who-should-have-won-The-Heisman Toby Gerhart before this blogger leaves Georgia for the 2010 NFL Draft in New York City (thanks to The Inn at Irving Place, part of The Small Luxury Hotels of The World brand), and in the wake of my good friend Yahoo! Sports Mike Silver's post called Race factors into evaluation of Gerhart.
The fact that Toby Gerhart is a generational cultural test has been the case since he started running through and around people in 2009. You have to see Toby Gerhart in person to appreciate that he really is that fast.
While the Stanford Offensive Line at times gave Toby truck-sized holes to run through, there were more occasions when Gerhart just plain knocked people over. Toby Gerhart is the NFL's 21st Century Jim Brown. Just watch:
The fact that Toby Gerhart is a generational cultural test has been the case since he started running through and around people in 2009. You have to see Toby Gerhart in person to appreciate that he really is that fast.
While the Stanford Offensive Line at times gave Toby truck-sized holes to run through, there were more occasions when Gerhart just plain knocked people over. Toby Gerhart is the NFL's 21st Century Jim Brown. Just watch:
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