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Archive for ARC Tunnel
ARC legal fees beginning to mountPosted by: | Comments
As Gov. Chris Christie fights with the federal government for the right to keep $271 million earmarked for the ARC Tunnel, the state's legal bill is beginning to mount. After just one month on the job, D.C. firm Patton Boggs had billed New Jersey Transit $330,000 for the effort. "NJ Transit's budget contains funds for legal and other such expenses and this will come out of that," Paul Wyckoff, agency spokesman, said. "There are hundreds of millions of dollars at stake here. This is certainly, we feel, worth the best legal effort we can produce. Patton Boggs is a highly regarded, highly professional firm that is working to save state taxpayers money as efficiently as possible."
New Jersey politicians who have fought with Christie over the ARC cancellation since Day One again lobbed grenades toward the governor. "I'm not suggesting the state shouldn't have counsel. I hope the state wins," John Wisniewski, chairman of the state assembly's Transportation Committee, said. "But $333,281 — there are lots of good lawyers in New Jersey that don't charge $485 an hour."
If New Jersey thinks it has a valid case to make for those federal dollars, the state has every right to employ outside counsel to do so, and Wisniewski has every right to complain about the fees. Ultimately, though, if they get to keep any of the $271 million, the $330,000 a month will be but a drop in the bucket. Still, the attempts to keep the money seem to be garnering more attention than the efforts to build a new cross-Hudson rail tunnel, and that's not helping anyone in the region.
To cross the Hudson, a one-seat ride & a 3rd planPosted by: | Comments
In addition to increased cross-Hudson capacity, one of the primary benefits New Jersey commuters would have derived from the ARC Tunnel concerned travel speeds. As New Jersey Transit, its equipment and its lone Hudson river crossing are configured, riders along the Raritan Valley and North Jersey Coast Lines do not enjoy one-seat rides into New York City. Through a combination of equipment upgrades and capacity increases, commute times would have dropped and property values would have increased.
With ARC off the table and its replacement years or even decades away, New Jersey Transit officials are trying to deliver on that one-seat promise without a new tunnel. Earlier this week, NJ Transit Executive Director James Weinstein pledged that he would work to make the one-seat ride a reality along the Raritan Valley and North Jersey Coast Lines. Larry Higgs from the Asbury Park Press offers up a little bit more:
In both cases, NJ Transit officials will go forward with equipment purchases that were part of the Access to the Region's Core (ARC) tunnel project, canceled by Gov. Chris Christie in October over concerns about cost overruns the state would have had to absorb. "One of the issues is acquisition of more bilevels," Weinstein said. "There are 100 on order and we'll go forward with that."
The first of 36 dual-mode electric and diesel-powered locomotives, which will be essential to providing one-seat ride service on rail lines now served by diesel locomotives, is scheduled to be delivered to the U.S. Department of Transportation's testing facility in Colorado, Weinstein said.
"I don't think anything precludes a one-seat ride," he said. "We're going forward with the dual-mode locomotives. There are issues we have to work out at some point to provide a one-seat ride."
Beyond Higgs' story, news reports don't add much to this revelation, and I'm curious as to where it will go from here. The main problem is that the Hudson River tunnels cannot handle increased traffic, and if New Jersey Transit is promising new one-seat rides along certain routes, it will likely have to take away some river crossings from other routes. That's not going to be too popular among commuters.
Meanwhile, an alternative to Amtrak's Gateway alternative is making the rounds. As Higgs also reported earlier this week, New Jersey rail advocates have proposed yet another plan to build a tunnel. He reports:
The plan, outlined by Joseph Clift, a member of the Regional Rail Working Group and a past Long Island Railroad planning director, would put off building some of the more potentially expensive parts of the Gateway project to a second phase. As a first phase, the group proposed building a new two-tube tunnel, a new bridge next to the existing Portal Bridge and a second set of tracks on the Northeast Corridor line from Kearny to the Hudson River to relieve bottlenecks.
Gateway's plans to build a "Penn Station South," consisting of seven tracks and four platforms under Manhattan's 31st Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, would be deferred to a second phase under the group's plan. That phase would include Gateway's proposal to construct two new sets of tracks between the Passaic River and west of Secaucus Junction, a second set of platforms at that station and some new bridges.
"It is a much more accomplishable project," Clift said. "You would have a project that is more affordable (to start) because all the Manhattan property cost (for Penn Station South) goes away."
Funding would come from a variety of sources. New Jersey would reapply for the $3 billion in federal funds it sacrificed when Gov. Chris Christie canceled ARC while the Port Authority would contribute its billions as well. New Jersey and Amtrak would contribute money as well.
With all this talk though of replacement plans and one-seat rides, I have to wonder if too many cooks are stirring the cross-Hudson soup. New York is working on formulating a plan for the 7 line extension with New Jersey while Amtrak is requesting $50 million to start planning on NEPA work on their Gateway Tunnel. This third proposal throws yet another variable in the mix and could garner support from state officials in New Jersey. At some point, the region will need a concerted, unified and funded effort if cross-Hudson rail expansion is to be realized any time soon.
For NJ commuters, Gateway is no ARCPosted by: | Comments
Editor's Note: With the announcement that Amtrak would seek funding for a proposed Gateway Tunnel from New Jersey to New York City, one-time Second Ave. Sagas guest writer Jeremy Steinemann started a new blog called Gateway Gab. He's going to track the progress of the Gateway Tunnel there, and he is allowing me to post some of his analysis here as well.
Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie viewed the Gateway announcement as a vindication of his decision to cancel ARC, but as Steinemann explains in the post below, Christie is off base. From the cost comparisons to the benefits to his state's commuters, Christie and his criticisms shouldn't enjoy a moment in the sun, and although Gateway would help alleviate the congestion into and out of New York City, it doesn't have the same impact for commuters as ARC would have. What follows is Steinemann's analysis.
As part of yesterday's announcement of the proposed Amtrak Gateway Tunnel, Senator Frank Lautenberg's (NJ-D) office has released a comparison of the three trans-hudson tunnel projects: Gateway, the now-defunct ARC tunnel, and the 7 train to Secaucus. This nifty chart is available at Lautenberg's website, but take a look:
If anything, the chart is a testament to just how beneficial the ARC Tunnel promised to be, noting, for example, that ARC promised to connect commuters to the subway lines at Herald Square. The biggest difference between the two projects, however, are the compromises that Gateway requires of NJ Transit. For passengers on trains from Bergen, Passaic, Rockland and Orange Counties on the Main-Bergen and Pascack Valley lines, Gateway will not provide the long-promised, one-seat ride to Manhattan (at least not at first).
Furthermore, NJ Transit will have to coordinate operating control of the new tunnels. The current tunnels — technically known as the North River Tunnels — are controlled solely by Amtrak, whose trains take precedence over NJ Transit — wreaking havoc on the commuting schedule when an inter-city train is delayed. In contrast, ARC promised a set of tunnels operated solely by NJ Transit. The details of the Gateway operating arrangement are not clear, but improvements over the current arrangement are essential. Finally, as I noted yesterday, Gateway increases NJ Transit's peak train capacity by only 13 additional trains, as opposed to ARC's 24 additional trains.
The Gateway project, however, also includes a grab-bag of brand new items. Whereas ARC mentioned it as a possible future project, new access for Metro North at Penn Station is a full component of Gateway. In fact, a presentation on Lautenberg's site promises capacity for six hourly trains on Metro North's New Haven and Hudson Lines. The Harlem Line would not have access to the station.
In addition, Gateway's new Penn Station South adds four new platforms serving seven tracks underground between 30th and 31st streets from 7th Ave. to just west of 8th Ave. Finally, Amtrak's proposal also suggests extending the 7 train not westward but eastward from its future terminus at 34th St. and 10th Ave to Penn Station. It seems the cost of this extension is not factored into Gateway's estimated price.
A critical benefit of Gateway, that is not being widely touted, is the system redundancy that the connectivity to Penn Station provides. The ARC tunnels were to be completely separate from the existing Penn tubes. If, for some reason, a train dies in one tunnel, as happens frequently now, the Gateway tunnels will provide a back-up. Due to the complicated nature of the train platforms underneath Moynihan station, however, it seems impossible for NJ Transit and Amtrak to utilize three of the four tunnels for peak-directional flow as the LIRR currently permits in its four tunnels under the East River.
The price comparisons between Gateway and ARC, reported at $13.5 billion and $10 billion respectively, are also misleading. The Gateway Tunnel also includes the Portal Bridge Replacement project, which ARC critics demanded should have been considered part of ARC's total cost. Like ARC and the Portal Bridge projects, Gateway will double the right-of-way from Newark Penn Station to New York Penn Station from two to four tracks. Any changes to the connection between the Northeast Corridor and NJT's Morris & Essex and Montclair Lines (located just west of the Portal Bridge) remain unclear at this time.
To view the full PDF presentation on Gateway, click here.
ARC the Third: Amtrak's Gateway to New YorkPosted by: | Comments
Since Gov. Chris Christie first announced plans to put a hold on and then cancel the ARC Tunnel, New Jersey's Democratic Senate delegation has been at odds with the state's Republican executive. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez have criticized Christie for sacrificing $3 billion in federal funding as well as the opportunity to expand rail access to New York City. Today, the two Senators have announced a plan to achieve greater cross-Hudson rail capacity while working with Amtrak and bypassing Christie's control entirely.
Enter the Gateway Tunnel. This tunnel that Amtrak believes will take ten years to construct could be another answer to rail crisis the ARC Tunnel had been designed to address. It is similar to ARC's Alt G plan and modeled on numerous Amtrak studies. Based on numerous reports, it may cost anywhere from $10-$13.5 billion, and once or if completed, it will allow 21 more trains per hour — 13 New Jersey Transit trips and eight Amtrak trains — into New York. The dearly departed ARC Tunnel would have allowed 25 more New Jersey Transit trains into the dead-end deep cavern underneath 34th St.
While the Gateway Tunnel expansion would allow fewer trains into the city, the new proposal addresses the biggest concerns ARC supporters — and opponents — had with the previous project. As Jim O'Grady for Transportation Nation and WNYC has reports, "Whereas ARC was supposed to terminate at platforms under Macy's, a block east of Penn Station, Gateway would end a block to the south, nearer to street level. The block—West 30th and West 31st Streets between 7th and 8th Avenues—now mostly holds small businesses like restaurants, bars and a repair shop for musical instruments." Metro-North too would be able to service the new Penn Station South. (For more from today's unveiling of the Gateway Tunnel, check out this pdf.)
O'Grady had more on the early plans and the hopes that the Gateway Tunnel could usher in high-speed rail in the area as well. He writes:
A staff member for an elected official familiar with the project said Amtrak, which is taking the lead on the tunnel, would have to assemble properties on the Manhattan block to make it feasible. He said on the New Jersey side, Gateway would use a hole that construction crews had already started digging for the ARC Tunnel at Tonnelle Avenue near Secaucus…
An important part of the work would be to raise the Portal Bridge, a notorious bottleneck between Kearny and Secaucus over the Hackensack River. Trains must now slow to cross the 100 year-old bridge, or stop altogether while it is moved to let boats to pass by. A modernized bridge, along with a new tunnel's added capacity, would speed up Amtrak's service along the Northeast Corridor and help set the stage for future high-speed rail, should it ever arrive.
Meanwhile, Mike Frassinelli of The Star Ledger, who broke the story late last night, reports on how the Gateway Tunnel may conflict with New York City's plan to send 7 train to New Jersey. The Senators and Amtrak are putting forward this proposal as an alternative to Bloomberg's subway-based idea, and the federal officials hope to send the 7 not across the Hudson but to Penn Station. He writes:
Some transportation officials think the Gateway plan makes more sense than expanding the No. 7 subway line from New York City to Secaucus Junction, an idea floated over the last three months by the staff of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Under Amtrak's best-case scenario, the No. 7 line would also be extended to Penn Station, between 31st and 33rd streets, two blocks west of the Empire State Building.
During the afternoon press conference announcing this tunnel, current Amtrak board member and former Port Authority head Anthony Coscia denied a conflict with the 7 extension. "Regardless of whether the 7 extension happens, in order for there to be high-speed rail in the Northeast corridor, Amtrak would still need to build this project," he said.
According to Frassinelli, Lautenberg, the more vocal critic of Christie's politicized move to block the ARC Tunnel, has been working with Amtrak since the fall. "New Jersey is facing a transportation crisis," he said. "Our commuters are fed up with train delays that make them late to work and endless traffic that traps them on our highways when they want to be home with their families. When the ARC tunnel was canceled, it was clear to me that we couldn't just throw up our hands and wait years to find another solution."
By turning away from state-based solutions and relying instead upon a federal rail provider who would ideally use a mix of infrastructure dollars and private investment for this project, Lautenberg can effectively cut Christie out from the bulk of the decision-making. Although New Jersey and New York will likely be asked to add some money to the pot via New Jersey Transit and the Port Authority, if Amtrak takes the lead, it — and not New Jersey's reticent governor — will be in charge of securing the finances and arranging construction.
Right now, as O'Grady notes, the parties have yet to figure out financing and haven't set construction plans. Amtrak is requesting $50 million this week for an engineering study and hopes to rely on work previously completed for ARC. Even as questions remain, though, rail proponents who have recognized the cross-Hudson congestion are thrilled that Gateway is on the table even if it is ten years away.
"This is not ARC," Martin Robins, director of Rutgers' Voorhes Transportation Center, said to The Star-Ledger. "In some respects, it is a lesser project. But it is still a very significant project. There will be benefits that will reverberate throughout New Jersey. This can be a wonderful alternative."
With ARC in limbo, a hazy future for StewartPosted by: | Comments
While speaking at a House Committee hearing on transportation and infrastructure last week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned of an impending crisis in the northeast. "The Northeast is approaching a transportation crisis," the mayor said. "Our airports are among the most clogged, our highways are among the most congested, and our train corridor is the most heavily used in the country. And all of that is just going to get worse, as the region's population is expected to grow by 40% by 2050."
On the heels of that committee meeting, the Regional Plan Association issued a report on the state of our airports. The tale they tell is not a new one; we've known for years that the metropolitan area's three major airports are well above capacity. Yet, the numbers they throw out — a need for an additional 78 peak-hour flights per day — are staggering. The need to expand is one that could have dire economic consequences.
"The crucial link between air travel and economic prosperity is threatened by a lack of adequate capacity in our aviation system. We need to start planning now for future growth," Robert Yaro, president of the RPA, said. "The cost of building airport capacity, while significant, must be weighed against the even greater toll on the region's economy if we do nothing."
Enter Stewart Airport. Located just 60 miles outside of Manhattan, Stewart has been the go-to airport for saving the region from air congestion for as long as I can remember, and the plans to use it have never made much sense. In 2007, the MTA announced a study to explore a rail link between Manhattan and Stewart. For $600 million, the authority would have provided a 90-minute ride to the tiny airport, and I long believed this to be a waste of money. Stewart is just too far away and adds too much time to a trip to be as popular as it must be to alleviate the pressure at Laguardia, JFK and Newark.
As ARC hit the ground running, though, it seemed as though Stewart would be eligible for a rail link via the new tunnel, but now that ARC is dead, so too seems Stewart Airport's future. The RPA study doesn't believe Stewart is a viable fourth airport, and they believe the Port Authority is overplaying the importance of its upstate property which is on pace to draw only 400,000 passengers this year. Patrick McGeehan of The Times has more:
Jeffrey M. Zupan, an analyst with the Regional Plan Association who led the study, said he forecast that Stewart would draw only about half the traffic the Port Authority hoped for. By the time the four airports controlled by the Port Authority are drawing 150 million passengers a year, only about 3.5 million of them, or just over 2 percent, will be using Stewart, Mr. Zupan said….
The best prospect for luring travelers from the city and close-in suburbs to Stewart is an express train, Mr. Zupan said. But elected officials, most notably New York's senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, had pinned hopes on running trains from Midtown Manhattan through a new tunnel under the Hudson River and up the west side of the Hudson.
Now that New Jersey's governor, Chris Christie, has scrapped the plan for that rail tunnel, the idea of direct trains to Stewart appears to be fading. Senator Schumer said, however, that a rail link to Stewart was still more feasible than some of the ideas for airport expansion laid out in the study last week, like filling in part of Jamaica Bay to add a runway at Kennedy.
"Stewart will still be a needed airport, but without the rail link, the chance of its really alleviating the overcrowding at the other airports is minimal," Mr. Schumer said in an interview. "It will be a secondary airport — important but secondary."
Ultimately, the airport issue is part of a wider problem. New York needs better access. Uniquely situated on an island, the city's central business district is choked by a lack of expansion. We haven't added roads, rails or airport capacity to the area in decades, and the economy will begin to suffer as congestion and delays worsen. Stewart won't be and never was the answer, but something will have to give.
PA Chair: ARC will returnPosted by: | Comments
When Gov. Chris Christie canceled the ARC Tunnel in the fall, transit advocates from around the region were exasperated. Although the project had its design flaws on the Manhattan side, 20 years of planning and lobbying were flushed down the toilet by one stroke of the Governor's pen. Furthermore, the region needs improved cross-Hudson rail access and simply cannot afford to wait another two decades to see shovels hit the ground.
Luckily, the major players involved in the region's transportation policy seem to recognize the importance of cross-Hudson crossings. In a talk last week, Anthony Coscia, the chairman of the commissions of the Port Authority, spoke with financiers and construction magnates on the need to build. Transportation Nation was there and offered up a transcript. Coscia spoke a length about the need to reform pricing and the cost of building as well as the funding mechanisms. He pushed for more private sector investment opportunities as well.
The part that caught my attention was his bit on the ARC Tunnel. I'll quote at length:
The Port Authority's role was as a financing partner in the project. We did have certain responsibilities in terms of acquiring real estate on the New York side, but that was more a legal function of our ability to acquire land in the state of New York, which New Jersey Transit didn't have. Our real role was: we were a $3 billion partner in the project. The reason we were a $3 billion partner in the project is that our mission is to move people between New York and New Jersey. We're of the view that building another lane in the Lincoln Tunnel isn't really going to solve that problem, even if we could do it, which we can't. Mass transit or intercity rail was our way of addressing that problem.
I have to say that—since finance is really where my professional activities have been—I've never gone through an episode where I raised $3 billion dollars and it hasn't been used. That's never happened. But then it happened. We did raise $3 billion for the project, but I think [Governor Christie], for a lot of reasons that are fundamental of the time we're in right now, was not comfortable going ahead with the project.
We are still looking for solutions to trans-Hudson commuting, and those solutions will come in some form. I also serve on the Board of Amtrak and I know that Amtrak has remained pretty dedicated to finding a solution to that issue as well, because the Northeast corridor is very dependent upon it.
We have the $3 billion and we are reinvesting it in other projects that hopefully will add to the region's transportation strength. In terms of "will a new tunnel be built?" I think the answer to that is yes, but it will be in a configuration, of a financial model, that will be acceptable to a broad variety of stakeholders, and that's still a work in progress.
It's interesting here to see Coscia talk directly about the funding. Christie has long maintained that New York was not a solid funding partner, but due to its contributions to the Port Authority, a good deal of money came from New York. It wasn't as a big a contribution as New Jersey's portion, but considering which state's residents stand to benefit more, it was arguably a fair allocation of dollars.
Meanwhile, it's comforting to hear that the Port Authority is still working toward an ARC-like solution. Unfortunately, it sounds as though concrete plans are still a few years off, but hopefully, with a groundswell of support and an obvious need, the region can find something to build before the decade is out. We can't afford to wait much longer.
Mulling the 7, Christie disputes ARC paymentsPosted by: | Comments
We join this episode of As The ARC Turns already in the progress…
When last we heard from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, he had recently announced a plan to borrow billions after quashing ARC over concerns over cost overruns. The federal government had asked Christie to return $271 million in New Starts funding, but Christie balked at the request. Today, he fired back in a big way.
"We are not paying the money back," the New Jersey Governor said on Ask the Governor yesterday, and today, the state's lawyers made that position official. In a 55-page filing, embedded at the end of this post, New Jersey insists that it both cannot afford to pay back the $271 million and is not legally required to do so.
Jim O'Grady from WNYC has more:
Tuesday's submission to the FTA, filed by Washington, D.C., law firm Patton Boggs, argues no repayment is required because the project was cancelled for reasons beyond the governor's control — or more precisely, of New Jersey Transit's, which was overseeing the project. It was the project's estimated over-runs in a time of "severe financial stress" for New Jersey that made shutting down the project unavoidable, the filing argues.
The filing further claims the FTA is only authorized to ask for money classified as New Starts funds and that $225.5 million of the $271 million doesn't fit that description. "The FTA overstates the funds that are even at issue and makes a demand for repayment that is far broader than authorized by statute," read a statement accompanying the filing.
Christie is also claiming that preliminary engineering for the ARC tunnel is proving useful to the study of other projects, such as the proposed extension of the No. 7 subway line from Manhattan to New Jersey and upgrades to Amtrak service in the Northeast Corridor.
Ultimately, the submission says that New Jersey is not in a fiscal position to remit the money, even if it will get half of it back. "Repaying any amount would be deeply counterproductive and harmful to the citizens and taxpayers of NJ," it states. "The work produced with these funds has enduring value to future projects. Moreover, compelling NJT to repay these funds will force NJT to cancel projects it can afford to undertake to reduce congestion, enhance the condition of critical infrastructure and create needed jobs."
The FTA has yet to comment.
Meanwhile, Christie let slip this week that he has had talks with the Bloomberg Administration over the mayor's plan to send the 7 to Secaucus. He didn't say much, but his words offer up a tantalizing glimpse at a project I still think is a pie-in-the-sky fantasy.
"We're having conversations with Mayor Bloomberg and others regarding the extension of the No. 7 train to Secaucus, New Jersey, which would do what we really wanted the ARC tunnel to do originally," the governor said. "We'd like to get [commuters] in a more efficient way over to the East Side of Manhattan," he said. "That was the original ARC plan. It got morphed into this plan that has a multibillion-dollar terminal in the basement of Macy's, blocks away from any other connecting train."
After the jump, read New Jersey's filings with the FTA. Read More→
ARC Fallout: Schumer v. ChristiePosted by: | Comments
Charles Schumer, my neighbor and the senior senator from the great state of New York, took to the stage this morning at Crain's breakfast forum. His topic concerned the city's aging public transportation infrastructure and the need to expand the system within the city's five boroughs and improve interconnectedness outside of it. I'll tackle what he did and didn't say about the MTA later, but for now, let's look at Schumer's choice words for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
As the Senator touted New York's investment in rail, he spoke at length about the East Side Access project, the Second Ave. Subway and the 7 line extension. These three efforts are the MTA's key capital projects and are all supported by federal dollars to one extent or another. New Jersey though has earned Schumer's ire.
To open his talk on Christie, Schumer did not mince words. "Though I am extremely sympathetic to the fiscal problems Governor Christie clearly faces and I recognize there are not easy choices to make," he said, "I believe pulling the plug on ARC was a terrible, terrible decision."
Schumer touting the ARC Tunnel job creation numbers and the "starkly evident" traffic mitigation impact the tunnel would have had. He spoke of the RPA study that showed how ARC would raise property values throughout New Jersey and how we must improve connections westward as well as eastward.
Yet, his strongest words were reserved for Christie's current political machinations. The New Jersey governor is making a play to grab the ARC money to help cover his state's budget gap, and Schumer fears for the future. I'll quote at length:
Governor Christie, faced with very real and very difficult budget decisions, has turned to the Port Authority, and the money that was originally dedicated to the ARC project. While I would certainly support using the funding the Port Authority had committed to ARC to extend the 7 train to New Jersey, I do not think it is appropriate to use Port Authority funds for what are essentially maintenance projects.
Governor Christie's proposed idea that $1.8 billion of what was originally committed by the Port Authority for the ARC for other projects is to compound one mistake with another, perhaps even a greater one. These are smaller projects aimed at maintaining existing roadways that would otherwise be funded with New Jersey transportation dollars. In essence, the Governor wants the Port Authority to help fill his budget gap…Asking the Port Authority to take capital funds and redirect them on this scale, a scale never before contemplated, would be a mistake that rivals, and perhaps even surpasses the cancellation of the ARC tunnel as a risk to our region's future.
It could well begin the cannibalization of Port Authority dollars and could mark the beginning of the end of the long-term ability of our region to respond to its major transportation needs. The Port Authority as an agency has always been committed to the long-term, the future, to building out the infrastructure of the region so that we can accommodate future growth. While it is a creature of politics, and certainly not immune to them, it has also managed to retain over its history an independence that has served the entire region. Because it has dedicated revenue stream, the Port Authority has been able to plan and complete projects, regardless of the momentary crises that the states themselves have sometimes faced. We cannot allow the agency to be cannibalized in order to solve short term budget problems, however acute. Following New Jersey's lead, New York could well request the Port Authority to provide dollars for similar repairs, like fixing the Belt Parkway. And were this to become the norm, then where would be? If we allow the Port Authority to be turned into a rainy day fund, used year to year to fill gaps, or if we allow it to become a bank of last resort to make up for shortfalls, it's the end of the agency as we know it, and of its ability to fulfill its function, which is to support the future economic growth of the region.
Christie, through a spokesman, fired back later this afternoon. "Where was the senior senator from New York with funding alternatives to a project that was predicted to run billions over projections – all of which were to be borne by New Jersey and its taxpayers?" Michael Drewniak said. "This was a 'bi-state' project for which Senator Schumer's state and the federal government were set to pay zero, zilch, nothing for the cost overruns. We can live with the criticism while protecting taxpayers from this boondoggle, which was simply a bad deal for New Jersey."
Of course, Christie never tried to work out a funding agreement on cost overruns with New York, the feds or anyone. He simply pulled the plug and tried to keep the federal dollars. He's shown no willingness to respond to Mayor Bloomberg's pie-in-the-sky proposal to extend the 7 line to Seacaucus and now wants to use dedicated ARC dollars to cover the Transportation Trust Fund's sinking budget.
Ultimately, New York and New Jersey will have to work together to address these cross-Hudson concerns. New York, through the Port Authority, was footing some of the ARC costs, but the state will likely need to come up with more to make a project work. Yet, Christie should not be playing fast and loose with the Port Authority money. As Schumer said, "There are too many important current projects on the Port Authority's plate…for us to allow it to be diverted from its core mission. Nothing less than the future of the agency and the future of our region are at stake."
After quashing ARC, Christie to borrow billions anywayPosted by: | Comments
When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie killed the ARC Tunnel project last fall, he did so because the project would probably have gone overbudget by anywhere between $1-$5 billion. It wasn't responsible for the state to borrow that much to pay for a rail connection, he said. Well, last week, Christie said he would pay for road, rail and bridge upgrades throughout his state by borrowing $4.4 billion and foisting the rest on the Port Authority.
If this plan comes to fruition, it would divert some turnpike toll money into the state's depleted Transportation Trust Fund and the Port Authority would pick up the slack. To gain New York's Port Authority approval, the PA would also spend some of its dollars on similar projects in New York. It is, said The Star-Ledger, a clear money grab designed to keep the state's gas tax at its low level, and it's a move that reeks of the same financial irresponsibility that Christie has railed against for months. It also elevates road-building over the need for new cross-Hudson rail connections.
NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg did not have kind words for Christie. "The Governor's transportation plan is short on details, but it made one thing very clear. The plan is more proof that the Governor killed the critically-needed new tunnel to Manhattan so he could use its funding as part of a fix for his political problems. Transportation is the economic lifeblood of our state – the most densely populated in the country – and Governor Christie's policies are undermining years of planning and hard work to keep New Jersey on the move," he said. "During Governor Christie's campaign for office, he said borrowing to finance the Transportation Trust Fund is 'unconscionable.' Why is it now acceptable? All he is doing is piling more debt on the state."
At Penn Station, the ghost of ARC lives onPosted by: | Comments
It's been over two months since New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pulled the plug on the ARC Tunnel project, and the fallout from his decision is still raining down upon the region. While the 7 line extension to Secaucus made headlines in mid-November, all has been quite on the cross-Hudson front. Still, the problems ARC was designed to address and the problems that plagued the ARC project live on.
Two stories — one grander than the other — kept the ARC tunnel in the news this week. First, The Post's editorial board used the MTA Inspector General's report on the MTA's construction cost overruns as proof that canceling ARC was the right idea. Their logic is spurious at best.
"You can't blame New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie if he feels some satisfaction over news out of the MTA," Alexander Hamilton's former paper said. "A new report by Inspector General Barry Kluger found that the transit agency's major development projects — the Second Avenue subway, the LIRR link and the Fulton Transit Center — are five years late and $2 billion over budget. But they're all too far along for MTA Chairman Jay Walder to kill them. Which is precisely what Christie did to the Hudson River commuter tunnel, before it slipped into the overrun abyss."
The Post claims that the problems plaguing the MTA — "lack of oversight and bureaucratic infighting" — are the same as those that would have descended on ARC, and because of those concerns, Christie was right to cancel the project. To me, it would have made far more sense for Christie to address those two concerns and figure out a way to bring the project under budget before killing it. He chose not to tackle those problems, and the way he made his decision should not be applauded.
Meanwhile, the problems ARC was designed to address are alive and kicking. Penn Station has not turned into a panacea of through trains, and the crowded rail hub is facing capacity concerns. As part of an ongoing series detailing concerns about our region's aging transportation infrastructure, Andrew Grossman of the Wall Street Journal went in depth into the Penn Station problems. He writes:
NJ Transit, LIRR and Amtrak must get 170 trains loaded on 21 platforms in four hours, moving more than 120,000 commuters and long-haul travelers out of Manhattan. It is the nation's busiest station. If all goes according to plan, a train opens its doors on a platform every 60 to 90 seconds, picking up or dropping off about 900 passengers—the equivalent of two full Boeing 747s.
In 2010, 6% of peak-period NJ Transit trains were late through November, with delays more common on most of the lines that run in and out of Penn. Sometimes the failures are catastrophic and perhaps unavoidable, as following the late-December snowstorm that delayed scores of trains for days. But other delays—malfunctioning signals, overhead wires knocked down by trees that the railroad can't afford to trim—can be chalked up to factors like human error, poor planning or a lack of funding.
Penn Station is one of many choke points in the aging transit system moving people around metro New York. In an era defined by states' austerity and tapped-out transit authorities, much of the fundamental infrastructure is outdated and overcrowded. And there's little prospect of it getting much better without politically unpalatable steps being taken, such as higher fares and tolls or a major reallocation of taxpayer dollars.
All of the trains arriving and departing Penn Station, which opened a century ago, come from two tracks toward New Jersey and four tracks toward Long Island. All must arrive on one of the 21 tracks, but many trains can't fit on some tracks with shorter platforms. By contrast, Grand Central has 46 tracks—and far fewer delays.
A late Amtrak train impacts a New Jersey Transit train which impacts a Long Island Rail Road train which impacts an Amtrak train. It is a problem that many had hoped ARC would solve and now, as Grossman notes, transportation planners are "scrambling" to find better solutions. New Jersey Transit is at the mercy of Amtrak, but the MTA is trying anything it can find to improve the situation.
The authority, says Grossman, "is investigating whether it can run trains through Penn and into New Jersey, shaving precious minutes off the amount of time each spends on a platform, freeing up some capacity. It's also looking at running some Metro-North trains into Penn once a project to provide LIRR access into Grand Central Terminal is finished."
Eventually, something is going to have to give. New Jersey and New York will have to figure out a way to work together to address the region's cross-Hudson rail capacity concerns. The two states will have to work hard to keep costs on the ARC successor project to a reasonable level and will have to battle overruns. The economic impact of planning and building nothing is too severe for us to wait much longer.


text:
A CT scanner is a non-invasive medical imaging device that uses
X-rays to generate images of the human body. CT scans enable your doctor to view the inside of your body, including bone, muscle, blood vessels and organ systems, in great detail.
©2015 Sky Lakes Medical Center. All rights reserved. 2865 Daggett Avenue, Klamath Falls, OR 97601 Tel 541-882-6311
Website designed and developed by McMurry/TMG

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Category: Mobile Browsers
Windows Phone 8.1: Internet Explorer 11 (Video)
With today's Windows Phone 8.1 announcement, guys at WPCentral did a quick hands on video of IE11, which includes features like InPrivate browsing, reader view and password manager (finally).
Check it out.
Crazy Rumors: Internet Explorer Might Come To Android
Can it be true?
With the recent reveal of Office or iPad and Android, it looks like there is a new (and absolutely crazy) rumor in town (which comes from unverified source via Twitter): Microsoft is porting Internet Explorer for Android.
While at first glance it does not seem realistic, one might wonder if the software giant has decided to spread even more of their services across different platforms rather than making them MS exclusive, which was the case with Xbox Live Games (some of them are now on iOS and Android), Office, etc.
Continue Reading
Mozilla Receives A New CEO, Will Focus on Firefox OS
Another day, another CEO for Mozilla.
It looks like it's that time of the year again when the open source organization is picking a new CEO. Now it's Brendan Eich, one of the early Netscape developers and Firefox creators who is also known as the inventor of JavaScript; a pretty solid background if you ask us.
Back in August 2005, he became a CTO of Mozilla and has been doing some management ever since. What about his vision? Well, as it turns out, he doesn't see Firefox as a top priority project, instead it is Firefox OS, yes, a mobile operating system that is yet to gain any traction is what Mozilla will be focusing on from now on. Either he is crazy, highly ambitious or both.
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Google Is Investigating Chrome For Windows Phone 8.1
As Microsoft is set to unveil a new version of Windows Phone later next week (April 4th), it looks like the search giant itself is now in early stages of planning / developing a Google Chrome browser for WP.
Since late 2012 there was a request for Google to "Port Chrome to Windows Phone 8 aka WP8" with little to no updates, up until now.
Just a mere 14 hours ago, a request was re-opened with the following message: dxie [Chromium team member] is going to own this now for investigation.
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Former Mozilla Developer Pokes At Microsoft For Firefox Metro Failure
Recently, Mozilla has announced their plans to abandon Firefox for Metro due to an insufficient amount of beta testers (thousands), which is a pretty low number compared to Firefox for desktop where we are talking millions.
Now, a former Mozilla developer, Brian Bondy, is arguing that its Microsoft strict guidelines and a messy default browser setup process that are partly responsible for the project failure.
His arguments are new nothing new or earth shattering but still something to consider while sipping coffee or tea in early Sunday morning.
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Download Opera For Android (Minor Update)
Always better than nothing.
If you are in a mood for a quickie then here is a minor update for your Opera web browser, which, besides some "under the good changes" includes the following fixes:
- Empty tab manager thumbnails
- Passwords sometimes not stored
- Speaker phone always turned on
- Common crash when playing video on specific sites
- Issue with loading spinner after a session restore
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Download Opera Mini 8 For Java & BlackBerry Devices
For those that are still using old phones, Opera has cooked a pretty delicious treat: a new version of Opera Mini.
So what kind of new features will you find there? First in the list is a "Private Browsing" mode, which you can use when your imagination is running on empty, next is "Night mode", a pretty neat option that will dim your phone's display.
Lastly, a refreshed "Data Usage" menu and improved tab access for phones with keypads. Excited? Grab it below.
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Opera: No Windows Phone Version Yet
Internet Explorer 11 remains the status quo.
If you've been dreaming about the Opera browser ever since the release of Windows Phone 8 (not to mention occasional hints by Opera guys themselves), then we got some bad news for you.
According to Vera Lasam Bergtun, the Social Media Coordinator at Opera Software, the team behind one of the better mobile browsers haven't even began working on a version for Microsoft's platform.
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UC Browser Receives A Significant Update
Windows Phone users rejoice.
Recently, UC Browser has been updated to version 3.4, which brings a couple of new features that are worth mentioning.
First in the list is ability to export downloaded files to SD card or public folder, next is a convenient way to share downloaded files through Bluetooth or QR Code.
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February, 2014 Mobile Market Share: Android Browser, Google Chrome, Opera Mini, Internet Explorer – Up; Safari – Down
Another month, another report.
Kicking things off with Safari, Apple's web browser saw a decrease in its market share numbers, down from 54.97% to 53.52% (1.45 decrease).
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text:
Average Customer Review
Share your thoughts with other customersCreate your own review
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A dark and beatiful work of genius
I only got this album a week ago, yet i have found myself listening to it non stop since then. This is the first Nick Cave album i have ever bought and i have just fallen in love with it.
On first listen the album seems quite menacing and dark and the more i listened to it the more disturbing i found it. As i listened to Nick Cave's deep and brooding voice...
Published on 4 Jan. 2002
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars cover and booklet in bad conditions
The cover and booklet of this cd wasn't gpod while the support was ok
Published 3 months ago by pierpaolo
Most Helpful First | Newest First
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A dark and beatiful work of genius,
By A Customer
I only got this album a week ago, yet i have found myself listening to it non stop since then. This is the first Nick Cave album i have ever bought and i have just fallen in love with it.
On first listen the album seems quite menacing and dark and the more i listened to it the more disturbing i found it. As i listened to Nick Cave's deep and brooding voice graphically describe scores of murderes, juxtopsed with a dark sick humour that accompanies it throughout the album, i often found myself with a smile on my face. This definatly made me stop and think like no other album has done. The album makes you look at things differently, gives you the account of murders through the eyes of the murderer so that you can empathise and even sypathise with them.
Murder Ballads has such power both in lyrics and music that is like listening to poetry. The album is perfectly ended with the Dylan cover of "Death is not the end" which just summes up the whole album. The song manages to blend lyrics such as "when your sad and lonely and you havent got a friend just remember that death is not the end" with an upbeat rhythm and chorus to create an excellant ending to a brilliant album.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Death is not the End,
By A Customer
I have got all Nick Cave's albums and this one holds a special plce in my black little heart because it's the first one I bought. I was in a large music retailer one day and I picked up the headphones on the listening post and put them on just for a laugh. My ears wre hit by the chilling opening chords of 'Song of Joy'. I was astounded, never having heard anything like it before. I just stood there and listened to the rest of the album. This album is proof that death is a great subject for song writing, and it is much in the tradition of the blues storytelling of the American deep south and also the folk ballad tradition. The blues on the album are dirty, gritty and scary, listen to 'Song of Joy', 'Crow Jane', 'O'Malley's Bar'. The Ballads have beautiful melodies and terrifying subject matter. The duets with Kylie Minnougue, 'Where the Wild Roses Grow', and Polly Harvey on 'Henry Lee' have to be two of the best Murder ballad's ever written. The theatrical songs, 'The Curse of Milhaven', telling the tale of a serial killing 15 year old girl, and the final 'Death is not the End', a cover of a Bob Dylan song, are also great. Overall its a carthatic album if a rather bizarre one. It really does work and if you like it, I recommend you check out Johnny Cash's 'Murder' album and see where Nick got some of his influences from.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Songs of Murder, Songs for Joy,
Jonathan James Romley (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews
Tales of murder and death, sometimes hilarious though often heartbreaking... regardless of how far he goes with his lyrical content, Cave's genius has always been in creating and sustaining a mood that the listener can totally lose themselves in.
Here the underlining concern is in the creation of a bleak and suffocating atmosphere, only occasionally broken by Cave's amazingly dark wit and always-colourful use of language. The form is taken straight from the tradition of the English ballad, with confessional structures, biblical imagery, lurid subject matter and larger than life caricatures all jostling for our attention. It works because Cave doesn't take it too seriously. Songs like Stagger Lee, The Curse of Millhaven and the epic O'Malley's Bar seem to take their cue from cabaret, or at their most, musical theatre. It lightens the mood, making the more suffocating moments like Song for Joy - a shocking parable about a young doctor robbed of his family - less soul destroying. The two contrasting elements create a nice blend that takes the listener on an intimate journey into the deepest, darkest depths of despair.
As always, Cave is complimented by his wonderful Bad Seeds, who are here on fine form. The arrangements are atmospherically complex, though never what you would call cluttered; whilst an assortment of varied guest stars (such as PJ Harvey, Kylie Minogue and Shane MacGowan) add to the frenzied, 'don't give a f-ck' spirit of the album. Cave has done better work than this... but never before, and most likely never again, will we ever see his appetite for horror, bloodshed and death in such an unashamed, and certainly uncensored approach as this. What else is there to say...?
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Truly original,
I love this album. I wasn't a Nick Cave fan simply because I didn't really know his music until he duetted with Kylie Minogue. I then heard Henry Lee with PJ Harvey, and I decided to buy the album to hear more. And I'm glad I did.
This is a collection of breathtakingly original, genuinely spooky songs, each telling a story from beinning to end. Where The Wild Roses Grow, Death Is Not The End, Henry Lee are all brilliant, but then so is every track on this album. If you like original music that has something to say, this is an album for you.
Only, don't listen to it last thing at night. You may want to sleep with the lights on .........
Song Of Joy - despite the title, this is a harrowing tale of a doctor who turns up one night at a stranger's desolate house, asking if he will be given shelter for the night in payment for him telling the homeowner a tale of his life. He does not wait for an answer and launches into his story - how he married a young woman named Joy but soon after, she fell victim to a 'melancholy' that settled over the house, making her children as quiet as Church mice, almost as though Joyce could foresee her bloody end. One night the doctor came home from a house-call to find his wife and three children stabbed to death - the children still in their cots. Spookily, the doctor adds that they never caught the man responsible. Would you believe him - and would you let him stay the night??
Lovely Creature - this song is setting a man's worst nightmare to music. He takes a beautiful, well-dressed girl out for a walk, imagining that he takes her past the pyramids and all sorts of fanciful places, only to return home without her. He says he does not know where she has gone, but then he adds that she lies buried underground, still with the ribbons in her hair and green gloves upon her hands ........
Henry Lee - Probably the most twisted love story ever set to music. PJ Harvey's slightly flat, melancholy tones perfectly match Cave's - despite their actual ages, they are perfectly believable as a young couple thrown together by a chance meeting. Only she wants more than he can give her - and when he tells her he has a sweetheart back home, she stabs him 'through and through' with a penknife. "Lie there, lie there, little Henry Lee, til the flesh drops from your bones'. Who ever heard such a chilling line sung? "The girl you have in that merry green land can wait forever for you to come home," she adds viciously, before disposing of his body in a "deep, deep well that's more than one hundred feet."
Where The Wild Roses Grow - the most polished song on the album, but also one of the most charming. Nick Cave saw something in Kylie - the way she can keep on adapting and growing, her ability to allow other artistes to mould her into something new - and he knew that Kylie's sweet innocence would be ideal for the role of Eliza Day. She's the young romantic who falls for a man who gives her wild roses, then he kills her and lays her in the river next to those roses. He believes she is too beautiful to live. Eliza is singing her part of the duet from the grave - she wants the world to know that she had a name - Eliza Day - rather than the sensationalist tag "The Wild Rose". You can just imagine the newspapers coming up with that sort of moniker for the murdered girl.
The Curse of Millhaven - a bawdy romp through the murderous antics of Loretta ("I prefer Lottie") who sits at the interview table, restrained by a strait-jacket, her lips foaming as she gleefully recounts her killings - ("I'm a monster, I admit it!" Any song that can rhyme the phrase 'Rorshach Tests' is a winner with me. Classic lines - "Well, my hair ain't yellow and my eyes ain't green / it's more like the other way around!" and "If bad was a boot, I'd fit it."
Death Is Not The End - The Bad Seeds, Shane McGowan, Kylie, PJ Harvey, and Anita Lane join Nick Cave for a final, desperately hopeful sing-along. Death Is Not the End they say, and if Eliza Day can sing from beyond the grave, how can it be?
Stagger Lee - he knows he's the baddest guy in town and now he's going to make sure everyone else knows it too. He ignores the old prostitute trying to tempt him and instead turns his attentions to her pimp before killing him. It's like the lowest, meanest Western come to life ......
The Kindness of Strangers - this is a fantastic, excellent song. Young Mary Bellows leaves her home in Arkansas for the first time, to see the sea and spread her wings. She takes a train to a nameless town and, on said train, she meets a man "called Richard Slade" who she chats with on the journey. He even carries her suitcase to the door of her hotel room, but remembering her mother's advice, she tells him, "I'm a good girl, sir, she said to him / I couldn't possibly permit you in". So Slade, seeming to take this well, "tips his hat and winks his eye / and turned away without goodbye".
Alone in her room, Mary ponders on her new friendship, and begins to think her life may be more exciting if she took a few risks. So, "In hope and loneliness, she crossed the floor / and undid the latch on her front door." This is the worst thing she could have done, for Richard Slade, it turns out (if that is even his real name), wasn't that happy after all at being turned away earlier.
"They found Mary Bellows cuffed to the bed, with a rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head / O poor Mary Bellows" sings Cave, with all the macabre intonation of the sensationalist Victorian newspapers of the day. Mary echoes his last verse - warning others: "So mothers keep your girls at home / don't let them journey out alone \ tell them this world is full of danger \ to shun the company of strangers." Mary's crying can be heard as the song peters out. It's a genuinely haunting song - it greally makes your skin prickle.
How could you not love an album that not only contains such fantastic songs but, among the credits, details who did the 'screaming' and the 'crying' as well as who played what instrument. And on "The Curse of Millhaven", the Bad Seeds and Anita Lane among others join in on backing vocals as the "Moron Tabernacle Choir"!
Unfortunately, there's one song that was missed off this album of 'Murder Ballads' - a song I would have loved to hear. It's where two hundred music fans murder Peter Andre ...........
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A marriage of inspiration and misery!,
My annual penance is to spend the weekend chez my Mother-in-Law. This is a stressful time, as every year I get confirmation that The Devil's Disciple is getting more and more like the Devil herself. "Mirror mirror on the wall, I am my mother after all!"
Having packed the trip essentials - Gin; Tonic; Bat Bite Serum and a packet of rat poison, all I had to do was contemplate the long drive to Pendle Hill.
Readers of my past reviews will know that music is an important source of inspiration to me, and the way I was feeling, I needed all the help I could get. Luckily, I stumbled upon this album. Dark, melancholy, tortured. It encapsulated my exact emotions at the time and put me in a perfect frame of mind for yet another weekend of hell. (It also gave me some ideas for future visits....)
Nick Cave fans - this is a wonderful album that rewards repeated hearing. Fellow Devil/Disciple sufferers - buy it. At the very least you'll appreciate that you're not alone in your misery!
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark but brilliant,
Mr. W. A. Butler "Wayneo" - See all my reviews
This review is from: Murder Ballads (2011 - Remaster) (MP3 Download)
I bought my first Nick Cave CD after seeing his video on MTV of Where the Wild Roses Grow with Kylie, as a safe start I bought The Best of, wasn't disappointed and have since purchased Dig Lazarous, Abbattoir Blues/Wild Orpheus, then a few weeks ago bought Murder Ballads and OST Lawless. First play of Murder Ballads was in the car driving along the M1, my first thoughts were that this was a very dark and depressing collection, after a few plays and repeats as it has only today been removed from the car, I have to say it does bring a wry smile when playing it now. It is absolutely brilliant, every song has its own life, full of deep seated thoughts, anxiety and to me a definate fun side.
Stagger Lee is just brilliant, played on my mp3 in alphabetical order it appears next to Stagger Lee by Neil Diamond, such a contrast. The lyrics to Stagger Lee are of a great tale, great story even if explicit but it does fit perfectly in this collection, plus it has a fantastic bass line for playing a bit loud in the car, just brilliant
My original Nick Cave introduction with Kylie is on here, so thats a bonus too, Lovely Creature has a great rythm and story.
All in all there is not a bad song on this album for me, usually there is a track to be skipped but not on here, my wife on the other hand would easily skip them all, it is not everyones cup of tea, but I would most definately recommend this album, if you like a good story with a twist and a wry smile while you are listening then just buy this you will not be disappointed.
Having played it today in the house and rather loud, it just gets better.
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful collection of ballads!,
This is a very likable collection of ballads by Nick Cave, for those who cannot take the crazy noisy songs he sometimes used to compose for the Bas Seeds the best choice. It compiles a collection of dark and beautiful ballads in the old tradition of the ballad itself: tales and stories about lovers, murderers and death together. My favourite tracks are undeniable "Stagger Lee", "Henry Lee" with the beautiful singer PJ Harvey and of course the all time favourite "Where the wild roses grow" with Kylie Minogue". A very likable album, too bad, it's only that short!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome,
stagger lee is so awesome , and thats just one track. A serious peice of music , deep and dark and wonderful.
5.0 out of 5 stars A dark collection of songs,
The classics stand out like Stagger Lee, where the wild roses grow and Henry Lee. Some other fun with murder and music in others like The curse of Millhaven and Lovely creature. Works great as an album
5.0 out of 5 stars MUST BUY,
Absolutely phenomenal, lyrics are a little odd, but that adds to the albums brilliance, with each song also a story, you can't help but listen to them over and over again
Most Helpful First | Newest First
Murder Ballads (Remastered) by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Buy MP3 Album: �6.19


text:
Stockholm, New York
|Stockholm, New York
Signage denoting entrance into the town of Stockholm along New York State Route 11B.
|Coordinates: 44°45′35″N 74°51′11″W / 44.75972°N 74.85306°WCoordinates: 44°45′35″N 74°51′11″W / 44.75972°N 74.85306°W
|United States
|New York
|St. Lawrence
|• Total
|94.3 sq mi (244.2 km2)
|• Land
|93.9 sq mi (243.3 km2)
|• Water
|0.3 sq mi (0.9 km2)
|381 ft (116 m)
|Population (2010)
|• Total
|Time zone
|Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
|• Summer (DST)
|FIPS code
|GNIS feature ID
Stockholm is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The population was 3,665 at the 2010 census. The name was assigned by surveyors from Stockholm in Sweden.
The Town of Stockholm is in the northeast part of the county and is northeast of Potsdam.
Stockholm was erected from part of the Town of Massena by a legislative act passed February 21, 1806. It received its name by the surveyors from Stockholm, Sweden. It retained its original territory until April 9, 1823, when a part was annexed to Norfolk, and on April 15, 1834, another portion was annexed to the same town. During the War of 1812 some residents left the town and a lesser number returned.[1]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 94.3 square miles (244 km2), of which, 93.9 square miles (243 km2) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km2) of it (0.37%) is water.
The St. Regis River flows northward through the east part of the town.
U.S. Route 11 passes through the town. New York State Route 420 crosses the northeast corner of the town.
As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 3,592 people, 1,381 households, and 999 families residing in the town. The population density was 38.2 people per square mile (14.8/km²). There were 1,520 housing units at an average density of 16.2 per square mile (6.2/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.91% White, 0.33% African American, 0.42% Native American, 0.19% Asian, 0.14% from other races, and 1.00% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.50% of the population.
There were 1,381 households out of which 35.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.0% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.6% were non-families. 22.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.01.
In the town the population was spread out with 27.6% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 23.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 98.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.7 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $30,720, and the median income for a family was $38,370. Males had a median income of $30,444 versus $21,821 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,109. About 11.2% of families and 16.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.3% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.
Communities and locations in Stockholm[edit]
- Armstrong Corners – A hamlet near the west town line on US-11 at County Road 57.
- Beechertown – A hamlet near the south town line.
- Brookdale (formerly "Scotland") – A hamlet on County Road 49.
- Buckton (or "Bucks Corners") – A location south of Stockholm Center on County Road 47.
- Converse – A hamlet in the south part of the town on NY-11B east of Southville.
- East Part – A hamlet east of Stockholm Center on US-11.
- Kellogg – A location in the southeast corner of the town on County Road 49.
- Knapps Station – A former location near the west town line.
- North Stockholm – A hamlet in the northwest part of the town.
- Sandfordville – A hamlet in the west part of the town.
- Skinnerville – A hamlet north of Stockholm Center, located on the St. Regis River.
- Southville – A hamlet in the south part of the town on NY-11B. The community was previously called "South Stockholm."
- Stockholm Center – A hamlet on US-11 near the center of the town.
- West Stockholm – A hamlet, formerly called "Bickneyville," in the western part of the town. The West Stockholm Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[3]
- Winthrop (formerly "Stockholm" and "Stockholm Depot") – A hamlet on NY-11C in the eastern part of the town by the St. Regis River.
- ^ History of Stockholm, NY
- ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
External links[edit]


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No socks, no shoes, no problem?
Barefoot runners say it's great; but it's not for everyone
"I thought I'd try it barefoot because I had nothing to lose," says Sandler, who was in San Diego recently to promote his book.
He started with just 100 yards at a time, gradually increasing his distance and speed. After three months he ran a 10K race barefoot "faster than I ever did before in shoes," he says, and now runs 10 to 20 miles a day barefoot in all kinds of weather.
"My feet have grown strong, and I have no hip or knee pain, and I attribute it all to being able to feel the ground, running light and letting my body heal itself," he says.Not everyone is so enthusiastic about running shoeless.
"Barefoot running may work for a well-conditioned athlete who is acutely in tune with his body and can make the needed adjustments and adapt his gait and running style," says Dr. Gregory Clark, chief of podiatry at Scripps Clinic. "However, for the casual runner who's 45 years old and 30 pounds overweight, running barefoot, especially if the proper (precautions) aren't taken, could end up being a problem. Running barefoot or with some kind of minimalist shoe should be done with significant caution."
Critics say those who endorse the barefoot trend as a way of "getting back to nature" are ignoring the fact that our ancestors were far smaller and in much better shape than Americans today. Large, unfit people need stronger foot support, they contend.
San Diego Track Club coach Paul Greer agrees that today's running shoes are too cushioned. The problem is that runners' bodies have adjusted to all the soft padding.
"Because we've all been wearing highly cushioned shoes all of our lives, our bodies are not balanced and our posture is off. We're not aligned individuals anymore," says Greer who also directs the track club's Rockin' 'n' Runnin' Marathon Training Program. "Probably, the younger you are when you start barefoot running, the better chance you have of getting away with it."
Another danger of running barefoot is the risk of stepping on debris, rocks and glass that litter streets and sidewalks.
"We were not made to run on asphalt and concrete. The average Joe can't just take off his shoes and start running barefoot down Carlsbad Boulevard," says Clark, who recommends starting out on softer surfaces like packed sand, level, well-maintained grass or a rubber track.
But experienced barefoot runners like Shackleford say the harder the running surface the better. His surface of choice is the sidewalk.
"Grass is too soft. I can't pay attention to my form if it's too soft. I'm always looking for a hard running surface so I can see if I'm landing properly," says Shackleford, who admits that his first couple of barefoot runs "ended up being a little bloody but it still felt good."
Barefooter Raines, who is doing 18-mile training runs without shoes, says his feet have gotten healthier since discarding his shoes.
"I used to have dry cracked feet bottoms, and I always had to moisturize them. After barefoot running, my feet are now softer and I don't have any calluses. It's just the natural exfoliation of running barefoot," he says, noting that he no longer suffers from cold feet, which he attributes to increased blood flow to the feet after running barefoot.
To avoid the inevitable cuts and abrasions, some barefoot runners wear minimal foot covering such as Vibram Fivefingers. The glovelike shoes offer no cushioning and only a hint of a sole, allowing the runner to feel the road but with some skin protection.
Shackleford has gotten so used to going without shoes that if he isn't barefoot, he's wearing his Fivefingers at work and out socially.
"I don't do dress shoes," he says.
Union-Tribune librarian Michelle Gilchrist contributed to this report.


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King Lear (Almeida)
Editorial Staff • West End • 13 Feb 2002
There's an impressive start. Paul Brown's set encloses the vast space of the theatre and serves as television studio as Lear prepares to make a broadcast. Right from the outset, the two daughters put on a false act as they preen and pose in front of the camera It's a measure of Cordelia's honesty that she refuses to go before the lights to say her piece. But once Lear realises how he was mistaken about his daughters, it's his own image that he attacks, as he batters his reflection in a mirror.
And as Lear's world crumbles around him so too does the set (quite literally) as the storm renders the grand house to ruin. This does lead to some unwontedly comic effects, as Lear and his party shelter under a writing desk, supposedly in the middle of a rain-swept heath. The second half of the play uses the full expanse of the theatre, although some of the more intimate scenes are overshadowed by the vastness of the stage.
Oliver Ford Davies is a fine Lear, a beautifully spoken king who captures well the rage and bewilderment of his situation. His is a Lear for a television age: where image is all. Once stripped of his accoutrements and symbols of kingly power (and probably his spin doctors), he's forced to confront reality.
There are good performances too from Suzanne Burden and Lizzy McInnerney as Goneril and Regan, two house-proud ladies barely able to comprehend the havoc that their father is bringing to their homes. Elsewhere, solid support is offered by Paul Shelley's Albany, Paul Jesson's Kent and David Ryall's old buffer of a Gloucester. And Tom Hollander turns in a nicely judged Edgar, managing the transformation from upper-class fop to mad beggar to action hero most effectively.
One of the main problems is James Frain's Edmund. One of the dullest and uncharismatic portrayals that I've ever seen, this bastard son is far from being the catalyst for villainy in the play. Frain's Edmund would seem to have problems causing mischief at an accountancy convention.
All in all, Kent's final Almeida production is simply too uneven. In a way, the e expanse of the set itself is the biggest stumbling block, but there are other difficulties. By Lear standards, it's a very short production (just over three hours), and such brevity sacrifices some of the complexity of the journey from reason to madness and back again. It's almost as if this televisually-aware Lear wants to deal only in sound-bites and the full richness of the text is swallowed up.


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Originally written on Patriots Life | Last updated 1/15/13
Joe Flacco is a dope, we all know this, but he is playing for more than just a Super Bowl this year. Flacco's contract is up at the end of this year and he and his agent think (out loud) he's a top 5 elite quarterback and on Sunday he'll aim to prove just that against the Pats always questionable secondary. So far Joe Flacco leads all 2012 playoff quarterbacks in total QBR throwing 5 TD's and no interceptions and these numbers aren't just a fluke. In games against the Patriots Flacco has had a higher QBR than Brady in the last 3 going back to 2010. These statistics are often skewed because the Pats have had a less than stout defense since 2010 while the Ravens have remained at the top so the statistics are not in a vacuum. Brady has also won 2 out of those 3 games so total QBR might just be a pointless statistic, but one can't ignore the effect Joe Flacco is having on the field these playoffs. So far he has outplayed Manning and Luck in both games and led his team to victories br...
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Elliott hopes he's armed for NFL | RANDY BEARD COLUMN
After working out for scouts from 20 NFL teams on Friday at Purdue University, Joey Elliott is confident he's one step closer to his goal of becoming a professional quarterback.
Now all he needs is for one of those teams to give him an opportunity to prove himself.
"Every scout that I've talked to has said I should get a chance," said Elliott. "If it's a late draft pick, it's a late draft pick. If it's as a free agent, they'll take me as a free agent."
During Friday's Pro Day workouts inside the Mollenkopf Center, Elliott not only demonstrated his ability to throw the deep ball, he opened eyes by showing how quickly he can get down the field.
Elliott covered the 40-yard dash in 4.60 seconds — the best time he's ever run. And the former Harrison High School star did it in a pair of flashy gold Nike cleats, guaranteeing he wouldn't go unnoticed by anyone watching 15 Purdue players going through drills that tested their strength, speed and agility.
Former Central High School standout Jared Zwilling, who was Elliott's roommate for five years and Purdue's starting center last season, also participated.
Now the waiting begins. The players are hoping they did enough on Friday to be invited to individual workouts with teams before the NFL Draft on April 22-24.
Just two Boilermakers — defensive tackle Mike Neal and cornerback David Pender — participated in last month's NFL Combine in Indianapolis.
Only 19 quarterbacks were invited. Most pre-Combine projections had Elliott ranked no better than the 32nd best draft-eligible quarterback, so he knows the odds are still stacked slightly against him.
He can read scouting reports, after all. But he can also read defenses, believing his four years spent backing up Curtis Painter made him a better student of the game. "I think that's going to help me last in the league a lot longer," said Elliott, who passed for 3,026 yards and 22 touchdowns with13 interceptions last fall in his only season as a starter.
He knows a lack of college experience is one of the perceived negative check marks on the scouting ledger. So are lingering questions about his arm strength, especially because of the season-ending shoulder separation he suffered as a junior in 2008.
He can only hope that Friday's performance answered some of those questions. He also had a broad jump of 9 feet, which would have tied him for eighth among quarterbacks at the combine. And his 40 time would have been second only to West Virginia's Jarrett Brown.
Those are just two of the signs that his hard work these last few months has paid off as he tries to maximize his playing career.
Other than a short Christmas break, Elliott escaped the cold and snow to train in Florida from Dec. 12 to March 2. His agent, former Purdue basketball player Eugene Parker, arranged for Elliott to go through a rigorous strength and nutrition program at The Athlete's Compound at the Saddlebrook Resort north of Tampa.
When Elliott wasn't busy trimming 3 percent body fat through diet and exercise, he was working on his throwing mechanics with former NFL quarterback Steve DeBerg.
"I worked with him three days a week until I left," said Elliott. "He played with a bunch of NFL teams and was in the league for 17 years, so I learned a lot from him."
DeBerg is about as good a role model as Elliott can find. He was a 10th-round pick after starting just one season at San Jose State but ended up playing for six different NFL teams, including two stints with Tampa Bay.
"He has a similar story to me. It's kind of weird," said Elliott.
The difference is that the NFL Draft only last seven rounds now, so the odds of Elliott being a late-round pick are that much slimmer. Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, a Heisman Trophy winner with two national championship rings, isn't even projected to be selected until the third round.
At 6-foot-2, Elliott is a couple of inches shy of the NFL prototype for his position. But it's not lost on him that Drew Brees, another member of the Purdue QB fraternity, is only 6-foot and just led New Orleans to a victory in the Super Bowl.
Elliott spent the time in Florida sharpening his throwing mechanics. Because he took so many snaps out of the shotgun, DeBerg worked with him on his footwork backing away from center and getting his feet set before releasing the football. He also tweaked Elliott's throwing motion.
"I'm quicker with my release," said Elliott. "At the next level, windows open and close a lot faster, so a split second means a lot."
But the real trick now to getting into the NFL is just finding an open door.
n Contact Randy Beard at (812) 464-7613 or email@example.com
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Directors convicted of a commercial offence overseas would be banned from running British companies under the plans, Business Secretary Vince Cable said.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) said courts could also be asked by the Government to award compensation against a disqualified director, although the court would have the final say.
Judges may have a "duty" to take into account more factors - such as previous business failures and overseas conduct - when assessing if someone should be disqualified, Bis added.
It is understood the measures are expected to be brought forward as part of the Government's legislative programme for the next session of Parliament
The number of company director disqualifications in 2010/11 stood at 1437 and fell to 1151 in 2011/12 and 1031 in 2012/13 before an increase to 1053 in the first three-quarters of 2013/14, figures from the department show.
A Bis spokesman said the issues surrounding overseas directors was based more on anecdotal evidence.
But a person's activity abroad could be taken into consideration in the UK if the proposals become law, according to the department.
Bis cited the case of Massimo Cellino, who won his battle for ownership of Leeds United after successfully appealing against the Football League's decision to block his takeover.
Cellino initially failed the league's owners and directors test after being convicted of tax evasion last month in a Sardinia court, but the decision was overturned. He also has two fraud convictions, nearly 13 and 18 years old, which are considered "spent" in English law.
A Bis spokesman said of the Government's proposals for directors: "Someone like Cellino would be unable to be a director of a company - regardless of the Football League."


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- Overview
M. Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f2.8 Macro
This high quality macro lens is ideal for shooting under a wide range of conditions, including other applications such as landscape and portrait shooting. Featuring a closest focusing distance of 7.4 inches, excellent close-up capability with 1X* magnification, and dust-/splash-proof construction. This lens incorporates 13 lens elements in 10 groups with extensive use of special glass materials such as ED (Extra-low Dispersion), HR (High Refractive index) and E-HR (Extra-High Refractive index) elements to completely eliminate the chromatic aberrations that can be noticeable with telephoto macro lenses.
The new FR-2 Adapter Ring provides easy attachment of Olympus's RF-11 ring flash or STF-22 twin flash allowing for professional and easy TTL Macro Flash Illumination at Macro working distances.
The M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 60mm f2.8 Macro incorporates Olympus's exclusive MSC (Movie & Still Compatible) mechanism, which is based on a floating-type inner focusing system with three drive systems resulting in no change in the overall lens length during autofocusing. Other features such as focus limit switching and a shooting distance/magnification indicator window enhance macro shooting control and precision. Item number: V312010BU000.
- specs
Focal Length 60mm (35mm equivalent focal length 120mm) Lens construction 13 elements in 10 Groups - ED lens, 2 HR lenses, E-HR lens Dust & Splash Proof Yes Angle of View 20 Degree AF System High-speed Imager AF (MSC) Closest Focusing Distance 0.19m Maximum Image Magnification 1.0x (35mm equivalent Maximum Image Magnification 2.0x) Minimum Field Size 13 x 17mm Number of Blades 7 (Circular Aperture Diaphragm) Maximum Aperture F2.8 Minimum Aperture F22 Filter Size Diameter 46mm Dimension Diameter 56 x 82mm Weight 185g Box Contents Lens Cap (LC-46), Lens Rear Cap (LR-2), Instruction Manual, Olympus Worldwide Warranty Card
- accessories
- reviews
Review Summary for the M.Zuiko ED 60mm f2.8 Macro
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Customer Reviews of the M.Zuiko ED 60mm f2.8 Macro
June 02, 2015
Love it!
This is my first dedicated macro lens, but I've used other zoom lenses with "macro" features on them and that got me hooked on close-up photography. The lens is very small, and very easy to use. The focus takes some getting used to, but it is easy once you get familiar with it. This lens opens up a whole new world of photography for me. I find myself looking for opportunities to use it! Highly recommended!
May 17, 2015
if you like macro, its a must have
What a great little macro lens. The fine detail, clarity and color this lens can pickup is spectacular. Took me e moment to get used to the focus but only a moment. Pairs up nicely with the MAL-1 macro arm light. Works double duty as a decent portrait lens as well. it's small and light, yet feels well built. I actually found myself headed out with one lens on the camera and the macro in my back pocket so I didn't need a bag.
April 21, 2015
Way smaller form factor than expected
I was astonished at how small and compact this lens is! The diameter of the barrel is along the lines of the size of a U.S. Half Dollar (if you can remember those). Way smaller than I expected. This isn't a negative, but just something I wasn't expecting. Especially since it was a F2.8 lens and a 1:1 macro.
You pretty much have to use the focus limiter when going between macro mode and regular shooting. The time to focus is too long if you don't.
Great lens, and the dual purpose of macro and medium telephoto is quite handy! I have this and the 75mm F1.8 and like them both, but the macro does have some additional benefit with the close focus ability.
Getting one refurbished was a no brainer. Looked brand new and operated perfect. Either way, it is a great lens to add for the shear AF Macro that works pretty much spot on even in low light with out the AF illuminator.
April 07, 2015
Top Notch
Great Lens.
Fast and tough with a useful length.
Focus limit switch is a little fiddly but you get used to it.
April 04, 2015
As sharp a macro as I've seen
Small, light fast and shaaaarp! As good as the revered Nikon 105 and 200 and much smaller/lighter. Take incredible close-ups with it and take up little room/weight in your bag.
April 03, 2015
Must have lens
This lens is great for getting those artistic-fuzzy background shots, or the close-up of a ladybug. I use it a lot and I'm pretty lazy about changing my lenses. I prefer to have an all around lens on my camera so I'm ready for anything, but I put this lens on so often, I've never regretted buying it.
March 25, 2015
Excellent Macro
I started using the 12-50mm with extension tubes for Macro photography about 6 months ago. Results were good but my minimal focal distance was very short. I recently switched to the 60mm f2.8 Macro. The lenses supplies excellent working distance from subject as expected. What I wasn't counting on was the significant increase in image IQ. This lens pull out extremely fine detail and color rendering was more pleasing to my eye.
March 17, 2015
Wonderful macro lens.
I was shooting at the Chicago Botanic Gardens Orchid show and the shots were sharp with good color. There were several people with Nikon and Canon cameras with huge lens. Good job I don't suffer from lens envy as my OM-D E-M1 with the macro looked like a toy in comparison. Having used both systems this lens was just as good if not better. Great lens but why so chintzy Olympus with not providing hoods?
January 07, 2015
A Must for Close-up Work
I use this lens all the time for product photos and portraits alike. It is extremely sharp, if you can nail the focus and keep the camera shake under control (harder that it seems!).
I highly recommend that you get a good lighting setup, or at the very least, the Macro Arm Light (MAL-1) so you can keep the shutter speed up with a low ISO with a smaller aperture. f2.8 is hillariously narrow for really close macro work.
December 23, 2014
Excellent Macro/portrait Lens
I've got to echo much of Kevin's comments. Very good macro, lens is solid and does take a little getting use to. No lens hood and impossible to find if you don't by directly from Olympus at a $55.00 price. Why do I feel like I'm getting fleeced?
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Is keeping the organs of a Corpse working, against the wishes of Mrs Munoz and her Family, the Texas GOP idea of small Government?
Operation Rescue's Troy Newman rushed out with a burning statement condemning the order (h/t to The Sheeping of America) saying that Marlise was only disabled. Well, hours after the plug was finally pulled, Newman doubled down.
It is despicable that dehumanizing and deceptive language was used to refer to Marlise as a "corpse" and her baby's condition as "incompatible with life" in order to elicit public support for putting them to death.
A human being does not lose their God-given human beauty or dignity just because they are disabled or incapacitated. This case just goes to show how far we have slipped into the abyss of a Culture of Death and how intolerant we have become of those who are seen as "inconvenient."
great comments and as bass-ackwards as this state politics can be, I would never consider leaving!!
great comments and as bass-ackwards as this state politics can be, I would never consider leaving!!
reply to post by BritofTexas
The GOP will fight tooth and nail to keep this brain dead baby alive but when it's born, they will bitch and moan about it having to be on assistance.


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Schedule a theme to display on the live site for holidays or special events. (Available from Appearance - Scheduled Themes)
sir, i am using your plugin which is "wp-scheduled-themes" .. its very good. i need a xtra feature that "weekly" "daily" change option instead of "yearly".
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