Filed under: Uncategorized
Small Newspapers May Be Able To Prolong Death Longer Than Large Counterparts.
More bad news for large newspapers. According to the latest stats
from the Inland Press Association, larger newspapers with higher circulations are suffering more than their smaller siblings. Newspaper veteran Alan Mutter reports that the bigger the newspapers are, the more their profits decreased over the past five years. Since 2004, operating profits on average fell just over 100% at newspapers with circulation higher than 80,000. That’s right. Taken all together, their losses wiped out their profits.
Filed under: NCRA, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, Santa Rosa, Sonoma
Arcata Eye Editorial: Berserk bicyclists – April 29, 2009
Click on the above for the article. The problem is a bicycle is a cheap form of transportation, no licensing, and only needing a bit of balance. The end result is you only have to own one. The result is a carelessness by bike rider/drivers.
I saw the same thing in Kuwait with cars. No license needed, and with the oil revenues, cars are cheap. End result was crazy drivers a good deal of the time.
That doesn’t make it always the case, you even the majority of the time. You just notice the bad ones.
Update: Fred has a post on bicycling. Though I wasn’t suggesting we do make them have a license, only this is a result of no licensing.
While in theory there is some benefits to making them have licenses, I don’t know if it is practical.
I don’t like having everything regulated, or having to license for everything.
How would it be implemented? Would people be grandfathered in, or told get a license by X date? What about the low income, or homeless?
We need to encourage the safe use of bicycles.
It isn’t like licensing has fully helped the car side when people can accidentally swerve 10+ feet and kill people.
Feds threaten to seize Angel Island, Mt. Tam – Marin Independent Journal.
National park leaders contend that California would be violating the terms of two laws if it closes state parks.
First, the state has received $286 million since 1965 from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. Created by President Lyndon Johnson, the fund collects royalties from offshore oil drilling and uses them to buy land for national parks, forests and wildlife refuges. The fund also issues grants to state and local parks to pay for everything from land acquisition to new trails, visitor centers and rest rooms.
Parks that receive the funds are required to remain open to the public. California has received Land and Water Conservation Fund money for 69 of the 220 state parks that Schwarzenegger has proposed to closet.
State parks that have received the federal funding include Henry Coe, Fremont Peak, Big Basin Redwoods, Castle Rock, A-o Nuevo, Bodie Ghost Town, Mono Lake, Andrew Molera, Humboldt Redwoods, Point Lobos, Hearst San Simeon State park, Anza-Borrego Desert, Sutter’s Fort, Mount Diablo and Fort Ord Dunes.
With the help of Santa Rosa officials, the developers of the ambitious housing and commercial project were awarded an $11.4 million state grant to be used primarily for street, water and sewer work.
The city agreed to kick in another $3.7 million of its share of anticipated federal stimulus money to help with infrastructure and environmental clean-up.
Developers hope to break ground on the first phase of the project — the retail portion, some housing and a parking garage — in about a year.
Freight trains return to Sonoma County | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA.
Rail fans waved and snapped photos as a work train rolled through Petaluma on Tuesday, marking the Northwestern Pacific Railroad’s return to Sonoma County after an eight-year hiatus.
Except the train has to go through Sonoma county, to get to Marin County, to get to Sonoma county.
NCRA Press release: Note Delay of operation to Dec 08 or Jan 09, per delay of Oct operation by 2 or 3 months.
PRESS RELEASE – Ukiah – June 30, 2009
North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) Chairman, Allan Hemphill, announced that today marks the first time a locomotive has rolled on the Northwestern Pacific (NWP) rail line from Petaluma to Windsor in over 10 years.
This morning, a locomotive pulling flat cars loaded with new railroad ties began distributing the ties along the line, which parallels US Highway 101 in Sonoma and Marin Counties, as part of the $39 million state-funded project to repair 62 miles of the historic railroad, from the interchange with the Union Pacific South of Napa (Lombard), to Windsor.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) stopped freight service on the NWP line in November 1998 for safety reasons. In 2006, the NCRA began making repairs with funds allocated by the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to address the FRA concerns. Work was delayed for almost all of 2008, while NCRA battled a lawsuit filed by the City of Novato, which was settled last November. Since that time, NCRA has completed over 90% of the repairs to the signals and bridges, and will be finished with the trackwork by the end of July, according to Hemphill.
Hemphill said the projected October start-up date will be delayed 2-3 months to address permit requirements for 3 bridges that require work in the water. “All of the bridge work and FRA certification of all of the required repairs will be complete by the end of the year, and you will see freight trains in operation between Lombard and Windsor by early next year,” he said.
Hemphill, a resident of Cloverdale said that “NCRA freight service will be the warm-up act for SMART.”
“We will acclimate North Coast residents to the rebirth of trains in this rail corridor and set the stage for SMART commuter service,” he said.
NCRA will also certify its Russian River Division Environmental Impact Report, which evaluates the impacts and benefits of freight trains between Willits and Lombard, prior to service start-up. Hemphill said that the NCRA anticipates adoption of the EIR by the end of the year.
“One rail car takes 4 trucks off of the highway. One gallon of diesel can move a ton of freight over 400 miles,”
“It’s about time we return to green goods movement on the North Coast,” said Hemphill.
Finally got our ewe lamb yesterday from the redwood acres fair. cost was $140. Main reason was to knock down the grass. Poor girl was crying all night, so we tied her up by our house so not to bug the neighbors so much. Friendly thing, will follow us anywhere, including in to the house if we let her. Her and Smore seems to be getting friendlier this morning.
“Answer Text”,”Vote Count”
“Yes”,”93″
“No”,”76″
“Undecided”,”6″
After five weeks, trying to publish it in a good many areas, to give fair access. The Yes for the project, is the majority. I meant to only run it four weeks, but didn’t know how to get in to close it. Unfortunately, the free version doesn’t allow me to detect fraud. That is a minimum of $200 per year. Look on the bright side, I can only reset the results, not edit them.
Maybe I can reuse a quote the opposition used, “the people have voted”.
Do I feel that way? No for many reasons. Despite a much better response, it still will not reflect the public. Too small a sample of people, vs population. Maybe this is another reflection of blog vs newspaper in readership? What does it reflect? I feel it reflects the online community, who choose to respond. Other reasons, it isn’t a scientific poll response. With our loss of newspapers, will we lose our scientific polling of the communities on issues?
Filed under: Marin, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, SMART, Sonoma, transit
PD Editorial: SMART survey | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA.
It probably comes as no surprise that North Bay residents still have strong feelings about the SMART rail system.
More than 260 people responded to the online survey, which also found support for using light-rail vehicles and a widespread sense that service should begin in 2014 as scheduled despite any economic setbacks.
But one finding in a survey of regular Press Democrat readers may raise a few eyebrows: Sixty-four percent said they somewhat or strongly support postponing service to northern Sonoma County because sales tax revenue is running below projections.
Filed under: Marin, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, SMART, Sonoma, transit
The board is choosing between heavy-weight, American-style rail cars that meet federal safety and pollution standards that take effect in 2012 and European-style cars that would require a waiver from federal railroad regulators. The European-designed cars could not run at the same time as freight trains.
…
The board on Wednesday also adopted a strategic plan that acknowledges there is a $155 million shortfall over the 20-year life of the SMART tax, caused by declines in sales tax revenue because of the recession.
The plan, however, clings to the 2014 completion and startup date of the rail system, hoping to make up the funding gap with state or federal funds.
Hames also told the board that for the next two years, the tax provides enough money to do the design and engineering work.
The shortfall would not be felt until bonds will be needed to be sold to begin construction, when it is hoped the economy has recovered and tax revenues increase.
