Residents upset at plans to destroy garages and sheds

Updated 8:26am Friday 12th September 2014 in News By Alex Wynick, Reporter covering Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys. Call me on 01865 425403

THE refurbishment of Oxfords five tower blocks may be much-anticipated, but some residents are not so happy about plans to destroy their garages and sheds.

Plowman and Foresters Towers, in Headington and Wood Farm, respectively, are losing all of their garages and as much as half of their storage sheds and have to vacate them by January 9.

Oxford City Council is planning to demolish 30 garages and 44 out of 85 sheds from Plowman Tower.

Foresters Tower will lose 36 garages and 13 of its 85 sheds.

The council said it will replace them with about 40 car parking spaces at each tower, as well as more bin space.

Blackbird Leys towers Evenlode and Windrush are not losing any, and Hockmore Tower in Cowley does not have any to lose.

Plowman Tower resident Jenny Webb has had a garage and a shed for the last nine years and wants them to stay.

She said: Theyre saying theyre going to pull them down to benefit the local community, but I cant see how that will affect anyone else.

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Residents upset at plans to destroy garages and sheds

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu Police Sgt. Darren Cachola has been stripped of his police powers as the department investigates an alleged assault that was caught on video. The big question for internal affairs: Why didn't the responding officers arrest Sergeant Cachola that night? The answer may lie in HPD's domestic violence policy.

We have to see visible injuries, the complainant -- the victim themselves -- need to make the complaint, Police Chief Louis Kealoha said at a press conference. Last but not least, we have to see visible injuries.

Loretta Sheehan, an attorney, said she doesn't understand the policy.

As a policy, it makes no sense at all, she said. There are many, many ways to hurt somebody and not leave any visible marks. You can pull their hair, throw them against a refrigerator, kick them in the groin and you are not necessarily going to see anything.

Honolulu prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro agreed with Sheehan, saying arrests should not depend on a potentially terrified victim.

A victim testifying that I am fine' doesn't necessarily mean that a crime has not been committed, Kaneshiro said, adding that arrests should be based on probable cause, the likelihood that a crime was committed.

The officer has a duty to investigate all the circumstances, not just take a statement from the victim, but to take statements of witness to see whether witnesses saw a crime being committed, Kaneshiro said.

If they have this policy, it seems to me they better change it, Sheehan said. It's unconstitutional, Sheehan said.

In other words, unfair, advocates say, since HPD's policy puts a larger burden on domestic violence victims than on victims of other crimes.

They are deciding for a crime, where 99 percent of the victims are women, that they are going to enforce the law in a different way," Sheehan said.

Excerpt from:
Investigation sheds light on HPD domestic violence policy

No other family has touched so many lives as the Roosevelts. Thats the claim of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History the intensive and exhaustive new documentary series by Ken Burns bowing Sunday night on PBS.

Employing the now-slightly-staid style made famous by his award-winning documentaries on baseball, the Civil War, jazz and the National Parks, Burns sets out to prove his point. He interweaves the histories of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor from Teddys birth in 1858 to Eleanors death in 1962 with a preponderance of archival footage, photographs, newspaper headlines and voiceovers from actors Paul Giamatti, Edward Herrmann and Meryl Streep as Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with a young fan in 1935, during FDRs first term.Photo: Corbis

Viewers will get an education in how the Roosevelts shaped the history of New York, making their money on Manhattan real estate, West Indian sugar and plate glass. Their family homes cover the state, including Hyde Park, Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, Long Island and Teddys birthplace on East 20th Street. The familys tradition of philanthropy and humanitarian works was begun by Teddy, who believed that, as a country, the US had to work for everyone to work for anyone at all. Talking heads including George Will, Clay Atkinson and historian David McCullough almost blush with naughty delight as they recall what a politician like Roosevelt could get away with before the age of publicists and spin doctors. If Teddy, the youngest president of his day at age 42, thought he was doing the right thing, he didnt care what anybody thought of it. The Southern press became apoplectic when he invited an African-American, Booker T. Washington, to dine with him at the White House the first president to do so.

His rise was spectacular, from New York City Police Commissioner to Assistant Secretary of the US Navy, Governor of New York and then Vice President, easing into the Commander-in-Chief spot when President McKinley, described as having the backbone of a chocolate eclair, was assassinated in 1901.

Teddy cast such a giant shadow that his cousin Franklin, then an unpopular student at Groton and later Harvard, was encouraged that he, too, could become president. He was short on charisma in his early years. Besides being a social outcast at snooty private schools, Franklin was not much of a ladykiller either, settling for a marriage with his homely cousin Eleanor, herself an unloved child whose only sense of fulfillment came from engaging in humanitarian works. Theirs was not a match made in heaven, but as an alliance they were formidable.

During Roosevelts three terms, Franklin and Eleanor received 5,000 to 8,000 letters per day, since troubled Americans felt they could go to them with their problems. Eleanors globetrotting made her the most famous woman in the world. And FDR faced the two greatest challenges any president had dealt with since the Civil War the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler. As historian Doris Kearns Goodwin reminds us, its amazing that most Americans never realized that FDR, who suffered from polio, could not walk. His disability never interfered with his ability to lead; nor was the press, unlike today, allowed to harp on such matters. When reporters tried to broach the topic of his health, Roosevelts press secretary Steve Earley said, Its not a story.

The Roosevelts is a reminder that we once lived in a country where people were more concerned with the big picture.

Continued here:
Epic Burns doc sheds light on Roosevelt family

Warehouse Group, New Zealand's largest listed retailer, expects earnings to rise this financial year following an 18 per cent drop in 2014.

Adjusted profit fell to $60.7 million, or 18.6 cents a share, in the year to July 27, which was down from $73.7m a year earlier, the owner of the red sheds said on Friday.

Net profit fell 46 per cent to $77.8m.

The company has increased spending on its 91 distinctive large-format red shed stores to drive future growth in the unit that accounts for about two thirds of its retail sales.

To expand group earnings, the company aims to grow the "non-red" side of its business to be as large as the red sheds, adding technology and appliance retailer Noel Leeming, sports foods retailers R&R Sports and Torpedo7 and finance company Diners Club New Zealand.

The company says earnings growth will resume in the current year.

"While our adjusted profit has reduced from the previous year, the company has been significantly reshaped and is well positioned for the future," chairman Ted van Arkel said.

The company expects to provide more detail on its earnings expectations for the 2015 financial year with the release of its first-half earnings in March.

In the 2014 year, group sales rose 18 per cent to $2.65 billion.

In 2014, operating profit at The Warehouse stores fell 9.7 per cent to $76.9m as revenue rose 4.7 per cent to $1.67b. The operating margin slipped to 4.6 per cent from 5.4 per cent the year earlier.

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'Non-red' sheds to drive Warehouse growth

September 12, 2014

Image Caption: This is a photo of the skull and partial mandible of the new squalodelphinid species Huaridelphis raimondii, with an outline of the head and potential fish prey. Credit: G. Bianucci

Cody Mooneyhan, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

The unusual river dolphins, some of them known for their poor eyesight and side-swimming behavior are all descendants of ocean-dwelling species. Until now, however, there has been no consensus about their relationships, and few specimens to help illuminate them. In the new issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers describe a new fossil dolphin species from the Miocene (dating to more than 16 mya) of the Pisco Basin, a desert on the coast of Peru. It belongs to a rare extinct family of marine dolphins, the squalodelphinids, which are related to the endangered Ganges and Indus river dolphins living today. The new specimens increase the known diversity of squalodelphinids and help shed light on their relationships.

River dolphins are a bizarre group of cetaceans (marine mammals) in that they reside in freshwater rivers and estuaries, though their ancestors were marine. As a result of life in muddy river water, some are functionally blind and have very small dorsal fins. Despite similar appearances, the South Asian river dolphins of the Ganges and Indus rivers (Platanista spp.) are only distantly related to other river dolphins of the Amazon and Yangtze rivers.

The new species, named Huaridelphis raimondii, after the Huari culture (500-1000 AD) the smallest species of its family yet known, has been described from several wellpreserved fossils. The quality of the fossils places these specimens as some of the bestpreserved members of this rare family, says Olivier Lambert, of the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, lead author of the study.

Though the squalodelphinids have been known for some time, these small to medium size dolphins are rare in the fossil record, and were until now only found in a few localities (Argentina, France, Italy, and east coast of U.S.A.). The Pisco Basin, is currently one of the richest areas in the world for the study of the evolution of whales and other marine mammals; whales with fossilized baleen, a giant raptorial sperm whale, and a walrus-like dolphin have been discovered there. According to Dr. Lambert, For the past 30 years, many fossil cetacean species were described based on material from the Pisco Basin, dated from the Eocene to the Pliocene. And we are still far from the end of the study for this hot spot of marine mammal paleontology.

Recent fieldwork by the Peruvian paleontologist Mario Urbina and his team in new localities from the early Miocene (23-16 million years ago) lead to the discovery of several well-preserved squalodelphinid skulls, now curated at the Museo de Historia Natural (Lima). Their analysis by Lambert and colleagues lead to the description of the new species.

Considering the richness of the fossil localities recently discovered, other new extinct dolphins from the same geological age will certainly soon be found and studied, added Giovanni Bianucci, of the Universit degli Studi di Pisa and an author on the study.

> Continue reading

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New Species Of Extinct Dolphin Sheds Light On River Dolphin History

sheds intro
Welcome to Two Sheds. A brief intro for our upcoming video blog about our journey towards living off the grid and a self sustaining lifestyle.

By: two sheds

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sheds intro - Video

Ponderay, ID (PRWEB) September 10, 2014

Storage Sheds Outlet now offers exquisitely designed and top-notch quality metal garden sheds. These garden sheds are a great place for keeping tools, equipment, and other valuable items. Now, customers can make the most of their outdoor living area and can beautify their garden. The Metal Garden Shed Storage is available in various sizes and materials that are offered at the most competitive prices.

The company also announces Storage Sheds for Sale that can be used as a pool house, backyard workshop and garden shed, and, surely, as a safe storage building. These are constructed from strong materials and encompass wood sheds, metal sheds, vinyl sheds, and plastic sheds. The customers can peruse Storage Shed Outlet storage shed articles for further suggestions. Some of the varieties include Wood Garden Shed, Duramax Storage Sheds, Handy Home Sheds, Ezup Storage Sheds, and many more.

Apart from this, one of their representatives, Jason Guerrettaz, CEO of United Commerce Group, owner of StorageShedsOutlet.com mentions about Green Houses, Our Greenhouse Packages are designed for schools with horticulture programs, correctional institutions, and serious gardeners for both growing and therapeutic reasons. We offer our customers the ability to choose from 10 sizes and designs for your specific needs. We understand the process and have simplified it for the consumer in complete package format at a budget price for a quality greenhouse. All our Educational Greenhouses come with a full assembly manual and our team is here to walk you through all steps of the construction process as needed.

About Storage Sheds Outlet- A Division of United Commerce Group, Inc.

StorageShedsOutlet.com is a market leader in the provision of a number of outdoor structures including Storage Sheds (garden, metal, plastic, vinyl and wood), Storage Buildings, Garages, Portable Buildings, Deck Boxes, Greenhouses, Outdoor Canopies, Outdoor Shelters, Carports, Utility Sheds, Patio Accessories, Shed Accessories, Solar Lighting and Firewood Storage. This company will continue to expand by increasing its product offerings and categories. Its primary goal is to ensure a positive customer service relationship and to ensure the very best prices in this sector.

For more information, please visit http://www.storageshedsoutlet.com.

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Storage Sheds Outlet Now Offers Exquisitely Designed and Top-Notch Quality Metal Garden Sheds

Watch above: ATU 615 president Jim Yakubowski discusses a stolen bus and the current labour talks at Saskatoon Transit

SASKATOON The citys transit union is shedding a little more light on what happened before a bus was stolen by a nine-year-old boy on Saturday morning.

Speaking on Global Saskatoons Morning News, ATU 615 president Jim Yakubowski says the stolen bus was one of two left running by a maintenance crew member.

Both buses were started, said Yakubowski. The maintenance individual went to move one bus inside, essentially put it on the hoist, but by the time he got back the youngster had already come and stole the bus.

He said its not normal practice to leave buses running outside in summer, although it happens in winter because there is not enough room in the bus barns for the whole fleet.

The odds of it happening again would still exist, he said.

Its not the first time a bus has been stolen from the bus barns.

Yakubowski said it was unfortunate so many things happened at once the stolen bus, a fire on another bus Friday, and a week where some transit routes did not have buses because of a shortage of mechanics to keep the fleet operating at full strength.

Its just an unfortunate set of circumstances that everything seemed to come all at once.

He added the union has emailed the city to ask for contract talks to begin again. The citys latest contract offer was soundly rejected by the union, and so far no new talks are scheduled.

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Transit union sheds light on stolen Saskatoon bus, labour talks

Casting rumors for the second season of True Detective have been in full force this summer but one name frequently tossed around, Elisabeth Moss, isnt tired of dodging questions about it just yet.

Its hard to get sick of something thats super-flattering, she said at Gotham magazines fall fashion issue party at the Sanctuary Hotels Tender restaurant on Monday. But they are just rumors. Everyone else knows more about it than I do, apparently! But its nice to have your name mentioned for anything, especially something so good.

The Mad Men star gave a saucy response when asked whether shed rather tackle Woody Harrelson or Matthew McConaugheys role from the first season.

Its time for a good female part, she said with a laugh.

According to Elisabeth Moss, True Detective (co-starring Woody Harrelson, above) should feature a good female part in Season 2.Photo: AP/HBO

Moss, who is Gothams current cover star, is hard at work promoting her new movie The One I Love. The film features a major plot twist Moss cant discuss not that playing coy is a problem for her.

I have been keeping secrets for years on Mad Men, so for me, its nothing unusual, she said. Everyones like, Its so hard not to talk about it! And Im like, I know the end of Mad Men!

Which begs the question: Will Moss ever star in something that doesnt require keeping her lips sealed?

No, she said. If acting doesnt work out, Im just going to join the Secret Service.

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Elisabeth Moss sheds light on those True Detective rumors

Thomas Friends Take n Play Playset - Tidmouth Sheds review by my 5 year old
Another great review by my 5 year old son of his Thomas Friends Take n Play Playset...this time its Tidmouth Sheds...great job Archie.

By: Archie TalksToys

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Thomas & Friends Take n Play Playset - Tidmouth Sheds review by my 5 year old - Video