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A public information session is set Saturday morning to discuss the planned removal of 15 large trees along the entrance drive to Longshore Club Park, a project put on hold late last month by First Selectman Jim Marpe.

Marpe had requested a delay in cutting down the trees -- 11 Tulip Poplars and 4 Norway Maples -- so that a written report on the plan by the town's tree warden, Bruce Lindsay, could be completed and submitted to him for review.

The tree-removal plan was criticized by some members of the public when the designated trees were posted prior to being cut down shortly before Christmas. That prompted Marpe to step in and ask for a detailed report before moving ahead.

Now that the report is finished and Lindsay has documented his case for removing the trees, Marpe has set a public meeting -- and tour of the trees in question -- for 9 a.m. Saturday at Longshore.

Lindsay, in his summary, said the "trees in question at Longshore Club Park are in extremely poor health and decline, are of poor species and have unlimited potential targets in a fall or limb break situation."

He said the park is used by many pedestrians and golfers. "The entrance is a roadway to numerous public facilities and homes," he added. "In my finding, these trees represent a hazardous condition for the entry into Longshore Club Park and therefore must be removed to allow safe passage for the beneficial use of the park."

He said that, as tree warden for the town, it's his primary duty to "see that all town-owned roads and grounds allow safe passage."

"Each tree that goes under my scrutiny is assessed as to the potential target it may encounter from branch breakage to dead falls and the potential liability that may be incurred by the town."

A copy of Lindsay's report can be found the town's website here: http://bit.ly/1lAXawa

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CHICO, Calif. -

Chico is known as the city of trees. The citys tree-lined streets add to the citys beauty and charm. But the removal of some of Chicos oldest trees, has some residents concerned. Charles Withuhn is the head of a group called Chico Tree Advocates, which currently has about 40 members.

They're an energy-saving factor, said Withuhn. They're beautiful," said Withuhn about Chico's historic trees.

Withuhn has organized the grass-roots effort to keep as many of Chico's trees off the city's chopping block as possible.

"Our urban forest is a gift from our fathers fathers," said Withuhn. "We will be remembered for taking care of this rare and precious gift."

Despite efforts by Withuhn and other tree advocates, six huge, leafy walnut trees at Third and Chestnut Streets were chopped down to make room for sidewalks. According to certified arborist Dan Gibson, at least three of them could have been saved.

"I thought they were in good enough health and structural stability that they could have been saved," said Gibson.

Gibson said the cost to save the three trees would have been about $50,000. Instead, he said, each tree was sold by the city for a small sum.

The death of a Chico State student from a falling tree limb is a reminder that in some cases, safety requires some trees be removed.

But what about the towering valley oak tree at West Eighth and Salem streets? Its slated to be removed to make room for a Chico State construction-management project.

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Grass-roots group fights to save historic Chico trees

BY GEORGE SLEFO Staff Reporter January 7, 2014 10:14PM

Updated: January 8, 2014 8:40AM

Frozen pipes led to icy conditions across the city indoors including at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

About one inch of water poured into the courthouse at 26th and California, after maintenance workers attempted to remove a frozen sprinkler system, said Kristen Mack, spokeswoman for Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle.

Workers noticed the frozen sprinkler about 4 p.m. and decided it would be best to repair the unit after courts closed about an hour later, Mack said.

The workers turned off the fire pump in preparation for the repair, Mack said. When they took the sprinkler head off they realized they didnt completely turn off the pump. Thats when the flooding happened.

The downpour occurred just beyond the metal detectors near the entrance of the courthouse. There were no injuries, Mack added.

Workers will stay overnight to make repairs if needed to make sure the building will open at its normal time Wednesday, Mack said.

It will have no impact on court, she said. It will be business as usual.

In Albany Park, a commercial buildings sprinkler system burst about 10:40 p.m., sending water pouring into the 4900 block of North Pulaski.

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Frozen sprinkler system leads to downpour at Cook County courthouse

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January 8th, 2014 10:27 pm by Staff report

KINGSPORT A frozen sprinkler line or head began leaking Wednesday afternoon at Sullivan North High School, sending crews scrambling to isolate the leak and get the sprinkler system back in operation for school Thursday.

Joe Davenport, county school system maintenance supervisor, said the leak occurred in the North pool area not being used and caused minimal damage. He said the leak occurred as the frozen water thawed. The school is not utilizing that area of the pool and has not for some time.

The issue is getting the sprinkler system to be in operation for school tomorrow, Davenport said Wednesday night as a sprinkler contractor headed to the school to address the situation.

North also was hit with a sprinkler problem last year. The band room received between $23,000 and $43,000 in damage to equipment from a non-weather-related sprinkler head malfunction the morning of Nov. 21.

Davenport said he was confident the sprinkler system would be back in operation for school Thursday.

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Sprinkler leak hits Sullivan North pool area

BY ASHLEE REZIN Staff Reporter January 8, 2014 1:36AM

A water main break sent water pouring into the street in the 4900 block of North Pulaski Road about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday, closing the street between Argyle and Ainslie streets. | NVP News video

storyidforme: 60327450 tmspicid: 21876259 fileheaderid: 10320014

Updated: January 8, 2014 5:22AM

A leak in a companys fire system flooded the business and Pulaski Road Tuesday night, forcing firefighters to wade through knee-deep icy water in the Albany Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

The commercial buildings sprinkler system burst about 10:40 p.m. and sent water pouring into the street in the 4900 block of North Pulaski Road, authorities said.

The leak was likely caused by icy weather conditions and frozen pipes, said Bill Bresnahan, managing deputy commissioner of the citys Department of Water Management.

Firefighters, who at the scene could be seen wading through the knee-deep icy water, were able to gain access to the building and stop the leak, Bresnahan said. The National Weather Service reports temperatures hit 6 degrees below zero in the Chicago area overnight.

As of 4 a.m., at least one lane of Pulaski remained closed to traffic between Argyle and Ainslie streets as Department of Streets and Sanitation salt-spreaders treated the ice that had formed, police said.

It was not immediately known how much damage the business sustained during the incident.

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Burst sprinkler system floods business, Pulaski Road on NW Side

The freeze was bad enough.

Now, thawing water pipes have been setting off sprinkler systems and fire alarms, flooding some businesses and homes and keeping area fire departments busy.

It seems like all weve been answering lately are water alarms, Knoxville Fire Dept. Capt. D.J. Corcoran said on Wednesday. We have received close to 30 calls of businesses fire alarms activated, as well as residential calls of water lines freezing and bursting. Nonemergency calls are directed to KUB, he said.

KFD scanner traffic on Wednesday referred to several businesses, including the Hampton Inn on Strawberry Plains Pike, the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville, and the H.T. Hackney Co. on Rutledge Pike.

Some residences are reporting the same problem, Corcoran said. We expect to have more calls (Thursday).

Water lines that feed sprinkler systems can freeze overnight, and the resulting expansion of water can cause a crack in the pipeline. As pipes begin to thaw out, water escapes through the cracks.

Then the water movement sets off the alarm and the sprinkler system, Corcoran said. Its really been causing us havoc.

The Tennessee Theatre did not sustain any significant damage, and the Wednesday night performance of Shen Yun was scheduled to go on, theater manager Tom Bugg said.

A pipe connected to the sprinkler system at the Knox County Health Departments Teague Clinic, 405 Dante Road, burst Wednesday because of extremely low temperatures, said Katharine Killen, community relations director. The clinic will be closed Thursday and Friday for repairs. Clinic staff will contact patients to reschedule appointments, she said.

On Tuesday, the East Tennessee Technologys Access Center had a break in its sprinkler system. Officials are asking people to wait until next week to bring donations of computers and durable medical equipment that were requested earlier for its clients with disabilities. Anyone with an emergency need for durable medical equipment can call 865-475-4421 and leave a name and phone number.

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Thawing pipes setting off sprinkler systems, causing 'havoc' among fire departments

ROANOKE, Va. -

Area homeowners and businesses aren't the only ones exempt from problems cause by these frigid conditions.

The Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport also dealt with a pipe break due to cold weather.

Tuesday morning, the sprinkler system on the 10th floor of the air traffic control tower froze and burst.

The tower was forced to turn off electric equipment and leave the area because that water turned to ice.

Air traffic controllers were forced to head to a lower-level radar room called, "TRACON."

"They monitored the flights from the TRACON in the lower level basement of the air traffic control tower. And, pilots that came in and out of the airport came in -airplanes came in, one at a time -and pilots operated on operated on instrument approach and talked to air traffic controllers that way to come in and out of the airport," says Amanda DeHaven, Marketing and Communications Coordinator for the airport.

DeHaven says there were no cancellation or delays because of the problem

Air traffic controllers were back in the tower by 9o'clock Tuesday night.

In 13-hours, 42-plane took off and landed.

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Broken sprinkler system forces air traffic controllers to lower ground

Bioglow's Starlight Avatar plants emit faint light similar in intensity to starlight hence the name

Ever thought the glowing forests from the movie Avatar were pretty cool and wanted one yourself? Bioglow is the latest company to attempt to put such autoluminscent plants in homes with its aptly named Starlight Avatar.

Engineering plants to make them glow is not a new idea and has been around since the 1980s. Bioglow's approach involves adding genes responsible for bioluminescence from the marine bacteria Photobacterium leiognathi to the cultivated tobacco species Nicotiana tabacum. In this way, Bioglow claims it was able to achieve permanent light emission without the need for chemical additives to the exterior of the plant or the use of UV light.

While the current results emit only faint light, said to resemble the intensity of starlight hence the name Starlight Avatar Bioglow hopes that in the future autoluminescent plants will be able to produce enough light to illuminate town streets. It is also working on modifying the colors emitted via luciferase mutagenesis, the mutation of enzymes responsible for light generation, and is working to have foliage glow one color, with flowers and petals another.

This and similar ventures, such as the crowd funded Glowing Plants project have not come without criticism from environmental groups, such as Friends of the Earth (FOE), worried about the spread of genetically engineered or modified (GM) products and the flow of engineered genes into nature.

The New York Times reported in May 2013 that FOE and other environmental groups had lobbied both the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Kickstarter to have the Glowing Plant project shut down. Since then, the USDA has reviewed and approved Bioglows plants as safe because they are not "plant pests." Bioglow also says that the light-emitting pathway in its plants cannot be transferred by pollen to other plant populations.

Bioglow will be running on online auction for its plants that kicks off on January 31st and runs for a week.

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Bioglow sheds new light on indoor plants

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Months after former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was linked to a 2012 double-murder, Boston police released a warrant that further details his connection to the case.

Hernandez is believed to have been inside a silver SUV from which the shots that killed two men in another vehicle were fired.

He became a suspect in the double homicide during the investigation of the June 17 murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd near Hernandez's home. Hernandez is awaiting trial for the first-degree murder of Lloyd.

Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado were shot and killed when someone in the silver SUV fired five bullets into their car, killing the two men in the front seats and injuring a third. The warrant puts Hernandez in that SUV, but does not indicate whether he was the one that fired the shots.

Hernandez and Alexander Bradley were seen in surveillance footage at Boston's Cure Lounge on the night of the double-murder, and Bradley later filed a civil lawsuit accusing Hernandez of shooting him in the eye.

Neither a connection between Hernandez and the two men nor a motive for the killings has been listed. While the footage shows Hernandez and Bradley leaving the club shortly before Abreu and Furtado, it is unknown whether the four had an altercation inside Cure Lounge beforehand.

Boston police have not filed charges in the case, but the warrant does suggest Hernandez is at the center of the investigation. The SUV used in the killing was found at the house of Hernandez's uncle, and the gun believed to be used in the killing was found in the trunk of a woman that said "football players" discarded it there.

[Hartford Courant] [CBS 3 Springfield]

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Aaron Hernandez warrant sheds new light on double murder

January 8, 2014

Image Caption: The immune system of the elephant shark is simpler than many other vertebrates studied so far. The present studies also explain, why cartilaginous fishes do not generate human-like bones. Credit: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

Ranjini Raghunath for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

An international team of scientists has deciphered the genetic blueprint of the elephant shark the oldest living animal in the cartilaginousfish family and the first to have its DNA decoded.

Among fish, cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays stand out because their skeleton is not made of bones. Their body is supported instead by cartilage, a flexible tissue that resembles muscle.

Analysis of the elephant sharks DNA answers questions such as which genes influence bone formation, why elephant sharks have a primitive immune system, and why they evolve very slowly. The findings could also help researchers understand and treat bone diseases better as well as shed light on how the immune system evolved in humans and other higher animals.

The elephant shark lives off the coast of Australia and New Zealand and is named for its trunk-like snout which it uses to dig for food on the seafloor. Its genome is about one-third the size of the human genome, and the smallest among all jawed fishes.

Comparing its DNA with that of humans and other animals reveals some interesting facts about the sharks evolution and body structure. For one, the sharks genome lacks a family of genes that code for a class of proteins called phosphoproteins that are present in bony animals. When the researchers knocked out this gene family in zebrafish, they found that it affected the fishes ability to form bones. The absence of these genes is probably why sharks have cartilage instead of bone in their body, the researchers suspect.

Elephant sharks also lack genes for special immune cells called T-helper cells. These cells are thought to be vital for defending the body against parasites and prevent diseases such as diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. Killing these T-cells is also one of the first steps the HIV virus takes in breaking down the human bodys defenses.

Yet even without these cells, these sharks have long lives and are somehow able to protect themselves against diseases.

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Decoded Shark DNA Sheds Light On Evolution Of Bone Formation And Immunity