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When the U.S. Capitol dome was built in the 1860s, cast iron was the high-tech building material of its day, lighter and easier to erect than stone, more fireproof than wood. But if the peoples business never stops below, neither do the wind and rain above and now, after 150 years of duty as Washingtons all-weather symbol of democracy, the dome is getting an overdue metal makeover.

Preparations for the long-planned $60million restoration project got underway this week as officials suspended tours of the upper structure and prepared to string protective netting in the vaulted and vaunted space above the Rotunda. Capitol architects took reporters for a final climb to show where leaks coming through the battered dome are beginning to threaten the historic interior. Some massive metal parts have already been removed to keep them from plunging to the always-crowded floor below.

Its like having a bridge as the roof of your building, Kevin Hildebrand, of the Architect of the Capitols office, said Thursday as he climbed through the web of girders and braces lacing the domes upper reaches. The space is like a concave Eiffel Tower sandwiched between two sloping sheets of metal. On some of the softball-size bolts, the name M.C. Meigs can still be seen beneath multiple coats of paint, a bit of stamped graffiti from the legendary Army captain who supervised the building of the dome.

Today, this would never be made of cast iron, Hildebrand said. It would probably be made of steel and glass. Its an archaic material. But it is the symbol of our country. Its an icon that has to preserved.

Access to the Rotunda floor will continue mostly uninterrupted (for a few weeks in February, a covered walkway will be installed during some dicey aerial work above).

In the spring, a towering web of scaffolding will encase the entire top of the 288-foot edifice, transforming the skyline of the Mall for at least two years. LED lights attached to the scaffolding will provide some nighttime visual interest, however. And the recent repairs of the Washington Monument, which was damaged in the 2011 earthquake, showed that tourists can take these national excuse-our-dust periods in stride. Some residents even petitioned the White House to make the monuments temporary lights permanent.

Im just glad they are taking care of [the dome] its so beautiful, said Janice Bradley of Pennsylvania, who was touring the Capitol during a holiday visit. I just wish they would fix our roads.

Moviemakers may be more put out, according to John Latenser, a local location scout who has set up shots of the Capitol for The West Wing, Veep and other productions.

Its one of the shots that tell you youre in D.C., he said. It will change some scripts, change some angles. Some people may try to take out the scaffolding in post-production.

Workers will deploy a range of newly developed techniques and materials to fix more than 1,000 cracks in the 9 million pounds of cast iron, almost every piece of which was cast in New York and shipped to Capitol Hill during the Civil War.

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$60 million restoration of U.S. Capitol dome will alter D.C. skyline for at least 2 years

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Ellie Van Houtte/ Town Crier The Los Altos Hills Planning Commission is considering a Fremont Hills Country Club proposal to add night lights to its tennis courts.

When dusk sets in on winter evenings in Los Altos, the lights above the tennis courts at Marymeade, McKenzie and Montclaire parks switch on for night games. Just around the corner in Los Altos Hills, however, game time concludes when natural light disappears a 1985 town Outdoor Lighting Ordinance bans artificial light for tennis and other recreational courts.

At the request of Fremont Hills Country Club a private club in Los Altos Hills with 430 member families the Los Altos Hills Planning Commission last week reviewed a proposal to amend the towns municipal code and/or modify the clubs conditional-use permit to allow outdoor tennis-court lighting.

We really in essence want to expand recreational opportunities to members and the community overall, said Fremont Hills representative Bart Carey. Fremont Hills is a bit behind when compared to other clubs. They all have tennis-court lights.

Nearby clubs with lighted tennis courts include Los Altos Golf & Country Club, Foothills Tennis & Swimming Club and the University Club of Palo Alto.

Fremont Hills application seeks approval to illuminate five of the clubs 10 courts with fully shielded, metal halide luminaires until 10 p.m. To mitigate anticipated concerns from neighbors, the club submitted environmental reports estimating the impact of the added light and noise.

According to the report, there will be no direct viewing of the light sources from any residence, as all homes in the vicinity of the club are located above the height of the proposed 22-foot lights. The surfaces of the courts and the dark perimeter screening are expected to absorb light and reduce scattering of light upward.

The proposal drew a variety of opinions at the study session.

Advocates claimed that the lack of lights limits tennis-court access in Los Altos Hills, particularly for residents who cant play during the day because of school or work commitments. Some residents said the lack of lights put the club, players and town at a competitive disadvantage when compared to Los Altos and Saratoga, where lighted courts are available.

Im playing kids that are top in the nation, and I think we should have courts that are lighted so that kids like me can train, said Jehan Godrej, a local high school student who plays tennis competitively.

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Fremont Hills Country Club rallies for night lights at tennis courts

JAKARTA - Indonesian domestic maids may return in big numbers to Malaysia under a proposed deal announced by the Malaysian and Indonesian governments yesterday.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said, after wide-ranging bilateral talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta, key private sector groups in both countries might be roped in again to handle the recruitment of maids.

Arrivals of Indonesian maids in Malaysia have dwindled after the government capped the cost structure of hiring the maids at RM4,511, well below the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies' (Papa) proposed rate of RM7,500.

"I have agreed that the MoU (signed in Nov 2011 in Bali, Indonesia) on the cooperation in labour, especially with regard to domestic maids, be expanded to include the private sectors that represent both nations," he told a news conference at the presidential palace.

"An MoU should be signed between Papa and Apjati (its Indonesian counterpart -- Association of Indonesian Manpower Services).

"If both sides sign the MoU, I am confident that the number of Indonesian domestic maids in Malaysia can reach our desired levels.

"So far, only 513 maids have arrived in Malaysia under the current (government-to-government) mechanism."

Indonesia imposed a temporary freeze on the supply of maids to Malaysia on June 26, 2009, following reports of abuse by employers.

The freeze was lifted following an agreement between Najib and Susilo in December 2011.

Meanwhile, Apjati was optimistic that the latest arrangement agreed by the two leaders would help resolve the impasse on the arrival of foreign maids to Malaysia.

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End to maid impasse in Malaysia?

In New York, it looked like a straightforward case: an obscure young diplomat at the Indian consulate was accused of lying on visa forms so she could bring her maid to the U.S., paying her less than $3 an hour. The diplomat was arrested, processed through the legal system like anyone else and quickly freed on bail.

In India, though, the hours that Devyani Khobragade spent in custody have set off a diplomatic storm. Government officials roared about her public arrest, particularly her strip search. Cabinet ministers warned of international conspiracies. An Indian official compared the search to a gang rape. Heavy concrete security barriers were dragged by police from around the U.S. Embassy. The Indian media fumed over the country's humiliation.

Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid summed up the feelings of many people here. "It is no longer about an individual," he told Parliament in an angry speech Wednesday. "It is about our sense of self as a nation and our place in the world."

Because what happened in New York was not just about an arrest, or about one young woman. Instead, the incident pinballed through a series of cultural land mines, causing an uproar in a country where a woman's honor is supposed to be publicly defended, insults are profoundly felt and the treatment of one's maid is, for most, considered no business at all of the authorities.

As for the arrest itself: Only the powerless and poor would face arrest for lying on a government form. For someone in the educated elite, a strip search would be unthinkable.

"There's an expectation here that if you speak English in a certain way you will be treated with a certain deference by the authorities," said Mihir Sharma, a New Delhi writer and associate editor of the Business Standard newspaper.

It's an expectation that means police rarely harass drivers of Mercedes, and wealthy Indians convicted of brutal crimes can spend years free on medical leave.

Then there's history. The arrest mingled with long-harbored worries that the U.S. condescends to India, treating it as a poverty-wracked nation with poor sanitation instead of as the world's largest democracy and a nuclear power. Also, while New Delhi and Washington have become close allies over the past decade, that followed many more years of Cold War distrust, when India had close ties to the Soviet Union, the United States had close ties to Pakistan and the U.S. Embassy here was regarded as little more than a walled CIA encampment.

Among the Indian elite, and particularly among senior foreign service officers, it's not hard to find people who still look at the United States with deep-rooted suspicion.

"For (so) long these Americans ... have taken us for granted, and we loved to surrender every time they insulted us, interfered in our affairs and humiliated our citizens," Tarun Vijay, a Hindu nationalist and member of the upper house of Parliament, wrote in the Times of India. "Our ministers are subjected to humiliating searches and we kept quiet."

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A mistreated maid? Or a profound insult?

JAKARTA - Indonesian domestic maids may return in big numbers to Malaysia under a proposed deal announced by the Malaysian and Indonesian governments yesterday.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said, after wide-ranging bilateral talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta, key private sector groups in both countries might be roped in again to handle the recruitment of maids.

Arrivals of Indonesian maids in Malaysia have dwindled after the government capped the cost structure of hiring the maids at RM4,511 (S$1,746), well below the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies' (Papa) proposed rate of RM7,500.

"I have agreed that the MoU (signed in Nov 2011 in Bali, Indonesia) on the cooperation in labour, especially with regard to domestic maids, be expanded to include the private sectors that represent both nations," he told a news conference at the presidential palace.

"An MoU should be signed between Papa and Apjati (its Indonesian counterpart -- Association of Indonesian Manpower Services).

"If both sides sign the MoU, I am confident that the number of Indonesian domestic maids in Malaysia can reach our desired levels.

"So far, only 513 maids have arrived in Malaysia under the current (government-to-government) mechanism."

Indonesia imposed a temporary freeze on the supply of maids to Malaysia on June 26, 2009, following reports of abuse by employers. The freeze was lifted following an agreement between Najib and Susilo in December 2011.

Meanwhile, Apjati was optimistic that the latest arrangement agreed by the two leaders would help resolve the impasse on the arrival of foreign maids to Malaysia.

Najib and Susilo, who had an hour-long meeting, followed by their delegation meeting at their annual consultation, also discussed a host of other issues, including haze, transnational crime, student visas, trade and the marketing of palm oil.

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Malaysia may see end to maid impasse

ROUND MOUNTAIN, Texas (KXAN) - A flash mob broke out at a wedding in the Hill Country town of Round Mountain during a maid of honors speech.

My wife Bethany Blankenship (who is the American Sign Language signer that starts the video with her speech) had been planning the flash mob for about three months, said Chris Blankenship.

Blankenship sent in the video using our ReportIt feature, saying the couple got legally hitched in New York because the two women couldnt do that in Texas.

However, they did come back to the Lone Star state to celebrate at Three Points Ranch, only a few miles outside of Marble Falls.

After being together for about 12 years, Adrienne Sneed and Claudia Secor-Watkins finally tied the knot.

It didnt come without some courage, however.

Adrienne also had only recently come out to her dad about a year ago when the two decided to get married, said Blankenship. He struggled with the issue for a while but ended up accepting her because they [the couple] are so happy together.

Blankenship adds an interesting detail about the flash mob organized by his wife, who is an ASL interpreter at Austin Community College: My wife chose signs that reinforced homosexual equality.

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Flash mob hits up Hill Country wedding

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by TINA SHIVELY / KVUE News and Photojournalist KENNETH NULL and KVUE.com Staff

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Posted on December 20, 2013 at 8:55 AM

Updated today at 9:01 AM

AUSTIN -- Construction will begin on the West Lawn of Auditorium Shores on Friday, Dec. 20, according to the Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD).

The AuditoriumShores Improvement Project will close different sections of the park temporarily during various phases of construction. During the phase of construction to begin Friday, the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail will remain open, but there will be a few trail detours.

"It is desperately in need of improvement and more importantly than that, it solves the problem of safety which is very real out there. The collision of dogs and cyclist and runners is something that happens on a daily basis, and something needs to be done about it," Executive Director of the Austin Parks Foundation ColinWallace said.

But not everyone agrees.

"What happened with the community involvement in this? I think I'm plugged in and I didn't hear anything about it. There has been no concern for the public opinion. No vetting. On the contrary, there's been a back room treatment of this issue," Teresa Quay said.

The park improvements are part of a parnership project between PARD, C3 Presents and the Austin Parks Foundation.

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Auditorium Shores construction to begin Friday