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MARTINEZ, Calif. The Martinez City Council will meet Wednesday, Nov 3.

According to the agenda, Alan Shear, assistant city manager, will present the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the 2014 fiscal year that ended June 30. The General Fund ended at June 30, 2014, with an unassigned fund balance of $5,720,878.

Also, the council will vote on a motion to appoint Shear as acting city manager until a permanent city manager has been hired.

Since July 28, Jim Jakel has been serving as interim city manager. On Nov. 15, Jakels service in that role will end and Jakel will remain available to the city on an hourly basis to assist on complex and time-sensitive projects.

Shear has served as assistant city manager since 2010 and has acted as city manager a number of times in the past. A new city manager is expected to be hired in the first quarter of 2015.

Among the presentations on the agenda are a proclamation that Nov. 25 will be Joe DiMaggios 100th Year Birthday Celebration, a presentation by Central Contra Costa Sanitary District and Rising Sun Energy Center recap of the 2014 California Youth Energy Services Program.

Also on the agenda is hiring a contractor for two sidewalk projects in the city.

The Alhambra Valley Road Sidewalk Project will install 400 feet of 5-foot wide sidewalk behind an existing curb along John Swett Elementary School frontage from the school driveway north to Gilbert Court and curb ramps at Gilbert Court. Currently there exists a non ADA compliant gravel path. The path is difficult to maneuver strollers and wheel chairs during dry weather. The path is nearly impossible to navigate after rain events. Completing this segment will provide continuous ADA compliant access between John Swett Elementary School and Alhambra Avenue. Current funding includes a Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) grant and CCTA Measure J monies.

The Shell Avenue Pedestrian Improvement Project will reduce the potential for conflicts between motor vehicles and children walking to school. The project is along the southern side of Shell Avenue and would consist of demolition of existing improvements and the installation of curb gutter and sidewalk. The sidewalk will extend from Pine Street westerly approximately 700 feet. There is currently no sidewalk on the proposed section of Shell Avenue and there are no suitable alternative routes for children to avoid walking along this busy street. Most of the project area has no road shoulder and has obstacles such as steep slopes, landscape rocks, mailboxes, trash cans, and parked cars that force children to walk in the street where they are exposed to fast moving traffic. Existing sidewalk joins both ends of the proposed project area.

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Council to meet Wednesday

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The Fort Bliss National Cemetery sustained some damage from Monday morning's rainfall. The northeast was hit by over five inches of rain. (MARK LAMBIE / EL PASO TIMES)

The El Paso City Council today unanimously approved a resolution asking the Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration to replace the xeriscaping at Fort Bliss National Cemetery with grass and sod.

Since xeriscaping began at the cemetery in 2006, "every heavy rain event in El Paso results in widespread damage to the grave sites and tombstones," the resolution states. In the past two years alone, "1,600 graves were damaged at Fort Bliss National Cemetery," it states.

Ray Rivera, an Army veteran who addressed the City Council today, said that of the 131 national cemeteries across the country, only three others are xeriscaped.

"We were told before that the change was necessary in order to conserve water, but it may be costing more to repair the damaged graves and areas to the cemetery," Rivera said.

Rivera said he believed smaller, private cemeteries don't have the same problems to the degree that exist at Fort Bliss National Cemetery, and that one of them uses a small reservoir to store water.

City Rep. Carl Robinson, a veteran, said he and others led a charge to keep the grass at the cemetery before the xeriscaping was installed.

"We're dealing with a big bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., which needs to be persuaded to do this," Robinson said. "Input from many veterans and from additional members of Congress will be needed."

City officials said they have received complaints that relatives of veterans buried at the cemetery can't kneel around the tombstones because of the gravel that replaced the grass.

State Sen. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, commissioned experts from the University of Texas at El Paso, to study the soil at the cemetery to find what's causing the graves to sink and headstone to fall over--and whether the rain is solely responsible for this.

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El Paso City Council approves resolution asking for grass, sod at Fort Bliss cemetery

Predvdanie osudu - tajomn kd ivota
Webinr ku kongresu nskej metafyziky.

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November 3, 2014 Spiritual Message Oracle Readings for the Week
Oracle reading for the entire week. Welcome to my channel! My name is Audie and I am an intuitive reader and spiritual counselor. I read oracle, lenormand, runes, study numerology and personology,...

By: Audie Rose

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Minecraft Survival Ep 7! Getting Ready To Build Fences and Gates!
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Maura Tse - Open Over Fences

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In a few days, China will host the annual APEC meeting in Beijing. It will be the first for President Obama since his second-term inauguration; more important, it might also present the best opportunity yet for the leaders of China and Japan to move beyond the disputes that have been poisoning bilateral relations since a territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea flared up in 2012. Chinese officials wont say whether President Xi Jinping will have a substantial meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The official Xinhua news agency on Nov. 3 published a commentary explaining that people shouldnt raise their hopes too high. Certainly, China will undoubtedly receive the Japanese leader with etiquette and hospitality, according to Xinhua, despite chronic territorial rows and historical feud with Tokyo. China has plenty of grievances with Abe, as the commentary complained about the latest visits by officials to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo:

China and South Korea, suffering from huge civilian casualties and economic losses due to Japans invasion, were also alarmed by Abes dangerous efforts to increase military buildup, lift restrictions on overseas battling and reinterpret the war-renouncing constitution. In short, it seems nothing more than a mere clumsy political stunt for the island country to advocate dialogue and fence-mending with neighbors on the one hand, while sticking to the bigoted course of fomenting strife and misgivings on the other.

Still, there are signs that China is interested in turning down the volume on its anti-Abe diatribes. Consider the commentary published in, of all places, the Global Times, the Peoples Daily-affiliated tabloid known for its nationalism. Its not reasonable for Chinese to get too worried about the revival of a militaristic Japan, explained Wang Zhanyang, a professor at the Central Institute of Socialism. Avoid suffering from imaginary fears, Wang advised:

With a democratic system, Japans politics, diplomacy and defense are mainly decided by its economy, middle-class society and culture. Japanese leaders cannot act independently of these. As all these decisive factors are mostly pacifist, Japan is likely to stay on the path of peace. The international situation has to be viewed appropriately. We need to realize that rationally China doesnt face the risk of invasion and civilization is moving toward peace. Only with such understanding and confidence can we avoid overreaction, and in particular a deviation from Chinas focus on economic development.

Sure, its possible to dismiss the Global Times commentary as just part of Chinas attempt to be a good host for the APEC leaders, but there are other signs of progress in Sino-Japanese ties. Last week, Vice President Li Yuanchao met with a delegation led by Keiji Yamada, governor of Kyoto Prefecture and president of Japans National Governors Association. Chinas defense ministry also said the two sides were talking about resuming cooperation on maritime affairs in the East China Sea, Xinhua reported.

With the Chinese economy slowing down, Xi and others in the leadership may genuinely be looking for ways to reduce tensions that could hurt growth at a sensitive time. The estrangement serves the interests of neither side, and a rapprochement is long overdue, Xinhuas commentary said. Still, the Chinese seem to be waiting for the Japanese to make the next move. Thus it would be highly pitiful for Abe to miss the enticing opportunity presented by the APEC gathering to improve China-Japan relations.

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Is China Trying to Mend Fences With Japan?

NEW YORK -- Whatever the outcome of the Mets' decision to move in the fences at Citi Field will eventually be, Curtis Granderson is not ready to say it will be a boon for him or his teammates.

The Mets began another refurbishment of their ballpark last month as they move the walls in right-center field and right field closer to home plate. The new dimensions of the park are not yet know but they should be beneficial to left-handed hitters like Granderson, at least in theory.

Granderson, however, will see how the renovated park plays first.

"I think it's going to be one of those things where we're still going to have to wait and see," Granderson said, speaking at the New York Public Library where he was marking the partnership between the Mets and Citi and a $138,000 donation made by the bank.

"There weren't a lot of balls where I was like man that one would have gone out if it was in a different stadium. Because there was definitely some that would have gone out in any stadium. Whether that's us hitting them or the other team hitting them."

Granderson is thought to be a primary beneficiary of the new fences. General manager Sandy Alderson said in September that he believed the old contours had cost Granderson seven home runs that he would have netted with closer fences.

Yet, Granderson believes that the park was fair to him in 2014.

He does not know yet where the new walls will stand, having only seen preliminary photos on social media like everyone else. Instead, he imagines, that unless it's a much more drastic change, then the move won't have great ripple effects.

"Anytime you get a chance to see something that's smaller the chances of you succeeding or hitting the ball out of the ballpark obviously go up," Granderson said. "At the same time you still got to hit, you still got to drive it. Unless they bring them in below 300 feet that's the only time you're going to be like 'Wow, this is going to be a definite advantage for everybody'."

Mike Vorkunov may be reached at mvorkunov@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Mike_Vorkunov. Find NJ.com Mets on Facebook.

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Curtis Granderson on benefit of Mets moving in the fences: 'We'll see'

Members of an honour guard wait for the arrival of separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko in front of a theatre in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. Photo by Reuters

Warning of the threat of new offensive by Moscow-backed rebels, Ukraine's leader said newly-formed army units would be sent to defend a string of eastern cities.

NATO's highest ranking officer, a U.S. general, said conditions were now in place to create a "frozen conflict", a term the West uses to describe rebel regions carved out of other ex-Soviet states that Moscow protects with its troops.

The inauguration ceremonies in east Ukraine took place even as tens of thousands of people marched in Moscow for "Unity Day", a nationalist holiday celebrating a 17th century battle, revived under President Vladimir Putin to replace the Soviet-era celebration of the Bolshevik revolution. Ukraine featured heavily in speeches for the occasion.

Most fighting has halted in the war in eastern Ukraine since September, when Kiev agreed to a truce after its forces were pushed back by what it and Western countries say was an incursion by armoured columns of Russian troops.

But the frontline remains dangerous and tense, with both sides complaining of shooting nearly every day. Artillery from the direction of the wreckage of Donetsk's international airport, still under government control, thudded during the rebel leader's inauguration in the city.

Moscow says the election of Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky as leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics", which jointly call themselves "new Russia", means that Kiev should now negotiate with them directly.

Kiev has always rejected this, describing the rebels as Russian-backed "terrorists" or "bandits", with no legitimacy.

The worry for the West is that Moscow, which has already annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, will now also exert control over eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbass region in perpetuity, as it has done for two decades in parts of Moldova and Georgia that broke away when the Soviet Union collapsed.

"I'm concerned that the conditions are there that could create  a frozen conflict," said U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, the highest-ranking NATO officer, said in Washington.

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Ukraine rebel leaders sworn in