Monday, January 11, 2010

“Greensburg to study viability of downtown hotel - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW” plus 4 more

“Greensburg to study viability of downtown hotel - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW” plus 4 more

Greensburg to study viability of downtown hotel - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 08:59 PM PST

Greensburg City Council on Monday endorsed payment of $22,000 to a New York firm to study whether a hotel is viable in the downtown.

In a 3-1 vote during the regular meeting last night, council agreed to pay the costs and be reimbursed through a grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

Councilwoman Kathleen McCormick dissented, citing the use of the general fund for the expense and her concerns about a report that the city public works department has amassed 432 hours of overtime already this winter, compared to 375 hours all last winter.

Councilman Tom Tridico didn't attend the meeting.

Last month, council hired HVS Consulting and Valuation of Mineola, N.Y., to do the study. City officials are considering property near the intersection of West Otterman Street and College Avenue as the site of a possible hotel.

City Planner Barb Ciampini told council the city will pay $10,000 initially, then make installment payments to the consultant, as called for in an agreement. The state reimbursement grant could come at any time during the payment process, she added after the meeting.

Among issues to be considered in the study are demand for the hotel, the revenue it would generate and the number of jobs created. The study is expected to be completed in six to eight weeks, Ciampini said.

Steve Gifford, executive director of the Greensburg Community Development Corp. — a partner in the project along with the Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority — said prior to the meeting that 14 development or management firms with ties to hotels or development projects have expressed varying degrees of interest.

Gifford projected that after the study is done, as many as seven firms might remain interested, with two to four of them eventually offering proposals for a hotel.

Greensburg officials believe a hotel is needed downtown to house overnight guests for businesses, Seton Hill University, the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg and downtown cultural attractions, such as the Palace Theatre and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

Additional areas for receptions, banquets and meetings would be a plus, city officials said.

Council applied for the state grant last year, but its receipt was slowed, in part, by last year's state budget impasse.

Greensburg's lone public lodging facility is the Hampton Inn off Route 30, near the city's border with Hempfield.

In another matter, Councilman Emil Peterinelli reported that the city recently received 575 tons of road salt. So far, city workers applied about 1,400 tons of salt this winter, he said.

The city ran low on salt early last week, forcing city crews to use it sparingly.

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Cowell Says He's Leaving 'Idol' for 'X Factor' - ABC News

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 07:26 PM PST

Simon Cowell, the acerbic Brit who has helped give "American Idol" some of its sharpest — and nastiest — moments, will leave the hit TV singing contest after this season.

The cantankerous judge said Monday that "The X Factor," a talent show he created and which is popular in Britain, will join Fox's schedule next year. Cowell will be a judge on "The X Factor" and its executive producer.

Cowell's decision is the biggest threat yet to what has consistently been the country's top-rated TV program and a true cultural force. This season, original host Paula Abdul has been replaced by Ellen DeGeneres.

But Cowell, with his caustic commentary, has long been seen as the big star of "Idol."

He said it would have been difficult for him to do both shows. While he makes a reported $36 million a year to be on "American Idol," he owns "The X Factor" and could make much more if the show takes off.

Ironically, "The X Factor" led to a lawsuit several years ago between Cowell and "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller, who alleged that Cowell copied the format for the British version of "The X Factor" from the original British "Idol." The suit was settled amicably.

Cowell and top Fox executives made the announcement to reporters in Pasadena at a meeting of the Television Critics Association; they said they had reached an agreement only a few hours before.

"I was offered a lot of money to stay on," Cowell said. "But that wasn't the reason behind it. I wanted to do something different. I wanted a new challenge."

But an even greater challenge is posed for Idol producers. Without the show's biggest attraction and most critical judge, will "American Idol" lose steam and plunge even more in ratings? At least one analyst, Shari Anne Brill of Carat USA, said the "Idol" audience probably will decline next season.

"I think it's that brand of sarcasm combined with professional know-how that makes Simon the audience magnet that he is," she said. "I really believe the show revolves around him. He's the linchpin of the show's success. He has tremendous influence on how the audience votes. He's interesting to listen to. He's brutally honest."

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Future Kenya Port Could Mar Pristine Land - New York Times

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 07:40 PM PST

LAMU, Kenya — The evening call to prayer here is like a summons, for everyone on the island. As the sun dives toward the ocean, the Muslim residents stream into the mosques, little boys wearing impossibly bright white skullcaps, their mothers in diaphanous, black head-to-toe gowns. The last of the bikini-clad tourists pick themselves up from the beach, dust off the powdery sand and head back to the hotel for a drink.

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Lamu is one of the last outposts of pure Swahili culture.

Lamu has been like this for decades, a historic seafaring place where modernity has been gracefully folded into traditional culture without completely spoiling it. The snaky alleyways of the island's old town (which the United Nations recognizes as a World Heritage site), the omnipresent smells of donkey dung and sweetly rotting fruit and the crescent-sailed dhows plying the sea make the island feel like a glass museum case — one with a living culture inside.

But all that may be about to change.

To the dismay of many residents and tourists, the Kenyan government is planning to build the biggest port in East Africa here. It is an ambitious, multibillion-dollar project that could transform trade in this region and knit together Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Congo and southern Sudan as never before.

Pipelines, rail lines, highways, airports, an oil refinery and extra-deep berths for 21st-century supertankers are all in the blueprints, though it is hard to imagine such infrastructure rising up along this long-neglected stretch of the Kenyan coast, dotted by crumbling ruins and impenetrable mangrove swamps.

The Chinese government, one of the most aggressive investors in Africa, is backing the project and has already begun feasibility studies.

"This is real," said Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Kenya's transport minister. "We've made tremendous strides toward the realization of what you might call a dream."

Not a historian's dream, however.

Lamu is one the last outposts of pure Swahili culture, a throwback to the days of cannons, slaves, spices and sultans who were a mix of Arab and African blood and who ruled the East African coast for hundreds of years. Because it is a small island, reachable only by a short airstrip or a very bumpy road and a ferry, it has been spared the big hotels and development that have swept the port city of Mombasa, Zanzibar and other tourist hotspots in the region.

People here say they are not especially well suited for the mechanized world. There was only one car on the island until recently (the district commissioner's); now there are just 10. Most things are carried by donkeys, who plod through the alleyways or along the beach with heavy loads and blank, accommodating eyes. This is why many of Lamu's elders say they think that the port will bring more trouble than good.

"People in the street think they will get jobs," said Mohamed Athman, who leads a small marine preservation group. "What jobs? We don't have drivers or crane operators."

The biggest worry is the environment. Fishing is a lifeline for many of Lamu district's 85,000 people, and the Kenyan government does not have the greatest record of preserving its natural resources, with raw sewage dumped into Lake Victoria and countless trees chopped down in the Rift Valley. Lamu fishermen fear that the planned dredging of the port will ruin fish breeding grounds.

"They will break the rocks where the fish hide," said one angler, Mohamed Shabwana. "They will destroy everything."

Omar Mzee, a former member of Parliament from Lamu, worries about pollution from the port and possible oil spills.

"This is going to be a total mess," Mr. Mzee said. "The government is thinking of the national G.D.P. This will not benefit Lamu. It never has."

Lamu has been marginalized for decades, Mr. Mzee said, kept down because the people here are Muslim and coastal, while Kenya, since its independence in 1963, has been ruled by Christian politicians from the highlands. There are few roads out here and few schools. The way residents describe it, Lamu was left to bake in tropical obscurity until tourists started flocking here in substantial numbers in the 1990s, precisely because the area was so underdeveloped and environmentally and culturally pristine. The villages around the island are studies in poverty. There is no electricity and no running water. The houses are built from mud, sticks and string. Malaria is rampant. Many of the children sitting idle in their homes or clutching saggy soccer balls on the beach have their feet chewed up by chigoes, the tiny fleas that lay eggs under people's toenails.

"The government doesn't take us seriously," Mr. Mzee said.

The government says that in this case, it does not have much of a choice. Kenya's growing economy desperately needs a bigger port, and Mombasa, the current one, cannot be expanded because of natural limitations on the harbor.

Ever since a Swiss firm in the 1970s identified the Lamu area as the best spot in Kenya for a new port, because it is deep and sheltered by a string of islands, the Kenyan government has been trying to raise the money. Now the geopolitics of the region seem to be working in its favor.

Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are all landlocked, with growing economies, and interested in reinvigorating the East African Community. At the same time, southern Sudan is gearing up for independence from northern Sudan in 2011, and southern Sudan's capital, Juba, is far closer to the Kenyan coast than it is to Sudan's main port on the Red Sea.

"The Kenya side has a lot of reasons," said a Chinese diplomat in Kenya who asked to be identified simply as Mr. Liu. "The relevant Chinese companies are now looking into this."

The proposed site for the port is a few miles away from Lamu island on a desolate stretch of the mainland. But residents of Lamu town fear that the blast radius of the port — the crime, the pollution and the overall seediness — will reach them. Kenyan government officials admit, when pressed, that Lamu and its traditional Muslim culture will be affected.

"Of course it will change," said Mahmoud Hassan Ali, a port official. "Lifestyle will change and whatever. But if you have faith, you have faith, my friend."

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Prehistoric building found in modern Israeli city - YAHOO!

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 07:47 PM PST

Ragina buzzed up: Sarah Palin takes Fox News commentator job (AP)

12 seconds ago 2010-01-11T21:10:03-08:00

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Another Milwaukee fire brings more criticism of budget cuts - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 08:09 PM PST

Jan. 11, 2010 3:10 p.m. | Maybe it was Milwaukee's winters. Maybe it was that time in the moat.

Whatever the cause, Zero, the Milwaukee County Zoo's world-famous polar bear, will soon be transferred to the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, N.Y., because he's, well, a zero when it came to fatherhood.

Zero and his lady polar bear companion, Snow Lilly, have not produced any offspring over the past four years, and the Polar Bear Species Survival Plan created by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has recommended the transfer. The hope is that Zero will breed at the Seneca Park Zoo after his move, which will take place sometime before the end of January.

The failed Zero/Snow Lilly romance may have been caused by her giving him the cold shoulder.

"Unfortunately, Zero and Snow Lilly were only mildly compatible, and while there was interest in Snow Lilly from Zero, he was never aggressive enough for the purpose of breeding," said Zoo Director Charles Wikenhauser. "It also might have been that breeding never occurred because Snow Lilly was indifferent toward Zero, and she didn't cycle as often as what is needed for breeding." »Read Full Article

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