Thursday, July 3, 2008

Christine Comer, former director of the science curriculum for the Texas Education Agency (TEA), is suing the Commissioner Robert Scott for wrongful dismissal. Comer alleges that she was “illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture that was critical of the teaching of intelligent design in science classes.” Her suit alleges she was “terminated for contravening an unconstitutional policy” which required “employees to be neutral on the subject of creationism – the biblical interpretation of the origin of humans.”

The Dallas Morning News reported, “The policy was in force even though the federal courts have ruled that teaching creationism as science in public schools is illegal under U.S. Constitution’s provision preventing government establishment or endorsement of religious beliefs.” Among Comer’s supporters is Philosopher and National Center for Science Education speaker Barbara Forrest who was the presenter at the lecture Comer mentioned in the email.

News 8 Austin reported, “The TEA was not available for comment late Wednesday.”

Sunday, January 27, 2013File:Australian Mitre 10 logo.jpg

Wednesday, an over-90-year-old Manns Mitre 10 hardware store, run by Alex P Mann Pty Ltd, closed until further notice after a rent dispute in Port Adelaide, South Australia. The rent dispute involved $315,060.70 of rent for months of September 2012 to January 2013 unpaid to the landlord, Fourteen Sails Pty Ltd. The site was distrained. The store had to fire about 40–50 employees without a warning in advance.

The store was closed three days before Australia Day, January 26, Saturday.

The store administrator, Tim Clifton, said they had to ring the workers out of the blue: “I was advised the landlord had distrained for unpaid rent over the business and that left the directors in the position where the business was untenable. I presume at this stage trading was poor and the company just didn’t have the money to pay the rent. … Unfortunately they had to terminate their employment this morning and we’ve rung them all. We’ll do our best to get them their entitlements under the government schemes, and we calculate what they’re owed in the next few days and hopefully get that underway for them. … It’s a sad day. It’s a sign of the times isn’t it. Things are tough out there.”

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state secretary Dave Kirner said workers were not allowed to collect their personal belongings left inside of the store: “I spoke with a worker who said the locks have been changed, they were asked to leave and all their personal belongings are in there”.

On Saturday, Wikinews took photos of the documents available at the store entrance. The rent dispute details and an inventory were available for everyone to read. During the ten minutes of taking photos, around seven people visited the closed entrance and read the documents a first time. One of them commented, “oh hey, Bunnings will be stronger”.

The store owner, Jarred Spearman, reported negotiations ongoing with the landlord and said he would “hopefully try to work [our] way out of this … We are pretty lucky to have the customers and staff we had”.

Port Adelaide Mayor Gary Johanson said the loss of the store is a significant loss as Port Adelaide is being redeveloped: “Their staff were extremely good, the service levels were high, the store was always well stocked and it was a great example of a family business. That will be a great loss to the Port.” “The landlord is not at fault here. The landlord is acting within their rights. … This is the sort of thing we cannot afford to lose if we’re serious about the Port being redeveloped. This is not a multinational company. This is a franchise of a bigger company but it is a family franchise and it employs a lot of staff. The staff that they employ are local people and they’re employing large amounts of staff in relation to their turnover. We need to take stock of what local businesses we have left and say, how can we ensure they stay with us?”

Friday, February 6, 2009

United States swimmer Michael Phelps has been banned from competition and his training stipend revoked for three months by USA Swimming after Phelps was photographed smoking from a glass pipe, often used for smoking cannabis. The picture was published last Sunday by British tabloid News of the World.

USA Swimming, which is the governing body of swimming in the United States, however said that no “anti-doping” rules had been violated.

“This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero,” it stated. “Michael has voluntarily accepted this reprimand and has committed to earn back our trust.”

The suspension will end in time for Phelps to train for the US Championships, which are to be held on the 7th of July.

Phelps has also lost sponsor Kellogg, who said that it would not renew its deal with the swimmer next month.

Phelps won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing last year, and has since become one of the world’s most famous athletes.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Ren and Stimpy. Bugs Bunny. Philip J. Fry and Professor Hubert Farnsworth on Futurama. Sparx. Bi-Polar Bear. Popeye the Sailor Man. Woody Woodpecker. You may not think you have ever heard Billy West, but chances are on a television program, a movie, a commercial, or as Howard Stern’s voice guru in the 1990’s, you have heard him. West’s talent for creating personalities by twisting his voice has made him one of a handful of voice actors—Hank Azaria and the late Mel Blanc come to mind—who have achieved celebrity for their talent. Indeed, West is one of the few voice actors who can impersonate Blanc in his prime, including characterizations of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons.

What is the fulcrum in Mr. West’s life that led him to realize a talent to shape personalities with his voice, and how did the discovery of that gift shape him? Wikinews reporter David Shankbone found that like many great comedians, West faced more sour early in life than he did sweet. The sour came from a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic father (“I could tell you the kind of night I was going to have from the sound of the key in the door or the way the car pulled up.”), to his own problems with drug and alcohol use (“There is a point that you can reach in your life where you don’t want to live, but you haven’t made the decision to die.”).

If sin, suffering and redemption feel like the stages of an endless cycle of American existence, West’s own redemption from his brutalized childhood is what helped shape his gift. He performed little bits to cheer up his cowed mother, ravaged by the fact she could not stop her husband’s abuse of young West. “I was the whipping boy and she would just be reduced to tears a lot of times, and I would come in and say stuff, and I would put out little bits just to pull her out of it.”

But West has also enjoyed the sweet. His career blossomed as his talent for creating entire histories behind fictional characters and creatures simply by exploring nuance in his voice landed him at the top of his craft. You may never again be able to forget that behind the voice of your favorite character, there is often an extraordinary life.

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with renowned voice actor Billy West, who for the first time publicly talks about the horrors he faced in his childhood; his misguided search for answers in anger, drugs and alcohol; and the peace he has achieved as one of America’s most recognizable voice actors.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

A building being prepared for demolition collapsed this morning in New York‘s Upper West Side around 9 a.m. EDT. Five people are known to be injured from the accident, as well as one rescue worker who was injured in the aftermath. None of the injuries were life-threatening.

The building was a supermarket, which was being taken down to make room for a high-rise building, something that residents took issue with. The roof, front wall, and scaffolding all fell to the ground, as stated by Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.

Soon after the incident at least 100 police and fire department personnel combed the wreckage for more victims, using search and rescue dogs to find people by scent. They quickly accounted for the twenty-five construction workers who were working on the supermarket. Most of the victims’ injuries were broken bones, including one person who broke all four extremities.

Subway lines 1, 2, and 3 have been closed or redirected in response, along with the M104 bus.