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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Eric Cantor Would Offset Earthquake Aid : Roll Call News
Eric Cantor Would Offset Earthquake Aid : Roll Call News
House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Mineral Dilemma
“There is an appropriate federal role in incidents like this,” the Republican said after touring the damage in his district. “Obviously, the problem is that people in Virginia don’t have earthquake insurance.”
The next step will be for Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) to decide whether to make an appeal for federal aid, Cantor said. The House Majority Leader would support such an effort but would look to offset the cost elsewhere in the federal budget.
“All of us know that the federal government is busy spending money it doesn’t have,” Cantor said in Culpeper, where the quake damaged some buildings along a busy shopping thoroughfare.
He ended a trip in Israel on Tuesday and quickly returned home after the magnitude-5.8 earthquake hit his Congressional district. It was also felt north in Washington, D.C., and New York City and south in North Carolina.
Cantor did not offer specifics on potential offsets, but his view is in line with House Republicans’ approach to disaster aid this year.
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, used unspent funds from the fiscal 2009 stimulus law to offset about $1 billion in proposed fiscal 2011 emergency money intended to help the Southeast after a series of destructive storms. The provision for that disaster aid is in the fiscal 2012 Homeland Security appropriations bill, which the House has passed and the Senate has not taken up.
Although Aderholt’s district was among the hardest hit, he stressed the need to offset the emergency spending.
In years past, Congress has provided disaster relief outside normal budget caps and without offsets.
Prof. "P" PINIONING : Majority Leader Eric Cantor should be held to his lofty idea here and not be allowed to pull a Robert Aderholt on the Congress here.
House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Mineral Dilemma
“There is an appropriate federal role in incidents like this,” the Republican said after touring the damage in his district. “Obviously, the problem is that people in Virginia don’t have earthquake insurance.”
The next step will be for Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) to decide whether to make an appeal for federal aid, Cantor said. The House Majority Leader would support such an effort but would look to offset the cost elsewhere in the federal budget.
“All of us know that the federal government is busy spending money it doesn’t have,” Cantor said in Culpeper, where the quake damaged some buildings along a busy shopping thoroughfare.
He ended a trip in Israel on Tuesday and quickly returned home after the magnitude-5.8 earthquake hit his Congressional district. It was also felt north in Washington, D.C., and New York City and south in North Carolina.
Cantor did not offer specifics on potential offsets, but his view is in line with House Republicans’ approach to disaster aid this year.
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, used unspent funds from the fiscal 2009 stimulus law to offset about $1 billion in proposed fiscal 2011 emergency money intended to help the Southeast after a series of destructive storms. The provision for that disaster aid is in the fiscal 2012 Homeland Security appropriations bill, which the House has passed and the Senate has not taken up.
Although Aderholt’s district was among the hardest hit, he stressed the need to offset the emergency spending.
In years past, Congress has provided disaster relief outside normal budget caps and without offsets.
Prof. "P" PINIONING : Majority Leader Eric Cantor should be held to his lofty idea here and not be allowed to pull a Robert Aderholt on the Congress here.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Washington DC Survives ! The Debt Limit Crisis And Upper Scale Earthquake
P ! for PROTESTING POLITICIANS PERENNIAL PANNING OF AND PERPETUAL PLATITUDE ON WASHINGTON D.C.
A
ALLAN ABASI
What stuff is this rugged city of ours made of ? Washington DC takes a licking and keep on kicking. If is not a threat of Bankruptcy and collapse by mismanagement , it's earth shaking tremor 5.9 Richter Scale Earthquake and this City of swampy( a seasonally flooded bottomland with more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog ) origin on the Potomac River is riddled with among others smarmy ( marked by smug, ingratiating , false earnestness )Characters otherwise known as Politicians who messes the City and the Nation up with their shenanigans and incompetence and ever so often have the audacity and temerity to dump on Washington DC as if they were not a party and active participants to it's debasement
A
What stuff is this rugged city of ours made of ? Washington DC takes a licking and keep on kicking. If is not a threat of Bankruptcy and collapse by mismanagement , it's earth shaking tremor 5.9 Richter Scale Earthquake and this City of swampy( a seasonally flooded bottomland with more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog ) origin on the Potomac River is riddled with among others smarmy ( marked by smug, ingratiating , false earnestness )Characters otherwise known as Politicians who messes the City and the Nation up with their shenanigans and incompetence and ever so often have the audacity and temerity to dump on Washington DC as if they were not a party and active participants to it's debasement
Monday, March 24, 2008
WASHINGTONNATIONALS
Architecture Review
Nationals' new ballpark is a D.C. showpiece
Sixteen years after Baltimore broke the mold with its "newfangled, old-fashioned" ballpark at Camden Yards, Washington, D.C., has joined the list of cities that can boast they have a new, baseball-only stadium in a prime urban setting. (Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam / March 10, 2008)
By Edward Gunts | sun architecture critic
March 24, 2008
Article tools
E-mail Share
Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Post comment Text size: It's close to downtown and open to the sky, and features sweeping views of the city beyond. There's an asymmetrical field with enough nooks and crannies to keep the game interesting - plus a state-of-the-art scoreboard, luxury skyboxes and all the creature comforts fans could want.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992?
Yes, but also Nationals Park on the Anacostia riverfront in 2008.
Related links
Tour of Nationals Park Photos
2008 O's spring training Photos
O's Q&A: Submit your questions to Sun reporters
Poll: O's fifth starter
Who do you think should be the Orioles' fifth starter?
Matt Albers
Brian Burres
Another player in the organization
O's should trade for No. 5 starter
View current results
2007 O's spring training Photos
Special coverage: Spring training -- View from the stands
Sixteen years after Baltimore broke the mold with its "newfangled, old-fashioned" ballpark, Washington has joined the list of cities that can boast they have a new, baseball-only stadium in a prime urban setting.
Opening Saturday with an exhibition game between the Nats and the Orioles, followed by the season opener Sunday against the Atlanta Braves, the $611 million Nationals Park in Southeast Washington incorporates many of the elements that have been so popular at Oriole Park and a dozen other major-league ballparks that have debuted since 1992.
But those who visit Nationals Park seeking comparisons with Oriole Park will hardly find a clone. Although it's intimate and full of fan amenities, this is not a "retro" park.
From the outset, city planners in Washington wanted their ballpark to be a contemporary expression rather than a throwback.
And the design team - which includes the architects of Oriole Park, HOK Sport (working in this case with Devrouax + Purnell of Washington) - was happy to oblige.
HOK Sport has been concerned about being typecast as a firm that specializes in old-fashioned parks ever since Baltimore's opened to rave reviews. Its architects seek out chances to prove they can create "forward-looking" sports architecture, even as team owners yearn for nostalgia.
Washington, which got its present team when the Montreal Expos moved there in 2005, presented a rare opportunity. When design work began that year, an owner had not been identified to purchase the team from Major League Baseball, so the architects' chief "client" was the District of Columbia.
Joseph Spear, principal in charge of the project for HOK Sport, said city leaders told the design team early on that they wanted Washington's ballpark to reflect the duality of the nation's capital: the "monumental city" that visitors see and the "local city" where people live and work.
"They made it clear that this is not just a city of monuments," Spear said. "They wanted this to be about the community."
As constructed, Nationals Park doesn't break new ground in design as much as it builds on what has gone before and tailors it to its city. The designers took what has been learned about ballpark design over the past 20 years - much of it taught by HOK - and gave the team and the city a better setting for baseball than they've had before.
"It has all the right stuff," Spear says. "Everything we've learned in the last 20 years is baked in in Washington."
One of the biggest differences between Oriole Park and Nationals Park is the exterior. Baltimore's ballpark is defined by red brick arches and Camden green steel supports for the upper deck. In Washington, the palette is light-colored precast concrete walls, glass and metal panels. Each side of the building has a different look conceived to respond to the area it faces.
The ballpark was designed to fit into the Pierre-Charles L'Enfant plan that has guided development in the district since 1791.
The site is bounded by South Capitol, N, First and Potomac streets Southeast. The designers took two geometrical shapes, a triangle and a circle, and combined them to create the basic plan for the park.
One side of the triangle was used to define the edge of South Capitol Street Southeast, a main boulevard leading to the U.S. Capitol. It represents the formal, monumental side of the ballpark. The circle encloses the seating bowl, which is closer to the river and represents a more informal side of the ballpark. The combination is not unlike the marriage of two geometries at Oriole Park - the long, straight B&O Warehouse and the curved seating bowl.
Nationals Park has 41,888 seats - 4,000 fewer than the team's home for the past three years, RFK Stadium - and each is angled toward home plate. The lower bowl, which holds more than half of the seats, is made of concrete. The upper decks are steel. Luxury skyboxes are concentrated behind home plate.
Every seat is designed to be part of a distinct "neighborhood," so fans will be close to the action and have a variety of viewing experiences, both of the game and the city. Fans also can stay connected to the game if they leave their seats because the concourse offers open views of the playing field.
One of the most mundane aspects of the ballpark is the sight of two concrete parking garages along N Street Southeast designed by parking specialist Desman Inc.
They occupy the same block as the ballpark and frame the plaza entrance that the greatest number of people will use, making them part of visitors' first impressions. They're also a constant presence just beyond the outfield.
It would have been better if the garages had been buried underground and other types of buildings had risen above street level, but the cost of putting parking below grade was deemed too expensive. If there is anything good to be said about the parking from an environmental standpoint, it is that there is relatively little of it on the block containing the ballpark - about 1,200 spaces. Patrons are encouraged to use Metro - its Navy Yard stop is several blocks away.
Speaking of environmental considerations, Nationals Park is the first professional stadium in America designed as a "green" ballpark, and the architects plan to seek certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Eco- friendly features include a green roof, water-conserving plumbing fixtures, high-efficiency field lighting and an intricate ground and storm water filtration system designed to protect the river from peanut shells, among other debris. That's a promising new direction in ballpark design.
Asked how he would like visitors to describe Nationals Park, Spear said he hopes they have a hard time putting a label on it.
"I don't think that people would say this is retro," he said. "I hope they don't see it as modern, either. I hope they see it as a building that could only fit on that site in D.C. That's what we were trying to do. If they say it fits the city, that's the compliment we're looking for."
Like many cities, Washington has seen the two extremes in baseball parks over the past century. It had the quirky but amenity-poor ballpark of old, Griffith Stadium at Georgia Avenue and W Street Northwest, which was demolished in 1965 and is now the site of Howard University Hospital. It had the concrete doughnut configuration of RFK Stadium, now owned by the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. In a few days, it has a chance to experience a third genre that goes a long way beyond both.
ed.gunts@baltsun.com
More articles
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
Nationals' new ballpark is a D.C. showpiece
Sixteen years after Baltimore broke the mold with its "newfangled, old-fashioned" ballpark at Camden Yards, Washington, D.C., has joined the list of cities that can boast they have a new, baseball-only stadium in a prime urban setting. (Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam / March 10, 2008)
By Edward Gunts | sun architecture critic
March 24, 2008
Article tools
E-mail Share
Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Post comment Text size: It's close to downtown and open to the sky, and features sweeping views of the city beyond. There's an asymmetrical field with enough nooks and crannies to keep the game interesting - plus a state-of-the-art scoreboard, luxury skyboxes and all the creature comforts fans could want.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992?
Yes, but also Nationals Park on the Anacostia riverfront in 2008.
Related links
Tour of Nationals Park Photos
2008 O's spring training Photos
O's Q&A: Submit your questions to Sun reporters
Poll: O's fifth starter
Who do you think should be the Orioles' fifth starter?
Matt Albers
Brian Burres
Another player in the organization
O's should trade for No. 5 starter
View current results
2007 O's spring training Photos
Special coverage: Spring training -- View from the stands
Sixteen years after Baltimore broke the mold with its "newfangled, old-fashioned" ballpark, Washington has joined the list of cities that can boast they have a new, baseball-only stadium in a prime urban setting.
Opening Saturday with an exhibition game between the Nats and the Orioles, followed by the season opener Sunday against the Atlanta Braves, the $611 million Nationals Park in Southeast Washington incorporates many of the elements that have been so popular at Oriole Park and a dozen other major-league ballparks that have debuted since 1992.
But those who visit Nationals Park seeking comparisons with Oriole Park will hardly find a clone. Although it's intimate and full of fan amenities, this is not a "retro" park.
From the outset, city planners in Washington wanted their ballpark to be a contemporary expression rather than a throwback.
And the design team - which includes the architects of Oriole Park, HOK Sport (working in this case with Devrouax + Purnell of Washington) - was happy to oblige.
HOK Sport has been concerned about being typecast as a firm that specializes in old-fashioned parks ever since Baltimore's opened to rave reviews. Its architects seek out chances to prove they can create "forward-looking" sports architecture, even as team owners yearn for nostalgia.
Washington, which got its present team when the Montreal Expos moved there in 2005, presented a rare opportunity. When design work began that year, an owner had not been identified to purchase the team from Major League Baseball, so the architects' chief "client" was the District of Columbia.
Joseph Spear, principal in charge of the project for HOK Sport, said city leaders told the design team early on that they wanted Washington's ballpark to reflect the duality of the nation's capital: the "monumental city" that visitors see and the "local city" where people live and work.
"They made it clear that this is not just a city of monuments," Spear said. "They wanted this to be about the community."
As constructed, Nationals Park doesn't break new ground in design as much as it builds on what has gone before and tailors it to its city. The designers took what has been learned about ballpark design over the past 20 years - much of it taught by HOK - and gave the team and the city a better setting for baseball than they've had before.
"It has all the right stuff," Spear says. "Everything we've learned in the last 20 years is baked in in Washington."
One of the biggest differences between Oriole Park and Nationals Park is the exterior. Baltimore's ballpark is defined by red brick arches and Camden green steel supports for the upper deck. In Washington, the palette is light-colored precast concrete walls, glass and metal panels. Each side of the building has a different look conceived to respond to the area it faces.
The ballpark was designed to fit into the Pierre-Charles L'Enfant plan that has guided development in the district since 1791.
The site is bounded by South Capitol, N, First and Potomac streets Southeast. The designers took two geometrical shapes, a triangle and a circle, and combined them to create the basic plan for the park.
One side of the triangle was used to define the edge of South Capitol Street Southeast, a main boulevard leading to the U.S. Capitol. It represents the formal, monumental side of the ballpark. The circle encloses the seating bowl, which is closer to the river and represents a more informal side of the ballpark. The combination is not unlike the marriage of two geometries at Oriole Park - the long, straight B&O Warehouse and the curved seating bowl.
Nationals Park has 41,888 seats - 4,000 fewer than the team's home for the past three years, RFK Stadium - and each is angled toward home plate. The lower bowl, which holds more than half of the seats, is made of concrete. The upper decks are steel. Luxury skyboxes are concentrated behind home plate.
Every seat is designed to be part of a distinct "neighborhood," so fans will be close to the action and have a variety of viewing experiences, both of the game and the city. Fans also can stay connected to the game if they leave their seats because the concourse offers open views of the playing field.
One of the most mundane aspects of the ballpark is the sight of two concrete parking garages along N Street Southeast designed by parking specialist Desman Inc.
They occupy the same block as the ballpark and frame the plaza entrance that the greatest number of people will use, making them part of visitors' first impressions. They're also a constant presence just beyond the outfield.
It would have been better if the garages had been buried underground and other types of buildings had risen above street level, but the cost of putting parking below grade was deemed too expensive. If there is anything good to be said about the parking from an environmental standpoint, it is that there is relatively little of it on the block containing the ballpark - about 1,200 spaces. Patrons are encouraged to use Metro - its Navy Yard stop is several blocks away.
Speaking of environmental considerations, Nationals Park is the first professional stadium in America designed as a "green" ballpark, and the architects plan to seek certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Eco- friendly features include a green roof, water-conserving plumbing fixtures, high-efficiency field lighting and an intricate ground and storm water filtration system designed to protect the river from peanut shells, among other debris. That's a promising new direction in ballpark design.
Asked how he would like visitors to describe Nationals Park, Spear said he hopes they have a hard time putting a label on it.
"I don't think that people would say this is retro," he said. "I hope they don't see it as modern, either. I hope they see it as a building that could only fit on that site in D.C. That's what we were trying to do. If they say it fits the city, that's the compliment we're looking for."
Like many cities, Washington has seen the two extremes in baseball parks over the past century. It had the quirky but amenity-poor ballpark of old, Griffith Stadium at Georgia Avenue and W Street Northwest, which was demolished in 1965 and is now the site of Howard University Hospital. It had the concrete doughnut configuration of RFK Stadium, now owned by the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. In a few days, it has a chance to experience a third genre that goes a long way beyond both.
ed.gunts@baltsun.com
More articles
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
Thursday, March 13, 2008
MICHAEL TABORN, WMATA SECURITY, FTA, METRO-DC-TRANSIT,
NEWS OPINIONS SPORTS ARTS & LIVING Discussions Photos & Video City Guide CLASSIFIEDS JOBS CARS REAL ESTATE
Federal Official Returns to Metro As the New Chief of Transit Police
By Lena H. SunWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, February 22, 2008; B03
Metro has hired the transit security chief of the Federal Transit Administration to be the agency's new police chief, officials said yesterday.
Michael Taborn, 55, who starts March 10, has been director of the FTA's transit safety and security office for about five years. Before joining the FTA, he worked for the Metro Transit Police for 28 years, retiring as a captain in 2002.
"Having been here when the first trains rolled out and now coming back to lead the Metro Transit Police completes a circle for me," Taborn said in a statement. In his last police job at Metro, Taborn was commander of the training division.
Taborn, who will be paid $160,000 a year, will report to General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. Metro has been looking for a permanent chief since Polly Hanson retired last year and was promoted to assistant general manager for safety and security. The announcement comes as the transit system faces an increase in robberies, thefts from vehicles at Metro parking lots and assaults on bus operators.
Transit security has been a growing concern since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and later bombings of commuter trains in Madrid, London and elsewhere. Metro, which has the second-busiest subway in the country after New York's, carries 1.2 million riders on a typical weekday.
At the FTA, Taborn's office is responsible for coordinating safety and security for about 5,000 transit agencies, he said. He has worked closely with the top 50 transit agencies on training employees, emergency management and public awareness campaigns.
Asked whether he thought Metro should institute random bag searches, as New York did after the deadly bombings in London's subway, Taborn said the issue "would require extensive consultation" with Catoe and the Metro board. "There are pros and cons," he said.
Federal Official Returns to Metro As the New Chief of Transit Police
By Lena H. SunWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, February 22, 2008; B03
Metro has hired the transit security chief of the Federal Transit Administration to be the agency's new police chief, officials said yesterday.
Michael Taborn, 55, who starts March 10, has been director of the FTA's transit safety and security office for about five years. Before joining the FTA, he worked for the Metro Transit Police for 28 years, retiring as a captain in 2002.
"Having been here when the first trains rolled out and now coming back to lead the Metro Transit Police completes a circle for me," Taborn said in a statement. In his last police job at Metro, Taborn was commander of the training division.
Taborn, who will be paid $160,000 a year, will report to General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. Metro has been looking for a permanent chief since Polly Hanson retired last year and was promoted to assistant general manager for safety and security. The announcement comes as the transit system faces an increase in robberies, thefts from vehicles at Metro parking lots and assaults on bus operators.
Transit security has been a growing concern since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and later bombings of commuter trains in Madrid, London and elsewhere. Metro, which has the second-busiest subway in the country after New York's, carries 1.2 million riders on a typical weekday.
At the FTA, Taborn's office is responsible for coordinating safety and security for about 5,000 transit agencies, he said. He has worked closely with the top 50 transit agencies on training employees, emergency management and public awareness campaigns.
Asked whether he thought Metro should institute random bag searches, as New York did after the deadly bombings in London's subway, Taborn said the issue "would require extensive consultation" with Catoe and the Metro board. "There are pros and cons," he said.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
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