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Thursday, August 13, 2009

A farming town in California claims that it may disappear due to the United States federal government shutting off water pumps, though the government states the actions are necessary to save several marine species.

In July 2009, action by the Federal Bureau of Reclamation to protect threatened fish stopped irrigation pumping to parts of the California Central Valley causing canals leading into Huron, California and the surrounding areas and the farms that rely on them to lose their primary irrigation source. Unemployment has reached 40% in some areas as the farms have dried up.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stated the action is putting the fish “above the needs of millions of Californians.”

Highlighting the city’s plight, Huron Police Chief Frank Steenport stated, “A year from now, [Huron] may not be here.”

In an interview in Huron on Tuesday, comedian Paul Rodriguez, whose mother owns a farm in the area, criticized the actions of the government and called for President Barack Obama to review the decision. “This used to be an almond orchard. Now all that is left is firewood.”

Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors, a nonprofit association of 27 public agencies from across California that purchase water from the government under contract, said “these cuts are crippling on our people and businesses — especially in the Central Valley where farmers are being forced to fallow their land and workers are being laid off. Rather than piecemeal restrictions, we need to balance the needs of the environment and the needs of people with a collective plan for the Delta.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, states the water pumping inside central California threatens several species, including Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, North American green sturgeon, and Southern Resident killer whales, which rely on Chinook salmon runs for food. In the Huron area, the delta smelt is specifically targeted.

In defense of the actions, Rod McInnis, the southwest regional director for NOAA’s Fisheries Service stated, “What is at stake here is not just the survival of species but the health of entire ecosystems and the economies that depend on them. We are ready to work with our federal and state partners, farmers and residents to find solutions that benefit the economy, environment and Central Valley families.”

Saturday, July 16, 2005

A General in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and dean at the National Defense University in China commented to visiting Hong Kong reporters on Friday that the PLA might use nuclear weapons against the U.S., in a conflict over the Taiwan Strait. “If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition onto the target zone on China’s territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu said to the reporters of the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. “We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian [in central China]. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds … of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.”

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the remarks “highly irresponsible” and “unfortunate”, and expressed the hope that they did not reflect the views of the Chinese government.

Echoing the official Xinhua News Agency, the People’s Republic of China’s Foreign Ministry officials said that Zhu was expressing personal views, and had warned the reporters accordingly, but stated that China would never tolerate “Taiwan independence”. Reportedly, Maj. Gen. Zhu is not directly involved in the formulation of Chinese military strategy.

The U.S. may defend Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act and is currently Taiwan’s largest arms supplier.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

2020 Melbourne Lord Mayor candidate Wayne Tseng answered some questions about his campaign for the upcoming election from Wikinews. The Lord Mayor election in the Australian city is scheduled to take place this week.

Tseng runs a firm called eTranslate, which helps software developers to make the software available to the users. In the candidate’s questionnaire, Tseng said eTranslate had led to him working with all three tiers of the government. He previously belonged to the Australian Liberal Party, but has left since then, to run for mayorship as an independent candidate.

Tseng is of Chinese descent, having moved to Australia with his parents from Vietnam. Graduated in Brisbane, Tseng received his PhD in Melbourne and has been living in the city, he told Wikinews. Tseng also formed Chinese Precinct Chamber of Commerce, an organisation responsible for many “community bond building initiatives”, the Lord Mayor candidate told Wikinews.

Tseng discussed his plans for leading Melbourne, recovering from COVID-19, and “Democracy 2.0” to ensure concerns of minorities in the city were also heard. Tseng also focused on the importance of the multi-culture aspect and talked about making Melbourne the capital of the aboriginals. Tseng also explained why he thinks Melbourne is poised to be a world city by 2030.

Tseng’s deputy Lord Mayor candidate Gricol Yang is a Commercial Banker and works for ANZ Banking Group.

Currently, Sally Capp is the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, the Victorian capital. Capp was elected as an interim Lord Mayor in mid-2018 after the former Lord Mayor Robert Doyle resigned from his position after sexual assault allegations. Doyle served as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne for almost a decade since 2008.

Wednesday, March 2, 2005

Bucharest, Romania — The city centre of Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is set to get a major facelift due to a real estate project called Esplanada (The Esplanade), which will be constructed by TriGranit Development Corporation. The total investment in the project will be greater than 800 million euro and aims to build a modern commercial pedestrian area in downtown Bucharest, with several shopping malls, office buildings, hotels and dwellings. It will be the largest real estate program in Romania since the fall of Communism in 1989.

Bucharest is currently looking at possibilities to improve its appearance and rebrand itself as a lively, creative and vibrant city. Many initiatives have sprung up to improve the city, including the organisation of CowParade later this year. Additionally, the old town centre will be restored. Due to Romania’s current economic boom, several other major construction projects are taking place.

Bucharest City Hall has blocked traffic in the city center due both to the old town restoration and to the Esplanada project.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York, London and Paris, befriending artistic luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian McKellen while writing about a family where he was jealous his sister was having sex with his father as he fought off his mother’s amorous pursuit.

The fact is, Edmund White exists. His life exists. To the casual reader, they may find it disquieting that someone like his father existed in 1950’s America and that White’s work is the progeny of his intimate effort to understand his own experience.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone understood that an interview with Edmund White, who is professor of creative writing at Princeton University, who wrote the seminal biography of Jean Genet, and who no longer can keep track of how many sex partners he has encountered, meant nothing would be off limits. Nothing was. Late in the interview they were joined by his partner Michael Caroll, who discussed White’s enduring feud with influential writer and activist Larry Kramer.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

A patient at Stoke Mandeville Hospital had to be treated in a toilet after wards became overcrowded, it emerged on Friday.

The revelation came as Sheryl Pope, a Buckinghamshire National Health Service strategy director, was questioned over plans to bring healthcare to the forefront of the community. A number of councillers challenged her plans, however, claiming that the opposite had been happening.

The Bucks Free Press reported that councillors asked Pope why community hospital beds are being closed and why more clinics are being centralised. The Overview & Scrutiny Committee for Public Health Services was told that an “under-used” gynaecology clinic located at Buckingham Community Hospital was moved to Stoke Mandeville, which one councillor said was already too congested.

“You’re bringing things into Stoke, but there’s such a lot of congestion there… One person had to be treated in the toilet. I’m wondering how quickly you’re going to change it,” High Wycombe councellor Wendy Mallen asked Mrs Pope, a joint director for strategy and system reform.

It emerged that overnight wards at Chalfont’s and Gerrards Cross Hospital have remained closed since a fire risk was identified in 2008. Chalfont St Peter councillor, Bruce Allen, said of the revelation: “We’ve never had an answer from anyone of any intelligence to say what’s going to happen. We had a community hospital with 29 beds and it served us well. We keep asking when it’s going to be opened and we get nil answers. I’ve been to so many meetings and heard this nonsense. We can’t get an answer from anyone.”

Mrs Pope replied by saying that she could not give a “definitive answer,” but said that she considered Chalfont’s to be “an important part of the jigsaw.” Mrs Pope was told by the chairman of the Buckinghamshire County Council committee that she had “a duty” to inform residents of the futue of the hospital. “Unfortunately there’s always a reason for delaying it,” said Mike Appleyard. “All I’m saying is sorry, no longer. We expect you to be here within six months with some answers on the community hospitals.”

Hedley Cadd, another councillor, attacked the gynaecology transfer, saying that he and his wife were forced to travel for four hours to get to and from Stoke Mandeville Hospital, for a consultation that lasted only twenty minutes. Mrs Pope responded by saying that she was “very aware” of the issue, conceding that because the clinic is only 40% full, “those clinics are being denied to somebody else.” Mrs Pope said that it was too early to say how the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, a new organisation which is the result of a merger between the Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust and several community hospitals, would manage local hospitals.

Anne Eden, Chief Executive of the new organisation, said: “We felt it was important to change our name to reflect the wide range of services we now offer patients from our hospitals and in community settings and in people’s own homes. In addition, discussions took place with staff across the organisation alongside patient representatives to evolve our five patient promises to reflect our extended range of services which underpin everything that we do.”