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The track record so far on Emanuel’s late-term temptations is spotty at best. |
Amazon, after a much-hyped selection process that lured dozens of cities into revealing sensitive data about themselves, decided to split its HQ2 in two. New York’s Long Island City and the Crystal City neighborhood in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, D.C., each got half an HQ2. Nashville scored an additional m... |
As for the Musk deal, there is growing skepticism the impresario who brought us SpaceX and Tesla will ever bore his way to O’Hare. At a June news conference, standing alongside Emanuel, Musk predicted he could begin digging on the $1 billion project within three months. Five months have passed, and there is no sign of ... |
Now comes the massive development deal called Lincoln Yards — the one that's so close to closing Emanuel can just taste it. |
The mayor is driving hard on winning approval for the housing, office, hotel and entertainment mega-project before he leaves office in May. But he has offered no explanation why there should be such a hurry, and no evidence the city might lose Lincoln Yards if he — or even his successor — just takes the time to get it ... |
To Sterling Bay’s credit, the developer has shown it is listening to community criticism about density and other factors. It is scaling down the heights of some buildings and adding more park space to a development that would span more than 70 acres straddling the Chicago River on the North Side. |
Even so, concerns persist about the lack of open space; that Lincoln Yards would compound traffic congestion in the area between Lincoln Park and Bucktown; that gentrification might squeeze the economic diversity out of nearby neighborhoods. |
And new precincts of protest are lining up to chime in. |
Sterling Bay plans a partnership with the music-performance monolith Live Nation to pack as many as five venues into the project. That has led music halls from across the city to demand a seat at the negotiating table. |
The Hideout — a treasured neighborhood bar and music club that would essentially be encircled by Lincoln Yards — has valid concerns. The Hideout’s defenders fear a tax increment financing district for Lincoln Yards could set the stage for shuttering a place with an eclectic mix of music and events that is the antithesi... |
Now Metro, Schubas, Lincoln Hall, Subterranean and Thalia Hall — music venues that sit north, west and south of Lincoln Yards — plan to jump in with a far broader concern. They want plausible assurances that Lincoln Yards won’t put Chicago’s thriving independent music scene at risk. |
“We want to quantify the economic value of the existing music venues. We want to see how this affects the people who work at the venues on the North Side, the South Side and the West Side,” said Joe Shanahan, Metro’s owner. |
A difference between business and politics is that capital can be patient. It bides its time and eventually gets its way. It doesn’t need the headlines or a boost in the polls. Sometimes profit just takes time. It can wait. |
Emanuel is constitutionally impatient. And in this case, the haste is wasting his chance to strike the city's best deal. |
Sterling Bay has shown no sign that a harder city negotiating line would put Lincoln Yards at risk. This week’s downsizing of its original bid shows the developer is willing to negotiate. Developers as savvy as Sterling Bay don’t just walk away from potential paydays the size of Lincoln Yards. |
The city can bargain to avoid unnecessary giveaways, and the community can get a better deal, if only they both stand their ground. The case for the proposed tax incentives has not yet been made. Further accommodation to the community is still possible. |
Emanuel, who has earned a measure of self-regard for his deal-making prowess, must surely know he has leverage with Sterling Bay. If he feels compelled to move forward, then he owes the city an explanation why. And if the deal is not done before he leaves office, that actually could be a win for Chicago. |
For that matter, the candidates for mayor should be weighing in too. One of them will wind up working this deal. We can learn a lot about their plans for neighborhood development, and tax giveaways, if they speak up now. |
Every mayor wants a legacy project: For Richard J. Daley, it was Circle Campus; for Richard M. Daley, Millennium Park. Lincoln Yards will be a legacy for a mayor of Chicago. If Emanuel hands off Lincoln Yards to whoever succeeds him, he may not get full claim to this project as his legacy. But he’ll be showing he can k... |
Tom Walsh commentary on Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT), the new brand name for the lightweight metals institute in Detroit's Corktown. |
It's been 13 months since the White House announced Michigan would be home to one of the nation's first three manufacturing innovation institutes, directing more than $140 million toward developing metals and techniques to make vehicles and other machines that are stronger, lighter and more fuel-efficient than ever bef... |
Now, says Lawrence Brown, head of the Detroit-based institute called Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT), it's time to start handing out assignments for the first batch of projects. |
"We will kick off three technology projects yet this month, that's my target," Brown said in an interview last week. |
He didn't dive deeply into specifics, but said he wants to explore a new casting process that would enable manufacturers to make high-strength parts with thinner walls, in both ferrous and nonferrous alloys. |
"We're also looking at joining dissimilar metals. That's going to be a big key, how to join aluminum alloys to steel alloys. We know that's a need in all industries," Brown said. The projects will range in length from 12 to 24 months, he said. |
Brown also said federal officials are exploring the notion of locating a transportation application center for a second research consortium, the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), in the same building with LIFT at 1400 Rosa Parks in Detroit's Corktown area. |
"I would love that. It makes sense," Brown said, "but we would have to get the Department of Energy and Department of Defense to come together and agree." |
LIFT gets $70 million in federal grants administered via the U.S. Navy and DOD, while IACMI's grants flow through the DOE. |
Both entities are aimed at enhancing U.S. leadership in manufacturing things that are lighter and stronger. And both a metals-focused institute and a center for carbon-fiber applications could fit neatly under the new LIFT brand adopted in January, replacing the clunkier original name of American Lightweight Metals Man... |
Brown, executive director of LIFT, was previously director of government programs for Columbus, Ohio, -based EWI, formerly the Edison Welding Institute. The institute is a founding partner in LIFT along with the Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. |
"We have had ongoing discussions on how the metals and composites institutes can partner," Brown said. "We will complement each other. We will not bash the other, metals over composites, or composites over metals. We will look for the right solutions." |
Both LIFT and IACMI are to be funded by $70 million in federal grants over five years, to be matched at least one-to-one by contributions from private sector companies and academic institutions. LIFT currently has more than 100 partners, including corporate giants General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Alcoa and Honda plus... |
Michigan was a natural home for LIFT, Brown said, because of its expertise in metalworking – and politically, because Ohio already had landed a manufacturing institute focused on 3-D printing in Youngstown. |
Initially, what was then called ALMMII looked like it was headed for Canton Township, but after a lease fell through there, Detroit spruced up an abandoned factory of now-defunct auto supplier Mexican Industries and lured the institute to Corktown. The 107,000-square-foot building with high ceilings has enough space to... |
The LIFT building on Rosa Parks has been outfitted with modern meeting rooms and training facilities. Brown said his small team will soon start ordering machinery and equipment for research, testing and prototyping activity that will be underway by year end, when 20 or 30 employees may be on hand, doing research or tra... |
Contact Tom Walsh: twalsh@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomWalsh_freep. |
As of Wednesday, Louisville had seen 66.86 inches of rain in 2018. The wettest year on record, 2011, saw 68.02 inches of rain. |
In 2011, Greg Fischer began his first term as Louisville's mayor, Rick Pitino still coached basketball at the University of Louisville and Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby. |
Oh, and Louisville also experienced its wettest year ever. |
Seven years later, Louisville is on the cusp of once again breaking that record. |
As of Wednesday, 66.86 inches of rain has fallen in Louisville in 2018. |
That represents the city’s second wettest year that's been recorded, according to the National Weather Service. The wettest year ever was 2011, when Louisville was hit with 68.02 inches of rain. |
As a result, Louisville needs more than 1.16 inches between now and Tuesday in order to break the record. |
The city should inch closer to the record between Thursday and Friday, when a half an inch to one inch of rain is expected to fall, according to the NWS. Louisville will see a high near 56 degrees and a low around 54 degrees on Thursday. |
Make sure to hold tight on to that umbrella, as a wind advisory will also be in effect Thursday. Wind gusts could reach 40 to 45 miles per hour during Thursday afternoon and night, according to the NWS. |
The wind advisory will be in effect until 7 a.m. Friday. Mostly cloudy skies with a high near 61 degrees and wind gusts as high as 22 mph are forecast for the day, and Friday night will be partly cloudy with a low around 33 degrees. |
Saturday and Sunday should be dry, meaning it will come down to New Year’s Eve on Monday to determine if Louisville breaks its historical rainfall record. |
Currently, the NWS in Louisville is predicting an 80 percent chance of rain on Monday, with temperatures getting up to 54 degrees. |
Monday night also has a 30 percent chance of showers and an expected low around 39 degrees. |
2018 has been a wet year throughout Kentucky. Frankfort and Lexington have already broken their previous rainfall records that were also set in 2011 in each city. |
Earlier this year Louisville and surrounding communities experienced flooding not seen since 1997. The city even broke the record for the most rainfall for the month of February with 10.47 inches recorded. |
Officials estimated 40 billion gallons of rain fell over Louisville alone during a five-day stretch in late February. |
Louisville also experienced its wettest September ever, receiving 10.91 inches of rain during the month, according to the NWS. |
Over a dozen U.S. cities have broken their annual precipitation totals in 2018, according to Weather.com. |
That might not seem like cause for alarm, considering that overall new-vehicle registrations statewide in the first half of 2016 totaled more than 1.04 million. The CNCDA is projecting 2.1 million registrations by the end of this year, which would approach the all-time record of 2.15 million set in 2005. |
However, the recent hybrid/EV slump is significant in a state that has consistently led the nation touting the virtues of alternative-powered vehicles, a state where Gov. Jerry Brown has set a goal of putting 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025. |
What’s going on? Industry experts cite multiple factors affecting sales of hybrids and electrics in California. |
“It’s a combination of things for consumers,” said Brian Maas, president of the CNCDA. “There is a correlation between (consumer) interest in alternative-power technologies and the price of gasoline … which has been low this year. … Combine that with the fact that conventional internal combustion engines are getting mu... |
Longtime local dealer John Driebe, who heads the ForAnyAuto Group and sells Nissan, Infiniti and Mazda vehicles in the Elk Grove Automall, has seen a surge in crossover and SUV sales at his dealerships, particularly the Nissan Rogue and Mazda CX-5. |
Driebe also believes that loyal buyers of hybrids and electric vehicles are making a commitment to a cleaner environment. |
So does Judy Cunningham, a sales consultant at Roseville Toyota in the Roseville Automall. Cunningham has overseen sales of the groundbreaking Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle that was introduced to the California market in fall 2015. |
Bill Elrick, executive director of the West Sacramento-based California Fuel Cell Partnership, noted that hydrogen fuel stations continue to be built throughout California – more than 20 now, compared with just a couple in 2015. |
The infrastructure for electric vehicles is much further advanced, with EV charging stations being built on both coasts. |
Last week, Campbell-based ChargePoint Inc., which bills itself as the world’s largest EV charging network, said U.S. motorists can now travel the most heavily trafficked corridors on the East and West coasts with the installation of 95 new DC fast charging stations. Fast chargers can power an EV battery to 80 percent c... |
EV charging infrastructure is growing locally as well. |
Last week, the Hyatt Regency Sacramento hotel, at 1209 L St., formally opened 26 Level 2 EV charging stations, most of them on the fifth floor of its parking garage, calling it the largest such installation by a private enterprise in the city. |
George Parrott, president of the Sacramento Electric Vehicle Association, is adamant that the recent slump in EV sales in California is “an anomalous blip” based in part on false consumer perceptions that relatively low gas prices will stick around long-term. |
Understandably, Sacramento-area auto buyers are torn about what to do: buy a cheaper, internal-combustion engine car; or consider a hybrid or electric, which costs more but will likely pay off in fuel savings in the long run. |
Among assertions made at the recent ANC land summit, it seems the one issue that has permeated media analysis is the misinterpretation of former president Kgalema Motlanthe's statement that most traditional leaders act as tin-pot dictators. |
The statement predictably enraged many traditional leaders, but it should be seen in the context of the heated land debate as caution to guard against the abuse of power. |
"Some traditional leaders support the ANC, but the majority of them are acting like village tinpot dictators to the people there. |
"The people had high hopes the ANC would liberate them from these confines of the homeland systems, but clearly we are the ones who are saying the land must go to traditional leaders and not the people," the Sowetan quoted Motlanthe as saying. |
The implication that Motlanthe disrespects all traditional leaders is misinformed. As the chair of the high level panel, the former president did hear first-hand information from rural citizens about the injustices they experience. |
Traditional leaders, especially in KZN, are conflating Motlanthe's concern and what the panel said about the abuse of customary authority with the proposed amendment of the Constitution to enable expropriation without compensation, in an apparent attempt to justify a fight against a government they allege is bent on di... |
In terms of the Ingonyama Trust Act, the detailed recommendations found in the 600-page high level panel report suggest that it be repealed or extensively amended to give communities control of the land they occupy. |
Parliament's portfolio committee on rural development and land reform has tried over several years to get the board of the trust to account for the R20-million it receives from the government and for its other income. While the board continues to complain that the annual grant is inadequate, its report to the committee... |
The question remains, if you have not met the targets, but money is still being spent, where is it going? |
The portfolio committee also has expressed concern about the security of tenure of rural citizens. |
The Ingonyama Trust board has been asked to explain adverts encouraging rural citizens to apply for leases on land they already own, both according to customary law and through official recognition in the form of permission-to-occupy certificates. |
Despite an order to stop issuing residential leases to people with ownership rights, the board continued to promote the conversion, causing one committee member, Mamagase Nchabeleng, to suggest that the ITB should be placed under administration. |
The public hearings in Vryheid are the first leg of the four-day hearings‚ which will take place in KwaZulu-Natal this week. |
This would allow the government to ensure that the trust is administered for the benefit of the people and not only the trustee. |
But as we have seen many times, the ANC-led government always puts the needs of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini ahead of those of rural citizens. |
The two separate issues of the problems with the Trust and the later debate about 'expropriation without compensation' have been disingenuously amalgamated into one to create confusion and fear. |
Currently, public hearings are being held to establish whether South Africans support amending the Constitution. This issue has nothing to do with the panel recommendations about legislative changes to the Ingonyama Trust Act. The panel was created to examine whether the laws established post 1994 had been effective in... |
The No. 6/7 Boston University women’s hockey team beat Northeastern University 3-2 at Walter Brown Arena Tuesday night in its first home game of the regular season. |
In their third Hockey East matchup, the Terriers (5-2, 2-1 Hockey East) began the first period strong, outshooting the Huskies (1-3-3, 0-1 Hockey East) 23-18. Despite the fact that the Terriers played most of the first period in the offensive zone, it was Northeastern that opened up the scoring on defenseman Jordan Kra... |
BU would score shortly after on a deflected slapshot during the power play off the stick of senior defenseman Shannon Doyle. The Terriers appeared on the scoreboard once again, this time on even-strength from junior forward Rebecca Russo off a pass from freshman winger Rebecca Leslie only three minutes later. |
After a mistake on the line change for the Terriers, the Huskies capitalized on their own power play from forward Kendall Coyne, tying the score 2-2 at 19:06 in the first period. |
The second period featured several chances for BU, which outshot Northeastern 36-23. BU’s penalty kill went to work two times during the second, and successfully stopped all Northeastern attempts at scoring. Finally, at the 10:54 mark of the second period, the Terriers’ first line once again linked up for another goal.... |
In the third period, the Terriers maintained their physical dominance of the game, which translated to the lack of change on the scoreboard. In the last minute of play, the Huskies pulled goaltender Chloe Desjardins, but after forward Hayley Scamurra was called for interference with 10 seconds remaining, Desjardins rem... |
BU’s freshman goaltender Erin O’Neil started in her second-straight game of the season after sophomore goaltender Victoria Hanson sustained an upper body injury over the weekend in Maine. O’Neil made a total of 37 saves and was credited with her second win of the season. |
Len MacPhee, a partner in the firm's Commercial Litigation group, focuses his practice on franchise and intellectual property litigation, as well as other types of business disputes, including corporate and shareholder disputes, contract claims and employment litigation. He frequently litigates issues relating to trade... |
A REVIEW, triggered by the Jimmy Savile scandal, has given a clean bill of health to all three Buckinghamshire hospitals over how children are protected. |
Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Wycombe Hospital and Amersham Hospital were examined after the revelations about the deceased former television star. |
A police interview with Savile recently released showed him boasting that he 'owned' Stoke Mandeville. |
But the report by the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children and Adults Boards in partnership with the Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust, indicated children and adults had been “safeguarded appropriately” across the hospitals. |
The report made 35 recommendations, the priority being for the trust’s safeguarding training strategy be revised as soon as possible. |
It looked at policy and practice within the last five years, and did not examine specific allegations made against Savile. These are being considered separately by the Department of Health. |
An additional review will be carried out next year, see that 35 recommendations have achieved their targets. |
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