TRUXTON, N.Y. (AP) ? Seven people, including children, were killed when a tractor-trailer collided with a minivan on a rural two-lane highway in upstate New York, officials said Wednesday.
The rig was headed south around 6 p.m. on Route 13 about 25 miles south of Syracuse when the trailer became disconnected and crossed the center line, hitting a minivan carrying eight people, according to Capt. Mark Helms of the Cortland County Sheriff's Department.
The force of the impact ripped the minivan apart, and both vehicles came to rest on the shoulder of the roadway.
"It was a bad accident," Helms said.
Officials have not released the identities of those killed, but all of them were passengers in the minivan. Two people in the truck were not injured, Helms said.
Officials did not say what caused the accident.
The National Weather Service in Binghamton said there were thunderstorms and steady showers ? including hail ? in the area around Truxton Wednesday evening.
Cortland County Coroner Whitney Meeker confirmed seven people died in the crash. She said there was one survivor who was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. The condition of the survivor was not immediately known.
Meeker said it will probably take the next two days to complete autopsies. She said next of kin would be notified early Thursday at the Cortland County Sheriff's office. She said children were among the deceased.
Douglas Randall, the fire commissioner for nearby Town of Cuyler, said he was directing traffic about a mile north of the crash site when he saw what he believed to be distraught family members being escorted away from the scene.
"They were all meeting down the road at a family member's house," he said. "They were all hysterical."
Lou Dobbs and the boys over at Fox News are simply beside themselves today over the news that a new PEW study shows that four out of ten American households with children have women as the sole or primary breadwinner.
It?s the devil?s work, I tell you! ?If God had intended women to work, he?d have made them men.
FOX?S LOU DOBBS: ?Something we don?t usually do, I want to turn to a study from PEW Research, a study showing that women become the breadwinners in this country, and a lot of other concerning and troubling statistics??
First off, note how it?s just presumed that women becoming breadwinners is per se ?troubling.?
Dobbs continues:
LOU DOBBS: ?But our society is being torn in so many directions right now, this stuff is really at the margin when you watch the Republicans and the Democrats, this president, his scandals, and the appropriate investigation by the Republicans. When we?re watching society dissolve around us, Juan, what do you think??
So now, an increasing number of women being the primary breadwinner in families is evidence of ?society dissolving around us.?
And who else to turn to for an opinion than a man? You?ll note the number of women on the panel:
Juan Williams thinks it?s a sign of the ?disintegration of marriage, ?something going terribly wrong in American society and it?s hurting our children.?
Well, actually, those children would be a lot worse off if mom weren?t making money. ?It?s not like the family sat there and said ?hey, dad could make more money, but let?s have mom work instead and make less!?
And of course, leave it to GOP blogger Erick Erickson to mansplain why it?s so bad having the women-folk working:
I?m so used to liberals telling conservatives that they?re anti-science. But liberals who defend this and say it is not a bad thing are very anti-science. When you look at biology, when you look at the natural world, the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it?s not antithesis, or it?s not competing, it?s a complimentary role.
Fortunately, Erickson spared us a discussion of how the big stick fits into the small hole, a discussion anti-gay neanderthals tend to love to have when explaining why ?nature? has made clear the appropriate gender roles for men and women.
But if Erickson wants to talk animals, let?s talk animals. ?I don?t know about him,, but I don?t model my life after animals. ?Call me a crazy liberal, but I like to think that one of the good things about mankind is that we?re able to do more, be more than animals (well, some of us, anyway). ?That, in principle at least, we have bigger brains, a soul (at least a more developed one, though I?d put this dog against Erickson any day), and that one of our strengths is that we can do more, and be more, than simple animals (though I love animals).
So I have to laugh when I hear Republicans talk about how human beings have gone beyond their animal role models. Yeah, ya think?
I remember learning in law school about the ?feminization of poverty.? ?The concept was that society was engineered in a way that left women holding the economic bag when things went wrong. ?Women are paid less than men, were (and perhaps still are) permitted to work in fewer fields than men), and the law was rigged against women, especially inheritance law, though that?s improved nowadays (in the way past, women couldn?t even inherit). ?At the same time, women were expected to take care of the kids, which is awfully tough when you?re divorced and can?t get a job, or an equal-paying job, as the guy you divorced ? and he doesn?t have to worry about leaving work early to get the kids because, according to the monkeys, it?s ?your job.?
Thus women were either stuck in bad marriages ? since if they left, they?d have a hard time earning equal pay ? or they left those marriages and became poor. ?So, one could argue, the fact that women are serving as primary breadwinners almost as often as men, is not necessarily a bad thing. ?It simply means society?s gender stereotypes are starting to diminish.
Now, much of the conservative horror at this data is probably based in the notion that women should stay at home and take care of the kids. ?Well, perhaps the boys should have thought about that one before they helped get that woman pregnant, rather than after. ?If they?re so worried about the parenting, let them stay at home.
Of course, note how unequal pay helps set women up for even more discrimination since it?s often likely the husband will earn more than the wife, all things being equal, so it?s one more argument for why women should stay at home with the kids, simply reinforcing the old stereotypes.
Now, it should be noted that it?s possible the increased number of female primary breadwinners is evidence of family dissolution. ?Maybe more women are having to earn the money for their families because they?re divorced. ?Yeah, and? ?It?s hardly just the women?s fault that they got divorced. ?I?m guessing the guys had a role in the marriage going bad, too. ?So are Republicans suggesting that the answer is to have men and women stay in bad marriages? ?I?m not sure how healthy that is for parents, let alone for the kids. ?Yeah, it sucks having mom and dad divorced. ?But I wonder how much it would suck having mom and dad stay married and fight every night for 20 more years. ?Not a nice thing for a kid to witness.
And finally, it?s also possible ? dare we admit it ? that maybe some men are opting to let the wife bring home the bacon while they fry it up in the pan. ?And what?s so wrong about that? ?My friend Johan in Sweden took 18 months paternity leave to take care of his newborn child, while his wife worked (gotta love Sweden). ?And? ?The locusts didn?t descent from on high (well, okay, yeah they did), and last time I checked, Johan?s kid didn?t end up with three heads.
I get that the Fox News crowd is upset that America isn?t the way it used be, treating women as?chattel?and blacks as cattle. ?But most of us are pretty happy with the way our country has turned out, warts and all.
In many ways, the financial world has changed remarkably little in the five years since the 2008 financial crisis. Yes, banks, brokers and other intermediaries are neither as profitable nor as popular as in the pre-crisis years. However, the industry is still arrogant, isolated and ridiculously lucrative. Leading financiers look more like pre-revolutionary aristocrats than normal businessmen.
Pay is the most obvious sign of this privileged social position. Consider JPMorgan, a fairly typical financial firm in terms of remuneration. Last year, the annual compensation per employee was $192,000.
That already seems high, but the measure includes the majority of employees whose pay is bunched around the $45,000 average for non-supervisory U.S. workers in finance. Assume that two-thirds of Morgan?s employees were in that group. For the rest, the people at the top and upper middle of the company, that leaves an average pretax reward of $485,000 ? more than 10 times the norm of the lower orders.
Few senior hedge fund managers, successful inter-broker dealers or other high earners in finance see themselves as seriously overpaid. They are wrong.
The rewards for financiers are excessive by three standards. First, professionals with comparable skills earn much less. Second, financiers are paid far more than is merited by their contributions to the common good. It is telling that the most richly rewarded financial activities ? trading, advanced financial engineering and sales ? are more likely to subtract than to add economic value. Finally, there is the matter of justice. Penance was in order after the industry?s foolish behaviour in the years leading up to the crisis. But instead of sackcloth and ashes, or bread and water, there are designer clothes and helicopter skiing, caviar and champagne.
The excessive pay can be interpreted as a sign of unfair or inefficient markets. It is that, but I think the deeper cause is not so much economic as sociological. Financiers have persuaded the broader society that they are modern aristocrats. Pampered lives are part of the package. They go along with an unthinking sense of entitlement and a mix of self-righteousness and self-centredness, with just a hint of condescending tolerance for limited criticism.
Of course, today?s financial aristocracy is different from traditional nobility. The contemporary titles (partner, managing director) and privileges (first-rate education, political influence) are not exactly hereditary, and long hours on the job have replaced a life of leisure. But I believe the commonalities are more significant.
Old aristocrats believed they protected social stability and dismissed radical critics as ignorant and disruptive. Similarly, most financial aristocrats are certain that the world would be much worse off without them and that their exalted position is good for everybody.
Ask an articulate trader about the social value of playing the yield curve to the detriment of clients, and the response will have the same unthinking certainty as a French count asked about the justice of the corv?e. The trader dismisses radical critics as well-intentioned but ignorant about the importance of high (and highly paid) finance.
In my view, the sociological analysis provides more insight into the industry?s condition than the more common argument about ?heads I win, tails you lose? incentives. I rarely meet financiers who would admit to being reckless or wasteful. What I observe is sublime and blind self-confidence.
Living largely with other members of their caste, they rarely have doubts. To them, more finance is always better than less and higher margins always better than lower. They welcome the development of more complicated financial products; they don?t worry much about the effect of these products on the rest of the economy.
Why has the financial aristocracy been able to hold on to so many of its privileges, despite its colossal failure in 2008? Again, look to sociology. There has been no revolution because there is no social force comparable to the rising French urban bourgeoisie, which exposed the uselessness of the old rural aristocracy, and eventually replaced them.
Right now, almost all power groups seem to be in thrall to the money men. Central bankers, who have good reason to complain, are either financiers themselves or unable to resist their pleas for special treatment. Politicians, who have even more grounds for discontent ? the majority of voters who borrow and suffer in the financiers? credit-intensive economy ? pay them court. Regulators, who should be shocked and appalled, are easily bamboozled or bought off with promises of joining the aristocracy later. Even borrowers are often grateful for their expensive loans.
Still, a revolution may come, even if the disempowered 99 percent don?t rebel. China is in a good position to play the leading role. Its trade surpluses, recycled into financial markets, help make the industry highly profitable. Whenever that money disappears, the current system could fall apart, and its leaders might finally learn something like humility.
Olivia Newton-John, who became an advocate for breast cancer research after she was diagnosed with it two decades ago and underwent a double mastectomy, has revealed that her sister Rona Newton-John (above, left) passed away last Friday (May 24) from brain cancer.
Rona was diagnosed just a few weeks ago, causing Olivia to postpone her Las Vegas show so the sisters could spend time together.
Olivia writes on Facebook:
My beautiful sister Rona sadly passed on May 24th in Los Angeles. It was May 25th in Australia - which was our mother Irene's birthday. Rona died of a very aggressive brain tumor and mercifully suffered no pain. She was surrounded by the love of her four children - Fiona, Brett,Tottie and Emerson and, her wonderful friends. I will miss her forever - my beautiful, smart, talented, funny, brave sister Rona. In lieu of flowers the family would appreciate donations to the ONJCWC where a brain tumor wellness program will be started in her name. Thank you all for your kind words of love and support. Love and light, Olivia
Newton-John also includes a link to the brain tumor wellness program, if you'd like to donate.
Photo/Video credit: Getty Images
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Is there a doctor on board? Surprisingly often, there is ? in half of in-flight medical emergencies ? and sick airline passengers almost always survive, a new study finds.
The research is the largest look yet at what happens to people who develop a medical problem on a commercial flight ? about 44,000 of the 2.75 billion passengers worldwide each year, researchers estimate.
Most cases don't require diverting a plane as the study's leader, Dr. Christian Martin-Gill, advised a pilot to do two years. He works for MD-STAT, a service at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center that advises about 20 major airlines on how to handle in-flight emergencies. Another large service is based in Phoenix.
Martin-Gill handled a call when a passenger seemed to be having a heart attack on a flight from Europe to the U.S. The man's implanted defibrillator had shocked his heart five times to try to restore normal rhythm.
"The aircraft was in the middle of its destination, flying over the Atlantic," so he recommended landing at Newfoundland off the Canadian coast to get the man to the nearest hospital, Martin-Gill said.
The federally funded study reviewed about 12,000 cases handled by the Pittsburgh center over nearly three years. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers found:
?The odds of a medical emergency are 1 per 604 flights, or 16 per 1 million passengers.
?Planes had to be diverted for emergency help in only 7 percent of cases.
?Doctors were on board and volunteered to help in 48 percent of cases; nurses and other health workers were available in another 28 percent. Only one-third of cases had to be handled by flight attendants alone.
?The most common problems: Dizziness or passing out (37 percent of cases); trouble breathing (12 percent) and nausea or vomiting (10 percent).
?About one-fourth of passengers were evaluated at a hospital after landing and 9 percent were admitted, usually with stroke, respiratory or cardiac symptoms.
?Out of nearly 12,000 cases, a defibrillator was applied 137 times, including in 24 cases of cardiac arrest, where the heart had stopped. (Sometimes defibrillators are used to analyze an irregular heart rhythm to help doctors figure out what to do, not necessarily to deliver a shock.)
?Of the cases in this study, only 36 deaths occurred, 30 of them during the flight and the others after landing.
?Pregnancy-related problems were generally rare ? 61 cases, in this study ? and two-thirds of them involved women less than 24 weeks along with possible miscarriages. Air travel is considered safe up to the 36th week, or the last month, of pregnancy. Only three cases of women in labor beyond 24 weeks of pregnancy led to a plane being diverted.
Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum, a University of Pennsylvania cardiologist, helped in a case like that in 2007, on a flight from Boston to Portland, Ore. The passenger was three months from her due date but was having contractions every minute ? something that can often be stopped with drugs and treatment at a hospital but not in midair.
"It was clear to me that labor was imminent and that we needed to land the plane," so, on her advice, the pilot diverted to upstate New York, Rosenbaum said. "It was one of the scariest experiences of my life. It's not like taking care of a patient in the hospital."
Dr. David Rogers, a pediatric surgeon at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, felt that fear five years ago when an elderly woman had trouble breathing during a flight to Atlanta from Toledo, Ohio.
Being a specialist at treating children rather than adults, "my first reaction was to look around and hope there would be somebody else" more qualified to help, he said.
Luckily, a flight attendant had already given the woman an oxygen mask and she seemed to be improving, so he felt the plane could continue to Atlanta, the woman's home. Trying to determine whether to divert a plane was a tough call, he said.
"I'm making a decision that's going to affect a plane full of people," not just the patient, Rogers said.
Some passengers may fear liability if they help in such situations, but a Good Samaritan law protects those who do so, the study notes. And although health workers are not legally obliged to help, they have a moral obligation to do so, the authors write.
And you never know what kind of help will be requested. Martin-Gill said a partner once was consulted when a dog suffered a cardiac arrest during a flight. He didn't know how things turned out.
___
Online:
Journal: http://www.nejm.org
___
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The Kings' seven-game series with the Sharks came down to another tense third period, with the home team clinging to another one-goal lead. Two teams with tiny differences were one or two mistakes away from the Western Conference finals or summertime.
Jonathan Quick hardly ever makes mistakes in the postseason, and that's the biggest reason Los Angeles' Stanley Cup title defense is still rolling.
Justin Williams scored two goals in the second period, Quick made 25 saves in his latest dominant playoff performance and the Kings advanced with a 2-1 victory over San Jose in Game 7 on Tuesday night.
Seven games over 15 days only served to underline the similarities between these Pacific Division powers, but the indomitable goalie in the Kings' net wouldn't allow the Sharks to equalize in the final minutes. The defending champs finished off this agonizingly even series with their 14th consecutive home victory over the past two months, including seven straight in the postseason.
"Jonathan Quick is just a fantastic goalie," Sharks captain Joe Thornton said.
Quick and his teammates barely held off the Sharks in the frantic final minutes after Dan Boyle's goal early in the third. Quick showed off his Conn Smythe Trophy form yet again, capped by an astonishing glove save on Joe Pavelski's chance at an open net with 5:04 left, to finish the seven-game series by allowing just 10 goals.
"We're going to play every game like this, no matter what," said Quick, who leads the league in postseason goals-against average (1.50) and save percentage (.948). "It doesn't matter how many games it takes, especially against that team. We're fortunate to move forward."
The Kings will face Chicago or Detroit when they attempt to reach the Stanley Cup finals for the third time. The Blackhawks will host the Red Wings in Game 7 on Wednesday night.
Quick couldn't do it all by himself, and he got help from a familiar big-game source: Williams scored on a power-play tap-in and a one-timer, putting the Kings on top to stay. The veteran wing came in with an eight-game goal-scoring drought, but the two-time Stanley Cup winner has scored nine points in his four career appearances in a Game 7.
"I certainly enjoy pressure situations," said Williams, whose goals came 2:57 apart. "I know everyone in this dressing room does. We pride ourselves on being a team that, push comes to shove, we're going to get it done. We've been through it before, and we know we can do it."
The home team won all seven games in the series, as did the team that scored first. The fifth-seeded Kings barely rode their home-ice advantage to victory in their first potential elimination game in the last two years.
"They were as good as us," Los Angeles coach Darryl Sutter said. "We just scored."
Antti Niemi stopped 16 shots for the Sharks, who fell just short of their third trip to the conference finals in four years. Even during a year of roster turnover and significant change, sixth-seeded San Jose remained a serious contender in its ninth straight playoff appearance.
"We thought we could come in here and steal a game," Thornton said. "We were just having so much fun. It's disappointing that it has to end, because we were really enjoying this. It's a tough way to finish."
Los Angeles has won eight straight home playoff games, dating to last season's Stanley Cup clincher, but this one might have been the toughest. San Jose pressed the action throughout the third period after Williams' back-to-back goals put the Sharks in a mid-game hole, but Quick and the Kings' defense hung on for a win in Los Angeles' first Game 7 at home since 1989.
"We had a bunch of chances in the third," Sharks forward Logan Couture said. "That's what teams do when they move on: They score on those chances they get. They did it, and we didn't."
After a scoreless first period in Game 7, featuring plenty of near-miss chances but just eight combined shots, the Sharks again came out aggressively in the second. San Jose held the Kings without a shot for nearly 19 consecutive minutes.
But the Kings finally broke through after San Jose's Brent Burns took an interference penalty near Los Angeles' net. Williams got the puck to the post and hacked at it until it slid behind Niemi for his first goal since Game 4 of the first round.
Williams, who had just two assists in the previous eight games, has been candid about his line's offensive struggles during this postseason, saying the Kings' top scorers had to get better for Los Angeles to advance. So he did it again 2:57 later, taking a cross-ice pass from Anze Kopitar and beating Niemi from short range with a one-timer.
Niemi kept the Sharks in it with two stunning saves, preventing a natural hat trick by Williams several minutes before stopping Brad Richardson's one-timer. Niemi made another enormous save during 4-on-4 play early in the third, stopping Jeff Carter on a breakaway.
Boyle ended Quick's bid for his third shutout of the series with a long shot through traffic with 14:34 to play, giving the defenseman his third goal of the postseason.
"We probably made one more mistake than they did, and we couldn't find a way to get another puck by Quick," McLellan said. "We would love to go back and play Game 2 over again, the last four or five minutes. That's probably one that we needed and didn't get."
The Sharks missed either team's best chance to win a road game 12 days earlier, giving up two power-play goals in the final minutes of a 4-3 loss in Game 2. The clubs were similarly equal in the regular season, when the Kings' 3-2 home victory over San Jose in the finale pushed fifth-seeded Los Angeles ahead of the Sharks.
That eventually led to the Kings starting a playoff series at home for the first time since 1992, but the uncanny home-ice advantage held: The home team has won 16 of these California rivals' 17 meetings in the past two seasons.
With one more postseason test, the Kings passed.
"It comes from the hunger of winning one and having that drive for another one," Williams said. "You don't want anyone else to raise the Cup but you."
NOTES: San Jose kept its lineup from Game 6, while Los Angeles replaced fourth-liner Jordan Nolan with rookie Tyler Toffoli. Hobbling Sharks F Marty Havlat missed the final four games of the series and six of seven overall, playing only 4:52 in Game 3. ... Kings C Jarret Stoll missed his sixth straight game with an apparent concussion after an illegal hit in Game 1 by Sharks F Raffi Torres, who was suspended for the rest of the series. Stoll, who has been skating outside practice lately, is Los Angeles' third-line center and a key contributor on penalty-killing and faceoffs. ... The Kings hadn't hosted a Game 7 since Wayne Gretzky had a hat trick to beat the Edmonton Oilers in 1989 at the Forum.
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Rice, Penn State labs lay groundwork for block copolymer solar cells
A new version of solar cells created by laboratories at Rice and Pennsylvania State universities could open the door to research on a new class of solar energy devices.
The photovoltaic devices created in a project led by Rice chemical engineer Rafael Verduzco and Penn State chemical engineer Enrique Gomez are based on block copolymers, self-assembling organic materials that arrange themselves into distinct layers. They easily outperform other cells with polymer compounds as active elements.
The discovery is detailed online in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.
While commercial, silicon-based solar cells turn about 20 percent of sunlight into electricity and experimental units top 25 percent, there's been an undercurrent of research into polymer-based cells that could greatly reduce the cost of solar energy, Verduzco said. The Rice/Penn State cells reach about 3 percent efficiency, but that's surprisingly better than other labs have achieved using polymer compounds.
"You need two components in a solar cell: one to carry (negative) electrons, the other to carry positive charges," Verduzco said. The imbalance between the two prompted by the input of energy sunlight creates useful current.
Since the mid-1980s, researchers have experimented with stacking or mixing polymer components with limited success, Verduzco said. Later polymer/fullerene mixtures topped 10 percent efficiency, but the fullerenes in this case, enhanced C-60 buckyballs are difficult to work with, he said.
The Rice lab discovered a block copolymer -- P3HT-b-PFTBT -- that separates into bands that are about 16 nanometers wide. More interesting to the researchers was the polymers' natural tendency to form bands perpendicular to the glass. The copolymer was created in the presence of a glass/indium tin oxide (ITO) top layer at a modest 165 degrees Celsius.
With a layer of aluminum on the other side of the device constructed by the Penn State team, the polymer bands stretched from the top to bottom electrodes and provided a clear path for electrons to flow.
"On paper, block copolymers are excellent candidates for organic solar cells, but no one has been able to get very good photovoltaic performance using block copolymers," Verduzco said. "We didn't give up on the idea of block copolymers because there's really only been a handful of these types of solar cells previously tested. We thought getting good performance using block copolymers was possible if we designed the right materials and fabricated the solar cells under the right conditions."
Mysteries remain, he said. "It's not clear why the copolymer organizes itself perpendicular to the electrodes," he said. "Our hypothesis is that both polymers want to be in contact with the ITO-coated glass. We think that forces this orientation, though we haven't proven it yet."
He said the researchers want to experiment with other block copolymers and learn to control their structures to increase the solar cell's ability to capture photons and turn them into electricity. Once they have achieved higher performance from the cells, the team will look at long-term use.
"We'll focus on performance first, because if we can't get it high enough, there's no reason to address some of the other challenges like stability," Verduzco said. Encapsulating a solar cell to keep air and water from degrading it is easy, he said, but protecting it from ultraviolet degradation over time is hard. "You have to expose it to sunlight. That you can't avoid."
###
Co-authors of the paper are Rice graduate students Yen-Hao Lin and Kendall Smith; Penn State graduate student Changhe Guo and undergraduate Matthew Witman; Argonne National Laboratory researcher Joseph Strzalka; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory postdoctoral researcher Cheng Wang and staff scientist Alexander Hexemer; and Enrique Gomez, an assistant professor in the Penn State Department of Chemical Engineering. Verduzco is an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
The National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Welch Foundation, the Shell Center for Sustainability and the Louis and Peaches Owen Family Foundation supported the research.
Read the abstract at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl401420s
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews
Researchers at Rice and Pennsylvania State universities have created solar cells based on block copolymers, self-assembling organic materials that arrange themselves into distinct layers. (Credit: Verduzco Laboratory/Rice University)
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
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Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Rice, Penn State labs lay groundwork for block copolymer solar cells
A new version of solar cells created by laboratories at Rice and Pennsylvania State universities could open the door to research on a new class of solar energy devices.
The photovoltaic devices created in a project led by Rice chemical engineer Rafael Verduzco and Penn State chemical engineer Enrique Gomez are based on block copolymers, self-assembling organic materials that arrange themselves into distinct layers. They easily outperform other cells with polymer compounds as active elements.
The discovery is detailed online in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.
While commercial, silicon-based solar cells turn about 20 percent of sunlight into electricity and experimental units top 25 percent, there's been an undercurrent of research into polymer-based cells that could greatly reduce the cost of solar energy, Verduzco said. The Rice/Penn State cells reach about 3 percent efficiency, but that's surprisingly better than other labs have achieved using polymer compounds.
"You need two components in a solar cell: one to carry (negative) electrons, the other to carry positive charges," Verduzco said. The imbalance between the two prompted by the input of energy sunlight creates useful current.
Since the mid-1980s, researchers have experimented with stacking or mixing polymer components with limited success, Verduzco said. Later polymer/fullerene mixtures topped 10 percent efficiency, but the fullerenes in this case, enhanced C-60 buckyballs are difficult to work with, he said.
The Rice lab discovered a block copolymer -- P3HT-b-PFTBT -- that separates into bands that are about 16 nanometers wide. More interesting to the researchers was the polymers' natural tendency to form bands perpendicular to the glass. The copolymer was created in the presence of a glass/indium tin oxide (ITO) top layer at a modest 165 degrees Celsius.
With a layer of aluminum on the other side of the device constructed by the Penn State team, the polymer bands stretched from the top to bottom electrodes and provided a clear path for electrons to flow.
"On paper, block copolymers are excellent candidates for organic solar cells, but no one has been able to get very good photovoltaic performance using block copolymers," Verduzco said. "We didn't give up on the idea of block copolymers because there's really only been a handful of these types of solar cells previously tested. We thought getting good performance using block copolymers was possible if we designed the right materials and fabricated the solar cells under the right conditions."
Mysteries remain, he said. "It's not clear why the copolymer organizes itself perpendicular to the electrodes," he said. "Our hypothesis is that both polymers want to be in contact with the ITO-coated glass. We think that forces this orientation, though we haven't proven it yet."
He said the researchers want to experiment with other block copolymers and learn to control their structures to increase the solar cell's ability to capture photons and turn them into electricity. Once they have achieved higher performance from the cells, the team will look at long-term use.
"We'll focus on performance first, because if we can't get it high enough, there's no reason to address some of the other challenges like stability," Verduzco said. Encapsulating a solar cell to keep air and water from degrading it is easy, he said, but protecting it from ultraviolet degradation over time is hard. "You have to expose it to sunlight. That you can't avoid."
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Co-authors of the paper are Rice graduate students Yen-Hao Lin and Kendall Smith; Penn State graduate student Changhe Guo and undergraduate Matthew Witman; Argonne National Laboratory researcher Joseph Strzalka; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory postdoctoral researcher Cheng Wang and staff scientist Alexander Hexemer; and Enrique Gomez, an assistant professor in the Penn State Department of Chemical Engineering. Verduzco is an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
The National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Welch Foundation, the Shell Center for Sustainability and the Louis and Peaches Owen Family Foundation supported the research.
Read the abstract at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl401420s
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews
Researchers at Rice and Pennsylvania State universities have created solar cells based on block copolymers, self-assembling organic materials that arrange themselves into distinct layers. (Credit: Verduzco Laboratory/Rice University)
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
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NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) ? Coroner's officials say five people killed in a fiery California crash that split a car in half were teenage high school students, including two sisters.
Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said Tuesday the teens were students in the Irvine Unified School District.
The names of the three girls and two boys were released a day after they were killed in the single-car accident in Newport Beach.
The driver was identified as 17-year-old Abdulrahman Alyahyan, a senior at University High School.
The passengers included 17-year-old Robin Cabrera, a senior at Irvine High School, and her 16-year-old sister Aurora, a sophomore at the same school. Also killed were Cecilia Zamora and Nozad Al Hamawendi, both 17-year-old juniors at Irvine High School.
NEW YORK (AP) ? The Rangers fired combative coach John Tortorella on Wednesday, four days after New York was eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Tortorella was unexpectedly dismissed with one-year left on his contract. He led the Rangers to the Eastern Conference finals last year and into the second round this year before New York was eliminated in five games by the Boston Bruins.
The fiery Tortorella, who was hired to replace Tom Renney in February 2009, achieved some success with the Rangers but couldn't match the Stanley Cup title he earned in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
A conference call with Rangers general manager Glen Sather was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. It wasn't immediately known if a coaching replacement would be named.
Last season, Tortorella led the Rangers to 51 wins ? the second-most in franchise history ? and 109 points before they were beaten in six games by New Jersey in the conference finals.
The 54-year-old Tortorella got the Rangers back into the playoffs in this lockout-shortened season, and New York outlasted Washington in seven games in the first round of the playoffs before being knocked out by Boston.
Tortorella made curious comments on Monday when the Rangers packed up for the season, which could have led to his ouster. In his final meeting with reporters, Tortorella said his club wasn't emotionally ready to take on Boston after getting past Washington with back-to-back shutout wins when it faced elimination.
"One of the things, and it falls on my shoulders, is our team's mindset going into another round," Tortorella said. "I don't think our mindset was ready to play another series and to the level you need to be at. It didn't have a playoff atmosphere.
"That's what I struggle with right now. I didn't do a good enough job in correcting and getting their mindset back to not only play at the level of a Game 7 in the first round but get ready for round 2, which is always going to be tougher."
Even though the Rangers were knocked out of the playoffs one round earlier this year than last, Tortorella was defiant in expressing that he didn't believe the team regressed in its progression.
"I know the surrounding feeling here is that it was a negative season, a disappointing season. I don't buy it and I won't," Tortorella said. "There are some good things that happened. I don't think we took a step backward. I think this is a sideways step in our lineup and how things worked out.
"We played really well our last couple of months to get in, found a way to win a big series against Washington, and against Boston I thought we competed right to the end."
However, star goalie Henrik Lundqvist disagreed with that assessment. The opinion of Lundqvist, who is entering the final year of his contract before he can become an unrestricted free agent, likely registered with Sather.
"It is a step back," Lundqvist said. "We were in the conference finals last year, we had high expectations on ourselves this year. It didn't go our way, so yeah it is a step back. It's tough to make it there, though. You can't just expect it to happen."
BRUSSELS (AP) ? Fears grew of a foreign-fed arms race in Syria on Tuesday as European Union countries decided they could provide weapons to the rebels and Russia disclosed that it has signed a contract to provide Syria with sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles.
Either development would significantly raise the firepower in the two-year civil war has already killed more than 70,000 people and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing the country, just as the key countries prepare for a major peace conference in Geneva that had been described as the best chance yet to end the bloodshed.
Russian officials criticized the EU decision Monday night to allow their arms embargo against Syria to expire, freeing its member countries to provide weapons for the outgunned rebels. Russia, which has been a strong supporter of the Syrian government, said the British- and French-driven decision undermined peace efforts.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday that Russia has signed a contract with the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad to provide it with state-of-the-art S-300 air defense missiles, which he said were important to prevent foreign intervention in the country. Ryabkov would not say whether Russia has shipped any of the missiles to Syria yet.
Ryabkov said Russia understands the concerns about providing such weapons to Syria, but believes that may "help restrain some hot-heads considering a scenario to give an international dimension to this conflict."
EU diplomats have said Britain and France are considering providing equipment to the rebels, and Syrian neighbors Turkey and Lebanon risk being drawn into the conflict.
Ryabkov called the EU move to end its arms embargo "a manifestation of double standards" that will hurt the prospects for the Geneva talks, which are expected to happen in June.
In Damascus, a Syrian lawmaker on Tuesday also criticized the EU decision, saying that efforts to arm the rebels will discourage the opposition from seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict. The comments by Essam Khalil, a member of the parliament for the ruling Baath Party, were the first by a Syrian official.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, made an unannounced visit to rebel forces in Syria, putting more pressure on Assad to seek a negotiated settlement.
(Reuters) - Tiffany & Co on Tuesday reported higher-than-expected sales for the first quarter that included Valentine's Day, helped by gains in all regions and promotions around the jeweler's 175th anniversary and "The Great Gatsby' movie tie-in.
Overall revenue rose 9.3 percent to $895.4 million, handily beating Wall Street expectations for $855.1 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Profit also topped estimates.
Comparable-store sales, excluding stores opened in the last year, rose 8 percent, a marked improvement over the holiday-season quarter, when sales were flat and concerns mounted that anxious shoppers were cutting spending on jewelry.
Last year, Tiffany's results were hurt by signs of a slowdown in China and disappointing sales of its silver jewelry, which attracts more price-sensitive customers but generates more than 25 percent of the high-end retailer's sales.
Tiffany's quarterly results echoed those of Saks Inc and Coach Inc in the United States, and Burberry Group Plc and Italian fashion house Giorgio Armani, and further indicated luxury sales were regaining momentum.
In China, where Tiffany is pushing expansion, sales growth bolstered a 14 percent gain for the Asia business. In Japan, Tiffany's second biggest market, sales rose 2 percent, and would have been up 20 percent, if not for the impact of yen's depreciation.
In the Americas, sales advanced 6 percent, helped in part by much brisker business at its Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, where sales fell last year. The store generates about one-twelfth of companywide revenue.
Tiffany also designed jewelry for the Hollywood hit "The Great Gatsby," a tie-in the attracted a lot of attention.
Still, the jeweler kept to its earlier profit forecast, pointing to lingering softness in the Americas and the impact of yen's depreciation.
Tiffany expects annual profit at $3.43 to $3.53 per share.
For the quarter ended April 30, New York-based Tiffany's earnings rose to $83.6 million, or 65 cents per share, from $81.5 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding costs associated with a move to new offices last year, Tiffany earned 70 cents a share, while Wall Street expected 52 cents.
Shares were up 5 percent to $80 in light premarket trading.
(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
As our debut Insert Coin project, the Olloclip will always be near and dear to our hearts, but the handy three-in-one iPhone lens is not without its niggles -- like significant distortion produced by the the wide-angle and fish-eye attachments, for one. Luckily, Olloclip now has a remedy for that in the form of an iPhone camera app that'll correct or enhance such aberrations, depending on which way you want to take your artistry. You'll also get video and macro modes, spot focus and exposure adjustments and a photo library -- all the better to stay footloose and DSLR-free on the road. You can grab it for free at the source.
Just a year after Tim Cook sat down for his first non-financial interview as CEO of Apple, the man himself is back for yet another round. He'll be seated in Rancho Palos Verdes, California tomorrow evening at the D11 conference, taking questions from hosts Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, and we'll be liveblogging every moment of it. The interview is taking place with under a fortnight to go until Apple's WWDC, where we're expecting to see details on iOS 7, the Mac lineup and perhaps a glimpse at whatever the company is (presumably) cooking up in the wearables department. The action begins at 6PM PT (9PM ET) tomorrow, so feel free to bookmark this link and return at the time listed below.
A robot distributes promotional literature calling for a ban on fully autonomous weapons in Parliament Square on April 23, 2013, in London. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is calling for a pre-emptive ban on lethal robot weapons that could attack targets without human intervention.
Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Artificial intelligence expert Mark Bishop says a ban on weapons that can deploy and destroy without human intervention is vital. He is a professor of cognitive computing at Goldsmiths, University of London, and chairs the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behavior.
Simon Makin: What is the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots? Mark Bishop: It is a confederation of non-governmental organizations and pressure groups lobbying for a ban on producing and deploying fully autonomous weapon systems, where the ability of a human to both choose the precise target and intervene in the final decision to attack is removed.
SM: How close are we to this? MB: Examples already exist. Some, such as the Phalanx gun system, used on the majority of U.S. Navy ships to detect and automatically engage incoming threats, have been around for some time. Another is the Israeli Harpy "fire-and-forget" unmanned aerial vehicle, which will seek out and destroy radar installations.
SM: What's driving the technology's development? MB: Current Western military strategy focuses more on drones than on traditional forces, but remote-controlled drones are vulnerable to hijacking. Fully autonomous systems are virtually immune to this. They also lower costs. This means manufacturers sell more, so there is a commercial imperative to develop autonomous systems and for governments to deploy them.
SM: What are the dangers? MB: There are reasons to doubt whether autonomous systems can appropriately judge the need to engage, react to threats proportionately, or reliably discriminate between combatants and civilians. Also, when you get complex software systems interacting, there is huge potential for unforeseen consequences. A vivid example was seen on Amazon in 2011 when pricing bots raised the cost of a book, The Making of a Fly, to more than $23 million.
SM: So, you are worried about escalation? MB: Yes. In South Korea scientists are developing a robot to patrol the border with North Korea. If this was deployed and incorrectly or disproportionately engaged, it is easy to imagine a minor border incursion escalating into a serious confrontation. Even more frighteningly, in 1983, during the U.S. military exercise Able Archer, Russian automatic defense systems falsely detected an incoming missile, and it was only a Russian colonel's intervention that averted nuclear war. But the potential for escalation gets particularly scary when you have autonomous systems interacting with other autonomous systems.
SM: Couldn't robots reduce risk to humans? MB: There is a case, put forward by people such as U.S. roboticist Ronald Arkin, that robots might make more dispassionate assessments than grieving or revenge-seeking soldiers. Not only does this not address the problem of escalation, it also only holds water if systems can reliably decide when to engage, judge proportionality, and accurately discriminate targets.
SM: So what should we do? MB: The technology behind autonomous systems has other uses, such as the Google car driving system, so banning development would be difficult. Instead, we must focus on a global treaty banning deployment of autonomous weapons.
This article originally appeared in New Scientist.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Angel Pagan was thinking triple out of the box. Once he rounded second and saw third base coach Tim Flannery waving him home, he shifted into another gear.
Pagan became the first San Francisco player to end a game with an inside-the-park homer, connecting with a runner aboard in the bottom of the 10th inning Saturday to give the Giants a thrilling 6-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
"I know two things: I'm going to score and Flannery is going to score with me," Pagan said. "He's amazing. I'll be honest with you, I was running out of gas a little bit around third. He helped me to get there."
Troy Tulowitzki homered leading off the 10th to put the Rockies ahead 5-4, but Colorado closer Rafael Betancourt (1-2) walked Brandon Crawford to open the bottom half.
Guillermo Quiroz sacrificed before Pagan sent a long drive that hit the base of the oddly angled wall in right-center and bounced high over the head of right fielder Michael Cuddyer. The ball caromed away from Cuddyer as the speedy Pagan raced around the bases and slid home ahead of the relay.
"I was thinking at least three. I was watching the ball and it didn't bounce too far from him," Pagan said. "I'm thinking three but looking at the coach. He gives me the OK and I'm going for it."
The last major leaguer to hit an inside-the-park home run that ended a game was Rey Sanchez for Tampa Bay on June 11, 2004 ? also in a 10-inning victory over Colorado, according to STATS.
The previous Giants player to do it was Hall of Famer Bill Terry on Aug. 24, 1931, when the club was in New York. His drive beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1, STATS said.
"I thought it was going over the fence," said Pagan's teammate, Hunter Pence. "Inside the park is the last thing you think of. All we could do is watch him run and hope he was safe."
It was Betancourt's first blown save in 11 chances this season.
Carlos Gonzalez homered among his three hits and drove in two runs for the Rockies. Cuddyer and Jordan Pacheco also drove in runs.
Buster Posey had three hits and scored twice for the Giants, who ended a four-game slide against the Rockies. Pence, Andres Torres and Marco Scutaro each drove in runs. Crawford and Pablo Sandoval had two hits apiece.
"That would have been a tough one to lose," San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. "That was an emotional roller-coaster ride. We had a couple of critical calls go against us, but it's all about bouncing back and these guys found a way."
Bochy watched the game-winning hit from his office. He had been ejected in the eighth inning.
"I've never seen that before," Bochy said. "I wish I could have been out there."
Giants closer Sergio Romo (3-2) gave up Tulowitzki's 10th homer.
"To go up and then lose the game is tough," Tulowitzki said. "But then we know the Giants play well in front of their fans and feel like they can win these kinds of games."
Rockies starter Juan Nicasio went five-plus innings, allowing two runs and seven hits. He walked one and struck out two.
Barry Zito lasted six innings, giving up four runs and seven hits. He walked one and struck out three.
Bochy was ejected in the bottom of the eighth by plate umpire Alfonso Marquez for arguing a call at third base after Scutaro appeared to dodge Nolan Arenado's tag on a throw from the outfield.
Marquez called Brandon Belt out at home on a close play in the seventh.
Pence's RBI double in the sixth ended San Francisco's 24-inning scoreless streak against Colorado pitching. Crawford's sacrifice fly and Scutaro's bases-loaded walk brought the Giants within 4-3.
Torres tied the game with a double in the seventh.
Dexter Fowler opened the game with a double and, one out later, Gonzalez hit the first pitch into McCovey Cove beyond the right-field wall.
The Rockies added a pair of runs in the fourth on consecutive doubles from Tulowitzki and Cuddyer, and a one-out single by Pacheco.
"It was a well-played game," Colorado manager Walt Weiss said. "The walks hurt us. You don't think about it when the ball comes off the bat, but with the configurations of the park, it can bounce anywhere."
Cuddyer has three hits ? all for extra bases ? and four RBIs in his two games back from the disabled list.
The Giants loaded the bases in the first inning but failed to score. Nicasio retired 13 of his next 16 hitters, twice stranding runners in scoring position.
NOTES: Gonzalez became the first Rockies player to have a "splash hit" into McCovey Cove. It was the 27th splash hit by an opponent and the 90th overall since the ballpark opened in 2000. ... The Giants played their major league-leading ninth extra-inning game. ... Centerplate, Inc. concession workers went on a one-day strike, picketing in front of the ballpark. Concessions were staffed by management and others. ... Bochy said a decision on Tuesday's starter, to replace injured RHP Ryan Vogelsong, will be made by Sunday. ... Rockies RHP Jon Garland (3-5, 5.19 ERA) pitches Sunday's series finale. He last faced the Giants on Sept. 9, 2010. ... Tulowitzki extended his hitting streak to 10 games. ... RHP Matt Cain (3-2, 5.12) starts Sunday for the Giants. He will be facing the Rockies for the 30th time.
Lightweight Donald Cerrone got back on the winning track with a dominating decision over K.J. Noons at UFC 160. Plenty of blood was spilled during the bout. Though Noons took the most damage in the bout, Cerrone didn't escape unscathed. He showed off his wounds on Instagram after the bout, saying. "Sometimes you get cool scars to show people!"
Yep, those cuts and bruises should bring about some pretty cool scars.
Posted by editor on May 24, 2013 ? Leave a Comment?
Special event promotes kids? health ? en anglais et fran?ais
The city?s Francophone school, L??cole des Glaciers, is inviting all members of the community to a special event on Wednesday, May 29, in the Arrow Heights Elementary School gymnasium at 6 pm.
(1950 Park Drive) at 6 pm.
?That?s when La Grande Travers?e group of cyclists will make a bilingual presentation about their national campaign to promote student health,? says Chantale Desmarais told The Current.
?Come and join us!?
The presentation will be bilingual.
?I was the Vice Principal and Coordinator of the International Baccalaureate program at both Rose-des-Vents Elementary School, and Jules-Verne, a new secondary school within the Francophone School Board (CSF) of British Columbia,? Grande Travers?e founder Laurent Brisebois said on the group?s website.
?I found myself fortunate to be able to work in schools with such great students and parents. However, I soon found there was still something missing. It was at that time I made it my goal to promote and implement the following: improve student health and fitness by teaching and promoting healthy habits, as well as to motivate students to get involved in the development of their francophone school environment and cultural enrichment.?
Click here to learn more ? in French and English!
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Blues caravan concert is cancelled
For reasons beyond her control, Performing Arts Centre Manager Miriam Manley says Saturday night?s Blues Caravan concert has been cancelled.
?For people with tickets they can take them to ArtFirst! for a full refund, or hang on to their tickets and exchange them for one of our concerts next season,? she said in an e-mail to The Current.
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Columbia Basin Trust keen to hear your views
What are the challenges in your region? How can these challenges be addressed? CBT wants to hear what you feel are the key social, economic and environmental issues in your region, and invites you to have your say at www.cbt.org/engagement2013 by June 3.
?Over the coming months, CBT is renewing its social, economic and environmental strategic plans,? CBT President ande CEO Neil Muth said in a statement. ?We invite everyone to share their thoughts and ideas to ensure we are considering a wide variety of opinions as we, and others, plan for the years to come.?
This engagement has two steps. First, residents will have an opportunity to respond to six open-ended questions. Next, in a few weeks, participants will be asked to review thoughts and ideas from other residents and assign ?stars? to the ideas they like best. Participant information remains confidential. Finally, CBT will share a final report with all participants.
CBT will be piloting an online engagement tool called THOUGHTstream. An evolution of the typical survey, this tool allows people to contribute individual thoughts on an issue and then arrive at a shared understanding by collectively prioritizing those thoughts.
?This online tool is as easy to use as email, making it accessible to a majority of Basin residents, which means broad public engagement can be done meaningfully and cost-effectively,? Muth said. ?This is an opportunity to nurture mutual understanding?for us to learn from residents and for residents to learn from each other.?
To have your say, visit www.cbt.org/engagement2013. Input is welcome until Sunday, June 3, 2013.
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BC Hydro to provide info about its dams and reservoir water levels?
BC Hydro is hosting an open house to provide information about the operation of its Columbia facilities, in particular Revelstoke and Hugh Keenleyside dams as well as about the expected Arrow Lakes, Revelstoke and Kinbasket reservoirs? water levels during the summer of 2013.
Information will also be available about its capital projects and Columbia River Water Use Plan programs and projects in the area.
The open house is to be held this Monday, May 27, at the Community Centre from 4 until 7 pm.
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Court House roof to be repaired this summer
City Council has awarded a contract to repair the leaky court house roof to a company called Mid-City which had the lowest bid ? $200,245.00 + GST ? for this project.
Two other companies, Flynn Canada and Objective, had bids of $298,651.00 + GST and $298,178.00 + GST, respectively.
Copper was the preferred option for the roof dome repair when Council originally discussed it last year. However, due to budget constraints the Kemper cold process, liquid applied waterproofing membrane was selected. The color cool mint was selected which resembles the copper patina. Warranty on the Kemper product is 20 years, with a life expectancy of 35 + years.
The repairs are expected to be completed by June 15.
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Council approves the 2013 City budget
City Council has approved the 2013 City Budget. All Councillors except Tony Scarcella approved the document.
The budget foresees expenditures of about $20.8 million and revenues of about $22 million.
Click here to read the full budget.
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No room at the inn for the Theatre Company
A request by the Revelstoke Theatre Company that it be permitted to store backdrops, props and other materials at the Centure-Vallens Building has been turned down by City Council.
A report to Council said the building is the largest and most central storage space the City has for storage by the Parks Department, Aquatic Centre, and
The City has received a number of requests over the years by groups to use this storage area and Public Works even budgeted for a new storage building when the old Centennial Pool building was demolished a few years ago. However, that budget item was rejected by Council. The cost of building a new storage building for the City would cost between $75,000 and $100,000, the report said.
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Report explores threats to our drinking water
Residents Robin Brooks-Hill and Virginia Thompson talk with the Columbia Basin Trust?s Jeff Zukiwsky (left), Revelstoke Environmental Coordinator Penny Page-Brittin (left center) and Patti Amison of Golder Associates (right) about the recent Greeley Creek Source Protection Plan, during an open house last week. David F. Rooney photo
?Click here to read the full report on potential threats to our drinking water and ways to beat them.
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?New to Canada? Don?t know where to turn for child care? This workshop can help!
Revelstoke Settlement Services is holding a workshop intended to introduce immigrants to the wide range of child-care services available in Revelstoke.?The workshop is to be held on Thursday, May 10, from 10 am until 11 am at Begbie View Elementary School located at 1001 MacKenzie Avenue.
This is a free workshop and childcare will be provided with very young children. Juice and cookies will be provided after the workshop.
Olivia Newton-John, who became an advocate for breast cancer research after she was diagnosed with it two decades ago and underwent a double mastectomy, has revealed that her sister Rona Newton-John (above, left) passed away last Friday (May 24) from brain cancer. ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-May-2013
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A robot distributes promotional literature calling for a ban on fully autonomous weapons in Parliament Square on April 23, 2013, in London. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is calling for a pre-emptive ban on lethal robot weapons that could attack targets without human intervention. 
