Missing the Real Story About the Port Authority Easter Traffic Jam Response

Much is being made in the Star Ledger and the Staten Island Advance about the Port Authority's failure to provide sufficient cash lanes for traffic entering Staten Island during the Easter weekend. The traffic jams meant some people waited hours to go over the Outerbridge Crossing or the Goethals Bridge and the Port Authority held public hearings for people to vent their complaints about the problem.

Port Authority Chairman Christopher Ward was contrite in how the Port Authority will handle the situation going forward, and while commuters were calling for his head and the firing of those responsible for not having sufficient toll collectors on hand, Ward's response is instructive:

"Without a doubt, it was a management failure and I take full responsibility for it," Ward told angry commissioners during a morning meeting of the Port Authority’s operations committee.

Later in the day, addressing reporters after the full board’s regular monthly meeting, Ward apologized to the public, acknowledging Sunday’s traffic nightmare was not up to the Port Authority’s usual performance standards.

Ward said the agency plans to fill eight vacant toll collector positions. In addition, he said, agency managers will be given the authority to open E-ZPass lanes to all traffic. To minimize revenue losses, the agency would use cameras already in place to photograph license plates of non-E-ZPass users and then mail them a bill for the toll, Ward said.

"We consider this unacceptable," Port Authority Chairman David Samson said of Sunday’s problem. "We’ve got Mother’s Day coming up. We’ve got Memorial Day coming up. We’ve got the 4th of July. It’s unthinkable that we would have these problems."

Cedric Fulton, the agency’s director of bridges, tunnels and terminals, said the normal contingent of toll collectors for the three Staten Island crossings — the Outerbridge Crossing and Bayonne and Goethals bridges, is 39. But because of the vacancies, there are now 31 collectors, just four above the normal weekend staffing level of 27, Fulton said.

Read that part in bold again.

That's a program that would eliminate the need for toll collectors altogether, not just during peak time periods. If that program were instituted, it could eliminate the need for the toll barriers at those Port Authority bridges and tunnels - and eliminate the traffic jams created when commuters cross the bridges. Eliminating the toll barriers completely would smooth traffic flow and reduce congestion, emissions from idling vehicles, and improve air quality.

The switchover to the system that Ward proposes cannot come soon enough, and should be vastly expanded to include all the Port Authority bridges and tunnels - precisely because it eliminates the need for toll barriers that are a regular source of congestion and air pollution.

EZ Pass violators are already ticketed and fined with a camera system (that works to some extent). Ward's proposal expands on this system, but doesn't go nearly far enough. The Port Authority needs to move in the direction of the MTA, which is converting to a cashless toll collection system on the Henry Hudson Bridge linking Manhattan with the Bronx.

Syrian Government Continues Crackdown As Military Split Revealed?

Bashar Assad's regime continues its violent crackdown against any and all demonstrations against the regime, and there are now reports that military units are breaking with the regime by refusing to fire on their fellow citizens. Those military units have then come under fire from other military units, and the break occurred in the town of Daraa, where the opposition is centered:

On Monday morning, about 3,000 soldiers along with tanks from the 4th Division shot their way into the border town of Deraa. Eyewitnesses claim at least 20 citizens were killed, and a disturbing online video purports to show the bloody results of troops firing into an unarmed crowd. The toll was likely far higher.

A Syrian human rights group claims more than 400 civilians have been killed since protests began. In a particularly morbid cycle, many of those killed have been marching in funeral processions for other protesters previously shot by security forces. Just as has happened in Libya, a benighted dictator is using his iron-fisted security apparatus to stay in power no matter what.

The slaughter in Deraa highlights another dynamic as stories surface of Syrian officers and soldiers refusing to fire on their countrymen or actually defecting to the side of the protesters. A protester told Al Arabiya television that 15 soldiers, including five officers, refused orders to shoot. "They have quit their positions because they found us unarmed," said the protester. An online video shows uniformed troops actually leading a protest.

There are further reports that high-level military officers, including Major Gen. Kamal al Ayash, deputy commander of the First Division, have "defected," apparently because of the bloodshed in Daraa. Even before this, there have been other indications of deep schisms in the Syrian military. Evidently, some soldiers have been shot for refusing their orders, indicating that the regime's grip on the mechanisms of power may be slipping. Over the past two weeks, two colonels and a general have been killed by what state-run news claims are "armed criminal gangs." Oppositionists, however, claim they were executed by Syrian intelligence for their supposed sympathy with the protesters. Finally, there are fragmentary reports of troops firing at each other.

Human rights groups claim that more than 450 people have been killed in the violence, mostly demonstrators who are opposed to Assad's brutal regime. The UN can't come to an agreement on how to deal with the ongoing situation, despite the similarities to the situation in Libya:



The ongoing violence is causing a refugee crisis as hundreds of families are fleeing Syria to the relative safety of Lebanon.

If the reports that Syrian troops are refusing to fire on protesters, this could be the break that protesters need. It was after Tunisian and Egyptian soldiers refused to fire on protesters to disperse crowds gathered to oppose the leaders of those respective countries that those regimes began the slide into collapse and exile. Assad has a tenuous hold on the situation, and if support for his regime falters in the military, it isn't a leap from being an autocrat to being deposed in a coup to restore calm.

Lest Bashar forget, his own father rose to power as a result of two separate coups that propelled the Ba'athists to power, and then to secure power for himself. Hafez Assad had no problem using deadly force to eliminate threats, and Bashar is attempting to follow that playbook (Hama rules) and finding that it may not work nearly as well as it did 30 years ago.

UPDATE:
There is quite a bit of confusion and a lack of hard information about what exactly is going on in places like Daraa or Damascus. Apparently the 4th Division (Armored), which is under command of Assad's brother is spearheading the crackdown on Daraa (reminiscent of the Hama assault by Assad's father nearly 30 years ago). The majority of the casualties are centered on that ongoing attack on a civilian population.

There may be other units involved, and it is possible that some of these other units may be refusing to fire on the citizens of the city or small units from the 4th are refusing to fire, but no way to tell. Voice of America reports that the 5th Division is also involved, but that it is those units that are refusing to go along with the crackdown and have come under fire from the 4th Division.

The bloody crackdown is even getting countries that are traditionally silent over such matters to raise their voices in concern.

Even Syria's former allies Turkey and Iran appear to be growing uncomfortable with the crackdown. Istanbul, Turkey, has hosted a series of high-profile meetings among the Syrian opposition, and a group of prominent poets and writers from around the region Thursday issued a statement from there condemning the "massacres committed by the Syrian regime against the unarmed civilians."

In another sign that it is less than pleased with its neighbor, Turkey also sent a delegation headed by National Intelligence Agency Undersecretary Hakan Fidan and State Planning Organization Undersecretary Kemal Madenoglu to Damascus, the Syrian capital, Thursday to discuss the "recent incidents," Turkey's semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkey and Syria maintain healthy trade and diplomatic relations and sending security and trade officials could be seen as a veiled warning to Syria.

People Need a Fairy Tale Wedding

With all the woe, misery, death, and devastation that come into our living rooms on a nightly basis, is it any wonder that the media has latched on to the wedding of Kate and Prince William as the event of the century?

If the pomp and circumstance of a proper British royal wedding doesn't do it, then nothing will get your mind off the fact that there are real serious issues going on in the Middle East or that the economy is a foundering mess in the US, and that the Japanese are years away from recovering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

What I find bothering is that the media has dictated that the story take precedence over the ongoing search for victims from the tornado outbreak in the south or the Syrian uprising against the ruthless autocrat Bashar Assad.

At least the wedding has pushed Donald Trump's inane ramblings off the above the fold. We should be thankful for that at least.

If you've got royal wedding fatigue, then here's the cure - courtesy of Monty Python:

IAEA Acknowledges That Syria Attempted To Build Nuclear Reactor

For the first time, the IAEA has unequivocally stated that Syria was in the process of building a covert nuclear reactor at a site destroyed in a presumed Israeli airstrike in September of 2007.

By aligning the IAEA with the United States, which first asserted three years ago that the bombed target was a nuclear reactor, the comments will increase pressure on Syria to stop stonewalling agency requests for more information on its nuclear activities.

Amano spoke during a news conference meant to focus on the Fukushima nuclear disaster after a visit to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to discuss clean-up efforts at Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant.

"The facility that was ... destroyed by Israel was a nuclear reactor under construction," he asked in response to a question from The Associated Press, repeating to the AP afterward: "It was a reactor under construction."

Previous IAEA language has been more circumspect. In a February report, Amano had said only that features of the bombed structure were "similar to what may be found at nuclear reactor sites."

Israel has never publicly commented on the strike or even acknowledged carrying it out. The U.S. has shared intelligence with the agency that identifies the structure as a nearly completed nuclear reactor that, if finished, would have been able to produce plutonium for the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

In 2008, the Bush administration released images of the site that had been taken prior to the Sept. 6, 2007 strike [ed: added link to Time's publication of those images]. The New York Times reported at the time that the undated photos, taken inside the reactor, showed the rods responsible for controlling heat inside a nuclear reactor. The report said the engineering was similar to that of a North Korean site, and that one of the images showed the manager of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear plant at the location with Syria's top nuclear official.

The timing of this news may be an attempt to increase pressure on the Syrian regime, but I doubt that it will do much to stop Assad from cracking down on dissidents within the country.

Syria was caught with its hands in the proverbial nuclear cookie jar and couldn't open the site up for inspection at the time of the attack because it would have revealed the extent of the Syrian nuclear program. That's why the Syrians didn't play up the airstrike in the international media or even in domestic agitation towards Israel because it would have resulted in even stronger sanctions by the UN, IAEA, and the US.



So, while the Syrians admitted that the airstrike damaged some portion of Syria's nuclear infrastructure, they weren't about to let on just how badly damaged their nuclear program was as a result of the airstrike.

The regime's stonewalling of the IAEA and UN to investigate the site meant that the Syrians could scrub the site of useful information and delaying access meant that the IAEA couldn't view the scene as it was when the airstrike took place. Yet, the IAEA was still able to conclude that the Syrians were working on a clandestine nuclear reactor when Israel blew it up before it could become operational.

Death Toll Rises As South Picks Up Pieces From Massive Tornado Outbreak

The death toll from a massive tornado outbreak across the Southern United States is expected to continue climbing above 200 as residents pick up the pieces from 137 tornadoes that were reported around the region, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi.

The death toll is quite high despite incessant tornado emergency warnings and that emergency officials called for school and business closures to keep people in relative safety. The problem was that some of the storms were so severe that structures were completely obliterated.

Storms mangled communities from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham to Hunstville Alabama. Emergency personnel will have a difficult time given that power is out to wide swaths of area and that the damage has made it difficult to get into some areas to check for survivors and victims of the storms.

The storms were captured on video and the deadly beauty of these storms are all too apparent:



Power remains out in many parts of the region, and there are concerns over a nuclear power plant that is operating on backup systems. The reactor at Browns Ferry is expected to remain offline for several weeks as transmission lines are restored.

April 2011 is shaping up to be one for the record books. It's setting all kinds of records for severe storms and has set the record for most tornadoes for the month of April (or since 1954 according to the Washington Post).

It's also all too apparent that yesterday's outbreak could go down as one of the deadliest and largest outbreaks in history. That follows the April 16 outbreak that was the largest in North Carolina history.

Today, the storms have shifted to the east, so that Georgia, the Carolinas, and the Middle Atlantic states could be in for a rough time. Already, a handful of tornado warnings have been posted for Tallahassee, FL, Washington DC, and State College, PA areas even as much of the East Coast is under severe storm watches and warnings.

Investigators will comb through the damage paths to determine just how many storms produced tornadoes and the relative strengths of the storms.

UPDATE:
This video shows at least one tornado crossing through the Mississippi countryside tearing up trees and homes and downing power lines. The driver of the car is actually driving directly towards the tornado as the storm crosses within a mile of the car:



More video can be seen here. Video of the tornado slamming into Tuscaloosa can be seen here.

NY Times Jumps On Solar Panel Eyesore Bandwagon

New Jersey papers like the Record and Star Ledger have been full of complaints about PSE&G's nearly $1 billion project to put solar panels on its power transmission poles in the largest distributed power generation project in the US. Each of the panels would generate 200 watts of power, and together the 200,000 panels would generate 40 megawatts of power. Now, the New York Times weighs in with its own piece about the project.

That's power that doesn't have to come from coal fired or gas burning power plants. It means that on high usage days, those coal and gas plants don't have to kick in to provide peak power. Instead, these panels are providing a steady stream of power into the grid on the days when power is most in demand.

Yet, all too many people are latching on to the fact that the panels are somehow ugly.

Sorry, but they are no more ugly than the transmission poles that deliver the power, and are far less ugly than the endless stream of particulates and emissions from power plants, or the unending stream of coal shipments by rail or barge to power plants.

It may be a harsh realization that these are new panels and installations, but they are going to settle into the background. In reality, this is little more than a rehash of longstanding NIMBY arguments that prevent an honest assessment of power generation and distribution in the US. In other words, these same people claim that they're all for solar power, except when it's in their own backyard so that it would be better if it was located somewhere else.

As for claims that they will somehow unduly influence real estate values, at a time when prices are steady or dropping (as in Fair Lawn where I live - and Bergen County generally), the installation of solar power isn't the driving factor but some homeowners may latch on to the belief that the solar power cells are driving prices down because they can't accept that the real estate market is soft.

Major Tornado Outbreak Rips Through Southern US; 54+ Dead

A major tornado outbreak has ripped across large parts of the American South, including Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and that line of storms.

Particularly hard hit is a stretch of Alabama from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham.

This video shows a tornado ripping through Tuscaloosa:



This tornado was reported to have stayed on the ground from Tuscaloosa through Birmingham before continuing its deadly path to the north and east of the city. That's more than 50 miles as the crow flies. It was a massive storm and was estimated to be more than a mile wide at several points.

The storms have killed 37 people, and the death toll is expected to rise overnight as areas are still being hit with tornadoes and severe storms.

The South usually sees lots of tornado activity in the early spring, before the tornado activity moves into what's traditionally known as Tornado Alley. That has to do with the weather patterns that bring in large air masses from different directions and significant temperature differentials. That causes the air to mix violently along the boundary line, creating conditions favorable to tornado development.

The storm front is sliding to the East, which means that the potential for deadly tornadoes is expected to move into Georgia, the Carolinas, and the Middle Atlantic. It's also possible that some severe storms are possible in the NYC metro area, although at the moment the concern in our part is flooding, not tornados or severe wind events.

Much of the Eastern part of the US is blanketed in watches and warnings, and those alerts can be tracked here.

UPDATE:
At least 54 people have been killed in the ongoing tornado outbreak.

Syrian Crackdown Against Opposition Continues

Syria's harsh crackdown has led to increased calls for sanctions, but Assad's regime isn't stopping its use of tanks and an iron fist to crush its opponents:



Despite Assad continuing to hold on to power, media outlets are beginning to contemplate what Syria and the region might look like after Assad is gone. A Reuters analysis borders on the ludicrous, especially when it relates to Hizbullah's concerns about life in Syria without Assad. Nowhere does it indicate that Hizbullah could actually benefit from the regime change by assuming power in the ensuing power vacuum. Iran most certainly would use its proxy to Iran's advantage, and it would give Hizbullah freer reign to go after Israel from both Lebanon and Syria. Iran would attempt to capitalize and choose a successor to Assad that fits its agenda and thwarts Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia or Egypt from bringing about a regime more favorable to their worldview (political and religious).

The most likely successor to Assad will come out of the military - as is usually the case when regimes are brought down - and will use his military connections to assume the leadership.

Israel is clearly concerned about the situation in Syria although the security situation wont immediately change regardless who is in power. If a more moderate government assumes power after Assad, it could lead to a thawing of the decades long struggle over handing over the Golan but much more likely is a continuation of the status quo. Hizbullah coming to power in Damascus would be a much more dangerous outcome, but one that Israel would be more prepared to deal with.

For the Lebanese, the end of the Assad regime could mean the end of Syrian meddling in Lebanese political affairs, which has included assassinations and invasion. To suggest that unrest in Syria could spill over into Lebanon is not unwarranted, but it would pose special challenges for the likes of Hizbullah, who receives backing from Iran and Syria. It would also pose a challenge for the Alawite populations in both countries, since they are a minority among Muslims. Sectarian differences have turned into open bloodshed several times before in Lebanon, and fighting could once again erupt over Assad's demise.

UPDATE:
Assad is sending more tanks into the city of Deraa (Daraa) where the opposition has demonstrated almost constantly for several weeks and where fighting has been most intense:



House to house fighting has also been reported north of Damascus as the regime attempts to flush out opposition groups and eliminate the existential threat to the ongoing regime. Brutal crackdowns are the norm in Syria, and Bashar is simply following the dictum of his father - to use brutal power to neutralize domestic enemies all while claiming that these opposition groups are merely front groups for the US or Israel.

Perhaps most important is the reporting that dissension within the military may be occurring:

Yet even as the relentless crackdown moved forward, signs continued to emerge of disagreements and clashes between the regime and those who once supported it without question.

Some 30 members of the ruling Ba'ath party from Banias announced their resignation in a letter denouncing what they describe as live firing on people and pervasive home raids in their city, according to an emailed copy of the letter.

"Considering the breakdown of values and emblems that we were instilled with by the party and which were destroyed at the hand of the security forces…we announce our withdrawal from the party without regret," the letter said.

The Ba'ath Party has been a pillar of the regime for decades and seen almost no internal dissent. Meanwhile reports of clashes within army units and significant troop casualties.

Activists said they have also received some reports, which were impossible to confirm, of clashes between the regular military and elite fighting divisions controlled by Maher al Assad, the president's brother.

It remained unclear whether the reports of army casualties indicated actual fighting between the forces or disputes between elite troops and regular soldiers who refused to fire on protesters.

If this is occurring, then pressure on the regime is no doubt going to increase and we might see Assad attempt to purge the military before he becomes the target of a coup.

What Does Presumed Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation Mean For Peace Process?

Egyptian news sources are indicating that Hamas and Fatah have managed to overcome their ideological differences and are paving the way for holding new elections and power-sharing. The plan involves creating a caretaker government and then holding elections that are long overdue.

Hamas and Fatah engaged in a civil war following Israel's Gaza disengagement. Hamas threw Fatah out of Gaza and left Fatah maintaining a tenuous hold on the West Bank with the backing of Israel, while Hamas consolidated its power in Gaza.

Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, which means that the "reconciliation" would necessarily affect any supposed peace process with Israel. With one party to the peace process refusing to accept the existence of the other, peace is simply impossible.

For its part, Fatah has asserted that it would unilaterally declare a Palestinian state and petition the UN for acceptance.

I can therefore only conclude that this will once again mean that Hamas and Fatah are going to fully coordinate in their triangle offense of terror against Israel. As they've done in the past, they'll use terror attacks to further their ideological goal of eliminating Israel and establishing a Palestinian state on all the land west of the Jordan River all while denying Israel and its Jewish population any rights to any territory - including access to Jewish holy sites that are situated in disputed territory.

NJ Transit Begins Work On New Wood-Ridge Station

NJ Transit, in conjunction with a real estate project on the former Wright-Curtis engine factory site, is going ahead with a new train station in Wood-Ridge along the Bergen Line. The new station is about 2 miles from the existing Garfield Station that isn't ADA compliant - and is barely functional as a train station. Moreover, the location is south of where it was first planned because the track curves too much to safely handle a raised (high-level) platform.


View Larger Map

The location abuts residential homes that are now affected by the station, and they are complaining about the siting of the new station despite the fact that they've been located adjacent to busy rail traffic for decades.

My concerns about the new station are two-fold.

The new station is in addition to the nearby new Plauderville station and the existing Garfield station and NJ Transit already lacks the ability to fully operate trains on the Bergen Line. The agency cut the schedule last year and the construction of a new station will require additional operating costs that the agency can't handle. It couldn't maintain its existing schedule and cut trains to existing stations, but now expects to bring stops to a new station? Rather than eliminating a functionally obsolete station in Garfield, the agency will operate local service to still more stations, increasing the commute time for all involved.

Garfield would essentially become obsolete because two new stations are under construction within 2 miles of either side of the existing stop. Plauderville is getting a new high level platform station adjacent to its new parking lot, and the Wood-Ridge stop (Wesmont) would have a similar setup.

Additional stops mean that local trains will run more slowly and affect traffic up and down the Bergen Line. It will extend the commuting time of existing commuters, and while the new project is expected to bring new riders as part of a transit-village style setup, the fact is that NJ Transit can't afford to build new stations when existing stations are falling apart or are barely functional.

Garfield is a prime example, and now NJ Transit will essentially maintain three stations in the Garfield corridor when the ridership can't sustain that kind of move unless NJ Transit shutters the Garfield station to optimize its operations.

Don't expect that to happen, even though the Garfield corridor is frequently the site of trespasser accidents and fatalities because the track curves several times and has numerous grade-crossings. Eliminating the Garfield station would improve safety along the corridor and improve commutes for residents.

This follows a trend of NJ Transit building new stations (or overbuilding stations where demand is seriously lacking) where residents are not indicating a need, and then lacking the revenues to fully operate scheduled train service where it was needed.

White House Reshuffles National Security Posts

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has long made it known that he wished to retire, and he will now get his wish. President Obama has selected current CIA director Leon Panetta to succeed Gates as Defense Secretary, while tapping General David Petraeus to take over as Director of the CIA.

The appointments, set in motion by the impending retirement of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, are part of a significant rearrangement of Mr. Obama’s national security team that will include several new assignments within the closest circle of his diplomatic, military and intelligence advisers.

Mr. Gates is expected to step down this summer.

The changes at the top of Mr. Obama’s national security team have long been expected.

Not long after Mr. Gates leaves, the term will expire for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, who, like the defense secretary, was appointed by President George W. Bush. And Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg has announced that he is leaving for an academic job — removing one of the crucial players in Mr. Obama’s efforts to manage China’s rise.

But Mr. Gates’s role is the most critical. He often allied with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — who has said that she intends to leave the administration when this term ends — including persuading Mr. Obama to start the military buildup in Afghanistan in 2009. Together they won many other battles, but they visibly split last month on the military intervention in Libya.

Several other key diplomats are leaving government and the term for the Joint Chiefs of Staff are ending, giving the President the opportunity to put his own stamp on those positions.

Both Panetta and Petraeus are known quantities when it comes to their ability to handle the job, but it means that the job of dealing with the ongoing war in Afghanistan will fall to others and will be the third such switch in little more than a year. Petraeus had taken over for Gen. Stanley McCrystal after McCrystral was forced to resign over inappropriate comments in a Rolling Stone interview.

That's perhaps the biggest downside of the moves - the inability to maintain a sense of continuity on the leadership in the Afghan theater of operations.

White House Releases President Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate

The White House, in a surprise move, has released President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate, and while it should normally mark the end of this sad chapter in idiocy from those opposed to all things Obama, it wont.

There will not be enough evidence to convince people opposed to Obama that he meets the constitutional requirements to be President - namely that he's a US citizen.

UPDATE:
Not much new information here folks. The PDF shows that his mother was born in Wichita, Kansas and was 18 years old when she gave birth to Barack at Kapiolani Materinity & Gynecological Hospital at 7:24PM on August 4, 1961.

Yemen's Saleh Accepting Resignation Deal Tomorrow

It is expected that Yemen's autocratic ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh, will resign according to a deal to be signed tomorrow but the key concern is that Saleh will avoid prosecution because he's been granted immunity:

Yemen's government and opposition will sign on Wednesday a deal under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh would step down 30 days later, officials say.

Mr Saleh's General People's Congress party and the opposition coalition, the Common Front, have both agreed to take part in a national unity government.

Despite the imminent deal, protesters are continuing to be killed by security forces and the country remains in turmoil:



The deal hinges on the Parliament passing legislation providing immunity from prosecution for the president, his family "and those who worked with him during his rule". That's quite a wide net - and means that those who engaged in torture, indefinite detentions, and other criminal mischief would not be able to be prosecuted.

Yet, despite that golden parachute, the General People's Congress immediately accepted the GCC proposal, while the Common Front agreed on Sunday only after its leaders had received "assurances" from the GCC, the US and Europe on the transfer of power. A peaceful handover of power is preferable to the ongoing turmoil, and this is considered the lesser of evils.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 134

Santiago Calatrava's PATH Transit Hub

Just about six weeks ago, the cost of the WTC transit hub was expected to run about $3.4 billion. Now, there are reports it's going to cost $3.8 billion, and that would make it the most expensive component of the rebuilding efforts at Ground Zero, exceeding those of even the Freedom Tower (1WTC) or the WTC memorial and museum. Just a few years ago, the cost was not expected to be more than $2.2 billion and efforts were undertaken to reduce the costs.

The final price is expected to climb to $3.8 billion — $400 million over its current budget and 70 percent more than initial estimates, according to documents obtained by The Record.

The latest projected increase is laid out in a report written by a federal monitor shortly after Port Authority officials increased the project's budget from $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion in late February.

The report warns that — even after the controversial February increase — the "budget still does not appear adequate for the ultimate completion of the project." It adds: "Recent discussions with the Port Authority" indicate a $3.8 billion final price tag. The 2005 budget for the project was $2.2 billion.

The hub, which will serve as a gateway to Manhattan for tens of thousands of New Jersey commuters each day, is also facing a three-month delay, with completion now expected in March 2015, the report states.

Officials at the Port Authority, the bi-state agency in charge of the federally funded project, brushed aside the estimate.

"We remain confident in our budget" of $3.4 billion, spokesman John Kelly said.

And an official at the Federal Transit Administration, which is paying a majority of the hub expenses, stressed that the authority could still hit its current spending target if it manages the project properly.

Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the hub will house a new PATH station and connect to 13 subway lines.

The Port Authority is under tremendous financial strain, and the new projected price tag means that the Port Authority will have to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars in increased funds - which means that fares and tolls may have to increase to cover the costs of rebuilding at Ground Zero.

Once built, the PATH hub will connect with the oft-delayed Fulton Street Transit Hub and connect 13 subway lines using an underground passage underneath Dey Street. The Fulton Street hub project is finally proceeding with steel installation of its signature element - an above-ground oculus that allows light to enter into the deeper recesses of the massive tangle of station platforms and connecting pathways.

Bell California's Fiscal Problems May Get Boost From Just Discovered Pension Slush Fund

Bell, California is again in the news as investigators have uncovered a $4.5 million slush/pension fund for the indicted former leaders of the nearly bankrupted city. The former city leaders saw their city's residents as an unending piggy bank - illegally raising property taxes to line their pockets, both in exceedingly high salaries, and now with a slush/pension fund that investigators are hoping to use to compensate the city and its residents.

The discovery of the money could be a huge boost for the finances of Bell, whose entire operating budget is about $13 million and is faced with major budget cuts in the wake of a corruption scandal. City officials said Monday that they were looking into whether they could use the $4.5 million to reduce the city's budget deficit.

In 2008, Rizzo said he wanted the city to spend $14 million to fund this second retirement account. Lourdes Garcia, the city's director of administrative services, testified that Rizzo said the city needed to place $2 million a year into the account, even as Bell's finances were deteriorating.

"My reaction was 'That's a lot of money,' " Garcia testified. "The city doesn't have that kind of money…. He knew that money was getting tight."

According to the transcripts, even after Rizzo left office last summer following The Times' disclosure of his enormous salary, he called Garcia on her cellphone on a Saturday and told her to move money into the Wells Fargo account set up for his and Spaccia's retirement. Garcia balked, telling him he was on administrative leave.

"I'm still the CAO," Rizzo told her, according to the transcripts.

The revelations come six months after The Times reported that Rizzo had created the supplemental pensions, which allowed employees to circumvent retirement limits set by California. Employees who worked in Bell for 25 years and retired at the age of 55 could get 90% of their salary — far more than most public employees who retire at the age of 60.

But prosecutors allege that Rizzo and Spaccia secretly schemed to give themselves an even richer supplemental pension. Prosecutors allege that they went to great lengths to hide the value of their pensions.

"What's important is that … they didn't just write a plan in which everybody got the same thing," Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman told the grand jury last month. "They very carefully crafted a plan to benefit themselves.... He planned to receive a heck of a lot of money further down the road. That was always his plan."

Bell is an exceedingly poor community, and the indicted former city leaders saw their residents as a piggy bank and unjustly enriched themselves by securing high salaries for themselves and other excessive perks.

Hopefully, the state and new city managers can recover these funds and use them to help bail the city out of its dire fiscal situation.

The Crackdown Continues in Syria As US Considers Sanctions

Bashar al-Assad's regime isn't holding back in quelling the opposition to his regime with the use of deadly force.



While countries like the US are mulling sanctions and the UN is considering a harshly worded statement, the regime continues using live ammunition on its citizens protesting against the regime's harsh tactics, which include torture and indefinite detentions of their fellow Syrians. The US doesn't have much in the way of diplomatic or economic ties to the country, so the effects of its sanctions would be quite limited. Sanctions from a country like France would be more significant since the two countries have had a long history since the end of the First World War.

Gunfire continues to ripple across the country, including in Daraa, which was the epicenter of mass protests against the regime.

25 Years Since Chernobyl

It's been 25 years since the worst nuclear disaster in history occurred at Chernobyl's Reactor 4 in the Ukraine took the lives of more than 40 who worked at the plant and emergency responders and affected the lives of millions living downwind and in the zone of exclusion set up around the stricken plant.



The explosion, caused by human error combined with poor design, killed several workers instantly. The RBMK reactor design had a fatal flaw when operating at low power, and when workers were conducting a test, they entered that low power state without necessary backups in place and output spikes became uncontrollable and ultimately led to the destructive explosion of the core. Without the kind of containment in place for reactors common around the rest of the world, the core ruptured the reactor building and exposed the surrounding region to heavy doses of radiation and radioactive debris was flung into the air.

It further killed several dozen of the firefighters and liquidators who came in to put out the fire and to seal up the exposed reactor with a concrete sarcophagus:



The health consequences for those liquidators is still up in the air, and health experts debate just how many more deaths can be linked to the disaster in the affected population downwind of the reactor.

Efforts to build a new containment structure have been hamstrung by a lack of funds, and the most recent effort came up nearly $200 short for the expected $1 billion project.

Ultimately, the disaster may have helped spark the breakup of the Soviet Union and exposed just how bad the country's infrastructure and technological prowess truly was.

A Tipping Point in the Taxi of Tomorrow Design Competition?

Does the fact that Turkish automaker Karsan plan on building their Taxi of Tomorrow for the New York City taxi fleet in Brooklyn mean that the company should get an edge in the competition.

I think it most certainly does. The company plans on building the taxis in Brooklyn's Marine Terminal.

Automaker Karsan, hoping for an edge in the three-way race to design New York City's newfangled cabs, has told city officials it would put its auto plant in the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.

Karsan bigwigs claim the Sunset Park assembly line would immediately create several hundred jobs and later "as many as 800."

"Karsan is unconditionally committed to producing the 'Taxi of Tomorrow' at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal," Karsan USA President Bill Wachtel pledged last month in a letter to David Yassky, chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Wachtel also sent a copy of the letter to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Ford and Nissan also are competing to design the city's exclusive yellow cab model for the next decade, but it wasn't immediately clear whether either had made a similar build-it-here pledge.

The city launched the "Taxi of Tomorrow" project four years ago, with a goal of selecting one iconic design that's fuel-efficient and comfortable. The cab will replace the 16 models now authorized, including the Crown Victoria. The Crown Vic is the most dominant model on the road, but Ford is halting its production.

None of the three designs would have been initially built in the United States, let alone in New York. Now, Karsan has proposed building the taxis in New York City, and that could be a major factor in deciding to give the deal to Karsan. It would also mean that the manufacturer could tweak the design as it gets feedback from the Taxi and Limousine Commission and drivers who use the vehicle on a daily basis and incorporate the changes. It would also bring back a manufacturing operation to the City that has been shedding manufacturing jobs for decades.

It would likely take several years to transform the Marine Terminal into a manufacturing plant for vehicle production.

Syria's Assad Expands Crackdown Against Protesters

Syria's Bashar al-Assad isn't wasting time in going after the opposition to his regime and he's sent tanks into restive areas to pacify them.

The Syrian Army sent tanks rolling into the restive southern city of Dara’a and carried out arrests in poor towns on the capital’s outskirts Monday in a sharp escalation of a crackdown on Syria’s five-week-old uprising, according to human rights activists and accounts posted on social networking sites. They said at least five people were killed in Dara’a, and bodies were in the streets.

The move into Dara’a seemed to signal a new chapter in a crackdown that has already killed more than 350 people, with the single highest toll on Friday. So far hewing to a mix of promised concessions and blunt force, the government indicated Monday that it had chosen the latter, seeking to crush a wave of dissent in virtually every Syrian province that has shaken the once-uncontested rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Residents said at least eight tanks entered Dara’a at dawn from four directions, and there were reports of artillery and mortars being used. Phone lines were cut to the area, making first-hand accounts difficult, and nearby border crossings with Jordan were sealed from the Syrian side, Jordanian officials said. But video smuggled out of the town depicted a cloud of black smoke rising on the horizon with volleys of heavy gunfire echoing in the distance.

Protesters said the toll was almost sure to rise. Bodies were in the streets, but snipers on rooftops prevented residents and medical personnel from retrieving them.

Even as the regime paid lip service to the notion that the emergency law was lifted, Assad's forces were busy clamping down and using deadly force to disperse protests and attacking funeral processions of those killed in earlier protests against Assad's regime.



The Guardian wonders whether the violent crackdown wont work this time in Syria, but that ignores that the last time the Syrian regime faced a similar uprising, Bashar's father Hafez slaughtered thousands in Hama and disrupted the Muslim Brotherhood in the process. A regime that maintains a tightly-controlled military and uses force willingly against its own people can brutalize and terrorize a populace into submission even in the face of a popular demand for reforms. If and when the Syrian army decides not to open fire on fellow Syrians will Assad face a true test of his regime. To date, his military forces have shown no unwillingness to open fire on peaceful protesters.

Meanwhile, the US is considering additional sanctions against Syria's regime. That will do little to stop the ongoing violence.

UPDATE:
MSNBC puts it bluntly. Assad has declared war on the democracy movement in Syria, which means that he's not going to be satisfied until his regime crushes the opposition completely and thoroughly.

Great Escape: Taliban Carry Out Massive Prison Breakout

In a scene straight out of the movie The Great Escape, Taliban thugs tunneled hundreds of feet into a prison compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan and hundreds of prisoners were able to escape.

Officials at Sarposa prison in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, say they only discovered the breach at about 4 a.m., a half hour after the Taliban said they had gotten all the prisoners out.

The militants began digging the tunnel about five months ago from a house within shooting distance of the prison guard towers. It was not immediately clear whether they lived in the house while they dug. They meticulously plotted the tunnel's course around police checkpoints and major roads, the insurgent group said in a statement.

The diggers finally broke through to the prison cells around 11 p.m. Sunday night, and a handful of inmates who knew of the plan unlocked cells and ushered hundreds of inmates to freedom without a shot being fired.

Later on Monday, reporters were taken into the prison to view the opening of the tunnel in one of the cell blocks.

Reuters photographs showed a hole, several feet deep, cut into the concrete floor of one of the cells. The hole, big enough to allow one man to climb down at a time, appeared to be connected to a tunnel.

To say that this was a huge failure of Afghan security at the prison complex is an understatement. It would further appear that members of the Afghan security at the prison looked the other way as the prisoners were able to escape from the compound as the Taliban claimed that they had obtained keys to prison gates from "friends".