admin

The United States will present a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council expanding sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program. The U.S. worked very closely with the Chinese government (both are permanent veto power-holding members of the Security Council) and its Foreign Ministry, to gain its support, on the resolution for new, expanded sanctions.

The European Parliament adopts a resolution calling for the introduction of an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, saying the United Kingdom, France and other EUgovernments should no longer sell weapons to a country accused of targeting civilians in Yemen. 

Greece recalls its ambassador to Austria in response to Austria's hosting of a meeting with Balkan states to discuss the European migrant crisis, to which Greece was not invited. Greece's foreign ministry called the move an "unfriendly act". More than 100,000 migrants have entered the EU illegally so far in 2016, nearly all of them arriving in Greece.

NORTH-ESL-Community-Classes-Schedule.January.2016.pdf

Thank you Kurt for sharing! That was a really interesting read.

Harvey Wasserman of Columbus, Ohio, has been a vocal critic of electronic voting machines. He co-wrote the book, "What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election." His upcoming book is titled "The Strip & Flip Selection of 2016: Five Jim Crows & Electronic Election Theft." We talk to him about his concerns for the upcoming presidential race.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses are probably wishing they had sold their Brooklyn world headquarters with its giant Watchtower signage a year ago instead of now.

Sources say their 733,000-square-foot multi-building package at 17-29 Columbia Heights and 18-36 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn will end up being sold for $220 million-plus — but not the nearly $300 million it could have fetched in 2015 before the economy started rumbling.

According to the spies, those that submitted bids include East End Capital, Westbrook Partners, Vornado Realty Trust, Tishman Speyer Properties, L&L Holdings and Savanna.

The Witnesses are moving to upstate New York and have already sold a slew of properties, including six in Dumbo Heights with 1.2 million square feet to Jared Kushner, RFR Holdings and LIVWRK. That $375 million deal was cut in 2013 and totaled $312 per square foot.

Although Brooklyn is the “new” office borough and the Witnesses are known for maintaining their properties, much work and money is still needed to make the former 1924-era E.R. Squibb & Sons buildings ready for today’s tech-heavy office users.

The parties either declined comment or did not return calls or e-mails for comment.

Air rights are still hitting new heights for commercial developers in Manhattan, a new report has found.

According to Tenantwise, which acts as an intermediary for air-rights transactions, 2015 pricing was up 8 percent from 2014, across 42 percent more transactions — even though there were 22 percent fewer feet transferred. There were 1,542,488 square feet sold via 51 transactions in 2015 versus 2014’s 1,972,995 square feet in 36 transactions.

Last year’s average price was $278 per square foot, the highest since 2013’s average of $305. That average was pushed upward by the $602 per square foot purchase of 70,659 square feet for Zeckendorf’s 520 Park Ave., in which Tenantwise was an intermediary.

For condominiums, however, 2015 average pricing dropped to $322 per square foot versus $368 in 2014 — and both are down from the high of $422 in 2013 when 40.6 percent of the transferable development rights, or TDRs, were targeted to condos. In contrast, just 36.9 percent of the TDRs sold in 2014 were for condominiums, although that number jumped to 40.3 percent in 2015.

Tenantwise Chief Executive M. Myers Mermel says overall pricing was softened due to 13 sales totaling 654,581 square feet — 42 percent of all TDRs sold in 2015 — at pricing under $200 per square foot, with three deals coming in at under $100 per square foot.

Mermel says government transactions, including the MTA TDR sales to Hudson Yards developers as well as those by “uneducated sellers” put a damper on pricing. “The political agenda is changing how the market is performing,” Mermel said.

Jeremy Markowitz, who is developing the striking Terrace on the Park condo and school project at Third Ave. between East 103 and East 104 streets, says, along with the apparent rock-bottom pricing of $29 per square foot he paid a neighboring church for TDRs, he has also spent more than $350,000 on church repairs and other ongoing efforts, and also leases its office space. “The Finance Dept. records don’t always tell the whole story,” he noted.

Tenantwise found the highest 2015 pricing was the $1,604 per square foot paid for 3,997 square feet for a 19-story building at Third Avenue and East 39 Street. In 2014, Harry Macklowe paid $1,025 each for 12,811 square feet of TDR’s for his upcoming 450-foot-high, 200 E. 59 St. condominium. The highest pricing Tenantwise has uncovered was the 2013 transaction in which Vornado Realty Trust paid the Korein family $3,868 each for 3,937 square feet at 220 Central Park South.

Trends included the shifting of the development activity from Midtown to Midtown South and downtown, but there are concerns about financing, the softness in the ultra-luxury market and overall economic worries. Still, Mermel added, “There are a lot of big air rights transfers in the works.”

The Empire State Building is adding more Mexican food to its diet. Tacombi will open NYC’s fifth taqueria and bar on the West 33rd Street side of the tower. In keeping with the Art Deco era, the 5,532-square-foot Salon Imperio will be newly constructed to resemble that simpler period.

Alex Turboff of Branded Concept Development represented Tacombi. Fred Posniak of Empire State Realty Trust along with CBRE’s Andrew Goldberg and Matt Chmielecki represented the ESB ownership. The asking rent was $150 per square foot.

The eatery started out of a Volkswagen taco truck and features sustainable ingredients.

http://nypost.com/2016/02/23/jehovahs-witnesses-selling-watchtower-building-for-220m/

Was this ratified hours before a Hurricane was set to destroy the island?

Republican Party voters go to the polls in Nevada for the Nevada caucuses. 

One person is dead and three people are unaccounted for following an explosion and building collapse at the Didcot power stations in Oxfordshire, England.

ISIL militants cut off the Syrian Army's main supply route to the city of Aleppo and capture the village of Khanasir, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

Water supply is restored to the Indian city of Delhi as repairs are made to the vital Munak canal after the Jat reservation agitation is resolved.

Emergency warnings are issued after bushfires threaten the Victorian towns of Mount Bolton and Addington northwest of Ballarat as well as the town of Somerville, Victoria on the Mornington Peninsula.

The President of the United States Barack Obama announces plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating 14 cases where the Zika virus may have been sexually transmitted. 

The death toll from Cyclone Winston in Fiji rises to 29

VPS has a Career Fair on March 2^nd and 9^th,, 2016

per flyer, Vancouver Public Schools will fill more than 300 teaching and specialist positions for the 2016-17 school year, including classroom, OT/PT, speech language and counselors.

job fair flyer-final2.pdf

A fight broke out around midday Monday between longtime Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and former Dallas council member Dwaine Caraway — with Caraway shouting and cursing at Price over an old and bitter personal dispute involving Caraway’s marriage.

Dallas police launched an assault investigation into the “altercation” but haven’t made any arrests so far. Price and Caraway were at the Gospel radio station KHVN, along with two other candidates, for a debate in their ongoing race for Dallas County Commissioners Court ahead of the March 1 primary election.

But after briefly arguing about their political positions, the debate turned into a personal shouting match that threatened to get physical, said developer Micah B. Phillips, who is also running to unseat Price. Phillips took video of the altercation and provided a copy to The Dallas Morning News.

Diversity Career Fair.pdf - February 24, 2016

Amazing story of a US Air Force pilot who ejected from aircraft and the aircraft maned to recover from dive and land in a corn field.

Earlier this week a Saudi political analyst told RT’s Arab networkthe kingdom has a nuclear weapon.

Dahham Al-‘Anzi made the claim while saying Saudi Arabia is engaged in an effort to “minimize the Iranian threat in the Levant and Syria.”

Although Saudi Arabia has officially denied it has a nuclear weapons program and has publicly stated it opposes nuclear weapons in the Middle East, it has funded a military nuclear program and received scientific assistance from the United States and Pakistan.

If you don’t want to believe him, perhaps you will believe the former director of the CIA counter-terrorism operations center.  He told Fox Business that everyone in the intelligence world knows the Saudis have nukes…

Little Madison Mason was born with Down syndrome and a heart condition that required open heart surgery.

"I was devastated. It was overwhelming," her mother Tiffanie Mason told CBS News.

The surgery typically requires a blood transfusion, but that was against the family's religious beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses.

"We want the best treatment possible for her, just without blood. So then we had to look at other avenues," Mason said.

Madison's doctors at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey agreed to perform the operation without a blood transfusion -- something they had never done in someone so young. Instead, they gave her natural hormones and iron infusions to boost her own red blood cells.

"We were really able to bring her blood count up so that she was strong enough to sustain some blood loss during the procedure without need a transfusion," said Dr. Elizabeth Carlin, Chief of Pediatrics at Englewood Hospital.

Though bloodless surgery was originally developed to accommodate patients with religious concerns -- like Madison -- the medical community is now exploring whether the procedure could benefit other patients as well.

Blood transfusions come with risks, including the potential for allergic reactions and blood-borne infections, so more doctors are considering bloodless medicine for all kinds of procedures.

"There are all of these things we can do to make patients healthier, again to reduce the amount of blood they lost, to make surgery safer. And these patients actually did better," said Dr. Sherri Ozawa, Clinical Director of the Institute for Patient Blood Management and Bloodless Surgery and Medicine at Englewood Hospital.

Some research supports the use of bloodless surgery, too. A 2012 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions after cardiac surgery are at no greater risk than people who had transfusions. 

The research also found that Witnesses who underwent bloodless surgeries spent less time in the intensive care unit and less time in the hospital when compared to patients who had transfusions. They also had a higher survival rate at 95 percent, compared to the other group at 89 percent.

According to the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, blood-management programs also help hospitals reduce unnecessary blood draws and the costs associated with acquiring and storing blood.

Experts at Englewood Hospital say bloodless surgery should be considered for any type of operation that has been traditionally associated with transfusions, including hysterectomies, breast surgeries, joint replacements, spinal surgery brain surgery and heart surgery.

As for Madison, she made a full recovery and was back home in four days.

"She came out of surgery and when she saw me her face lit up and she was trying to get up," her mom said.

The family believes because they stayed true to their convictions, Madison received the best care and outcome possible.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-explore-potential-benefits-of-bloodless-surgery/