NWS Confirms Two Tornadoes Touched Down In New York City

Two tornadoes were confirmed to have hit New York City in the supercell of nasty weather that crossed through the region on Thursday afternoon. However, the strongest recorded wind speeds were the result of straight-line winds.

The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed the tornado hits based on damage patterns from the winds.

A team of investigators from the National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado rated at EF0, or the weakest on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, sliced a two-mile path through Park Slope with 80 mph winds beginning at 5:33 p.m.

About 10 minutes later, a more powerful tornado with 100 mph winds cut a swath of destruction four miles long through parts of Flushing, Bayside and Forest Hills, Queens. That storm felled a massive tree that crushed a Pennsylvania woman on the Grand Central Parkway as she sat in her car on the side of the road in Forest Hills hoping to wait out the worst.

The strongest event was a rare "macroburst" -- intense downdrafts wider than 2½ miles -- that lashed Forest Hills and Middle Village, with 125 mph winds at 5:40 p.m. The howling gusts left a path of devastation five miles wide and eight miles long.

"We were extremely fortunate that there were no more fatalities and extremely fortunate that there were no serious injuries," said Gary Conte, a spokesman for the National Weather Service, which looked at computer data, interviewed witnesses and had investigators fly over the city yesterday to make its tornado determination.

The tornado that tore through Queens was an EF1, but that paled in comparison to the macroburst, which not only brought 125 mph winds, but hit across a much wider and longer area.

The Daily News has a map showing the damage reports, and you can see how the damage spread from Staten Island across Brooklyn and into Queens where the most damage occurred in and around Forest Hills and Middle Village.

State officials aren't sure whether the storm damage will hit the $25 million threshold to obtain FEMA assistance despite the widespread damage and downed trees.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 115

The New York Times is back at its old tricks. It's back to questioning the need to build the Freedom Tower, and this time it's focusing on the cost, which is expected to be $3.3 billion.

The author asserts that the cost to maintain the class A space would make the space prohibitive, but that runs counter to the general belief that environmentally responsible building is more efficient and cost-effective in the long run.

Delays in building drove up the cost - and the New York Times has repeatedly questioned the need to rebuild the office space at Ground Zero, even though the Times itself is a real estate company that attempts to sell newspapers with mixed results. The Freedom Tower, which is now one of the hottest properties for prospective companies, would compete directly with the Times' headquarters building in Midtown and would compare favorably to the Times headquarters.

Of course, the Port Authority disagrees with the Times' analysis:

Not surprisingly, the Port Authority disagrees with my analysis. It points to the fact that it has close to $1 billion in insurance proceeds that it is using to defray the cost of the building. And it says its break-even number is much lower than $130 a square foot.

“It is not going to get a typical developer’s rate of return,” conceded Rich Gladstone, the Port Authority’s point man on the project. “But it will be cash-flow positive.” He insisted that the commuters who pay their $8 a day to cross the George Washington Bridge would never have to support 1 World Trade Center. Of course that’s easy to say now, with the building still two years away from completion.

Still, the Port Authority made another recent move intended to ensure the success of the building. It sold a small piece of the equity in 1 World Trade Center — around 5 percent — to the Durst Organization, for a reported $100 million. It is a great deal for Durst, one of the biggest and savviest commercial developers in New York. (It built the Bank of America Tower, for instance.) Its investment values the building at $2 billion, far less than it cost to build, so if it rises in value, Durst gets the upside. And in return for its $100 million, Durst gets to manage the building for the Port Authority, an arrangement that will allow it to reap fees for everything from finding tenants to reconfiguring office space. It is also a deal filled with a certain, undeniable irony, which has not been lost on anybody in New York real estate circles.

You see, Douglas Durst, the company’s 65-year-old patriarch, has been one of the few people willing to criticize 1 World Trade Center on the record. When the Port Authority was negotiating with those government agencies back in 2006, Mr. Durst told The New York Times that saddling “already overburdened taxpayers of New York with the rent necessary to pay for it makes no sense at all.” He even took out advertisements opposing the project.

Durst criticized the deal, because he was offering his own projects around the city with similar floor plates and class space. Now, he's got a role in a huge project with tremendous upside.

The irony isn't that Durst is involved; it's that there were other real estate organizations that were more than willing to bash the project privately and publicly that had no problem bidding for the management rights to go where the Port Authority didn't want Silverstein Properties. Durst also notes that he opposed Times Square development, before he became integral in the office tower boom around Times Square.

Will the Freedom Tower become profitable for the Port Authority at some point? Yes. Can anyone say with certainty when that will happen? Nope. It depends on a whole boatload of factors, not the least of which is making sure that the rest of Ground Zero is rebuilt so that the area doesn't feel like a perpetual construction zone.

Meanwhile, construction continues all around Ground Zero, and the the 9/11 museum continues to be built around major components recovered from the World Trade Center, including a pair of tridents that used to hold up the exterior of the towers.

You can make out the tridents near the left tower crane in the middle of the construction site - between the two memorial reflecting pools. They are edgewise to the camera, but they are distinguished because they are covered in a white protective film

Cleanup Continues From Wicked Weather In NYC Metro Area

As of this writing, the National Weather Service has not confirmed whether tornadoes touched down in the New York metro area, but that is besides the point. The damage has been done - and it was severe and widespread. One person was killed in the storms, when a tree crashed down on a car along the Grand Central Parkway:

"It's like a war zone out here," said Jeanne King, surveying her Forest Hills, Queens, neighborhood. "Trees are down. Some houses have come apart."

King said the front windows of a Key Food on Queens and Yellowstone Blvds. "imploded" and an air-conditioning unit atop a Sports Authority on Woodhaven Blvd. was dismantled.

A parking lot wall at the 112th Precinct stationhouse in Queens collapsed. The steeple of St. George's Episcopal Church in Flushing lay crumpled across Main St. The roof over the circular driveway at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick, Brooklyn, was destroyed.

"I got chased by it," said Caitlin Shann, 31, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, who ran for cover. "It was an absolute washing machine."

Five people were injured when two tractor-trailers flipped on the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn.

Aline Levakis, 30, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., was killed when a tree crushed a car she was driving on the Grand Central Parkway near Jewel Ave. in Queens, police said. Her husband, Billy Levakis, 60, was treated for minor injuries at New York Hospital Queens and released, a family friend said.

The couple, who friends said was in town for a day trip, had just switched seats in the Lexus sedan before the deadly accident.

Photos from all over the region show the same basic trail of destruction. Trees blown over all over the place, rooftops shredded, and some building cornices and other structures damaged. There were even some partial building collapses. LIRR, MTA, and NJ Transit service was all disrupted for part or all of the evening commute and delays persist on LIRR.

Thousands remain without power in parts of the city, including on Staten Island, where the storm hit with surprisingly little warning and then blossomed over New York harbor before crashing into Park Slope, Bushwick, Bedford Stuyvesant, and then into Queens - Middle Village, Forest Hills, and then further out into Nassau County before the storms subsided.

This is a obscenity laced video from Brooklyn from a couple of guys who don't realize that when you think a tornado approaches, you should seek shelter away from windows and the outdoors. However, if you watch the tree, you see it shredded in the winds in just a matter of moments.

This is another video from Brooklyn showing building and tree debris strewn all over the place. It also includes a video capture showing just how quickly the storm hit - with a woman pushing a stroller being caught up in the rains with seemingly nowhere to go:


UPDATE:
Tornadoes do occasionally hit New York City, and the most recent event was this past July. The NWS will be examining the damage to determine whether tornadoes touched down anywhere in the damage path.

UPDATE:
This video shows the possible formation of a funnel cloud over Bayonne, NJ before heading into NYC:



UPDATE:
The National Weather Service has found that a small tornado did touch down near Trenton, but has yet to make an announcement for the damage across New York City or Northern New Jersey. The NWS has a list of damage observed in the area, including wind speed observations. The NWS will release their findings when they've completed the surveys.

Five Arrested In Terror Plot Against Pope Benedict During UK Visit

British law enforcement arrested five men on terror charges for plotting to attack Pope Benedict when he visits the country.

Five men were arrested in pre-dawn raids Friday on the second day of Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Britain, police said.

The men, between the ages of 26 and 50, were detained under the Terrorism Act at a business in central London. They were being questioned at a London police station and had not been charged.

Police said an initial search of the business and other properties did not uncover any hazardous items.

Police said they received information about a potential threat against the pope overnight, prompting the armed operation to arrest the men early Friday morning.

The BBC reported that the five suspects worked as street cleaners for Veolia Environment Services, a company that is contracted by Westminster Council. They were arrested by armed officers as they prepared to start their shift, the BBC said.

Landmarks within Westminster’s boundaries including Buckingham Palace, Britain's Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, the Catholic headquarters of the United Kingdom.

Several homes were being searched for additional evidence. No hazardous materials or weapons have been found thus far.

It is not clear whether the investigations relate to a plot against the Pope himself, an element of the visit or events or other matters that may be connected to the visit. Most of the men are understood to be Algerian.

In the statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "Today's arrests were made after police received information following initial inquiries by detectives. A decision was made to arrest the five men.

Wicked Weather Rips Through NYC Metro Area

There's nothing quite like being in the middle of the commute and watching the skies go from light gray to pitch black within minutes and the heavens opening up. There isn't much you can do but sit back and watch the show and hope that no one gets hurt.

And it was quite the show. I saw multiple lightning strikes on the Empire State Building, cloud to cloud lightning and sheet lightning before the rain completely enveloped the train I was on such that you could barely see a few feet ahead.

The rain came down sideways and the winds were severe. Trees were knocked over all around the area, particularly in Woodside Queens. That, along with flooding, knocked out LIRR service throughout the system, and NJ Transit fared nearly as bad with service delays out of Penn Station in Manhattan.

Tornado warnings were up in the area, and apparently more than a few people saw funnel clouds, so it is possible that some of the wind damage was the result of those funnel clouds touching down.



That's a video of a microburst in Brooklyn. Repeat that scene all over the area, and you get the idea.

Here are some more photos from Brooklyn.

UPDATE:
Damage reports are still coming in from around the area, and tornado sightings were reported across Staten Island and winds topped 100 mph in some areas. The National Weather Service will be busy over the next few days surveying the damage to determine whether the damage was the result of microbursts, straight-line winds, or tornadoes. Funnel cloud sightings were reported in Middlesex County New Jersey before heading into the City.

One person was killed when a tree fell on his car while driving on the Grand Central Parkway.

NBCNewYork.com got reports that hail fell on the Lower East Side while heavy winds caused extensive damage in Brooklyn, Queens Staten Island and parts of Long Island. Lightning wreaked havoc as far away as Greenwich, Conn.

Con Edison reported 27,000 customers without power, NBCNewYork.com said.

In the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, witnesses say the sky went pitch black at about 5:30 p.m. Trees started waving around like blades of grass. Large branches snapped and hit cars, smashing windshields.

"All of a sudden, we saw this dark cloud, and it was moving. I said 'Let's go in!'" said Stephen Wylie, who was working in a backyard on Quincy Street, in Brooklyn.

Within seconds, the front door started lashing back and forth. Trees branches were falling and trees came flying from other yards, Wylie said.

"They smashed the whole backyard, a gazebo there. Then half the roof was torn off — eight layers of it" — leaving only a layer of wood, he said.

NJ Transit and LIRR both failed their customers once again in failing to provide timely updates to thousands trying to get home during the evening rush. Their websites were useless in providing updates - again.

Even an hour after the storms came through, LIRR officials who were talking with local radio stations couldn't account for where all trains were - whether they were stuck between stations or the like.

On My Nightstand: The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents

The upheaval in Europe during the mid-18th Century led many to consider radically new political theories and some urged violent regime change for both republics and monarchies. This culminated with bombings, assassinations, and waves of terror throughout Europe, including the streets of Paris, London, and St. Petersburg.

Alex Butterworth catalogs the history and puts together a sordid tale of anarchists, schemers, dreamers, malcontents, and agent provocateurs who took advantage of the upheaval for their own ends, in his The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents

Various groups managed to assassinate an American President (McKinley), various Russian officials including Tzar Alexander II, and countless others. Despite the horrifying damage, these groups didn't succeed in spreading their message, but others rose in their place using some of the same propaganda tactics to overthrow existing regimes and implement their own.

The methods used to counter the terrorism are also quite familiar, and indeed many of the counterterrorism tactics were developed in this period.

It's also interesting to read how many of these disenchanted groups locked in on the time-tested tactic of blaming world Jewry for the world's woes- pogroms and genocide would follow later.

New York Trio of D'Amato, Koch and McCall Calls Paladino Out For His Racism

Here's the open letter written and signed by none other than former US Senator Al D'Amato (R), former NYC Mayor Ed Koch (D), and former state comptroller and gubernatorial candidate H Carl McCall, attesting to Carl Paladino's inadequacy and competency to be governor of New York:

KochMcCallDAmatoOnPaladino

The three make several very important points. Paladino has engaged in divisive behavior, including distributing racist and bigoted emails, which are an affront to a significant portion of the state's population.

Paladino claims to be an outsider, and yet has spent tons of his money to lobby for state business and has profited from those lobbying efforts to the tune of millions of dollars. Far from being an outsider, he's used and abused the very system he complains about.

His response to the letter is to brand D'Amato, Koch, and McCall as little more than lackeys to Cuomo.

The way I see it, those three wouldn't have joined together unless they saw the state in such perilous shape and that it needed someone who would take the situation seriously without adding to an already rancorous and toxic environment in Albany. Paladino clearly needs to cast the three as lackeys to Cuomo, but that just doesn't wash - particularly with D'Amato.

UPDATE:
Gothamist has a list of Paladino's latest utterances and classic rants, but they missed the one where Paladino called Speaker Silver Hitler.

Note too that Paladino claims to oppose abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. That's a position that runs counter to most New Yorkers, who prefer a right to abortion, including in such instances. Andrew Cuomo's father, Mario, had long opposed abortion on religious grounds, until shifting his views to accepting a woman's right to choose.

NJ Transit Went Too Far In Firing Employee Who Burned Koran

It's an emotionally charged issue, but emotion has nothing to do with the clear boundaries of the law. A person has the right to free speech and the conduct of burning a Koran falls within the protections of the First Amendment.

It may be hateful speech and stupid speech, but it is protected speech nonetheless.

That's why NJ Transit's decision to fire an employee who attended a demonstration against the Cordoba House proposal in Lower Manhattan and burned a copy of the Koran on his own time is likely to get the agency in trouble.

Derek Fenton's 11-year career at the agency came to an abrupt halt Monday after photographs of him ripping pages from the Muslim holy book and setting them ablaze appeared in newspapers.

Fenton, 39, of Bloomingdale, N.J., burned the book during a protest on the ninth anniversary of Sept. 11 outside Park51, the controversial mosque slated to be built near Ground Zero.

He was apparently inspired by Pastor Terry Jones, the Florida clergyman who threatened to burn the Koran that day but later changed his mind.

NJ Transit said Fenton was fired but wouldn't give specifics.

"Mr. Fenton's public actions violated New Jersey Transit's code of ethics," an agency statement said.

"NJ Transit concluded that Mr. Fenton violated his trust as a state employee and therefore [he] was dismissed."

Fenton was ushered from the protests by police on Saturday and questioned, but he was released without charges.

The employee, Derek Fenton, has every right to voice his opinion in that setting. This isn't an instance of an employee carrying out such conduct while in his capacity as an employee or public official.

It looks like NJ Transit stepped over the line in pursuing actions against Fenton for speech Fenton undertook while not on duty. Moreover, it appears that the agency determined that dismissal was the option, rather than probation or other disciplinary measures or undertaking sensitivity training or other such programs.

Brooklyn Brewery Goes Big

Brooklyn used to be the epicenter of brewing beer in the United States. From the late 1800s through the mid 1950s, Brooklyn was home to dozens of major brewers, but from the 1950s through 1987, there wasn't a single successful commercial brewer located in the borough.

That all changed with Steve Hindy's Brooklyn Brewery.

The brewery has run a successful business expanding its operations to the point where much of its product is actually brewed in upstate New York because of a lack of capacity in Brooklyn.

Within the next few weeks, the acquisition and soon to be opened expanded brewery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn will add 16,000 sf of space to their operations.

It's amazing to see the gradual growth of the craft brewing industry in Brooklyn that reaches back into the borough's heritage and history. Moreover, it's good beer and has revitalized a moribund beer scene in the City.

In fact, the current recession may have played a role in enabling the brewery to expand. Businesses that are on solid fiscal ground can afford to expand because they can take advantage of lower real estate prices and other business costs.

Let's just hope that the expanded brewery doesn't compromise on the taste and quality of its products.

Terror Sting Busts Former Stuyvesant High Teacher On Multiple Charges

Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan is mere steps from Ground Zero and is one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation. Its students regularly win major awards like the Siemens Westinghouse Award or the Intel Science Talent Competition.

Now, it may be known for one of its former teachers being busted on terror-related charges after a police bust.

A former Stuyvesant HS teacher was busted last night for selling high-powered weapons to undercover operatives he thought were connected to Middle East terror organizations, The Post has learned.

Theophilus Burroughs wet his pants when he was slapped with cuffs at a Bronx warehouse, where he was arrested in a sting operation, law-enforcement sources said. The seats on a van waiting to transport him to the 49th Precinct had to be lined with plastic.

The arrest caps a yearlong investigation that saw Burroughs allegedly negotiate the sale of firearms -- including AK-47s, assault rifles with scopes and .40-caliber guns -- during "deals" with informants in which he praised Hamas and Hezbollah and suggested killing cops and Jews, sources said.

"There's no good money in teaching," Burroughs once griped.

Burroughs, 49, a former Marine from Newark, was on unpaid medical leave from the Department of Education.

He showed up at the Westchester Square warehouse expecting to collect a cool $10,000 for a pair of night-vision goggles, two bulletproof vests and 200,000 counterfeit cigarette stamps, a source said.

Burroughs was instead hauled away by city and state tax agents, and investigators from the Bronx DA's Office.

He faces a slew of charges, including weapons possession and forgery, the source said.

Burroughs taught at Stuyvesant in 2002 and 2003, which means that he was a stone's throw from Ground Zero and the endless parade of equipment and debris carted from the site to a staging area next to the school to transport the remains of Ground Zero to Fresh Kills on Staten Island.

He allegedly proposed selling firearms in addition to the night-vision goggles, bulletproof vests, and bogus cigarette stamps and allegedly claimed that Hamas was "his people" and praised Hizbullah.

Mixed Messages In New York Primary Results

What kind of message did voters send based on last night's election returns?

Mixed messages - and it totally depends on the race we're talking about.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY15) won reelecting pretty handily despite being up on ethics charges that could get him booted from the House. His constituents didn't seem to mind, and it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the primary was the only chance to unseat him. What does that say about his constituents in Harlem? They don't care about his criminality and illegal acts - including evading paying taxes in multiple jurisdictions and to the IRS?

At the same time, the nutter Carl Paladino handily beat the GOP preferred Rick Lazio. Neither of these guys are world beaters and Paladino is a nut job whose racist and bigoted comments surely reflect his true mindset and views on the diverse population found throughout the state. He has money to burn, and that surely helped him beat Lazio. Paladino seems to have touched a nerve of discontent, but it will not be sufficient to beat Cuomo in November.

Paladino really doesn't have a chance at beating Andy Cuomo in November, but he might make it interesting with tons of money to devote to his campaign. What the primary showed is that the GOP is particularly weak in NYS - something I've been noting for years and that the GOP establishment has few candidates to run for statewide offices except retreads - Lazio was last seen running as a replacement for Rudy when Rudy withdrew from the US Senate race against Hillary Clinton following his prostate cancer diagnosis. Before that, he was pretty much a nobody - and will again return to obscurity.

Other local races of note here indicate that some voters finally got tired of criminal behavior - sending Hiram Monserrate (who was now running for Assembly after being tossed this summer from the State Senate) and Pedro Espada Jr. packing. Those two loathsome Democrats launched a coup last year to hand power back to the GOP for a few months so that they could push their own agenda and enlarge their own political fortunes, but fortune turned quite cold real fast - and both are really thugs in nice clothes.

Can we draw a larger conclusion?

I think the real story is that voters are fickle - and that predicting the outcome in November is going to be a tall order. The Delaware outcome may have made a GOP takeover in the Senate more difficult because the candidate chosen, O'Donnell is less electable than Castle. That's a slim bit of good news for Democrats on an otherwise difficult election season.

New Yorkers Go To Primary Polls

Today's primary election day in New York, and there are several races to keep an eye upon. There's the race for the NY-15 seat, currently held by the despicable Charles Rangel. He's running against Adam Clayton Powell IV, whose father lost to Rangel in 1970. Powell's father had his own ethics and legal troubles that led to Rangel upsetting Powell in 1970, and now Rangel has tax and legal woes of his own. Despite this, expect Rangel to pull through with a win today, which all but guarantees that he'll be representing Harlem again in 2011 barring Congress acting to kick him out of Congress on multiple ethics charges.

Meanwhile, the other big race to watch is the GOP race for governor, pitting Rick Lazio against Carl Paladino. Both are lamentable choices, and neither has much of a chance against Andrew Cuomo in November, but Lazio is the slightly better option given that Paladino is simply a nutcase who has shown himself to be a racist and bigot.

There's a 5-way battle among Democrats to replace Andrew Cuomo as attorney general, but there are no standouts among them. The other statewide races are for the US Senate, and neither Chuck Schumer or Kristen Gillibrand face serious opposition.

UPDATE:
So why do I think that Rangel will win? How about that despite all the anger and frustration with incumbents, light turnout is expected once again. Moreover, voters across the region and the nation are disappointed, angry, and hopeless with the political options being presented.

“All they’re doing is musical chairs,” Michael Alton, 59, a registered Democrat, said Monday as he walked his dog along Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx. “There’s no reason to vote. State government isn’t up to the challenge.”

Unlike past election years, this one has genuinely competitive primaries. On the Republican side, there is a fierce battle between former Representative Rick A. Lazio and Carl P. Paladino, a wealthy real estate developer from Buffalo, for the party’s nomination for governor. Democrats have five choices for attorney general. Incumbent lawmakers of both parties face tough races from Long Island to the Hudson Valley to Buffalo.

Yet many voters say that for all the energy and money that have gone into those campaigns, and despite the millions spent on campaign advertisements and direct mailings, they are unwilling to invest themselves in the races.

“If you start a new job,” said Minphay Chiou, a mother of two from Manhattan, “you hope you’ll have a great workplace and a great boss. But you can’t really learn much from a job interview. It’s the same with the candidates. They are interviewing with us, but who knows what we’ll see when they get there?” When it comes to Albany, Ms. Chiou said, “the people in my life feel there’s not much they can do.”

For Democrats, such emotions might reflect the fact that their party has controlled state government for the past two years, yet property taxes are still crushing and jobs scarce.

Andrew M. Cuomo, who has earned high approval ratings for his performance as the state’s attorney general and is the unchallenged Democratic candidate for governor, inspires in some voters fond wishes rather than actual hope.

Despite the Times' spin, the number of competitive primary elections is quite limited - and of the statewide races, only the GOP governors race and the Democrats race for attorney general are open questions. The other statewide races are dominated by the incumbents. Even then, Cuomo is currently polling better than either Lazio or Paladino by significant margins, meaning that the race isn't all that meaningful except to figure out which faction may dominate among the GOP between now and 2012.

Few of the candidates are actually standing out because of their position to deal with the state's crushing debt, pension obligations, fiscal irresponsibility, or how to deal with the mess in Albany. Instead, the chief issue leading up to the primary was about the Cordoba House proposal near Ground Zero which may shed light on values, but not necessarily on whether the candidate is capable of leading the state.

Using GPS Has Deadly Consequences

GPS, the ubiquitous devices that enable people to find their way around the planet, is generally seen as a good tech device.

However, there are some serious shortcomings that most people don't always heed.

One problem is that GPS considers some roads to be passable and will give directions, but the roads require off-road vehicles or are impassible to all vehicles at certain times of year. That's a situation I encountered on one trip, where the GPS squawked that we should go down a gravel road to reach a national park, but it became impassible for our sedan. Only after backtracking and taking another route, did we reach the national park and saw where the gravel road would have let out (and that road did have a sign warning for off-road/high clearance vehicles only).

Another problem is when the GPS doesn't consider vehicle height when designing the route. That's a possible contributory factor in a deadly crash this past weekend in upstate New York.

Driver John Tomaszewski, who began working for Megabus in the spring, reportedly missed a turn for the Regional Transportation Center in Syracuse, and used a GPS device to find his way down Onondaga Lake Parkway for a way back to the station, which drivers are not authorized to use when they are lost.

Investigators don't believe he braked before hitting the low-hanging bridge that crushed the top level of the double-decker bus, and he has no reason for why he missed several warning signs. Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh said, “He never saw the bridge."

Deanna Armstrong, 18, was one of four casualties in the accident, along with a Philadelphia college student, a Malaysian preacher and an information technology specialist from India. All four had been sitting in the front of the top level of the bus, which was going about 35 mph before the crash. No charges have been filed in the crash, and Megabus officials said Tomaszewski had driven that route at least eight times. Tomaszewski claims he's driven it at least 20.

The GPS may have lulled the drive into a false sense of security that he would have sufficient clearance for the bus.

This is a reason why paper maps and checking routes before attempting trips for possible road hazards is a very good idea. GPS doesn't eliminate the need to maintain good map reading skills or to be alert for possible road hazards like low road clearances.

Hamas Depicts Liberation of Tel Aviv and "Peace Process" Continues

Hamas is busy once again with its revisionist history and indoctrination to hate. Members of the Islamic terrorist group released a video showing an alternative future where Hamas has "liberated" Tel Aviv and set Israeli institutions ablaze and pranced and danced on their ruins.

It shows a graphic simulation of the burning down of the High Court of Justice and the Bank of Israel buildings in Jerusalem, and cars with Palestinian flags driving across Ayalon Highway.

The beginning of the video shows a Palestinian refugee saying "Inshallah, the Jihad will take back the homeland."

The next image is of Palestinian students telling their teacher they want to become part of the resistance; followed by an image of an armed Palestinian outlining the liberation operation.

After Israel is successfully attacked and "liberated," Palestinians are shown walking along the Tel Aviv promenade and on its streets.

Note that the video starts out with Hamas thugs teaching children about Israel's inevitable destruction and not a peaceful coexistence.

Indoctrination and hate spewing videos such as this are prohibited under the Oslo Accords and follow up agreements. The Palestinian Authority is supposed to stop inciting Palestinians to violence, including through the use of videos such as this.

This is the supposed partner in peace that Israel is to make a deal with? Hamas is part of the Palestinian Authority and it has steadfastly refused to recognize Israel's existence or any prior peace agreement or deal. It also brings into question the Palestinian Authority and Fatah's ability to make a peace deal when it isn't exactly a legitimate voice for the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, the US continues to suggest that this is the last opportunity for peace. That cannot be further from the truth. This peace gambit is perhaps the last opportunity for the Obama Administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but the Israelis and Palestinians will have an opportunity for peace when the Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist and a two-state solution that doesn't overwhelm Israel through demographics and a right of return that eliminates Israel's Jewish heritage.

Israel has repeatedly made concessions and taken steps for peace with its neighbors, but has been rebuffed incessantly. That includes the Gaza disengagement that gave Gaza to the Palestinians. Instead of using that opportunity to build an economy and industry, the Palestinians destroyed greenhouses and opted for Hamas by overwhelming numbers and launched a rocket war when Israel prevented suicide bombers from entering Israel via security fences. The fences and Israeli reprisal attacks would not be necessary if the Palestinians stopped trying to kill Israelis at every opportunity. But with Hamas founded and dedicated to Israel's elimination, that cannot happen.

Only the diplomats like Hillary Clinton seem to think that they can substitute their own reality for the facts on the ground.

UPDATE:
Talks between Palestinians and Israelis at the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh have gotten off to a real rocky start, and we haven't even gotten past the introductions. There was no need to hold public talks when the delicate negotiations could have been handled in private enabling the parties to hash out delicate subjects so that any deal could be done fully formed. That's how Oslo got done, and it is how other peace deals have been undertaken. Public peace process attempts haven't been successful.

The fact that the sides are already talking failure shows the folly of claiming that these are the last chance for talks between the parties - everyone knows that they may come back at some point, but there's no pressure to do so and the Israelis know that the Palestinians aren't serious about peace because they aren't willing to give up terrorism or recognize Israel's rights.

Power Generations Runs Into Transmission Troubles

It is a difficult enough task to site new power generating facilities, even wind and solar powered facilities. But that isn't even half the task.

There's the problem of transmitting that power to where it is needed.

Wind and solar powered facilities are often quite far from where the power is consumed, and that requires high power transmission lines. Opposition to siting those power lines means that there are days when you can have power to transmit but can't because of insufficient capacity in the network.

It's a situation that must change, and soon.

President Barack Obama has made the promotion of renewables central to his administration. A 2008 Department of Energy study found that the United States could, in theory, get 20 percent of its electricity from wind by 2030. Right now, however, that figure is less than 2 percent nationally. In Denmark, by contrast, about 20 percent of the electricity supply comes from wind.

In Texas, wind accounts for 6 percent of the electricity on the grid. But after a decade of rampant growth, wind is running into a significant constraint: There are too few transmission lines to carry the power. The wind turbines have mostly gone up in the western part of the state — hundreds of miles from the big cities in central and eastern Texas that need the power. The result is that on windy days, some turbines must shut down because there are not enough wires to transport the electricity they produce.

Lack of transmission is a national problem, especially for wind, which is often generated far from population centers. “The ability to site and build transmission is emerging as one of the highest risks facing the electric industry over the next 10 years,” according to a report last year from the North American Electric Reliability Corp., an industry group that sets operating standards for the grid.

Europe, similarly concerned, is hoping to build transmission lines under the North Sea, which would provide new ways to move electricity generated by offshore wind turbines and other renewable energy sources.

In Texas, state officials have moved aggressively to remedy the transmission deficiency. In 2008 regulators approved a $5 billion network of wires, which ultimately will stretch more than 2,300 miles, or 3,700 kilometers, around the state. The regulators are determining, one by one, exactly where each line will go. Construction on the first of the lines should start this autumn.

Unlike other states, Texas has a stand-alone power grid, making it easier to plan and site transmission lines. That effort has brought praise from renewable-energy advocates around the United States. The Texas process helped inspire a similar initiative in California, said V. John White, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, which is based in California. Mr. White said efforts there focused on supporting solar and geothermal power, as well as wind, and included more input from environmentalists.

But even in Texas — a state long accustomed to oil pipelines and other energy infrastructure — opposition to the transmission lines is mounting. Many landowners do not want to surrender their land to high-voltage power lines, even though they would be paid to do so. “The meters on the attorneys are running,” said Robert Weatherford, the president of Save Our Scenic Hill Country Environment, one of several groups fighting to keep two proposed power lines out of a scenic patch of central Texas, with partial success so far.

Besides transmission, Texas is grappling with other wind-related issues. One is cost. Long-term wholesale contracts for Texas wind power remain about twice as costly as generation from coal and nuclear plants, according to Michael E. Webber, the associate director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas in Austin.

Texas is in a better position than most states because the state's transmission network is stand-alone, and even here the situation is extremely tough. The problems are magnified in places like the New York metro area because of population density, energy demands, and a lack of power generating capacity within the region.

NIMBY is preventing the construction of power lines, and some groups contend that the power lines would simply allow cheaper coal and oil plants to power needs locally rather than enable the alternative energy projects proposed within New Jersey. That argument falls flat when one views the opposition to siting any new power generating facilities - even offshore wind power projects if they're too close to shore (and therefore increase the costs for those projects even more).

New Jersey is also considering using brownfields as solar power generating facilities. That's an idea that makes tremendous sense, especially for landfills that have limited alternative uses. The problem for those facilities is hooking them up to an overburdened grid to ensure that the power flows to where it is needed.

Ever Increasing Costs Threaten ARC Tunnel Project

New Jersey has temporarily halted work on the ARC Tunnel project that would add additional rail capacity between New Jersey and New York City under the Hudson River. The two-track tunnel would double the rail capacity, but would benefit only NJ Transit. It had been decided that NJ Transit would terminate the new tunnel at a new terminal under 34th Street at Herald Square instead of at Penn Station.

The cost for this project was estimated at $8.7 billion but there are already cost overruns and cost increases that are adding hundreds of millions to the overall cost and we're barely into the project. More to the point, the project isn't going to provide the kind of linkages that were originally envisioned for the project because it will not result in the kind of redundancy that a 4-track tunnel system to Penn Station would provide.

James Weinstein, New Jersey Transit's executive director, told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the monthlong suspension of all new activity will be used to re-examine the budget numbers. He also hopes to use the time to prove to all parties involved that the project's $8.7 billion cost estimate is accurate.

"During that 30 days, we're going to do a full evaluation of our go-forward costs," Weinstein said. "We feel pretty strongly that the current cost estimate, which is $8.7 billion, is a number we can achieve. But I'm under clear direction by (Gov. Chris Christie) that this is not going to be a bottomless pit. If we are to go forward, he wants to know the costs and budget are under control."

Work already under way on the tunnel, including a track underpass in North Bergen and a tunnel segment under the Palisades, will be allowed to continue during the suspension. But all new work, including real estate acquisition and the awarding of one major contract already bid, will be frozen.

The federal government and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey already each are putting in $3 billion for the tunnel, which is the nation's largest transportation project. New Jersey's share is $2.7 billion.

However, the federal government could require the state to add hundreds of millions in contingency funds to the project budget, if it determines that insufficient money was budgeted to cover overruns. Their concerns over the tunnel's cost come in the wake of reviews of other high-profile New York regional transit project — some well over budget and significantly behind schedule.

The entire project is scheduled to be completed by late 2018 and will add two rail lines into New York from New Jersey. NJ Transit officials have said it will allow them to more than double the number of trains during peak commute times, from 23 to 48.

The need for additional capacity is critical and the infrastructure - the existing two tracks to Penn Station are in dire need for additional capacity and upgrades. However, the questions that aren't being asked are whether costs can be contained and whether it would make more sense to build to Penn Station.

NJ Transit is keen on the separate terminus, even though Amtrak has sought its own two-track addition at some point in the future. NJ Transit claims that it couldn't run the tracks to Penn Station because it might damage the existing tunnels that are more than 100 years old and that the cost would be even greater.

The project is being funded primarily from New Jersey and the Port Authority, but New York City and the state of New York are not making any contributions to the project, which has some New Jerseyeans upset over the imbalance. The federal government is also kicking in $3 billion.

Some 3 million cubic yards of rock and dirt will be removed during construction (about twice the amount removed during the building of the World Trade Center complex). Fortunately, NJ Transit has the perfect place to dump it: Kearny Yard, an 80-acre railcar storage yard by the Hackensack River. It will be used to raise the railroad yard some 20 feet above the surrounding flood plain.

A joint venture of Schiavone Construction Co., J.F. Shea Construction and Skanska USA Civil has received a contract totaling $259 million for the final design and construction of the Palisades tunnel; Ferreira Construction Co. of Branchburg, N.J., received $13.6 million to construct the Tonnelle Avenue underpass in North Bergen. In addition, a joint venture of Barnard Construction Co. of Pompton Plains, N.J., and Judlau Contracting Inc. is awaiting formal approval of its $583 million bid to build the 5,700-foot-long Manhattan tunnel segments; that work is to commence in 2014. Contracts for the 7,400-foot tunnel sections underneath the Hudson have not yet been set.

Those contracts will be unaffected by the freeze, but contracts down the road are threated - and the delays themselves can and will result in additional costs.

I'm surprised that more people haven't pointed out the folly of maintaining two separate 2-track systems that will terminate at separate unconnected terminals when a signal, power, or train malfunction in any one of those tracks can result in a shutdown and significant delays between New Jersey and New York. For instance, a train breaking down in the Hudson tube to New York can result in delays to Amtrak all along the Northeast Corridor and NJ Transit's NE corridor lines. That situation wouldn't change one iota. NJ Transit might see some improvement, but Amtrak would still suffer massive delays. If all four tracks went to Penn Station, a delay or train malfunction could be better handled to reduce the effect on the customers of both Amtrak and NJ Transit.