Bus travels, Tour and transport

Principal Karen Schade looks at the departing third graders, a satisfied smile crossing her face.

"I love being here. It's a wonderful environment," she says.

Schade has been principal of School Lane since 2002. The school has 596 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and a waiting list of applicants.

"We really get the opportunity to try out new educational theories...We're not here saying we're better than a school district. We're offering a different environment, a different program. Our message is to provide a safe environment for kids to learn - not just physically safe, but emotionally and intellectually as well."

That message becomes apparent in the comments of students and staff alike. This school is working.

"It's not a boring school; it's a fun school," says Sasha Wilkerson of Bensalem, a second-grader.

School Lane is making "adequate yearly progress" for all but one year since the Pennsylvania Systen of School Assessment was initiated about six years ago.

If you had to give a report card to today's charter schools, most would earn good grades. The charter-school movement began in 1997 through a federal initiative to bring more innovation to public education.

Charter schools are schools founded by parents or educators, which receive a charter to operate for a certain number of years. The charters can be renewed. The schools are funded by the school districts in which their students reside, based on a per-student cost formula for educating a child in that district, explains Wendy Ormsby, director of the Souderton Charter School Cooperative.

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With the Malaysian ringgit strengthening against most major currencies, including the US dollar, the Euro and Sterling, a decline in furniture exports in the current year is being forecast.

Exports of Malaysian furniture are expected to decline by up to 15%, from RM7.95 billion in 2010 to RM6.8 billion for 2011. This decline would be the worst in the past 3 years.

The Malaysia Furniture Entrepreneur Association (MFEA) reported that exports by its members had declined from RM1.97 billion in the first quarter 2010 to RM1.66 billion in the first quarter of 2011. Exports for the second quarter are expected to come in below RM1.98 billion.
v For the Japanese furniture market, exports registered a 12% decline to RM166 million for the first quarter 2011 compared to RM186 million for the first quarter 2010. Japan was the second largest market for MFEA members in 2010, with exports valued at RM709 million out of a total of RM7.95 billion for the year.

Global WoodMart - one-stop centre for buyers and suppliers
The Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) expects that its Global WoodMart (MGW) 2012 exhibition will showcase timber and timber products from both tropical and temperate countries. MTC added that MGW 2012 will act as a one-stop centre for both buyers and suppliers of timber and timber products.

Official partner organizations of MGW 2012 are the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and FrenchTimber. AHEC has been active in the Asian markets for many years but FrenchTimber is a relative newcomer.

FrenchTimber was formed in 2001 at the initiative of the “Fédération Nationale du Bois” and a group of French sawmills and it pursues two main goals :

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Staff members of Georgia's Public Service Commission said Thursday they are investigating whether a charter bus company already grounded by the federal government has violated any state regulations.

Last week, CBS Atlanta News informed the PSC that the federal government had ordered East Point-based JCT Motorcoach to stop carrying passengers after finding the company was operating illegally under a different name.

The feds said the company had falsified vehicle maintenance records and used drivers that tested positive for alcohol and drugs.

Despite the federal order, the company is still certified and licensed in the state of Georgia.

CBS Atlanta's consumer investigator Adam Murphy was forcefully pushed out of the bus company's office last Friday when he showed up to question its owners.

Murphy then informed the PSC about the federal order.

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The state’s timber harvests rebounded in 2010 after a record low the previous year, driven by a buying boom in China, according to an annual report by the Oregon Department of Forestry.

Harvests increased for every forest ownership class except for the Bureau of Land Management, accounting for a total of 3.2 billion board feet and a 17 percent increase over the 2009 numbers, state timber economists say.

In Columbia County, the amount of timber harvested rose at a rate less than the state average, going from 113 million board feet in 2009 to 123 million board feet in 2010.

But loggers say their situation remains far from optimal. After all, 2009 saw the worst logging output since the Great Depression.

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Beginning next school year, the Lake Wales Charter System will provide its own bus transportation for all of its students.

Previously, the charter system only provided bus transportation for three of its six schools: Bok Academy, Babson Park Elementary and Hillcrest Elementary.

"Transportation for us is very important because it gives us control over the bell schedule," said Robin Gibson, a Lake Wales lawyer who represents the charter schools.

Gibson said the system is considering changing its school hours to possibly a longer day.

"We haven't decided anything but we need the options for the length of the scheduling," Gibson said.

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Most Oregon legislators agreed Monday that one man’s trash is another man’s fuel and the state shouldn’t interfere with his ability to put it to good use while others opposed a measure to exempt woody biomass from regulations applied to solid wastes.

Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany, introduced House Bill 3687 as a solution to uncertainty about what state rules should apply to woody biomass burners, which generate power by super-heating wood byproducts previously treated as waste. The technology is generally considered a renewable source of energy since it is fueled by what would otherwise go unused and works within the existing carbon cycle of forests rather than burning fossil fuels that were removed from the cycle under the Earth’s surface.

“Treating biomass boilers as solid waste incinerators could result in closures of existing biomass facilities and slow the development of new ones,” Olson said, which he feared would cost Oregonians jobs and weaken the state’s push for renewable energy sources.

Yet some argued the bill would the exact opposite if approved by the Senate and became law.

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Haines Tours of Gladwin, Michigan, has been ordered to immediately cease operations by the United States Department of Transportation. They are the third bus company to be shut down by the federal government this month.

The order came following a citation given on May 27 to Roger Haines, owner of Haines Tours, for carrying passengers in the bus’s cargo compartment. The ticket was given by an Ohio Highway Patrol officer in Lake Township, Ohio. The bus was chartered to take 62 passengers from Roscommon, Michigan, to Clyde, Ohio. However six of the 62 were found to be riding in the cargo compartment with unsecured baggage.

“Great customer service is not always saying, ‘yes’,” says Guillermo Williams of Rochester Hills’ Max Impact, a customer service training company. “Sometimes you have to say ‘no’ for safety or legal reasons.”

He said that when a customer’s demands or desires cannot be legally meet great customer service dictates gently but firmly explaining the reasons.

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Coming back from the worst year on record, Oregon's 2010 timber harvest increased 17 percent to to 3.2 billion board feet.

A spike in lumber prices and increased exports to China drove up the demand and price for logs, which in turn caused the increased harvest total, according to an Oregon Department of Forestry news release.

Oregon loggers cut 2.7 billion board feet in 2009, a record low. A board foot is a slab of wood 12 inches square and one inch thick.

The increased cut in 2010 came primarily from private timberland. Large corporate owners provided 2.2 billion board feet, or 68 percent of the harvest. Smaller family forest owners increased their harvest by 145 percent to a total of 228 million board feet.

The timber harvest on land managed by the U.S. Forest Service -- which has the largest timber holdings in Oregon -- increased by 32 percent, to 254 million board feet.

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A charter bus full of teenagers from Texas collided with an overturned tractor-trailer rig on a dark stretch of Interstate 10 near the Mississippi line early Monday, injuring about two dozen people.

One passenger was listed in serious condition, authorities said, but the rest of the injuries were believed to be relatively minor cuts and bruises.

Greg Eubanks, an Alabama state trooper spokesman in Mobile, said a bus carrying 48 teenagers and two chaperones from Del Rio, Texas, to Orlando, Fla., slammed into the trailer of an 18-wheeler moments after it overturned just a few miles inside Alabama on I-10 about 12:30 a.m. CDT.

“The bus (driver) just didn’t see it,” Eubanks said. A second bus also full of students from Del Rio wasn’t involved in the crash, he said.

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Wood smugglers of the district are eyeing Maharashtra's dense forest as no quality teak wood is left in the forests in the district now. They are illegally transporting teak wood into Adilabad from bordering Maharashtra.

Adilabad forest officials are going to hold a meeting with forest officials of Maharashtra next month to control wood smuggling in bordering areas. Maharashtra forest staff inspecting the forests ope-ned fire on wood smugglers entering their forests in Kinwat taluk through the Kosai jungles in Talamad-ugu bordering Maharashtra. Wood smugglers are transporting teak wood into Adilabad from bordering Mah-arashtra by crossing the river Penganga which does not have much water now.

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The highway patrol just released the results of more than 1,000 school bus inspections.

The good news is 89-percent received passing scores.

But some districts had to make repairs.

KRCG’s Facebook crew breaks down the results.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol inspects buses every February, March, April and again before the school year starts.

The highway patrol believes the inspections are making buses a lot safer.

"School buses are probably one of the safest modes of transportation we have when you look at traffic crash statistics. In most cases students do not actually get injured or killed when they're on a school bus, it's after they get off that crashes occur,” MO State Highway Patrol Capt. Tim Hull said.

Out of 1,006 bus inspections 28 buses were marked out of service.

Smaller districts are hit hardest because they have fewer buses running.

For example: the numbers show 33-percent of Fayette’s buses were ordered out of service, that's 4 out of 12.

A major defect forcing a district to take a bus off the streets could be something like a cracked frame, or a fuel leak.

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Wood producers are calling the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) attention regarding the illegal importation of plywood from China, saying the product is threatening the businesses of local producers and the safety of consumers.

Smuggled plywood, the Philippine Woods Producers Association (PWPA) said in a press conference on Tuesday, is only 4.5mm thin but often marketed to be 5mm thick. Chinese plywood is also unable to handle sanding and contains glue with high formaldehyde emissions, endangering those who work with the material, it added.

The Chinese version sells at a lower price and has forced local producers to lower their own prices in order to compete with the smuggled plywood.

"This is a coy attempt at tricking consumers who are usually naive of the existence of such standards. It also robs the government of unpaid VAT and import duties amounting to about P76 to P80 million monthly for 400 forty-foot container vans. These illegal imports unfairly compete and undercut the prices of local plywood manufacturers," said PWPA deputy director Maila Vasquez.

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Columbus City Schools must slash the number of COTA bus rides it purchases next school year for its high-school students to keep the annual cost from rising, but officials couldn't say last week how the cutbacks would be made.

"Once we have a decision on the COTA bus passes for students, we will share that information with all impacted students and their families," a district representative wrote in an email.

The district used to pay a flat fee for bus service for all high-school students, but now it pays 90cents per student ride. The contract that started in October capped the total cost at $600,000 for the first year, but that limit goes away this fall.

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Wood producers have called on the Environment Department to extend deadlines to haul previously-cut timber so that processors would be able to recoup their investments.

Under Executive Order 23, or the moratorium on wood harvesting, wood producers were given a three-month period to transport timber cut prior to the enforcement of the EO. The moratorium expired on May 21, three months after the February 21 reckoning date.

“Since these are wood that have been cut prior to approval of EO 23, we think it is only appropriate to allow us an extension of the deadline. This will help keep the wood industry alive until the government decides to revoke the moratorium," Philippine Woods Producers Association (PWPA) deputy director Maila Vasquez said in an interview over the weekend.

The moratorium on wood transport is not the only thing that is worrying wood producers lately.

Last week, PWPA called on government to tighten its watch over the illegal importation of plywood from China.

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They are commonplace on just about every vehicle on the road today, but a Delta-based transportation company is rolling through new territory with seat belts for its passengers.

The three-point safety restraints come on eight, brand new, 56-passenger motor coaches ordered by Charter Bus Lines which is headquartered on River Road, just west of the Alex Fraser Bridge.

Built at the Prevost plant in Quebec, Charter Bus Lines decided to get ahead of the curve and have them equipped with the belts. Legislation to have seat belts on all new buses is expected to be introduced by 2014.

Sheldon Eggen, president and CEO of Charter Bus Lines, which has been in business since 1949, said the choice to go with the belts earlier than required was really no choice at all.

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Analog forestry mimics a forest to create an economically productive and ecologically diverse landscape
It’s afternoon and wisps of clouds have already enveloped the Sora Muni shrine that keeps watch over Sri Lanka’s Horton Plains massif. Here, Tamil workers of the Thotulagalla tea estate in Haputale offer a sacrificial goat to the deity following the annual pruning of tea bushes.

It is ironic to see principles of analog forestry being piloted in a tea plantation. In its intent and design this silvicultural practice cocks a snook at the country’s monocultural plantation economy, a vestige of the colonial landscape.

Analog forestry attempts to create an economically productive and ecologically diverse tree-dominated landscape ‘analogous’ in structure and function to the nearest stable forest. It draws inspiration from the home gardens of rural Kandy which are highly productive, intensively farmed small plots that produce food throughout the year.

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Just two weeks after a little girl was killed after trying to get on her school bus in north Iowa, a community hundreds of miles away is rallying together to make sure it doesn't happen to any other children.

"I'm teaching a class on school bus safety," said Susan Powell, an Early Childhood Family Education Teacher.

So that what happened to seven-year-old Kadyn Halvorsen in Iowa, doesn't happen again.

"Oh my gosh, losing a child is one of the most horrible things on the planet," said Powell.

Kadyn was hit by a pick-up truck two weeks ago, while crossing the street to board her bus.

"I really wish that people could pay attention and know the rules of the road," said Powell.

But until that happens, Susan Powell is going to focus on children entering kindergarten, to make sure they have all the tools they need to stay safe.

"They need to watch and listen and they need to pay attention to the bus driver because if they are getting ready to cross the street, and for some reason the bus driver sees in their mirror that a car is not stopping, the bus driver will beep their horn and that tells the children - freeze! Stop!,"said Powell.

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A bill allowing a private Native corporation to pick choice lands in the nation's largest national forest is crucial to saving Southeast Alaska's timber industry, Sen. Lisa Murkowski told a Senate committee.

Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Wednesday that her bill conveying about 80,000 acres in the Tongass National Forest to Sealaska Corp. has seen 150 changes since 2008, and it's time to act on it.

"The timber industry in Southeast Alaska is hanging by a thread," Murkowski told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she is the ranking member. "Without passage of this bill, Alaska will likely be forced out of the timber industry."

Sealaska is owed the acreage under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. What makes the Murkowski-sponsored bill controversial is that it would allow Sealaska, which has nearly 20,000 shareholders, to choose lands outside areas designated by the act.

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Some Ohio lawmakers think advertising on the outsides of school buses would help struggling school districts bolster their budgets.

Bipartisan bills introduced in the Ohio Legislature would let schools sell ad space on their buses. Campaign advertising would not be allowed, nor would ads for tobacco, alcohol, gambling, anything sexual.

Senate sponsor Joe Schiavoni tells The Advocate of Newark that schools superintendents need ways to make up for lost government funding. He says if the ads help buy supplies or keep teachers on the payroll, it's a good thing.

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All right folks, it's time to 'fess up. No names mentioned, but you know who you are.

Those of you burning treated timber in your home fires have been spewing toxic fumes into Nelson's air. And Nelson City and Tasman District councils want you to stop.

In case you haven't heard, CCA-treated timber contains chrome, copper and arsenic. When the timber is burnt, most of the arsenic goes up the chimney and into the atmosphere attached to minute particles.

The rest of the arsenic is left in the ash, along with the residual chrome and copper, and is, according to Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science Wellington-based scientist Perry Davy, "not what you would want to be putting on your garden".

Dr Davy's findings of spikes in atmospheric inorganic arsenic during the winter of 2009 at Tahunanui monitoring sites were drawn from air quality monitoring work commissioned by the Nelson City Council.

The Tahunanui monitoring is part of the council's programme to understand, manage and improve air quality in the region. To meet new national standards in 2008, the council introduced its air quality plan, aimed at making a 70 per cent reduction in superfine particulate emissions, 80 per cent of which was identified as originating from domestic fires and wood burners.

Suspecting people were burning treated timber on their fires, Dr Davy looked at arsenic levels in three locations around the country already being monitored by GNS for air quality – Auckland, Wainuiomata and Tahunanui – and found dramatic increases in levels during winter in all three, consistent with the main fire-burning period.

In the Tahunanui case, he found levels of arsenic around 40 times greater in winter (spiking many times from May to September during 2009) than during January of the same year when levels were almost nothing.

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The New York Association for Pupil Transportation is calling for state action on proposed laws to increase penalties for passing stopped school buses.

The organization found in a study that drivers illegally pass a stopped school bus more than 50,000 times a day. Several children have been killed over the past few years by drivers passing buses illegally, and 75 kids were reported injured by vehicles that had passed their buses between 2002 and 2007.

Assemblyman Peter Rivera has proposed a bill authorizing the placement of video cameras on school buses to record motorist violations, with images to be used as evidence in prosecution of offenders. The bill also makes it a felony of criminally negligent homicide when a child is killed by a driver passing a stopped school bus.

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Authorities in Madagascar say logging of precious woods persists in its forests despite a 2010 decree banning logging, transporting and export of such woods.

Police seized 30 tons of rosewood being transported in two trucks last month in Antalaha, on the northeastern coast of the country where the problem is most acute, Inter Press Service reported last week.

Three trucks transporting 115 rosewood logs were intercepted in the southeast of the island a few days earlier, and more than 1,000 pieces of another kind of precious rosewood found in Malagasy forests have been seized in the same region.

Madagascar has the biggest rosewood reserves in the world.

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Even though the transport department has set the ball rolling for the implementation of the long-delayed school bus policy, private operators, who own almost 90% of school buses in the city, have complained that several changes mandated by the policy will unduly add to their financial burden.

Some of them, claims the association of bus operators, are needless, and even risky for the school children.

Talking to DNA on Friday after the first meeting of stakeholders — school principals and bus operators — organised by the transport department, Anil Garg, president of school bus operators’ association, said, “About 70% of recommendations in the policy are acceptable to us. The government should revise the rest as they are needless, impractical and add to our burden.” This resistance could mean a further delay in the implementation of the policy.

According to Garg, 3,340 vehicles like Maruti Omnis, Tata Sumos, Qualis etc, illegally ferry students, while 2,200 dedicated buses are run by school managements and private operators. Another 4,500 operate as both company and school buses.

Outlining his argument, Garg said, “Our expenses will double in implementing the policy recommendations. Until now, we needed only a driver and a male attendant, but now we will have to also hire a lady attendant for the girls.”

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A FARMER is about to launch a yacht that has taken him more than 20 years to complete.

Iain Tolhurst, of Hardwick Estate, Whitchurch, started building Naida in 1999 but his preparations date back more than 20 years.

The 36ft Pinky Ketch is based on those that came from the east coast of America in the early 19th century.

The craft was built entirely from either reclaimed or indigenous timber from the estate, where Mr Tolhurst runs an organic farm.

He started collecting fallen trees after the hurricanes of 1987 and 1990 and used a mobile band saw to mill them on site. The wood was then stacked to dry in a basic shed.


Mr Tolhurst, 57, said: “I have used no plywood, not even in the deck. The main deck is topped with reclaimed pitch pine, which is the only non-local timber and came from the demolition of the Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory in Reading.” He made both of the boat’s masts and some of the brass fittings while the 700sq ft sails were handmade by an artisan sails-maker.

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A bus driver in North Carolina is being hailed a hero after convincing a gun-wielding seventh grader to hand over his loaded gun during a terrifying bus ride.

The 12-year-old boy tried to hijack the school bus to Washington so he could shoot government officials, witnesses told ABC News Charlotte affiliate WSOC-TV.

Driver Evans Okoduwa said today that while was scared during Monday's incident he knew that if he didn't get the child to drop his weapon he "could have been shot."

"I was driving the bus approaching one of the student's stops when he stood and approached me with a gun in his hand," said Okoduwa.

"I got very scared and I thought he immediately was going to use it on me," said the driver. "But after he had stopped and I began to try to get into conversation with him I was a little calmer and said a little prayer in my heart."

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The Cochin port is all set to make it big in timber imports. In an effort to attract more timber imports to Kochi and thereby increase revenue from this source, the CPT has decided to provide ample discounts to timber storage in the CPT yards.

Currently, the Cochin Port is handling about 60,000 tonnes of timber imports every year. The attempt is to make it more than 1.5 lakh tonnes a year. "As of now, most of the imported timber needed for South Kerala comes to the Tuticorin port, where currently about 5.5 lakh tonnes of timber is being handled. The attempt is to attract a share of this to Kochi. We have decided to provide discounts in the storage rate in a slabwise manner. The discount is expected to attract timber imports as a major share of the expenditure goes to the storage charges," said Unnikrishnan Nair, traffic manager, Cochin Port Trust. As part of the new system there will be a 30 percent discount for timber storage at various storage yards under the CPT in the first slab. "The discount will be proportional to the volume of import. When the import increase the rate of discount will also increase. In the second slab we are planning to give a discount of 50 percent in storage charges," he said.

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Residents of Brooklyn and Baltimore searching for an affordable way to travel between the two cities can now enjoy a round trip for just $70 with Monsey Tours, a New York-based commuter and charter bus company. Available at www.MonseyBus.com, Monsey Tours recently introduced a commuter Baltimore route with service running Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with a new site at www.TheBaltimoreLine.com.

“Monsey Tours is providing an economical, hassle-free solution for commuters traveling between Baltimore and New York. With round trip tickets on sale for just $70, riding with Monsey Tours is significantly more affordable than flying or taking the train. Plus, our fleet of modernized coaches guarantees a luxurious, comfortable ride from start to finish,” said Chaim Lunger, CEO of the New York charter bus company.

Like the rest of Monsey Tours' commuter and charter bus routes, the Brooklyn-Baltimore line is manned by the company's acclaimed coach operators. From recommending local attractions to trudging through the snow to bring customers tea and water, the charter bus company's experienced and professional drivers never hesitate to go the extra mile.

“The drive from Brooklyn to Baltimore is not known for being an easy trip — and the same can be said for the return route north. From hopping on the Verrazano Bridge to navigating the New Jersey Turnpike to stopping to pay a number of tolls, the ride takes a lot out of drivers and their vehicles, which is why so many passengers prefer to travel by bus,” Lunger said.

The commuter and charter bus company's Baltimore line offers service to and from 14th Avenue and 53rd Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn and the Seven Mile Market, located at 4000 Seven Mile Ln. in Pikesville, M.D. Busses travel from Brooklyn to Baltimore on Sundays at 10 a.m., Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. and Thursdays at 6 p.m., while Brooklyn-bound busses depart from Baltimore Sundays at 4 p.m., Tuesdays at 3 p.m. and Fridays at 8 a.m.

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South Australia's softwood timber industry will face the challenge of maintaining the quality of timber, now that more than 100 years of growth will be sold to private investors.

South Australian Treasurer Jack Snelling yesterday announced the sale of plantations would go ahead, because a regional impact statement found it wouldn't have a significant impact on the economy of the state's south-east.

A number of conditions have been included in the sale, including ForestrySA's retention of management rights for the next ten years.

Forestry analyst Robert Eastment says growth cycles and timber quality must be kept up to ensure the industry's long-term future.

"Forestry of South Australia is an extremely professional organisation," he said.

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The former chief of the Recovery School District, Paul Vallas, says he inherited a "terrible" bus transportation system in 2007. But now, nearly four years later, there are questions about the amount of money being spent and whether the RSD is getting the most bang for its buck in a tight economy.

When Recovery School District buses, operated now by Durham School Services of Illinois, arrive to start the day, they are rarely full. In fact, in many cases there are only a couple of students on board an entire bus. And charter schools are siphoning off more each day.

In the 2008-09 school year, the RSD bused 7,500 students; this school year, only 5,700 kids.

"It’s a bit of a mess,” said Louella Givens, a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Givens said it’s time to rethink the entire transportation system. Now, the RSD buses any kid who lives more than a mile from school. And because the students can go to the school of their choice, the RSD is busing kids long distances, from the lower Ninth Ward to the west bank and from New Orleans East to Uptown.

While our society has begun to fully enter the digital content stage, it's good to get a reminder of what the world was like before the Internet existed. Over Easter vacation, I opted to stay with a good friend of mine in Orange County rather than make the tedious journey back to the east coast. As an avid music fan herself, my friend suggested that we visit a record store in Laguna Beach called the Sound Spectrum.

Now, if you have not listened to my USDRadio program, read any of my previous columns or met me in person, you probably do not understand my deep seeded and, honestly, pretty extreme love of music. When I walked into the Sound Spectrum, I felt like I was in heaven. The walls were plastered in posters of the Grateful Dead, Bob Marley and The Beatles. The racks were filled with an excellent assortment of used CDs (my friend actually found the incredible album "Dylan and the Dead," which I highly recommend), posters, accessories and T-shirts. The sign outside read that the store had been open since 1967. The friendly man at the counter, who happened to have impeccable taste in music, was friendly, helpful and just as excited as my friend and I at our discoveries.

Small, independent record stores like the Sound Spectrum are a dying breed. Though larger stores, like the famous Amoeba stores in Los Angeles and San Francisco (I found the relatively rare vinyl addition of Little Feat's excellent live album "Waiting for Columbus" at the L.A. location), still manage some success, it is relatively rare for anyone, including intense music fans, to possess hard copies of albums they love. Artists and record companies struggle to keep CDs relevant, sometimes resorting to adding extra features like videos to the package, which, in most cases, are pretty superfluous and can be found just as easily online for free.

This is where Record Store Day comes in. Each year in mid-April, many major artists release vinyl editions of rare recordings, concerts or collaborations exclusively available in record stores like the Sound Spectrum. If you were at Coachella, you may remember the Zia tent that also offered Record Store Day offerings and artist signings over the weekend to celebrate the musical holiday. Not only did I get to meet one of my favorite folk artists, the Tallest Man on Earth, but I also helped to support him through the purchase of a hard copy of his newest EP.

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State transport undertakings are warming up to the multinationals despite premium pricing
Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland have been locked in a battle for leadership in the bus segment for quite some time now, with each having around 43 per cent market share.

Volvo, for example, is negotiating with 15-20 state transport undertakings (STUs) to bag contracts for supplying long distance buses.

Mercedes-Benz too is vying for similar contracts on the back of impressive response it got from the STUs in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

MAN is also gearing up to launch a variety of products under the luxury and city bus segment.

Industry experts say Indian bus buyers including STUs and private fleet owners are warming up to these international bus brands despite their premium price tags (they cost 15-20 per cent more) for two reasons: one, they have the capacity to absorb higher wear and tear, and two, there is a growing demand for luxury and super-luxury buses from passengers.

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Having trouble seeing the forest for the trees? A newly released United States map might be able to help.

The map, created by Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) scientists, is the most precise representation yet of the height and coverage of U.S. forests and woodlands. The data will provide a baseline for understanding both forest resources and carbon flux, study leader Josef Kellndorfer of WHRC said in a statement.

"This dataset will be useful to foresters, wildlife ecologists, resource managers and scientists alike," Kellndorfer said.

Forests store carbon in living vegetation, dead wood and leaf litter. Understanding this carbon storage is important for understanding how carbon cycles in and out of the atmosphere, and thus refining predictions about climate change. Understanding forest cover can also help researchers conserve species, understand wildfire risk and manage timber production, said WHRC study researcher Wayne Walker.

"Maps of key forest attributes like canopy height and carbon stock have not existed for the U.S. at this level of spatial detail," Walker said in a statement.

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Township resident Yanbin Ma is among a group of area residents who have applied to start the Hanyu International Academy, one of two Mandarin Immersion charter schools that could accept Millburn students in fall 2012. The schools would charge no tuition, but would receive 90 percent of the average per-pupil costs from the local public school districts.
Ma, who is President of the Millburn-Short Hills Chinese Association, said he and others were looking for options to teach their children Chinese. Beyond private school, weekend classes and short-lived after school programs, the choices they found were scarce.

"We want our kids to know Chinese, to read and write Chinese when they grow up," he said.

Ma says the language offerings in the public schools are not commensurate with the growing Asian population. He said he and other Millburn parents gained the support of former language supervisor Adrienne Tator in pushing for Chinese education at the elementary and middle school levels, but the effort did not go further. The only time Chinese is taught is at the AP level in high school.

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The state of emergency that was issued for Henderson County on Monday due to rising flood waters does not necessarily mean that classes in the local school district will be canceled today.

"The state of emergency declared on the roads may not be the same ones that our buses travel," said Henderson County Schools Superintendent Tom Richey.

"The law says that if there's water running over a road, we can't run on it. We observe that. We are not going to err at all in terms of the children's safety."

Yet early Monday night, it was too soon to say whether school would be called off today.

Richey said that school officials would drive the roads Monday night and early this morning to determine whether classes should be called off.

What was certain, however, was that the flood waters are definitely affecting the transportation of students.

"We are impacted pretty greatly," said Keegan O'Daniel, director of transportation.

That means that some roads that start out dry can quickly move to being flooded, and vice versa.

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Hardwood timber is big in Pennsylvania. That's why the nation's largest hardwood-producing industry will host Timber 2011 at Rock Springs, Pa. on June 3 and 4.

Formally known as the Pennsylvania Forest Products and Technology Expo, the event promises to put attendees "in the driver's seat" with hands-on demonstrations of state-of-the-art machinery. As many as 100 commercial exhibitors will be aiming for loggers, sawmill operators, value-added processors and forest landowners in the Northeast.

The bi-annual expo is hosted in partnership with Penn State's College of Ag Sciences and School of Forest Resources. The event will be held at the Ag Progress Days site at Rock Springs, on Pa. Route 45, nine miles southwest of State College.

Timber 2011 is an opportunity for forest products companies to hone their business skills, learn about the latest production practices and see new technology, says Penn State's Bob Oberheim, the show's manager. At this show "you can learn about the latest technologies, production methods, business practices and regulations," he adds.

Workshops will cover topics such as the proposed National Hardwood Check-off Program, equipment safety and business management issues.

Indoor and outdoor exhibits will include trucks, trailers, forklifts, plus equipment for land owners, loggers, lumbermen, sawmills, wood processors and pellet manufacturers. Exhibits also will include feller bunchers with cut-to length processor heads, forwarders, log skidders, landing loader and slashers, whole-tree chippers, walking floor trailers, sawmill equipment and firewood processors, plus horizontal grinders, chippers and shavers

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A public hearing will be held on Wednesday to help the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (URB) decide if it should grant a licence to Tri-Star Charters Inc. to allow it to charter the Mariners bus to the public.

Mitch Bonnar of Tri-Star says they’d like to be able to have local sports teams and other groups and organizations rent the bus when it is not being used by the Mariners junior A hockey team.

The April 20 hearing begins at 11:30 a.m. at Yarmouth Town Hall.

Bonnar says the application before the URB is asking for a motor carrier licence to provide transportation of groups and organizations from pick-up locations that are within a 100-kilometre radius of the Town of Yarmouth.

“I could pick people up in Digby. I could pick people up in Shelburne. I could pick people up in Yarmouth. But if somebody from Halifax called and wanted me to pick them up in Halifax and take them to Sydney I can’t,” he says.

Bonnar says a reason for this is not to take business away from other charter bus operations in other parts of the province. Still, one company has filed an application of opposition to the Tri-Star application. Molega Tours of East Uniacke, Nova Scotia, doesn’t want to see the application granted.

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Phil Twyford’s remarks about the dangers to health presented by the requirement to use H1.2 treated timber as announced by Maurice Williamson on 14 March are way off beam says Kevin Hing of the New Zealand Timber Preservation Council.

His comments will cause unnecessary stress to consumers and homeowners.

Mr Twyford has questioned whether the government has thought about the danger to health caused by requiring timber used as framing in house construction to be H1.2 treated. He cites the EU classification of boron as a Substance of Very High Concern.

The EU classifications for boric compounds are based on exposures of animals to boron at levels that exceed any likely human exposure in treated timber by several orders of magnitude. As well, the exposure routes used including ingestion, are not routes that would be associated with normal human use of boric treated timber. The data by which the EU arrived at its classifications are based on concentrations that would never be experienced in the handling of boric treated timber here.

Boron based timber preservatives have been successfully used in New Zealand since the 1950s as a protection against attack by borers and because of its fungicidal properties. The treatment requirement for timber framing is nothing new to house construction in this country. Furthermore, to the best our knowledge, there have been no documented cases of any health issues associated with the use of boric treated timber in New Zealand.

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TENS of thousands of bus commuters face hours of extra gridlock each week because traffic authorities have removed the requirement for an afternoon bus lane during widening of the M2.

As part of the conditions attached to the $550 million M2 upgrade, Transurban was asked to set up a ''tidal flow'' bus lane to replace two bus lanes removed during construction. The flow of traffic on such a lane is reversed from morning to afternoon to match the heaviest traffic.

The Roads and Traffic Authority and the Department of Planning under the previous government dropped the requirement for a bus lane out of the city in the afternoon peak and agreed with Transurban the lane would be dangerous.

The new Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, said yesterday she had asked for a briefing on the issue.

Since construction on the upgrade began in February, commuters say, the lack of a westbound bus lane has added up to an hour to their travel time. This is likely to persist for two years.

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The climate of Mississippi and the Gulf South region presents challenges for wood preservation, making water repellents and the environment top considerations.
David Jones, assistant Extension professor in Mississippi State University's forest products department, said wood treatments can lengthen the performance of timber by decades.

"If we placed an untreated telephone pole in the ground, it would last two or three years. A treated pole will last two or three decades," Jones said. "The time to consider treatments is before the wood is in place, especially if it will be in water."

Mississippians use wooden pilings and decking extensively from the salt waters of the Gulf to the lakes, ponds and rivers throughout the state.

Even away from bodies of water, the state's humidity and rainfall can take a toll on the life expectancy of wood products.

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Two charter schools that plan to offer Mandarin immersion programs at the elementary level may be drawing students - and funding - from the Millburn public school system in the near future.

Superintendent of Schools James Crisfield said at the April 11 Board of Education meeting that the New Jersey Department of Education has received application for the two charter schools. The schools would pull students from the Millburn, South Orange-Maplewood and West Orange districts.

"This is a complicated issue," he said. "We should all understand the impact."

Crisfield said the way charter schools are funded could have big implications for Millburn's budget. Millburn would pay 90 percent of the per-pupil cost of each student attending the school. There is supposed to be a cost reduction to compensate, but this is not always the reality.

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Timber products exports are to increase this year following higher demand from Japan which may rise by at least five per cent from its normal requirement due to reconstruction and rehabilitation projects underway after the disastrous March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry secretary-general Datin Paduka Nurmala Abdul Rahim said Japan was the main importer of Malaysian timber products.

"Japan imported RM3.7 billion worth of timber and wood-based products last year and we hope this year's exports would surpass last year's RM20.5 billion worth of exports," she told reporters after launching the Malaysian Timber Council Global Woodmart 2012 here Monday.

Malaysia's timber and timber products exports in 2008 and 2009 totalled RM22.7 billion and RM19.5 billion, respectively, while exports for January 2011 were higher at RM1.8 billion from RM1.7 billion in January last year.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Timber Council chief executive officer Cheah Kam Huan said Malaysia was experiencing tight timber supply as the output has been hit by the need to conserve Malaysian rainforests, logging areas in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak have shrunk and affected by uncertain weather conditions.

"However, we still hope supply will increase by between five and 10 per cent," he said.

Meanwhile, the second MTC Global Woodmart will serve as a premier one-stop selling, buying and networking platform for domestic and international timber suppliers and buyers.

The exhibition also aims to promote and encourage wider use of timber from Malaysian and international sources.

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State lawmakers have tweaked legislation that would lift the cap on the number of charter schools allowed, but opponents remain wary.

Backers of Senate Bill 8 say it would increase educational opportunities for children since charter schools are intended to provide innovative learning options, free from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools.

“We need to provide more options under the public education umbrella,” Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Reform in North Carolina, said. “Far too many families in our state and far too many families in Rowan-Salisbury have only one option.”

There are currently 99 charter schools in 47 of the state’s 100 counties.

Allison, who graduated from A.L. Brown High School in Kannapolis, said the success that many of those charter schools are experiencing cannot be replicated because of the cap, and more than 20,000 students statewide are on waiting lists for charter schools.

“The vast majority of North Carolina does not have a charter school,” he said. “It’s not that public charter schools are more superior, but if we have more options than children have a better chance at getting a quality education.”

But opponents say the bill, which also seeks to clarify the current funding formula, could be detrimental to public school funding.

“I think this would pretty much be a dagger in the heart of public education,” Dr. Jim Emerson, chairman of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, said.

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The mega-timber and real estate company is being purchased by two pension funds for $1.03 billion, including assumed debt.

“No fundamental changes in the operations of the business are anticipated,” a press release reads. “It will be business as usual on the ground, and existing operating systems and processes will remain in place.”

The pension funds acquiring TimberWest are British Columbia Investment Management, and Public Sector Pension Investment Board, which invest on behalf of Canadian pension plans.

“As part of the definitive agreement, TimberWest has a 60-day ‘go-shop’ period during which it is permitted to solicit a superior proposal,” a TimberWest press release added.

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Three major bus accidents in the Northeast, including the horrific crash on Interstate 95 in the Bronx that killed 15 passengers and critically injured several others, may finally spur Congress to mandate bus safety improvements.

A bipartisan measure to require seat belts, roofs that can withstand a rollover, better windows to prevent passenger ejection in crashes, and other vital safety steps was introduced in the Senate by Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas. The bill, which covers interstate motor coaches, also has new and more stringent requirements for driver fitness and bus company oversight to root out irresponsible operators. A companion bill is pending in the House.

A nearly identical bill died at the close of last year when Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, imposed a hold on the legislation. Early Senate approval, with strong bipartisan support, may even embarrass the regulation-hostile House into acting.

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The South Carolina Timber Producers Association has selected State Forester Gene Kodama to receive its President's Award.

Kodama, who is the agency head of the South Carolina Forestry Commission, was recognized by the association for "outstanding support for SCTBA and commitment to the sustainable forestry industry in South Carolina." The SCTBA award also recognizes Kodama's professionalism and dedication to the advancement of the timber harvesting and timber producing segments of our state's forest products industry.

South Carolina has 13.1 million acres of forestland. This is 68 percent of the state's total land area. Forestry is No. 1 among manufacturing industries in jobs (90,624) and payroll ($4.1 billion)

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Drastic times have called for drastic measures and one of the proposals to cut is school bus service for all except special needs students.

Aiea Elementary School is one of the biggest proponents of school buses. More than 250 students or 80 percent of the school use the service. It's even got a school bus on the mural.

"We enjoy having the school bus, it really does help," said Kate O'Malley, Aiea Elementary School Principal.

Many of the kids take it to and from public housing. If school bus service was cut more students would have to walk over a footbridge crossing Kamehameha Highway and Moanalua Road. It's a walk that could be unsafe for young students.

"Then you get into philosophical discussions of is it the school systems responsibility to get students to school or is it parental responsibility that doesn't have an answer there are a variety of perspectives," said Randy Moore, Assistant Superintendent.

Safety aside bus drivers say get used to seeing more traffic and congestion without school buses.

"Think about beat the school jam. In one day traffic goes from mild to congested and that's with only public schools opening up. You have a lot of parents taking kids to school because of emotional issues or whatever so that's the most congested day you're going to get, and that is what it would be like without school busses," said Ken LeVasseur, Bus Driver and Researcher

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Greenwood Management has announced it is introducing a new product to its range of timbers grown in Brazilian plantations.

The firm will soon be growing a new species of timber to add to those already included in its forestry investments product range, which includes the Eucalyptus, the Black Wattle (Acacia) and Guanandi species.

The new species is semi-matured to matured Teak trees, all to be grown on plantations. Teak timber, well known for its strong grains and texture, is often used in the carpentry trade and the manufacture of furniture for boat decks, due to its high weather resistance.

A spokesperson from Greenwood Management explained that returns on investment in the Teak business are expected to be strong: "Investments are available up to eight years with returns predicted at 12 per cent per annum."

Although the management rotations for the growing of Teak were traditionally 80-100 years, this has been reduced to between 20 and 25 years for the commercial production of the wood.

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New vehicle sales, in all the major segments, registered strong gains in March compared to the same month in 2010, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said in a statement on Monday.

Aggregate industry domestic sales improved by 9937 units or 22.8 percent to 53478 vehicles from 43541 units in March last year.

Total domestic sales for the first quarter of 2011 were 22.2 percent ahead of the corresponding three months in 2010. Total export sales, at 29254 vehicles for March, represented the highest monthly vehicle export performance on record.

Overall, out of the total industry reported sales (including AMH and AAD) of 53478 vehicles, 86.2 percent or 46078 units represented dealer sales, 6.3 percent sales to government, 4.1 percent industry corporate fleet sales and 3.4 percent represented sales to the car rental industry.

Aggregate industry new car sales during March 2011 at 35167 units reflected a substantial improvement of 6703 new cars or 23.5 percent compared to the 28464 new cars sold during March, 2010.

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The climate of Mississippi and the Gulf South region presents challenges for wood preservation, making water repellents and the environment top considerations.
David Jones, assistant Extension professor in Mississippi State University's forest products department, said wood treatments can lengthen the performance of timber by decades.

"If we placed an untreated telephone pole in the ground, it would last two or three years. A treated pole will last two or three decades," Jones said. "The time to consider treatments is before the wood is in place, especially if it will be in water."

Mississippians use wooden pilings and decking extensively from the salt waters of the Gulf to the lakes, ponds and rivers throughout the state.

Even away from bodies of water, the state's humidity and rainfall can take a toll on the life expectancy of wood products.

"Wood can be degraded by a variety of factors including biological factors, mechanical means, fire, sunlight, and chemicals," Jones said.

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