Sunday, April 17, 2022
THE CITY OF MESA IS A HOT-BED OF TALENT: SOTC 2022: Council Intros
MESA'S FAST-TRACKED LAND-USE PLANNING CREATES A $90 BILLION-DOLLAR SELF-INDUCED BOTTLE-NECK
Bottlenecks big priority for agency
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"Addressing bottlenecks on the Santan and Loop 101 freeways and adding two rapid bus routes are among the transportation priorities for the county agency that plays a key role in helping people get around Maricopa County.
Audra Koester Thomas, the transportation planning program manager for the Maricopa Association of Governments, said every project on its list is important, but that expanding the number of lanes on the Santan Loop 202 Freeway between the Loop 101 and I-10 as the most important.
Two rapid-bus routes are planned. One would go up Arizona Avenue through the heart of downtown Chandler to Mesa and a light rail transit center and the other between Scottsdale Fashion Square and Chandler Fashion Center.
“The purpose of the route is more about connecting Chandler, Scottsdale and Tempe residents with downtown Tempe/ASU and downtown Scottsdale, along with a connection to either mall at the north/south end and the Chandler Fashion Center,” said Jason Crampton. “Additionally, the route will provide a faster connection to light rail and other regional bus lines in the area.”
That route would travel mostly on Rural and Scottsdale roads.
Another high priority is addressing the rush-hour bottleneck on the Loop 101 between U.S. 60 and the Red Mountain Freeway.
A key to addressing all those priorities is voters passing an extension to Prop. 400, a half-cent sales tax dedicated to addressing the region’s transportation needs. It will likely be included on this year’s ballot in November, although at this newspaper’s deadline, both chambers in the Legislature were considering a bill to put the tax on renewal on this year’s ballot. The current tax expires in 2025.
Thomas said a lot of infrastructure has been built in East Valley since the 1980s and it has helped fuel the growth of Chandler to being Arizona’s fourth largest city.
“That half-cent sales tax is what delivered this network that you see here,” Thomas said, saying there are other projects in the works that will impact Chandler commuters.
“Finishing up the HOV lane, here out east of Chandler, around the Santan, so completing that freeway network,” she said. “Build out of the SR 24 (Gateway Freeway) and the southeast network.”
The mile-long section is an interim four-lane roadway between Ellsworth and Williams Field roads and was completed several months ahead of schedule as part of a partnership between ADOT, Mesa and Legacy Sports USA, which operates Bell Bank Park. The new sports and entertainment complex is southeast of the new intersection connecting SR 24 and Williams Field Road.
The new section is part of ADOT’s $77 million project to build SR 24 as a divided four-lane roadway between Ellsworth Road in Mesa and Ironwood Drive in Pinal County.
The entire five-mile-long project is scheduled for completion later this year. . ."
BRITISH SAS TROOPS ARE TRAINING UKRAINIAN FORCES
Intro:
British commandos return to Ukraine – The Times
(Image: A Ukrainian soldier with an NLAW anti-tank missile launcher in Ukraine, February 2022. © Armed Forces of Ukraine/AFP)
"British SAS troops have trained Ukrainian forces for the first time since the Russian military offensive began, in February, Ukrainian commanders told The Times on Friday.
Instructors from the UK were previously withdrawn from the country, two months ago, when NATO member states were expecting a Russian assault.
The British have now returned to teach locals how to use NLAWs, UK-supplied shoulder-fired anti-tank missile launchers, the paper explained, citing Captain Yury Mironenko and two other Ukrainian commanders, identified only by their nicknames.
The units which received the training are stationed around the capital, Kiev, the report revealed.
“We have received huge military help from Britain,” Mironenko told the paper. “But the people who knew how to use NLAWs were in other places, so we had to go on YouTube to teach ourselves,” he said, adding that the British officers were in their unit two weeks ago.
The UK Defense Ministry refused to confirm whether British commandos had visited Ukraine. Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, however, said this week that a group of Ukrainian soldiers would travel to the UK for training.
London has been one of Kiev’s primary arms suppliers, sending weapons ranging from anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems to armored vehicles. Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Kiev last week, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and promised more support.
Russia attacked its neighbor in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk Agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force."
Reference: https://www.rt.com/russia/553973-uk-commandos-train-ukrainians/
Ukrainians flock to buy stamp telling Russia to go [bleep] itself | DW News
Glory arrives in the guise to memorialize A MIDDLE FINGER GESTURE
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It’s all just kind of a depressing coda to an otherwise inspiring story. Ukrainian Soldier Moves To Trademark ‘Russian Warship, Go Fuck Yourself” Because Of Course
. . .Yet here we are. You may recall the name Roman Gribov. He was one of several soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea. When Russian warships began their part of the assualt of their sovereign neighbor, those warships communicated with Gribov, demanding that he and his fellow soldiers surrender. While staring down the barrel of the Russian Navy, Gribov offered up what is now an iconic response: “Russian warship… go fuck yourself!“
From there, the rebuttal took on meme status. Other attacks on Russian military assets were punctuated with versions of the phrase. Ukraine’s postal service created a commemorative stamp consisting of a sketch based on the quote. And thorughout the Western world, the phrase began showing up on t-shirts and other items.
Which perhaps partially explains why Gribov, through his family, is attempting to trademark the now iconic verbal middle finger.
WTR has learned that the soldier who uttered the ‘f*ck yourself’ phrase – with permission obtained from his family and the Ukrainian military – is seeking an EU trademark for the term (in both Cyrillic script and English). It was filed yesterday by Taras Kulbaba, founder and lawyer at Bukovnik & Kulbaba, and covers a variety of goods and services from clothing and bags to entertainment and NFTs.
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Flash News: Ukraine Intercepts Russian Kh-59 Cruise Missile Using US VAMPIRE Air Defense System Mounted on Boat. Ukrainian forces have made ...
