Sunday, January 27, 2008

Viktor Schreckengost, the father of industrial design and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an iconic piece of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery died yesterday. He was 101.

Schreckengost was born on June 26, 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, United States.

Schreckengost’s peers included the far more famous designers Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes.

In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost’s work. Stunning in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings.

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

On July 22, Wikinews interviewed Professor Gigi Foster of School of Economics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia about measures that the government took to stop the spread of COVID-19, a virus that caused what the World Health Organization declared a pandemic last year.

Professor Foster is on faculty with the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales. She wrote an Op-Ed in the Sydney Morning Herald, arguing for a case against the so-called “lockdowns” – measures which the state governments in Australia were implementing to stop the spread of COVID-19. These measures included things like limiting the size of gatherings, directing certain business types such as gyms to close or operate at reduced capacity, limiting where people may travel and restricting residents to only leaving their home if they have a reasonable excuse to do so.

In New South Wales, these restrictions were implemented as Public Health Orders, signed by Brad Hazzard, the Minister for Health and Medical Research. Mr Brad Hazzard has authority make these Orders under the Public Health Act 2010, section 7.

Wikinews reached out to Professor Gigi Foster, asking for comment.

The interview was conducted amid an outbreak of COVID-19 in New South Wales, that has resulted in an increase of restrictions from June 26. At the day of interview, residents were legally allowed to go outdoors only for essential shopping, medical care, and exercise, in groups of no more than two people unless of a common household. On July 28, authorities extended these restrictions until the end of August.

The current outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta strain started from ‘patient zero’, reportedly a driver, which includes transporting international flight crew, as NSW Health wrote on June 16. A week later, on June 24, the driver commented that he thought that he caught the virus from a local cafe, where another patron was visibly unwell.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said that “our mission is to allow our citizens to live as safely and freely as possible”, having announced that only authorized workers — people whose occupation is essential — could leave home in selected higher risk regions in south-west of Sydney until July 30.

Work of the construction industry has been stopped for several days, and resumed this week with requirement that the construction workers get tested for COVID-19 regularly.

Friday, January 22, 2010

A six-year-old boy from the county of Berkshire in England, United Kingdom, who fell through a frozen pond on January 5, has died. The pond is near to the location of his house where he was playing with one of his friends. Thomas Hudson — or Tommy as he was also known — was trapped underneath the garden pond in Crookham Common, which was six feet in depth, for 30 minutes. It is not clear what exactly caused Thomas to fall into the pond.

After calls for help from Tommy’s playmate, a woman went into the water and searched for Thomas. It is believed that the woman was related to Tommy. A fire crew managed to take Thomas out of the water. After ambulance workers found themselves unable to restart his heart, Tommy was taken by aircraft to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Oxfordshire. There, an emergency operation was carried out on him before Thomas was placed on a life support machine. He died on January 21 after he failed to regain consciousness.

It has been reported that Thames Valley Police are launching an investigation into the death. However, the police has said that there are no suspicious circumstances as far as they are concerned.

Hugh Whitaker was one of the people assisting in the search for Thomas on January 5. “We worked as a team with the fire service to locate the boy in the water and he was pulled out,” Whitaker stated. “It was thought he had been in there for around half an hour. Once he was located he was taken to the air ambulance and on to the John Radcliffe Hospital after being treated by a doctor. He was in cardiac arrest at the scene. A woman who went into the water was examined by paramedics at the scene but she did not require hospital treatment. The lake was between 15 and 20 metres by 15 and 20 metres in size. From where he was recovered from he would have had to have walked out onto the water — he was not far from the centre of the frozen lake.”

A statement released from the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust that said: “We are very sorry to confirm that Tommy Hudson died peacefully at our hospital this [Thursday] morning. Tommy’s parents ask that their privacy be respected at this very difficult time.”

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Afflecks Palace, the “iconic, alternative shopping centre” in the Northern Quarter of Manchester in England, United Kingdom, was saved from closure this week after long-running rumours that the market may have to “kick out its traders” due to a dispute between the management of the Afflecks Palace brand and the leaseowner for the building, Bruntwood.

Rumours suggesting that Bruntwood were looking to redevelop the building started early in 2007, when it became apparent that the property developer was not actively seeking to renew the twenty-five year lease that the management of Afflecks Palace had with them concerning the building. These initial fears were added to by news that Bruntwood was looking to redevelop other buildings it owned in the Northern Quarter area, specifically the parking complex opposite Afflecks, with an eye towards taking advantage of the “property boom” in Manchester at the time. There were also fears that if Afflecks did remain open, “rents would rise”.

These initial fears were eventually propagated closer to the end of the year when a letter from the management of Afflecks Palace told individual stall holders that “… management have received no formal response from Bruntwood to a tenancy request notice served in October [2007]”, going on to add that “We can only assume therefore that they do not intend to offer us a new lease”.

Following the release of this letter, public support for Afflecks Palace was quickly made obvious when a 5,000 signature petition was submitted demanding the centre remain open for business. This seemed to prompt talks between Bruntwood and the Afflecks Palace management and, eventually, lead to this week’s news that the market was – indeed – to remain open. The result of the talks was that Bruntwood “bought out” the Afflecks Palace brand.

A joint statement between the management of Afflecks Palace and Bruntwood said: “After 26 years of trading, Afflecks’ management has sold their company to Bruntwood in an agreement that protects the future of Afflecks. Bruntwood will manage Afflecks while they look for a new owner who is skilled in running market style businesses and can bring a similar level of enthusiasm and dedication that the existing management has.”

A spokesperson speaking on behalf of Bruntwood also added that: “Never in our 30 year history have we bought one of our customer’s businesses, but Afflecks is a Manchester icon that we wanted to protect. We aren’t however expert in managing markets, so will look for a suitable long term owner. In the meantime, the most important aspect is that we have arrived at a solution with Afflecks management that protects an independent retail environment and provides the existing stallholders with security.”

Traders from the market celebrated the news by holding a party yesterday.

Friday, February 19, 2021

A series of winter blasts have struck the US state of Texas in recent days, leaving at least ten people dead in the aftermath. On Wednesday, the second wave of the storms impacted utilities and water systems, with cities asking citizens to conserve water usage. Reports early Wednesday indicated more than two and a half million homes and businesses were without power. Texas is the only one of the 48 contiguous US states with its own separate power grid.

One media source indicated carbon monoxide poisoning killed a mother and her child in the city of Houston. A house fire killed a woman and three children in the city of Sugar Land. The storm has impacted shipments of COVID-19 vaccine, according to at least one report. Citizens were asked to conserve usage of electricity where possible. Reports from the city of Tyler indicate roads were nearly impassible on Monday and Tuesday due to ice and snow.

Earlier in the month, winter conditions contributed to a massive vehicle pile up in the city of Fort Worth, taking the lives of at least five people. Some victims were trapped in their vehicles for hours, awaiting rescue. During a press briefing, an emergency services official said this was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Wikinews correspondent J.J. Liu spoke with Technological University Dublin (TUD) senior lecturer at the School of Surveying & Construction Management, Dr Lorcan Sirr on Friday regarding the supply of housing in the Republic of Ireland and relevant parallels across the rest of Europe, as well as recent developments by the government and private sector that are causing a rise in rents and home prices in the Irish real estate market.

Dr Sirr is a regular contributor to The Irish Times and has provided commentary to Irish radio station Newstalk, national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) and various other publications. In addition to being a chartered planning and development surveyor and assessor to the Society of Chartered Surveyors, Dr Sirr is a Peace Commissioner and former external examiner for the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, according to his profile on Worky.

Dr Sirr was a lecturer and former head of research for the Faculty of the Built Environment at the Dublin Institute of Technology, which entered a merger with two partner institutes to become TUD January 1, 2019. He received his bachelor’s degree in estate management at the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, and master’s degree in urban design and PhD in town planning at the University of Manchester. He has a second master’s in literature from KU Leuven, Belgium, and speaks French.

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

At least eighteen young children, as well as a staff member, were killed in an attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States on Tuesday. There are conflicting reports on the exact number of staff killed, although figures on Tuesday night ranged from one to three individuals.

An 18-year-old gunman is suspected to be the lone perpetrator of the intrusion and subsequent attack. Texas Governor Greg Abbott identified the suspected attacker as Salvador Ramos, adding that Ramos had shot his grandmother before embarking to commit the attack. Abbott stated that Ramos drove and then abandoned his vehicle nearby the school, then entered the building armed with a handgun and possibly a rifle. WOAI-TV and NPR both reported that Ramos was killed by police officers.

According to U.S. Census data, the population of Uvalde is approximately 70% Hispanic or Latin American in origin. It lies around 80 miles west of San Antonio, near the Mexican border. The community is small, having only about 16,000 residents.

The attack is the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. It follows the recent racially-motivated mass shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, May 14, where ten were killed. It is also the deadliest attack on an elementary school in the United States since the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, where 20 children and six faculty were killed. At the time, the Sandy Hook shooting sparked national debate on gun rights and gun control.