The Royal Harbour is unique in the UK , disused war time airfields are two a penny in SE England . The people of Thanet really do have to decide what sort of environment they want for the future, overstated job opportunities …
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INthanet: Planning Loopholes.
A 2-0 win registering loud and proud that after all the criticism, the slurs, the shaking of heads and the monstrous headlines, McCarthy had got it right. Must wins are two-a-penny . Wigan, just a fortnight ago, was ‘must-win’.
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Wolves boss Mick McCarthy no stranger to the 'six-pointer' – Wolves …
They ensure that your home will receive windows that pass certain quality standards – a useful added safeguard in a world where low grade windows are two a penny . Furthermore, supporting the look and feel of an historic area can help …
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Replacement Sash Windows in Article 4 Homes | Window Shutter …
So when they find themselves in a country where neighbours still help each other, families stick together and community get-togethers are two a penny , do they suddenly and desperately crave becoming a part of it? …
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Pwease be my Fwend « Status Viatoris – Life in Italy
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The Australian “kaumatua” behind a recent civil disobedience campaign by Maori elders was arrested last week, delaying his trial on $4.7 million of mortgage fraud charges.
Bankrupt “life coach” Shane Wenzel, who uses the name Tane Rakau, was arrested on Tuesday for breaching the peace, by police overseeing the demolition of an illegally built soundstage at his South Auckland compound.
The group claims to be a sovereign hapu, exempt from New Zealand laws, and Wenzel, a white Australian, claims tangata whenua status by virtue of having been “adopted” into the hapu.
Wenzel is the leader of a group of protesters who disrupted the high court trial of former MP Taito Phillip Field the previous month and threatened to target the homes of Prime Minister John Key and senior judges to draw attention to injustices against Maori. It’s genocide against the Maori.
He told police officers overseeing the demolition at his property on Tuesday: “You guys are practising apartheid. There’s one set of rules for Pakeha and a different set for us.
Wenzel, who is representing himself in court, said the charges would not slow the group’s protest activities.”
He was held in custody until Thursday because he refused to submit to fingerprinting, resulting in the adjournment of his 10-week trial on Serious Fraud Office charges until tomorrow.co. The hapu was preparing a campaign of “arresting” MPs and judges, and making moves to acquire the maori.
Vincent Eastwood, a Wenzel supporter who films the group’s activities and uploads the footage online, told the Sunday Star-Times the arresting officers had “committed treason” and “made a declaration of war on a nation state”.nz internet domain name. Footage of the arrests was posted on the group’s YouTube channel, headlined “Maori raped and arrested by police”. Footage of the arrests was posted on the group’s YouTube channel, headlined “Maori raped and arrested by police”. He ain’t.
“This Womble character undermines the legitimacy of the tino rangatiratanga cause by duping Maori who are in the main uneducated, poor and gullible, into believing he is some kind of saviour. Former followers have described Wenzel’s group as cult-like, and paint the 48-year-old as having an unhealthy sway over his adherents.”
Recipients of Wenzel’s “re-education” have included Jamie Lockett, one of those charged in the Urewera “terror raids”, and Macsyna King, the mother of the murdered Kahui twins. “I told him I was disappointed that he had let this clown adopt a Maori name, assume a kaumatua status that he had no right to, and lead Tass and co around by the nose like a farmer leads pigs to the slaughter. .”
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The bill for leaky homes is likely to top $11 billion, a review has found.
The news prompted Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson to meet with local government leaders yesterday.
He was tight-lipped about the meeting but Radio New Zealand reported the cost of leaky homes was up to $11.6b.5b, from the previous estimate of $3.
He said the focus of the Weathertight Homes Tribunal needed to shift to fixing the problem instead of paying fees to lawyers.
Mr Williamson said in July he expected a review by PriceWaterhouseCoopers would find “considerably more” problem homes.
The Government was looking at what was being done in similar international situations.
He met with the mayors of six cities most affected by the problem – Wellington, Tauranga, Auckland, North Shore, Waitakere and Christchurch – during a meeting in Wellington yesterday, who agreed future action must be based on actual repairs rather than litigation.
Canadian pensioners do not pay anything up front to have their homes fixed, but the amount is taken out of their estate when they die, which was one option, Mr Williamson said.
He issued a statement, saying details of the options would be kept secret until after the mayors had considered them, but they aimed to channel cash from costly legal processes to repairs.
Mr Williamson was now waiting for the mayors to respond to suggestions made in the meeting before he would comment publicly.”
The comment suggests one of the options could be to shift taxpayer funds from the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service – criticised as too costly and slow by many leaky home owners – to actually repairing buildings.
“Any solution will be focused on fixing damaged homes rather than on litigation.
Mr Williamson indicated last month that the Government could consider contributing toward repairs to help bring an end to the saga, which has dragged on for nearly a decade.
Mr Williamson indicated last month that the Government could consider contributing toward repairs to help bring an end to the saga, which has dragged on for nearly a decade.
Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast and Auckland Mayor John Banks would not comment last night on what the Government had offered.
Councils are estimated to be liable for up to $600 million of the cost of repairing more than 22,000 homes believed to be affected.
The councils put several proposals to the previous government last year to end the problem, but they were knocked back. Other mayors either would not comment or could not be contacted.
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Those proposals included creating a no-fault resolution service in which homeowners would pay no more than 25 per cent of the cost of repairs, with local and central government negotiating how to split the rest
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A Northland man is in a critical condition after a long running feud between three men erupted into violence last night.
Police said a 57-year-old man is in Auckland Hospital after a fight broke out at a rural home, close to Kaikohe, around 6.
Police communications manager Sarah Kennett said two men had arrived at the home armed with an iron bar and a tomahawk planning to confront the 46-year-old owner.30pm.
The occupant and the second man, aged 61 years, also suffered moderate injuries.
“A violent fight ensued resulting in the occupant overpowering the two Kaikohe men,” Ms Kennett said.
Police said all three men were known to each other and the fight had been the result of a long-running disagreement. They have since been discharged from hospital.
The next of kin have yet to be advised and no names of the people involved have been released. .
Charges have not been laid.
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The jury in the Clayton Weatherston murder trial has stopped deliberations for the day and will return tomorrow morning.
The 11-person jury has been deliberating since 1pm this afternoon but has yet to reach a verdict.
They have asked to go home for the night and return for further deliberations tomorrow morning at 9:30am.
Justice Potter this afternoon asked the jury if they wanted to continue deliberating in to the night or return tomorrow.
Earlier in the day, Potter finished her summing up in Weatherston’s trial at the High Court in Christchurch.
Potter has not sequestered them and they will be allowed to go to their homes for the night.
“No reason or explanations are required but it is necessary that your verdict is unanimous.
Potter told the jury: “Your verdict in this case will be simply guilty or not guilty on the charge of murder.
Justice Potter told the jury they must put aside any horror or disgust at the injuries Weatherston inflicted on Elliott.”
Weatherston admits manslaughter but denies murder, saying he was provoked to attack Elliott and stab her 216 times at her Dunedin home on January 9 last year.
The jury was the sole judge of the evidence.
“You must reach your decision uninfluenced by prejudice or sympathy,” she said.
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Two more earthquakes shook the central North Island last night but there has been no major reports of damage at an evacuated village on the southwest edge of Lake Taupo.
Residents of Waihi village are barred from their homes until Friday due to fears of a landslide after a swarm of earthquakes.
This morning about 4.9 on the Richter scale at a depth of 5km and about 8.50am an earthquake measuring 2.8 earthquake at a depth of 3km shook the area.40pm last night a 2.
There had been no reports of damage, a northern police communications spokesperson said earlier today.
Sixty people including paramount chief Te Heuheu Tukino II were killed in the village after a landslide in 1846.
The historic village the ancestral base of Taupo iwi Ngati Tuwharetoa is on a seismic fault line in an area of known instability near the Hipaua Cliffs geothermal area at the southwest corner of Lake Taupo.
State Highway 41 was blocked between Tokaanu and Pukawa, restricting access to the village. . Most residents went voluntarily, although about six were reluctant to leave.
Civil defence co-ordinator Shamus Howard said residents would be allowed back briefly earlier today to feed pets and fetch personal belongings. Most were staying with relatives. Most were staying with relatives.
There was concern that more earthquakes might dislodge boulders and trees, resulting in water to build up in blocked streams.
Seismologists and civil defence staff would monitor the area after increased seismic and geothermal activity raised the risk of a major landslide above the village.
Cracks had appeared in marae walls and hot water springs had been found on the lake edge.
Waihi Village residents reported tremors and large boulders coming loose in streams above the village. Bird life had disappeared.
People living nearby in Tokaanu had reported cracked windows and foundations, shelves rattling, and paint and plaster coming off walls.
Mr Howard said there were some reports of streams drying up and of other spots where streams started to flow where there were none before. A stream mouth at the village, near a waterfall, had shifted 40 to 50 metres.3 and 4.
GNS Science vulcanologist Brad Scott said two large earthquakes on Saturday, measuring 4.
A swarm of hundreds of small earthquakes had been recorded in the area in the past seven days.
A swarm of hundreds of small earthquakes had been recorded in the area in the past seven days.
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Lout label not helping boy racer situation, says academic
Thursday, 05 February 2009
Once a boy racer, now a champ
Tough talk from the Government on boy racers has stepped over the line into name-calling, says a Canterbury University academic who studies car culture.
Associate Professor Dr Simon Kingham said comments such as Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker's labelling of boy racers as "ugly, immature and embarrassing" were a generalisation.
Not all boy racers were criminally minded, Kingham said.
Police Minister Judith Collins' "off-the-cuff" comments on crushing cars were "sensationalising" the issue. One of the things they've got to do is get the message out that this behaviour is unacceptable, but they've also got to have dialogue.
"To associate them with the guys who had a go at the police is tarnishing them all with the same brush. You can talk tough without labelling people.
"I don't think that's helpful.
Some people were simply interested in cars and liked joining their mates, some were into "the parading thing", some were risk-takers "the same type who like bungy jumping" and some were attracted to "pushing the police"."
Kingham said his research showed there were several reasons to get into car culture.
Boy racers yesterday said they were not all out to cause trouble.
"There will be some people who join it because they want to cause trouble," he said. .
Several contacted to say an emblem showing a skull with a helmet was not an anti-police badge but belonged to a United States motorcycling group called Metal Mulisha.
The scramble by councils to hold the V8 Supercar Championship two years ago and the lauding of Indycar driver Scott Dixon at Tuesday night's Halberg Awards were encouraging the boy-racer phenomenon.
Kingham said he believed there was a link between New Zealand's "obsession" with V8 cars and the boy-racer culture.