21.04.2011
Coney Island gets first new roller coasters in 80 years
The Soarin' Eagle and Steeplechase roller coasters are part of the new multimillion-dollar Scream Zone theme park, that replaced several more ramshackle attractions that had their own loyal followings.
"Last summer was Coney Island's biggest in nearly a half century, and this year -- with the addition of the first new roller coasters since the Cyclone opened in 1927 -- it's going to be even bigger," New York City Mayor Bloomberg said at Wednesday's opening ceremony. "It had been decades since Coney Island saw any significant investment and the famed amusement district had dwindled as a result."
The City of New York rezoned Coney Island in 2009 in an attempt to revitalize the neighborhood by preserving some of its historic attractions while encouraging the development of hotels, restaurants and retail stores in the amusement district and affordable housing in the surrounding residential neighborhoods.
The City bought three parcels of land, totaling 6.9 acres, and signed a 10-year lease with Central Amusement International, a New Jersey-based subsidiary of the Italian amusement park-ride manufacturer Zamperla, to build new theme parks. The first, Luna Park, opened last year, helping attract more than 450,000 visitors to the neighborhood last summer, the City said.
Under the revitalization plan, the City is spending more than $150 million on improvements to Coney Island, which has attracted thrill-seeking New Yorkers and tourists since the late 19th century.
Mayor Bloomberg says the investment will result in 6,000 permanent jobs and create $14 billion of economic activity in New York over the next 30 years.
The redevelopment has had detractors, stirring the same sort of feelings as did the transformation of Times Square from an edgy neighborhood into a family-friendly tourist attraction.
While some saw the Coney Island of the recent past as old-fashioned and seedy, others saw it as an authentic and charming neighborhood where small-scale entrepreneurs could flourish.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Greg McCune)
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League and players adjourn talks until May 16
"I think this was a valuable process," NFL general counsel Jeff Pash said on the NFL's website. "I don't think a single minute of it was a waste of time."
The ending of the latest round of mediation comes with a federal judge expected to rule soon, perhaps as early as this week, on a NFL players' request that could have a major impact on their labor dispute with league owners.
"Everyone believes it was helpful. That was what the judge wanted, so we follow what the judge wanted," said Jim Quinn, who is serving as the lead lawyer for the players because NFL Players Association outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler was away on a prior commitment.
The players, including high profile quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, are seeking an injunction to halt a league-imposed lockout now in its sixth week.
How Judge Susan Richard Nelson of Minnesota rules could be a significant bargaining chip for either the players or owners in their dispute, legal experts say.
But the judge's decision almost certainly would result in the other side appealing to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, thus lengthening the legal process of the dispute, dubbed as a row between billionaires and millionaires.
Speaking on conference call with New York Giants fans, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he had no feeling about which way the ruling might go or when it might happen.
"That is the judge's decision. She will make that ruling when she is prepared to do it," Goodell said on Wednesday. "At that point in time, we will all obviously respect the ruling and hopefully, we will get back to the point where we are negotiating."
Judge Nelson said on April 6 she would need a couple of weeks to make a decision on the request and Wednesday marked 14 days since her comment.
While both sides are hoping her ruling will favor them, the judge said after hearing arguments in the case, "it seems to me both sides are at risk."
Judge Nelson had ordered the mediation under federal magistrate Arthur Boylan in an attempt to push the parties toward resolving the dispute themselves.
Some progress has been made but much remains to be done, sources told the league-owned NFL Network.
NLRB COMPLAINT
Along with the injunction request, the players have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the owners. That, too, must be resolved.
Both sides also are awaiting a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on an owners' complaint against the since-decertified players union. A ruling favoring the owners could bring the sides back to the bargaining table, where talks broke down March 11.
Ultimately, the two sides must reach a new collective bargaining agreement and settle a major impasse of how to divide $9 billion in annual league revenue.
The league, meanwhile, is preparing for a return to the playing field by September's start of the regular season.
"We released the schedule yesterday and we're planning to start the season on time," declared Goodell. "We're planning on playing a full season and we're going to negotiate as hard as we can to get that done.
"You obviously have to be prepared if you're unsuccessful. But I don't like to focus on that. I like to focus on being successful.
"There's a lot at risk for everybody involved ... we're going to continue to make the preparations for the season and work as hard as we can to solve those issues in advance so that we can play every game and every down of the season."
(Editing by Julian Linden and Frank Pingue)
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18.04.2011
Study: Teens see 5 drinks a day as no biggie
When asked if they see "great risk" in drinking that much, almost half the teens questioned — 45 percent — didn't see it as a big deal.
The study released Wednesday by The Partnership at Drugfree.org also showed upward trends in marijuana and Ecstasy use among young people in grades 9 through 12.
"You're seeing this weakness in this generation of teens' attitudes around drug and alcohol use," says Steve Pasierb, president of the partnership. "It's not like this generation of kids thinks they're more bulletproof than others, but they really don't see any harm in that heavy drinking."
And while the numbers suggest many teens do not perceive significant harm in heavy drinking, the percentage of teens drinking is down.
"It's important that we not lose sight of the progress our country has made in fighting underage drinking," says Dr. Raymond Scalettar, former chairman of the American Medical Association and a medical adviser to the Washington-based Distilled Spirits Council. "U.S. government data shows underage drinking and binge drinking are at record low levels."
The partnership study also shows the percentage of teens drinking alcohol in the past month declining, down to 35 percent last year from a high of 50 percent in 1998.
Among teens, the average age when they had their first drink was 14, the study said.
Overall, 68 percent said they had consumed alcohol in their lifetime. Of those, one quarter of teens had their first drink at age 12 or younger.
"It is much more terrifying these days than it was when we were younger," says actress and mother Melissa Gilbert, national spokeswoman for the partnership.
Gilbert, the former "Little House on the Prairie" star, is herself a recovering alcoholic who at one time was drinking two bottles of wine a night but has been sober now for six and a half years. She has faced drug-abuse struggles with one of her four sons, and she says she is doing everything in her power to make sure her youngest, now 15, knows the drama and pain addiction can bring.
"The most important thing is to get to know his friends and stay in constant communication with the people that are around him all day — his teachers, his counselors at school," Gilbert told The Associated Press in an interview from her Los Angeles home.
Being sober, she says, is the best way to live. "It's not the easiest, but it's definitely the best," she said.
According to the study, teens said the top reasons for drinking were "because it is fun" and "so they won't feel left out."
Pasierb says early drinking can often signal deeper problems. "It's about that vulnerability," he said, "Why is a 12-year-old drinking?"
Gregg Aguero of Houston, Texas, says he started drinking regularly at 13 after his parents split up. That led to cocaine and other drugs and eventually landed him in rehab for several stays.
Now 22 and in college, Aguero says he's been sober for 4 months and is trying to help teenagers avoid the mistakes he made.
"It's never too late," he tells them. "That's the most important thing. It's never too late to turn and get help."
Other findings in the study:
_Twenty-five percent of teens said last year that they had smoked marijuana in the past month. While that number is unchanged from the previous year, it is higher than 2008 and confirms an upward trend that ended nearly a decade of declines in pot usage among teens.
_Ecstasy abuse also continued an upward trend, with six percent of teens reporting past-month use — up from four percent in 2008.
The Partnership's "attitude tracking" study was sponsored by the MetLife Foundation. Researchers surveyed 2,544 teens with anonymous questionnaires that the youngsters filled out from March to June of last year. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
Based in New York, The Partnership at Drugfree.org is formerly The Partnership for a Drug-Free America — perhaps best known for the "this is your brain on drugs" ads of the 1980s and 1990s. The group launched its new name last October, a move meant to position the partnership as more of a resource to parents and to avoid the misperception the nonprofit is a government organization.
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