'Universal access' playgrounds planned in Twin Cities - Finance ...

Posted: 3:12 pm Mon, December 5, 2011
By ?MARISA HELMS
Tags: Andrea Weber, Chris DesRoches, construction costs, Falls 4 All, Flagship Recreation, Madison?s Place, Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board, Peggy Halvorson

Peggy Halvorson, a nurse and Edina resident, started fundraising about a year ago for the future Falls 4 All park at the Wabun Picnic Area (above) in Minnehaha Falls Park in Minneapolis. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

A couple of nearly million-dollar playgrounds are planned for the Twin Cities metro area.

In Woodbury, a small group of residents is raising funds to build Madison?s Place, and in Minneapolis, volunteers are working with the city to construct Falls 4 All at the Wabun Picnic Area in Minnehaha Falls Park.

Each playground will be between 15,000 and 20,000 square feet in size. When built later next summer, Madison?s Place and Falls 4 All would give children and families with disabilities a much needed option.

In Minnesota, about 31,000 children, or 3 percent of children ages 0 to 14 years old, have at least one disability. But there are currently just three ?universal access? playgrounds in the entire state: in Rochester, Red Wing and St. Cloud.

?Universal access? is defined as a play space where children or parents with physical, developmental or sensory disabilities can use 70 percent to 100 percent of the equipment. Inclusive playgrounds go beyond the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines, which require that 50 percent of the equipment be accessible.

These play areas must have good integrative design, lots of land and many ramps and platforms so that users with mobility devices, including wheelchairs and walkers, can have access to a variety of experiences, including sliding, swinging, spinning, bouncing and balancing.

?It allows kids more freedom,? said Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board planner Andrea Weber. ?It?s really fun, but it costs a lot more.?

Weber said the Parks & Recreation Board is kicking in $300,000 toward construction of the Falls 4 All playground. The money is coming from a grant from the state?s Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment (the 2008 voter-approved amendment that increased state sales tax by 3/8 of 1 percent to fund environmental and arts programs).

The rest of the budget, a whopping $700,000, will be raised by a fundraising committee of the nonprofit People for Parks.

?I do get overwhelmed sometimes,? said Peggy Halvorson, a nurse and Edina resident who started fundraising for Falls 4 All about a year ago. To date, the project has raised $100,000.

?We?re not trying to build a handicapped playground,? said Halvorson. ?We?re trying to build a playground where everyone can play together. Inclusiveness in society is so important, and having a playground where all children can come together regardless of ability is so important. We learn to accept each other when we play together.?

Halvorson said that while many people think the playground is a good idea, raising money for it has been a hard sell given the poor economy. Most of what her group has raised so far has been small $20 to $50 contributions from individuals, she said.

?A lot of the foundations that had a lot of money to give away four or five years ago are feeling pinched,? said Halvorson. ?The amount they have available to give away has dropped quite a bit. They already have groups and programs that rely on them, so to take on something new is a real challenge.?

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE. St. Louis Park-based Flagship Recreation designed a playground for Cornelia Elementary School in Edina that has universal access options. (Submitted rendering: Flagship Recreation)

Raising funds for Madison?s Place in Woodbury also has been difficult.

The city of Woodbury is contributing land for the playground at Bielenberg Sports Center, as well as donating $125,000 to the site?s preparation.

According to Dana Millington, the Woodbury resident behind the project, the initial fundraising goal was $1 million when she started in 2006. But, she has since adjusted expectations because she just hasn?t been able to raise that kind of money. She now thinks the project will come off for a total cost of about $700,000. She?s still trying to raise about $250,000.

The biggest budget eater in these projects is required rubber surfacing, which installs for about $20 per square foot (compared to $3 per square foot for sand).

?It?s crushed rubber with a concrete base,? explained Chris DesRoches of Flagship Recreation, a St. Louis Park-based playground design and installation company. ?It?s not cheap. And the actual installation is just like concrete, but it?s very labor intensive. It requires a binder,? he said, ?so, you pour it in, mix it up; pour it again, mix it again,? and so on.

Though expensive, rubber surfacing is durable and is considered an integral safety and mobility element for inclusive playground design.

DesRoches said that aside from the rubber surfacing, constructing a universal access playground is not at all complex.

?It?s very similar to building a fence,? said DesRoches. ?You dig a hole in the ground, put a post in it and pour in the concrete. Then you just attach all the components ? the climbers and ramps ? to those posts. It goes together easily.?

Other construction costs include site excavation and preparation, labor and building accessible walkways to access the play structure.

Ultimately, the size and level of accessibility of the new playgrounds in Minneapolis and Woodbury will be determined by the amount of money the volunteers are able to raise by next summer when construction is scheduled to begin for both projects.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 5th, 2011 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Construction & Development, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Source: http://finance-commerce.com/2011/12/universal-access-playgrounds-planned-in-twin-cities/

tower heist reviews recursion amy schumer amy schumer ascii art ascii art andrew mason

'Lethal' radiation doses can be treated with drugs

MICE can survive a dose of radiation that should have killed them when given a double-drug therapy - even if they get the drug cocktail 24 hours after exposure.

Radiation damages rapidly dividing cells in the intestine, allowing harmful bacteria to leak into the bloodstream. Eva Guinan at Harvard Medical School found that boosting levels of a protein involved in the immune response against the bacteria - while simultaneously giving an antibiotic - helped 80 per cent of mice survive (Science Translational Medicine, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3003126).

The protein and antibiotic are both safe to use in people, and could be stockpiled in case of a nuclear accident, says Guinan.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1aa0bf59/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg212284140B90A0A0Elethal0Eradiation0Edoses0Ecan0Ebe0Etreated0Ewith0Edrugs0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

gary johnson gary johnson jim thorpe pa jim thorpe pa terry francona ios 5 release date ios 5 release date

Mexico drug war refugees escape to more bloodshed (AP)

VERACRUZ, Mexico ? Rafael Echevarria had a steady factory job, a modest home of his own, and enough cash to occasionally take his family to McDonald's. It was a good life until the drug war hit Ciudad Juarez, followed by two robberies at his house, extortion at his daughter's school, and finally, the shootout on the bus.

When the firing began, 6-year-old Valeria dove to the floor, breaking a tooth. There was so much blood from her mouth wound, her parents thought she'd been shot.

The next day, the couple and their two children boarded a flight back home to Veracruz, along with 1,600 others who had once moved north for work in foreign assembly plants and now were fleeing south in search of safety. The Veracruz state government paid for the flights, and assured the drug war refugees that there would be jobs, education and housing.

At the time, it seemed to the Echevarrias like the only solution.

Then the drug war followed them home.

Military offensives against the drug cartels and turf battles among crime syndicates have pushed the war into areas once considered quiet. A year after their hopeful flight, the Echevarrias are not only caught anew in a crush of violence, but still without the promised help.

In Juarez, the Echevarrias had a house and a van. In Veracruz, they've had to pawn their appliances and move to a concrete hut to make ends meet. The trade of solvency for safety was a fake choice, because in Juarez, Echevarria said, "We would have been living well.

"Now we're in a hole. And it's very difficult to get out."

The Echevarrias are among thousands of Mexicans who make up the internal diaspora trying to escape drug violence that seems to migrate rather than cease, with more than 45,000 troops fighting cartels and more than 40,000 dead by many counts.

Recent survey results by Parametria found that 1.6 million Mexicans have moved because of drug violence since 2006. One study by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre put the number at 230,000 in 2010, estimating that half fled to the United States.

Another study, by demographer Rodolfo Rubio at Colegio de la Frontera Norte, says 200,000 people left Juarez alone for other Mexican cities between 2007 and 2010.

Many of the affected are working class or poor who can't leave the country.

"People who have status or small medium-sized businesses don't have a problem going to the U.S.," said Genoveva Roldan, a migration expert at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez. "That's not the case for workers in the maquiladoras. They don't have that option."

Veracruz is a steamy, tropical mountain state that cultivates sugar cane and coffee. Curling along the lower dip of Mexico's Gulf coast, it is known for its scenic beauty, rich farmlands and busy port, one of Mexico's largest. But it was the lack of opportunity there that drove thousands of Veracruzanos northward beginning in the 1990s, when border factories started recruiting assembly workers with above-average wages and benefits.

Echevarria had grown up poor and left school in the ninth grade to help his father support the family. He joined the navy for a while, he says, and later became a taxi driver. But it wasn't enough to pay the bills.

In 2004, he and his wife, Alejandra Duran, decided they could build a better life in Ciudad Juarez for their two younger children.

There, Echevarria and his son, Cristian, found jobs working in the assembly plants that largely produce goods exported to the U.S. Cristian rose to quality control inspector in a factory that made printer cartridges. Together the two made about 14,000 pesos a month, nearly triple Mexico's average salary.

They bought a three-bedroom house on the southeastern outskirts of town, as well as a van.

"Juarez was a land that helped people," Duran said.

By 2008, the drug wars shattered the peace. Two rival cartels ? Juarez and Sinaloa ? began fighting for control of the lucrative smuggling corridor to the U.S. The annual murder rate nearly doubled from 1,600 in 2008 to 3,100 in 2010.

President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to curb drug violence, and later federal police to patrol the streets and lead counterattacks.

Nonetheless, the Echevarria house was robbed twice. An uncle was attacked by a group of men trying to steal his car.

Then came the extortion. Valeria's teacher told the Echevarrias that gang members were asking for a weekly fee from the school.

It was hard to sleep, Echevarria said.

In early 2010, word got around that the Veracruz government was offering to evacuate the refugees and help them resettle.

The day after the bus shooting, the Echevarrias abandoned their house and left with a washing machine, a set of saucepans, a dining table, Valeria's dresser and her Disney princess chairs.

Once back in Veracruz, Cristian Echevarria got a job as a cashier in a convenience store, while his father decided to get a taxi driver's permit.

Valeria had stopped talking after the trauma of the bus shooting, instead spending her time drawing pictures of corpses in the graves that were found around their Juarez neighborhood. But she seemed to improve after enrolling in school.

Then-Gov. Fidel Herrera's administration also promised to transfer the title of Echevarrias' home in Juarez to a government-subsidized house in Veracruz.

That never happened. The phones to the offices set up to help the returning residents stopped working. A new governor, Javier Duarte, took office last December. Gina Dominguez, Duarte's spokeswoman, said the "social agenda" was going in a different direction.

"It was a good program on paper," she said. "But obviously the execution wasn't simple because it had to provide for everyone."

Herrera did not respond to requests for an interview.

Echevarria couldn't get help paying the 6,000 pesos for his taxi license plates.

Veracruz had long been a route for drugs and migrants coming from the south. For years it was dominated by the Gulf cartel, which had contracted with a gang of former army special forces ? the Zetas. Because the state and the port were controlled by one drug gang, it was quiet.

In early 2010 the Zetas split from the Gulf cartel, triggering a vicious war in the border state of Tamaulipas, just north of Veracruz. This year a government offensive to stop that drug war spilled the violence into Veracruz.

The bloodshed worsened in the last few months, when a third cartel thought to be aligned with Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, moved into Veracruz to try to take over drug operations.

The results of the cartel wars became visible to commuters in September, when a group of masked men stopped rush-hour traffic to dump 35 strangled bodies onto a main thoroughfare. Banners left at the scene claimed the dead were Zetas, though official reports have questioned their link to the drug gang. The victims included bricklayers, former police officers and a taxi driver.

The Echevarrias found themselves in a situation worse than the one they'd fled.

They had moved to a slum of concrete-block housing outside Veracruz to save 500 pesos a month in rent.

During a recent visit, Rafael came home looking pale, walked straight to the bathroom, and threw up.

"He has high blood sugar," said his wife. "He's under a lot of pressure because these are the worst years we've ever had."

The Echevarrias explained that they pawned their refrigerator and stove to pay for the taxi license plates, only to discover that driving a cab was no longer safe.

"They've kidnapped 10 taxi drivers. They asked me to sell drugs," Rafael said. "Yes, I'm scared. I need to provide for my family."

The Echevarrias now make far less than the average wage of $250 pesos a day, about $19.

Alejandra uncovered a saucepan filled with red rice. A loaf of bread sat on a plate. There was no milk. In a big black bag, they'd save plastic bottles collected from the streets to sell for 5 pesos a kilo.

Valeria, now 8, scratched at a rash on her neck. "I don't like it here," she said.

The family is ducking bullets again, but this time in their home.

Cristian said more than 20 men dressed as marines arrived a few weeks ago to their neighborhood, rifles in hand. Valeria heard the shots. Cristian pulled her into an inside room where the family waited.

In a separate attack, Cristian said, four of his childhood friends were killed and three others kidnapped.

The move to Veracruz was a mistake, he said.

When Cristian finishes high school in June, he will move back to their Juarez house and look for work. If he is successful, the rest of the family will join him.

The homicides there have dropped from 2,657 in the first 10 months of 2010 to 1,730 in 2011. They continue to fall.

Valeria doesn't remember the time when she wouldn't talk and only communicated with drawings, when she was a chipped-tooth girl who barely smiled.

But she has returned to drawing, this time a man dressed in a military uniform pointing a gun at another man with a pink spot on his belly. Three passers-by scream, "He's going to shoot!"

She titled it, "The governor saves the people."

_____________

Adriana Gomez Licon is a Mexico correspondent for The Associated Press. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/agomezlicon

(This version CORRECTS typo of name in first and fourth paragraphs.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico_refugees

john henry john henry zack greinke zack greinke siri san diego news ford evos

Report: Google Treading Into Amazon?s E-Commerce Waters

Never content to rest on its search-engine dominance alone, Google is reportedly moving into yet another industry giant?s space. This time, it?s Amazon that may have to look over its shoulder.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google plans to challenge the throne of the e-commerce legend, which has itself branched out into manufacturing products. Google is reportedly in talks with major retailers and shippers about developing a new service that would let consumers shop for clothes, electronics and other consumer goods online and get their order within a day.

Google?s move is a direct assault against one of Amazon?s competitive advantages: Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime is a membership program that gives Amazon customers unlimited fast shipping, such as free two-day shipping and one-day shipping for $3.99 per item. The annual fee is $79.

What Would Amazon Do?

?The fact that Google is getting in on the retail and shipping business is an indicator that it?s a service people are willing to pay for but it?s also something that they expect,? said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. ?Offering to deliver goods within a day keeps Google in the ballpark as a direct competitor with Amazon, but it also brings up the subject of what is Amazon doing next to stay ahead of the game.?

King makes a valid point. In the early days of e-commerce, Amazon differentiated itself by offering lower prices than bookstores. Amazon later aggregated similar products from various sellers and allowed consumers to choose from various price options. Amazon also gained market advantages with one-click shopping, which allows customers to make online purchases with a single click.

?As more retailers got on the bandwagon, you saw Amazon making some interesting moves in order to stay ahead of the pack. First they offered Super Saver free shipping and then later the offered?

Source: http://dailygizmonews.com/2011/12/03/report-google-treading-into-amazons-e-commerce-waters-20/

horse slaughter horse slaughter world aids day 2011 chester mcglockton chester mcglockton arsenic los angeles weather

Wall Street posts best week since 2009 (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks ended flat on Friday but capped the best week for Wall Street bulls in almost three years after data showed the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low.

The market shed most of the 1 percent gains posted earlier in the session as traders booked profits after the S&P failed to break through technical resistance near its 200-day moving average.

Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was down 0.68 point, or 0.01 percent, at 12,019.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was down 0.30 point, or 0.02 percent, at 1,244.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 0.73 point, or 0.03 percent, at 2,626.93.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

the raven lawrence o donnell fresno state fresno state psa test psa test real steel

Tyler Perry offers support to boy in Penn St case

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Filmmaker Tyler Perry is expressing his support for an alleged victim in the Penn State child sex-abuse case, calling him a hero for coming forward.

The producer and director, who went public last year with his own story of childhood molestation, made his comments in an open letter published Monday by Newsweek.

It is addressed to a boy who was 11 when he reported alleged sexual abuse by former assistant Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky. Authorities arrested Sandusky on Nov. 5 and charged him with molesting eight boys over 15 years. Sandusky says he is innocent.

"Do you know that at the young age of 11 you had more courage than all the adults who let you down?" Perry wrote. "All of the ones who didn't go to the proper authorities, all of the ones who were worried about their careers, reputations, or livelihoods."

Two Penn State administrators have been charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to report a 2002 allegation against Sandusky to authorities. Football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier were ousted following criticism they should have done more after learning of the accusation.

Perry said he didn't have the courage to speak up when he was 11. When he finally did tell a family member about his own abuse, Perry said, the relative did not believe him.

"I suffered in silence," he wrote. "But not you, my young strong hero, you have done what many of us wish we could have done. You used your voice!"

Perry later added: "No matter what happens next, just know that the hardest part is over."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-12-01-US-Penn-State-Tyler-Perry/id-64b84e86bb914db8b4bdfe42c496bb57

chris cook nest williams syndrome jay leno machine gun kelly lindsey lohan reed hastings

The Engadget Show returns Tuesday, December 13th -- win a ticket to the taping!

A one horse open sleigh? Not quite, but we will be flying to Japan to check out a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Tokyo Auto Show. We'll also be sitting down to discuss our top tech of the year and, as always, talking about the latest and greatest gadgets the month has to offer. So join us, won't you, for a fun-filled Engadget holiday spectacular on December 13th.

The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint and will take place in our intimate NYC studio, so if you want to get in, you'll need to win a ticket in advance. Sprint is also offering 60 guaranteed tickets to The Engadget Show taping to the first 60 entrants who text "ENGADGET" to 467467 or enter online! Standard text messaging rates apply. Click for the Official Rules and see how to enter online.

If you live outside of the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT), you can enter online for a chance to win a trip for two to New York City to attend The Engadget Show. Standard text messaging rates apply. Click here to enter.

Here are the details if you win a ticket:

• The event is all ages.
• We'll open doors and begin seating at 5:15pm on December 13th, and the taping begins at 6:00PM. We'll be closing the doors at 5:50PM.
• Winners must pick confirm and print tickets 24 hours before taping begins or risk forfeiting their seat.
• Please bring a photo ID with you to the taping.
• The show length is around an hour.

If you're a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we'll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.

Subscribe to the Show:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.

The Engadget Show returns Tuesday, December 13th -- win a ticket to the taping! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/62ybcT1FhSY/

new york yankees pittsburgh penguins westboro baptist church kurt warner kurt warner st. croix st. croix