“Close Race To Host 2016 Olympics Nears Finish - CBS News” plus 4 more

Close Race To Host 2016 Olympics Nears Finish - CBS News
Hawaii teacher furloughs leave school trips, activities in limbo - Honolulu Advertiser
PBS documentary features Nevada's Great Basin Park - Merced Sun-Star
Capital City Freeway motorcycle crash puts man in hospital - Sacramento Bee
Spare Plane? - CBS Sports

Close Race To Host 2016 Olympics Nears Finish - CBS News

Posted: 26 Sep 2009 10:37 AM PDT

(AP) Close your eyes and imagine the possible scenarios in 2016.

Olympic athletes strolling to competition venues along Chicago's lakefront. Volleyball players diving on the sand of Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach. Cyclists whizzing past Tokyo's Imperial Palace. Soccer players curling free kicks in Madrid's Bernabeu stadium.

After a two-year global campaign featuring four world-class cities, one of the closest bid races in Olympic history will be decided next Friday in a vote of the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen.

Although IOC votes _ by secret ballot over several rounds _ can be highly unpredictable, Rio and Chicago look to be the main contenders.

At stake is international prestige, billions of dollars in potential investment and economic spinoffs, and the honor of staging the world's biggest sports extravaganza.

The decision may come down to two key issues: Will President Barack Obama go to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago's case in person? Is the IOC ready to take a bit of a gamble on Rio and send the Olympics to South America for the first time?

"I expect a vote difference of a couple of votes only," IOC president Jacques Rogge told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "There is no favorite. There is no bid that is lagging behind. All the scenarios are possible."

Technical issues, emotion, sentiment, geography, politics, self-interest and other intangibles all play a role in IOC votes.

In this race, Rio _ besides its iconic beaches and stunning backdrop _ has the strongest emotional pull of the four candidates: The Olympics have never been held in South America and the time has come to try something new.

"For others it would be just another Olympics, but for Brazil it would be something to raise the self esteem of the people," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said this week. "No other city needs to host an Olympics. Brazil needs it. ... Do only rich countries have the right to host the Olympics?"

With Africa the only other continent that hasn't staged an Olympics, Rio's argument has resonated with many IOC members who espouse the "universality" of the games and like to make a geopolitical statement by taking the event to new territories.

"There is sympathy of course for Rio because the games have never been in South America," IOC executive board member Denis Oswald said. "In principle, yes, it would be nice for the universality of the games that we go to a new continent that has never organized games, but only if we are confident that all the technical and other requirements are met."

Rio has bid before, but failed to make the list of finalists for the 2004 and 2012 Olympics. Another South American city _ Buenos Aires, Argentina _ fell short in the vote for 2004, as did a bid from Cape Town, South Africa.

But this time, Rio has made a convincing case for taking the Olympics to a new frontier.

"I'd say for the first time, it's a realistic choice," senior Canadian IOC member Dick Pound said. "We had Cape Town and we've had Brazil and Buenos Aires before. They were there as sort of signals that someday it would be possible. Now you have a real choice. Whether they're prepared to do it is another question.

"You try to pick the least risky place recognizing that they all have some element of risk," he said.

Chicago is bidding to bring the Summer Games back to the U.S. for the first time since Atlanta in 1996. The bid, which would bring the games back to the Olympics' most lucrative market for sponsorships and television rights, is centered on a compact plan putting most athletes within 15 minutes of their venues along picturesque Lake Michigan.

Chicago's hopes could ultimately depend on whether Obama goes to Copenhagen for the vote. Tony Blair, then Britain's prime minister, was instrumental in London's victory when he traveled to Singapore in 2005; and Vladimir Putin helped Sochi ge the 2014 Winter Games when he went to Guatemala City in 2007.

Silva and King Juan Carlos of Spain and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez will be in Copenhagen. Tokyo is urging new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to attend, though he hasn't decided yet.

Obama _ who calls Chicago home _ contacted Rogge on Sept. 11 to inform him he wouldn't be traveling to Denmark because of his commitment to reforming American health care, and was sending first lady Michelle Obama and senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett.

However, the White House sent an advance team to Copenhagen this week to make preparations in case the president decides to join his wife at the last minute _ possibly arriving and departing on the day of the vote.

"If he can be persuaded to go, I think it makes a huge difference," Pound said. "He's a transformational figure in the world today."

Obama has sent a letter to IOC members saying the Olympics would be an "extraordinary opportunity for America to renew our bonds of friendship and welcome the world to our shores with open arms."

Chicago overcame one of its biggest hurdles when the city council approved all financial guarantees for the games, clearing the way for Mayor Richard M. Daley to sign the host city contract if Chicago wins. That was a major step for a U.S. bid city, which _ unlike rival candidates _ can't rely on federal government financial backing.

Yet the Chicago bid could still be affected by lingering anti-U.S. sentiment in the European-dominated IOC and resentment over contentious issues with the U.S. Olympic Committee, including the American body's share of Olympic revenues and plans _ now on hold _ for its own Olympic television network.

British bookmakers list Chicago as an odds-on favorite, followed by Rio, Tokyo and Madrid.

But Rio seemed to pick up the unofficial front-runner's tag in June when the bid cities made presentations to IOC members in a specially arranged meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rio officials made a splash by unveiling a big world map with dots showing where all the Olympics have been held _ and an empty space for South America.

Brazil also claims it is a growing financial power that has been less affected by the global downturn than the other bid countries. It also cites the experience of hosting the 2007 Pan American Games and Brazil's selection as host of the 2014 World Cup, an event which could help prepare infrastructure for the Olympics two years later.

Geography often plays a big role, though the IOC has no official policy of geographical rotation of the games.

Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, offers a first-class technical bid and claims it is the safest bet at a time of financial uncertainty and already has $4 billion in the bank for the games. Yet, there is a sense among some IOC members that it would be soon to go back to Asia after last year's stunning Beijing Olympics.

Madrid, which is bidding for a second straight time after a failed attempt for the 2012 Games, also has a strong candidacy with 77 percent of venues already in place. However, it must contend with a reluctance to return to Europe after London in 2012 and Sochi in 2014.

"Although there is no geographical rotation, I think there is a feeling that the games might go west," British IOC member Craig Reedie said. "In which case, you have a choice of two Western Hemisphere cities (Chicago and Rio). The emotional argument is with Rio with regards to the games having never been in South America before."

The result could also hinge on the vagaries of the IOC voting system. Ninety-nine of the IOC's 106 members are eligible to vote in the first round (members from countries with bid cities can't vote while their candidate is still in contention).

The city receiving the fewest votes is eliminated after each round until one candidate secures a majority. The vote is expected togo the maximum three rounds.

Some members tend to vote out of sympathy in the first round, which can produce some surprises. The key to victory is picking up votes from the cities which go out.

If Tokyo were to go out in the first round, it is believed many of its votes would go to Chicago. If Madrid goes out, the consensus is they would go to Rio.

"The real issue for all four cities is to make sure that as far as they can their committed friends vote for them right from round one," Reedie said. "There is danger to all four cities in the first round. After that I'm afraid I have no idea where people might go."

The final 45-minute presentations _ featuring speeches and videos _ also have a role. The consensus is a city doesn't win because of a good presentation, but could lose because of a bad one.

For the first time, there are no IOC executive board meetings in the days leading up to the vote. That means there will be much less opportunity for lobbying and schmoozing. Most IOC members won't be arriving until the day before the vote.

Each city will be bringing celebrity supporters to Copenhagen, including Pele for Brazil and talk show queen Oprah Winfrey for Chicago.

In the end, Rogge said, it will all come down to which bid organizers the members trust most.

"Everything being equal between the four candidates," he said, "I think it's the human factor that will be most important."

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Hawaii teacher furloughs leave school trips, activities in limbo - Honolulu Advertiser

Posted: 26 Sep 2009 10:30 AM PDT

Field trips for thousands of students statewide are among the activities hanging in the balance as administrators juggle calendars and try to figure out how to accommodate the 17 planned furlough days for the school year.

The issue is particularly acute for schools and parents who have already paid large sums for planned national or international trips and would lose that money if the trips are canceled.

Since Tuesday, when public school teachers approved the furloughs as part of a new contract to help the state save money, schools have been bombarded with phone calls from concerned parents about how the furloughs will affect planned trips to the Neighbor Islands, the Mainland or foreign destinations, as well as parent luncheons and grade-level picnics.

Teachers and administrators have been poring over their master calendars to determine whether the trips conflict with the scheduled Friday furlough days and whether any of those events can be rescheduled to another day.

Some schools are already considering canceling some field trips to avoid losing any more instructional days.

Other schools have trips planned to Washington, D.C., or Japan that have been at least partially paid for and cannot be canceled without losing the money. Those will require special approval from the state and unions to allow the teachers to go.

It's uncharted waters for the schools, said Lauren O'Leary, principal at Holualoa Elementary on the Big Island. "We don't have all our field trips planned out. Now we'll pay attention to the calendar. But we may not do as many field trips in the future because of the loss of instructional days."

DOE officials are working out the guidelines for schools on handling various effects of the furloughs, said Ronn Nozoe, Kaiser-Kalani-Farrington complex area superintendent.

Nozoe said it is his understanding that no one will lose out on previously committed travel or field trips.

Those would be honored even if a furlough day falls during that event, but any future travel or field trips need to take the furlough calendar into account, he said.

"No one will lose any of their money and we'll honor their good-faith deposits," Nozoe said. "We will be looking at travel on a case-by-case basis."

The solution may be to give the teacher a different furlough day or ask if the trip can be changed without incurring any penalties, he said.

"School principals are sorting through a lot," Nozoe said. "Travel and field trips are just a part of the many things affected by the furloughs at this time."

If a student activity cannot be rescheduled, the event must either be canceled or approved by the principal, the DOE has said.

The state is allowing student activities to occur on furlough Fridays if those events are after 3 p.m.

Furloughed teachers would be volunteering to participate and doing so during nonwork hours, DOE spokeswoman Sandy Goya said in an e-mail to The Advertiser.

Furlough days are creating even more headaches at the four Hawai'i public schools that operate on a multitrack schedule.

At Holomua Elementary School in 'Ewa, principal Norman Pang is juggling four different schedules, as the school is a multitrack year round. Some of the furlough days that have been set by the contract fall on intersession days, when students and teachers are not in school. A plan must be approved with the union and the DOE to accommodate all the different schedules, Pang said.

"We've married up the dates where we can and created more furlough days where we couldn't," Pang said. "The teachers are working now to either reschedule field trips or cancel them."

Contract details

Even though teachers are often willing to put in extra time or dip into their own pocket for items they need in the classroom, state labor laws require that employees, whether hourly or salaried, not work while on unpaid leave in a furlough. That includes reading or responding to e-mails, calling or responding to calls from colleagues and being on site at any time during furlough days.

But state workers are exempt from state wage and hour laws, said Michael F. Nauyokas, a labor attorney and arbitrator.

"Because state employees are exempt from wage and hour laws, you have to look at the contract," Nauyokas said. "If the contract states the teachers are entitled to wages for field trips or other school-sponsored trips, then they get paid. You have to look to the contract for the wording."

On Tuesday, Hawai'i public school teachers ratified a two-year contract that includes 17 days a year of Friday furloughs, beginning in October. That amounts to a 7.9 percent pay cut for the state's 170,000 public school teachers.

The furloughs were decided on to help offset $227 million in cuts to the public school system mandated by the governor. The state Board of Education voted to seek $117 million in furloughs and other labor savings, while cutting the rest from programs and school-level funding.

Awaiting decisions

Off-island travel is often the highlight of the school year for many students, and much planning and expense goes into such trips.

In some cases, field trips or live performances are tied to specific lesson plans, and some field trips may be canceled rather than rescheduled if the date is set too far away from the lesson.

"My parents have been calling, but I can't tell them anything" yet, said Michael Miyamura, Kapolei Elementary School's principal. "I'm sad we're losing instructional time. Our calendar is already short.

"We'll have to figure out some way to keep the kids focused on education."

Hokulani Elementary School has been working on a cultural exchange trip to Japan for more than a year. Trips are also planned to Washington, D.C., and to the Big Island. All of these trips required fundraising and planning, said Al Carganilla, school principal.

"Our teachers are so resilient," Carganilla said. "The biggest thing for our teachers is that the students get the experience. Money is the last thing on their mind. They want to make sure the trips can happen.

"A lot of parents are concerned and we're telling them to hold tight until we get clarification from the district."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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PBS documentary features Nevada's Great Basin Park - Merced Sun-Star

Posted: 26 Sep 2009 10:23 AM PDT

"I have seen the cuts (of the film) that they allowed the park service to view," Andy Ferguson, Great Basin National Park superintendent, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "Dayton Duncan, one of the co-producers, showed it to us and I was tickled to see the bristlecone pine trees front and central in one of the shots there."

Getting to the bristlecone grove requires navigating an old dirt road.

Curt Dimmick, chief park ranger, said a crew from Burns' production company, Florentine Films, wouldn't venture up the rugged road without a guide, so in 2007, he took them to the site.

Along the way, the crew had to abandon one of their rented vehicles because it didn't have four-wheel drive.

After reaching the trees and filming for several hours, they set up camp for the night. The crew resumed shooting the pine trees in the morning before packing up and calling it a day.

It's the only site filmed within Great Basin National Park.

"It was entertaining, fun and interesting," Dimmick said. "They were very professional people. Dayton Duncan is, of course, a really neat resource because of the things he's done. He's been working with Ken Burns for quite a while, and he's a huge fan of the national parks."

If not for a past visit to the park by Duncan, the trees might not have been featured at all.

"What they wanted to do and what they specifically came to do was film bristlecone pines," Dimmick said. "Originally, they weren't planning on coming here at all."

But the crew was in the area, and Duncan had researched the trees.

The trees "represent a kind of strength through adversity," Dimmick said. "You've got this living thing that when conditions are the worst they seem to thrive the best in terms of longevity.

"They're twisted, and they're kind of misshapen, and some people would look at them and say they're kind of ugly," Dimmick said. "I think they're actually beautiful in their own way. They've been able to survive through these hard winters and conditions of drought for 3,000-plus years."

Great Basin National Park is one of the least visited parks in the national park system, attracting maybe 90,000 in a good year, Dimmick said.

"Our location, being very remote and not near any metropolitan areas, doesn't put us in the middle of the main travel routes," he said.

Being included in the documentary, he said, is an opportunity for the park to be viewed as "one of the hidden jewels among the crown jewels" of America's national parks.

"America's Best Idea" traces the development of the parks, park system and the people who contributed to it during the past 150 years.

The series begins Sunday night and runs through Oct. 2.

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Capital City Freeway motorcycle crash puts man in hospital - Sacramento Bee

Posted: 26 Sep 2009 09:54 AM PDT

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Spare Plane? - CBS Sports

Posted: 26 Sep 2009 09:04 AM PDT

They shouldn't be traveling though, period.

Almost all other schools have sat their players at home and quarantined them. If Ole Miss had to play about 2 weeks ago, they would have been missing 19 starters. Ohio State left a starter and other players back in Columbus when we played Toledo in Cleveland because they had the flu.

It's about social responsibility......risking (not really a risk because they WILL get someone else sick who wasn't sick already) sickness to others when it could be avoided seems very foolish. Sports > Others health? Seems irresponsible to me but maybe I'm missing something

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Travel and Leisure

Saturday, September 26, 2009