Aviation articles by Wikinewsie Iain Macdonald.

This Category ‘sub-page’ will display up to 500 articles which one of the project’s contributors has written on a specific topic.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

The US Army Corps of Engineers decision to place restrictions on issuance of nationwide pollution permits has been upheld by a federal court. In National Association of Home Builders v. Army Corps of Engineers, the District Court for the District of Columbia found that the Corps of Engineers had not acted in an “arbitrary” or “capricious” manner in changing the terms and conditions for issuance of a national pollution permit, including reducing the size of area into which pollutants may be discharged from 10 acres to 1 acre, raising the threshold for requiring additional permits from 1 acre to 1/10 acre,

A nationwide permit allows an organization to engage in certain industrial activities on a national basis (such as mining and construction), reducing the amount of paperwork and filings needed for otherwise minor environmental impacts, as opposed to an ordinary permit for a specific location which will engage in activities which generate water pollution.

Due to concerns over the amount of discharge taking place in waterways, the Corps of Engineers began in the 1980s to reduce the authority granted by nationwide permits and to bar use of the permits in certain ecologically sensitive areas.

Some industry groups, including the plaintiff in the above case, The National Association of Home Builders, sued the Corps of Engineers in 2000 over the change in an attempt to block its implementation. Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, were given permission to intervene in the case in support of the actions of the Corps.

Environmental groups were pleased with the decision, but are concerned over other actions of the Bush Administration, such as the attempts to weaken provisions of the 2002 Clean Water Act to allow additional dumping of construction and mining waste into waterways as fill material.

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

In early May, Wikinews extended an invitation to Vitaly Filipchenko, an independent candidate in the 2021 New York City mayoral election, set to take place November 2nd, alongside other candidates. Filipchenko answered some questions about his policies and campaign during a phone interview.

Filipchenko, registered on the New York City Campaign Finance Board as Vitaly A. Filipchenko, is the first Russian candidate for New York City mayor, being born in Tomsk, Siberia in 1973, according to news agency Sputnik. He has since naturalised as a United States citizen. According to the web site, Filipchenko has been educated in road construction and maintenance and owns a moving services company; he describes himself on his web site as a “small business owner”. On his web site’s platform page, he says that “[m]y English may not be perfect – but my platform is.”

Incumbent Democrat mayor Bill de Blasio, who won re-election in the 2017 New York City mayoral election by 66.5%, cannot run for a third term under term limits. As of April 28, 22 candidates are currently running, the majority of whom are also Democrats. Ahead of the June Democratic primary for New York City mayor, a poll conducted May 23 and 24 by WPIX and Emerson College of 12 Democratic candidates with a margin of error of 3.2 per cent has former commissioner for the New York City Department of Sanitation Kathryn Garcia and Borough President of Brooklyn Eric Adams leading with 21.1% and 20.1%, respectively.

Saturday, July 9, 2005

Friday, April 13, 2007

On Wednesday, Canadian BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Limited (RIM), reported preliminary fourth quarter and year-end financial results. Despite record profits, up from US$18 million in the same quarter last year to $188 million for the current quarter, the news was dampened by the revelation that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had formalized its investigation into RIM’s accounting practices.

An internal review by RIM, initiated eight months ago, revealed irregularities with how the company accounted for stock options. On March 5 of 2007, RIM co-chief executive and chairman, Jim Balsillie, resigned his position of chairman, due to the irregularities.

RIM had indicated, until recently, that the SEC probe into the company’s stock option granting practices was an informal inquiry. In a press release April 11, RIM suggested that “the informal inquiry has been converted to a formal investigation.”

In its press release, RIM indicated it would restate financials for the second and third quarters of fiscal 2007, and the fiscal year ended March 3, 2007 only. Through its internal probe, RIM had determined that the accounting irregularities for recently filed Canadian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) statements would not result in a material adjustment. It would not, therefore, restate Canadian GAAP financial statements, filed previously.

Aside from the record profits just reported, RIM indicated that it had shipped approximately 6.4 million BlackBerry devices in fiscal 2007 and that 1.02 million subscriber accounts were added in the fourth quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base had increased to 8 million.

On the news of the formal SEC inquiry, RIM’s stock price was down over 8%, Thursday, on the NASDAQ.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

File:Anders Behring Breivik (Facebook portrait in suit).jpg

A gunman, identified by Norwegian media as Anders Behring Breivik, has shot and killed at least 85 people at a youth camp on the island of Utøya in Norway. The 32-year-old man has been charged with both this attack and an explosion in the capital city of Oslo, which killed at least seven people. Police searched Breivik’s apartment in Oslo overnight and have been interrogating him.

Breivik is reported to have arrived at the camp dressed as a police officer, telling children to gather around him for protection before systematically shooting them. It is not yet known whether he acted alone; police say there are no concrete reports of a second gunman, but this cannot be ruled out.

The camp was organised by the Workers’ Youth League (AUF), which is affiliated with the Norwegian Labour Party. A number of sources, both inside and outside of Norway, are speculating that an opposition to the Labour Party’s immigration policies, especially regarding Muslims, was Breivik’s motivation for the attacks.

Islam is the second largest religion in Norway, after Christianity, and Breivik’s comments on the political website Document.no, where he posted using his real name between September 2009 and October 2010, expressed anti-Islamic sentiments. He described the religion as a “hate ideology” ^{((no))Norwegian language: ?hat-ideologier} and compared it to Nazism. His Twitter account was used to post only a single comment, quoting social liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100 000 who have only interests”.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who described the island as “a youth paradise turned into a hell”, reports that a number of children have not yet been located. He, and the families of some of the children killed, met with King Harald V of Norway, his wife Queen Sonja, and their son Crown Prince Haakon, and was said to have been “deeply touched” by the meetings.

He also said that it is “too early to speculate” about the shootings, and that the police should be allowed to continue with their investigations before people “jump to any conclusions”.

Breivik, who ran a farm, reportedly recently purchased six tonnes of fertiliser, which is speculated to have been involved in the making of the Oslo bomb.

The island of Utøya is closed to the public, and an official at the British embassy in Oslo does not recommend travel to the immediate area of central Oslo where the bomb was detonated. However, she is not discouraging travel to Norway, nor to Oslo.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Earlier this week, Wikinews interviewed Sarah Walsh, a former Australian women’s national soccer team (Matilidas) player, about women’s football in the country.

The Australian women’s team is currently ranked ninth by FIFA, down one spot from the previous quarter when they were tied at eighth with the North Korea women’s national football team. Meanwhile, Australia’s men (Socceroos) are currently ranked 59th in the world, between the Burkina Faso and Slovakia national football team. Walsh retired from the national team in September of last year, after scoring 32 goals in 71 appearances. She was on Matildas side that qualified for the World Cup for the first time while playing in the Asian Football Confederation instead of the Oceania Football Confederation. She also played in two World Cup quarter-finals for the team. Playing in Australia’s top level domestic league, the W-League, she won the league championship in 2009. She retired from the league this year. Walsh played professionally in the United States for Sky Blue FC and Saint Louis Athletica.

((WN)) : The Socceroos are ranked 59th by FIFA. The Matildas are ranked 8th by FIFA in the latest rankings. Should media coverage correlate to team performance and internationally rankings? Is there an element of tall poppy syndrome in the coverage of the Socceros? What other factors can be used to explain the relative differences in media attention other than performance?

Sarah Walsh: Traditionally in Australia, male sports have dominated media coverage. Slowly we are seeing women’s sports feature more frequently in mainstream media publications. There is a growing interest in women’s sports, especially women’s national teams in general here in Australia. With time, the public will be exposed to more female sports on a daily basis and perhaps will build the same affections for these female sports. As a teenager, I was exposed to NRL living in Sydney, so naturally I have a strong interest in this game along with football (soccer). Young female teenagers today, have the option to turn the TV on and watch the W-league and follow their heroes. I believe in 5–10 years’ time we will see a cultural change with regards to media coverage and gender bias.

((WN)) : What’s the difference in style of play between the men and women’s national teams?

Sarah Walsh: Men

They appear to play a possession-based game working at effective possession combined with a developing system of pressing using our natural athleticism and high work rate as well as our cultural mental strength.

Sarah Walsh: Women

The women seem to employ a more defensive and well organized “block” making it hard for teams to play through particularly in the middle and our back thirds utilizing transitional moments (BPO – BP) to good effect with quick attacks through the natural speed of certain players.

((WN)) : Why are the Matildas more successful in international competitions and ranking wise than the Socceroos?

Sarah Walsh: There could be a number of contributing factors. One in particular could be dues to financial reasons. Given there is more financial support for men’s national teams globally in general, I believe the competition across the board is more extensive. Due to this, there are more teams that compete at a higher level, so effectively this would make it difficult for the Socceroos to reach the same ranking as Matildas.

((WN)) : Why do you think men don’t watch the Matildas in the same numbers as they watch the Socceroos?

Sarah Walsh: Answer similar to question 1.

((WN)) : Does the media feed into traditional Australian gender stereotypes by not covering elite women’s sports?

Sarah Walsh: Similar to question 1.

((WN)) : What is your role in sports? Journalist? Academic? Sport administrator? Player? Please provide one to two sentence biography to contextualize your answers.

Sarah Walsh: I started playing football at 5 years of age. I made my debut for the Matildas at 21 (2004–2012) I have spent the past two years working in community football at FFA delivering a Drug and Alcohol program. I am currently the Women’s Football Coordinator and Female Elite Player mentor at FFA. Actually on wikipedia if you would like to cut and paste all that info!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Richard Thomas, the British Information Commissioner has criticized the Liberal Democrats for cold calling 250,000 British people automatically to encourage them to support their party. The commissioner announced in a press release made public on Thursday that “the Information Commissioner’s Office has taken enforcement action against the Liberal Democrats after finding the party in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.”

In the enforcement notice, which has been seen by Wikinews, the Liberal Democrats are told that “in view of the matters referred to above the Commissioner hereby gives notice that, in exercise of his powers under section 40 of the [Data Protection] Act, he requires that the Liberal Democrats within 30 days of the date of service of this Notice shall, in accordance with Regulation 19 of the Regulations, cease using an automated calling system to transmit communications comprising recorded matter for direct marketing purposes to subscribers who have not previously notified the Liberal Democrats that they consent to such communications being sent to them.”

The Liberal Democrats have been given 28 days to appeal against the action, although the party has said that they accept the decision. In 2005, the party successfully stopped the Scottish National Party for continuing to carry out a similar cold calling campaign. Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, defended the party’s actions by saying that “I rather hope it won’t disturb. People don’t have to pick up the phone if they don’t like the time at which the call is made.”

If the Liberal Democrats continue to cold call users in thirty days time, they are at risk of prosecution and an unlimited fine.