"Just park across one lane of a road, stick a orange cone behind you." Photo credit: Joanne Rennie / Supplied
Auckland Transport has admitted allowing a truck to illegally park across an entire lane, blocking traffic and causing a crash hazard.
St Heliers resident Joanne Rennie was horrified when she saw the truck, left half on the footpath and half on the road. Images show the driver had placed a road-cone behind it to warn oncoming traffic.
"Yesterday a truck parks blocking one lane of a busy road in St Heliers/Glendowie and sticks an orange cone behind it," she told Newshub.
"As you can see from the photos it is a busy street, even has speed humps thanks to the Council to slow traffic down."
Concerned someone would crash into the truck, Ms Rennie appealed for help. But she was told it was legally parked.
"Auckland Council informs me later - they sent someone out and the truck is parked LEGALLY!!! And says that drivers should take caution; absolutely unbelievable," she fumed.
"So... next time you can't find a park, just park across one lane of a road, stick a orange cone behind you and you are legally parked.
Auckland Transport has apologised for its error, and the vehicle is now parked properly on the road.
Police were called to an incident just after 1pm, and the office was put into lockdown for two hours.
A witness told Newshub someone called in threatening they had a gun and would come in and shoot somebody.
The head of Guatemala's civil defence agency is being accused of ignoring warnings from scientists that a volcanic eruption was imminent.
The bodies of 99 people have been recovered, but hundreds more are unaccounted for - and the thick blanket of volcanic ash covering the ground is now hardening.
Volcan de Fuego erupted on Sunday (local time). Its located only 40 kilometres from Guatemala's capital city.
CBS News reports 2.5-3m of ash lies on top of homes and people in San Miguel Lotes. It's so thick and hard it's hard to tell the difference between a dirt road and ash.
Rescuers are digging through it not hoping to find survivors, but instead the bodies of the dead. Anyone who did manage to escape the volcano left little evidence of their retreat.
The toxic flow from Volcan de Fuego rushed through areas it had never been, trapping entire neighbourhoods and cutting off access to fresh water.
An estimated 7 million people have been affected by the disaster, and crews have been forced to nervously work in dangerous areas while the volcano is still active.
Lenovo is trying to get in front of the freight train that is Apple with its launch of the YOGA line of tablets and laptop. The company brought in Ashton Kutcher last year to act as a ‘product engineer’. That’s a business euphemism for they wanted someone to inject some possible coolness into the brand.
Ashton Kutcher worked with the Chinese tech giant to develop the YOGA line of tablets. He had input ranging from the design, software, specifications and differing usage scenarios. The company even had him introduce the devices to the masses ahead of the October 16 Apple iPad event.
The YOGA platform definitely wins on the design aesthetic. Someone at the company finally figured out that looks can sell a product. You will see some negative coverage of the 13-inch tablet being too big, but Apple is preparing to launch its own giant tablet. It’s hard to use words like bag-busting size when we are all fawning over a 12.9 inch iPad Pro rumor.
One interesting feature is that they come with a projector built-in. Have an empty wall? Now you have a big screen to watch Netflix on. It’s an interesting feature, and sets the company apart from others. Other specs include the Intel Atom processor, an 8 megapixel rear camera and what Lenovo dubs surround sound speakers.
During his remarks, Kutcher pushed the YOGA lineup as the best tablet on the market. “To do that, we really looked at how people use tablets and what they needed for a better experience. The YOGA Tablet 2 Pro has got the best sound, a dramatically brilliant camera and display, a new mode, a projector and top processor, so I think we created the best tablet available. I can’t wait for people to try it.”
It isn’t always the best tablets that rush out the door, but the best positioned companies. Apple and Samsung have cornered the tablet market, and it’s up to companies like Lenovo to make up the ground. That takes a lot of advertising. Lenovo already has a series of ads featuring Kutcher to push the tablet. If they want to make a dent in market share, these need to be on as many networks as possible.
Recently, Moody’s downgraded some Greek banks because of exposure to the Greek economy and the weakness we would see in Athens due to budget cutbacks and the like.
Of course, what they failed to mention is that the Greek banks don’t even have the most exposure to Greek debt.
According to a study by Swiss bank UBS, France and Swiss banks each have $79 billion dollars of exposure to Greek debt. Germany’s exposure is $43 billion. Estimates show that Greek banks only own about $50 billion to $60 billion in debt. Total Greek debt is about $400 billion.
Right now, we have seen outflows out of Greek banks into other European banks as Greeks fear weakness in these institutions.
Also, we must remember that if the Greeks default it is more than likely to be on the foreign part of the debt. The Greeks are more likely to keep paying domestic owners as is often the case in partial defaults.
It kind of reminds me of when the British government nationalized Northern Rock, which was about to go under but the government guaranteed its loans and assets.
Many ran to Northern Rock from other banks because of this guarantee. This caused problems at many other banks.
If Greece defaults, many of those who moved to other banks for safety are in for a serious surprise.
It s a funny thing that investors in Greece are doing at the moment. Recently, Moody s downgraded some Greek banks because of exposure to the Greek economy and the weakness we would see in Athens due to budget cutbacks and the like. Of course, what they failed to mention...
“Moreover, BJP has no moral right to put questions to us since their government has withdrawn cases against 20 thousand party workers including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh.”
In poll-bound Karnataka, a letter sent to the 22 district police heads of the state from the office of Director General & Inspector General of Police Karnataka seeking opinion on the withdrawal of cases against innocent persons from the minority communities has created a political storm in the state as the BJP has accused Karnataka's Congress government of indulging into minority appeasement.
The letter reads, "As mentioned in 2 letters sent earlier by this office, your clear opinion was sought on withdrawal of cases from the last five years i.e., 2013, 14', 15', 16', and ‘17 booked against minorities in all police stations across the state. No response or report in this regard has been received so far. Hence, you are once again reminded to file a report with documents in this regard with your clear opinion on dropping cases against minorities in communal and other cases to this office immediately.”
Soon after the letter became public, Murlidhar Rao, National General Secretary of BJP and Karnataka in-charge took to Twitter and slammed the Congress.
"Karnataka govt circular to release innocent Muslims. Now d cat has come out of d bag. Innocent is euphemism to cover up d hard-core criminal intentions to terrorize n liquidate BJP leaders n also utilize their muscle power to influence electoral outcome in favor of Congress.”
Now d cat has come out of d bag. Innocent is euphemism to cover up d had core criminal intentions to terrorize n liquidate BJP leaders n also utilize their muscle power to influence electoral outcome in favor of Congress. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/QmD8NLtK8b
Speaking to News Nation, Congress leader Rizwan Arshad said, “Few minority organisations had sent a representation to state government and requested to withdraw the cases against the innocent people who have been arrested during Congress rule. We have asked the police to give an opinion about those people who have not been involved in any murder or have caused injuries or arson.
The first letter regarding this matter was sent on December 22, 2017, and later two reminders were sent on January 2, 2018, and January 19, 2018, but till now none of the concerned police officers has replied so far.
The Government has sought the opinion of Commissioner of Police Mangaluru and Mysuru, Superintendents of Police Kolar, Tumkuru, Ramnagar, Chikkaballapur, KGF, Hassan, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Karwar, Chikmagalur, Udupi, Ballari, Kalburgi, Bidar, and Yadgir.
The university anticipates recruiting more than 200 potential investors to the network over the next three years. In addition to having UNC ties – including being an alumnus, faculty or staff member or a university donor – a network member also must be an accredited investor with an annual net income that exceeds $200,000 or a net worth in excess of $1 million.
Investors interested in joining the network must pay an annual $1,500 fee. The individual network members choose for themselves whether to invest in a particular deal.
Last year UNC’s board of trustees created a $5 million fund, the Carolina Research Venture Fund, to help startups commercialize technology developed at the university.
Duke University and N.C. State University also have angel networks: the Duke Angel Network and the Wolfpack Investor Network.
“We have actually started looking at a deal locally that has connections to all three schools,” Myer said.
“We dug a huge hole and it was hard to come out of... We've always struggled with tremendous pressure and athleticism," Apex coach Jay Huffman said. "We played with a little more confidence and a little more speed (in the second half)."
A 9-0 run to open the third quarter made it a new ball game. Apex chiseled the lead to just four points with four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, but it never got any closer.
It was an important year for Apex, which hit the 20-win mark and beat some conference teams it hadn’t in more than four seasons.
“It’s been a long journey, to start with these seniors three years ago and go 7-16 – and somehow make the playoffs,” Huffman said. “They stuck by me and the program and I really appreciate that from them.”
Senior Aliya Ruffin had 16 points in the loss while junior Tiffany Finley had 12 points and 10 rebounds.