WASHINGTON — As gas prices continue to take a toll on Americans' pocketbooks, a growing number of people are embracing a more old-fashioned, cheaper and greener way of getting around: bicycling. And an increasing number of U.S. cities are starting bike-sharing programs for a range of environmental, health and economic reasons. Cities across the country — including Washington, Chicago, Miami Beach, Denver and Des Moines, Iowa — launched bike-sharing programs last year.
Boston and New York plan to start their own later this summer. Most programs enroll members who pay small monthly or annual fees and then are able to rent bikes for either a limited number of hours or a whole day. Nonmembers often can buy daily passes. Bicycles are healthy, they don't pollute and they're relatively cheap. Cities also find that bikes help cut down on traffic congestion and boost their economies by getting more people to patronize local businesses. tiffany accessories
The U.S. embrace of bike-sharing follows European cities such as Rome, Paris and Barcelona, Spain, which were pioneers of such programs. "People are interested in other forms of mobility, and bike-sharing makes it possible for people to take short trips without having to necessarily gear up in full bike gear and deal with trying to park the bike safely," said Susan Shaheen, a transportation scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. Surveys of some program users show that many of the most active members are ages 25 to 35 and they use the bicycles to commute to work or pedal for leisure on weekends. cheap tiffany and co
Washington launched Capital Bikeshare last September. More than 1,100 bikes and 118 stations are now part of the system, and at least 500,000 rides have been taken so far. Government funding is one reason that these programs have thrived. The federal Department of Transportation pitched in with a $4.8 million grant to help get Capital Bikeshare rolling. In an emailed statement to McClatchy, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood touted his department's work promoting bike-sharing and other alternatives to driving: "Through our programs, we have funded new bike lanes and paths and have supported the development of bike-sharing programs to improve opportunities for people to get around safely and conveniently on a bicycle." The high price of gasoline is a prime motivator for many bikers. tiffany charms
"Some of the main reasons we hear about people joining Bikeshare or biking in general is the cost of gas. That is not going to go down anytime in the future, and it will only keep getting worse," said Chris Holben, a program manager for Capital Bikeshare. Mike Schmitz, 25, who works as an international trade consultant in downtown Washington, has used Capital Bikeshare for two months. He rents a bicycle several times a week. tiffany necklace white gold
"It's an easy way to get around the city. It's a lot quicker than walking and even taking the Metro," Schmitz said, referring to Washington's subway system. At a news conference in May, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg sounded enthusiastic about his city's initiative: "Every city I've talked to mayors in around the world, it's one of the most popular things they've ever done. I would expect it to be popular here." Minneapolis started a program last June called Nice Ride, which now has 700 bikes and more than 70 stations and has logged more than 100,000 trips in its first year of operation. It recently expanded into Minneapolis' twin city of St. Paul. tiffany cufflinks
Bill Dossett, the program's executive director, said Nice Ride had been a huge success in part because "40 percent of the trips people take in a city are under 3 miles, and the bike is the best tool for that. "The basic idea of it is a great one, and the technology advances that have happened in the last five years have just made it so much easier and possible to secure the bikes and keep them more maintained." Dossett said he got at least five calls a week from officials in other cities seeking advice on how to get their own bike-sharing programs rolling. Zach Schaap, 25, an advertising graphic designer, uses Nice Ride daily to commute to work and has become an avid fan. He even sold his car last year. "Nice Ride simplifies the biking experience. It's reliable and simple, and it engages you with your community," he said. tiffany necklace silver
Pandora Charms SaleMASCOUTAH ? Charges have been filed against a man involved in a standoff with police Tuesday, police said Thursday. John L. Baker has been charged with one count each of unlawful possession of a weapon and reckless discharge of a firearm. His bail was set at $100,000. Thursday night, St. Clair Couty Jail officials said Baker was not in their system. Pandora Charms On Sale
Police received a call from a woman saying her roommate, Baker, fired two shots from a "long gun." She told police he became upset after being asked to leave their apartment, in the 900 block of West Main Street. About 30 members of the Illinois Law Enforcement and Alarm System, a multijurisdictional response team, and a negotiator from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived on the scene at 8:30 p.m. after it was determined Baker could be in the house, but police didn't have contact with him.
Pandora Charms OnlineA robot with cameras later found Baker in an upstairs bedroom. He still wouldn't answer phone calls or shouts from police. After failing to talk the man out of the apartment, police fired two containers of tear gas inside about 10:30 p.m. He was arrested when he came out of the house around 11:20 p.m. A man charged with negligent homicide in his son's drowning last week cannot travel to Washington state to attend the 3-year-old's funeral, a Lewis and Clark County judge has ruled. Pandora Bangles
Justice of the Peace Michael Swingley made his ruling after a hearing Wednesday in which County Attorney Leo Gallagher argued Leo Eugene Mathis, 26, had no ties to Helena other than the criminal charges filed after his son, Leo Eugene Mathis Jr., drowned in Prickly Pear Creek in East Helena on June 22. Mathis had just moved to the area a week earlier. Gallagher also pointed out that Mathis was jailed after pleading guilty to harassing and threatening to kill the boy's mother and the state of Washington put a no-contact order in effect until April 2012. Jenny Kaleczyc, a public defender representing Mathis, said her client is not a flight risk. "He understands the seriousness of the charges," she said. The defense also argued that the boy's mother wants Mathis at the funeral. Pandora Beads Sale
"Let this man who is mourning the tragic loss of his son lay his son to rest," Kaleczyc said. Swingley declined the request to modify Mathis' bond conditions to allow him to travel out of state, noting his serious alcohol problem and history of not being compliant with court orders, the Independent Record reported. "The defense is relying on the compassion of the court and pleading for the release of the defendant to attend a funeral for his son, the victim of the crime the defendant is charged with," Swingley wrote. Pandora Bracelets Sale
"The court's responsibility is to attempt to balance the needs of the community, the prosecution and the rights of the deceased child to have the defendant brought to trial and restrained from leaving the state until the matter is resolved." Court records say Mathis and his son were walking near the creek in East Helena when Mathis received a telephone call, was briefly distracted and his son walked toward a berm constructed to hold back floodwaters. Mathis told investigators he saw his son standing in slack water in a brushy area and decided to carry him across the main current to the park on the other side of the creek. Mathis lost his footing and dropped his son, who was swept downstream. Court records note the creek was "visibly raging. Pandora Bracelets Online
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online social game company Zynga plans to raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion in an initial public offering and could file paperwork with U.S. regulators as soon as Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Zynga, the company behind a series of popular games on Facebook including FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has more than 215 million monthly active users, according to its website. It is the top games publisher on Facebook and its revenue mainly comes from selling virtual items such as tractors and weapons in games that users can play on their computers. tiffany pendants
Its IPO would be the latest in a string of social media companies to take advantage of rebounding equity markets. Zynga is expected to float only a small portion of its shares and the IPO could value the company as high as $15 billion to $20 billion, the source said. Morgan Stanley is expected to lead underwriters on the IPO, with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays and JPMorgan also expected to be among the underwriters, the source said. The source declined to be named because the information is not public. The banks and Zynga declined to comment. Zynga has also held talks with banks about a big credit facility that would be undrawn, a separate source said. The credit facility is expected to be at least $1 billion, according to CNBC, which first reported the details of Zynga's planned IPO filing. Zynga would follow LinkedIn Corp and China's Renren Inc, which were the first social media companies to test the public markets in May. Today, LinkedIn is above its IPO price, but down from its highs, while Renren has lost nearly half of its value since its IPO.
tiffany cufflinks Some investors are already expecting Zynga's IPO to surpass LinkedIn's because of its steady revenue stream. A few months ago, Zynga's annual revenue was estimated to be about $1 billion, according to Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia who has said that the number could be higher now. This estimate would be higher than LinkedIn's annual revenue. Bhatia said in a recent interview that Zynga should move quickly to go public because of the current market appetite for IPOs of Internet-based companies and that if it waits six months, "the conditions may not be as favorable. tiffany charms
" Zynga could tap into investors' growing frustration with traditional videogame companies, which have seen their share prices eroded in recent years. Zynga's games have been eating into the $60.4 billion global video game industry -- which largely consists of action or sports games played on consoles and TV sets. Zynga, however, faces the same pitfalls as many video game companies, including the risk that interest in its games could drop off and shift toward a competitor's wares. Competitors of Zynga have also been preparing to file IPOs of their own, which could crowd the market. PopCap Games, which makes Facebook games, told Reuters earlier this year it was preparing to file by the end of the summer. tiffany & co outlet
Earlier this month, online radio company Pandora Media Inc raised the proposed value of its IPO by almost 50 percent. Two days after Pandora's stock debuted, it handed back its gains and was down nearly 20 percent. Also this month, online daily deal site Groupon raced to file its IPO. The company said it wants to raise up to $750 million. Groupon disclosed in its filing that its staffing ballooned to more than 7,000 employees at the end of March from 37 in June 2009. Investors are also setting their sights on IPOs for social media networks Facebook and Twitter. (Additional reporting by Clare Baldwin and Liana Baker. Editing by Robert MacMillan, Bernard Orr) tiffany bracelet
These are the times that try the souls of American sports fans. NFL owners and players are mired in a lockout approaching its fourth month over how to divide $9.3 billion in annual revenue, the first shutdown since 1987 jeopardizing the September start of the 2011 campaign. The NBA appears poised to follow the gridiron stars off the cliff into an owner-player deadlock, with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire on Thursday. And that's after German star Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas to a title over a Miami team with US standouts LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Pandora Charms OnlineThe Los Angeles Dodgers, one of Major League Baseball's most historical clubs, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday and US squads have been humbled in the World Baseball Classic, both editions of which have been won by Japan's stars. The National Hockey League's Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, Canada, earlier this month and the Phoenix Coyotes remain wards of the league with their home city paying $25 million dollars a year to help offset losses. US men's golfers have gone five majors without a victory, the longest drought in history, and Europeans hold the top four spots in the world rankings while on the women's side, only two of the top 10 are Americans. "The world is a smaller place, so I think we're going to have to get used to it," US 2012 Ryder Cup captain Davis Love said. "Look at the leaderboard every week on (the US PGA) tour. It's a third US and a third European and then a third Asian or South African, Australian guys. Pandora Bangles
" US golf veteran Jim Furyk says non-US players moving to US homes and playing on the American tour are sort-of Americans. "I think American golf is probably a little better than what it's been given credit for, but obviously it's a worldwide game," Furyk said. "A lot of these international guys, I think of them as members of our tour. "Vijay (Singh) is a neighbour of mine. I don't really think of Vijay as from Fiji. He has lived in Ponte Vedra 20 years. He's not American but I don't really think of him as being foreign, if that makes sense. Pandora Beads Sale
" Last month saw the first week since tennis rankings began with no American man or woman in the top 10. Venus and Serena Williams have been injured and each crashed out in the fourth round at Wimbledon on Monday. Where players like Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi once ruled, the top US men are now No. 9 Mardy Fish and the fading No. 10 Andy Roddick, whose 2003 US Open crown is the most recent Grand Slam singles crown for an American man. "We come from a country that's used to winning and winning at a high level and at almost every sport," Fish said. "Tennis fans are used to seeing Americans win and play each other in Grand Slam finals. So it's tough to come from an era where Sampras and Agassi are playing each other five or six times in major finals." Fish blames the vastness of the US sports scene for dwindling the talent for tennis. "Our most important sports or our most popular sports are getting our best athletes," Fish said. Pandora Bracelets Sale
Only once in the past eight seasons has an American racer captured the IndyCar Series season crown while US drivers have taken only two of the past 13 Indianapolis 500 titles. Two of the first three Women's World Cup football titles were won by America, but 2011 host Germany has taken the past two titles, the US settling for third place each time. Mexico last weekend captured a second consecutive Gold Cup title by defeating the host US men in the final. Heavyweight boxing, once the realm of such American legends as Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield, now sees Ukraine stars Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko holding two major titles and Britain's David Haye owning the other. Pandora Bracelets Online
Rugby and cricket continue to struggle for attention in America while swimming and athletics gain regular attention only during the approach of the Olympics. American men suffered their worst Olympic track and field showing in history at Beijing and once-mighty Michael Phelps, a 14-time Olympic champion, has been beaten in recent meets as he trains for the 2012 London Games. Americans submitted a bid for the 2022 World Cup last year but saw Qatar win host rights in a vote by FIFA officials. Two years ago, Chicago was a candidate for the 2016 Olympics only to be the first city eliminated, the International Olympic Committee eventually naming Rio de Janeiro the winner. So where in sport is US rule unchallenged? Try the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), where American drivers have dominated and US star Jimmie Johnson is in the hunt for a sixth season title in a row. Pandora Bracelet Charms
War at the Jersey shore over who rules the beaches LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. – New Jerseyans have to put up with taxes, tolls, toxic waste and, occasionally, Snooki. So an occasional trip to the beach is all that keeps some folks here sane. Now officials in the nation's most densely populated state are rewriting public beach access rules that could make it easier for well-to-do towns to keep out-of-towners off their beaches — and a sandstorm is brewing. tiffany charms
The state says it had to act and give more local control over access after a court decision struck down more stringent rules that spelled out uniform standards for each shore town. The state feels it can accomplish more by working with shore towns and giving them flexibility rather than dictating a "one-size-fits-all" access policy to them. But many beachgoers fear the new rules, if adopted, would reward the very people who have made it so hard for outsiders to reach the beach for decades.
tiffany accessoriesJoe Woerner, an official with the Jersey Shore Surfrider Foundation, said he was handcuffed as a teenager 20 years ago as he came out of the ocean with his surfboard. He was taken to a police holding cell in Sea Girt. Crossing a hundred yards or so of sand without a beach badge. "I was a 15-year-old boy arrested for using the ocean," he said. "These are the kind of people who will be making our rules." Most New Jersey beach towns require surfers to buy and wear beach badges costing anywhere from $5 to $12 a day, regardless of how long they are on the sand or in the water. tiffany pendants
Woerner's charges were eventually dropped, but not before "a bunch of people who own places on the beach gave me grief about being on the beach without a badge and how surfers were what's wrong with our town." Oceanfront homeowners like Dorothy Jedziniak of Ship Bottom feel there's already more than enough access to beaches in her corner of Long Beach Island. "We are being attacked with tourism, business and inundation," she said at a public hearing on the plan, appealing that state officials stand firm and implement the new rules, which she feels would lessen the influx of visitors. cheap tiffany
"We have a beautiful island," she said. "I ask you, please: hang onto it." New Jersey is one of a tiny handful of places in the United States that makes people pay for the privilege of dipping their toes in the surf or spreading a blanket on the sand. Under a legal doctrine dating back to the Roman Empire, the ocean, bay and river shorelines are to be open forever to the public. In practice, though, it doesn't always work out that way. cheap tiffany and co
Well-to-do oceanfront homeowners fear an invasion of tourist hordes, with their noise, litter, loud colors and louder radios. Inland residents resent having to pay with their tax dollars to maintain beaches that officials in some shore towns make it hard for the public to use. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found 48 percent of New Jerseyans feel shore towns make it too hard for the public to use beaches, while 43 percent said the current level of access is OK. They also overwhelmingly said they want the state to mandate bathrooms near the beach — something the new rules don't require. cheap tiffany and co jewelry
Beach access advocates note that almost all of New Jersey's progress over the last 50 years in ensuring outsiders' beach rights has come through costly, draw-out litigation — often driven by the state itself. That's why many are so upset that the state is relinquishing the stick in favor of the carrot. Tourism is a $35.5 billion industry in New Jersey; 67.8 million people visited the state last year, many of them flocking to its beaches. Most shore towns realize they're dependent on tourism to keep restaurants, grocery and liquor stores, gas stations and other businesses afloat, and to hold down permanent residents' property taxes. Shore tourism and higher sales tax receipts also benefit the state. tiffany uk
But some shore towns seem to be just fine with mostly locals on their sand, and disagreements over who can and should use the beach sometimes take on elements of class warfare. Mantoloking, about 50 miles north of Atlantic City, is one of the wealthiest towns in New Jersey — a quarter of its 423 permanent residents list their occupation as "corporate executive" and more than 50 homes there are worth $2 million or more. The town was about to spend $900,000 in 2007 to buy property for beachgoers' parking and a public bathroom but residents persuaded the borough council to back down. One property owner dismissively mentioned how Mantoloking might become like other, less-tony resort communities if it encouraged more of the public to come, adding, "when you sleep with dogs, you pick up fleas. tiffany uk shop
" Some shore towns use tactics like eliminating or severely restricting parking, not providing rest rooms, and banning food and drink from the beach. That places some beaches off-limits to anyone but locals who can walk to the beach, then back home to eat or answer nature's call. For decades, Bay Head's beaches were legally off-limits to anyone but residents, until a court forced them to admit anyone who buys a badge. In Mantoloking, beachgoers can only park their cars on public streets for two hours. In parts of Long Beach Island like the Loveladies and North Beach sections of Long Beach Township, many pathways to the shoreline are lined with signs warning, "Private drive. No public beach access. tiffany necklace
" In Sea Bright, there's little if any on-street parking along much of the sea wall taking up a good chunk of the oceanfront. Rows of privately owned beach clubs have posted signs on the sand seeking to keep non-members out — even though they signed a legal settlement in 2009 with the state attorney general's office over beach access, calling for the public to be able to use 60 percent of those beaches, up to 150 feet from the shoreline. The state had sued, saying the clubs were benefiting from taxpayer-paid sand for beach restoration, yet wrongfully excluding the public from all but a 15-foot-wide strip at the water's edge. tiffany mens necklace
Bob Martin, New Jersey's environmental protection commissioner, says the state had to change the rules because an appeals court in 2008 struck down rules requiring public access points every quarter-mile along the shore, parking and bathrooms. The south Jersey beach town of Avalon sued, saying the state overstepped its bounds by requiring too much public access, and unreasonable requirements like 24-hour access to beaches and marinas. Martin said the administration of Gov. tiffany necklace silver
Chris Christie "believes that public access is a fundamental right for the people of New Jersey. What we're trying to do with these regulations is enhance public access. In the state of New Jersey, 95 to 98 percent of our 127 miles of oceanfront is accessible to the public. We've counted over 1,000 access points to the shore. We seem to focus on two or three towns we have problems with. We need to look at the big picture. tiffany necklace white gold
" Martin said he plans to "tweak" the proposed rules to more clearly spell out after-hours access rights for two of the groups who complained the loudest: surfers and anglers. "If you're talking about keeping the teenage parties off the beach at 3 a.m., that's one thing," he said. "Keeping fishermen off the beach just before dawn is quite another." James Hill, a suburban Philadelphia resident, says he spends 95 percent of his free time fishing at the Jersey shore. "These beaches rejuvenate and bring life to the people who love them," he said. tiffany bracelet
"To lose access to that would be devastating." Mayors of several shore towns, including Long Beach Township, Avalon and Stone Harbor, praised the new approach, and indicated a willingness to work cooperatively with the DEP in drafting local access plans. But officials acknowledge there is only so far they can push shore towns, noting that things like on-street parking ordinances, and rules on what can and can't be brought onto the beach remain under the control of local officials. DEP officials said they have begun working with towns that have long been the source of complaints, including Mantoloking, Sea Bright and Long Beach, to try to negotiate improvements instead of insisting on them. The effort is bearing mixed fruit. tiffany earrings
Long Beach Township is adding about 135 new public parking spaces — but all but 15 or 20 are in the more densely populated southern part of town, and not in the much less crowded Loveladies or North Beach sections. That's where scores of signs warn outsiders to stay away, proclaiming "Private Drive, No Public Beach Access." Long Beach Township, about 60 miles east of Philadelphia, constitutes 10 percent of New Jersey's coast, and has 168 public access points.
tiffany charms Mayor Joseph Mancini says his town is doing more than its share of making the coast accessible to visitors, but says he doubts many will want to use Loveladies beaches because there are no public bathrooms or places to buy food or drinks. During emotional public hearings on the plan, that sort of suggestion — these beaches over here are better for most people, while those over there are more suited for others — drew comparisons to segregation-era separate-but-equal policies involving segregated drinking fountains, schools and buses. Lance Carsillo drove 150 miles round-trip from the Philadelphia suburbs and waited three hours to speak at the final public hearing, to ask New Jersey officials to reconsider their plan to give shore towns more power over public access. tiffany cufflinks
"One-size-fits all is not a solution, but at least it's a guarantee for people like me who will probably never be able to afford an oceanfront home," he said. "Access is for people who can afford it, not people like me who drive and hour and a half to come fish." Martin, the DEP commissioner, said the new rules are an attempt to apply "common sense" to a rulemaking system that always imposed a one-size fits all approach on a diverse shoreline. tiffany pendants
"I'd much rather have a cooperative group of mayors than force them to do something," he said. And that's what worries people like Woerner, the 36-year-old Asbury Park man who ran afoul of authorities as a 15-year-old surfer. "We hear about `flexibility' and `common sense,'" he said. "You know where we heard a lot about that? When we deregulated the banks. How did that work out for America?"
Young girl carrying bag of explosives killed in Afghanistan KABUL (Reuters) – An eight-year-old Afghan girl was killed when a bag of explosives given to her by Taliban insurgents exploded as she approached a police outpost in southern Afghanistan, the government said Sunday. cheap tiffany and co jewelry
"The insurgents handed over a bag with a homemade bomb to an eight-year-old girl and asked her to take it to police forces," the Ministry of Interior said in a statement. "As the girl was getting close to the police, it exploded and killed the girl." There have been occasional cases of insurgents using female bombers -- or more commonly of fighters dressing as women in head-to-toe burqa coverings -- but the use of children had been almost unheard of until recently. cheap tiffany and co
In May, Afghan police paraded four boys, all under 13, they said had been recruited as bombers from their homes in neighboring Pakistan. One of the boys said they had been told they would live through the suicide attacks. The Taliban later denied they were recruiting children to carry out suicide attacks. The latest incident took place in the Char Chino district of Uruzgan province in southern Afghanistan. cheap tiffany
There were no police casualties. The death comes as four NATO troops were killed over the past two days, including two Spanish soldiers who died on Sunday after a homemade bomb exploded in western Afghanistan. A suicide car bomber killed at least 20 people, and possibly as many as 35, in an attack at a hospital in a remote district of the eastern Logar province Saturday that damaged the hospital's maternity ward. tiffany uk
Military and civilian casualties hit record levels in 2010, the most violent year of the war since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001. This year is following a similar trend, with violence growing across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced a spring offensive at the beginning of May.
It is also a worrying sign as Afghans prepare to take over security responsibility from NATO-led troops in seven areas across the country next month. That will coincide with the start in July of a gradual drawdown of U.S. troops. U.S. and NATO troops plan to hand over security responsibility for all of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, although critics warn the handover date is premature. tiffany uk shop