The Priorities Of Snookland.

GivingMostToThoseWhoNeedIt
LeastVille


Sweetheart subsidies for Vegas Casino magnates....?

...The $3 million-a-year (casino)lease payments, earmarked to lessen the debt on the $514 million (BC Place)stadium renovation, are half the originally proposed $6 million...

Need 'em!

****

Hotlines, specifically for parents with newborn babies....?

Some parents say they want Vancouver Coastal Health to keep a newborn hotline alive after learning it is slated to be terminated at the end of the month.

{snippety doo-dah}

...Closing the newborn hotline will save $174,000 a year, according to health authority spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo.

"We don't want to duplicate services ... we have to look at resources and use them efficiently," she said.

Still, parents like Jenny Puterman say the newborn hotline has been a life line.

She says advice from the nurses staffing the line is much more specialized than what’s offered at 811.

"I think it's very short sighted as a cost-cutting measure to cut that line because I know as a mom it's saved us trips to emergency, it's saved us trips to the doctor," she said...

Hells no!


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The Vegas casino magnate subsidy appears to be approximately $3,000,000.00 per year to turn our downtown into Snookland's version of Pottersville....That equals 16 plus hotlines, which would give expert (i.e not generalist, 811) help that reassures and reduces essential service use (which actually saves money and resources), every single year.


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Can Good Sense Cure The Blindness Caused By A Senseless Ideology?

TheGoodDoctorIsIn
ButWillHeBePrimariedVille


Douglas Cox is a physician from Oklahoma who happens to be a State Senator as well.

He is also a Republican, and the following are a couple of excerpts from an important letter he sent to his local newspaper recently:

...As a practicing physician (who never has or will perform an abortion), I deal with the real world. In the real world, 15- and 16-year-olds get pregnant (sadly, 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds do also). In the real world, 62 percent of women ages 20 to 24 who give birth are unmarried. And in the world I work and live in, an unplanned pregnancy can throw up a real roadblock on a woman's path to escaping the shackles of poverty.

Yet I cannot convince my Republican colleagues that one of the best ways to eliminate abortions is to ensure access to contraception. A recent attempt by my fellow lawmakers to prevent Medicaid dollars from covering the “morning after” pill is a case in point. Denying access to this important contraceptive is a sure way to increase legal and back-alley abortions. Moreover, such a law would discriminate against low-income women who depend on Medicaid for their health care.

But wait, some lawmakers want to go even further and limit everyone's access to birth control by allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraception.

What happened to the Republican Party that I joined? The party where conservative presidential candidate Barry Goldwater felt women should have the right to control their own destiny?...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Is my thinking too clouded by my experiences in the real world? Experiences like having a preacher, in the privacy of an exam room say, “Doc, you have heard me preach against abortion but now my 15-year-old daughter is pregnant, where can I send her?”...

So...

What will outgoing Texas governor Rick Perry do, I wonder?

Particularly if he wants to portray himself as a 'moderate' in a 2016 presidential run?


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And we, in the country formerly known as Canuckistan, should not be smug about such matters...After all, the pseudo-surreptitious attempts push the middle ever rightward on this issue continue, unabated, in this country too.
Thanks to Koot  for setting me straight in the comments on the right whackadoodle southern-fried gov...


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It Was 34 Years Ago Today That The Final Nail Was Driven Into Disco's Coffin

WhoWasJuniorMoore
WhyAndWhat'sTheReasonForVille


July 12th, 1979...

A promotion by Bill Veeck's (as in 'Wreck') son Mike, who later figured he was blackballed from big-league baseball because of it, went bad when the blowing up of a gazillion disco records ripped a giant hole in the outfield grass of Chicago's old Comiskey Park and thousands of kids stormed/trashed the field between games of double-header between the Chi-Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

Fearing for his players safety, Tigers manager Sparky Anderson pulled them from the field and later said that:

"Beer and baseball go together, they have for years. But I think those kids were doing things other than beer."

No word if Paul Feig made the trip down from Motor City to see the big event during his own high school days.

But somehow, in an alternate universe, I figure Ken Miller and friends just might have.


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You can get the entire story and more photos too....Here.
Tip O' The Toque to Dan Epstein for the memory jog...

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The Real Problem With $500 Million Dollar Rooves And Massive Casino Subsidies.

FollowAllTheMoney
TalesOfTheGriftyVille

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Update: July 12th, 2014....For those of you stopping off thanks to Norm Farrell's pointing on the Twittmachine, the latest bit of griftyness that has gotten up my nose is....This.

More to come...

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Lots of folks, including some I know in the real world, have been asking me why I've been getting all worked up about these things.

Again.

And I'll be frank.

Personally, it's the all pervasive smell of the grift that has gotten up my nose.

And that smell is telling my brainstem to look hard, really hard, for any and all evidence of a deeply-rooted 'pay-to-play' system that seems to be the dominant driving force behind all the 'big' things that are happening in Lotusland these days.

And that, I think, is reason enough to pay close attention.

But then, every once in a while I'll read something, something like Daphne Bramham's latest piece in the VSun, which makes me realize that this is about much more than that.

Because by giving away all these untold billions to those who need them least we are taking away the basic, fundamental things that we should be giving to those who need them most.

Or...

Put another way, by allowing this kind of stuff to happen we are stealing from our children.

Not sure you believe me?

Well, have a quick look at Ms. Bramham's lede, and a little bit more:

British Columbia is the worst place to be in Canada if you're a child, and it has been for all but one of the past 13 years.

The latest numbers released by Statistics Canada indicate that in 2011, British Columbia once again slipped into last place among the provinces, tied at the bottom with Manitoba.

It meant that 93,000 B.C. children lived in families whose incomes were below the low-income cut-off, known as the LICO...

{snippety doo-dah}

...And what's clear from the past 13 years - when hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on the Olympics, a convention centre and replacing the roof on a football stadium - is that wealth doesn't just trickle down.

Alleviating child poverty hasn't happened and won't without action to match the political rhetoric.

Now go and read it all and see what you think.

OK?


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PavCo Responds...But Does Not Say Exactly What Is Proposed For It's New Casino-Industrial-Complex.

They'reBack!
VegasGuysGoneWildVille


As we noted earlier today, Bob Mackin has broken the news of a new, apparently highly subsidized, lease deal between the Las Vegas gaming concern 'Paragon' and the provincial government development concern known as 'PavCo' to build something or other on 'Site 10a' on the west side of BC Place.

And Jordan Yerman, writing in the Vancouver Observer, tells us that he has now, apparently, gotten a response (of sorts), from PavCo:

...A follow-up response from PavCo reads, "The development of land by BC Place has always been part of the overall revitalization plan for the stadium. This latest development is part of an ongoing process which began back in 2009 when Paragon Gaming was selected through an RFP process. In 2011, after an extensive public consultation, the City of Vancouver approved the relocation of the Edgewater Casino under its existing gaming license. PavCo has remained in discussions with Paragon Gaming since 2011 and the signing of the Updated Master Development Agreement is a continuation of this.”...

Gosh.

Do the fine Fassbenderless folks now running PavCo really want to stick by that '2009' date for the start of the 'ongoing process' that 'began' when Paragon was 'selected through an RFP process'?

After all, there is....

...This.



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Regarding the link, directly above, to Ian Reid's important March 2012 post based on documents he received from  in response to an FOI request, I added a little more context at the time....Here.


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The Lotuslandian Casino-Industrial Complex....Its Baaaaaack!!!

She'sGoingToDoIt
Pottersville(Re-)RisingVille


Yes.

That's right.

Those fine folks from Vegas are going for the gold again.

Bob Mackin has the story in BIV. Here's his lede:

Paragon Gaming is rolling the dice on another bid to build a new Edgewater Casino next to BC Place stadium on land it wants to lease from BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo)...

But here's the thing...

Even if this does go through we won't get the money originally promised back in the days when former BCLC head-honcho and subsequent Paragon point-man, Mr. C. Richard Turner, was telling the then BC Liberal minister responsible that if we didn't shell out $500 million plus for the new roof on the Marshmallow, it would be a 'deal breaker':

...Paragon revealed on a new website called Site10a.com that it signed an updated master development agreement with PavCo in March for a 70-year lease, which calls for PavCo to receive “an estimated $3 million per year” from the hotel, retail and restaurant complex anchored by Edgewater Casino. Site 10A is the city hall designation for the taxpayer-owned parcel within the Northeast False Creek zone. The website was registered on June 19 and disclosed to Business in Vancouver on July 9...

{snippety doo-dah}

...The $3 million-a-year lease payments, earmarked to lessen the debt on the $514 million stadium renovation, are half the originally proposed $6 million. The 70-year term is the same as previously disclosed...



But here's the bigger thing...

All in all, things do not seem to be going quite so well for the wild bunch from Vegas these days, because, according to their spokesmodel at least, they are looking to bring in outside interests to invest in the new version of the casino-industrial-complex:

...By email, Paragon spokeswoman Tamara Hicks told BIV that the company will "continue to seek partnerships for the new project. These partnership discussions remain confidential."...

'Confidential'?

'Partnerships'?

With Vegas-types?

Hmmmmm....

Finally (for now), there's this:

...While Paragon is refloating the BC Place proposal, the company is transferring ownership of its River Cree Resort near Edmonton to its partner, the Enoch Cree Nation.

In April 2011, Paragon defaulted on a $111 million loan after the Alberta government stopped payments from the First Nations Development Fund...
Gosh.

The River Cree Resort near Edmonton...

Isn't that the Paragon project that the Mr. C. Richard Turner was financially involved in while he was still running the British Columbia Lottery Corporation as a BC Liberal Party appointee before any of this phone calling of Ministers about deal-breakers started?

Why yes it was.

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And wasn't a certain very fine public servant, who is now Christy Clark's Attorney General and Justice Minister, actually sitting on the PavCo Board as a Christy Clark appointee when this latest deal went down?...Could this be the same very fine public servant who was also sitting on Vancouver city council when it voted UNANIMOUSLY to kibosh the first attempt by Paragon and 'friends' to ram the Casino-Industrial Complex through back in the Spring of 2011?...Not that there's anything wrong with any of that or anything...Does, maybe, tell you something about what would have happened if that very fine public servant had become mayor of downtown Lotusland though, I reckon.


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The Voters Of Westside-Kelowna Have Spoken...

...And We Are All Snookland Now.

Anyway.

Here's an interesting little tidbit from the Globe's most senior man about Bye-Bye Town, Brian Platt:

...Though Ms. Clark does not live in the Westside-Kelowna riding – and thus could not vote in the by-election – she has previously told reporters she would take up a second residence in the riding if she won the seat...


Gosh.

Is it possible that the good Mr. Platt doesn't know that Ms. Clark doesn't live in Vancouver Point Grey either.

Which, of course, led to some most unfortunate babbling, not to mention a wee bit of announced-for-the-cameras vote changing, at an advance poll prior to the General wherein the Premier first tried to vote for herself when she actually, legally and otherwise, uhhhh...

Could not.

Not that something like that is an indication of her capabilities or anything.

Oh.

And one more thing...

Never forget...

This.

OK?


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Who Knew Woody Harrelson Played The Hot Corner For The Double-Knit Royals

CharlieWho?
LauVille


And after they compared gloves they compared scars...

Woody was impressed by the mishmash of collagen fibers covering the Human Vacuum Cleaner's biceps tendon caused by a gruesome spiking that occurred at Vancouver's then Capilano (now Nat Bailey) Stadium in 1959.


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Found this image of Brett and Brooks (not a country music duo, btw) at one of my favourite baseball blogs...Ninety Feet Of Perfection.


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How To Save Newspapers (That Aren't Anymore?)...Mr. Willcocks Weighs In.

AllTheWorldsA
FrontPageVille


And his main message, in addition to the upfront requirement for the denial of the coming demise of the current incarnation to end, I think, is:

'The more experimentation the better'

And I do not disagree.

But then you have to figure out how to do that experimentation with incentives and rewards and all that that will help people who have to make a living at it in the end take the leap.

On that front I have a really crazy experimental suggestion for Paul in the comments.

I reckon that it is not something that the estimable Jeff Lee will even want to consider.

But Tom Hawthorn and Rod Mickleburgh might.

At least in principle.

But enough of all that...

Go give Mr. Willcocks' piece/post a read, pronto.


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Therapeutics Initiative, ctd...A Very Important Piece By Andrew MacLeod In The Tyee Today.

This post is absolutely snark-free.

It involves the situation regarding the funding, or, to be more precise, the current lack of funding, from the provincial government of British Columbia to the Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia.

Now...

It is my opinion, based on my reading of the popular press and some of the scientific literature, that the Therapeutics Initiative does very valuable work for all British Columbians.

Therefore, I am also of the opinion that the work of the Therapeutics Initiative should continue to be funded by the provincial government.

However, before I link to Mr. MacLeod's piece I have to make three things crystal clear to you, dear reader, just in case you were wondering...

First, while I have had no direct scientific or professional interactions with members of the Therapeutics Initiative I do work at the same institution as the one that houses it.

Second, some members of Therapeutics Initiative and I have the same boss because we work in the same faculty at that institution.

Third, I had not previously received, nor had I previously read, a letter that is contained in Mr. MacLeod's column.

Got all that?

OK....

Please go and have a good read of Mr. MacLeod's piece because I really and truly do think that it is important.


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What's Softer Than A Soft-Ice Cream Cone Left Out In The Westbank Sun?

AllTheDroolCupsThatFitWhileAttemptingToEat
ChichesterCathedralVille


I thought it was strange when Ron Obvious backed the Dean's hardest hitting pre-General election pieces on the Twittmachine while he kept on pumping out the pablum (predominantly) in his own columns for the Globe and (nolongerEmpire) Mail.

But it all makes sense now, especially given that Mr. Obvious just worked his hardest to ensure that he will retain his insider access status come Wednesday after he served up the softest of softballs last night.

Which, of course, just happened to be the Eve of today's Bye-Bye in Westside-Kelowna.

To wit:

For B.C. Premier Christy Clark, the campaign never ends.

On a warm weekday night, she finds herself trolling for votes at Elks Stadium in the heart of this Okanagan city talking to fans of the hometown Rangers of the West Coast baseball league. Despite leading the B.C. Liberal Party to a stunning comeback victory over the NDP in May’s general election, Ms. Clark lost her own seat of Vancouver-Point Grey...

{snippety doo-dah}

...if the crowd at the baseball game is any indication, Ms. Clark should have no problem rounding home safely (in the by-election).

Everywhere she walks she is hounded for a picture. “I already voted for you,” one man sitting in the stands tells her. “You got my vote Christy,” a woman says walking by. Ms. Clark wanders into the stands to shake hands and talk to fans who mostly all assure her of their support...


Hmmmm....

Wonder whose idea it was to have Ms. Clark seen to be workin' it for the big-time proMedia at a 'local' Kelowna game in the wake of, say....

...This?


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Meanwhile, the Dean tells jokes....Will comment on his Champix/Therapeutics Initiative column later which is not quite as hard as it looks...Kinda/sorta like a dipped cone I reckon.

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Health Minister Terry Lake's Latest Money Quote About The Therapeutics Initiative...

FiskThis
PleaseVille


You will likely be hearing a lot about a BC Pharmacare-listed smoking cessation drug marketed as 'Champix', BC Ministry of Health 'In-House' evaluations, adverse reactions, and maybe even a little bit about the independent 'Therapeutics Initiative' over the next newscycle or three.

However...

What you will likely not hear, at least in any detail, is what, exactly Ms. Christy Clark (who championed Champix', listing by Pharmacare back in 2011) and her government is actually doing to said 'Therapeutics Inititiative'.

I, for one, would certainly hope the proMedia will press current Clark government Health Minister, Mr. Terry Lake, on the veracity of the following statement, as recorded for posterity by the VTC's Cindy Harnett:

...“Some of [Therapeutics Initiative’s] funding has [been] withheld pending an investigation of a data leak in the ministry — that’s the prudent thing to do,” Lake said. “We hope that we can clear all that up and continue with the relationship with the TI, but to suggest we are caving in to big pharma is absolutely ridiculous.”...

The Tyee's Andrew Macleod, who has done a lot of digging in the past, is also all over this story which erupted in the Ledge today.


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The 'Therapeutics Initiative' has saved the people of British Columbia money and it has saved lives by assessing the true efficacy of drugs we publicly fund (or don't)...And here's the thing...It has been on the BC Liberal government's chopping block since at least 2010 when a certain fine Deputy Health Minister who was then serving at the OIC pleasure of one Mr. Gordon Campbell by the name of Mr. John Dyble (remember him - think 'quick wins' clean-up) offered up a very different explanation for cutting its funding...And then, in April of this year, with Christy and Co. fully at the helm of the BC Liberal government ship, it was reported in the GStraight that, according to Dr. Tom Perry at least, the funding for the Therapeutics Initiative had been pulled completely. At that time the then Health Minister Ms. Margaret MacDiarmid refused to comment and, bizarrely, the then mangager of communications for the Ministry, Mr. Ryan Jabs, referred G. Straight reporter Travis Lupick to the BC Liberal Party (i.e. not the government) for a comment....I am not making this up...The upshot?... In my opinion, neither of these two things (and lots more) jibe with Mr. Lake's statement from earlier today...


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Norm Farrell Asks A Very Important Question...

WeAreAllIzzyStone
NowVille


Norm Farrell took a trip to Science World with his grand-kids recently and was less than impressed:

"...Our trip to Science World was an example. Admission, including an Omnimax presentation, for two adults herding four children, aged three to seven years, is $157.00. Allow for transportation, parking, juice and hot dogs and the cost for grandma and grandpa nears $250.
On a summer Sunday, we were joined in the Omnimax theatre ("one of the three largest in the world") by about 20 other people for a 44 minute presentation that was mediocre, at best. Science World is undergoing renovations but, in total, is a tired facility that charges way, way too much..."

Now.

Not everyone who has taken a gaggle of children to the Expo86/Telus Lunar Module on the edge of False Creek recently likely feels the same way that Norm does.

But, then again, not everyone (anyone?) who was similarly less than satisfied/happy with the experience likely did what Norm did next.

Which was to do a little public database digging to find out who, exactly, is responsible for overseeing what goes on there:

...(The Science World Board Of Directors)...are not exactly ordinary people. For example, the Science World Chair is Walter Segsworth. He is, according to Forbes, also Director of Great Basin Gold Ltd.; Chairman of Plutonic Power Corporation; formerly Chairman of Centenario Copper Corporation and of Cumberland Resources Ltd.; and formerly Director of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., UEX Corporation and Yukon Zinc Corporation.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Segsworth is joined at board meetings by a collection of wealthy executives and academics. There is not a single director who represents citizen or community groups.

Science World would be greatly improved if it was managed by a group representative of BC citizens...

As a result, Norm asks a bigger question which I'm pretty sure he will soon return to in other contexts.

Which is:

 "Are Public Facilities Really For The Public"?

****

From my perspective, here's the thing...

I have sat/do sit on a few non-profit boards myself, mostly small, but a couple reasonably large.

On the small ones I've been the community person. On the larger ones I was brought in because of my academic/science-geek credentials.

And I have come to realize that you often need to have a few big business-types at the table, sometimes for their management expertise, but more often for their ability to go out and shake the corporate donation money-tree.

But when you don't have any significant community involvement whatsoever?

Well...

In my opinion that really does lead to a significant insulation from the folks you are actually/apparently trying to serve.

OK?


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Half-A-Momma-Mia-Culpa...The fact that I help out with non-profits who rely on corporate donations is the real reason I don't use my real name here...Specifically, I wouldn't want a random Google search to slam such a donation door shut inadvertently due to a rabble-rouser sighting...Rest assured, however, that once an off-line dialogue is established where all the bonafides are on the table, I always use my real name...Not that it's that hard to figure out anyway...I remember it took Laila Yuile about 23 seconds, but only because she was fixing dinner for her kids at the same time, I think...(E-mail address is freely available at the 'complete profile' link at top left if you are so inclined)...

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Rob Ford's 'Alternative' For Torontonians...

DoAsISay
NotAsIDoVille


Given the concern for the GTA's power grid in the wake of yesterday's flash-floods, Rob Ford issued the following edict earlier today:

There is, of course another way to go...

Some have even dubbed it the 'Escalade Alternative'...


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The Lack Of Hard News From Westside-Kelowna Is Deafening...

GuessThereAreMoreImportantThingsToCover
ThanElecting(OrNot)APremierVille


...But here are a couple of tidbits from WX1130's 'Staff' posted at lunchtime on Bye-Bye Eve:

...Trevor Rockliffe with Castanet News tells us the premier has upped her game since she lost to the NDP’s David Eby in Vancouver-Point Grey.

“After seeing what happened down there and watching election night then… It looks like she is certainly more engaged. She’s around at all the events possible, from walking in parades to cutting cakes, she’s certainly making her presence known,” says Rockliffe...

Really?

Hmmm....

Guess the good Mr. Rockliffe missed.....This.

****

And then there is the following, from the Lotsulandian voice of Angus Reid's Big Bamboozlepalooza on May 14th, Mario Canseco (who's working for somebody else now):

...Pollster Mario Canseco with Insights West believes the premier will win the by-election, but admits no one knows by how much, because surveys done during by-elections are notoriously tricky.

“Even when you find those residents of the area who may be willing to talk to you or to answer an online survey, it’s difficult to really factor that in and really get into how many of them are actually going to show up and vote,” he explains...


Really?

Gosh.

Too bad Mr. Canseco didn't tell us about that 'difficulty to factor' (a.k.a. 'sample bias') in the days and weeks BEFORE the big Bamboozlepalooza...

I'll have more to say about that soon, based primarily on reports by Angus Reid himself in Macleans and The Dean in the VSun.


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