manhattan project

Related Cos restarts west side Manhattan project
In a national survey at the turn of the millennium both journalists and the public ranked the dropping of the atomic bomb and the end of the Second World War as the top news stories of the twentieth-century. The advent of nuclear weapons, made possible by the Manhattan Project, not only helped bring an end to the Second World War — it ushered in the atomic age and determined how the next war, the Cold War, would be fought.

The United States Department of Energy Office of History and Heritage Resources, with the assistance of a graduate fellow, has been developing an interactive web site on the Manhattan Project. When completed, The Manhattan Project: An Interactive History will total some 120,000 words and over 200 pages and 500 images, including photographs, maps, and drawings. The site is being implemented incrementally, with the “Events of the Manhattan Project” and “Resources Relating to the Manhattan Project” sections the first part to go online. Click on the Events or Resources buttons to the left for a listing of currently available pages.

The remaining sections are scheduled to go online in the near future. Click on the buttons to the left for listings of the projected web pages under each heading.

Sept 29 (Reuters) - Property developer Related Cos said on Tuesday it had restarted work on a 1.2 million-square-foot development in midtown Manhattan that had been stalled by the economic downturn.

The block-sized project on 440 West 42nd St. between 10th and Dyer avenues, will comprise 163 units of affordable housing, market-rate rental units, for-sale residences, a hotel, non-profit theaters and retail spaces.

Related said it had worked with unions, contractors, trades, architects and engineers to reduce costs. The project will create more than 700 construction jobs, the company said.

The New York State Housing Finance Agency and a lending consortium are providing the financing.

"This development was unique in that the foundation work had been completed and the financing was in place, but it offers valuable lessons that can be applied to future projects on how we can reduce the price of construction here in New York," Bruce Beal Jr., executive vice president of Related Cos, said in a statement.

Cost savings were achieved through a combination of efforts including a project labor agreement and by a thorough review of every aspect of the job including redesign and re-engineering of the development, the company said.

Weak demand and tight financing have stalled several New York projects, such as Boston Properties Inc's planned 1-million-square foot skyscraper on West 55th Street. (Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Ted Kerr)

mojave desert

Supreme Court to begin hearings in Mojave Cross case on October 07

Voices from a battle in the Mojave Desert will be heard in the nation's capital next week when the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in Salazar v. Buono.

The case concerns the Mojave Cross, northwest of Needles in the Mojave National Preserve.

The original cross was erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars as a monument to veterans of World War I. It was designated a national war memorial, one of 49 so-recognized by the U.S. Congress.

The American Civil Liberties Union, representing a National Park Service employee (Buono), brought suit contending, essentially, that the cross is inappropriate as it only recognizes veterans of the Christian faith, and, as it was on federal land, that it violated the First Amendment's separation of church and state clause.

In July of 2002 the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California agreed and ordered the cross removed.

The next year U.S. Congressman Jerry Lewis, whose district includes Needles, inserted a land exchange in the 2004 Defense Appropriations Act which transferred the acre of ground on which the cross stands to private ownership.

In April of 2005, the same court found that transfer was a sham attempt to evade the injunction against display of the cross. Since then, view of the cross has been obstructed, most recently by a plywood box.

In February of 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the matter. Said Lewis at the time, “I am gratified that the U.S.

Supreme Court has agreed to review the case of the Mojave Cross veterans memorial, and I am confident that the justices will see the simple truth that this is an historic site honoring the sacrifices of those who died defending our nation.

“Frankly, I am disappointed that this case has had to go this far, and I am grateful to the American Legion and other veterans groups who have helped ensure that it has maintained widespread support from the American public.”

That support is now being consolidated by the Liberty Legal Institute which maintains a Web site on the subject at http://www.donttearmedown.com/

Soldiers make pilgrimage to Mojave Cross site

By JIM MANIACI, Laughlin Nevada Times

LAUGHLIN - An enthusiastic audience of at least 100 persons gave a half-dozen American soldiers a standing ovation Sept. 17 when they arrived at American Legion Laughlin Post 60 on their way to the Mojave Cross, dedicated to those killed in action in World War I, that was erected more than a half-century before any of them were born.

The embattled plain white 8-foot tall cross - a duplicate of those which grace military cemeteries - is the subject of a precedent-setting case in which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Oct. 7 about whether it is an allowable military memorial or, as the American Civil Liberties Union contends, is a symbol violating the First Amendment's forbidding the establishment of a state-sponsored church.

Recently returned from war zones overseas, the six made the pilgrimage from Fort Polk, La., to Laughlin as their last night before seeing the cross on an isolated road in the Mojave National Preserve some 91 miles from Laughlin's military veterans post, according to Roger Reimer, who drove the distance. He is the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 243, which is housed at the American Legion Post where Commander Mitch Roach began the night by saluting the young veterans.

Their leader, Sgt. Weldon J. Kelly of Buna, Texas, told how the crusade got started.

He and Spc. Adam J. Pena of Austin, Texas, read about the case on the Internet and were upset that a veterans memorial was threatened.

The simple desert cross was erected in 1934 by the VFW - 58 years before Kelly was born. He is the oldest of the six; the youngest is age 19.