ST. AUGUSTINE — The following lane closures are scheduled on road construction projects in Putnam and St. Johns Counties, September 6 through September 12, 2008.�
ST. JOHNS COUNTY
State Road A1A – Bridge of Lions (contact Laurie Sanderson:  904-825-3647 or 904-669-1165)
No lane closures or channel closures are anticipated at the Bridge of Lions Rehabilitation project for the week of September 8. For more information, please visit www.FDOTBridgeofLions.com.
State Road A1A from County Road 203 to the Duval County line
Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road A1A from County Road 203 to the Duval County line Monday, September 8 through Thursday, September 11 while crews repaint the roadway symbols, such as turn lane arrows.  One lane of traffic will remain open in both directions.
State Road A1A North at Mickler Road in Ponte Vedra Beach
No lane closures are scheduled for the week of September 8 on State Road A1A North at Mickler Road.  Traffic impacts will begin within the next few weeks.
U.S. 1 (Ponce de Leon Boulevard) at King Street (Alternate U.S. 1)
Westbound King Street is closed to traffic near Broudy’s and a new detour is in effect.  Motorists will be detoured south on U.S. 1 to State Road 207 to South Dixie/Pellicer Lane and back to King Street.  This detour will be in place for approximately three more weeks while the northwest corner of the intersection is under construction.
Daytime lane closures may also be encountered at the intersection of U.S. 1 and King Street Monday, September 8 through Friday, September 12 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. while crews work on the turn lanes.  Lane shifts are scheduled to occur on King Street at Malaga Street/Sebastian Harbor Drive Monday, September 8 and Tuesday, September 9 while crews prepare for signal installation.  Motorists should be aware of the change in traffic patterns.
State Road 312 Safety Project
Eastbound State Road 312, on the bridge over the Matanzas River, is scheduled to be reduced to one lane Monday, September 8 through Friday, September 12 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. while crews complete the bridge joint replacement.  Boaters should also use caution while work is completed outside the main channel beneath the bridge, Saturday, September 6 through Friday, September 12.�
State Road 16 from U.S. 1 to the Clay County line
Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road 16 from U.S. 1 to the Clay County line Monday, September 8 through Thursday, September 11 while crews repaint the roadway symbols, such as turn lane arrows.  One lane of traffic will remain open in both directions.
PUTNAM COUNTY
State Road 26 from State Road 21 to State Road 100
Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road 26 from State Road 21 to State Road 100 Monday, September 8 through Friday, September 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. while crews continue working on guardrail placement and begin placing the final layer of asphalt.  Motorists should watch for flaggers directing traffic.
State Road 20 from Hollister to Interlachen�
The traffic shift at the intersection of State Road 20 and County Road 315 has been delayed due to poor weather the last few weeks.  It is scheduled for Sunday night September 7.  Motorists should expect daytime lane closures on County Road 315 and State Road 20 Monday, September 8 through Friday, September 12 as crews widen the roadway. Please be aware of vehicles entering and leaving the roadway.�
MORE INFORMATION:  Contact the Public Information Office at 1-800-475-0044 or e-mail monica.reifeiss@aecom.com.�

By Ann Coulter

John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate finally gave Republicans a reason to vote for him — a reason, that is, other than B. Hussein Obama.
  �
The media are hopping mad about McCain’s vice presidential selection, but they’re really furious over at MSNBC. After drawing “Keith (plus) Obama” hearts on their denim notebooks, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews stayed up all night last Thursday, writing jokes about Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the presumed vice presidential pick. Now they can’t use any of them.
  �
So the media are taking it out on our brave Sarah and her 17-year-old daughter.

They claimed Palin was chosen only because she’s a woman. In fact, Palin was chosen because she’s pro-life, pro-gun, pro-drilling and pro-tax cuts. She’s fought both Republicans and Democrats on public corruption and does not have hair plugs like some other vice presidential candidate I could mention. In other words, she’s a “Republican.”
  �
As a right-winger, Palin will appeal to the narrow 59 percent of Americans who voted for another former small-market sportscaster: Ronald Reagan. Our motto: Sarah Palin is only a heartbeat away!
  �
If you’re going to say Palin was chosen because she’s a woman, you’re going to have to demonstrate that the runners-up were more qualified. Gov. Tim Pawlenty seems like a terrific fellow and fine governor, but he is not obviously more qualified than Palin.
  �
As for former governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge and Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, the other also-rans, I can think of at least 40 million unborn reasons she’s better than either of them.
  �
Within the first few hours after Palin’s name was announced, McCain raised $4 million in campaign donations online, reaching $10 million within the next two days. Which shortlist vice presidential pick could have beaten that?
  �
The media hysterically denounced Palin as “inexperienced.” But then people started to notice that she has more executive experience than B. Hussein Obama — the guy at the top of the Democrats’ ticket.
  �
They tried to create a “Troopergate” for Palin, indignantly demanding to know why she wanted to get her ex-brother-in-law removed as a state trooper. Again, public corruption is not a good issue for someone like Obama, Chicago pol and noted friend of Syrian National/convicted felon Antoin Rezko.
  �
For the cherry on top, then we found out Palin’s ex-brother-in-law had Tasered his own 10-year-old stepson. Defend that, Democrats.
  �
The bien-pensant criticized Palin, saying it’s irresponsible for a woman with five children to run for vice president. Liberals’ new talking point: Sarah Palin: Only five abortions away from the presidency.
  �
They claimed her newborn wasn’t her child, but the child of her 17-year-old daughter. That turned out to be a lie.
  �
Then they attacked her daughter, who actually is pregnant now, for being unmarried. When liberals start acting like they’re opposed to pre-marital sex and mothers having careers, you know McCain’s vice presidential choice has knocked them back on their heels.
  �
But at least liberal reporters had finally found someone their own size to pick on: a 17-year-old girl.
  �
Speaking of Democrats with newborn children, the media weren’t particularly concerned about John Edwards running for president despite his having a mistress with a newborn child.
  �
While the difficult circumstances of Palin’s pregnant daughter are being covered like a terrorist attack on the nation, with leering accounts of the 18-year-old father, the media remain resolutely uninterested in the parentage of Edwards’ mistress’s love child. Except, that is, the hardworking reporters at the National Enquirer, who say Edwards is the father.
  �
As this goes to press, the latest media-invented scandal about Palin is that McCain didn’t know her well before choosing her as his running mate. He knew her well enough, though admittedly, not as well as Obama knows William Ayers.
  �
John F. Kennedy, who was — from what the media tell me — America’s most beloved president, detested his vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
  �
Until Clinton interviewed Al Gore one time before choosing him as his vice presidential candidate, he had met Gore only one other time: when Gore was running for president in 1988 and flew to Little Rock seeking Clinton’s endorsement. Clinton turned him down.

  �
To this day, there’s no proof that Bill Clinton ever met one-on-one with his CIA director, James Woolsey, other than a brief chat after midnight the night before Woolsey’s nomination was announced.
  �
Barring some all-new, trivial and probably false story about Palin — her former hairdresser got a parking ticket in 1978! — the media apparently intend to keep being hysterical about McCain’s alleged failure to “vet” Palin properly. The problem with this argument is that it presupposes that everyone is asking: “HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?”
  �
No one’s saying that.
  �
Attacks on McCain’s “vetting” process require the media to keep claiming that Palin has a lot of problems. But she doesn’t have any problems. Remember? Those were all blind alleys.
  �
Unfortunately, for the ordinary TV viewer hearing nonstop hysteria about nonspecific “problems,” it takes a lot of effort to figure out that every attack liberals have launched against Palin turned out to be a lie.
  �
It’s as if a basketball player made the winning shot in the last three seconds of the game and liberals demand that we have a week-long discussion about whether the player should have taken that shot. WHAT IF HE MISSED?
  �
With Palin, McCain didn’t miss.

In the Plaza on Thursday, September 11 at 8:30am

On September 11, the City of St. Augustine will continue what has become an annual tradition–the remembrance of those who died in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The Ceremony of Remembrance will be held in the Plaza de la Constitucion on Thursday, September 11 at 8:30am.

The city started the annual ceremony just two days after 9/11 and has continued each year since. The program will be simple and brief and include a posting of the colors by the St. Augustine Police Department, an invocation by Reverend Thomas Willis, Pastor, Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, and musical presentations by Reverend Russell Burns, Minister of Facilities & Media Services at Ancient City Baptist Church.

The ceremony will conclude with a moment of silence at 8:45am, timed to coincide with the time at which the first plane hit the first tower of the World Trade Center which will end with a ringing of the bells throughout the downtown. Participating in the bell ringing this year are The Cathedral Basilica, Trinity Episcopal Parish, Memorial Presbyterian Church and Flagler College.

The event is coordinated by the City’s Department of Public Affairs. For more information call 904.825.1004.

St. Augustine Fire Chief Mike Arnold called a meeting of the heads of all city departments early this afternoon for an initial briefing regarding Tropical Storm Hanna. Even though the storm is not expected to affect our weather in St. Augustine until late in the week, the single message of the meeting was “Get prepared, follow procedures, and don’t be complacent.”

It is the same message the city wants to pass along to city residents and business operators. Now is the time to prepare to put your own emergency plan into action if necessary. All are urged to make their own preparations as they continue to monitor weather information.

The central location for all local emergency information is the St. Johns County Department of Emergency Management and the county’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The EOC may be contacted by phone at 904.824.5550 and its information accessed online at www.sjcemergencymanagement.org. The site also has a link to the most current Situation Report, a press release with the most current information issued from the EOC.

Currently the EOC is at a Level 3/Monitoring and no part of the county is under any watches or warnings. The St. Johns County Emergency Management team is participating in state conference calls with the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center to maintain up to the minute information.

The city’s emergency operations are coordinated from the main fire station under the management of Fire Chief Mike Arnold who maintains close contact with the EOC which coordinates efforts countywide and hand-in-hand with the state.

�

ST. AUGUSTINE — The following lane closures are scheduled on road construction projects in Putnam and St. Johns Counties, August 30 through September 5, 2008.  Work will be suspended on all projects on Monday, September 1 in observance of the Labor Day holiday.
ST. JOHNS COUNTY
State Road A1A – Bridge of Lions (contact Laurie Sanderson:  904-825-3647 or 904-669-1165)
No lane closures or channel closures are anticipated at the Bridge of Lions Rehabilitation project for the week of September 1. For more information, please visit www.FDOTBridgeofLions.com.
State Road A1A from County Road 203 to the Duval County line
Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road A1A from County Road 203 to the Duval County line Tuesday, September 2 through Thursday, September 4 while crews repaint the roadway symbols, such as turn lane arrows.  One lane of traffic will remain open in both directions.
State Road A1A North at Mickler Road in Ponte Vedra Beach
The State Road A1A North at Mickler Road intersection improvements are scheduled to begin Tuesday, September 2.  No lane closures are scheduled for the week of September 1.  An open house meeting is scheduled for Thursday September 4 from 1 to 2 p.m. and 5 to 6 p.m. at Crosswater Community Church located at 1050 State Road A1A.
U.S. 1 (Ponce de Leon Boulevard) at King Street (Alternate U.S. 1)
Westbound King Street is closed to traffic near Broudy’s and a new detour is in effect.  Motorists will be detoured south on U.S. 1 to State Road 207 to South Dixie/Pellicer Lane and back to King Street.  This detour will be in place for approximately six weeks while the northwest corner of the intersection is under construction.
Daytime lane closures may also be encountered at the intersection of U.S. 1 and King Street Tuesday, September 2 through Friday, September 5 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. while crews work on the turn lanes.  Please watch for merging traffic.�
State Road 312 Safety Project
Eastbound State Road 312, on the bridge over the Matanzas River, is scheduled to be reduced to one lane Tuesday, September 2 through Friday, September 5 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for concrete to be delivered to the barge.  Boaters should also use caution while work is completed outside the main channel beneath the bridge, Tuesday, September 2 through Friday, September 5.�
State Road 312 at the Matanzas River Bridge
State Road 312 eastbound at the Matanzas River Bridge is scheduled to be reduced to one lane Wednesday, September 3 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for routine bridge inspection.  One lane of traffic will be maintained eastbound.
State Road 16 from U.S. 1 to the Clay County line
Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road 16 from U.S. 1 to the Clay County line Tuesday, September 2 through Thursday, September 4 while crews repaint the roadway symbols, such as turn lane arrows.  One lane of traffic will remain open in both directions.
PUTNAM COUNTY
State Road 26 from State Road 21 to State Road 100
Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road 26 from State Road 21 to State Road 100 Tuesday, September 2 through Friday, September 5 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. while crews continue working on the roadway shoulder and guardrail.  Motorists should watch for flaggers directing traffic.
State Road 20 from Hollister to Interlachen�
The traffic shift at the intersection of State Road 20 and County Road 315 has been delayed due to poor weather the last few weeks.  It is tentatively scheduled for Saturday September 13.  Motorists should expect daytime lane closures in this area Tuesday, September 2 through Friday, September 5 as crews prepare for the shift. Please be aware of vehicles entering and leaving the roadway.�
State Road 20 from the Alachua County line to U.S. 17
Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road 20 from the Alachua County line to U.S. 17 Tuesday, September 2 through Thursday, September 4 while crews repaint the roadway lines.  This is a slow moving operation and motorists are asked to use caution when driving in this area.
MORE INFORMATION:  Contact the Public Information Office at 1-800-475-0044 or e-mail monica.reifeiss@aecom.com.�

Two public hearings set for September, Budget Summary available online

As the City of St. Augustine continues the process of finalizing and adopting its budget for the coming fiscal year every opportunity is being made to inform and invite the public into this important annual activity.

The city’s 2008-2009 budget, which goes into effect on October 1, includes seven separate funds: the General Fund, the Utility Fund, the Stormwater Fund, the Solid Waste Fund, the Municipal Marina Fund, the Heritage Tourism Fund, and the Community Redevelopment Agency Fund.

The General Fund and the Community Redevelopment Agency Fund are supported by ad valorem taxes. The others are enterprise funds, meaning they are funded through service fees and must be financially self-supporting.

A summary of the entire budget is available on-line at www.staugustinegovernment.com.

On August 19 the City Commission participated in a budget workshop during which staff presented a comprehensive review of the proposed budget. That workshop will be broadcast on St. Johns County Government TV, Comcast Channel 3, on Wednesday, September 3 at 9:00am.

The public will have two opportunities to offer its input on the budget at two public hearing to be held on Thursday, September 4 and Thursday, September 18. Both hearings will be held in The Alcazar Room at City Hall, 75 King Street, starting at 5:05pm.

For more information on the 2008-2009 budget and the process for its approval, contact the City’s Department of Finance, Budget and Management at 904.825.1030.

ST.AUGUSTINE:     The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has rescheduled an open house for Thursday, September 4 to provide information on the upcoming construction at the State Road A1A North and Mickler Road intersection.
            The meeting was initially scheduled for August 21, but due to Tropical Storm Fay, the meeting was postponed.
Anyone interested in the project is encouraged to attend the open house anytime Thursday between 1 and 2 p.m. or 5 and 6 p.m. at the Crosswater Community Church located just north of the State Road A1A North and Mickler Road intersection.�
The open house is informal so citizens can drop by at their convenience anytime between 1 and 2 p.m. or 5 and 6 p.m. to ask questions or gather information about the project from FDOT staff, designers and construction personnel.  Construction plans and information will be available, however, no formal presentation will be made.
            Work on this $2.2 million is scheduled to begin September 2 and will include:
•       Installing a new traffic signal at State Road A1A North and Mickler Road
•       Milling and resurfacing State Road A1A from Gnarled Oaks Drive to Mickler Road
•       Widening the roadway to allow for new left turn lanes from State Road A1A North to Mickler Road and Ponte Vedra Boulevard
•       Replacing and realigning portions of the sidewalk that extend from Gnarled Oaks Drive to the Overlook business complex
•       Constructing pedestrian islands at Mickler Road and Ponte Vedra Boulevard
•       Constructing three drainage ponds along the west side of State Road A1A
During construction, temporary pavement and barrier wall will be placed on State Road A1A, Mickler Road and Ponte Vedra Boulevard to prepare the roadway for traffic shifts and to protect workers and motorists.
Due to limited visibility during construction, a temporary signal will be placed at the intersection and will be in operation within the first month of construction. The permanent signal will be placed later in the project.
Daytime lane closures will occur during construction but will not be allowed from 7 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 6:30 p.m. to minimize impacts to commuters.  Traffic shifts on State Road A1A, Mickler Road and Ponte Vedra Boulevard are also scheduled to occur during different phases of work.

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Everyone acts as though Biden’s outrageous plagiarism of British Labor Leader Neil Kinnock’s speech during the 1988 presidential campaign was just a mistake, a slip of the tongue. Biden, his defenders say, had credited Kinnock in other speeches, but simply forgot to add the attribution one time.

First, Biden had failed to mention Kinnock more than once. Second, it was not just a matter of adding an attribution. On the occasions when Biden failed to credit Kinnock, he also had to alter Kinnock’s speech to act as if he were describing the Biden family.

Kinnock said: “Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is (my wife) Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were thick?”

Biden said: “I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright?”

Kinnock’s speech continued: “Those people who could sing and play and recite and write poetry? Those people who could make wonderful, beautiful things with their hands? Those people who could dream dreams, see visions? Why didn’t they get it? Was it because they were weak? Those people who could work eight hours underground and then come up and play football? Weak?”

Biden’s speech continued: “Those same people who read poetry and wrote poetry and taught me how to sing verse? Is it because they didn’t work hard? My ancestors, who worked in the coal mines of Northeast Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours?” Biden’s Welsh accent was as phony as Madonna’s British accent.

If this were merely a failure to cite Kinnock, why was Labor Leader Neil Kinnock talking about the Biden family and the coal mines of Pennsylvania?

Biden not only lifted — as The New York Times reported — Kinnock’s “phrases, gestures and lyrical Welsh syntax intact,” but also his entire life story.

Dismissing his theft of Kinnock’s speech, Biden said at the time: “So what if I didn’t attribute it to Kinnock? I can’t quite understand this. If I was making up who I was, then that’s one thing.”

But Biden was making up who he was. And he was making up what kind of country this is.

The whole point of Kinnock’s speech was to denounce the English class structure, where his grandfather couldn’t get ahead, despite his talents. Thus, Kinnock concluded by saying his parents and grandparents couldn’t advance “because there was no platform upon which they could stand.”

That has never been true in this country. We have no class structure. People do get ahead by being smart and working hard.

The other side of the coin is that those born well are perfectly capable of falling from their perch of privilege, as expressed in the peculiarly American expression: “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” Which is precisely what happened to the Biden family.

According to Vice Plagiarist Biden’s own autobiography, his father was to the manor born. Biden’s grandfather was an executive with the American Oil Co., and his father had all the advantages in life. “My dad,” Biden writes in “Promises to Keep,” “grew up well polished by gentlemanly pursuits. He would ride to the hounds, drive fast, fly airplanes. He knew good clothes, fine horses, the newest dance steps.”

But, in the blunt language of the Vanity Fair election blog, “he pissed away his fortune and Joe and his siblings grew up in a decidedly, and proudly, working-class Catholic home.”

So why was Biden concluding his Kinnock-”inspired” speech with clenched fist, claiming that his family “didn’t have a platform upon which to stand.” The executive offices at the American Oil Co. sound like a pretty good platform.

The problem wasn’t that Biden’s father didn’t have a platform, but that he fell off the platform. Far from sharing Kinnock’s life story, the Biden family would have benefited from a strict British class system that holds up talentless aristocrats while keeping down the talented low-born.

No wonder the platform of the Democratic Party is to destroy capitalism: It allows people to get ahead on their talents and not their names.

Offices for the City of St. Augustine closed today, Friday August 22, are 11:30am due to the effects of Tropical Storm Fay.

Offices will open for regular business on Monday, August 25.

As weather permits, the City of St. Augustine is continuing with residential trash collections today and will continue pick-ups tomorrow, Saturday, August 23.

Residents are urged to remain well informed as Fay continues to bring heavy rain and winds to the area and extreme caution is urged in areas prone to flooding, especially during periods of high tide.

1. The following lane closures are scheduled on road construction projects in Putnam and St. Johns Counties, August 23 through August 29, 2008. 

ST. JOHNS COUNTY

State Road A1A – Bridge of Lions (contact Laurie Sanderson:  904-825-3647 or 904-669-1165)

No lane closures or channel closures are anticipated at the Bridge of Lions Rehabilitation project for the week of August 25. For more information, please visit www.FDOTBridgeofLions.com.

State Road A1A from County Road 203 to the Duval County line

Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road A1A from County Road 203 to the Duval County line Monday, August 25 through Thursday, August 28 while crews repaint the roadway symbols, such as turn lane arrows.  One lane of traffic will remain open in both directions.

U.S. 1 (Ponce de Leon Boulevard) at King Street (Alternate U.S. 1)

Westbound King Street is closed to traffic near Broudy’s and a new detour is in effect.  Motorists will be detoured south on U.S. 1 to State Road 207 to South Dixie/Pellicer Lane and back to King Street.  This detour will be in place for approximately six weeks while the northwest corner of the intersection is under construction.

Daytime lane closures may also be encountered at the intersection of U.S. 1 and King Street Monday, August 25 through Friday, August 29 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. while crews work on the turn lanes.  Please watch for merging traffic. 

State Road 312 Safety Project

Eastbound State Road 312, on the bridge over the Matanzas River, is scheduled to be reduced to one lane Monday, August 25 through Friday, August 29 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for concrete to be delivered to the barge.  Boaters should also use caution while work is completed outside the main channel beneath the bridge, Saturday, August 23 through Friday, August 29. 

State Road 16 from U.S. 1 to the Clay County line

Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road 16 from U.S. 1 to the Clay County line Monday, August 25 through Thursday, August 28 while crews repaint the roadway symbols, such as turn lane arrows.  One lane of traffic will remain open in both directions.

PUTNAM COUNTY

U.S. 17 at the Memorial Bridge

U.S. 17 at the Memorial Bridge is scheduled to be reduced to one lane in each direction Tuesday, August 26 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for routine bridge maintenance.  One lane of traffic will be maintained in each direction.

State Road 26 from State Road 21 to State Road 100

Daytime lane closures are scheduled on State Road 26 from State Road 21 to State Road 100 Monday, August 25 through Friday, August 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. while crews continue working on the roadway shoulder and guardrail.  Motorists should watch for flaggers directing traffic.

State Road 20 from Hollister to Interlachen 

Depending on weather, traffic is expected to be shifted to the new roadway at the intersection of State Road 20 and County Road 315 in Interlachen Saturday, August 30.  Motorists should expect daytime lane closures in this area as crews prepare for the shift. Please be aware of vehicles entering and leaving the roadway.