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Silver Line Phase 2 work was completed this past weekend, completion date still unknown
Matt Blitz October 29, 2021 at 3:00pm
First Silver Line train pulls in to Wiehle-Reston East/Credit: Mike Heffner, Vita Images
(Updated, 3:50 p.m.) Work to tie-in Silver Line Phase 2 to Phase 1 was completed this past weekend, a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) spokesperson tells Reston Now.
"The tie-in was a success and the Automatic Train Control System has been connected," says spokesperson Marcia McAllister.
The work nessicated a shutdown of the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station.
One of the main goals was to finish the automatic train control system and it was completed, says McAllister. Additionally, signal infrastructure tests were done and those are still being reviewed.
There remains one or items that need to be finished, but those items can be completed without service outages, says McAllister.
However, MWAA is not committing to a date or specific timeframe for substantial completion and for when the $2.8 billion public transportation project could be handed over to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
"We are now following procedures set forth in the contract so we can move forward with what needs to be done to keep this project moving forward," wrote McAllister when asked about a specific timetable.
In September, WMATA scheduled a weekend shutdown of Wiehle-Reston East Metro station in order to allow MWAA and the contractor Capital Rail Contractors (CRC) to connect the first and second phase of the Silver Line as well as perform tests related to signal infrastructure.
This work was crucial to keeping the opening of Silver Line Phase 2 on track and originally was supposed to be finished in June, but that didn't happen as expected and necessitated a second shutdown.
All of this comes at a particularly fraught time for Metro as service has been drastically reduced to at least mid-November due to ongoing investigations into 7000-series cars related to the Blue Line train derailment in Arlington earlier this month.
Constant delays and missed deadlines on the multi-billion dollar Silver Line Phase 2 project have constantly frustrated residents, business owners, and government officials alike.
Recently, MWAA has continued to insist that substantial completion is coming soon, despite disagreements with the contractor on the timeline.
"The Airports Authority, WMATA and lead contractor Capital Rail Constructors worked together to make this a success," reiterated McAllister.
Reston Now has reached to CRC about how the tie-in work this past weekend may impact their own assessment of a timeline for substantial completion, but have to yet to hear back as of publication.
Early last month, WMATA officials noted that it could be done and handed over to them in November.
However, there now seems to be some hedging on this timeline. At the Fairfax County Transportation Committee meeting at the end of September, it was announced that MWAA was "holding, at the moment, to the fourth quarter of 2021."
A clearly-frustrated Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn responded at the meeting that it better be done prior to the Christmas holiday.
"Our next meeting of the transportation committee is December 14," he said. "We better have substantial completion by then."
Developer to scale back parking at Golf Course Overlook
Fatimah Waseem October 20, 2021 at 2:00pm
The developer of a 300-unit apartment building near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station and along Hidden Creek Country Club plans to scale back parking at the site.
Golf Course Overlook LLC plans to reduce the amount of parking for the apartment building planned on the site by roughly 16 percent or 51 spaces.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the request by the developer at a meeting on Monday. The property is located on the west edge of Isaac Newton Square and next to Hidden Creek Country Club.
In a memo, staff noted that the special exception to reduce parking was justified because the property is within one-third of a mile of the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station.
"The expectation is that residents adjacent to public transportation will require less parking," the memo states. "While residents may not give up vehicle ownership entirely, they are more likely to own less vehicles than residents in lower-density areas not well served by transit, thereby reducing parking demand."
According to plans submitted to the county, 215 of the units have one bedroom while the remaining units have two bedrooms.
The developer plans to reduce the number of residential parking units from 407 to 356. The county first approved the rezoning of the property in September 2019.
Roughly 3,4000 square feet of commercial space is also planned on the site, along with the nine-story apartment building. Commercial parking will be unaffected by the proposed change.
All of Golf Course Plaza's tenants have vacated and the developer plans to begin demolition this year, Reston Now previously reported.
Fatimah Waseem October 19, 2021 at 5:00am
Metro Cuts Back Service for the Week — Expect reduced Metrorail service through at least the ned of this week as officials continue their investigation of last week's derailment. Silver Line trains will operate between Wiehle-Reston East and Federal Center SW only. [Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority]
Southgate Community Center Gets New Name — The center was renamed after former Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, who helped transform the old county property into a new community center. [Reston Patch]
Appraisal Roadshow Returns — Reston Association's annual appraisal roadshow returns on Saturday, Nov. 6. Attendees get to take part in a treasure hunt. [RA]
Photo via vantagehill/Flickr
Work on a new pedestrian bridge over Wiehle Avenue to begin next summer
Construction on a new pedestrian bridge over Wiehle Avenue is set to begin sometime next summer.
The bridge, which would connect to the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, is intended to improve access for pedestrians and bicyclists near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station.
Once built, the bridge would begin on the trail and extend over Wiehle Avenue, replacing an existing at-grade crossing. The project — which is part of the Reston Metrorail Access Group's plan to improve pedestrian and bicyclist connectivity near the metro station – is expected to cost around $12 million.
So far, the county has secured land rights on four of seven properties affected by the project. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is expected to hold a public hearing on Nov. 9 at 4 p.m. on the acquisition process.
In a memo, county staff said that the board may have to use eminent domain powers to seize some property.
"Negotiations are in progress with the affected property owners; however, because resolution of these acquisitions is not imminent, it may be necessary for the board to utilize quick-take eminent domain powers to commence construction of this project on schedule," the memo states.
Minor roadway, sidewalk, and median tweaks are planned to make the bridge possible. The bridge would accommodate the gravel path and the asphalt trail, providing full access to and from Wiehle Avenue. In the future, Wiehle Avenue from Sunset Hills Road to the Reston Fire Station entrance and the entrance to Pupatella would also be widened.
Dominion Energy Virginia recently completed plans to relocate overhead electrical transmission lines. Utility work includes removing existing monopoles and installing new ones, as well as relocating overhead transmission lines.
Construction is expected to begin next summer and last for roughly a year.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss the issue at an Oct. 19 meeting.
Photo via handout/Fairfax County Government
Wiehle-Reston East Outage Set for Next Week — A planned shutdown at the Wiehe-Reston East Metro station is on track, a spokesperson for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority tells Reston Now. The closure is intended to allow crews to connect the first and second phase of the Silver Line. [WMATA]
Reston Association Has Another Key Departure — Human resources director Melissa Kelley is leaving on Oct. 20 for another opportunity. "She will be greatly missed," president of the board of directors, Caren Anton, said Wednesday. Other recent departures have included the association's CEO and technology director. [Reston Association]
Reston-based Company Offers Flexible Workweek Policy — IT services firm Science Applications International Corp. is allowing its workers to take part in a flexible, four-day workweek. Employees can work a few extra hours each day to get an extra day off per week. [Technical.ly]
Nearing completion, local officials frustrated by Silver Line Phase 2's constant delays and missed deadlines
Matt Blitz September 29, 2021 at 11:00am
As Silver Line Phase 2 slowly pulls into the station of completion, local officials are expressing their frustration at constant delays and missed deadlines.
In a brief update at yesterday's (Sept. 28) Fairfax County Transportation Committee meeting, it was reiterated that Silver Line Phase 2 is expected to be substantially completed by the end of the year.
"In our discussions with [Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority], they are holding, at the moment, to the fourth quarter of 2021," said Martha Elena Coello, special projects division chief for the Fairfax County Department of Transportation.
There are currently only two unresolved issues, according to a slideshow presented at the meeting, both of which are at the railyard and do not need to be resolved for substantial completion.
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said he was hopeful that meant MWAA would be handing over the project to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority [WMATA] in late October, after the planned outage at Wiehle-East Reston Metro Station to tie-in the two lines. That work was supposed to be completed in June.
If the project does hit this new deadline, it would still be two months from a previous missed Labor Day deadline and years beyond the initial completion date.
Alcorn and others at the meeting showed their frustration at how Silver Line Phase 2 has been besieged by constant delays.
"This is four years overdue from the original date," said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay. "To not express some frustration here… would be a mistake. I think all of us are very frustrated."
Alcorn also was noticeably exasperated at the pace of the project.
"Our next meeting of the transportation committee is December 14. We better have substantial completion by then," he said.
In response, MWAA acknowledges the disappointment that many have about the delays.
"We understand the frustrations of everybody, elected officials and public alike," MWAA spokesperson Marcia McAllister told Reston Now. "Our goal is to proceed with the [October] outage, evaluate the work that is done that weekend, and make decisions as soon as possible."
McAllister also reiterated that MWAA is "holding on to fourth quarter 2021" as a timeline for substantial completion.
In multiple previous MWAA reports, it was revealed that there were significant disagreements between MWAA and the contractor Capital Rail Constructors (CRC) on the timeline.
While MWAA said it would be completed by the end of the year, CRC said spring 2022.
But now, CRC seems to be backing off their timeline, noting that increased collaboration with the authorities have quickened the pace.
"We are working together with MWAA and WMATA on coordinating and finalizing testing to target substantial completion of the Silver Line Phase 2A in Q4," CRC project executive Keith Couch wrote in a statement to Reston Now.
Even if Silver Line Phase 2 is substantially completed by late October, as noted in the presentation provided to the committee, WMATA will still need approximately six months to complete testing, pre-revenue preparations, and to open the system to riders.
That could mean an opening date of April or May 2022.
The $2.8 billion public transportation project will include six new stations, extending Metro from Reston to Loudoun County.
It remains a potential game changer for the region, though many with financial investment connected to the project have grown understandably impatient.
"A lot of folks have contributed substianal money to making this happen," said McKay at the transportation committee meeting. "And they are sitting here, waiting for service."
Fatimah Waseem September 14, 2021 at 5:00am
TransUnion to Buy Reston-based Company — TransUnion will acquire most of Neustar Inc., an information services and technology company based in Reston. The company has agreed to sell its marketing, fraud and communications businesses for $3.1 billion in cash. But the deal excludes the its cybersecurity business. [Washington Business Journal]
Local Apartment Community Has New Owner — J Harbor Park at North Point, a 190-unit apartment community in Reston, was acquired by Jefferson Apartment Group, a multifamily developer and operator.The development is expected to undergo renovations in the coming months. [Commercial Observer]
Local Vaccine Clinic Today at Wiehle-Reston East — The county's health department is hosting a vaccine clinic at the Wiehle-Reston Metro Station for most of the day today. Can't make it today? Another clinic is planned for Thursday. Walk-ins and appointments are available. [Reston Association]
Deer Management Program Underway — The county's annual deer management archery program is underway through Feb. 19. It's part of a longstanding effort to reduce the white-tailed deer population in the county. The county notes that only approved members of the its program can hunt in designated parks. [Fairfax County Government]
Wiehle Metro station shutdown set for October with possible Silver Line Phase 2 hand-off on the horizon
Matt Blitz September 10, 2021 at 9:30am
Wiehle-Reston East Garage (via Fairfax Connector)
The Wiehle-Reston East Metro station will be closed during the weekend of Oct. 23 and 24 so crews can work to connect the first and second phase of the Silver Line.
This will be the second time in six months that the station has been shut down so the two phases can be tied together after work and tests related to signal infrastructure were not completed in June as expected, necessitating another shutdown.
If the work is completed as hoped this time, it will be a major milestone for the $2.8 billion Silver Line Phase 2 project, potentially putting it on track for substantial completion by November.
The scheduled shutdown was added to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) track work page shortly after officials delivered an update on the project to the WMATA board yesterday (Thursday).
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) spokesperson Marcia McAllister said in an email to Reston Now that the scheduling of the shutdown for late October is "great news."
"Now that a date has been set for the service outage needed to allow completion of the tie-in between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Silver Line, the Airports Authority and our contractors can get this essential work done in October and move the project toward substantial completion," McAllister wrote.
Substantial completion refers to the point when MWAA will be ready to hand the project to WMATA. The authority previously set Labor Day weekend as the deadline but acknowledged in July that it wouldn't meet that timeline.
At the board meeting, WMATA officials said they were comfortable with MWAA setting a new substantial completion deadline for the end of this year, stating that the work will most likely be finished in November.
If that is the case, Metro will still need another five to six months of operational readiness testing and pre-revenue activities, but that could mean the Silver Line Phase 2 will open to riders by May 2022.
However, in MWAA's most recent monthly report, the project's contractor Capital Rail Constructors proposed a substantial date of May 19, 2022, which could push the opening all the way to late 2022. It wasn't the first time that the two parties disagreed on the project's schedule.
Shortly after the report was released, though, CRC project executive Keith Couth told Reston Now that there were "opportunities through collaboration" to improve on that date and get it completed much sooner.
When reached for comment, Couch reiterated that they are working to finish by the end of this year.
"We are in the testing phase of the project which is very dependent on coordinating and finalizing testing with MWAA and WMATA, including scheduling of the next outage at Wiehle Avenue and the review of test reports," Couch said. "In collaboration with MWAA and WMATA, we are working together to improve on the schedule, targeting a substantial completion in Q4."
With the Wiehle shutdown now scheduled and the contractor supportive of a hoped-for 2021 substantial completion date, Silver Line Phase 2 is seemingly back on track after years of delays that have frustrated local officials, residents, and businesses alike.
"Level F" testing — meaning testing with actual trains — also began late last month and is going well, according to WMATA officials.
The nearly $3 billion project will extend Metro's Silver Line from the Wiehle-Reston East station west to Ashburn in Loudoun County. In total, six new stations will be added, including one at Reston Town Center and two in Herndon.
Construction began back in 2014 and was originally supposed to finish in 2018.
Photo via Fairfax Connector
MWAA and contractor disagree on Silver Line Phase 2 timeline, new report says
Matt Blitz August 4, 2021 at 3:30pm
(Updated at 9:05 a.m. on 8/5/21) A new report reveals that there's significant disagreement between the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) and its contractor, Capital Rail Constructors (CRC), about when Silver Line Phase 2 is expected to be completed.
Released publicly yesterday (Aug 3), MWAA's June monthly report on the project says that CRC is forecasting a substantial completion date of April 21, 2022 for the second phase of Metro's Silver Line extension.
That is more than seven months after Labor Day 2021, when MWAA had hoped to hand over the project to Metro, though officials already admitted last month that they will miss that deadline.
However, in its monthly report, MWAA says it "disagrees" with the timeline laid out by CRC and believes the remaining work that needs to be completed "can be accomplished in significantly less time."
The airports authority believes the work can be finished "within Q4 2021," according to the report.
About six months is needed between substantial completion and for the system to open to complete testing and "pre-revenue activities," according to a Metro presentation from last month.
This means that, if the project follows CRC's timeline, Silver Line Phase 2 won't officially open until late October 2022 at the earliest, a year-long delay compared to what was announced earlier in 2021.
Even MWAA's preferred timeline would still push the start of service back to May or June 2022.
MWAA spokesperson Marcia McAllister says the authority remains "hopeful" that the contractor can complete the necessary work by the end of this year. She explained that both the contractor and MWAA make timeline estimates based on "their own knowledge base, but just come up with different results."
"We will continue to work with them, talk to them, and encourage them to speed up the work they are doing," McAllister said.
Keith Couch, project executive for Capital Rail Constructors, told Reston Now that the contractor group is open to discussing with MWAA about how to move the project quicker and get it done by late this year.
"We are in the testing phase of the project which is very dependent on coordinating and finalizing testing with MWAA and WMATA, including scheduling of the next outage at Wiehle Avenue and the review of test reports," Couch wrote in a statement. "While based on the information available at this time our schedule shows an April 2022 substantial completion date, there are opportunities through collaboration with MWAA and WMATA to improve on that date and complete the project by later this year."
One of the tasks that still needs to be completed is the full connection of Phase 2 to Silver Line Phase 1, which opened in 2014. The Wiehle-Reston East Metro station was shut down for a weekend in June so crews could work on the linkage, but the task wasn't completed.
MWAA has said that an additional shutdown is needed to complete that work. Dates for that shutdown have yet to be announced.
McAllister says MWAA is working with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to find dates that work for all, but the two agencies have yet to make a determination on when the second Wiehle station shutdown might happen.
According to MWAA's monthly report, CRC has proposed a timeline where the Phase I integration work will be completed in October.
The timeline disagreement is another wrinkle in the long-running saga of the $2.8 billion public transportation project to extend Metro from Reston into Loudoun County with six new stations.
Many are growing impatient with the consistently-delayed Silver Line Phase 2, which originally was set to open in 2018.
"We really, really want to get this project done as soon as possible," McAllister said. "We understand the community's needs to have Silver Line Phase 2 open."
New day spa and restaurant to open near Wiehle-Reston East Metro by end of year
Matt Blitz August 2, 2021 at 9:30am
Eve's Garden Lounge & Bar in Reston under construction (courtesy anonymous tip)
Faraday Park West (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Outside Faraday Park West (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated 12:20 p.m.) A new restaurant and day spa are opening nearby the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station around the holiday season.
Eve's Garden Lounge & Bar and Emiline's Day Spa are opening next to each other at the new Faraday Park development at 1831 Michael Faraday Drive, about a 10-minute walk from the Metro station. Both businesses are from the same ownership group, which also own Alo Vietnam in Herndon.
The businesses will open sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, co-owner Don Lee confirmed to Reston Now. They will occupy two 1,746 square-foot spaces — about 3,600 square feet in total — and operate next to each other.
"We were supposed to have construction late last year, but that was delayed because of COVID. So, we just started construction," Lee said in June.
The day spa will offer services for both men and women like pedicures, facial treatments, hair salon, and massages.
The restaurant has yet to reveal its menu, but Lee says it will be similar to Herndon's Alo Vietnam, which offers modernized Vietnamese fare like pho, banh mi, and rice vermicelli. The difference, Lee says, is that Eva's will be "more Asian fusion and focus more on presentation and will be higher end."
Lee told Reston Now in June that the ownership group's ultimate goal is to have a business located within walking distance of all the Silver Line stations, extending out to Dulles Airport.
Alo Vietnam opened within a five-minute walk of the future Innovation Center Metro station in late 2019 in anticipation of Silver Line Phase 2's opening. Of course, the line has yet to open, leaving businesses like Alo Vietnam in the lurch.
Lee hoped that, by being near a Metro station, the business would be buoyed by commuters, office workers, and tourists.
"We did invest in 2019…thinking that we will carry the load the first year until the Metro opens," Lee said in June. "Then, we will have a good location with a lot of foot traffic with tourists and from all the businesses around."
But between the long-delayed $2.8 billion public transportation project and the pandemic, that dream has yet to be realized for Lee and Alo Vietnam. Now, Silver Line Phase 2 is looking like it may not open until mid-2022.
When Eva's Garden Lounge & Bar and Emiline's Day Spa opens in Reston by the end of the year, they will be the first of Lee's businesses to be open near a currently operating Metro station.
The businesses are two of four confirmed retailers coming to Faraday Park, which opened one residential tower for move-ins in April with a second tower expected to be completed in the next few months. The gym F45 and the salon A+ Nails are the others.
Faraday Park opens new residential tower near Wiehle Metro station
Angela Woolsey July 23, 2021 at 2:00pm
Inside Faraday Park West (photo by Kip Dawkins)
An apartment kitchen in Faraday Park West (photo by Kip Dawkins)
Faraday Park West features a bicycle cleaning station (photo by Kip Dawkins)
One of the two residential towers planned for the Faraday Park development near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station is now open to residents.
Move-ins for 242-unit Faraday West tower officially began on April 17, a spokesperson for the property confirmed to Reston Now. Reston Skylines reported in June that the building had opened to its first residents.
Delivery of Faraday East, however, is taking a little longer than anticipated. Developer Rooney Properties previously projected that construction on both towers would finish in May, but two months later, work is still going on the eastern tower, which will consist of 166 apartments.
"No exact completion date to share at the moment beyond being in the next few months," the Faraday Park spokesperson said by email.
When completed, the seven-story towers will have more than 400 residential units and a total of about 10,000 square feet of retail space. On-site amenities include a maker's workshop, a rooftop pool and sundeck, a fitness center, coworking spaces, dining room, commercial and baking kitchens, and a bike repair space.
The towers are accompanied by 13 four-story townhomes, according to Rooney Properties.
"The Rooney team is proud that Reston residents are officially calling Faraday Park home!" Rooney Properties senior associate Jake Ballard said in a statement. "The development is one of the fastest-leasing properties in Reston, and was designed with community in mind and meant to be a hub for active and amenity-filled living."
Redevelopment of the 3.85-acre site at 11201 Reston Station Boulevard has been in the works since 2017, when the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved conceptual plans for mixed-use development to replace an existing office building.
Faraday Park is part of a larger boom in development along Sunset Hills Road spurred by the arrival of the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station, which opened in July 2014.
Next door to Faraday Park, the developer Knutson started selling the Union Towns townhomes that it built on Easterly Road in September.
That same month, EYA broke ground on its Townhomes at Reston Station, the first step forward in the Reston Midline development that the company is working on with JBG Smith and The Chevy Chase Land Company. That project will eventually bring 1.8 million square feet of new development south of Sunset Hills Road and east of Wiehle Avenue.
On the other side of Wiehle Avenue, Comstock Companies has been building out the first phase of its massive Reston Station development, which will eventually consist of four districts.
Retailers that have been confirmed for Faraday Park so far include the gym F45, the salon A+ Nails, and the Vietnamese restaurant Alo Vietnam.
Those prospective tenants were first announced in December 2019, but the Faraday Park spokesperson says it's still too early to give a timeline for when they will move in.
F45, which added a site at Reston Town Center in February, told Reston Now then that they expect to open at Faraday Park this summer. Alo Vietnam opened a location near the future Innovation Center Metro station in January, though they're still waiting to get the anticipated boost from the long-delayed Silver Line Phase 2 opening.
Anticipated Silver Line Phase 2 delay leaves Metro treading water
Matt Blitz July 15, 2021 at 3:30pm
The Herndon Metro station (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The Labor Day deadline for "substantial completion" of Silver Line Phase 2 won't be met, Metro staff acknowledged at a Board of Directors safety and operations committee meeting today (Thursday).
The presentation confirmed what the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) told Fairfax County earlier this month.
At this point, it remains unknown when the project will be substantially completed and able to be turned over to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The expected delay will likely push the opening date even further back.
"There hasn't been a new substantial completion day published [by MWAA]," said Andy Off, Metro's vice president of project implementation and construction. "But we are confident it's going to get moved past Labor Day."
The latest delay of the $2.8 billion public transportation project stems from the need for more testing and work to tie Silver Line's first and second phases together. That will require another shutdown of Wiehle-Reston East Metro station, much like the one that happened late last month.
"There are specific tests that were not completed over that weekend that necessitated a further shutdown," Off said. "We are currently working with MWAA to schedule that."
Reston Now reached out to MWAA about when that station shutdown will happen but has to hear back as of publication.
Off assured committee members that the delay has nothing to do with concrete issues or any other major safety concern.
"Right now, it's really an IT project as it relates to our signal infrastructure," Off said.
Once the Wiehle-Reston East outage gets scheduled and the work is completed, Off said there will be a better idea of a substantial completion date, with "fall" being as specific as he can get at this juncture.
Metro will need about six months from substantial completion to complete testing and "pre-revenue activities," including trainings and further testing, which is contractually obligated to take no longer than 90 days, according to a presentation to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors transportation committee last month.
A Labor Day hand-off would have put Silver Line Phase 2 on track to open in the first quarter of 2022, but now, operations likely won't begin until later that year. The project will extend Metro from Reston into Loudoun County with six new stations.
At the WMATA board committee meeting, officials emphasized that this delay is unrelated to any problem. There's simply a need for more testing time.
"It's not unusual to have several tests planned and just not have the amount of time as you need," rail safety expert Devin Rouse, who's on the Metro board, said. "If anything significant does come up, that's a discussion we really need to have. At this point, this is normal for these types of projects."
While officials have downplayed this particular delay, it follows a long line of Silver Line Phase 2 holdups that have frustrated residents and businesses waiting for the multi-billion-dollar public transporation project, which was initially set to open in 2018.
Wiehle-Reston East Metro station closes this weekend to connect Silver Line Phases 1 and 2
Matt Blitz June 25, 2021 at 2:00pm
Wiehle-Reston East Metro station garage (photo by Fairfax Connector)
(Updated at 3:30 p.m.) The Wiehle-Reston East Metro station will be closed this weekend (June 25-26) so workers can connect the first and second phases of the Silver Line.
Most of the work being done this weekend is electrical and technological, as opposed to construction, says Marcia McAllister, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
"The work to be done this week by MWAA and CRC (our contractor) will make the permanent power connections between Phase 2 and the existing WMATA system," wrote McAllister in an email to Reston Now. "This connection is at the Wiehle-Reston station which is the current end of the Silver Line."
Additional testing will also be done this weekend.
Metro will provide free shuttle buses throughout the weekend to transport passengers between Wiehle-Reston East and the Spring Hill station in Tysons, the closest stop on the Silver Line, MWAA says.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has called the task of connecting the two phases of its Silver Line rail a major benchmark and potential challenge of the project.
McAllister noted that this closure is an expected part of the process as MWAA prepares to hand over the project to WMATA in September.
Another outage — meaning potential additional closures — will be needed prior to that fall turnover, writes McAllister, but a date for that has yet to be determined.
"At this time, this weekend's shutdown at Wiehle-Reston East is the only closure scheduled during the next 8 weeks with regard to Silver Line Phase 2," Metro spokesperson Sherri Ly told Reston Now.
Silver Line Phase 2 appears to be still on track to open in the first quarter of 2022, though officials previously cautioned that the timeline is subject to change.
The long-delayed $2.8 billion project originally had a completion date of 2018. But design changes, defective panels, contractor issues, flawed rail ties, and bad concrete all contributed to the nearly four-year delay, which has tested the patience of some local businesses in Herndon and Reston.
Silver Line Phase 2 will open no earlier than February 2022, MWAA says
Matt Blitz May 19, 2021 at 2:00pm
Silver Line Phase 2 remains on track to open in the first quarter of 2022, the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority says.
In an update on the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project issued on Monday (May 17), the agency says it is "confident" that construction will be finished "around Labor Day," at which point the long-delayed $2.8 billion project will finally be handed off to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
If that happens as planned, WMATA will begin conducting "operational readiness testing." That step includes more inspections, trainings, delivery of spare parts, certifications, and the correction of any issues.
That process should take two months if there are no outstanding issues, according to a Metro presentation on Silver Line Phase 2's progress from March.
After that, there will be "pre-revenue activities," including more trainings, testings, and the issuing of safety certifications. That step could take up to 90 days.
Putting all of that together, that leaves five months between when WMATA receives the project and when Silver Line Phase 2 and its six stations — Reston Town Center, Herndon, Innovation Center, Dulles Airport, Loudoun Gateway, and Ashburn — would officially open.
If WMATA does receive the project on Labor Day from MWAA, that puts a potential opening for revenue services and operation in early February 2022.
Of course, not all of this is guaranteed. MWAA says the timeline is "subject to change depending on the Airports Authority's final completion date and the results of complex testing that are needed for Metro operations."
What's more, MWAA notes that the contractors building the tracks and the Phase 2 rail yard and maintenance facility have both missed deadlines.
"Each contractor missed its respective contract completion date but is striving to be ready for a September turnover," the update says.
The contractors "knows what needs to be done," says project head Charles Stark, who is retiring in July.
One of the major challenges of the project right now is connecting Phase 2 with Silver Line Phase 1, particularly west of the Wiehle-Reston East Metrorail station. Doing this will require shutting down service at the station for a period of time that could come as soon as early summer.
Reston Now reached out to WMATA to learn more about the timeline and duration of this shutdown, but has yet to hear back as of publication.
A number of elements of the project have been completed in recent months.
The complex stormwater control system, which delayed the project more than a full year, is now finished, along with the 300-plus glass panel windscreen at the Dulles Airport Metro station.
Dulles Airport station's pedestrian tunnel now has moving existing sidewalks as well as an exhibit showing the history of the Dulles area.
Last month, Metro approved a $4.7 billion budget that officially delayed Silver Line Phase 2 to 2022 but prevented potential very consequential service cuts.
Photo courtesy Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
JUST IN: Google to lease more space at Reston Station
Fatimah Waseem March 18, 2021 at 10:50am
Google is leasing up more space at Reston Station near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station.
The technology giant plans to lease an additional floor of space in the Helmut Jahn-designed building at 1900 Reston Metro Plaza, a company spokesperson tells Reston Now. Google already leases the top four floor of the 16-story building.
The new office, which brings Google's total footprint to 115,000 square feet at Reston Station ,is expected to open sometime this year.
The news comes as the company announced plans to expand in Virginia, including new data centers in Loudoun County.
Here's more from Google on the statewide expansion:
"I believe a lasting economic recovery will come from local communities, and the people and small businesses that give them life. Google wants to be a part of that recovery. That's why we plan to invest over $7 billion in offices and data centers across the U.S. and create at least 10,000 new full-time Google jobs in the U.S. this year," said Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google and Alphabet.
Google has proudly called Virginia home for more than 10 years and has more than 420 employees in the state. Google is continuing to invest in Virginia with the addition of a new floor at the Reston Station office, bringing the total footprint in the building to approximately 115,000 square feet. We'll be opening the new Reston Station office building this year. The company is also expanding its data centers in Loudoun County. Since establishing a presence in Loudoun County in 2019, Google has worked with the public school district to help improve digital equity. In 2020, Google supported the purchase of hot spots and devices to ensure more students had access to virtual learning during the pandemic, and supported programs to provide teachers with best practices for remote classroom instruction.
"I'm thankful to Google for choosing to do business in Loudoun! Their investment is mutually beneficial as it helps keep taxes low for our residents while ensuring a high quality of life for their employees," said Loudoun County Supervisor, Tony Buffington. " We look forward to a long lasting partnership."


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Youth Leadership in Democracy
Cole Stevens
Minnesota Law: punish students for staying in school
Five minutes to help high school students fighting for workers rights.
"I'm scared, I don't know how I'm going to make this work."
I didn't know how to respond to my father, he told me that rent was due and his bank account was empty. That was four years ago, after he graduated from a treatment program and moved to Bloomington. My father had moved back out in a very different economy from when he started his program. It seemed impossible to find a job that would pay him north of 20 dollars an hour without putting himself in serious danger or getting an expensive degree. He had to choose the former, he worked at a disaster restoration company in the Twin Cities, restoring homes and businesses after fires, floods and eventually fighting on the pandemic's front lines by cleaning up COVID exposures.
Before finishing the story, I want to urge, on behalf of thousands of Minnesota high school students, that you take five minutes to ask your Minnesota State Senator to support SF 1044. I'll explain why a little later.
I was living with my mom when my father called. She was doing alright, with lots of family to support her . So I decided in my sophomore year to move to Bloomington to help my father crawl out of debt. I worked after school and assisted with rent, utilities, food, and cell service. It was hard work. But day by day, shift by shift, we pulled ourselves out of poverty while planning to start a family business once we were more financially stable.
"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" we thought, until the COVID-19 pandemic came along and cut the straps right off.
The local family-owned coffee shop where I worked "The Grind Coffee and Creamery" closed down permanently. My father suffered a deep reduction in hours. In late April, 2020, a month from my graduation, I applied for unemployment insurance. My employer encouraged me to do so and assumed I'd be eligible since she was taxed on my labor to pay into the system.
After our rent was late, the internet shut off and the fridge was empty, I received four weeks of lost wages. I used it all to pay bills and put food in the fridge. One week later I received a letter from DEED, the state department that administers unemployment, demanding I pay back everything. They wrote: "We've deemed you ineligible to receive compensation due to your enrollment status as a secondary student".
But what I read was: "your hard work and economic contribution don't matter to us. Despite you being otherwise eligible, you had the audacity to work while getting your high school education." In my attempt to pull my dad out of the hole, the state of Minnesota dug another right under us.
I'm just one of more than 20,000 Minnesota high school students with a similar story. At a time when the federal government was disbursing $3 trillion in CARES Act assistance to support businesses, governments and unemployed workers who weren't in highschool, we were left out, quite literally in the frigid Minnesota cold by a 1939 state law preventing high school students from receiving unemployment insurance.
Not only is this a basic issue of fairness ,but the current law incentivizes students to drop out of high school to receive potentially life-saving benefits. No young person should have to choose between feeding themselves or their family and pursuing their education.
Quickly I met other student's who'd been affected and we formed a coalition in partnership with Youthprise called "Minnesota Young Champions, later becoming Bridgemakers, Co-founded Walter Cortina, 18 and myself, 19. At the time I had no clue that would be a definitive moment in my life. Instead of taking unemployment after graduation, I worked at Loyear Disaster Restoration with my father cleaning up sewer water, mold, hazardous waste and garbage by day and advocated for fellow hard working young people by night.
We meet with hundreds of students, elected officials, community leaders and skeptics, reaching "across the aisle" to get a deal done. But Minnesota legislators couldn't agree on the source of funding, because what we'd already paid in, others had taken out.
We went to court. On December 1st, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that DEED had unlawfully denied federal funds to high school students who were laid off due to the pandemic, making over 70 Million dollars available to students. For those waiting, claims are still being processed, speak up and stay strong.
Despite this win four months ago, our lawsuit victory only addresses COVID-related eligibility for the federally funded PUA program.
Now with bipartisan support from co-sponsors Senator Jason Rarick (R-Pine City) and Representative Mohamud Noor (DFL-Minneapolis), members of their caucuses and the Governor's recommendation, we're fighting to repeal the 1939 law. Today's economy is far different than it was in 1939. Thousands of today's students are supporting themselves and their families, helping to pay for bills and/or save for college. The average cost to pursue a bachelor's degree in 1985 was $5,504. In 2018 it was $27,357. That's a 497% increase, more than double the rate of inflation. Wages meanwhile, have lagged behind.
No more taxing students for insurance they can't claim, If we all spend 5 minutes right now urging members of the house and senate conference committees to make the right decision and support working youth, equal workers rights will be brought to Minnesota's hardworking students for good.
Cole Stevens 18, is Co-Founder and Vice President of Bridgemakers, a fully youth-led nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking the cycles of miseducation, poverty, violence and addiction by bridging the divide between young people's innovative new ideas and older generations' wisdom and social capital.
Proposed Bill Would Hurt Struggling Students (Like I Was) the Most

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Why We Still Need More Diverse Models
The need for diversity is far-reaching: in story-telling, in photography, and not-surprisingly in the sports and fashion worlds. We take a look at recent examples that indicate that we are far from living in a world where race, size, and colour are represented in a way that mirrors the world we live in.
Last September, New York City hosted the first week of the industry's biggest month. And true to form, the first leg of fashion month was filled with innovative designs and glamorous shows. But the most surprising aspect of this spectacle was neither the fashion ensembles nor the production design — it was the cast of models.
The Fashion Spot's seasonal diversity report reveals that the Spring 2020 New York Fashion Week (NYFW) was the most racially diverse one yet, while a record number of 68 plus-size models graced the runways. While this may sound like great news, since it's a huge improvement compared to last year's number of 37 models, a closer look at the numbers tell us a different story.
In fact, 41 of this year's plus-size models were only featured in the same three fashion shows, revealing a resistance among the wider fashion world to embrace full-figured models on their own runways. Moreover, the report also found New York City to have the most diverse cast of models in contrast to the other fashion capitals of the world: London, Milan, and Paris. Whether its size or race, the report reveals that the fashion industry has yet to fully champion diversity amongst its models.
The fact of the matter is models are more than just mannequins to hang clothes on – they are real people who play a huge role in representation. Our standard of beauty is often defined by the people who promote the clothing we wear, and here are some reasons why we still need to see more diversity on runways:
Photo Credit: WearTesters
Actual Athletes Don't Model Sportswear
What do Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, and Kendall Jenner all have in common? Well, aside from the obvious fact that they're all supermodels, they're also the faces for high-profile apparel sporting brands like Reebok, Nike, and Adidas, respectively. This is a marketing strategy that can be very deceiving for consumers, as female athletes come in a wide range of beautiful and strong bodies, but the majority of models are very slender. Moreover, they are already underrepresented in major sports, as they are paid less and scrutinized more. It's high time female athletes are accurately portrayed to the public.
Credit: Soccer Bible
Fortunately, many brands are starting to wake up. Earlier this year, global sportswear brand Nike signed Australian female footballer Sam Kerr to be the face of the brand's Australian stores, and even got American hammer-thrower Amanda Bingson as one of the faces of their pioneering plus-size line.
Photo credit : Hear us Roar
Women Come in More Than One Size
Speaking of plus-size lines, size inclusivity is another goal that fashion brands must work towards. Despite a weak showing for plus-size models during fashion month, that's not to say that there hasn't been any progress. Brands like J.Crew, Madewell, and ASOS have embraced size inclusivity in recent years by releasing extended lines and dedicated plus-size collections.
Photo credit : Pexels
Prominent plus-size Aussie brand, Hear Us Roar, has even made its way to the American market. Another American brand fighting the good fight is Woman Within, whose broad range of clothing was created for women to feel comfortable in their own skin. Case in point, Woman Within's straight leg bottoms were designed with comfort in mind, thanks to the stretchable waistband and relaxed fit. These monumental strides in the industry are opening up doors to models who make more and more young girls and women feel welcome in fashion and in society as a whole.
Credit : The Fashion Spot
Lack of Racial Sensitivity
With an estimated 46.8% of models being women of colour on the New York City runways, Spring 2020 was the most racially diverse fashion week yet. Although one of fashion's biggest runways is heading in the right direction, there's still a lack of racial sensitivity in the industry as a whole. Indeed, black supermodel Naomi Campbell has expressed her concerns that racial diversity in fashion is being treated as a mere trend, and she isn't wrong.
Photo credit : Gucci
Just last January, a black woman in the States filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against her former employer Moschino for using the code word "Serena" — a snide reference to tennis star Serena Williams — to refer to black customers. Just a month later, Gucci was under fire for selling a sweater that had a striking resemblance to blackface makeup, as the black jumper featured a cut-out of oversized red lips. While the presence of models of colour is something encouraging to see, the key to true inclusivity in the industry lies in the hands of those at the top of the chain. Mere exposure is not enough, as genuine understanding and representation are needed.
– This post was written by a contributing author
Header image from Teen Vogue, from New York Fashion Week
We love hearing the stories of many women. This article was contributed and not written by a regular Still Stoked author. If you would like to contribute one of your own stories, please get in touch.
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a land shaped by women – Film teaser is here!


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DA Drops Bid for Death Penalty in Accused Cop Killer's Case
SAN FERNANDO (CNS) - Prosecutors announced today that they will not seek the death penalty for a man who is awaiting a retrial for the June 1983 killing of a Los Angeles police officer in Lake View Terrace, with a judge subsequently rejecting a bid by the District Attorney's Office to dismiss allegations that could carry a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole.
Superior Court Judge Hayden Zacky ruled that it was "not in the interest of justice'' to dismiss the special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer in the performance of his duties and murder to avoid or prevent a lawful arrest, along with gun allegations, against Kenneth Earl Gay, now 63, in connection with the June 2, 1983, slaying of Officer Paul Verna.
Verna's widow and two sons spoke out in the San Fernando courtroom against the bid by the District Attorney's Office.
Saying that "justice has escaped our family,'' the victim's son, Ryan, told the judge it's been nearly 38 years since his father was killed during a traffic stop and that he refuses to "sit idly by'' amid a series of directives issued by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon after he was sworn into office last month.
The victim's widow, Sandra Jackson, said that the community had "lost a true hero'' when her husband was killed and that she believed Gay "should never walk the streets'' again. She urged the judge to "do the right thing'' and reject the motion.
The judge subsequently rejected the prosecution's request, based on the directive from Gascon, to file a new court document without the special circumstance allegations.
Meanwhile, in a courtroom miles away, a Pomona judge presiding over another police officer killing case also turned down a request by the District Attorney's Office to dismiss special circumstance allegations against the defendant. Isaias De Jesus Valencia could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted of the March 2018 shooting death of Pomona police Officer Greggory Casillas.
The hearings marked the latest in a series in which judges have rebuffed prosecutors' requests to drop special circumstance allegations and other enhancements as a result of Gascon's new directives, which have come under fire from families of crime victims -- some of whom are supporting a planned effort to try to recall Gascon.
The district attorney's directives include one that advises that "a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case'' and another that directs that special circumstance allegations resulting in a life prison term without the possibility of parole should be dismissed from any case that has already been filed and should not be filed in any new cases.
Gay's case was sent back to the San Fernando courthouse after the California Supreme Court ruled nearly a year ago that he was "denied his constitutional right to the assistance of competent counsel'' during the guilt phase of his trial.
Earlier, the California Supreme Court had twice overturned Gay's death sentence.
Gay's first death sentence in 1985 for Verna's shooting death was overturned in 1998, with the state's highest court agreeing that he had not received "constitutionally adequate representation'' during his first trial. A retrial was ordered for the penalty phase of his case.
When he was sentenced a second time to death in December 2000, Gay maintained he "never murdered anyone.''
"What this decision really was was an insult'' to the Verna family, Gay said then, while turning to look at the LAPD motorcycle officer's widow and two sons. "It has been 17 years and you folks still haven't heard the truth about what happened to your loved one.''
Gay lashed out at Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt during that hearing, contending that the judge refused to allow the defense to present evidence that he said could have cleared him, calling it "a travesty that this court would rule that the evidence of my innocence is irrelevant.''
The defendant said then that he would admit it if he were responsible for Verna's killing and that he owed the slain officer's family an apology for not having the courage to stand up to Raynard Paul Cummings, who was also sentenced to death for the officer's slaying.
Verna had stopped the car in which the two were riding in the San Fernando Valley, and prosecutors alleged that they killed the officer to avoid arrest for a series of robberies in the weeks preceding the traffic stop, according to the California Supreme Court's latest ruling in the case.
Wiatt -- who committed suicide in February 2005 in a Santa Clarita park in the midst of a phone conversation with law enforcement officials over allegations of child abuse -- said when he sentenced Gay in December 2000 that he didn't think there was any question that Gay fired the final five shots at Verna.
In 2008, the California Supreme Court again overturned Gay's death sentence, finding that Wiatt had erred by barring Gay from offering "significant mitigating evidence'' during the penalty phase of his retrial, including four statements in which Cummings claimed that he was the sole shooter.


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Explaining Trump's appeal
The extraordinary appeal of Donald Trump is explained in a prophetic new book on the President elect, written several months ago and to be published in the New Year.
In the book, Professor Stephen Reicher of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews and Professor S Alexander Haslam of the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland argue that, while many have argued that Trump supporters are ignorant or irrational, this is a mistake.
Indeed, the authors suggest that such a viewpoint – akin to characterising Trump voters as 'deplorables' – plays directly into Trump's hands. It exemplifies Trump's argument that the world is divided into an unaccountable establishment who sneer, exploit and ignore ordinary people, and that he stands outside the establishment on the side of the people.
As the two academics say, Trump succeeds by providing a "categorical grid – a definition of groups and intergroup relations that allows many Americans to make sense of their lived experience, to understand their problems, and to entertain the hope of being able to deal with them". In short, when one looks at things from the perspective of his supporters, Trump's view of the world makes sense to them and speaks to them.
They go on to explain that "he establishes himself as a champion and as a voice for people who otherwise feel unchampioned and voiceless". In this context, even Trump's so-called 'gaffes', the things that were thought should undermine him according to the ordinary norms of politics, actually increase his appeal. So Trump's crudity, his incivility, even his mistreatment of women, establish him as an ordinary guy, warts and all, unlike smooth, polished and dishonest political operators. With Trump 'what you see is what you get'.
Reicher and Haslam continue: "Ironically too, in a politics controlled by wealth and privilege, his wealth frees him of the charge that he is in hock to the money men. What is more, Trump's successes must be seen in the light of the failure of others. Most particularly, his rivals have not succeeded in providing an alternative grid based on alternative categories to make sense of what many Americans are experiencing. They have not elaborated an alternative politics and an alternative set of solutions. In that context, Trump has had a relatively free run."
They argue that, like the shock result of the Brexit referendum, those who woke up to a Trump victory this week will ask: "what we and our leaders might — and should — have done to present a more inclusive narrative of 'us' that deals with the real problems people face, to embody that 'us' in all we say and do, and to develop a politics that provides solutions to those problems."
Notes to news editors
'The politics of hope: Donald Trump as an entrepreneur of identity' by Stephen Reicher and S Alexander Haslam will be published in The myth of rational politics: Understanding the allure of Trumpism, Edited by M Fitzduff.
Stephen Reicher is Wardlaw professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Academy of Social Sciences. He has been studying issues of social identity and collective behaviour for nearly 40 years, including crowd behaviour, nationalism, leadership, tyranny, intergroup hatred and, latterly, obedience and resistance.
S Alexander Haslam is Professor of Psychology and Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland. He is a fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and of the Association for Psychological Science. His research focuses on the study of group and identity processes in social, organizational and clinical contexts, and he has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers on these topics.
Category Public interest stories
Donald Trump politics School of Psychology and Neuroscience Steve Reicher


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Tổ chức sự kiện và cung cấp thiết bị sự kiện TITAN Event
Barr is a longtime supporter of the unified executive theory of virtually unlimited presidential authority over the executive branch of U.S. government. [1] [2] [3] In 1989, Barr, as head of the OLC, justified the US invasion of Panama in order to arrest Manuel Noriega. As assistant attorney general, Barr authorized an FBI operation in 1991 to free hostages at Talladega Federal Prison. An influential advocate of stricter criminal justice policies, Barr, as attorney general, authored The Case for More Incarceration in 1992, in which he advocated for an increase in the rate of incarceration in the United States. [4] On Barr`s advice, President George H. W. Bush pardoned six officials implicated in the Iran-Contra affair in 1992. However, as college admissions unfolded, Barr was a strong advocate for his students, frequently traveling to campus to meet with admissions counselors on behalf of Dalton`s top prospects. Part of Dalton`s appeal was the implicit promise that the school`s most accomplished graduates would likely move on to an Ivy League education.
"Donald Barr was aware of class differences," Semel said. "He often talked about the `Columbia Mafia` – the world he came from – and the wealthy families of the Upper East Side. There was a struggle between Dalton`s old German Jewish values and the new money that had arrived. Friedan, the most diplomatic of the group, was tasked with negotiating with Barr. "Our first action came when we were in second grade," he recalls. "It was a sympathy strike at the high school after Martin Luther King was killed and Columbia shut down." There were riots throughout the city, including one outside Dalton. "Barr was furious," Edelman recalls, "and he yelled at Jonathan for not respecting the school," encouraging impressionable children to follow the lead of older college-age rebels who engaged in acts of civil disobedience. "There were two problems that really sent it into orbit," Edelman continued. "The dress code and the Vietnam War." "Barr had to put Dalton on the map," Semel recalls. "A lot of people thought he was a genius and a madman.
School was going nowhere. Barr was installed to give him a mandate. Pleshette Murphy explained, "The values of the 1960s were not about money. They were trying to train the next Jackson Pollocks. Dalton`s father, Jacob Javits, then a Republican senator from New York, came to Semel`s fifth-year to talk about his growing experiences. So did Dalton`s mother, Norman Podhoretz, editor of the left-wing magazine Commentary, who would transform into a leading neoconservative in the 1970s. What better way to teach 10-year-olds than to make them hear how Schrafft`s best and brightest learned to handle cutlery? In a short period of time, the principal managed to double Dalton`s enrollment and make it one of the city`s most desirable schools, according to the Times, by renaming an institution that had lost its appeal despite its stellar history. For his teachers, Barr brought photographers, Belarusian aristocrats, anti-Castro Cuban greats and a group of gifted dropouts, including a certain Jeffrey Epstein. A charismatic teacher who had jumped into high school for several years, Epstein often walked through school in a long fur coat. In Horace Mann`s 1967 yearbook, Barr had already received his future personality: "a staunch conservative on political issues," a master of "facial contortions," and a brilliant imitation of his Catholic school priests.
He often took the subway home with another classmate, Barry Scheck, who became a lawyer and eventually co-founded Project Innocence using DNA evidence to free wrongfully convicted prisoners. "We argued throughout school and until we got home," Scheck said. I first heard Donald Barr`s name in 1972. New to New York, I worked as an assistant in Paramount`s stories department. My boss, an ardent feminist, was a Dalton mother and sympathized with parents` efforts to push Barr out of his job. In 1971, New York magazine published an article, "The Parents` Revolt in Dalton," and it began with a report on a Dalton PTA meeting where an insurance executive was beaten. An accompanying cartoon showed Barr using a large device to chase away recalcitrant students. These were his autocratic tactics and the power struggles of the school – in the context of an America that imploded because of the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement and the policies of Richard Nixon. Anyone caught smoking weed, even off campus, was inappropriate.
"He was one of the people who opposed a cultural tidal wave that he didn`t understand," recalls Dalton student Marc Edelman, now a professor of anthropology at Hunter College. Dan Freedman recalled an encounter he had 20 years after graduating from high school: the day he met William Barr, who was then the head of George H.W. Bush`s Office of Legal Counsel at the White House. At the time, Freedman was working for Hearst`s newspapers. "Barr," he recalled, "had already written a famous legal memo stating that presidents could not be impeached. I thought: this is Donald Barr`s son! I came to interview him and said, "Your father was my enemy and we fought tooth and nail." He said, "I hope this won`t affect your coverage of the Department of Justice." He was a direct shooter – and I respected him. The School of Scandal The entrance to Dalton, Tony Manhattan`s private school, circa 1979. Shortly after Donald Barr left Dalton, he surprised many who knew him by publishing Space Relations, a strange science fiction novel that envisioned the kingdom of Kossar, a hellish landscape where power, drugs, and boredom turned the ruling caste into vicious sexual predators. The hero John Craig – "a young diplomat of the Earth in the making" captured and enslaved – finally triumphs, restoring virginity and monogamy to the colonized. Barr worked for the CIA from 1971 to 1977 while pursuing graduate studies and law school. [19] He was first hired as a summer intern for two years. [16] While in law school, he was an analyst in the Intelligence Branch from 1973 to 1975, then became an assistant in the Office of the Legislative Counsel, and from 1975 to 1977 in a congressional liaison office.
[19] [20] [21] [22] New York`s private schools have never been democratic citadels. In the `60s and `70s, and for nearly a generation thereafter, elite colleges regularly filled a disproportionate share of seats with students from privileged and competitive strongholds like Dalton. And at no time was their complicated preferential system more evident than during the university admissions crisis, when a principal`s raised eyebrow could affect the chances of even the most promising student. In this environment, what happened to Friedan — a Class A president with near-perfect results on the university`s board of trustees — was astounding, even by New York standards. Barr announced his resignation as part of a deal; The Dalton Yearbook, which played well, had this to say: "All Dalton owes Donald Barr a great debt. We are all very sad about his departure. Barr found a new job as principal of Hackley, a more conservative private school in Westchester County. In an interview with The New York Times, he said: "The kids here are. Better and less. It`s a relief, Barr pointed out, to be freed from the "display of ego and radical chic of Manhattan`s private schoolchildren." What he used to do: During college and law school, Barr worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. After graduating from law school, he worked for the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Court, joined private practice, and then served for just over a year as deputy director of legal policy at the Reagan White House. In 1968, Jonathan Friedan`s second year in Dalton, Colombia, students began what turned out to be a wave of protests and the campus was closed. Friedan sympathized with his cause. As part of a group of four successful Dalton friends — and the school`s most dedicated activists — he was adamant in his opposition to the Vietnam War, which put him in the principal`s crosshairs. The most vocal supporters of these Dalton students were their parents, including Betty Friedan, whose public figure mocked Barr. Donald Barr was a guest on the popular David Susskind Show and was featured in The New York Times Magazine. In the `60s, when New York`s private schools still had implicit Jewish quotas, Dalton, mostly Jewish, was decidedly inclusive. "There were students of color and students with disabilities," Semel said.


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Nobel laureate Thomas A. Steitz dies, mapped the structure of the ribosome
Thomas A. Steitz
Thomas A. Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale and one of three winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, died Oct. 9 at his home in Stony Creek after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Steitz was 78.
Steitz, who was also professor of chemistry at Yale, was recognized by the Royal Swedish Academy in 2009 for his work describing the structure and function of the ribosome, the cellular protein-making factory essential to life.
"Tom demonstrated to the world the importance of fundamental and cross-disciplinary research," said President Peter Salovey. "Utilizing techniques and knowledge in chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and computational science, he elucidated the biochemical mechanisms by which the information stored in DNA is translated into the expression of proteins in cells. His discoveries have been critical to the creation of drugs that combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the structure and function of the ribosome, the molecular machine in cells that make proteins. He was also a thoughtful mentor for scholars at all stages of their careers — encouraging students and colleagues to debate and discuss ideas face-to-face. The Yale community will remember him for his immeasurable contributions to science and education."
Steitz, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and colleagues mapped the entire atomic structure of the ribosome, which has created targets for a new generation of antibiotics.
Steitz during the 2009 Nobel Prize ceremony. He received the prestigious prize for his work on the structure and function of the ribosome.
The instruction manual for the creation of proteins is DNA, but the ribosome is the machine that translates the encoded information to turn it into proteins. Steitz's work elucidated the structure and function of the ribosome, an enormously complex ensemble of numerous protein and RNA components.
"I think we were amazed at each stage at the overwhelming complexity of the RNA folding in the ribosome," Steitz said in an interview. "But I think the most surprising observation was that the proteins were embedded among the RNA helices, penetrating into the interior of the ribosome like tentacles."
Working with Yale colleagues Peter Moore and Don Engelman, Steitz helped establish a structural biology center at Yale. By 2000, their use of high-resolution X-ray crystallography enabled the team to resolve the atomic structure of all components of the ribosome.
His close collaboration with Moore, Sterling Professor of Chemistry and professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and interactions with William Jorgensen, Sterling Professor of Chemistry, led to the establishment of the company Rib-X Pharmaceutical, Inc., now known as Melinta Therapeutics, which used knowledge of the structures of the large ribosomal subunit and its antibiotic complexes to develop new classes of antibiotics.
"He was a very generous and wonderful colleague and had a great ability to find scientific problems to solve," Moore said. "Many scientists work on one problem all their lives, but he solved many. He was the most accomplished structural biologist of his generation."
Steitz was born in 1940 in Milwaukee and received his bachelor's degree from Lawrence College in 1962 and a doctoral degree in molecular biology and biochemistry in 1966 from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard in 1966-1967 and at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England 1967-1970. He joined the Yale faculty in 1970.
Steitz was the recipient of many awards, including the Gairdner International Awards, which he received in 2007, the year after his wife of 52 years, Joan A. Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, won the prestigious award.
Steitz's death comes two weeks after Joan Steitz received the Lasker~Koshland Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science.
Besides his wife of 52 years, Steitz is survived by son Jon Steitz (B.A. '02, J.D. '07), daughter-in-law Dr. Katherine Van Loon Steitz (M.P.H. '02), and two grandchildren, Adam Thomas Steitz and Madeline Grace Steitz, all of San Francisco.
In his memory, a scientific symposium will be hosted by the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry on Friday Jan. 18. A memorial service will take place on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 2 p.m. in Battell Chapel.
In lieu of flowers, the Steitz family has established an endowment for the Thomas Steitz Memorial Lecture Series in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale School of Medicine. Contributions may be made online at giving.yale.edu/supportSteitzLecture.
Yale co-authors new publication on U.N. Sustainable Development Goals


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VIDEO: New Day Coming
Behind the scenes of the new Oklahoma Contemporary
It's no secret that the last few days haven't gone as planned. With public health concerns disrupting everything from international travel to professional sports, organizations around the world have been adjusting to a fluid situation — and Oklahoma Contemporary is no exception. But while we may have to put off our big day for a bit longer, that doesn't mean you can't get a taste of what's in store from the quarantined comfort of your living room.
Ahead of our postponed Grand Opening, The Oklahoman features / arts and entertainment reporter Brandy McDonnell dropped by our new home with a camera crew to capture the magic of what we're building at NW 11th and Broadway. Check out the video below to go behind the scenes of our new facilities, inaugural Bright Golden Haze exhibition, expanded Studio School offerings and a whole lot more.
Oklahoma Contemporary The Oklahoman video art art education art gallery


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Terry Francona exits as one of the best managers in Red Sox history
By Bill Ballou TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Sep 30, 2011 at 7:00 AM Dec 16, 2011 at 1:03 PM
Grady Little, the ill-fated occupant of the Red Sox manager's office before Terry Francona, worked a lot of different jobs to make ends meet before striking it rich in baseball. Little was once asked which of his previous occupations most resembled managing the Red Sox. "Running a daycare center," he replied.
Grady Little, the ill-fated occupant of the Red Sox manager's office before Terry Francona, worked a lot of different jobs to make ends meet before striking it rich in baseball.
Little was once asked which of his previous occupations most resembled managing the Red Sox.
"Running a daycare center," he replied.
Little's time in charge of the Yawkey Way daycare center lasted two years. Francona's ended today, at his request, after eight years and two World Series titles. It was a remarkable feat of emotional endurance, and he departed as one of the best managers in franchise history, or the best, depending on what subjective yardstick is used.
In a farewell press conference, Francona expressed his disappointment that he had been unable to "reach" his players this season, and especially in the disastrous final month of the season. It was time, he added, for a new voice in the clubhouse
"I actually feel like I let a lot of people down," Francona said.
He met with general manager Theo Epstein, assistant GM Ben Cherington and the Red Sox ownership triumvirate — John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino — at Fenway Park yesterday morning. During that meeting, Francona told his bosses that he felt it was time to go. They asked him to sleep on it a bit, but he wanted closure as quickly as possible.
That he lasted this long before wanting closure is almost unprecedented in Red Sox history. The only other Sox manager who went at least eight straight seasons without interruption was Joe Cronin from 1935 to 1947, and he was also the starting shortstop through 1941.
Those were essentially log-cabin years in baseball, and the pressures that Cronin had to deal with bore no resemblance to the ones Francona faced. Francona had to make the usual game and player moves, but also had to answer a torrent of media questions before and after every game, comment on issues that the reclusive Epstein was not available to talk about and even try to explain medical things like the difference between a "stress reaction" and a "stress fracture" in Clay Buchholz's back.
Oh, and in how many other businesses does the boss make a lot less money than his employees?
Still, Francona knew that was part of the job description when he signed on, and the Red Sox paid him well for his troubles. He earned somewhere between $16 and $17 million in his eight seasons here. The team had an option to extend him for two more years at what would have been about $9 million total, but it never got that far.
And it may not have, even if Francona had not wanted to go. He was asked if management had suggested it wanted to pick up his option and he replied, "No. We talked about a lot of different things. I think they wanted to know how I felt about coming back, and I think that's probably a fair way to put it. I told them a lot of things that were on my mind, we talked a lot about the organization, and the team, and what went right and what didn't go right.
"And then I told them I thought it was time for a new voice. And that's not an easy thing to do, but I thought it was the right thing to do."
In his press conference the day after the Sox had been eliminated from the playoff race, Francona spoke of a team that lacked focus, in which some players did not seem 100 percent committed to doing what was necessary to win, and were not 100 percent committed to their teammates.
This was not entirely new — Francona survived and thrived for most of Manny Ramirez's time in town — but it seemed to have finally reached a point where he was tired of trying to make his players do the right thing, and figured they were tired of listening to him.
If that was really the case, then it really was time to go.
While he came across as a too-lenient parent many times, Francona was different within the confines of his office and the clubhouse than he was with the cameras turned on. He was once asked, one-to-one, if he knew that many fans thought he should be tougher with his players.
"Sure I do," he answered, "and if I thought that would work, I'd do it."
And as he was yesterday, Francona was as honest in evaluating his own performance as that of his players. In talking about his first stint as a manager, with the Phillies from 1997 to 2001, he said bluntly, "I deserved to be fired."
Francona didn't deserve to be fired in 2011, and technically was not. But he had a pretty idea of what the future held, if not tomorrow, then not too far down the road.
As of last night, the Sox had not begun to think about a replacement for Francona, and he said that all he knew was that he'd like to stay in baseball, although the White Sox job is open and he used to work for them.
Years ago, he briefly tried real estate and wasn't interested, so that's not an option. Now, Francona has experience in the daycare business, but yesterday he didn't seem at all interested in sticking with that line of work, at least not anywhere around here.
Bill Ballou can be contacted by email at wballou@telegram.com.


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Good Samaritan Medical Center Introduces Prostate Biopsy Treatment Option with MRI Precision Targeting
Multiple directional adjustments help clinicians access all areas of the prostate gland
West Palm Beach, Fla.- Good Samaritan Medical Center is now offering MRI precision targeting for prostate biopsy guidance, a new tool for physicians to use to help men in the fight against prostate cancer. The UroNav Fusion Biopsy System by Phillips is a fully MRI-compatible interventional device for Trans-Rectal Interventional MRI of prostate gland. It adjusts in six directions for precision targeting and works with DynaCAD prostate to provide less invasive, targeted guidance. The multiple directional adjustments help clinicians access all areas of the prostate gland. Once adjusted, the device can be locked into position, providing added confidence to biopsy procedures.
"This equipment is ushering in a new era in how we treat our patients, and it is designed to give them highly accurate readings for prostate biopsies," said Dr. Antonio Beltran, urologist and member of the medical staff at Good Samaritan Center. "This new offering provides our patients with one of the latest advanced medical technologies in urology."
The UroNav device is comprised of three simple components:
A baseplate that adapts to the MRI gantry.
A clampstand which connects to the baseplate and offers multiple precise adjustments for location targeting.
A sterile, single use needle sleeve which affixes to the clampstand and guides the biopsy needle to the targeted site.
"We are pleased to be able to offer this new technology to our patients, and further advance the robust offerings of our oncology program," said Sheri Montgomery, chief executive officer for Good Samaritan Medical Center. "After a cancer diagnosis, it is important for patients to be able to have access to the latest treatment options close to home, and we are committed to offering those kinds of services at Good Sam."
Prostate cancer is common among American men. The chances of getting prostate cancer may be affected by your age, race, family history and diet. For more information about our services, go to www.goodsamaritanmc.com.


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No more dancing around issues in feminine hygiene
Entertainment_Culture
Center For Brand And Product Management
By MAE ANDERSON - Associated Press - Thursday, September 15, 2011
NEW YORK (AP) - Celebrities are gabbing about it openly. A growing number of grooming products cater to it. And a recent TV commercial hails it as "the cradle of life" and "the center of civilization."
The vagina is becoming big business.
A generation that grew up with more graphic language and sexual images in the media is forgoing the decades-old practice of tiptoeing around female genitalia in favor of more open dialogue about it. To reach digital-age 20- and 30-somethings, who also have shortened attention spans, marketers are using ads that are edgier, more frank and sometimes downright shocking.
"Gen Y people are more relaxed about their bodies, so there's more attention to products that people would have been embarrassed to talk about before," says Deborah Mitchell, executive director for the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin School of Business. "It's part of this trend of women saying, `Hey, we're not embarrassed to talk about this."
The new freedom to talk about the vagina comes as marketers spend more to get women to buy products for the area. Ad spending for feminine hygiene products, including tampons, panty liners and cleansers, was up nearly 30 percent to $218.9 million in 2010 from two years ago, according to Kantar Media.
Pop culture also has a lot to do with Americans' _ and companies' _ increased comfort with women's nether regions. The term "vajayjay" became popular after media mogul Oprah Winfrey began using it on TV in 2007. Last month, actress Olivia Wilde, who stars on the Fox TV series "House," described her favorite vagina tattoo on TBS's "Conan."
"I am about to pass out," Conan said.
The openness has spawned an industry of products and services. "Vajazzling" _ gluing on sparkly gems such as Swarovski crystals to jazz up a bikini wax _ became a phenomenon last year when actress Jennifer Love Hewitt mentioned it on the former TBS talk show "Lopez Tonight." It's now a popular service offered by some salons across the country. For instance, the Brazil Bronze Glow Bar spa in New York, charges $25 for house designs like a butterfly, dragon and heart, and up to $100 for custom-made designs.
Bettybeauty Inc., which makes pubic hair dye, was started by Nancy Jarecki in 2006 and sells its products at salons and beauty stores. The $14.99 product works like normal hair dye but is formulated to be safe for the pubic area. The colors run from basics like black, brown and blonde to hot pink, turquoise and purple.
Jarecki said sales have tripled since the line was introduced, although she declined to give figures. Some women are looking to cover gray hair, while others just want a fun color, she says. "When I came out with it, there was this kind of burst of `Oh my god, you solved our problem. I didn't realize how much gray hair was down there,'" she said.
Big consumer products companies also are rolling out products for the vagina and using frank-talking ad campaigns to pitch them.
Energizer Inc. in 2009 introduced the Schick Quattro Trimstyle Razor, which has a bikini trimmer on one side. An ad for the product, which first aired in Europe and shows women dancing to a catchy song called "Mow the Lawn" as they trim hedges, became a viral hit online. A toned down U.S. version of the ad shows shrubs shrinking into various designs as women walk by them _ an allusion to trimming the bikini line.
Kimberly-Clark makes fun of stereotypically touchy-feely feminine products ads in its campaign for a new line of pads and tampons introduced last year and put them in brightly colored packaging. In the TV commercial, a woman says, "I want to hold really soft things, like my cat" and "sometimes I just want to run on the beach, I like to twirl, maybe in slow motion." The commercial then closes with the line: "Why are tampon ads so ridiculous?"
In July, the company introduced a designer series that includes pads with flowers, polka dots and stripes printed on them and a limited edition pad and tampon carrying case designed by "Sex and the City" TV series stylist Patricia Field. An accompanying online campaign called "BantheBland.com," allows users to design their own pads using bright colors and patterns; winning patterns will be manufactured and sold for a limited time.
"There's a lot of pressure these days for ads to go viral," said Brian Steinberg, TV editor at trade publication Advertising Age. "If you want a viral pickup you have to be a little eyebrow raising."
Some companies have stumbled over the line between provocative and offensive. In July, Fleet Laboratories, which makes the Summer's Eve feminine products, has had mixed success with its "Hail to the V" campaign to market its cleansing products.
One 60-second TV ad touts the "power of the `V.'" It shows men throughout history battling each other while a voiceover says, "Over the ages and throughout the world, men have fought for it" and "it's the center of civilization." The ad then cuts to a modern day woman standing next to a shopping aisle of Summer's Eve products and the voiceover says, "So ladies, show it a little love."
But another series of ads, which showed people of different races' hands as puppets appearing to talk as though they were a vagina, was deemed racially insensitive and pulled from the air. The company apologized.
Rhonda Zahnen, a principal at The Richards Group, which created the ads, said despite the controversy, the company was pleased with the overall reaction to the campaign. She noted that about 25,000 have correctly completed its Summer's Eve's online "ID the V" body awareness quiz. And Stephen Colbert even did a parody of the talking-hands ads on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."
"We're really excited about having that kind of publicity and coverage. A month ago nobody was talking about feminine hygiene," says Zahnen, who added that Summer's Eve learned through research that women were ready to have frank discussions about their bodies. "We just wanted to be sure that the conversation is focused on celebrating and empowering women."


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Google Developers Blog: #WeArePlay | Discover what inspired 4 game creators around the world
Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing
From exploring the great outdoors to getting your first computer – a seemingly random moment in your life might one day be the very thing which inspires you to go out there and follow your dreams. That's what happened to four game studio founders featured in our latest release of #WeArePlay stories. Find out what inspired them to create games which are entertaining millions around the globe.
Born and raised in Salvador, Brazil, Filipe was so inspired by the city's cultural heritage that he studied History before becoming a teacher. One day, he realised games could be a powerful medium to share Brazilian history and culture with the world. So he founded Aoca Game Lab, and their first title, ÁRIDA: Backland's Awakening, is a survival game based in the historic town of Canudos. Aoca Game Lab took part in the Indie Games Accelerator and have also been selected to receive the Indie Games Fund. With the help from these Google Play programs, they will take the game and studio to the next level.
Next, Marko from Serbia. As a chemistry student, he was never really interested in tech – then he received his first computer and everything changed. He quit his degree to focus on his new passion and now owns his successful studio Peaksel with over 480 million downloads. One of their most popular titles is 100 Doors Games: School Escape, with over 100 levels to challenge the minds of even the most experienced players.
And now onto Liene from Latvia. She often braves the big outdoors and discovers what nature has to offer – so much so that she organizes team-building, orienteering based games for the team at work. Seeing their joy as they explore the world around them inspired her to create Roadgames. It guides players through adventurous scavenger hunts, discovering new terrain.
And lastly, Xin from Australia. After years working in corporate tech, he gave it all up to pursue his dream of making mobile games inspired by the 90's video games he played as a child. Now he owns his studio, Pixel Starships, and despite all his success with millions of downloads, his five-year-old child gives him plenty of feedback.
Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay and stay tuned for even more coming soon.
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Vale Mike Williamson - the voice of the first epoch of TV footy commentary
Tim Lane
May 4, 2019 — 9.42pm
A genuine trailblazer … We won't hear his like again … The end of an era …
All the usual tributes are in order for the late Mike Williamson, who died last Thursday. Particularly the last one. Although, truth is, the era actually ended more than 40 years ago when he ceased broadcasting what were still VFL games.
Certainly, in my experience, he was the voice of the first epoch of television football commentary. In Tassie, from the early 1960s, we'd receive Monday night replays of the last quarter of two of the previous Saturday's six matches. Mike Williamson and Alan 'Butch' Gale were the voice of the main game and were an unmistakeable tandem. Equally unmistakeable was that Mike was the main man.
Legendary commentator Mike Williamson. Credit:Chris Beck
'I'll tell you what, Butch…' was a trademark my mates and I came to apply to all manner of life situations. It was invariably delivered by Williamson with a great sense of moment but mingled with a mischief that could leave you wondering whether there was just a touch of 'send-up' about the drama he brought to it all.
Not that he in any way belittled the stature, or genuineness, of the game. The effect of his technique, if you could call it technique – because his style was somehow lighter than any football commentary that's been performed since – was to magnify the occasion. With his voice almost buried under the Phil Spector-style wall of crowd-effects that Channel Seven, under Alf Potter's direction, seemed to generate in those days, Williamson made the sound of 1960s and '70s football something else.
No one, in my experience as a listener, has emulated it. Unusually, for a broadcaster who was so ubiquitous and so successful, Williamson wasn't 'aped' by up-and-comers. I suspect this was because you just knew he was a one-off. He wasn't a so-called "commentators' commentator". He was simply Mike Williamson who called the footy with a unique mix of the showman, the fan in the outer, and the old-style 'ham'.
His most famous moment, 'Jesaulenko, you beauty…' delivered with an unusual double-s sound on the Carlton champion's name – Jessalenko – speaks of all that. It was simple. It was unpretentious. And it was so effective it cut through decades of archives such as to be immediately recognisable today, almost fifty years later.
Everyone of us who has ever called the game would like to have had one moment we could say achieved that.
And Williamson had more than one. Four years before that, St Kilda's solitary flag win was made for him. And he for it. For the raging drama Mike, 'Butch', and guest finals' commentator, Ted Whitten, created was such that the telecast of that game took the contest, and St Kilda's win, to a place in the game's recorded history that is unrivalled and can never be duplicated.
That moment in 1970 ... 'Jesaulenko, you beauty' Credit:ninevms
With scores level late in the last quarter, his 'I tipped this' – reminding us in three short words that he'd predicted a draw – somehow defined his style better than hours of broadcasting, or any long-winded treatise thereof, could ever have done. It was theatre, it was gentle piss-take, and it was all done with an unashamed sense of self-promotion you couldn't help but enjoy. How St Kilda fans must have appreciated, must still appreciate, the unfiltered excitement Williamson and company brought to that coverage. Among televised football matches it is perhaps THE epic.
It's hard to know whether Williamson was simply of his time, or whether he made it his time. The arrival of TV in Australia had instantly uncorked the comic genius of Graham Kennedy and Bert Newton, and it would appear to have stimulated a significant generation of big performers. Williamson crossed the divide between entertainment and football and was clearly a part of this explosion of talent.
Yet he didn't ever 'jump the shark' in his amplification of football's drama, excitement and humour. The one line which mightn't pass muster now was, when an obvious free-kick was missed by the umpire: 'Ah Butch, Jack Hill the blind miner could've seen that!' Today's PC Police might take exception, but, otherwise, it was a kid's game too and that was recognised. Williamson was a part of football's culture and its people and his work was ever-respectful of the game.
Certainly, in those black-and-white television days, when six matches between twelve Victorian teams were played on Saturday afternoons and replayed that night on TV, footy created tremendous excitement. Far from being old-news by the time it went to air, the coverage on the box oozed energy and freshness. Such was the magnetism of Mike Williamson and his schtick.
His death cannot but arouse nostalgia for a glorious era. So much was different then. Although colour was yet to come to Australian screens – indeed Williamson departed the stage soon after it arrived – it abounded via the footy replays. The crowds were voluminous in every sense. At the MCG on the biggest days they filled every available space and then some. And they brought with them the huge hero-worshipping banners that hung over the barriers of the old southern stand and the streamers and floggers that created such a treacherous, ankle-deep sea of paper for full-backs to negotiate at either end of the ground.
The game was less developed as a team sport which meant the stars stood out, and what stars they were. And, as though great mates with all of them, conducting the show from the Channel Seven commentary position was Mike Williamson.
The Australian game was already well developed when he arrived, but – like the on-field greats – he took it to a new level. The only pity is that his inevitable induction to football's Hall of Fame will be posthumous.
Tim Lane is a columnist for the Sunday Age.