Online Photo Store Opens To Raise Money For WTC Memorial
  
A new online photo gallery hopes to raise money for the World Trade Center memorial.

The collection includes shots such as Phillipe Petit's high wire walk between the towers in 1974, and several night shots of the Tribute in Light.

All proceeds from the photographs go directly to the WTC Memorial Foundation. The foundation says the images for sale commemorate the power of the twin towers.

The WTC memorial, called "Reflecting Absence," and a museum are scheduled to open at the site in Lower Manhattan in 2009.

You can check out the online gallery at www.buildthememorial.org.

Another important issue that may interest you is involving the adoption of an injured military dog: http://go.care2.com/e/iFD/E3/ofU2

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana and her Working Military Dog Rex were inseparable companions. For three years they lived together, worked together, and relied upon each other. Their job was to patrol checkpoints and scour buildings for hidden explosives, and have served together in Iraq and Pakistan.

On June 25th, 2005 Jamie and Rex were returning from patrol when a bomb detonated under their vehicle. Jamie was seriously injured, and in a coma. Doctors didn't expect her to live, and she had to be transported to the United States for medical treatment. It was only when she awoke she learned that Rex had also survived.

This is really a story about the bond of love that exists between Jamie and Rex. A bond so strong that her last thoughts before loosing consciousness was of Rex. A bond forged through training, through military service, and through companionship.

Jamie has returned to active duty, and wants to adopt Rex into her family. But current law prohibits the adoption of a combat dog until they reach retirement age. For Rex this could be another 5 to 10 years.

Please help re-unite Rex and Jamie - Urge President Bush to encourage legislation to override these laws. http://go.care2.com/e/iFD/E3/ofU2

Sincerely,

Michael Lawley,
Care2 and ThePetitionSite team

Following the 9-11 disaster thousands of Union workers were involved in the rescue, clean-up and recovery efforts. Public officials lauded their efforts and promised to take care of them if they got injured or became ill as a result of their service.
 
Four years later, Washington asked for 125 million dollars in unspent funds earmarked for workers compensation, health care and screening because it was never spendt. Meanwhile thousands of these workers are developing lung diseases and other debilitation and potentially fatal disorders as a result of their work at grou d zero. Some have already died.
 
What has been the response of the agencies charged with looking after these workers....according to the Heroes Helping Heroes.....neglect and indifference.
 
Learn about the plight of these workers on Labor Lines this week.
 
Labor Lines hosted by Vic Fusco
a program about working men and women and the organizations that represent them


Each week we interview labor leaders, rank & file, organizers, public officials, agency administrators, journalists and authors, community and civic activists and educators on the issues that effect working men and women, their families and communities.

Air Times
WGBB AM 1240 and simultaneous webcast on www.am1240wgbb.com
Wednesday at 8:00 PM (new time!)
Saturday at 6:30 PM

WLIE AM 540 and simultaneous webcast on www.wlie.com
Thursday at 9:00 PM

--------------------------------------

Heroes Helping Heroes will be hosting a major conference

for all those who responded as rescue, recovery and clean up workers on or after 9-11 at Ground Zero and related sites

Date January 28, 2006

Place: Suffolk Community Collge, Brentwood Campus

Sponsored by Suffolk County Legislator Bill Lindsay

for more information reply to this email

or contact either Legislator Lindsay's Office

---------------------------

Winter Classes at the Labor Management Center start soon

Classes run Wednesdays in Bohemia and

Thursdays in Jericho

Students may attend either session

contact Director: Dr Thomas Germano 631-589-4780

---------------------

Labor Lines is sponsored by UFCW-RWDSU Local 338

and Fusco, Brandenstein & Rada, P.C.

------------------

Happy Holidays to all and thank you for your support

www.inlibertyandfreedom.com/Flash/Think_It_Over.swf

No WTC steel for New Castle's 9/11 memorial
By ELIZABETH GANGA

NEW CASTLE — Despite a last-minute plea from several residents that they keep pieces of steel from the World Trade Center as emotional touchstones in a memorial of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the majority of Town Board members voted last night to build the memorial without steel.

The three councilmembers who voted for no steel said the metal fragments were too divisive and did not belong in a residential neighborhood.

In voting to keep the steel in the design, Councilman John Diaconis, who is retiring from the board, pointed to the fading memories of Pearl Harbor and the way Dec. 7 has become just another day for many.

"I don't want the same thing to happen to September 11th," he said.

Town Supervisor Janet Wells also voted for the steel, while Councilman John Buckley and Councilwomen Elise Kessler Mottel and Barbara Gerrard voted for a different design that focuses the memorial on a deck overlooking the waterfall at the Duck Pond on Route 120 in Chappaqua.

The cost of the chosen design was estimated at $123,000.

The vote caps more than two years of debate and consideration of where and how to build a memorial in a town that lost three residents on Sept. 11, 2001: Louis Inghilterra, George Morell and Allan Shwartzstein.

Michael Wolfensohn, who was friends with Inghilterra and proposed the memorial at the Duck Pond to honor him, said last night that the board had gone against the wishes of the majority of residents. He presented the board with a petition with almost 150 signatures asking them to choose a design with the fragments. He argued that the design under consideration was a good compromise because it tucked the steel down in a hollow where it can be seen only by those who seek it out. "Now, if I want to go see the steel, I can't," he said.

The Town Board authorized Wolfensohn's memorial in July 2003. But after neighbors objected, the town took over the site-selection process and later hired its own architect to design the memorial. Until recently, all the designs included the controversial steel. But when some neighbors weren't satisfied with shielding the steel from passers-by, the Town Board asked to look at designs without the metal.

Michael Brown, a neighbor of the Duck Pond who fought the memorial — and using the steel — disputed the argument that most people want the metal.

"Every single person I've ever spoken with recoils at the thought of using the steel," he said.

Jim McCauley, 58, an investment adviser who has followed the debate, said building a memorial without the steel was like trying to hide from the tragedy of Sept. 11. The Vietnam veteran compared it to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. "Doing it without the steel would be like having the black granite and no names," he said.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...WS02/512210373/1018

Jay Hernandez Pulls Back Curtain On Oliver Stone's 9/11 Movie
Actor promises there won't be any conspiracy theories involved.

BEVERLY HILLS, California — Jay Hernandez is supposed to be promoting next month's grisly thriller "Hostel," in which he uncovers a terrifying subculture that thrives on mutilation, torture and killing, but he's got another topic on his
mind that is far more grim — and far more important.

" 'World Trade Center' and 'September' are some of the things that I've heard, but I don't know exactly what it's going to be," the 27-year-old actor said of a few possible titles for the controversial 9/11 movie he's currently filming in Los Angeles. After years of avoiding the topic, Hollywood is now making what promises to be the most high-profile movie to ever deal with the subject. "I like 'September' — it's one word, you get it, there's an automatic connection."

The project hopes to form a similar connection with audiences still stunned by the terrorist attacks of four years ago. It will star Nicolas Cage as Port Authority police officer John McLoughlin, who, along with William J. Jimeno, were the last two men rescued from the collapse of the World Trade Center. Michael Peña ("Crash") has been cast as Jimeno, with Hernandez and stars like Maggie Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello and Nicholas Turturro portraying others touched by the tragedy. Continuing along the fearless path that has always defined his career for better ("The Doors") or worse ("Alexander"), director Oliver Stone is overseeing the film.

"It has nothing to do with conspiracy theories; I know a lot of people are mentioning that because it's Oliver Stone," Hernandez grinned, referring to "JFK." "[This] is all about honoring these people and their families."

"Working with Oliver is huge," he continued. "We did some work in New York; we talked and did a lot of research with the Port Authority officers down there. These are real characters, it's a real story. It's a little bit of a sensitive subject, but I know Oliver is trying to make it as real and as honest as possible."

The film focuses on the officers' attempts to stay alive as rescue workers sort through the rubble and their family and friends wait for any indication of their survival.

"I play [Pena's] best friend that died that day," Hernandez reveals, admitting that the coupling of the lifelike set and one very special on-set adviser has kept things as honest as they are emotional.

"Will Jimeno is actually on set with us, advising, telling us that this happened and this didn't. He's bringing that element of truth to it," said Hernandez, softening his tone with reverence. "He can't live in that moment, Will — this is what I gather, I don't want to speak for him — so he detaches himself from it, but at times there was a couple moments where he just really broke down; it was really tough for him. Especially being out [in L.A.], because he doesn't have his family with him. ... It's a really, really emotional thing."

Like most of the other actors, Hernandez has extracted motivation from Jimeno rather than seeking out the real-life family members of his deceased character. "I spoke with everybody else but the family," he said, "just to respect their privacy and their space. Obviously it's a very difficult thing to go through, and his wife and kids have been left behind, so I stayed away from that."

The heartfelt results are due in theaters later this year, and Hernandez said Stone is intent on making it his most personal film yet. "He's working really hard, and he really wants this film to be great," the actor said. "He wants people to respect what he's doing, and not criticize it. He's really putting a lot of himself into this film, and he really cares about it."

While admitting to the enormous pressures of portraying a still-healing national wound, Hernandez said the actors' respect and appreciation for the heroes of 9/11 have fueled every line they've delivered. "It's an honor for me to be involved in it," he said, glancing down, "and to try to respect the dead by doing as good a job as I can."

— Larry Carroll

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/15...2192005/story.jhtml

 
Firefighter Michael Kiefer
 
Thirty of firefighter Michael Kiefer's friends and loved ones stepped outside his parents Pine Street home in Franklin Square earlier this month, laughed and cried, and released to the heavens balloons scrawled with messages to him.
Four years have passed since Kiefer, 25, was killed along with 342 other New York firefighters and more than 2,400 civilians in the World Trade Center attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In that short time, many of the people who were part of the Kiefer's lives before and immediately after his death have faded from view, and their phone calls and visits have ceased.
So Kiefer's sisters, Lauren, 25, and Kerri, 23, decided that for what would have been his 30th birthday, on Dec. 5, they would surprise their parents, Pat and Bud, by filling the house with people who have comprised a rock-solid support system that has helped them since the death of their first child and only son.
³We got our family and friends together who have been with us since day one and had a surprise for our parents, ate cake, wrote on balloons and let them go, said Kerri Kiefer, who wrote I miss you on her balloon. I miss him more and more, and find that each day gets harder and harder. People have been telling me it gets easier, but it only gets harder.
Kerri was 19 when her brother was killed, and the years before that day are filled with memories. During his grade school days at St. Catherine of Sienna in Franklin Square, Michael would set up fake fire scenes outside their home and cast his sisters in the roles of probationary firefighters. His love of firefighting was forged as a child, when Bud would take him to the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department on weekends to keep him occupied.
When Michael was old enough, he bought a police scanner and trekked to fire calls on his bike. More than once he was escorted home by police officers who spotted him wandering around fires in tough neighborhoods. In his teens he joined junior firefighter programs in several local neighborhoods, and hoped to one day turn his passion into career.
After graduating from St. Mary's High School in Manhasset in 1994, Kiefer joined the fire cadet program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The experience culminated with a job with the New York City Fire Department as a paramedic. A year and a half later, he took the exam to become a firefighter. In December 2000, he became a probationary fireman in Engine Co. 280/Ladder Co. 132 firehouse in Crown Heights.
After Kiefer was killed less than a year later, his devastated family leaned on one another and their friends. But with the passage of time, that has changed. A lot of people don't call anymore and think we should be over this, Kerri said. It¹s not something to get over.
Those who have remained close to the Kiefers were invited to commemorate Michael's birthday. Each Dec. 5 since 2001, Lauren and Kerri have decorated a Long Beach boardwalk bench bearing their brothers name with balloons and cards. Kiefers remains were never recovered, so the bench serves as a memorial where the family reflects on his brief but full life. They sit on the bench and stare out at the same ocean Kiefer watched for years as a Long Beach lifeguard.
We always make his birthdays special, but since he was 30 this year, we made it extra special, said Kerri.
With everyone hushed in the Kiefers darkened home on Dec. 5, Pat and Bud opened the front door to 30 people ‹ one for each year of their sons life ‹ shouting in unison not Surprise! but We remember!
They were shocked when they came in, emotional, Kerri said. Then we made a toast to him. It was very emotional, but as the night wore on, people started sharing stories and it got easier. My parents were so happy.
Kerri said that one of her best therapies for dealing with her big brother's loss is to find ways to memorialize him, usually through fund-raisers in his name for the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation. This year she nominated him for the Herald's 2005 Person of the Year. That¹s one more way people will know about him, because I never want his memory forgotten, she said.
Comments about this story? FSeditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 240.

http://www.liherald.com/site/news.cfm?news...ept_id=477736&rfi=6

Some in New Castle upset over removal of steel from 9/11 memorial

NEW CASTLE — Proponents of incorporating remnants of the World Trade Center into a Sept. 11 memorial are reeling from the stunning defeat town officials dealt their plan this week.

The Town Board voted 3-2 Wednesday to build the memorial at the Duck Pond off Route 120 without steel salvaged from Ground Zero. Resident Michael Wolfensohn, who acquired that steel and led a fundraising drive for the memorial, was unclear what recourse he might have.

"I don't know what it means yet," he said. "I'm hoping the board changes its mind. What happened here is a travesty."

The decision capped two years of debate in a community that lost three residents in the Sept. 11 attacks: Louis Inghilterra, George Morell and Allan Shwartzstein. The town will now refine the chosen design and put it out for bid. It will be unveiled next year on the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

Wolfensohn, who was friends with Inghilterra and proposed the memorial in his honor, presented officials with 150 signatures in support of using the steel. He said the board ignored the wishes of a majority of residents in deference to a few who complained that the steel was inappropriate in a residential neighborhood.

The design he favored would have hidden the steel from casual passers-by. That, he said, was a compromise both sides should have supported.

Without the steel, he said, the $26,000 raised though the Steel Beams Foundation could not be used for the memorial. He would not say if he planned to legally challenge the board's decision.

Council members John Buckley, Elise Kessler Mottel and Barbara Gerrard voted for a $123,000 alternative design plan.

Gerrard said most residents just want to see the memorial built, with or without the steel. She rejected the idea that leaving the steel out took meaning from the memorial.

"There are so many other memorials, and it would be demeaning of those memorials that don't contain the steel to say they're not meaningful," Gerrard said.

She favors incorporating the steel into a memorial at Town Hall or elsewhere. Wolfensohn opposes that idea and noted a townwide site-selection process led to the Duck Pond as the ideal site.

Supervisor Janet Wells, who voted to use the steel in the memorial, said the town would work to make the memorial relevant.

"We had hoped that there would be something that would emerge from all this discussion that would be something that everybody could agree was a good design," she said. "That just didn't happen."

David Perlmutter, a friend and neighbor of Inghilterra's, said officials missed an opportunity to unify the town.

"Here's an opportunity to create a monument where you're taking the vestiges from a horrible, hate-filled event and to transform that into something that's beautiful and thought-provoking and a symbol of the town's love and remembrance of these people," Perlmutter said. "Instead, you're going to end up with a plaque."

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...2220302/1026/NEWS10

WTC debris may get new S.I. home
 
Tons of particles from the World Trade Center collapse - possibly containing the remains of victims - could be moved from the Fresh Kills landfill to another Staten Island site nearby.
The city and a group of 9/11 families agreed yesterday to see if a 40-acre site on Muldoon Ave. could be suitable. The site was among those proposed by the World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial shortly after it sued in Manhattan Federal Court in August, seeking to force the city to move the WTC material.

James Tyrrell, an attorney for the city, told Judge Alvin Hellerstein that the city isn't prepared to accept that all of the disputed material should be moved.

The city has estimated the material weighs as much as 480,000 tons and until now, has planned to mark the Fresh Kills site with a memorial. The city also claims that the Muldoon Ave. site contains household waste - an assertion disputed by Norman Siegel, the lawyer for the families.

The material is what was left after the WTC debris was sifted extensively for human remains during the 9/11 victim identification effort.

James Taylor, whose Taylor Recycling Facility worked in the Fresh Kills recovery, advised the families it would cost $135 million to develop the Muldoon Ave. site. The city says the price would go much higher.

Besides urging the two sides to survey the site, Hellerstein called on Tyrrell to see if the WTC Memorial might make some note of those whose remains weren't recovered.

 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/377060p-320347c.html

Spitzer's Office Denies Threat To LMDC Head

A spokesman for state attorney general Eliot Spitzer yesterday denied that the attorney general had threatened John Whitehead, who is the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and a former chairman of Goldman Sachs. In a commentary entitled "Scary" in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Mr. Whitehead said Mr. Spitzer threatened him over the phone in April. The threats, he said, followed the publication of his Journal op-ed "Mr. Spitzer Has Gone Too Far," which was critical of the attorney general's handling of the investigation of AIG and its chief executive, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who was forced out in March.

A spokesman for Mr. Spitzer, Darren Dopp, said yesterday that the attorney general and Mr. Whitehead engaged in a "spirited conversation" following April's op-ed, but that no threats were made.

http://www.nysun.com/article/24905

Executive's Article Revives Feud With Prosecutor
By JONATHAN D. GLATER

A former chairman of Goldman Sachs has rekindled a months-old dispute with Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, who is seeking to be governor.

In an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, John C. Whitehead, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, who now heads the corporation responsible for rebuilding Lower Manhattan, accused Mr. Spitzer of declaring "war between us" and warning that Mr. Whitehead would "pay dearly for what you have done."

Mr. Whitehead wrote that Mr. Spitzer's remarks came days after another op-ed article by Mr. Whitehead in The Journal in April. In that earlier article, Mr. Whitehead had attacked Mr. Spitzer for making fraud accusations against Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chief executive of the insurance giant American International Group.

Mr. Whitehead did not respond to messages left at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Mr. Whitehead wrote that Mr. Spitzer's "increasingly relentless crusade against boards and senior executives, particularly when they are unfairly singled out because they have antagonized him, goes too far."

Mr. Spitzer's office replied yesterday, with a spokesman denying that the attorney general had threatened Mr. Whitehead and questioning the motive for yesterday's article.

"That whole quote that he had from Mr. Spitzer was fabricated," Darren Dopp, the spokesman for Mr. Spitzer, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"Eliot did call him. They did have a discussion. Eliot took exception to some of the things" that Mr. Whitehead wrote in the April op-ed article, Mr. Dopp continued. "And it did conclude with Eliot telling him, focus on your day job."

Mr. Dopp questioned whether the timing of Mr. Whitehead's article was intended to assist Mr. Greenberg, who faces a civil lawsuit brought by Mr. Spitzer's office.

A spokesman for Mr. Greenberg, Howard Opinsky, said that his client had not talked to Mr. Whitehead to plan the article yesterday. "I was as surprised as everyone else was to see it," Mr. Opinsky said.

In the suit filed in May, Mr. Spitzer accused Mr. Greenberg, A.I.G. and its former chief financial officer of manipulating financial statements to bolster company results and mislead regulators and investors.

Mr. Spitzer has decided not to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Greenberg, although federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission have also been investigating.

Last week, Mr. Spitzer released a report contending that Mr. Greenberg unfairly enriched himself and other A.I.G. executives in a series of transactions that violated the will of Cornelius Vander Starr, the company's founder, and defrauded a foundation he created.

The Starr Foundation, established to benefit educational and cultural institutions, is one of the nation's largest charitable organizations, with $3.5 billion in assets. Mr. Greenberg has denied any wrongdoing.

To critics, Mr. Spitzer's actions against Mr. Greenberg are just one part of a broader pattern of overstepping the bounds of his office, overzealously pursuing corporate executives whose actions were not criminal.

Mr. Whitehead's April article summarized this view, stating that Mr. Spitzer's "actions are beginning to do more harm than good."

In that earlier article Mr. Whitehead also suggested that Mr. Spitzer was pursuing Mr. Greenberg so aggressively in part because the two men disagreed over the necessity of changing the state's tort laws - something that Mr. Spitzer's spokesman said did not make sense, because Mr. Spitzer was not opposed to the idea of modifying the civil justice system.

But attorneys general have considerable discretion in how they wield their authority, said James E. Tierney, former attorney general for the state of Maine and now director of the Attorney General Program at Columbia Law School.

"As any person who views 'Law & Order' knows, there's a lot of judgment that goes into those decisions" whether to prosecute someone, said Mr. Tierney, who said he has supported Mr. Spitzer's aggressive approach to corporate malfeasance. "A prosecutor has to make those decisions based on the facts that they have at the moment."

He added: "There are lots of ways to restrict so called runaway prosecutors: you can limit their budget; you can change the underlying statutes that provide their authority; you can defeat them at the polls. You can do all these things and more."

Even, apparently, write op-ed articles for The Wall Street Journal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/business/23wall.html

East Texas hero receives memorial
by Kelly Bell

When Mark Wilson came home from Vietnam over 30 ears ago he figured his days of combat were behind him. He never dreamed his life would indeed end in a hail of gunfire thousands of miles from the soggy battlefields where he fearlessly served his country in a much greater war, one he survived. Long after returning home the violence he avoided so far away caught up with him.
On February 24, 2005 a deranged gunman opened fire outside the Smith County Courthouse. Wilson could have run for cover and lived. Instead he grabbed his own gun and rushed to rescue the killer’s defenseless targets. He became one of those victims as he himself fell mortally wounded, but not before he saved the life of the killer’s own young son. On Friday, September 16, 2005 Tyler Mayor Joey Seeber presided over a ceremony dedicating a plaque to the hero near the spot where he died.
“In a day of horrible tragedy there was also a great hero who gave his life to save someone else’s life,” said Seeber later. “We thought it was appropriate to forever memorialize his sacrifice.”
Tyler’s annual Festival on the Square was in progress, and city officials scheduled the ceremony for this time because Wilson always loved the yearly celebration. Against a backdrop of thunderous applause from festival-goers, Seeber presented a bouquet of white roses to Wilson’s mother Lynn Stewart. Close friend John Seiple is not surprised at Wilson reacted that day.
“In such a situation as what happened on the square Mark reacted in accordance with his values,” Seiple said. “There was shock, but it wasn’t a surprise that he saw what was going on, grabbed his gun and confronted the killer. It was his nature.”
Seiple added that the soldier/hero in Wilson, even after being buried for so many years, is what witnesses saw as he died. “The risk to his personal safety was overridden,” Seiple said. “He wasn’t thinking of himself.”
The message on the plaque sounds like something from Pearl Harbor or the former location of the World Trade Center: It reads: “Tyler resident Mark Alan Wilson fell here on February 24, 2005, after giving his life in an attempt to protect fellow citizens. This memorial stands as a tribute to his bravery and sacrifice for the citizens of Tyler.”
The second half of the message is even more poignant: “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.

http://www.easttexasreview.com/story.htm?StoryID=3092

 Holiday Events for 9/11 Families at WTC site

All events for 9/11 Families only

Saturday, Dec. 24th from: 11:45 p.m. to 12:45 a.m.
Midnight Mass with Fr. Brian Jordan -- Family viewing area.

Every night starting Sunday, Dec. 25 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Menorah lighting at Family viewing area, Rabbi Potasnik will coordinate each night.

Norman Foster said he wants to design a building that will liven up Church St.

...

Silverstein said the 2.4 million square-foot building will also have about 130,000 square feet of retail space on the street, above ground and underground and will be connected to the Santiago Calatrava-designed train station on Church St. The building’s address will be 200 Greenwich St.

Pataki has told Silverstein he can have the state’s remaining $1.67 billion of tax-free Liberty Bonds, conditioned on Silverstein resolving his remaining disputes with the Port Authority, which owns the site and leased the Trade Center complex to Silverstein two months before 9/11. Pataki shares control of the Port with New Jersey. The agency is negotiating with Silverstein on the site’s retail configuration and is reportedly trying to get him to give up control of Towers 3, 4 and 5. Silverstein still hopes to build all five towers on the site and he is negotiating with Mayor Bloomberg for about $1.67 billion in Liberty Bonds to help him do that.

The Port Authority must do excavation work and build slurry walls before construction can begin on Church St. and the Tower 2 site is expected to be the first site ready.

Foster has done some initial private sketches, but said he has not begun to design the building. In December 2002, he was one of seven finalists and he proposed “two towers, which kiss and touch” that scored well in public opinion polls. His proposal did not make the next cut and lost out to Libeskind early in 2003. He reportedly was angrier than the other architects who lost, but last week he said he had no ill feelings.

“You win some competitions, you lose some,” he said. “You move on. I wouldn’t be here if I had any of those negative feelings.”

Three years ago he imagined a memorial being in a void at the Twin Towers’ footprints, which turned out to be consistent with the Michael Arad design that was subsequently picked.

...

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_137/britisharchitect.html

WAR ON TERRORISM
Bush's Sept. 11 excuse doesn't cut it ELLEN GOODMAN. So it comes down to Sept. 11, 2001. Again. The president has drawn a great dividing line through the country, separating his supporters from his critics. Again.
This time, those who see a presidency run amok are not just labeled "defeatists." They are considered amnesiacs.
This time, those who oppose torture are diagnosed with short-term memory loss. Those who are outraged at domestic snooping are people who have forgotten to be afraid.
The president's "humble" speech from the Oval Office contained the inevitable line: "September the 11th, 2001, required us to take every emerging threat to our country seriously." His decidedly unhumble wrestling with the media on the subject of domestic spying had no less than 10 references to "this new threat [that] required us to think and act differently."
Meanwhile, what was Vice President Dick Cheney's response when asked whether he was concerned that 100 people had died in U.S. custody?
What actually worried him was that "as we get farther and farther away from [Sept. 11] ... there seems to be less concern about doing what's necessary in order to defend the country."
It's as if the administration were waving a sampler embroidered with that old saying: If you are keeping your head while all about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't know the seriousness of the situation.
We have been handed yet another in an endless series of false choices. Those who don't blindly trust the president are dismissed as amnesia victims. Americans who don't connect the dots from Sept. 11 to Iraq or spying or torture are cast as actors living in a foolish, fearless, fantasy world.
Indeed, Sept. 11 was the day the president became the commander in chief. The words he often repeats were spoken to him by a rescue worker at the World Trade Center: "Whatever it takes."
If there are Americans who have actually forgotten the attacks, I don't know any.
I remember the weeks when I would wake up and reach for the remote to see if we'd caught Osama. When did that expectation fade? I remember the just pursuit of al-Qaida into its safety zone, Afghanistan. And the satisfaction in overthrowing the Taliban.
But gradually, Sept. 11 became the all-purpose excuse for ... whatever it takes. The war in Iraq was conflated with the war on terror, and pre-emptive strikes were launched against weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist.
Those who criticize the commander in chief wonder if he is the one who's forgotten Sept. 11. Has he forgotten when the country was united? Has he forgotten when the world was on our side? Has he forgotten that we were the good guys?
As for fear? My generation grew up under the threat of a mushroom cloud. We have no false sense of security. Nor do we embrace the equally false belief that curtailing liberty automatically makes us safer.
"Whatever it takes" does not mean "whatever the president says it takes." It does not mean becoming our own worst enemies.
It does not mean approving torture or domestic spying. And it most certainly does not mean watching silently as a commander in chief takes on the uniform of a generalissimo.
Who owns Sept. 11?
The White House has built its own memorial and raised a stiff price of admission. It only allows in those who agree with the president. But the memory and meaning of Sept. 11 do not belong to any partisan. It's common ground waiting to be recaptured. Whatever it takes.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunne...pinion/13479125.htm

Taylor helps WTC families find final resting place for relatives
 
The man whose company was hired to sift through tons of debris from the World Trade Center attacks has been recruited by relatives of those killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack to assist them in finding a final resting place for their loved ones.

Some 480,000 tons of material, believed to include the unidentified remains of a great many victims, are at the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island. The families have gone to James Taylor of Newburgh, owner of Taylor Recycling in Montgomery.

“The concept that is really rubbing wrong with some of the families is they don’t believe the ashes and the remains should be left on top of a pile of garbage in a garbage dump and that has been their goal and ob jective since day one, to get the World Trade Center debris relocated to another site,” he said.

Taylor, whose company was hired after the attack, to sift through the material at Fresh Kills, believes a New York City-owned parcel of land ad jacent to the landfill could be used to house the remains permanently.

The case has gone before the courts with a judge ordering the families and the City of New York to work it out and return to him in March.

Taylor estimates the cost of the pro ject to be under $135 million.
 
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/Taylor_WTC_fams-24Dec05.htm