Месяц: Ноябрь 2013

Thousands of Filipino survivors of Typhoon Haiyan erupted into wild cheers Sunday to celebrate their boxing icon Manny Pacquiao's victory that gave them a brief respite from the enormous destruction and rebuilding that lies ahead.

"It felt like I got my house back," said street sweeper Ardel Nebasa, who lost his home in tsunami-like storm surges that ravaged Tacloban city on Nov. 8.

Officials hope that watching Pacquiao's triumph against American Brandon Rios in Macau would help traumatized survivors take their minds off the horrific devastation wrought by the typhoon and inspire them to pick up the pieces from the storm that killed more than 5,200 people.

"I was so happy and I wanted to cry but there were too many people," said Nebasa, who watched the match with his son and thousands of others on a TV screen set up in a public plaza in Tacloban city.

He added, "It would have felt like another storm has hit if he lost."

Another survivor waved a cardboard placard that read: "We're for Pacquiao, God bless, Tacloban will rise again." Many jumped repeatedly in joy.

Thousands of residents also cheered at Tacloban's Astrodome stadium and watched the fight on a giant screen, their view partly obscured by the light filtering through holes in the basketball gym's ceiling. One man carried a Philippine flag.

Pacquiao, who defeated Rios by unanimous decision to take the WBO international welterweight title, has dedicated his comeback fight to storm victims and promised to visit Tacloban and outlying regions that the storm had turned into a corpse-strewn wasteland.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the 12-round match, many spectators in Tacloban threw their baseball caps, shirts and pieces of cardboard into the air, even before the result was officially announced.

Tacloban city folk, Nebasa said, would gladly await the visit of Pacquiao, who rose from poverty to become one of the world's highest-paid athletes.

"We'll be thankful if he can help us," Nebasa said. "He came from the ranks of the poor and we identify with him and are happy for his triumphs."

In Macau, the 13,000-seat arena at the Venetian casino was packed. Many in the audience were Filipinos who either lived and worked in Macau or nearby Hong Kong, or made the one-hour flight from the Philippines.

Some waved Philippine flags, and frequently chanted, "Manny, Manny."

Businessman Bong Ferrer flew to Macau with a group of 11 others.

"Of course this is a high morale day to the Filipino people because of what's happening to us back in the Philippines. It's redeeming to us. It makes us feel in high spirits," he said.

WASHINGTON – Residents in East Boston are finding themselves on the losing end of a multi-million dollar gamble that would have brought a casino and thousands of permanent jobs to their community. Instead, voters there shot down the deal only to see residents in the neighboring city of Revere take it up.

Now, East Bostonians are stuck with the prospect of a casino and resort being built in roughly the same spot but without reaping any of the financial benefits or having a say in how it’s run.

According to racetrack operator Suffolk Downs’ website, the resort would have 300-450 luxury hotel rooms, 16 restaurants that range from fine dining to a food court, and hundreds of thousands of square feet of gaming and retail space.

Under an agreement Suffolk Downs signed with the city of Boston in August, developers agreed to pay Boston $33.4 million up front -- to be directed to the neighborhood of East Boston -- and guarantee the city at least $32 million annually. The casino also guaranteed at least 4,000 permanent jobs. Suffolk Downs poured another $2 million on a campaign to sway East Boston voters that was largely built on promises of creating a “good urban environment.” In contrast, casino opponents spent $34,000.

But when East Bostonians went to the polls last Tuesday, they voted down the $1 billion casino proposal by 56-44 percent.

What happened next was a worst-case scenario for residents. As the “no” votes started to stack up, the developers for the casino began talking about moving the project 52 acres away – to Revere.

Suffolk Downs confirmed to FoxNews.com that they have been in contact with officials from Revere in an attempt to salvage the project.

“We have already begun a robust planning process with our team of architects, engineers and environmental consultants and the City of Revere,” Suffolk Downs Chairman William Mulrow wrote in a Nov. 13-dated letter to Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby.

A Revere-only proposal would also include “significant additional payments to the city,” Mulrow said.

Many East Boston residents, like Pat Benti, had pinned their hopes to the proposal. The casino was supposed to create jobs and investment opportunities and jump-start redevelopment initiatives.

“Shame on these people (who voted against the proposal),” Benti told The Boston Globe. “Now East Boston doesn’t even get a single penny.”

The casino conflict leading up to Tuesday’s vote had divided many in the East Boston neighborhood.

Declining home values, escalating crime and traffic jams were among the concerns some had with the project.

“Just 25 years ago, people were running from East Boston,” Mike Ross, a district city councilor, wrote in an opinion piece for the newspaper. Ross says the area has changed a lot in the last two decades, going from a place where garbage was strewn everywhere and “cars were burned beneath the highway ramps” to a place of economic revival, opportunity and neighborhood pride.

Today, the area has a new YMCA and library and the once-dilapidated housing project has been rebuilt. But Ross warns that with the improvements come “understandable fears.”

“About 70 percent of the neighborhood are renters who are at the mercy of a market that may be one the verge of exploding,” Ross said. “They warily eye the new development, knowing that only 8 percent of their existing neighbors would even be able to afford the new luxury rents."

Multiple calls and email requests made by FoxNews.com to speak with Ross were not returned.

Another concern some had was about escalating crime in the area. However, statistics from the Boston Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation show Revere as a slightly safer location.

East Boston, which boasts a population of 40,000 compared with Revere’s 53,000, has a higher major crime rate. According to the Boston Police Department, there were 15 rapes, 104 robberies and 151 assaults in East Boston through Nov. 4, 2012. In Revere, those numbers were lower – three rapes, 49 robberies and 126 assaults, according to FBI statistics.

Still, a casino in Revere isn’t a done deal.

The project as a whole was dealt a setback when casino operator Caesars Entertainment withdrew amid concerns raised during a background check by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

Suffolk Downs says it will name a new partner by the end of the year and that they "have received strong interest in potential partnerships from a number of top-class gaming companies."

KNIGHTSTOWN, IND. – Knightstown police Chief Danny Baker has used pig roasts and golf tournaments to augment his department's shrinking budget, but badly in need of $9,000 for a new squad car, he's reprising his most shocking fundraising approach to date: getting shot by a stun gun.

The jocular 63-year-old chief and another Knightstown official were planning to have a detective shoot them with a Taser at a free event Wednesday night in the middle school gym in their small eastern Indiana town. Spectators -- who Baker hopes feel compelled to donate -- will get a firsthand look at how 50,000 volts of low-amp electricity affects the human body.

"It's a shame we have to go to the extent of having fundraisers and getting electrified and so forth, but with small-town budgets you have to do something to get by," said Baker, a lifelong Knightstown resident who has been in law enforcement for 35 years.

Many rural communities like Knightstown, a mile-square town of 2,100 about 25 miles east of Indianapolis, are having to become inventive to fund needed services, said Brian Depew, executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs, an advocacy group based in Lyons, Neb.

Depew said federal farm bill funding for rural development has fallen by a third since 2003, leaving less money for police cars and other necessities in an era of shrinking rural populations and tax bases.

Some communities have taken to putting ads on cruisers, while others, like Knightstown, are relying on donations for help.

While Baker concedes that his fundraising gambit is extreme, he believes it will also educate the crowd, which will also get to see a police dog demonstration.

Since he became police chief in 2007, Baker has staged a series of fundraisers, including an annual golf outing and hog roast that raises about $5,000 a year and has paid for new digital cameras for the town's cruisers, blood-testing kits and other items.

Wednesday's event would not be a first for Baker, who has four children and 16 grandchildren. He was shot with a stun gun about five years ago to raise $500 for new equipment. Baker says getting stunned feels like being punched about 20 times a second in the back of the head for five seconds. It immobilizes the target and leaves him or her prone and sore, he said.

Baker will be steadied by two of his officers while he's stunned. Emergency medical technicians will be on hand, their ambulance parked outside Knightstown Intermediate School as a precaution.

Baker reprised the Taser event after a local businessman who is contributing to the cause suggested it. He said Wednesday's demonstration will re-certify him through next year in Taser use in accordance with Indiana Law Enforcement Academy requirements. Officers can choose whether or not to be stunned as part of that re-certification, he said.

Although some might question the message the stunt might send -- not to mention its wisdom -- Baker said that if anything, it will benefit those who attend, including children.

"We're not using it to play with, we're using it as a training tool," he said. "It's going to be quite visible -- the pain in my body -- and if there are kids there, they're going to see this and their parents can sit down and say, `See, if you mess up and don't do what the police tell you to do, that's going to be you."'

Wednesday's event has made the well-liked chief the talk of Knightstown, a farming town best-known as the home of the Hoosier Gym, a rustic, 1920s-era structure featured as the home team's gym in the 1986 basketball film "Hoosiers." And the dollars have flowed in, giving the department most of the money it needs for the cruiser.

Baker's 2006 Ford Crown Victoria has about 67,000 miles on it, and on Monday it was the only one of the department's four squad cars in service. The others -- two of which are a decade old and have more than 150,000 miles on them -- had transmission, engine and electrical problems.

Bart Whitesitt, the town's court-treasurer, said Knightstown's 2014 budget is an estimated $968,000. Money from the town's rainy-day fund and state riverboat casino revenue was enough to pay a year's lease on a new Ford Police Interceptor SUV that should arrive early next year, but not another $9,000 available for a second one.

"What we're experiencing here, it's just a microcosm of what's happening around the country," said Whitesitt, who volunteered to be shocked along with Baker.

Jay Stearns, the owner of the town's main hangout, the Corner Bakery, gleefully predicted that a big crowd would show up.

"Everybody's going to be there -- not just because it's a fundraiser but because we're all going to enjoy watching him drop to the floor like a 100-pound bag of potatoes," Stearns said, spurring laughter among his customers.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – New Jersey gambling regulators gave six casinos the green light to offer Internet gambling statewide on Monday.

The state Division of Gaming Enforcement's decision, which came after more than four days of testing the technology involved in online betting and making sure gamblers are within New Jersey, allows the state to join Nevada and Delaware as the only ones offering Internet gambling. It authorized six of the seven casinos that hold Internet gambling permits to immediately offer online gambling throughout New Jersey.

"At this point in time, the casinos are trying to gear up for larger play in the state," division director David Rebuck said in an afternoon conference call with reporters.

He said no serious efforts surfaced during that time that would force a delay in statewide implementation. He didn't immediately have an estimate of how many people had logged on during the test period but said it had topped 10,000 fairly early during the test.

"I don't expect any widespread, significant problems," he said.

The six casinos approved are the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa; the Tropicana Casino and Resort; Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino; the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort; Bally's Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City.

The Golden Nugget Atlantic City was required to continue testing its systems before being cleared for unrestricted play. Rebuck didn't specify what was found to be lacking with the casino's systems.

"Hopefully in the near future they'll pass," Rebuck said.

The Golden Nugget said being among the first casinos to launch an online gambling site wasn't important and it was waiting a week to start.

"It is more important to be among the best," company spokesman Thomas Winter said.

New Jersey began a five-day trial period of online gambling last Thursday. The purpose was to test the technology involved in the games and determine whether the systems are ready for the entire state to log on and play.

During the test period, many users were locked out by geolocation software that wrongly determined they weren't within New Jersey's borders. Rebuck said the geolocation problems are matters for the casinos and their technology partners to address.

Gamblers from half the country

 

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Would-be gamblers from at least 23 states tried to log onto casino gambling websites in the first night of New Jersey's test of online betting.

Matt Katz is CEO of CAMS LLC, which provides geolocation technology to the Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza, and age verification technology to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. He told The Associated Press those attempts show why New Jersey's fledgling Internet gambling industry needs strict safeguards to keep out-of-state residents from gambling online here.

New Jersey's Internet gambling law requires that gamblers be present in the state.

But that technology locked out many legitimate would-be gamblers Thursday night during the first of a five-night trial period for online betting. State regulators are closely watching how the test period goes before determining whether Internet gambling can be offered to anyone in the state on Tuesday.

New Jersey is now the third state in the nation with online gambling, after Nevada and Delaware.

Lisa Spengler, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, said regulators are "not overly concerned" with geolocation issues after the first night. She said Director David Rebuck anticipated they would occur and expects them to be worked out over the next few days.

"It is better to have instances of people in New Jersey being blocked, than instances of people being able to gamble from outside of New Jersey," she said.

Spengler said the problems some users reported "at this point seem to be routine and not evidence of any system-wide issues."

Casino executives and their online partners say adjustments are being made and systems are continuing to be tested, but cautioned that unexpected glitches were likely to pop up over the next few days.

"We are using the soft launch for exactly what it was intended for — to test," said Joe Lupo, senior vice president of the Borgata. He said his casino would not be online Friday night except for in-house staff and a handful of their invited guests. A decision on when to let the public log on during the test period will be made Saturday, he said.

The Borgata was one of several casino sites with which users experienced problems Thursday night, not knowing they would not be allowed to play yet.

Other customers experienced difficulty registering for one or more of the 14 sites or funding an account there. But more were thwarted by geolocation software, which wrongly determined they were not within New Jersey's boundaries — even when they were 15 miles inside.

Katz, and Rip Gerber, founder of the Locaid technology firm, both said their technology was working as intended. It would be up to individual casinos to decide to alter the access boundaries that had been set. Katz said spoke with each of his clients Friday, but could not offer them specific recommendations on changing the boundaries yet.

Bobby Lynch, of Manalapan, managed to set up accounts with two sites but said he ran into technical problems. One let him register but later in the evening wrongly flagged him as being out of state. Another had a software problem verifying his Social Security number.

"My hopes were too high," he said. "It will take time; they will fix most glitches in next couple days."
casino slots

The largest casino in the UK has opened up job dwarf - bouncers . Reported by Orange News referring to the announcement of the hiring .

To work in a casino Hippodrome, located in Leicester Square in London, people are required height not exceeding 147 cm , whose responsibilities will include face-control and intervention in disputes with customers directly to the casino. The announcement was placed in the morning paper Metro.

Owner gambling establishment Simon Thomas explained that stunted people should make the work more casino entertainment . " Our casino is located in a building full of theatrical history , - he added. - Including presentation held here , attended by dwarfs . "

Thomas noted that the idea of ​​such a theatrical ideal casino status and expressed confidence that the future employees will not only become a spectacle for visitors, but will do their job perfectly .

Reservations Orange News calls placed ad highly controversial . This vacancy is designed only for a certain group of people , can cause resentment among people of small stature or those born with dwarfism . However, their comments have been received.