Posts Tagged ‘Montgomery’
July 20th, 2011
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Author: The high temperature in Birmingham on Thursday will be 95, but the heat index will reach 101, according to the National Weather Service.
There is a 20 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms before 10 tonight. The low will be around 75.
Thursday will have a 30 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms after noon with a low around 75.
Friday will have a high near 94, a low around 75 and a 30 percent chance of rain.
Follow developments at the al.com Weather Center.
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Tags: Today’s high was 94. The record for July 20 is 101, recorded in 2000.
Thursday: Chance of thunderstorms, otherwise mostly sunny. Highs in the low to mid-90s. Lows in the low to mid-70s. Chance of rain 30 percent.
Friday: Chance of showers and thunderstorms, partly sunny. Highs in the low 90s. Lows in the mid- to upper 70s. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Tomorrow’s forecast by WKRG’s Head Meteorologist Alan Sealls:
Auto dealers in July aren’t exaggerating when they say their trucks are hot.
My weather interns and I did an experiment on a 90 degree day. We lined up two white SUVs and a black SUV in our parking lot, all facing the sun. One white SUV had a sun shield in the windshield.
We started with all trucks around 100 degrees. In each we then closed all windows but left one open 2”. We measured the back seat temperature every 5 minutes.
The black truck heated fastest and highest, reaching 135 degrees in 30 minutes. The white SUV with no sun shield hit 125 and the white SUV with sun shield hit 121.
But in the front seat, the SUV with sun shield stayed at 120. In the sunny front seats of the other two, the temperature hit 151 in the white SUV and 153 in the black SUV.
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CLAY, Alabama — A 25-year-old man shot today at a home in Clay is in critical condition at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Chief Deputy Randy Christian said deputies are looking for three males and no arrests have yet been made.
“The motive is unknown but appears to be some type of retaliation and not a random act,” Christian said in a press release.
The incident happened just after 1 p.m. when the suspects — armed with handguns — entered the victim’s home, at 5249 Baggett Drive just off Sweeney Hollow Road, and shot him one time during a struggle. The suspects then fled in the white Chevrolet Malibu they drove to the home.
Deputies were called to the home by a man who said his brother had been shot.
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 325-1450.
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Just one look at the appetizer that server Kevin Hart brings to your table as your eyes widen in disbelief tells you that Massa is no ordinary Mediterranean restaurant.
Here comes your Chorico, that flavorful spicy Portuguese sausage, wrapped neatly around a clay pig, still broiling in the flames emanating from the vodka-soaked rock at the base of the pig.
All eyes turn to your table as they gaze upon a spectacular appetizer that could (with a couple of well-chosen side dishes) easily feed a family of four!
As with all your orders, Hart (or one of his fellow servers) will explain the preparation of the dish to entice you even further. Now, this is the kind of BYOB that food lovers long for — where some rarely-seen dishes coexist nicely with more recognizable offerings with the chef’s own twist.
This was our first, but absolutely not last, encounter with one of the latest dining havens to grace Ambler’s own Restaurant Row, the lively Butler Avenue. Just steps away from Dettera and only a block or so removed from the Shanachie, From the Boot and Saffron, as well as Act II Playhouse and Ambler Theater (the popular art-house cinema), Massa gives people just one more reason to flock to the bustling borough.
Massa is the brainchild of Lorival Felix (better known, simply, as Felix), the gregarious former owner of Ricardo’s Brick Oven Pizza Café in Huntingdon Valley. When he sold his interest in the popular café two years ago, he didn’t realize how restless he’d become as a retiree.
So he asked his son, Rick (the Ricardo after whom his previous restaurant was named), if he’d like to join him in opening a restaurant together. According to Rick, who had been working in the construction business since the family sold Ricardo’s, it seemed like a great idea.
So he and his father, who had owned a construction company before opening Ricardo’s, looked around for a suitable location and found it in Ambler — next door to Dettera. The site had most recently been a newspaper and thrift shop, which the father and son completely gutted and restored to its current charm in just three-and-a-half months.
Massa, which opened quietly in April 2011, has been steadily building a loyal customer base since then. And it’s not hard to see why.
When is the last time you found one, let alone four, traditional Portuguese dishes on the menu?
Thought so.
After all, Felix and his wife, Marie, who co-owned Ricardo’s, are natives of Portugal and offered some dishes from their homeland at their previous restaurant. The Chorico ($12) I described above is one of them. Continued…
The others are the appetizer Ameijoas a Bulhao Pato ($11), a whopping dish of steamed littleneck clams and garlic in a white wine emulsion; and the entrées Carne de Porco a Alentejana ($20), an interesting mélange of pork and clams, diced potatoes and pickled vegetables; Paelha Marinheira ($26), saffron rice with shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops and lobster; and the national dish of Portugal — Bacalhau a Lagareiro ($21), a hefty plate of grilled cod, baked smashed potatoes, garlic and olive oil.
According to Rick, customers really enjoy the Portuguese dishes, which remain among the most popular on a menu that also includes some great Mediterranean favorites, with a few American-flavored dishes, which makes it hard not to find something to every diner’s liking — especially when pizzas are part of the bargain.
Massa means “dough” in Portuguese, and that’s precisely what Ricardo enjoys working with virtually every day at the new restaurant. Among the most popular pizzas created in Massa’s brick oven daily are the traditional Margherita ($11, small; $15, large), topped with plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and basil, fresh mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano and extra virgin olive oil; and the Sunrise ($12, $16.50), topped with avocado, diced tomato, fresh garlic, basil, onions, mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano and extra virgin olive oil.
Bored no more, he is proud of the work his son and their youthful executive chef have done.
Speaking of the chef, Massa has a fine one. He’s Peter Alessandrini Jr., a graduate of Philadelphia’s Restaurant School who has also worked with some of the finest chefs in the world on his way to Massa.
The South Philadelphia native recalls the fabulous home-cooked meals — from pepper steak and ravioli to meatballs — that his grandmother used to make for him and his family. Even when the family moved to South Jersey, Alessandrini used to live (and eat) with his nonna whenever he came to the city (which was frequently).
By osmosis, she taught him much about the kitchen, even though his interests lay elsewhere — in the fields of art and comic books (which he studied at the University of the Arts), and even video games and computer art.
When it became clear how difficult it might be to earn a living in those fields, the levelheaded young man read a brochure given to him by his mother (whom he said is an even better cook than his nonna) touting the advantages of attending The Restaurant School.
Something suddenly clicked. It was a combination of Alessandrini’s lifelong love of good cooking, his realization that great culinary presentations are a genuine expression of art and a mandatory study-abroad trip to France that also got his attention.
And after taking third prize in a citywide high school chocolate competition — which came with a $1,500 scholarship to The Restaurant School — he knew where his future lay.
Since then, Alessandrini has worked at the Olive Garden, the Olive Restaurant in South Jersey and, most importantly, with Chef Fritz Blank at his heralded Deux Cheminées and then in a series of posts (from chef garde manger, preparing the kitchen’s cold dishes to saucier), with Chef Jean-Marie Lacroix at the Four Seasons.
During one of his stints at the Four Seasons, Alessandrini met and fell in love with his future wife, Jaclyn, who is reprising her role as pastry chef there with the same role at Massa, baking fresh pastries for the restaurant three times a week. And living in Ambler as they do, the Alessandrinis are enjoying their focused creative life at Massa.
Felix taught his new chef the Portuguese dishes, but the rest of the menu is Alessandrini’s, with input from Felix and Rick. Continued…
Just one look at the appetizer that server Kevin Hart brings to your table as your eyes widen in disbelief tells you that Massa is no ordinary Mediterranean restaurant.
Here comes your Chorico, that flavorful spicy Portuguese sausage, wrapped neatly around a clay pig, still broiling in the flames emanating from the vodka-soaked rock at the base of the pig.
All eyes turn to your table as they gaze upon a spectacular appetizer that could (with a couple of well-chosen side dishes) easily feed a family of four!
As with all your orders, Hart (or one of his fellow servers) will explain the preparation of the dish to entice you even further. Now, this is the kind of BYOB that food lovers long for — where some rarely-seen dishes coexist nicely with more recognizable offerings with the chef’s own twist.
This was our first, but absolutely not last, encounter with one of the latest dining havens to grace Ambler’s own Restaurant Row, the lively Butler Avenue. Just steps away from Dettera and only a block or so removed from the Shanachie, From the Boot and Saffron, as well as Act II Playhouse and Ambler Theater (the popular art-house cinema), Massa gives people just one more reason to flock to the bustling borough.
Massa is the brainchild of Lorival Felix (better known, simply, as Felix), the gregarious former owner of Ricardo’s Brick Oven Pizza Café in Huntingdon Valley. When he sold his interest in the popular café two years ago, he didn’t realize how restless he’d become as a retiree.
So he asked his son, Rick (the Ricardo after whom his previous restaurant was named), if he’d like to join him in opening a restaurant together. According to Rick, who had been working in the construction business since the family sold Ricardo’s, it seemed like a great idea.
So he and his father, who had owned a construction company before opening Ricardo’s, looked around for a suitable location and found it in Ambler — next door to Dettera. The site had most recently been a newspaper and thrift shop, which the father and son completely gutted and restored to its current charm in just three-and-a-half months.
Massa, which opened quietly in April 2011, has been steadily building a loyal customer base since then. And it’s not hard to see why.
When is the last time you found one, let alone four, traditional Portuguese dishes on the menu?
Thought so.
After all, Felix and his wife, Marie, who co-owned Ricardo’s, are natives of Portugal and offered some dishes from their homeland at their previous restaurant. The Chorico ($12) I described above is one of them.
The others are the appetizer Ameijoas a Bulhao Pato ($11), a whopping dish of steamed littleneck clams and garlic in a white wine emulsion; and the entrées Carne de Porco a Alentejana ($20), an interesting mélange of pork and clams, diced potatoes and pickled vegetables; Paelha Marinheira ($26), saffron rice with shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops and lobster; and the national dish of Portugal — Bacalhau a Lagareiro ($21), a hefty plate of grilled cod, baked smashed potatoes, garlic and olive oil.
According to Rick, customers really enjoy the Portuguese dishes, which remain among the most popular on a menu that also includes some great Mediterranean favorites, with a few American-flavored dishes, which makes it hard not to find something to every diner’s liking — especially when pizzas are part of the bargain.
Massa means “dough” in Portuguese, and that’s precisely what Ricardo enjoys working with virtually every day at the new restaurant. Among the most popular pizzas created in Massa’s brick oven daily are the traditional Margherita ($11, small; $15, large), topped with plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and basil, fresh mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano and extra virgin olive oil; and the Sunrise ($12, $16.50), topped with avocado, diced tomato, fresh garlic, basil, onions, mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano and extra virgin olive oil.
Bored no more, he is proud of the work his son and their youthful executive chef have done.
Speaking of the chef, Massa has a fine one. He’s Peter Alessandrini Jr., a graduate of Philadelphia’s Restaurant School who has also worked with some of the finest chefs in the world on his way to Massa.
The South Philadelphia native recalls the fabulous home-cooked meals — from pepper steak and ravioli to meatballs — that his grandmother used to make for him and his family. Even when the family moved to South Jersey, Alessandrini used to live (and eat) with his nonna whenever he came to the city (which was frequently).
By osmosis, she taught him much about the kitchen, even though his interests lay elsewhere — in the fields of art and comic books (which he studied at the University of the Arts), and even video games and computer art.
When it became clear how difficult it might be to earn a living in those fields, the levelheaded young man read a brochure given to him by his mother (whom he said is an even better cook than his nonna) touting the advantages of attending The Restaurant School.
Something suddenly clicked. It was a combination of Alessandrini’s lifelong love of good cooking, his realization that great culinary presentations are a genuine expression of art and a mandatory study-abroad trip to France that also got his attention.
And after taking third prize in a citywide high school chocolate competition — which came with a $1,500 scholarship to The Restaurant School — he knew where his future lay.
Since then, Alessandrini has worked at the Olive Garden, the Olive Restaurant in South Jersey and, most importantly, with Chef Fritz Blank at his heralded Deux Cheminées and then in a series of posts (from chef garde manger, preparing the kitchen’s cold dishes to saucier), with Chef Jean-Marie Lacroix at the Four Seasons.
During one of his stints at the Four Seasons, Alessandrini met and fell in love with his future wife, Jaclyn, who is reprising her role as pastry chef there with the same role at Massa, baking fresh pastries for the restaurant three times a week. And living in Ambler as they do, the Alessandrinis are enjoying their focused creative life at Massa.
Felix taught his new chef the Portuguese dishes, but the rest of the menu is Alessandrini’s, with input from Felix and Rick.
Among the other appetizers are Ahi Tuna Carpaccio ($12), served with marinated avocado, jalapeno and citrus; Seared Scallops ($13) with English pea risotto and chive nage; and Prosciutto-wrapped Melon ($8).
Entrées include the likes of the signature Seared Crab Cake ($23), served with marinated tomato salad and black olive tapenade, topped with balsamic drizzle; Roasted Chicken Breast ($20), served with Alessandrini’s distinctive homemade Crisp Herb Gnocchi with summer vegetables in a sage brown butter; and another signature dish — Pappardelle Pasta ($20) served with a rich beef Bolognese and topped with shaved pecorino.
Some of Jaclyn Alessandrini’s signature desserts are Warm Chocolate Soufflé Cake served with raspberry sauce, fresh berries and vanilla ice cream, and Key Lime Tart topped with caramelized pineapple, fresh berries and a coconut macaroon cookie.
But you’d better hurry. The long restaurant, bathed in warm earth colors chosen by Felix and Rick, is filling up quickly with reservations for dinner. Be sure to call ahead, any day of the week but especially weekends, to enjoy this quickly rising restaurant before everyone else discovers the great food and service we experienced less than two weeks ago.
Massa Restaurant/Café
131-A E. Butler Ave.
Ambler, PA 19002
215-641-0900
HOURS: Lunch:
Monday – Saturday,
11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Dinner:
Monday – Thursday,
4:30 – 9:30 p.m.;
Friday & Saturday,
4:30 – 10 p.m., &
Sunday, 4:30 – 8 p.m.
Reservations recommended
during week but required
on weekends. BYOB.
All major credit cards.
Facilities for handicapped.
Available for private parties.
Entrées: $16 – $28.
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The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on Tropical Storm Cindy, which has formed in the central Atlantic.
At 4 p.m., Cindy was located near latitude 35.2 N, longitude 53.8 W and moving to the northeast near 24 mph. This track is expected to continue for the next couple of days as Cindy remains far from land over the open Atlantic.
Tropical Storm Cindy’s maximum sustained winds are near 40 mph with higher gusts. Slow strengthening is possible during the next 24 hours, but is expected to weaken as Cindy encounters colder water in the north Atlantic.
Tropical storm force winds extend 85 miles from the center. Estimated central pressure is 1009 MB or 29.80 inches. There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.
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Editor’s Note: This snippet of Civil War news from the Press-Register of 1861 was published in the 1911 newspapers to mark the 50th anniversary of the conflict. The 1861 newspapers no longer exist in local library archives. The remaining excerpts are from the original edition of the Press-Register.
• “The Texas Coast. — Accounts represent the blockaders of the Texas coast to be very busy picking up coasters. The following fleet of prize vessels were laying off Galveston in charge of their captors, all the prisoners having been sent ashore: the Shark, Anna Ryan, Falcon, George Baker, Sam Houston and Dart.”
• “Colonel W.W. Loring, late of the U.S. Mounted Rifles, and Maj. Robt. Reynolds, late Paymaster U.S.A., arrived at San Antonio from El Paso on the 1st. Col. Loring is one of the most gallant officers in the service, and has acquired reputation on the battle field. Both these officers have resigned and are on their way to join the Southern army in Virginia.”
Thursday, July 20, 1911:
• “While the number of cases (of typhoid fever) reported yesterday exceeded the totals of other days, local health officials are not alarmed at the increase. In fact, City Physician Goode stated to The Register last night that he had not been advised as to the reporting of such a number. Neither was a report of this nature made to the meeting of the committee of public health held last night. … Flies, which are strongly believed to be the cause of the prevalence of the fever, will be effectively combatted, the health officers think, when the fly ordinances of City Attorney Boone are on the statute books and rigidly enforced.”
• “Some time after 3 o’clock on Wednesday morning a wagon load of young people returning from a hay ride down the bay arrived at the central police station under arrest, ‘by orders of Chief Giblin.’ Lieutenant R.L. Dorlon, amazed when he saw the occupants of the wagon, refused to put their names on the police docket. … the vehicle was again stopped a few blocks from the station by two mounted officers. … When the officers saw that the party was composed for the most part of children, they refused to arrest them…
“The party of young people … stopped at the residence of Mr. T.C. Bailey, 410 Augusta street, to put down two of the party, there were the usual ‘goodnights’ and the general merriment. … Chief Giblin resides two doors from the Bailey residence, and it appears that his slumbers were disturbed.”
The chief and residents of some forty blocks, also disturbed, called the police, who sent out “a general alarm.”
Again, on Government Street, the wagon was stopped, and the children taken to the police station, some of them asleep. Parents of the children complained to the mayor and the whole matter was referred to the police commissioner.
Monday, July 20, 1936:
• “A case of pneumonia left five-year-old Catherine Lee Hunter in a weakened condition last winter, and an operation for tonsilitis had further taxed her strength. In consequence, the doctor recommended that she be taken to a warmer climate, where the dangers of a relapse were lessened.
“Complying with these orders, Mrs. Bertha Hunter, her mother, decided to take the little girl to the Grand Cayman Islands, where she might recuperate and at the same time Mrs. Hunter would be able to visit relatives. …
“Today Mrs. Hunter and Catherine Lee, wife and daughter of Elford Lee Hunter … are among the passengers who are missing on the Numoca, British ship.”
• “Four Mobilians were rescued from their drifting and half-filled skiff two miles off shore at Cedar Point late Saturday by another party of five residents of the city. … Those rescued were: Samuel Demeranville, … Maynard Swinson, … Marshall Demeranville and Billy Swinson…
“The rescue party included W.C. Singleton … W.C. Moyers, … C.M. Griffin, … W.E. Bradley, … and Francis Terrell.” • “Proposing that Mobile take the lead in a great national movement, the Rev. Irwin St. John Tucker, pastor of St. Stephen’s Church, Chicago, and assistant news editor of the Chicago Herald and Examiner, yesterday urged the establishment by the city of Mobile of an annual Citizenship Day.
“He made the suggestion in the course of a sermon at St. John’s Church, of which his father, the Rev. Gardiner C. Tucker, has been rector for more than 50 years.
“The Chicago pastor is spending his vacation at the home of his parents here.”
Thursday, July 20, 1961:
• Among the housewares on sale at Gayfer’s, Downtown and Springdale Plaza: Individual hand garden tools, trowel, transplanter, cultivator, fork, formerly 25 cents each, 6 for $1.00; Sunbeam kitchen clocks in red, white, yellow, pink, turquoise, formerly $8.98; King-size serving trays with brass handles, Tole Rose or Modern Fruit patterns, formerly $1.00 66 cents; Rubbermaid dish pans, in red, white or yellow, formerly $1.98, $1.59; famous Wham-O ‘Slip ‘n Slide,’ giant 30 feet long by 40 inches wide, for summer fun, formerly $9.98, $6.97.
_____
Compiled by Cammie East Cowan
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WASHINGTON — New manufactured homes would come with weather alert radios under legislation approved today by a congressional committee.
The proposal, from U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, had bipartisan support and now goes to the House floor, where it has been well-received in years past but never advanced in the Senate.
The April 27 tornado outbreak in Alabama where 244 people died may give the proposal new momentum.
The House Financial Services Committee, where Bachus is chairman, approved it unanimously this morning after he reminded them that 100 people in his district died that day, although the deaths came in all types of homes, including site-built.
Bachus’ committee has jurisdiction over safety issues in manufactured housing.
“They are essentially safe but their greatest vulnerability today in the South is the tornado,” Bachus said before the vote.
Cost estimates for including the NOAA radios in the mobile homes ranged from $11 per radio to $45, Bachus said, but he considered the cost insignificant compared to the lives that could be saved by giving people enough warning to seek shelter.
The manufactured housing industry has disagreed with being singled out for the radio requirement. But Bachus said today that there was no overt opposition to his legislation, and he said he hoped local or state governments might be inspired to consider altering their local building codes to require the alert radios.
More than 20 million Americans live in manufactured homes. Especially for violent weather approaching at night, the weather alert radios could give residents enough time to leave their home and find a sturdier place such as a community shelter or home with a basement or safe room. Bachus likened the radios to smoke detectors or seat belts.
“I think it would undoubtedly save lives,” he said.
Democrats on the panel also endorsed the bill.
“We should do as much as we can to make sure they are safe as they can be,” said Rep. Al Green, D-Texas.
The legislation is based on a state law in Indiana named for a 2-year-old boy killed in a tornado in 2005.
U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, and Mike Rogers, R-Saks, are cosponsors of the legislation.
The law would not make the manufacturers or the employees of a mobile home community liable if the radios malfunction, but they are supposed to advise residents to regularly change the batteries.
The NOAA weather radio is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from a nearby office of the National Weather Service.
Bachus’ bill was endorsed by Clear Channel Radio and the National Association of Broadcasters.
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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – An enemy on the ground shoulders a small but sophisticated missile system and fires at a U.S. Army helicopter overhead.
In the cockpit, electronics detect the launch and a laser is emitted from the copter to confuse the missile’s infrared guidance sensors, causing it to miss the target – all in seconds, without action being taken by the pilot.
This technology is already in use, but the lasers, pointers, trackers and other equipment have been too big and heavy for efficient use on smaller aircraft. Now, a number of manufacturers have responded to an Army request for proposals to make an improved, lighter Common Infrared Countermeasure, or CIRCM, system that could be installed on every Army and Navy helicopter.
There is an immediate need for the system, and the Army wants to move quickly, said Mike Booen, vice president of Advance Security and Directed Energy Systems for Raytheon. His company’s bid to be prime contractor for CIRCM combines the seeker technology used in some of Raytheon’s missiles with the latest quantum cascade laser systems by Northrop Grumman.
Booen and Gordon Stewart, vice president of Northrop Grumman’s Targeting Systems Division, pointed out some features of their CIRCM solution during a recent visit to Huntsville, where the Army’s Aircraft Survivability Equipment office on Redstone Arsenal will be evaluating the proposals. Booen said that this fall the Army is to pick two contractors for a 21-month technology development and demonstration phase. One of those two will then be chosen to produce CIRCM units for the Army and Navy.
Most helicopters already are equipped with a Common Missile Warning System, which will integrate with CIRCM and cue it where to look first, Booen said. The current warning system is linked to the release of flares and chaff, which will still be used against certain threats.
CIRCM adds a speed-of-light defense against the more complex missile threats, he said. And, of course, unlike chaff and flares, it won’t need to be reloaded before a flight.
“This is essentially an infrared air-to-air missile seeker,” Booen said, pointing to the nose of their CIRCM unit. “Now, it’s looking for the infrared signature of a hostile missile coming at a helicopter. …
“We build shoulder-fired missiles right in Tucson,” he said, and they know what makes them work – and not work.
Raytheon has produced more than 4,000 of the seekers, he said, and “it gives us a kind of unique position to determine how to do this.”
Stewart held a nondescript green box that contained Northrop Grumman’s laser. Fiber optics connects it to the Raytheon “jam head,” allowing for great flexibility on how it is installed aboard a variety of aircraft.
Northrop Grumman has produced more than 2,000 Viper lasers now used aboard larger Air Force and Navy aircraft, Stewart said. The company can apply the same equipment, processes, resources and capability to this quantum cascade ASALTT – All Semiconductor Airborne Laser Threat Terminator – laser used in CIRCM.
Because Raytheon and Northrop Grumman already have production lines for the basic components of their CIRCM system running, there’s no mystery about weight and cost, Booen said. Reliability, support and cost of ownership data is also available.
It also means they can start producing CIRCM units quickly, Stewart said. Northrop Grumman has produced lasers at its plant in Apopka, Fla., near Orlando, for more than 25 years.
“We get to use the same equipment we’re already using. We don’t require a significant amount of funding to create that capacity,” he said.
The companies also believe that means they can produce the units for less cost. Booen and Stewart declined to discuss the value of the contract or price per CIRCM unit because that’s part of their proposal and they don’t want to be at a competitive disadvantage.
Radiance Technologies in Huntsville is also part of the Raytheon proposal, providing logistics and mission support.
Other companies competing for the CIRCM work include Lockheed Martin, ITT and BAE Systems. In a news release, ITT said its solution for CIRCM also includes laser communications and some small arms fire countermeasures.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — On the eve of NASA’s historic, wheel-stopping end to the shuttle program, the four astronauts making the final journey and the flight controllers who will guide them home said today they’re starting to feel a rush of emotions.
“You know what? I really do feel like it’s coming near the end,” said the commander of the homeward-bound space shuttle Atlantis, Christopher Ferguson.
“It’s going to be tough,” Ferguson said in a series of TV interviews 24 hours before Thursday’s planned touchdown. “It’s going to be an emotional moment for a lot of people who have dedicated their lives to the shuttle program for 30 years. But we’re going to try to keep it upbeat.”
Flight director Tony Ceccacci, who will preside over Atlantis’ return to Earth, refrained from publicly sharing his sentiments — until Wednesday.
“You guys must know that we do have a motto in the Mission Control Center that flight controllers don’t cry,” Ceccacci told reporters. “So we’re going to make sure we keep that.”
Among the shuttle highlights noted Wednesday: the 180 satellites and other spacecraft deployed by the entire fleet and the construction of the International Space Station, a nearly 1 million-pound science outpost that took 12½ years and 37 shuttle flights to build.
Atlantis and its four-member crew departed the space station Tuesday, after restocking it with a year’s worth of supplies.
The very last satellite to be released from a space shuttle popped out of a can Wednesday: a little 8-pound box covered with experimental solar cells.
As soon as the mini-satellite was on its way, astronaut Rex Walheim read a poem that he wrote to mark the occasion. It was the first of many tributes planned over the next few days; on Wednesday evening, the Empire State Building in New York was going to light up in red, white and blue in honor of the space shuttle program.
Walheim read: “One more satellite takes its place in the sky, / the last of many that the shuttle let fly. / Magellan, Galileo, Hubble and more / have sailed beyond her payload bay doors. / They’ve filled science books and still more to come. / The shuttle’s legacy will live on when her flying is done.”
Flight controllers applauded back in Houston.
On this last full day of this last mission, Ferguson told the controllers, “I’d love to have each and every one of you to stand up and take a bow, a round of applause. Then there would be no one to applaud and there would be nobody watching the vehicle … but believe me, our hearts go out to you.”
Ferguson and his crew checked their critical flight systems for Thursday’s planned 5:56 a.m. landing at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, not quite an hour before sunrise. Everything worked perfectly. Excellent weather was forecast to wind up the 135th flight of the space shuttle era.
Space station astronaut Michael Fossum posted on Twitter a photo of the shuttle docked to the station 250 miles above the blue planet, which he snapped during last week’s spacewalk. He noted in the tweet: “When will such beautiful ship dock again to ISS?”
NASA already is shifting gears.
It’s working with private companies eager to take over cargo runs and astronaut flights to the space station. The first supply trip is expected to take place by the end of this year. Astronaut trips will take more time to put together, at least three to five years.
The long-term destination is true outer space: sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars the following decade. That’s the plan put forth by President Barack Obama. His predecessor wanted moon as the prize.
Throughout their 13-day mission and again Wednesday, the Atlantis astronauts stressed the need for a decades-long space exploration plan that does not change with each incoming president.
Ceccacci, whose Mission Control experience dates back to the first shuttle flight in 1981, said it’s “tough” to think about all the experience that will be walking out the door following this mission. Thousands of layoffs are looming at the various NASA centers; about 2,000 shuttle workers at Kennedy alone will get pink slips starting Friday. That’s on top of massive cutbacks already made.
“We know there’s going to be a rough spot for a while,” Ceccacci said. “But we hope that when we do get a good plan, a good direction, a good mission, that we can come back in here and do what we’ve been doing for the past 30 years for the shuttle and the years before that with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.”
Ceccacci plans to read a speech to his Houston flight control team, once Atlantis and its crew are safely back on Earth, but there will be none of the flag-waving, cigar-smoking celebrations seen during the moon-landing days. Smoking is no longer permitted in the control center, he reminded journalists.
Rather, Ceccacci said he will gather flight controllers around to watch Ferguson, co-pilot Douglas Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus walk around the last shuttle one last time on the runway — so the controllers can “soak it in … and congratulate each other on a job well done.”
Atlantis is the last of the shuttles to be retired. It will remain at Kennedy Space Center, eventually going on public display at the visitors complex. Discovery is bound for the Smithsonian Institution in suburban Washington, and Endeavour for the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
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DAPHNE, Alabama — The Lake Forest Property Owners Association’s board of directors is expected to discuss a few proposed bylaws changes Thursday evening, including a measure that could result in a two-year hiatus from board elections.
The proposed revision would lengthen the terms served by board members from three to five years. It would also revoke the requirement that each outgoing board member must wait one year before running again.
“The first time I got elected, it took me three years to feel like I knew enough to even speak up during meetings,” Ed Kirby, assistant vice president of the nine-member board, said Tuesday. “The current bylaws waste so much time, knowledge and experience.”
The new five-year term length would be phased in by giving the three board members whose terms are set to expire this fall — as well as the three whose terms expire next fall — the option of staying on for another two years, Kirby said.
If all six members whose terms are set to expire in the next two years choose to serve the full five years, there would be no board elections until 2013, he said.
Another proposed change would move the organization’s annual board elections from October to March.
The Lake Forest Property Owners Association operates on a calendar year, not a fiscal year. So, as things stand, the newly elected board every year must immediately hammer out the next year’s budget. Pushing elections to March would remove that pressure from new board members, Kirby said.
The board has been discussing the bylaws changes for many months, and is expected to finalize the language of those changes during its 7 p.m. meeting Thursday at the 19th Hole restaurant, beside the spot where the Lake Forest clubhouse was torn down last year.
If the final language is adopted Thursday, then the proposed bylaws changes would be posted on the Lake Forest POA website for 30 days. During that time, all Lake Forest resident would be free to review them and make comments.
A vote for final adoption would take place at the board’s August meeting. No annual due increase or fees increases are expected to be proposed, board officials said.
Eight months ago, the board of directors hired the Fort Myers, Fla.-based management company Vision Golf & Association Management to run all of the association’s facilities for the next five years at a cost of $225,000 annually.
Vision Golf, formerly S&S Golf Management Inc., took over Oct. 1. Since then, the company has spent $117,000 in capital improvements yet is operating on a balanced budget for the first time in several years, association officials said.
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