A former punk enthusiast and son of a Stockton electrician has been named as the new controller of BBC Radio 3.

Alan Davey, the chief executive of the Arts Council, succeeds Roger Wright, who left the BBC this year after 15 years in charge of Radio 3.

Billingham-born Mr Davey, a former director of arts and culture at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, is a passionate advocate of the arts.

He is expected to earn less than the 227,000 of his predecessor Wright, although exact details of his salary will not be confirmed until after he has started the job.

However, it will still be a substantial pay increase for Mr Davey, who is thought to have earned between 110,000 and 120,000 at the Arts Council where he has been chief exec since 2007.

Unlike Wright, Mr Davey will not be directly in charge of the Proms, with a director of the eight-week summer season of concerts, who will report into the new Radio 3 controller, due to be appointed.

Said Mr Davey: Radio 3, the BBC Performing Groups and the Proms together form one of our most important cultural institutions and a beacon of excellence, there to help everyone discover the best in music, arts and ideas.

It is an honour to be asked to lead this wonderful institution and to renew it for the digital age, helping new audiences to encounter the wonderful things serious music and culture can bring.

Mr Davey grew up in Stockton and his father William was an electrician at ICI.

A music nut, his passion for arts and culture started as a child visiting pantomimes at Stocktons Hippodrome and at Billingham Forum.

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Alan Davey: Former punk fan from Billingham named as new controller of BBC Radio 3

September 27, 2014 12:00 AM Share with others:

By Andrew Goldstein / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny General Hospital on Monday will be opening a new epilepsy monitoring unit that offers a new design that aims to provide quicker and more efficient care.

We [used to] use regular rooms on the floor, but we had to have a sitter with the patient so somebody was right there with them in case they had a seizure, and the nurses were scattered around the floor and they might not get there for 30 seconds or longer, said Jack Wilberger, co-director of the epilepsy program. So its a much safer situation.

The layout of the four-bed unit allows nurses and technical assistants to keep constant watch over epilepsy patients and immediately assist them in case of seizures or other problems patients may encounter.

Doctors are hoping the new space will decrease wait times for epilepsy patients to receive treatment.

Epilepsy is a brain disorder that causes people to have recurring seizures that happen when clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain send out the wrong signals. People may have strange sensations or behave strangely, and they may have violent muscle spasms or lose consciousness.

Each patient room is equipped with video EEG (electroencephalography) technology allowing physicians to simultaneously record the patients behavior and electrical activity along the scalp. The rooms are also fitted with infrared cameras that can follow patients if they get out of bed and move around the room.

I can actually get a live feed at home on my computer and I can actually move the camera from home, said James Valeriano, chairman of the epilepsy program.

Allegheny General Hospital earned Level 4 distinction from the National Association of Epilepsy Center, the highest level the center gives.

Excerpt from:
Allegheny General Hospital debuts high-level epilepsy unit

NRL star Sione Faumuina has left behind his days on the football field to start up his own business by officially opening the Springfield Serviced Laundromat.

The former Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors player said the business idea came to him after his own washing machine called it quits.

"When my washing machine broke, I couldn't believe the nearest Laundromat was in Redbank," he said.

"It was at least a 20 minute drive, and it was always busy.

"But as fate would have it, when I was driving back from the Redbank Laundromat one day, I saw some empty shops in Springfield and started researching what it would take to open one up here."

After months of research and finding the perfect location, Mr Faumuina said he was proud and excited to see his new store open to the public.

His Laundromat features six nine kilo front loader washing machines, one 18 kilo washing machine and three 13 kilo double stack driers.

"Being Springfield's first laundromat, I wanted it to stand out," Mr Faumuina said.

Working as an electrician in Gladstone, Mr Faumuina said his partner would operate the business while he was away, but he would take the reins when he came back to Ipswich.

"Ipswich is a great area and I am very proud to call it home," he said.

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NRL star's dirty business

Sept. 26, 2014, 4 a.m.

A RALLY will be held in Hamilton today as the national campaign to retain the federal renewable energy target (RET) gathers momentum.

A RALLY will be held in Hamilton today as the national campaign to retain the federal renewable energy target (RET) gathers momentum.

Portland wind turbine tower manufacturer Keppel Prince believes the campaign is making headway and the RET will be retained in some form.

Keppel Prince general manager Steve Garner said he had taken heart from media reports that federal industry minister Ian Farlane was willing to negotiate with Labor for a RET but at a lower target.

I am cautiously optimistic based on minister McFarlanes comments so far, Mr Garner said.

He said between 100-130 jobs at Keppel Prince were at risk if the RET was scrapped. Concerns about the future of the RET escalated last month after a report to the federal government recommended the target be abolished. Keppel Prince workers will be among those at todays midday rally in front of the Hamilton Performing Arts Centre.

Also taking part will be Merino electrician Ricky Lane, who said scrapping the RET would force him to drastically reduce the hours of an employee who works in renewable energy.

Mr Lane said solar energy had brought jobs and investment to the south-west and the government should be getting behind it, not trying to shut it down.

Todays rally has been organised by an alliance involving Solar Citizens, the Clean Energy Council, Australian Solar Council, the Solar Energy Industries Association and the Australian Wind Alliance.

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Supporters rally for the RET in Hamilton

You know things are bad in Ukraine when even people who risk radiation poisoning for a living decide the countrys too depressing to live in anymore.

For most of their adult lives, Andrey and Marina Komelkov were happy working in the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation because their jobs at the nuclear cleanup site paid well. But then the war with pro-Russian separatists started hundreds of miles to the east and they became convinced the countrys corruption-fed cycle of economic and political crises will never end.

So, determined to give their daughter a better life, they piled into their battered Russian-made minivan last month and moved to the dictatorship across the border: Belarus, said Andrey, 39. If the couple feels at home in their new village, thats because it was built, like their previous apartment in Ukraine, just outside the Chernobyl radiation zone to relocate residents of the region after the reactor meltdown in 1986.

We really like the stability in Belarus, Andrey said in an interview in Masty, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Belaruss capital Minsk and 300 kilometers north of the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Some people call President Lukashenko a dictator, but how would he manage people without being one? said Andrey, who was born in Russia and blames anti-government protesters in Kiev for unleashing the latest round of chaos.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, center, gestures next to Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko as they meet in Minsk on Aug. 26. Lukashenko, in power more than 20 years and shunned by the U.S. and the European Union, is seeking to position himself as regional peace broker to help end the worst standoff between Russia and its former Cold War foes in decades. Close

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, center, gestures next to Russia's President... Read More

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Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, center, gestures next to Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko as they meet in Minsk on Aug. 26. Lukashenko, in power more than 20 years and shunned by the U.S. and the European Union, is seeking to position himself as regional peace broker to help end the worst standoff between Russia and its former Cold War foes in decades.

Lukashenko, in power more than 20 years and shunned by the U.S. and the European Union, is positioning himself as a peace broker to help end the worst standoff between Russia and its former Cold War foes in decades. Hes hosted talks between the belligerents in Ukraine twice this month, including the one in Minsk that led to a cease-fire on Sept. 5.

Officials in Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, say more than 3,000 Ukrainians have arrived since Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in March and Lukashenko, 60, said his brotherly arms are open to fellow Slavs seeking to escape the ensuing war. The conflict has claimed more than 3,500 lives and driven what the United Nations says is at least 615,000 people from their homes, about 340,000 of whom have fled the country, mostly to nearby Russia.

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Chernobyl Haven Lures War-Worn Ukrainians to Dictatorship

MELBOURNE: A terror suspect shot dead by Australian police after stabbing two officers in a frenzied knife attack may not have been acting alone, officials said Thursday, escalating concerns about the threat posed by radicalised youth.

Abdul Numan Haider, 18, was killed on Tuesday evening on the outskirts of Melbourne, a day after the Islamic State group called for Muslims to indiscriminately kill Australians.

The teenager, described by the government as a known terror suspect who had his passport cancelled for security reasons, launched an unprovoked attack on the policemen outside their station after arriving for a routine interview.

One of them fired a single shot that killed him.

Police on Wednesday said they believed he was acting alone but Victoria state police chief Ken Lay admitted they were now looking into reports that Haider was talking to other people in the lead-up to the attack.

There is some information that he was certainly talking to other people around the time that he came to the police station, he told ABC radio.

(They) may well have known him. I wont say working with him, but its just a little unclear to us at the moment whether there was actually people at the police station with him.

He said police were examining whether someone may have been waiting for him.

It may be a little way down the track before we can actually lay it out to the community exactly what happened that night, Lay added.

Originally posted here:
Australia terror suspect may not have been acting alone

Simon Walker, the Director General of the IoD said: "This was an opportunity for Ed Miliband to demonstrate that he is on the side of Britain's small businesses, entrepreneurs and wealth creators. It was an opportunity to show that his party understands and values the role that British business plays in creating jobs, driving prosperity and supporting communities.

"Unfortunately, the only reference to business was a caricatured broadside against corporate failures, which is in fact a million miles away from the risk, sacrifice and hard work of the small and medium sized businesses that account for 99% of all companies in this country and 60% of private sector jobs.

There are many within the Labour party who fully grasp that SMEs are Britains job-creators, but their voice was drowned out in their leaders speech."

16.55: The Lib Dems, with a nod to this week's 20th anniversary of Friends, has branded Mr Miliband

It was, they say, "the one where Gareth stole the show"

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat Party President, said: The country needs a bold roadmap for the future and all we got was a wayward ramble around a north London park.

With every new announcement we are reminded why we cannot trust Labour with our money.

In an hour-long speech, Miliband offered no ideas on how to tackle the deficit.

Promises go underfunded, uncosted or use money thats been spent many times over.

We are still waiting to hear Labours big ideas, still wondering if the party that crashed the economy can be trusted to get back behind the wheel.

Excerpt from:
Ed Miliband speech as it happened

Simon Walker, the Director General of the IoD said: "This was an opportunity for Ed Miliband to demonstrate that he is on the side of Britain's small businesses, entrepreneurs and wealth creators. It was an opportunity to show that his party understands and values the role that British business plays in creating jobs, driving prosperity and supporting communities.

"Unfortunately, the only reference to business was a caricatured broadside against corporate failures, which is in fact a million miles away from the risk, sacrifice and hard work of the small and medium sized businesses that account for 99% of all companies in this country and 60% of private sector jobs.

There are many within the Labour party who fully grasp that SMEs are Britains job-creators, but their voice was drowned out in their leaders speech."

16.55: The Lib Dems, with a nod to this week's 20th anniversary of Friends, has branded Mr Miliband

It was, they say, "the one where Gareth stole the show"

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat Party President, said: The country needs a bold roadmap for the future and all we got was a wayward ramble around a north London park.

With every new announcement we are reminded why we cannot trust Labour with our money.

In an hour-long speech, Miliband offered no ideas on how to tackle the deficit.

Promises go underfunded, uncosted or use money thats been spent many times over.

We are still waiting to hear Labours big ideas, still wondering if the party that crashed the economy can be trusted to get back behind the wheel.

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Ed Miliband speech live

Labour leader littered his speech with stories about ordinary people He returned again and again to 'Gareth' a Cambridge-educated IT worker But Mr Miliband's rhetorical trick ended up with Gareth trending on Twitter

By Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline and John Stevens for the Daily Mail

Published: 11:17 EST, 23 September 2014 | Updated: 17:13 EST, 23 September 2014

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They were supposed to be the eight ordinary voters whose stories of struggle inspired Ed Miliband in his fight against the Tories.

But four of those featured in his speech met Mr Miliband on Hampstead Heath, less than a mile from his 2.6million home.

The Labour leader referenced one of them a software developer called Gareth Edwards so often that his first name started to trend on Twitter. And last night the 36-year-old turned out to be a former Lib Dem supporter.

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How 'Gareth' the IT man from Kentish Town upstaged Ed Miliband

PUT V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup in a race car and he's in total control, but give him a garden tool and he's, well, like you and me.

Whincup was the special guest yesterday at the official opening of the Bunnings Warehouse West Ipswich.

He was interviewed by one of the Bunnings staff and had everyone in stitches as he described his DIY misadventures.

"Dad had a big garage, absolutely every tool in the box and he taught me you've got to do it yourself," he said.

"Basically I'm too tight to pay someone to do the job so I'll come in here, buy the tools and go home and try to do it myself.

"Generally my issues are electrical. The air-conditioner broke down the other day and I thought I'd fix it.

"I opened up the front of it and there's a big sticker across it, 'If you're not an electrician, don't go any further', so what do you do - you unscrew it. Anyway, I touched the wrong part and got a decent zap. I've had the hedge trimmer though the lead - that's always good; everyone's done that, haven't they?"

Whincup opened the new Bunnings with complex manager Roy Ram and Bunnings chief operating officer Peter Davis.

Mr Davis said it was the 39th in Queensland and the first of three new Bunnings stores in Ipswich.

"Springfield will open in the next 12 months and that's an investment of some $38 million; Bundamba in the next 12 months is $46 million and that will bring our total investment in Ipswich over two years to $131 million," Mr Davis said.

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Mister Fix-it opens up