Ankeny, Iowa Rock Creek Elementary school in Ankeny is the districts newest addition. Roughly 600 students, pre kindergarten through 5th grade attend the districts 10th elementary school.

The school is located on the northwest side of town and is named after the nearby Rock Creek tributary where a one room school house sat in the late 1800s.

The district has come a long way since one room school houses. School leaders built the elementary school large enough to allow room for growth but they say that might not be enough.

We do have a lot of students but we have a little room to grow over the next few years before the school district starts thinking about their 11th elementary school as well, says Rock Creek Principal, Al Neppl.

The district anticipates building the 11th elementary school within the next two years.

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Ankeny Celebrates 10th Elementary School

Sections of the Goergen Athletic Center (GAC) are closed this month for renovations to the upstairs weight room. The Fitness Center Improvement Project is scheduled to take place from Sept. 8 to Sept. 22 and will involve UR Facilities workers installing a new floor in the Bloch Fitness Center.

It became necessary to repair cracks in the concrete underneath the Fitness Center in the fall of 2013. A flyer available at the GAC front desk states that the damage was caused by a combination of an 80-year-old ceiling with large aggregate in the concrete, steam from the showers, and wear and tear from usage above the locker room ceilings, i.e. people dropping weights. The mens and womens locker rooms in the GAC are located directly beneath the Fitness Center.

GAC Associate Director Kristine Shanley said that the damage had become more obvious last fall when large pieces of concrete started falling from the locker room ceiling. A light fixture previously anchored in the ceiling had also fallen down. As a result, repairs to the concrete were made this past spring. Shanley said of the repairs, [UR Facilities] tapped out all of the loose pieces, patched it, and painted it overnight so we didnt have to close the locker rooms.

This falls renovations have been in the planning stages since last November. When asked why the gym couldnt have been renovated over the summer, Shanley explained that it took a long time to plan the project, design the new layout, organize the necessary funds, and have the new composite floor sections manufactured.

A new, thicker composite floor is being installed on top of the old one. Assistant Director of Facilities Operations Barry McHugh said that this will help pad the concrete under the weight room, an important consideration in a second-story gym. McHugh stated that the new floor weighs 36,000 pounds in total, so it will have to be installed in sections, but that he hopes to be finished before the projected completion date of Sept 22.

In the meantime, the gym closure has displaced some student athletes. Sophomore softball player and GAC employee Ix Chel Mendieta de la Torre said, For practice, we cant do lift, which is a part of our schedule. Mendieta de la Torre explained that she and the other members of the softball team have had to change their workout schedule while the gym is closed, focusing on cardio and body weight exercises instead of weight lifting.

Other teams who use the weight rooms will be affected as well, even those who use the adjacent varsity weight room instead of the Fitness Center. Although no renovations are being made to the varsity weight room, it will be rendered inaccessible by the closure of the Fitness Center.

This is a disruption, no doubt about it, Shanley said, but added that she has tried to help athletes work around the gyms hiatus. One of the things I tried to do was get out and talk to students whom I know [...] get out to our coaches and [...] explain what was happening.

Mendieta de la Torre said that as a student employee of the GAC, she has encountered some negative feedback about the project from gym patrons. Most are upset that the weight room will be closed, she said, but [she thinks] theyll be happy once its renovated.

The layout of the Fitness Center was changed once before, in November 2013, to alleviate the damage caused by dropping weights. Those changes included the addition of a core and stretching area, as well as the removal of some of the dumbbells and barbell racks. When the renovations are completed later this month, those items will be returned to the weight room, in addition to some new equipment.

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Gym closure displaces frequent visitors

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Robarge Room Addition - 2-story, 1500 s.f. - Video

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Another craft brewery tasting room opens in Torrance as The Dudes Brewing unveils a 13-tap bar with a weekend-long celebration.

The Dudes Brewing opened in 2013 and pint cans of the pungent Double Trunk Imperial IPA and nutty Grandmas Pecan brown ale rolled off the automated canning line and into major retailers across the Southland. But until now, the brewerys fans have had no place to belly-up to sample all of The Dudes brews in one spot. The self-professed "slackers" are "finally getting their act together" with the grand opening of the on-site tasting room Friday at 3 p.m.

In addition to the widespread canned offerings (Kolschtal Eddy is the third canned beer to be released by the brewery) and the draft-only brews, such as the Juicebox series of seasonal beers and the Southbay Session pale ale, the tasting room will feature one-off and experimental brews made on the brewerys pilot brewhouse. The grand opening will also serve as the premiere of a new IPA from the brewers known for their flavorful (and often high-test) beers.

The South Bay has grown into a hotbed of craft brewing in Los Angeles, and the opening of The Dudes tasting room is another stop on an already lengthy South Bay craft brew crawl that includes Smog City Brewery, Monkish Brewing, King Harbor Brewery and nearby Timeless Pints all providing craft ales to thirsty fans across L.A.

The opening weekend celebration runs through 10 p.m. Friday and from noon until 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and the brewery will offer cans and growlers to take home.

1840 W. 208th St., Torrance, (805) 660-5600,www.thedudesbrew.com.

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The Dudes' Brewing opens tasting room in Torrance

Us painting a $400,000 6-room addition with cathedral ceiling

By: Charles Graves

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Us painting a $400,000 6-room addition with cathedral ceiling - Video

ALBANY, N.Y. Twenty stories above ground zero, its existence and whereabouts known only to those who needed it, the Family Room served for a dozen years as a most private sanctuary from a most public horror.

It was spartan office space at a 54-story tower at 1 Liberty Plaza for families to be by themselves, a temporary haven where they could find respite from bad weather and the curious stares of passers-by. Piece by piece, without any planning, it was transformed into an elaborate shrine known only to them.

Unconstrained and undesigned, a profusion of intimate expressions of love and loss filled the walls of the room, the tabletops, the floors and, even, the windows, obscuring views of the World Trade Center site below, as if to say: Jim and John and Jonathan and Harvey and Gary and Jean and Welles and Isaias and Katherine and Christian and Judy are all here, with us, not down there in the ruins.

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What tower? What floor? That was the way other people saw our loved ones, said Nikki Stern, whose husband, James E. Potorti, was among those killed on Sept. 11, 2001. It was adamantly not how we wanted to define our loved ones. The Family Room was the beginning of the storytelling that was controlled by the families.

And it was that rare thing at ground zero, a secret refuge hidden in plain sight of the workers, shoppers, neighbors and visitors who streamed past the building every day. It was not meant to be a public memorial and was little known until today.

This week, 150 miles north of ground zero, the Family Room with its thousand stories of love and loss has opened to the public for the first time, in an exhibition at the New York State Museum in Albany. The display speaks of the personal communion between the victims relatives and those who were killed 13 years ago, when terrorists took down the twin towers.

The Family Room opened in April 2002 in space donated by Brookfield Office Properties, the owners of 1 Liberty Plaza, across Church Street from the trade center site. By presenting what was known as a medical examiners family identification card, victims relatives were admitted during regular workdays and at night, on weekends and on holidays.

On the 20th floor, behind a door marked The Family Room, relatives could settle into ample leather couches or stand at windows 15 and 20 feet wide. The room was intended for quiet contemplation, said a 2002 notice from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which created and maintained the space, just a few doors down from its own headquarters and those of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center Foundation.

A childrens play area was provided, as were boxes of tissues. Photos, poems, cards, artwork and personal effects from the first family viewing area, an outdoor platform at Liberty and West Streets, were brought indoors.

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A Ground Zero Shrine for 9/11 Families Brings Forth Its Stories

By Ian Bauer, Milpitas Post

Bay 101 Casino, the San Jose card room that sought to relocate to neighboring Milpitas but saw state-level lawmakers fail to advance that plan last month, will attempt to reenergize efforts to make the move. This time around, the gambling operator wants Milpitas voters to plead its case in November by passing Measure E, which calls for a card room here and paves the way for new legislation to be advanced in Sacramento.

"We are fully engaged," said Ed McGovern, a lobbyist for Bay 101, now promoting Measure E. "All of the traditional types of activities you do for an election year campaign we're doing."

The "Yes on E" campaign, financed by Bay 101 owners the Bumb Family and in part guided by former Milpitas mayor Bob Livengood, who is a paid consultant to that family, includes canvassing the city, knocking on doors, creating lawn signs, gaining critical endorsements including ones from public safety unions, phone banking, conducting a survey of voters, and holding a rally Saturday.

"We don't need Sacramento legislation to let the voters approve Measure E," McGovern said.

The lobbyist alluded to the Aug. 30 non-vote that killed Assembly Bill 2549, which would have allowed the card room at San Jose's 1801 Bering Drive to potentially relocate to 15 acres on the western edge of the city near North McCarthy Boulevard and generally between state Route 237 and the Newby Island landfill, west of Interstate 880.

If Measure E is passed by a simple majority of voters, McGovern said City of Milpitas will have additional arguments to make to state lawmakers to push forward with re-introducing a new bill in the Assembly by December. He added Bay 101's Sacramento team -- led by lobbyist David Kim -- will chart its course depending on how the vote goes.

"We're not just waiting, we're obviously engaged in the campaign," McGovern said.

Bay 101 says City of San Jose's high cost of taxation -- with at least $7 million in table tax revenues from the operator going to that city annually -- and limits on the number of card room tables gambling operators can utilize there in part prompted the desire to move.

According to city reports, a one-time election cost per the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters to place Measure E on the Nov. 4, 2014 election ballot is estimated to be $274,000. Bay 101 is expected to pay for the cost of the ballot measure.

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Measure E supporters campaign for card room in Milpitas

If the Sri Krishna Sweets store on Venkatanarayana Road in T. Nagar is abuzz with activity, the tiny office at the back is quiet except for managing director M. Muralis voice giving orders. The room is painted white, making it seem smaller than it already is and in it sits Murali clad in a white shirt. The garlanded pictures of gods that adorn the walls lend a little colour to the room.

The soft-spoken Murali recalls the opening of his first shop in Chennai in 1996: There was a steady crowd from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in front of the shop; it gave me a lot of energy, confidence and faith that made me realise that I can turn my dreams into reality. And they have indeed, with 42 outlets in the city that include restaurants specialising in South Indian cuisine.

You walk into a fast food outlet and you just pick up a pizza or a packet of French fries or a burger, you hardly give food like kozhukattai or the boli a thought. What weve done is give these a twist. For example, the Bolizza is our take on the pizza and has both sweet and spicy versions, he explains. Simply put, Murali says, weve taken their concept and incorporated our culture. They also plan to offer bondas and kara appams as alternatives to French fries, and mor kali instead of pastries. According to Murali, their idea is to show that Indian foods can also be suited to fast living and that the notion of fast food merely indicates the time it takes to prepare and not the origin of the food itself.

Speaking about appealing to youngsters, Muralis face lights up when he talks of his two daughters joining the family business. Ive been in the business since I was 11 or 12; its similar for them since they were brought up in the same atmosphere.

Twenty-one-year-old Sneha Murali describes herself as not bookish. My father always encouraged me to focus more on work than on education; but both were equally important while growing up. The younger of the two girls, she says that working with your father has its pros and cons, Most of the time work becomes dinner-table conversation, she laughs and adds that its tough on days when youre mad at both your father and the boss. But all that doesnt come in between what shes learnt from her father. He taught me that its alright for two people to disagree on something. And he still listens and respects any idea irrespective of the size of it or the person who offers it, she says.

Sneha remembers when shed gone to Berkeley for a summer programme and came back brimming with new concepts, especially a store-in-store, its like a food court where you can buy podis, sweets, kaarams and more. Its a work in progress at Sri Krishna Sweets, she says.

Shruthi, the older daughter who looks after the Food Products Division, has a quiet aura about her, much like her father. She talks about how joining her father in business was a natural course of action. Shruthi reveals that she is passionate about making traditional sweets appealing to her generation.

We go out often to eat and I realise that youngsters prefer something thats light on the stomach, healthy but tasty and thats what were trying to do. Weve launched something called Cashew Bites thats like soan papdi and were planning to bring out a halwa made using ragi, she says. For someone who has been working for two years with her father, Shruthi, a graduate of the Cass Business School in London, says that she still has so much to learn from him and the biggest lesson he has taught her was to criticise a persons performance rather than the person himself.

Murali couldnt be happier that his daughters have joined him, Its the hospitality business and I believe that women bring strengths to the table such as good values and a knack for personalisation. And its not just the daughters who are learning from the father. Murali says its sometimes difficult to keep up with them: They bring systemisation and in five-six years there will be more opportunities for them.

Sri Krishna Sweets was started by his father N.K. Mahadeva Iyer in 1948 to overcome the absence of a standalone sweet shop that offered pure ghee sweets in Coimbatore.

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The sweet addition