The Block site causes chaos

Neighbours of the four houses being used for The Block TV series in the North Shore suburb of Takapuna say the huge construction effort is affecting their daily lives and impinging on their privacy. Linda Haynes lives next door and says her biggest concern is that the council is letting the production company break “all sorts of rules” to allow the show to go ahead

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Domino’s Earns Big with Pizza and Chicken Ads

“Cardboard.” That word, a description of a Domino’s pizza product, written by an unhappy consumer, flashed across the screen. Another called it “mass produced, boring, bland.” Yet another added this dagger: “Microwave pizza is far superior.” These words did not appear on a message board manned by angry Domino’s consumers, as you might expect.

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Beyond Wis. Union Debate: Five New Rules for Teachers

Given their place as the most powerful public-employee alliance, teachers’ unions are front and center in the debate that is going on in Wisconsin. But beyond the high-decibel clashes between Tea Partyers and public-employees’ unions are contentious education-policy issues that reformers, teachers’ unions and analysts have debated for years.

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Engineers: Bay Bridge woes show need for critical action

Joe Marshall was cruising across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge when a piece of steel and a giant cable crashed down. He’s worried about what he calls “fracture-critical” bridges: roughly 460 bridges across the country that are in dire need of repairs.

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Airliner crew flies 150 miles past airport

A Northwest Airlines flight from San Diego, California, overshot the Minneapolis, Minnesota, airport by about 150 miles Wednesday evening, and federal investigators are looking into whether the pilots had become distracted, as they claimed, or perhaps fell asleep.

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D.C. train crash probe prompts nationwide rail alert

Federal safety investigators said Tuesday they fear flaws found in Washington’s Metro subway system after a deadly crash this summer may endanger other transit systems, and they sent out an urgent recommendation asking that other rail operators check for similar problems.

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