Journaling on estrip is easy and free. sign up here
I had no idea. The first thing I saw was that the AUD is dead for sure now. The roof is on top of the seating area. For those that didn't hear about this all ready they are having an Irish Wake for the Aud on Sunday. It sounds kinda cool, I don't think I'm going to make it though but here is the info for anyone who thinks they might like it . I hope everyone is having and has a great weekend.
Gay marriage bill signed into law in New Hampshire
AP
By NORMA LOVE, Associated Press Writer Norma Love, Associated Press Writer - 10 mins ago
CONCORD, N.H. - New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize gay marriage after the Senate and House passed key language on religious rights and Gov. John Lynch - who personally opposes gay marriage - signed the legislation Wednesday afternoon.
After rallies outside the Statehouse by both sides in the morning, the last of three bills in the package went to the Senate, which approved it 14-10 Wednesday afternoon.
Cheers from the gallery greeted the key vote in the House, which passed it 198-176. Surrounded by gay marriage supporters, Lynch signed the bill about an hour later.
"Today, we are standing up for the liberties of same-sex couples by making clear that they will receive the same rights, responsibilities - and respect - under New Hampshire law," Lynch said.
Lynch, a Democrat, had promised a veto if the law didn't clearly spell out that churches and religious groups would not be forced to officiate at gay marriages or provide other services. Legislators made the changes.
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Iowa already allow gay marriage, though opponents hope to overturn Maine's law with a public vote.
California briefly allowed gay marriage before a public vote banned it; a court ruling grandfathered in couples who were already married.
The New Hampshire law will take effect Jan. 1, exactly two years after the state began recognizing civil unions.
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, elected in New Hampshire in 2003 as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, was among those celebrating the new law.
"It's about being recognized as whole people and whole citizens," Robinson said.
"There are a lot of people standing here who when we grew up could not have imagined this," he said. "You can't imagine something that is simply impossible. It's happened, in our lifetimes."
Opponents, mainly Republicans, objected on grounds including the fragmented process.
"It is no surprise that the Legislature finally passed the last piece to the gay marriage bill today. After all, when you take 12 votes on five iterations of the same issue, you're bound to get it passed sooner or later," said Kevin Smith, executive director of gay marriage opponent Cornerstone Policy Research.
The revised bill added a sentence specifying that all religious organizations, associations or societies have exclusive control over their religious doctrines, policies, teachings and beliefs on marriage.
It also clarified that church-related organizations that serve charitable or educational purposes are exempt from having to provide insurance and other benefits to same-sex spouses of employees.
The House rejected the language Lynch suggested two weeks ago by two votes. Wednesday's vote was on a revised bill negotiated with the Senate.
Supporters had considered Wednesday their last chance to pass a bill this year.
The law will establish civil and religious marriage licenses and allow each party to the marriage to be identified as bride, groom or spouse. Same-sex couples already in civil unions will automatically be assumed to have a "civil marriage."
Churches will be able to decide whether to conduct religious marriages for same-sex couples. Civil marriages would be available to both heterosexual and same-sex couples.
New Hampshire's decision leaves Rhode Island as the only New England state not to allow same-sex marriages. A bill there is expected to fail this year, as similar ones have in previous years.
___
Associated Press Writer David Tirrell-Wysocki in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.
On the website they have some videos of stuff I haven't seen on the show yet. Here are some pictures that I found online. 
Updated: 05/29/09 07:41 AM
Snow gets extended run
New Falls attraction to offer visitors taste of winter year-round
By Denise Jewell Gee
NEWS NIAGARA REPORTER
After failing to make money by redeveloping the Wintergarden, Joseph Anderson is giving winter in Niagara Falls another try.
Anderson, the Tuscarora cigarette and gasoline magnate, is building a 49-foot snow tubing hill on Main Street in the Falls. Scheduled to open next month, it would operate year-round. The city's newest attraction also includes a regulation-sized synthetic skating rink that requires no refrigeration.
Both are designed to capitalize on the region's chilly reputation, serve warm-and cold-weather visitors and do something scores of developers and entrepreneurs have been unable to accomplish: keep tourists on this side of the border for more than a few hours.
"That's the first new attraction here in a while that is family oriented," said Steven Fleck, co-owner of the Howard Johnson Closest to the Falls, across the street from the snow park. "Of course, you've got the Maid of the Mist and the Cave of the Winds and all that, but once people see the falls, there's really not a whole lot to keep them down in this end of the city."
The snow park has been under construction on a vacant parcel two blocks from the Rainbow Bridge since late last year, after Anderson's teenage son came up with the idea to build a snow tubing hill on land Anderson already held in the Falls.
Anderson, the entrepreneur behind the Smokin Joe's gasoline and cigarette chain, as well as the failed Smokin Joe's Family Fun Center in the Wintergarden, hired Snow Magic, a New Jersey company, to help develop a snow-covered tubing hill.
The company has built similar hills in Saudi Arabia and Japan.
"The beauty is, we can always make the snow regardless of the temperature," said Al Bronander, president of Snow Magic.
Unlike traditional snow-making machines-which rely on at-or below-freezing temperatures to produce artificial snow - Snow Magic's units freeze water into thin sheets of ice inside the machines before pulverizing the ice and shooting it out as small flakes.
The result is tiny crystals of ice - about 0.3 millimeters in diameter-that are about three times the size of artificial snow typically made at ski resorts.
Bronander said the company's artificial snow can be groomed like other snow and can be used for snowboarding but is not as fine as snow that is used at ski resorts.
"As the sun heats it up and it warms it up, it becomes a little bit more granular, just like anywhere," Bronander said. "For snow tubing, snow play, it's fantastic."
The hill will operate in all but extremely hot weather - if temperatures peak at more than 100 degrees for several days - or in extremely heavy rain or thunderstorms, said Jennifer Pauly, marketing coordinator for Smokin Joe's Trading Post and Snow Park Niagara Falls.
The synthetic skating rink is made of a polymer material produced by Super-Glide of Clearwater, Fla. The rink includes penalty boxes and a scoreboard.
Snow Park Niagara Falls is scheduled to open to the public June 15. Tickets will be $30 for two hours on the tubing hill and unlimited access to the snow play area and rink.
The tubing hill - which has removable lanes for tubes - will host the Red Bull Buttercup snowboarding event July 9, Pauly said.
Fleck and other hotel owners hope the snow park will give visitors a reason to stay in Niagara Falls longer.
Three attractions - a tethered helium balloon ride, the Niagara Aerospace Museum and Anderson's Smokin Joe's Family Fun Center - all closed in downtown Niagara Falls before last year's tourist season. The snow park is the first new attraction to open since then.
Anderson has had mixed success in Niagara Falls development deals. He owns two hotels and controls more than 20 properties in the downtown commercial area. In 2005, he opened a children's playground and arcade in the former Wintergarden building but closed it three years later.
He recently sold the Wintergarden to the state, which plans to raze the structure to create a roadway between Niagara Falls State Park and the Seneca Niagara Casino.
A no-bid concession license Anderson struck with the city in 2004 for an outdoor pedestrian mall was largely considered a failure.
Anderson pleaded guilty in November to a federal charge of devising a scheme to deprive citizens of "the intangible right of the honest services of a public official" in connection with a series of loans totaling $40,000 to former Mayor Vince Anello. Anderson has yet to be sentenced.
Despite all of that, city officials and tourism leaders say they believe the snow park will be a success.
The project, which received a 10-year tax break through the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency, was estimated to cost $5.2 million, according to information given to the agency.
Aside from the tax break, the project is privately funded by Anderson.
"We're just excited that there's anything going on, to tell you the truth," Fleck said. "And it's good to see someone with their own money coming in."
djgee@buffnews.com
Well there are some states that it could never pass in like ever. If it did pass there would be riots (GA for one and not sure where else), there are still some states that you can't sell sex toys in, and one state alone is what got Tommy Chong (by the way if you have seen the movie he was set up by the FBI in a sting operation) arrested for selling a bong. When he was raided they didn't care that he had weed. I kid you not they cared that he had bongs. I use that as an example to show how crazy this country of ours is some times.
Six down, 45 to go.