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Highway 10

Minnesota (WDAY TV) -- We have all been there. Driving on Highway 10 in Minnesota, as someone comes off a rural county road and shoots across traffic. Now, MN-DOT is selecting sites around the state for a project called: "Reduced Conflict Intersections."

Minnesota (WDAY TV) -- We have all been there. Driving on Highway 10 in Minnesota, as someone comes off a rural county road and shoots across traffic. Now, MN-DOT is selecting sites around the state for a project called: "Reduced Conflict Intersections."

MN DOT even has video to back up its argument for changes at crossings like this. A four lane highway like 10 with a median in the middle. The risk for crashes goes up, as vehicles shoot across two lanes and the median in order to head back another direction.

Jody Martinson/Detroit Lakes: "Traffic coming from both sides, at your very fast traffic on highway ten."

Let's say you are this pickup truck that wants to cross ten from 31 wanting to head west on 10 to Fargo-Moorhead. Under the old plan you would simply cross the median but not under the new.

Under the Reduced Conflict Intersections, the median crossing would be closed off.

Martinson: "You would need to take a right turn here go down make a u turn and come back. And get into the right turn lane and cross. More work for the driver but safer."

State Troopers who see their share of T-bone accidents on four lanes like highway ten, say changes like these can save lives.

Jesse Grabow/Minnesota State Patrol: "Where traffic crosses, most often the t-bone crash, through education, dot, engineers whatever we can to so beneficial a lot of these crashed are preventable."

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MN-DOT selects sites to take part in "Reduced Conflict Intersections"

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. A bill that would add new regulations to Internet dating services doing business in Illinois now one floor vote from passage but is hitting some opposition from Republicans who say theyre concerned about government overreach.

The bill (SB2545) would create the Internet Dating Safety Act, requiring that Internet dating services either conduct criminal background checks on all their members, or post online warnings specifying that they dont conduct such screenings. It has already passed the House, and today passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 6-3.

Proponents say the measure is needed to combat online predators, who can create Internet personas that mask previous convictions for sex crimes. Most states today make such convictions easily searchable through online sex-offender registries.

Illinois lawmakers have tried and failed for years to pass similar legislation. Don't you have an expectation when you pay $30 to find true love that it won't turn out to be a sex offender? Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, asked during one such debate, in 2007, before an earlier version of the idea failed.

Opponents have questioned whether Illinois can effectively police Internet services that arent based in the state, and whether the services themselves might create a false sense of security by saying they do background checks, when there is no way to know how extensive those checks are.

Another, more ideological argument has been put in play by some Republican opponents to the measure.

Its another intervention by the government thinking for us, said Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, who voted against the measure in committee today. Adults have the ability to make these decisions for themselves.

The full Senate could take up the bill as early as Tuesday.

More:
Internet dating safety bill in Illinois would disclose background check policies

Several Internet groups are gearing up to battle SOPA-like legislation via the Internet Defense League, a new organization intended to protect the open Web.

The League, spearheaded by Fight for the Future and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is putting together an Internet bat signal of sorts. When the group detects a threat to the Internet - most likely via objectionable legislation - it will send supporters a snippet of code they can add to their website in order to organize the masses in protest.

"Think of it like the Internet's Emergency Broadcast System, or its bat signal," the group said on its website.

According to All Things D, the Internet Defense League has already won the support of WordPress, Imgur, Cheezburger Network, Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

The Internet Defense League will formally launch next week when Congress returns to session. At that point, the Senate could take up the much-maligned CISPA legislation. CISPA is intended to allow private companies to share information with the government in the event of a cyber attack, but detractors worry it will give the feds an all-access pass to your private information. It passed the House in late April, and now moves to the Senate, where it could be addressed on its own or folded into other legislation. The White House has already said it would veto CISPA if it reaches the president's desk.

The Senate is considering at least two cyber-security bills. In February, Sens. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins introduced the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, and a month later, Sen. John McCain unveiled the Secure IT Act. They could combine their efforts into one bill, but according to Nextgov.com, there are "fundamental" differences the senators are thus far unlikely to overcome.

Internet groups like Fight for the Future, meanwhile, have already had some success in going after cyber-security bills. The Internet blackout, for example, resulted in the demise of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). An anti-CISPA campaign, however, did not stop its passage in the House.

Fight for the Future is also backing "Privacy is Awesome," a campaign that encourages people to call their members of Congress and urge them to vote against legislation like SOPA and CISPA.

For more, see the Top 5 Biggest Concerns About CISPA and the Top 5 Objections to SOPA, PIPA.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

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Internet Defense League Crafts 'Bat Signal' for the Web

You dont have to dig too deeply into Every Kingdom, the delicate debut from Ben Howard, to discover what floats this British minstrels boat.

The album cover photograph features the Devonshire-based lad, diving deep into the Mediterranean, near his parents coastal abode on Ibiza.

The gently-plucked album opener Old Pine, he says, is a song about my first surf trip away from home, when I went to France and nearly got killed by a pine tree.

Howard likes the ocean a lot, and Old Pine is one of the few places where his two passions songwriting and short-boarding overlap.

Surfing and music have always been two separate sides of my life. Im quite a fun-loving person most of the time, but I feel like I always get the serious side out when Im playing music, and then I have fun the rest of the time when I get in the sea, says Howard, who plans on hitting California beaches when he plays San Francisco this week.

English surfing, Howard says, is dramatically different: The ice-cold waters always require a wet suit, and the waves are choppier.

When he first discovered the sport at age 11, British surfing was limited to a hard-core group of enthusiasts. Now, there are more than half a million serious U.K. boarders.

So its nowhere near the California dream, he says. Its more like this funny little adventure we all go on, and its usually pissing down rain, and you may get a few waves. But its nice to just swim out and float about, really, he says. The surf scene actually launched this Donovan-influenced neo-folkie.

After playing several seaside concerts overseas, he says, I met Xavier Rudd at a surf festival in England. And he asked me if I wanted to go on tour with him the next time he came to Europe. So thats how it all started.

Soon, Mumford & Sons Ben Lovett had inked him to his new Communion imprint for Every Kingdom.

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Surfing, songs satiate Brit Ben Howard

Yelena Belashova General Manager, Crowne Plaza World Trade Centre Moscow Hotel

Thepresent is getting more andmore influenced byvirtual reality. It could now be almost impossible tofind aperson who knows nothing about thevirtual world. Sharing all kinds ofinformation, starting frompersonal thoughts andending with present location, has become thetrend captivating people's minds andlifestyle with thehelp ofdifferent means ofInternet connection. Another boom is themobile devices that can be used anytime, anywhere. So probably there is no easier way toimmediately share information about thecompany, its products andservices, special offers, news, photos andother entertaining data than online. Andprecisely speaking: various social media.

Once ahotel decides toget involved invirtual social activity, there appears thequestion ofwhere tobe present. As thesocial media world is enormous, there is avital decision ofchoosing. Being everywhere leads tocomplete failure interms ofproviding proper information inproper amounts andkeeping all your audiences entertained, informed andactive. Thesimple anduniversal path forany company is tostart using blogs (e.g. Twitter) andsocial networks (e.g. Facebook, Google+). Choosing precisely these social media means "killing two birds with one stone" as they allow theposting ofall kinds ofinformation including photos, videos andaudio files. Andthey have tremendous possibilities tobuild your online audience.

When Crowne Plaza Moscow faced thequestion ofbeing present insocial media, thepositive answer appeared immediately. Otherwise we would have lost ahuge loyal audience ofour online friends andsubscribers without even gaining it. With this important step ofsharing information, news andspecial offers, communicating with users all over theworld has become theeasiest andmost pleasant thing we have ever done.

Would you ask whether there are benefits todeveloping your online presence? Theanswer is obvious as there are many. Theworld has gone online andmobile. People prefer toget information as quickly as astrike oflightning. Right now, right atthe place where he or she is standing. Andthe help comes fromsocial media. Why? First ofall, communicating with theaudience is easy. Once you get amessage, you answer. But themain point is that all other users will see your feedback andknow that you do take actions. Sharing is also easy. Once you post news, pictures andvideos, agreat number ofpeople take notice immediately. Forexample, Crowne Plaza Moscow always shares photos ofits new dishes created atour Real Food Restaurant.

Moreover we post recipes ofthese dishes with step-by-step instructions with photos starring either our chef or chef confectioner. These are themost popular themes we conduct. Andour online friends are fond ofthem. They share them with their friends, increasing our hotel's audience. This is so as people usually cannot resist peaking atwhat their friends are interested inand get interested as well. I could also hint atcreating contests andcompetitions: another tool toattract more audience. Would you like toget anattractive prize just foranswering aquestion? I bet no one would refuse that, so once again you increase your loyal online audience. Andwhat is thebest with thevirtual world is that there are no costs tobe online: just thetime you will spend oncreating your page, creating your audience andposting content afterward. Creating andraising theaudience fromzero is probably still themost complicated question inthe matter, but it is possible todeal within arather concise time.

If you conduct asmall survey andcheck who ofyour direct competitors already has anonline profile, onFacebook, onTwitter or onsome other popular social sites, you will surprisingly find out: all ofthem.

Thecompetition is tough so straight away go social andkeep up with themodern trends ofliving anddoing business. Create content andcreate interest inyour company. Tell people that you know how tobe up-to-date, meaning you know what your client needs. Andsurprisingly you will see that thevirtual audience has thedesire toturn intoreal buyers.

Read more:
Hotel Social Media Marketing. Unlocking Your Online Potential