Hartnell family’s Queen Victoria Inn history, as reported by Carla Wilson, Victoria Times Colonist, April 3, 2012

Queen Victoria Hotel and Suites has been owned by the Hartnell family since 1965. It was sold to Vancouver-based Concert Properties Monday.

Photograph by: Darren Stone, timescolonist.com April 2, 2012

The Hartnell family has sold the Queen Victoria Hotel and Suites in downtown Victoria to Concert Properties.

It was not immediately known how Concert will use the 146-unit building at 655 Douglas St.

Vancouver-based Concert develops rental apartments, condominiums and retirement communities.

It also builds commercial, industrial and infrastructure properties, and manages properties.

The sale closed Monday.

However, the Hartnell family, which built the Queen Victoria, will lease back the hotel and Samuel’s Restaurant, until Sept. 30, family spokesman Tony Hartnell said Monday.

It cost the family $650,000 to build the eight storey hotel, which opened in mid-1965, said Vincent Patterson, who was a partner in developing the project with Peter Hartnell, Tony’s father.

Today the hotel and property are assessed together at $11.8 million.

Tony Hartnell, who owns the hotel with siblings Roxanna, Justin, and Cecilia, said although the hotel was not actively listed, the family had decided to sell if a certain amount was offered.

Concert Properties came forward with an offer.

The sale amount was not released.

“I thought I’d be really excited, but strangely enough, I had some mixed emotions,” Tony Hartnell said.

“Now we are looking forward to just exploring other business ventures… This is not a bad news story for our family.”

The “mid-tier” hotel has been doing well despite the challenging climate in the tourist sector, he said.

The Queen Victoria’s occupancy and rates are at or above the average in Greater Victoria, Hartnell said.

Many guests have been coming here for years.

“We have a big, loyal customer base,” Hartnell said.

At one time, it was a magnet for snowbirds, but that business has declined.

Although many hotels are “flagged” by being associated with a well-known brand, the Queen Victoria has always been independent.

Of its 146 units, all but 35 have kitchens.

The lot size is 27,720 square feet and there are 77 parking spots on site, said Amanda Crowder, who with Rick Pettinger, of DTZ Barnicke, brought Concert and the hotel’s owners together.

When the Queen Victoria originally opened it had 90 units and was called a motor inn.

In subsequent years, more rooms were added and extensive renovations carried out.

Peter Hartnell got into the hotel business, by building the Thunderbird Hotel, originally as a rental property and then converting it into a hotel, Tony Hartnell said.

Peter used to walk by a couple of old houses on a triangle shaped chunk of land by Saint Ann’s Academy and Thunderbird Park.

One day he stopped to ask the owner of both houses if she would sell.

She was agreeable and a few years later, the hotel was built, his son said.

Peter Hartnell, who died more than a decade ago, also the Victoria Princess hotel, which was later sold.

He was a well-known businessman in Victoria, wrangling with city hall more than once over zoning and building issues.

He was also known for right-wing views.

The Queen Victoria has been maintained with major investments annually, Tony Hartnell said.

But an original mosaic still borders the pool.

About 60 staff work at the hotel.

They are being offered a bonus to stay until it closes, Hartnell said.

Tourism consultant Frank Bouree, a partner with Chemistry Consulting, said the Queen Victoria has been a mainstay of the Greater Victoria hotel industry for decades.

“It was one of the very rare suite hotels,” he said.

Greater Victoria has about 7,500 hotel rooms.

The industry has run at an average occupancy rate of 63 per cent for the last several years.

It is unlikely more hotels will be built until that rate moves up to at least 70 per cent, Bourree said.

LA ROSA reprint:

Queen Victoria hotel sold to Vancouver developer

Their plans for downtown Victoria property not known yet

CARLA WILSON

Victoria Times Colonist

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

BUSINESS SECTION: PAGE B1

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Queen+Victoria+hotel+sold+Vancouver+developer/6402239/story.html#ixzz1r5cnIYzu

‘NOBOMBA’: Father Fessio, Forty Days for Life pro-lifers join Tea Party, even OWS against our common enemy at a nocturnal rally vs. Emperor Obushama @ Masonic hall $100/plate campaign fundraising dinner, Nob Hill, San Francisco, California

Published: February 17, 2012

Singing hymns, praying the rosary and waving Vatican flags

Catholics protest President Obama’s contraception mandate during his visit to San Francisco

Around 150 Catholics prayed the rosary, sang the Ave Maria and We Shall Overcome, waved Vatican flags, and stood for religious freedom and the Constitution in San Francisco last night, a city that cast more than 85% of its votes for President Obama in 2008. One young man climbed a tree and waved an American flag surmounted by a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The impromptu protest came with only three days advance notice that President Obama would be in the city for a campaign fundraising event. Earlier Thursday, the president attended a $35,800 per plate dinner in Pacific Heights, the city’s “Billionaire’s Row.” The San Francisco event was a more modest $100 per person affair at the Masonic Auditorium atop Nob Hill.

Catholics — and others – gathered across the street to protest the recently announced Obama Administration’s HHS contraception mandate, which has drawn nearly universal protest from U.S. bishops.

No bishops were able to attend the protest because all the bishops of the San Francisco province, which includes the dioceses of San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Stockton, Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, and Hawaii, were on a retreat together this week.

Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone sent a message of support, and assured organizers he would have been there, had it been possible.

Among the Catholic leaders who participated in the protest were Dominican Fr. Anselm Ramelow, chairman of the Philosophy Department at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley; Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, editor of San Francisco-based Ignatius Press; and Fr. Peter Carota, who led a group of parishioners all the way from St. Patrick’s Church in Ripon. Fr. Carota said he had heard about the rally in California Catholic Daily.

Dolores Meehan and Eva Muntean, co-founders of the Walk for Life West Coast, were also there. Many members of the Walk for Life volunteer team joined them. A number of 40 Days for Life volunteers were there too.

Also participating was Protestant Pastor Walter Hoye, well known in California pro-life circles for being unjustly imprisoned for violating Oakland’s abortion clinic “bubble ordinance” — a conviction later overturned on appeal.

All the local affiliates of the major TV networks were also there. Many protestors were interviewed for both radio and television, including Pastor Hoye, Meehan and Muntean. Fr. Carota was interviewed by the Spanish-language TV network Univision, though little, at least thus far, has been broadcast.

All expressed outrage. In one segment that aired on ABC7News, Meehan responded to a reporter’s question by asking the reporter a question of her own: “Freedom of religion is the flavor of the day for him today, but what’s going to be next? Will it be freedom of the press? Are you going to be able to be out here and say what you want to say?”

+++

^{(Photo courtesy of Larry in SF.)}
Local Tea Party doyenne Sally Zelikovsky (above) led the finger-wagging cheers.

The idea came from this article in theSFWeekly, which said that after Jan Brewer wagged her finger in Obama’s face last month, “Obama Coming to San Francisco, Where Nobody Will Wag Their Fingers in His Face.”

(Hungry for more? “Larry in SF” has plenty more photos from the daytime protest posted on his blog.)

Gatheringofthevibes.com, a Deadhead site, noted the historic convergence of the Bay Area’s anti-Obomba forces from supposedly different parts of the suspect left-right political spectrum, or, as Alex Jones characterizes it, ‘the false left-right paradigm’, from the so-called Tea Partiers to the pro-med pot people:

TEO  VibeGuide Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Wilmington, VT Posts: 28,568

Tea Party and OWS Protest Side-By-Side Against Obama in San Francisco Media pundits have often tried to point out the similarities between the Tea Party and the Occupy movement, in a futile attempt to get the two groups to merge. Unfortunately, the differences were too great, and we have yet to see the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street protesting against the same thing side-by-side at the same protest.That is, until now.The unthinkable finally happened last night in San Francisco: the Tea Party shared a protest with the Occupiers, both groups angry with the same person.And who was this unifier, the only man who can bridge the divide and bring together all sides of the political spectrum? Why, President Obama, of course.He ping-ponged across San Francisco on Thursday, February 16, hosting a series of high-end fundraisers that netted him somewhere near $4 million, by some estimates. I tailed him all day, and will present photos from each of his stops. But we’ll start with what was in fact the final event, on Nob Hill at the Masonic Auditorium, because that’s where all the protesters congregated. Photos from the day’s earlier events are found in the second half of the report, below. Protest Outside the Obama Fundraiser, Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco Pictures & more: http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2012/02/17…san-francisco/

Pray for Trifon Haifas, Liberal for Life, Greek Canadian married father, Toronto Danforth

 

La Sibil-la Catalana: Montserrat Figueras, 1942-2011, Eternal voice of Catalunya

MONTSERRAT FIGUERAS:

NAMED AFTER THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

She is the Catalan Sybill, the eternal voice of Catalunya.

I wept deep tears on hearing of her death.

Deo Gratias.

‘Goyo de la Rosa’

[Please refer to the comments for links to new posts @ Rockland and Chant Cafe]

What really happened to Alaska Democratic Congressman Nick Begich Sr., Dr. Nick Begich’s father, and why is it still important?

Nick Begich

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nick Begich
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alaska‘s At-large district
In office January 3, 1971 – October 16, 1972
Preceded by	Howard Pollock
Succeeded by	Don Young
Member of the Alaska State Senate
In office 1962–1970
Personal details
Born	April 6, 1932 Eveleth, Minnesota
Died	Presumably October 16, 1972(aged 40) Alaska
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Pegge Begich
Children	Mark, Nichelle, Stephanie, Tom, Paul, and Nick
Alma mater	Saint Cloud State University,University of Minnesota,University of Colorado,University of North Dakota

Nicholas Joseph “Nick” Begich, Sr. (April 6, 1932 – undetermined, presumed dead October 16, 1972) was a Democratic Party member of the United States House of Representatives from Alaska. He disappeared in a plane crash in Alaska in 1972. His son Mark Begich is currently the junior U.S. Senator from Alaska.

Contents [hide] 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Disappearance 4 Election history 5 Personal life 6 Notes 7 External links

[edit]Early life and education

The son of a Croatian immigrant, Nick Begich was born and raised in Eveleth, Minnesota. His father, John Begich (Begić), was born in Podlapača, Croatia.^[1] He attended Saint Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota before pursuing his doctorate at theUniversity of Colorado and the University of North Dakota.

[edit]Career

Begich worked as an expeditor and then a counselor in Anchorage, Alaska. He later worked in the administrative offices of Anchorage School District, eventually becoming Superintendent of Schools at Fort Richardson. In 1962, Begich was elected to the Alaska Senate, where he served for eight years. Begich also taught political science during parts of this period at the University of Alaska at Anchorage.

In 1970, Begich was elected to Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating the Republican banker Frank Murkowski– who later served as a U.S. Senator and then the Governor of Alaska. In 1972 for his re-election, Begich was opposed by the Republican state senator Don Young.

Posthumously, Begich won the 1972 election with 56% to Don Young’s 44%. However, after Begich’s declared death, a special election was held and Mr. Young won this seat and still serves in this position as of 2011.

[edit]Disappearance

On October 16, 1972, he was aboard a twin engine Cessna 310 along with House Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana when the plane disappeared during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Also on board were Begich’s aide, Russell Brown; and the pilot, Don Jonz.^[2] The four were heading to a campaign fundraiser for Begich.

In an enormous search effort, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force search and rescue planes looked for the four men and their airplane. On November 24, 1972, after proceeding for thirty-nine days, the air search was called off. Neither the wreckage of the plane nor the pilot’s or passengers’ remains have ever been found. All were declared dead on December 29, 1972. The accident prompted Congress to pass a law mandating emergency locator transmitters in all United States civil aircraft.

[edit]Election history

Alaska’s At-large congressional district: Results 1968–1972^[3]

Year		Republican	Votes	Pct		Democrat	Votes	Pct
1968		Howard W. Pollock (inc.)	43,577	54.2%		N. J. Begich	36,785	45.8%
1970		Frank H. Murkowski	35,947	44.9%		N. J. Begich	44,137	55.1%
1972		Don Young	41,750	43.8%		N. J. Begich (inc.)	53,651	56.2%

[edit]Personal life

Nick Begich had six children, named Mark, Nichelle, Tom, Stephanie, Paul, and Nick. His son Mark Begich is currently the junior U.S. Senator from Alaska. He won this position after defeating the Republican Party‘s longest serving Senator, Ted Stevens, who was killed in a plane crash nearly two years later.

Nick Begich’s widow, Pegge Begich, ran for the House of Representatives seat in 1984 and 1986, but she was defeated by the incumbent, Mr. Young. She is retired now, and she resides in Nevada. Their eldest son, Nick Begich, Jr., is well known in Alaska for his own political activities. He has been twice elected as the president of both the Alaska Federation of Teachers and the Anchorage Council of Education. Nick Begich, Jr.’s current research focuses on the methods, actions, and ethics of various American governmental organizations. He has gained much popularity amongst conspiracy theorists, thanks to his tireless investigation of H.A.A.R.P. He authored the conspiracy theory book Angels Don’t Play this H.A.A.R.P.and appeared on the TV show Conspiracy Theory. ^[4]

[edit]Notes

1. ^ Begich, Tom. (2006-04-30). “Tom Begich: Politics first – Part of growing up in a political family with a man who was a workaholic was I didn’t know my father.” Interviewed by Judy Ferguson.Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved on 2007-04-04. Tom Begich says of his father, “Until I was nearly 12, I grew up with a man who was a legend, the son of Croatian immigrants, but who disappeared Oct. 16, 1972, into the clouds.”
2. ^ “Hale Boggs — Missing in Alaska”. Famous Missing Aircraft. Check-Six. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
3. ^ “Election Statistics”. Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
4. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_Theory_(TV_series)#Season_one_.282009.E2.80.9310.29

His son Tom Begich is a singer songwriter who tours and performs around the world.

[edit]External links

• EarthPulse, one of Nick Begich Jr’s sites dedicated to energy pollution
• Nick Begich at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Howard W. Pollock	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alaska 1971–1972	Succeeded by Don Young

[hide]v · d · eMembers of the United States House of Representatives from Alaska Non-voting Delegates, elected at-large (1905-1959) Waskey • Cale • Wickersham • Sulzer • Wickersham • Sulzer • Grigsby • Wickersham • Sutherland • Wickersham • Dimond • Bartlett Members of the House of Representatives, elected at-large (1959-present) Rivers • Pollock • Begich • Young

FALSE TALES ABOUT IRAN NUKES: ‘IAEA claim that a foreign scientist – identified in news reports as Vyacheslav Danilenko – had been involved in building the alleged containment chamber also has now been denied firmly by Danilenko,’ writes Gareth Porter @ VeteransToday.com

Cracks Open in Iran Nuke Charges

Many Washington pundits who championed the false tales about Iraq’s WMD have returned to center stage in the new accusations about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. And some of the Iran charges are falling apart just like the Iraq ones, as Gareth Porter reports.

 

By Gareth Porter

 

A former inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repudiated its major new claim that Iran built an explosives chamber to test components of a nuclear weapon and carry out a simulated nuclear explosion.

The IAEA claim that a foreign scientist – identified in news reports as Vyacheslav Danilenko – had been involved in building the alleged containment chamber also has now been denied firmly by Danilenko himself in an interview with Radio Free Europe published on Friday.

The latest report by the IAEA cited “information provided by Member States” that Iran had constructed “a large explosives containment vessel in which to conduct hydrodynamic experiments” – meaning simulated explosions of nuclear weapons – in its Parchin military complex in 2000.

Lew Rockwell’s Liberty links for November 21, 2011 @ RevolutionNews.us/

RevolutionNews.US   |   Haight-Ashbury, SF

Lew Rockwell 11/21/2011  Ron Paul Takes Down Bob Schieffer The peace candidate Faces the Nation, and leaves a CBS shill for the warfare state sputtering.  Planning To Retire? You can forget it, says Gary North.  World Tensions Are Rising Marc Faber on China, oil, and the shifting balance of economic power.  Ripped Off Gerald Celente’s lessons for the rest of us.  Who Needs Slavemasters? When the slaves are so willing. Article by Jeff Berwick.  Was It a Deliberate Hit? Lawrence Lepard on the MF Global conspiracy.  Our 29 Banking Overlords Do you do business with any of them? Article by Bob Wenzel.  The Ignorance of Newt Versus the inalienable rights of all. Article by Scott Lazarowitz.  A Christian Voters Guide To US wars. Article by Craig White.  Your Monies and Positions Are Not Safe Simon Black on the truth-telling broker in commodities futures who closed her business.

STOP STUPID METERS: ‘The politicians will become wary of our power, and that is how this will work in everyone’s favour,’ writes Una St. Clair of Citizens for Safe Technology

Stop Smart Meters Now…sign the petition to rid our world of them

Monday, November 21, 2011 10:07:36 AM

 Citizens for Safe Technology

Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2011 10:35 AM

Subject: Smart This BC Hydro! Occupy Smart Meters Petition – Over Half Way to the goal of 10,000!

I think a collective cheer can be raised as we are now at 5,100 on the Occupy Smart Meters online petition, and the hard copies are probably about 1,000 to 2,000 – looking good and HALF WAY TO OUR GOAL OF 10,000!

Keep putting it out for more people to sign on all the different avenues, as well as remembering to total the numbers on the hard copy petitions and fax to John Horgan’s office at 250-387-4680.

Keep the goal of 10,000 in your mind – everyone think 10,000 signatures – that would be a fantastic achievement, and it is so easy for 10,000 to become 20,000, and 20,000 to become 40,000 and so on. Then the politicians will become wary of our power, and that is how this will work in everyone’s favour.

Keep going – retweet, more on facebook, put the word out everywhere you can – if each person gets one more signature, we are there!

Smart This, BC Hydro!

Occupy Smart Meters – NO-vember 19 update

Over Half Way to Goal of 10,000 signatures by November 22!

Awesome! Keep Going!

https://cstorg.wufoo.com/forms/q7x3s5/

Thanks and well done everyone!

Una St.Clair

Citizens for Safe Technology Society

www.citizensforsafetechnology.org

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BRAD TROST: Bureaucrats still fighting to keep Canadian government funding to Planned Parenthood

Brad Trost: Tory MP Writes Letter Opposing Government’s Decision To Fund International Planned Parenthood Federation

First Posted: 9/28/11 02:08 PM ET Updated: 9/28/11 06:37 PM

  Maternal Health , Brad Trost , International Planned Parenthood Federation , Response To Federal Government’s Decision To Fund IPPF , Bev Oda , Brad Trost Abortion , Brad Trost Letter , Brad Trost Planned Parenthood , Brad Trost Response , Pmo , Tory Caucus ,Canada Politics News

 There’s trouble brewing in the Tory caucus over a government decision to continue funding the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a group that provides abortions abroad.

An angry Brad Trost, MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt, posted a response to International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda’s move to renew funding for the organization on his website, vowing that the Tories’ pro-lifers would take on aggressive stances.

“Many, many Conservative MPs pressed the PMO to stop the funds from flowing. Federal funding did stop for a time. Funds allocated to IPPF were considerably reduced … This only happened because of the pressure applied. This was a real victory,” he wrote.

READ THE COMPLETE TEXT OF TROST’S LETTER

Bureaucrats, Trost said, were still fighting to keep the taps flowing to Planned Parenthood, but he warned “pro-life politicians have been taught a lesson.”

“The government only responds to pro-life issues and concerns when we take an aggressive stance. We will apply this lesson,” he vowed.

Over 1,500 Architects and Engineers reveal THE TRUTH BEHIND 9/11: 459 Chester, Sun. Sept. 11, 2011, 7 pm…

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