| City of Davis offers free mediation service for residents
For some adults, especially college students, living arrangements can cause unbearable stress and bitter feuds. The city of Davis works to break the tension and solve housing issues through its free Community Mediation Service (CMS).
The service is available to all residents, students and employees in Davis, and creates a confidential setting to solve problems ranging from landlord and tenant disputes and roommate disagreements to barking dogs. Created in 1990, the service was originally funded to serve all of Yolo County. It has since been limited to the community of Davis.
"Mediation helps people reach agreements, rebuild relationships and find permanent solutions to their disputes," the CMS Guiding Principles state. "Community mediation provides a nonprofit framework for assuring access to mediation services at the community level with control and responsibility for dispute resolution maintained in the community."
According to Teri Spiritosanto, social services program coordinator and intake manager for CMS, the service reaches this goal by serving as a neutral third party that encourages communication.
Editorial: Diplomacy should be a requirement
I think that every student should be required to learn to play the game Diplomacy as part of the required school curriculum. Not only would it be fun, but it would help prepare students to play the games of politics in life and in their chosen careers. As I've stated in this space before, I enjoy playing games, particularly board games which require using the brain for strategy of some sort, usually with some historical significance and most of the time with territory to conquer. With most games there is some bit of luck or chance involved as most involve die rolls or probability charts. Not Diplomacy. There are no dice in this game, which first saw the light of day back in 1958. The only luck and chance in this game is that which the player creates, not the roll of a die.
Finland renews its representation at OSCE Court of Conciliation ...
The President of the Republic Tarja Halonen will today appoint Finland's new representatives to the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). MP Kimmo Kiljunen and doctor of laws Kaarina Buure-Hägglund will become the new conciliators. State Prosecutor and Judge at the European Court of Human Rights Päivi Hirvelä will be the new arbitrator with Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman Jukka Lindstedt as her stand-in. The OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration representatives are chosen for a term of six years. The Court is not a permanent body, but assembles when there are disputes to be settled. From the list of conciliators and arbitrators either a conciliation commission or an arbitral tribunal is created by the Court on an ad hoc basis. Finland's present conciliators, Elisabeth Rehn and Pertti Paasio, have both announced their non-availability for further appointment. The current arbitrator and deputy are Judge at the European Court of Human Rights Matti Pellonpää and Former Deputy Ombudsman of the Finnish Parliament Pirkko K.
RWD No. 2, Paola Agree to Mediation
Officials from Paola and Miami County Rural Water District No. 2 have agreed to do something that has become increasingly difficult for the two water providers talk.The growing tension between the two entities has been fueled by a recent lawsuit between Louisburg and RWD No. 2, which sought more than $8 million for city-annexed land in its territory. A three-member appraiser's panel ruled last month that Louisburg needs to pay only $133,200 to RWD No. 2 a decision the district has appealed.Paola, which currently is undertaking a $30 million joint water project with Louisburg involving the construction of a plant on the Marais des Cygnes River, could face a similar lawsuit with RWD No. 2 as the city expands.The district recently applied for a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would provide security for their territory, a decision publicly criticized by the Paola City Council.Amid all the animosity, officials from both sides attended last month's Kansas Rural Water Association's annual conference in Wichita, which provided several possible solutions for conflicts between cities and rural water districts.Attorney Elizabeth Dietzmann recommended using a free mediation service offered by the Kansas Water Office, and it seems both sides took the suggestion to heart.Paola City Manager Ross VanderHamm and RWD No.
Mediation first, urges Harman
Family justice minister Harriet Harman called for separating parents to be encouraged to agree the future of their children's welfare rather than going to court, which can badly affect their children. In 2005 around 70,000 children were the subject of dispute between their parents where the case did not include any allegations of harm to children. Harman said many of them did not need to be heard by a court. The Department for Constitutional Affairs is investing £14 million a year in family mediation and the number of couples receiving publicly funded mediation has gone up from 400 in 1997 to 14,000. Harman said: "When arguing parents come before a court, the court's decision will be made in the child's best interests. But it is even better for the child for the parents not to have to go to court in the first place.
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