Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Zebar, Superintendent, Gold Coast Police. On the weekend, Gold Coast Police have been very active doing our street based operations, our high visibility, early intervention, particularly in the drink safe precinct in surface paradise, and also our operation Victoria, which we run out of the Broad Beach CBD. As well on Saturday night, we ran our operation EMBA, which is a joint operation with the State Traffic Task Force and the Random Drug Testing Unit. That operation was particularly successful. We had 32 charges, preferred against 27 persons.  And of course, Operation EMBA was a joint passive drug dog and Random Drug Testing State Traffic Task Force operation, but the focus of it was to also reduce the consequences, if you like, of alcohol and drug related violence and harm on the Gold Coast. So that operation was particularly successful. And of course, that ran on the back of our drink safe precinct operation in surface and our operation Victoria and Broad Beach. Now as you'll know, we had the Titans vs Cowboys Friday night and of course the Suns and Collingwood. Now both of those games were particularly well attended. Around 17,000 at the Titans game and around 23,000 at the Suns game. Those people of course all went into surface paradise of Broad Beach afterwards and our police had a major operation there, as we normally do on the weekends with some standing results as well. If you just bear with me for a moment, I might actually go to those for you. On Friday nights in the drink safe precinct of surface paradise, we had 24 arrests of those. We had 28 charges, particularly well attended in the CBD and surface paradise on Friday night. Saturday night, similarly, we had 23 arrests in the drink safe precinct and surface paradise. 11 arrests in Broad Beach area, plus a number of tickets, street checks and so forth. The drink safe precinct operation of course is supported by the public safety response team as well from Brisbane. Over the weekend as well, we had an arrest for the armed robbery of the 7-Eleven at Scarborough Street Southport, a 21-year-old man from Wynnum. It's alleged to have confronted the straw tenant with a firearm and he's arrested and charged on Saturday. We're appearing for this Southport Mastrates Court this morning. I might also mention Operation Agnesio, which we ran last week, which was our joint traffic based operation using resources from the State Traffic Task Force from Brisbane using the automatic number plate recognition technology. We actually placed that operation in strategic crime areas. We've used Intel to work out where we've had other property-related crimes, Broad Beach, Southport in particular. And in that operation, it was designed to detect obviously unregistered and unlicensed drivers. However, we placed all those police resources in strategic high crime locations to make sure that the intelligence we drew from that operation would help us form our picture for where breaking in as another property crime was being performed. Now Operation Agnesio was a particularly successful operation. We had 20 persons rested on 29 charges. That's 20 persons on 29 charges. A number of those were criminal offences. There were a number of traffic tickets written, a number of RBTs, and I'll just go through the figures there for you. So we had 20 offenders on 29 charges, including stealing, fraud, drugs and weapons charges. We wrote 128 tickets over that three-day operation. We did 2,148 random breath tests and the total of 64 street checks. And they're the activity reports that police submit when they find a person of interest who may be perhaps a suspect or potentially a perpetrator of crime. So Operation Agnesio is a prime example of where we've used a traffic and road safety focused operation but overlaid it with criminal intelligence to put it in strategic areas to gather more intelligence and arrest perpetrators of crime. And clearly, based on the arrests we made during their operation, it was successful. A number of those charges included drug possession, fraud, possession of a weapon, possession of a restricted item, and possession of drugs. And also, I've ended up wanting an outstanding crime report for using a telecommunications device to harass. I'd like to also just to point out our regular operation, Unison, which we run with our colleagues on Tweet Heads, which is also a CBD-based operation in Kulangata and Tweet Heads. In that operation, we had eight police doing high visibility and early intervention policing strategies in the Kulangata and Tweet Heads CBD. And it was pleasing to see that we had only a small number of arrests, but the high visibility is the key to keeping crime down. So we had three arrests on four charges, including possession of a dangerous drug, drink driving and unlicensed driving. 300 RBTs were performed down there in that area, as well as a number of searches and activity report cards. So with all of our operations over the weekend, in response to the entertainment precincts, if you like, of surface paradise, Broad Beach and Kulangata, we've had high visibility, we've had assistance from our colleagues in Brisbane, and we've had some successes there, which is great to see the ongoing successes with the passive drug detection dogs. So Operation EMBA, with the drug detection dogs at our random breath testing and drug detection site, that complements, of course, our ongoing operation Sentinel, which uses the passive drug dogs as well, and we've had quite a significant result with that operation over the last few months. And of course, our passive drug detection dogs in their drug testing unit, it's not about necessarily getting people in possession of drugs. It's all about reducing the effects of drug and alcohol related violence and harm on the Gold Coast, and that's in conjunction with our other criminal investigative activities done by the C.I.B. Operation Resolve and of course, detectives from Brisbane. Is it fair to say that these operations have been prompted by the negative sort of press that Gold Coast is getting at the moment with, you know, talk about violence and shootings? The Operation Drinksafe and Operation Sentinel have been ongoing operations, which have been going since basically the 1st of December last year. So our policing of public splices... Excuse me. Operation Sentinel and the Drinksafe Precinct Operation have been going since 1st of December last year. We've done four passive drug dog operations in surface paradise and broad beach CBDs as well as Operation Ember on the weekend. These are ongoing strategies where we use the resources from Brisbane to help us target our crime and disorder on the Gold Coast. And it's all about working together with their colleagues from Brisbane, making sure that we send the message out there that drug and alcohol-related violence and harm isn't acceptable on the Gold Coast. These are both ongoing operations and have been in place for some time, and will continue to occur. Are they, I guess, reasonable sort of figures, particularly Saturday night because to football games on? What we've found with our Drinksafe... Well, the question is how are those figures going to our normal Friday and Saturday night? Whilst our police have been busy in the entertainment precincts on the Gold Coast over the weekend, it's pleasing to see that the number of arrests aren't extraordinarily high than you would find normally, and that's interesting, considering the larger crowds from the football. The Drinksafe Precinct Crossing surface paradise has been a subject of high visibility and early intervention policing since 1st of December. Every weekend on the Gold Coast here in surface paradise is a little bit like schoolies now. The police are in Reflectorized Vests. They're walking in and out of clubs. We're doing compliance checks. We're working with our colleagues from Nicolices in Fair Trading, as well as the Fire Service and the local council. We have a steering committee which drives those activities, and they've been working well since 1st of December. In most of the crime categories, the surface paradise CBD is actually experiencing a significant downturn in crime. And what I've noticed talking to the traders there in surface paradise and the local people is that they're particularly happy with the way the Drinksafe Precinct's going. The nightclub association are also happy with the way we're getting the passive drug dogs in there regularly, and that operation is going to be ongoing, and we're very pleased with the results. And of course, there's no doubt that surface paradise police, Broad Beach Police and Curlegata Police are working tirelessly on policing public order, making the streets safer in those areas. Very pleased and very proud of the results they've been bringing in. And of course, I'm quite pleased and I'm very proud of the results that the CIB in conjunction with their colleagues from State Crime Operations Command have brought in over the weekend with the arrest for the alleged murder. There's been a few calls for zero-tolerance type strategies on the coast. Do you think it would work in something you did policing considering that? It's interesting that the term zero-tolerance is getting a bit of popularity in the media, and what I'd like to point out is that Gold Coast Police are particularly good at high visibility and early intervention strategies, and we've got no tolerance for people that do break the law. We arrest them, put them before the courts. What I will point out though is that zero-tolerance is not just about the police having zero-tolerance, it's also about the community. And I think in recent times we've seen the community put their hand up and say, stand for violence, we're not going to stand for disorder, and they're working closely with us, and that's closely aligned to the results we're getting in surface paradise with the steering committee there, the business people, the local community are working with us. We had the Turning Point Seminar on the Gold Coast last week, which is also well attended, and I was very pleased to hear that most of the delegates there were very proud of their local police, as I am, and indeed see that zero-tolerance, whilst it's a term that's bandied around, really that's what we're doing on the Gold Coast and have been doing for some time.


What's up everybody? Jason here for Jaspyscasebrakes.com. We're giving away two free spots in Skybox Metal Universe guys. This is Champions 2021. One box break number nine. So if you're an early bird, you bought one of the first ten spots, get into or win two free spots, and this is a random letter break, which is a first letter of the first name. So of course as a little example if you pull any Tiger Woods, excuse me, letter T would get that hit. And then of course we go by the name of the card and some letters may not have autographed possibilities, but there are jambalaya's, PMG's, a lot of good names and this stuff right here guys. And this is a fresh inner. We finished the first inner. This is the second inner here. And just remember guys, here's the dice roller. So we're gonna randomize the first ten customers I bought in. Top two win-free spots. We're gonna paste your names here, then we'll randomize names and letters, and then we'll do the break guys. So let's roll. Snake guys, two times. Top two get in. One, two, and looks like it didn't even move. Chino and Eric, congratulations. So you guys got extra free spots here. You guys a little name right there, a little that, and then now two times on the list of names and number or letters. I should say one, two. Chino down to Eric. All right, two times one, two. L down to E and G. All right, so Chino, you have letter L, Steve, Eric with D, James with T, Ryan with J, Eric with S, as well as N. Ryan, you have these Z plus all other letters slash non-sport, if possible. Eric with W, James with R, John with C, Chino with the HV combo. Anthony with M. We have Chino with B, Steve, Eric with P, Chino with K, Eric with A, and E, G combo. Yes, this is a Skybox Pizzle. Merlin's after this. And I believe I clocked in Merlin for myself last Wednesday. I think I got it done in like 53 minutes, 52 minutes or something like that. So definitely under an hour. All right, anybody want to trade guys letters? I mean, I don't know how many people really will, but you can do it if you guys want. No problem, Pizzle, it's all good. It is all good in the neighborhood. Chicago White Sox. Just saying, if you guys want to see baseball guys, just buy spots in baseball breaks, whether it's Topps, Chrome, Immaculate, whatever you guys want. All right, looks like we're selling those teams in Immaculate straight up, which is great. I see that Immaculate now down to six left. So that's something we can potentially do next after that Merlin. A lot of cheap teams remaining, of course, and then that Jaspy hip rate pack fillers down to five. So unless that beats that out, most likely we'll do Merlin next and then we'll do the Jaspy hip rate filler with the hip rate break. And then, of course, we'll do maybe that Immaculate right after that.  But always good to have a little schedule going. All right, let's just close it. Just close the trade window that no one's going to trade. All right, guys, here we go. So again, this is a fresh inner. So all new possibilities, guys. I know we already had hit a big PMG like that Jordan number one. We had a Jambalaya, I believe, in the first one. So all new possibilities here. And then just like I did for the last one, we'll X these boxes just to show you guys they're from the same case. We'll generate a number. And then we'll just continue to do that until we sell off this. So one through eight at the bottom. Let's see which number we get generated here. Eight. I'm going to go the bottom box. Really nice. That was a great, that was a great inner thing. Because I in the first couple of boxes I did, I hit that Jordan PMG and then I hit the Scotty Barnes autograph that was really nice. So it's always good. We'll continue that momentum here. Also, I forgot to mention, if you guys haven't noticed it already, but I almost went on the DL. I was cutting down some boxes at home and I got some Amazon packages and sliced my finger. That's a crucial finger right here. You know, it's a rip by packs. So I'm going to have to wear a bandaid over it because if not, it's going to continue to cut open. So the first time I've cut myself with a knife, I'm like, I don't even know how many years. Yeah, it was the first box, Eddie. First box on release day on Wednesday. I had said, I kind of called it. I said, let's hit a PMG green Jordan. This box, let's go. It ended up being a red. But at least we hit the Jordan. All right, here we go guys. Jonathan Caminga. We have a blasts furtice. Bayron Laura. We have a little Scottie Barnes, Scottie Box, premium. Hi, it's Alan Iverson. I'm at a universe insert. And a Jalen Green. That is a cut above. Very nice insert there. Letter J with that one. Which would be Ryan Kason. Naomi Osaka. Letter N going to Eric. All right, we got a Jalen Green right there. Skybox premium. Intimidation Nation, Jalen Johnson. Letter J with that one.  Anybody watch competitive snowboarding? You might know him. Letter G, Toby is going to James. So hopefully we still have that PMG here somewhere, which I'm sure we will. Blast furtice, Scottie Barnes. Looks like maybe a blue PMG. Carlos Comaneras, maybe blue or gold. LeBron James, that's a nice one there. Letter L is going to Chino. That was your free spot. And that is a PMG of Gabby Butler, number to 100. Which is 32 of 100, which says a cheerleader. Letter G is Eric. Well, not the craziest box for PMGs and autos, but still got them. And we got more in the store, guys. So next one's in the store, jaspyscasebrakes.com, guys. Thanks.


lf of and in coordination with the transit plan updates we are studying an initial rail service between Durham and Garner with a possible inclusion of service out to Clayton um it's a primarily be service um during peak periods for about four hours in the afternoon and in the evening service every 30 minutes um as well as some trips um in the midday and evening um for a total of 20 round trips per day and this compares to about 18 round trips per day on the Durham Raleigh express service today the study includes um five stops in Durham those are in West Durham near Duke and VA medical centers Durham station East Durham near Austin Avenue Ellis Road and RTP in each of these cases we are looking at ways in which the bus network as well as our bike and pedestrian network provides access to these stations and in particular the station at RTP would be co-located with a new regional transit center allowing convenient multimodal last mile connections whether they be micro transit or shared ride or bus connections or bike connections up to destinations in and around RTP such as Hub RTP in places like the Apple campus and RDU airport as mentioned the study builds on previous studies and from those previous studies we've learned a number of things that we are looking to validate and get more precision on as we continue this study and the first is that there'll be more than 10,000 trips by 2040 today we have about 2200 bus riders in that order among those bus riders 42% do not have access to the car 44% are from in-households earning less than $25,000 and 67% of those 2200 riders are non-white in terms of the travel time we're looking at about 45 minutes to 50 minutes from Durham to Raleigh and that represents a significant time savings over the current express bus today and even larger time savings over the routes that are not expressed the capital cost is about $1.8 billion for that shorter segment from Durham to Clayton that is a year of expenditure dollars so if the dollar to build the project was spent in 2028 the dollars inflated out to that year the higher cost 2.1 billion is the cost of including service to Clayton operating cost is similar that's reflected in base year dollars 2019 that's 29 million dollars for the shorter service 37 million for a longer service both the assumption that that's sort of it that all the trains are going to Clayton and I'd add this this is an estimate that is based on other peer railroad systems it is all inclusive cost for operating it includes staff includes fuel includes maintenance it also includes things such as the cost of liability insurance as well as any access payments to the railroad that occur on an annual basis so that's that's what we know now what are we working on now to under better understand the viability of this project excuse me there are three main components of the analysis on the first is the analysis that focuses on service on the infrastructure that's needed to support it and as well as some of the technical work that also supports it and the second is the opportunity analysis and it's made up of several component parts you see here on the screen that is primarily being led by Triangle J council of governments and then the third major piece is engagement both with the members of the public and organizations and focus groups as well as engagement with our stakeholders such as local governments and railroads and I'll go into some more detail on each of these in a few more slides so one of the primary tasks that's a part of that first bucket of work the rail analysis is the downtown Durham engineering analysis and this is we're undertaking this now to help us understand how new tracks and station platforms can be added to downtown Durham and how that will affect things like the current street crossings traffic and utilities and in around downtown from previous efforts we know that these issues are incredibly important to many in Durham and from a project viability perspective it is essential to understand how these challenges will be solved early as a part of this study prior to a decision to move forward with implementing a rail project this work is well underway there the existing conditions such as environmental screening and surveys as well as existing and base year conditions for traffic model have been completed we have initiated and continue to meet about monthly with the city county npo ncdnt and north carolina railroad to review and obtain concurrence on the technical materials as this study progresses go triangles entered into a reimbursement agreement with the city the city has procured a consultant believe it's kimmy horn to help support their review of some of these technical materials that are produced as part of this process and we're also continuing to develop the concepts that would show how we would add tracks and other rail infrastructure in coordination with these technical stakeholders including city staff and as these concepts are developed and their impacts are better understood we will share them with downtown stakeholders in the community as a whole as a part of a future phase of public engagement we really want folks to have a good understanding of what the impacts and how rail infrastructure could be added in downtown before we reach a decision point at the end of the study the second component of the study work is this opportunity analysis that's being led by the triangle j council of governments the first report which is nearing completion is an analysis of affordable housing along the rail line this report identifies how many legally binding affordability restricted or lr homes as well as naturally occurring affordable homes are located near rail stations um this slide that i have shown on the screen is focused on those legally binding affordable homes and as you can see a significant portion of those homes about 37 percent are within about a mile of the rail quarter and even more or a short bike or bus ride away tj cog is also looking at planned affordable homes through the investments planned by the city county Durham housing authority and including those funded by the housing fund the number of affordable homes near stations in Durham will nearly double over the next 10 years tj cog is also working on an access analysis primarily looking at connecting neighborhoods and communities to jobs which will help understand how rail will benefit various communities around the region and this map shows how it would provide those connections the first map there on the left shows disadvantaged neighborhoods using a regional metric so you see homes that have relatively low incomes lower vehicle access are non-white and also in purple there you see have large concentrations of affordable homes on the right side you see where those job acts this job major job centers are within the region as report is still ongoing and we hope to have more to share about this soon and the last piece so that third element particularly stakeholder engagement is the last one I want to touch on before I turn it over to the leaves to talk about our public engagement let's see so this project were to move forward federal transit administration would require the go triangle as a project sponsor must identify third party agreements and commit to a plan and schedule for executing those agreements as a part of project development which would be the next step should decision be made to move this project forward giving the importance to this project of identifying and addressing critical project success success factors the length of time involved and lessons learned from previous projects your triangle has developed a plan to ensure that progress is being made with respect to railroad engagement and coordination as a part of this study which is ahead of when fta would otherwise require it so our railroad stakeholder coordination plan is a safeguard to ensure that his technical work progresses and deliverables are completed that agreements with railroad partners are also simultaneously progressing the goal is to continue to incrementally reach points of agreement and then progressively build on those points the first point was the memorandum of understanding that memorializes the party's understanding understanding with respect to ongoing and future partnership on this specific study let's see and as of last week the triangle ncdot north carolina railroad railroad and north folk southern railroad have all signed and entered into an agreement for rail network modeling and acknowledging the route and also by acknowledging the railroads position on indemnity and liability requirements pertaining to the implementation of rail service and at the conclusion of the study the triangle intends to seek another mou or similar agreement to clarify the parties including the railroads understanding of all major issues affecting rail implementation and how those issues will be addressed should this project move forward so to wrap up our technical update here at the end of the study the goal is to achieve regional consensus on the following elements the project concept which is the components that make up the project the cost share among all the partners community support of the project as well as support from railroads local governments and third parties the study outcome would be a decision point to undertake engineering final engineering and construction including the fta new starts and you go process with that i'll turn it over to Elise to talk about our public engagement thanks jay and thank you mr mayor mayor pro tem and council members for your time and attention um the public engagement piece of this commuter rail study consists of three rounds the first round was completed in fall of 2020 with the goals primarily of raising awareness about the project and the study and to obtain public feedback and also as jay spoke about coordinating regionally with our regional stakeholders and partners the primary piece of this public engagement round was a large public survey that was offered online and in paper form for people to fill out we saw large numbers of participation and lots of enthusiasm about participating in the survey there were 5600 survey views 2700 unique participants who participated interacted in some way with our survey and you can see the enthusiasm that we really had at the beginning especially we had 500 participants within just the first three days of putting the survey out there all this participation led to nearly 5000 project related comments those comments were in the form of open-ended comments that we included on the survey so we got to hear perspectives from a lot of different people and a lot of different ways next slide please so a topmost goal for this survey and this outreach effort was our equity and inclusion toward that goal go triangle put forward their maximizing participation initiative through which they spent a lot of time utilizing community partnerships to reach populations who are historically underrepresented in the transit planning process with groups such as advanced community health Meals on Wheels of Durham and the North Carolina Society for Hispanic Professionals to partner with us for getting that survey out into the public one of the very creative I think kind of pivots especially during the time of COVID that the go triangle team did was they worked with advanced community health to give out information about the survey to give out brochures about the study at a COVID testing site in Durham which I thought was really creative way to reach people in a time when we're not always we were reaching people in person very often the survey was also made accessible in a variety of non-English languages to sort of bridge that gap due to this initiative 203 unique participants were reached directly and it resulted in 399 or 8% of our project related comments in the survey a variety of efforts were undertaken again since during our our year plus of COVID so a combination of both in person CDC compliant outreach efforts and virtual efforts were undertaken to reach the public for for this outreach effort in particular there were pop-up survey centers placed at Durham station and at the village in Durham to to reach transit riders next slide please and a variety of both kind of modern innovative outreach methods and in addition to traditional paper survey distribution brochures on buses all that kind of stuff a variety of methods and materials were used to be able to get out into the public and encourage participation in our survey next slide please we did see a lot of engagement through our social media outreach through the go forward website there was a feature on the project placed on a spectacular magazine and one of the things that we saw was that the average time spent on the web page for the rail project was three minutes and 38 seconds which you know in this time of clicking around very quickly and scrolling we actually thought that was a pretty good amount of engagement that people were spending thinking about and learning about this project next slide please okay so we had one of the things that we had in our survey was really good kind of participation in people providing us with their demographic information and this slide gives us sort of a snapshot of who we heard from and we're going to be talking about that in some more detail in the upcoming slides so this slide gives you the breakdown of the the race and ethnicity of our survey participants and also gives you the kind of the raw numbers of folks who participated a lot of surveys see very much lower numbers than this one did so we wanted to highlight that we saw in across our categories we saw pretty robust numbers of participants next slide please so importantly how does the participation from the survey mirror the actual breakdown of racial and ethnic makeup of the community so this slide shows you the corridor counties which is Wake Durham and Johnston counties combined and how they combine two census data and our next slide let's us see Durham County specifically and Durham County survey participants and we can see where we where we reached where we see maybe gaps that need to be addressed in future outreach efforts next slide please this slide gives you kind of just same that same information well as you see our total survey population our corridor survey population which again is Durham Wake and Johnston County is combined and then shows you Durham Wake and Johnston County is separated out one thing that you can notice that in Durham County we did have a more diverse participant universe than in the other counties next slide please this slide gives you an idea of the income bracket breakdown that we had among our survey participants and also how it compares to census data next slide please this slide gives us kind of just a bird's eye view of inner triangle area where were our participants coming from you can see that Durham had great participation there particularly South Durham next slide please Wake County give us the highest percentage of participants which makes sense but Durham had nothing to be shy about with the 25 percent of participation in our survey Durham was the highest municipality in terms of participation with 608 participants in our survey next slide and this slide just gives you a little more of a zoomed in look at what zip codes the Durham participants were coming from so in terms of what we heard from our participants in the survey the major takeaways that we heard were that in terms of benefits that people saw coming from commuter rail people saw commuter rail as reducing congestion in the triangle generally as having environmental benefits versus driving individual cars people expected commuter rail to decrease or improve their commute and we saw a lot of comments about bringing the triangle up to sort of modern metropolitan standards people pointing to peer cities and other areas that they would like to see the triangle compare more favorably to in terms of transit offerings and we saw also a lot of comments about commuter rail helping to bring sort of a sense of connectivity throughout the triangle uh where we did hear concerns we heard that people were concerned about project cost and funding allocation um there were concerns about the effectiveness of commuter rail to serve the transit needs of the community um there were concerns about the inclusivity about commuter rail about whether it would serve only kind of nine to five commuters um in certain income brackets um there were concerns about equitability um and whether all geographic areas were being served by the project um and then uh sort of the more uh physical project impacts um right of way noise that kind of thing next slide please um so these are i'm going to jump into the questions that were actually asked on the survey and then we'll kind of see what what people said um the first question was what would you like in a commuter rail that connects Durham and Wake counties and what we saw was that people want in commuter rail the same thing they want in all kinds of transit they want reliability they want a schedule that works for them they want frequency they want affordability those are kind of the the top um the graphic that you're seeing here is these are the the topics that came up most frequently in the the comments that people made and the comment at the bottom um is the the most um upvoted comment that people were able to see uh other uh participants comments and uh indicate if they agreed with it so this is the one that got the most um kind of upvotes um and that comment was pretty pretty succinct frequency reliability accessibility and affordability next slide please so our second question was what do you see commuter rail doing for your community um the effect on congestion was number one among what people people said um second to that people talked a lot about um benefits to the environment um people also talked a lot about um connectivity in the area um i'm sorry this yeah um on that question we uh are also able to look at um because of the way the question was worded it gives us a chance to say are people saying that they're seeing positive things coming from commuter rail they are they seeing negative things are they seeing the outcome of commuter rail to be a positive or a negative so this is one of the things we looked at overwhelmingly we found that people um answered this question in a positive light um so in our overall survey universe um the positive question uh positive responses were 87 percent um with 10 negative um if we sort of filter out that data and then look take a closer look at who's sitting what if we're looking at um the minority or non-white population um that positivity rate actually went up to 90 percent if we look specifically at the city of Durham and we um and further uh filter down to uh lower income bracket of less than $50,000 a year um we're still at 90 percent positivity rate um if we're looking uh at Durham city non-white population it's an 89 percent positivity rate so overall very positive next slide please um this light just gives you an idea of when we did have negative comments what were people talking about and when we did have positive comments what were people talking about one thing I would point out that is that um you can see the the brawn numbers of the comments are are much lower in the negative um than they are in the positive but nonetheless we wanted to point out what are people talking about when they're pointing out negatives versus positives um so project cost was was number one when people were seeing negatives with um the commuter rail project um and and like we talked about congestion, environment, connectivity were the top things in the positive comments next slide please and the third and final question at the end of this study local leaders will decide whether to move forward with the proposed commuter rail train what else should they be excuse me what else should they be considering to make that decision um project cost was top of mind for people equity was also very important um growth as in population growth in the triangle and how that's being handled and the effect on the environment those were sort of the the things that bubbled to the top in terms of what what everybody was talking about um and the course of excuse me the comment that um was most upvoted voted 150 people said they agreed with it or uh they agreed with this comment um was we need to catch up with other regional metropolitan areas like charlie and atlanta to stay relevant for industries and businesses considering relocating to the mid atlantic or southeast us mass transit will be the way of the future and if not now then when um so there was a lot of sentiment like that um next steps uh the public involvement group at go triangle um conducted focus groups which allowed them to focus in on um certain groups that they might not have heard as much from in the survey and to kind of further investigate themes that were raised within the survey um so looking at people's understanding of the project looking at um costs and affordability um what does that mean to them to be for the project to be um for for a trip on the train to be an affordable trip on the train for them um about completing those first mile last mile connections for people and their service needs um uh we have our two um upcoming public comment periods um in the summer and coming up in the fall um in which uh we're going to have ongoing education and outreach um to uh to keep up the uh the flow of information um uh about the project and make sure we're continuing to to have um in public input coming in uh so with that at j and i are happy to answer any questions about um the project um or our public outreach thank you very much mr hikes and miss belan have i got your name right miss belan right can you take down the slides please thank you well good job you had 30 minutes allocated and you did it exactly my kind of presentation um colleagues uh questions and comments for our friends here from go triangle council member freeman and then council member reese thank you mr mayer i was just going to know i really appreciate the presentation and just know i feel like i shared some feedback previously and i feel like a lot of it's been incorporated and i just wanted to say thank you thank you council member council member reese thank you mr mayor i just want to thank the folks from go triangle um and their consulting partner for what i think is probably the best presentation i've seen about the community rail project and i've seen a ton of them so um so great work in getting a lot of information out i did have a couple of questions um i didn't notice anything about talking about the specific agreement between go triangle and north southern railroad has that agreement been finalized there'll be a number of agreements with the railroads the first of which is that agreement for rail what's called rail network modeling um and that has been signed great um and did that um did that include the requirement that um that north and so north and southern being demnified for their own gross negligence and willfulness conduct i am not a legal expert so i'm not going to take a stab at that but i'll be happy to get that question back to you get an answer back to you on that okay what i can say is is that there was a apart from the specifics of what was agreed to it was a less of an agreement and more understanding of railroads position is okay great well our legal team go back to you and possibly correct me on what i just said but that is my layman's non-lawyer understanding of it awesome um i think the short version is the railroad has been insisting that uh the that they be indemnified for all sorts of things that could happen along their track in connection with this project including the railroads own gross negligence and willfulness conduct which is obviously a huge problem uh because without their their agreement there's there's not any possibility of building this project um so they they have the project of a barrel they understand that and they're extracting this um this really severe form of indemnification as as one of their prices and i just think that's something we gotta we gotta be aware of and understand that's because that's something we're all going to be in the hook for if bad things happen um but i wanted to talk a little bit about the ridership estimates for this project i if i if i read it correctly um they showed growth from about 2,200 current trips to something in the neighborhood of 10,000 trips uh in 2040 is that directionally correct so i i didn't show you um base year ridership trips those 2,200 are the number of transit users on bus services that parallel the hikers we're having the 700 hikers sorry is that again we're having a little trouble hearing you and you're apparently having a little trouble hearing me so yeah let me let me try that again can you can you'll hear me yeah better okay perfect i'll i'll stand closer to the microphone here um so the the 10,000 is that 2040 estimate um the 2200 is the number of current transit riders on those bus routes that are operating and stopping in the crt corridor today so that's a pretty big increase um and i guess i'm a little bit concerned about that those projections just because you know we've just gone through an experience with the pandemic where a lot of employers are taking a second look at remote work um and i wonder if there's any um any if there's going to be additional refinement of those estimates in light of some of the trends we're going to be seeing uh post-covid 19 yes there there absolutely will be um one of the things that fta requires you to do is have an up-to-date um on-board origin destination survey that was previously scheduled for the region this past fall but that has been delayed as fta um is determining the guidance how it conduct that study going forward great um do you do we know what the fair is expected to be for this commuterial project so the fair for this project has not yet been set um what i can say is is that um similar peer systems have a that have been implemented have a fair premium over the local bus um so in this case local bus being go Durham go Raleigh which go Durham um previously was one dollar go Raleigh was previously approved to be 150 um but the recent peer systems have a fair premium somewhere between zero about three dollars per trip more expensive than the local bus um our region has relatively low ends at fairs um so i would expect us to be um probably in the lower to mid-range of that fair premium however that's a that's a decision that um remembers good triangle board members would make i'm assuming you heard that mr mayor you did i listened to everything you say council member all your questions awesome um i guess i just want to put a pin in that because fairs seem to be really important for this project for a bunch of different reasons but especially because the folks who have concerns about it uh pursue it to the to the engagement work the fantastic engagement work that you did on this one of their concerns is that this project would not serve those who need uh transit service the most and to the extent that we expect the fair to be something well in excess of the current fair for the go trans go triangle bus system um it puts this service out of reach for many writers so i hope that that the project is thinking about how to mitigate those impacts obviously the service needs fairs to to survive and to thrive totally understand that but that's one of the reasons i think why folks are concerned about it um is because um because of that that equity piece to it it's going to be hard for those folks to afford that level of service especially when and i think i read this slide right it looks to me as though you're projecting somewhere between 15 and 30 minute um transit improvement over current service like the like the travel times will be reduced by about 15 to 30 minutes it's not 100 clear to me that i see the value in that transaction for most folks um uh and so so that's another thing i hope that we'll keep in mind as we go forward um and more broadly as i've said about this project from the very beginning i think commuter rail is an important part of our regional transportation strategy i think commuter rail should be implemented the issue is the same issue that again the folks that you have talked to in your community engagement process have told you isn't is a critical concern to them and that is project cost and funding allocation which is the funding allocation between the jurisdictions that are jointly going to fund this project if it when it goes forward um and uh i will not beat the dead horse too much uh in this meeting but the central fact is the folks who use who will use who use go transit service now and will use the future commuter rail project look very different from the folks who use go-derm buses um and who rely on it as their sole means of transportation and that is that those are the folks those are the the transit systems that are competing for very limited dollars under the germ county transit plan i know i'm not telling y'all anything you don't know i just want to make sure that everybody who's watching this understand that these are the choices that we're going to have to make and for better or worse we as a city council aren't going to be the ones making them so this is our only chance to beat the drum um and hope that folks are listening and talking to their elected officials who do have an impact um and get to vote on the germ county transit plan uh to make sure that these issues are addressed so that's all i had to say about it but again this is probably this is 100 percent the best presentation i've seen on this it's a great job and appreciate all the work and look forward to seeing how that project develops going forward thank you mr mayor thank you council member other comments and questions colleagues i i have uh i have a couple uh one of the on the issue of fares and i appreciate council member race raising the issue of fairs is super important with fair capping with the same sort of fair capping uh be available on uh on the commuter rail that is and and and for that matter if we had uh bus rapid transit as is available on go try uh on on you know local bus service i would be a strong advocate from a staff perspective for integrating the crt figures um into our mr heikas i'm sorry i'm really i'm so sorry i'm so sorry um the answer is that's a decision that has not yet been made but i i think given the importance of building a cohesive network um that builds builds those local and regional connections i i would hope that we would make that decision and hope that our board would consider that paramount thank you um i think that a couple of the issues that council member race raise are so important and what i want to say about them both the indemnification and the well and i you all really raise the the issue of going through downtown durham and and i just am very appreciative of the fact that you're taking this on now and not not at the end and we've been there where it happened at the end and it can't happen at the end and so i just very much appreciate you taking on these threshold issues now and i think you're doing a really good job of that and i'm really i'm grateful um i will say uh you know the i think the most important uh piece of information in here me and we didn't see the nationally occurring of formal housing lease i didn't know that chart that's not on the chart is it that was not on the chart that i shared but that will included in the report that we're finalizing yeah good i mean to me that's what is you know a potential uh a real game changer here is if the you know we're going to have i think you know seven thousand units or something of of um of which the the uh this subsidized housing what we often call permanently subsidized housing and you all call l bar um the um that these are legally bonding affordable restricted units um i think that yeah well you know i think we'll have uh you know five six seven thousand of those units in this quarter and especially near downtown uh you know five or six years from now and to me that's a real that is an incredible asset for the for the commuter rail and i think one that's underappreciated when we do think about our ridership and what they need because i think they will be transit riders i do think the fair is an important issue there and i think faircapping is going to be critical okay those are my comments others colleagues questions uh mayor pertin thanks sari my hand keeps fading into the background um i'm wondering in terms of timeline like at what point do we commit to we're going to move forward with this um and i'm so so i can get a sense and get a sense from colleagues about like what information what parameters we would need to know by then to be like okay we are comfortable moving forward on this project sure and in terms of timeline we expect that this the study itself will be complete by the end of this calendar year after signing the agreement we understand from the railroads that they expect to move expeditiously through their work which is one of the main um drivers of timeline speak up mr hikers i'm sorry we expect that we'll be able to keep our schedule to the end of the year um and then following the completion of the study um we'll have a about a three month or so period of um regional decision making among um the the parties of the mo the counties the npo's municipalities the railroads as well as third party institutions um so that would be early 2022 thank you and is that when the cost-sharing negotiations you think will be completed we would not we yes they would be completed um in advance of making a decision to move forward with the project or it is go triangles recommendation that that be determined um prior to advancing additional phases of this project and what level of uh the engineering through downtown Durham or the design through downtown Durham uh or maybe maybe a better question is when do you think just to go along with mayor pro tem johnson's question when do you think that that engineering uh and design uh and kind of decision making around that because that's clearly a threshold issue as well i assume for going forward so is that in that same time frame early next year that is correct um we are hoping that we will have um public engagement um in our our next phase of public engagement which Elise mentioned will be um sometime during the summer um one of the drivers of that timeline is making sure we have information coming out of the technical study components that we're able to share with the public um the design of downtown Durham is a important piece of that um so we're hoping to at least have some preliminary information out there this summer um and then i believe we'd be about 10 design um by the end of the year for that downtown Durham segment great thank you other questions colleagues anything else Ms. Bieland and Mr. Huygens thank you so much i want to agree with what councilmember Reese said i think you're you're and it just makes sense your your information's better all the time you're doing a really good job of refining it your your your councilmember Freeman i think alluded to the outreach and i think you you know it's it's all it's all moving in a good direction and i think we're going to have our community is going to have a lot of information by which to make this decision uh and we're grateful to you for being here thank you so much and thanks for sticking with us through this meeting thank you thank you for having us yes thank you appreciate it all right colleagues uh that was our last item and we'll now move to our city clerk uh for a report on the appointments madam clerk good evening everybody i know this meeting's getting a little long so i'll try to um buzz through them the board's committee and commission appointments efficiently um first of all we have the citizen advisory committee council has nominated leave on barns dr monique holsey hyman and brian w langlis to be um reappointed on to the the cac and there are three seats that have been agreed to be re-advertised on that committee the Durham board of adjustment appointments ian kip and chad meadows have both been nominated for reappointment Durham open space and trails commission appointment this particular board the um position has been voted on to re-advertise that so there was no appointment or nomination made for that the Durham planning commission council has nominated erin m durkin and bruce n herrid to fill the two seats on that particular board the Durham sports commission appointment dan w hill the third who is reapplying has been nominated to fill that seat housing appeals board appointment um the position for at-large alternate elizabeth a houstead has been nominated to fill that seat the mayor's council for women appointments for the civil rights justice sector from kashimiya ramirez has been nominated for the public safety sector nana asante smith has also been nominated and both of those are reapplying so they're reappointments for the ward two seat ingrid poll has been nominated and finally for the ward three seats anita a daniels kenny has been nominated for appointment for the participatory budgeting steering committee appointment council has nominated gen fry and she's also reapplying so that it's a reappointment for the at-large category and then finally we have the human relations commission i skipped over that because it sounds like we need to do some discussion the appointment for residents to fill five vacancies on the human relations commission representing three african-american persons and two caucasian non-hispanic persons under the african-american persons um council was allotted three appointments and erin and karson is a reappointment c duane hint and darious j whitney whitney is a reappointment and that brings us to a fifth we do not max out over the 53 percent i think it's like 52.9 percent on the mail um allocation and then under caucasian non-hispanic persons council was instructed to choose two um christina l crossbeat is a reapplication as well as jeffrey r king is a reapplication and with all of the decisions of council for the nominations again we did not exceed the 53 percent thank you madam clerk um it sounds like we uh we did what we needed to um is there anything that we need to do now madam clerk i think i think all of our appointments wait there's nothing we need to take up at this time is there no there's that one position that is open for re-advertisement but everything else was decided on and um there was some emailing about the process if we put the news release information on the ballot i think that'll clarify um how many and which type persons can be selected so that we don't violate the bylaws of the 53 percent requirement all right thank you very much thanks to you also thanks to miss roland i know what a job this is to manage now we're very appreciative of you and miss roland thank you yes i want to um echo that because miss roland and ashley have been very hands-on when it comes to reading the bylaws understanding them making sure that all of the requirements are being met and um we've had some situations where um the the boards and committees want to do things outside their bylaws and we have to lay down the law so i know we don't make it all that easy for you either so thank you well i appreciate everyone's cooperation thank you good night good night madam manager are we ready to settle we uh are ready to settle but i did want to get direction from the council on item 30 uh we did ask the um developer who spoke to you today to bring some additional information and i need to know if the council would like that item on consent or gba gba please so for consent we have items one through 29 and items 31 through 37 gba we have item 30 and gba public hearings we have item 39 through 42 thank you madam manager colleagues you've heard the manager's recommendation to settle the agenda and i'll accept a motion for its approval second moved by council member freelon seconded by council member reese or vice versa madam clerk please call the roll mayor shul uh new pro ten johnson hi council member caballero hi council member freelon hi council member freeman council member reese hi thank you thank you so much everybody thank you madam manager great meeting a long meeting but a lot of good work thanks to you and to our whole staff and thanks to you colleagues i think we we did pretty well today um have we done it i believe we have awesome i think our next terms together will be the budget meetings next week and i very much look forward to that and uh i will declare this meeting adjourned at 4 24 p.m. thank you bye thanks everybody


Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for making it over here to CSIS. My name is Kathleen Hicks. I direct the international security program here at CSIS. I am not Heather Connolly who's listed on your program. Heather was trapped in Florida of all places by canceled flights yesterday. So the good news is she ended up in a place with the warmest weather in the US. The bad news is there are no flights going there so she couldn't get out. I have the distinct pleasure today of introducing Hermes Rensselu, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Estonia. Mr. Rensselu has been the Minister of Defense since May of 2012 and he's been a member of the Estonian Parliament since 2003. Prior to 2003 he was a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Security Studies and also has held a number of positions advising the Estonian government. We are privileged to have Minister Rensselu here today to discuss Estonia's defense priorities and its military modernization plans ahead of the September 2014 Native Summit. After the Minister's remarks he and I will discuss some of the issues most relevant to Estonia's defense and then we will open up this session to questions from the audience. So please join me now in a round of applause for Minister Hermes Rensselu. Thank you very much for warm welcoming words. Well I'm coming from the Nordic country where we are having exceptional situation over the decades that in this winter we do not have snow. So I'm delighted to be here and first of all I'm very proud that among us are two helicopter pilots from the Estonian Air Forces who have served in Afghanistan with US troops and now serve in Maryland National Guard. So I truly welcome you here. This year we will mark a number of very important anniversaries in the US-European relationship. 100 years since Sarajevo and the outbreak of World War I, 70 years since Normandy, 65 years since the Washington Treaty was signed, quarter of century since the Berlin Wall fell and by the steps 15, 10 and 5 years since NATO's post-Cold War enlargements. So it is a moment for us to look back to what we have achieved so far and to assess the way ahead. NATO along with the European Union was a natural choice for Estonia after regaining independence in 1991. Membership in democratic western organizations was and still is seen as the core pillar of Estonian security and the scale was a great engine for reforms back in the 90s. Last year 76% of Estonians supported NATO membership. 58% of the population believes that Estonian Defence Forces should participate in international military operations when they can. And I'm proud to say that actually all the time it has been that when we in parliament vote international missions it is a consensus vote. Because of our history people still remember that peace and security does not come for free. Europe, world and free is something wonderful and highly valuable but it is also a threat to our vigilance. We shouldn't forget that we still need to maintain our defence capabilities and contribute to the alliance. There have been many discussions about NATO's role and its relevance during past 20 years. But we must keep in mind what has been achieved. With the end of the Cold War the global security environment changed almost overnight and NATO adapted to it. Throughout the entire period of the Cold War NATO forces were not involved in a single military engagement. And since that time NATO has been engaged in missions that cover the full spectrum of crisis management operations. From combat and peacekeeping to training and logistic support to surveillance and humanitarian relief. And today just under 100,000 military personnel are engaged in NATO missions around the world. And NATO alone. NATO alone continues to provide that kind of multinational interoperability, command structure and deployable capabilities. NATO still is the most powerful military alliance in the world. Indeed it hasn't always been easy. Many great soldiers have lost their lives. Including nine Estonians in Afghanistan. But NATO has proven that it is able and willing to adapt reform and prove that it is still relevant. And NATO has been an adaptable organisation. Decisions made during different rounds of enlargement are a proof of that. The risk to take in seven more Eastern European countries decade ago turned out to be a worthy one. The security of the Euro-Atlantic community has considerably improved through enlargement of NATO. However we can't take this achievement for granted. Because security needs constant commitment and improvement. Especially in today's increasingly unpredictable and complex world. So NATO has to remain active and find ways to engage more. It's most committed and strong partners. At the summit in coming months we must confirm that we value their contribution. And that NATO's doors remain open to new members. And this is not a consensus understanding today. I'm sure we should encourage and help aspirant countries more so that they can prepare better for the NATO membership. I will not stop on few other things we wish to see among the conclusions of the NATO summit. First a recommitment to the two percent defence spending principle. In the last few years almost all allies have cut their defence budgets. Some by more than 40 percent. Today five countries out of 28 spend less than 1 percent of their GDP to defence. Only five spend more than 175 percent among which four countries cross the two percent threshold. Only four. And in the 90s it was 12. The NATO Secretary General's annual report of 2012 cautioned that if the negative defence spending trend of member countries continued. NATO's military capability and political credibility could be put at risk. It seems that we are outraged by the costs of war but we are even more outraged by the costs of peace. And we should not consider Europe as one homogeneous area where all the countries think and act at the same time. The UNIA is one of the countries that understands the necessity to continuously contribute two percent of GDP to defence and who actually does so. So actually when I 2012 became minister so it was the first year we achieved two percent. And now we have a decade plan and we will remain fit on that level. The biggest difficulty is to maintain this level when many others especially our neighbours don't respect their commitments. And therefore it is of utmost importance that the NATO summit reaffirmed the two percent principle. We need to keep this as a goal even if stating this goal will not automatically and instantly change the defence budgets in Europe. Because if it's vice versa if we will lose that benchmark it will automatically I'm sure bring additional costs. Second at the summit NATO must confirm its ability and commitment to fulfil all its main tasks. Both Article 5 and non-Article 5 are NATO soil and far from it. The Baltic region is the only one in NATO. The only one in NATO where the military strategic balance does not favour the Allies because of our good friend Russia. Thus NATO as a world as well as the Allies in B or multilateral cooperation must continue to ensure that no outside power is tempted into making a miscalculation neither testing the solidarity of NATO Allies nor the functioning of Article 5. The good work we have done in demonstrating the political unity and decisiveness of the Alliance must continue true. First contingency planning and conducting exercises on a regular basis. Second sending unambitious, clear and consistent messages to third parties. Both contingency planning and exercises should be a normal and routine part of NATO's work not something to be shy about. And third the continued strength of the transatlantic link is also one of the main topics of the summit for us. We wish to see the US committed to Europe and the European Allies committed to a fairer burden sharing. And this is a challenge for Europe and we will remain to arise the question among our European Allies. And there is also a question of burden sharing inside Europe that needs to be addressed. Well many, I am the city and elsewhere, myself included are frustrated with European level of defence spending, capabilities and willingness to take part in international military operations. We should not forget that between 2007 and 2011 an average of 30 to 40,000 non-US NATO troops were deployed to Afghanistan, which means on average between 30 to 40 American soldiers who didn't have to go to Afghanistan. There is no other region in the world besides Europe who contributes in such a way to an American led military operation. At the same time the last US tank departed from Europe in March 2013. I don't know where that tank is now, but we miss that tank. While I understand the financial difficulties you face I still have to underline the importance of American presence and visibility in Europe and in the Baltic Sea region in particular, which reinforces NATO's credibility and deterrence posture. In times of diminished resources for defence, having reliable allies willing to share the burden of collective defence becomes even more important. But this seems to be commonly ignored. According to the survey Transatlantic Trends 2013 only 15% of Americans felt that NATO helps countries share the cost of military action and only 12% of Europeans said the same. This means that there is a lot of room for improvement. As Churchill said gentlemen we have run out of money and now we have to think. In the Baltic States we have practiced what is called today smart defence for more than a decade. It was not because we were smart but because we were small and poor. For example officers of the three countries are trained in the one single institution Baltic Defence College since 1919. We have a joint air surveillance system BaltNet and a common mine countermeasure unit Baltron. And in 2016 we will send an Estonian-led Baltic battalion to the NATO Response Force. Our region is of course wider than just the three Baltic States. As specific initiatives I could mention the Nordic Battlegroup which includes on Estonian initiative all Nordic Baltic countries who can contribute. Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. We also coordinate our participation in international military operations. We take part of EU-TM which is a training mission of European Union in Mali in cooperation with Finland, Sweden and Lithuania. And we are currently in this discussion about our contribution to resolute support in Afghanistan in cooperation with Nordic Baltic countries and Germany. Another topic at the summit will be the Alliance's continued preparedness and interoperability. Once the eyes of mission comes to its end. As General Breedlove said when he was in Tallinn in Estonia last fall the Alliance is currently at the pinnacle of our interconnectedness. But from the next year the glue will start to unstick. To avoid this NATO must focus more on exercises. Exercises are the sine qua non of combat readiness. It is also important politically as it demonstrates NATO's continued relevance and contributes to the Alliance's deterrence posture. And therefore the Connected Forces Initiative is one of the core issues for Estonia. We hope to see a robust forward-looking exercise program with annual live exercises put in place. And these exercises should take place all over the Alliance on both sides of the Atlantic. To say a few words about the latest NATO exercises. In November, Steadfast Chess Livex exercise took place in Poland and in the Baltic states and cyber coalition that took place in Estonia. Steadfast Chess was the first large-scale article 5 live exercise since the Cold War. It is also worth mentioning that this time Allies exercise it defending a real country. And this country is my homeland Estonia. So we as Estonians have very sentimental feelings about that exercise. As the scenario foresaw the defence of Estonia by the Alliance, NATO headquarters prepared for that for more than a year. And as a result now we are much better acquainted with our region and its security challenges. And Steadfast Chess strengthened the Alliance's deterrence posture in our region. And it also gave Allied Forces and NATO headquarters the opportunity to exercise in a collective defence scenario. But what we learned is that our long engagement in counter-terrorism type wars in failed states has changed our mindset. It really has driven us away from the collective defence approach. The country who was the biggest contributor to the live phase of Steadfast Chess was France with 1200 participants. The second was Poland who contributed 1000 troops and bronze medal same level was to the US in Estonia. Both contributed with a company size unit. And I don't think this proportion was quite normal. About cyber-coalition it was an honor for us to host in Estonia NATO's annual cyber-defence exercise. It was the first time this exercise took place outside of shape. Cyber-coalition 2013 evolved 400 people in 32 different countries and it was a success. We hope to continue hosting such cyber-exercises in Estonia as training, education and exercises are clearly supporting our nation and also NATO's capability development. We have gained a lot of experience in this field and we are interested in the relevant infrastructure development which should be shared with other Allies. Estonia as a country has understood that cyber is an integral part of today's security environment and of every single future conflict of crisis. Therefore we are working closely with our Allies to improve states' national cyber-defence capabilities and the Alliance's collective cyber-policy. And our view is that cyber should also play a bigger role in future NATO's exercises. So, long military engagements have given us more than just interoperability. They have given us a trustful relationship. You can search trust and you can't search a major relationship. Trust and relationships take many years to build. Person-to-person connections are only available because you have gone to school together or because you have endured hardships together. We highly value the relationship we have built with the US on the field of Afghanistan and in Iraq. Nothing can replace the actual combat experience side by side. And we wish to maintain this link after the end of ISAF mission and to find new openings for cooperation. To sum in all up and in anticipation of your questions, we in Estonia hope to see a balanced NATO capable of fulfilling all of its free core tasks. First, collective defence, second, crisis management and third, cooperative security. A NATO currently has a good framework. The strategic concept adopted at the Lisbon Summit in November 2020, which give clear, balanced and fair guidelines. And we don't see a need to make revolutionary reforms, but rather just focus on NATO's core tasks and to improve national contributors. Despite pervasive pessimism about the ultimate success of the NATO mission in Afghanistan and continued debate about European contributions to Allied burden sharing, 55% of Americans and 58% of Europeans see NATO as still essential for their country's security according to the last year's study of transatlantic trends. NATO's main value was to be an alliance of democratic countries that should act together. It means that there is a lot worth preserving and we need to do common efforts to the same. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that both thorough speech but also very provocative talk and I think there's a lot here for us to dig into. The first I think of the comments you made that I was struck by was the recommitment to the 2% metric, which of course is something we really struggled with in the alliance for some time as you rightly point out the statistics on that. I think the real question though for us has to be how can we be persuasive, most persuasive on this. If we use your thought that without having it we might be in more of a free fall than with having it, what do you think can most persuade those countries that aren't currently making the 2% in the absence of an overwhelming threat? Let's just assume that might be persuasive in their sense of an overwhelming threat. What do you think those of us who are making the mark can do to be persuasive to other countries? Well, I try to avoid to be provocative. Oh no, provocative is a good thing. Okay, not in Nordic countries. But I think what is most important is actually to applaud the success stories. And time to time also in NATO and European Union defence ministerials I hear the saying that okay, but we have like a prisoner's dilemma, whether we try to balance during the turmoil of financial crisis our national budgets or whether we have to make the cuts to defence. Estonia has proven it is possible to do the both. These are not contradictiony aims. We do have a balanced budget, our structural budget is balanced. We do have smallest national debt in EU and we have been succeeded to move against the tide in Europe, which means during the times when my fellow partner countries are doing the cuts to the defence spending, we are doing vice versa. We are recruiting more men and women to the army. We are buying new weaponry, etc. And of course we are not doing it just for fun. But this is our view of security that also small country needs to be a net provider of the security. And I think this should be a cornerstone of the way to show also the European allies the way forward. And the second I think is that the very clear and sound messages what the US has given Secretary Hagel also very clearly put to the message that Europe has to understand that this will not be sustainable. That domestic scene in the US will one day just block it because of the viewpoint of fairness. And we as European allies all together have to understand it and not to turn to the NATO through such a negative scenario. So those are I think the cornerstones now. That brings to mind of course smart defence and how countries can contribute and the Baltics and the Nordic states have had this great example already. What lessons do you think that that Nordic-Baltic cooperation what lessons can that provide to other states in Europe who are looking at a smart defence approach? To be honest I'm actually a little bit worried about the overusing the word smart defence in an euphemistical way of excusing the defence cuts. Okay it doesn't matter how much money we will put in but we work on the just on the list of outputs. That is something which is also commonly heard. And so from the zero you can't do positive thing which is like self-evident. So but the smart defence I think very good example of smart defence from our region is indeed a permanent air policing over the Baltic sky and I'm happy to inform you that from the last Friday the U.S. pilots U.S. planes are now taking their duty to defend steunian, Latvian, Lithuanian skyspace for half a year. And I'm very positive also about the security and defence dimension of the European Union where I think the joint procurements and also programs of developing certain new security weaponry systems have turned to be a successful one. You mentioned the U.S. Air Force participation in the Baltic air policing and you also in your talk spoke about the last tank, U.S. tank leaving Europe. What do you think are the most critical U.S. capabilities for defence of European territory? What can the U.S. focus itself on if it needs to focus in terms of providing capabilities forward into Europe? What makes the most impact with you and with your public? I think our region as I mentioned is like a special area in the Europe because we are indeed the only area of NATO where we have a minority territory capability looking to the third, comparing to the third countries. I think the most important is a complex of different actions which could be labelled as a presence. This is exercises, this is visits, this is indeed very clear and sound political statements when they are needed. And surely the crown jewel would be the permanent presence of the U.S. troops in European soil. I would be most pleased to see permanent U.S. presence in my homeland but I understand the realities today. But both countries are a special case and as much as presence of U.S. could produce so I think as efficient it will be also to encourage European countries to fulfil their responsibility. Because it's in a way like again a prisoner's dilemma if the U.S. domestic scene looks that European countries are out. So European countries look okay they are now moving a pivot towards Pacific and so this is like something we have to avoid that both ships are going like far away from each other. What is your sense of the U.S. rebalance approach and how it's received in Europe and how the U.S. has spoken to Europe about its strategy? Is it worrisome? Is it understandable? How do you think you characterize it? Well I consider it positive that actually U.S. takes the seriously the need to explain what their agenda is. And so Secretary Hegel in NATO ministerials has given a very like sound comments on that. But surely especially Eastern European countries call of U.S. being as a real and shown actor in the area will be a consistent one. So I think surely we understand the financial challenges also in the U.S. Army reform which is forehead but the presence could be also produced in the most let's say cost-efficient ways especially in our region as we see it. And it would be very much appreciated in coming times will be on our agenda of alliance or bilateral cooperation. Let me open it up to the audience. We have a few folks with microphones who come around. And when I call on you if you could tell us your name and your affiliation and we'll start right here in the back. Hi Pastor Britt, Renaissance Institute regular around here. I've been on this earth long enough to watch NATO from the beginning. And in my thinking I've managed to divide it into two organizations completely separate. I call them micro and macro. The first micro NATO would have been the one that existed for that first 40 years you talked about when there was no fighting done etc. No warring or whatever. And the macro one has been when this expansion started to take place when we started to bring people in or tried to from 1500 miles away from the North Atlantic. And it appears from an outsider's standpoint that macro NATO has become more or less an antagonist or an aggressor. Is that some of the reason you think that some people have started to back away? And am I correct? I may not be. I'm proud you have mentioned the NATO since the beginning. Although you look younger than 65 years. So I will just tell my country's viewpoint on international missions. When in Estonia we explain to the public why we are brought, why we send our boys and women to the Afghanistan, Iraq and to the Africa, why we are doing it. So we are saying we are doing it in the sake of the liberty of our country. They are defending the liberty of our country there. And they are doing it so that the most practical way in the modern world is to solve the crisis in the area where the crisis occurs. And if the crisis will rise bigger and bigger it will also put to the handcuffs the NATO and all the allies to act. So this is something I will not take the position to say. It is something like we see NATO as an aggressor. We in all cases know that the humanitarian need and the democratic values, why the NATO acts in different scenarios, those are far justified to my understanding of the principles of liberty, dignity of humans and humanitarian reasons. Okay. See all the way in the back on the other side. Stephen Blank, American Foreign Policy Council. You mentioned that the Baltic is the only region in Europe where NATO suffers from a minority position that the balance is against NATO thanks to Russia. In which ways does the balance work on behalf of Russia and against NATO? Well, I will just mention some figures which show that a certain balance or the security situation in our region, the Baltic region is like turning in coming times has turned in near past not in favor of the NATO allies in the region. During the four last years Russia has doubled its strategic weaponry in our region. If I say that Steadfast Chasse where took part about 6,000 NATO troops was the biggest article, five scenario exercise after the Cold War. So it was the Zapat 2013, also the biggest, I would say, aggressive scenario based towards West exercise after the Cold War where we estimate took part both reserve troops and all together about 100,000 troops. So there are a list of different activities from the Russian side what we see that in a historical sense in the western dimension and the western military region in Russia there is a, this is one of the priority regions of Russia to invest the defense and in addition to that it has been turned also a priority in a future way. Whether it will be a danger or not, this is a solid political question but from the military viewpoint we understand that the balance is turning now not in favor of NATO in our region and this is a real active we face. Thank you. Eric Temerlany at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. When you mention the kinds of things the United States can do to ensure the US's commitment to NATO's security I thought it was interesting that you didn't mention the presence of the United States tactical nuclear weapons in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. So I'm wondering with the end of the Cold War and with declining defense budgets both here and in NATO member states keeping those things in mind do you think NATO can adapt its nuclear sharing arrangement with the United States to reflect the threat environment of the 21st century and what state steps could the US take to assure NATO security without the presence of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe? Well I would say I'm a realist about the future also about the nuclear weaponry and also about the nuclear power balance also looking to the tactical nuclear weapons. So nuclear deterrence is badly needed I think for the NATO so if I didn't mention it in my speech I will do it now. Surely it is a very valuable role which the US produces to the security of the Alliance and the reality is also that nuclear weaponry is very clearly seen also in the Russian Federation's defense strategy where they say that there have been comments that if the US fights against indeed or wants to diminish the nuclear weaponry so it's the only because of in an order in the weaponry US will have then more power. So the reality is that the Russian Federation looking from the regions viewpoint will have nuclear weaponry in their strategic military thinking using the tactical nuclear weapons if the situation in the fourth world theater will demand it is a very sound way to use it from the military planning viewpoint and this is something we are aware. Thank you. The evolution of Russian military doctrine seeming to be moving more into an even more nuclear dependent approach. Particularly given where you are in the region what are the most worrisome trends in terms of Russian military thinking in general? What worries you the most? I think something, first of all I want to not be like paranoid. I would say that the danger of the military actions or military conflict in our region is not actually very low today. But the reality is that what we see problematic is that in Russian strategic thinking to achieve the political aims taking into help of military means is quite justified that and secondly for their military thinking the main danger is actually a military attack from the west side, from the NATO side to Russian soil. This is surely a second one and thirdly I think the problem is the lack of transparency. I think in their way of thinking, in the way of decision making and in the way of what they would achieve in the global politics. When I mentioned that in our region the military balance is minor or negative towards NATO comparing to Russian Federation troops it could also, it could produce also the situations where the dangerous situation could appear not because of vis-à-vis problems between Russia and Estonia or Russia and Latvia but because it is a area where it would be easiest to just to take a certain rebalance in the global sphere situation, military security cooperation and so it is as always finding a balance. But now we have turned indeed a step forward and that's something positive. I think we have time for two more. Let's come right over here. The sphere of Kremlin, NOVA is indeed a European values and western values orientated group of countries. So Ukrainian situation is very clear. I think we understand unfortunately what the Putin plans, Putin wants to build in the ruins of former Soviet Union the new block of countries where a strategic role surely plays Ukraine and they are using I think all the means to achieve that aim. And I think what is very important that the western leaders and also the public audience should send a very clear message. The first message is indeed to Kremlin that it is unacceptable to influence the independent countries to make the options about the countries and nations future. And the second is also that is solely unacceptable to use violence against its own people. And this is the message which needs to be given to the Iano Kovic government. And I'm not very optimistic about the coming weeks and months outcomes in Maidan because the opposition is also fragmented that you have to be always careful with red lines where you put it. Opposition has put several red lines, demanded several different issues. But I think if the opposition is able to get the different structure and leader, one real leader to unite it so I think it could be a real challenge to Iano Kovic and I would be rather suspicious to say mildly that Iano Kovic would move that country to Europe. No, he will not do it and the different question will be the culturally it is not in case where Europe, the union of values could take one country just on the principles of money or the need of money. So this is not just a marketplace but this is a union of values of Europe. And this is I think the fatal mistake what Iano Kovic actually has made. Thank you. Okay, final question. You've noted cyber is increasingly important and that since you are hitting your 2% threshold I'm just curious if you could elaborate a bit on your own capability priorities. You mean military capability priorities. Military capability, for us it is the most important is a rapid reaction capability for us. What we have learned from the Georgian war, what we have learned from the philosophy of modern warfare is indeed that crisis could occur within the days and so we need to be ready to act and also to give our allies a chance when the collective defence model would, article 5 would start the chance to pass the decisions and make logistical movements. So we in Estonia are, as we are moving against the tide in sense of investing to defence, there's also one element where I think we are in the modern world in a minority group of countries. We in Estonia believe strongly in national conscription system and we have remained it in Estonia although after we joined to the NATO it has, there was also the academic discussion whether it is like practical to continue that but fact is that 90% of Estonia supported not because it is a most cost efficient way we could hold a reserve army of also having a rapid reaction capability but because there's also a strong moral dimension that free men are taking the duty to defend their country. This is something very, like I think very important to Estonians also because, very strongly because of our historical painful reasons and so our plan is during the next decade to establish 21,000 rapid reaction troops army. So if we touch the button so within very short time frame we will have such an army and it was based on the reservists. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for covering such a great amount of ground with us today for your talk and for your interaction and also for the great partnership and alliance that we have with Estonia. Thank you very much and please join me in a round of applause for making it yourself. I was very privileged to be here and I'm very happy you receive you here. Thank you very much indeed. So thank you indeed.


here, this is the Eleventh AM Tiger Financial News Network, a market update and we are looking on this Friday, the 24th of June. We are looking at the down up 622 points at $31,298. When you think last Friday, we were making lower lows at $29,653. This is a fabulous move to the upside almost 2,000 points. We are looking at the weekly sign to improve. We are looking at the S&P. S&P, so the down is up 2.04%. S&P is up 2.25%. 3881.43, up 85%. Very strong leg A, trying to fill that big gap from two weeks ago. This is going to be very important. Of course, this is not the close of the day. This is just an hour and a half into trading. We are looking at the QQQ trading at up 7, at 291.80, up 2.43%. This is a very nice move. I have been talking about this since last Friday, in fact, that we want to see that NASDAQ, the form of beaten down stocks, really moving strongly to the upside and you are finally getting that. In fact, they are leading for the last couple of days. That is really important. We are looking at the IWM, the Russell 2000 small caps. This is a really good move. Up 2.67% at 174.37%. A little bit of leadership there in the small caps for a change. Gold unchanged, just about 1829. Just stuck. The dollar actually is not moving much up. In fact, in the trading range, it is down 44 ticks today, 1 out of 397. I think it is just in a trading band. Just the same as Crude Oil has gone to the lower end. It is having a good session today up for 108.39%. I think it is also doing a big digestive phase. The TLT is the one that we have to monitor because it is down today, $1.45 at 112.69%. You want to see rates start to move down as the yields come down as the bonds go high. I am going to talk about bonds. I am going to do a lot of stuff in the upcoming hour. Larry, unfortunately, has still got trouble with his vocal cords. Very, very scratchy throat. I will sit in. I will not be doing the trade with what you see. I will be doing my analysis in his hour because we want to go through currencies and a lot of other bonds and other things like that. I never had a chance to do it in my Tiger Technicians Hour. That is what we will be looking forward to in the next hour. Great programming all day. Stay tuned. Check out my opening call daily newsletter. I hope you can stay. Otherwise, have a great week. In any case, have a great weekend and I will see you in a few minutes' time.


What's up everybody Jason here with Jasper's case breaks calm 2020 tops inception baseball just sold out It's a 16 box case break round teams and we're eight And this one we have 28 total spots two combo teams Cardinals plus pirates and Royals and Rangers all cart ship and Very very high demand for this inception. Good. Good product. Let's go roll it We got a three and a five eight times. Good luck. So from Jamie all the way down to Matt one two three four five six seven in eighth and final time John down to Jeremy and there you go eight times Teams and there's a combo teams Pirates Cardinals the Rangers Royals Pirates Cardinals Royals Rangers, okay eight times one two three four five six seven and eight Eight times got eight Eight Rockies done in Milwaukee Brewers John with the Rockies Thomas. You have the debacks Matthew with the Orioles Rob You have the Tigers Jeremy with the Phillies Eric Pirates Cardinals combo Joe with the Astros Chris with the Giants angels Joe Lancaster with the Yankees Colony of the Cubs Thomas with the Mets Dodgers Christina with the Braves Tyler. You have the White Sox Jace with the Reds Joe with the Indians Josh Excellent. Yeah, they're Maddie Marlins Joseph with the twins Matt last bumble Joe Red Sox Chad with the A's Matt S with the Mariners Ryan Rangers Royals combo Jamie with the Blue Jays leave out with the Padres Cassandra with the Rays Miguel with the Nationals and Jeremy Russell with the Brewers there you go and If anybody wants to make any trades, I'll give you a couple of minutes. All right guys and after flawless just a little Fi Prism retail That's the break schedule right there and refer to The new time which will probably be like seven All right, so many trade activity is anybody gonna accept the trade Some people say pass on twins Seattle for Boston Marlins for twins Reds for Braves or Indians. Just let me know if not I'm gonna close it You guys need to accept or deny so that way we can move on. All right going once going twice All right, Matt St. I'll keep Seattle. All right, Christina denied her earlier. So Let's close it. Uh, well, I would assume the top three teams would probably be just the ones with the bigger rookies So I think Reds would be big with a Kino Aquino If Luis Robeir is in here, he'd be they'd be big one Astros would be a big one But I mean, there's also some veteran stuff, you know as well But I would say the root the basically the big rookies Boba Shatt blue J's would be a good one All right guys. Good luck. All right guys. Good luck Number one autograph per box Good luck. Tyler Alexander 75 Detroit Tigers Cody Bellinger Freeman Miller Bell Robles And we got Dustin May inception autograph jumbo relic patch guard out of 60 for the Dodgers Dodgers going to Thomas Yamamoto to 150 Marlins Nico Hornier to 99 For the Cubs going to Colton. Yeah, we pulled one in a tribute last night. It's pretty nice Stalman We're cootie. We got a blue And it's Abraham Toro to 25 six out of 25 for the Astros Houston Astros with that one Joe Kristen yellows to 150 Bobby Bradley for the Indians to 245 Joe with the Indians Trevor story likes now Boba Shatt rookie Ramuto Bobby Bradley with a patch out of the 75 for the Cleveland Indians Joe with that one greater all reels shed long Seattle Mariners to 245 Matt with the Mariners Machado to 75 you're done over a screen Justice Sheffield nice four out of ten for the Mariners nice patch Mariners were part of a trade talk.  Whoa, why is this backwards Logan Allen to 50? Indians with a nice couple hits already Joe Carlos Quino And Robel Garcia and a 99 for the Cubs 34 out of 99 Colton with that one Alright guys, we're halfway through Seven more boxes left the last box put us halfway consuling Murphy to 150 James Marvel to 245 for the Pittsburgh Pirates as a combo team going to Eric Jake Rogers for the Detroit Tigers Rob without one. I five left us Bobby Bradley to 75 man a lot of Indians in this one Indians all right four left guys Tyler Alexander to 50 That's four on the trial. That's crazy, right? Jake Rogers. Wow. Look at that patch. It looks like a sock. First of all player warm memorabilia and Out of 14 out of 25. That's cool Detroit going to Rob three left Alzole nice the C in the cub logo 33 out of 75 Cubs going to Colton. All right, two more Colt Tucker Pirates combo team. All right in the last day guys. Good luck doob on Rizzo So they're Mike and Gavin Lux to end it off out of 245 Dodgers going to Thomas and there you go guys That was a break. This is inception baseball 16 box case break random teams number eight on Jasper's case breaks calm Coming up next a few random number blocks for flawless football and then the break Appreciate it guys