The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U. S. state of New York, serving 12 counties in Downstate New York, along with two counties in southwestern Connecticut under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, carrying over 11 million passengers on an average weekday systemwide, over 850,000 vehicles on its seven toll bridges and two tunnels per weekday. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in the United States. In February 1965, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller suggested that the New York State Legislature create an authority to purchase and modernize the Long Island Rail Road; the LIRR a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, had been operating under bankruptcy protection since 1949. The proposed authority would have the power to make contracts or arrangements with other commuter-railroad operators in the New York City area. On May 21, 1965, the legislature chartered the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority to take over the operations of the LIRR.
Governor Rockefeller appointed his top aide, Dr. William J. Ronan, as chairman and chief executive officer of the MCTA. In June 1965, the state finalized an agreement to buy the LIRR from the PRR for $65 million; the MCTA made a down payment of $10 million for the LIRR in December 1965, it had completed the rest of the payment by the next month. In February 1965, Rockefeller and Connecticut Governor John N. Dempsey jointly suggested that operations of the New Haven Line, the New Haven Railroad's struggling commuter rail operation, be transferred to the New York Central Railroad as part of a plan to prevent the New Haven Railroad from going bankrupt. If the operational merger occurred, the proposed MCTA and the existing Connecticut Transportation Authority would contract with New York Central to operate the New Haven Line to Grand Central Terminal. A joint report from both agencies, released in September of that year, recommended that the line be leased to New York Central for 99 years, with the MCTA and CTA acting as agents for both states.
In October, the MCTA found that the New Haven Line's stations and infrastructure were more decrepit than those of the LIRR. The New Haven Railroad's trustees opposed New York Central's takeover of the New Haven Line, as they felt that the $140 million offer for the New Haven Line was too low. After some discussion, the trustees decided to continue operating the New Haven Line, but only until June 1967. In January 1966, New York City Mayor John Lindsay proposed merging the New York City Transit Authority, which operated buses and subways in New York City, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, which operated toll bridges and tunnels within the city. Rockefeller offered his "complete support" for Lindsay's proposed unified transit agency, while longtime city planner and TBTA chair Robert Moses called the proposed merger "absurd" and "grotesque" for its unwieldiness. In June 1966, Rockefeller announced his plans to expand the MCTA's scope to create a new regional transit authority; the new authority would encompass the existing MCTA, as well as the NYCTA and TBTA.
Lindsay disagreed, saying that the state and city should have operationally separate transit authorities that worked in tandem. On May 3, 1967, Rockefeller signed a bill that allowed the MCTA to oversee the mass transit policies of New York City-area transit systems; the unification agreement would take place the following March, upon which the MCTA would take over the operations of the LIRR, NYCTA, TBTA, New Haven commuter services, New York Central commuter services, the Staten Island Railway. The TBTA was resistant to the MCTA's efforts to acquire it. Moses was afraid that the enlarged MCTA would "undermine, destroy or tarnish" the integrity of the TBTA, One source of contention was Rockefeller's proposal to use TBTA tolls in order to subsidize the cheap fares of the NYCTA, since Moses opposed any use of TBTA tolls for use by outside agencies. In February 1968, Moses acquiesced to the MCTA's merger proposal. New York Central and the PRR merged in February 1968, forming the Penn Central Transportation Company.
On February 29, 1968, the MCTA published a 56-page report for Governor Rockefeller, in it, proposed several subway and railroad improvements under the name "Metropolitan Transportation, a Program for Action". The city had intended to build subway extensions in all four boroughs so that most riders would need at most one transfer to get to their destination; the Program for Action called for upgrades to the Penn Central railroads as well as to area airports. The Program for Action was put forward with other development and transportation plans under the administration of Mayor Lindsay; this included Lindsay's Linear City plan for housing and educational facilities, the projected construction of several Interstate Highways, many of which were proposed by Robert Moses. On March 1, 1968, the day after the release of the Program for Action, the MCTA dropped the word "Commuter" from its name and became the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; the MTA took over the operations of the other New York City-area transit systems.
Moses was let go from his job as chairman of the TBTA. The construction of two proposed bridges over the Long Island Sound was put under the jurisdiction of the MTA. Moses stated that TBTA construction projects would reduce the MTA's budget surplus through 1970. Chairman Ronan pushed for the MTA to pursue the Program for Action, saying, "We're making up for 30 years of do-nothingism". Ronan proposed that the MTA take over the Staten Island Railwa
The city of Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC on the coast of Northwest Africa, in what is now Tunisia, as one of a number of Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean created to facilitate trade from the city of Tyre on the coast of what is now Lebanon. The name of both the city and the wider republic that grew out of it, Carthage developed into a significant trading empire throughout the Mediterranean; the date from which Carthage can be counted as an independent power cannot be determined, nothing distinguished Carthage from the other Phoenician colonies in Northwest Africa and the Mediterranean during 800–700 BC. By the end of the 7th century BC, Carthage was becoming one of the leading commercial centres of the West Mediterranean region. After a long conflict with the emerging Roman Republic, known as the Punic Wars, Rome destroyed Carthage in 146 BC. A Roman Carthage was established on the ruins of the first. Roman Carthage was destroyed—its walls torn down, its water supply cut off, its harbours made unusable—following its conquest by Arab invaders at the close of the 7th century.
It was replaced by Tunis as the major regional centre, which has spread to include the ancient site of Carthage in a modern suburb. Carthage was one of a number of Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean that were created to facilitate trade from the cities of Sidon and others from Phoenicia, situated in the coast of what is now Lebanon. In the 10th century BC, the eastern Mediterranean shore was inhabited by various Semitic populations, who had built up flourishing civilizations; the people inhabiting what is now Lebanon were referred to as Phoenicians by the Greeks. The Phoenician language was close to ancient Hebrew, to such a degree that the latter is used as an aid in the translation of Phoenician inscriptions; the Phoenician cities were dependent on both land- and seaborne trade and their cities included a number of major ports in the area. In order to provide a resting place for their merchant fleets, to maintain a Phoenician monopoly on an area's natural resource, or to conduct trade on its own, the Phoenicians established numerous colonial cities along the coasts of the Mediterranean, stretching from Iberia to the Black Sea.
They were stimulated to found their cities by a need for revitalizing trade in order to pay the tribute extracted from Tyre and Byblos by the succession of empires that ruled them and by fear of complete Greek colonization of that part of the Mediterranean suitable for commerce. The initial Phoenician colonization took place during a time when other neighboring kingdoms were suffering from a "Dark Age" after the activities of the Sea Peoples; the initial city covered the area around a hill called Byrsa, paid an annual tribute to the nearby Libyan tribes, may have been ruled by a governor from Tyre, whom the Greeks identified as "king". Utica the leading Phoenician city in Northwest Africa, aided the early settlement in her dealings; the Phoenicians' leading city was Tyre, which established a number of trading posts around the Mediterranean. Phoenicians established 300 colonies in Tunisia, Algeria, to a much lesser extent, on the arid coast of Libya; the Phoenicians lacked the population or necessity to establish self-sustaining cities abroad, most cities had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, but Carthage and a few other cities developed into large, self-sustaining, independent cities.
The Phoenicians controlled Cyprus, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands, as well as obtaining minor possessions in Crete and Sicily. The Phoenicians managed to control Sicily for a limited time, but Phoenician control did not extend inland and was limited to the coast only; the first colonies were made on the two paths to Iberia's mineral wealth—along with the African coast and on Sicily and the Balearic Islands. The center of the Phoenician world was Tyre, serving as an political hub; the power of this city waned following numerous sieges and its eventual destruction by Alexander the Great, the role as leader passed to Sidon, to Carthage. Each colony paid tribute to either Tyre or Sidon, but neither mother city had actual control of the colonies; this changed with the rise of Carthage since the Carthaginians appointed their own magistrates to rule the towns and Carthage retained much direct control over the colonies. This policy resulted in a number of Iberian towns siding with the Romans during the Punic Wars.
Ancient sources concur that Carthage had become the wealthiest city in the world via its trade and commerce, yet few remains of its riches exist. This is due to the fact that most of it was short-lived materials—textiles, unworked metal and slaves. There can be no doubt that the most fruitful trade was that acquired from the Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, in which tin, silver and iron were gained in return for consumer goods. Like their Phoenician predecessors the Carthaginians produced and exported the valuable tyrian purple dye, extracted from shellfish; the Phoenician colony of Mogador on the north-eastern coast of Africa was a center of Tyrian dye production. Carthage was founded by Phoenicians coming from the Levant; the city's name in Phoenician language means "New City". There is a tradition in some ancient sources, such as Philistos of Syracuse, for an "early" foundation date of around 1215 BC –, before the fall of Troy in 1180 BC.
Devinn Lane is a former adult model, pornographic actress, writer and producer. She is sometimes credited as Devon Lane. Lane became pregnant at 16 and began stripping to support herself and her child in 1990. In 1996, while still dancing, she was offered work posing in hard-core men's magazines, she made her hardcore film debut in 1999, performing in only girl/girl scenes. She signed an exclusive contract for the production company Wicked Pictures in December 1999, she has directed many films, notably all five installments of The Devinn Lane Show. In 2003, she began performing with men, starting with the final scene in The Devinn Lane Show 5: Save The Best For Last. Over the next two years she performed scenes with men in Kink, Space Nuts, Improper Conduct, Wicked Sex Party 6, Stiletto, Tuff Chick, two Road Trixx movies, Lovers Lane; as of 2005, she went on indefinite hiatus from on-screen work, focusing on directing for the production company Shane's World. Her first producer credit is on the film Beautiful/Nasty, nominated for the AVN Award Best All-Girl Feature in 2002.
In addition to hardcore work, Lane hosted Playboy TV's mock reality show 7 Lives Exposed, which ran for six seasons until 2007, has appeared in several softcore films which appear on DVD and on the Cinemax channels. In October 2008, Lane filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Digital Playground, Vivid Entertainment Group, Moniker Online Services among other entities, alleging that they profited from domain names similar to her performer name and did not compensate her; the defendants in the litigation say it is a frivolous lawsuit and a retaliation action prompted by the ebbing of her career as a contract girl due to her age and diminishing public demand for her services. In February 2009, she dismissed her claims against most of the companies she was suing, leaving only Privacy Protect and Pixel named in the suit, her attorney declined to comment at the time on. Lane identifies as bisexual, she stated. That was the hardest thing. I was brought up. Once I got over that and realized I didn't have to live under my family's thumb anymore and that I was an adult and made my own decisions, I sought out the adult industry, being a natural exhibitionist.
It just seemed like the right thing. Thrills playing "Denise" in episode: "A Most Dangerous Desire", June 9, 2001 The Helmetcam Show playing "Herself – Guest", July 5, 2000 The Man Show playing "Herself" in episode: "Wheel of Destiny", July 2, 2000 The Helmetcam Show playing "Herself – Guest", May 17, 2000 The Helmetcam Show playing "Herself – Guest", December 1, 1999 The Howard Stern Radio Show playing "Herself", October 16, 1999 Devinn Lane on IMDb Devinn Lane at the Internet Adult Film Database Devinn Lane at the Adult Film Database Bio at Wicked Pictures Audio Interview at Adult DVD Talk Interview at Broken Dollz