Holiday Breakfast

A new year means new opportunities to get stuck into your garden, and with much of the country basking in summer weather, now is the perfect opportunity.
New Zealand Gardener editor Jo McCarroll joined Francesca Rudkin to share gardening tips, what to do over summer, and takes calls from listeners. 
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If you are thinking about a New Years resolution, this is the interview for you.
Nicola Turner from Mainstream Green in Cambridge has proven that striving to have a zero waste home is possible for any household.
Mainstream Green helps people find ways to make sustainability an easy option in busy ordinary lives.
Nicola joined Tim Dower to talk about her business.
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This year, the New York Times Square ball will drop to empty streets.
Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, no one will be allowed to gather in person, but there will be a virtual event for those wanting to watch it from home.
Michael Phillips, the president of Jamestown, which owns One Times Square, joins Tim Dower to talk about the event.
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Newstalk ZB is back with another edition of Hidden Spots on Summer Breakfast.
This is where we take you on a bit of a virtual road trip around the country - and give you tips on attractions you may not know about.
Birdwoods Gallery and Sweet Shop in Havelock North is a 'must see' for all visitors and locals, offering a gallery, sculpture garden, cafe, real fruit ice-cream shop and our much loved old fashioned sweet shop.
Opened in 2005 by Bruce and Louise Stobart, the Gallery's home is the original church hall from St Peter's in Waipawa built in 1894.
Owner Louise Stobart joins Tim Dower to talk about the attraction.
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Terry Beth Hadler was so eager to get a lifesaving COVID-19 vaccination that the 69-year-old piano teacher stood in line overnight in a parking lot with hundreds of other senior citizens.
She wouldn't do it again.
Hadler said she waited 14 hours and that a brawl nearly erupted before dawn on Tuesday when people cut in line outside the library in Bonita Springs, Florida, where officials were offering shots on a first-come, first-served basis to those 65 or older.
“I'm afraid that the event was a super-spreader," she said. “I was petrified.”
The race to vaccinate millions of Americans is off to a slower, messier start than public health officials and leaders of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed had expected.
Overworked, underfunded state public health departments are scrambling to patch together plans for administering vaccines. Counties and hospitals have taken different approaches, leading to long lines, confusion, frustration and jammed phone lines. A multitude of logistical concerns have complicated the process of trying to beat back the scourge that has killed over 340,000 Americans.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking for patience, noting the vaccine supply is limited.
“It may not be today for everyone, may not be next week. But over the next many weeks, as long as we continue getting the supply, you’re going to have the opportunity to get this,” he said Wednesday.
Florida has placed a priority on residents 65 and over to receive the vaccine once medical workers and long-term care residents and staff get the shots. The decision bucks a suggestion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to place a priority on people 75 and older and essential workers like teachers and first responders as the next to get vaccinated.
Dr. Ashish Jha, a health policy researcher and dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said the main problem is that states are not getting adequate financial or technical support from the federal government. Jha said the Trump administration, principally the Department of Health and Human Services, has set states up to fail.
“There’s a lot states still need to do," he said, "but you need a much more active role from the federal government than what they have been willing to do. They’ve largely said to states, ‘This is your responsibility. Figure it out.’”
Lags in reporting vaccination numbers explain in part why many states aren't meeting their year-end goals, but officials blame logistical and financial hurdles for the slow pace.
Many states lack the money to hire personnel, pay for overtime or reach out to the public. The equipment required to keep the vaccines cold complicates their distribution. Also, providers need to track vaccinations so they have enough to dispense the required second doses 21 days after the first.
Dr. James McCarthy, chief physician executive at Memorial Hermann in Houston, said the hospital system has administered about half of the roughly 30,000 doses that it has received since Dec. 15.
The system had to create a plan from scratch. Among other things, administrators had to ensure that everyone in the vaccination areas could socially distance, and they had to build in a 15-minute observation period for each patient so that recipients could be watched for any side effects.
“We can’t just hand it out like candy,” McCarthy said.
Pasadena, California, is vaccinating its firefighters in groups of 50 after their two-day shifts are over so they can recuperate during their four days off. “We don’t want the majority of our workforce — if they do experience side effects — to be out all at the same time,” city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.
In South Carolina, state lawmakers are questioning why the state has administered just 35,158 of the 112,125 Pfizer doses it had received by Wednesday. State Sen. Marlon Kimpson said officials told him that some front-line health...

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The Thames Coromandel mayor has come out swinging at a group of unruly teens who ran rampant in Whangamatā last night, rioting and causing carnage in the streets.
Twenty two people were arrested across Whangamatā as a result of the incident and other "hot spots" of disorder in the Coromandel town.
Mayor Sandra Goudie said they were nothing but "self-indulgent brats" who had been drinking at home and emerged to cause trouble later when they were "bored".
And it has emerged that close to $6000 worth of stock was stolen from a local cafe, and the Herald understands there are fears the roof is so badly damaged it will have to be replaced.
A bin was knocked over near the surf club. Photo / Supplied.
Last night a number of teens mounted the roof of Blackies Cafe, throwing bottles at police who armed themselves with shields and batons.
Eastern Waikato Area Commander Inspector Dean Anderson said groups in Whangamatā, particularly the Williamson Park area, were initially peaceful last night but there were "pockets of alcohol-fuelled violent disorder".
"After a number of people were injured from alcohol bottles being thrown into the assembled crowds, police commenced disbursing the main body of youths who had congregated around a local business within the park," Anderson said.
"A large number of youths had climbed onto the roof of the building and commenced throwing additional projectiles into the crowds and at police officers. The youths were eventually disbursed from the park area leaving significant damage to the business," he said.
Auckland woman Jane Phare, who is on holiday in the area, said there were thousands of teens gathered on the streets.
Some had climbed onto the roof of the cafe, next to the Whangamatā Surf Club, which is about 200m from her friend's bach where she was staying.
"There was just this roar of out-of-control drunk kids and no music," Phare said.
"There was a huge crowd of drunk teens who had climbed up on the roof. They were throwing bottles at police - there were bottles flying everywhere, smashing onto the ground.
"The road littered with broken glass and police were trying to keep young ones arriving away from bottles crashing down. Police were telling us to stay back.
"Riot police with shields and batons arrived at the club and everybody scattered."
Goudie spoke to Newstalk ZB about the incident this morning.
"That's been a real disappointment, because it's been so good for so long," she said of New Year in the area.
"Firstly, I've got to take my hat off to police for the awesome work that they do - they're our go-to guys.
"This riot has cost not only the property owners a lot of money, but it also costs the ratepayers a lot of money as well and so I'm really disappointed in seeing this start to rear its head again."
Police at the Whangamatā Surf Club after youths climbed on the roof. Photo / Jane Phare
Goudie said years ago she can recall the area being "just like a warzone" with drunk teenagers after a "clampdown" stopping underage people from drinking in the streets and in public places.
"They got completely out of hand ... I hate to think what it was like last night when we've got record numbers on the peninsula," she said.
"Whangamatā has probably the biggest number of people in there it's seen for years ... it would have just been horrendous to be part of that or involved in that.
"It's just bored, drunk teenagers - they can't drink on the streets like they used to or in public like they used to so they do drink at home and then they bring themselves out onto the street and they're just self-indulgent brats."
Goudie said it is was possible an event for teenagers in future may prevent similar behaviour.
"That is a good way to go, I think, because it does give them something to focus on so they can put their energy into dancing and just cruising around with their peers and...

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This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other in most of the world, with pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many people bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget with made-for-TV fireworks displays or packing it in early since they could not toast the end of 2020 in the presence of friends or carousing strangers.
As the clock struck midnight across Asia and the South Pacific and the hour neared in Europe, Africa and the Americas, the New Year’s experience mirrored national responses to the virus itself. Some canceled or scaled back festivities, while others without active outbreaks were able to carry on like any other year.
Australia was among the first to ring in 2021 because of its proximity to the international date line. In past years 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbour to watch fireworks. This time, most watched on television as authorities urged residents to stay home to see the seven minutes of pyrotechnics that lit up the Sydney Harbor Bridge and its surroundings.
Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populated city, called off its annual fireworks show to discourage crowds. Officials in London made the same decision months ago. And while the ball was set to drop in New York's Times Square like always, police fenced off the site synonymous with New Year's Eve.

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Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi is calling for the Corrections Minister to step in immediately to resolve the ongoing stand-off with rioting inmates at Waikeria Prison.
Waititi is this morning issuing an urgent plea to Kelvin Davis to sort out the situation for the safety of everyone involved.
Waititi visited the prison yesterday evening to meet with the 16 remaining men who had taken control of the prison's top jail in fiery uprising on Tuesday afternoon. It came as one further prisoner surrendered to authorities.
After meeting with the men, Waititi warned things were going to get worse at the jail if there wasn't a top-level intervention.
"When injustice becomes law, defiance becomes duty. These men are at their wits' end.
"This situation is indicative of a dysfunctional Justice system that has been failing our people for years.
"Until resources can be devolved to Māori to design and implement by Māori for Māori approaches, things are going to get worse."
He said for a government who prided itself on kindness, they had allowed for an inhumane environment to fester.
"They are willingly allowing for breaches of basic human rights to occur. They need to sort it out now," he said.
A spokesperson for the Corrections Minister said today that he would not be commenting until the situation was resolved.
Rawiri said the men faced appalling inhumane conditions inside the jail.
"The environment in Waikeria prison is dehumanising. The water they are expected to drink is brown. They don't get clothing or appropriate bedding. They are expected to wash their clothes in the yard shower."
He said yesterday's meeting with the prisoners holding siege to the now extensively damaged top jail was about listening to their korero.
"They are clear that this is not a riot, it is a protest for their human rights for all inmates past and present.
"They are protesting for their right to basic human needs."
He said it would take a degree of negotiation with Corrections before the men got off the roof.
"I feel for those who work in that particular space and also our whānau who have to live in it. Our people have done wrong, yes, and they've got to accept that, but at the end of the day 2020 in Aotearoa people have to be treated by a human being and not an animal."
It came as a manifesto was released yesterday detailing appalling conditions inside the Waikato jail including filthy drinking water and inmates expected to eat food in paper bags next to open, shared toilets.
The document also alleged inmates have had to use towels for three straight weeks, and some have not had bedding changed in five months.

A Corrections spokesperson said the situation remained unchanged this morning.

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There is no doubt you would have heard it time after time by now, the declaration that 2020 has been the worst year, ever!
While we can't prove that and nobody can, it is fair to say the long and tedious year dominated by Covid 19 has been a serious strain on people's mental health.
So with 2021 hours away, how can Kiwis take a step forward into the new year while prioritising their mental well being?
Kyle Macdonald is a psychotherapist & co host of 'The Nutters Club' on Newstalk ZB. 
He joins Tim Dower to share his advice on looking after our mental health.
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Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says that one of the greatest pandemic concerns facing his government is the plight of workers once a moratorium on firings lifts in March.
Conte defended his government’s actions to protect workers, citing 5 billion euros earmarked for social stabilizers that the Bank of Italy said had helped to prevent 600,000 people from losing their jobs during the COVID-19 emergency.
He said the government was working with unions and social services “to confront the very worrying scenarios that we will see after March, because it is clear that the security belt that we have built is more or less working.”
Charities have reported a spike in requests from first-time aid recipients due to the total lockdown in the spring and less severe closures this fall as the virus resurged. It has claimed more than 73,000 lives since February, the highest toll in Europe.
Charities also note that some categories of workers remain uncovered by social programs while government aid last spring arrived late and proved in many cases insufficient to cover basic expenses.
During a wide-ranging end-of-year press conference, Conte maintained his stance that the vaccine against the virus would remain voluntary in Italy. But he urged people to get it. Surveys show one-quarter to one-third of Italians are skeptical of the vaccine.
“I ask everyone to make an effort, put aside ideology, put aside emotional reactions, and let’s perform an act of solidarity, if we don’t want to call it love, toward the entire national community. Let’s take the vaccine,’’ Conte said.
Conte said the first phase of the vaccination program reaching at least 10 million people should be reached by the end of April, but that there will still be a long way to go to reach so-called herd immunity in the country of 60 million.

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