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The controversial Keystone XL pipeline is moving to avoid an environmentally sensitive part of Nebraska.

The president of TransCanada’s energy and oil pipelines stated that Nebraskans would have a say in determining the final route. Nebraska’s Department of Environmental Quality is working with the U.S. State Department to find the best location for the pipeline.

Roughly three thousand kilometres of pipeline would carry crude oil from Alberta to Texas Gulf coast refineries. The U.S. federal government recently delayed the decision on a federal permit for the project to study alternative routes.

Environmental group Centre of Biological Diversity is suing the U.S. State Department to stop the project. They claim that any changes will still pose an environmental threat.

The Alberta Premier is confident that the project will go through.

The NBA 2011-2012 season is in serious doubt. After already having been delayed for five weeks, it is looking very unlikely that the season will begin at all.

Yesterday the NBA Players Association ended bargaining with the league. The association’s president, LA Lakers Derek Fisher, also dissolved the union. This decision allows players to pursue legal action against the NBA.

Players and managers have been in disagreement over how profits are split. The NBA wanted a 50-50 split while the players association was seeking a minimum 52.5 percent.

In the last few days’ players indicated they would be willing to accept 51 percent with benefits. Currently players are paid between 49 and 51 percent.

Fisher added players would be filing an anti-trust suit in the coming few days.

According to a study conducted by the Federal Reserve, there is more than a 50 percent chance that the United States will have another recession. The cause is connected to international developments, domestic factors and the debit crisis in Europe.

The study states that the U.S. is simply not stable enough to handle the sovereign debt coming from Europe.

It is estimated that the recession will happen again at the beginning of the New Year.  However, the study also states that the U.S. has a chance of getting through this recession quite quickly during the second half of the year.

The U.S. currently has a 30 percent chance of falling into a recession without any external factors. 

First of all, let me start off by saying that The Sounds are one of my favorite bands and after I saw this show, they're also in my list of top 5 live performances. This Swedish band really rocked it. I had never been to Club Soda for a show before, but I knew they had balconies and I knew that is where I wanted to write my piece. It was the perfect vantage point.

The Sounds opened strong with a track from their new album, "Dance with the Devil." The crowd was surprisingly loud and responsive to the lead singer Maja Ivarsson’s actions and her performance. As we sang her own lyrics back to her, it was obvious that she was surprised at how loud we were and she became very humbled by it.

They played all their hits from all four of their albums. It was one of the best shows I have ever seen, partly because I knew all the lyrics and was singing my head off, but also because the band’s sound was tight, clean and sounded just like their albums, which I take as a sign that they are very good entertainers and are good at what they do.The explosive crowd reaction continued as they played one of my favorite songs, "Something To Die For"  and another fun song called "Queen of Apology."

Maje was a stunning, and very physical performer; she was dancing and jumping around the stage in 3 inch stilettos all night, she flashed her panties at the crowd more than once, and she smoked cigarettes in between songs and even during her ballad. During the song "Painted by Numbers," she organized a male vs. female sing off because she wanted to know who was the loudest. She also said to us “from the bottom of my Swedish heart, you guys have been much louder then Toronto where we played before.” The crowd went crazy after that.

The band members are also phenomenal at what they do; the bassist is badass and loves to move around and the drummer really created some nostalgic moment for me. The keyboardist/electronic drummer stood out a little less, but he and the drummer had an amazing electric drum battle.

The bands energy never fell; it only got more and more pumped up because the audience was giving them a lot of wonderful feedback. We were cheering, yelling, dancing, smiling, laughing and listening. In all honesty, it was one of the best concerts I have ever attended. I saw The Sounds back in 2005 at Warped Tour in Montreal, and I was very excited when I heard they were coming back. They have so much new brilliant material from their newest albums to give the show fresh appeal. They didn’t seem like the smallish band from Sweden I saw so many years ago. They have matured and can put on one hell of a show!

-Andrea Boulet