| Mines are being reopened as gold fever sweeps state
Gold fever is sweeping Arizona. Mining companies are scouring the earth, looking for new deposits and working to reopen venerable mines, some with histories that date to territorial days. With the yellow metal selling for just under $900 per ounce, more weekend gold diggers are heading for the hills with pans, picks and metal detectors. .
Ponderings from PapaBear
The NFL regular season has come to a close and the Cleveland Browns just missed making the playoffs. A few weeks ago it sure looked like they were in good shape as far as the post season was concerned, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Still, the Browns did register a victory over the San Francisco 49ers in their final game and there will be high hopes for this team entering the 2008 season. The Brownies finished with a 10-6 record, far exceeding expectations for this team entering 2007. This is the first time this franchise has reached a double digit win total since they re-entered the league in 1999. They provided many thrills for their die hard fans this season and belive me it was long overdue. I grew up in Cleveland and have been a life long Browns fan, so the following opinion might be a bit bias.
Automated Parking Garage Solutions Hold Key To Urban Development
Quincy, Massachusetts ----July 8....... The recent spike in oil prices and growing concern for the environment has sparked renewed interest in mixed-use urban development. Today's leading urban planners and downtown developers are rethinking their allegiance to single-use zoning practices and focusing on building communities in order to create neighborhoods in which people can live, socialize, shop, and perhaps even work - all within a comfortable walking distance. While large suburban yards were recently the sought-after American ideal, today, high gas and petrol prices make living close to friends, neighbors, social activities, and public transportation more attractive than suburban scrawl. High-density living naturally reduces household gasoline usage without crimping personal freedom or creating feelings of undue sacrifice.
Lynn Davidson's blog
Reuters injected bias into this December 24 article about 40 missing Cuban “migrants" who never arrived in America after being smuggled out of Cuba. The article minimized Castro's oppression and faulted the US for the Cubans' flight. The wire service began by deliberately mischaracterizing the Cubans as “migrants" instead of calling them “refugees" or even “passengers." Labeling them “migrants" ignores Cuba's political and economic straitjacket, and more importantly links Cuban refugees to the issue of illegal immigration. The media are beginning to call everyone who comes to America with the intent to stay, “migrants," whether here legally or not, which erases any distinctions. People who are anti-illegal immigration often support Cuban refugees remaining in the US, and linking the two issues can reduce opposition to illegal immigration.
22 years and still jazzed about Disneyland gig: Strutting their stuff ...
For 22 years, a group of Arizona State University graduates have held squatters' rights to one of the choicest pieces of real estate on Planet Earth. The spot: At the bend of the river in Disneyland's New Orleans Square, just across from the Fantasmic! extravaganza on Tom Sawyer's Island. The grads: The Side Street Strutters, one of American's great Dixieland jazz bands, have been entertaining visitors to the park since 1985. .
Utah's Wave is a rock star without a crowd
The day before, I had flown to Flagstaff, Ariz., rented a car and driven more than two hours to Page, near the Utah border, then gotten up early for a 30-minute drive to Big Water. Inside the crowded room, a staffer with the Bureau of Land Management began to drop numbered bingo balls into a small cage. The room fell quiet as he turned the crank. He let one ball pop out of a hinged opening and picked it up. "Number 1!" he shouted. A young Seattle couple let out a breath and grinned. They — and eight other hikers in quick succession — had just won a permit to hike into this wilderness. "That's it, folks," the BLM worker announced. This lottery determined who got to see the Wave, one of the most-photographed rock formations in North America. Hikers and tourists from around the world are fixated on this slice of sandstone, an obsession fueled by the thousands of glossies that fill hundreds of guidebooks and online galleries.
Vibrant Downtown Medical Village At Risk
The vibrant, downtown medical village promised to the residents of Escondido is withering away.Once again, politicians and government bureaucrats lose their resolve after having convinced taxpayers to part with their hard-earned money. Best efforts are now being wasted on a cynical blame game as politicians and bureaucrats fail to deliver on their promises. Communications lack substantive information and overflow with vague promises. What is sorely needed is a joint workshop, with ample public input, to salvage the downtown medical village. Palomar Pomerado Health, a government hospital district, promised to invest $73 million in renovating Palomar Medical Center in downtown Escondido if voters passed a $496 million bond to be repaid, with interest, by taxpayers. After the bond passed, the Escondido City Council opposed construction of a new hospital in a prime industrial park for fear of blighting the struggling downtown business district.
Low-cost alpacas fit business plan
Tampa Bay's Cinnamon Girl, foreground, and 16 other alpacas roam the 7-acre spread behind Tom and Beth Berger's New Port Richey home Tuesday evening. Beth's love of the creatures started the project and the transformation of their back yard into a small business called Suncoast Alpacas. .
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