| Chesapeake's risk rises at Belharbour
Less than a year ago, Chesapeake City Council took a big gamble on South Norfolk with public money. It approved the building of $200 million worth of condos, shops, offices and a marina on a gritty industrial site along the Elizabeth River. The idea was to spark interest in South Norfolk, and for its part, Chesapeake pledged millions for the new streets and sidewalks to make Belharbour Station at SoNo livable. The economic and environmental risks were well known. Could the ground be purged of industrial contaminants? And could it withstand competition across the river with downtown Norfolk? Now, even before major construction has begun, a new risk threatens to undermine the project: the curdling of the real estate market. So the council Tuesday night approved a new deal to take the pressure off the developer, Paylor Spruill.
Rudd warns of economic challenges
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd today issued a renewed warning about the economic challenges facing Australia amid concerns about the health of the US and Asian economies. Listing the possible dangers ahead, he accused the former Howard government of leaving Australia with a legacy of inflation that was making conditions more difficult. Mr Rudd said he was mindful of the global fallout from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis affecting world credit markets. "We believe that we are facing a dual set of significant economic challenges,'' Mr Rudd told reporters. "One is global. The global economy, downward revisions of growth coming off the back of US sub-prime, ramifications of that across Europe, some slackening of demand in Japan, and you see the outcome of that in terms of the IMF numbers for global growth being trimmed.
Australian stock market up 0.6pc at noon
THE share market was 0.6 per cent stronger just after noon, tracking gains on Wall Street after US investors bought financials in anticipation of yet another rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Higher commodity prices supported local mining and energy stocks. At 12.12pm AEDT, the S&P/ASX200 index was up 34.3 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 5788.8 and the All Ordinaries had risen 33.8 points to 5750.3 On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index futures contract was up nine points to 5730 on 13,733 contracts. ABM Amro Morgans Ipswich manager Tony Russell said local stocks were tracking US markets more closely ahead of the US Federal Reserves decision on interest rates. The decision will be known by local investors at 6.15am AEDT tomorrow morning. "And we were probably over-sold a bit yesterday,'' Mr Russell said.
Vacation home market attracting developers, second-home buyers
In West Virginia's Canaan Valley, the highest plateau east of the Rockies, Joe Beam is building vacation homes for fellow pilots, with a lighted 3,000-foot runway just outside the front door. Atop the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, at least three developers are targeting home buyers who enjoy rock climbing, rafting and hiking. And on 7,000 acres surrounding the legendary Greenbrier resort, builders have erected multimillion-dollar mansions for the wealthiest 1 percent of buyers. When it comes to variety, value and unique attractions, developers say West Virginia has a lot to offer second-home buyers, so they're targeting a segment of the real estate market that is still doing well. Their projects are often near tourism destinations including ski resorts and federally protected park lands.
Musty odor from window sills a mystery
Q. I have been in my one-story, 30-year-old brick house for three years, and during my time there it has had a musty, funky, moldy smell coming from all inside window sills. My husband does not smell anything, but that does not mean I am wrong. I have treated the sills with bleach and water, which helps a little but it lasts only a few days, when the odor is back, with a vengeance. I even took the sills off, and found the underside of the sills to be moldy. I treated them with the bleach and water, but after a while the smell returned. The windows do not leak. What else can I do? I have called Mr. Smell, a local trouble shooter, who is coming in a few days, but meanwhile I need all the help I can get. NANCY J., Virginia Beach, Va. A. You have done everything I would do, but I have two aces up my sleeve that might give you a chance to conquer all.
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.
Archives for: January 2008
And with 20 thousand good permanent jobs, 30 thousand construction jobs, a $2 billion boost to our tourism industry, property tax relief for 1 million households, and a steady reliable stream of revenue for cities, towns and the state within our grasp, let’s work together to pass the Resort Casinos bill... Let’s be both tough and smart on crime: +Tough by limiting illegal access to guns and keeping high-threat gun offenders off the streets;Smart by supervising and supporting the 97% of inmates who eventually return to society, and by using CORI information wisely instead of haphazardly. Let’s work together to pass an effective Anti-Crime Package this spring. Goodbye SheriffGov. Deval Patrick also proposed moving the state's seven remaining county-run sheriff's offices into state government.
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