Casino blames economy for job cuts

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Source: http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/indiana/casino-blames-economy-for-job-cuts

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Businesses need to take lead in branding Edmonds, destination ...

Home ? Blog ? Edmonds Business ? Businesses need to take lead in branding Edmonds, destination expert advises

Businesses need to take lead in branding Edmonds, destination expert advises

Main Street Square in Rapid City, S.D. transformed the city?s downtown into a gathering place.

Jettison the generic.

Narrow your focus.

Be different.

Any community that wants to better market itself as a destination and increase economic development needs to stop ?trying to be all things to all people,? an expert in destination development and marketing told a group of about 125 Edmonds business owners, city officials and citizens gathered in the Wade James Theatre Thursday night.

Roger Brooks, founder of Seattle-based Destination Development International, was invited by the city?s Economic Development Department to speak, and he brought with him inspiring case studies from more than 400 communities, downtowns, and downtown districts in North America that his company considers to be well-branded and dynamic. Among them: St. Albert, outside of Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada, (population 60,000) which transformed itself from a bedroom community to a thriving ?botanic arts? city, complete with a $100 million garden center that also doubles as a conference and education center, and Jefferson, Texas (population 2,500) now known as the antique center of Texas with 125 antique dealers.

St. Albert logo reflects its ?botanic arts? branding.

During his two-and-a-half-hour presentation, Brooks talked about the ?20 ingredients of an outstanding downtown.? He started by focusing on some of the ?deadly sins of community marketing.? Among them: the temptation to fall back on the generic buzzwords ? ?explore,? discover,? historic downtown,? ?best-kept secret? and ?gateway? ? that ?could fit any community in Washington.?

?There are 546 cities and towns and villages in this state,? Brooks said. ?Competition has never been more fierce.?

He encouraged local businesses to take the lead in branding and marketing their communities, and not rely on either the city or citizen-based focus groups to lead the way. ?You cannot narrow your focus by public consent,? Brooks said. ?It needs to come from the business community.?

Roger Brooks

He also talked about the importance of preventing ?leakage? ? essentially residents spending their money outside of town ? and offered tips for encouraging both residents and visitors to spend more money and time in Edmonds.

Downtown is ?the heart and soul of every community besides its people,? Brooks said. ?If locals won?t hang out in your downtown, neither will visitors.? That doesn?t mean that other neighborhoods should be ignored, he added, but downtown needs to be the main focus. When suburban shopping malls arrived in the 1960s, everyone left downtown to shop in malls and strip malls. Now Americans are starting to move toward what Brooks described as ?the European standard? of pedestrian-focused, tree-lined streets with plazas that become community gathering places.

Among Brooks?? 20 ingredients for a successful downtown:

- Start with a plan. And Brooks stressed that it should not be a strategic plan, which he believes is a waste of time, but an action plan with a to-do list. (He was quick to note that while the City of Edmonds is just finishing up its own strategic plan, next steps call for that plan to be transformed into action steps, which is a good sign.)

- Describe a strong brand and a retail focus. Examples include the arts, sports tourism, horticulture and antiques. ?When you stand for something, all of a sudden there?s a business opportunity,? he said.

- Group like businesses together, following the 10/10/10 rule. Within three linear blocks, downtowns should have 10 restaurants, three ?destination? (non-chain or franchise) retail shops and ?at least 10 places open after 6 p.m.,? he said. ?How you doing Edmonds?? Brooks asked, referring to the fact that most city businesses are not open late into the evening, even though customers are now ?shopping later at night.? To draw shoppers, downtown businesses need to ?think and act like a mall? with consistent days and hours of operation, he said.

- Parking limits ? especially those of less than four hours ? are bad. Set aside parking lots or garages with all-day parking and let customers know where they are, Brooks advised. Angle parking increases retail spending by more than 20 percent because people hate to parallel park, and also gives you a third more parking spaces, he added.

- Ensure that public restrooms are available. ?Relieved visitors spend more.?

- Develop ?gathering places.? Brooks described this as ?the age of third places? ? referring to three places where people spend time ? work, home and ?where we go to hang out.? To attract ?a creative class you need to create third places,? he said. ?That is the future of the United States and every successful community will be built around gathering places.? Wider sidewalks and more street trees encourage retail activity, he added.

- Create a community gateway that creates a good first impression of your community. For example, he said that the ?Welcome to Edmonds? sign should be strategically placed where it will make the best impression, and that shouldn?t be next to a strip mall.

- Ensure you have good directional signage, which Brooks called a ?wayfinding system,? so that people can find their way around town.

- Make a good first impression with sidewalk cafes and outdoor dining, retail beautification and signage that describes what a business is selling rather than the business name, if it isn?t clear. ?Curb appeal can account for 70 percent of first-time sales,? Brooks said.

- Offer activities and entertainment that ?bring downtown to life.?

Brooks? presentation was videotaped and will be aired on Channel 21 in the next few days, according to Stephen Clifton, Edmonds? Director of Community Services and Economic Development. ?Many people spoke to me as they left the event and they are excited to work on enhancing our community and making it a more interesting/lively place to work, visit and live,? Clifton said.

Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling said Clifton deserves credit for bringing Brooks to Edmonds, calling the presentation ?just plain fun? and ?a terrific energy boost to the community.? Many of the elements that Brooks described are being put into place as part of the Main Street construction project between 5th and 6th Avenues, Earling added.

As for what?s next, the mayor said it should involve ?pulling together business, city and community folks who were there to see the level of interest in proceeding. I was impressed six of our council members were in attendance and those that I have spoken to liked his approach.?

While Earling was hopeful the city would be involved in such a project, he reiterated Brooks? assertion that ?the business community should lead. Personally I would be happy to be involved,? but property owners and store front leaders need to be out front.?

Source: http://myedmondsnews.com/2012/11/businesses-need-to-take-lead-in-branding-edmonds-destination-expert-advises/

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Priceline.com Acquires Kayak For $1.8 Billion, Will Allow Kayak To Continue To Operate Independently

Online travel site Priceline.com just announced that it has agreed to acquired the travel search engine Kayak for $1.8 billion. Priceline will pay $40 per share for Kayak. About $500 million of the purchase price will be in cash and the other $1.3 billion in equity and stock options.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/L5CbQqvsKPE/

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Obama wipes away tears while speaking to staff (cbsnews)

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Illegal gold mining in South Africa brings hope

ROODEPOORT, South Africa (AP) ? Julius Mthembu's mud-spattered face lit up as he held a tin pan and pointed to the glimmering flecks of hope lying among sand and water: gold. The find meant the 48-year-old would eat that week.

"It's difficult. I don't make a lot of money here," Mthembu said as beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. The Mozambican and his countryman Santos Viriato have been gathering dirt from the shuttered Durban Deep mine and sifting it for leftover gold for two months.

South Africa, once the world's foremost gold producer, has been experiencing a labor upheaval in its critical mining sector, and Mthembu and Viriato are emblematic of both the troubles and the hope that persists, with not only gold but also platinum, chrome and other minerals remaining untapped.

A violent six-week strike at a Lonmin PLC platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg ended Sept. 18 after a pay hike of as much as 22 percent was given to the miners. The deal inspired thousands of workers in other mines to lay down their tools to seek higher wages. Mthembu and Viriato said they had been contract workers at another Lonmin mine ? mostly working on pipes through the mines ? and that they were laid off when the company they worked for lost money during the strike.

They wound up near a highway outside Johannesburg, sifting through the soil around the shuttered gold mine and hoping to strike it rich or at least eke out a living. Dozens of other men and women were also participating in illegal mining, working in makeshift operations in a sort of gold rush not far from the skyscrapers and highways of Johannesburg, still marked by towering mustard-colored mine dumps, a leftover from the city's heyday in mining.

"We want money and we have no choice," Viriato said.

They sift for gold by dumping soil into a plastic bin with holes punched in the bottom, pour water in and shake the bin, allowing the wet soil to fall onto a chute made of boards and covered by plastic tarps and bath towels. After dumping a bunch of buckets into the contraption that empties into a muddy creek, the men wring the towels out into three large buckets and then pan whatever comes out.

Another half-dozen such operations are nearby. Closer to Main Reef Road, women break up rocks and grind them between stones and concrete to reduce them to powder to be later panned for gold. The activity takes place in many other parts of South Africa, mostly around mines that were shuttered because of lack of productivity, and is fueled by rising gold prices that these days stand at around $1,700 per ounce.

"There are 6,000 abandoned mines in the country and I think the majority of them still have ore that would be economical (to extract) at today's prices," said Peter Major, a mining expert at Cadiz, a financial services group. "The problem is getting the capital to reopen them."

The illegal mining provides a chance at income for unemployed South Africans and immigrants. But in the long term the activity will make it harder to attract a legitimate mining company to an abandoned site because some of the more easily accessible minerals will have been removed by the illegal operations, Major said.

Gold was discovered here in 1886 and it helped fuel the creation and growth of Johannesburg, known in the Zulu language as Egoli, meaning "the place of gold." South Africa produced nearly 70 percent of the world's gold in the 1970s. Production has been falling and South Africa is currently the world's No. 5 producer, according to the government. With strikes having affected not just platinum mines but gold mines too, gold companies are trying to keep their footing.

Major said 500,000 people were working in gold mines in 1990, with the official number now 150,000. Some of those who lost their jobs are certainly doing illegal gold mining, he said.

Buyers often come to the ad hoc operations to weigh and purchase gold. Miners say they also sometimes sell gold within their squatter camps. Mthembu said he melts all his gold particles together and sells it at the end of the week.

Zingaphi Jakuja, spokeswoman for the South African Department of Mineral Resources, said the ministry is collaborating with law enforcement agencies to combat illegal mining "as the activities are generally fuelled by complex criminal activities."

Illegal miners are generally undeterred by the threat of arrest.

"When the police come, we run away. We've never gotten caught and we don't want to give them a reason to catch us," said 45-year-old Daniel Mazibuko who has three children and a wife. "It's illegal, but I still do it because I'm suffering and if there's no food at home I must do this job."

"Sometimes I make 100 to 150 rand ($11-$17) per day if I'm lucky. In my best week I've made 500 rand ($57)," he said.

On a recent day he was working with 21-year-old Siphelele Dyasi, who smoked a cigarette as he poured heavy buckets of water into a yellow plastic bin and shook it to separate the soil. The miners sometimes endanger their health by using mercury to extract the gold.

"There's no other choice, you go into it knowing the risks," said Dyasi, who came to Johannesburg from the distant Eastern Cape of South Africa after his father died and his mother couldn't provide for him and his brothers and sisters.

Dyasi and Mazibuko were trying their luck outside the Tudor Shaft mine, not far from the Durban Deep mine. At least five makeshift mining chutes could be seen among dusty fields of rock, orange dirt and black rocks near pools of water, that the miners use and recycle in their prospecting.

"You're never sure what you'll get. For example this week I only got 150 rand ($17) which I used to buy a small tin of milk, a packet of nappies (diapers), a small bag of maize, paraffin, fish oil and a bit of meat but it has all finished already," Dyasi said.

"I hope to get something today so I can bring some food home."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/illegal-gold-mining-south-africa-brings-hope-150817126.html

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He can be awful - Relationships, Dating, & Marriage

Heavy letter for a Friday. And yes, I?ll stay in touch with the letter writer.

Q: I have been married for more than 20 years. My husband had some affairs (with different women) three years ago. I know that he is still talking to these women, as he makes comments about what they are doing and it seems pretty current information. I have not been able to gain back the trust and love that I once had. We have two children who are under 18.

My husband constantly calls me fat [and other inappropriate things] when our younger child is nearby. (I don?t think that our child sees it though.) He pinches me until I tell him to stop because it hurts. He jokes, ?I haven?t even begun to hurt you.? He flirts with friends and neighbors until we?re all uncomfortable. When we tell him to stop, he says something like, ?Oh, you can?t take a joke.?

He now accuses me (at least once a week) of having an affair with someone. I honestly will say I have never had an affair with anyone. If I refuse sex with, he gets very mad takes all the blankets.

He also threatens to divorce me and leave me with nothing. I used to kiss him after these threats, but now I?m at the point where I tell him to go ahead and leave me. I am at the end of my rope. We have tried counseling, both individual and marriage, and it hasn?t worked because he has quit going after a few sessions.

? So Now What?, North Carolina

A: This is an abusive relationship, SNW. And I?m going to reveal to the readers (after much thought) that you emailed me several years ago about similar issues. It was a letter that we just didn?t get to ? and it was much less severe than this version (it was about the affairs, not the abuse) ? but these problems have plagued your marriage for a long time. You?ve been pinched, harassed, questioned, and shamed, sometimes in front of your children. You need a way out. (And for the record, kids see and perceive more than you think they do. I?m sure that your younger child is aware of what?s happening.)

You need to check in with a local domestic violence organization. North Carolina has them. (Click here if you?re at a safe computer.) Pinching might not seem like real abuse, but it is. So are threats and intimidation. You must meet with a professional who can help you navigate this process. Because it will be process. If you can continue individual therapy, please do.

It?s also a good time to reach out to your community. Don?t be afraid to call friends and family. You mention that your neighbors have shared your discomfort over the years. Are any of these people real friends? Can you spend more time with them, just to feel less isolated?

You can?t go through this alone, and you certainly can?t put it off any longer. You might think I?m misusing the word ?abuse,? but find a safe computer and do some reading. You might be surprised by the definition.

Readers? Is this abuse? What should the letter writer do? Are the affairs relevant? Talk.

? Meredith

Check out the original source here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2012 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Latest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Source: http://relationships.wark.biz/he-can-be-awful/

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Republicans try to pick up more governors' offices

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? North Carolina voters elected their first Republican governor in two decades Tuesday, fanning the GOP's hope of broadening their party's hold on governor's mansions across the country.

The victory by former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory came two years after Republicans snatched six governors' offices in the midterm elections. Those victories gave the party 29 governorships to 20 for Democrats and one independent entering Tuesday's elections in which 11 gubernatorial races were to be decided.

When all the ballots are counted, Republicans could have as many as 33 governorships ? the most since the 1920s and one more than they had in the 1990s.

McCrory defeated Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton to become North Carolina's first GOP chief executive since Jim Martin left office in early 1993. McCrory narrowly had lost his gubernatorial bid in 2008 to Democrat Beverly Perdue, who opted not to run this year.

Indiana voters went with Republican Mike Pence, a 12-year congressman who defeated Democrat John Gregg and Libertarian Rupert Boneham to succeed GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is barred by state law from seeking a third term.

Democratic governors are leaving office in North Carolina, Montana, New Hampshire and Washington, raising Republican hopes that at least some of those offices can be flipped to the GOP. But New Hampshire's governor's mansion remained in Democratic hands Tuesday, as did those in Vermont, Delaware and West Virginia.

Chief executives of conservative North Dakota and Utah stayed in the Republican column with Tuesday's re-elections of popular incumbents. They included Jack Dalrymple, who took over two years ago in North Dakota when John Hoeven resigned to move to the Senate. Dalrymple won his first full term, defeating rancher and Democratic state Sen. Ryan Taylor.

Recent polls have shown a tight race in Washington state, where the GOP hasn't occupied the governor's mansion in more than three decades.

The GOP also is competing in Missouri, the latter a state where national Republican and Democratic governors' groups have poured millions into the race between Democratic incumbent Gov. Jay Nixon and Republican businessman rival Dave Spence.

While federal elections often can be referendums on the national economy, statewide races are often decided by matters unique to those states, including whether voters like and trust a certain candidate, a national political observer said Monday.

"The races for governor and races for senator are high-profile for each state, and the outcomes will be determined largely by the personalities of those candidates and the issues in those states," said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Still, he said, heavy turnout in key swing states in the presidential contest could influence governors' race as well.

"If Republicans are fired up (at the ballot box) and Democrats are lethargic and staying home, it could tip some of the states in the Republican column" in governors' races, Yepsen said, pointing to the tight contest in neighboring Missouri. "In a state like that, what Jay Nixon is staying awake at night thinking about is If Romney wins big enough in Missouri, that could hurt Nixon. There is an undertow."

Kate Hansen, a Democratic Governors Association spokeswoman, said 2012 is a difficult year for Democrats, since they have more seats to defend.

But in at least three states, Democrats easily prevailed. Gov. Peter Shumlin won another term in Vermont, Gov. Jack Markell did the same in Delaware and state Sen. Maggie Hassan was elected to lead New Hampshire.

Some pundits have suggested there isn't necessarily a national tide lifting Republicans in governor's races so much as individual circumstances in a small number of competitive states. Democrats in North Carolina, for example, saw a former governor convicted of a felony in 2010 and the current governor sullied by an investigation that led to charges against her former campaign aides.

Republicans have also been aided by a cash advantage, with the Republican Governors Association raising about twice as much as its Democratic counterpart this election cycle.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-try-pick-more-governors-offices-201123738--election.html

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Election Night: Healthy Party Food and Party Snacks | Women&#39;s ...

If you?re hosting or attending an election night party, you?re in for an evening of nail-biting fun. But with nerves on edge and snacks at arm?s reach, it?s easy to let calories add up more quickly than votes are tallied.

?Social gatherings can always be a diet danger zone,? says nutritionist Tanya Zuckerbrot, RD, MS, and author of The Miracle Carb Diet due out in December. ?Couple this with a stressful, exciting, high-energy event like the presidential election and that danger zone is more like a minefield. Your focus has shifted from your diet to conversations with friends and the event, and mindless eating comes into play.?

Another culprit is anxiety, but ?once the chip bowl is empty or the ice cream devoured, the stress may still be there if you end up unhappy with the results of election night,? says Zuckerbrot.

Minimize diet damage by snacking on low-calorie foods and foods that crunch, which can help relieve stress by releasing tension. No matter who wins the election, Zuckerbrot?s ballot of election-night foods are worthy of your vote:

APPETIZERS:

Kabobs: Chicken, beef, or lean turkey meatballs make a satisfying protein-based appetizer as delicious as pigs in a blanket for less than half the calories. Bonus: The tryptophan in turkey will release the feel-good brain chemical serotonin to help people relax.

Shrimp cocktail: Essentially free of fat and low in calories, shrimp is a lean source of protein you can mindlessly eat without doing too much damage. Twelve large shrimp with a little cocktail sauce is about 165 calories and less than 1g fat.

Melon balls wrapped in prosciutto: This well-balanced finger food clocks in at about 200 calories and 11g fat per serving for 8 balls. Stick with American Flag toothpicks for a patriotic touch.

SNACKS:

Veggies with dip: Skip the sour cream and serve chopped veggies like carrots, celery, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli with a Greek yogurt-based dip: Just mix yogurt with instant French Onion or veggie soup mix (Lipton), or try this recipe.

Chips and salsa: Make a patriotic party platter by serving red, blue, and regular corn tortilla chips with a chunky spicy red salsa. (These snacks and chips from the 125 Best Packaged Foods of 2012 make awesome options, too.)

DESSERTS:

Apple pie: Dig in to a piece of all-American apple pie?just skip the top crust to save calories, carbs and fat, says Zuckerbrot. This recipe for personal graham-cracker-crust apple pies takes no more than 15 minutes to prep and cook.

Peanut butter, banana, and jelly sandwiches: Use whole wheat, high-fiber bread, a fiber-containing jelly/jam like Polaner?s, and tryptophan-rich-sliced-bananas, which release dopamine in the brain for happy feelings. Serve in bite-sized triangles for a nostalgic, feel-good treat.

DRINKS:

Skinny sangria: Mix red berries (raspberries and strawberries) with blue berries (blueberries and blackberries) with a sweet white wine and a liter of Diet Sprite. Bonus: Studies have shown that the manganese and vitamin C in berries have been shown to nearly stop the secretion of stress hormones in rats.

Light Beer: Sip from our list of best light beers?some have as few as 55 calories.

Coffee: Caffeinated coffee will amp up crowd?even if election results aren?t announced until late into the night. But even better: a warm mug of coffee may even calm your nerves. An English University of Bristol study found that when anxious men consumed caffeine in groups, feelings of stress subsided.

photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

More from WH:
The Worst Chips and Dips
The 50 Best Snack Foods in America
10 Snacks that Fight Fat

Get a Sexy Yoga Body! Discover the power of yoga to tighten, tone, and calm. Buy The Women?s Health Big Book of Yoga today!

Source: http://blog.womenshealthmag.com/food/winning-snacks-for-your-election-party/

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