Category: News

When it comes to news we pick up from Famitsu, there’s really no guarantee that the heat in Japan will blow over to the West. Knights Contract, however, was very quick to get a European and North

Poor Wendy Greuel, she’s down to the last few hundred bucks in her officeholder account and needs your help to pay some personal office expenses, phone bills and mostly her lawyer-treasurer Stephen Kaufman — the man who connects the dots for so many local and state politicians, unions and special interests.

If you got $500 or $1,000 to throw away, former Mayor Richard Riordan will be hosting a “reception” at 6 p.m. Tuesday for Wendy at his Riordan’s Grill around the corner from his Pantry restaurant downtown. You could be a sponsor yourself for $5,000 and that might even buy you more than the 90 minutes allotted for the anointed next mayor of LA.

Wendy does need your money. She’s raised $688,181.22 for her officeholder account over the last decade but spent even more

$878,382.25, according to city ethics records.

With running for citywide office and the heavy demands of signing off on tepid audits and out-of-date financial advice to deal with the city budget, her fund-raising has fallen off — only raising $25,750.00 last year for her personal slush fund while spending $27,491.67 .

Most of that money — $16,259.56 — went to Kaufman, the election and campaign finance law expert who like the small coterie of insider fund-raisers and political consultants provide the points of connection for money and influence to find each other. Nearly all our city elected officials and even some well-connected wannabes like Mitch Englander, who expects to inherit Greig Smith’s seat without any questions being asked, turn to Kaufman.

City records show Kaufman Downing LLP, his former firm, got paid $1,169,355.66 over the years for their services to city campaigns and officeholders. Even in these tough times, business is picking up for his new firm, Kaufman Legal, which hauled in

$417,050.50 from these same sources.

Even as he was providing his services to the elected officials, Kaufman boasts on his website that he also provides related service to many organizations,
committees & businesses. Among those he cites are Assembly Democratic Caucus,
Conservation Action Fund, California Labor Federation, Central City
Association of Los Angeles, Clear Channel Outdoor, Democratic National
Committee, IBEW Local 11, IBEW Local 18, Los Angeles Area Chamber of
Commerce, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Los Angeles
Dodgers, Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, SEIU Local 6434,
SEIU Local 721, Sierra Club, United Firefighters of Los
Angeles City, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Women’s Political
Committee, Working Californians.

Who says business and labor and environmentalists and politicians don’t mix?

It’s not at all clear what services Kaufman actually does because those don’t have to be reported online beyond saying Wendy’s officeholder account paid him $14,384.56 on Jan. 1 for “professional services” through March 31.

Nice work if you can get it, I’m sure, with so much more to come.

Since becoming mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa has spent $294,177.35 from his officeholder account while raising $259,425.00.

This has allowed him to take billionaire Eli Broad to lunch, pay for his cellphone use and his LA TImes subscription, reimburse Jeff Carr and others for various expenses, spend $3,280.09 for a fund-raiser at the Jonathan Clubs pay $2,000 for Sparkletts and nearly $5,000 for Arrowhead water, presumably because he and his staff don’t like what DWP serves up anymore than the rest of us.

Kaufman did just fine as well with Kaufman Downing getting $90,277.12 and Kaufman Legal taking in $23,702.04. That adds up to $124,000 or nearly half of what was donated to his officeholder account.

You might ask why but that is protected by attorney-client privilege.

This isn’t kids’ games these people are playing, just a fraction of all the millions that come from people and businesses who want all kinds of favors and advantages for their largess.

Money is the name of the game and the return on contributions is often in the range of 100 times or more what the politicians got. It’s all brokered through a narrow circle of operatives that include the lawyers, political operatives and strategists, fund-raisers, lobbyists who pimp the system.

The beauty of it all is the politicians write the rules and appoint the people who enforce them so only fools could ever get caught doing anything wrong and if they do, they just set up a legal defense fund and raise more money.

I’m not going to bore with by reprinting all the provisions of LA Municipal Code SEC. 49.7.12.  OFFICEHOLDER CONTROLLED FUNDS.

Suffice it to say, it allows just about anything except what is expressly barred by state law by in SEC. 3: (a) Expenditures in connection with a future election for elective City office; (b) Membership in any athletic, social, fraternal, veteran or religious organization, (c) Supplemental compensation for employees for performance of an act which would be required or expected of the person in the regular course or hours of his or her duties as a City official or employee.

While the complex provisions of city ethics law are a nightmare for ordinary citizens who seek city office, draining their energy and limited resources, they are no problem when you have Kaufman aboard since he probably helped write most of them.

It’s not like the City Ethics staff doesn’t audit the filings but the standard language found in the review in February of Greuel’s officeholder account is this: “The (Greuel) committee did not have any findings that auditors concluded were material.”

It’s not all that easy digging out information about officeholder accounts. You have to go to the City Ethics page, click campaign/elections, click Search Expenditures, and put in the name of the person paid, like Kaufman Legal or Kaufman Downing, and the name of a candidate like Janice Hahn to find out she’s paid him more than $100,000 over the years.

Then, you have to look for which payments came from her officeholder account and look for the little six- or seven-digit number of the account to plug in to the Committee I.D. box when you search just so you can see she paid him $12,683.01 from her officeholder account.

If you want to know how much she’s raised for her officeholder account, go back to where you started but click on Search Contributions, pick out the official, plug in their Committee I.D. so you can learn Janice has raised a total of $677,483.34 for her slush fund during her time in office.

While I’m being so helpful, you can read more about what Kaufman says about his firm:

Among the
ballot measures he cites are Yes on Measure R (2008
County Transportation
Measure), Yes on Measure J (2008 L.A.
Community College
District Bond Measure), Yes on Proposition R (2006 L.A. City Term
Limits & Ethics Reform Measure), Yes on Proposition O (2004 L.A. City Clean
Water Measure).

Among the organizations,
committees & businesses he cites are Assembly Democratic Caucus,
Conservation Action Fund, California Labor Federation, Central City
Association of Los Angeles, Clear Channel Outdoor, Democratic National
Committee, IBEW Local 11, IBEW Local 18, Los Angeles Area Chamber of
Commerce, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Los Angeles
Dodgers, Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, SEIU Local 6434,
SEIU Local 721, Sierra Club, United Firefighters of Los
Angeles City, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Women’s Political
Committee, Working Californians.

File this one under the “not a surprise” category, but a Morgan Stanley Research survey has uncovered that nearly 17 percent of Verizon’s customers show interest in the iPhone and would probably switch if the device finally came to Big Red.  This is more interest than AT&T’s customers have in the next iPhone, which stands at about 14.6 percent of their customer base.  Katy Huberty, a Morgan Stanley analyst, believes that if the interested 17 percent on Verizon were to switch to an iPhone, this would mean around seven or eight million more iPhones sold every year.  We know that Steve Jobs and Apple love money, so we’re sure that they would like to bring the iPhone to Verizon as soon as possible.

In the same report, Huberty goes on to say that she believes that when Verizon finally does get the iPhone, AT&T won’t lose as many customers as most of us think since most are locked into family contracts which would be extremely expensive to break.  Would any of you AT&T customers switch to Verizon if they got the iPhone at some point?  Tell us your thoughts!

The Spanish government has just moved to support its banking system again, forcing four major banks to combine in a bid to save their existence.

The move targets Cajastur, Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, Caja Extremadura, and Caja Cantabria, according to Cotizalia.

It comes just hours after Spain’s €530 million bailout of CajaSur.

The merger is not a full one, but brings four of Spain’s largest banks into a loose conglomeration. Assets under management for the new firm are valued at €135 billion.

Details are scarce of what the final agreement, negotiated by the Bank of Spain, will look like, but it appears banks within the agreement will maintain significant autonomy.

At the moment, this looks like a move that intends to provide capital support to weaker links within the grouping, though information is limited.

Check out just how bad the situation is in Spain here >

Join the conversation about this story »

Se acaban de dar a conocer nuevos detalles e incluso un nuevo vídeo en el que podemos ver al nuevo Jeep Gran Cherokee 2011. Un todoterreno con un diseño robusto a la vez que moderno en el que podemos ver la nueva línea de la gama 2011 de Jeep.

Entre los nuevos detalles, debemos de destacar indescutiblemente la nueva suspensión independiente que sofrecerá un mayor confort a la vez que efectividad en la carretera. A continuación os dejo con el vídeo y las imágenes oficiales publicadas:

Related posts:

1. Jeep Grand Cherokee 2010
2. Jeep Patriot Overland, imágenes oficiales
3. Recreación del Audi Q7 2011

Ford’s a little slow from the line, but the automaker made clear today that it wants to win the electric car race. The company announced that it will invest $135 million in its engineering and production effort for its next-generation electric-hybrid vehicles. That will include plug-in vehicles, to compete with those planned by GM and Nissan. The move shows a renewed effort on the part of Ford to be a leader in green autos.

Ford offers a few hybrid models already, including versions of its Focus compact Fusion mid-size* vehicle and Escape SUV. But it doesn’t plan to release a plug-in vehicle until 2011, with its Focus Electric. The car’s introduction will likely be a little anticlimactic, since the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf plug-ins will already be on the road at that time — both expected to hit the market in late 2010. Ford’s new initiative won’t speed up its timeline, as the new vehicles the investment is intended for won’t go into production until 2012.

This news closely follows Toyota’s announcement last week of an investment in and partnership with electric carmaker Tesla. While it’s tempting to compare the two initiatives, they’re actually pretty different. Ford already has an electric car in production, so the $125 million investment announced today is supplemental to its current effort. It’s an investment in becoming an electric car leader — not just another player. Toyota, on the other hand, just announced $50 million investment in Tesla, which would include a partnership that allows Toyota to leverage the electric vehicle maker’s experience and expertise.

With GM and Ford showing a clear intention to produce mass market electric vehicles, it makes you wonder where the other U.S. automaker — Chrysler — stands on electric. Between its Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram brands, there’s not a hybrid to be found. In fact, the only car it offers that’s even close to the subcompact style most electric vehicles would take is its Dodge Caliber.

If consumers end up liking electric vehicles, then that will be a major problem for Chrysler. It hasn’t diversified itself much beyond the meaty, gas-guzzling vehicles embodied by its sports/muscle car options and trucks. Indeed, in the “Coming Soon” section of the Dodge website, rather than a fuel-efficient plug-in, it shows its “Nitro Detonator,” which it advertises as having “a road scorching 260-hp 4.0L V6 engine” and “aggressive 20-inch aluminum wheels.” From that description, it sounds like it would get even fewer than the 22-mpg (highway) that the current Nitro SUV gets.

Of course, it’s unknown whether the American consumer will embrace the electric car. But clearly, Ford today raised its bet today, as Toyota did last week. Meanwhile, not everyone must be convinced, however. Chrysler isn’t even in the game.

*Correction

Filed under: Crossover, Hatchback, BMW

It appears that BMW may have overestimated the U.S. market appeal for high-end versions of the 550i Gran Turismo, and executives now acknowledge that the six-cylinder 535i probably should have been available at launch. It’s not unusual for an automaker to launch an all-new model by shipping mostly loaded, top-level versions in order to absorb the maximum number of dollars from early adopters, but sometimes that approach backfires if the market isn’t ready for the new vehicle.

Case in point is the 5GT, of which BMW has apparently sold fewer than 1,200 units in the U.S. since the launch of the polarizing people mover late last year. Interestingly, BMW has found that more women than expected have bought the model, while its less-than-stellar fuel consumption has hurt sales in a still-weak U.S. economy. Gran Turismo sales are apparently ahead of projections elsewhere, but those other markets launched with both gasoline and diesel inline-six engine choices.

Given that the 5GT is best suited as a road trip machine, it might make sense for BMW to install the 3.0-liter diesel from the X5 and 335d as an alternative to the twin-turbo V8. So far BMW has not indicated any plans to offer a diesel GT in America, but the less costly 535i GT is still slated to arrive in the Fall.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

[Source: AutoWeek]

Report: Slow early sales have BMW thinking 5GT should’ve launched with six-cylinder originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 24 May 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

by Agence France-Presse

The Tesla Model SNEW YORK—U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Motors is firing
on all cylinders and gearing up for greater things after partnering with top
carmaker Toyota.

On Thursday,
Toyota announced that it’s taking a $50 million stake in Tesla. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Tesla has a few
hundred employees and is expected to go public at some point down the road.

“The
announcement is path-breaking and historic,” said University of
California-Berkley professor Harley Shaiken. “It gives Tesla considerable
credibility.”

“Toyota is
very conservative,” he added, so the announcement is good “for
investors and Tesla—they can take that to the bank.”

Toyota’s
investment in Tesla follows German luxury carmaker Daimler’s stake a year ago
of “more than 5 percent” in the electric carmaker, a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, and
a $31 million tax break from the state of California.

Flush with cash,
Tesla on Thursday announced it bought a closed factory near San Francisco that
up until last month had housed a joint venture between Toyota and General
Motors that was churning out Toyota Corolla and Tacoma vehicles, with a
production potential of 500,000 units per year.

If Tesla can
hire the plant’s 4,500 former workers, it would “get their experience, and
their trouble-shooting capabilities,” in addition to Toyota’s knowhow in
large volume sales, said Shaiken. The Toyota stake and plant acquisition make
Tesla’s initial public offering “more likely and significantly more
valuable,” he added.

However,
Edmunds.com auto industry analyst Michelle Krebs warned that Tesla’s eventual
move to an IPO is still uncertain, especially in such an unpredictable stock
market that has been falling since the start of the month.

“They need
to time [to get the IPO] right with the market,” Krebs said, noting that
Tesla is not alone in wanting to go public: General Motors and Chrysler came
back from bankruptcy last year and also intend to sell more of their shares on
the market.

According to
U.S. press reports, Tesla would be the first auto company to go public since
Ford did so in 1956.

Founded in 2003
by South African Elon Musk, a cofounder of online payments giant PayPal, Tesla
already manufactures the Tesla Roadster, a high-performance sports car that
sells for more than $100,000 and gets nearly 250 miles on a single charge.

The company also
plans to unveil in 2012 a “Model S” five-passenger sedan powered by
lithium-ion battery packs capable of between 160 and 300 miles per charge, with
an anticipated base price of around $50,000.

With Toyota,
Tesla plans to develop other electric models, hoping to break out of the luxury
car trade and into mass production.

In the long
term, auto industry experts said, the Tesla-Toyota partnership could rival
other carmakers.

General Motors
plans to launch the hybrid Volt, which runs on batteries but also has a
gasoline motor in case the batteries lose their charge.

Nissan next year
hopes to market the all-electric Leaf.

After
pioneering hybrid vehicles with the Prius but falling behind in fully electric
cars, Toyota will now have access to Tesla’s “control system, the
electronics that control, cool, and manage the battery, and the electric flow
between the battery and the powertrain,” said Edmunds.com “green
car” expert John O’Dell. And that’s something Daimler already was after,
he noted.

Related Links:

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10 ways to kick the offshore-oil habit

The Inkia inPad is a shameless iPad clone right down to the bezel and name. We first spotted the clone a few weeks back but hardware details didn’t accompany the pictures. Basically, a Chinese manufacturer got our attention by photocoping the iPad and installed Android. But we’ve kind of lost interest now that we know what’s on the inside.

It seems both the WiFi-only inPad 701 and the 3G-equipped inPad 702 are powered by the 600Mhz Rockchip RK2808 that’s found in many Chinese clones. They will be available with either a 128MB or 256MB of RAM and 4GB or 16GB SSD. Both models will also sport 2 USB ports, a MiniHDMI, a 2200mAH battery, and WiFi. Still interested?

Pricing and availability still isn’t available, but we kind of don’t care. The device seems woefully underpowered and probably won’t provide an iPad-meets-Android experience. Ping us when someone does that.

I’ve just noticed a smattering of articles that have tackled the idea of the ‘crack baby’ which became popular during the worrying emergence of crack cocaine during the late 80s. It turns out that babies exposed to crack in the womb weren’t necessarily massively brain damaged tragedies as the stereotype had it, but the concept has remained with us.

This is despite the fact that we have solid research to show that while those exposed to cocaine in utero do show some differences from other kids, the effects are undesirable but actually quite small.

This is from The New York Times last year:

Cocaine slows fetal growth, and exposed infants tend to be born smaller than unexposed ones, with smaller heads. But as these children grow, brain and body size catch up.

At a scientific conference in November, Dr. Lester presented an analysis of a pool of studies of 14 groups of cocaine-exposed children — 4,419 in all, ranging in age from 4 to 13. The analysis failed to show a statistically significant effect on I.Q. or language development. In the largest of the studies, I.Q. scores of exposed children averaged about 4 points lower at age 7 than those of unexposed children.

In tests that measure specific brain functions, there is evidence that cocaine-exposed children are more likely than others to have difficulty with tasks that require visual attention and “executive function” — the brain’s ability to set priorities and pay selective attention, enabling the child to focus on the task at hand.

Cocaine exposure may also increase the frequency of defiant behavior and poor conduct, according to Dr. Lester’s analysis. There is also some evidence that boys may be more vulnerable than girls to behavior problems.

But experts say these findings are quite subtle and hard to generalize. “Just because it is statistically significant doesn’t mean that it is a huge public health impact,” said Dr. Harolyn M. Belcher, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician who is director of research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Family Center in Baltimore.

A piece from City Limits Monthly tracked how the myth arose. It’s probably the best account I’ve read of the cultural currents that promoted the concept to front page news and keep it afloat even today.

And just last month The Washington Post talked to some families of kids labelled as ‘crack babies’ now that they have grown up into adults finding that, well, many have done alright.

Link to NYT on ‘The Epidemic That Wasn’t’.
Link to great City Limits analysis (via @maiasz)
Link to WashPo piece (via @sunshinyday)

Binyamin Appelbaum of the NYT tries to simply things for me:  ”Broadly speaking, there were two ways for the federal government to respond to the financial crisis. The Obama administration chose more regulation.”

And that is bad news because regulators and their political overlords like bailouts with taxpayer money rather than market discipline. But shrinking the banks, while superficially appealing, is no magic bullet — as this Italian study argues:  ”A world with only small and domestic banks is no safer. The key benefit of multinational banks – being able to mobilise funds across countries – could still be extremely useful for maintaining stability in times of distress.”

Might We Suggest…

• Handmark’s ‘Winter Sports Live’ Helps Get Your Olympic On
  The team over at Handmark has just released their next Android app, Winter Sports Live.  Based around the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the app provides real-time access to news, photos, scores, and more…

Seeing sequels is a common occurence in this business, but the LG Vu Plus offers enough of improvements over the original to justify the “Plus” moniker.  Offering some welcome improvements over the original device, the Vu Plus sports a 3.0-inch capacitive touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard (a welcome addition to the original Vu, in my book), HSPA 7.2 Mbps support (one of 18 available models, according to AT&T), 3.0-megapixel camera, microSD card slot, and support for AT&T’s Mobile TV and AT&T Navigator.

The Vu Plus will be available in AT&T retail stores and online on June 6th for $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.  Have a gander at the press release below, and let me know – interested, or passing it up for something else?

AT&T and LG Introduce the LG Vu Plus, One of 18 7.2 HSPA Capable Devices

Dallas, Texas, May 24, 2010

AT&T* and LG Electronics Mobilecomm U.S.A., Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) today announced the LG Vu Plus TM, the latest AT&T Mobile TV-capable device, will be available online at www.wireless.att.com and in AT&T stores nationwide June 6. Available exclusively for AT&T customers, the handset will be compatible with AT&T’s High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps technology, which provides, when combined with expanded backhaul, a considerable speed boost to the nation’s fastest 3G network. AT&T is deploying these backhaul connections across the nation, a process that will continue through 2011.

With a large touch screen plus a 4-line QWERTY keyboard, enhanced user interface, and AT&T Social Net, the LG Vu Plus gives customers easy access to a world of entertainment and multimedia with just a tap of a finger.

Customers can enjoy watching full-length broadcast shows with AT&T Mobile TV. AT&T Mobile TV subscribers enjoy around-the-clock access to full-length live and time-shifted programming from FLO TV, including content from top entertainment brands. AT&T Mobile TV is available for $9.99 per month, and new subscribers receive the first seven days of their subscription for free. For more information, visit

“AT&T customers can stay connected to their social circle while on the go with this device,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “LG Vu Plus creates easy access to everything, from social networking to TV shows, while backed by the nation’s fastest 3G network.”

In addition, the LG Vu Plus boasts:

* AT&T Mobile Browser – combines full HTML browsing with unique customization features so customers can easily surf the global Internet; view location-aware local news and weather; and read the latest headlines from popular news, sports and entertainment sites.
* AT&T Navigator –offers turn-by-turn voice and onscreen driving directions, automatic rerouting, real-time traffic monitoring and more. AT&T Navigator is available for $9.99 per month, and new subscribers receive their first 30 days of their subscription for free.
* AT&T Social Net – provides easy access to all your social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace in one easy-to-use interface.

“With a full QWERTY keyboard and front touchscreen, LG Vu Plus is the ultimate blend of functionality and modern design,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of Marketing and Innovation at LG Mobile Phones. “LG Vu Plus allows users to explore the freedom of mobile entertainment while making a strong style statement with its sleek exterior, compact size and user-friendly interface.”

The LG Vu Plus will be available at AT&T retail stores nationwide and online at www.wireless.att.com on June 6 for $149.99 (Pay $199.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $50 AT&T Promotion Card. Two year service agreement required.)

For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.

Apple announced earlier this morning that Steve Jobs will be doing keynote duty at WWDC 2010 on June 7th. Things will kick off at 10:00 AM Pacific time, and all signs point to the introduction of the next iPhone (iPhone Pro? iPhone HD?)

Tags:
apple,
iphone,
iphone hd,
iphone pro,
steve jobs,
wwdc,
wwdc 2010,
wwdc 2010 keynote,

Since the financial crisis hit in 2007, unemployment has been one of the most talked about numbers in the media.

The US as a whole is hovering over the 10% mark and if you take a look at underemployment numbers, it becomes even grimmer. But keep the hope alive, because according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, there are  hundreds of cities in the United States that have kept their unemployment rate under 10% and that’s a good thing.

So who has done the best job of keeping unemployment to a minimum? Let’s examine the 20 cities where being out of work isn’t a huge concern.

Lake Charles, Louisiana: 5.8% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

Thousands in the Lake Area are employed by the petro-chemical refineries located across the river near Sulphur and Westlake. Some of the corporations with facilities in or around the city include PPG Industries, ConocoPhillips, and Citgo Petroleum Corporation. The Trunkline LNG terminal, immediately southwest of Lake Charles, is one of the United States’ few LNG terminals. It has facilities for LNG receipt, storage, and re-gasification. Lake Charles Cogeneration, a subsidiary of Leucadia National, began construction of a $1.6 billion petroleum coke gasification plant in early 2009.

Manufacturing has been beginning to achieve economic success in the area in order to diversify the economic base of the city. Chennault International Airport hosts Aeroframe, which services airplanes, and a Northrop Grumman facility. Louisiana Geothermal of Lake Charles will begin construction of a geothermal electric plant. Aeroframe recently announced it will add 300 aerospace jobs at Chennault. The Shaw Group has built a large manufacturing facility which will manufacture parts for nuclear power plants. The company has assured the city and residents that nuclear material and radioactive waste are not involved at the facility. Shaw will employ over one thousand workers when it is up to full capacity.

Source: BLS.gov

Alexandria, Louisiana: 5.8% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

In the early 1800s, the Port of Alexandria brought goods to the area and shipped cotton  and other local products to the rest of the country. A ferry connected the cities of Alexandria and Pineville until a bridge was built across the Red in 1900.

Today, Port facilities include: a 40-ton crane for off-loading, a 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m2) warehouse, 13,600-ton bulk fertilizer warehouse, a 3,400-ton bulk fertilizer dome structure and a 5,000-ton dome which was added in January 2005.

The petroleum off-loading facility includes two 55,000 bbl (8,700 m3) tanks, one-15,000 BBL tank capable of handling two barges and five truck off-loading simultaneously. There is also a general cargo dock with access to rail and a hopper barge unloading dock with conveyor system.

Today’s modern facilities and the Port’s central location with its connection to the Mississippi River provide excellent opportunities for importers and exporters.

Source: BLS.gov

Midland, Texas: 5.7% Unemployment Rate

Midland, Texas is where the Bush family hails from and has economic activity surround energy markets and public service.

Source: BLS.gov

Rapid City, South Dakota: 5.6% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

Rapid City’s economy is diverse, but has only a moderate amount of industry. Heavy and medium industrial activities include a Portland cement plant (constructed and owned for 84 years[18]  by the State of South Dakota and sold in 2003 to GCC, a Mexican-based conglomerate), Black Hills Ammunition an ammunition and reloading supplies manufacturing company, several custom sawmills, a lime plant, a computer peripheral component manufacturing plant, and several farm and ranch equipment manufacturers. Of particular note, Rapid City is the center for the manufacture of Black Hills Gold, a popular product with tourists and Westerners in general. Rapid City is also the location of the only manufacturer of stamping machines used for the labeling of plywood and chipboard products.

Although most gold mining has ceased in the Black Hills and was never done in or near Rapid City, mining of sand and gravel, as well as the raw materials for lime and Portland cement (including chemical-grade limestone, taconite iron ore, and gypsum) remains an important part of the economy.

Source: BLS.gov

Lawrence, Kansas: 5.6% Unemployment

The only thing Lawrence has going for it is a local college and equal rights for many, meaning the local 7-11 must be making a fortune.

Source: BLS.gov

Honolulu, Hawaii: 5.6% Unemployment Rate

Hawaii’s capital serves as hub for air transportation and shipping and has a very large tourism industry.

Source: BLS.gov

Amarillo, Texas: 5.6% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

Amarillo is considered the regional economic center for the Texas Panhandle as well as Eastern New Mexico and the Oklahoma Panhandle. The meat packing industry is a major employer in Amarillo; about one-quarter of the United States’ beef supply is processed in the area. The city is also the location of headquarters for the Texas Cattle Feeders Association. Petroleum extraction is also a major industry. The helium industry has decreased in significance since the federal government privatized local operations in the late 1990s. Bell Helicopter Textron opened a helicopter assembly plant near the city’s international airport in 1999.

The city’s largest employer in 2005 is Tyson Foods, with 3,700 employees. The Amarillo Independent School District is next with 3,659 employees followed by BWXT Pantex, Baptist St. Anthony’s Health Care System, City of Amarillo, Northwest Texas Healthcare System, Amarillo College, and United Supermarkets. Other major employers include Bell Helicopter Textron, Owens-Corning, and ASARCO.

Approximately 14 million acres (57,000 km2) of agricultural land surrounds the city with corn, wheat and cotton as the primary crops. Other crops in the area include sorghum, silage, hay and soybeans.[50] The Texas Panhandle, particularly in Hereford, Texas, serves as a fast growing milk producing area as several multi-million dollar state of the art dairies were built in early 2000s.

The Amarillo Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) is funded by a city sales tax, and it provides aggressive incentive packages to existing and prospective employers. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the AEDC gained notoriety by sending mock checks to businesses across the country, placing full-page advertisements in The Wall Street Journal, and paying an annual $1 million subsidy to American Airlines to retain jet service. The AEDC is largely responsible for bringing Bell Helicopter Textron’s development of the V-22 Osprey hybrid aircraft and the future site of Marine One assembly in Amarillo.

Source: BLS.gov

Logan, Utah: 5.5% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

Logan has a wide diversity of economic sectors with a focus on education, manufacturing and processing, medical services, agriculture, and retail businesses. The city’s largest employer is Utah State University, with other major employers including Icon Health & Fitness, Cache County School District, Logan Regional Hospital, Thermo-Fisher Laboratories, Gossner Foods, and Schreiber Foods.

Source: BLS.gov

Ithaca, New York: 5.5% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

The economy of Ithaca is based on education and manufacturing with high tech and tourism in strong supporting roles. As of 2006, Ithaca remains one of the few expanding economies in economically troubled New York State outside of New York City, and draws commuters from the neighboring rural counties of Cortland, Tioga, and Schuyler, as well as from the more urbanized Chemung County.

With some level of success, Ithaca has tried to maintain a traditional downtown shopping area that includes the Ithaca Commons pedestrian mall and Center Ithaca, a small mixed-use complex built at the end of the urban renewal era. Some in the community regret that downtown has lost vitality to two expanding commercial zones to the northeast and southwest of the old city. These areas contain an increasing number of large retail stores and restaurants run by national chains. Others say the chain stores boost local shopping options for residents considerably, many of whom would have previously shopped elsewhere, while increasing sales tax revenue for the city and county. Still others note that the stores, restaurants, and businesses that remain in downtown are not necessarily in direct competition with the larger chain stores. The tradeoff between sprawl and economic development continues to be debated throughout the city and the surrounding area. (Another commercial center, Collegetown, is located next to the Cornell campus. It features a number of restaurants, shops, and bars, and an increasing number of high rise apartments and is primarily frequented by Cornell University students.)

Ithaca has many of the businesses characteristic of small American university towns: used bookstores, art house cinemas, craft stores, and vegetarian restaurants. The collective Moosewood Restaurant, founded in 1973, was the wellspring for a number of vegetarian cookbooks; Bon Appetit magazine ranked it among the thirteen most influential restaurants of the twentieth century.

Source: BLS.gov

Sioux Falls, South Dakota: 5.4% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

Originally centered on quarrying and agriculturally-based industries, the economy of Sioux Falls has become greatly diversified and more service-based over the last half-century, making the city an important location for financial services, health care, and retail trade.

Partially due to the lack of a state corporate income tax, Sioux Falls is the home of a number of financial companies. The largest employer among these, and fourth largest employer overall, is Citigroup. Other important financial service companies located in Sioux Falls include Great Western Bank, Total Card Inc., Capital Card Services, HSBC, PREMIER Bankcard, and Wells Fargo.

Sioux Falls is a significant regional health care center. There are four major hospitals in Sioux Falls: Sanford Health, Avera McKennan Hospital, the South Dakota Veterans Hospital, and the Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota. Sanford Health and Avera Health are the largest and second largest employers in the city, respectively.

Because of the relatively long distances between Sioux Falls and larger cities, Sioux Falls has emerged as an important regional center of shopping and dining. The Empire Mall, with over 180 stores, anchors one of the primary retail zones in the southwest section of the city. This area, centered mainly around the intersection of 41st Street and Louise Avenue, contains many large national chain stores and restaurants. Dawley Farm Village is a major commercial development that is being constructed for the east side of Sioux Falls. This major shopping district will be located at the intersection of Arrowhead Parkway (SD Highway 42) and Powder House Road (SD Highway 11). Downtown Sioux Falls is another important retail zone, offering more small, independent shops and restaurants than the Empire Mall area.

While no longer as economically dominant as it once was, the manufacturing and food processing sector remains an important component of the economy of Sioux Falls. The John Morrell meat packing plant is the third largest employer in the city. Other important manufacturing companies include Wheeler Tank Mfg, Maguire Iron, Amesbury Group, Teem, Raven Industries, Bell Incorporated, Tyco, and Gage Brothers.

Source: BLS.gov

Lawton, Oklahoma: 5.4% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

Lawton is primarily centered around government, manufacturing and retail trade industries. Lawton MSA ranks 4th in Oklahoma with Gross Domestic Product of $4.2 Billion produced in 2008 with a majority ($2.1 Billion) in the government sector.[5]  Fort Sill Army Post is the largest employer of jobs in Lawton, employing over 5,000 full time employees. In the private sector, the largest employer is Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company with 2,400 full time employees. Major employers in the Lawton area also include: Lawton Public Schools, Comanche County Memorial Hospital, City of Lawton, Cameron University, and Assurant Solutions.

Lawton includes two major industrial parks. One is located in the southwest region of town while the second is located near the Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport.

At present, the city of Lawton is undertaking the Downtown Revitalization Project. It’s goal is to redesigning the areas between Elmer Thomas Park at the north through Central Mall to the south to be more visually appealing and pedestrian friendly in order to encourage business growth in the area

Source: BLS.gov

Ames, Iowa: 5.4% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

“Ames is home of Iowa State University of Science and Technology, a public land-grant and space-grant research university, and member of the prestigious American Association of Universities. At its founding in 1858, Iowa State was formerly known as the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Ames is the home of the closely allied U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Disease Center, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory (a major materials research and development facility), and the main offices of the Iowa State Department of Transportation. State and Federal institutions are the largest employers in Ames. Other area employers include a 3M manufacturing plant; Sauer-Danfoss, a hydraulics manufacturer; Barilla, a pasta manufacturer; and Ball, a manufacturer of canning jars and plastic bottles.”

 

Source: BLS.gov

Grand Forks, North Dakota: 5.3% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

“The economy of Grand Forks is not dominated by any one industry or sector. While agriculture continues to play a role in the area’s economy, the city of Grand Forks now has a relatively diverse economy that includes public and private employers in sectors such as education, defense, health care, manufacturing, and food processing. The state and federal governments are two of the largest employers in the Grand Forks area. The University of North Dakota, located in the heart of the city, is the largest employer in the metropolitan area.   Grand Forks Air Force Base, just west of the city, employs a large number of civilian workers in addition to its enlisted personnel. Altru Health System is the largest private employer in Grand Forks.   Major manufacturers in Grand Forks include wind turbine manufacturer LM Glasfiber   and small aircraft manufacturer Cirrus Design.  Major food producers include potato processor J. R. Simplot Company   and the state-owned North Dakota Mill and Elevator which is the largest flour mill in the United States.   Amazon.com   and SEI Information Technologies  both operate call centers in Grand Forks. Other large private employers in the city include the locally owned Alerus Financial branch of banks, Home of Economy, and the locally owned Hugo’s chain of supermarkets.  

The retail and service sector is also an important part of the economy. The historic center of shopping in Grand Forks was the downtown area. Today, downtown is home to small shops and restaurants and south Grand Forks has become the major retail district in the city^. Grand Forks has three large shopping centers. The oldest, Grand Cities Mall, is located on South Washington Street and contains mainly small, locally owned stores as well as a Kmart. With about 80 stores, the area’s largest indoor mall is Columbia Mall which is anchored by Macy’s, Sears, J.C. Penney, and a large food court. The newest major shopping center in the city is the Grand Forks Marketplace power center mall which features SuperTarget, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Gordmans, and several smaller stores. Depending on the relative strength of the Canadian dollar versus the American dollar, the Greater Grand Forks area attracts large numbers of tourist shoppers from Manitoba and especially from Winnipeg.^“

 

 

Source: BLS.gov

Manhattan, Kansas: 5.2% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

“Manhattan’s economy is heavily based on governmentally-funded entities. Kansas State University is the largest employer in town, and its 23,000 students support the retail and entertainment venues in the city.  The second-largest employer in Manhattan is the city school district. Additionally, nearby Fort Riley also brings in lots of retail business, although the majority of soldiers live either on post or in closer Junction City or Ogden.

Other large employers in Manhattan include the Mercy Regional Health Center and Farm Bureau.Manhattan also supports a small industrial base. Manufacturing and commercial businesses include: GTM Sportswear , Alorica  , Auth-Florence Manufacturing, ICE Corporation , Manko Windows  , The McCall Pattern Company and Farrar Corporation.Some, like GTM and Farrar have had success in the city – as college towns are known to outlive and sustain economic recessions better than most towns due to their economic base.

In 2009, the United States Department of Homeland Security announced that it would locate the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, with construction scheduled to begin in 2010. The NBAF is scheduled to open in 2014, and will be a federal lab to research biological threats involving human, zoonotic (i.e., transmitted from animals to humans) and foreign animal diseases. It is expected to employ between 250–350 people, including researchers, technical support and operations specialists.”

 

Source: BLS.gov

Iowa City, Iowa: 5.1% Unemployment Rate

 

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

 

Source: BLS.gov

Lafayette, Louisiana: 5.0% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

” Lafayette serves as the retail hub of the five parish Acadiana area. One of the major retail areas in Lafayette is the Mall of Acadiana. The mall features department stores Macy’s, Dillards, JC Penney, and Sears. It also includes over 100 specialty stores, such as Express, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Talbots, Chico’s, Nine West, and Coldwater Creek. Other stores that have recently located in Lafayette include Kohl’s, Incredible Pizza Co., and Plato’s Closet. Academy Sports and Outdoors’s Lafayette location is the largest discount store in the Academy chain.”

The Oil Center, downtown, and River Ranch offer a more specialized and unique shopping experience.”

 

Source: BLS.gov

Bismarck, North Dakota: 5.0% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

“With over 4,300 employees, the state government of North Dakota is the largest employer in Bismarck. Bismarck’s two major health care providers, St. Alexius Medical Center and Medcenter One Health Systems, together employ about 4,100 people. Other major employers in Bismarck include Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Coventry Health Care, Bismarck Public Schools, Midwest Motor Express, and the United States Federal Government.  

Bismarck is the home of MDU Resources Group, which in 2009 was ranked number 473 on the Fortune 500 list.”

 

Source: BLS.gov

Lincoln, Nebraska: 4.9% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

“Lincoln’s economy is fairly typical of a mid-sized American city; most economic activity is derived from service industries. The state government and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are both large contributors to the local economy. Other prominent industries in Lincoln include medical, banking, information technology, education, call centers, insurance (such as Allstate Insurance subsidiary Lincoln Benefit Life), and rail and truck transport.

One of the largest employers is the BryanLGH Medical Center which consists of two major hospitals and several large outpatient facilities located across the city. Healthcare and medical jobs account for a substantial portion of Lincoln’s employment: as of 2009, full-time healthcare employees in the city included 9,010 healthcare pracitioners in technical occupations, 4,610 workers in healthcare support positions, 780 licensed and vocational nurses, and 150 medical and clinical laboratory technicians.^“ 

 

Source: BLS.gov

Fargo, North Dakota: 4.9% Unemployment Rate

From Wikipedia, a description of the area’s industry:

“The economy of the Fargo area has historically been dependent on agriculture. That dominance has decreased substantially in recent decades. Now, the city of Fargo has a growing economy based on food processing, manufacturing, technology, retail trade, higher education, and healthcare. The largest non-governmental employers in the city include MeritCare, Innovis Health, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, US Bank, and Microsoft. North Dakota State University is the largest public sector employer in the city. In a study published by Forbes, Fargo was ranked the 7th best small city in the nation to start a business or a career.”

Source: BLS.gov

Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, Louisiana: 4.6% Unemployment Rate

This metropolitan area covering two parishes has industry centered in retail and agriculture.

Source: BLS.gov

However, gray skies are coming…

This Coming Barrage Of Bullish Data Will Blow Away The Bears ->

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I’m so stoked the Android 2.2 software update started rolling out (for Nexus One owners only, plus you can manually install if you don’t want to wait). In checking out all the new features I accidentally stumbled across true hands-free Bluetooth voice activated dialing in native Froyo without a third party app (which is lacking in Android). This is great as many states govern you cannot operate the phone  to start a call while driving but a one-hand one-touch initiation is acceptable.

How to Operate Hands-Free Driving via Bluetooth Voice Dialer in Android 2.2:

Simply press the button on your Bluetooth earpiece, the Bluetooth Voice Dialer app launches and asks you “Speak Now…”, you say “Call John Smith” and it calls the default number you’ve saved. You can also say “Call John Smith at Work” if you have multiple numbers stored. If the app doesn’t hear which number of many you may have stored, it asks which, then you can clarify and it dials. You do not need to touch the phone at all.

We have be getting a lot of inquiries on this issue in our “Ask NerdGirl” Android questions column and finally Google’s Android will be able to support it. So as more Android phones start to get the latest update, you Californians can be legal an safer!

ROCKY HILL — A statewide veterans memorial will feature an amphitheater, a remembrance wall and ample parking.

The state chose the design, which was submitted by landscape artists Dean Adam Johnson and Robert Schechinger Jr., both of Collinsville, from 12 proposals. The memorial will be located on a grassy parcel adjacent to the Col. Raymond F. Gates Memorial Cemetery on West Street.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said an advisory group has been planning for a statewide memorial for months. While several cities and towns have their own veteran’s memorials, there is no single statewide memorial, she said.

That will soon change.  

It is important to recognize veterans and give them and their families a meaningful spot to reflect, Rell said. Memorials draw people and bring communities together, she said.

“They certainly do deserve it,” Rell said of the state’s 1.6 million veterans.

Before the memorial can be built, the governor said money must be raised to pay for it. The state provided $100,000 in seed money to support the project’s initial design and construction, but the project is expected to cost about $1.2 million.

A nonprofit foundation has been established to collect money for the project. To make a donation, checks and money orders should be made payable to Connecticut State Veterans Memorial Inc. and mailed to: Connecticut State Veterans Memorial Inc., c/o Rockville Bank, P.O. Box 660, Rockville, CT, 06066.

Every one of us makes a trip to the Apple menu almost every day, be it to shut down, restart or sleep our Macs. Even though it probably doesn’t seem like much of a chore, learning a few shortcuts can’t hurt and will save precious seconds every time you use this menu. Let’s start with how to make using the Apple menu with the mouse a bit quicker.

Bypass the Dialog Box

Something annoying about shutting down or restarting a Mac is the way that you have to go to the  menu, click Shut Down or Restart then click another button in a dialog box asking, “Are you sure you want to do that?” However, there is a simple way to bypass this dialog box, using a single modifier key on the keyboard. Holding Option and clicking on the command you want gets right down to business and does what you want straight away. You’ll be able to tell because the ellipsis (…) will disappear from the Restart, Shut Down and Log Out commands in the menu. And don’t worry; your unsaved documents are still safe — you’ll still see the “Do you want to save changes?” dialog come up. There’s no way to bypass that.

Bypass the Menu

OK, so that saved a few seconds by eliminating the move from the menu command to the dialog box, but what about saving even more time by using the keyboard instead? There are four key shortcuts for the main commands: Shut Down, Restart, Sleep and Log Out. There’s also one extra that isn’t in the menu: Sleep Display.

The first, which has been labeled in the Apple menu since OS 10.6, is Sleep. The keyboard command is Option + Command + Eject (⌥⌘⏏). This puts the computer straight to sleep without asking you anything. Very handy if you want to dash off somewhere in a hurry.

Next is the shortcut for Log Out, which is also labeled in the menu. However, to bypass the confirmation dialog, you have to add in the Option key, making the shortcut Option + Shift + Command + Q (⌥⇧⌘Q).

To put the displays of your Mac to sleep (I do this in order to let my Mac run a process overnight but still saving power), it’s Control + Shift + Eject (⌃⇧⏏).

Restarting is a simple case of pressing Control + Command + Eject (⌃⌘⏏). Dialogs for unsaved changes will still appear.

Finally, to shut down your Mac using the keyboard, press Control + Option + Command + Eject (⌃⌥⌘⏏).

That’s a lot of key combinations to remember, but even if you use just one of them every day, the amount of time you’ll save will soon add up.

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