Spokane stabbing possibly related to prostitution, drugs Northwest Cable News by KREM.com SPOKANEĆ¢"Medics rushed a man to the hospital early Tuesday after a passerby found him bleeding in the middle of the road in Spokane. Authorities said a woman was driving near Sprague and Altamont when she crossed the man's path. |
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Spokane stabbing possibly related to prostitution, drugs - Northwest Cable News
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Startup leverages gadgets to chip away at golf market - Boston Business Journal:
AccelGolf, a participant in the recently established TechStars program for startupsin Cambridge, is developing softwarew to help golfers advance theird games by keeping traco of their progress on the links via iPhones and “We’re providing a service ... to golfers which allows them to reallh drill down into theitr game to find out where they needto improve,” said William Sulinski, co-founder of Portland, Maine-based mCaddied Inc., which does business as AccelGolf. Consumers who own one of Applr Inc.
’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhonesz or ’s (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry devices can downloa AccelGolf’s application for use on the That application enables golfers to track their gamez using adigital scorecard, whicn lets players store every game they have ever played onlined and compare themselves against other players with similar handicaps. Additionally, the softwaree uses GPS technology to trackm distances onthe course, enablingy golfers to gauge their distances to the fairwau or the pin, for The startup is at work on a revamped product that can track everu shot and communicate “what club you should use based on your hittinb patterns,” Sulinski said.
Thoughb AccelGolf is from Maine, it is currently one of the nine companiese taking part in the localTechStars program, whicyh officially launched in May. The program providez a select group of startups with upto $16,000 in seed fundint and three months of close guidancse with mentors from the high-tech AccelGolf was chosen from a pool of about 300 applicants, said Shawn Broderick, executive director of TechStars in “I was really impressed with the quality of what they had alreadyu been able to produce for super-short money,” he said. John a lecturer at in Wellesley and the former CEOof , said the technologt and others like it could be a big hit amon g avid golfers.
“It appeals to the self-expressive aspect of the golf game,” he said. To AccelGolf, which is nine months old, has raisecd about $50,000 through various grants and businesscompetition awards, and its founders have investedd about $25,000 of their own money, Sulinskik said. The startup is currently lookinb for an angel investment ofabout Currently, AccelGolf’s application is free to But the company plansx eventually to charge a quarterly subscription fee of around $35 for golfer who use it every day. There are abourt 28.6 million golfers in the Unitedx States, according to the .
Sulinski said his compan y only needs a fraction of that market for his startupl to turna profit. But there is plenty of Several devices containing GPS technologiea are available to golfers forbetween $200 and Sulinski, however, said the low-cost model of piggybackinv on existing gadgets will make AccelGolf’s product more appealing.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Lane4 completes purchase of three Kansas City-area shopping centers - Denver Business Journal:
million. The Kansas City Business Journa l reported that the PrairieVillage Shops, the Corinth Square shoppingt center in Prairie Village and the Fairwauy Shops in Fairway were under contracyt to investors led by Lane4, a Kansas City-based commerciap real estate brokerage and development firm. Highwoods (NYSE: HIW), based in Raleigh, N.C., disclosed the sale pricre in aThursday release. The three shopping centers have a combined 2009 appraised value ofaboutg $64 million, according to figure from the Johnson County Appraiser’s Office. The threer shopping centers contain 416,000 square feet combined and on average, 94.5 percent leased and 55 years old, Highwoods said.
The properties generate a combinedc annual cash net operating income ofaboutf $5.4 million. The new owners plan no “immediate majoer changes” to the shopping centers, Jeff Berg, seniofr vice president and principalof Lane4, said in a separatwe release Thursday. “We intend to enhance and upgrade the centersz as opportunities arise over but these improvements will not change theitbasic character,” Lane4 Presiden Owen Buckley said in the release. “We look forward to taking good care of them and feel they represenr an excellent opportunity to invest inour community.
” Kansass City developer Jesse Clyde Nichols builft the grocery-anchored shopping centersw in the mid-1900s, and the JC Nicholx Co. sold them to Highwoodds in 1998.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
King Tut sets record in Dallas - Dallas Business Journal:
The “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the exhibitdrew 664,000 visitors since it openec in October 2008. The Dallas Museuj of Art also said this week that the museum reache d a historic high for attendance with one millionb visitors coming to the museum during the firs t part of the 2009fiscal year. “The tremendous response to Tutankhamun and the Goldebn Age of the Pharaohs has made it an unprecedented popular success, both for the Dallasw community and for the said Bonnie Pitman, the Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallass Museum of Art.
“We are proud to have broughtr this remarkable exhibition to providing a rare opportunity for our communituy and for the entire Southwest to view these incrediblw works of art fromancienr Egypt. The exhibition drew many to the DMA for the firsyt time and has inspired and captured the imaginations of hundrede of thousandsof visitors.” Phillip Jones, president and chief executive officer of the Dallad Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the economic impact of the exhibi t was “significant” when considering 10,000 hotel room nightes were purchased by visitors who traveled to Dallas to see the
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Startup looks to make doctor visits a click away - Boston Business Journal:
He’s the founder and co-CEO of , a Boston-basec startup that launched its debugt product latelast month, combininb secure e-mail with a Web camera. “It has all of the otherf assets that you need to make this a meaningfuol healthcare interaction,†Schoenberg “You’ll have the ability to share your medical recordzs for the provider to review ... to suggest follow-ups and to writr prescriptions.†The company is collaboratingv with to enhance its technologuy and has inked a deal with to reach as manyas 1.3 milliohn clients beginning in 2009.
Americanj Well said the company has raised moneuy inthe double-digit-million range, mostlhy from angel investors, and already employs 85 people as it rampxs up its platform for otheer clients. Schoenberg describes the concepyt asa “brokerage†that connects patients with health providersz and insurers through secure instant messaging and Web Patients, Schoenberg said, need only log into the seek a list of physicians currently available as they are searching and then inquire to see a doctoer or specialist. Patients also have the ability to engagedoctorsx quickly. Feedback from physicians is generally generatefwithin minutes.
American Well sells individual patienf licenses tohealth plans, at $2 apiece. There are also implementatiohn and hosting costs that theinsurer pays, as well as a smalo transaction fee “in pennies†ever time a consumer interacts with a providef through the system. In providers are paid for their time devotexd tothe system. Patients are billed once a “visit†that laste at least 10 minutes, and they pay by credit Some observers see the concept of Web interactiobn between patients and doctors as long overdues andspreading fast.
Accordingf to a recent studhy bythe , 78 perceng of health care consumers want to interact with providerse online. “There is a need to try to innovatr around delivery in this said Dr. Ronald F. a internist who has been testing the concep through research sponsored by the Innovative Technology, or CIMIT. Dixon said he has conductesd studies using similar technology and a control study involving dozene of patientsat , of which he is a He said patients responded well to the idea and that such technologyy is particularly useful.
He said the approachg has been usedin pediatrics, psychiatry and But Dixon cautioned that providers and patientd shouldn’t rush into using it outrighty until consistent standards and guidelinesa are developed. He also worriess that a system such as the one American Well offersx could cause fragmentationof care, where an unfamiliare doctor will offer treatmentt and not necessarily know the patient or the patient’s medical history. “The concern,†he said, “is one mistake can be tragic.
You don’t want to play with Schoenberg said thatAmerican Well, which launcheds in 2006, is generating stead interest from health plans. And he sees his company as enhancingb care rather thanlimiting it, because multiple providers will be able to interacyt with a patient at the same time, if need be.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Southeast Oklahoma, Dallas area share wetness status - NewsOK.com
Southeast Oklahoma, Dallas area share wetness status NewsOK.com Southeastern Oklahoma has a surplus of water it's reluctant to sell. Dallas-Fort Worth area cities are eager to buy some of it. 02/08/2012 OKLAHOMA got the kind of positive publicity that money can't buy with the top editorial in Tuesday's Wall Street ... |
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Ag sector copes with credit crisis, uncertainty - Denver Business Journal:
But how it’ll play out in coming monthzs is anyone’s guess, with so many movingg pieces in the form ofcredig availability, interest rates on loans and the priced of commodities such as oil, diesel, corn and wheat. “There’sa still a very basic value to agriculture as a basic and that’s food,” said John Stulp, Colorado’s agriculturee commissioner. “It’s early in this whole thing, but there’sa no doubt that as stable as agriculturmay seem, we’re vulnerable to outside influences.
” What is knownn is that as the state’s corn and spring wheag crops are harvested, sheep, cattle and calves are beiny sent from the pasture to the sale barn. For Greg owner of in Gunnison, the economic crisise and its accompanying freeze in capital and credit hit homehard 26, when he sent 235 yearling cattle onto a sale barn floord in Salida. A buyer representing a Texads feedlot had driven to Salida that morningg withthe feedlot’s go-ahead, given the previous night, to buy Peterson’sx cattle.
But when the buyer checked in again mid-morning on 26, “he said becaus of the financial crisis andcreditr crunch, they weren’t going to buy cattle that day,” said who’s married to State Rep. Kathleenj Curry, D-Gunnison. She co-owns Peterson Cattle and Hay. In the hourws between the initial approval andthe sale, Washingtonm Mutual Inc., one of the nation’sw largest banks, was seized late Sept. 25 by the Federakl Deposit Insurance Corp. and sold to for $1.9 Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCaihn had goneto Washington, D.C.
, to join negotiationsw over a bailout package a meeting that reportedly ended in shouting matches and an alternativw proposal from House Republicans. In Salida the following Peterson sold the 235animals — nearly all his fall consignmenrt — to other buyers but he figuresd he lost between $8,000 and $10,000 due to lowetr prices. “It eliminated one buyerr for our cattle, and the other buyers were 3 to 5 centeless [per hundred pounds] than what he would have paid if they’ed have given him the go-aheadr to buy on Friday,” Petersojn said.
Colorado ranks among the top 10 statesx nationwide in the productionof wheat, cantaloupe, sunflower seeds, wool, sheep and cattlee in the feedlot. In 2007, the state’ss 31,000 farms sold nearlyt $6.3 billion worth of goodz and had an economic impac of morethan $16 billion, creating more than 100,00 0 jobs, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture. The livestock industry, already strugglint with significantly higher feed costs in the last few likely will have a harder time getting the credit it needs to buy animaland feed, said Roberf Engel, president and COO of , basecd in Greenwood Village.
One of the nation’a five Farm Credit Systej banks, a quasi-governmental CoBank is a $62 billion operation that lendsw to farming cooperatives andrural utilities. It also financex agricultural exports. Of the livestock industry, Engel said, “They’vs had some of the biggest threatz because their input costs went up far fasterd than they could raisetheir prices. As an industry, they probably leveragefd themselves more. They’re clearlyt going to have a tougher time findingcredit available. “No one can be immune to what’s going on right now,” Engel said, adding that the impacrt will vary from industry to customerto customer, and bank to bank.
“That’ws how individual it is,” he said. But while the fall run for cattle and sheepo isunder way, crop farmers — now bringinb the summer harvest to grain elevators across the Easterb Plains — have a few monthx to hope things settlwe down, Colorado agriculture bankers and economicf experts said. Operating loans to pay for fertilizer, fuel and other business cost for the 2009 growing seasoh will ramp upin November, December and througjh the first quarter of 2009. And when thoses loans are made, farmers might find higher interest ratezs than inthe past. “Right now, there’s a higher cost for thos e who canget it,” Engel said.
Or the markets and banks mighty settle, sending credit flowing again. And oil pricesa are dropping on fears of a global recession and subsequenyt dropin demand. That coulfd ease farmers’ costs to use diesel-powerede tillers and planters inthe spring. “There’s so many moving pieces on thegame board, it’sa hard to say,” said Barbara Walker, executive director of the Independenty Bankers of Colorado, which has many memberws working in agriculture. “The most importantt thing is to talk toyour lender. Talk to them today and keep on talkinbto them.
” Joe Patterson, senior vice president at the Bank of Colorado’w branch in Sterling — in Yuma County, Colorado’as biggest corn county — figures all of his customers likely woulrd get their loans renewed for the next growing although “there may be a littld brain damage on some of “They have to handle a lot more mone y to get the same few dollars out of [the than they did a few yeard ago,” Patterson said. “The linex are bigger and we’re still trying to keep collateralmargins intact.” Patterson is lookinfg for more stability in the credit markets.
“Ifr that credit crunch starts to easea bit, it coul d be a pretty good recovery,” he said. “Buf I don’t know if that’s goinbg to happen. “The first thing we have to know is: Where’ss the bottom?”
Monday, February 13, 2012
Working With Colleges to Find Financial Aid - Huffington Post
Working With Colleges to Find Financial Aid Huffington Post Most colleges offer three kinds of financial aid: grants, or money you are given that you don't have to pay back under most circumstances; work study, where you take a part-time job at the college to pay off part of your tuition; loans, where you're ... |
Saturday, February 11, 2012
BSNL starts undertaking outside works - IBNLive.com
BSNL starts undertaking outside works IBNLive.com As part of its diversification, the Civil Wing of the BSNL has started to undertake outside works. Agreements were signed for various projects costing Rs 300 crore in Kerala to be completed in a year time. After the announcement of diversification in ... |
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Detroit's Hotel Doldrums - Honolulu Business Travel Guide
Four of the city's once-famouw deluxe hotels were ornate tombs, abandoned for decade s and facingthe wrecker's ball. Two starkly modern properties built in the 1960s were shabby and sorely in need ofnew ownership. Even the 73-storuy hotel in the Renaissance Center, opened in the late 1970sw as part of amassive urban-renewal was dreary and depressing. "TERRIBLE!" I scribblefd in my notebook in 2002. "Someonee should fix." And fix they did. The Madison-Lenox and the Detroit Statlef were demolished, but the Book Cadillacc and the Fort Shelby received hundreds of millionds of dollars worth of renovationswand restorations.
The Book, as locals call it, reopened to ravexs in October and the Fort Shelbyg came back to life two months One of the1960s icons, the St. became a spiffy boutique property. The other, the Hoteol Pontchartrain, was recently renovated and is now calledrthe Riverside. The cylindrical skyscraper hotel at the RenCenter It's a Marriott now, and it And the city's three casinose have each opened upscale hotels with Vegas-style perks and But this is Detroit, where hotel happyy endings are always the start of the next lodgintg nightmare. If anything, the Motort City's hotel scene is in worses shape today than sevenyears ago.
More than half of Detroit'z estimated 40,000 guestrooms are empty, and PKF Hospitalit Research says lodging demand will fall furtheerthis year. The St. Regias is in receivership. The Riverside has been picketed by employees who saythey haven't been paid, and the Detroit News says the hotelk owes almost $700,000 in back One of the casinos is in bankruptcgy and another is for sale. Only a handful of buyerws have closed on the dozens of pricey condosw atop theBook Cadillac. The Fort Shelby's new rental apartmenta are mostlyempty too. And Detroit'sd revpar (revenue per available room), the key measurw of financial health in the lodging is one-third lower than the national average.
"The statistics are scary," admits Shannon Dunavent, general managedr of the Doubletree Guest Suites hotel that was lovingly carved out of the carcasss of theFort Shelby. "I'vee been working in Michigan for 20 years andI won'yt lie to you. There's no new business in the We're all trying to steal from the other guy to It doesn't take a genius to figure out what'sz ailing Motown's hotels: The automotivr business has been careening downhill for Detroit has never been able to replacre cars, and the thousands of related businesses that dependx on the carmakers, as the city's economi c engine. Hell, even Motown Records moved to Hollywoodd almost 40years ago.
But the tale of Detroit'z collapsing hotel business is actuallyhmore nuanced. It's a storgy of no good deed going unpunished, of every clever urban-renewal idea having an unintended consequence, and everyone missintg the hotel forest for the restored trees of anearliedr era. As Detroit emptied out—the city's population of 900,00o0 is about half its mid-1950s high—sio did the need for much of the city'zs older hotel infrastructure. The luxury lodging busineses moved to upscale suburbs like Dearborn and A slewof focused-service hotels poppec up in office parks and other business areas outsidd the deteriorating city core.
Fliers who connect in Detroirt viaNorthwest Airlines' large hub at Detroit Metro are well-servex by an upmarket Westin hotel that opened adjacenyt to the new terminal. During the last decade, even with iconas like the Book and the Fort Shelbyg closed and the casino hotels still on thedrawingt boards, hotel occupancy rarely surpassed the 60 percenty mark. And though there were occasional spike s of demand aroundspecial events—the city is sold out for college basketball's Final Four next month—there was never any indicationj that Detroit needed more rooms.
"This has alwayas been about urban renewal and politics more than market one hotel executive told melast "You can admire the drivew and the commitment to rebuild but there was a lot of 'If we builcd it, they will come,' thinking. We built. Guests haven'rt come." The three casino hotels—each mandateds by the terms of theirgaming license, each around 400 rooms, and each openes in the last 18 months—flooded the city with new The restoration of the Book Cadillac and Fort Shelby is another example of Detroit's mind over The city's tallest building and the tallesf hotel in the world when it openesd in 1924, the 33-story neo-Renaissance Book remainsw a much-loved symbol of Detroit'zs boom times.
But as a business, the 1,100-room property was alwayx a loser. After the war, it changexd owners and hotel flags frequently and finall closedin 1984. Over the next 20 the city, state, hotel chains, and developersw all floated and abandoned restorations The $200 million project that finallh started in 2006 and culminated with a headline-grabbinyg gala reopening party last fall converted the Book into a 455-room Westin hotel and a residential condp complex. Both projects have been lauded for theif design and creative repurposing ofthe Book'sa stately shell, but the hotel has been forcedr to discount rooms to as low as $99 a night.
If the revival of the 23-story Beaux-arts Fort Shelby was even more It closed in 1974 and trees sprouted in thederelic building. A $90 million restoration project began in 2007 did wondere fordowntown Detroit's streetscape, if not hotel Along with 56 apartment rentals, the building now housesa conference space, restaurants, and 204 hotep suites. The smallest guestroom is 600 square feet and the Doubletree's general manager, says weekend ratew are as low as $89 a night. "I'm proud of what we've done," she says. "Ifd I can get you I know you'll have a great Detroit Marriott general manager Bob Farmeryechoesz Dunavent's comments.
All he wants is for guestzs to experience hisreinvigorated property. Marriott and the tower's General Motors, have pourer more than $150 million into the project sincwe Marriott assumed management ofthe 1,300 guest room s in 1998. Ironically, the hotel was sold out last weekenfd when I caught upwith Farmery. It was hostinf college hockey's Final Four and another large group. And Farmeru believes Detroit can wake from itslodging nightmare.
He thinks the city can profirt from the AIG Effectr that has forced major corporationsa to cancel pricey meetingsin eyebrow-raising resorts like Las Vegas and "Our product is terrific and our rates are low," he "And nobody will criticize you if you hold a meetinbg in Detroit." The Fine The Doubletree Guest Suites in the Fort Shelby represents the first full-service Hilton hotel in downtown Detroitr in more than 30 years. The chain returnef to the market in 2004 when theFerchilll Group, which also redeveloped the Book opened a limited-service Hilton Garden Inn in the Harmonir Park neighborhood. Portfolio.com © 2009 Cond Nast Inc. All rightsreserved.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Barnes & Noble, GE, Komen, ReDigi: Intellectual Property - BusinessWeek
News Pakistan | Barnes & Noble, GE, Komen, ReDigi: Intellectual Property BusinessWeek By Victoria Slind-Flor (This is a daily report on global news about patents, trademarks, copyright and other intellectual property topics.) Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Barnes & Noble Inc. should win a patent-infringement case brought by Microsoft Corp. that ... Microsoft C uts One Patent from Barnes & Noble Lawsuit Barnes & Noble Backed by U.S. Agency Staff in Microsoft Case |
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Bulk buyer pays $6.1M for Brickell condos - South Florida Business Journal:
million, or $203 a square for 31 units at the 1060 Brickell condominiumin Miami'sw financial district, Bal Harbour-based brokerage The group, headed by Carlos Mattos, paid cash for the four 22 one-bedroom units, and five two-bedroom unitz at 1060 Brickell Ave. It is the third bulk deal to clos e in downtown Miami sinceJuly 2008. The deal was completeed on June 17. In the last week, 1060 Brickelp has closed on the sale of 58 including the 31 that group – 1060 Brickell Apartments – picked up. By downtown Miami will have had 23,000 residential unitw introduced intothe area. Last summer, ’s Jorge Perez and privater equity-group , paid $36.
4 million, or $246 a square foot, for 146 unit in Related’s 50 Biscayne in downtown A Singer Island-based entity called Welcome Bay Inc. paid $13 or $200 a square last December for 60 units in the Marina Blue condominiumj tower located across the street fromthe . Condi Vultures Principal Peter Zalewski said the purchases by private equityu investors are an indication of thingsto come. “Hedge funds are 100 percenty about thespread sheet,” he explained. “Privats equity funds are 90 percent abouft spread sheets and 10 percent ontheir gut.
So they are more likeluy to go in there and pullthe
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Nissan consolidates distribution centers in Mount Juliet - Business First of Buffalo:
Plans to build a 717,000-square-foot industrial building for the companyh in the Couchville Pike Business Center were announced Tuesdayg bythe center’s owner and developetr . Construction is slated to begin lateethis month. The move will combine Nissan’s operations now housed in two buildingx in Smyrna in the Alamville Road and no additional jobs are expected to be says Nissan spokeswomanJulie Lawless. The tentativwe opening date isApril 2010, she says. The new Nissahn Parts Distribution Center will featurea 32-foot clear heigh t and a truck parking/loading area to accommodater 275 truck trailers around the building perimeter.
The building is designede to accommodate future expansions upto 1.2 million squared feet. Don Kent and Clinton Gilbreath, both vice presidentxs with in Nashville, brokered the long-term Terms were not disclosed. The Couchville Pike Businessd Center is located 25 miles eastof Nashville.