| Estate sales: Adventure to the past
Rogers, a bargain hunter herself, bought her two-bedroom, two-bath house nine years ago in Shadow Lakes for $61,500. The house overlooks a retention pond that is also a bird sanctuary. "I had spent a wonderful year when I was in high school with an aunt and uncle who lived in Clearwater," she recalls. "After that I always wanted to live in Florida. I'm just one of those people who loves Florida." Rogers, who is divorced, lives with her two dogs, Beau, a black lab/Great Dane mix, and Squeaky, a boxer/terrier mix she rescued while volunteering at the Pasco Animal Welfare Society thrift shop in New Port Richey. "I walk my dogs almost every day in Starkey Park," she says. Animals and the environment are of great importance to her: She is a supporter of such groups as Pasco Wildlife Inc.
Manhattan Transfers
Passing with high grades
The announcement was made last night at Spice restaurant on North Street, where several key players in the laptop initiative gathered for the good news. Steering committee co-chairman Michael Supranowicz said the BWLI recently surpassed $1 million in private contributions, a mark that was crucial in making the three-year initiative solvent. "This shows that what we have going here is a community effort," Supranowicz said. Launched in January 2006, the initiative has supplied 2,305 Apple iBooks to teachers and students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades at Silvio O. Conte Middle School in North Adams and at the Reid, Herberg and St. Mark's middle schools in Pittsfield. The $5.3 million program is being used as a pilot program by the state, with funding generated from both state and private capital.
The Friday interview
Beijing last spring I watched landscaping teams watering already well-established trees on the approaches to the "Bird's Nest" stadium. Given that beautification is the last thing on any construction timetable, landscaping is a good indicator of a project's past. Higgins, who oversees a team of 500 in Canary Wharf and a construction staff that will exceed 4,000 people, is determined London's experience will be closer to the Chinese example than the Greek. He is convinced that decisions now will have a fundamental impact on the cost and delivery. "There has been a huge debate about cost, but cost is always an outcome," he says. "Much of it becomes inevitable from decisions you make early on in a project. Hitting the milestones on planning, on cost-planning, start date on site, those are the biggest ways of 'de-risking' the project.
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As technology becomes the true enabler in allowing HR professionals to focus on strategy, IHRIM and their members are key contributors to helping the senior HR professional become more strategic and accountable. 2004-04-25 The Last Generation of Chainsmokers -- A new bad-boy writer lights up Lit-FictionThe Last Generation of Chainsmokers, the smashing debut novel of Stephen Creagh Uys, earns its writer a seat in literatures holding cell, next to Jack Kerouac, Bukowski, and Hubert Selby Jr. In this stunningly honest, heartbreaking and hilarious tale of besotted lovers, Uys (pronounced Ace) reveals the dark passion of alcoholics with an integrity and intensity not seen since classic works like Under the Volcano and Junkie. His novel shows a deep understanding of the brutality of modern life and the beauty it can lend to modern literature.
Let the games begin
The public is encouraged to come out and take a look at tomorrow's Olympians because this is the road to the Olympics," said Chairman Dick Ross of the Promotions Committee for the Ishpeming Ski Club. Spectators, which included past ski jumpers, anxious parents and locals stood along the sidewalks watching as each team passed by in the March of the Olympians. "I lived in Ishpeming all my life, says local resident John Jackson, "and its part of Ishpeming's tradition, the ski jumping, so its a nice little tribute to the guys. Following the march, selected members from each team took the Olympic oath; and it certainly wouldn't be the Olympics without the torch. With the help of the Olympic Ski Hall of Fame, a replica relay torch was brought in from Calgary, which will burn outside of the Ishpeming Ski Hall of Fame all during this week's events. On Wednesday, the athletes will have official training for both ski jumping and cross country skiing, then on Thursday morning at 10 a.m., the first ski jumpers will take to the air.
The 'eroding' gas tax
In offering a way to balance a state budget bleeding billions in red ink, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill last week brought up a subject that has been taboo for a while: The notion that it is time to raise the state gas tax.In a decade that has seen prices at the pump more than double, the idea is not likely to sit well with commuters who have watched helplessly as the rising cost of fuel has taken increasingly larger bites out of their pocketbooks. But Hill maintained it is long overdue. .
Only digital TV will do in a year
Thousands more will have to buy some new gear or lose the use of spare televisions in guest bedrooms, kitchens and dens.
And those battery-operated televisions people buy for hurricane emergencies. Forget about them. Theyll be useless.
The Federal Communications Commission demands that local television affiliates must broadcast only digital signals by Feb. 17, 2009, so the analog signals previously captured by set-top antennas will no longer be available for TV.
The move, the feds say, will free up space for public safety communications such as those by police and fire departments. Some of the available space also will be auctioned to wireless companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced services.
People who subscribe to cable or satellite programming wont be affected, at least on those televisions connected to cable boxes or satellite receivers.
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