| Hotwire.com Reveals Top 10 Destinations for New Year's Eve ...
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicago has done it again. For the fourth straight year, the Windy City is the top destination to ring in the New Year, according to discount travel authority Hotwire.com(TM). Travelers are also popping champagne and singing "Auld Lang Syne" in Orlando, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco as 2007 winds down. Now in its fourth year, the Hotwire(R) Top 10 Destinations for New Year's Eve List includes newcomers San Diego, Dallas-Fort Worth, Newark and Toronto. "Chicago continues to be the top spot to kiss the year goodbye because of its winning combination of low-priced, high-quality accommodations and its menu of exciting New Year's Eve entertainment options," said Barbara Messing, vice president and travel expert at Hotwire "Any of these top 10 destinations can offer affordable, last-minute ideas for revelers looking to squeeze in one last hurrah to a memorable 2007." Added Messing: "When business travelers go home for the holidays, many big-city hotels attract consumers by offering four-star rooms for two-star prices.
Death in the Sinai
In another incident, an Egyptian police officer fired on Israeli tourists in Ras Barakeh on the Red Sea coast near the Egyptian-Israeli border, killing four women, two children and one man. Authorities on both sides agreed it was an individual act carried out by a mentally disturbed man. In 1990, nine Israelis were killed and 19 injured in an attack on a bus on the road between Cairo and Ismailia. Israeli tourists also survived a number of attacks plotted by Egypt's two major Islamist militant organizations. In 1986, Egyptian authorities thwarted an Egyptian Islamic Jihad-sponsored attack on Israeli tourists in Old Cairo's Khan El-Khalili market. A similar plot by Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya killed 18 Greek tourists at a Cairo hotel who were mistaken for Israelis. While the nature of the Taba bombing clear to most, some Egyptian analysts turned to conspiracy theories to explain the attacks, saying the bombings bore the fingerprints of Israel's intelligence agency in a plot designed to detract international attention from a bloody IDF incursion into the Gaza Strip underway at the time.
JOHNSON: 'Just move on' won't work for offended CU students
We want the university to do its job. They will tell us to just move on, but I'm not accepting that anymore. To do that will only mean it can happen again. "Where is the zero-tolerance?" Chris Choe said, spitting that he must wage this fight in the middle of studying for midterms. "He singled us out as targets," he repeated, wondering whether such solicitation on the already racially charged campus qualifies somehow as a crime. "We are going to go to the administration seeking very specific guarantees, clear action and effort. This will not be like every other time," he said, "when months down the road, you talk to your buddy and say, 'Remember that?' "We are going to stay with this." Way past time to do so. johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2763.
Renting 'green'? Not so easy
We're not going to be able to save the world," says Andy Taylor, Enterprise's chief executive, "but we think we can have an effect on the space where we play every day as a business. And we think that's what our customers and especially our employees want us to do." But - and you knew there would be a "but" - Enterprise can only do so much. Its customers, and those of sister brands Alamo and National, aren't guaranteed a hybrid rental car because there aren't enough of them for the company to buy. Most of its flex-fuel cars never run on ethanol because E85 filling stations are scarce. And fewer than one in 10 customers so far are paying the extra $1.25 per rental to offset their carbon emissions. Green is a popular theme in the rental car business these days. Hertz, for instance, markets its "Green Collection" and offers hybrids at 50 U.S.
Artesia company buys Western Chrysler
Artesia's Tate Branch Dodge Chrysler Jeep on Monday bought Western Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Hobbs. Tate Branch, 46, said the company retained about 90 percent of the roughly 30 employees at the Hobbs dealership on 4123 Lovington Highway. Branch did not purchase the other Western dealerships — Western Honda and Western Motor — in Hobbs. Western Chrysler had been owned by Barbara Cecil of Hobbs. Branch said the Hobbs dealership had called him and asked if he had any interest in owning the dealership. At first he was hesitant, Branch said, because of having his hands full at the Artesia dealership. But then a little later Chrysler also called him and suggested he proceed with it. “One thing led to another and then all these doors started opening and things just started falling in place," Branch said.
Petitioner's residency questioned
Read the latest features, news and notes on high school sports across Michigan. MPPA Photographer of the Year award Rashaun Rucker's award-winning portfolio shows a passion for crystallizing the spirit in every moment. EDITORIAL CARTOON Mayor in crisis Mike Thompson and Rachel May put together this animated satire of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the text-message scandal. VIDEO Miguel Cabrera's two-run homer WHAT A DEBUT! Cabrera's first at-bat with the Tigers is a two-run homer over the 420-foot centerfield wall. YAK'S CORNER Bunny Town The Yak visits Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary near Ypsilanti. It's the country's largest rabbit shelter. Check out the video and more. .
Dollar Thrifty shares plummet
Shares of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. plunged 37 percent Monday following news late Friday that the company expects its 2007 profit to be lower than forecast.
The Tulsa-based rental car company saw its share price drop $9.62 to close at $16.40 on the New York Stock Exchange. More than 3.4 million shares were traded.
It was the biggest drop since Dollar Thrifty's initial public stock offering in December 1997, according to Bloomberg data.
The stock price also reached a new 52-week intraday trading low of $16.27, in contrast with a 52-week high of $55.30 last Feb. 14.
The 52-week high coincided with rumors that Dollar Thrifty and Tulsa-based Vanguard Car Rental USA Inc. were in merger talks. Such a deal never materialized.
Your Hometown News - Biloxi
The wait is finally over. Saturday, Dillards will open its doors to customers at Edgewater Mall for the first time since Katrina. Work on the storm-damaged department store began in May. In ten months, it's been completely renovated. Meggan Gray takes us inside for a preview of the highly anticipated opening.
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Time To Refi?
Mortgage interest rates have dropped as much as 1.5 percentage points since last fall. Here is a list of current mortgage rates offered by lenders for mortgages that conform to the FNMA lending requirements. This is for mortgage amounts of $417,000 or less, with a loan for not more that 80 percent of appraised value. If the loan-to-value ratio is greater than 80 percent, additional mortgage insurance would apply:
15 year Fixed: 5.0 percent
30 year Fixed: 5.5 percent
5/1 Adjustable Rate: 5.0 percent
10/1 Adjustable Rate: 5.375 percent
Homeowners, particularly those with larger mortgages that conform to certain guidelines, should definitely look at refinancing again, even if they refinanced a few years ago. Thats because the monthly savings from lower interest rates for larger mortgages are greater and can recover the costs of a refinancing transaction sooner.
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FOLLOWING THE FLOCK of other retirees to warmer climes may seem like the best way to spend one's golden years. But it may not be the smartest especially during economic downturns. "A retiree always needs to be careful about where he or she chooses to spend retirement, but with economic conditions changing so quickly it's even more important to make a good choice," says Warren R. Bland, author of "Retire in Style: 60 Outstanding Places Across the USA and Canada." Not all places are created equal when it comes to weathering economic woes like the current real estate slump, credit crunch and slowing job market, he says. Choosing the wrong place could carry serious ramifications. "If you don't have a healthy local economy, it's like a cancer," says Bert Sperling, founder of Sperling's Best Places, which publishes reports on the best places to live based on data analysis.
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