| Urban Retail Properties, LLC Acquires Premier Shopping Destination ...
CHICAGO, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Urban Retail Properties, LLC (www.urbanretail.com), proudly announces its acquisition of Oakland Mall, a premier shopping destination located in the vibrant community of Troy, Michigan. Boasting over 1.5 million square feet, Oakland Mall is home to Macy's, JCPenney and Sears and over 125 specialty stores, including Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret, Borders Books and Music and Steve and Barry's. This acquisition is a monumental play for Urban and its re-emergence as an owner/developer in the shopping center industry. Due to Urban's recent partnership with Principal Financial Group, who is advising a large institutional investor, it is able to move into an acquisition and development position and act with economic independence.
Major Retail Theft Ring Uncovered; Numerous Racketeering Arrests Made
POLK COUNTY, Fla. -- On Thursday, January 24, 2008, law enforcement arrest teams throughout central Florida served five search warrants and arrested (up to) 18 people related to a multi-million dollar retail theft ring and fencing operation involving health, beauty, and cosmetic (HBC) products and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. All the suspects were arrested today, some of which were already in jail. They are each being charged with one count of Felony Racketeering which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, and one count of Felony Conspiracy to Commit Racketeering which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, among other current and/or pending charges. "Today, our task force brought to justice the retail theft rings uncovered in the state of Floridaâ"and perhaps the nation," said Sheriff Grady Judd.
Rejoicing Over Rebate
President Bush is proposing a temporary tax rebate to put more cash in people's pockets to get them spending and stimulate the economy. Word on capitol hill is that the president favors $800 rebates for individuals and $16-hundred for married couples. The checks haven't even been mailed out yet, but already people are planning on how to spend the extra cash. News of a tax rebate got some shoppers at the Empire Mall a little stir crazy. "I would go shopping and spend it in the mall all in one day, it wouldn't be too hard to do," said Brook Petersen. While how much of a rebate taxpayers would get hasn't been decided yet, Crazy Days shoppers say any amount would help. But most of the people we spoke with wouldn't go on any big shopping sprees, but rather would spend money on necessities or even save it. "I think it's a good idea as hard as some people work," said Sarah Bentley. Sarah Bentley has three children and says $16 hundred dollars wouldn't last long in today's economy. "I would buy groceries, because groceries are so high, grocery and gas, that's the main thing, grocery and gas," said Bentley. Ali Adamson is planning to get married soon, so the money would not be spent on any luxury items. " $800 dollars, I'd like to say I' d put it in the bank, which I would probably do with a wedding coming up," said Adamson. Others would save it to cover future expenses. "Probably save it for my kids for school or college," said Caron Wipf. "We would save it for a house, we are planning on buying a house or building one in the next few years and after that save it go on vacation," said Sharon Hofer.
5 GIs Killed In Northern Iraq
The deaths raised to at least 3,934 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In Other Developments:
A former city official was stabbed to death along with his wife and daughter in their home in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, officials said Sunday. The knife-wielding attackers stormed the two-story house late Saturday, killing Ahmed Jwad Hashim, his wife and their daughter, and leaving a visiting nephew seriously wounded, according to police and hospital officials.
Facing criticism that the Iraqi government has failed to take advantage of the lull in violence to make political progress, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki threatened to form a new government if ministers from the main Sunni bloc refused to end a boycott of his Cabinet.
NBA's Most "Popular" Coaches
The most recent issue of Sports Illustrated features a poll that asks 242 current NBA players, "What coach would you least like to play for?" and the results are really surprising. Assuming, you, like me, figured Isiah Thomas would get 242 votes. Shockingly, Isiah, despite his continued bungling of player operations, treatment of subordinates and inability to win anything, only finished fourth. Ahead of him? Pat Riley, whose has given up on the Heat's season at this point. Scott Skiles, who has given up on the Bulls season at this point stepped down from the Chicago head coaching position/was fired on Christmas Eve but who is "not burned out". And of course, the ever-so-popular Jerry Sloan, whose alleged expletive ridden tirades are almost as notorious as his disdain for giving rookies playing time.But most shocking of the whole thing is the percentage differential in the top 10.
Contribute CS3
Contribute 4 introduced the ability to use Contribute as a blog editor for most popular blogging platforms, such as Blogger, WordPress, Movable Type, and others, and Contribute CS3 adds some welcome refinements. It's now easier to select a previous post for editing, or to delete posts. Blog editing is now WYSIWYG, and the program caches the template for your blog so that you can create blog entries offline using your own template. And you can now assign multiple categories for a blog post. Though Contribute has a built-in browser, you can preview your blog entry in an external browser if you prefer. And depending on the blog server, you can write a post for later automatic publication (WordPress supports such scheduling, for example). These are all useful updates to the program for companies who want to use Contribute's blogging features to make sure that blog entries correspond to their authors' established roles.
|
