| Green Directory packs data
Let's say you're running a business and doing your darnedest to be a good environmental citizen. You recycle everything possible, avoid selling products with excessive packaging and have cut your energy consumption dram-atically in the last few years. Wouldn't it be nice to let your customers know about it? Maybe they're anxious to spend their money at businesses paying attention to the environment. One way to draw attention to your efforts is to get your business listed in the Green Directory, a guide to environmentally friendly products and services in London. It is compiled and maintained by the Thames Region Ecological Association (TREA), a group that celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. "We're trying to draw attention to businesses that do something positive for the environment," says TREA member Diane Szoller.
Surviving in the small business jungle
It's a jungle out there, and a formidable one at that. For someone with little experience, the small business world can prove perplexing, taxing, gratifying or lucrative. Seasoned proprietors, too, face certain challenges and rewards with each new venture.A quick glance around the Susquehanna Valley indicates as much.Milton's Broadway Bound Cafe shut down this year, but was recently replaced by Milltown Deli. Lewisburg has seen the advent of a few new businesses just this month, including an art gallery and a boutique. Earlier this month, the Watson Cafe abruptly shut down. LeVan's, Watsontown's longtime newsstand, changed hands and will reopen in December as the Watsontown Emporium. .
Lt. Col. Kerry MacNeal's e-mails from Iraq
We arrived at Camp Echo under cover of darkness on a Blackhawk helicopter to our forward operating base (FOB) at Camp Echo, South of Baghdad, in Qadisiyah Province. This is a coalition forces outpost of 13 nations led by the Polish Army Division. This base has so many functions and diverse operations. Even more amazing is the collection of multi-national forces including soldiers from Mongolia, Poland, Denmark, El Salvador, Ukraine, Latvia, etc. I have never encountered such a polite collection of humanity - of course, it could be because everyone is armed to the teeth. So many projects, so little time.
One reason the economy is dysfunctional is the pillars of Iraqi society are not cooperating very closely. The Provincial Government, the Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and Tribal Leaders all regard each other with some degree of suspicion and do not share power easily.
Introducing the Nilex
At almost any economic conference or gathering of business professionals in the past five years, the subject of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) was sure to arise. Just as inevitable as the subject itself would be the near-unanimous agreement that SMEs are the future of our economy. The rhetoric generally goes something like this: If we are to continue to enjoy the high GDP growth rates that we have witnessed in recent years, we must develop our SME sector. They are the ones who will be providing the growth, the jobs and the security of a healthy, diversified economy that is not dependant upon a small number of large private enterprises. Government officials, bankers and market regulators alike nod their heads in agreement to the above premise yet SMEs remain marginalized.
Emotional trek to Sierra crash site for man who lost legs at age 10
Donnie Priest pulls off his left leg and tinkers with his prosthetic ankle as casually as another hiker might tighten his bootlaces. He can see the crash site now, but it's still a thousand vertical feet above him and the route up the mountain is about to get dicey. As Priest uses an Allen wrench to adjust the angle of his carbon-fiber foot for the steepening terrain, he's beginning to have doubts. "That mountain already tried to take me once," he says, squinting up at 12,057-foot White Mountain. "Why give it the opportunity to do it twice?" On Jan. 3, 1982, a small plane carrying Priest, his mother and stepfather crashed into the peak during the deadliest winter storm to pound Northern California in a generation. Priest, then 10, was the only survivor.
Johnson on Pats: 'We haven't found a weakness'
It was two days before the Eagles' Super Bowl XXXIX showdown with the New England Patriots, and a small group of local reporters was invited to talk with defensive coordinator Jim Johnson. The subject was the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots, and Johnson could not have been more candid. "They're a complete team," he said. "Good defense, good offense, good special teams. They don't make a lot of mistakes. There's really not a lot of weakness on that football team." Johnson laughed when a reporter said his evaluation of the Patriots would worry Eagles fans eager for a parade down Broad Street. "I'm worried, too," he said. Reminded of that conversation yesterday, after the Eagles' Thanksgiving morning practice at the NovaCare Complex, Johnson was asked whether his level of angst had risen this week, as he watched film of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady using all of his new toys to carve up teams week after week on their way to a 10-0 record.
CoStar Lead Street (Nov. 11-17): Sellers: Eager; Bankers and Buyers: Not So
In this week's issue of CoStar Lead Street, you'll find everything from CEOs analyzing market conditions to college football - really. With financing terms uncertain, buyers are holding onto their cash; one new survey tells us the price of living in college football towns and another tells us where new churches are coming from; NorthMarq gets into the property brokerage business and Schuster raises spending money. Plus, we tell you where corporations have decided to grow and give you the latest major properties under contract. No Lack of Capital or Sellers, Just a Lack of Interested Buyers Third quarter corporate earnings conference calls put today's real estate environment into clearer perspective. Companies are less likely to bite on deals, but there is no lack of sellers pushing product and capital doesn't appear to be too constricted, just that lenders are a little more demanding.
PM backs controversial grants program
PRIME Minister John Howard says he stands by all grants issued under the discredited Regional Partnerships Program. The auditor-general has released a scathing report on the program, saying it has fallen short of an acceptable standard of public administration. The report shows ministers have overridden departmental recommendations not (not) to approve projects in 88 per cent of applications from coalition electorates, compared with just 9.3 per cent from those held by Labor. In some instances, ministers approved money for projects without even receiving a funding application. But Mr Howard said he would defend the grants program. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to go to any part of Australia that has been a beneficiary of these grants and defend what the government has done," Mr Howard told journalists in Adelaide.
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