| NTTA's 121 toll road win hits snag with federal funding
State transportation officials are still awaiting word from Washington on whether letting the North Texas Tollway Authority build the State Highway 121 toll road will result in forfeiture of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds. With an Aug. 27 deadline looming to sign the Highway 121 contract, the Federal Highway Administration's seeming displeasure casts another shadow over the already-contentious process to get the toll road built and running. The FHA's problem centers around the Highway 121 bidding process. The Spanish company Cintra won preliminary approval to build and operate the road. But the Legislature pressured the Texas Department of Transportation to reopen the bidding. NTTA stepped in and took the contract away from Cintra by convincing the Regional Transportation Council that its bid was better for North Texas.
Never Mind The Fish-
A local couple, who are franchisees of the Sea Tow marine assistance firm, are working to aid boaters in distress on two local lakes. Karl and Cathy Sieling of Sandy Hook operate the area's Sea Tow franchise to help boaters who become stranded while on Lake Zoar and Candlewood Lake. The Sea Tow boats are in service from May through October. Sea Tow aids boaters with towing, propeller disentanglement, jump starts, fuel drop-offs, and boat salvage work, among other tasks. Mr Sieling is a member of Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue (NUSAR), a former boat handler for the Lake Zoar Authority, and a past chief of the Lake Housatonic Marine patrol. Mr Sieling also is a former Newtown police officer. "Nobody wants to be inconvenienced. It's nice to have boat towing coverage for unsuspected problems that arise when no one else on the water is available to help," according to Mr Sieling.
Elections commission admits $2 million error in its own reporting
PHOENIX -- Embarrassed officials at the agency that oversees the state's public campaign financing system and monitors candidates' spending acknowledge that they underreported their own annual spending by $2 million. The Citizens Clean Elections Commission's annual report for 2006 originally listed total spending at $11.4 million. But the commission has issued a revised version of the report putting total spending at $13.4 million. In making the error, the commission underreported its spending on administration and enforcement by approximately $245,000 and its spending on voter education by approximately $1.8 million, according to figures in the corrected report. The commission's top staff official said Tuesday the errors were inadvertent and resulted from mistakes in putting data into a spreadsheet.
D'Tandoor To Bring Malaysian Kitchen To Australia
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 (Bernama) -- Restaurant operator D'Tandoor Food Industries Sdn Bhd (D'Tandoor) will be opening up five 'Malaysian Kitchen' restaurants in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Canberra, Australia early next year. D'Tandoor's franchise manager, Muzafar Ali Khan said the company's move to expand the local franchise restaurant business to Australia was made possible by financing from Bank EXIM. He said D'Tandoor was also aiming to open another 10 restaurants overseas based on the same concept. "The opening of the restaurant in Australia is only the first phase and under the second phase, the destinations will be Europe, United Kingdom and Amsterdam," he told Bernama at the sidelines of the Franchise International Malaysia conference and exhibition held here Friday. He said D'Tandoor was also partnering the Tourism Ministry and Aman Brothers Group to open up another restaurant to be called D'Malaysia in Perth at the end of this year.
National R.V. Holdings, Inc. Announces Second Quarter Results
PERRIS, Calif., Aug. 13, 2007 -- National R.V. Holdings, Inc. today announced financial results for its second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2007. Net sales from continuing operations were $23.4 million for the second quarter of 2007 a decline of 42.5% from $40.6 million in the second quarter of 2006. For the six months ended June 30, 2007, net sales from continuing operations declined 52.5% to $45.3 million from $95.3 million in the same period last year. For the second quarter and the six months ended June 30, 2007, the Company reported losses from continuing operations of $8.0 million and $16.8 million, respectively, compared to losses from continuing operations of $8.4 million and $11.0 million for the comparable periods in 2006. These figures correspond to losses from continuing operations of $0.77 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2007 and $1.63 per diluted share for the first six months of 2007, compared to losses from continuing operations of $0.82 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2006 and $1.06 per diluted share for the first six months of 2006.
Get an angel's-eye view of Zion National Park in Utah
THE LINE along the trail had become long, so long, in fact, that people were pulling out snacks and getting to know one another, asking, "Where are you from?" and marveling at how many of us there were and how long this was taking. Some began to lean on their companions; others sat down because it was clear this was going to take awhile. The group of 20 or so hikers were jammed alongside a 1,200-foot drop-off on our way to the summit of Angels Landing in southwestern Utah's Zion National Park, a 5-mile round-trip, 1,488-vertical-foot trail so popular that near the top where the path knife-edges and the sheer faces on either side long ago forced park officials to anchor chains so the nervous could hang on during the dicier traverses bottlenecks have become part of the experience.
US STOCKS-Signs of subprime fallout trample shares
NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks declined sharply on Thursday as several major financial institutions suffered losses in the subprime mortgage sector meltdown, sending investors fleeing from risky assets such as equities in favor of safer government bonds. Stocks added to their declines after the Wall Street Journal reported a second Goldman Sachs Group Inc. hedge fund was suffering losses and was selling its positions. Trading was extremely volatile, with stocks coming off their lows of the session shortly after the market opened following the New York Stock Exchange's imposition of trading curbs. The Nasdaq briefly turned positive, but was firmly back in negative territory by mid-afternoon. "A major issue in the mind of some investors is whether this is a systemic problem and does the whole thing implode.
Browns Partner With Secondary Ticketing Web Site
The Cleveland Browns are teaming with a year-old Web site, whose main sports business is in Europe, as their partner for reselling tickets to home games. The Browns' partnership follows other professional teams that are bypassing their primary ticketing company, Ticketmaster Inc., which has sued the Cleveland Cavaliers for using another company to resell tickets. Beginning with Saturday's preseason game against Kansas City, Browns fans can buy or resell tickets at viagogo.com. The site charges a 15 percent fee to the seller and 10 percent fee to the buyer. In return, viagogo pays the Browns a flat fee to be the team's secondary ticketing site - an arrangement that most professional teams are entering to generate extra revenue and to help unwanted tickets get used.
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