| Prepare Your Car For Winter
Most people prepare for the seasonal change from autumn crispness to winter chill by buying winter clothing and checking out the condition of their home heating system.
But what about your car?
Winter snow, sleet, ice, rain and low temperatures put a lot of pressure on an automobile. The Better Business Bureau offers the following tips to help prepare a car for the arrival of winter:
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Best Western Takes on Business Travel
Best Western International aims to be a new competitor in lodging for business travel with a new prototype dubbed "Atria." It's a new direction for Best Western, known for catering to mainly leisure travelers in the mid-scale market. And, the new prototype comes at a time when there is increasing competition to customize offerings for business travelers, who continue to be a core client base for the hotel industry. .
Post office closures delayed by elections
The Government has intervened to prevent post office closures in the run-up to local elections next year. Public consultations have begun on the closure of 2,500 branches around the UK but in a letter to sub-postmasters, Post Office Ltd said it had been asked to suspend its network shake-up during the elections. The letter says: "As you will be aware, the closure of any post office can be highly sensitive and can potentially become a local political issue. "For that reason, we have been asked by Government to introduce a freeze on some elements of the Network Change Programme during the run-up to these elections." There will be no public consultations or any final closure decisions between April 7 to May 2 - the period immediately prior to London's mayoral elections and local authority elections in England and Wales.
The Long Wait for Tailor-Made TV
"I Want My iTV," our Nov. 19 Cover Story, looked at what's stalling personalized TV--the ability to watch shows and pull content off the Web without leaving the couch. I expected readers to be split, with the over-30 crowd waiting, as I am, for the day when TV can manage it all. But many of you seem to be very comfortable viewing content on your computer monitors or rigging up your own version of iTV, using gizmos like Web-ready game consoles. A point we may have underplayed: With PC screens topping 30 inches and add-on TV tuners readily available, it has become much easier for some of you to take the TV set out of the equation altogether. I have refused to hook up any TV/satellite/cable provider. I just want a service that allows me to go online, select certain shows, and have those shows waiting for me on a DVR.
Leaning pole in center of Dunstable to come down
DUNSTABLE -- An unsightly utility pole, with its spider web of black cables and wires running across the intersection of Pleasant and Main streets, is coming down. And it isn't coming back. The pole leans at a precarious angle but has guide wires to keep it in place so there isn't any danger of it toppling, said Verizon spokeswoman Carol Baribeau. It's being removed because the company has been running new wires for its fiber-optics network and it isn't needed anymore, she said. It will be an aesthetic improvement for the square near Town Hall and the Swallow Union School, which features a water trough dating to the 1880s. Verizon has promised selectmen it will have the pole down by the end of the month. When Verizon officials approached the town about installing the fiber optics, selectmen didn't make removal of the pole a condition for approval but strongly urged that it be taken down, said former Selectman Ted Gaudette, who was the last in a line of selectmen working toward the pole's removal .
Wall Street's money machine breaks down
Two things stand out about the credit crisis cascading through Wall Street: It is both totally shocking and utterly predictable. Shocking, because a pack of the highest-paid executives on the planet, lauded as the best minds in business and backed by cadres of math whizzes and computer geeks, managed to lose tens of billions of dollars on exotic instruments built on the shaky foundation of subprime mortgages. Predictable because whether it's junk bonds or tech stocks or emerging-market debt, Wall Street always rides a wave until it crashes. As the fees roll in, one firm after another abandons itself to the lure of easy money, then hands back, in a sudden, unforeseen spasm, a big chunk of the profits it booked in good times. "The fee engine becomes so huge that these products take on a life of their own," says Tiger Williams, CEO of Williams Trading, a leading financial services firm for hedge funds.
Corus Bankshares Completes 2004 Share Repurchase Program
CHICAGO, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Corus Bankshares, (Nachrichten) Inc. ("Corus" or the "Company") today announced the successful completion of the 2 million-share repurchase program authorized by its Board of Directors in April 2004. "Since September 30, 2007, we opportunistically repurchased in the open market approximately 1.2 million shares at a cost of $12.0 million, or $9.97 per share. These repurchase actions are a testament to the strength of our balance sheet and our expectation that share repurchases at these prices will produce long-term value for our shareholders," said Robert J. Glickman, President and Chief Executive Officer. As previously announced, on October 25, 2007, the Company's Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program to acquire up to 5 million of the Company's common shares.
London shares open lower ahead of BoE minutes; banking stocks fall
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Leading shares opened lower ahead of the release of the BoE minutes with investors focused on any clues of a December rate cut, and with banking stocks still bearing the brunt of the falls as Wall Street finished firmer overnight. At 8.08 am, the FTSE 100 index was down 80.8 points at 6,145.7 having closed last night 105.7 points firmer at 6,226.5, while the FTSE 250 index was 161.6 lower at 10.338.3. Overnight in Wall Street, stocks finished an extremely volatile session higher as investors, still jittery about mortgage-related problems at the nation's major lenders, decided to interpret comments from the Federal Reserve as suggestive of another interest rate cut. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose 51.70 points to 13,010.14. Today in North America investors will be keeping a watch on the University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment for November which economists expect to remain at 75.0 for the month.
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