Gambling News Blog @newzblogz.com

In response to the letter "Blame the governor," I think the governor has done quite a bit of good for the people of Pennsylvania. He has lowered property taxes for some senior citizens. He's passed gambling in the state. Although the religious groups are against this, they must admit at least the money is staying in our own state.Now let's look at why he has called for a raise in sales tax. It is because the federal government cut aid to roads and schools, etc. Not just to Pennsylvania but all s...

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As you may be aware I served on the Tax Study Commission and acted as chair of the Commission. While a member and chair, I carefully refrained from my personal opinion regarding the fairness and prudence of Act 1. In fact, I voted with the remainder of the commission in favor of the recommendation that was accepted by the school board last evening. We were faced with little latitude in making that decision in light of the mandate of Act 1 that a referendum had to occur at the May primary and tha...

That said and now that I have been released from my responsibility as a member of the commission I adamently oppose this tax shift. I maintain that from a position as someone who receives retirement income that is not subject to either the earned income tax or personal income tax. Indeed, real estate taxes are burdensome and, in some people's opinion, unfair but increasing the earned income tax from the current total of 1.8 percent to a proposed 2.7 percent is exceptionally burdensome to wage ea...

Local tax relief in some form is needed. State mandates and h

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Halfway between Winslow and Flagstaff is Two Guns, Ariz. It is located along the thirsty Canyon Diablo, and proprietor of one of the most sordid histories a small local could ever hope to avoid.

When the early Atlantic and Pacific Railroad came steaming west from New Mexico, by the time it reached Canyon Diablo in 1881, it came to a screeching halt due to the need for a large bridge coupled with their financial difficulties. The railroad workers had to wait until they could begin spanning the 255-foot deep gorge, so the temporary town of Canyon Diablo laid with its mouth open at the end-of-the-line to swallow-up those less inclined to fight back from being punched, robbed or shot in the street

During its flash-in-the-pan life of little over a year, Canyon Diablo saw the establishment of 14 bars, 10 gambling dens, two dance halls and two houses brothels that faced each other between the typical supply shops, all on what was called Hell Street.

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Not everyone is as intuitive as you are, and today you will have to listen to a friend make some outlandish and unlikely predictions. This person will be so sure of these notions that he or she is willing to bet money on them, but you know better. If you think that gambling on these predictions will put your friend in some sort of danger, do your best to point out some logical flaws. Otherwise, stay quiet and let this pal learn an important lesson -- the hard way.

Weekly Horoscope

Monthly Horoscope

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WASHINGTON (AP) The top aide to convicted former Rep. Bob Ney pleaded guilty Monday to federal conspiracy charges stemming from a congressional bribery scandal that downed his boss.

Smiling nervously at times, William Heaton, 28, acknowledged accepting a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Heaton worked for Ney, R-Ohio, from September 2001 to July 2006, ultimately serving as his chief of staff.

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WASHINGTON – The top aide to convicted former Rep. Bob Ney pleaded guilty Monday to federal conspiracy charges stemming from a congressional bribery scandal that downed his boss.

Smiling nervously at times, William Heaton, 28, acknowledged accepting a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Heaton worked for Ney, R-Ohio, from September 2001 to July 2006, ultimately serving as his chief of staff.

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GRAND RAPIDS A federal judge has dismissed arguments by opponents of a proposed Indian casino in southwest Michigan, bringing the 304-member Gun Lake tribe a step closer to developing the project.

U.S. District Judge John Penn in Washington, D.C., ruled late Friday in favor of the Department of the Interior, which intends to take 146 acres in Allegan Countys Wayland Township into trust for the casino.

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While Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson's newfound zeal for an ambitious overhaul of Cobo Center is a welcome change, I am dismayed that he is still resurrecting old ideas ("Patterson: No tax hike for Cobo; His alternatives face hurdles," Feb. 8). His suggestion that a casino or racinos be allowed there is his latest attempt to subvert the will of the voters and an attempt to rehash a plan he has been pushing for more than two decades.

Detroit residents for many years said yes to casinos in the city, only to be thwarted at the state level. That all changed in 1996, when, in a statewide ballot question, Michiganders agreed to allow three casino licenses to be issued for gambling parlors in the city. Then, in 2004, voters said that any gambling expansion for Michigan would again have to come before the voters.

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There are two major camps of investing: technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis dwells on charts of stock-price movements and trading volume. Fundamental analysis, on the other hand, focuses on the intrinsic value of companies, studying such things as their business model, earnings growth, and competitive position. While investors from the fundamental school want to understand a business from the inside out, technicians tend to remain on the outside, observing how the stock behaves in the market.

Technicians have defined many patterns in the charts they study, imbuing them with much significance. There are already a head-and-shoulders pattern and a cup-and-handle pattern. Perhaps next we will see an ostrich-and-eggbeater pattern. These patterns do exist, but they do not necessarily mean anything. Imagine someone discovering that on presidential election days, whenever the skies above Fresno were cloudy, Republican candidates won. Like many patterns, this would be a randomly occurring one...

Investors who use technical analysis focus on the psychology of the market, scrutinizing investor behavior. They try to determine where the big, institutional money is going so they can put their cash in the same places. Imagine Warren Buffett trying to follow this short-attention-span crowd instead of seeking, buying and holding great companies for the long term. Imagine the taxes and commissions. (Short-term capital gains face stiffer tax rates than long-term gains.)

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-China. See Beijing before the 2008 Summer Olympics, when prices will soar. Meanwhile, you benefit as the city spruces up for the Games and the country adds new air service. American airlines are adding flights to China.

The country has hundreds of hotel projects in the works, including more than 20 expected to open in the next year in Beijing. Many major U.S. chains are expanding there.

If you're swinging down to Hong Kong, consider a side trip to Macao, which rivals Las Vegas as a world gambling capital. And unlike Las Vegas, Macao is steeped in hundreds of years of multicultural history.

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SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) ? Officials in this Cleveland suburb have proposed laws that would penalize landlords if their tenants commit crimes within 1,000 feet of the rental property where they live.

The proposed laws would require landlords to reimburse the city for the police investigation. They also could lose their rental permits.

The intent is to make landlords pay more attention to their selection of tenants, city lawyer Bill Gruber said.

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WINNEBAGO, Neb. Rising from the bluffs of eastern Nebraska, on the sparsely populated, historically poor Winnebago Indian reservation, stands a glass-paneled office building.

The out-of-place structure is home to Ho-Chunk, a $100 million business with more than 500 employees in six states, Mexico, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ho-Chunk, the economic development arm of the Winnebago Tribe, is similarly remarkable in the world of American Indian business, because its success has little to do with gambling - besides getting seed money from casino revenue.

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Gov. Jennifer Granholm's move to expand legalized gambling by offering the state's popular Club Keno lottery game to private clubs is expected to net about

$15 million a year for public schools, a state lottery official said.

The 3-year-old lottery game, which is played in 2,000 bars and restaurants, would be expanded to local Elks lodges, VFW halls and private yacht clubs.

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LAS VEGAS, Feb. 20 ? Zhu Yu was not the least perturbed that faux Italian frescoes ? rather than Asian silk screens ? decorated the ceiling of the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino hallway where he and his family watched on Saturday as a 25-foot-long red-and-yellow dragon shimmied through a traditional Chinese New Year dance.

?Oh, it?s nothing like what we did when I was a boy in Taipei, but it?s still very exciting,? Mr. Zhu, 49, said over the din of drumbeats as the dragon paused to send good luck in the direction of those inside the high-limit baccarat room. His three daughters, all younger than 10, stood mesmerized in front of his wife.

It was the Zhu family?s fourth straight year ushering in Chinese New Year in Las Vegas instead of in their home city, San Francisco. Their stop at the Venetian?s dragon dance was followed by a visit to a similar one in the pirate?s cove outside the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino on Sunday, the first day of the Year of the Pig, and another dragon dance Monday, this one at the Roman-themed Caesars Palace.

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LAS VEGAS - Casino-owner Station Casinos Inc. on Monday said it agreed to be acquired by a private equity group that includes key members of its founding family for about $5.4 billion.

The group known as Fertitta Colony Partners LLC offered $90 per share for the casino and is an 8 percent premium over its closing price of $83.30 a share on Friday.

The group sweetened an earlier bid of $82 a share made Dec. 4. Since then, the share price has shot above that mark, and some shareholders sued shortly after the first offer was announced, saying the bid was too low.

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ATHENS, Ga. - There has been no decrease in arrests of University of Georgia students - the vast majority related to drinking - in 2006 despite the school's efforts, according to university and police records.

Even though university police haul underage drinkers to jail and administrators threaten to suspend students for their drinking offenses, university students continue to get caught abusing alcohol as much as they did a year ago.

The Athens Banner-Herald obtained the records through the state's open records law.

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On Feb. 26, 1815, exiled Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the island of Elba to begin his second conquest of France.

In 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the "Communist Manifesto" in London.

In 1919 Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona.

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It wasn't as easy to admit 18 months ago, when Bob, who asked that his real name not be used, was whittling away his savings, lying to his wife and sacrificing time with his family.

Before his family encouraged him to get help, he would spend 18 hours at a time glued to the computer screen in his basement, stopping only to smoke cigarettes and eat between online poker games.

He gambled every day. He lied about where he was. He lied to his wife for the first time in more than 30 years and still couldn't stop.

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HARRISBURG — As Pennsylvania’s casino industry ramps up, some lawmakers are again questioning whether slots will cut into the proceeds of the state-run lottery.

The debate over whether expanded gambling would siphon sales from the lottery has lingered since the state legalized slot machines in 2004. The issue came up again last week, as the House kicked off several weeks of hearings on Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The Rendell administration predicts lottery ticket sales and net lottery collections will continue growing over the next five years, despite the growing presence of slot machines.

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Americans are very good at addressing symptoms rather than problems.

Installing cameras at intersections is addressing the symptom. The problem is, people are running red lights because the traffic signals are obnoxious. To begin with, the lights aren't synchronized. This is a fairly expensive problem to address, but if just the major streets had synchronized signals it would alleviate a lot of the problem. Garden Street, for example desperately needs synchronized lights.

Secondly, almost every intersection has left-turn arrows whether they are needed or not. When there is a left-turn arrow you get a green light somewhat less than half of the cycle, sometimes as little as a quarter of the cycle. This means you are going to catch a red light more often than not and in heavy traffic conditions you will catch three red lights for every green one.

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Imagine, if you will, a once-great mountain resort area revived by a glitzy new casino, complete with table games including blackjack and poker. Imagine, if you will, all of this roughly an hour’s drive from Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.

Now imagine it in another state.

New York Gov. Elliott Spitzer last week gave his blessing on plans for a $600 million Indian casino at Monticello, N.Y., in the Catskill Mountains, further signalling his intent to throw his weight behind the project as the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe aims for the last big challenge — securing federal approval for the tribe to obtain non-tribal land.

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WINNEBAGO, Neb. (AP) Rising from the bluffs of eastern Nebraska, on the sparsely populated, historically poor Winnebago Indian reservation, stands a glass-paneled office building.

The out-of-place structure is home to Ho-Chunk Inc., a $100 million business with more than 500 employees in six states, Mexico, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ho-Chunk, the economic development arm of the Winnebago Tribe, is similarly remarkable in the world of American Indian business, because its success has little to do with gambling - besides getting seed money from casino revenue.

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Station Casinos Inc.'s board of directors has accepted a revised buyout offer from its founding family and a unit of real estate firm Colony Capital LLC for about $5.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said Sunday.

The revised offer of $90 a share in cash came after an initial bid Dec. 4 by Colony and a group that included Chief Executive Frank J. Fertitta III and President Lorenzo Fertitta for $82 a share.

Since then, the share price has shot above that mark, closing Friday up 30 cents at $83.30 on the New York Stock Exchange. Some shareholders sued shortly after the first offer was announced, saying the bid was too low.

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City proposes laws to penalize landlords for tenants' crimes

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio ? Officials in this Cleveland suburb have proposed laws that would penalize landlords if their tenants commit crimes within 1,000 feet of the rental property where they live.

The proposed laws would require landlords to reimburse the city for the police investigation. They also could lose their rental permits.

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TALLAHASSEE Phone and cable companies, HMOs, utilities and insurers tipped the scales of special interests that poured at least $93 million and as much as $253 million into influencing Florida government last year.

Florida cracked sunlight on how much state lobbyists are paid for the first time in December 2005 when lawmakers banned gifts and meals and forced lobbyists to report their pay. Despite legal challenges, the law stands and the final reports for 2006 are now available.

The biggest players are former public officials, or political insiders, such as former House speaker John Thrasher and Brian Ballard, a major fundraiser for Gov. Charlie Crist.

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New York Gov. Elliott Spitzer last week gave his blessing to plans for a $600 million Indian casino at Monticello, N.Y., in the Catskill Mountains, further signaling his intent to throw his weight behind the project as the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe aims for the last big challenge, securing federal approval for the tribe to obtain nontribal land.

And its progress, though far from complete, raises two big unknowns: What the ramifications could be for Northeastern Pennsylvania’s casinos, and whether the proximity of table gaming to Pennsylvania’s borders could revive debate on the issue of expanding legal gambling options here.

“It’s much like the resort business. If one resort has an indoor pool, we’d have to get one too,” said Bob Uguccioni, executive director of the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau, whose region will be home to Louis DeNaples’ new Mount Airy Casino, slated for a fall opening.

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Kings County Sheriffs deputies are looking for two men and two women in their 20s who lured a man out of the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino Thursday night and robbed him at knifepoint in the parking lot.

A Lemoore man, age 25, told deputies that he was gambling about 10:30 p.m. when he was approached by a man and two women who offered to take him to a party.

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Council members agreed that they could not agree to the change in the ordinance - which currently restricts raising traditional farm animals to properties that are zoned for agriculture - without support from the Eagan Hills Homeowners' Association, to which the Goffs belong. They said Heather was the only one who has approached the city about a change to the ordinance."I'm not against the change, but I can't tell a homeowners' association to change," said Councilmember Cyndee Fields."We always ...

"Heather, I congratulate you on your studies," said Mayor Mike Maguire, who is also a shareholder in an organic farm in Wisconsin. "I think that it's an admirable project and it's admirable that it got to this point.""I wish I would have known you when I h

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Although University of Georgia police haul underage drinkers to jail and administrators threaten to suspend students for their drunken behavior, university students continue to get caught abusing alcohol as much as they did a year ago.

The vast majority of the 651 UGA student arrests in 2006 were for underage drinking, having a fake ID, DUI or public drunkenness.

UGA and Athens-Clarke County police records obtained through the state's open records law show that officers arrested UGA students just as often at the end of the year as at the beginning, when UGA administrators launched new strategies to curb bad behavior.

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A decline in services leaves families struggling to get help for their loved onesBy Gwyneth Gibby

Corvallis Gazette-Times

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When Ave Maria School of Law officials and supporters announced last week at a press conference that the Michigan-based school will relocate to Southwest Florida, it was done with an air of excitement and achievement.

But 1,400 miles away at the current law school, the vibe was different.

Moments before Tuesday?s announcement, one tenured professor submitted a five-page letter of resignation. In the hours that followed, law school professors, alumni and students issued biting statements condemning the move.

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WINNEBAGO, Neb. — Rising from the bluffs of eastern Nebraska, on the sparsely populated, historically poor Winnebago Indian reservation, stands a glass-paneled office building.

The out-of-place structure is home to Ho-Chunk Inc., a $100 million business with more than 500 employees in six states, Mexico, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ho-Chunk, the economic development arm of the Winnebago Tribe, is similarly remarkable in the world of American Indian business, because its success has little to do with gambling — besides getting seed money from casino revenue.

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(Created: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 10:02 PM CST)

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LAS VEGAS — Station Casinos Inc.'s board of directors has accepted a revised buyout offer from its founding family and a unit of real estate firm Colony Capital LLC for about $5.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said Sunday.

The revised offer of $90 a share in cash came after an initial bid Dec. 4 by Colony and a group that included Chief Executive Frank J. Fertitta III and President Lorenzo Fertitta for $82 a share.

Since then, the share price has shot above that mark, closing Friday up 30 cents at $83.30 on the New York Stock Exchange. Some shareholders sued shortly after the first offer was announced, saying the bid was too low.

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In Washington, this sound is illegal, and it's one reason there is so much controversy surrounding a new deal between the state and the Spokane Tribe of Indians.

The agreement, in the works for nearly 20 years, finally brings the Spokanes under the same regulatory umbrella as the rest of the tribes in Washington. But critics say it was at the cost of a dramatic expansion in casino operations that seems to reward the Spokanes for operating outside the system.

The Spokanes dispute that suggestion.

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The high roller tables in Las Vegas don't carry this much pressure. Any

coach, general manager or owner who has been in position to take the No. 1

overall player in the NFL draft desperately needs that pick to be a slam-dunk

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A federal judge dismissed arguments by opponents of a proposed Indian casino in southwest Michigan, bringing the 304-member Gun Lake tribe a step closer to developing the project.

U.S. District Judge John Penn in Washington ruled late Friday in favor of the Department of the Interior, which intends to take 146 acres in Allegan County's Wayland Township into trust for the casino.

Michigan Gambling Opposition sued in 2005 to block the government from taking the land into trust. Penn ruled Friday that the anti-casino group "has raised no genuine issues of material fact."

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PARIS -- The discovery of the obvious is not a convincing casus belli, and the recent presentation in Baghdad of munitions of Iranian origin found in Iraq, merited comparison with Claude Rains' declaration that he was "shocked, shocked!" when told that gambling took place in Humphrey Bogart's Casablanca saloon.

Some critics of the George W. Bush administration, some specialists in Iranian arms, and some reporters have been skeptical about the Baghdad presentation, but I would think it perfectly reasonable for Iran to supply weapons to the Shia militias and insurgents in Iraq.

The United States has been trying to overthrow Iran's Islamist government since 1979. It has successfully organized U.N. Security Council sanctions against the country for its nuclear activities, and sponsors opponents of the regime, anti-regime propaganda and political warfare activities. American agents allegedly have been inside Iran promoting resistance among the Kurdish and Turkic-speaking minorities.

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With the height of the Caribbean cruise season upon us, legions of would-be vacationers will weigh whether or not to opt for anchors aweigh.

More than 250 ships sailing the seven seas means you can face some daunting decisions, especially if you're a novice cruiser.

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TOWANDA ? The Towanda School District?s strategic plan and the application process for obtaining homestead exclusions were two of the topics covered at this week?s meeting of the Towanda School Board.

To help gather input for the strategic plan, which is intended to guide the Towanda School District over the next six years, the school district has placed surveys on its Web site.

There are separate surveys for parents, staff and students, in which they will indicate ?how they think we are doing in certain areas,? said Diane M. Place, superintendent of the Towanda School District.

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I ask for the citizens of Escambia County to re-evaluate the significance of the proposed 40 percent reduction in ECAT services. This action is the catastrophic elimination of 40 percent of the rides funded through the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADA transportation program, a federally funded program, provides rides to the disabled in maintaining employment, independence, medical treatment and other special care needs. It is tied directly to the fixed bus system in each individual county.

Our county commissioners presented a 5-cent gasoline tax that would continue, even improve, our countys current mass transit system. By popular consensus this was unacceptable. Unfortunately most people who responded were not those who ride with ADA or use the fixed ECAT service.

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Less than a week after Superbowl Sunday, residents of Evansville, Ind.--located just 181 miles southwest of Indianapolis, home of the newly crowned National Football League champions--had stopped celebrating the Colts' victory. With Mardi Gras coming, the city's bars and restaurants had bigger King Cakes to fry.

"We've got one of the biggest Mardi Gras parties outside of New Orleans to get ready for," says Louis Krugel, a bartender at Ginny's Place in downtown Evansville. If last year is any indication, Ginny's Place expected standing-room-only crowds of 300 people for Cajun food, dancing and karaoke each night of Mardi Gras. "Oh, honey, we party all the way through," says Krugel.

OK, so maybe a Mardi Gras free-for-all isn't the best venue for landing your own honey. But there are other ways to sow the seeds of love in Evansville, which ranked No. 19 on our list of the most expensive cities for going on a first date. Take the town's week-long summer Freedom Festival, with air shows, hydroplane racing and fireworks. And in October, residents indulge in deep-fried cow-brain sandwiches, chocolate-covered grasshoppers and fried Oreos at the West Side Nut Club's Fa...

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n the Hawkeye newsroom at Mountlake Terrace High School on Tuesday, Feb. 20 , advisor Vince DeMiero, executive editor Leah Pope, technology editor Corina Cheever, and health editor and web manager Katherine Waldo (from left) discuss a new bill before the Legislature that would give student papers more freedom.

A December 2005 editorial cartoon in the Hawkeye, Mountlake Terrace High School's student paper, shows Luke Skywalker ("Democratic Republic of Mountlake Terrace") battling with Darth Vader ("Fascist state of Everett").

The caption reads: "The plight of the KODAK brings the Everett School District administration into sharp contrast with our own. It's striking that their policies are so different."

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RAYMONDVILLE, Texas - The engine of the old, borrowed camper chugs away in the parking lot of the county jail, three goats, a rooster, and a horse alongside. It is the temporary home and office of Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra, the Mexican-born firebrand who's currently at odds with the rest of the county justice system.

Guerra has brought down public officials before, and before that helped bring down this deep South Texas farm town's Anglo-topped hierarchy. Most recently, he filed - and then dropped - motions to have the sheriff and two elected officials removed from office.

Now, he says, they're all out to get him - hence a special prosecutor's raid of his office and the filing of public theft charges against him, which were dropped on Friday.

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When they saw a young Richard Nixon barking onlookers to the wheel of fortune at Prescott Frontier Days in the late 1920s, no one had a clue that teenager would someday be president of the United States.

The Slippery Gulch lineup of gambling opportunities at Frontier Days wasn't legal, but at that time in Prescott, no one seemed too concerned about it.

It must have been exciting for a young Quaker boy from Whittier, Calif.

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Llwyd Ecclestone, owner of the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, is about to sign a six-year deal with the PGA tour to host the Honda Classic pro golf tournament. The event wraps up a four-year contract next month at Mirasol, which is across the street from PGA National. The spilt hasn't been a pleasant one. Mirasol officials were angered when their entire tournament staff was given the pink slip and the charitable foundation connected with the tournament was disbanded by PGA tour brass. Dave Feder, former head of the Boca Raton Resort & Club, runs PGA National for Ecclestone.

The Florida Bar has nailed area attorneys with sanctions. Boca Raton lawyer Joe Ferrara was suspended 30 days for unprofessional conduct, and Stan Hyman of Delray Beach had his licensed yanked permanently for using confidential client information to the detriment of the client.

Federal bank regulators have issued cease and desist orders against New York-based Israel Discount Bank, which has a branch office in Boca Raton. The Feds claim the bank violated the nation's bank secrecy act, which is designed to prevent money laundering produced by terrorist activities, political corruption and drug trafficking. The bank has neither admitted nor denied any allegations and wouldn't comment further on the federal order.

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With millions of dollars in revenues and expenses, school districts are big businesses. They produce students prepared for the work force or higher-education opportunities. Their customers are the taxpayers of the district.

Too many school districts do not bother to keep their customers and taxpayers informed about what they are doing. They simply don?t market themselves. School districts should not be surprised when taxpayers go on the attack at budget time if they have not kept the public informed about all the positive things the districts have been doing throughout the year. That forces the school board members and administrators into defensive postures.

The Act 72 debacle pitted school districts and taxpayer activists against one another. Taxpayers saw a quick fix to rising property taxes. School districts saw an assault on their ability to provide quality ? and, all too often, expensive ? education. Clouded by gambling money, loss-of-independence issues and ubiquitous but unfounded emotional claims of retirees being forced out of their homes, the reform measures have gone nowhere. At least, for the time being.

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Presentation on Vicksburg well received at Gaslight

Associate editor Ripley

GEORGETOWN - Huzzah!! The story of a critical Civil War battle that played a key part in shaping the United Sates was retold Saturday, Feb. 10 by well-known historian Ed Bearss to a packed house at the Gaslight Theater. From the daring to the drunken, the bold and the bungling, Bearss gave a captivating account of U. S. Grant's campaign on Vicksburg in the early 1860s.

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Before legislators could even relish the moment, Gov. Corzine yesterday turned New Jersey's best budget news in several years into another stern lecture on fiscal responsibility.

Clearly, he knows his audience. This is, after all, the same majority that parlayed a modest economic upturn into a 16 percent spending spree in fiscal 2005. That year's one-shot gimmicks and reckless borrowing resulted in a state Supreme Court rebuke.

Democrats packed the current year's budget with up to $300 million in unvetted pet projects, now under scrutiny by the U.S. attorney. So Corzine was justified in wagging his finger and continuing to preach doom in his annual budget address.

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Give some credit to Robert Ficano for stirring the pot and trying to make things happen during these downbeat days for metro Detroit.

Ficano, the Wayne County Executive, continues his dogged push to expand the Cobo Center convention complex, despite Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson's rejection of Ficano's ideas.

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DEARBORN -- A desire to give Cobo Center an edge in landing coveted convention business has Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano pushing to create a sales tax-free zone on merchandise sold at the center.

The moratorium pitch comes as regional leaders weigh several proposals designed to raise money for a 270,000-square-foot expansion at the center, a move elected leaders say is critical to maintaining the prominence of the North American International Auto Show.

Cheryl Cushingberry, a county employee, was pleased to hear the proposal Ficano presented during his fifth State of the County speech Thursday night.

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Unless a proposal to extend a previous reduction of the city's gambling tax can garner more Shoreline City Council support, it will remain at a standstill.

An ordinance proposed by Mayor Bob Ransom that asks for a two- month extension of the city's gambling tax reduction lacked Council support at the Tuesday, Feb. 20, business meeting. Council member Rich Gustafson and Deputy Mayor Maggie Fimia were both absent from the discussion.

"My concern is that we gave them an oral commitment and we haven't finished construction," said Ransom. "But it looks like we don't have a majority to put it back on the agenda."

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PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. — The washed-out hotels, crumbled asphalt and shuttered businesses that marred Pensacola Beach after Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis in 2004 and 2005 are mostly gone — the debris hauled off and the damaged structures demolished or rebuilt.

But real estate agent John Pinzino still cannot find buyers for the homes and condos he has listed along this refurbished stretch of white sands and turquoise waters. Despite a hurricane-free 2006 and what he calls "a strict buyers' market," would-be beach dwellers are staying away, primarily because of soaring insurance rates in coastal areas statewide.

Only five of 354 residential properties on the market in Pensacola Beach sold in January. Pinzino lost one deal after the prospective buyers paid a deposit, but later discovered the $3,500 they had estimated for insurance would actually be $8,500.