West: Las Vegas

Hope shines through for SIN CITY

For just over a year, Las Vegas has been suffering a severe economic downturn, dealing with plummeting hotel occupancy rates, double-digit declines in gambling revenue percentage, and near-insolvency due to low-worth stocks. But after Wednesday’s Global Gaming Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center, casino operators let out a collective sigh of relief as they saw signs – small, but at least existent – of an upturn. Though analysts warn that there is no hard data to back this optimism, Sin City’s rate of decline in nearly every significant industry variable seems to be slowing. Still, hotels whose rooms went for $300-plus at the beginning of the year have cut that by half, shifting the business method from one that has involved keeping high fixed costs and focused on revenue to one whose goal is to, basically, keep occupancy rates from falling. As big firms scale back their conference and trade-show participation, fewer people have reason to visit for extended periods of time, but the lowered room rates are attracting leisure travelers whose budgets usually restrict their options. (Source: MCT)

Midwest: Detroit, Mich.

making room for minorities, with dissent

Human-rights attorneys took a ban on racial preferences in public university admissions and government hiring to court Tuesday with the hopes of ultimately bringing it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Supporters of the ban contend that non-minority candidates were turned away to allow lesser qualified minority candidates to enroll, but University of Michigan administrative officials argued that the policy has helped the university build a more diverse student body; according to UM’s Web site, the number of UM African-American freshman students has decreased by 51 since 2006, when the ban was passed, but Asian freshmen have increased by 148. (Source: MCT)

Northeast: Perkasie, Penn.

residents push for line-drying laundry

In an increasingly eco-conscious country, Americans are fighting for the right to hang their laundry outdoors rather than use a dryer, which has local housing associations annoyed. Here, in this little borough 35 miles north of Philadelphia, residents maintain that line-drying clothes saves money and reduces carbon emissions, which Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in Philadelphia, hopes has an effect on more and more people as they learn of the impact they make on the environment. A household can save on average $83 per month by not using a dryer, according to the Discovery Channel, but Weiner says at present this issue deals more with aesthetics than money or the environment, as many housing associations enforce their ‘no hanging’ rules with fines around $100. (Source: Reuters)

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out