"Wal-Mart plan starts new battle on Va. Civil War grounds" by Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times | August 14, 2009
ORANGE COUNTY, Va. - .... Some would welcome a little sprawl. Orange County, where the battlefield sits 75 miles south of Washington, is a sleepy piece of countryside with one high school, a couple of wineries, some cattle ranches, a bunch of sheep, a handful of restaurants, and not very many jobs.
Agriculture is the biggest industry. Low-income work supplements farming - like the farmer’s wife who drives a school bus. Unemployment has shot from 3 percent to 8 percent, and Wal-Mart is promising 300 jobs in a county of 35,000 people. It is all but certain that more businesses will follow.
“I hope one of those would be a good restaurant,’’ said Zack Burkett, 69, a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which will decide Wal-Mart’s fate Aug. 24. “There’s not a steakhouse in the county. No Red Lobster. You have to go to Fredericksburg or Culpeper for that.’’
Burkett said the board is leaning yes....
Preservationists warn the county is overlooking the financial value of a battlefield frozen in time. Civil War tourism is big business in Virginia; visitors spend $71 a day on average....
Hey, what's history worth when you can make a buck? Try using a degree in it.
Pffft. Waste of time and money (except for the sex).
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Also see: Wal-Mart Making Money Off America's Middle-Class Destruction
Wal-Mart: The New World Order's Market
Butter
"Retail sales fall; concern on growth rises; One bright spot: auto purchases" by Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press | August 14, 2009
WASHINGTON - A bleak report on retail sales yesterday....
served as a reality check for an economy that lately has appeared poised to emerge from recession....
Pfft: My Last Economic Post
I don't like being right all the time.
Meanwhile, the number of newly laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week, the government said, in another sign of a weak job market....
In the one bright spot....
like finding a kernel of corn in a turd.
But some analysts said people using the program might be holding that money back from other sectors of the economy.
See: Americans Take a Clunk to the Head
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I'm feeling magnanimous toward the paper today. You'll see why above.
:-)
