| Is there enough silver for that many screens?
University Cinemas, 8; and Normal Theater, 1.Having 41 screens marks an all-time high for the Bloomington-Normal market, whose numbers have always trailed far behind neighboring cities like Peoria (44), Springfield (33) and Champaign Urbana (36).Come late fall, another 14-screen complex at north Normal's Constitution Trail Centre, the Starplex Cinemas, will push the total to 55 screens — and put Bloomington-Normal well in the lead among downtown markets of a comparable size.But can the community put bodies in front of 55 screens 365 days a year to make this dramatic upswing in options profitable?“I don't think this market needs that many screens or theaters, said Steven Holmes, CEO and president of the Texas-based Starplex Cinemas. “If it follows the historical pattern for one (a market) this size, something will probably close."Whether Bloomington-Normal holds true to history remains to be seen, he added.A persistent rumor in recent years is that the Carmike-owned University Cinemas in Normal — the first and oldest multiplex theater in town — would be the prime candidate for closure.Three weeks ago, a spokesman for the Atlanta, Ga.-based Carmike Cinemas scotched the rumor by noting the 35-year-old venue was the recipient last fall of a $1 million digital projection makeover.“We wouldn't have done that if we were closing it," he said.Also the recipients of expensive shifts to digital projection during the past year: Carmike's somewhat younger Parkway Cinemas, which opened in 1990, and the Palace Cinemas, which opened in 1999.Holmes' “historical pattern" prediction held true, more or less, when those two complexes opened.Around 2½ years after the Parkway opened, the three-screen Eastland Cinemas in Bloomington's Eastland Mall closed; within two years of the Palace's arrival, the four-screen College Hills Cinemas in Normal went dark.Meanwhile, the first of the new arrivals isn't making any kind of forecast.“I really can't predict what the competition will do out there," said Ron Kruger II, Wehrenberg Theatres' president of operations, as he helped ready the Galaxy 14 for its grand opening today.
House price: $3,500. Mortgage: $228,000
True story. In reporting for my cover story in this week's issue on the housing market, Meltdown, I spoke with a 73-year-old man named George Clark. In 1977, Clark and his wife Mollie, who have six children, bought a four-bedroom house in North Minneapois for just $3,500. Things were fine until a few years ago, when they started getting bombarded by offers of new mortgages and home-equity loans. "We would get these calls and letters all the time. They were saying, 'I can put some money in your pocket,'" recalls Clark. "These guys sounded so honest, we thought they were on the level." The Clarks had a pile of credit-card debt and needed some work done on the house and the car, so finally they bit. They didn't consult a lawyer. They signed a thick stack of papers without reading any of them or having a real concept of what they were getting into.
World bourses catch cold
He seems to have managed to win back the confidence of those sections of the Sangh Parivar who were upset with him on the Jinnah issue. Even so, he has a long way to go before achieving his ambition. It is true that the string of assembly elections in the recent past have been favourable to the BJP. But before the next general elections are due, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan ruled by the BJP will go to the polls. Byelection results from these states do not suggest that the voters are happy with these governments. Equally important, the BJP continues to be in bad shape in Uttar Pradesh which accounts for the largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha. The NDA is no longer as cohesive and large as it used to be when Mr Vajpayee was its leader. Of course, its decision on Mr Advani provides clarity to the political situation.
Official to quit if Roberts returns
Read the latest stories about the ORU lawsuit, examine the lawsuit and other documents, and watch slide shows and video.
Vote in a poll: Should Richard Roberts return as the president of ORU?
Oral Roberts University's executive vice president of academic affairs and provost offered his resignation to the board of regents on Thursday if the board decides to keep Richard Roberts as president.
Mark Lewandowski wrote regents Chairman George Pearsons that he "would be pleased to continue to serve" in his job if Roberts resigns or is not reinstated, according to his letter first obtained by The Associated Press.
Roberts has been on a leave of absence as ORU president since Oct. 17 while the board and independent auditors investigate allegations made in a lawsuit that he and his family misused ORU and Oral Roberts Ministries money and resources.
Textile designer ends up £5,197 better off after foreign cheque ...
As a self-employed textile designer of 17 years standing, I also act as agent for other designers from whom I take a sales percentage. For the past decade I have been selling to the US market. Over four months after I had paid in an $8,400 cheque, my NatWest branch manager informed me that it had bounced. At no point had the bank called me to say there was a problem. By then the company the cheque came from had halted all payables. In fact I paid another cheque after it issued the first one and this one cleared. The bank is not reimbursing the money but I feel it should. LW, Sheffield. When you paid in the cheque originally, a cashier overlooked the fact that it was a foreign cheque and put it through the usual sterling clearing. This had happened before but that time the mistake had been spotted and quickly corrected.
'Gone With Wind' Tops Favorite Film Poll
Hollywood's classic romance Gone with the Wind ranked No.1 among U.S. adults who participated in an online Harris Poll last month. The polling group said it asked 2,279 people from Jan. 15-22 to name their all-time favorite movies. Gone with the Wind topped the list with Star Wars followed close behind at No. 2 and Casablanca snagged the No. 3 spot. .
PBS series features local business whiz kids
They could pay the private-school tuition for 11-year-old daughter Zoe. But if she wanted to join classmates on a school-sponsored study trip to Arizona, she'd have to come up with the $1,400 herself. "She said, 'OK. Maybe I could earn the money,' " her mother, Julie Adberg, of Vashon Island, recalls. "And I thought, there's no way a kid could make that much, even if she asked all her relatives and her friends for help." Oh, but Zoe did. Showing the sort of initiative Heidi Klum would admire, she proved Mom wrong. The light bulb went off when she borrowed a friend's blue fleece cape for Halloween: Bet I could make this! And so, after a trip to the library for some pattern books and a trip to a fabric store (with Mom's pocketbook), Zoe Adberg launched her "Fleece on Earth" clothing line.
MFS admits debt blowout
BANKERS were circling property financier MFS yesterday after the company revealed debt had nearly quadrupled to almost $1.7 billion over the past six months. MFS told the stock exchange it had total debt of $1.69 billion compared with about $426 million as shown in the group's 2007 annual report, released in September. The debt -- held in a complex series of subsidiary companies and funds -- has escalated out of control since the end of the financial year. The company has yet to explain the blowout and yesterday requested trade in its scrip be suspended. Property development spin-off MFS Diversified sought to distance itself from the mess yesterday, dumping former MFS director Michael Hiscock as chairman. Hopes that the Commonwealth Bank would refinance a $150 million debt to US hedge fund Fortress were also dashed yesterday, with the bank telling the ASX it "has not agreed to refinance this or any other MFS debt facility".
Obelisk credit union teller to plead guilty to embezzling $7 million
For almost four years, Patricia Helen Sherman hid stacks of $100 bills in her pockets and carried them out of the Obelisk Federal Credit Union in New Albany, Ind., where she worked as head teller, federal investigators say. Sherman, 50, of Louisville, eventually took $7 million -- an average of $152,454 a month -- and gambled most of it away at Ohio River casinos, authorities said when they charged her with embezzlement in U.S. District Court last fall. .
The Epilepsy Centre in South Australia Selects Contact Centre ...
Sydney � February 21st, 2008: The Epilepsy Centre in South Australia and the Northern Territory has selected the Noble® Solution from Noble Systems Corporation for blended inbound and outbound contact management in its fundraising centre. Noble Systems is a global leader in contact centre technology solutions. The Epilepsy Centre is a state-based charity providing support and counselling services to people living with epilepsy and their families, as well as a public awareness and education campaigns throughout South Australia and the Northern Territory. They operate fundraising services through their Community Link division.
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