| 10th Annual Minnesota Rural Summit Features Packed Agenda on ...
"Thriving by Design" conference links community economic success to design and planning strategies; May 10 & 11 date highlights preparation for Minnesota's Sesquicentennial Year. St. Paul, MN (PRWeb) April 6, 2007 -- Design and planning are essential elements for community economic success in the complex world we live in, according to the conference planners and presenters shaping the program for the 10th annual Minnesota Rural Summit, to be held Thursday and Friday, May 10 & 11, 2007, at Cragun's Resort & Conference Center, in Brainerd, Minnesota. Visit the Summit web site: http://www.minnesotaruralpartners.org/2007_summit/index.html. The 2007 theme, Thriving by Design, will emphasize how, in the emerging design economy, design and planning can be used to integrate multifaceted economic, demographic, physical and social issues into clear strategies that position communities, regions and the state to thrive well into the 21st century.
Grocery lockout appears probable
Get-tough tactics, increasingly shrill rhetoric and bitter exchanges are escalating tensions as the Southland's big supermarket chains and union workers lurch toward a work stoppage neither side wants. With the threat of a devastating strike and lockout looming as early as next week, the United Food and Commercial Workers union and the Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons grocery companies seem on a collision course. .
Preist jailed for internet petition
Father Nguyen Van Ly, a 60-year-old Catholic priest in View Nam who helped set up an internet petition calling for democratic change, has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment for conducting propaganda against the state.
Four of his associates, Nguyen Phong, Nguyen Binh Thanh, Hoang Thi Anh Dao and Le Thi Hang, were also sentenced.
In response, Amnesty International's Deputy Asia Pacific Director Tim Parritt said:
The politically-motivated charges against Father Ly and his associates are a blatant attempt to silence them and to scare off other critics of the government.
"This sentence means Father Ly will be a prisoner of conscience for the fourth time in two decades. It is indicative of a broader crackdown on dissent by the Vietnamese authorities that has been intensifying since late last year.
Mark your calendar for annual St. Elias festival
Not only is there wonderful Lebanese food prepared by members of St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church, but there is entertainment and an opportunity to visit one of the most beautiful churches in the city. There is no admission charge to the festival, at the church at 836 Eighth St. South, near EPIC School. Some of the Lebanese delicacies that will be offered during the festival, set for 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. both days, will be baked kibbee, rolled grape leaves, spinach pies, baked kibbee sandwiches, tabouleh (Lebanese salad), grilled lemon chicken, hummus and pita bread. The dessert table includes a variety of Lebanese sweets, including baklava, kiak (Lebanese sugar cookies), Lebanese ice cream and more. A new food item is being added.
Today's Editorials: The YouTube Primaries, DeLay's Memoir
YouTube: Predicting an onslaught of political attack ads during the 2008 race on the popular Internet site YouTube, the LAT argues that politicians should not respond to the ads by calling for regulation, but by creating response ads and posting them online. Tom DeLay: The NYT slams Tom DeLay, former House Republican majority leader, for writing in his new memoir that Republicans lost in 2006 not because of corruption and incompetence, but because they "'did not communicate their message' and overcome 'short-term, media-fed issues.'" LAT ... noting that Ameriquest recently lost its legal battle to keep its name on a Texas baseball field, and that McDonalds lost its bid to change the definition of "McJob" in the English Oxford Dictionary, hails the fact that even large corporations can't "own the English language." NYT ...
Let the debate begin in race for Holyrood 2007
IT IS without doubt the most important election Scotland has seen for a generation. The official campaign for the 2007 Holyrood vote begins today with the SNP in the lead. According to eight consecutive polls conducted in Scotland this year, the Nationalists are on course to take control of the Scottish Executive in May. .
Master class in growth from Hanoi
WHAT happens when you take 85-million people repressed by colonialism, war and, latterly, a Soviet-style no-choice communist economy, and liberalise? Vietnam’s answer: More than 7% average economic growth for two decades. When President Thabo Mbeki visits Vietnam next month, what might he learn from their experience? The Vietnam story shows what can be done by changing policy — and avoiding the excuses not to do so as many have consistently done in Africa. For Vietnam’s history and situation is decidedly African. Its economy is heavily dependent on commodity exports — especially oil — and the agricultural sector. It has suffered a traumatic history, with 1000 years of Chinese colonial rule, nearly 100 years of French colonialism briefly interrupted by Japanese rule during the Second World War, and an ultimately vast US military presence for 15 years until 1975.
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