| Unmade in China
One said Guo could arrange meetings with the mayors of Beijing and Shanghai at short notice. Guo maintains his aim is to do good things for Australia. Guo's marketing strategy, according to Magerl, was straightforward: mention "the big potatoes" honorary board members such as Bronwyn Bishop and Laurie Ferguson and they'll come running. The first hint that something was not right came in March 2005, about a month after he started, when then Tasmanian federal MP Harry Quick arrived. As with other "delegations" led by Victorian MP Ken Smith and then federal MP Kelly Hoare, there actually were no delegates accompanying Quick, despite "an incredible amount of lobbying". AITA's 30 Chinese staff organised an impressive list of guests from about 150 government agencies, associations and non-government bodies to attend a reception for Quick.
More than half do not believe Ahern - poll
Trust in the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is falling while support for Fianna Fáil is on the increase, according to the latest Red C poll in the Sunday Business Post. According to the poll, a majority of 54 per cent said they do not believe Mr Ahern's evidence to the Mahon tribunal, an increase of 12 per cent since the last Red C poll from September 2006. However, pver the same period support for Mr Ahern's party has increased by 4 per cent to 36 per cent. In a statement today Fianna Fáil said the results, after two months of sustained personal attacks by Fine Gael and the Labour Party showed that the Opposition had got it wrong. According to the poll support for Fine Gael is up one point to 32 per cent, its highest level for a Red C poll. The Labour Party has shed three points since last September and now stands at 10 per cent.
Running for the economic empathizer in chief
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- She has been railing about the price of gasoline, wondering how working mothers pay doctors' bills, and generally echoing complaints of everyday folks: How can you afford to put kids through college? What about paying that inflated adjustable-rate home loan? Or holding onto a job in a teetering economy?
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made her final push Friday across South Carolina in advance of today's Democratic presidential primary, channeling the central imperative of her husband's first run for president: a focus, "like a laser beam," on the economy.
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Big Story
The Laurel Outlook requested a formal hearing to seek information concerning a Human Rights Violation complaint filed against the City of Laurel by City Clerk/Treasurer Mary Embleton. The Outlook later dropped its request for the hearing when her discrimination complaint was denied. She had alleged she was discriminated against by the City on the basis of her gender.Crews hired by the City of Laurel began installation of new high tech water meters. The work is part of a $1.6 million contract awarded to Johnson Controls to upgrade the city's metering system and conserve water through reducing unmetered usage.Greg Nelson continued work on the Van Bebber Rock Shop Building on West Main Street. Nelson plans to complete restoration of the building and rent it out for commercial use. He is hopeful that one by one, new life can be breathed into many of the now vacant downtown buildings.The Only $1 store located at the corner of First Avenue and First Street closed and the building was listed for sale.
Recap of Saturday, December 15
Mother Nature hitting us hard, knocking out power, closing roads and shutting airports. So how can all this weather actually be a good thing for the economy? Tobin Smith: A lot of people have forgotten that there is this thing called winter! It usually comes once a year, and there's industries built around it! So if we have a normal winter we're going to have actual winter industries do well, which is good for the economy! .
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