The last six months of 2008 provided a real-world lesson about economics and the flow of money. The high price of oil meant higher prices for gas, which forced consumers to cut back on spending, pay more at the grocery store, and think twice about what type of car or truck they should be driving for fuel-efficiency.
The business scene in the first six months of 2008 looked much different than the final half of the year.
SYRACUSE - Two local law firms have launched new teams aimed at helping guide clients through the recent economic and financial turmoil.
ELMIRA - Chemung Financial Corp. (OTC BB: CHMG. OB) plans to acquire Canton Bancorp, Inc. (OTC BB: CBPA.OB) of Pennsylvania for $7.7 million.
SKANEATELES - Gary Grant believes cutting jobs is a poor strategy for reducing a company's expenses.
SYRACUSE - Once known as Avalon Copy Centers, a growing Syracuse-based firm changed its name to Avalon Document Services, Inc. last year to more accurately represent all of the services it provides.
SYRACUSE - SensGard, LLC, a company spun off from Syracuse University (SU) research, will finish 2008 with $1 million in sales, and the firm expects more growth in the future.
1.) Bedroom Blues The best barometer to determine if a relationship is on the rocks is the amount of heat created between the sheets. Sex with someone you're into gets better over time. If things are stale and unexciting in the bedroom, it's a pretty good early warning sign. First thing: Consider the source for the lack of lust. Fights. Resentments, and guilt can all impact the quantity and quality of your nooky.
shopping at Whole Foods.
Marley & Me is a family film, but is it appropriate for children? .
By the time he died, Tom McGowan had accumulated 150 pounds worth of marked-up old Las Vegas City Council agendas in his downtown apartment.
Green Valley Library did its best to nurture a sense of community.
Mr. Sun, if Las Vegas were blanketed by a foot of snow that lingered for days, what emergency steps could be taken to dig us out?
After four decades, band is busy with tour dates, new sounds. A lot of kids who grew up listening to Kool & the Gang are now grandparents.
But we offer spinoff ideas should the competition ever fade. Marie Osmond fainted. Olympic gold medalist Misty May-Treanor tore her Achilles tendon. Soap star Susan Lucci fractured two foot bones. Comedian Jeffrey Ross scratched his cornea.
TAKE FIVE: ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP. FIGHT FACTS
Federal government handed out billions to banks but doesn?t want to ?micromanage?. When banks lined up last month for billions of dollars in taxpayer money, the federal government made them fill out a loan application, which was certainly fitting. That is, after all, what banks require customers to do when they ask for loans.
Budget cuts have decimated parole agency and put the public?s safety at risk. Since July 2007, the state Parole and Probation Division has seen its budget cut by $5.6 million. During that time, the number of parolees and probationers the division is supposed to supervise has risen by more than a thousand.
President Bush contributed to housing crisis by reacting too little, too late. President George W. Bush made it a priority to encourage more Americans to buy homes. It?s what he didn?t do that helped fuel the mortgage crisis.
Gibbons? office says it wrongly attributed ?vindication? claim. Gov. Jim Gibbons? office says it erred when it issued a news release last week stating that an investigation by the attorney general had vindicated a top political appointee in her role in a workplace safety case.
Online blacklist uses campaign donation records to identify people, businesses. The economy has nothing to do with why Pool Chlor lost a client last week.
School District, Vegas PBS to offer environmentally sound campus for local agencies? use. The Clark County School Districts new technology campus a $65 million, 112,000-square-foot complex that will be the new home of Vegas PBS wont be finished until March.
Station Casinos is hoping business will be strong in the coming weeks and that customers use some of the companys coupons and offers flooding airwaves and mailboxes.
Opinions vary on whether state?s growth requires change in biennial system. CARSON CITY Perhaps Nevada would do a better job keeping its financial house in order if lawmakers who hammer out its budgets every other year met annually instead.
Automaker's financing arm could access bailout funds. GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors, will become the nation's newest bank. The Federal Reserve this week approved GMAC's application to become a bank holding company, making it eligible for federal assistance.
HP, Dell, Acer, top rankings. More people bought notebook computers than desktops in the third quarter of 2008, marking a watershed event in the history of the industry, according to iSuppli Corp.
Agency says soda label claims false nutritional value. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned the Coca-Cola Company that its label for Diet Coke Plus is misleading. At issue, the agency says, are the label's nutritional claims.
3G model on sale in 2,500 locations. Confirming reports from employees earlier this month, Wal-Mart says it will begin selling the Apple iPhone 3G at nearly 2,500 stores beginning Sunday, December 28, 2008.
Getting a home loan altered is no easy task. Home loan modifications are designed to save homeownership, but they've also created another mortgage maze pitted with "buyer bewares."
Protein alleged to make the difference in performance. Sports drinks containing protein are better at improving athletes' performance, according to some nutritionists.
Restricted blood flow in arteries may lead to degeneration. A slow, chronic starvation of the brain as we age appears to be one of the major triggers of a biochemical process that causes some forms of Alzheimer's disease.
The Ugandan army on Sunday accused Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels of hacking to death 45 people in a church in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo in an attack on Friday.
Laura Zuniga, the Mexican beauty queen jailed after she was picked up with an alleged drug cartel leader and heavily armed men, has been stripped of one of her titles, Bolivian organizers said Saturday.
At least 35 people were killed this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in south Sudan by suspected rebels from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan army spokesman said Saturday.
At least 35 people were killed this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in south Sudan by suspected rebels from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan army spokesman said Friday.
Pakistan has redeployed thousands of troops to the border with India, officials said Friday, in a dramatic escalation of tensions with New Delhi in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
Zimbabwe's top cricket administrators have been included in an expanded list of officials of President Robert Mugabe's regime targeted by Australian sanctions, a report said Saturday.
A West African regional bloc on Friday criticised Ghana's decision to close its land borders two days ahead of a presidential run-off and urged the government to reconsider its decision.
Tributes poured in on Friday for Nobel Prize-winning British playwright Harold Pinter, one of theatre's biggest names for nearly half a century, who died aged 78 on Christmas Eve.
The Australian government may accept released Guantanamo Bay detainees for resettlement at the request of the United States, but only after rigorous case-by-case assessment, a report said Saturday.
A ninth body was recovered from the charred scene of a Christmas Eve massacre on Friday where a gunman dressed as Santa Claus opened fire on his ex-wife and her family before killing himself.
Christmas retail sales plunged in the United States, a poll showed Friday, as Japan reported record cuts in production in November in a gloomy run-up to 2009 for the world economy.
A Chinese man and two Lebanese nationals were shot dead in a crime wave in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo that also left 10 Congolese dead this week, witnesses and officials said Friday.
A Canadian soldier was killed and three others wounded in Afghanistan's Kandahar region, bringing to 104 Canada's death toll since its military mission began there in 2002, the Defense Ministry said Friday.
A Mexican beauty queen was sentenced to 40 days jail on Friday after she was arrested with an alleged Ciudad Juarez drug cartel leader and a group of heavily armed men.
Russian energy giant Gazprom warned European clients Friday that its gas conflict with Ukraine, conduit for European-bound gas from Russia, could affect deliveries to Europe.
Russian giant Gazprom has warned European clients that its gas conflict with Ukraine, conduit for European-bound gas from Russia, could affect deliveries to Europe.
Pakistan has redeployed thousands of troops to the border with India, officials said Friday, in a dramatic escalation of tensions with New Delhi in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
Stars of Hollywood including Halle Berry and Steven Spielberg and bosses of high-tech giants like Google and Microsoft are opening their wallets to help fund Barack Obama's inauguration party.
A ninth body was recovered from the charred rubble of a Christmas Eve massacre on Friday as sketchy details emerged about the gunman responsible for the deadly killing spree.
