Celebrating its Celtic heritage, which dates back to the Gold Rush era, the town of Murphys each year stages one of the most popular events in the Mother Lode. This year's Murphys Irish Day will be held Saturday, March 15.The day will begin with a pancake breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Congregational Church on the corner of Church and Algiers Sts.Presented by the Murphys Business Association, the Main St. festivities will start at 10 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m. There is no admission charge. .

2nd evangelist resigns from ORU's board

ORU announced Tuesday that another evangelist has resigned from its board of regents, and the board continued its work to sever the university from its founding ministry.

In a statement released Tuesday, Oral Roberts University announced that Louisiana minister Jesse Duplantis had resigned from the board.

Duplantis said in a letter to the board: "The demands of ministry have made it increasingly difficult to continue to effectively serve on the Board of Regents of ORU."

One regent, evangelist Creflo Dollar, resigned from the board recently, and another, evangelist Benny Hinn, lost his status as a voting member of the board.

Both had refused to respond to a U.S. Senate inquiry into lavish spending by evangelists.

The board now has .

Obama: Beware 'Reverse Bradley'

Obama's finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don't even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair. The other great leaders I've heard guide us towards a better politics, but Obama is, at his best, able to call us back to our highest selves, to the place where America exists as a glittering ideal, and where we, its honored inhabitants, seem capable of achieving it, and thus of sharing in its meaning and transcendence

Actually, pompous isnt really the word for this passage. There's a sort of hectoring naivete, as if Klein's too inexperienced to know that "call us back to our highest selves" is a drained cliche.

Holidays are hard work for Wotif boss

ROBBIE Cooke doesn't take holidays, which is a surprise for a man whose business is selling tens of thousands of hotel rooms to families online.

Cape Advisors, Inc. Brings The Chelsea, The First Non-Gaming Boutique ...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Come Summer 2008, Cape Advisors, Inc. will launch Atlantic City's first non-gaming boutique hotel to open on the Boardwalk since the early 1960s. Featuring 332 guest rooms and suites, a roof-top swimming pool area with private cabanas, Sea Spa - a 6,500- square-foot spa complex, two signature Stephen Starr restaurants and the 5th Floor - a social destination housing the hotel's prime hotspots - the Chelsea will infuse "America's Playground" with a sexy refinement and timeless Hollywood glamour not seen since the Rat Pack put the seaside resort town on the map. Reservations are available through its official website: www.theChelsea-AC.com.

Located on Atlantic City's best beach and neighboring The Tropicana Casino & Resort, the Chelsea combines two properties (previously the Holiday Inn Atlantic City-Boardwalk and the adjacent Howard Johnson Hotel Atlantic City), into a luxury destination catering to those who value relaxed elegance, service on an intimate scale and a fresh vibe.

IStar Financial Announces Departure Of CAO; Names Successor - Update ...

The New York-based finance company that focuses on the commercial real estate industry said its Chief Financial Officer Catherine Rice would assume the role of principal accounting officer.

iStar reported a loss allocable to common shareholders for the fourth quarter of $80.4 million or a loss of $0.62 per share compared to income of $81.1 million or $0.65 per share in the corresponding period last year, hurt by surge in costs and expenses. Total revenues for the fourth quarter were $413.8 million, up from $259.0 million in the equivalent quarter of the earlier year.

For the fiscal year 2007, iStar's net income allocable to common shareholders of $196.6 million or $1.51 per share was much lower than $332.5 million or $2.79 per share in the prior year.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects fiscal year 2008 GAAP earnings of $4.00 - $4.50 per share.

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The capacity war in the hard drive industry is in full force and desktop drives are not the only ones benefiting. Current notebook hard drives are at the 500GB mark with recent launches from Hitachi and Samsung when only about 6 months ago the highest capacity notebook drives weighed in at 250GB.

Today, Fujitsu announced its MHZ2 BT line of notebook drives which includes 400GB and 500GB capacities to compete with the capacity of the front-runners in the notebook drive market. The MHZ2 BT line features a SATA 3.0 Gb/sec interface and an 8MB buffer. The rotational speed clocks in at 4200RPM which may prove to be a bit slow compared to the 5400RPM, 500GB drives from Hitachi and Samsung. Despite the rotational speed, the average seek time while writing is 14ms while average read seek times clock in at 12ms which is comparable to the competition.

Text of Ficano's State of the County address

Our Department of Homeland Security has set up a countywide alert program to notify the public of emergencies and important public safety issues. Last year, we used Countywide Alert for the opening of the Grosse Ile Bridge and snow emergencies in Dearborn and Trenton. We continue to sign up people for this free service at Wayne.getalerts.org.

The health of our communities is critical to our quality of life. Our Department of Public Health last year launched Operation Safe Sleep to save babies from tragic, premature death due to unsafe sleeping conditions. More than 1,600 calls for assistance were answered.