| Saguaro Lake ranch showcases nature
Nestled along the Salt River, out on the far-eastern flanks of the Valley, there exists an oasis. The Saguaro Lake Ranch Resort is fewer than three dozen miles from downtown Phoenix, as the crow flies. Yet it feels like another world. Craggy cliffs soar hundreds of feet into the sky. Lining the Salt River is a ribbon of riparian greenery where rustic casitas are scattered around a spacious lawn. "Everybody who comes out here says the same thing: 'I never knew this existed,' " says Casey Thompson, an intern at the ranch, who is studying commercial recreation at Central Michigan University. "I'd never seen anything like it. You're driving out here and it's desert, desert, desert. Then you drop down into all this," he says, a sweep of his arm taking in the river and trees and grass.
Built for the dam The resort began in 1927 as a camp for workers on the Stewart Mountain Dam.
New Wal-Mart Preps For Green Debut
EAST FREEDOM, Pa. -- The new Wal-Mart Supercenter in East Freedom is 30 days away from its grand opening. And while Wal-Mart stores boast money savings for shoppers, this store is boasting its energy savings as well. One-hundred skylights line the ceiling of the store just off Interstate 99. When the sun comes out, the lights inside actually dim. The store is also equipped with energy efficient air conditioning and freezers. And the new concrete floor doesn't require any chemicals to clean it, just water. The photo center is completely digital, so no chemicals are needed to develop pictures. "We're also recycling all of the cartons that the merchandise comes in. We're recycling all of the plastic bags as well," said store manager Sean Cassatt. Cassatt said other new Wal-Marts will be following the same environmentally friendly trends.
Revolution in the power lines
A QUIET revolution in the way the nation plans for its future electricity needs took place in Holyoke earlier this month, when the operator of the region's power grid held an auction for the cheapest ways to meet demand until 2011. The big winner was conservation. The recent auction by the nonprofit Independent System Operator New England was the first in the country in which bidders could propose ways to cut demand and increase efficiency, instead of just increasing supply. The auction proved that it can be cheaper for a system to arrange, for instance, for big power users to ease off the air-conditioning on the hottest days than for the system to look to other options, such as the construction of new peak-power plants that burn costly natural gas. Looking ahead to 2010 and 2011, the ISO had decided it needed about 1,800 new megawatts of capacity - enough to power about 1.3 million homes.
B-N's first 'smart fortwo' car hits streets
McDaniel is smiling, too.After a nearly yearlong wait, he has the Twin Cities' first “smart fortwo" car. He picked it up in St. Louis on Monday and spent most of the day Tuesday showing it off to friends and co-workers.“I think it's great," said John Rediger, heating and air conditioning supervisor at Country Insurance. “I think it's absolutely fantastic. It's got plenty of room."You wouldn't guess it from the outside. The car, which only measures 8.8 feet long, 5.1 feet tall and 5.1 feet wide, takes up only half a parking space.“It only looks small from the outside," McDaniel said. “It's half of car. It has three cylinders instead of six and weighs 1,700 pounds instead of 3,400."That leads to decent gas mileage — 41 miles per gallon on the highway and 33 miles per gallon in town. (It uses premium gasoline.)“It has an 8-gallon tank, and I had 200 miles on it and still had half of tank of gas," McDaniel said.It's also ecologically friendly.The smart fortwo, produced in France by smart, a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, is painted with water-soluble paints.
Small-biz group wants easier, less-costly access
A shrinking number of small-business owners offer health insurance to workers, so the National Federation of Independent Business wants the Tennessee General Assembly to help change the landscape. Tax incentives and an insurance pool were two ideas the NFIB's leadership advanced at its annual soiree for legislators. .
How to Choose a Data Center
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