Not content to cater just to Southern Californians, the Rincon Indian tribe is getting ready to debut an ambitious $160 million expansion of its Harrahs-branded resort that it hopes will help elevate it as a world-class destination.

Now at 1,065 rooms, the newly named Harrahs Resort Southern California on Valley Center Road just south of Highway 76 will be the fourth-biggest hotel property in the county, just edging out the Sheraton Hotel and Marina on Harbor Island. It will also be the largest American Indian casino/resort in California in terms of hotel rooms, said Bo Mazzetti, chairman of the Rincon Band of Luiseo Indians.

The North County resorts new name, which no longer includes a reference to the Rincon reservation, will also go a long way toward more widely marketing the property, said Mazzetti.

This was a business decision made by the full council, he explained. If were going to do what we set out to do, which is to be a world-class facility and attract people from Russia, China, the United States, you have to have something attractive, something that people will understand. How many people are familiar with Valley Center or Rincon?

The Rincon band decided to move forward with the project only after careful research and monitoring of occupancy rates, which have hovered around 97 percent year-round. Mazzetti noted that the resorts pool parties had become so popular the resort had to turn people away.

The debut last July of the hotels swim-up bar and a 400-foot-long lazy river pool, which circulates through grottos and waterfalls, marked the first phase of the renovation. The Baja-inspired ritas Cantina also opened at that time, and due to open next month is a wine and craft beer bar called Corked, which has a 15,260-square-foot patio and will have live music.

Corked is the resort's newest wine and craft beer bar, which is due to open in April. Nelvin C. Cepeda

The resorts biggest additions, though, are a new 21-story tower opening in April with 403 guest rooms and a 53,000-square-foot convention and entertainment venue that can accommodate up to 2,200 in concert-style seating. Its part of the resorts effort to expand its customer base and better market itself as a destination not only for leisure travelers but also for smaller conventions and meetings, said Janet Baronio, regional president and general manager of the resort.

We began to see customer visitation pick up and move to a higher level and customer spending and visitation from outlying areas also began to pick up, Baronio said. We draw a lot of customers from Southern California counties, and we have national customers, as well. As that continued to grow, those discussions about the master plan continued to evolve to the point that now is the time to move forward.

The last major expansion and renovation was in 2004 two years after the resort opened when the Rincon band spent $168 million on a new 465-room hotel tower, parking garage and spa; an expansion of the pool area and a remodel of its smaller Garden Tower. Come this fall, an additional $20 million will be invested in a renovation of the hotels other larger tower.

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North County casino launches expansion

Times-Herald photo by Lisa Goudy

City hall is seen on Monday.

A new storage garage valued at $2 million was the largest permit issued in February.

It was one of four commercial and industrial permits issued last month. Because of privacy legislation, details of building permits issued are no longer included in the monthly reports.

The other three commercial and industrial permits included one valued at $70,000 for alterations, repairs and additions for markets use, a permit for alterations, repairs and additions to a barber and hairdressing shop valued at $15,000 and a new low-hazard storage room with a value of $8,000.

The total value of the commercial and industrial permits is $2.09 million.

The city also issued 10 residential permits. Four of those were for new houses, with a combined value of $1.51 million. Two houses will do alterations, repairs and additions with a combined value of $80,000.

One permit, valued at $5,000, is for a new residential swimming pool. Three permits were for new decks with a combined value of $4,500.

In total, the residential permits are valued at $1.60 million.

The city issued 14 permits in February with a value of $3.69 million compared to nine in February 2013 valued at $974,160.

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February building permits up from 2013

by JOHN LANGELER / KING 5 News

KTVB.COM

Posted on March 1, 2014 at 7:18 PM

MARYSVILLE -- It would take a keen eye to notice anything wrong with Donovan Doroski's Jeep. Sitting in the parking lot of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office in Marysville, it's still white, it still runs and it still has all its windows.

But 20-year-old Doroski knew something was wrong.

"Iwas proud of how flawless it was,"he said, "It's going to be different."

Wednesday, the Jeep was stolen from a Seattle hotel parking garage. Doroski is in town from Hood River, Oregon for cancer treatment. His father is donating for a bone marrow transplant.

"If it works, it works,"Donovan said of the procedure, "If it doesn't, that's kind of it."

Doroski has battled cancer for three years, and the car lover got the Jeep just a month ago.

Friday, the family got word it had been found in a Granite Falls farm field.

The rest is here:
Washington cancer patient's stolen Jeep recovered

by JOHN LANGELER / KING 5 News

KING5.com

Posted on February 28, 2014 at 11:03 PM

MARYSVILLE -- It would take a keen eye to notice anything wrong with Donovan Doroski's Jeep. Sitting in the parking lot of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office in Marysville, it's still white, it still runs and it still has all its windows.

But 20-year-old Doroski knew something was wrong.

"Iwas proud of how flawless it was,"he said, "It's going to be different."

Wednesday, the Jeep was stolen from a Seattle hotel parking garage. Doroski is in town from Hood River, Oregon for cancer treatment. His father is donating for a bone marrow transplant.

"If it works, it works,"Donovan said of the procedure, "If it doesn't, that's kind of it."

Doroski has battled cancer for three years, and the car lover got the Jeep just a month ago.

Friday, the family got word it had been found in a Granite Falls farm field.

Read more from the original source:
Cancer patient's stolen Jeep recovered

One Paddington terrace has been redesigned to take advantage of every inch of space and celebrate its sun-drenched courtyard.

Remodelling the narrow tunnel-house terraces of old Sydney to become light and apparently very roomy - more spacious even than many later model detached houses in the suburbs - takes shrewd design strategies that Alec Tzannes, of Tzannes Associates, says rely on capturing some critical qualities.

"Access to light and air, and long internal vistas that will make space feel more generous and expansive," she says.

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In rebuilding a corner Paddington terrace - on a wedged block with three lane frontages - to make four bedrooms and a high degree of polished sophistication, Tzannes reckons "it's extraordinary to be able to boast of a corridor vista that is 32 metres long".

That's the effect of "planning all rooms around the open space of the courtyard and of dissolving the sense of small, individual rooms by giving them stackable or slide-away cavity doors that [when open] can make all the rooms feel as if they are one contiguous space.

"In these small, long houses you cannot waste space."

That's an effect, too, of generating an extra, airy dimension of verticality that arises in the new, spotted gum-timbered stairwell that floats up through three levels - from the media room in the stone basement to the first-floor bedrooms - and then capping it with a great big skylight.

"I don't like houses where you have to switch on lights during the day," Tzannes says. "Here, we can bring light from the sky right through the house."

All but the new rear wing, which has accommodated a two-car garage above the courtyard sitting room because of the land-rise, occupies the footprint of the old dwelling that had such shoddy 1970s additions.

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Making light of long views

VOL. 129 | NO. 41 | Friday, February 28, 2014

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has filed a $9.4 million permit with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement for a parking garage at Le Bonheur Childrens Hospital, 848 Adams Ave.

The garage is another milestone in the long-running capital campaign to rejuvenate the Downtown childrens hospital, which was highlighted by the $340 million, 255-bed tower that opened in 2010.

Details about the garage including contractor, architect and completion date werent included on the permit, but initial plans called for 500 parking spaces in the facility.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

Daily News staff

CloseTrak LLC, a provider of real estate title and closing services, is in expansion mode.

Attorneys Robin Hogue-Hughes, Kevin Hudson and Stephen Johnson recently joined CloseTrak. The additions come as the Bartlett-based closing and title company expands into East Memphis and Collierville.

CloseTrak is opening its newly renovated offices at Ridgeway Center, 5860 Ridgeway Center Parkway in East Memphis. CloseTrak also recently opened a satellite office in the Law Offices of Mitzi Johnson, at 185 N. Main St., suite 102, in Collierville.

To provide a wider range of services to CloseTraks clients, Hudson and Greg Ziskind have formed Hudson Ziskind PLLC, which will also be located in the Ridgeway Center. Hudson Ziskind PLLC will focus on commercial transactions, commercial litigation, construction litigation, landlord-tenant law, probate and estate planning and counseling lenders on structuring secured loan transactions.

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Le Bonheur Files $9.4 Million Permit for Parking Garage

You could be forgiven for feeling a bit of dj vu while watching the Mardi Gras parade at Universal Studios, even if you haven't thrown back a hurricane or two. It's all shiny and glittery, with strands of colorful beads zipping past your head, that "Feet Don't Fail Me Now" song looping and the King Gator float at the tail end, right?

Well, not exactly.

Universal introduced three floats into the mix this year the land, sea and air models tied to the "Around the World in Eighty Days" theme. It also enhanced its traditional "jester" float.

It was decided that the jester needed to be more vivid, says show director Patrick Braillard. Universal designers consulted the artwork used to construct the float originally and proceeded with alterations. They added new bead work to the sides of the float and rearranged some of its architecture.

The archway is new, and there are fewer masks displayed.

"We kept one of the same masks, but we updated the paint treatment on it and then split the focus. Previously, there were two masks on each side," Braillard says.

The refinished product resulted in a promotion for the jester float. It now leads Universal's Mardi Gras parade.

Universal has recycled elements of past floats into this year's units too. The glowing strings from a giant guitar on a music-themed float are now used on the Set Sail float.

"We took that material and we put it on the blimp," Braillard says. "As you watch the parade, you'll actually see that blimp be lit on all of those ribs, and they will actually spin and change color."

The entire float changes colors. "It looks like one giant birthday cake," he says.

Continued here:
Changes help perk up Universal's Mardi Gras parade

Abigail Larkin Mark Giumarra, lifelong Redding resident and owner of NorthPoint Construction, has been able to keep his company afloat and adapt to changes in the industry since the housing crisis in 2008. Through the ups and downs, Mr. Giumarra still believes that a good handshake goes a long way.

Mark Giumarra, the founder of NorthPoint Construction, built his own office on the fringe of his Redding property. Inside the office, the mark of a craftsman is evident. Hundreds of tools hang on the walls and are stacked on shelves. Some look brand new, while others might have been old favorites used in many bygone projects.

Mr. Giumarra, a lifelong resident of Redding, has been in the contracting business for over 28 years.

When I started I was in my 20s, Mr. Giumarra said. I had a hammer and a pickup truck. Ive been running my own business ever since.

NorthPoint Construction specializes in building custom homes and additions. The company has helped design dozens of projects, ranging from mansions to chicken coops. The variety of projects that come in to NorthPoint keeps the job interesting, said Mr. Giumarra.

We recently just built a barn in New Canaan for this woman who raises donkeys, he said. I remember one of them, Annie, was a rescue animal. She was 44 years old and smart as could be.

NorthPoint has constructed buildings all over the greater New York area. Meeting and talking to people from all different walks of life is another aspect of the business that Mr. Giumarra said he enjoys.

According to Mr. Giumarra, a lot of impressive, important people live in the Redding area, and its been exciting to help them at least in a small way. He said hes even met famous people on the job, but wouldnt reveal who.

We respect our customers privacy, he said.

Mr. Giumarra strives to run his business with integrity. He began his business, he said, in an era when a handshake meant everything, and he said he continues to operate with that mantra in mind.

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Reddingite rolls with the punches of an evolving industry

Published:Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Updated:Wednesday, February 26, 2014 22:02

The revenue raised by student fees allows the university to operate several programs and offer students certain amenities.

Student fees are listed collectively on student account statements as the program service fee.

The current program service fee for full-time students is set at $672.50. This fee does not include specialized class fees.

David Collins, vice president for finance and administration at ETSU, said that the program service fee is a broad term used to comprise several individual fees.

The program services fee consists of many parts, such as the TAF fee that is used to ensure that students have the top technology available, athletic fee to help support the intercollegiate athletic program, debt service fees to pay for student areas such as the Center for Physical Activities and the Culp Center, student activity sees to help support student activities such as SGA, health clinic, provide concerts, etc., parking fees, sustainable campus fees, and other such areas, Collins said.

Collins also said that each of the different fees is allocated for the purpose for which it was approved.

The student activity fee is allocated for various purposes through Student Affairs; fees such as TAF and Sustainable Campus fee are allocated to various projects by committees that include significant student participation, Collins said. The athletic fee supports all athletics, (not just football); and the parking fee supports parking operations including the construction of the new parking garage.

One of the newest additions to the program service fees will be the $5 student fee implemented in the fall to fund Little Bucs, an on-campus child care program.

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Student fees fund university programs

Katy B, as pictured on the cover of her chart topping album Little Red

CHART topper Katy B is the latest act to confirm her place at a summer pop concert in Weston-super-Mare.

The London-born dubstep, garage and R&B star joins girl band Neon Jungle among the latest additions to the lineup for the South West Live concert on the beach on June 29.

The event, which is expected to bring thousands of fans to the sands, is being headlined by former The Voice judge Jessie J, Rizzle Kicks and girl band The Saturdays.

X Factor stars Union J featuring Clevedon singer George Shelley will also be taking to the stage alongside US hip hop artist Jason Derulo and The Vamps.

Katy B, whose album Little Red topped the UK charts last week, said: I'm looking forward to playing such huge outdoor shows.

This will definitely be a summer highlight for me.

Girl group, Neon Jungle, said: Were so excited to play this festival as we get to perform on the same stage as some of our favourite artists.

The event is aimed at fans of all ages.

Tickets are priced from 35 and are on sale now.

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H_Pickstock published Katy B to play Weston-super-Mare beach concert