News Article Teaser

I have decided to focus my news article on the recent struggles of our nations economy. More specifically, the purpose of my article is to investigate and find answers to the following questions: Are we currently in a recession? How is this effecting our local businesses? Do these businesses feel enough is being done to ensure their survival?

The reason why I am interested in doing this article is because my family owns an Italian restaurant and this issue is effecting us first hand.

Our restaurant is located in a strip mall with several other businesses. In addition to our restaurant there is also a hair salon, a gas station, a fitness place, a bank, karate, a coffee shop, a liquor store, and a gas station. Over the past year our mall has seen two store closings with the loss of a dry cleaners and a video games store.

To help answer the questions I noted above I have begun speaking with the owners of these businesses to see how the recent economic struggles have effected their businesses.

So far I have found out the following with regards to the businesses in our strip mall:

Since the opening of our restaurant we have seen a slow increase in revenue each year since we opened doors in February of 2004. But over the last 3 months our business has seen around a 50% decrease in normal revenue for those months.

Generally by this time of year we have around 35-40 banquets for sports teams booked for the months of March and April. So far this year we have 10.

Our food venders report much of the same for the other restaurants they deal with.

I understand the purpose of these articles are to get us experience in reporting stories so thats why I will not include any quotes or much more information from our family restaurant. I plan to use this only to help strengthen my article if need be.

The karate place next to us has told me they are down about 40-50% of the students they normally have. Bill, the owner, has told me "All of the karate places in our chain are experiencing this, normally we have around double the studens that we have coming in now.

The liquor store since the holidays has seen their sales drop off completely. Sean, the owner, has told me "lately there are a lot of days when we only get a few customers here and there, its really slow."

The salon has had a drop in revenue as well, and lately has seen fewer repeat customers then normal. The owner Katie is a good friend of my dads and said she will be happy to speak with me more in depth about this and the questions above. I will have this to include in my article in the near future.

I know that businesses generally expect to be slower this time of year. But I have heard from each of these owners on plenty of occasions that they have never seen anything like this before.

Within the next few days I will be speaking with bank, the gas station, and the fitness place. I will also be asking these business owners their opinions on the topic of, is enough being done to help? Specifically, if they feel the new government stimulus checks will help their businesses.

I have also noticed recently in the Star Tribune, and on the news as well, information about other larger businesses. Things such as employee cuts and revenue decreases. I might look into this information further as well to see if it can add to my article.

"Super Tuesday" results

While looking through the Star Tribune newspaper today I found the following results that correspond to my previous blog:

-In my county (Anoka), Sen. Obama received 57% of the DFL vote, while Sen. Clinton received 42% of it.

- Sen. Obama was awarded 48 of Minnesotas' DFL delagates, while Sen. Clinton received 24.

-Both Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton were awarded 4 super delegates, with 8 super delegates remaining uncommited at this time.

I was not able to find the voting results for my specific caucus.

Another thing I found interesting pertaining to our state regarding the Republican side is that John McCain the likely nominee didnt appear to receive much support in our state.

DFL Caucus

Last night, February 5, 2008, caucuses were held all over our state and country. This day is referred to by many as "Super Tuesday." It is my understanding that the purpose of caucuses are to decide delegates, as well as to discuss local, state, and national issues. These caucuses also give us an early indication as to who the leading candidates are in the upcoming presidential election.

To be honest, I have never paid attention to this day at all in the past. Not being one who is into politics, the outcomes of "Super Tuesday" really didn't mean much to me. Paying closer attention to it this year, I found it to be somewhat interesting.

I'm not going to pretend to know a lot about any of the candidates for the upcoming election. But, after some consideration, I decided that for the time being I am in support of the DFL. Particularly Senator Obama. I will be keeping an open mind, and over time who I support may change.

Being that I live in District 49B, my DFL caucus was held at Andover High School. Registration for this caucus took place at 6:30 pm, and the start time was at 7:00pm.

Because of a prior commitment I was unable to attend the caucus myself, but from what I heard it was held in the cafeteria and auditorium, as well as some of the lower classrooms of the school.

Looking into "Super Tuesday" results this morning, I read that there was a huge turn out for this event state wide. Being that my city and its surrounding areas are largely populated, I suspect that there was a large turnout at Andover High School as well. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to come across the issues that were discussed or the result of my particular caucus. When I find out this information it will be included in a future blog.