Word: localized
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Honorable Men Amendolara offers a tiny blip of hope on the otherwise bleak map of Calabria. Current local leaders have pushed to maximize the town's tourist potential and improve living conditions for residents. Beginning in 2001, Mayor Mario Melfi, a former union leader, implemented a municipal program under the grand slogan: "Amendolara wants to be in Italy, in Europe, in peace." Funded by $3 million a year in local property taxes and $630,000 in revenue from traffic tickets - plus additional grants from Rome and Brussels - the town has offered financial incentives and improved infrastructure to attract private businesses...
...strength of those initiatives, Melfi was re-elected in 2006 by a 15 percentage point margin over his closest rival. Talk to the locals and you hear the rare sound of southerners pleased with the direction in which their town is headed. One morning in March, Pasquale Salandria, taking a break from his work on a city clean-up crew, gestures toward two new seaside cafés and a disco. "Ten years ago there was almost nothing here," he says. Indeed, the town of 3,000 now seems to strike a nice balance between dynamism and coastal pleasantness, favoring...
...that "respect" is often a cover for pervasive corruption. Last month, police arrested a member of Calabria's regional council, Franco La Rupa, for alleged connections to 'Ndrangheta (he denies the charges); according to local reports, he is the fifth regional politician to be arrested for alleged Mob ties since...
...consolidated coverage from its three current plans other than Harvard University Group Health Plan and from Aetna Inc, another health care benefits company. Aetna came out ahead in the comparison, conducted with the help of consulting firm Hewitt Associates, but the University chose Harvard Pilgrim because of its local roots, according to Socha. “Aetna is not a regional brand,” she said. “Harvard Pilgrim came in second and it was close enough that we decided the local brand made sense.” —Staff writer Clifford M. Marks...
...dinner - a cozy affair for 150 guests - was held at the eccentric loft apartment of Pearl Lam, a Hong Kong-born art dealer and local society doyenne. Filled with large art pieces and furnishings that might be charitably described as vibrant, it resembled a gallery or a slightly camp club more than a home. (Last year, Lam freely confessed to the New York Times that her loft was "bonkers.") A gaudy, stainless steel sculpture by Zhang Wang filled one entranceway; a trio of brightly dotted, spoon-shaped chairs by Zhang Qingfang was clustered in a corner...