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Every Jan. 6, Greeks celebrate Epiphany with a ceremony full of symbolism and hope. All over the country, priests throw a gold cross into open water and young men dive in to retrieve it. The winners get a blessing on the spot; everyone else takes home some holy water for a trouble-free new year. Newly elected Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou attended ceremonies on the Aegean island of Lesbos this year, but with Greece sinking under debt and a huge budget deficit as fast as a priest's crucifix, Papandreou is going to need more than holy water...
...been granted blue-law exemptions in some states. "We felt like Valentine's Day had just been overlooked," says Missouri State Representative Bill Deeken. In January, Deeken proposed "Love Legislation" that would allow restaurants and bars that lacked annual Sunday liquor licenses to be open and sell alcohol on Valentine's Day. Rob Agee, a Lohman, Mo., café owner who brought the issue to Deeken, estimates that the move could mean millions in extra sales for restaurants and hundreds of thousands of dollars in state revenue. The measure made it through...
...Saturday, but Olympians weren't the only ones not skiing. The slopes of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, which comprise the Games' alpine racing area, were relatively deserted. With only about 10% of the mountains being used for downhill races, that left the vast majority of these two mountains wide open in peak season, with no wait at the lifts, when normally they'd be choked with skiers. (See 25 Winter Olympic athletes to watch...
...little of that energy will be expended on the mountain. Visitor traffic was down so much the weekend before the Games that Whistler had to advertise the fact that it was open. Part of the reason for the drop in attendance was that the ski resort "lost control of the parking lots on February 1," Jensen explains (they were ceded to the Olympics), so day skiers weren't making the trip...
...Just how much money has been poured in - and how daunting the challenge of recouping that money will be - are becoming clear as the first of Singapore's long-awaited casinos prepares to throw open its doors this month. Citigroup estimates that Resorts World Sentosa, slated to open in mid-February and which will include six hotels and a Universal Studios theme park, will have run a construction tab of roughly $4.5 billion. Adelson says his showpiece project on Marina Bay, boasting Singapore's largest hotel and one of Asia's biggest convention spaces, will cost roughly $5.5 billion...