2008 Woodie Awards
News Bits
January 15, 2008
Issue date: 1/15/08
Section: News Bits
• All the extras involved in attending the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September will set the average visitor back $1,600, according to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Host Committee.
Hotels will soak up the largest share, followed by restaurants and bars. Convention-goers are also expected to shell out for taxis, rental cars, shopping outings, golfing, theater tickets and other diversions. The estimates assume visitors will stay six days, although the convention itself lasts only four.
"For many folks that are coming, this is kind of their vacation for the year," said Matt Burns, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee's convention committee. "They're certainly looking to make the most of it."
Officials expect the Sept. 1-4 convention at Xcel Energy Center to draw nearly 35,000 people, including 4,600 delegates and alternates and 15,000 media representatives. The entire event is projected to bring $160 million of new spending to Minnesota.
More than half that amount is for security and organizers' preparations and related costs.
• Pledging to make a "clean break with the past" and root out corruption, Republican Bobby Jindal tried to separate himself from politics as usual as he was sworn in as Louisiana's governor Monday.
Jindal, the nation's first elected Indian-American chief executive and the state's first non-white governor since Reconstruction, thanked past governors for their service - but said it was time to rid the state of its reputation for corrupt government.
"We have the opportunity - born of tragedy but embraced still the same - to make right decades of failure in government," Jindal said.
"In our past, too many politicians looked out for themselves. Too many arms of state and local government did not get results. And the world took note," the new governor said.
Jindal's election puts a new public face on Louisiana politics, often stereotyped as a haven for backslapping good 'ol boys who hold office for decades.
• Militants stormed Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday, killing at least six people as they hunted down Westerners who cowered in a gym - a coordinated assault that could signal a new era of brazen Taliban attacks.
The gunmen threw grenades and fired AK-47s, and one even blew himself up despite heavy security at the Serena Hotel. One American and a journalist from Norway were among the dead, officials said.
More than 30 U.S. soldiers in a half-dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel as part of a quick reaction force, and security personnel from the nearby U.S. Embassy ran through the building looking for U.S. citizens.
"There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen. There was a lot of blood in the lobby," said Suzanne Griffin of Seattle, who had been in the hotel gym at the time of the attack.
"There were empty shell casings outside," added Griffin, 62, who was working for Save the Children.
She said she had to step over the lifeless body of a woman when evacuated from the locker room.
"Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it. It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling," Griffin, her voice shaking, told The Associated Press shortly after the attack. "We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass. ... We turned our phones on silent."
It was the deadliest direct attack on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The assailants appeared to concentrate their assault on the Serena's gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out at night, suggesting the militants had cased the hotel in advance.
The Taliban has targeted aid workers and civilian contractors with kidnappings and killings, but this was the most daring and sophisticated attack yet.
Provided by Associated Press
Hotels will soak up the largest share, followed by restaurants and bars. Convention-goers are also expected to shell out for taxis, rental cars, shopping outings, golfing, theater tickets and other diversions. The estimates assume visitors will stay six days, although the convention itself lasts only four.
"For many folks that are coming, this is kind of their vacation for the year," said Matt Burns, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee's convention committee. "They're certainly looking to make the most of it."
Officials expect the Sept. 1-4 convention at Xcel Energy Center to draw nearly 35,000 people, including 4,600 delegates and alternates and 15,000 media representatives. The entire event is projected to bring $160 million of new spending to Minnesota.
More than half that amount is for security and organizers' preparations and related costs.
National
• Pledging to make a "clean break with the past" and root out corruption, Republican Bobby Jindal tried to separate himself from politics as usual as he was sworn in as Louisiana's governor Monday.
Jindal, the nation's first elected Indian-American chief executive and the state's first non-white governor since Reconstruction, thanked past governors for their service - but said it was time to rid the state of its reputation for corrupt government.
"We have the opportunity - born of tragedy but embraced still the same - to make right decades of failure in government," Jindal said.
"In our past, too many politicians looked out for themselves. Too many arms of state and local government did not get results. And the world took note," the new governor said.
Jindal's election puts a new public face on Louisiana politics, often stereotyped as a haven for backslapping good 'ol boys who hold office for decades.
World
• Militants stormed Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday, killing at least six people as they hunted down Westerners who cowered in a gym - a coordinated assault that could signal a new era of brazen Taliban attacks.
The gunmen threw grenades and fired AK-47s, and one even blew himself up despite heavy security at the Serena Hotel. One American and a journalist from Norway were among the dead, officials said.
More than 30 U.S. soldiers in a half-dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel as part of a quick reaction force, and security personnel from the nearby U.S. Embassy ran through the building looking for U.S. citizens.
"There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen. There was a lot of blood in the lobby," said Suzanne Griffin of Seattle, who had been in the hotel gym at the time of the attack.
"There were empty shell casings outside," added Griffin, 62, who was working for Save the Children.
She said she had to step over the lifeless body of a woman when evacuated from the locker room.
"Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it. It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling," Griffin, her voice shaking, told The Associated Press shortly after the attack. "We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass. ... We turned our phones on silent."
It was the deadliest direct attack on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The assailants appeared to concentrate their assault on the Serena's gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out at night, suggesting the militants had cased the hotel in advance.
The Taliban has targeted aid workers and civilian contractors with kidnappings and killings, but this was the most daring and sophisticated attack yet.
Provided by Associated Press
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