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ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Central Florida supermarket chain is about to close almost all of its local stores. It's part of a move by Albertson's to end the majority of its operations in the state. For the last year or so, Albertson's has been shrinking the number of stores it operates in Florida. In Central Florida, six more stores are going to close in the next few weeks. Only a store in Altamonte Springs will remain open. Albertson's says the Florida market is not good for it, and with fuel and utility costs being what they are, it's closing all...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A Birmingham abortion clinic has agreed to relinquish its license by May 18 after an Alabama Department of Public Health investigation found violations of state rules. State health officials said Friday the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham voluntarily agreed to close. The clinic was found in a more than 70-page report to have violated numerous rules, including making errors in delivering medication to patients and failing to ensure that staff was properly trained to provide safe patient care.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Bank of America Corp closed below $5 on Monday for the first time since the depths of the bear market in March 2009. The stock closed at $4.99, down 4 percent, after dropping as low as $4.92. The shares haven't closed below $5 since March 11, 2009. Shares of financial institutions have declined on worries about the global economy and possible exposure to sovereign defaults in Europe. Bank of America, in particular, faces concerns about whether it has enough capital to absorb mortgage-related losses and meet new international standards. With more than 275 million...

ORLANDO, Florida -- Universal Studios Florida plans to close one of its oldest and most popular attractions next month to make way for a new attraction. The theme park announced on Facebook on Friday that on Jan. 2 it will permanently shut down its "Jaws" ride, which is based on the blockbuster 1975 Steven Spielberg movie. It was one of the original features at the park when it opened in 1990. The surrounding "Amity" area inspired by the island where the movie was set will also close down to make room for a new attraction. The park isn't releasing any...

Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a lawsuit Monday against the Health Care Clinic in Delta Township and the affiliated Women's Choice Clinic in Saginaw, forcing the local abortion clinic to close its doors. The court order to shut down operations came after the attorney general said an investigation showed a number of violations. Schuette hopes to keep the clinic's doors from ever opening again. "Doesn't matter whether you're an abortion clinic or a podiatrist, there are state regulations that you have to follow that must be enforced. That's what this case is all about," said Joy Yearout, spokeswoman. Yearout, a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One year to go until Election Day and the Republican presidential field is deeply unsettled, leaving President Barack Obama only to guess who his opponent will be. But the race's contours are starting to come into view. It's virtually certain that the campaign will be a close, grinding affair, markedly different from the 2008 race. It will play out amid widespread economic anxiety and heightened public resentment of government and politicians. Americans who were drawn to the drama of Obama's barrier-breaking battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the up-and-down fortunes of John McCain and Sarah Palin, are...

Borders Group Inc. said it would liquidate after the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain failed to receive any offers to save it. Borders, which employs about 10,700 people, scrapped a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for Tuesday amid the dearth of bids. The chain said it will ask a judge Thursday to approve a sale to liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group. The liquidation of the company's remaining 399 stores could start as soon as Friday, and the chain is expected to go out of business for good by the end of September, the company said.

Peshawar, 17 March 2011, releasing of US citizen Raymond Davis from central Jail Lahore different political parties start protest in different cities .in current situation Us embassy announced closure of consulates in Pakistan . According to us embassy The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and the U.S. Consulates General in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar will be closed on Friday, March 18, 2011. The Embassy will issue an updated Warden Message when the Embassy and the Consulates General reopen for routine business. Us embassy also warned us citizen to restrict their travel in Pakistan. The Embassy reiterates its advice to all U.S....

Abercrombie & Fitch has had strong financial results since mid-2010, but it was one of the slowest major retailers to respond to the new reality of the recession, and as a result its recovery lagged far behind most of its competitors.

U.S. Postal Service to close 2,000 post officesBy Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal Posted today at 7:13 a.m. With red ink showing no sign of stopping, the U.S. Postal Service is hoping to ramp up a cost-cutting program that is already eliciting yelps of pain around the country. Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year. In addition, it is reviewing another 16,000 — half of the nation’s existing post offices — that are...

There is no “apology.” So I’m not sure why Mediaite headlines its latest Joy Behar video, “Joy Behar Apologizes For Calling Sharron Angle ‘Bitch;’ Says It’s ‘A Term Of Endearment.’ In fact, the non-”apology” shows that in addition to being a foul-mouthed, spewing shrew, Behar is also an inveterate coward who won’t take responsibility for her words:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators on Friday shut down a total of six banks in Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Kansas, lifting to 138 the number of U.S. banks that have fallen this year as soured loans have mounted and the economy has sputtered. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the banks, the largest of which by far was Hillcrest Bank, based in Overland Park, Kan., with $1.6 billion in assets. A newly chartered bank subsidiary of Boston-based NBH Holdings Corp. was set up to take over Hillcrest's assets and deposits. The new subsidiary is called Hillcrest Bank N.A.

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. on Tuesday announced it will close 30 of its 514 stores, and cut 120 jobs in its corporate and field support staffs as it deals with a continued weak economy. The Jacksonville-based supermarket chain wouldn't say which stores are closing until company officials can inform the employees involved, which should happen by the end of Wednesday. The stores being closed "can't operate efficiently or profitably" in this economy, CEO Peter Lynch said. "We just don't see a lot of good things down the road," he said. "These steps are being taken to position the company for another...

American fast food chain Burger King will cease making its famous Whoppers in Israel, almost 20 years after opening in the Jewish state. Orgad Holdings, Burger King's Israeli franchise, announced Sunday that Israel's 52 Burger Kings will be converted to Burger Ranches, and will stop operating in August. A press release by the company – which owns both restaurant chains – said their research indicates that Israelis prefer the taste of Burger Ranch to that of Burger King. Among both, many eateries are kosher.

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2009 – The Defense Department remains committed to meeting President Barack Obama’s one-year timeline to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon’s top lawyer said yesterday. “A bipartisan cross section of distinguished Americans has called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and has done so for a period of years,” Jeh C. Johnson, the Defense Department’s general counsel, said before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The president imposed a deadline on us for closing Guantanamo Bay, and we remain committed to meeting that deadline, and we’re confident we’ll get the job done.”...

A painted marker in a recreation yard points the direction to Mecca at Camp Delta where detainees are held at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, January 18, 2006. REUTERS/Joe Skipper While Dick Cheney is not backing down from his claims regarding enhanced interrogations conducted in the early days of the war on terror, a recent poll, for whatever these are worth, has it that most Americans are in agreement with Dick Cheney's belief that Guantanamo should remain open for business, the least bad option. USA Today: WASHINGTON — Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to closing the detention center...

Barack Obama is the top fool of what has become a nation of fools. Nothing can be a clearer demonstration of that fact than his order to close the Guatanamo Bay terrorist detention facility. He's ordering it closed before anyone knows what to do with the remaining 245 detainees - many of them the hardest of the hard cases. Bush, too, had said he wanted to shut down Guantanamo. It never happened on his watch, amid the questions that must be answered to do so: Can other countries be persuaded to take some of the 245 men still be held...

http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/01/12/goodbye-to-gitmo/ http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/01/12/goodbye-to-gitmo/

Three schools in ORT’s Kadima Mada (Science Journey) program have been temporarily closed in the face of continued Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. This security measure has already saved lives. A long-range Grad missile, its warhead packed with ball bearings to inflict greater harm, pierced the concrete roof of a ninth grade classroom at the Makif Alef High School in central Beersheva last week but the school was empty and no one was injured. Normally, the classroom seats nearly 40 children. The rocket attack on Beersheva, some 40 kilometers from Gaza, was a shocking new development showing the greater offensive...

Economy hitting small colleges hard, some to closeMonday, November 17, 2008 6:22 AM EST Associated Press For 15 years, Cascade College in Portland, Ore., struggled to find the fuels that any college needs: students to pay tuition and donors to help build an endowment. Then came the global economic meltdown, and suddenly that struggle became an impossibility. Late last month, the small Christian college with just 280 students and $4 million in debt announced it would have to shut down at the end of the current academic year. Colleges are remarkably resilient institutions. Princeton University’s Nassau Hall still bears the...

FALLUJAH, IRAQ-- Anbar Province has been the site of some of the Iraq war's darkest episodes, but in a sign of how much violence has dropped here, one of the main U.S. bases is closing its gates. Camp Fallujah, the sprawling, 2,000-acre facility located just outside the city, will be fully stripped of U.S. equipment in February. The U.S. command here will depart on November 14, leaving behind a skeleton crew to clean up. It's bittersweet for many of the marines, some of whom have spent more time within the barbed wire and concrete perimeter over the past few years...

National numbers released Tuesday evening show: Obama 50, McCain 46 Comes after Sept. 22 poll found Obama 52, McCain 43.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to CNN to talk about bailout politics. When I arrived, I was surprised to learn from the other two panelists--CNN's Gloria Borger and the Washington Post's Dana Milbank--that a deal on an amended version of the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout plan was close. I was surprised because I had been hearing the opposite--that House Republicans were increasingly opposed to a deal and that such a deal seemed less likely yesterday than it was when the plan was originally proposed. But others, including the Associated Press, were reporting that a deal was imminent.

Right now on Drudge there is a photo of McCain and Palin above the link, "Palin, McCain to spend more time together than apart..." Is it just me, or does the photo look incredibly fake? The photo in question:

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2008 – The top U.S. general in the Pacific told Congress yesterday that he’s working to strengthen the U.S.-Sino relationship, but he emphasized the need to keep a close eye on China as it strives to expand its influence in the region. Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating told the Senate Armed Services Committee he sees headway in breaking down longstanding divisions between the two countries, but remains troubled by China’s lack of transparency about its military programs. The Defense Department released its 2008 China Military Power Report earlier this month, noting that China spent more than...

DETROIT (AP) — The tentative contract between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers would allow GM to close a plant each in Michigan and Indiana and possibly shut down several other facilities, according to a detailed copy of the agreement. The moves are the downside of job security pledges that the UAW won in the negotiations, including commitments for new products at 16 plants. About 74,000 hourly GM workers will vote on the pact starting this week, with a final tally to be done by Oct. 10. Gregg Shotwell, a GM worker and frequent critic of the UAW,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2007 – The Defense Department announced today that it will close the Talon intelligence reporting system Sept. 17 and maintain a record copy of the collected data in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements.  Talon was established in 2002 by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz as a way to collect and evaluate information about possible threats to U.S. servicemembers and defense civilians at stateside and overseas military installations. It is being closed because reporting to the system had declined significantly, and it was determined to no longer be of analytical value, said Army Col. Gary Keck,...

OAKDALE, Calif. -- The Hershey's chocolate plant in Oakdale will be shut down, officials said Monday. The closure, which will take place in phases and will mean the loss of up to 600 jobs, is set to be complete by February 2008. The plant is a key part of life for many in this Stanislaus County town of 17,500. The community hosts a chocolate festival on the third weekend in May each year. The first products to cease production at the Oakdale plant will be Hershey's kisses with almonds and Hershey's syrup. Both product lines will be transferred to the...

Kenyans close border with Somalia Thousands of Somalis have sought refuge in Kenya over the years Kenya has shut its border with Somalia and will not allow more refugees into the country, says its foreign minister. Earlier the Kenyan authorities deported more than 420 Somali refugees who had crossed the border in recent days. The UN refugee agency has condemned Kenya's actions, with aid workers expressing frustration at being unable to help Somalis fleeing conflict. There have been clashes near the Kenyan border with Islamist militias being pursued by Ethiopian and Somali troops. Kenya has deployed tanks and helicopters to...

Stock Markets Will Close Tuesday for Funeral of President Ford NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Stock Exchange said Friday it will close on Tuesday as part of a national day of mourning to mark the funeral of President Gerald R. Ford. The NYSE joined the Nasdaq Stock Market, which made a similar announcement on Thursday. It had been expected that the stock exchanges would close out of respect for the 38th president. Financial markets have traditionally closed for presidential funerals, the last time being the burial of President Ronald Reagan in June 2004. Wall Street's closing on the...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2006 – Iraqi police and coalition forces captured two insurgents Oct. 9 in Samarra, Iraq, and Iraqi police shut down an insurgent financial operation Oct. 9 in Tikrit, military officials in Iraq reported. Iraqi police and coalition forces conducting a joint patrol captured two suspected insurgents who were attempting to enter Samarra by vehicle through a gap in the city’s surrounding berm. A search of the suspects’ vehicle revealed a sniper rifle. The individuals were detained for questioning. The combined patrol also apprehended an individual after receiving small-arms and indirect fire at a checkpoint. After determining the...

'New Moderates' close in on Left as Sweden votes By David Rennie in Stockholm (Filed: 16/09/2006) Sweden will vote tomorrow in an election in which a centre-Right candidate who compares himself to David Cameron has dragged his party out of the political wilderness to mount a serious challenge to the Social Democrats who have held power in Sweden for 65 of the last 74 years. Fredrik Reinfeldt In a high-risk strategy Fredrik Reinfeldt, the leader of the centre-Right opposition, has jettisoned cherished conservative policies and embraced the lavish, cradle-to-grave welfare state that is the cornerstone of the Swedish social model...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Sept. 13, 2006 -- Staff Sgt. Mike Myers experienced one of the most frightening events of his life in Afghanistan, while the birth of his child was taking place simultaneously more than 7,000 miles away. Army Staff Sgt. Mike Myers explains what happened to him on a recent mission as he sits in the driver's seat of a Humvee he was operating when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. The attack came Sept. 6 at almost the same time his son was being born in the U.S. Myers is a security forces member deployed...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government on Thursday ordered Arabic satellite network Al-Arabiya to shut down its Baghdad operations for one month, state television reported. Al-Arabiya said Iraqi police later arrived at its offices to enforce the order. The other pan-Arab satellite network, Al-Jazeera, had its office in the capital closed two years ago. Al-Arabiya, which is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at first said its headquarters had not yet been informed of a ban, but later said on live television that police had arrived at its Baghdad offices to close its operations down. The order apparently was issued...

SAN JOSE At least seven children suffered diarrhea after playing in a popular downtown fountain, and city health officials worry the water may have infected many more. The fountain at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park has not flowed since late last week, when tests confirmed the presence of the microscopic parasite that causes cryptosporidiosis, a diarrhea-inducing virus. The health department continued investigating Thursday whether 13 more cases of cryptosporidiosis and 15 cases of salmonella in children since mid-July were linked to the tainted fountain. One child was hospitalized but has since recovered, said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the county's public health...

WASHINGTON - American Indians suing the government over billions of dollars in lost royalties say they are contemplating an offer by members of Congress to resolve their lawsuit for $8 billion. The offer is considerably lower than the $27.5 billion plaintiffs offered to settle for a year ago. But plaintiffs say they are considering it seriously, bringing them closer than ever to ending the lawsuit, which has bogged down the Interior and Justice departments for 10 years. "Eight billion dollars is something I wish was higher, but I'm glad they were able to bring something forward that was equitable," the...

Afghanistan close to anarchy, warns general · Nato commander's view in stark contrast to ministers' · Forces short of equipment and 'running out of time' Richard Norton-Taylor Saturday July 22, 2006 The Guardian (UK) British soldiers on patrol in Sangin, Helmand province. Photograph: Cpl Rob Knight/MoD/PA The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan yesterday described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption. The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato's international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that...

Islamists close in on Somalian government By David Blair in Baidoa (Filed: 14/07/2006) The ruined town of Baidoa, where ragged gunmen roam bullet-scarred streets, is Somalia's alternative capital. Pulverised buildings, choked with weeds, house the country's official government, which has a president, cabinet and 275-member parliament. Somali Islamic fighters in Baidoa Barely 150 miles away, Islamist extremists have seized most of Somalia's real capital, Mogadishu, and the surrounding territory. Baidoa, where the "transitional federal government" clings to notional power thanks to international sponsorship, may be the Islamists' next target. It took 14 peace conferences to create this threadbare administration and,...

Traders Sports, one of the biggest gun dealers in the state, hopes a hearing in U.S. District Court next week will keep them in business. Traders has been under scrutiny for several years by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), which is trying to shut down the gun dealer. The ATF decided to revoke Traders gun permit on June 1. After an audit in 2003, the ATF claims that Traders can’t account for 1,767 weapons, and that guns sold at Traders turn up in crimes at an alarming rate. ATF spokeswoman Marti McKee said she couldn’t comment on...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The government of Puerto Rico ran out of money Monday, forcing the U.S. commonwealth to close public schools and shut down government offices, putting almost 100,000 people out of work. The legislature and governor failed to reach a last-minute accord that would have averted the first-ever partial shutdown of the government in island history.

Self-destructing comet to flash close by 10:30 24 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kimm Groshong Astronomers will soon be treated to a close-up celestial show, with a fragmenting comet streaming across the sky in more than 30 chunks. Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has been breaking up since 1995, but between 12 and 14 May will come closer to the Earth than any comet since 1983. Fortunately no threat is posed to Earth since, even at its closest, the nearest of the pieces will be twenty times more distant than the Moon. But astronomers around the world will take advantage of the...

CENTRE-left leader Romano Prodi has claimed a knife-edge victory in Italy's general election, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's allies dispute the result and are demanding a "scrupulous" check of the count. Twelve hours after polling stations closed, Mr Prodi declared his broad coalition had secured a majority in both houses of parliament and promised to unify Italy after a divisive, acrimonious election campaign. "We have won," he told flag-waving supporters who had waited until the early hours in a Rome square as the count ebbed and flowed in the closest election in modern Italian history. The centre-left said it was...

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2006 – U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley and Afghani Gen. Bismullah Khan met today and agreed that continued close cooperation between Afghan, coalition, NATO and Pakistani forces is essential to stabilizing Afghanistan and freeing the country of the Taliban and other terrorists. Freakley, commanding general of Combined Joint Task Force-76, and Bismullah , who serves in the Afghan National Army, met in Khan's office at the Afghan Ministry of Defense. Their Afghan National Army arranged the meeting. The Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police have worked cooperatively with each other and with coalition and...

Rosemary Roberts: Close book on Black History MonthFriday, March 24, 2006 From time to time, this column focuses on local topics, so herewith are some observations: Let's start with Leonard Pitts Jr., the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose syndicated column appears in this newspaper. I'm a huge Leonard Pitts fan because he writes well, thinks deeply and gores sacred cows. Pitts was in Greensboro this week speaking to a sold-out audience at the UNCG Friends of the Libraries Annual Dinner. His topic, "Bearing Witness," pertained to racial issues. Pitts, who is African American, made a statement that made me want to...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders on Thursday scrambled to try to put together a massive public works bond deal in time to make the June ballot. "We are very, very close to coming to an agreement," Schwarzenegger said, emerging briefly from his office. "We have some hurdles still to overcome and some obstacles to overcome, but I have great hopes." He said negotiations might stretch through the weekend. The Senate's leader, meanwhile, said his house might vote on a bond bill Thursday night, even if a deal wasn't reached. "That's my intention...," said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata,...

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2006 – The United States always has planned to transfer authority for all detention facilities in Iraq to the Iraqis, but announcements regarding the imminent closure at the Abu Ghraib prison are premature, defense officials said today. News reports that the U.S. military intends to close Abu Ghraib within the next few months and to transfer its prisoners to other jails are inaccurate, officials said. There's no specific timetable for that transfer or for closure of the Baghdad prison, they said. Decisions regarding Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities in Iraq will be based largely on two...

Schools close as week-long Arctic storm takes hold By Auslan Cramb Scottish Correspondent (Filed: 01/03/2006) More than 150 schools were closed yesterday and dozens of roads were blocked by snow as Arctic weather hit parts of Britain. Walkers brave the elements at Scarborough, North Yorks, where a severe weather warning had been issued While many central areas enjoyed uninterrupted winter sunshine, the north of Scotland and the East Coast experienced some of the heaviest snowfall of the winter. The northerly air stream, which is expected to last for most of the week, hit Orkney and Shetland, where all schools were...

Dennis Kelly, president of the teachers' union, said Friday he doesn't think teachers will agree to a raise of less than 10 percent. Many plan to gather today near City Hall to hold a "Grade-In for Justice" where they will grade papers on the street to show how hard they work and that they deserve a raise. Teachers affected by the closures and mergers will be given jobs elsewhere in the district.Dennis Kelly, president of the teachers' union, said Friday he doesn't think teachers will agree to a raise of less than 10 percent. Many plan to gather today near...

Now aristocrats will be evicted for living too close to Mugabe By Peta Thornycroft in Harare (Filed: 20/01/2006) Owners of property next to President Robert Mugabe's retirement mansion have received written warning that their houses will be confiscated by the state. The move represents the first time Zimbabwe's elite, both black and white, have suffered at first hand. President Mugabe's £6m palace is nearing completion Millions of Zimbabweans were affected by last year's "clearances" of urban shantytowns and much of the rural population hit by Mr Mugabe's war on white farmers. But, until now, many members of the aristocracy have...

This close to voting Friday, December 30, 2005 One of the hallmarks of a working democracy is that elections happen when they're scheduled to happen. But while special elections are now set in three parishes damaged by recent hurricanes -- Jefferson, St. Bernard and Acadia -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco has ordered an indefinite delay in New Orleans' regular citywide elections, which had been scheduled for Feb. 4 and March 4. Not surprisingly, the matter ended up in federal court. And while U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle declined to set an election date, he did say he was "this close" to...