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Archive for June 26th, 2008

Antiwar Demonstrators Target Long Island Malls

by David Bodamer June 26th, 2008

This is interesting, especially in light of the December ruling in California that allows protesters access to malls on the grounds that malls are “public forums.”

In Long Island in March, a man was arrested and removed from a mall when he wouldn’t remove an anti-war shirt. Now local protest groups are initiating a “Stop the War” tour of various malls in Long Island to take place this summer.

Newsday has more:

Long Island peace activists will converge on the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington Station Saturday in the first event of a planned Summer 2008 Stop the War Long Island Mall Tour.

The peace groups were part of a mall controversy in March, when 80-year-old Don Zirkel was arrested when he refused to take off his anti-war T-shirt in the food court of the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove. Charges were dropped against Zirkel, a member of Pax Christi Long Island, the Catholic Peace Movement, and peace activist Susan McKeon-Steinmann, 63, in First District Court in Central Islip last month.

…

Plans call for “a mall a month” anti-war demonstration, including July 26 at Roosevelt Field, Garden City; Aug. 23 at South Shore Mall, Bay Shore; and a September return to the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove.

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Global Real Estate a “Wild Ride”

by David Bodamer June 26th, 2008

For commercial real estate investors, Brazil is a dream and Spain is a nightmare, Michael Pralle, president of real estate private equity firm J.E. Robert Cos, said on Wednesday.

“I’d avoid Spain and Italy right now, and be patient in the United States,” Pralle said at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit in New York. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

The credit crunch has walloped the U.S. commercial real estate market as borrowing costs soared and lenders have reduced the amounts they will loan. But in developing countries, a dearth of modern office and apartment buildings and shopping centers offers investors lucrative opportunities.

Link.

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JCPenney Cuts Store Openings … Again

by David Bodamer June 26th, 2008

For the second time in less than three months JCPenney is announcing that its scaling back its store openings. In April, it first divulged plans to cut its openings in 2008 from 50 down to 36. Now it’s cutting targets from 2009. It will only open 20 new stores.

The Plano, Texas-based company now plans 20 new or relocated stores in 2009, down from the 36 stores it expects to open or move this year. The company had once planned to open 50 new stores per year through 2011.

Penney still plans to open its first store in Manhattan late next year. It believes the store will be its sales leader.

The company also said it would renovate 10 to 15 stores next year, down from the 20 it expects to renovate this year and well below an original plan to update 65 stores per year through 2011.

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