TresSugar

Does Your City Stress You Out?

TresSugar — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:30:00 -0700

Your city's plummeting property values, high unemployment rate, extreme weather, or chronic traffic could potentially stress you out. Some metropolises have a perfect storm of frustrating factors that landed them on Forbes's list of America's Most Stressful Cities.

Coming in at number one is Chicago, thanks to the city's poor air quality, 11 percent unemployment rate, and falling home prices. Los Angeles comes next, then New York, Cleveland, and Providence, RI.

My current place of residence, San Francisco, ranks number six, but I beg to differ with its stressful status. Besides worrying about the next big earthquake, I find that my city's passable public transportation, moderate climate, and breathtaking views make me feel more relaxed.

What about you - does your city stress you out?

Do Tell: Who Is the Most Influential Woman in Your Life?

TresSugar — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:00:00 -0700

Forbes released its annual list of the world's 100 most powerful women this week. Taking the number one spot for the fourth year in a row is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the leader of the world's fourth largest economy. Female CEOs and political leaders also made the list that included Melinda Gates (number 34), Hillary Clinton (number 36), and Michelle Obama (number 40).

Of course, you don't have to be a conventionally powerful person to make a big impact. Of all the women I know, I'd say my wise and patient mother has had the most positive influence on my life. What about you? What woman has influenced your life the most?

Do You Live in a Stressful City?

DearSugar — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:00:00 -0700

Forbes is at it again, but this time they are looking at the 10 most stressful cities in America. They constructed their list after looking at the country's 40 largest metropolitan areas and examining quality of life indicators. They looked at the housing market, cost of living, price of gas, environmental factors such as weather and air quality, and lastly, population density.

According to Forbes:

Residents of the cities on our list acutely experience the shifts wrought by global and local economies in turmoil. In fact, it's "bedrock security issues" like housing affordability, job security and cost of living [that] drive anxiety, says Edward Hallowell, M.D., a former professor at Harvard Medical School and founder of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury, Mass.

Check out the first five cities on their list below:

Philadelphia, PA
Providence, RI
Salt Lake City, UT
Cleveland, OH
San Diego, CA

Want to see the top five? Just read more.

San Francisco, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Detroit, MI
New York, NY
Chicago, IL

Unfortunately, I live in one of these cities, number five to be exact, but after understanding the terms, I completely see why "the City by the Bay" is considered a stressful place to live. Do you see your city on this list? If not, should yours be on it?

Source

Mother Country Weighs In on Colonies' Little Elections

CitizenSugar — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:00:36 -0700

Hee hee! It's like revolutionary war times! It looks like the UK has forgiven the US for that uncomfortable little tea dumping unpleasantness, and they're wildly obsessed with the upcoming US elections. BarackObama.com was the 11th most visited site by U.K. Internet last month, more popular than any website maintained by a British politician.

The Brits have even loosened the stiff upper lip a little and embraced the "politics of feeling." Obama is a perfect example of this warm-and-fuzzy change of political heart. Enjoying and even using the "change" principle, Britons of all stripes await the November results, curious whether the gap between rhetoric and reality can be bridged as successfully.

The story has a great slideshow showing influential folks from across the pond and their presidential picks - they're not all Obama lovers!

Source

Front Page: White House Plans Public Lottery For State Diners

CitizenSugar — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:59:52 -0800

The White House social secretary has promised an online public lottery to attend state dinners. - The Washington Post
The US Treasury announced plans today to take a bigger stake in Citigroup, perhaps as much as 36 percent. - AP
The US economy shrank 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter, a rate worse than expected. - Forbes
The Pentagon has lifted the ban on images of the war dead, a ban some say resulted from a split-screen image of president Bush Sr. joking while coffins returned home. - CNN

The Rocky Mountain News printed its final edition today, ending its reign as Colorado's oldest newspaper and oldest continuously operating business after 150 years. - Denver Business Journal

Source

America's 10 Most Miserable Cities

CitizenSugar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:30:55 -0800

Some cities will never make the 10 best list; that's why there's one for the 10 worst! Forbes scraped the bottom to bring us the 10 most miserable cities in the US. Maladies like rising unemployment, lousy weather, long commutes, high sales tax, inflation, crime, and foreclosure rates were all factored in. Check out who bottomed out (you might be surprised) and vote on your least favorite city.
Source

View Slideshow ›

When It Comes to Being Single, Some Cities Are Better Than Others

DearSugar — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:00:00 -0700

Late last week, Forbes revealed its list of best cities for singles, and I'll admit, I found some of them a bit surprising. To properly rank each city, surveyors examined six different categories including nightlife, living costs, and percentage of singles. The article explains:

[Forbes] rankings are meant to be a guide for young, ambitious singles who, in an age of techno-mobility, can live and work wherever they want. Our methodology focuses on career-minded, "never-marrieds" under the age of 35.

Chances are you're not about to move to a city simply for its dating potential, but I still think it's fun to find out where your city ranks. Check out the top 20 below and see if any cities surprise you.

Atlanta, Georgia
San Francisco, California
Dallas, Texas
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Washington DC
Seattle, Washington
Boston, Massachusetts
New York City
Orlando, Florida
Phoenix, Arizona

To see the remaining 10, just read more.

Chicago, Illinois
Denver, Colorado
Miami, Florida
Austin, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
Los Angeles, California
Houston, Texas
Charlotte, North Carolina
San Diego, California
St. Louis, Missouri

Source

Front Page: Candidates Sprint to Tomorrow's Finish Line

CitizenSugar — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:03:22 -0800

The presidential candidates and their running mates are visiting more than a dozen states today, the final day before the election. - CNN
Republicans are trying to save embattled incumbents in an effort to hold down expected Democratic gains in the House and Senate. - New York Times
The family of high profile Mormon and NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young has come out against Proposition 8, thus supporting equal marriage rights for gay couples. Young, the great-great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, has No On Prop. 8 signs on his lawn, and his wife donated $50,000 to the campaign. -San Francisco Chronicle

A man accused of being Osama Bin Laden's media secretary has been convicted by a US military jury at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. - BBC News
As far as the European Commission is concerned, the Euro zone economy is in a recession, and growth for the region will come to a standstill next year. - Forbes

Source

Bailing It Out: Just How Much Is $700 Billion Anyway?

CitizenSugar — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:30:11 -0700

Oh, bailout, you're our new Sarah Palin. We can't stop talking about you, yet we know so little about you. The president is set to give a televised address about the state of the economy tonight at 9 p.m. EDT - but here's the real question I've been wondering about since the $700 billion figure first popped up: exactly how much is $700 billion anyway?

Well for starters, if you count this double-image pic of gajillionaire Bill Gates as two . . . and then add the other 10 of him in net worth, that's how much $700 billion is: 12 Bill Gateses. That's only a dozen right? Not so many. (?!)

To see the whole dirty dozen of Billy, and more perspective on the figure (including Titanic comparisons) read more.

View 10 Photos ›

The bill for every living soul currently in the US, if everyone were to pay their share? $2,300 per person.
The sum of everyone's net worth on the Forbes 400 list is twice the cost of the bailout.
It would take the box office equivalent of 381 Titanics to reach $700 billion.
Florida's gross domestic product would cover the tab.
Though looking forward, if nothing is done to fix Social Security, in 75 years the shortfall of $4.3 trillion will be the cost of six bailouts.

So $700 billion: it's pocket change really. It's all in your perspective - right Bill?

Biden Calls Email Ad Terrible, Then Regrets Hitting "Reply All"

CitizenSugar — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:02:41 -0700

Did Joe Biden gaffe again? In a train-based interview with Katie Couric, she asked Biden about an ad being run by the Obama/Biden campaign mocking McCain's technological capabilities. Biden said of the ad, "I thought that was terrible by the way. I didn’t know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we would have never done it”

The ad uses a disco ball and Rubik's cube to paint McCain as "out of touch" and says he "doesn't know how to use a computer," and "admits he can't send an email." What prompted Biden's discomfort with the ad? Perhaps this quote from a Forbes piece in 2000:

In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the US Senate's savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. "She's a whiz on the keyboard, and I'm so laborious," McCain admits.

It didn't take long for Biden to realize he'd just slammed an ad approved by the ticket he's on, and an ad he'd never actually seen. To see his clarification and his "terrible" conversation with Katie, read more.

He retracted the statement and issued the following:

Having now reviewed the ad, it is even more clear to me that given the disgraceful tenor of Sen McCain’s ads and their persistent falsehoods, his campaign is in no position to criticize, especially when they continue to distort Barack’s votes on an issue as personal as keeping kids safe from sexual predators.

Is this a Biden gaffe? Was he hit by an attack of conscience, or is the argument that McCain can't email because of his injuries the part that's actually out of touch?