Twice-weekly flights between Rockford and Shannon, Ireland, will start June 26, according to Kenny Tours. The Maryland-based company signed a deal Thursday with North American Airlines to fly the route through Aug. 31, said Bob Nay, Kenny Tours' director of sales and marketing. The flights will be Thursdays and Sundays. Round-trip airfares start at $888, including taxes and airport fees. Six-night motor coach tours, including airfare and hotels, start at $1,489. Six-night bed-and-breakfast stays, including airfare and car rental, start at $1,489. The seasonal model is similar to Chicago Rockford International Airport's other international route, Apple Vacations' weekly flights to Cancun, Mexico, in the winter. But the Ireland flights will be on Boeing 757s with almost 200 seats, which would be the largest plane used on a regularly scheduled passenger route from Rockford.

Dallas area new-vehicle sales rise 4.5% in 2007

Contrary to national trends, new car and truck sales in the Dallas-Fort Worth area rose 4.5 percent last year.

The data from the Freeman Metroplex Recap includes retail sales as well as sales to car rental agencies and fleets. And the increase "portends well for business this year," said Drew Campbell, president of the New Car Dealers Association of Metropolitan Dallas.

"I think it's very exciting," he said Wednesday. "We are in the center of the United States. Because of that, we're not having the ups and downs of the West Coast and East Coast."

If new vehicle sales here continue to grow, they'll be bucking some considerable economic headwinds. New car and truck sales in the U.S. dropped 2.5 percent last year and are expected to fall by at least that much this year.

Dealers in the four-county Dallas-Fort Worth area sold 383,939 new vehicles last year, compared with 367,381 in 2006, according to the Metroplex Recap.

Thrifty Car Sales Opens Eight Dealerships in Six States

TULSA, Okla., Nov. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thrifty Car Sales, a subsidiary of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: DTG) , is turning up the heat on expansions, recently adding eight locations to its national network of franchised used car dealerships.

Steve Sternberg, a Thrifty Car Rental and Truck Rental franchisee for more than 32 years, has opened a dealership at 6507 Preston Highway in Louisville, Ky.

The industry's most reliable source

1car1, the UK's leading independent car rental company continues to grow and grow and grow. This year the UK specialist car rental company has seen 10 new branches open nationwide giving an even greater level of service to the Australian Traveller. With its ever present Free home delivery Lee Burrows, 1car1's National Sales manager says, We aim to position ourselves in the marketplace as the leaders in UK Car Rental and whilst we are still new to many agents there is a large following out there who know that 1car1 are the only stop when it comes to full on expertise in the UK. Some of the new branches such as Kendall in the Lake District highlights just how specialised we are." Whilst available in all the major centres some of the 1car1 branches service the obscure requests that are sometimes received.

The Search For The Elusive Captive Audience Means No More ...

It's actually interesting at times but you're really not there very long. I was crushed the other day while I filled up to hear that Eric Clapton was at Madison Square Garden at the same time we were already going to be in California! If we hadn't had other firm plans they might have driven a sale. And it's not very intrusive as I find that pumping gas isn't much of a "personal" moment where such things might be seen as an intrusion. YMMV ....

Ever read The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth? A number of Heinlein's novels depicted intrusive advertising in passing, not as a main theme. Many SF writers since have included intrusive advertising to some degree in their stories.

The Faculty Bench

My favorite athletic misdeed occurred about 10 years ago at the U. of Michigan, when the Men’s Hockey coach was cited for urinating in public. His urinal? The university library.

GM: Possible pitfalls could derail rebound

But this year, GM also must begin anteing up cash to set up a massive health care trust for hourly retirees. The automaker has to come up with $34 billion over several years to contribute to the fund, created as part of last year's labor pact with the United Auto Workers. GM's ability to spend in other areas of the business will be affected if it can't secure financing under favorable terms.

Travel junk fees are out of control

There's a lawsuit in California right now that's concerned with junk fees not being revealed until after you get to the car rental counter. This makes Internet comparison shopping very difficult. The lowest price you see online may be fake because it doesn't reflect junk fees. With airfare, the actual price is usually about 20 percent higher than the advertised price.

Growth, fiscal responsibility: reasons to vote 'yes' in Unit 5

Some critics have scoffed at that projection, saying growth is slowing or will slow in the Twin Cities. However, similar things were said before the March 2000 referendum when school officials projected enrollment would grow to 13,000 by 2010. With two years to go, the district is less than 600 students away from meeting that projection.Renovating eight older schools is a sound investment in those buildings and in the students who attend them and will be attending them in the future. Students in the same district shouldn't be placed at an academic disadvantage because newer schools have better equipment and resources.The Unit 5 school board has been fiscally responsible. The district has implemented a number of cost-saving measures in the last five years. These have included a two-year freeze of base pay for all employees, increased class sizes and reduction in administrative and custodial/maintenance staff.If the state provided a bigger share of education funding, property taxes wouldn't bear such a heavy burden.

Kristi O'Harran

Mariner Village's owners now are offering to sell their land to the park. The residents are working hard to find a way to buy it.

And politicians are studying state and county regulations that might control the redevelopment of this and other mobile home parks.

As property becomes more valuable, park owners often are hoping to develop their land for lucrative projects. That means residents must leave.

The Snohomish County Council is considering calling for a time out, and is studying a countywide moratorium on the redevelopment of mobile home parks.

"We're looking at all of the mobile home parks across the county and what we can do to put the brakes on conversions until we get some potential ordinances to help solve the problem," County Councilman Brian Sullivan said.