San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 03/07/2002 12:00 AM

Alabama city eyes river walk proposal
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That is how San Antonio should take the turn of events over in Wetumpka, Ala.

According to the Montgomery Advertiser, Wetumpka City Council has authorized a survey of a mile-long stretch of the Coosa River for a possible $1 million river walk/recreation trail.

"If we build the river walk/recreation trail," Wetumpka Mayor R. Scott Golden said, "it would make us the envy of the River Region. It would be awesome."

Golden, apparently, has never been to San Antonio. For Wetumpka to have an "awesome" river walk, it must be accompanied by a historic site like the Alamo, a dozen luxury hotels, an international array of restaurants, a glitzy shopping mall and a cavernous convention center. Not to mention towering, ancient cypress trees.

And sorry, Wetumpka. Only San Antonio's River Walk will ever have the vision of the late architect Robert H.H. Hugman.

San Antonio is still flattered, in any event.

USDA halts leak of crop reports

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said they will halt the practice of leaking details of some crop reports to selected commodity traders and researchers before the information is disclosed to the public, Bloomberg reported.

The Agriculture Department said it gives advance copies of the government's forecasts for crop production to researchers and commodity-trading advisers so they can prepare presentations for the department's annual conference.

Traders and farm industry officials, who rely on such reports in forecasting prices for corn, sugar and other agricultural commodities, charged the practice gives some buyers and sellers an unfair advantage.

Ranchers, farmers, investors and grain buyers for processors such as Kraft Foods Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland Co. use government crop forecasts in deciding when to buy and sell futures and options to cover production needs and guard against price swings.

Speaker claims e-craze is dead

The e-craze is dead.

So declares author Naseem Javed, who wrote "Naming for Power" and is a humorous speaker on the conference circuit.

What's killing the e-craze? Enron, Javed writes in a new article. Finally, the Houston company is good for something.

But get ready for the m-craze. It already has started, Javed notes, with AT&T's M-Life, which is a "m"arketing gi"mm"ick for its cell phone services.

Talk & Speculation predicts a short life, though, for the m-craze. At least in Texas. Remember a dozen years ago when there was MBank?

03/07/2002