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August 2009

Myrtle Beach Hotels

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 05:34 — admin

Myrtle Beach Hotels

Boutique hotels are sometimes furnished in a themed, stylish and/or aspirational manner. Although usually considerably smaller than a mainstream hotel (ranging from 3 to 100 guest rooms) boutique hotels are generally fitted with telephone and wi-fi Internet connections, honesty bars and often cable/pay TV. Guest services are attended to by 24 hour hotel staff. Many of the boutique hotels have on site dining facilities, and the majority offer attractive bars as well as lounges which may also be open to the general public.[citation needed]

Ice hotels, such as the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, melt every spring and are rebuilt out of ice and snow each winter.

US urges Yemen to go after growing al-Qaida threat (AP)

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 04:52 — admin

WASHINGTON – American authorities are pressuring Yemen to counter a rising internal al-Qaida threat more aggressively and improve intelligence-sharing amid growing worries that the country could become the next significant terrorist staging ground.
As insurgent attacks have spiked in the embattled Middle East nation over the past year, the U.S. has bolstered counterterrorism training there, including efforts to shore up Yemen's borders and combat terror financing and arms trafficking.
Al-Qaida's increased strength at organizing and training new recruits in Yemen's vast ungoverned spaces has also led the U.S. to consider boosting financial aid and sales of military equipment to Yemen's government.
Shari Villarosa, senior State Department counterterrorism adviser, said that the security situation in Yemen has "deteriorated significantly" and that the Yemeni government's political will to battle al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations has shifted at times.
"The U.S. wants to help Yemen because we do not want to see Yemen become another Afghanistan where al-Qaida can train, plan and execute terrorist actions against us," Villarosa said.
About a week after U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, met with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh late last month, Yemeni forces launched anti-terrorist operations in a tribal area known as an al-Qaida safe haven.
But that operation was short-lived, as Yemeni forces were diverted days later in a protracted fight against Shiite rebels in the north — a battle that continues to escalate.
U.S. officials said that in recent visits to Yemen, American authorities expressed frustration to Yemeni leaders about the sporadic attention paid to al-Qaida militants within their borders. The officials said the Yemenis acknowledged U.S. concerns, but remain preoccupied with the northern rebels and a secessionist threat in the south.
Al-Qaida's operatives in Yemen and Saudi Arabia merged early this year to become al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, a move that U.S. intelligence officials said was followed by more recruiting and efforts by those operatives — mostly unsuccessful — to cross the border from Yemen into Saudi Arabia.
AQAP has also made it clear in communications through the Internet and by other means that it intends to target Western interests across the Arabian peninsula.
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, was the site of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors. There have also been a spate of assaults on the U.S. Embassy in San'a, including a 2008 bombing that killed 10 Yemeni guards and four civilians.
Defense and counterterrorism officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence reports, said they have seen evidence of lower-level al-Qaida operatives moving into Yemen from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Just a few months ago, an audio message, reportedly from al-Qaida leader Naser Abdel Karim al-Wahishi, urged Yemeni citizens to unite and fight the government. A former close aide to Osama bin Laden, al-Wahishi escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006, and has emerged as a leader of AQAP.
After al-Qaida was largely defeated by Yemeni forces in 2003, the terror group was able to rebound as the government turned its focus to flare-ups by insurgents in the north and south.
"Al-Qaida in Yemen is stronger now than it has ever been in the past," said Gregory D. Johnsen, a Yemen scholar. "The organization is attracting more recruits than ever before and it is growing increasingly more skilled at utilizing its members."
Johnsen blamed al-Qaida's re-emergence in part on failures by the U.S. and its allies to support the rickety Yemeni government and maintain a consistent level of effort against the insurgents there.
But U.S. officials caution that the movement of al-Qaida foot soldiers into Yemen has not yet been followed by a similar movement of al-Qaida leadership from the Pakistan border. There is also no indication that terror activities elsewhere in the region are being directed from Yemen — concerns that would heighten U.S. fears.
American lawmakers who recently visited Yemen said they are concerned that U.S. alarms about al-Qaida penetration have not motivated Yemen's government.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the (Yemeni) president's chief concern is preserving his power," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "That is worrisome because al-Qaida is also a threat to his regime."

Collins met with Saleh during a visit to Yemen last week by a small Senate delegation led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The lawmakers urged Yemeni officials to improve their cooperation with the U.S., particularly with intelligence sharing on militant activities in the country.

Villarosa said the U.S. would like to see Yemen pass stronger terror financing legislation in order to prosecute those funding militant activities. At the same time, she said, Yemen must improve its own border security.

In one recent meeting with U.S. authorities, Yemeni officials pressed for a broad range of economic aid and military equipment, including trucks, helicopters and other armored vehicles. They also asked for communications devices and naval vessels to counter the surge in piracy off Yemen's shores.

The main issue for the U.S., Collins said, "is whether that equipment is going to be used in the fight against (other) insurgents or whether its going to be focused on al-Qaida, which we view as the greater threat."

A complicating issue in the U.S.-Yemeni negotiations is the American effort to return some 100 Yemenis who are currently being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.

The U.S. does not want to release the detainees straight back to Yemen for fear they will simply go free. But a U.S. proposal to have the detainees first undergo a rehabilitation program in Saudi Arabia has stalled.

Collins said the recently returned delegation plans to take up the Yemen issue with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other officials.

"If there is better intelligence sharing and more cooperation, I for one am willing to provide more economic assistance to Yemen," Collins said.

___

On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil

Economy stabilizing, housing no longer drag: Fed's Lacker (Reuters)

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 03:34 — admin

DANVILLE, Virginia (Reuters) –
Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker was quoted on Thursday as saying the U.S. economy was stabilizing after a painful recession and the shattered housing market will no longer be a drag on economic activity.

"I think the economy is leveling out," Lacker said in an interview with the Danville Register & Bee newspaper. "I think there is reason for hope."

Mickey Rourke: Sport helped me pick myself up (AP)

Fri, 08/21/2009 - 02:26 — admin

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Mickey Rourke blames himself for being out of spotlight for over a decade but says his early interest in sports gave him a spirit that allowed him to pick himself up.
The 57-year-old actor confessed to an audience at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Thursday that he was out of work for almost 14 years because he did "not behave properly, like a professional, I wasn't real responsible." He said he blames himself for ruining the first part of his career.
The star was gone from Hollywood after squandering his early potential with bad-boy behavior and by turning down roles.
"I paid the price for it," he said.
Those years were hard, he said. "It's better to never work than to have worked and become a has been. I have been a has been for 12, 13 years. You feel terrible about yourself, you are not in control any more."
His comeback came with "Sin City" and was followed by Darren Aronofsky's "Wrestler." Aronofsky fought to cast Rourke against the concerns of financial backers and forged a comprise by settling on a lower budget of $6 million. The role brought Rourke an Oscar nomination.
Rourke said he had not expected to get another chance, but then got two.
"I feel very blessed, very thankful, very fortunate," he said.
As a teenager, Rourke took up self-defense training, switched to boxing and decided on an amateur career before turning to acting.
"I think sports gave me a mindset to keep moving, that I'm not dead," he said. "You learn to pick yourself up and keep going ... For me the game was not over," he added.
The "Wrestler" is his favorite movie, he said, but also was the hardest one he ever made.
"Thirty years ago these guys were a bunch of fat guys in Speedos who looked like a bunch of Germans on vacation in Miami Beach. Now they know about nutrition and they stay at the gym," he said.
So the role of a wrestler required tough training and six meals a day to gain the required extra 32 pounds, he said.
"I'm not 20 years old any more and when they throw your ass down, something is gonna hurt," he said. "My back would go out, my knee would go out. I had three MRIs in the first two months. If they would say they want to make Part 2, I would say, 'No, thank you.'"
He said his next project, "Iron Man 2," in which he plays an evil assassin, will "be better than Iron Man 1, that I can guarantee you."
The Sarajevo Film Festival traditionally organizes events called "Coffee with ..." that allow the press, as well as other people, to talk to stars at a downtown square. This year the guests were Rourke and "X-Files" actress Gillian Anderson among others.

LIGHT FADES WITH PASSING OF 'PRINCE OF DARKNESS' (Georgie Anne Geyer)

Fri, 08/21/2009 - 00:35 — admin

WASHINGTON -- There was a kind of charm in the way Bob Novak wore the verbal cloak of "Prince of Darkness." It was almost like a beautiful woman working very hard to appear to be embarrassed by praise of her garment.

Oh, in public, he was all darkness, from the eyebrows to the black suits to the finely honed scowl. But in private, and especially with his journalism friends, Robert Novak actually brought a lighthearted humor to our world.

I remember once when he was preparing for his turn as president of The Gridiron Club, the quirky club of 65 print and TV journalists that puts on a delightful parody of American politics every year, he asked me to give one of the brief, supposedly humorous perorations on exactly why he should be president.

For reasons of tradition, the club president always opens the dinner with a "speech in the dark." And so I said that, with Bob as president, we would not have to lower the lights as we always did at this magical moment -- he would just walk in and the darkness would naturally descend. He loved it.

Bob Novak, who died Tuesday at 78 and will be buried after a Catholic Mass, not only loved life and jokes and parodies of politics, but he especially loved journalism. Indeed, in many ways, his long professional career -- from his birth in Joliet, Ill., to student reporter at the University of Illinois, to Washington correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, and finally to his and the late Rowland Evans' popular "Inside Report" column -- paralleled the changes in American journalism today.

In the beginning, his rise and his work were typical of the "bureau" style of Washington reporting. Virtually every respectable paper in America and abroad had a serious bureau of reporters here. But in the past two decades, the number of American news organizations accredited to cover Congress has fallen by more than two-thirds, with more cutbacks to come.

The Washington Post's superb columnist David Broder wrote this week about those days when three especially excellent journalists accidentally came together at The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau: the late Paul Duke of PBS' famous "Washington Week in Review," Alan L. Otten, who just died, and of course Robert Novak. "They were assembled here by editors who had a passionate commitment to covering Congress and politics as if the decisions being debated really mattered," Broder wrote sadly.

Bob himself wrote in his 2007 memoir, "The Prince of Darkness," in words that may surprise many of his readers: "For the sober-sided younger generations of journalists, having fun may seem unserious, but I had a terrific time fulfilling all my youthful dreams and at the same time making life miserable for hypocritical, posturing politicians and, I hope, performing a service for my country."

But Bob not only covered Congress and American politics with a special, tireless meticulousness, he also worked abroad. In 1978 he scooped the world with an interview with the not-very-available Chinese leader and reformer Deng Xiao-ping, which many thought helped pave the way for the resumption of diplomatic relations with China the next year.

Today, virtually all the big American papers and television networks have so cut back on foreign coverage that many of us wonder where the American people will get their foreign news coverage from.

In contrast to his pyrotechnics on television (melodramatically stalking off the set, etc.), Bob was surely a good pal to his comrades in the press. On the occasion of a special birthday I was celebrating with my friend, the noted diplomat Phyllis Oakley, I waited until Friday, for some reason, to ask Bob if he would emcee the Saturday event. He was like a sweet puppy -- he was so delighted to do so!

But when I told him it was a "tea dance," he asked in some bewilderment, like the good reporter he was, "WHAT is a tea dance?" I told him that, historically in Eastern Europe, it was an afternoon dance where, among other things, it was proper to dance with strangers. He smiled and said, "Well, if they're our friends, there will be plenty of strange ones."

His last couple of years were not happy ones. He got caught up in that strange, emotionally draining and really inexplicable case of his printing the name of the CIA agent Valerie Plame. I surely did not understand the whole thing -- did anyone? -- but I do know that after that he seemed more and more truly dark, and tired, and distracted. Then came the brain tumor.

Everyone will remember different things about Robert D. Novak, but I shall remember him as gifting us with a life that spanned the great modern age of newspapering and that illuminated the problems we now face. And I'll remember the humor that the public, who bought the tough-guy image he liked to portray, seldom saw.

When Novak became a Catholic in 1998 at 67, the monsignor proclaimed that the "prince of darkness" had been transformed into a "child of light." The witty New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was in attendance, immediately warned: "Well, we've now made Bob a Catholic. The question is, can we make him a Christian?"

That's too deep a question for me, but I do know that, with his death, a great deal of the depth -- and the light -- has gone out of covering Washington.

Bharti hopeful of MTN deal to create telecom giant (AFP)

Thu, 08/20/2009 - 23:44 — admin

NEW DELHI (AFP) –
India's top mobile firm Bharti Airtel hopes to conclude a merger deal next month with South Africa's MTN to create a telecoms giant and has no plans to sweeten its bid, a report said Friday.

Talks between the two companies that were prolonged Thursday until the end of September, are focused on "administrative issues," Bharti chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said, according to India's Economic Times newspaper.

"We have extended the talks until September 30. I am very hopeful of a deal before that," Mittal added.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed source familiar with the deal who said an agreement between Bharti and the South African cellular flagship could come by mid-September.

"We are not really looking at sweetening the deal," Mittal said.

"There are no contentious issues over the deal structure. During discussions, there will be adjustments to what was announced earlier. But that is not the area of focus," he added.

"We are looking at administrative issues, the process of seeking permissions and working towards a scheme of arrangement acceptable to all," he said.

The merger would create a global telecom powerhouse with more than 200 million subscribers and revenues of more than 20 billion dollars.

Such a deal, estimated to be worth 23 billion dollars, would also be India's biggest cross-border transaction to date, surpassing Tata Steel's acquisition of Britain's Corus for 12.2 billion dollars in 2007.

The extension of the transcontinental talks, the second since the discussions began in May, came amid reports that MTN shareholders were pressuring Bharti to improve its offer for the South African company.

Under the initial plan announced in May, Bharti would be the biggest single stakeholder in the merged group, taking a 49 percent share in MTN using cash and global depository receipts (GDRs). Shareholders of MTN would have a 36 percent interest in Bharti through cash and stock.

The Bharti chief said the framework of the deal would be in line with terms announced when the two companies began talks on May 25.

"In all cross-border transactions of this nature, it takes time to finish off documentation and due diligence," Mittal said.

"But it's never done till it is done. In deals of this nature and size, there is never complete certainty," said Mittal.

pmc/gh/dwa

India's top mobile phone company Bharti Airtel on Thursday extended until the end of next month merger talks with South Africa's flagship MTN cellular firm aimed at creating an emerging market giant.

The extension of the discussions until September 30 -- the second since the talks began in late May -- came amid media reports that MTN is holding out for Bharti to sweeten its offer.

The discussions which earlier had been prolonged to August 30, "continue to progress satisfactorily," Bharti said.

The proposed merged company would straddle Africa, Asia and the Middle East and have more than 200 million customers, 20 billion dollars in annual revenues and be the world's third-biggest mobile operator by subscribers.

The announcement of the extension came as India's Hindustan Times reported that the original proposed 23-billion-dollar cash-and-share swap announced by the two companies might have to be "completely restructured."

The newspaper, quoting an unnamed source connected with the deal, said "some directors of MTN want the whole deal to be restructured so that there is more value in it for the MTN shareholders."

But the source added that the deal was moving "in the right direction."

Under the initial proposal, Bharti would be the biggest shareholder in the merged group, taking a 49 percent stake in MTN while MTN shareholders would have an effective 36 percent stake in Bharti.

The two phone companies re-entered tie-up talks in May, a year after Bharti ended negotiations in a dispute over control.

The talks fell part after the South African firm proposed an ownership structure that the Indian company said would have involved "Bharti Airtel becoming a subsidiary of MTN."

South Africa's Public Investment Corp or PIC, MTN Group Ltd.'s biggest single shareholder, has voiced its conditional support for the proposed merger but has said there is scope to improve the price.

Other MTN shareholders have expressed similar reservations.

40 dead in Somalia fighting, witnesses say (AP)

Thu, 08/20/2009 - 20:44 — admin

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Fighting between government soldiers and Islamic insurgents killed at least 40 people in central Somalia on Thursday as the warring sides tried to gain ground in strategic towns.
Witnesses also reported seeing troops from neighboring Ethiopia roll into the country — a development that would enrage insurgents who saw Ethiopia as an occupying force after it helped drive out Islamists in 2006.
Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. Al-Shabab, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, operates openly in the capital and seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia.
The fighting started Thursday in Bula Burte, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of the capital, Mogadishu, when government soldiers moved into the town controlled by the insurgent group al-Shabab. The United States says the group has ties to al-Qaida, which al-Shabab denies.
Local resident Osman Ganey said he saw 15 corpses and that the fighting was continuing. In another area of town, resident Farah Abdi Barre said he counted 25 corpses.
"We closed all our shops and most of the residents are fleeing from the town," a local businessman, Mohamed Ibrahim, told The Associated Press by telephone.
Also Thursday, al-Shabab fighters moved into Belet Weyne, near the border with Ethiopia, forcing government soldiers to retreat to the far side of town. The insurgents moved in after witnesses spotted Ethiopian troops there, identifying them by their uniforms and their trucks with Ethiopian license plates.
Ali Mohamed Gedi, a spokesman for the regional government, denied Ethiopians were in the country.
"There was no big fighting but the government soldiers have left the western part of Belet Weyne and the al-Shabab men are in control," said local resident Daud Haji Ibar.
Controlling Belet Weyne is vital from a military standpoint because of the town's proximity to Ethiopia, which has sent troops here in the past to stop Islamists from taking power. It also serves as a link between southern Somalia and the agriculturally rich central region.

`Avatar' trailer debuts online amid buzz (AP)

Thu, 08/20/2009 - 19:09 — admin

LOS ANGELES – Social networking sites were abuzz Thursday over an online trailer for "Avatar," just as extended previews of the 3D sci-fi adventure were hitting screens at theaters down under.
Moviegoers in Australia and New Zealand were the first to see about 16 minutes of James Cameron's anticipated high-tech follow-up to 1997's "Titanic." Twentieth Century Fox plans to show the preview footage at theaters around the globe Friday to fans who scored free tickets online to "Avatar Day." A glimpse at the toys, video game and 3D poster connected to the film also will be unveiled Friday.
"It was really an idea that James Cameron had to give the audience a unique opportunity to immerse themselves into this world," said Jeffrey Godsick, executive vice president of marketing for Fox. "People will get a real taste of all the different elements and the scope of this movie."
"Avatar" tells the story of humans who embody avatars to explore the spectacular, but otherwise unsafe, planet of Pandora.
The extended preview will show on 102 screens domestically and 342 internationally, with 58 countries participating, Fox spokeswoman Natalie Johnson said. Tickets sold out less than 24 hours after they were made available. A crush of fans crashed the "Avatar" Web site when it went online Monday. The same thing happened when the trailer debuted Thursday on Apple.com, Godsick said.
Fans immediately took to Twitter and Facebook to share their thoughts on the two-minute trailer. The film, set for release in December, was one of Twitter's trending topics Thursday.
"It got up to No. 2," Godsick said, "which for a movie trailer is staggering."
Tickets to "Avatar Day" were being offered for sale for as much as $40 on Craigslist Thursday. A pair was also available for $1,000 on eBay.
Godsick said fans must show identification along with a confirmation e-mail from the studio to be admitted to "Avatar Day" screenings, but the studio was not policing attempted online sales of the free tickets.
Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com, said Fox must be "extraordinarily confident" about the "Avatar" footage to roll it out in such grand fashion.
"They're turning it into an event that is so big that it requires its own special big-screen debut, in terms of just some footage," he said. "It's all about building buzz and building excitement."
Dergarabedian said he'd never seen such a sweeping marketing move for a film still months from release. The studio itself called its "Avatar Day" effort "unprecedented."
Some of the footage to be shown Friday was previously screened at Comic-Con, the annual pop-culture convention in San Diego, last month. But some has never been seen, Godsick said.
"When you've got the real deal," he said, "the best thing you can do is let people see it."
___
On the Net:
http://www.avatarmovie.com

Oprah and Dr. Oz sue over false endorsements (AP)

Thu, 08/20/2009 - 18:18 — admin

NEW YORK – Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Mehmet Oz are suing more than 50 businesses, saying they had used their names and images to sell beauty products and dietary supplements without permission.
Winfrey and the doctor, who is a frequent guest on her talk show, say the public is being deceived into thinking the two have endorsed products like acai (AH-sah-ee) berry, a fruit touted as a miracle weight loss supplement.
Their suit claims that following a show last year in which Oz discusses the Brazilian berry, Internet ads started to appear featuring images of him and Winfrey.
Other products in dispute, the lawsuit alleges, include cosmetics, anti-wrinkle creams and tooth whitening products.
The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday.

America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up (U.S. News & World Report)

Thu, 08/20/2009 - 18:09 — admin

If you could create the ideal community to raise a child in, what ingredients would you include? First off, you'd probably want a low crime rate. A strong school system would also be key. From there, you'd need lots of other children, expansive green spaces to play in, and plenty of nearby family events. Toss in an abundance of artistic and recreational activities, and all of a sudden you've got one heck of a place to grow up. At U.S. News, we wanted to find out if any communities like that already existed--and if so, where they were located. So we dug into our database of 2,000 different places all across the country and pinpointed the locales that met these criteria. We then examined these communities more closely to determine which places offered the best combination of safe neighborhoods, fun activities, and top-notch educators. Our selections appear below, in our list of America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up:

Virginia Beach, Va.: Junior adventurers will love Virginia Beach, Va. This community of 434,000 residents in the southeastern part of the state has a low crime rate, a solid school system, and 35 miles of majestic beaches on the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. "It's kind of neat to be able to come home from work, make a call to my wife or son, grab a bucket of chicken or some sandwiches, and then go out on the bay and have dinner," says Greg Ward, who works for a marketing firm that represents the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Children can explore an impressive ecosystem of threatened and endangered species--including bald eagles and loggerhead sea turtles--in the 9,000-acre Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The warm summers and mild winters provide plenty of opportunities to hike, bike, and picnic your way through the 19 miles of scenic trails over at First Landing State Park. And after checking out the sand tiger sharks and the cow-nose rays at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, children can catch an educational picture in its 3-D IMAX theater.

[Slide Show: America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up.]

And in early September, the community is launching an online resource--VBparents.com--designed to keep parents plugged in to local health and school news, while ensuring that they are up-to-date on all of the community activities available to their kids. "There are lots of great parenting resources out there. This one is going to be specific to raising your child and your family within the city of Virginia Beach," says Jenefer Snyder, city of Virginia Beach GrowSmart coordinator. "We are constantly going to be connecting it back to community services, activities, events, programs, and classes."

Madison, Ala.: Of the roughly 43,000 residents in the friendly, churchgoing town of Madison, Ala., about 12,000 are under 18 years old. And this bedroom community of Huntsville, Ala., offers no shortage of outlets to keep these young folks active. "There is an event almost every weekend--whether it is in Madison, Huntsville, or Madison County--that families can attend," says Paul Finley, the mayor of Madison. Children can take advantage of the area's expansive outdoor amenities: watching beavers plunge into Bradford Creek or rabbits dart through the 130-acre Rainbow Mountain Trails park. And if they behave well enough, perhaps some lucky children can even persuade their mom and dad to send them to Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in nearby Huntsville.

San Jose, Calif.: With 9 square miles of green spaces, 300 days of sunshine a year, and four different professional sports franchises to follow, San Jose, Calif., has everything you need for a happy childhood. At just over 1 million residents, San Jose considers itself the capital of Silicon Valley, but it doesn't take a computer scientist to understand the city's appeal to kids. San Jose is the country's safest big city, and although it's certainly expensive--the median home price is $449,000--the city offers all sorts of great activities for children. Rather than chasing its skateboarders away, San Jose has embraced them by opening six public skateboarding parks, including Lake Cunningham Regional Skate Park, the largest one in the state. And at the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, children can experience everything from theater to gardening.

Overland Park, Kan.: Just 12 miles outside of Kansas City, Mo., is the lovely community of Overland Park, Kan. This family-friendly suburb in America's heartland has a four-season climate and is opening a 12-field, artificially turfed, fully lit soccer complex in the late summer. "Soccer is a big sport in this community," says Mayor Carl Gerlach. Meanwhile, at the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, kids can visit nearly 200 farm animals, toss a bobber into a fishing pond, or take a ride in a horse-drawn wagon. The 17-mile-long Indian Creek Trail makes for a great bike ride. At the same time, sports fans are only a short car ride away from a Kansas City Chiefs football game or a Kansas City Royals baseball game. In addition, "we have three different school districts in Overland Park," Gerlach says. "All three have been nationally ranked and won awards."

Boston: With an exciting history and a boatload of activities, Boston is a great option for parents looking to raise children in a big city. Kids will marvel at the African penguins in the New England Aquarium, gawk at the humpback whales on a whale-watching tour, and erupt as the Red Sox take the field at beautiful Fenway Park. At the same time, Boston is one of the safest large cities in the country.

Denver: Whether they prefer snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains, biking through America's largest city park system, or heading over to Invesco Field at Mile High for a Broncos football game, Denver is a wonderful place to be a kid. Also among the country's safest big cities, Denver has 300 days of annual sunshine, eight different professional sports franchises, and countless opportunities for fishing, white-water rafting, and horseback riding.

Rochester, Minn.: With about 100,000 residents, the safe, friendly city of Rochester, Minn., has enough activities to tire out even the most energetic youngsters: 85 miles of trails for in-line skating, 3,200 acres of public parks for touch football, and 56 different playgrounds. "It's a huge sports town," says Brad Jones, executive director of the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau. Fortunately, the area's big sport--hockey--is well-suited for Rochester's chilly winters. "We [also] have two hockey complexes, one with four rinks under one roof and the other with two," Jones says. "We have the National Volleyball Center located here, and it's always hopping with volleyball tournaments and trainings."

Cedar Rapids, Iowa: It would be tough to find a safer community than Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the crime index is about a fifth of the national average. And with a solid school system, plenty of fun activities, and affordable housing costs, this eastern Iowa city can keep your kids happy without emptying your wallet. Tim Boyle, the executive director of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the city's manageable size--it has just 123,000 residents--allows its young people to get involved in a variety of different activities. "The thing that I like about Cedar Rapids is you could end up with a junior or senior in high school who is an offensive tackle on the football team and has the lead in the spring musical," Boyle says. In addition to a strong music program in its public schools, the area has more than 50 public tennis courts, more than 75 parks, 23 sand volleyball courts, and even a BMX dirt track. During the winters, which can get extremely cold, children can remain active on three indoor soccer fields and five ice-skating rinks.

Plano, Texas: With 7,000 faculty and staff members serving 55,000 students in this Texas community, the Plano Independent School District has achieved national recognition for its strength. The Department of Education has handed 24 of its schools National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence awards, and 99 of its seniors were named semifinalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program. "We have a wonderful park system here in our community that has always been very much focused on youth sports, whether it is soccer or baseball or basketball," says Mayor Phil Dyer. Meanwhile, the community's less costly lifestyle--median home prices are just $213,900--means there should be enough cash left in the budget for the 50-minute trip to Arlington, Texas, for a Dallas Cowboys game.

Edison, N.J.: Working parents in Edison, N.J., can take advantage of the township's expansive after-school programs, which expose youngsters to a host of activities, including magic, piano, cooking, and arts and crafts. More than 30 area parks have facilities for tennis, basketball, soccer, and other sports. At the same time, this community of about 100,000 also offers organized youth leagues for everything from softball to lacrosse.

Here's our list of America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up:

--Virginia Beach, Va.

--Madison, Ala.

--San Jose, Calif.

--Overland Park, Kan.

--Boston

--Denver

--Rochester, Minn.

--Cedar Rapids, Iowa

--Plano, Texas

--Edison, N.J.



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