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HTA: Fewer visitors in June, but spending was up

Hawaii visitor totals were down modestly in June compared to the same month in 2010, but those who came outspent those who were here a year ago, the Hawaii Tourism Authority Hawaii Tourism Authority Latest from The Business Journals Hawaiian Airlines adding Austrailia flightsPGA Tour stop on Maui looking for new executive director, charityVendors bank on cruise ship industry to make bigger waves Follow this company reported Tuesday.

In fact, total visitor spending for the first half of 2011 rose 18.4 percent when compared to last year to $6 billion, and total arrivals grew 4.7 percent to nearly 3.6 million visitors from the same time last year.

A total of 607,264 people visited Hawaii in June, down 2.9 percent compared to 625,682 the previous year.

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Tags: June, June Spending

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Administrators BDO issue £21m Halliwells claim

Administrators for failed Manchester solicitors Halliwells have issued a High Court claim against a group of former partners in a bid to reclaim more than £21m gained through a controversial property deal.

BDO has filed papers in the High Court’s Chancery Divison, seeking to recover the cash, relating to Halliwells’ former offices at Hardman Square, Spinningfields.

In 2007, the Halliwells board negotiated a deal with landlords Allied London that would see 40 equity partners receive a percentage of the profits when the site was sold on.

They then received a ‘reverse premium’ of nearly £25m when the freehold was subsequently bought by Morley Fund Management, now Aviva Investment, for more than £100m.

Halliwells crashed into administration in July last year and a recent administrators report estimated the firm owes unsecured creditors more than £190m.

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Tags: Claim, Halliwells Claim

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Price Check on Whole Foods Shares

Whole Foods sells beef, poultry and fish at prices that suggest its animals are not only humanely raised but also college-educated. I know too well; my wife won’t shop anywhere else. She says prices for store-brand basics from baby wipes to milk are competitive, an argument management has advanced for years, but the final numbers I’ve seen nonetheless look like car payments rather than grocery tabs. I’ve stopped complaining because a) the food is good, and b) the savings gained by going rogue and bringing home some Perdue from the Bourgeois Mart aren’t worth the scolding.

On Wall Street as in my home, the store is winning. Shares, which had plummeted from a late-2005 high of over $70 apiece to just $9 and change during the 2008 financial crisis, are back to $67. Shoppers didn’t abandon Whole Foods to save money as feared.

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Tags: Foods, Whole Foods

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3 Online And Physical Security Options For SMBs

Security is important to most retail store owners, but increasingly important to home-based small businesses, too. We spend a significant amount of money for computers and gadgets and we want to protect them.

With these three surveillance and security applications, you can monitor your home office or almost any location quickly, easily, and affordably. These are mostly indoor cameras, but with a little ingenuity you can mount one to capture outdoor areas or buy a special case to protect it from the elements and harm.

1. Sensr

This is a new player in the home surveillance and security market. Their approach is disruptive, which often means free. (They promise to maintain a free plan.) Their system works with a lot of cameras (read more here in the FAQ) because they have special computer vision code running at Sensr that can generate motion alerts and that’s how they monitor for you. The

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Tags: Security, Security Options

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It Looks Like No Debt Deal Today

CNN is reporting that a deal to raise the debt limit is unlikely to be reached today before the Asian markets open.

Speaker of the House John Boehner will host a conference call with GOP lawmakers to brief them on the status of negotiations at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Lawmakers say their deadline for a deal is tomorrow — a point after which Senate and House rules would make it difficult to pass a debt limit increase before the August 2nd deadline.

ABC News is now reporting that the congressional leadership is speaking by phone, while their staffs huddle to reach an agreement.

Tags: Deal Today, Today

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