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News of Hydetown

The Hydetown Firemen's Festival is June 13 and 14. We at the Hydetown Volunteer Fire Department are starting the plans for the Firemen's Festival 2008. We would like to include the coverage area of the fire department. Who would like to help or take part? Come to our festival meetings which will be held the third Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Hydetown Volunteer Fire Department Social Hall. Let's make it bigger and better this year. Come and help! We need your help, support and ideas. We are now accepting Parade Entry forms for our parade on June 14. You can sign up by calling Buddy Edwards or Jennifer Edwards at 827-2267, e-mail to jenbuddy@zoominternet.net or by going to the news Web site at http://hydetown.bravehost.com and go to parade entry, print it and send it to the fire department.

Update: Library Has 10 Copies of "Water for Elephants"

No Zags: Candidate endorsement is one of the most antiquated and soon-to-be-extinct functions of the newspaper industry. In a world where anybody can publish any opinion they want and anyone can read it, it seems pretty silly that the "wise old minds" of an editorial board still feel the need to put a newspaper's stamp of approval on a political position. Endorsements are relics of the old-journalism past, as are editorials.

Tracy mayor Ives to seek re-election

TRACY — Mayor Brent Ives has decided he wants to keep his job for another two years, so he has thrown his hat into the ring in a bid for re-election this fall and set up a rematch with slow-growth activist Celeste Garamendi.

But the wild card this November could come down to Tracy City Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert, who has yet to announce whether or not she's going to run.

Late Thursday afternoon, in front of a small group of friends and family at the Great Plate in downtown Tracy, Ives announced his intentions to seek a second term as the city's mayor.

He said he made the decision to run "a couple of weeks ago," driven by several challenges currently before the City Council, including dealing with a budget deficit while maintaining public safety, getting a youth sports park built, the redevelopment of downtown and creating a college consortium.

Dubai Islamic Bank hosts 'Recruitment Week' for UAE nationals

During the period, officials from DIB's Human Resources department will receive UAE national job seekers, with a view to selecting qualified candidates for suitable employment at the bank. Applications from prospective candidates will be screened by a special committee. Those who meet the bank's requirements will be contacted shortly by DIB's Human Resources department. The recruitment week signals the start of a series of innovative programmes launched by the bank to target qualified UAE nationals and offer them exceptional opportunities to enter the banking sector through DIB. Ahemd Al Sirkal, Senior Vice President, Head of DIB Group Human Resources Department, said:

'This event is aimed at attracting a large number of nationals from various academic and professional backgrounds.

US seizes domain name of Spanish company selling Cuba trips

The United States has often presented itself as the guardian of Internet free speech. China may censor the Internet, and otherwise-civilized nations such as Germany or France may attempt to block what they view as unacceptable material, but the United States of America likes to think of itself as a place that doesn't censor people online... unless you happen to own a foreign travel business that offers trips to Cuba. Under such circumstances, as Steve Marshall discovered, all bets are off.

Steve Marshall is a British citizen living in Spain. For the past decade, he has operated an online travel agency that specializes in selling trips to Cuba to various European nationals. Marshall operated a number of Cuban-specific web sites, including several that focused specifically on the literary and historical aspects of Cuba, and maintained them in English, French, and Spanish.