As the endless budget discussions always seem to focus (at least from a GOP perspective) on cuts & austerity, this web site allows a look at the local economic impact of the units of the National Park Service.

http://headwaterseconomics.org/apps-public/nps/impacts/

(Reuters) - AT&T Inc plans to sharply raise prices on data plans for smartphone and tablet customers from next week, calling the move a response to an explosion in wireless usage.
The No. 2 U.S. carrier dropped a controversial $39 billion bid for Deutsche Telekom's U.S. wireless unit T-Mobile last month, bowing to fierce regulatory opposition but leaving AT&T to try and find an alternative to address its shortage of wireless airwaves.
From January 22, AT&T customers will pay $20 for a 300-megabyte monthly data plan, up from $15 for 200-mb currently. Users with higher requirements can also opt for $30 for 3 gigabytes -- versus $25 for 2 GB previously -- or $50 for 5 GB, up from $45 for 4 GB.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/t-jacks-data-plan-prices-233528599.html


Taking a page from the Netflix/Bank of America School of Marketing........

Shortly before bridal shop Priscilla of Boston closed last month in Edina, Pam Philipp said she asked store officials to donate couture gowns to her Mendota Heights nonprofit.

Philipp runs Operation Glass Slipper, which provides dresses to high school prom-goers who might not otherwise be able to afford to go. Philipp said she contacted Priscilla of Boston three times but never received a response.

So when she found out Tuesday that dozens of dresses worth thousands of dollars each were thrown in a garbage bin over the weekend, she was shocked. Philipp and others say there were plenty of better disposal options.

"That just makes me ill. They could have donated them to a good community effort," Philipp said. "It's just very bad business practice."

http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_19665018

CHILLICOTHE, Mo. — Barely a year after purchasing a manufacturing plant from a competitor, clothing maker Hanes is set to close down the facility, leaving many in the town scrambling for work at a time when jobs in small towns can be hard to come by.
Hanes Brands, which – at least for now – is based out of Lenexa, Kansas, bought the facility from Gear for Sports in August of 2010. Workers at the plant made sports-related clothing like college football t-shirts and other items. Cecilia Harper just started at the plant four months ago after being out of work for two years.
“I think it’s going to be impossible (to find a new job). I mean it took me this long to find this job. What’s it going to take and how am I going to live?” said Harper.

http://fox4kc.com/2011/12/05/factory-closing-bad-news-for-small-missouri-town/

If you can drag yourself out of bed and into the chill of a early January morning, you might find yourself looking at a rare treat: the Quadrantid meteor shower. Early in the morning hours of January 4, from roughly 2 to 5 a.m. local time across the country, this annual meteor shower will be visible in the Northern hemisphere, peaking with an intensity that will approach 100 shooting meteors per hour.

“What’s going on is the earth is going through a debris trail,” says Timothy Spahr, astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “You’re dealing with very tiny particles, dust-sized in a lot of cases. When they enter the atmosphere, they burn up immediately, and that makes a meteor.” The particles that make up the Quadrantid shower originate from an asteroid named 2003 EH1, which many scientists believe was actually once part of a comet. Because the particles enter at speeds as high as 90,000 miles per hour, they burn up high in the atmosphere and leave a glowing streak across the sky.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2012/01/how-to-see-tonights-meteor-shower

CREVE COEUR, Mo. (AP) -- A St. Louis County man whose sleeping baby was nearly hit by a shot apparently fired by a New Year's reveler says he's outraged that someone would be so careless.
Police in Creve Coeur say a .45-caliber bullet pierced the roof and ceiling in Dave Marting's one-story home, bounced off a footrest and landed a few feet from the crib where 9-month-old Keira was sleeping. The bullet left a hole about the size of a silver dollar in the ceiling of the baby's bedroom.

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Shot-just-misses-Mo-babys-crib-136512148.html