Most of us have noticed the sunnier weather and we know spring is coming. That means strawberries will probably be hitting your grocery store shelves a little bit cheaper than usual! Even in tough times, it is not impossible to eat a little healthier, so skip the bag of chips and head on over to the fresh produce section.

City Creek Center is a 20-acre, mixed-use development in downtown Salt Lake City.  By 2012, City Creek Center will see 700 new residences (mostly condos), 1.6 million square feet of office space, a 124,000-square foot Nordstrom, 150,000-square foot Macy’s, 500,000 square feet of additional retail space, and pedestrian walkways connecting everything.  Basically, this is no small undertaking.

This project is essential for the development of downtown Salt Lake City.  In recent years, SLC downtown has become increasingly barren.  The suburbs have become the place to be, and downtown is the place not to be.  With new housing, new employment needs, and an increasingly pedestrian-friendly city center, downtown will be coming alive in 2012.

So, who’s paying for this good change on the city during an economic downturn?  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is funding the project.  In conjunction with Taubman Centers (a national development corporation),  the Church has put forth an undisclosed amount of money (estimates range from $500 million to $3 billion) to save the city.  One of the best parts about everything is that this immense project is being funded without loans.  The Church’s financial policies allow it to build up enough wealth to pay for the development in cash.  The financial spending understandable:  the Church’s world headquarters are just north of the development and would otherwise be surrounded by slums in twenty years without such a change.  In addition to protecting their headquarters, the LDS Church is trying to help out its surrounding community as well.  Whether you look at the motivation of self-preservation or the benefit to the city, this movement is fighting against the recession.

During the construction, countless jobs are open for construction, design, negotiation, and other efforts.  This is keeping Salt Lake City the financial oasis.  This change is not a temporary solution, either.  With the opening of City Creek Center, many jobs will fill up to run all of the new stores and businesses.  Evidence shows a very high interest from businesses to open up locations at CCC, so there really is no downside.

When Apple released its new product– the iPad, the excitement could hardly be contained. However there is a whole new kind of excitement after the release of this product. There is already talk of two lawsuits being filed against Apple and this new product.

One such lawsuit comes from the Chinese company Shenzehn Great Loong Brother. They are threatening to sue for “plagiarism” of their P88 Tablet Computer. This lawsuit is likely to be thrown out quickly if it is filed due to clear superiority of the iPad in comparison to the P88. The P88 has a hard drive of 250 GB, 1.5 hour battery life, and 1GB of Ram.

Another lawsuit is over the name “iPad”. Apparently the company Fujitsu already had a product with the same name. There was a problem with their application in the patent and trademark office as there had been a previous filing for the same name by yet another company. The U.S. Patent and Trademark  Office listed their application as abandoned in early 2009. This lawsuit is also likely be thrown out.

For more general information about the iPad, visit http://www.apple.com/ipad/

The first big sale was the purchase of AIG’s Asian life insurance to Britain’s Prudential for $35.5 billion. This was the largest insurance exchange in history.

The foreign life insurance part of the company will be sold to MetLife Inc for close to $15.5 billion with $6.8 billion in cash and $8.7 billion in equity.

AIG owes $31.5 billion to the government in cash following a $182.3 billion bailout. These sales will allow AIG to pay the government back fully, but the government will still hold an 80 percent stake in AIG due to the $47 billion they hold in equity investments.

Chief Executive of MetLife, Robert Henrikson, commented on their purchase saying, “With this acquisition, MetLife is delivering on its strategy to accelerate international expansion as a powerful growth engine for the company.”

However, many people fear MetLife will face hard times because of this purchase. Clark Troy, senior analyst at the Aite Group, said, “If (Japan) falters or slips back into deflation, MetLife might face challenges growing revenue.”

So, In the last week, ending February 27th, roughly 29,000 less jobless claims were filed. This left the unemployment rate at 469,000 initial unemployment claims, being the lowest since the beginning of January.

There is some worry that the number may have been lower because of the bad weather as of lately. But in argument against that, unemployment claims in California itself dropped by at least 12,000.

This is a great improvement from where we were. It looks like 2010 could be bright on America’s economics. Yet, economists say that although times are looking good now, they will be bad again in the future. Also, they are not sure how beneficial the stimulus package will be.

Apple is the famous producer of iPods, iPhones, and iMacs. Frank Parth, chief executive at Project Auditors LLC, praised Apple for their openness. He said, “It seems like Apple is being much more open about this than other companies…I’ve seen nothing on this topic from Dell or HP.”

Others believe that Apple should do more to repair these mishaps. Debby Chan, project officer at Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior in Hong Kong, said “The suppliers are breaking the law…Apple should disclose its suppliers list to NGOs to allow more effective monitoring of the situation.”

Apple did state that they ceased working with one supplier after repeated offenses. However, many people are still disappointed by Apple’s revelation.

To read more about Apple’s under-age workers visit:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aUbDxIWdQCKgref=nofollow

They are hoping that bringing their bottler indoors will slash costs. Coca-Cola Co. will also receive more flexibility in the bottling process.

This purchase will transfer the $8.88 billion debt of Coca-Cola Enterprises to Coca-Cola Co. Coca-Cola Co. also promises to give up it’s 34% share in Coke Enterprises which is said to be worth $3.21 billion.

Stockholders of Coke Enterprises will receive a $10 per share dividend. Coca-Cola Co. felt driven by Pepsi Co.’s strategic move of purchasing Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. to make this purchase.

Starting today, banks will not be allowed to change an interest rate whenever they would like. There will be a one year, or other specified amount of time, period where the interest rate cannot change. After that, if a payment is 60 days late an interest rate can change as long as the bank notifiest the borrower 45 days before the change will take place.

In the past credit card companies have also specifically targeted college students and issued them credit cards without checking the sustainability of their income. Now, cards cannot be given to anyone under the age of 21 unless they have a co-signer or have substantial proof of steady income. Banks are also restricted from handing out gifts near colleges or schooling related activities.

To read more about this new credit card law:

http://www.chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/02/credit-card-law-changes-today.htmlref=nofollow

Just recently Dubai opened the world’s largest tower, after going into much debt to do such.

Now that Dubai is suffering some of the consequences of their financial choices, they are now rumored to be selling the Queen Elizabeth II, as well as many other such assets in hopes of repaying some of their debts. The Emirate’s Queen Elizabeth is one, if not the, World’s bets known cruise ship. It seems Dubai switches ownership of one “world’s greatest” for another.

In 2007 they had just bought the cruise ship for roughly $100 million and now any of the proceeds will be used towards paying off some of Dubai World’s $22 billion in debts.

Istithmar has already sold some of its hotel, such as the W Hotel in New York and plans to sell port and shipping agent Inchcape Shipping Services for $700 million. However, despite all this loss, Istithmar still hold many great assets. Some of which include, stake in book publishing giants Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt Education.

Following Dubai, now many other countries are falling into similar debt. Some such countries are Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.

 Obama’s plan to provide health care to 30 million Americans and enforce more restrictions on the medical industry was hindered in January following the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts to the Senate.

 Pharmaceutical companies and hospitals have worked with Obama to cover the costs of extended coverage through taking a decrease in revenue. Democrats are pushing for even larger cuts on the industry, saying that they cost to the industry is not large enough.

 Statistics currently show that one fifth of working Americans did not have health insurance during the beginning of 2009.

  This is the highest rating is six years, due to the economy. In addition health-care hit the $2.5 trillion mark in spending. This is a six percent increase from 2008. The health care industry is wary of too many budget cuts which would result in decrease in quality of the medical care.