Smoke Screen in Cross Lanes

It seems that the Gazette and other media are quite content to accept Tri State Casino's 15o room hotel as payment in full for the promise that Tri Sate made to get us to approve table games in Kanawha County.

Let's review what was said before the election:

From The State Journal Monday, March 26, 2007
"We're thinking about a 200- to 250-room hotel, a spa, a huge convention space and entertainment space for shows and boxing events, other sporting events along with we're looking at a state of the art billiard center so this issue goes beyond gaming. We're going to become a true tourist desitination and resort really quickly," Adkins said.

From Lawrence Messina, August 12, 2007:
Owned by Michigan-based Hartman & Tyner Inc., Tri-State linked passage to 1,000 new jobs and a $250 million upgrade that would include a 250-room hotel and 6,500 seat arena.

And now what are they saying?

From The Charleston Gazette, June 24, 2009

Backhoes and power shovels clawed the first scoops full of dirt Wednesday as construction began on a 150-room hotel at Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center.

Adkins said Wednesday Hartman & Tyner will pay for the hotel out of company revenues.
"There is no budget for this project," he said. "What it takes [to build it] is what it takes."


Doesn't seem to add up to me.

Why I hate the Purple Onion, part 2

The Purple Onion is the primary produce dealer at the Capitol Market, the only one inside and therefore the only one in the off-season when the farmers are selling flowers, pumpkins and Christmas trees.

The last time I wrote, I said that I despised their practice of bulk packaging their vegetables because it made me buy way more than I needed. That practice has seemingly changed a little and once again I can go in and buy one turnip if I only need one turnip. So that's an improvement, but I still have two major bones to pick:

1. The Purple Onion's motto is "Buy Local, Buy Fresh." In reality the produce they sell is of no different origin than what is sold at Kroger. Occasionally they will have a basket of "W.Va. Apples" or locally grown corn, but most of the time they have the same California/Mexico/South American produce that Corey Brothers delivers to them and every other grocery store in the area. The only thing local about it is the ownership of the store, which is a good thing I guess, but the slogan is misleading.

2. The merchandised retail space in the Purple Onion is approximately divided thusly:

Fruit - 100 square feet

Vegetables - 180 sq. ft.

Beans, peas etc. - 60 sq. ft.

Assorted pre-packaged crap - more than 300 square feet.

The Onion has taken a real shine to packaging everything from nuts to cookies (even individually cellophane wrapped chocolate chip cookies) in little plastic boxes and labeled them to sell by the pound. Stacks and stacks of these things.

Every time I see the FestivALL logo I get a strange craving for Italian food

Oh, now I see...