By John Temple LigonHoliday travel tips include Charleston

Conde Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards recently announced San Francisco, Santa Fe, New York, and Charleston as the top four favorite travel destinations in the US. Florence is the European favorite, followed by Rome, Venice, and Paris.

Good news for next year

About 24% of US employers plan to increase hiring in the first quarter of next year, according to Manpower Inc. Another 10% of employers might cut staff, while 59% expect no change in job prospects.

Columbia’s Marriott and Town House part of a trend

The hotel industry will spend $4.1 billion on upgrades and renovations in 2005. In 2004, $3 billion was spent.

Bull for sale

Ever seen the 16–foot–long bronze bull near the NY Stock Exchange? It’s on Bowling Green at the southern tip of Broadway, and it’s for sale to the highest bidder. Artist Arturo Di Modica, who sculpted the 7,000–pound bull, is the bull’s owner. Di Modica expects the auction to start at $5 million,

but the bull must stay in place regardless who is the owner. In response to the 1987 market crash, Di Modica put up $360,000 of his own money to sculpt and install the bull, originally in front of the NY Stock Exchange. Columbia needs a gargantuan gamecock in bronze downtown.

DC builds a baseball stadium, NYC builds a football stadium, and Columbia haggles

In the 1960s, the Washington Senators moved to Minneapolis with their owner Mr. Griffith and changed their name to the Minnesota Twins. Other than a

commute to Camden Yards in Baltimore, Washingtonians haven’t had big–time baseball since. This week the city council in Washington cut a deal to bring baseball back. They agreed to participate in a new stadium at a top cost estimate of $584 million. In New York, the Jets are hustling the city for a

whole lot of help with a new $1.4 billion facility next to the convention center near the Hudson River. Meanwhile, here in Columbia, we’re still haggling over a baseball park for USC and for minor league baseball, which could cost more than $15 million.

White House cuts backs

employment predictions

and SC fattens projections

In February, the Bush administration suggested 3.6 million more jobs in 2005. Now the prediction is 2.1 million for an annual average of 133.4 million jobs. To achieve the prediction, employment growth must average 175,000 a month for the year. The SC outlook for 2005 expects 33,300 new jobs, while

we lose another 2,300 factory jobs.

Darla Moore and her

eponymous school should be pleased

The average MBA salary went above $82,000 in 2004, an increase of 9% over 2003.

SC Department of Commerce:

Shop Canada

Canadian manufacturers are moving production to the US while scaling back or eliminating production at home. The dollar’s value has fallen too far for the Canadians to profitably sell in the US with goods made in Canada. Last year US imports from Canada totaled $224.2 billion, while US exports to

Canada totaled $169.5 billion. Canadian foreign direct investment in the US totaled $20.3 billion for the first nine months of this year. For all of 2003, it was $9.1 billion.

The pie USC’s research campus wants to slice

According to the Association of University Technology Managers, 3,933 US patents in 2003 were awarded to 195 universities and other research institutions, generating $1.3 billion in licensing income.

Wanted: Silver–tongued

negotiator. Must be seasoned

map–reader.

Columbia plans to hire an annexation chief, the guy who has to convince once–distant neighborhoods and strip malls they’re better off in the city.

Rich rednecks

Robert F. X. Sillerman plans to buy an 85% interest in Elvis Presley

Enterprises for $75 million, plus the assumption of $25 million in debt. As Presley’s daughter and sole heir, Lisa Marie Presley gets most of the money. She also keeps Graceland, Presley’s Nashville mansion, while Sillerman gets the visitor–center complex and the Heartbreak Hotel across the street. He also gets fees from tours.