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Caladesi Island State Park has reached the summit for United States’ beaches. Coastal expert Stephen Leatherman, known as "Dr. Beach," has named the park as American’s Top Beach for 2008. Leatherman released his annual list of top-rated parks Thursday.
"Caladesi is my favorite getaway beach; the only mode of transportation on this lovely island, dominated by palm trees, is by foot," Leatherman said. "This is a great place to decompress while enjoying the powder white sand and warm, crystal clear water."
Two other Florida beaches made the list, third-ranked Siesta Beach near Sarasota and ninth-ranked Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne, near Miami.
Leatherman, who is the director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research, has made a Memorial Day Weekend tradition of unveiling his list of America’s finest destinations for sand and surf.
This is the second time a Tampa Bay area beach ranked first. Fort DeSoto Park took top honors in 2005.

bizjournals.com

“Dr. Beach” – Stephen Leatherman, the beachs scientist who releases an annual list of top U.S. beaches every May – today released his 2008 roster, which includes two beaches in the Carolinas.
Leatherman, director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research., ranks Hatteras Island, in the Outer Banks, as No. 8 , and Beachwalker Park, at Kiawah Island, S.C., as No. 10.
Top honors this year went to the strand at Caladesi State Park, near Clearwater, Fla. The No. 1 beach in 2007 was Ocracoke Lifeguarded Beach, on the Outer Banks. Caladesi Island State Park was ranked No. 2.
This is the 18th year Leatherman, a Charlotte native, has compiled his list. It is based in 50 criteria, including water and sand quality, facilities and environmental management.
The full 2008 list:
1. Caladesi Island State Park, Fla.
3. Siesta Beach , Fla.
9. Cape Florida State Park, Fla.

charlotte.com

Anti-Chinese cracks in Philippinerice bowls
By Donald Kirk
MANILA - Ask a woman named Cora why thesedays she has to spend so much more for rice forher food stand and family and she’s got a fastracial response. “The Chinese are the ones,” shesaid without hesitation. “They are handling allthese things. They are the capitalists of thePhilippines.”
Shopping for the lowestprices in one of Manila’s traditional markets,Cora blames “seven names” - the names of theFilipino-Chinese merchants who are widely accusedof hoarding rice in order to reap higher andhigher profits by driving up prices.
“Theyare trying to sell the rice at the highest price,”she said, even as President GloriaMacapagal-Arroyo’s government has promised tocrack down on hoarding, in hopes of staving offboth a
looming rice shortage in acountry now swollen to 90 million people andethnic tensions against the minority ethnicChinese merchant class.
Searches byagencies such as the National Bureau ofInvestigation, the National Food Authority and thePresidential Anti-Smuggling Group appear, however,to have barely scratched the surface of what is aperennial problem here. For Filipinos, rice is athrice-daily staple - devoured three times a day,that is, by those with enough money to buy it.
After discovering what was reported as”thousands of sacks of rice” in more than 100warehouses in a province north of here, a topintelligence official with the National Bureau ofInvestigation confessed that his men did not havesearch warrants and were only “carefully studying”to see “if there are violators”.
Onefavorite scam of rice traders is to repackage50-kilogram bags that the government distributesto poor areas at nearly half the current price of32 pesos, or US$0.80, per kilogram. Investigatorsdiscovered just one warehouse implicated in theracket - next to none compared with the scores ofwarehouses believed to be involved in such racketsroutinely.
With her popularity plummetingto about 23%, according to a Pulse Asia poll,Arroyo’s worst fear is starvation among thosecategorized as living in poverty - or one-third ofthe populace subsisting on less than 80 pesos perday.

atimes.com

Get ready for St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah
Get ready for St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah! This year’s parade begins at 10:15 a.m. on March 14. More than 400,000 people are expected to visit the city to help celebrate the second-largest St. Pat’s Parade in the United States.
Amanda Smith carries her pooped pup, Missy, during a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Savannah. Savannah hosts the second largest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the nation. This year, the parade falls on March 14.
You’ll notice that St. Patrick’s Day falls on March 17 on the calendar. Why the change? Easter Sunday falls on March 23, which means St. Patrick’s Day officially falls on the first day of Holy Week. To avoid the conflict, the Catholic Dioceses of Savannah moved the date for Savannah?s most popular festival.
Not up your Irish lore? A quick history lesson, courtesy of the official Web site of the Savannah St. Patrick’s Day parade committee, savannahsaintpatricksday.com
“By the end of the 7th century Patrick had become a legendary figure, and the legends have continued to grow since then. There are many legends associated with St Patrick. It is said that he used the three-leaf shamrock to explain the concept of the Trinity; which refers to the combination of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hence its strong association with his day and name. Legend also has that, Saint Patrick had put the curse of God on venomous snakes in Ireland. And he drove all the snakes into the sea where they drowned.

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