Are you looking for designer water bottles by Rive? We really enjoyed working with the great people behind Rive LLC and highly recommend you check out their BPA Free Glass Designer Water Bottles!
We designed a site for them at http://www.rivellc.com
Their new official site is http://www.riveusa.com
Some of you may find that our old site comes up higher in the search rankings than does their new website. This is not uncommon and is a great example of the search popularity of websites we build and optimize for our customers.
If you would like to know more about how we can give your website an advantage over your competition, give us a call or contact us online!
Brian Hale
Hale Multimedia LLC
800 783-1103
brian@halemultimedia.com
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Social Marketing Companies
The time has come that businesses need to take a serious look at hiring a professional to help them with Social Marketing.
Call (308) 632-4653 or (308) 220-8260 or toll free 800 783-1103. We will help you understand how Internet Marketing, specifically Social Marketing can give your business a huge advantage over your competition. Visit http://www.halemultimedia.com today and browse our portfolio, our products, our service... and then contact us. Let's see just how much more business we can generate for you! Give me a call or stop by.
Enthusiastically,
Brian Hale
Hale Multimedia LLC
2013 Broadway
Scottsbluff, NE 69361
Call (308) 632-4653 or (308) 220-8260 or toll free 800 783-1103. We will help you understand how Internet Marketing, specifically Social Marketing can give your business a huge advantage over your competition. Visit http://www.halemultimedia.com today and browse our portfolio, our products, our service... and then contact us. Let's see just how much more business we can generate for you! Give me a call or stop by.
Enthusiastically,
Brian Hale
Hale Multimedia LLC
2013 Broadway
Scottsbluff, NE 69361
Chuck Wagon Church
I dug this up on the internet somewhere... What a blessing it is to have the Chuck Wagon Church right here in Scottsbluff! We know so many people you have fed. What a blessing you are to the community. Thank you Pastor Al!
Now here's a letter I found on the internet from Pastor Al ;
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends of Chuck Wagon Church
Time to report in on what the Lord has accomplished over the summer. Last year we sent 45 kids to camp. This year we sent 54. The best part of this equation is that last year we had only two from Pine Ridge. This year that figure was 19. For the first time ever we did a camp exclusively for the Reservation kids. Seven or eight gave their hearts to the Lord, and nearly all dedicated themselves to getting their family saved, and praying for their family and friends. There is a sense in which the old Passover still applies. They had to take a lamb for each house and the lamb was sacrificed for the family. Someone in the family has to intercede and witness to the family. Has to be the lamb for the house. I told them the true story of a woman I knew who was saved when she was only eight years old. Her family wasn’t Christians, and she had no church upbringing. She had no idea about prayer or how it worked, she just knew she was saved and that her family needed to be saved. She would go home and go upstairs to her room, open the window, lean out and yell up at God. (That was her method of praying.) “God, save my mom and dad.! Save My brothers and sisters! Save my neighbors!) Needless to say God answered her prayers. In her teens she began bible studies, and gathered in the neighbors. When the group got to 20 or 30 she would enlist a preacher. By this method she started seventeen churches. I told them that someone had to be the one to pray, and lead them to Jesus. The next night I had a rapper from Denver sing and give his testimony. He had been a major druggie, and had gotten so bad that he thought he was dying. Satan appeared to him and demons were trying to drag him down to hell. He was screaming, and trying to break away, but couldn’t. He saw Jesus and that scared him even worse because he knew Jesus wasn’t pleased with the way he was living. But he cried out to Jesus and Jesus saved him. His twin brother was also a druggie, and he began to pray and witness to him and to his family. He now ministers to others. He told the kids the same thing that I had the night before. You have to pray for your families and witness to them. You have to be the messenger of Jesus to them. He had the children lift their hands and pray for their families. Almost every child had both hands up praying for their families. Here is a neat follow up on that same story. We dropped two of the children off in the country because they lived out of town. A man happened to be visiting when they arrived home and told us this story. He said the little guy came into the house raised his hands and said “Praise the Lord!” Went over to the CD player took out what they were playing and put in his Christian rap CD and said “We’re going to listen to Christian music.” We are now planning a rap concert in two high schools on the reservation, one at Pine Ridge and one at Allen. We are hoping the teens will attend because of the testimony of the teens who went to camp. Thank you for all your help. We did all this at no cost to any of the children.
Had a guy fresh out of prison that needed food and a place to stay. People referred him to our church, and we talked a bit. He had no religious background, but wanted to get right with God, and get his life straight. We prayed together for his salvation. Then I got him some food and got him a place to stay while he looked for a job. The dinner count has gone up this past month to around 95 each Saturday. The Sunday count is still over 200. I think October will start our 11th year. It is amazing to me that we have probably fed over 150,000 free meals, and gave out enough boxed food to feed an additional 24,000 people without taking an offering, and without government help. That is the Lord! All our needs are being met, and the Lord doesn’t seem to be affected by the sluggish economy.
Again, my thanks to you for your gifts, and I ask God to bless you richly for all you have done, and all you are doing, and all you will do.
We have a teen living with us and are scheduled for our first parent teacher meeting in nearly a quarter of a century. I sort of slipped into the twenty First Century through the back door having lived on a farm most of my life. I am familiar with teeth of all kinds and could give a good guess at a horses age by looking at its teeth. I’ve eaten berries of every description, and raised gardens and done construction, but lately have found out that a blackberry is not edible, blue tooth is not a disease, and I-Pods are not used in construction or found in a garden. This does tend to make a person a little apprehensive when you realize you are part of a triangle ( teacher, student, parent) responsible for some lads educational progress. How he came to be at our house is a story that started nine years ago when he was only eight. Harry and I were going door to door calling on people. We stopped at a house where there was an old man and old woman and the old man’s middle aged daughter. The old man was sitting head down slobbering on his shirt. The old woman was almost blind, and the daughter was suffering from kidney failure. The house was mess, and filthy. Food and older food was on the table among a mixture of parakeet droppings, and used bird seed. Cigarettes and ashes filled ash trays and tin cans. We talked to them and prayed with them and led them to Christ. They started coming to church except for the old man. He went into the hospital and hovered near death for several weeks. We and the church continued to pray for him. He recovered and became a regular church attendee. He quit slobbering got his mind back and attended until he went into the veterans home four or so years later. The old lady became so special to all of us that we still talk about her respectfully to this day. She would come up after services and say, “May I have the list of prayer requests?” I said, “Blanche, you can’t see well enough to even read this list, and my writing is so bad you couldn’t read it if you could see.” She said, “Oh, I don’t read it, I just hold it up to God and pray over it. He knows what’s on it.” She would take that list week after week. The daughter, Vivian, was on dialysis and was weak a lot of the time, but she helped us do puppet programs and was very faithful to do all she could. In addition she went to her neighbors and invited them to church. It was she who invited the eight year old Ben to church. She died a few months before her father, Ralph, but when I went to visit her at her home, it was clean, her bible was open on the table, and Christian music was playing on the radio. (She didn’t know I was coming or I might have expected that.)
Ben was from a dysfunctional family with a history of drug abuse and alcoholism. He came to church and gave his heart to the Lord. He always helped in any way he could. He helped my wife with the children’s church and still does. He helped serve in the kitchen, and still does. Recently one of his brothers died from alcohol at age 24. Ben couldn’t even inform his mother because they had not heard from her in years, and had no idea where she lived, or if she lived. He said this, “If it hadn’t been for Vivian, I don’t know where I’d be today.” If there is a lesson in all this, its that if someone blind and someone dying can find a way to serve God and make a difference in a life, then surely we can do something.
When the boy’s father and stepmother moved away, he wanted to stay here and finish school. His sister who also came to church was the first in a family totaling fourteen to finish High School. Ben will be the second. When they first came to church they were both failing every class. Now he is a B plus student and plans to go to college. There were many weeks when he was the sole support of his family. He went to school, worked full time at Taco Bell, and slept when he could. Many times he would get home after 1:30 A.M. It is hard to imagine a family where income is more important than education, and the head of the house would put the burden of supporting the family on a sixteen year old. Sometimes it is humorous. For instance, we had a storm, and it knocked out our electricity for a while. When everything went black, he immediately asked if we had paid the electric bill.
We feel privileged to be able to help him. Maybe we can finish up what Vivian started.
Thanks again for all you do!
Sincerely! Al
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We will continue to pray for you and your wonderful ministry Al!
Brian Hale
Now here's a letter I found on the internet from Pastor Al ;
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends of Chuck Wagon Church
Time to report in on what the Lord has accomplished over the summer. Last year we sent 45 kids to camp. This year we sent 54. The best part of this equation is that last year we had only two from Pine Ridge. This year that figure was 19. For the first time ever we did a camp exclusively for the Reservation kids. Seven or eight gave their hearts to the Lord, and nearly all dedicated themselves to getting their family saved, and praying for their family and friends. There is a sense in which the old Passover still applies. They had to take a lamb for each house and the lamb was sacrificed for the family. Someone in the family has to intercede and witness to the family. Has to be the lamb for the house. I told them the true story of a woman I knew who was saved when she was only eight years old. Her family wasn’t Christians, and she had no church upbringing. She had no idea about prayer or how it worked, she just knew she was saved and that her family needed to be saved. She would go home and go upstairs to her room, open the window, lean out and yell up at God. (That was her method of praying.) “God, save my mom and dad.! Save My brothers and sisters! Save my neighbors!) Needless to say God answered her prayers. In her teens she began bible studies, and gathered in the neighbors. When the group got to 20 or 30 she would enlist a preacher. By this method she started seventeen churches. I told them that someone had to be the one to pray, and lead them to Jesus. The next night I had a rapper from Denver sing and give his testimony. He had been a major druggie, and had gotten so bad that he thought he was dying. Satan appeared to him and demons were trying to drag him down to hell. He was screaming, and trying to break away, but couldn’t. He saw Jesus and that scared him even worse because he knew Jesus wasn’t pleased with the way he was living. But he cried out to Jesus and Jesus saved him. His twin brother was also a druggie, and he began to pray and witness to him and to his family. He now ministers to others. He told the kids the same thing that I had the night before. You have to pray for your families and witness to them. You have to be the messenger of Jesus to them. He had the children lift their hands and pray for their families. Almost every child had both hands up praying for their families. Here is a neat follow up on that same story. We dropped two of the children off in the country because they lived out of town. A man happened to be visiting when they arrived home and told us this story. He said the little guy came into the house raised his hands and said “Praise the Lord!” Went over to the CD player took out what they were playing and put in his Christian rap CD and said “We’re going to listen to Christian music.” We are now planning a rap concert in two high schools on the reservation, one at Pine Ridge and one at Allen. We are hoping the teens will attend because of the testimony of the teens who went to camp. Thank you for all your help. We did all this at no cost to any of the children.
Had a guy fresh out of prison that needed food and a place to stay. People referred him to our church, and we talked a bit. He had no religious background, but wanted to get right with God, and get his life straight. We prayed together for his salvation. Then I got him some food and got him a place to stay while he looked for a job. The dinner count has gone up this past month to around 95 each Saturday. The Sunday count is still over 200. I think October will start our 11th year. It is amazing to me that we have probably fed over 150,000 free meals, and gave out enough boxed food to feed an additional 24,000 people without taking an offering, and without government help. That is the Lord! All our needs are being met, and the Lord doesn’t seem to be affected by the sluggish economy.
Again, my thanks to you for your gifts, and I ask God to bless you richly for all you have done, and all you are doing, and all you will do.
We have a teen living with us and are scheduled for our first parent teacher meeting in nearly a quarter of a century. I sort of slipped into the twenty First Century through the back door having lived on a farm most of my life. I am familiar with teeth of all kinds and could give a good guess at a horses age by looking at its teeth. I’ve eaten berries of every description, and raised gardens and done construction, but lately have found out that a blackberry is not edible, blue tooth is not a disease, and I-Pods are not used in construction or found in a garden. This does tend to make a person a little apprehensive when you realize you are part of a triangle ( teacher, student, parent) responsible for some lads educational progress. How he came to be at our house is a story that started nine years ago when he was only eight. Harry and I were going door to door calling on people. We stopped at a house where there was an old man and old woman and the old man’s middle aged daughter. The old man was sitting head down slobbering on his shirt. The old woman was almost blind, and the daughter was suffering from kidney failure. The house was mess, and filthy. Food and older food was on the table among a mixture of parakeet droppings, and used bird seed. Cigarettes and ashes filled ash trays and tin cans. We talked to them and prayed with them and led them to Christ. They started coming to church except for the old man. He went into the hospital and hovered near death for several weeks. We and the church continued to pray for him. He recovered and became a regular church attendee. He quit slobbering got his mind back and attended until he went into the veterans home four or so years later. The old lady became so special to all of us that we still talk about her respectfully to this day. She would come up after services and say, “May I have the list of prayer requests?” I said, “Blanche, you can’t see well enough to even read this list, and my writing is so bad you couldn’t read it if you could see.” She said, “Oh, I don’t read it, I just hold it up to God and pray over it. He knows what’s on it.” She would take that list week after week. The daughter, Vivian, was on dialysis and was weak a lot of the time, but she helped us do puppet programs and was very faithful to do all she could. In addition she went to her neighbors and invited them to church. It was she who invited the eight year old Ben to church. She died a few months before her father, Ralph, but when I went to visit her at her home, it was clean, her bible was open on the table, and Christian music was playing on the radio. (She didn’t know I was coming or I might have expected that.)
Ben was from a dysfunctional family with a history of drug abuse and alcoholism. He came to church and gave his heart to the Lord. He always helped in any way he could. He helped my wife with the children’s church and still does. He helped serve in the kitchen, and still does. Recently one of his brothers died from alcohol at age 24. Ben couldn’t even inform his mother because they had not heard from her in years, and had no idea where she lived, or if she lived. He said this, “If it hadn’t been for Vivian, I don’t know where I’d be today.” If there is a lesson in all this, its that if someone blind and someone dying can find a way to serve God and make a difference in a life, then surely we can do something.
When the boy’s father and stepmother moved away, he wanted to stay here and finish school. His sister who also came to church was the first in a family totaling fourteen to finish High School. Ben will be the second. When they first came to church they were both failing every class. Now he is a B plus student and plans to go to college. There were many weeks when he was the sole support of his family. He went to school, worked full time at Taco Bell, and slept when he could. Many times he would get home after 1:30 A.M. It is hard to imagine a family where income is more important than education, and the head of the house would put the burden of supporting the family on a sixteen year old. Sometimes it is humorous. For instance, we had a storm, and it knocked out our electricity for a while. When everything went black, he immediately asked if we had paid the electric bill.
We feel privileged to be able to help him. Maybe we can finish up what Vivian started.
Thanks again for all you do!
Sincerely! Al
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We will continue to pray for you and your wonderful ministry Al!
Brian Hale
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Scotts Bluff County Police Scanner
Hale Multimedia LLC is the leading web technology firm out of Scottsbluff Nebraska that recently created an online streaming feed of the Scotts Bluff County Police and Fire Scanners by partnering up with RadioReference.com.
After just 3 full days since we launched our facebook page, we're up to 270 'fans'and we have had over 30 simultaneous listeners! A few more and we will make it into Radio Reference's TOP 50 Scanners in the U.S.!!
LISTEN IN on the Scotts Bluff County Police, Fire and City Scanners LIVE ONLINE right now... http://www.halemultimedia.com/scanner.html
If YOU need any help or just have questions about anything WEB related, including Social Marketing on the Web, give us a call toll free 800 783-1103 or locally 308 632-4653. We are located on Broadway in Scottsbluff at 2013, just south of Broadway Office Supply.
After just 3 full days since we launched our facebook page, we're up to 270 'fans'and we have had over 30 simultaneous listeners! A few more and we will make it into Radio Reference's TOP 50 Scanners in the U.S.!!
LISTEN IN on the Scotts Bluff County Police, Fire and City Scanners LIVE ONLINE right now... http://www.halemultimedia.com/scanner.html
If YOU need any help or just have questions about anything WEB related, including Social Marketing on the Web, give us a call toll free 800 783-1103 or locally 308 632-4653. We are located on Broadway in Scottsbluff at 2013, just south of Broadway Office Supply.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Benefits of Hosting with Us
The first few things are fairly standard, but keep reading because there are several benefits of hosting with us that most other website providers simply cannot provide...
- Our standard hosting account has no bandwidth or storage limitations
- Submission to all the major search engines including Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.
- Friendly customer service anytime day or night. We understand the importance of having a human to call when there is a question or problem.
- Access to our trademark Easy-Update Technology which allows customers to easily update their website from any internet connected computer and without any software to install.
- Access to our Meta_Tag Magic. This features gives our clients the ability to instantly update their own Description and Keyword Meta Tags. Meta Tags are one factor that search engines use to rank your site.
- Our highly ranked website portfolio helps people find your website on the major search engines by featuring a full-color screenshot of your website. Many times a clients' website in our website portfolio will actually rank higher than their actual website itself! This is a result of the fact that we have been on google, yahoo, msn, aol and the major other search engines for several years already.
- A full-color customized banner will be created and will appear on multiple websites that are advertised on 20+ Radio Stations in Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. We are not aware of any other website provider that gives you this kind of promotion created through our national radio exposure.
- Full access to website statistics anytime through your Control Panel Login. If you can't access yours, email support@halemultimedia.com with a request for access to this and we'll gladly set it up for you.
- Free email accounts with massive storage and bandwidth and even a control panel if you want to manage your own email!
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- Free online calendar that you can share publicly or keep private for your own use.
- Access to discounted rates on many of our other services. This alone can save you hundreds and even thousands of dollars if you are needing an affordable, effective way to advertise your business.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Interesting New Info on 'Mosque'
AP Exclusive: Backers of NY mosque appear divided, investor says he may sell if price is right
Published September 08, 2010
Associated Press
NEW YORK – The group of Muslims planning to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque near ground zero appears plagued by divisions that raise questions about the future of the project, with one major investor saying he is prepared to sell some or all of the site if the price is right.
Hisham Elzanaty, an Egyptian-born businessman who says he provided a majority of the financing to gain control over the two buildings where the center would be built, told The Associated Press this week that while he supports the concept, he needs to turn a profit.
He said one of the buildings is worth millions if it is redeveloped, and he intends to seize the opportunity. He said he would like to see the other building turned into a mosque, but if his community doesn't come forward with enough cash for him to break even, he will turn it over to someone else.
"I'm a businessman. This was a mere business transaction for me," said Elzanaty, a U.S. citizen who has lived on Long Island for decades, owns medical clinics in New York City and invests in real estate on the side.
Representatives of some of the project's backers said they have just started trying to raise the estimated $100 million needed to build the center and the millions more required to run it.
Elzanaty said his real estate partnership, which paid $4.8 million for half the site last year, has already received offers three times that much to sell that parcel.
"Develop it, raze it, sell it," he said. "If someone wants to give me 18 or 20 million dollars today, it's all theirs."
A spokesman for the developer leading the investment team declined to confirm Elzanaty's claim that he has a majority stake in the partnership, or comment on whether he needs approval from the rest of the group to decide the fate of the two buildings.
Dealing with potential conflicts among investors is but one of the challenges facing the group trying to organize the center.
The concept was first broached publicly late last year by a group of backers that included Feisal Abdul Rauf, an imam who leads a small Manhattan mosque not far from the World Trade Center, his wife, Daisy Khan, who heads a Muslim nonprofit group, and a real estate investor who is a member of Rauf's congregation, Sharif El-Gamal.
Together, they outlined a plan to demolish a pair of linked buildings and replace them with a tower that would hold a theater, a health club, a performing arts center, a culinary school and a mosque.
Since then, though, it has been difficult to determine who is in control. The key players in the development are represented by different publicity firms and different lawyers, and have varying agendas and no consistent message.
Rauf left the U.S. just as controversy over the plan was becoming explosive. His first significant public comments in months came in a letter published Wednesday in The New York Times in which he referred to the center as the Cordoba House — a name that had been abandoned by other backers weeks ago in favor of the moniker Park51, which reflects the project's address.
Rauf also said for the first time that the center would also include separate prayer spaces for Christians, Jews and people of other faiths.
"I do not underestimate the challenges that will be involved in bringing our work to completion," he wrote, adding that construction has yet to begin. "I know there will be interest in our financing, and so we will clearly identify all of our financial backers."
Sharif El-Gamal, who had emerged as the public face of the project in Rauf's absence, has declined most interview requests, leaving critics free to speculate about who is behind the center.
In his few public statements over the past few weeks, he has portrayed himself, rather than Rauf, as the key force behind the proposed center, and created a new nonprofit group to raise the estimated $100 million needed for construction.
Yet it is unclear how much authority he has to set the project's agenda.
In one typical episode in late August, a guest imam scheduled to oversee Friday prayers at the site of the planned center invited reporters throughout New York City to come hear him speak. When they arrived, they were met by an exasperated El-Gamal, who instructed police to keep the media out, saying the invitation was unauthorized.
Until late last week, El-Gamal had declined to identify any of the eight investors involved in his real estate partnership, or say whether any had a controlling interest. Real estate partnerships in New York are generally not required to disclose their membership to the public. On Friday, he acknowledged for the first time in response to media inquiries that Elzanaty was a major contributor.
After speaking with Elzanaty on Tuesday, the AP contacted El-Gamal's spokesman, Larry Kopp, to see if he could confirm Elzanaty's statements that he is the principal investor in the project and has the final say over what happens to the real estate. Kopp said El-Gamal wouldn't comment on the ownership issues.
The business transactions surrounding the project are complicated.
Half the site is owned by the real estate partnership that includes Elzanaty and is managed by El-Gamal, according to city property records. The other half is owned by the utility Consolidated Edison, but controlled through a long-term lease that another real estate entity purchased for $700,000 last year. Elzanaty said he put up all of that money and thus controls the lease, which allows its holder to tear down the building and construct something new.
Elzanaty said that while he would love to see the entire site become a center that would replace the sometimes shabby places downtown where Muslims pray now, the project can't come at the expense of his investment.
As for the criticism that it would be inappropriate to build any Muslim house of worship so close to the trade center site, where victims of Islamic terrorists died, Elzanaty said he strongly disagreed.
"There is a public opinion that says no, but if you say no, you are defeated by the fanatics," he said.
Elzanaty added that he believed that his own parents were victims of terrorism.
His mother and father were passengers on an EgyptAir flight that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 1999. U.S. officials ruled that the co-pilot deliberately steered the plane into the sea. No group claimed responsibility for the crash, and investigators have discounted the possibility of terrorism. Egypt has claimed that mechanical failure caused the crash.
Still, Elzanaty said it is hurtful that some critics of the mosque project have accused him of secretly sympathizing with terrorists, given his personal loss.
Some of those detractors have pointed to a donation that he made in 1999 to the Holy Land Foundation, which was later indicted on charges of contributing money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Five leaders of the foundation were recently convicted of illegally supporting Hamas.
Elzanaty said he believed his donation was being used to support Palestinian orphans, and noted that the U.S. government had the foundation on its list of IRS-approved charities until 2001.
"America is my country," he said, "and I will never do anything to hurt it."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow! I don't remember any of the networks telling us this much info on exactly who has the money and how it ties them to Hamas (circumstantialy as it appears, right?) Another thing, did I hear Rauf say for the first time that it's going to be for Christians, Jews and people of other faith? If so, cool!! ... and Elzanaty the Developer said "If someone wants to give me 18 or 20 million dollars today, it's all theirs." Let's just pray that someone with good intentions buys it up! It sounds like an excellent investment to me, for a very popular piece of real estate! If I had $20 Million I would buy it today, wouldn't you?
Published September 08, 2010
Associated Press
NEW YORK – The group of Muslims planning to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque near ground zero appears plagued by divisions that raise questions about the future of the project, with one major investor saying he is prepared to sell some or all of the site if the price is right.
Hisham Elzanaty, an Egyptian-born businessman who says he provided a majority of the financing to gain control over the two buildings where the center would be built, told The Associated Press this week that while he supports the concept, he needs to turn a profit.
He said one of the buildings is worth millions if it is redeveloped, and he intends to seize the opportunity. He said he would like to see the other building turned into a mosque, but if his community doesn't come forward with enough cash for him to break even, he will turn it over to someone else.
"I'm a businessman. This was a mere business transaction for me," said Elzanaty, a U.S. citizen who has lived on Long Island for decades, owns medical clinics in New York City and invests in real estate on the side.
Representatives of some of the project's backers said they have just started trying to raise the estimated $100 million needed to build the center and the millions more required to run it.
Elzanaty said his real estate partnership, which paid $4.8 million for half the site last year, has already received offers three times that much to sell that parcel.
"Develop it, raze it, sell it," he said. "If someone wants to give me 18 or 20 million dollars today, it's all theirs."
A spokesman for the developer leading the investment team declined to confirm Elzanaty's claim that he has a majority stake in the partnership, or comment on whether he needs approval from the rest of the group to decide the fate of the two buildings.
Dealing with potential conflicts among investors is but one of the challenges facing the group trying to organize the center.
The concept was first broached publicly late last year by a group of backers that included Feisal Abdul Rauf, an imam who leads a small Manhattan mosque not far from the World Trade Center, his wife, Daisy Khan, who heads a Muslim nonprofit group, and a real estate investor who is a member of Rauf's congregation, Sharif El-Gamal.
Together, they outlined a plan to demolish a pair of linked buildings and replace them with a tower that would hold a theater, a health club, a performing arts center, a culinary school and a mosque.
Since then, though, it has been difficult to determine who is in control. The key players in the development are represented by different publicity firms and different lawyers, and have varying agendas and no consistent message.
Rauf left the U.S. just as controversy over the plan was becoming explosive. His first significant public comments in months came in a letter published Wednesday in The New York Times in which he referred to the center as the Cordoba House — a name that had been abandoned by other backers weeks ago in favor of the moniker Park51, which reflects the project's address.
Rauf also said for the first time that the center would also include separate prayer spaces for Christians, Jews and people of other faiths.
"I do not underestimate the challenges that will be involved in bringing our work to completion," he wrote, adding that construction has yet to begin. "I know there will be interest in our financing, and so we will clearly identify all of our financial backers."
Sharif El-Gamal, who had emerged as the public face of the project in Rauf's absence, has declined most interview requests, leaving critics free to speculate about who is behind the center.
In his few public statements over the past few weeks, he has portrayed himself, rather than Rauf, as the key force behind the proposed center, and created a new nonprofit group to raise the estimated $100 million needed for construction.
Yet it is unclear how much authority he has to set the project's agenda.
In one typical episode in late August, a guest imam scheduled to oversee Friday prayers at the site of the planned center invited reporters throughout New York City to come hear him speak. When they arrived, they were met by an exasperated El-Gamal, who instructed police to keep the media out, saying the invitation was unauthorized.
Until late last week, El-Gamal had declined to identify any of the eight investors involved in his real estate partnership, or say whether any had a controlling interest. Real estate partnerships in New York are generally not required to disclose their membership to the public. On Friday, he acknowledged for the first time in response to media inquiries that Elzanaty was a major contributor.
After speaking with Elzanaty on Tuesday, the AP contacted El-Gamal's spokesman, Larry Kopp, to see if he could confirm Elzanaty's statements that he is the principal investor in the project and has the final say over what happens to the real estate. Kopp said El-Gamal wouldn't comment on the ownership issues.
The business transactions surrounding the project are complicated.
Half the site is owned by the real estate partnership that includes Elzanaty and is managed by El-Gamal, according to city property records. The other half is owned by the utility Consolidated Edison, but controlled through a long-term lease that another real estate entity purchased for $700,000 last year. Elzanaty said he put up all of that money and thus controls the lease, which allows its holder to tear down the building and construct something new.
Elzanaty said that while he would love to see the entire site become a center that would replace the sometimes shabby places downtown where Muslims pray now, the project can't come at the expense of his investment.
As for the criticism that it would be inappropriate to build any Muslim house of worship so close to the trade center site, where victims of Islamic terrorists died, Elzanaty said he strongly disagreed.
"There is a public opinion that says no, but if you say no, you are defeated by the fanatics," he said.
Elzanaty added that he believed that his own parents were victims of terrorism.
His mother and father were passengers on an EgyptAir flight that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 1999. U.S. officials ruled that the co-pilot deliberately steered the plane into the sea. No group claimed responsibility for the crash, and investigators have discounted the possibility of terrorism. Egypt has claimed that mechanical failure caused the crash.
Still, Elzanaty said it is hurtful that some critics of the mosque project have accused him of secretly sympathizing with terrorists, given his personal loss.
Some of those detractors have pointed to a donation that he made in 1999 to the Holy Land Foundation, which was later indicted on charges of contributing money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Five leaders of the foundation were recently convicted of illegally supporting Hamas.
Elzanaty said he believed his donation was being used to support Palestinian orphans, and noted that the U.S. government had the foundation on its list of IRS-approved charities until 2001.
"America is my country," he said, "and I will never do anything to hurt it."
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Wow! I don't remember any of the networks telling us this much info on exactly who has the money and how it ties them to Hamas (circumstantialy as it appears, right?) Another thing, did I hear Rauf say for the first time that it's going to be for Christians, Jews and people of other faith? If so, cool!! ... and Elzanaty the Developer said "If someone wants to give me 18 or 20 million dollars today, it's all theirs." Let's just pray that someone with good intentions buys it up! It sounds like an excellent investment to me, for a very popular piece of real estate! If I had $20 Million I would buy it today, wouldn't you?
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Minatare Loses Opener
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| Jim Headley, The Gering Citizen |
Minatare, Nebraska - The Minatare Indians under the direction of their first year head coach fell Friday afternoon to the speedy Hitchcock County Falcons. Hitchcock County is located in the southwestern part of Nebraska between Benkelman and McCook.
Several times throughout the game Minatare mounted a comeback but could never get it closer than 11. The Indians did show both toughness on Defense and the ability to go deep. One of the highlights was a beautiful bomb in the near endzone that the Minatare receiver did a fantastic job of keeping his focus and coming down with it over the defender.
The Indians play host to Loup County, Nebraska next week (Sep 10, 2010)
The photo above is of Jim Headley of The Gering Citizen Newspaper (taken by Brian Hale). Look for Jim and staff to be everywhere covering high school sports in western Nebraska with The Gering Citizen's commitment to the local community!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Wildfire in the Wildcats : Sep 1, 2010
Gering Citizen Newspaper
BREAKING NEWS : A wildfire has broken out in the Wildcat Hill four miles south and seven miles west of Gering. The fire was started by lightening Monday night and State of Nebraska crews thought they had it out Tuesday. The fire kicked up this morning. We have images from the scene by Jim Headley. Fire crews from Scotts Bluff County Rural and Gering are having a hard time reaching the hillside where the fire is burning. The wind is picking up too!
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