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Show Campus News The Utah Statesman • 4 Triday,Sepi Nobody likes a know-it-alL Except usf of course H&R Block needs tax preparers. Train with us and: • Start a rewarding career • Receive comprehensive, step-by-step training. • Choose a class schedule convenient to you. Sign up now! Call for more information, 760-5371 H&R BLOCK 517 North Main Logan Pizza farm draws tourists with a slice of argiculture BY JIM SUHR AP Business Writer DOW, 111. (AP) - Walt Gregory found a way to make dough harvesting pizza. The retired insurance agent and his business partner have carved up quite a tourist draw near the Mississippi River town of Alton, educating people with a half-acre circular plot divided up like the slices Are you curious about BASIC CHRISTIANITY and/or the EPISCOPAL CHURCH? Then join us at St. Johns Episcopal Church as we explore these topics using Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. via media Via Media (the Middle Way) Wednesdays at 6 pm September 21- October 26 Evening includes video & group disussion. Call 752-0331 to register. St. Johns Episcopal Church on the corner of 100 North and 100 East, Logan of a huge pizza. Each of the eight wedges represents something used on a pizza - from tomatoes to peppers to herbs including rosemary and sage. Three goats represent milk and Cleo the cow is symbolic of beef. Seven penned-in pigs illustrate pork. The chickens pecking nearby? Eggs, of course. "I enjoy it immensely, just to see the looks on people's faces and seeing some people make the connection," Gregory said from his 3-year-old "R" Pizza Farm. "A 62-year-old lady, standing with her husband, didn't know pepperoni came from pigs." Only a handful of such farms are believed to exist in the United States. However, farmers increasingly are turning to inventive land use - cornfield mazes are another example - to supplement their bottom lines. Illinois, which is among the nation's leaders in pumpkin and horseradish production, is no exception. The project seems to be working for Gregory and business partner Lynne Weis. They expect their organic pizza "demonstration" farm to draw 5,000 to 6,000 visitors this year, far more than the 1,500 visitors in 2004 or the 300 the year before that. The two have a similar venture near Quincy, with plans for a third next spring near Peoria. "Word's getting out," Gregory said as he walked through the wedges, plucking peppers and tomatoes along the way. The English Language Center of Cache Valley, Inc SEVERAL SMALL GOATS reside in the cheese section of the pizza farm, Thursday, Sept. 1 near Alton During tours offered from April through October, Gregory briefs guests about the ingredients, then walks them through each slice. Afterward, there's pizza and soda in a pizzeria inside a log cabin. Most of the ingredients come from the farm and are organic, including the fennel herb commonly used to flavor Italian sausage. Gregory still hopes to find a source of organic cheese and is talking with an Amish BY MARTIN CRUTSINCER AP Economics Writer Registration: Sept. 22 & 23 (10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.) Classes start Sept. 26 & 27 (10 week sessions) WASHINGTON (AP) - A total of 68,000 Americans who lost their jobs due to Hurricane Katrina filed for unemployment benefits last week, pushing these applications up by the largest amount in nearly a decade. The Labor Department reported that claims for benefits rose by 71,000 last week, with 68,000 of that total attributed to layoffs due to Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and other areas along the Gulf Coast. That figure exceeded the claims filed in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, and analysts predicted that it would be revised even higher once states catch up with processing a flood of claims. Consumer inflation surged by 0.5 percent in August as energy prices shot up by the largest amount in more than two years, even before Katrina hit at the end of the month. The hurricane caused a further spike in energy prices due to widespread shutdowns of oil and natural gas facilities in the Gulf Coast region. Analysts have predicted that Katrina, the country's worst natural disaster, will trim economic growth by as much as a full percentage point in the second half of this year and cost around 400,000 jobs. While they do not believe that storm-related disruptions will be enough to push the country into a recession, they caution that this forecast could be proven wrong if energy prices keep soaring, triggering significant cutbacks in spending by consumers in other areas. Phil Hopkins, managing director of U.S. regional services for Global Insight, estimates that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the area of New Orleans, Classes Available / Tuition + Books • Beginning: $25 • Levels 1-4: $25 • Advanced: $40 • Advanced English Grammar: $40 Questions? Call (435) 750-6534 or www.elc-cv.com WARNING: ABB YOU WEE YOU ENOW WHAT YOU ABR GOTnra WBEN YOU PUHCBASE HEALTH MflliHANCE OYfiB HIE lnTTEHNET? WDY NOT COME WHERE USU STUDENTS DAVE BEEN COMING FOR YEABS? WE OFFl-n PEEK, PROFESSIONAL INSURANCE ADVICE. FREE Consultations! No Appointment Necessary. M-F 8-5 asparagus, zucchini, watermeI-! on, cantaloupe, strawberries, i squash, pumpkins and corn. Elizabeth Decker, a second-grade teacher in nearby Bethalto, can't seem to get her fill of the farm. She has taken her classes, which typically number 20 students and chaperoning parents, on the tour every year since the farm opened. Decker said the place teaches kids firsthand what goes into a pizza, from harvest to hearth. Jobless claims and energy prices both soar throughout nation English as a second language (ESL) Classes 106 East 1120 North in Logan Morning and Evening Classes slaughterhouse about supplying organic pepperoni. Gregory hopes to educate guests about organic growing. He makes no bones about his opposition to corporations behind agricultural biotechnology or farmers who use herbicide-resistant products he considers dangerous. "Someone's got to stand against them. That's what I try to accomplish with the pizza farm," said Gregory, who elsewhere on his spread grows When did you start getting infinite storage at your .edu address? Gmail. Enough storage to keep all your emails, files and pictures. Built-in Google search. Customizable "From" addresses so you can still use your .edu address. Sign up for Gmail. www.google.com/university/gmail Metairie and Kenner was 4.9 percent in July. He said that based on his calculations, the jobless rate there could easily climb to 25 percent. And analysts predicted that the overall inflation figure will be even higher in September, reflecting the fact that gasoline prices climbed even higher to more than $3 per gallon in September as the impacts of the Gulf Coast shutdowns were felt in supply shortages. "Gasoline prices have gone through the roof," said Labor Department analyst Patrick Jackman, who said gasoline was about 30 percent higher in the first two weeks of September as compared to the first two weeks of August. The economy was expanding at a solid pace before Katrina hit and it is this momentum that analysts believe will help keep the economy from being pushed into a full-fledged downturn. The report on jobless claims showed that the increase of 71,000 applications last week was the biggest one-week increase since a rise of 82,000 claims the week ending Jan. 20, 1996, a period when claims soared after a severe winter storm along the East Coast. The increase pushed total jobless claims to 398,000 last week, the highest weekly total in two years. The 0.5 percent rise in consumer prices followed a similar 0.5 percent increase in July with inflation in both months being pushed higher by rising energy prices. Over 80 percent of the jump in inflation in August was attributed to a 5 percent surge in energy prices, the biggest one-month gain since March 2003. The 71,000 gain in claims last week exceeded the oneweek increases in layoffs seen after the Sept. 11 attacks although in the final two weeks of September, claims posted back-to-back increases of 59,000 and 64,000. Analysts said the estimate of 68,000 jobless claims attributed to Katrina would certainly rise in coming weeks as state unemployment offices caught up with processing a flood of applications, many of them being taken from mobile units dispatched to evacuation centers such as the Astrodome in Houston. The Labor Department, which initially estimated that 10,000 hurricane-related claims had been filed for the week ending Sept. 3, now estimates that figure to be between 15,000 and 16,000. The 5 percent jump in energy prices was led by an 8.3 percent rise in gasoline prices, the biggest one-month gain since February 2003. Analysts said energy prices will likely show another surge in September, reflecting the fact that after Katrina caused shutdowns of Gulf Coast production, the price of a gallon of gasoline soared to a nationwide average of more than $3 per gallon. Outside of the volatile energy and food categories, so-called core inflation rose a modest 0.1 percent, the fourth straight month of small gains at this level. Economists have begun to worry that the surge in energy prices may soon start to spill over into other areas as many businesses are forced to add on fuel surcharges to reflect higher delivery costs for their products. Over the last 12 months, overall consumer prices have risen by 3.6 percent, the big- ; gest 12-month increase in inflation since a similar rise • in the 12 months ending May 2001. The big jump in inflation last month added to pressure on Americans' paychecks. Weekly earnings after adjusting for inflation fell by 0.5 percent in August following a decline of 0.1 percent in July. |