Two San Diego locals picked for new season of 'The Apprentice'

By: North County Times wire services | Thursday, December 23, 2004 9:36 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO - Two San Diego County residents will compete in the third season of NBC's reality-television series "The Apprentice," network officials said Thursday.

Todd, a 34-year-old Carlsbad insurance sales manager, and Stephanie, a 29- year-old San Diego supply chain consultant, will be among the contestants, according to NBC. The contestants' last names were not given.

Todd, a married father and Florida native, began his career working for "No Fear" athletic apparel, where he was the youngest sales manager in the company's history. He earned a business degree from the University of Miami.

Stephanie, an Arizona State University graduate, grew up in Tempe, Ariz. She now works as part of IBM's Corporate Supply Chain Organization, as one of its top global supply chain consultants.

Network officials say the program will take a new approach for the upcoming season, testing "book smarts" against "street smarts."

"For the third season of 'The Apprentice' Mark Burnett (creator and co- executive producer) and I have decided to take the series into a new realm," said Donald Trump, the show's host and co-executive producer. "We wanted to see what would happen if we pitted college grads against high school grads."

George Ross and Carolyn Kepcher will return to the boardroom for the third season, which premieres Jan. 20.

Santa Claus falls victim to belt-tightening in Greenland

Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The jolly man in the red suit is being pinched by Greenland's belt-tightening, meaning 25,000 children worldwide will not get a reply to their letters to Santa Claus.

In 2002, the government stopped giving Santa Claus of Greenland $306,000 to pay the postage for those replies. The company, which is run by Tele Greenland Group and staffed by volunteers, cannot pay for the stamps itself.

"We have been forced to do this," Anders Laesoe, who identified himself as Santa's aide, said Thursday. "It's a sad and terrible thing for children who don't understand this."

The company, based in Nuuk, Greenland, is looking for help from individuals and sponsors for next year, Laesoe said.

Greenland, like Finland, Sweden and Norway, claims to be the real home of Santa Claus and markets him as an ambassador for the island territory.

"As for now, we don't have the money for next year, either," said Laesoe, an employee with Tele Greenland Group.

But not all is lost, he said. The group's Web site gets hundreds of e-mails from children worldwide and the volunteer elves have made sure their missives got an answer.

"Santa replies to each and every e-mail sent to him," Laesoe promised. "Stamps are not needed on e-mails."

Going, going, gone: Chicago's eBay auction raises $242,000 for city cultural programs

Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Dyeing the Chicago River green on St. Patrick's Day: $7,600. Placing the winning bid for a hallowed city tradition: Priceless.

The city's eBay auction of Chicago-specific experiences and treasures ended Wednesday night after raising more than $242,000 for the city's arts and cultural programs -- including the winning $7,600 bid for the opportunity to dye the Chicago River green March 17.

The top bid came in at $21,000 for a wedding package that includes catering for 100 in the city's ornate Chicago Cultural Center overlooking Michigan Avenue. The second biggest draw -- dinner for 10 with television broadcaster Bill Kurtis, accompanied by a documentary about the winning bidder's life -- went for $18,600.

A fiberglass "moollennium cow" from the Cows on Parade exhibit went for $8,100. The chance to turn on Chicago's Buckingham Fountain: $3,026.

"The auction not only brought in much needed funding for the arts but helped to showcase Chicago to an international audience," said Lois Weissberg, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, which organized the event.

The auction, dubbed the Great Chicago Fire Sale, began Dec. 2. Almost 500 items up for sale attracted 6,343 bids, said Anne Dattulo, a department spokeswoman.

The $242,210.48 raised will help three nonprofit groups involved in arts-related education, job training and funding.

A home for the holidays: Hawks' Fifth Avenue nest framework is reinstalled

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Pale Male and Lola are getting their Fifth Avenue address back -- if the hawks are willing to accept a replacement nest offered by luxury apartment-house owners who ripped out the original, only to be harried incessantly by bird lovers around the world.

Workers Thursday installed new underpinnings for the high-rise nest whose red-tailed hawk occupants were evicted Dec. 7, triggering an avian crisis that gripped the city.

"It's the miracle on 74th Street," enthused E.J. McAdams, executive director of the city Audubon Society, which led a campaign to restore the nest, taken down after apartment residents deemed it a health and safety hazard.

As if on cue, the hawks winged in for a brief appearance on the 12th-floor window ledge Pale Male had called home for a decade, delighting rain-sodden hawk enthusiasts and television cameramen on a sidewalk across the street.

On the rooftop, workers prepared to lower the 300-pound stainless-steel cradle to the window pediment. The custom-designed mesh framework has the same anti-pigeon spikes removed when the nest was pulled down.

The boat-shaped device also has a rim to keep carcasses of rats and pigeons from falling to the street, a major source of annoyance for the building's residents, who include CNN's Paula Zahn.

"It's a very out-of-the-ordinary project for a New York City architect," said Daniel Ionescu, who designed the cradle. "You don't get a call every day to design a nest on top of a pediment on a landmarked building."