What's open and what's closed on July 3 and 4

The Fourth of July falls on a Saturday this year, but some community and government agencies will recognize the holiday on Friday, July 3. Here's a list of what will be open and what will be closed on Friday, July 3 and Saturday, July 4:

Banks: Open Friday and closed Saturday, though some branches inside grocery stores might be open limited hours.

Government Offices: King County offices are recognizing July 3 as a holiday and will be closed both Friday and Saturday. In addition, most King County buildings and services will be closed Monday, July 6, for one of the 10 furlough days being taken this year. Metro transit will be operational on July 6, however, and the King County Courthouse also will be open.

Garbage Collection: Will proceed as usual on both Friday and Saturday.

Shopping Malls: Most malls are open regular hours on Friday and will be closing slightly early on Saturday. Bellevue Square will open Saturday from 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; Westlake Center and Alderwood, Northgate and Tacoma malls will be open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Ferries: Depending on the route, some ferry schedules have been modified to accommodate expected holiday traffic. The Seattle-Bainbridge Island run will operate on a Saturday schedule both July 3 and 4, while the Edmonds-Kingston run will sail a holiday schedule on July 3 and return to normal Saturday service July 4.

There will be no passenger-only service between Seattle and Vashon on Friday, July 3, but the Seattle-to-Bremerton route will operate on a normal schedule all weekend. For more detailed holiday information on all Washington State ferry runs, please visit http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2009/06/WSDOT+Ferries+Division+and+Washington+State+Patrol+plan+for+busy+Fourth+of+July.htm.Metro Transit: Buses and Access Transportation will operate on Sunday schedules July 3, while the King County Water Taxi will be on a Saturday schedule. If you are a subscriber to Access Transportation and your service area is not available on Sundays, special arrangements can be made for those who call 206-205-5000 or 206-749-4286 by 5 p.m. today. Metro will operate its regular Saturday bus service on July 4. For more information, please visit http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/holidays/h-07-4thjuly.html.

Community Transit: Community Transit and Dial-a-Ride transportation will run on Sunday schedules July 3. There will be no commuter service that day. Buses will operate on their regular Saturday schedules July 4.

Postal Service: All post offices will be open July 3, but many will close at noon to observe the holiday. Regular Friday mail delivery will be unaffected by the change in hours. All post-office locations will ben closed July 4 and will open and resume delivery on Monday, July 6. Only Sunday/Holiday Express mail will be delivered on the Fourth of July.

Department of Licensing: Department of Licensing offices will be closed Friday and Saturday.

Liquor Stores: Washington State liquor stores will be open normal business hours on July 3 and open from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. July 4.

Source : seattletimes.nwsource.com

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‘Lights on the Lake' one of nation's best fireworks shows

South Lake Tahoe's Fourth is second to none. The 28th annual “Lights on the Lake,” the South Shore's Independence Day fireworks display, will illuminate the skies over the blue waters of Lake Tahoe.

Not only is “Lights on the Lake” the largest fireworks extravaganza on the West Coast, it's drawn national attention: NBC's “Today Show,” Travel + Leisure magazine, USA Today, yahoo.com, MSNBC.com and ForbesTraveler.com all rank the display among their top Fourth of July celebrations. In addition, the American Pyrotechnics Association includes “Lights on the Lake” as one of the top five fireworks show in the nation.

Vantage points include Tahoe's two paddlewheelers, the Tahoe Queen and the M.S. Dixie II, which offer dining packages for the show; the Tallac Historic Site off Emerald Bay Road has an east-viewing perspective, while Baldwin Beach has picnic tables and fire pits nearby; Nevada Beach State Park has a sandy shoreline and picnic tables; Regan and El Dorado beaches fill up fast; and Bijou Community Park has a skatepark, disc golf course, municipal golf course and playground.
Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course invites guests to watch the fireworks and enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet with Jamaican jerk chicken, soy-marinated salmon, hamburgers and hot dogs. Tickets are $50 for adults, $20 for kids and younger at southtahoe.activitytickets.com.

From those vistas, visitors and locals can see the fireworks explode into the shapes of jellyfish, stars, butterflies and smiley faces as local radio stations KRLT-FM 93.9 and KOWL-AM 1490 simulcast the soundtrack to the pyrotechnics.

That's not all the music available for the holiday: Abbracadabra, “the ultimate ABBA experience, will perform July 2-3 and 5 in Harrah's South Shore Room. Last One Picked performs original American rock, blues and country July 3-4 at the Lakeside Inn and Casino, with no cover charge.

Big Blue Summer MusicFest will continue at the Tallac Historic Site, with “Red White and Toccata-Tahoe Blue,” a holiday presentation by the Orchestra and Community Chorale of the Tahoe Area featuring the music of American composers in the Boathouse Theater.

Activities will continue almost every week throughout the summer, including the 20th annual American Centruy Championship golf tournament July 14-19 and Labor Day fireworks Sunday, Sept. 6. For more information on what's going on around the South Shore, contact the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority at (800) 288-2463 or visit www.bluelaketahoe.com.

Source : www.tahoe.com

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Wimbledon Semi Finals Live for Men's Final Four

The Wimbledon semi finals are live for today, as the live men's semi finals try to match the Wimbledon women's semi finals. Today's live Wimbledon semi finals could see history being made in both matches, setting things up for an even more historic Wimbledon final.

The Wimbledon semi finals have Roger Federer trying to move closer to a record 15'th Grand Slam, but he will not be the crowd favorite. The real main event in Britain for the Wimbledon semi finals is Andy Murray, whom the whole country will be cheering for live later today.

For the first of the Wimbledon semi finals, Roger Federer tries to take care of business. Federer is the heavy favorite against the most unlikely player in the semi finals, 24'th seeded Tommy Haas. However, Haas may have come to play, as Federer had to work hard to beat Haas 7-6 in the first set.

A Haas win would knock Federer out in the Wimbledon semi finals for the first time in many years. The Wimbledon crowd may root for it, since Haas is the underdog - and since Haas may be an easier opponent in the Wimbledon finals for Andy Murray.

But Murray has to get through the Wimbledon semi finals first, as his live match will likely be at around noon est. The villain going against him will be Andy Roddick, as he continues to try and get his second Grand Slam title.

If Federer gets through the semi finals, he may want to root for Roddick to win. This is partly because no one will root for Federer against Murray, and because Murray has beaten Federer frequently in his career - while Roddick loses constantly to Federer in Grand Slams.

No matter what, a Federer-Murray final may even surpass the hype of Federer-Nadal last year, at least in Britain. Even though Murray is Scottish, he is Britain's adopted son, as he tries to be the first British Wimbledon champion since the 1930's.

Source : www.associatedcontent.com

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Authorize.Net Goes Down

As a lot of e-commerce businesses and Twitter users are noticing, the entire Authorize.Net infrastructure crashed a few hours ago. For anyone who makes a purchase online, this is huge; Authorize.Net is the largest service for accepting credit cards and e-checks through the web. This means that millions of web-based transactions and purchases have come to a halt.

Luckily, Authorize.Net understands the usefulness of social media in situations like these. They set up a new Twitter account, @AuthorizeNet, earlier today to keep users informed about the recovery of one of the web’s most important payment systems. So what took Authorize.Net down anyway? And when will it be 100% back?

According to AuthorizeNet, the cause of the outage was a fire at their datacenter in Seattle. This impacted not only their website and transaction platforms, but even their backup center. Couple this with the fact that today starts the 4th of July holiday weekend, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Luckily, it seems that transaction processing has returned, although global processing is still down. This is the most important aspect of the outage – without the payment system, merchants couldn’t accept credit card payments, which could result in millions of dollars lost among all of its vendors. The website is still down, meaning that accounts can’t be accessed. Luckily, the company had the foresight to use Twitter to keep merchants and users informed. We will update this post with any new developments on the situation.

Source : Mashable

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