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There was a time when Sarah Truckey had a close relationship with her blog. The St. Louis-based freelance writer visited it every couple of days, sharing stories and thoughts with anyone willing to read them.

But today, the intervals between visits are growing longer as Truckey, 25, increasingly turns to social networking site Twitter to talk to the world. She likes the way Twitter limits entries to 140 characters, forcing her to keep those missives short.

"The blog posts wouldn’t necessarily get me in trouble. But I would end up revealing more than I should," Truckey said.

While not ready to abandon the blog altogether, Truckey does represent a growing trend in the world of blogging. Young people just aren’t as interested in them as they once were. And it’s yet another example of the way rapid changes in technology — and the way we use it — can transform you from trendy to dinosaur seemingly overnight.

MySpace? Out. Facebook? In. Using a cell phone for phone calls? Out. Using it to send a text message? In. E-mail? Outside of scammers and spammers, does anyone use it?

OK, there’s a bit of hyperbole there. But it’s clear we live in a world where our ways of communicating are changing so fast that it’s virtually impossible, particularly for older adults, to stay current.

And certainly there are times when keeping up can be critical. As the parent of virtually every cell phone-toting teenager or young adult knows, you learn to text if you want to keep in touch.

Still, there’s no reason to obsess over every new communication development, said Dean Terry, director of emerging media at the University of Texas at Dallas. Some basic familiarity with social networking and texting may be all you need to get by. It’s not as if the old ways will just die out.

"Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t keep up with everything," Terry said. "We still have radio. We still have plays. And we still have novels."

In so many ways, it is the nation’s army of teenagers and young adults that’s deciding for the rest of us what’s cool and what’s not. Those decisions can, and often do, change quite quickly.

"Adults are always playing catch-up. And unfortunately, when we get there, (teens) may have already moved on," said Gary Rudman, a California-based market researcher who specializes in teens.

Just look at what’s happened to blogging, an area that’s still growing in popularity with older Americans, just as it’s losing steam with the younger set.

The percentage of older adults — those over the age of 29 — who say they maintain a blog has increased from 7 percent to 11 percent since December 2007, according to a recent report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Meanwhile the ranks of bloggers in the 18-29 age group fell from 24 percent to 15 percent during the same time frame quick payday loans.

The drop has been even greater among teen bloggers. In 2006, 28 percent of online teens said they blogged. Only 14 percent say the same thing today, according to Pew.

Social networking experts cite some pretty simple reasons for the decline of young bloggers.

Some suggest that it’s tied, at least partly, to the decline in popularity of My- Space, the one-time king of social networking. In recent years, social networkers have made a decided shift to Facebook, which puts more emphasis on short status updates and less emphasis on blogging.

"Because of what each site offers, that really changes what people do," said Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist with Pew.

Others say blogging simply doesn’t match well with the preferred communication style of young people, who like quick exchanges via text message and Facebook status updates. Some even suggest that young people might have skipped blogs altogether if they had arrived at the same time texting was taking off. Many young people just don’t have time in their lives for blogs.

"We used to think of blogs as short little blips of commentary. But now they seem very long," said Terry, from the University of Texas. "If you are updating your Facebook or Twitter all day, then in some ways you’ve gotten it all out. You’ve said everything you wanted to say."

Some attribute the decline of blogging and MySpace — and anything else being abandoned by young people — to the desire of teens and young adults trying to carve out their own space.

Rarely are they happy to see that space infiltrated by parents and grandparents.

"As soon as it becomes too popular, they want to move on to something else," said Kathryn Montgomery, a professor of communication at American University in Washington.

Not everyone buys that.

"That’s been the routine theory about why MySpace lost ground to Facebook," said Steve Jones, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. A lot of adults are using Facebook now. And I don’t see younger people leaving in droves."

And really, it’s not necessarily the end of the world even if the youngsters do run off to greener pastures.

Rebecca Hanes, 36, of St. Louis, has been blogging for five years. She actually has a pair of blogs, including one she describes as "a big ol’ bowl of soup" in terms of content.

Hanes shrugged off the news that young bloggers have been dropping left and right. She says she has no plans to abandon her own little slice of cyberspace: "As far as I’m concerned, it’s probably something I’ll always have."

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Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday that owners of Toyotas affected by the recall should bring their cars to a dealer.

"My advice is if you have one of these vehicles, if you have a doubt, take it to Toyota today," LaHood told reporters after a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Earlier, LaHood had told a House committee that Toyota owners should "stop driving" and bring affected cars back to the company. He later referred to that as a "misstatement."

The Transportation agency also released a statement advising owners "to contact their local dealerships to arrange for fixes as soon as possible."

"We appreciate Secretary LaHood’s clarification of his remarks today about Toyota’s recall for sticking accelerator pedals," Toyota said in a statement. "We want to make sure our customers understand that this situation is rare and generally does not occur suddenly."

The automaker said if Toyota owners notice a problem, they should contact their dealerships immediately. But if a car is not experiencing pedal issues, Toyota said it is confident the vehicle is safe to drive.

Toyota officials announced on Monday they had found a solution that involved reinforcing the pedal assembly with a part that is being rushed to dealerships.

The problem, however, is that drivers are not likely to get a quick fix. Toyota told dealers in a letter on Tuesday that "parts and technical instructions will begin arriving this week for you to begin initiating repairs."

The confusion has worried Toyota owners like Maria Ciresi, 75, of Smithtown, N.Y.

"I’m deadly afraid to use it," said Ciresi, referring to the new car she bought in November that has only 300 miles on it.

She said she contacted two of her local Toyota dealerships, but was told that they "don’t know when" they would be able to fix her car.

"You have to be notified first by mail," she said.

Ciresi said she contacted Toyota directly, and was told to "drive the car, and if anything happens, put it in neutral."

Meanwhile, Ciresi said she’s paying $190 a month for insurance and $263 a month on car payments for a vehicle she doesn’t dare use.

LaHood also acknowledged that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Toyotas not just for problems with gas pedals, but for problems with the electrical systems, as well.

"We will also be investigating the electronic components that are in these cars and if they’re not safe, we’ll have Toyota take a look at that," LaHood said.

He said that Toyota has been cooperative in the investigations.

Toyota has recalled millions of vehicles in recent weeks due to problems with sticking gas pedals that cause the vehicles to accelerate out of control and later halted the sale of the eight vehicles involved in the recall.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the model-make of a car. 

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China property sales jumped 75.5 percent to 4.4 trillion yuan ($644 billion) last year, led by the eastern cities of Zhejiang and Shanghai, as record new loans boosted buying.

The sales data follows last week’s announcement that December property prices rose 7.8 percent, the fastest pace in 18 months, adding urgency to government efforts to rein in speculation. China this month reimposed a sales tax on homes sold within five years of their purchase while the country’s cabinet on Jan. 10 urged strict application of a 40 percent down-payment requirement for second homes. The measures are likely to weigh on first-quarter sales, economist Lu Ting said.

‘We will see very bad transaction numbers, even though prices may not fall that much as the supply of new homes is still low,” Lu, a Hong Kong-based economist at Bank of America- Merrill Lynch, said by phone today. Today’s data more accurately reflect last year’s gain in asset values, he said

By floor area, sales rose 42 percent from 2008 to 937 million square meters (10 billion square feet), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its Web site today. That compares with a 53 percent gain between January and November, when sales value advanced 86.8 percent. December’s declining sales growth reflects the seasonally slow winter period, Lu said.

The December figure for property prices probably understated the size of the increase, the economist said. “In reality, the inflation in asset prices may be between 20 percent and 30 percent, and that is way too high for the policy- makers,” Lu said.

Shanghai Gain

Zhejiang topped the increase in sales value, with a 130 percent gain, the statistics bureau said today. In Shanghai, the gain was 126 percent.

Investment in property development in 2009 rose 16.1 percent to 3.62 trillion yuan, the statistics bureau said. That was less than the 17.8 percent gain in the first 11 months. Chinese banks extended a record 9.59 trillion yuan of new loans last year.

To counter property speculation, China is tightening lending. Chinese banks from Jan. 18 raised the share of deposits they must set aside as reserves, as the government seeks to rein in liquidity from record lending without stalling a recovery. China is targeting 8 percent growth this year, Industry Minister Li Yizhong said Dec. 21.

Developers Sales Surge

Shanghai Shimao Co., the local unit of billionaire Xu Rongmao’s developer Shimao Holdings Holdings Ltd., said today that 2009 profit may quadruple, partly due to higher sales from additional commercial property projects.

Earlier this month, some of China’s biggest developers said 2009 sales increased significantly.

China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd., owned by the country’s construction ministry, said property sales rose 80 percent to HK$47.8 billion. Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd., China’s third-biggest developer by market value, said Jan. 5 that contracted sales jumped fivefold to 30.3 billion yuan.

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Mark Tade, manager of employee relations for U.S. Steel’s Granite City Works, was elected as this year’s president of the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois, a key economic development organization in the Metro East area.

Members also chose four other council officers for one-year terms:

— Council chairman, Vaughn Vandegrift, chancellor of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

— Council vice president, Gerry Schuetzenhofer, president of Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors
— Secretary, Richard Sauget Sr short term personal loan., president of East County Enterprises

— Treasurer, Dale Stewart, executive secretary/treasurer of the Southwestern Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council

The Leadership Council was organized to attract and retain jobs and stimulate capital investment in the Metro East area.

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IMPERIAL — John V. Price won’t sell you a house. But he’ll sell you a place to build your dream home.

Price, 62, owns Price Acreage LLC, a family-operated business that has been developing semi-rural and suburban home sites in Jefferson and St. Francois counties.

The company subdivides large tracts of wooded land, extends roads and utilities to the rural site, and then sells individual plots of one to six acres each to buyers who later contract with their own homebuilders.

"The freedom to build what they want when they want to build" attracts buyers, Price said. "The lots are big, and different house styles in that environment don’t clash."

He first got into the real estate business with his father, Homer V. Price, who developed subdivisions and home sites in Jefferson County for nearly 50 years before his death in 2004. Among Homer Price’s developments was Olympian Village during the 1960s. After this father’s death, John Price founded Price Acreage.

John Price’s latest project is the Hollows at Frisco Hill subdivision in the Imperial area.

He said the 48 large, heavily wooded lots at the Hollows were particularly attractive because the development is less than 15 minutes from south St. Louis County.

The access roads and utilities are now in place, and the first lots are being sold.

Five deals have closed on the lots since they went on the market early in December, Price said. He said he expected construction of the first houses in the development to start this month, weather permitting.

"It’s a great, great location," he said. "It’s extremely convenient to everything."

The 90-acre development is just southwest of the intersection of Frisco Hill Road and Ambrose Crossing, along the new Frisco Hollows Road that serves the site.

The lots sell for about $69,000 to more than $140,000 each, depending on the size. The average cost of a lot is about $80,000.

Price said that was a good deal — coupled with housing construction costs of $200,000 or so — for a big house on a big lot near the city.

The Hollows does have some restrictions on construction. Houses must have a minimum of 2,000 square feet of floor space and garages that hold at least two cars.

A large range of home styles is allowed, but also within some restrictions on building materials and designs.

Eventually, a property committee of at least three Hollows property owners will be formed to maintain the subdivision roads. The committee also will collect subdivision assessments to be established for community expenditures, such as electric bills for street lights, common ground maintenance, snow removal and road repairs, Price said.

So far, most of the buyers and prospective buyers he’s worked with already live in the Imperial area, Price said. They know about the convenience of the area and simply want to move up to nicer, more private homes at a reasonable cost, he said.

"Our customers are generally pretty sophisticated, and they know what lots cost here and elsewhere," Price said.

The developers had tried to maintain the natural woods as much as possible in subdividing the site and building access roads, said Jeff Price, 27, who works with his father on the Hollows.

"We build to the land, not through the land," he said. "We strive for quality over quantity."

Jeff Price said the trees that did have to be removed for the development were ground into mulch for use by tract buyers.

"On many construction projects, that would have got hauled off and just thrown away," he said.

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South Korean banks may become more willing to finance acquisitions next year as the economy rebounds, said Morgan Stanley Executive Director Peter Chang.

Lenders may “begin to become more open over the next year on providing acquisition financing for deals,” Chang, 32, who oversees Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions advisory in South Korea, said in an interview in Seoul yesterday. “Improvements in the availability of financing will also help drive the overall level of M&A activity.”

South Korea’s benchmark stock index has jumped 47 percent this year as Asia’s fourth-largest economy leads a regional rebound from the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The economic recovery will fuel overseas takeovers by South Korean companies, Chang said.

“Korea’s economy has held up very well relative to other countries during the financial crisis,” he said. “We think that will create more opportunities for outbound M&A.”

South Korea’s growth will outpace all except China and India among the world’s 15 largest economies over the next two years, according to the International Monetary Fund. The average capital-adequacy ratio at the country’s 18 banks rose to 14.07 percent at the end of September, the highest since at least 2003, the Financial Supervisory Services said Nov. 25.

The ratio, which measures banks’ capital reserves against assets at risk, had fallen to as low as 10.86 percent a year earlier, forcing the government to set up a 20 trillion won ($17 billion) fund to replenish their capital.

Daewoo, Hynix

Morgan Stanley was the top adviser in mergers involving Korean companies this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New York-based company advised Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. on its 451.6 million euro ($644 million) acquisition of Skoda Power AS of the Czech Republic, the South Korean company’s largest overseas takeover.

Not all companies expected to be up for sale next year will find buyers, Chang said. Korea Development Bank plans to select advisers this month for the sale of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world’s second-biggest shipbuilder. Hynix Semiconductor Inc. creditors are accepting letters of intent from potential bidders until Jan. 29.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said Dec. 16 the government will focus on selling control of Daewoo Shipbuilding, Hynix, Daewoo International Corp. and Daewoo Electronics Corp. next year.

“It remains to be seen if these deals can all be completed over the coming year,” Chang said. “Particularly for larger assets, there are typically only a limited number of parties who are logical, viable acquirers.”

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NEW YORK–The nation's retailers suffered miserably through November as a modestly positive start to the holiday shopping season wasn't strong enough to offset weak spending the rest of the month.

After posting two consecutive monthly sales gains after more than a year of declines, merchants collectively posted a surprise 0.3 percent decrease for November, compared with a year ago when business plummeted to historic lows as spooked shoppers clamped down after the financial meltdown. The sales decrease is an ominous sign for an economy in the early stages of a fragile recovery.

Now, the big worry is whether consumers won't go back to the stores until the final hours before Dec. 25 as they wait for even bigger discounts in a season that many analysts had hoped would generate sales that would be unchanged from a year ago.

According to sales results announced Thursday, most stores including department store chains Macy's Inc.,Children's Place Retail Stores Inc., teen merchant Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and discounter Target Corp. posted sales declines. Warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale Corp. posted a sales gain, though it's smaller than expected. Another exception was Limited Brands Inc., which runs Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. It reported a solid sales gain instead of the sales decrease that Wall Street projected.

The figures are based on sales at stores open at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailers' health because they exclude the effects of store expansions or closings.

The 0.3 percent drop, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Index, is far worse than the original 5 to 8 percent growth forecast, which was whittled down to 3 to 4 percent gain earlier this week. The weak results come on top of a 7.7 percent drop a year ago.

"This suggests that consumers are still under a significant amount of pressure from unemployment and job worries," Ken Perkins, president of retail research firm Retail Metrics.

After consumers showed some signs of life in September and October, merchants saw a sales lull throughout November until shoppers crowded stores and malls for the early morning specials for the day after Thanksgiving payday loan lenders.

According to reports, however, shoppers were picky about what they bought for themselves and others, focusing on discounted basics like microwaves, boots and bed sheets over the holiday weekend. The hot areas were electronics and online shopping, which is not reflected in most of Thursday's sales figures.

Economists say that depressed spending could persist for several years amid stubbornly high unemployment – now at 10.2 percent, the highest in 26 years.

Amid a challenging economy, Costco fared well, posting a 6 percent increase; results were less than the 8.1 percent gain that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected. However, half of that increase results from currency shifts and higher gas prices.

But discounter Target said that strong sales during Thanksgiving weekend were not enough to offset weak business the rest of the month, sending sales in stores open at least a year down 1.5 percent. The drop was bigger than the 0.5 percent drop analysts were expecting and were on top of the 10.4 percent decline in November 2008.

Discount retailer Fred's Inc. posted a 3.3 percent decline, a bigger drop than the 1.6 percent decrease analysts predicted. The retailer said its pharmacy department was strong in the month but discretionary spending by consumers remained weak.

Consumers "utilized layaways to a much greater extent than last year, deferring recognition of those sales until December," said CEO Bruce A. Efird.

Macy's sales in stores open at least a year fell 6.1 percent in November, a bigger than analysts expected.

Macy's said the month was hurt by a shift of a sales event and warm weather. Still, Macy's said it had strong traffic early on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when many Americans go shopping. Analysts had expected a 3.1 percent drop.

Abercrombie & Fitch's woes continued, with sales falling 17 percent, much worse than the 9.3 percent decline analysts predicted.

But Limited posted a 3 percent sales gain, surpassing estimates from analysts who had expected a 2.5 percent decline.

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Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced Wednesday that the city has closed a section of Kapiolani Park frequented by homeless people.

The area, a grass strip between Kalakaua Avenue and the sidewalk, will be closed for “ongoing maintenance and beautification work,” according to Hannemann.

It was unclear how long the city would cordon off the grassy border along the street, but the homeless population in Kapiolani Park has been a growing concern for the past several years. Over the past month, dozens of homeless have set up tents and belongings on the grass strip in an effort to get around the city’s closure of the park.

Currently, portions of the park on the mountain side of Kalakaua are closed from midnight to 5 a.m., while portions of the park on the ocean side of Kalakaua are closed from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m.

Overnight camping is also not permitted in the park, but that hasn’t stopped a determined core of homeless who set up tents and move only when prodded by police.

“We are committed to keeping Kapiolani Park clean and safe for everyone,” Hannemann said in a news release.

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County assessors will mail 2009 personal property forms to business owners this month.

Oregon law requires all business owners — even owners of home-based businesses — to file a personal property tax return with their county assessor every year.

Business owners must complete and return them to their assessors by March 1, 2010. Tax owed on personal property is shown on property tax statements and is due Nov. 15, 2010.

Completed returns must include a detailed list of all business-related personal property, along with equipment purchase and lease dates, and original costs.

Personal property may include office furniture, personal computers, easily moved machinery, and even off-road vehicles and display cases if they are used in the business. It also includes leased equipment such as copiers and power washers.

The county assessor calculates the tax due each year based on the business owner’s personal property return. The assessor may cancel the tax if total personal property is valued under $15,000.

If you’re a business owner, you must file a return each year even if:

• You didn’t receive a tax return from the county in which your property is located;
• The assessor cancelled your tax in prior years;
• You sold or closed your business during the year; or
• You sold or disposed of your personal property.

“If a business owner doesn’t file, penalties range from 5 percent to 50 percent of the taxes due, depending on when they file returns from previous years,” said Syndi Gates, a department tax analyst.

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Howard Weaver, former vice president for news at The McClatchy Co., has been acting as an adviser for an online news startup by eBay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar.

Omidyar and Randy Ching, both former eBay executives, established Peer News Inc. in 2008 with the goal of producing original, in-depth reporting and analysis of local issues in Hawaii. The Honolulu-based news service is set to make its debut early next year.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of people in the industry about journalism and how we might be able to have an impact, listening and learning as much as we can,” Omidyar wrote on his Peer News blog. “One of the people who has been a huge help in particular as we began to envision our local news service is longtime industry insider Howard Weaver …”

Peer News has announced it is searching for an editor, and Weaver has said on his blog that he’ll be part of the team looking at candidates. Weaver is not a candidate himself.

Weaver wrote about the startup last week:

“I’m interested for a lot of reasons, but I’d sum it up this way: the new venture intends to demonstrate that a digitally native, technologically fluent Web organization can profitably serve targeted readers who want sophisticated journalism focused on local civic affairs.”

Weaver, who twice led his hometown paper, the Anchorage Daily News, to Pulitzer Prize gold medals, retired from McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) about a year ago. Reached at his home in Sacramento, Weaver said he’s keeping busy in his “next phase” of life. When he’s not advising and blogging, he’s consulting, sitting on a company board of directors, having fun and “trying to write fiction.”

e.Republic takes on ‘Governing’

E.Republic Inc., a Folsom publishing and research company that focuses on government technology news and events for the government and education markets, just made its first acquisition, expanding beyond information technology to government policy.

E.Republic will buy “Governing” magazine from the Times Publishing Co guaranteed approval payday loans. The deal is expected to close Nov. 30. Details were not disclosed.

E.Republic has about 150 employees and continues to grow, unlike many news organizations that have laid off workers during the recession, said Paul Harney, chief operating officer for e.Republic. He said it’s been a tough year for the company’s print publications, except for “Emergency Management.” But e.Republic’s Web sites are “robust” and sponsorships for the company’s 160 events are strong, Harney said.

“People still want to meet face to face and talk business,” he said.

E.Republic also is home to the 10-year-old Center for Digital Government, which provides market research on technology and trends in local and state government.

Harney said e.Republic will be adding staff from “Governing” but it’s unclear yet how many. “Governing” will remain in its Washington, D.C., offices under the leadership of publisher Fred Kuhn.

Harney said the 80,000-circulation publication has been around for 20 years and has a loyal audience.

Extra! Extra! N&R moving

The Sacramento News & Review is finally making its move out of midtown from a rented space at 1015 20th St. to a once-vacant and dilapidated building at 1124/1132 Del Paso Blvd.

The free alternative weekly newspaper’s 60-member staff is set to move Dec. 10.

The newspaper received about $2 million in grants and loans from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency to finance the purchase and renovation of the building, and another $2 million from a Small Business Administration loan. The project has been in the works for several years, said Sacramento News & Review president and chief executive officer Jeff vonKaenel.

“We’re very exciting about moving over,” he said.

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