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RE/MAX Retained No. 2 Ranking for Residential Listings Sold in City of Chicago Real Estate Market During 2011

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) February 12, 2012

RE/MAX Northern Illinois agents sold the second largest number of residential real estate listing units in the City of Chicago during 2011. Due to their efforts, RE/MAX held on to its runner-up position to the market leader, with an 8.3 percent share of listings sold in the Chicago real estate market.

According to statistics released by Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC, the local regional multiple listing service, RE/MAX Northern Illinois brokerages sold 1,485 listings in the city during 2011, second only to Chicago's @properties. This number puts RE/MAX ahead of such other prominent competitors as Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Baird & Warner and Prudential.

RE/MAX agents also represented buyers in 1,210 home sales during 2011, giving
RE/MAX brokerages a combined 2,695 attached and detached Chicago home sales last year.

RE/MAX Northern Illinois first vaulted into the second-place spot for listings sold in Chicago during the first half of 2011. During those six months, RE/MAX boasted the largest increase in transactions among Chicago's top six real estate brands.

"We are all proud of the year that RE/MAX agents and brokerages had in 2011," said Laura Ortoleva, a spokesperson for RE/MAX Northern Illinois. "RE/MAX offices are staffed by some of the most talented and hard-working agents in the city. It's little surprise that RE/MAX remains a major player in the Chicago housing market."

Ortoleva said that she expects RE/MAX Northern Illinois to continue its strong performance in Chicago during 2012.

The Chicago housing market ended 2011 on a strong note, with the sales of existing homes rising in December by 6.2 percent when compared to the same month one year earlier, according to numbers from the Illinois Association of REALTORS®. The hope is that this bodes well for higher condominium and single-family home sales in the city in 2012.

"We have made a commitment to the city, and that is reflected in our strong sales numbers," Ortoleva said. "I expect our performance in Chicago to remain strong in this new year."

RE/MAX has been the leader in the northern Illinois real estate market since 1989. The RE/MAX Northern Illinois network, with headquarters in Elgin, Ill., consists of 2,100 sales associates and 110 individually owned and operated RE/MAX offices that provide a full range of brokerage services throughout the northern one-third of Illinois. Its http://www.illinoisproperty.com and http://www.remax.com websites are leaders in consumer visits among real estate franchise brands. Its mobile search, m.illinoisproperty.com, allows users to conduct real estate searches on any mobile device with Internet access. The northern Illinois network is part of RE/MAX LLC, a global real estate organization with 89,000 sales associates in 87 nations.

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RE/MAX Retained No. 2 Ranking for Residential Listings Sold in City of Chicago Real Estate Market During 2011

Ariz. tribe votes to take over Skywalk management

(AP)  FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A northwestern Arizona tribe has voted to take over management of the Grand Canyon Skywalk from the Las Vegas developer who built it.

David Jin partnered with the Hualapai Tribe to build the horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that juts out from the Grand Canyon on the reservation. But the two sides have been locked in a contract dispute for the past year over revenue shares and an incomplete visitor center.

The Tribal Council voted Tuesday to declare eminent domain over the management contract and provide $11 million in compensation to Jin. The amount is about one-tenth of what Jin has said is fair market value for his $30 million investment.

"The Tribe did not ask for this dispute," Councilman Charles Vaughn said in a statement. "But we have made a sincere effort through private negotiations with Mr. Jin, and he still refuses to make the most basic concessions and complete the work he promised. His participation has been unproductive and created countless delays. At this point, there are simply no other options."

The Tribal Council passed an eminent domain ordinance last year that Jin had suspected was aimed at him. He went to federal court to try to keep the tribe from severing the Skywalk contract under the ordinance, but the judge said the tribe had not sought to enforce it and told Jin he must first exhaust tribal court remedies.

A separate case that Jin filed in tribal court to force arbitration also was dismissed, giving Jin the option of returning to federal court.

Jin approached the Hualapai Tribe in 1996 with a plan to build the Skywalk with his own money. The attraction just west of Grand Canyon National Park has about 300,000 visitors a year and is a major tourist draw for the tribe.

The Skywalk extends 70 feet from the canyon rim and 4,000 feet above the Colorado River. It's designed to withstand 100 mph winds and has shock absorbers to keep the walkway from wobbling as people pass over.

Under an agreement with the tribe, Jin is supposed to split revenues with the tribe for 25 years in exchange for his investment.

The American Arbitration Association ultimately agreed to hear the dispute, and the two sides were supposed to be exchanging documents when the council voted to enforce eminent domain, Jin's representatives said.

Jin has said in court documents that he believes the tribe's motivation in passing the ordinance is to avoid the embarrassment of explaining how ticket revenues evaporated under its watch and to keep from paying him what he's owed.

The tribe denied that and reiterated its stance Wednesday that Jin hasn't fulfilled contractual obligations to complete a visitor center that tourists must pass through to access the Skywalk and failed to account for funding.

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Ariz. tribe votes to take over Skywalk management

Tucows Fourth Quarter Investment Community Conference Call is Wednesday, February 15, 2012 AT 5:00 P.M. (ET)

TORONTO, Feb. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Tucows Inc. (TSX: TC, AMEX: TCX) plans to report its fourth quarter fiscal 2011 financial results via news release on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at approximately 4:00 p.m. (ET). Tucows management will host a conference call the same day at 5:00 p.m. (ET) to discuss the results and the outlook for the company.

Participants can access the conference call via the Internet at http://tucowsinc.com/investors.

For those unable to participate in the conference call at the scheduled time, it will be archived for replay both by telephone and via the Internet beginning approximately one hour following completion of the call. To access the archived conference call by telephone, dial 416-849-0833 or 1-855-859-2056 and enter the pass code 48872391 followed by the pound key.  The telephone replay will be available until Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at midnight. To access the archived conference call as an MP3 via the Internet, go to http://tucowsinc.com/investors.

About Tucows
Tucows is a global Internet services company. OpenSRS (http://opensrs.com) manages over eleven million domain names and millions of email boxes through a reseller network of over 12,000 web hosts and ISPs. Hover (http://hover.com) is the easiest way for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses. Ting (http://ting.com) is a mobile phone service provider dedicated to bringing clarity and control to US mobile phone users. YummyNames (http://yummynames.com) owns premium domain names that generate revenue through advertising or resale. More information can be found on Tucows' corporate website (http://tucows.com).

Tucows, OpenSRS, Hover, and YummyNames are registered trademark of Tucows Inc. or its subsidiaries.

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Tucows Fourth Quarter Investment Community Conference Call is Wednesday, February 15, 2012 AT 5:00 P.M. (ET)

Making investment more vibrant

Front Line Crusader: Dot skater makes her mark for Holy Cross hockey team

Caroline English moves up ice. Photo courtesy Holy Cross Athletic Dept.

Caroline English is a hockey player with a rare mix of skills: She’s both aggressive and lighthearted and that combination has taken her places in her collegiate career. The 22-year-old junior at Holy Cross College has come a long way since her days in the Dorchester Youth Hockey League. Now she scores game-winning goals against University of Massachusetts Boston, as she did this past Saturday.

 In the three years the Dorchester native has been playing on Holy Cross’s women’s hockey team, she has notched 53 points and has been named ECAC Rookie of the Week, AT&T Crusader of the Week, and to the ECAC All-Academic Team.

This season she was voted assistant captain of her team and elected to the Jansen Leadership Academy.
English is a player who constantly motivates her teammates, according to her coach, Peter Van Buskirk.

“She has such a positive attitude and she is able to connect with everyone. She’s always upbeat and maintains that attitude regardless of what happens on the ice,” Van Buskirk said.

English joined St. Ann’s Color Guard with her sister when she was six years old, but abandoned it a year later for hockey. She broke in her first pair of skates fifteen years ago at the Devine Ice Rink in Neponset.

Her best friend, Jimmy Hayes — who recently made his NHL debut on the Chicago Blackhawks — played the sport. “I wanted to be like him, so that’s really how I started,” said English.

A self-proclaimed tomboy, she joined the Dorchester Youth Hockey League, where her teammates were almost all boys.

English’s mother, Moira, remembers a game where Caroline went down hard on the ice and her father, Jim, didn’t think she was going to get back up. “After that, the boys always had her back,” said Moira.

Aside from her DYH experience, English also skated for Charles River Girls Hockey and at Boston Latin Academy. She was accepted into Tabor Academy as a sophomore and played there for three years, where she was the captain of her team.

English was recruited by Van Buskirk and he has not been disappointed. “She’s been a first-line player since she arrived. She had very good skating speed, was very competitive, and good puck skills. I was happy to recruit her,” he said.

Fresh off her team’s latest win, English was eager to talk about Saturday’s game.

“It felt really good. I’ve been in a funk with scoring. [Teammate] Stacey Hochkiss kept setting me up and I kept missing so it felt good to finally put it in the net,” said English of her game-winning goal.

When English isn’t playing hockey, she spends time mentoring young students at Quinsigamond Elementary School in Worcester, where she has worked for the past three years. She helps her coach at the school’s ice rink sharpening skates, and also works at a coffee shop on campus. She hopes to work with kids after graduating.

“I love working with kids. I have a lot of little cousins that I see all the time,” she said.

Moira is very close to her daughter and is proud how Caroline has developed as a hockey player and a person. “She puts her heart and soul into the game. It’s a thrilling ride to watch her,” she says.

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Front Line Crusader: Dot skater makes her mark for Holy Cross hockey team