“Cities Dream Of Landing Amazon's New HQ And They're Going To Great Lengths To Show It”

Officials in Tucson, Ariz Officials in Tucson, Ariz., uprooted a 21-foot-tall saguaro cactus and tried to have it delivered to Amazon's Seattle headquarters. Birmingham constructed giant Amazon boxes and placed them around the Alabama city. In Missouri, Kansas City's mayor bought a thousand items online from Amazon and posted reviews of each one. All of these cities are clearly trying hard to get Amazon's attention. Why? Because they know that otherwise, they don't stand a chance against some big-name cities that are all trying to win the contest to land Amazon's second headquarters. Earlier this year the retail giant announced that it has plans for a second home outside of Seattle, where it is currently headquartered. The project has been named HQ2, and the deadline for final bids is Thursday. Amazon has promised to invest $5 billion and said the facility will create as many as 50,000 jobs. It has led to a mad scramble from cities across the nation and even in Canada. On the wanted list of Amazon is: a metro area of a million or more people, access to mass transit and proximity to an international airport. 

In Other News Canadian Man Details Horrors Family Endured In Years Held By Haqqani Network http://www.npr.org/2017/10/15/557863642/canadian-man-details-horrors-family-endured-in-years-held-by-haqqani-network From fires and hurricanes, to confrontational politics — with all that's been going on, it's no wonder the American Psychological Association found an increase in Americans' stress levels over the last year. Our constant checking of smartphones can amp up our anxiety. So, why not use your device to help you disconnect? Mindfulness apps, such as Simply Being, are an increasingly popular way to help manage stress. Using this app, you can tap into a soundtrack of soothing sounds to help clear your mind. The idea behind mindfulness is simple to explain, but hard to execute. The goal is to focus on the present moment, and to let go of regrets of the past or worries about the future. And some researchers say apps can be a useful tool to assist this practice.