Travel Oregon launches Oregon Weather Compass

Travel Oregon launches Oregon Weather Compass

PORTLAND, ORE.

The Oregon Tourism Commission, dba Travel Oregon, recognizes that our region’s legendary rain may be its most famous winter weather pattern, but it’s hardly the only one. Sunnier (or snowier) skies are rarely more than a couple hours away.

Travel Oregon’s new Oregon Weather Compass is the first mobile site designed to point local and visiting explorers to the weather they want, along with a range of activities to make the most of it, using real-time weather data provided through a partnership with The Weather Channel.

Developed by Wieden + Kennedy, the Oregon Weather Compass is a mobile site for explorers geographically located in the state or within 300 miles of its border. According to a recent study by Pew Research Center, the most “universal” task among smartphone users is accessing location-based information, with 90 percent of users seeking directions and other location-related details.

Geography quiz

Q. Name the landlocked Balkan country surrounded by Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and Bulgaria.

A. Macedonia. The country, which is about the size of Vermont, has a population that’s slightly more than 2 million. Its capital is Skopje.

Tubman park in NY faces final hurdle

AUBURN, N.Y.

The proposed Harriet Tubman National Historic Park in central New York still needs to overcome one final hurdle.

Legislation has already passed to pave the way for the park’s creation in the city of Auburn, but the project still needs to be officially established under the National Park Service. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is urging the federal Department of the Interior to do so before year’s end.

Tubman was an escaped slave from Maryland who lived in Auburn in her later years. She used her home there to shelter her parents and many African-Americans who escaped slavery, and she also was active in the women’s suffrage movement.

SeaWorld cuts 320 jobs in restructuring

ORLANDO, FLA.

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. is eliminating 320 jobs across its 12-park company.

Company officials said last week in a statement that the goal of the restructuring is to eliminate costs and improve the company’s operations.

The job eliminations involve both salaried and hourly workers. The company says it will offer severance packages and job-placement assistance to affected workers.

SeaWorld’s attendance and revenue have suffered in the face of a campaign by animal-rights activists.

Earlier this year, the company announced it was ending its orca-breeding program and stopping its traditional killer-whale shows.

The company has parks in Florida, Texas, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

From bus terminal to historic place?

SAVANNAH, GA.

Savannah’s old Atlantic Greyhound Bus Terminal – now known as The Grey restaurant – could soon be on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Savanna Morning News reported a recent release by the U.S. Department of the Interior said the building has been nominated for the designation because of its architecture and role in transportation during its “period of significance,” which is listed from 1938 to 1965.

Combined dispatches