Southwest Airlines has obtained more favorable lease rates on many of its Boeing 717 aircraft that joined its fleet as part of the acquisition of AirTran Airways. Southwest recently-released annual report noted the existence of “lease rate reductions negotiated for the Boeing 717 leases.”

While Southwest did not provide much more in terms of detail, the annual report for Boeing Capital Corporation suggests that it could be the lessor behind the rate reductions:

In the fourth quarter of 2011 we revised the contractual terms of our leases with AirTran in conjunction with a full guarantee from Southwest of those lease payment obligations. Rev

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Hummingbird from Salento, Colombia

The beautiful glowing green hummingbird was seen flying around bird feeders in near Salento, Colombia during our hike through Valle de Cocora.

Seventeen restaurants and hotels in Orange County have earned a top hospitality award for their pampering service and luxurious surroundings.

The seven restaurants and 10 hotels are among 120 that earned the “AAA Four Diamond Award” for 2012 – an annual survey produced by the Automobile Club of Southern California. The four diamond designation is awarded to the top 3.8 percent of 59,000 hotels and restaurants inspected by the organization’s reviewers. Results were released Friday, Jan. 2

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Few holiday classical music concerts draw more devoted audiences than those that take place on New Year’s Eve at two of the Pariss  most splendid and historic churches, L’Eglise St. Germain des Prés and Ste. Chapelle.

Both offer high quality music in particularly atmospheric settings.  St. Germain des Prés, the oldest church in Paris, was built in the sixth century and boasts a Romanesque nave and a Gothic choir with gilded capitals, while Ste. Chapelle is a jewel of Gothic architecture, with radiant stained glass windows.

This year’s program at L’Eglise St. Germain des

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RALEIGH, N.C. — On Saturday, January 21, learn the stories behind some of the Executive Mansion’s furniture and artifacts with Maria Shevzov, acting curator of decorative arts at the N.C. Museum of History and North Carolina’s Executive Mansion. The free lecture takes place at 1 p.m. in the old House Chamber. In this multimedia presentation, Shevzov will introduce several objects from the collection to discuss the medium, the use of the object, and the private lives of the public families who used these items.  When the Executive Mansion was completed in 1891, high construction costs limited the amount of money that remained for the purchase of furnishings. Dan

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