Anheuser-Busch has sold Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, Sea World and seven other theme parks to the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm with stakes in Universal Orlando and Legoland, for $2.7 billion. Season passes are still good and Howl-O-Scream and Christmas Town will continue for this year at least.
However, the iconic Budweiser Clydesdales are still owned by Anheuser-Busch. The company said the horses will leave the park and become part of a traveling exhibit to advertise beer.
Something for the mascot committee to consider: according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, schools with inanimate object mascots enjoyed the highest winning sports percentages over the last ten years, 55 percent. Indian mascots averaged 51.5 percent, bird mascots averaged 49.9 percent, and bear mascots finished last, winning only 46.5 percent of the time.
Two sub shops, Subway and Firehouse Subs, have announced they will open stores in High Street. If you’re counting, that doubles the number of open businesses in the retail complex.
Research in political science (known as “government” at the College) may not receive funding from the National Science Foundation if an amendment proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) passes. The senator said in a statement that political science has “little, if anything, to do with science” and the grant money could be better used elsewhere.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, NSF poli-sci funding in 2005, the latest year for which figures were available, totaled $9.4 million out of the agency’s $3.7 billion budget, approximately one quarter of one percent.
Style Weekly, a Richmond alternative weekly paper, named SnagAJob.com founder Shawn Boyer ’94 to their Top 40 Under 40, a list of young leaders who are transforming the state capitol.