Lubbock keeps growing restaurants and retail | Lubbock Online ...

Several new businesses are on tap for the Hub City.

Colorado-based Noodles & Company is slated to open in mid-to-late January in the former Baskin-Robbins space at 1003 University Ave., across from the Texas Tech campus. The restaurant specializes in dishes from America, Asia and the Mediterranean and will employ about 30 people.

The location will seat about 100 inside and about 16 on a patio, said Communications Manager Mandy Melby. Square footage is about 3,100 feet inside. Construction value is $350,000.

The restaurant isn?t just noodles and pasta, Melby added. A variety of soups, salads and sandwiches inspired by global culture also are offered.

One of the most well-known dishes is the Wisconsin mac & cheese, and other favorites include the Japanese pan noodles and the Mediterranean salad, Melby said.

?We do really well with college kids, families, professionals,? Melby said. ?Wherever there is that mixture, it seems to be a recipe for success for us.?

Hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. To learn more, visit noodles.com.

The following businesses also have filed commercial building applications with the City of Lubbock:

RESTAURANTS

? Church?s Chicken, 5727 82nd St.

Church?s Chicken serves freshly prepared chicken with classic sides and hand-made biscuits. The Church?s system consists of more than 1,700 locations worldwide, with three already in Lubbock, according to its website.

The projected opening date is April 30, said development project manager Billy Newton. The company will hire about 20 employees.

Square footage is 2,557 feet.

Construction value is $250,000.

Operating hours will be 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.

To learn more, visit www.churchs.com.

? Egg & I Restaurant, 1910 Quaker Ave.

The Egg & I serves breakfast and lunch during all hours of operation, said director of marketing Jan Barnett. Forty-one egg dishes are featured. Other menu items include omelettes, waffles, whole wheat pancakes, sandwiches and salads. Homemade soups are served during lunchtime. The restaurant is headquartered in Centennial, Colo.

The company plans to open the restaurant in March. About 30 employees will be on board.

Square footage is 3,752 feet. Construction value is $275,000.

The Lubbock location?s hours will be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays; and 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekends, Barnett said.

The location will be locally owned and operated by Rudy and Kristen Martinez, Barnett added.

For the full menu, visit www.theeggandirestaurants.com.

? LongHorn Steakhouse, 4805 S. Loop 289, Building 500.

LongHorn Steakhouse operates more than 370 restaurants in 35 states and features steaks, chicken and fish.

Its projected opening date is April 29, said site development manager Jim Powell.

The company typically hires between 80 and 100 employees at its new restaurants, said company spokesperson Erica Jaeger in an email response.

The building area is 6,320 square feet. Construction value is $900,000.

The restaurant?s hours will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Jaeger said.

For more information, visit www.longhornsteakhouse.com.

? Subway, 928 Slide Road.

Subway is the world?s largest submarine sandwich chain with more than 37,000 locations around the world, according to its website.

Square footage is 1,596 feet, according to the application.

Construction value is $160,000.

Find more information at subway.com.

RETAIL

? A?GACI, 6002 Slide Road.

Trendy, affordable clothing for women, including the latest fashion in tops, dresses, pants, denim, accessories and shoes.

The store will open in late spring in the Grand Court of the South Plains Mall, said the mall?s marketing manager Ashley Knox.

Square footage is 14,568, according to the application. Construction value is $500,000.

A?GACI also has an online store at www.agacistore.com.

? Shoe Dept. Encore, 6002 Slide Road.

As part of Shoe Show Inc., Shoe Dept. Encore offers ladies?, men?s and children?s shoes, handbags, accessories and shoe care.

The store will open in the spring near the South Plains Mall food court, said the mall?s marketing manager Ashley Knox.

Square footage is 16,545 feet, according to the application. Construction value is $265,940.

For more, visit www.shoedept.com.

? Tuxedo Junction, 5217 82nd St.

Tuxedo Junction specializes in tuxedo rental and formal wear for wedding and prom rental and purchase, with locations across the country.

Square footage is 2,500 feet, according to the application.

Construction value is $33,000.

Visit the store online at www.tuxedojunction.com.

OTHER

? Marriott Courtyard, 308 Ave. V.

Marriott International is a leading lodging company with more than 3,700 properties in 74 countries and territories worldwide.

Square footage is 76,118 feet, according to the application.

Construction value is $6.7 million.

For more information, visit www.marriott.com/courtyard.

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Source: http://lubbockonline.com/business/2012-12-05/lubbock-keeps-growing-restaurants-and-retail

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Washington fears 'desperate' Assad could use chemical arms

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Western powers are whipping up fears of a fateful move to the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war as a "pretext for intervention", President Bashar al-Assad's deputy foreign minister said on Thursday.

He spoke as Germany's cabinet approved stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria, a step requiring deployment of NATO troops that Syria fears could permit imposition of a no-fly zone over its territory.

"Syria stresses again, for the tenth, the hundredth time, that if we had such weapons, they would not be used against its people. We would not commit suicide," Faisal Maqdad said.

U.S. President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders have warned that using chemical weapons would cross a red line and "there would be consequences". Assad would probably lose vital diplomatic support from Russia and China that has blocked military intervention in the 20-month-old uprising that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

Maqdad said Western reports that the Syrian military was preparing chemical weapons for use against rebel forces trying to close in on the capital Damascus were simply "theatre".

"In fact, we fear a conspiracy ... by the United States and some European states, which might have supplied such weapons to terrorist organizations in Syria, in order to claim later that Syria is the one that used these weapons," he said on Lebanon's Al Manar television, the voice of Hezbollah.

"We fear there is a conspiracy to provide a pretext for any subsequent interventions in Syria by these countries that are increasing pressure on Syria."

UNCONTROLLABLE

Exactly what Syria's army has done with suspected chemical weapons to prompt a surge of Western warnings is not clear. Reports citing Western intelligence and defense sources are vague and inconsistent.

The perceived threat may be discussed in Dublin on Thursday when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meet international Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi to try to put a U.N. peace process for Syria back on track.

The talks come ahead of a meeting of the Western-backed "Friends of Syria" group in Marrakech next week which is expected to boost support for rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Brahimi wants world powers to issue a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a transitional administration.

In addition to the possible use of chemical bombs by "an increasingly desperate" Assad, Clinton said Washington was concerned about the government losing control of such weapons to extreme Islamist armed groups among the rebel forces.

The United States is considering blacklisting one group suspected of ties to al Qaeda. U.S. officials confirmed that Jabhat al-Nusra, an influential rebel group accused of indiscriminate tactics that has advocated an Islamic state in Syria, was under review for blacklisting.

An explosion in front of the Damascus headquarters of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent killed at least one person on Thursday, Syrian state television said.

It blamed "terrorists from al Qaeda" -- a term often employed to refer to rebel forces.

Meanwhile, activists said the army pummeled several eastern suburbs of Damascus, where the rebels are dominant, with artillery and mortar fire. The suburbs have also been cut off from the city's water and electricity for weeks, rebels say, accusing the government of collective punishment.

COLLAPSE

Assad responded to past warnings about chemical weapons by taking steps to secure them, according to Israel's vice prime minister Moshe Yaalon.

"There is speculation that the chemical arsenal will fall into the hostile and irresponsible hands of the likes of al Qaeda or other terrorist groups. In the past, clear messages were relayed to Assad on a number of occasions, and in response Assad in fact gathered up the weaponry and separated the materials," Yaalon said on Wednesday.

Rebels say they have surrounded an air base 4 km (2-1/2 mikes) from the center of Damascus, a fresh sign the battle is closing in on the Syrian capital.

Maqdad, in his interview on Thursday, argued that reports of such advances were untrue: "What is sad is that foreign countries believe these repeated rumors."

But residents inside the capital say that the sound of shelling on the outskirts has become a constant backdrop and many fear the fight will soon come to Damascus.

The Western military alliance's decision to send U.S., German and Dutch Patriot missile batteries to help defend the Turkish border would bring European and U.S. troops to Syria's frontier for the first time in the 20-month-old civil war.

The actual deployment could take several weeks.

"Some countries now are now supplying Turkey with missiles for which there is no excuse. Syria is not going to attack the Turkish people," Maqdad said.

But a veteran Turkish commentator, Cengiz Candar of the Radikal newspaper, said Ankara fears Syria's 500 short-range ballistic missiles could fall into the wrong hands.

The government is "of the view that Syria was not expected to use them against Turkey, but that there was a risk of these weapons falling into the hands of 'uncontrolled forces' when the regime collapses", he wrote.

(Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-says-desperate-assad-could-chemical-arms-092339797.html

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PST: Wednesday's Champions League roundup

If Tuesday was defined by road success, Wednesday was about late goals. They turned matches in Gelsenkirchen, Manchester, Porto and St. Petersburg, and while we haven?t had time to catch up on all eight matches, we do have time for some snap judgments:

Group A

Porto 1-0 Paris Saint-Germain - James Rodriguez?s 83rd minute goal gives Porto a just result. Aside from a couple of moments of danger from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Portuguese champions were consistently the better side. Poor finishing let this match stay even until its final moments, but Porto?s Colombian dynamo made sure the hosts got three huge points. They sit on top of Group A perfect through two rounds.

Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb -?New coach Oleg Blohkin?s Champions League debut with Dynamo saw his team up two after 33 minutes. Ultimately, the win is just holding serve. Dinamo?s expected to finish bottom of this group. Today, we saw why.

Group B

Arsenal 3-1 Olympiacos -?As expected, Arsenal dominated the ball, but a goal from Kosta Mitroglou in first half stoppage time made this more interesting than Ars?ne Wenger would have liked. Lukas Podolski?s early second half winner (and Aaron Ramsey?s insurance tally) keeps the Gunners at the top of Group B ahead of their home-and-home with Schalke.

Schalke 2-2 Montpellier -?Like Arsenal, Schalke made it more difficult than they would have liked, falling behind in the 13th minute. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar?s second half penalty conversion was set to put Schalke along side Arsenal with six points, but a 90th minute goal from Souleymane Camara grabbed a point for Montpellier. It?s a disappointing result for Schalke, but safely in second place (three points up on Montpellier), they?re still in a strong position to go advance.

Group C

Zenit St. Petersburg 2-3 Milan - Two very fortunate goals (in off Zenit players) get a struggling Milan full points in Russia. Zenit only played well for 30 minutes in the middle of the match. With no points through two rounds, they?ll rue not giving a better effort while going down two in the first 16 minutes.

Anderlecht 0-3 M?laga -?We talked up M?laga as the better side, but a three-goal win is surprising. Anderlecht only put one shot on target as the Andalusians got another two-goal performance, this one from Eliseu. M?laga has six points, a +6 goal difference, and are going to be difficult to keep from the knockout rounds.

Group D

Manchester City 1-1 Borussia Dortmund -?Borussia Dortmund were clearly the better side, but when Neven Subotic capped a poor day with a hand ball in the 89th minute, City had their route into the match. Mario Balotelli converted, City got their point, and left few who will remember how much the Germans? superior play. We?ll drill down on this one later.

Ajax 1-4 Real Madrid -?It took Real Madrid 42 minutes to break through, and when Ajax pulled back a goal early in the second, it looked like we might have a game. Ultimately, El Real got the result we expected. They?re perfect on top of Group D, and Cristiano has back-to-back hat tricks. We?ll assume he?s happy now.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/03/uefa-champions-league-2012-results-3/related/

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Department of Unforced Errors (talking-points-memo)

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Fast Food Diet Participants Paid to Gain Weight

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are making an unusual offer: They are paying people to add fat to their own bodies by eating an extra 1,000-calorie fast food meal each day for three months.

Dr. Samuel Klein, the lead researcher in the study, wanted to do some basic research on why only some people who gain weight develop diabetes and hypertension, while others do not. It's something he said he couldn't research by feeding food pellets to lab animals.

"What you learn in rodents does not always translate to people," Klein said. "What you learn on flies and worms won't translate to people."

Fast food turns out to be a perfect food pellet replacement because it is good for measuring exactly what people are eating. The five restaurants chosen for the study were McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC.

"[Fast food restaurants] have very regulated food content," said Klein, the lead researcher of the study. "We know exactly the calories and macro-nutrient composition within fast food restaurants, so it's a very inexpensive, easy and tasteful way to give people extra calories."

There was also a cash incentive. Participants could earn up to $3,500, depending on how long it took them to reach the weight goal. They had to gain 5 percent to 6 percent of their body weight during the three-month span and then they could work to shed the pounds again. Researchers monitored their weight from week to week.

When the hospital put out an ad seeking participants, several people came forward.

Food 'Fix': Can Overeating Really be an Addiction? Watch Video

Dawn Freeman, a 50-year-old nurse who has now finished the program, started out weighing 170 pounds. She said she gained 16 pounds over the course of eight weeks.

She was compensated a total of $2,650 for her effort, including $50 to lose all the weight again, which she did with diet and walking exercise to help her get down to 162.8 pounds. The hospital guides participants through the weight loss.

Freeman said gaining weight fast -- with a doctor's persmission -- only sounds easy and even seemed easy with the first meal, a Big Mac and large fries from McDonalds.

"It was really good and you know the next night I went to Taco Bell and it was, it was wonderful," she said. "This is after I have already eaten dinner."

But Freeman eventually found out that gaining weight in a hurry was hard, something Klein predicted.

"This is not pleasant for them," Klein said. "It's not easy to stuff your face every day for a long period of time."

Freeman said she started to feel awful after two weeks, "I could hardly breathe anymore."

She is glad it's over. But another participant, Dave Giocolo, was about to find out that this experiment was not a food lovers' dream.

The 48-year-old bathroom design and supply salesman said when he heard the medical school's ad on the radio while commuting to work, he called them right away.

The St. Louis native starting weight was 249.9 pounds, with a goal of adding about 15 pounds for the study. So Giocolo, who never went without his morning McDonalds breakfast burrito, started eating quarter pounders for the sake of science.

He made so many drive-in runs that he knew the calories by heart, but around week four, those burgers and fries started to catch up with him. Giocolo said his knees and ankles started aching.

"It's getting harder to move," he said.

Metabolism is a mysterious thing. For Giocolo, the weight went on, slowly it seems. One week he actually lost about a pound. That's when researchers told him to up the quantitites. Around week 11, he said he was ready to be done with it.

Just last week, Giocolo finished the weight gain part of the study, hitting 268 pounds -- a gain of just over 18 pounds. He was compensated $3,225, and will receive more when he gets his weight back down to baseline.

Now his challenge is to lose the weight, helped maybe by the fact that he said he has lost his appetite for fast food, at least for a while.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=791bb4f44114325919a67dd619bc1553

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Jacksonville Actual Estate ? Chocolate Afterglow

Jacksonville, Florida is located within the northeast from the sate and it is at a crossroads of two interstate highways. Jacksonville could be the biggest metropolis that may be continuously changing inside the United states of america. They preserve expanding in recreational areas just like the NFL Jaguars as well as have turn out to be a popular place to the U.S. Navy. The Navy features a base which is situated in Jacksonville and it is one from the finest naval bases located in the states. Jacksonville has recently experienced the opportunity to host a super Bowl that consisted from the Eagles and Patriots. The tourist poured in to the region to the biggest football game in the yr and Jacksonville continues to be a constantly expanding tourist place considering the fact that. Simply because this can be a tourist spot, you are going to find that you just can very easily discover a career, you are able to effortlessly create a company, and it is possible to take pleasure in all of the beautiful things that Jacksonville needs to offer oneself all of the time while living there!

Should you be looking for an apartment in Jacksonville or any sort of Jacksonville real estate, ensure that you budget properly. Jacksonville would be the 14th biggest metropolis in the entire United states and has over 800,000 persons residing inside the metropolis. Be ready to pay premiums costs for even the smallest location. Nonetheless, despite the fact that the area?s residence does expense quite a bit, real estate in Jacksonville is really worth the funds and makes an incredible financial commitment if you had been to actually cash in and market your Jacksonville property. Jacksonville realestate has develop into a few of the most popular houses on the market simply because lots of rap artists and other stars are shifting to Jacksonville to remain close to their roots and make a superb investment decision. The value of real estate is barely going to rise because the cost of homes rise, the people don?t shift, plus the houses continue to develop up within this location. Actual estate is frequently purchased and sold, but a lot of people prefer to stay to get an extended time within this location of Florida.

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Stay or go? Some towns are eyeing retreat from sea

In this photo from Thursday, May 24, 2012, the parking lot at Ocean Beach is shown in San Francisco. In San Francisco, officials are mulling a significant retreat on its western flank, where the Great Highway is under assault from the Pacific Ocean. Right now, a beach parking lot that abuts the highway is crumbing into the sea just across the highway from the San Francisco Zoo. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo from Thursday, May 24, 2012, the parking lot at Ocean Beach is shown in San Francisco. In San Francisco, officials are mulling a significant retreat on its western flank, where the Great Highway is under assault from the Pacific Ocean. Right now, a beach parking lot that abuts the highway is crumbing into the sea just across the highway from the San Francisco Zoo. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo from Thursday, May 24, 2012, a man walks in the parking lot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. In San Francisco, officials are mulling a significant retreat on its western flank, where the Great Highway is under assault from the Pacific Ocean. Right now, a beach parking lot that abuts the highway is crumbing into the sea just across the highway from the San Francisco Zoo. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo from Thursday, May 24, 2012, barricades stand at the parking lot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. In San Francisco, officials are mulling a significant retreat on its western flank, where the Great Highway is under assault from the Pacific Ocean. Right now, a beach parking lot that abuts the highway is crumbing into the sea just across the highway from the San Francisco Zoo. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo from Thursday, May 24, 2012, a man and woman walk in the parking lot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. In San Francisco, officials are mulling a significant retreat on its western flank, where the Great Highway is under assault from the Pacific Ocean. Right now, a beach parking lot that abuts the highway is crumbing into the sea just across the highway from the San Francisco Zoo. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo from Thursday, May 24, 2012, a construction vehicle moves sand near the parking lot at Ocean Beach is shown in San Francisco. In San Francisco, officials are mulling a significant retreat on its western flank, where the Great Highway is under assault from the Pacific Ocean. Right now, a beach parking lot that abuts the highway is crumbing into the sea just across the highway from the San Francisco Zoo. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Years of ferocious storms have threatened to gnaw away the western tip of a popular beachfront park two hours drive north of Los Angeles. Instead of building a 500-foot-long wooden defense next to the pier to tame the tide, the latest thinking is to flee.

Work is under way to gauge the toll of ripping up parking lots on the highly eroded west end of Goleta Beach County Park and moving a scenic bike path and buried utility lines inland away from lapping waves.

Up and down the California coast, some communities are deciding it's not worth trying to wall off the encroaching ocean. Until recently, the thought of bowing to nature was almost unheard of.

But after futile attempts to curb coastal erosion ? a problem expected to grow worse with rising seas fueled by global warming ? there is growing acknowledgment that the sea is relentless and any line drawn in the sand is likely to eventually wash over.

"I like to think of it as getting out of the way gracefully," said David Revell, a senior coastal scientist at ESA PWA, a San Francisco-based environmental consulting firm involved in Goleta and other planned retreat projects.

The issue of whether to stay or flee is being confronted around the globe. Places experimenting with retreat have adopted various strategies. In Britain, for example, several sites along the Essex coast have deliberately breached seawalls to create salt marshes, which act as a natural barrier to flooding.

In the U.S., the starkest example can be found in Alaska, where entire villages have been forced to move to higher ground or are thinking about it in the face of melting sea ice. Hawaii's famous beaches are slowly shrinking and some scientists think it's a matter of time before the state has to explore whether to move back development.

Several states along the Atlantic coast have adopted policies meant to keep a distance from the ocean. They include no-build zones, setbacks or rolling easements that allow development but with a caveat. As the sea advances, homeowners promise not to build seawalls and must either shift inland or let go.

Over the past half-century, the weapon of choice against a shrinking shoreline has been building a seawall or other defense. Roughly 10 percent of California's 1,100-mile coast is armored. In Southern California, where development is sometimes built steps from the ocean, a third of the shore is dotted with man-made barriers.

While such buffers may protect the base of cliffs, and the land and property behind them, they often exacerbate the problem by scouring beaches, making them narrower or even causing them to disappear.

This is one reason state coastal regulators in 2009 turned down a proposal by Santa Barbara County to fortify an eroding section of Goleta Beach park lashed by periodic storms. A rock wall was built as a temporary stopgap, but a long-term solution was needed. After the state rejected the construction of another hard structure, park officials, working with environmentalists, came up with a Plan B: Move gas, water and sewer lines out of the risk zone. Relocate a bike path to higher ground. Demolish 150 parking spaces and allow the acre of asphalt to be reclaimed by the beach.

Last month, the county Board of Supervisors gave the go-ahead for an environmental review. Work could begin next year if the $4 million plan passes other regulatory hurdles.

Around California, relocation of coastal infrastructure and development is being pushed by the Surfrider Foundation and other environmental groups. But the efforts also are being driven by increased awareness of climate change. Sea level has risen by 7 inches over the last century in California. By 2050, it's projected to rise between 12 to 18 inches.

San Francisco is mulling a significant retreat on its western flank where the scenic Great Highway is under assault from the Pacific. Erosion has inched closer to the roadway each year, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues girding segments with broken-up rock, a costly temporary fix that has had limited success.

The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association favors mixing retreat with coastal armoring. City, state and federal agencies are considering the group's plan, which calls for moving segments of the Great Highway inland and allowing sand dunes to reclaim some of the paved-over space. The group also wants a temporary seawall to protect a sewer tunnel that's part of a multi-billion dollar sewage and storm water system expected to be affected by sea level rise while money is raised to relocate it in about 50 years.

South of San Francisco, the beach town of Pacifica has been an early adopter of planned retreat as it battles constant erosion. The city in 2002 purchased some homes that were at risk of falling into the sea and demolished them.

This summer, the city of Ventura is pressing ahead with its $4.5 million retreat. Last year, crews removed a disintegrating oceanfront bike path at Surfer's Point, a popular surfing spot, and built a new one farther inland. The beach was widened and cobblestone was put down.

Mark Gold, associate director at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, commended local efforts but thinks a large-scale approach is needed.

"It's definitely something that needs to be taken a lot more seriously," Gold said.

So far, most of the scaling back in California has occurred on public land. It's a harder sell for private property owners to take the same action unless beachfront homes are on the verge of being submerged. The state, however, has a built-in retreat: People who want to build new oceanside construction agree not to build a seawall if their homes become threatened in the future.

Charles Lester, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, said planned retreat is an attractive option in theory, but it's hard to execute in densely populated coastlines where there may not be room to move back. Still, he said it's a tool worth using where possible.

Just don't call it surrender.

"I don't think it's giving up. It's about making a smart, sustainable decision," said Gary Griggs, who studies coastal erosion at University of California, Santa Cruz.

___

Dearen reported from San Francisco. AP Science Writer Alicia Chang can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Associated Press

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