The San Francisco Business Times is reporting that San Francisco-based microblogging darling Twitter is looking into a real estate purchase in Brisbane California, specifically the 200,000 square foot current home of Walmart.com at the Sierra Point Towers.

While reports hold that Twitter is also considering the Centennial Towers in South San Francisco, Brisbane City Manager Clay Holstine confirmed the Brisbane inquiry to the Mercury News saying, “I don’t know where they are in the process.”

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I am surprised they are staying in california with all of the anti-busbusiness regulation and taxation

obless claims hit a 10-week high last week while producer prices shot up in December, pointing to headwinds for an economy that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said was showing fresh vigor.

However, a surge in exports to their highest level in two years, which included record sales to China, helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit in November, an encouraging sign for fourth-quarter economic growth.

The data on Thursday marked one step forward and two steps back for an economy that appeared to gain a bit more momentum toward the end of last year.

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The economy continues in the doldrums and unemployment is high. President Obama has until July 4 to start lowering unemployment or he will serve only one term and someone like Mitt romney or Mitch Daniels will be given a chance.

Kay Bailey Hutchison said today that she will not seek another term in the U.S. Senate.

"I have known since 2006 that I wouldn't seek another term," the senator said in a telephone interview. "I wanted to announce it on my own terms and in my own way.

Contenders to fill Hutchison's seat started to emerge soon after she made her announcement.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst issued a written statement that said: "While my focus remains on the challenges we face here at the state level and making this upcoming session successful, I fully intend to explore running for the United States Senate, and should I run, I will run with the intention of winning and continuing to serve the people of Texas just as I have done throughout my career."

Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones also issued a statement on Senate campaign letterhead just a few minutes after Hutchison spoke to The Dallas Morning News.

"I look forward to an aggressive, spirited campaign on the issues," .
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A busy GOP primary

There has been a great effort this week to come to grips with the American left's reaction to the Tucson shooting. Paul Krugman of the NYT and its editorial page, George Packer of the New Yorker, E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post, Jonathan Alter of Newsweek and others, in varying degrees, have linked the murders to the intensity of opposition to the policies and presidency of Barack Obama. As Mr. Krugman asked in his Monday commentary: "Were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen?"

The "you" would be his audience, and the answer is yes, they thought that in these times "something like this" could happen in the United States. Other media commentators, without a microbe of conservatism in their bloodstreams, have rejected this suggestion.

So what was the point? Why attempt the gymnastic logic of asserting that the act of a deranged personality was linked to the tea parties and the American right? Two reasons: Political calculation and personal belief.