The Mall of America is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, United States. It lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River, across the Interstate from the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. Opened in 1992, it is the largest mall in the United States in terms of total floor area, the fifth largest mall in North America in terms of leasable space and the twelfth largest in the world; the mall is managed by the Triple Five Group. Eighty percent of visitors to the Mall of America are from Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Illinois and Canada; the mall's concept was designed by the Triple Five Group, owned by the Ghermezian brothers, who own the largest shopping mall in North America, the West Edmonton Mall. The Mall of America is located on the site of the former Metropolitan Stadium, where the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Twins played until the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome opened in 1982.
A plaque in the mall's amusement park commemorates the former location of home plate and one seat from Met Stadium was placed in Mall of America at the exact location it occupied in the stadium, commemorating a 520-foot home run hit by hall-of-famer Harmon Killebrew on June 3, 1967. In 1986, the Bloomington Port Authority signed an agreement with the Ghermezian organization. Groundbreaking for the mall took place on June 14, 1989. Organizations involved include Melvin Simon and Associates, Teachers Insurance and Annuity and the office of architect Jon Jerde. Mall of America opened its doors to the public on August 11, 1992, its anchors were Nordstrom, Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Sears. Before opening, the mall had earned several nicknames, including "The Megamall", "Sprawl of America", "Hugedale" in reference to the four major "dale" shopping malls within the Twin Cities: Rosedale, Southdale and the now-defunct Brookdale. Mall of America became the largest shopping mall in total area and largest in total store vendors in the United States when it opened.
The Mall of America's 42 million annual visitors equal eight times the population of the state of Minnesota. As of 2015, the mall employed over 13,000 during peak seasons. On September 4, 1995, the mall hosted the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro. In 2003, after a protracted six-year legal battle between Simon Property Group, the managing general partner of the property, the Ghermezian brothers/Triple Five Group, over majority ownership of the site, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Ghermezians transferring control and planning authority of the mall back to the creator of the concept; the dispute stemmed from a 1999 purchase of Teacher's Insurance's 27.5% equity stake by Simon Properties, giving them majority ownership. The Ghermezians claimed they were never told of the deal and sued Simon, citing fiduciary responsibility. On November 3, 2006, the Ghermezians gained full control of Mall of America by spending US$1 billion. On May 18, 2008, the Mall of America received a tax break for a proposed $2 billion expansion.
The bill gave the city of Bloomington the ability to increase taxes on sales and food and beverages to finance a parking ramp at the mall. On March 24, 2012, the Triple Five Group announced the start of a $200 million expansion that would build into the north parking lot of the mall; the plans called for an additional 200,000 square feet of retail space. The project broke ground in the fall of 2013 and began opening in stages in the summer of 2015. In March 2014, ground was broken on the mall's north side for the $104 million, 14-story JW Marriott hotel and financed by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. In 2018, it was announced that MOA had proposed to build an indoor water park, with a cost between $150 to $200 million for the project; the Mall of America has a gross area of 4,870,000 sq ft or 96.4 acres, enough to fit seven Yankee Stadiums inside, with 2,500,000 sq ft available as retail space. The mall is nearly symmetric, with a rectangular floor plan. More than 530 stores are arranged along three levels of pedestrian walkways on the sides of the rectangle, with a fourth level on the east side.
Four anchor department stores are located at the corners. The mall is organized into four different zones; each of those zones had its own decorative style until a series of renovations from 2010 to 2015 led to a unified and more luxurious style, as well as to coincide with the mall's first major expansion. Despite Minnesota's cold winters, only the mall's entrances and some below ground areas are heated. Heat is allowed in through skylights above the central amusement park area; the majority of the heat is produced by lighting fixtures, other electric devices and people in the mall. In fact during the winter, air conditioning systems may still be in use during peak hours to ensure a comfortable shopping environment. Although the common areas are unheated, the individual stores do have heating systems. Two nearly identical seven-story parking ramps on the east and west sides of the mall provide 12,287 parking spaces. Overflow parking north of the building provides an additional 1,200–1,500 spaces and 1,407 spaces are provided by IKEA, which opened in July 2004.
Level One is the location of Nickelodeon Universe amusement park, first level of general retail which includes Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium, Hard Rock Cafe, Lego Store, Apple Store, Barnes & Noble, Fabletic
Daniel Richard Duffy is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball. After being drafted by the Royals in 2007, Duffy spent the next several years in the Royals' minor league system, represented the team in the 2009 All-Star Futures Game. However, personal issues led Duffy to temporarily retire from baseball in 2010, although he returned to the Royals to make his major league debut in 2011. After his rookie season, Duffy did not pitch in the major leagues on a regular basis again until 2014. Duffy was a member of the Royal's pitching staffs during the team's successful 2014 and 2015 seasons, won the World Series championship with the Royals in 2015. Duffy had a career year in 2016. After the 2016 season, Duffy signed a $65 million extension to remain with the Royals and has remained a regular starting pitcher, although he has not again reached his 2016 statistical peak. Duffy was born on December 1988 in Goleta, California, he was exposed to the game of baseball at an early age, both through playing competitively in local youth leagues and practicing with his family.
He attended Cabrillo High School in Vandenberg Village, where he played both baseball and basketball. For the baseball team, Duffy had a 5–3 win–loss record, a 0.60 earned run average, 127 strikeouts in 58 2⁄3 innings pitched in his senior year. The Kansas City Royals drafted Duffy in the third round of the 2007 Major League Baseball draft out of high school, he began his professional career that season with the Arizona Royals of the rookie-level Arizona League, where he pitched in 11 games and had a 1.45 earned run average. The Royals promoted Duffy to Burlington Bees of the Class-A Midwest League in 2008, where he had an 8–4 record and a 2.20 ERA in 17 starts. He was named Burlington's Pitcher of the Year. In 2009, Duffy started 24 games for the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Class-A Advanced Carolina League, he was named a Carolina League All-Star, finished the season with a 9–3 record and a 2.98 ERA. Duffy represented the Royals in the 2009 All-Star Futures Game, where he pitched 2⁄3 scoreless innings.
The Royals invited Duffy to spring training in 2010. However, Duffy abruptly retired from baseball in March 2010, at the age of 21, he informed the Royals' organization that he wanted to "reassess his life priorities". The move reminded many of Zack Greinke's departure from the Royals' camp in 2006. Realizing that he missed the game of baseball, Duffy decided to unretire and return to the Royals in June, showing up at the extended spring training in Surprise, Arizona; that season, Duffy pitched for Wilmington, the Idaho Falls Chukars of the rookie-level Pioneer League, Northwest Arkansas Naturals of the Class AA Texas League. Duffy went 5–2 with a 2.95 ERA in seven regular-season starts for the Naturals, 1–0 with a 1.69 ERA in two playoff games, as the Naturals won the Texas League championship. He pitched in the Arizona Fall League after the season. Heading into the 2011 season, Baseball America rated Duffy as the 68th best prospect in baseball; the Royals again invited Duffy to spring training.
Duffy began the 2011 season with the Omaha Storm Chasers of the Class-AAA Pacific Coast League. With Omaha, Duffy was named Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week for the week of April 25 – May 1. Duffy pitched to a 3–1 record and 3.00 ERA in seven starts for Omaha, recording 43 strikeouts while only walking 10 and allowing 30 hits in 36 innings. The Royals promoted Duffy to the majors, he made his MLB debut on May 18, 2011, he gave up two runs in four innings. He recorded his first major league win on June 14, pitching six innings against the Oakland Athletics. Duffy finished the 2011 season with a 4 -- 5.64 ERA in 20 MLB starts. After signing a contract for $487,750 prior to the 2012 season, Duffy competed for, won, a spot in the starting rotation during spring training. Duffy made six starts in 2012 before suffering a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow that required Tommy John surgery on June 13, 2012. Prior to being sidelined, Duffy had a 2-2 record with an ERA of 3.90. On November 2, 2012, the Royals reinstated Duffy from the 60-day disabled list.
Duffy signed a one-year $505,125 contract on February 20, 2013. On May 26, 2013, Duffy began a rehab assignment with the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. While still undergoing rehab from his injury, Duffy was reassigned to the Omaha Storm Chasers on June 6, he was optioned to Omaha at the end of the rehab period on June 25. Duffy was recalled from Omaha on August 7, returned on August 8, he was recalled on August 16 to start the first game of a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers, in a game the Royals went on to win. On March 2, 2014, Duffy signed a one-year $526,000 contract. During spring training in 2014, Yordano Ventura won the final spot in the Royals' starting rotation over Duffy. However, when Bruce Chen went down with a back injury early in the season, Duffy took over his spot in the rotation, he posted a 9-12 record with a 2.53 ERA over 149 1⁄3 innings. Duffy pitched to a 4.08 ERA during the 2015 season. In September, Duffy was moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen. In the 2015 World Series, Duffy made three relief appearances as the Royals defeated the New York Mets in five games to win the World Series championship.
Duffy signed a one-year, $4.225 million contract with the Royals for the upcoming 2016 season. He rejoined the Royals' starting rotation in May. Duffy responded to the mov
Malika Zeghal is the Tunisian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life at Harvard University, an associate professor of the anthropology and sociology of religion in the University of Chicago Divinity School. She was a student of the École Normale Supérieure and received her doctorate from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris in 1994, she began her postdoctoral research in 1995 at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University before returning to France to join for ten years, the Centre national de la recherche scientifique from 1995 to 2005. She is a Member of the Scientific Council of the Tunisian Academy of Sciences and Arts, her work, Gardiens de l'Islam, written in French is an analysis of the influence of the ulama of Al-Azhar University. A. Marsot argues her thesis is that "the ulama of the Azhar believe that it is their duty, daʿwa, as the guardians of religion to see that the laws of a country conform to the shariʿa.
The book explores how state interactions with the Azhari ulama helped to lead to the rise other Islamic movements, namely the Muslim Brotherhood, outside of traditional institutions. In 2013, she taught a course at Harvard University's School of Divinity called "HDS 3361: Political Islam in the 20th and 21st Centuries". Gardiens de l'Islam. Les oulémas d'al-Azhar dans l'Egypte contemporaine Presses de Sciences Po, 1996. ISBN 2-7246-0679-5 Les islamistes marocains: le défi à la monarchie La Découverte, 2005. ISBN 2-7071-4480-0 "Malika Zeghal." University of Chicago Divinity School page Malika Zeghal at the University of Chicago Divinity School Malika Zeghal on Charlie Rose Works by or about Malika Zeghal in libraries