Camera America set to close today

Lawrence’s Camera America store is closing today, having struggled with competition from emerging digital technology.

The store, at 919 Iowa in the Hillcrest Shopping Center, long has relied on business generated by its film-developing lab, manager Chantal Caldwell said, But that business has slumped as the popularity of digital cameras has increased.

Store owner Frank Meade had considered adding machines to produce digital prints, she said, but ultimately balked at the high cost — what would have been a gamble, given the continuing emergence of home-printing equipment.

“It’s just one of those things: The times are changing,” said Caldwell, one of six full- and part-time employees to be out of work.

The store had been popular among Kansas University students who bought chemicals for developing film and making prints, she said.

Finance

New Turkish currency to reduce millionaires

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, Turkey will cease to be the land of the millionaires and billionaires.

The government is dropping six zeros from its national currency, allowing Turkey to lose the dubious distinction of being the country with the largest denomination in circulation: the 20,000,000 lira, worth only about $15.

The zeros are the result of decades of double-digit inflation that has taken the currency from 2.8 to the dollar throughout the 1950s to 1,350,000 per dollar today. Right now the Turkish gross national product is a mind-bending 424 quadrillion lira, or 424,000,000,000,000,000.

Charity

Car donations rise as tax shift arrives

Charities that raise money through vehicle-donation programs reported a small but steady increase in donations ahead of a change in tax laws that will limit the deductions taxpayers can take for such gifts.

Under current law, a taxpayer who donates a vehicle is allowed to deduct the fair market value — usually higher than the value one gets in trade at a car dealership — of the car or truck on his tax return.

Under the changes to take effect Saturday, a taxpayer can deduct only the amount that a charity receives when it sells the vehicle.