VOL. 126 | NO. 241 | Monday, December 12, 2011
The schools consolidation planning commission will talk Monday, Dec. 12, with the former superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools system in North Carolina.
Businesses embrace tiny credit card reader
Not having a storefront hasn’t kept Midtown artisan Colleen Couch-Smith from running her business like someone who does – minus the hefty overhead costs.
Signs point to the growth of small business in Memphis as a response to the bad economy. Signs detailing just what those businesses are have appeared on the car doors of vehicles all over the city.
A typical day for Pyramid Electric Inc. President Anita Haines starts at 4 a.m. That’s her “quiet time,” she says, particularly because when she arrives at her office at 7 a.m., the rest of the day is anything but quiet. Reviewing contracts, handling personnel issues, overseeing finances, writing policies and procedures, discussing projects with her extensive estimating team – her daily to-do list touches all aspects of the company she started 21 years ago.
One of the biggest banks in the country is preparing to compete directly with payday lenders, check-cashing services and the like in an effort to reach consumers who don’t have a relationship with a traditional bank.
Legendary recording artist Patti LaBelle was in Memphis Thursday, Dec. 8, to help kick off Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp.’s yearlong centennial celebration with a fundraiser for its new comprehensive cancer care center.
SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Over the past 20 years, Todd Glidewell and Bill Powell of C&I Appraisal Services Inc. have seen firsthand the commercial real estate market’s peaks and valleys.
LOCAL COLUMNISTS
Toothpaste tops tell it all. All of them used to be twist-off. Then came the flip cap, arthritis cap and even a pump if caps stressed you out.
Last week we offered a number of tips from the Memphis Police Department to help protect our families, friends, and co-workers during this holiday season. This week, let us share three keys to networking and discuss how building your sphere of influence is intertwined with community engagement.
Benjamin Franklin once quipped, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” Because many people don’t take steps to put their affairs in order, many times, death and taxes go hand in hand.
THE MEMPHIS NEWS
Behind-the-scenes economic development efforts bolster city’s fortunes
Long before the first widgets roll off the assembly line, way back before the ribbon cutting and the first shovels break ground, and even before executives quietly slip in to scout out a prospective piece of land, someone like Mark Sweeney gets a phone call.
The economic development game still features victory speeches with an obligatory line that sounds like this: “We stand here today because of a strong public-private partnership that leveraged private investment and resulted in a win-win situation for the company and the community ... .”
Call it variations on a theme. A new play by a local playwright at Circuit Playhouse blends the lessons of childhood, humor and Christmas stories into a collection of seasonal fables.
Iwouldn’t have reviewed and written about restaurants for 23 years if I didn’t like eating out, but what I really love is dining out for lunch.
Two weeks ago in this column, while recommending the Adami Garbèl Brut Prosecco to your attention, I said that the producers of Prosecco were “shooting themselves in the foot” by allowing the expansion of the vineyard area from which the sparkling wine could be made and that this example of “greed and opportunism” would result in lower quality.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) – Tennessee sales tax collections were up 5.2 percent in November, and the state's general fund revenues have exceeded expectations by $69 million since the beginning of the budget year.
NASHVILLE (AP) – Gov. Bill Haslam says he doesn't plan to eliminate Tennessee's estate tax and Hall income tax despite efforts by several Republican lawmakers to kill the measures because they believe they're hurting the state's economic development.
NASHVILLE (AP) – State Comptroller Justin Wilson says Tennessee's school funding formula is fraught with complexity and a lack of transparency that could lead to either inadvertent or intentional errors in distributing state money.
KNOXVILLE (AP) – The Tennessee Valley Authority lacks a formal long term capital spending management plan and its proposed spending on power generating along with promised pollution controls mean tough times ahead, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report.
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) – Congressional negotiators have tentatively settled on a relatively small $5 billion increase for the Pentagon's non-war budget as a mammoth spending bill takes shape behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republicans are proposing to stave off a steep cut in Medicare payments to doctors looming on Jan. 1.
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republicans introduced legislation Friday that would extend the Social Security payroll tax cut through 2012 and trim extra benefits for the long-term unemployed.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department said Friday it wants to withdraw or postpone its antitrust case against the proposed merger between AT&T Inc. and smaller rival T-Mobile USA now that the two companies pulled their application with the Federal Communications Commission to approve the deal.
SPORTS
MEMPHIS (AP) – The Memphis Grizzlies are coming off their most successful season in franchise history and still don't think they are getting the respect they deserve.