VOL. 128 | NO. 12 | Thursday, January 17, 2013
Jack Sammons was elected Thursday, Jan. 17, as the new chairman of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority board of commissioners.
5 percent increase in 2012 not necessarily good sign
The Crowne Plaza Hotel at 300 N. Second St. sits on a little less than two acres near Interstate 40. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2012 appraisal for the 11-story, 244-room hotel was $6.6 million.
A county property tax hike is probably on the way, according to Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell.
As 2012 wound down, so too did the pace of foreclosure activity. Foreclosures fell 11 percent in Shelby County in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with the same three-month period in 2011, according to real estate information company Chandler Reports,www.chandlerreports.com.
The School of Public Health at the University of Memphis on Tuesday, Jan. 15, welcomed Tennessee Commissioner of Health Dr. John Dreyzehner and his health policy team to the Fishbowl Room inside the FedEx Institute of Technology for a “town hall” discussion of public health and economic issues that affect our community.
When it comes to a traditional agency model, RedRover Sales & Marketing is anything but traditional.
MEMPHIS LAW TALK
Annie Christoff of Bass, Berry & Sims PLC is the new president of the Young Lawyers Division of the Memphis Bar Association for 2013.
LOCAL COLUMNISTS
Ray’s Take Did you realize that just a 2 percent annual inflation rate would result in 27 percent higher prices in a mere 12 years? If inflation were at 3 percent during that time period, prices would soar 43 percent. Three percent is the historic average inflation rate, but it has been much much higher at times. We have all been lulled into complacency in recent years with historically low inflation rates.
Last week’s column concluded with Susan and me in a hotel room in a neighboring city, to which we’d journeyed in a roundabout way to escape a cold, dark house on my birthday. We and 200,000 others were without electricity.
In a recent Let’s Grow column, we tackled the hard subject of cognitive biases. Yet, we did not touch upon the most prevalent and insidious bias in business. This big lie is that the status quo exists. Nothing stays the same. Companies who strive to keep things the way the presently are – one definition of status quo – live a lie that is not sustainable. They get fixed and rigid, locked into a certain way of counting on the world, and then they crumble and fall.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) – Gov. Bill Haslam says it's too soon to say whether Tennessee should require an armed police presence in every school in the aftermath of the Connecticut school shooting that left six teachers and 20 students dead.
NASHVILLE (AP) – The state attorney general's office says a vetoed bill that took aim at Vanderbilt University's treatment of religious student groups is "constitutionally suspect."
REGIONAL
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Gov. Phil Bryant wants to make it easier for veterans to get jobs when they leave the military and for the spouses of military members to get jobs when they transfer to Mississippi.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) – An influential group of business CEOs is pushing a plan to gradually increase the full retirement age to 70 for both Social Security and Medicare and to partially privatize the health insurance program for older Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Holiday shopping, strong auto sales and a recovering housing market helped boost the U.S. economy from the middle of November through early January, according to a Federal Reserve survey released Wednesday.
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and promoted alternative energy sources throughout the nation, will step down in March.