Dogwood Finances Lots in Arlington, Bartlett

Dogwood Properties has filed a $1.5 million loan through Independent Bank secured by eight lots in Arlington and Bartlett.

The properties include two lots in Bartlett’s Maher Trails Subdivision, five lots in Arlington’s Delaney Square Subdivision and one lot in Arlington’s Villages at White Oak Planned Development.

Jon E. McCreery signed the trust deed as Dogwood’s managing general partner. Philip Chamberlain signed a general partner. Phil Chamberlain and Jon McCreery are partners in Chamberlain & McCreery, a residential and commercial construction company.

Besides Maher Trails, Delaney Square and The Villages at White Oak, Chamberlain & McCreery has properties in other Arlington and Bartlett developments, as well as ones in Collierville, Cordova, Oakland and Whitehaven, Tenn., and Southaven and Hernando, Miss.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

Great American Steamboat to Hire More Than 300

Memphis-based Great American Steamboat Co. will hire more than 300 employees to work on The American Queen steamboat scheduled to call Memphis its home port starting in April.

The jobs include housekeeping and culinary jobs, positions on the marine and technical crew that runs the boat, and other front and back of the house positions.

The company is organizing a career fair for the third week of February. GASC is also taking applications online at www.greatamericansteamboatcompany.com.

– Bill Dries

Crye-Leike Team Rebrands as 'Your Key to Memphis'

Melissa Hayes Thompson has branded her realty team as “Your Key to Memphis” – a boutique branch of buyer/seller specialists within Crye-Leike Realtors Inc.

“Your Key to Memphis” consists of four people, each specializing in a specific suburb of Memphis. The team’s objective is to help buyers find the best homes in a particular area within a specific price range and to assist sellers in selling their homes as quickly as possible for as much as the market will bear.

Along with the rebranding, the team is offering a bonus gift to potential buyers. “Your Key to Memphis” will host a personal housewarming party for any client who buys through them and will provide the invitations, food and refreshments, and clean-up in the new home.

Thompson has been a full-time, licensed agent for 25 years.

She is a lifetime member of Memphis Area Association of Realtors’ Multi-Million Dollar Club and is serving as the club’s current president.

In 2010, she closed 51 transactions and in 2011, 65.

– Sarah Baker

Harvard Law Prof to Speak on Conflict Resolution

Robert Mnookin, a Harvard law professor and head of the university’s Program on Negotiation, will speak at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law Wednesday, Feb. 8, on “Bargaining with the Devil.”

Mnookin is the author of “Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight,” a book in which he explores the challenges of decision-making and how to bargain with adversaries a person doesn’t trust and thinks can cause personal harm. Mnookin is a leading expert in conflict resolution. He has mediated complex commercial disputes, written or edited multiple books and articles, taught workshops and trained executives and professionals in negotiation and mediation.

The professor draws on a variety of examples, including Winston Churchill’s decision not to negotiate with Adolph Hitler and Nelson Mandela’s decision to negotiate with the apartheid government of South Africa.

Mnookin’s talk will be in the U of M law school’s Wade Auditorium and will start at 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves.

– Andy Meek

PRSA Memphis Seeks Vox Award Submissions

The Memphis chapter of the Public Relations Society of America is asking communication professionals – including non-PRSA members – to enter their best work in the 2012 Vox Awards competition.

Work executed between July 2010 and December 2011 is eligible.

The categories cover an array of communication channels, including traditional print publications, social media, websites, viral videos, blogs and more.

The deadline for entry is Feb. 17, and submission forms are at www.prsavox.com.

A gala to honor the winners will be held April 13 at the Racquet Club of Memphis.

– Taylor Shoptaw

UPS Predicts US Economy to See Modest Improvement

United Parcel Service Inc. executives predicted “mixed economic growth around the world” as they released 2011 financial results Tuesday, Jan. 31, showing a 23.3 percent increase in adjusted net income from $3.4 billion in 2010 to $4.3 billion in 2011.

The adjusted numbers reflected a change in pension accounting the company announced last week. The move to a mark-to-market methodology accounted for a $527 million after tax charge for 2011 and $75 million for 2010.

UPS posted a net income for the fourth quarter including the pension accounting change of $725 million, down 29.3 percent from the $1 billion in net income from the last three months of 2010.

UPS Chief Financial Officer Kurt Kuehn touted “record earnings per share in a volatile global operating environment where trends varied by region.”

The package carrier’s U.S. domestic and international package revenues were up 7.3 percent and 3.5 percent respectively in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago. Including supply chain and freight revenue, total revenues increased for the quarter by 5.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010.

But operating expenses for the quarter were 10.4 percent higher than a year earlier and total operating profits for the quarter were down 28.4 percent from the last three months of 2010.

Kuehn also said the forecast of mixed economic growth around the world should mean “modest improvement in the U.S.”

UPS delivered 1.13 billion packages between October and December, an increase of 3.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. During the Christmas shipping season, global daily volume exceeded 25 million packages on five separate days, including two days that topped 27 million packages. For the shipping season, UPS counted 480 million packages delivered, with much of the flow attributed to e-commerce.

– Bill Dries

State GOP Cries Foul Over Dems' Proposals

If Democrats have their way, the Tennessee General Assembly would meet only every second year, lawmakers’ daily expenses would be capped and bill sponsors would have to divulge if their legislation originated with national groups.

Democratic leaders insist their proposals are designed to promote good government. But Republicans charge the measures are election-year games.

“I’d be glad to look at any suggestions they have, but they’re playing politics,” House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, said in a recent interview. “When they had the power to do it, they didn’t do anything about that.”

But House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner of Nashville argued that most of the lawmakers sponsoring the current measures didn’t hold leadership positions before Republicans won their majority in the House in 2008.

House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, said the measure calling for meeting every other year dovetails with Republican efforts to keep the legislative session as short as possible

Fitzhugh is also the sponsor of a measure dubbed the “Influence Disclosure Act,” which would require lawmakers to declare if their proposals originated with national groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Another Democratic proposal would require state lawmakers and their staffs to undergo drug testing. Rep. Johnnie Shaw, D-Bolivar, said the bill is in response to GOP efforts to require drug testing for welfare recipients.

Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Lowe Finney of Jackson on Tuesday, Jan. 31, delayed consideration of his bill to freeze per diem reimbursement rates at 2010 levels to craft new language.

– The Associated Press