“REDI mulls starting women’s business center - Washington Business Journal” plus 4 more

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• REDI mulls starting women’s business center - Washington Business Journal
• Business briefs - Dubuque Telegraph Herald
• More Business - San Francisco Chronicle
• UTC business school earns national rankings - Chattanooga Times Free Press
• Stocks waver on lender worries, business growth - MSN Money

REDI mulls starting women’s business center - Washington Business Journal Posted: 30 Dec 2009 08:34 AM PST Rockville Economic Development Inc. is exploring the feasibility of starting up a women's business center in Rockville. REDI is conducting a study, which will wrap up in March to determine if there is a need and support for such a center. Citi Foundation, Citibank's customer service responsibility division, gave a $25,000 grant earlier this year to help with the process. The Women's Business Center of Northern Virginia is administering the grant, which means they are paying a consultant hired by both parties, managing funds and reporting back to Citi. REDI offers free business seminars and business counseling services at Rockville Library each month, covering topics like how to write a business plan and how to start a company. REDI used part of the grant to add a second monthly session called "The ABC's of Starting a Business," which will run for two more months. "Then we will do all the analysis and draw conclusions, which we will feed to the Citi Foundation and my board. Then we will chew on what it all means," said Sally Sternbach, the executive director of REDI. Since August, the class has averaged 44 attendees, with about 60 percent female and 40 percent male. In addition, 92 percent of attendees have at least a bachelor's degree. The U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Women's Business Ownership provides funding to over 100 women's business centers throughout the country. In 2000, the Women's Business Center of Northern Virginia became the first WBC to be funded by the SBA in the state. "We are collecting interesting demographics on who is coming to these seminars," Sternbach said. "We will take a look and determine whether do an actual submission [to the SBA], if a need is here." She said attendees include a wide mix of retirees, laid off people, women looking for a second income while staying at home and young graduates looking to market an idea. The center, she said, would target women in lower socioeconomic ranks and help them to find financial stability and independence by running their own business. "Is there a population of women who would be well-served in a center like that who currently don't have services available to them?" she said. The second question that needs to be answered before a submission to the SBA can occur, she says, is whether it's sustainable financially. The SBA, which puts out a call for applications under no fixed schedule, initially provides funds for the center but it would have to ultimately sustain itself without government funding. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Business briefs - Dubuque Telegraph Herald Posted: 30 Dec 2009 07:51 AM PST » Tri-state could see 2 inches of snow, bitter wind chill » Iowa: Iowa toddler freezes to death in Montana cold » Ask Amy: Roommate won't stop doing laundry » Pedestrian injured after being hit by vehicle » Our top book picks » Camera used to adjust traffic signals » Avenged Sevenfold drummer found dead in home » District must show more caution with taxpayer money » Flooding, fire and an immigration raid » Spence to enter the leisure class » your horoscope » 'When I grow up, I want to be a camera » Local/Area roundup » Magazine honors area Wisconsin schools » Bertsch nets Top Prospect invitation » Letter: Big banks haven't learned » Potato Chowder Recipe » Basic Shrimp Bisque recipe » Mother, baby return from brink of death » Letter: Roundabouts not easy at first, but positive » Wisconsin: Court: Homeowner liable for dog bites » Iowa briefs » A bowl full of information » Wisconsin & Illinois briefs » Hawkeyes give Purdue a good run » Vikings lead way » Iowa: Ottumwa woman glitzes up ditches » Galena roundtable will focus on forecasting change » Tyra Banks ending her talk show » Big, bad Badgers » sports in brief » Powers' paths diverge » Community calendar » Obama: U.S. had 'red flags' before attack » people, etc. » Nation briefs » college football bowl capsules » Web postings portray a lonely suspect » Panthers get jump in Valley race » meetings » Detours » WHO: H1N1 remains a threat » Almanac » NBA Roundup » World briefs » Yemen connections probed » Karzai, NATO clash over civilian deaths » Report: Iran pursuing uranium » Studies fault FDA approval process Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

More Business - San Francisco Chronicle Posted: 30 Dec 2009 08:34 AM PST The 46-year-old Sunnyvale man makes his case in a self-published book, "The Lights in the Tunnel." He has summarized his thinking on the blog, Angry Bear. "I'm not talking about far-fetched, science fiction-level technology here," Ford writes. "This is really a simple extrapolation of the expert systems and specialized algorithms that can currently land jet airplanes, trade autonomously on Wall Street, or beat nearly any human being at a game of chess." He thinks software expertise "will begin to match or exceed the capability of human workers in many routine job categories, and this includes a lot of workers with college degrees." Martin acknowledges that since the mechanization of agriculture in the late 1880s, the farming workforce has been reduced from 75 percent of U.S. workers to about 3 percent today. Yet a growing population found other jobs. But Ford thinks the future may not echo the past. "Food prices fell as efficiency increased, and then consumers went out and spent their extra money elsewhere, driving increased employment in the manufacturing and service sectors," Ford writes. But this time, he says, "we are not talking about a single industry being automated: These technologies are going to penetrate across the board." He thinks pervasive automation will exceed the point "beyond which the overall economy is simply not labor-intensive enough to continue absorbing workers ... and structural unemployment then becomes inevitable." - Tom Abate, tabate@sfchronicle.com This article appeared on page DC - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

UTC business school earns national rankings - Chattanooga Times Free Press Posted: 30 Dec 2009 08:56 AM PST PDF: Planning Evaluation AndInstitutional Research In a climate of rising tuition costs, UTC's business school has earned a national reputation as an academic program that gives students a bang for their buck. "I think our programs stack up well with all the institutions that surround us," said Richard Casavant, dean of the business school. "We think we have academically prepared our students. We want them to be work-world ready." The Princeton Review recently named the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's graduate business program in the nation's top 301 for 2010. The Review does not rank the schools; it simply lists them alphabetically. Business Week ranked UTC's undergraduate business school this year as No. 82 in the country because of its success finding jobs for students. Both publications have included UTC in their rankings for the past four years. "We are pleased to recommend UTC as one of the best institutions (students) could attend to earn an MBA," said Robert Franek, senior vice president of publishing at Princeton Review. "We chose (the school) based on our opinion of their academic programs and offerings. We also strongly consider the candid opinions of students attending the schools who rate and report on their campus experiences at their schools." Staff Photo by Danielle Moore Richard Casavant, dean of the college of business at UTC, poses for a portrait in his office on the school campus. The business school was recently ranked as one of the top programs in the country. The rankings are based on a review of the school's career services, programs and surveys by current students. And the reputation of the business school means real dollars to its graduates, Dr. Casavant said. Fundraising for the business school has increased substantially in the last five years, although Dr. Casavant said he did not know the exact amount. "(The recognitions) lend us a lot of credibility as a very viable business school," he said. "We have received a lot of kudos from people. Success begets success." Last year, John Murphy and Renee Haugerud, hedge fund managers based in New York, gave $1.5 million to establish a financial center in the College of Business. Dr. Casavant said he plans to present a plan for the center in January that will include the purchase of computers equipped with search engines used in the financial industry and a speaker series on trading. The center will emphasize the "feminine approach to trading," he said. "There is some work out there that suggests that women manage investments differently and in some cases more successfully," Dr. Casavant said. Outside of fundraising, the most important mark of the business school's success is the fact that the college is getting jobs for students in the tough economy, he said. "Our top graduates are sought after, but certainly it is a more difficult environment than it has been in years," Dr. Casavant said. Christopher Ealey, an accounting graduate of UTC's business school in 2007, said the reputation of the school helped land him a job at CreateHere. "My employer has high regard for the business school," he said. Studying for the four-part Certified Public Accounting exam, he said he realized just how well the business curriculum at UTC prepared him to be an accountant. "I felt that the teachers really cared about the students' education," he said. "They required a tremendous amount from you. They really prepared me for the real world and the CPA exam." Volkswagen also hired a handful of graduates from UTC's master's in business administration program a few months ago for a few of its highly competitive jobs. The school's executive MBA program, which caters to students who want to earn their graduate degree while working a full-time job, graduated 16 students last year and is growing. "That means that they are willing to buy into the fact that an MBA will help accelerate their careers," Dr. Casavant said. "They are our best alumni." UTC's approach to business education is different, in part because of its connection to Chattanooga and area businesses, he said. Business leaders who help raise money for the college on several advisory boards also guide the administration on the best ways to get students prepared for business careers. "It is not just a financial thing," he said. "We pass strategy by them." In the last three years, the business school has begun emphasizing internship experience to students, and the internship program has grown from only a handful of students to more than 100 this year. "That has been a win-win for the businesses and the students," he said. Mr. Ealey, having gone through the rigors of the business school, said he isn't surprised the college is getting more attention nationally. "They have great professors there, and they are very intelligent and really push their students," he said. "That is what you reap." UTC BUSINESS SCHOOL FACTS 47 -- Number of instructors 10 -- Number of adjunct instructors 2,300 -- Number of undergraduate students in the business college 30 -- Percentage of total UTC graduate enrollment 23 -- Percentage of total UTC undergraduate enrollment Source: UTC Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Stocks waver on lender worries, business growth - MSN Money Posted: 30 Dec 2009 08:34 AM PST By Melinda Peer, TheStreet   (Updated at 11:02 a.m. EST) Stocks are wavering today as Wall Street reacts to new concerns about lenders and data showing better-than-expected business expansion in December.  The S&P 500 is down 3.1 points, or 0.3% to 1,123.2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is off 13 points, or 0.1%, to 10,532.4. The Nasdaq is down 6.1 points, or 0.3%, at 2,282.3.   The Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index for December rose to 60 in December from 56.1 the previous month. It was expected to drop to 55.1. Find a new broker and start trading now   GMAC Financial Services, the automotive lender that has already received $12.5 billion since December 2008, is expected to get $3.5 billion more from the government, according to the Wall Street Journal. The news raised questions about the stability of lenders.   U.S. crude supplies fell 1.54 million to 326 million during the week ended Dec. 25, according to the Energy Information Administration. Analysts polled by Platts had expected a 2.2 million-barrel decline in crude oil stockpiles.    Oil for February delivery was up 14 cents to $79.01 a barrel. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said crude oil inventories gained 1.7 million barrels last week.   A stronger greenback also weighed on shares, with the dollar index most recently up by 0.3%.   The February gold contract was trading lower, losing $8.40 to $1,089.70 an ounce.   Trading is expected to be light after the long holiday weekend and analysts expect sideways trading for the remainder of the shortened trading week. Markets will close for the weekend after Thursday's trading session in observance of the New Year.   The U.S. government wraps up its final bond sale of 2009 today with its $32 billion auction of seven-year notes. Tuesday's sale of five-year notes showed adequate interest from foreign buyers, which came as a relief after indirect bidders took only 34.8% of Monday's two-year note auction. The airline sector has been weak amid heightened security concerns following last week's attempted terrorist attack, and will remain in the spotlight after shares of Japan Airlines plunged 32% on bankruptcy fears. AMR (AMR) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) may be interested in partnering with JAL.   General Motors dropped a Dec. 31 deadline for bids for Saab, its Swedish car brand. Earlier in December, the company said it would wind down Saab if it failed to find a buyer by the end of the year. Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.01%, and Japan's Nikkei slumped 0.9%. The FTSE in London was down by 0.5% and the DAX in Frankfurt was off by 0.8%. Related Articles   Five stocks to bank on in 2010   Regional banks may be in for a correction   Property market limps along in 2009       Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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