As an ominous pool of crude oil slowly makes its way to the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, word comes from Washington that President Obama has appointed a special blue-ribbon commission to conduct an official investigation of the gargantuan oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The president’s action elevates the sinking of BP’s deep-water rig to the status of a once-in-a-decade mega-disaster invo ...

IBM plans to open a new technology service delivery center in Columbia, MO that will create up to 800 jobs for technical professionals. According to the St. Louis Business Journal, the company will begin hiring this summer, the new facility will be operational this fall and fully staffed by the end of 2012. IBM’s technology service delivery centers provide information technology (IT) services and business p ...

Galmont Consulting is partnering with the University of Kentucky (UK) in Lexington to create a new software testing center. Galmont will hire 90 new, full-time employees in Lexington and plans to form a partnership with the UK’s College of Engineering to hire and train computer science graduates. “Galmont Consulting will be an excellent addition to Lexington’s corporate landscape, bringing 90 new engineerin ...

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is announcing a $1-billion investment in Anderson County, SC by New York-based First Quality Enterprises Incs., a project that should create up to 1,200 jobs. The Great Neck, NY, company will expand operations at an existing Anderson County facility. First Quality, which makes of paper towels, toilet paper, diapers and feminine hygiene products would remodel an existing faci ...

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter issued an executive order this week directing state agencies to track job creation. The executive order requires the Colorado Economic Development Commission to include information about job-creation activities in its annual report to the state Legislature. Ritter’s order also instructs the commission to prepare a plan to track jobs created from grants, loans and tax credits provid ...

The winds blowing across the Illinois plains are now powering clean, renewable energy into the Tennessee Valley Authority service region. On May 11, TVA began transmitting to its customers 300 megawatts of renewable wind power received from Iberdrola Renewables Inc.'s Streator Cayuga Ridge wind park in Livingston County, IL. This marks the first delivery under seven contracts TVA recently signed to purchase ...

Prince George’s County in Virginia has been awarded $41.5 million in stimulus recovery bond financing for private economic development projects and is looking for private developers and bankers with projects in need of the funds. Part of the Recovery Zone Facility Bond program, the financing extends tax-exempt status to private development activities, targeting areas with declines in employment. The bonds a ...

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce John Fernandez presented city officials in Dubuque, IA today with the highest national award for economic development excellence. The Iowa city was awarded the 2009 Economic Development Administration's Excellence in Economic Development in Historic Preservation-led Strategies citation for the redevelopment of the Roshek Building as a new home for IBM's Global Informatio ...

Phoenix Packaging Operations, LLC, a subsidiary of Phoenix Packaging Group, will invest more than $20 million to establish its first U.S. operation in Pulaski County, VA. The company will manufacture thermoformed rigid plastic packaging for customers in the U.S., and also establish its North American headquarters in Pulaski. The project will create 240 new jobs. Virginia successfully competed against Georgi ...

They’re cleaning up another mess on Wall Street today, but this time it’s not Goldman Sachs’ fault. The center of the financial universe served up another heart-attack special yesterday, but the usual suspects were blameless. That’s not to say that a Himalayan-sized mountain range of debt in Greece, Portugal and Spain is no longer casting a shadow over the global recovery. The Euro-contagion and its evil tw ...