As a tumultuous year comes to an end. it's time to take another look into our Crystal Ball for some sure-fire prognostications of the big stories of 2011:   -- Ben Bernanke demands $500-billion “overdraft fee” from top U.S. banks, tells them to cut up debit cards. -- Hamid Karzai retires to Paris, opens chain of men’s clothing stores called Afghan Wearhouse. -- Cliff Lee pitches against Yankees in Worl ...

Business Facilities magazine has selected Louisiana as its 2010 State of the Year. "The diversity and growth potential of Louisiana's top projects in both high-tech and traditional manufacturing, as well as healthy total investments, overall job creation and innovative incentives made Louisiana a clear winner of our annual State of the Year Award," said Business Facilities Editor-in-Chief Jack Rogers. Runne ...

Amazon.com Inc. will build two new distribution centers in Chattanooga and neighboring Bradley County. According to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, the Seattle-based online company plans to spend up to $139 million on the projects that will create up to 1,400 jobs in the next three years, in addition to hundreds of other peak season positions. Amazon.com's North American Oper ...

WebFilings LLC has announced plans to bring 250 jobs to Ames, Iowa. Created in 2008, the software company that helps customers file electronic documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission has received a $2.26 million grant from the Iowa Department of Economic Development. The expansion will include constructing a 51,000-square-foot building to house offices, common meeting and gathering spaces and ...

A $1.3 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy helps back what will be one of the world's largest wind farms, the U.S. Energy Secretary has confirmed. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the loan would finance the construction of the Caithness Shepherds Flat wind farm in Oregon. Chu said investing in renewable energy projects like the Oregon wind farm would give the United States an advantage ...

Ford Motor Co. has announced it will produce the next generation of its Escape SUV in Louisville, KY, investing $600 million in its Louisville Assembly Plant, according to a report in Kansas City Business Journal. The move is a setback for Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, MO, which now produces the midsized SUV. The loss of the Escape, without another line to take its place, could affect half ...

Chicago-based Klein Tools Inc. will invest $76 million into developing an advanced manufacturing technology center in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The new facility will create 585 jobs in Mansfield, TX and have a projected net economic impact $4.5 billion to the state for the first 10 years of the center's operation. Klein received $2.8 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which bases its awards on job cr ...

HFL Sport Science Inc. has cut the ribbon on a new laboratory in Lexington, KY that will provide drug surveillance, doping control and research to equine and other sports industries. The lab, which represents a more than $4 million investment, will create 48 new jobs, including 25 high-tech positions, paying an average salary of over $47,000, exclusive of benefits. “HFL is establishing a world-class bioanal ...

  Twenty million years ago, the oceans covered the area now known as Panama, flowing through a large gap in the continents of North and South America. Beneath the surface, two plates of the Earth’s crust were slowly colliding with each other, forcing the Pacific plate to slide under the Caribbean plate. The pressure and heat produced by this collision spawned underwater volcanoes. About 15 million year ...

Utah-based Internet retailer Overstock.com Inc. says it plans to double its software engineering staff by hiring 150 people. The Governor's Office of Economic Development says the new jobs will bring Overstock a tax credit worth more than $1 million over 10 years. Overstock says it will hire most of the Java software engineers in the next 12 months. Provo Mayor John R. Curtis says he's delighted Overstock c ...