THURS. 05/08/08

Farmers get customers’ goats
McClatchy Newspapers
HILLSBORO - In a land of swine and steak, Tom Mueller sees another meat on the horizon.

FutureGen supporters retain hope
ST. LOUIS (AP) - The Department of Energy unveiled its blueprint yesterday for spending up to $1.3 billion on multiple clean-coal power plants that would capture carbon emissions and permanently store them underground.

GM Wentzville plant to restart Monday
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Workers at the General Motors plant in the St. Louis-area town of Wentzville are going back to work starting Monday.

Bombardier incentives go to Blunt
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - A $240 million plan to entice a Canadian airplane maker to Kansas City soared through the General Assembly yesterday as politicians praised it as Missouri’s best-ever chance to land a supersize development deal.

New St. Louis casino shows a slight loss
ST. LOUIS (AP) - St. Louis’ newest casino took a loss in its first full quarter of operation.

WED. 05/07/08

City workers seek raises, changes to promotion system
By KAT HUGHES of the Tribune’s staff
With the meet-and-confer process between city of Columbia workers and administration under way, workers presented their wish lists for the upcoming budget year to the Columbia City Council on Monday night.

YOUR OFFICE COACH
Bosses’ workplace tryst is none of your business
By MARIE McINTYRE McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Q: Our store manager and assistant manager recently ended an extramarital affair after the assistant’s wife discovered it. Everyone at work had been aware of the relationship for quite a while.

Season’s greetings
McClatchy Newspapers
FORT WORTH, Texas - From flipping burgers to watching over swimmers, the summer job has been a rite of passage for countless teenagers.

Internships can pay off even without a paycheck
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO - Thomas Kemeny applied for an unpaid summer internship at a top-rated ad agency in Florida after graduating college in 2005.

Dental program brightens job prospects for inmates
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
TAYCHEEDAH, Wis. - In a wing at Taycheedah Correctional Institution near Fond du Lac, women inmates are sculpting dentures from acrylic resins. They’re meticulously contouring and buffing and waxing plastic into functional prostheses.

TUES. 05/06/08

Extension offers tips to cut costs
By the Tribune’s staff
Cynthia Fauser, a University of Missouri Extension nutrition and health education specialist, offers the following tips to help make over your grocery store habits to deal with rising food costs:

PC INFO
Reliable software simplifies your PC
By SCOTT A. MAY
It’s nice to have something you can rely on, even if it’s just a computer program. There’s something comforting about applications that do exactly what you want and work exactly the same every time you use them. That’s a boast not all software programs can make.

Impostors add to nature knowledge
By STEPHANIE REITZ Associated Press Writer
AMHERST, Mass. - One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby.

BUSINESS CALENDAR

Monsanto expects gross profits to soar
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Monsanto’s chief financial officer says the agricultural company is on track to double its gross profit by 2012.

MON. 05/05/08

Gerbes, Hy-Vee will cash tax rebate checks
By the Tribune’s staff
Hy-Vee and Gerbes have joined a growing list of businesses that are trying to cash in on the government’s $110 billion tax rebate plan. Direct deposits of the rebates began last week, and paper checks are scheduled to begin arriving in mailboxes Friday.

DEBT ADVISER
Read the fine print on all credit offers
By STEVE BUCCI Bankrate.com
Dear Debt Adviser, I have one credit card on which I make a monthly payment of about $1,000 to $1,500. My balance is about $5,000. Last year, I needed to use one of the checks they regularly send me and wrote one for $370.

Shop around for 529 college savings plan
By KATHLEEN PENDER San Francisco Chronicle
Morningstar recently released its annual list of the five best and five worst 529 college savings plans. Past favorites Utah Educational Savings and Nebraska College Savings dropped out of the top five - not because they got worse, but because other plans got better.

‘Yawns’ make mark by leaving none
By EVELYN NIEVES of The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - They drive hybrid cars, if they drive at all; shop at local stores, if they shop at all; and pay off their credit cards every month, if they use them at all.

Workers in KC go on strike
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - Members of a United Auto Workers union local went on strike today at General Motors’ Fairfax facility, hitting the plant that makes GM’s popular Malibu sedan.

SAT. 05/03/08

PROFILE: SYCAMORE
Taking root
By JOE MEYER of the Tribune’s staff
Create a list of the restaurants the four co-owners of Sycamore have worked at over the years, and you’d have a who’s who of Columbia eateries.

STREET TALK
50 Minute Photo closure marks the end of an era
By JUSTIN WILLETT Tribune business editor
One of Columbia’s first express photo processing labs is closing after more than 25 years.

FUNNY BUSINESS

MEDIA MATTERS
Topic of signal strength tops DTV conversation
By RANDY WRIGHT
As I have more and more contact with Central Missouri television viewers, one thing is becoming clear: Those in the far reaches of the Columbia television market are having real issues picking up digital transmissions of some stations.

GRAND OPENING: NEW BUSINESS IN COLUMBIA
PHOTO GLIFF

TOP DRAWER

WEEK IN REVIEW

When overseas, save money by changing out SIM card
By PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer
Q: I’m heading to Europe this summer, and I want to bring my cell phone, but international roaming looks expensive. How do I keep costs down? 

FRI. 05/02/08

Howdy, pardner
By JANESE HEAVIN of the Tribune’s staff
They volunteer in classrooms, donate money and equipment and offer job shadowing experiences, and this coming week, Columbia Public Schools’ Partners in Education will receive some deserved recognition.

Right to work bill still dead
By JASON ROSENBAUM of the Tribune’s staff
Legislation that would prohibit employees from being forced to pay union fees isn’t going anywhere in the Missouri General Assembly. Several individuals with divergent points of view on the issue expect the bill to find little support in the legislature.

FTC to investigate oil price fixing
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The Federal Trade Commission will announce today its plan for investigating and regulating possible market manipulation by oil companies, traders and others, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

State revises enticements for Bombardier
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Grounding their concerns, Missouri senators passed a $240 million package of state tax enticements yesterday aimed at landing a Canadian company’s new airplane assembly plant at Kansas City International Airport.

KRCG cuts staff to focus on Web
By the Tribune’s staff
KRCG has laid off two news producers and a sports photographer. Betsy Farris, vice president and general manager of the Jefferson City CBS affiliate, said news producer Brad Bashore and sports photographer Jeremy Stein lost their jobs about two weeks ago.

Dow above 13,000 as dollar advances
NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street shot higher yesterday as investors, while anticipating another dismal jobs report today, viewed the rising dollar and falling oil prices as promising signs. The Dow Jones industrial average soared nearly 190 points to close above 13,000 for the first time since Jan. 3.

Employers cut jobs, but jobless rate falls
WASHINGTON (AP) - Employers cut far fewer jobs in April than in recent months, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent, a better-than-expected showing that nonetheless still revealed strains in the nation’s crucial labor market.

Microsoft-Yahoo deal might go hostile today
SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. might go hostile in its bid for Yahoo Inc. as soon as today, according to a published report.

Home Depot to close 15 poor performers
ATLANTA (AP) - It has been 4½ years since former Home Depot Chief Executive Bob Nardelli’s bold prediction that the home improvement retailer could sustain "unlimited growth" without significantly affecting sales at established stores.

UNDER THE HOOD
Stability systems keep car on track
By BRAD BERGHOLDT McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Q: I’m looking at new cars and am intrigued by this option: Dynamic Stability Control. I’ve heard it improves traction as well as keeps you from spinning out. This seems like a great idea for everyone, especially newer drivers. Can you explain how it works and what’s really within its abilities?

TEST DRIVE
LEXUS IS-F
By RICHARD WILLIAMSON Scripps Howard News Service
Toyota invented the name “Lexus” for its luxury division back in 1986 because the word sounded pleasant and memorable.