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February 2012 - Posts
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The Kansas City region showed moderate economic growth in January and early February thanks to contributions from several sectors, and many plan to hire during the next quarter, according to the Federal Reserve’s closely watched Beige Book report.
The Federal Reserve’s 10th District had better-than-expected consumer spending despite the typical post-holiday slowdown, and retailers are optimistic about future sales. Manufacturing also showed gains, including better outlooks for production, hiring and capital spending...
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Epiq Systems Inc. recorded revenue gains but profit declines for the fourth quarter and all of last year.
Revenue for the three months that ended Dec. 31 increased by 9 percent to $73.6 million. However, net income for the fourth quarter dropped 38 percent to $1.94 million, or 5 cents a share.
Epiq, based in Kansas City, Kan., wrapped up 2011 with annual revenue of $283.3 million, a 14.6 percent improvement over 2010. Net income came in 13 percent below 2010 at $12.08 million, or 33 cents a share...
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 The month-old Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway so far is outperforming expectations, according to the COO of the Kansas City, Kan., casino’s parent company.
Tim Wilmott, COO of Penn National Gaming Inc. (Nasdaq: PENN), said Monday at the annual meeting of the Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce that the casino, which opened Feb. 3, rang up $6.8 million in revenue during its first nine days.
It won’t keep up the pace set immediately after the grand opening, Wilmott said, but more important, the $411 million Hollywood Casino doesn’t appear to be hurting its sister casino, the Argosy Casino & Hotel Kansas City...
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 Kansas City straddles states that, according to a new poll, have health conditions that are about as similar as donuts and broccoli.
Kansas ties with Colorado for the No. 6 spot on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index in 2011, with a score of 68.4. Hawaii topped the list with a score of 70.2, bolstered by high scores for emotional health and healthy behaviors. It was followed by North Dakota, Minnesota, Utah and Alaska.
Meanwhile, Missouri ranked among the bottom 10 states with a score of 64...
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A scam this month has been targeting several Kansas City-area banks, including Commerce Bank, Bank of the West and Bank Midwest.
A report by Daily Safety Check’s Security Operations Center listed the targets, which could not immediately be reached for comment. Other targets include online banking platforms such as NetTeller and FundsXpress.
Scammers take over a customer’s email account and reply to prior correspondence between the customer and bank, making the email appear legitimate. If a bait email gets a response from a bank employee, the scammer sends a transaction request, using names, bank account numbers and personal information from other emails to convince the bank employee to make a wire transfer...
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 Standard Parking Corp. and Central Parking Corp. are driving toward a combination.
The companies, which run dozens of parking facilities in Kansas City, said Wednesday that they had signed a definitive agreement to merge, with Chicago-based Standard Parking (Nasdaq: STAN) agreeing to pay Central Parking stockholders about $27 million in cash and 6.16 million shares (worth roughly $108 million based on Standard shares’ Tuesday closing price), as well as assume about $210 million in Central Parking debt...
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Matt Sogard has been named as the new COO of Research Medical Center in Kansas City.
In a Wednesday release, hospital owner HCA Midwest Health System said Sogard joined earlier this month. He previously was COO at the HCA Healthcare-owned Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center and its Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver. HCA Healthcare is the umbrella company.
During his tenure, Sogard oversaw the construction of a $150 million pediatric hospital and expansions in oncology, radiology and surgery...
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 Fitch Ratings on Tuesday revised its outlook on Kansas City finances from “stable” to “negative.”
The municipal bond rating agency expressed concerns about an additional layer of debt from an announced plan to seek $1 billion in general obligation bonds to tend to long-deferred infrastructure projects.
Mayor Sly James said in his budget submission for the coming fiscal year that the city ought to seek $100 million in GO bond financing in each of the next 10 years to bring deferred infrastructure maintenance up to speed...
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Fitch Ratings on Tuesday revised its outlook on Kansas City finances from “stable” to “negative.”
The municipal bond rating agency expressed concerns about an additional layer of debt from an announced plan to seek $1 billion in general obligation bonds to tend to long-deferred infrastructure projects.
Mayor Sly James said in his budget submission for the coming fiscal year that the city ought to seek $100 million in GO bond financing in each of the next 10 years to bring deferred infrastructure maintenance up to speed...
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 Bank of America Corp. is donating vacant, foreclosed properties in Kansas City to the city and nonprofit organizations for redevelopment and neighborhood revitalization.
Mayor Sly James said that collaborating with private partners helps the city alleviate the effects of the recession. This partnership will address boarded-up and run-down houses that are bruises on neighborhoods.
“We can build the population of our urban core, but it will take innovative thinking and programs that join public and private interest,” James said Tuesday...
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The University of Missouri will pay about $12.5 million to leave the Big 12 Conference for the Southeast Conference, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Mizzou’s deal with the Big 12 allows the conference to withhold $12.41 million from revenue that would have been distributed to MU. The Tigers also agreed to forgo any money the conference receives from a television deal with Fox Sports.
The conference shuffling means former Big 12 schools MU and Texas A&M University will be replaced by Texas Christian University and the University of West Virginia.
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 It will cost the University of Missouri nearly $12.5 million to leave the Big 12 Conference, according to an agreement announced Tuesday. The university is leaving to join the Southeast Conference in the fall.
The deal calls for the Big 12 to withhold an estimated $12.41 million from revenue that would have been distributed to MU. The Tigers also agreed to waive any claim to money the conference will receive from a television contract with Fox Sports that is set to begin July 1.
Missouri also will pay roughly half a million dollars for its share of officiating costs, as it has in previous years...
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TMNG Global’s fourth-quarter revenue slid, and its loss widened, driven by the wrapping up of a big job and a typical holiday slowdown.
“Fourth-quarter results were disappointing but not entirely unexpected,” new CEO Donald Klumb said in a release.
Quarterly revenue dropped 17.7 percent to $13.5 million, and the company’s net loss grew to $1.4 million, or 20 cents a share. That compares with a net loss of $200,000, or 3 cents a share, for the fourth quarter of 2010.
“We believe that revenue growth from our core solutions will remain challenging near-term, but we are focused on maximizing business opportunities with our largest clients,” Klumb said...
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 Kansas City, Kan., served as the butt of a joke from a Google Inc. executive Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Asked what implications existed surrounding the ultra-fast Internet network Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is building in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt delivered a punch line that apparently drew laughter from the international crowd.
“People will want to move to Kansas City, Kan.,” he said, according to a report from CNET...
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 U.S. truckers handled less freight in January after enjoying a leap in December.
“Last month, I said I was surprised by the size of the gain in December,” Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Associations, said in a written statement. “Today, I’m not surprised that tonnage fell on a seasonally adjusted basis in January simply due to the fact that December was so strong.”
The trade association has an index to monitor for-hire truck tonnage. The advanced, seasonally adjusted index dropped by 5 percentage points in January, coming off a 6...
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Prominent Internet security and virus protection provider McAfee Inc. is beefing up its offerings using tools from a Kansas City-area software company.
LockPath Inc. recently joined the McAfee Security Innovation Alliance, the Overland Park-based startup announced Tuesday.
McAfee is integrating a LockPath compliance product, the Keylight platform, into McAfee Vulnerability Manager, McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator platform and McAfee Policy Auditor.
“As McAfee is such a powerhouse in the information security industry, joining the SIA is a significant opportunity for LockPath to generate additional revenue,” LockPath CEO Chris Caldwell said in an email...
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 eScreen Inc. has agreed to sell for at least $270 million in cash.
The Overland Park-based company, which offers toxicology screening and employee health products and services, has reached a binding agreement to be bought by Alere Inc. (NYSE: ALR). The deal is expected to close within 45 days, subject to customary closing conditions.
The $270 million base purchase price is subject to a working capital adjustment and a contingent consideration of as much as $70 million more.
Alere, which is based in Waltham, Mass...
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 Magna Seating of America will temporarily lay off 191 employees at its Excelsior Springs facility because of production changes at Ford Motor Co.’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo.
The Canadian-based company will begin temporary layoffs starting April 27 as it waits for the Ford plant to start production of the Ford Transit commercial van. Last year, Ford promised to invest $1.1 billion and create 1,600 new jobs in the Kansas City area. And Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has been stumping for legislation to boost the state’s number of auto supplier jobs...
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 Kansas City’s black residents earn $551 for every $1,000 their white counterparts earn, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal, analyzed data from the Census’ 2010 American Community Survey for 587 metropolitan and micropolitan areas where at least 2 percent of residents are black. Ninety-three major markets were included, which is a metro area with a population of 500,000 or more people.
Kansas City landed in the middle of the pack at 261 on a list, with a higher number signaling a larger gap...
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 Mango Moving LLC, an Overland Park long-distance moving service that once went by BuildMyMove, is projecting to add 90 new jobs this year.
The Overland Park company relocated within town in February, pulling up stakes at 7245 W. 95th St. and leasing about 10,000 square feet at 4370 W. 109th St. near Roe Avenue and Interstate 435.
The 86,606-square-foot building that is the new home to Mango Moving is listed for $18 a square foot, according to LoopNet.com.
Miles McCune and Travis Helgeson of Kessinger/Hunter & Co...
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A Texas technology company bought North Kansas City-based Clinical Coding Solutions Inc.
Dallas-based T-System Inc. announced the acquisition Tuesday. Financial details were not disclosed.
Clinical Coding, founded in 2003, works with more than 100 U.S. hospital emergency rooms to see that tracking and charging of patients and insurers is accurate and conforms with federal requirements. The company’s website lists President Tom McCarthy and vice presidents Dave Fuller and Kurt Breeding as principals...
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 Five months after restructuring its finances, YRC Worldwide Inc. says its recovery — though under way — may not be moving fast enough.
The Overland Park-based trucking company (Nasdaq: YRCW) on Tuesday reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing the same day, the company warned that it may need to start requesting leniency from its lenders.
As part of YRC’s restructured financing, bankers set minimum thresholds for YRC in terms of its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)...
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 Wells Fargo & Co. continues to trim back its Auto Finance Collections Group in Kansas City, announcing plans to lay off 54 employees by April 15.
Spokeswoman Angie Kaipust said Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is combining its automobile finance portfolios.
“The portfolio these guys are servicing is a runoff, and there are no new loans going into the portfolio,” Kaipust said. “So as the loans get paid off, there is less need for people to service the portfolio.”
The remaining loans will be moved to other servicing groups around the nation...
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Kansas mass layoffs dove in January, with eight such events compared with 23 a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Mass layoff events are characterized as involving at least 50 workers from a single employer.
Numbers of people affected also dropped off. In January, 815 Kansans made initial claims for unemployment insurance, down from 5,440 a year prior, the report said.
The number of mass layoffs in Missouri decreased as well, with 42 events affecting 2,860 people in January...
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 YRC Worldwide Inc. hoisted fourth-quarter revenue by more than 11 percent to top $1.21 billion.
However, the Overland Park-based trucking company (Nasdaq: YRCW) recorded a $38 million loss for the three months that ended Dec. 31, larger than the $27.9 million loss of the same period a year prior.
The $38 million loss included a $13 million loss for disposing of assets, $4 million for professional fees for restructuring and $9 million in letter of credit fees. Without those, YRC would have had an operating loss of $12 million — by comparison, its operating loss in 2010 would have been $11 million...
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 The Kansas City Chiefs earned an off-the-field victory related to workers’ compensation claims that several former players filed in California.
Former National Football League players from throughout the country have filed dozens of claims in California, where the law affords workers’ comp protection to employees temporarily working in the state.
The Chiefs and the National Football League Management Council argued that filing workers’ comp claims in California violates the contracts the players signed with the Chiefs...
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Moderate temperatures and last summer’s flooding combined with other factors to lower Great Plains Energy Inc. earnings in 2011, the company said Monday.
Kansas City-based Great Plains (NYSE: GXP), the parent company of Kansas City Power & Light Co., said coal conservation and other expenses related to Missouri River flooding; regulatory and fuel costs; and an organizational realignment that included voluntary separations all contributed to a weaker bottom line.
The company had earnings of $172...
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 A state audit found Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co.’s internal controls sound, but questioned its spending and recommended that lawmakers consider whether it “continues to fulfill a necessary public mission” and should retain its tax-exempt status.
State Auditor Tom Schweich on Monday released an audit of the insurer, which was created by the Missouri Legislature in 1993 to help small companies find affordable workers’ compensation coverage.
But auditors questioned Missouri Employers Mutual’s spending...
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 The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce on Monday announced plans to revitalize the Troost Corridor as part of its Big 5 Urban Neighborhood Initiative.
The plan will include the area between Troost Avenue and U.S. Highway 71 from 23rd Street to 51st Street.
The chamber partnered with the United Way of Greater Kansas City for the project, and the nonprofit managed much of the effort. United Way put together stakeholder sessions in December, asking people with an interest in the east side for their input on a possible project...
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 Farmers and ranchers in the United States sustained more than $10 billion in insured losses in 2011, the highest ever.
The figure is expected to climb further because about 5 percent of claims are outstanding. The previous record was $8.67 billion in 2008.
Tom Zacharias, president of Overland Park-based National Crop Insurance Services, said the ability of U.S. agriculture to sustain such high losses, and still seamlessly finance the 2012 crop season, is worthy of attention.
“Over the past 30 years, Congress and Administration officials have helped shape a public-private partnership that makes policies affordable and readily available, while speeding relief to growers through efficient private-sector delivery,” Zacharias said in a release...
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 Ford plans to unveil the new Tourneo Custom Concept van at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show in March, offering what’s considered a sneak peak at potential design aspects of the next generation Transit commercial van that will be produced at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo.
The Tourneo will not be sold in North America. However, it is the first of several newly designed passenger vans that Ford plans to unveil in 2012. Newly designed models of the larger-payload Ford Transit van will begin to be unveiled later this year...
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 Lose support for one estimated $8 billion deal with another wireless carrier, and everyone starts scripting your exit.
The blogosphere and analysts have erupted with speculation about Sprint Nextel Corp.’s leader, CEO Dan Hesse, since The Wall Street Journal reported that the Overland Park-based company’s (NYSE: S) board rejected his attempt to buy MetroPCS Communications Inc., citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
“The 11th hour decision to abandon such a deal prompts questions about Sprint’s leadership and who is actually calling the shots,” Reuters reported Monday...
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 Google Inc. has found a way to avoid laying underground fiber when connecting its ultra-high-speed Internet network to homes in Kansas City, according a report from FierceCable, citing a patent application from Google.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on the patent application’s implications on its network roll out in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. Construction on the network began Feb. 6.
FierceCable reported Monday that Google had developed a narrow edging strip that allows the company (Nasdaq: GOOG) to run cable above ground, along homes, driveways and lawns without digging trenches for the fiber network...
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 Native 34, a new dining concept from the chefs behind Kansas City’s Bluestem, will open in Park Place in space that has been occupied by Trezo Vino.
According to the Leawood Planning Commission agenda for Tuesday, the restaurant is seeking approval to finish the space at the northeast corner of 117th Street and Nall Avenue.
James Beard semifinalist Colby Garrelts and his wife, Megan, opened Bluestem in Westport in 2004. The duo took on consulting duties at Park Place’s Trezo Vino Wine Bistro, 11570 Ash St...
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GlynnDevins Advertising hired Kansas City advertising veteran Kirk Kirkpatrick as its executive creative director.
His role is a new position at the Overland Park-based agency, which specializes in marketing for senior housing developments.
Kirkpatrick formerly was a creative director at Bernstein-Rein — where he managed accounts with Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Time Warner Cable — and at Young & Rubicam. He most recently was co-creative director at Kansas City agency Tonic.
His local work also includes stints at Camp Fire USA and as a marketing professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City...
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 Sprint Nextel Corp. has agreed to refund about $74 million to LightSquared Inc. if their $9 billion deal unravels as expected.
Overland Park-based Sprint (NYSE: S) revealed Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the parties agreed that Sprint wouldn’t have to pay back $236 million of the $310 million LightSquared already has poured into setting up and running a 4G network.
The 15-year agreement, reached in July, encountered a big setback earlier this month when the Federal Communications Commission ruled that LightSquared’s national wireless network interfered with certain global positioning system devices...
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 Medical supply distributor Suture Express is moving its headquarters from Lenexa to Overland Park as it deals with increased customer demand.
Pat Davis, the company’s CFO and COO, said Suture Express plans to lease 9,000 square feet at 11020 King St., more than doubling the 4,000 square feet it now uses in its 11691 W. 85th St. location. It also uses some overflow space in the Enterprise Center of Johnson County in Lenexa.
Davis said the 14-year-old company will retain a presence in Lenexa. It will lease 30,000 square feet of space for its distribution operations in the Meritex Lenexa Executive Park at 17501 W...
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Sprint Nextel Corp. said Monday that it will sell $2 billion in notes in a private transaction.
The Overland Park-based company (NYSE: S) said it will offer notes due in 2017 and 2020. Because they are to be sold in a private transaction, Sprint is not required to file registration documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sprint said it will use proceeds for general corporate purposes, which could include outstanding debt, network expansion and modernization, “and potential funding of Clearwire Corporation and its subsidiary Clearwire Communications LLC...
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 YRC Worldwide Inc.’s Overland Park headquarters got a minor face-lift last week as workers switched out its name on the side of the building for subsidiary YRC Freight.
The division’s CEO, Jeff Rogers, said most of the almost 700 employees in the building work for YRC Freight, which condenses shipments from multiple customers into long-haul truckloads. He added that the move also follows the corporation’s efforts to put more spotlight on its day-to-day transportation services.
“With the previous leadership the emphasis was all around the holding company and the worldwide efforts, which really is not our focus anymore,” Rogers said...
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The Overland Park headquarters of YRC Worldwide Inc. now sports a new name on the side of the building, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The building, which houses about 700 mostly YRC Freight employees, now reads YRC Freight.
YRC Freight condenses shipments from multiple customers into long-haul truckloads.
The corporate offices of YRC Worldwide (Nasdaq: YRCW) will remain in the building.
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 Daniel Getman, CEO of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute Inc., plans to step down in late spring.
The bioscience advocacy group announced Getman’s decision Friday, coming three years after he joined the institute after a three-decade career in the pharmaceutical industry.
In a release, Getman said that “it’s a good time to step down” and that he planned to spend more time with his family.
“Frankly, it’s a tremendous opportunity for someone to step in and build on the organization’s success,” he said...
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 Kansas City residents’ hesitance to make online purchases and embrace online banking helped keep the area off of Norton’s top 10 list of the United States’ riskiest online cities.
Kansas City still came in at No. 17 among 50 surveyed cities, according to research from Norton, Symantec Inc.’s consumer division and Sperling’s BestPlaces.
Sperling’s BestPlaces determined the per-capita rankings by looking at consumer behaviors. It took into account the prevalence of smart phones and PC computers, electronic commerce, the accessibility of unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots and social networking, according to a release...
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 Travois Inc. is set to receive a $70 million allocation in New Markets Tax Credits from the latest financing round from the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Travois, a Kansas City firm that helps American Indian tribes secure private equity for economic development and housing, was one 70 recipients among 314 applicants for $3.6 billion in the federal tax credits.
Travois Chairman David Bland said the firm’s allocation was the seventh largest.
New Markets Tax Credits are sold to companies to offset portions of their federal tax liability, and the money from the sale is then disbursed to economic development projects...
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 BATS Global Markets Inc. recorded increases in revenue and earnings in 2011, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In an amended prospectus filed Thursday, the Lenexa-based stock exchange operator also stated that it has received an inquiry from the SEC’s enforcement division and that it plans a $100 million cash dividend for investors as of the day before a planned public stock offering.
BATS reported net income of $23.5 million on revenue of $926.6 million last year...
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 Sea Life Kansas City and Legoland Discovery Center are looking to hire 125 employees for the new attractions.
The jobs will be full- and part-time hourly positions, Marketing Manager Mendy Rose said, and most of the full-time positions will come with benefits.
Some positions will overlap between the aquarium and Legoland.
Merlin Entertainments Group, which owns both attractions, held a job fair for its Atlanta Legoland Discovery Center last week and had more than 900 applicants for jobs. Here, with two attractions, more jobs will be available...
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 The Kansas City metro is home to more than 32,000 super-seniors, or people who are 85 and older.
Super-seniors make up 1.7 percent of the nation’s population and are 20 years older than what is considered senior — age 65. That means more than 5 million people in the U.S. are older than 85, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal.
In Kansas City, 13.84 percent of people considered seniors also qualify as super-seniors...
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The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking BATS Global Markets Inc. for information on its development of order types used by traders, according to a filing.
In an amended filing seeking an initial public stock offering, the Lenexa-based company said the SEC Division of Enforcement has asked for information about the development, modification and use of order types and the company’s communications with customers about those order types.
Order types are programs offered by exchanges to attract customers and certain behaviors...
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Sears said it will spin off its hometown dealer and outlet stores and sell nine Great Indoors stores as it works to stabilize its financial situation, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Sears Holdings Corp. is spinning off the more than 1,000 hometown and outlet stores, and the move should raise $400 million to $500 million.
Hometown stores are smaller outlets emphasizing hardware and appliances. Independent dealers operate most of those stores, according to the Tribune.
Sears’ website lists 22 hometown stores in Kansas and 38 in Missouri...
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The Kansas City Chiefs jumped ahead of the Seattle Seahawks in the National Football League draft by way of a coin toss, NFL.com reports.
The Chiefs snagged the 11th pick in the April 26 draft in the coin toss. Both the Chiefs and Seahawks ended the season with records of 7-9.
In another gridiron coin classic, the Miami Dolphins won the No. 8 pick in a toss-up with the Carolina Panthers.
The outcome of the coin tosses will have an effect on how the top of the draft plays out, according to NFL...
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Exide Technologies announced on Thursday an expansion of its Salina auto battery plant that will add as many as 130 jobs, the Wichita Business Journal reports.
The multimillion-dollar plant expansion will result in the addition of 100 to 130 new jobs in the next two years. The plant presently employs more than 600.
The newspaper reports that Exide (Nasdaq: XIDE), based in Milton, Ga., received unspecified incentives from the state and city.
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YRC Freight will pull 121 jobs out of its terminal in Columbus, Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch reports.
The jobs will be cut in April, the Overland Park-based company said in a filing with state of Ohio. Some workers will be able to transfer to other locations within the company.
The less-than-truckload division of YRC Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: YRCW) said earlier this year that it would sell the former Akron, Ohio, headquarters of Roadway Corp. Operations of Roadway were merged with those of the former Yellow Corp...
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The sluggish economy has forced people to not only cut back on their own medical expenses but also those of their furry friends.
In a survey released Thursday, 77 percent of respondents said they took their dog or cat to the veterinarian at least once in 2011, down from 88 percent in 2007, when the study was first performed.
In addition, cats owners who had not taken their pets to the vet reported spending significantly less on medication from 2007, including a 28 percent drop on heartworm care and 20 percent less for flea and tick control...
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Manufacturing activity surged in February, according to the latest survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
The survey’s production index was at 20, its highest total since hitting 23 in June, up from 13 in January and 19 a year ago.
The index can range from 100 to minus-100; a positive number indicates growth.
Manufacturing activity increased at plants producing both durable and non-durable goods, with particular strength in the machinery, fabricated metal and aircraft production industries...
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 The Culinary Center of Kansas City is cooking up a new way for businesses to stay healthy with a corporate wellness program called CookWell.
The program starts with a free employee healthy cooking survey. The results help companies customize their program and give insight into the cooking and eating needs of their employees.
“It really depends on what kind of company it is and how their schedule works,” said Rachel Ciordas, director of the program. “It’s very customizable. That’s why we put so many different offerings in it...
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 Black & Veatch has been awarded a contract to start designing the first big construction phase of Kansas City’s federally mandated $2.5 billion sewer overhaul.
The engineering firm will sketch out an initial design for a 20 million-gallon overflow storage facility in an industrial area near 87th Street and the Blue River, according to Terry Leeds, the city’s acting water services director.
The site is just outside the area of the city served by combined sewage and stormwater pipes.
The first step for the 87th Street project is deciding whether it will be an addition of tanks to an existing pump station or a more expansive underground tunnel...
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 The U.S. Postal Service said Thursday that it is recommending the closing of seven mail processing facilities in Kansas and two in Missouri as part of its plan to cut operating costs. The cuts actually would bring additional work to Kansas City.
A Postal Service study of processing centers recommends consolidating work now performed in 223 facilities into other processing centers. Among those on the chopping block are centers in Colby, Dodge City, Hays, Hutchinson, Liberal, Salina and Topeka in Kansas and centers in Cape Girardeau and Springfield, Mo...
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 Wednesday’s news that Google Inc. spinoffs had applied to offer video television services in Kansas City generated a lot of buzz within local social media circles.
For a peek into some of the conversation, check out the #Googlefiber hashtag on Twitter.
The technology giant (Nasdaq: GOOG), which is building an ultra-fast Internet network in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., asked public commissions in both states for video service franchise agreements, referring to Internet-based home TV services...
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Using tolls to rebuild Interstate 70 would fix just one of Missouri’s most pressing highway needs, the state’s transportation chief told a Senate committee, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Kevin Keith, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, testified that creating a toll road “allows us to do a project, that’s it,” the Post-Dispatch reports.
The public-private partnership would help in a time of shrinking highway budgets, Keith said.
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Five insurance companies have submitted bids to participate in KanCare, Gov. Sam Brownback’s effort to remodel the state’s Medicaid program, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The five companies are vying for three spots to oversee Brownback’s program, which seeks to use a private “managed care” model in place of the current state-run operation.
Details of the proposals were not provided, and the state will evaluate the bids and negotiate final contracts with the three winners.
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Kansas City Power & Light Co. has withdrawn a plan to include its 270,000 metro-area customers in an energy conservation incentive proposal, The Kansas City Star reports.
The proposal, introduced in December, is designed to help KCP&L’s 600,000 Missouri customers use less electricity and perhaps spare the utility having to build another big power plant in a few years, the Star reports.
But in addition to withdrawing Kansas City-area customers from the plan, industrial customers and regulators are criticizing the portion of KCP&L’s proposal for its remaining customers...
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The Securities and Exchange Commission’s chairwoman defended the agency’s settlement of fraud cases, citing their deterrent value on Wall Street companies, The New York Times reports.
Although firms often repeatedly face charges for violating the same laws, SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro attributed that to “short memories” on Wall Street. This forces the SEC to bring many similar cases so that “people don’t forget ... that somebody is watching and somebody is willing to hold them accountable,” the Times reports...
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Five insurance companies have submitted bids to participate in KanCare, Gov. Sam Brownback’s effort to remodel the state’s Medicaid program.
Announced Wednesday, the five are competing for three spots to oversee the program, which seeks to replace the current state-run operation with a private “managed care” model.
The five are WellCare of Kansas, based in Tampa, Fla.; Sunflower State Health Plan, based in Topeka; United Health Care, based in Minneapolis; Coventry Health Care of Kansas, based in Wichita; and Amerigroup, based in Virginia Beach...
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Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt spoke out against Google Inc.’s privacy policy Wednesday.
Schmidt and attorneys general in 30 other states signed off on a letter asking Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) CEO Larry Page to revisit its policy, citing concerns about the sharing of user data among Google services.
“Until now, users of Google’s many products could use different products in different ways, expecting that information they provide for one product, such as YouTube, would not be synthesized with information they provide for another product, such as Gmail and Maps,” the attorneys general wrote in the letter...
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Google Inc. officials leading fiber efforts in Kansas City are asking the states of Kansas and Missouri for permission to provide video service, citing Internet-based home TV offerings.
The applications, filed Friday with the Missouri Public Service Commission and the Kansas Corporation Commission, seek franchises to offer video service in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan. — where Google is laying its ultra-fast Internet network.
Google Fiber Kansas LLC’s application states that the company “will utilize national and regional video headend facilities to send IPTV (Internet protocol television) across a private IP network to subscribers...
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 GasBuddy.com is warning of a sharp rise in Kansas City gasoline prices during the next few days.
The spike is attributed to a refinery fire in Washington state.
“I expect stations to increase prices as much as 5-20 cents per gallon by the conclusion of the weekend, with some stations starting to raise prices immediately,” Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst, said in a release.
DeHaan said prices in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky already have risen by 30 cents to 40 cents a gallon, with prices rapidly rising on the East Coast from New England to Florida...
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 Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court a Cole County judge’s ruling that invalidated a new incentive program for technology companies.
“The Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act is an important economic development tool that can bring high-tech jobs to Missouri and preserve jobs that are already here,” Koster said in a statement his office released Wednesday. “I don’t want to see important job-creating legislation fail. We intend to appeal this matter to its conclusion...
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 Federal transportation officials are loaning Kansas City Southern $54.6 million to buy 39 new locomotives.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the loan Wednesday. He said in a release that the new General Electric (NYSE: GE) locomotives will both help KC Southern (Nasdaq: KSU) meet increased customer demand and reduce fuel usage and pollution.
The locomotives will be built in Erie, Pa.
The loans come through the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program, which provides as much as $35 billion in assistance.
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Kansas City knows how to pinch its pennies, landing at No. 9 on Coupons.com’s ranking of the Top 25 Most Frugal U.S. Cities.
St. Louis took the No. 3 spot, and Wichita landed at No. 17, bringing the total number of Midwest cities in the Top 25 to nine and making the Heartland the country’s most frugal region.
“The South and Midwest dominate the list of most frugal U.S. cities, outsaving other regions, including the West and Northeast,” Jeanette Pavini, Coupons.com household savings expert, said in a Wednesday release...
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 Garmin Ltd.’s automotive/mobile segment improved its sales in the fourth quarter, but the navigation device-maker’s largest division swallowed a 5 percent decrease in revenue for 2011. Overall, the company’s earnings for the year declined 11 percent.
Garmin (Nasdaq: GRMN) said Wednesday that it sold nearly 16 million units in 2011, experiencing growth in its outdoor, fitness and marine segments, which nearly offset declines in sales of personal navigation devices.
Automotive/mobile revenue tumbled in 2011 to $159 billion, down 5 percent...
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Sprint Nextel Corp. CEO Dan Hesse will co-lead the United Way of Greater Kansas City’s 2012 fundraising campaign.
Hesse will join Jay Lind, financial secretary/treasurer for the Sheet Metal Workers Union, Local No. 2, in spearheading the annual campaign.
“There are many deserving charities doing important work which would simply fall ‘under the radar’ if not for United Way,” Hesse said in a Wednesday release. “No other organization takes such a holistic view of our community’s needs...
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 The University of Kansas Cancer Center’s effort to receive National Cancer Institute designation enters a crucial phase Wednesday as officials from the federally financed body are scheduled to make a key inspection visit.
Cancer Center officials said they expect 21 reviewers and three other NCI observers to spend the day hearing presentations on the center’s efforts to expand and improve its research and cancer treatment capabilities.
“We will give a series of intense scientific presentations demonstrating unique strengths that we believe will add significant value to the National Cancer Institute’s portfolio of research,” Dr...
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 Kansas City-based co-op Dairy Farmers of America Inc. has acquired Guida’s Milk, a Connecticut-based dairy, for an undisclosed price.
“Guida’s Milk’s long-standing relationships with customers and comprehensive portfolio of innovative, quality dairy products make it a natural fit with DFA’s commercial dairy businesses and brands portfolio,” Kristi Dale, director of media relations and public affairs for Dairy Farmers of America, said in a statement. “Since its formation in 1998, DFA has operated as a milk marketing cooperative and dairy foods processor focused on maximizing returns to its dairy farmer owners...
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 Mike Chesser, CEO of Great Plains Energy Inc. and its subsidiary, Kansas City Power & Light Co., will retire effective May 31, the utility announced Tuesday.
President and COO Terry Bassham will take over as CEO, and Chesser will remain as non-executive chairman “to ensure a smooth transition,” according to a news release. Chesser has been chairman and CEO since 2003.
“During the past nine years, my objective has been to collaboratively develop and lead the company’s transformational growth that resulted from the expansion of our regulated footprint with the acquisition of Aquila Inc...
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Animal Health International Inc. closed on its purchase of slightly more than six acres at Liberty’s Heartland Meadows Industrial Park to accommodate future expansion.
In November, Liberty officials announced the company would invest $1.8 million for a 34,800-square foot expansion at Heartland Meadows, a light industrial park at U.S. Highway 69 and Interstate 35.
Lextron Inc. and Walco International Inc. merged in March 2011 to form Animal Health International, the parent company of Aspen Veterinary Resources Ltd...
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 Independence will pay approximately $493,000 to Bass Pro Shops as a settlement on a rent dispute and may have to pay an additional $460,000 to the outdoor retailer as part of a court ruling.
The Independence City Council on Tuesday night will vote on a budget appropriation ordinance that would pay a $493,000 settlement to Bass Pro Shops regarding when and how much in rent payments the retailer owed in the first year of operation of its 180,000-square-foot Independence store, which opened in 2008...
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Kansas City Power & Light District’s Lucky Strike Kansas City will rebrand as Z-Strike! after an acquisition.
Pincurean Entertainment Group owners Michael Ducat and Paul Barkley will continue to operate the venue as a Lucky Strike until its transition is complete in mid-spring.
“We are thankful to the team at Lucky Strike for providing us with this exciting opportunity,” Barkley said in a release. “We look forward to providing the best upscale bowling experience in the region and are excited to be a part of the tremendous energy of the Power & Light District...
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 DST Systems Inc. said Tuesday that it was reducing its fourth-quarter earnings by $2.6 million to cover costs of a regulatory inquiry.
The Kansas City-based data processor (NYSE: DST) recorded a $3.5 million loss accrual, which it said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing represents its best estimate of the cost of resolving the inquiry. The company said the inquiry concerns processing of pharmacy claims between 2006 and 2009.
The loss accrual caused DST to reduce its incentive compensation by $1...
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A company that designs storefronts is seeking a tax abatement for a new manufacturing facility in Olathe.
Olathe City Council members will discuss at their Tuesday meeting an application from JCOC Holdings LLC for incentives to build a 32,404-square-foot manufacturing facility that is expected to bring nearly 30 jobs to Olathe with an average salary of $51,500.
JCOC Holdings does business as Custom Store Fronts. As its name would suggest, the company makes glass panels and other trappings for business storefronts...
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 A law that would help Missouri better compete for technology and life sciences companies has been declared unconstitutional because of the strings legislators attached to its passage last year.
Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green ruled Monday that the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act, or MOSIRA, failed state laws setting out how bills are adopted.
The legislation, passed during last year’s special session to deal with economic development issues, would have set aside a percentage of state revenue growth from a group of science and innovation companies and used it to finance emerging companies in those sectors...
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 Three Kansas City restaurants expect to heat up their business after being featured on Monday’s episode of “Heat Seekers,” a Food Network show in which chefs Aarón Sánchez and Roger Mooking look for the spiciest foods in cities throughout the country.
The two celebrity chefs visited Zarda Bar-B-Q, 11931 W. 87th St. Parkway in Lenexa, and Thai Place, 4130 Pennsylvania Ave. and KC Smoke Burger at 1610 W. 39th St. in Kansas City. Their hot-and-spicy entrees included baked beans, barbecue with a spicy sauce, phad thai and others...
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Euronet Worldwide Inc. kicked its recent loss trend and posted a profit for its fourth quarter.
The Leawood-based company (Nasdaq: EEFT) reported late Monday that it had $10.9 million in profit for the fourth quarter, and net income of $36.9 million for the year. The company reported losses for the fourth quarter and year in 2010.
The electronic payments provider attributed the earnings to “favorable tax benefits stemming largely from tax-planning initiatives, foreign country tax return true ups and a shift in mix of income to lower-tax countries,” according to a release...
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 Hendrick Automotive Group added its first Nissan dealership to its portfolio with Wednesday’s purchase of Keystone Nissan in Merriam.
Hendrick renamed the dealership Superior Nissan of Kansas City and temporarily relocated it to 7951 W. Shawnee Mission Parkway, where Hendrick’s Hummer dealership used to be. The dealership will remain there until June, when it will move into renovated space at 8400 W. Shawnee Mission Parkway, which is where the company’s Toyota dealership is now.
“We are very excited to open the first Nissan store in the Hendrick Automotive Group organization and look forward to a strong partnership with them,” Kirk Heppler, Hendrick Automotive Group’s executive vice president and COO, said in a release...
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The Kansas City home market showed signs of improvement in January, with the supply of homes for sale down and prices up from the previous year.
The supply of new homes for sale in January was 8.9 months, according to the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors. That’s down from 9.5 months for January 2011.
The supply of existing homes in the region was 6.6 months, a full month less than the previous year.
KCRAR says a five- to six-month supply of homes represents a “nearly balanced” market...
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Julia Irene Kauffman and Michael Schultz have joined the board of directors of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, The Kansas City Star reports.
Kauffman is the daughter of Ewing and Muriel Kauffman and serves as chairwoman and chief executive of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation. Her civic and philanthropic board experience includes serving as board chairman of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and involvement with the Kansas City Royals Baseball Club, the Kansas City Symphony, The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Kansas City Ballet, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, and the Heart of America Council/Boy Scouts of America...
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One of the largest taxpayer organizations in the United States is calling for reform of government worker pensions by revealing pension payouts to local officials, Fox4 reports.
Taxpayers United of America claims many government employees will become "pension millionaires" after they retire, with taxpayers footing the bill.
The group calculated the top 25 pensions for government employees in Wyandotte and Douglas counties.
Kansas City, Kan., Police Chief Rick Armstrong tops the list in Wyandotte County...
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Small businesses in Kansas City love using Android devices but shy away from processing credit card payments with mobile applications, according to a poll from AT&T Inc.
In a recent survey evaluating the importance of wireless technology in 12 U.S. wireless markets, Kansas City came in at No. 11, just above Cleveland, which received AT&T’s lowest wireless quotient, or “WiQ.”
AT&T surveyed 1,281 small businesses in the 12 markets, looking at the perceived importance of wireless technology in the businesses, actual use of wireless technology, use of mobile apps in business and the percentage of employees who use wireless technologies to work away from the office...
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 The federal government has paid more than $3 billion to U.S. hospitals and doctors offices in the process of switching patient records from paper to computers.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited Kansas City Friday to report the progress of health care providers in adopting electronic health record technology.
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, it has paid out $3.12 billion in incentive payments to almost 2,000 hospitals and more than 41,000 physicians who have shown that they are using technology that federal and industry officials say can improve quality of care and lower costs...
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FMC Technologies Inc. said Friday that it will buy Lenexa-based Control Systems International Inc.
Houston-based FMC (NYSE: FTI) said it has signed a definitive agreement to buy CSI. The company did not disclose terms, saying the deal was subject to due diligence and other closing conditions.
Officials with CSI could not immediately be reached for comment.
CSI provides automation systems for pipelines, fuel terminals, water and wastewater plants and buildings. The company, founded in 1968, has about 150 employees at its Lenexa headquarters and operations in Irvine, Calif...
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 Smith Electric Vehicles Corp. is teaming up with Wanxiang Group, the largest auto parts supplier in China, in a deal that will provide additional capital for Smith and give it access to the Chinese electric-vehicle market.
Smith Electric, based in Kansas City, on Friday announced the agreement with Wanxiang.
The deal calls for Wanxiang to make a $25 million equity investment in Smith Electric and invest as much as $75 million in a joint venture to develop and sell all-electric commercial trucks and school buses in China...
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Kansas City’s consumer prices jumped 4.3 percent from the second half of 2010 to the second half of 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Increases in motor fuel, food and shelter costs were the biggest contributors.
Energy prices jumped 16.1 percent, with motor fuel costs soaring 25.6 percent. Kansas City food prices rose 7.2 percent, and prices of all other items went up 2.5 percent.
For the Midwest, consumer prices edged up between December and January, with an index measuring those prices rising 0...
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Country Club Bank signed an agreement to buy the One Ward Parkway building for its future headquarters.
Highwoods Properties Inc. presently owns the three-story building on the southeast corner of the Country Club Plaza. The sale price was undisclosed, but the property had been listed for lease on the Kessinger/Hunter & Co. LC website at $18.75 a square-foot. It has a center atrium and a garage with 250 parking spaces.
Country Club Bank already has approval from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and the Missouri Division of Finance to establish a branch at One Ward Parkway...
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Netsmart Technologies Inc. has selected 4950 College Blvd. in Overland Park as its new corporate headquarters, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The company, with longtime roots in New York, plans to renovate the building and has an option to expand to a nearby lot in the future.
The building eventually will be home to 500 Netsmart (Nasdaq: NTST) employees.
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A five-year plan submitted to Congress by the U.S. Postal Service seeks an increase in the price of a first-class stamp to 50 cents and the elimination of mail delivery on Saturdays, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
The postal service said it lost $3.3 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, and it expects to lose $14.1 billion for the year ending Sept. 30.
The cost-savings plan also includes closing facilities and pulling out of a health care program for federal workers.
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In observance of Presidents Day, the Kansas City Business Journal will not publish a Morning Briefing or Daily Update on Monday, Feb. 20.
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Billionaire Phil Falcone wants to exchange wireless spectrum owned by LightSquared Inc. for spectrum controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
At the same time, The Wall Street Journal reports Falcone is putting together a legal team to try to reverse a regulator’s decision to block LightSquared’s proposed broadband network.
Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners LLC has spent nearly $3 billion on LightSquared, hoping to build a high-speed broadband network serving more than 250 million Americans...
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 In this week’s edition, the Kansas City Business Journal ranks the area’s top recipients of money from United Way.
Funding totals were provided by the United Way of Greater Kansas City and include all money from it and from the United Way of Wyandotte County.
Here’s No. 5:
Children’s Mercy Hospitals & Clinics
2012 Rank: 5
2011 Rank: 5
Kansas City-based Children’s Mercy received $753,171 in United Way funding in 2011, compared with $789,255 the prior year. The pediatric medical center provides care for children from birth through age 18 with a faculty of 600 pediatricians and researchers in more than 40 sub-specialties involved in clinical care, pediatric research and educating the next generation of pediatric sub-specialists...
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 Black & Veatch plans on global projects making up two-thirds of its revenue in the not-too-distant future, CEO Len Rodman said Thursday.
But in the current competitive climate, that can’t happen without finding ways to help international clients pay for the work — which is where financing from places like the Export-Import Bank of the United States comes in.
Roughly 300 of the Overland Park-based engineering firm’s global leaders gathered Thursday in its headquarters city to celebrate recent revenue growth and to plot out an international strategy for coming years...
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 Hackers defaced the state of Missouri’s official website on Thursday. State officials said that the site — mo.gov — was defaced but that no data was compromised.
At 9:58 a.m., what was described as “images of graphic war scenes” were posted on the site, according to a release from the Missouri Office of Administration. The images were taken down, and the site was pulled offline from 10 a.m. to 10:37 a.m. as a precaution.
An investigation into the incident is under way.
The mo.gov site is a home page for state government, with links to information on various state departments and agencies, and on specific information for residents and businesses.
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 A jury convicted Edmund Nwaudobi of fraudulently billing Medicare for wheelchairs and other equipment. Prosecutors said Nwaudobi committed the fraud on behalf of an Overland Park company and in conjunction with people working for a pair of Kansas City, Kan., medical supply companies.
Nwaudobi, of Sugar Land, Texas, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud Medicare, two counts of health care fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors say that Nwaudobi conducted business on behalf of Good Care Inc...
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 H&R Block Inc. has selected Sullivan Higdon & Sink to handle its local and regional media planning and buying in markets throughout the country.
Sullivan Higdon will integrate those efforts with the national marketing plan of the Kansas City-based tax services provider (NYSE: HRB).
“While all of the finalists in the agency review process were exceptional, Sullivan Higdon’s tactics were innovative, creative and showed a solid understanding of the granularity we need in support of our business — combining media, message and creative into a seamless communication,” Jeff Whitney, vice president of field marketing for H&R Block, said in a release...
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Bayer HealthCare’s Animal Health Division is buying the animal health insecticides business from KMG Chemicals Inc.
The division, based in Shawnee, announced the purchase agreement Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed and the deal is expected to be closed “in the coming weeks.”
KMG Chemicals (Nasdaq: KMGB) makes such brands as Patriot cattle ear tags and the insecticides Rabon and Permectrin.
In a securities filing, the companies said Bayer is buying both the insecticide technology and the manufacturing equipment and inventory at KMG’s plant in Elwood, Kan...
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 Fidelity Security Life Insurance Co. acquired Great American Life Insurance Co. of New York for an undisclosed amount on Wednesday.
Kansas City-based Fidelity Security entered into a purchase agreement with Great American in August and closed the deal after receiving regulatory approval in Missouri and New York.
Great American had $43.1 million in assets and was renamed Fidelity Security Life Insurance Co. of New York. It will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Security Life Insurance Co...
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 Research Belton Hospital has been designated Missouri’s eighth Level III trauma center and only such facility in the Kansas City metro area.
In a release Thursday, the hospital said it received the designation recently by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. The designation followed an extensive review of Research Belton’s emergency department, nursing, imaging and administration capabilities.
Hospital trauma centers, which deal with the most life-threatening cases, are graded into four rankings...
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Congressional negotiators reached a final agreement early Thursday to extend a payroll tax and unemployment benefits, The Washington Post reports. The plan is worth more than $150 billion.
Lawmakers agreed to make new federal workers pay more into their pension plans, overcoming a key roadblock. A vote on the plan could come as early as Friday, the Post reports.
The bill could be the last significant piece of legislation passed before the November election, aides to President Obama told the Post.
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Authorities found several homemade bombs in a pickup parked hear the statehouse on Wednesday, and police arrested the owner after finding him inside an underground tunnel connecting the Capitol to an office building, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.
A state employee noticed the truck parked in a restricted lot and notified Capitol police, who called in the Topeka Police Department’s bomb squad. The Journal-World reports that police have not released the suspect’s name.
Also on Wednesday, Kansas Gov...
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 High gas prices and a new program giving free bus rides to University of Missouri-Kansas City students helped boost ridership for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority to its second-highest level in almost 20 years.
The KCATA recorded 15.6 million trips in 2011, or a 5.7 percent increase from the previous year, the agency said Wednesday.
Increasing fuel prices in the spring and summer increased ridership along with the implementation of the UMKC pass program, which allowed students to ride Metro and MAX buses with their valid UMKC student ID...
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General Motors Co. is freezing pay for salaried workers and will trim bonuses, according to The Wall Street Journal.
GM has 26,000 salaried employees nationwide, with 315 at its Fairfax Assembly Plant, which also has 3,710 union employees. The Kansas City, Kan., plant produces the Chevrolet Malibu and the Buick Lacrosse.
Actual bonus numbers will be released Thursday.
The changes are because the company didn’t meet all of its financial goals, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the matter...
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Former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff has been appointed as acting regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, overseeing the region that includes Kansas and Missouri.
Angoff also will serve as a senior adviser in the HHS Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs, focusing on the insurance issues involved in implementing of the Affordable Care Act.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the appointment Wednesday.
“Jay’s wide-ranging experience as a former Missouri insurance commissioner will be a tremendous asset to the department’s continued work with our state counterparts,” Sebelius said in a release...
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When it comes to affluence, Kansas City ranks just outside the top 100 metro areas.
It falls at 106th, just behind St. Louis, though the cities are roughly tied as the highest-ranked in Missouri.
Of Kansas City’s more than 789,000 households, 27,996 bring in income and benefits of at least $200,000. That’s 3.55 percent, the same as larger St. Louis.
Columbia falls next among Missouri cities at 244th.
The highest in Kansas was Lawrence, which landed at 157th.
The rankings come from On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal, which analyzed raw data from the five-year version of the U...
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 Voters and businesses in Johnson County have an overwhelmingly positive view of life in the county, with little appetite for change, according to survey results the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce released Wednesday.
Sixty-five percent of those polled said Johnson County is headed in the right direction. By comparison, 24 percent said the same of the nation as a whole, and 37 percent said Kansas is on the right track.
Not surprisingly, respondents said the quality of K-12 public education was the most positive thing about the county...
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 The General Services Administration will move more than 1,000 employees into downtown Kansas City by 2014, vacating the Bannister Federal Complex and providing the city a much-needed economic development boost.
GSA will issue a solicitation for lease proposals of as much as 131,000 square feet of office space in the fall with plans to relocate all employees by 2014, GSA Heartland Regional Administrator Jason Klumb said in a release.
GSA has been working to build a $211 million federal building in the heart of the city’s East Village redevelopment project...
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As Sprint Nextel Corp. digests federal concerns that could unravel a hefty revenue stream, politicians were eager to praise the regulators.
The Federal Communications Commission could seek public comment as early as Wednesday about yanking LightSquared Inc.’s permit for a new national wireless network, The Associated Press reported. The decision comes after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said that eliminating the risk of interference with GPS devices wasn’t possible...
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The US Futsal Nationals Tournament, presented by U ...
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 The Kansas Department of Transportation has approved January bids for road work — and nearly $35 million in work is headed for Johnson County.
Kansas City-based Clarkson Construction Co. won the bulk of the work.
Here are the projects, costs and companies:
• 1.5 miles of interchange construction, Interstate 35 and Homestead Lane, $21.28 million, Clarkson.
• 1 mile of grading, bridge and surfacing work; Homestead Lane from 199th to 19th streets; $6 million; Clarkson.
• 1.5 miles of Intelligent Transportation System installation, I-35 and Homestead Lane, $1...
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 Doctors at The University of Kansas Hospital have performed one of the nation’s first gallbladder surgeries using a new technique involving a robot. The patient? Joe Reardon, Mayor/CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan.
The procedure, performed Feb. 7, involved physicians making a single incision in Reardon’s bellybutton, then using a computer-assisted da Vinci surgical robot to remove his gallbladder. Patients typically are able to leave the same day.
In a release, Reardon said that two days later he felt only a dull ache, “like you’ve been working out your abdomen area...
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 The bankruptcy case involving the West Edge development, which appeared to be nearing its end, now may drag on.
BB Syndication Services Inc., a consortium of community banks that was the primary financier of West Edge’s construction under former developer Trilogy Development Co. LLC , has appealed a bankruptcy judge’s rulings on several issues that put lenders behind contractors for about $7 million left in the bankruptcy estate.
BBSSI, to which Trilogy owes $61 million, stands to walk away from the West Edge bankruptcy with nothing if all of Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Dow’s rulings about priority claims remain in place...
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 YRC Freight plans to add 120 jobs at its Overland Park headquarters this year as it consolidates operations from throughout the country.
The Kansas Department of Commerce announced the move in a Wednesday release, saying most of the positions deal with accounting, customer service and cargo claims. YRC is receiving incentives, but the department wouldn’t provide specifics because no deal has been signed yet.
“This is a big win to have a major transportation company like YRC Freight decide to consolidate more of its operations within our state,” Commerce Secretary Pat George said in the release...
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 Hanna Rubber Co. will hit the road in April for a new home along Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City.
The company is leasing 32,000 square feet at 908 W. 25th St., near Boulevard Brewing Co.’s plant. It leaves behind its historic building at Truman Road and Baltimore Avenue in the Crossroads Arts District, which will be renovated by Sporting Innovations, an entertainment software firm with ties to Sporting Kansas City owner OnGoal LLC.
“As proud as we are of the historic Hanna Rubber building, a six-story building is not ideal for manufacturing,” said Hanna Rubber Chairwoman and President Connie Wodlinger...
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The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility project and its Manhattan, Kan., site are not in question — just the $650 million price tag, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said he’d received that information from U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
On Monday, the Obama administration’s budget request for DHS included no new construction dollars for NBAF. The administration said it would conduct “a comprehensive assessment of whether and for what purpose a ...
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Hanna Rubber Co. plans to leave its historic building in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District, making way for the fledgling Sporting Innovations to move into the space, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The April move will put Hanna Rubber in a 32,000-square-foot space at 908 W. 25th St. — near Boulevard Brewing Co. — that’s better for manufacturing and could allow for more production. Hanna Rubber also is looking for a new owner this year.
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 Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback says a reassessment of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility by the Obama administration will focus on the price tag — not whether and where it should be built.
In a release Tuesday, Brownback said he spoke with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who told him the review was focused only on the cost and scope of the facility, slated to be built at Kansas State University.
“DHS selected Manhattan, Kan., as the location of the NBAF on the merits...
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Why on earth should local governments spend the taxpayers’ dollars to have lobbyists represent them at the state and federal government levels?
That’s an easy one: to protect us, the taxpayers, and to provide valuable info about how things work at the local government level.
Some people decry this practice. State and federal elected officials and their staffs have to deal with thousands of issues; they cannot know them all. For example, there was the time that someone in Kansas wanted to force our local government employees to unionize...
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 Garmin Ltd. has agreed to pick up a small marine sonar technology company based in California.
The navigational device-maker (Nasdaq: GRMN), which has its operational headquarters in Olathe, announced Tuesday that it had signed the agreement with Interphase Technologies Inc.
A Garmin spokeswoman declined to divulge financial terms. The deal is expected to close in 30 days.
Garmin plans to acquire Interphase to help strengthen its marine product portfolio, the company said in a release.
Founded in 1986, Interphase’s technology provides boaters a virtual image of the underwater area ahead of the boat...
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 Block Real Estate Services LLC is selling one of its office buildings in Lenexa’s Pine Ridge Business Park.
The 28,550-square-foot building at 8340 Melrose Drive is on the market with an asking price of $2.85 million.
“It was just a marketing plan to cover all the possible prospects out there and to give somebody who is looking to buy an opportunity to buy,” said Ken Block, managing principal of Block Real Estate.
Block Real Estate continues to own about 85 percent of the 2 million-square-foot Pine Ridge, which is near 85th Street and Interstate 35, directly east of where U...
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 Saint Luke’s Health System is holding a ribbon-cutting Friday for the new College of Health Sciences, which opened for nursing and other medical classes last month.
The 39,000-square-foot center at 624 Westport Road replaces the former college facility at 83rd Street and Ward Parkway. Saint Luke’s announced the move in September.
Besides being more accessible to Saint Luke’s Hospital at 4401 Wornall Road, the new location also provides more room for sophisticated patient simulators and technology to interact with students at remote classrooms...
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The University of Kansas Hospital will start a program to create board-certified clinical chaplains.
The only local program accredited by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, the 12-month residency will include clinical hours meeting the pastoral needs of patients in trauma, oncology, cardiology, the burn center and other inpatient and outpatient settings.
The program will begin in the fall. KU officials plan to begin interviewing prospective candidates for the seven program slots in the coming weeks.
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 Palmer Square Capital Management LLC joined two other partners in a $30 million investment in London-based LNG Capital in return for an ownership stake.
The investment by Leawood-based Palmer Square will create opportunities for the company to expand its investments in European corporate credit and sovereign debt. LNG Capital will invest on behalf of Palmer Square.
Palmer Square is owned by Mariner Holdings LLC, which acquired it in December 2009. Another Mariner Holdings entity, Montage Investments, joined the LNG Capital investment, along with Atlantic Asset Management, which is based in Stamford, Conn...
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Sprint Nextel Corp. excluded costs of introducing the iPhone from consideration for employee bonuses, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Sprint (NYSE: S) said its board’s Compensation Committee decided to pull the financial effect of the company’s iPhone introduction and a payment from wireless network company LightSquared from calculations for its short- and long-term incentive plans. The move improved the company’s performance on goals for the short-term incentives from 63...
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The U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission on Monday cleared Google Inc.’s proposed $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., Reuters reports.
The deal, Google
’s largest to date, will continue to be scrutinized by both regulators to ensure patents critical to the telecommunications industry would be licensed by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Motorola (NYSE: MSI) at fair prices.
Google announced last year it would buy Motorola for its thousands of patents and patent applications...
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AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless have announced plans to sell a version of latest iPad to run on their newest fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless networks, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) is rumored to be planning an event for early March to unveil the new iPad.
Overland Park-based Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) declined to comment on whether it will sell the device.
For now, only AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) sell the iPad and offer the LTE technology.
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 The fate of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility proposed for Manhattan remains in limbo.
In Department of Homeland Security budget documents released Monday, the Obama administration requested no new money for construction of the NBAF facility in Manhattan for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. It also said it will conduct “a comprehensive assessment of whether and for what purpose a ... facility should be stood up.”
Obama has supported the $650 million proposal in the past, requesting $150 million to begin construction last year...
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 The Kansas City Business Journal recognized Cerner Corp., Deffenbaugh Industries Inc., John Knox Village and IMA Inc. as the area’s Healthiest Employers at a Monday luncheon at the Overland Park Sheraton.
The winning companies were chosen from honorees in four categories, depending on company size.
The top applause winner of the day was Pro Athlete Inc., an honoree in the 5-499 employee category. Pro Athlete received oohs and aahs from the audience when it was revealed that the company washes its employees’ workout clothes every night...
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Electrical contractor Wachter Inc. has closed on its acquisition of T-Squared Associates Inc.
Lenexa-based Wachter, which recorded $160 million in revenue last year, hopes the purchase enhances its mechanical engineering capabilities in the bioscience and pharmaceutical industries.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
T-Squared’s operations in Kansas City, Kan., and Indiana, now become segments of Wachter.
“This acquisition added mechanical engineering to our list of services as well as helps us provides more in-depth solutions to new and existing customers,” said David Price, president of Wacther’s electric division, in an email to the Kansas City Business Journal...
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 About three years after the Troubled Asset Relief Program launched, seven banks based in the Kansas City area still have an outstanding balance to repay.
If the local banks don’t repay $228.2 million in TARP before certain dates — which fall between December 2013 and May 2014 — they’ll start to feel the effects.
The U.S. Treasury Department created TARP during the recession to help recapitalize banks deemed too large to fail. It later extended the program to help smaller community banks improve their capital reserves and to encourage them to make business loans or acquire weaker competitors...
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The former general counsel for Kauffman Scholars Inc. has joined Husch Blackwell LLP, the Kansas City law firm announced Monday.
Donna Wilson Peters, who also did legal work for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s new charter school, the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, will be of counsel in Husch Blackwell’s Kansas City office.
She was appointed in the summer by Kansas City Mayor Sly James to serve on the Citizens’ Commission on Municipal Revenue.
Peters will focus on real estate development...
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It’s no secret that many Kansas City workers prefer interstates over the bus, but a new analysis puts numbers to it, ranking the metro area 183rd for public transit use.
Of Kansas City workers, 1.27 percent use public transit to get to work, according to an analysis of 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data by On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal. Of the 983,004 Kansas City workers, 12,512 commuted by public transit.
Nearly three-quarters of the 942 markets analyzed by On Numbers had less than 1 percent of commuters using public transit...
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 Adam Bold, founder of The Mutual Fund Store LLC, no longer will be its CEO.
John Bunch will fill the chief executive role starting Tuesday.
Bunch has been president of retail distribution for TD Ameritrade since June 2007. He also has 11 years of experience in a variety of management roles at Charles Schwab & Co.
“John has the experience to take The Mutual Fund Store to entirely new levels, further helping those who have been underserved by traditional financial services companies,” Bold said in a release...
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A division of YRC Worldwide Inc. plans to cut 88 jobs in Georgia in early April, WALB reports.
YRC Freight’s Lake Park, Ga., dock employees, switchers, truck drivers and mechanics may be able to relocate to other facilities, an International Brotherhood of Teamsters union representative told the Georgia TV station.
At the beginning of the month, Overland Park-based YRC Worldwide (Nasdaq: YRCW) changed the name of its national division from YRC Inc. to YRC Freight. Last month, it approached the union about restructuring the unit.
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Founder Adam Bold no longer will be chief executive of Overland Park-based The Mutual Fund Store LLC, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
John Bunch takes over Feb. 14. He most recently was president of retail distribution for TD Ameritrade.
Bold will continue as chairman and chief investment officer of the company research arm — Mutual Fund Research Center — and keep up his weekly radio show.
Last year, the company sold a majority stake to New York City-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC, positioning itself for a huge expansion.
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The November death of Karen Pletz, a former Kansas City university president and civic leader, was a suicide, The Kansas City Star reports.
A Florida county medical examiner said Friday that the 64-year-old’s death was caused by a mix of alcohol, an anti-anxiety drug and pain relievers, the report says.
Pletz had been president of Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences until her sudden firing in December 2009, which was followed by allegations that she had stolen money from the university...
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 Karen Pletz’s November death was a suicide, The Kansas City Star reported.
A medical examiner in Broward County, Fla., ruled on Friday that the former Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences president died from taking a combination of sedatives, pain killers and alcohol, according to the Star report.
Broward County medical examiner Darin Trelka was reached after hours but could not immediately comment on Pletz’s death report.
Pletz was found dead in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., condominium on Nov...
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My daughter Remington and I watched “In Time” this weekend on pay-per-view. (Thank you, Time Warner Cable, for affording us that time-saving luxury.) It was just an average movie, but thought-provoking nonetheless and good dad/daughter time.
The premise, for those who did not see it, is that time is money. It literally was the currency by which people lived and died. Sure, it had that more socialistic view that there are those with a lot of life but most with very little life. (What did you expect from Hollywood?)
The interesting twist was that those with very little life seemed more content than those with a lot of life...
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 Kansas City added 1,800 manufacturing jobs in 2011, landing the area at 17th in a ranking of large metropolitan areas.
More than half of the nation’s big metro areas added manufacturing jobs last year, according to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal. Fifty-five saw increases, 39 saw dips, and six stayed the same from 2010.
Kansas City ended 2011 with an estimated 74,700 manufacturing jobs, up 2.47 percent from 72,900 manufacturing jobs at the end of 2010...
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 Chocolate and flowers are the hallmarks of Valentine’s Day, but we wanted to dig into some cocoa-y specifics to find out which ones people are buying.
Kansas City has some well-known chocolatiers, and this is one of their busiest times of year. Russell Stover Candies, which has its headquarters near the Country Club Plaza, produces the top three heart-shaped boxes of candies in the country.
And this year, Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates, which crafts high-end sweets and recently garnered praise from Consumer Reports, is joining the mix with its heart-shaped box...
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 January marked the last full month in which Missouri riverboat casinos were the only big players in the Kansas City-area casino market, and it showed little improvement from January 2011 in terms of revenue.
Local casinos’ $55.9 million haul in January was up 2 percent from a year earlier and just $20,000 higher than in January 2007.
And competition is about to ramp up. The $411 million Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway opened Feb. 3 in Kansas City, Kan.
Overall, Missouri casinos saw upswings in revenue and patronage in January compared with the same period last year, according to the Missouri Gaming Commission’s monthly report...
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 In this week’s edition, the Kansas City Business Journal ranks the area's top residential real estate firms based on 2011 gross sales.
Here’s No. 5:
Keller Williams Realty Key Partners LLC
2011 Rank: 5
2010 Rank: 7
Prairie Village-based Keller Williams Realty Key Partners reported $180.5 million in 2011 gross sales, compared with $113.4 million the prior year.
Click here for No. 4 on the list.
For the full 2011 list of residential real estate firms, ranked by 2011 gross sales, subscribers can take a look at this week’s edition of the Kansas City Business Journal...
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 A Des Moines-based information technology company with its eyes on Google Inc.’s incoming ultra-fast network has selected a permanent sales office space in Corporate Woods in Overland Park.
LightEdge Solutions Inc. has signed a three-year lease for roughly 2,500 square feet at 9393 W. 110th St., effective April 1.
Four employees will move into the office in April, but LightEdge, which is spending $40,000 on space improvements, plans to hire about six more employees for the location, marketing director Scott Riedel said...
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 Kansas City-area restaurants are loving Valentine’s Day — particularly those that are nearly booked for the Tuesday holiday and preceding weekend.
Trezo Mare has reservations for about 200 people for Valentine’s Day evening. And the new celebrity chef restaurant in Leawood — Mestizo — is almost full for Friday and Saturday nights.
Trezo Mare Manager Erin Dolan said the Northland restaurant, 4105 N. Mulberry Drive, will offer a special Valentine’s Day menu in addition to its normal dinner menu...
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 Sometimes — actually, oftentimes — that crazy little thing called love starts in the office, according to a new CareerBuilder.com survey. But while work offers hot potential for relationships, employers are cool on the idea.
More than a third of the 7,000 respondents have dated a co-worker; 17 percent have dated one at least twice. Thirty-one percent of the people who had dated co-workers said their office romances ended in marriage.
Almost one in five people (18 percent) said they’d dated their boss...
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 Great Southern Bank is remodeling a former restaurant to become the new home of the bank’s Olathe branch.
The bank, based in Springfield, Mo., is converting the former Bob Evans restaurant at 15315 W. 135th St. in Olathe into a full-service branch. Great Southern expects to open in the new building on May 14, closing its current Olathe location at 11120 S. Lone Elm Road.
“We’ve got an existing branch in Olathe, but we’re wanting to improve the location,” said Brian Eaton, communications manager for Great Southern Bank...
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Richard Kim Klockenga has been named as the new CFO of John Knox Village, taking over for the retiring Jim Franklin on April 30.
The Lee’s Summit retirement community announced the hire Friday. In a release, it said Klockenga has 15 years of experience in senior health care, most recently as CFO of Friendship Village of Schaumburg in suburban Chicago. He also has been CFO of Woodstock Christian Life Services in Woodstock, Ill.
Health care hiring consultant B.E. Smith, based in Lenexa, assisted John Knox Village with a national search for its new CFO.
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Zumiez Inc., which sells equipment and apparel for skateboarders and snowboarders, plans to bring at least 35 distribution jobs to Edwardsville.
The company is moving its e-commerce fulfillment center there from its headquarters in Everett, Wash.
Get details from this Kansas City Business Journal report.
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 Strong holiday shipping was not enough to offset a continued decline in First Class mail, leading to a $3.3 billion quarterly loss for the U.S. Postal Service, compared with a loss of $290 million for the same quarter a year earlier.
The Postal Service’s shipping business was up 7 percent in its fiscal first quarter compared with a year earlier. Shipping accounted for 17 percent of total revenue. First Class mail revenue fell 4.1 percent — since 2006, it has declined 15 percent, with volume down 25 percent...
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 Bar Louie has more plans on tap for the Kansas City area, setting a Feb. 21 opening for a new location at Zona Rosa shopping center in the Northland.
The BL Restaurant Operations LLC concept entered the market with a Kansas City Power & Light District location in the fall. The neighborhood bar is known for its martinis and cocktails, as well as small plates, sandwiches and burgers.
The new 9,262-square-foot location is at 8600 N.W. Prairie View Road in the former O’Dowd’s Little Dublin space...
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 Kansas City added 2,100 retail jobs last year, landing it 16th on a ranking of big metro areas.
About three-fourths of the nation’s 100 largest markets added retail jobs last year, according to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal. Seventy-four saw increases, 24 saw dips, and two were flat with 2010.
Kansas City ended last year with an estimated 104,500 retail jobs, up about 2 percent from its 102,400 retail jobs at the end of 2010...
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 Carstar Auto Body Repair Experts saw 2011 revenues increase almost 6 percent to $597 million, buoyed by a boost in insurance-related business.
David Byers, CEO of the Overland Park-based collision-repair company, disclosed the numbers Thursday. He said Carstar posted “close to double-digit” sales increases for stores open for at least a year, beating the industry average growth of 2 percent.
He said among the keys was the speed with which Carstar can repair and release vehicles — a factor attracting more business from insurance carriers...
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Kansas City Mayor Sly James’ budget emphasized picking up the pace on financing the city’s infrastructure needs, not deferring them as in the past.
At a Kansas City Council business session Thursday — with public safety personnel packing council chambers — James offered his response to City Manager Troy Schulte’s preliminary budget, offering support for many of the recommendations.
James backed Schulte’s plan to cut the Kansas City Fire Department budget by $7.6 million but opposed accomplishing that by eliminating 105 employees...
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 The University of Kansas outspent the other Division 1 schools in the Kansas City region on athletics by more than $11 million during the 2010-2011 school year.
The Jayhawks shelled out $70 million, compared with the University of Missouri-Columbia’s $58.9 million and Kansas State University’s $45.5 million.
And when it comes to basketball spending — no surprise — KU also came out well ahead.
Its basketball expenses came in at $9.51 million, with MU at $5.4 million and the Wildcats trailing at just under $5 million...
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 A national settlement announced Thursday with major banks regarding their mortgage practices should bring $50 million to Kansas, Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.
The $25 billion settlement with Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial (GMAC) will provide the state about $14 million in civil penalties and to pay for investigations of misconduct in the housing market. The rest will cover direct payments to more than 4,000 Kansas homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure...
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 An empty Crossroads Arts District building in Kansas City has hit the market with an asking price of $1.5 million.
The Brad Nicholson-owned building at 1712 Main St. is recognizable to downtown dwellers for its massive north-facing mural depicting a Boulevard Pale Ale bottle and a Roasterie coffee mug under the headline, “Ask for Kansas City’s hometown brews.”
The 43,000-square-foot, seven-story brick building has been cast as a redevelopment opportunity eligible for Historic and New Markets tax credits...
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 Talk of a 4G network build-out and iPhone sales dominated Sprint Nextel Corp.’s Wednesday call with investors about fourth-quarter financial results.
But a topic that previously dominated almost every time Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was in front of a microphone barely received a mention during Wednesday’s call: AT&T’s failed attempt to buy T-Mobile USA.
Sprint had vehemently opposed the flopped $39 billion acquisition, which occupied much of the Overland Park-based wireless carrier’s public relations energy last year...
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 AMC Entertainment Inc. said it has expanded an agreement with Fandango by which the online retailer will sell movie tickets to all of AMC’s more than 5,000 screens.
Meanwhile, MovieTickets.com — a Fandango rival and an AMC joint venture — is suing Kansas City-based AMC, claiming that the nation’s second-largest movie theater chain violated an agreement that MovieTickets.com would be AMC’s exclusive reseller.
An AMC spokesman said the company doesn’t comment about pending litigation...
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NASB Financial Inc. finished 2011 on a strong note, posting $4.94 million in net income for the three months that ended Dec. 31.
The fourth-quarter results, which amounted to 63 cents a share for the Grandview-based holding company (Nasdaq: NASB) of North American Savings Bank, were much better than a year earlier, when the company posted a quarterly loss of $3.04 million. Last year, bank regulators required NASB to restate fourth-quarter earnings to reclassify certain residential loans as troubled debt...
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 Of the nation’s 100 largest labor markets, only 13 have managed to bring job numbers back to where they were before the recession.
Kansas City is among the 87 markets still clawing its way back. The area’s private-sector job count of 807,100 remains nearly 5 percent — 41,300 jobs — less than the pre-recession annual average in 2006.
That puts Kansas City below the median. It ranks 56th in terms of five-year percent change and 79th in terms of five-year change in job numbers, according to an analysis by On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal...
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 In Jerry Nevins’ view, the thought of a frozen cocktail shouldn’t automatically conjure the image of a tiki bar.
Business school classmates at the University of Missouri-Kansas City agreed, and on Nov. 4, Snow & Co. was born.
“We haven’t found anything like this,” Nevins said of the high-end frozen cocktail bar at 1815 Wyandotte St. “We wanted to do it a little bit more refined.”
Nevins, who still has his day job at an insurance company, is Snow & Co.’s head of strategy and customer happiness...
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 A mild winter had a chilling effect on Compass Minerals International Inc.’s fourth-quarter revenue, trimming it by 14 percent to $306.1 million. Earnings took an even sharper downward turn, falling more than 28 percent.
The weather pressured the Overland Park-based company’s (NYSE: CMP) salt operation, and an August tornado that struck one of its mines and evaporation plants in Canada also depressed results.
Still, annual sales ended up 3.4 percent above 2010, hitting $1.105 billion, while earnings dipped 1...
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Graphic Packaging International Inc. plans to lay off 69 Kansas City employees between April and June.
“This is part of a realignment of our supply-chain footprint,” spokeswoman Cynthia Baerman said. “It just made sense to perform some of this work at other locations because we could do it more efficiently elsewhere.”
She said despite the layoffs, Graphic Packaging’s Kansas City operations will continue to play a vital role. The company signed a seven-year lease in April for 155,000 square feet at Kansas City’s Executive Park, expanding its local finished-goods warehouse operations...
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Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback told legislators that the battle to win a national lab in the state may continue for another five years, The Wichita Eagle reports.
The $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility is to be located in Manhattan, near the Kansas State University campus, with operations potentially beginning by 2018. However, the project’s construction is not fully funded, and the project continues to face opposition from other venues and those who question the security of the facility...
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Sprint Nextel Corp. reported Wednesday that it sold 1.8 million iPhones in its fourth quarter — 40 percent of which were to new customers, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Sprint began selling Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone on Oct. 14; the Overland Park-based company’s fourth-quarter financial results, also announced Wednesday, marked a full quarter of results for its iPhone offering.
Sprint said that strong revenue growth — 5 percent for the quarter and 3.4 percent for 2011 — partially offset the effect of increased equipment subsidies and expenses tied to the “successful launch of the iPhone...
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Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to roll out its new 4G network and bump up its 3G service in Kansas City by mid-2012, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The Overland Park-based mobile phone carrier (NYSE: S) will make the upgrades in Kansas City and Baltimore.
Sprint’s new network, which uses Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, as opposed to its current WiMAX technology, will boost 4G data speeds and enhance 3G service with improved coverage and signal strength.
The rollout is part of Sprint’s massive multicity “Network Vision” plan.
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Continued strong demand for electronic health record systems helped Cerner Corp. beat Wall Street financial estimates in the fourth quarter.
The North Kansas City-based company (Nasdaq: CERN) on Tuesday reported earning $91.2 million, or 52 cents a share, during the three months that ended Dec. 31. By comparison, the company earned $70.6 million, or 41 cents a share, during the same period a year earlier.
Not counting share-based compensation expenses, Cerner said it would have earned 55 cents a share versus 44 cents during the year-ago period...
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The Art of Shaving will open on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza in the spring.
The store will open in 747 square feet at 327 W. 47th St. near The Classic Cup. It will feature a “barber spa,” which combines barber services with essential oil facial treatments. It also will sell its line of natural shaving products.
“The Plaza location promises to be the destination for luxury men’s grooming services in the Kansas City area,” store spokesman Damon Jones said in a release.
Store founders Myriam Zaoui and Eric Malka opened their first shop in 1996 and now have more than 60 stores nationwide...
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 Atlantic Engineering Group of Braselton, Ga., is handling electrical work for Google Inc. in Kansas City, Kan., this week as it builds the framework for its ultra-fast Internet network, a Board of Public Utilities spokesman said Tuesday.
But even though the engineering firm isn’t locally based, a Kansas Citian who ran a nearby fiber network is helping lead Atlantic’s efforts.
Paul Rader, also a former Black & Veatch telecommunications engineer, left his job as director of the LiNKCity fiber-optic data network in North Kansas City in March to work for Atlantic...
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 The accountants that performed a forensic audit of the Kansas Bioscience Authority said Tuesday that they’ve given former CEO Tom Thornton’s laptop computer and copies of their analysis of the device to the Johnson County District Attorney’s office.
In a supplemental report to the audit delivered Jan. 23, BKD LLP said its auditors stand by their findings that virtually all of the files on the computer were wiped before Thornton handed it to them in April and that no other hard drives or computers containing documents belonging to Thornton exist...
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 All the pieces are falling into place for Oak Park Mall to debut the Kansas City area’s first Lego Store in the summer.
“Our store at Oak Park Mall will enhance our consumers’ overall Lego brand experience through product variety, store design and regular hands-on family events,” Eric Wolfe, vice president of Lego Group, said in a written statement. “Children and families will be able to experience firsthand and hands-on the creativity and imagination that goes into Lego building and be inspired by the over 4 million Lego bricks that are in the store at any given time...
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The Prairie Village City Council voted 7-3 Monday not to change zoning for the Mission Valley Middle School site.
That’s after council members were asked to consider paying more than $100,000 for consultants to help evaluate amending a comprehensive plan covering the shuttered school site and 22 acres around it.
MVS LLC, a development group that includes RED Development LLC principal Dan Lowe, bought the former Mission Valley Middle School site last year and has been considering redeveloping it into a 335,000-square-foot senior living facility with adjoining retail and office components...
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 Sprint Nextel Corp.’s financial report Wednesday morning should shed some much-anticipated light on the rewards of finally getting its hands on the iPhone.
The results will represent nearly a full quarter of offering Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) popular iPhone. Overland Park-based Sprint (NYSE: S) began selling the smartphone Oct. 14, joining larger competitors AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless, which already had been in the iPhone game.
Sprint has said it will offer more detailed 2012 financial forecasts based on iPhone sales along with fourth-quarter results...
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A former JE Dunn Construction executive has won a nearly half-million-dollar judgment in a legal fight with his ex-employer.
The Kansas City-based construction company sued R.J. Griffin in April, accusing him of leaking confidential information to a competitor.
Griffin, who sold his Atlanta-based company to JE Dunn in 2000 to become its southeastern division, was fired in December 2010 after JE Dunn found he had given documents to his son and son-in-law, who worked for a competing company in Georgia...
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 Analysts expect Cerner Corp. to report double-digit revenue growth for the fourth quarter in its after-market financial report Tuesday.
The North Kansas City-based medical software developer (Nasdaq: CERN) is expected to report $587 million in fourth-quarter revenue, up 17 percent from a year prior, according to 18 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
UPDATE: Cerner tops Wall Street estimates
Earnings per share are expected to grow by 21 percent to 53 cents. Analyst predictions typically exclude items such as one-time charges...
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 Ryan Maybee started bartending as a fun way to pay for college. Then, he developed a strong taste for the job — even in an academic sense.
“I had a real fascination with classic cocktails and the culture of bartending as a profession prior to Prohibition,” he said.
At that point, bartending was a serious career path, garnering similar respect and pay as doctors and lawyers, Maybee said. But when Prohibition started, many bartenders scattered around the globe to places such as Cuba, Brazil or Paris...
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Mediware Information Systems Inc. recorded double-digit revenue growth for its fiscal second quarter and expects a recent acquisition to continue to spur gains.
The Lenexa-based health care technology company (Nasdaq: MEDW) reported flat earnings but said its performance actually reflected improvement. A year prior, Mediware earnings had been boosted by a tax benefit that amounted to $460,000, or 6 cents a share.
“I’m pleased with our performance in the second quarter and for the first half of the fiscal year,” CEO Thomas Mann said in a release...
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DST Systems Inc. said a pair of longtime Kansas City-area businessmen — including its former COO — will not stand for re-election to its board of directors. The move comes as the company works to increase the number of independent members on its board.
The Kansas City-based data processing company (NYSE: DST) said Tuesday that it had nominated as board members Lowell Bryan, founder of consulting firm LL Bryan Advisory LLC, and Samuel Liss, a principal at WhiteGate Partners LLC.
The two nominees would take the spots held by Thomas McCullough and William Nelson...
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A Missouri grand jury has indicted DocX, one of the largest providers of home foreclosure services, on forgery charges, The New York Times reports.
The indictment handed up by a Boone County grand jury accuses the company and its founder Lorraine O. Brown of 136 counts of forgery in the preparation of documents used to evict strapped homeowners from their homes.
DocX is a unit of Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS) of Jacksonville, Fla. The company executed and notarized millions of mortgage documents for big banks and loan servicers over the years...
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The Prairie Village City Council will consider Monday evening whether to pay for consultants to help amend a comprehensive plan covering 40 acres, including the old Mission Valley Middle School site. The future of the area has sparked controversy.
Council members will consider whether to pay about $100,000 to hire a public participation and land use consultant to guide the city through any significant changes to the 84th Street and Mission Road Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in 2007.
Underlying the issue is the future of the 18-acre Mission Valley Middle School site, which the Shawnee Mission School District shuttered in August as part of its downsizing plan...
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 Town Center Plaza is welcoming tenants Madewell — a newcomer to the Kansas City metro area — and Brooks Brothers after coming under new ownership in December.
The Leawood shopping center, on 119th Street between Roe and Nall avenues, expects a late spring opening for Madewell, a women’s wear and accessories concept from J. Crew. It’s taking the space Standard Style vacated when it moved to the nearby One Nineteen shopping center.
The Brooks Brothers space is part of a tenant switcharoo...
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A Kansas City-based environmental consulting, testing and training firm has settled with the Environmental Protection Agency’s local office over violations related to courses the company taught.
Titan Environmental Services Inc. agreed to pay a $10,878 civil penalty and offer free training to those who had been enrolled in classes where the EPA found violations. It also will do a supplemental environmental project, spending at least $97,902 on lead-abatement work at five residential properties in St...
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 Lenexa-based TradeWind Energy LLC is seeking county-level approval for a proposed wind farm in southeast Kansas that could cost more than $500 million. The Buffalo Dunes project could support the production of as much as 300 megawatts of electricity.
TradeWind is negotiating agreements for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) with officials in Grant and Haskell counties, said Frank Costanza, executive vice president with TradeWind. The move comes after about three years of work securing agreements with owners of about 40,000 acres of land, he said...
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 The Kansas City Chiefs named Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator on Monday.
Daboll succeeds Bill Muir, who announced his retirement on Feb. 1.
Daboll most recently was offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins, which had a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiver for the first time in franchise history.
“Brian is a fine football coach and offensive mind,” Chiefs Coach Romeo Crennel said in a release. “I worked with him when he was a young coach in New England, and I am proud of the way his career has developed...
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 For advertising professionals, the game within the Super Bowl game is all about brands and big ideas.
Four Kansas City admen cut through the fog of cute dogs and talking babies to look back at a few of last night’s spots and answer the question: Like it, or spike it?
Chevrolet: “2012”
A group of Chevy truck owners makes it through the apocalypse, but their friend with a Ford isn’t so lucky. (View at right.)
Steve Bernstein, president of Bernstein-Rein: “Chevy did an excellent job. Who would have thought the apocalypse could be done lightly and with humor? The controversy just adds to the buzz about the ad...
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 Scammers pretending to represent H&R Block Inc. are sending text messages in an attempt to get their hands on personal information, and H&R Block is trying to short-circuit the scam in the midst of its busy tax season.
Typically, victims get text messages saying there has been a problem with their H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) Emerald Card and giving a telephone number for the person to call to straighten out the situation. Those who call are asked to share credit card and other sensitive information.
Emerald Cards are reloadable debit cards H&R Block offers customers seeking to get their tax refunds quickly...
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 Scott Beskow hasn’t always designed drinks with names such as the Der Schmutzige.
He used to develop more traditional bar menus for McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza. But now, as bar manager of Grünauer’s Wunderbar, Beskow has the freedom to mix up the bar’s craft cocktail menu every couple of weeks. Wunderbar is one of the edgy establishments in the Crossroads Arts District that serves up classic drinks with a modern twist.
If you’ve been wondering, Der Schmutzige (which in German means “the dirty one”) contains black pepper- and mustard-infused vodka, beet brine, pickle water and *** juice...
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Google Inc. plans to start installing fiber Monday for its much-anticipated Internet network in the Kansas City area.
The ultra-fast broadband service, which will be offered in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., will boot up for its initial customers during the first half of the year.
“We’ve measured utility poles; we’ve studied maps and surveyed neighborhoods; we’ve come up with a comprehensive set of detailed engineering plans; and we’ve eaten way too much barbecue,” Google Access General Manager Kevin Lo said in a blog...
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Google Inc. is testing experimental devices that would be compatible with the ultra-fast broadband network it’s building in the Kansas City area.
For now, the tests of high-speed wireless technology are confined to the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Calif., and employee homes, but a consulting wireless engineer in Washington, D.C., says successful tests could mean those devices end up in Kansas City for evaluation.
Google wouldn’t talk about details but said as it prepares Google Fiber, it’s “experimenting with new technologies that will make Internet access better and faster for everyone...
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SureWest Communications — which serves two markets, one of which is Kansas City — is selling in a $340.9 million deal, excluding debt.
The cable TV, phone and Internet provider (Nasdaq: SURW) has agreed to sell to Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: CNSL) for $23 a share in a cash and stock deal. That represents a 47 percent premium to SureWest’s closing share price on Friday.
SureWest, which bought Lenexa-based Internet provider Everest Broadband Inc. in 2008, has operations in the Sacramento, Calif...
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 Google Inc.’s construction crews are moving beneath the surface of Kansas City more than 10 months after the technology giant first announced it would bring its ultra-fast broadband network to the metro area.
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) plans to begin construction Monday on its 1-gigabit Internet network in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., Google Access General Manager Kevin Lo announced in a Monday morning blog.
“We’ve measured utility poles; we’ve studied maps and surveyed neighborhoods; we’ve come up with a comprehensive set of detailed engineering plans; and we’ve eaten way too much barbecue,” Lo said...
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Review | Pump Boys delivers sharp mu ...
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 NASCAR drivers, showgirls and thousands of people helped open the Kansas City area’s newest casino Friday — the $411 million Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway.
NASCAR drivers Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne rolled the first dice at the Kansas City, Kan., casino’s opening ceremony, and public officials and casino developer representatives offered enthusiastic speeches. The casino employs more than 1,000 and is expected to draw about 4 million guests annually, with an estimated $220 million annual economic benefit, counting factors such as increased tourism...
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 It’s not just the New York Giants and New England Patriots who will be playing to win Sunday: Kansas City-area restaurants are scripting game plans aimed at scoring Super Bowl crowds.
Chris Sutton, president of KC Hopps Ltd., which owns restaurants such as 810 Zone on the Country Club Plaza and 75th Street Brewery in Waldo, said part of the sport is coaxing people out of their houses.
“The Super Bowl is such a home event, a house party event,” Sutton said.
According to the National Restaurant Association, 48 million Americans will order takeout or delivery food from a restaurant while watching the National Football League championship game, while 12 million are expected to watch the game at a restaurant or bar...
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Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has appointed former Johnson County legislator Phyllis Gilmore to lead the newly named Department for Children and Families.
Brownback announced Gilmore as the department’s secretary on Friday as he unveiled an executive reorganization order that seeks a widespread reshuffling of departments to consolidate much of the financing and oversight of the state’s Medicaid program.
Gilmore has spent the past 11 years as executive director of the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board, which licenses most of the state’s mental health workers...
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 A short email to Perceptive Software employees notifying them that a “very special guest” would be visiting them Friday morning triggered buzz among the engineers.
That buzz erupted into raised eyebrows and applause from the 600-plus crowd at Perceptive’s Shawnee headquarters when Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak rolled into Perceptive’s training room on a Segway, an apparent beloved item for the tech junkie.
“I don’t think anyone had a clue,” Mark Simpson, Perceptive’s user experience manager, said while standing in line for an autograph...
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 Being fairly new to Kansas City, I have a long bucket list of local food and drink-related attractions to visit: I’ve yet to stop by Justus Drugstore, I still need to hit up Grinders, and it’s been at least three years since I’ve been to Oklahoma Joe’s.
But not long ago, I began stumbling across write-ups about the cocktail scene in Kansas City. Manifesto, 1924 Main St., got mentions, along with Extra Virgin and a host of other establishments, most in the Crossroads Arts District area.
Obviously I needed to take a closer look at the local cocktail scene, an examination that yielded a story in Friday’s edition about how many craft cocktail locales have landed in the Crossroads and their efforts to shape distinctive brands using high-quality yet unique drinks...
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 The Friday opening of Kansas City’s first new casino in 15 years begs the question: Can the area support five casinos?
The sparkling new Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway is the long-awaited product of legislation the Kansas Senate approved nearly five years ago, clearing the way for a state-owned destination casino in Wyandotte County.
Officials expect to host thousands during the facility’s opening weekend. But as the crowds head to Kansas City, Kan., a specter from the past springs up: Kansas City has a hard time supporting a hand of more than four casinos...
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 In this week’s edition, the Kansas City Business Journal ranks commercial lending banks based on total local loans as of Dec. 31.
The list reflects ongoing change in the banking industry, with banks reporting ups and downs in commercial lending. Six of the banks on this year’s list weren’t listed last year.
Here’s No. 5:
Country Club Bank
2011 Rank: 5
2010 Rank: 5
Kansas City-based Country Club Bank reported $498.07 million in Kansas City-area commercial loans as of Dec. 31, compared with $490...
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The U.S. labor market added 243,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in January — the biggest jump since April and a better showing than many economists had predicted, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The jobless rate shaved off 0.2 percentage points to land at 8.3 percent, the lowest since February 2009, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday morning. Also, the department revised upward by 60,000 jobs its preliminary November and December figures.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the jobless rate to stick at 8...
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Kansas City-based Boulevard Brewing Co. is 33rd in a ranking of the world’s best brewers.
RateBeer, an independent craft beer information website, included 100 brewers on its 2012 list.
No. 1 on the list was Three Floyds Brewing Co. of Munster, Ind., followed by Founders Brewing Co. of Grand Rapids, Mich.
Boulevard has been a hot topic of late with the limited release of its Chocolate Ale flying off Kansas City-area shelves.
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At a Kansas legislative committee hearing Thursday, a lobbyist for the group behind the new Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway said a smoking ban would chip away at revenue, The Wichita Eagle reports.
Whitney Damron told the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee that a ban would slash the casino’s gambling revenue by 20 to 30 percent, in turn cutting into the state’s share of casino winnings, according to the report.
Lawmakers preserved smoking on casino floors when they passed the 2010 Clean Indoor Air Act, but some — including health groups — want to broaden the smoking ban to include casinos...
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 NIC Inc. on Thursday announced across-the-board improvements in its fourth quarter and year-end financial results, along with several changes in executive leadership.
The Olathe-based company (Nasdaq: EGOV), which runs websites for government entities, has named Robert Knapp as COO, replacing William Bradley. Bradley is retaining his general counsel role and adding the new titles of chief administrative officer — a newly created position for NIC — and executive vice president. Knapp previously was an executive vice president...
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A Kansas City man convicted of issuing bogus promissory notes was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison.
Denny Hardin, 52, was found guilty of 11 counts of creating fictitious obligations and 10 counts of mail fraud after a September bench trial in U.S. District Court in Kansas City.
He created 2,000 “bonded promissory notes” with a supposed value of more than $100 million, claiming that he had authorization from the U.S. Treasury Department to create a private bank.
Hardin used the worthless notes to buy a house and pay off student loans.
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 Other than the NCAA basketball tournament, the Super Bowl probably generates more office pools than any other sports event.
But if you (or your employees) are making and taking bets around the office cooler, are you running afoul of the law?
Technically, yes, though it shouldn’t be a huge concern, said Brian Finucane, managing partner of the Kansas City office of Fisher & Phillips LLC, a labor and employment law firm.
“The chances of any law enforcement being interested in this are very small,” he said...
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 The new Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway, which opens Friday, already has proved to be a nearly $60 million jackpot for local design and construction companies, officials say.
A release from the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., said the casino is “on track to be one of the single most economically impactful development projects in Wyandotte County in recent years.”
MORE: A photo tour of the new casino
MORE: Before & after photos of the casino
The effects could grow: The roughly $400 million casino’s next phase could include a hotel, but there’s no official timeline for that project at this point...
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Automobiles produced in the Kansas City area contributed to a boost in sales for both Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. in January.
The Escape, produced at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Mo., showed particularly strong January sales of 17,259, up 23.5 percent from the same month a year ago. The Escape and the Focus combined to provide 49 percent of the overall 7 percent gain in sales that Ford (NYSE: F) realized in January. Total sales at Ford were 136,710.
The F-150, also produced at the plant, was part of a 7...
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Seniors and others in Kansas and Missouri receiving Medicare benefits saved an average of about $600 on prescription drugs last year because of health care reform, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday.
The Affordable Care Act last year provided a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs and a 7 percent discount on generics for Medicare Part D recipients who fell in the so-called “donut hole,” or a gap in the coverage that forced recipients to pay the full cost of medications...
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 A group of taxi drivers is suing Kansas City for its taxi permit system, which the drivers allege lets taxi companies exploit them.
The Kansas City Taxi Cab Drivers Association LLC filed its lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court, claiming the city’s monopolistic system allows driver exploitation.
The city has 547 outstanding permits issued to nine companies that are allowed to renew their permits annually, according to the suit. No new permits will be issued until the number drops to 490.
The City Council adopted the limit after a task force found tighter regulation was needed to crack down on unlicensed drivers, said Danny Rotert, a spokesman for Mayor Sly James...
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 Jason Hall has stepped down as appointed director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development after state senators signaled they wouldn’t vote on his appointment before the Friday deadline.
Hall’s resignation ends his one-month stint as head of the DED. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced his appointment Dec. 30.
Chris Pieper, deputy counsel to Nixon, has been named as acting director of the DED.
“With his strong professional background and extensive experience in helping Missouri businesses create jobs, Jason Hall is exactly the type of strong leader Missourians need at our Department of Economic Development,” Gov...
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A Senate committee refused to vote on a nominee to lead the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the Jefferson City News Tribune reports.
Senate Republicans say Gov. Jay Nixon’s nominee, Jason Hall, lacks the experience needed for the job, and they won’t bring him up for a vote before the nomination expires, the newspaper says.
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The forensic auditing firm that examined the Kansas Bioscience Authority may issue a supplemental report to respond to some skeptics, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports.
BKD LLP conducted the audit to address allegations of malfeasance, but it hasn’t silenced critics of the Olathe-based agency tasked with using as much as $581 million in taxpayer money to promote the development of the biosciences industry in Kansas.
The supplemental report will focus on a trove of emails former CEO Tom Thornton didn’t erase, the newspaper reports...
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Admitting that earlier efforts had missed the mark, President Obama on Wednesday proposed a new mortgage relief plan designed to make it easier to refinance, The New York Times reports.
Obama has been scrambling to make a breakthrough with mortgage relief with a recalcitrant Congress and less-than-helpful Federal Housing Finance Agency, according to the Times.
The plan targets two groups of eligible homeowners: about 11 million with loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and about 3.5 million with privately held loans...
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 American Airlines plans to lay off about 13,000 and seek to end defined-benefit pension plans and rework leases as part of a broad effort to lift the company out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The carrier, owned by AMR Corp., handles about 9 percent of boardings at Kansas City International Airport (Code: MCI). It owes lease payments for a hangar there, and the metro area is home to many airline retirees.
Wednesday inquiries to the airport and airline were not immediately returned.
The job cuts, which employees learned of Wednesday, are part of a plan to bring average employee-related savings of about $1...
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 A developer of the aborted Citadel Plaza project in Kansas City pleaded guilty Wednesday to improper removal of asbestos from the site.
William Threatt Jr. admitted in U.S. District Court in Kansas City that he violated the Clean Air Act. That comes after a similar plea in October by his partner, Anthony Crompton.
The men, whose sentencing dates have not yet been set, each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
The proposed $90.5 million mixed-use development at 63rd Street and Prospect Avenue never materialized despite promised incentives from the city...
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 The Kansas City metro area’s jobless rate declined to 7.3 percent in December, down from 7.4 percent the prior month, according to preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In December 2010, the rate was 8.6 percent. The figures are not adjusted for seasonal variations.
The local civilian labor force added an estimated 15,900 members from December 2010 to December 2011, reaching 1,037,800, the BLS reported. However, there were 1,800 fewer workers than in November.
The number of unemployed — which counts those without jobs who actively have sought work during the prior four weeks — fell by about 600 from November to 76,200 in December...
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The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce has switched up staffing with two new hires and four internal promotions.
Darron Story will return to the chamber to direct affinity development and Build Big KC, the chamber’s new annual fundraising campaign. Affinity programs are cost-saving deals that the chamber works out for its members for items such as health insurance and office supplies. Story previously was chief people person for Victory Junction Camp, overseeing fundraising, business community engagement, donor relationships and other areas...
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 Wealth management firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC will move from Overland Park to Leawood’s Two Hallbrook Place in the summer.
The firm signed a 10,000-square-foot lease at the 111,000-square-foot building near Interstate 435 and State Line Road.
The lease brings the building — which sat vacant for nearly two years — close to fully leased.
Two Hallbrook has 9,835 rentable square feet remaining on the second floor but just last year had all its space up for grabs.
The building, which is owned by various Hall Family trusts, secured its first lease in August when plaintiff law firm Davis Ketchmark McCreight & Ivers PC took nearly 7,000 square feet, leaving its old digs at 2345 Grand Ave...
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The coming of Google Inc.’s ultra-fast Internet network proved enough of a carrot for an Albany, N.Y., web hosting company to pick up a small Kansas City-area Internet service provider.
Turnkey Internet Inc.’s acquisition of North Kansas City-based KCNet Inc. closed Wednesday after a monthlong integration. Turnkey declined to disclose deal terms.
The acquisition allows Turnkey to enter the Kansas City market, which once the Google Fiber network goes live will have the types of business customers Turnkey is seeking...
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The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Clay County judge’s decision to award $500,000 in punitive damages to a Harrisonville, Mo., couple scammed by local automotive dealer Chad Franklin.
A jury had ordered Franklin, as an individual, to pay $1 million on top of $4,500 in actual damages after a 2010 trial, but Clay County Circuit Judge Anthony Gabbert ruled that state law limits punitive damages to $500,000 for claims brought under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. Franklin was represented in the case by Patric Linden of Case & Roberts PC in Kansas City...
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 Laura McKnight is stepping down as CEO of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation on March 31, passing the mantle to Deborah Wilkerson.
McKnight, who is leaving after a record year for the foundation, said the time was perfect for her to pursue entrepreneurial inclinations.
“We had accomplished several milestones ... and we had the perfect internal candidate,” she said in a Wednesday interview.
McKnight has been with the foundation for 11 years and worked as CEO for six. She said her first priority is transitioning leadership to Wilkerson, but afterward she hopes to start a local company that “addresses social responsibility both at home and in the workplace...
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A former Lee’s Summit man has been indicted for allegedly defrauding investors in a $3 million Ponzi scheme.
A federal grand jury in Kansas City returned an indictment Tuesday charging Ronald Shepard, 72, with 13 counts of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering, according to a release from Beth Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
According to the indictment, Shepard solicited $3.2 million from about 39 investors. He returned some of the money, but overall, investors lost $1...
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Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City has started $26.7 million in renovations as it seeks to consolidate its brain and spine services.
The new Saint Luke’s Neuroscience Institute will be housed in the 80,000-square-foot tower that formerly held the hospital’s Mid America Heart Institute, which moved to a new building in the fall.
Construction is expected to wrap up in a little more than a year. The renovated space will increase the hospital’s number of dedicated neurosurgical operating rooms from one to four, increase the number of private beds for neurological patients from 27 to 48, provide 18 intensive care rooms, include three neurointerventional laboratories and expand the epilepsy monitoring unit...
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 The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art says it has chosen a pavilion design that “marries design, art and technology” for its upcoming world’s fairs exhibition.
The winning temporary pavilion proposal, called Sun Pavilion, has a fragmented design that incorporates — and is powered by — solar panels. It will be built on the museum’s grounds on the southern front of the Kansas City Sculpture Park. Designers included Kansas City-based architecture firm Generator Studio, along with Los Angeles-based artist Tm Gratkowski, Lenexa-based solar power firm Brightergy LLC, Lenexa-based Prosser Wilbert Construction Inc...
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 Raglan Road in the downtown Kansas City Power & Light District will be replaced with another Irish pub concept, this one run by a local restaurant group.
The Dubliner will take over the entire 10,000-square-foot space, opening March 5 — in time for the Big 12 Conference basketball tournament in Downtown, said Chris Sutton, president of KC Hopps Ltd.
“It’s a beautiful, beautiful space,” Sutton said. “They spent a ton of money on the space. (The Dubliner) will look very similar.”
KC Hopps will operate and manage the restaurant, owned by local ownership group The Dubliner LLC...
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YRC Inc., the national unit of YRC Worldwide Inc., is changing its name to better focus attention on its freight services, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The new YRC Freight moniker, announced Wednesday, also is intended to give employees from the past merger of Yellow Corp. and Roadway Corp. a new name to rally behind.
Jeff Rogers, the unit’s president, said in an interview that the move is a continuation of efforts to refocus YRC on the long-haul freight business.
YRC Worldwide (Nasdaq: YRCW) is based in Overland Park.
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