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May 2012 - Posts
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Kansas City-area employers posted 3,000 fewer new job ads online in May than in April, totaling 22,300, according to data from The Conference Board.
Last month, 25,300 were new. However, the May figure still was higher than the 21,100 new ads posted in May 2011.
Overall, local employers had a total of 36,500 job ads online, down from 37,300 in April but up from 34,200 in May 2011, the nonprofit’s Help Wanted OnLine Data Series found.
Nationally, online job ads decreased by 45,700 to about 4.71...
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 Prepaid carrier Leap Wireless International Inc. has landed a deal with Apple Inc. to offer the iPhone, and it won’t have to jump through as many hoops as Sprint Nextel Corp.
Leap (Nasdaq: LEAP) announced Thursday that it would launch the iPhone 4S on June 22, giving its customers access to the first prepaid iPhone in the United States.
Leap’s entry into the iPhone market could bode poorly for Sprint and other wireless carriers, according to industry buzz. But overall, the negative impact is...
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 Johnson County residents are watching closely as the Kansas redistricting case goes to a three-judge panel expected to draw up the maps on its own rather than select one of the options presented to it.
The case wrapped up and went to the judges on Wednesday. The court has less leeway than the Legislature — which failed to adopt new maps this year — in deviating from the “one person, one vote” principle that each district should contain the same number of people to the extent possible. Gov....
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 Boulevard Brewing Co. is expanding its new East Coast footprint after signing agreements with distributors in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland.
The Kansas City-based craft brewer will offer its Unfiltered Wheat Beer and its Smokestack Series line of specialty beers on the East Coast starting Monday. The rest of its ales and lagers will follow during the next few weeks.
“We’ve been exploring these markets for a while,” Bob Sullivan, Boulevard’s vice president of sales and marketing,...
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Kansas City is the nation’s eighth-strongest metropolitan area, according to a ranking by an independent economic research firm Policom Corp.
The company’s annual economic strength study examines 366 metro areas and 576 micropolitan areas in the United States to figure out characteristics of strong and weak economies. The rankings are based on 23 economic factors during a 20-year period — this study used data from 1991 to 2010.
The No. 1 metro area for the second straight year was Washington,...
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 Kansas City has shut off the water in parts of Downtown in response to a break in a 10-inch water main.
The break occurred at about 9 a.m. Thursday at the intersection of 10th and Main streets, near the heart of Kansas City's business district. To stop more water from gushing onto the streets, the city shut off water on 10th Street from Grand Boulevard to Central Street, on Main Street from 9th to 12th streets, and on Walnut Street from 9th to 12th streets.
See photos
Workers put sandbags and...
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 The HCA Midwest Health System has named Dean Carucci as COO of Overland Park Regional Medical Center.
Carucci has held health care executive positions for the past 11 years, most recently as CFO of HCA-operated Parkland Medical Center in Derry, N.H.
He replaces Cristina Rivera, who left the hospital in September to become CEO of Allen County Hospital in Iola, Kan.
The 350-bed Overland Park Regional is in the midst of a $121 million expansion that ultimately will add a 72-bed tower.
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Missouri is wrapping up the final piece of a two-year, $39 million reconstruction of the Interstates 70 and 435 interchange — a new ramp from U.S. Highway 40 onto northbound I-435, the Independence Examiner reports.
The work will create a detour for at least two weeks with the closing of the ramp from westbound I-70 to northbound I-435, the report says.
The deadline to open the new U.S. 40 ramp is July 1, but good weather could accelerate that, the newspaper says.
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U.S. officials and technology giants will warn Congress on Thursday of a looming threat to the Web posed by foreign governments that could clamp down on civil rights and free speech, The Washington Post reports.
China, Russia and some Arab states lead a growing movement to put more control of the Internet with the United Nations and impose rules that could curb freedoms, the newspaper reports.
“The threats are real and not imagined, although they admittedly sound like works of fiction at times,”...
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Ford Motor Co. plans to offer lump-sum pension buyouts to 98,000 retirees and former employees as part of an effort to address an almost $50 billion risk to its business, Reuters reports.
The voluntary buyouts could eliminate a third of Ford’s (NYSE: F) $49 billion U.S. pension liability, which could boost the company’s credit rating and stock price, Reuters reports.
Kansas City is home to 3,750 Ford employees at the company’s Kansas City Assembly Plant. Ford has pledged to invest $1.1 billion...
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The number of Americans covered by a health savings accounts increased 18.4 percent in the past year with large-group plans leading the way, according to a new study.
Locally, the number of health savings accounts rose in Kansas but fell in Missouri.
As of January, 13.5 million people nationally have such accounts, up from 11.4 million a year ago, industry group American Health Insurance Plans reported Wednesday in its annual survey of U.S. health insurers. The national total has more than doubled...
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 Women-owned companies have less fundraising power than companies run by men, according to findings in a new book financed by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
“A Rising Tide: Financing Strategies for Women-Owned Firms,” released Wednesday, highlights results from the Kauffman Firm Survey, which found that during the first year of operation, men raised about 80 percent more capital than women — $71,000 compared with $134,000.
Although women firms are growing — increasing nearly 44 percent...
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 Hallmark Cards Inc. is returning to Comic-Con International in San Diego in July, and it’s bringing several exclusive Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments.
Comic-Con attendees also will have the chance to meet a Keepsake Ornament artist and see Hallmark products scheduled for release in 2013, according to a Hallmark release.
At the convention, Hallmark will sell limited quantities of ornaments of 4-LOM and Zuckuss from “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,” A Human Hero inspired by the comic book “The...
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Kansas City ranks as the 10th-worst dressed among large cities, according to Travel + Leisure.
Minneapolis ranked a notch better than Kansas City, while Phoenix ranked one step worse. At the bottom of the fashion pile was Anchorage, Ala., while New York City came in on top.
Travel + Leisure gave Kansas City props for barbecue, but noted wryly that good food and friendliness doesn’t make for good fashion.
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 The SkillsUSA national conference in Kansas City is shifting its schedule this year to accommodate Major League Baseball’s All-Star FanFest. It will be June 23-27.
Typically, the late June conference runs on a Monday through Friday, and organizers take about 48 hours to clear out equipment afterward. This year, the conference will start on a Saturday, finish on a Wednesday and be cleared out in half the time so MLB can start setting up in Bartle Hall at the Convention Center. FanFest is July 6-10.
Organizers...
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Kansas City’s Planned Industrial Expansion Authority on Wednesday approved a tax abatement for a one-block redevelopment on Broadway.
A development plan led by Dr. Ahmed Awad of Kansas City envisions transforming the block into restaurants facing Broadway for the first phase and a $20 million, 118-unit market-rate apartment project for the second phase. PIEA commissioners gave unanimous approval to the $22 million redevelopment plan, which would be along Broadway between 39th Terrace and 40th...
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Small business owners in Missouri feel less optimistic about their local economy than their counterparts across the country, according to a survey by U.S. Bank.
Of the 200 business owners surveyed in Missouri, 12 percent viewed the state’s economy as stronger than the national economy, compared with 33 percent of respondents from other states.
Despite the dour view of the state’s economic health, 70 percent of Missouri business owners described the financial health of their businesses as “good...
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 The Kansas City metro area’s jobless rate dropped by an entire percentage point to 6.6 percent in April, compared with 7.6 percent in March, according to preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In April 2011, the rate was 7.8 percent.
The figures are not adjusted for seasonal variations.
Chris Kuehl, an economist and managing director of Armada Corporate Intelligence, said the drop in unemployment was a national phenomenon.
“The suspicion is that a lot of people have...
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One Nineteen, a Leawood shopping center known for tenants exclusive to the market, has sold to Glimcher Realty Trust for $67.5 million, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The deal gives Glimcher (NYSE: GRT) a solid foothold in the 119th Street and Roe Avenue shopping area. The real estate investment trust bought nearby Town Center Plaza in a deal valued at $139 million late last year.
RED Development LLC previously owned One Nineteen.
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The owner of Kansas City-based DeBruce Cos. has agreed to sell to a Japanese company for $3.6 billion, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. said Tuesday that it would buy Omaha-based Gavilon Holdings LLC, of which DeBruce became a wholly owned subsidiary in October 2010. Marubeni wanted to add grain business to its portfolio.
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The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility slated for Manhattan, Kan., is key to protecting the world’s food supply and should be financed regardless of federal budget woes, Kansas officials said, according to the Lawrence Journal-World.
U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan.; and Gov. Sam Brownback made the comments at an NBAF steering committee meeting, according to the report. Kansas landed the federal research lab project three years ago through a bipartisan effort,...
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Kansas City International Airport handled 4.7 percent more passengers in April than a year prior, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Boardings alone rose 5 percent; for the year, KCI traffic has increased by 7 percent compared with the same span in 2011. The airport offers service to 48 nonstop markets.
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 Glimcher Realty Trust has bought One Nineteen, an outdoor retail center in Leawood, for $67.5 million.
One Nineteen is next to Town Center Plaza, which Glimcher also owns, at 119th Street and Roe Avenue.
The 165,000-square-foot retail center includes tenants such as Crate & Barrel and an Apple Retail Store.
The combined properties — One Nineteen and Town Center Plaza — give Glimcher 600,000 square feet in one of the most affluent and heavily traveled retail intersections in the Kansas City...
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 Passenger counts continued to increase in April at Kansas City International Airport, rising 4.7 percent from a year ago despite a drop in available seats.
KCI (Code: MCI) handled 809,650 arriving and departing passengers last month, the Kansas City Aviation Department reported Tuesday. Boardings alone increased 5 percent from April 2011, reaching 406,916. For the year, the airport is 7 percent ahead of 2011.
Last month, KCI had 186 peak-day scheduled departures, with service to 48 nonstop markets....
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 A Japanese company announced plans Tuesday to pay $3.6 billion for Omaha-based Gavilon Holdings LLC, which owns Kansas City-based DeBruce Cos.
Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. seeks to add Gavilon’s grain business to its portfolio, which includes food materials, textiles, chemicals, energy, offshore trading, infrastructure, logistics and other areas.
Gavilon deals in grains, fertilizer and energy commodities. With the acquisition, Marubeni will land more than 140 grain loading sites; increase the tonnage...
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 Ceva Biomune is moving part of its Kansas City-area staff to the Kansas Bioscience Authority’s Venture Accelerator incubator for the next year as the company completes extensive renovations to its research and development facility in Lenexa.
In a Tuesday release, the KBA said Ceva has leased 5,995 square feet of office and lab space for 30 workers in the Venture Accelerator in Olathe. Ceva will be the ninth company in the KBA facility, which now is 80 percent leased, including 93 percent of available...
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 Retail brokers say Lady Luck might start smiling on Kansas City after the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual conference in Las Vegas last week.
Sheryl Vickers, vice president of retail leasing at Copaken Brooks, said the conference was high-energy with large crowds. Consumer confidence is boosting sales, she said, and retailers are on the lookout for new markets to enter.
“Every retailer has their strategy of what markets they’ll hit next,” Vickers said. “Kansas City is...
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One of Kansas City’s oldest tax increment financing plans is about to expire.
Kansas City Council members this week are expected to vote on whether to terminate the Walnut Creek TIF plan; the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City on March 14 recommended such action.
The Walnut Creek TIF was passed in 1988 and called for the construction of a 350-unit apartment complex in the Northland, along with related amenities.
The redeveloped property northeast of Davidson and Russell roads...
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 Kansas City-area companies Custom Foods Inc. and NetStandard Inc. have emerged from 119 nominees to become finalists for Kansas’ top business award.
They join four other companies as finalists for the Governor’s Award of Excellence. The winner will be announced at the Kansas Calvary Encampment in Manhattan on June 12, according to a release.
Custom Foods, based in De Soto, supplies the Mr. Goodcents restaurant chain with all of its bread. Co-owner and President John Khoury said in an interview...
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 The shapes of several Johnson County legislative districts will be decided in hearings that started Tuesday in federal court in Kansas City, Kan.
A three-judge panel will set boundaries for the state’s congressional, House, Senate and school board districts because the Kansas Legislature failed to complete the once-a-decade process before a deadline.
A key hangup was whether moderate Republican senators could have more conservative challengers drawn out of their districts. Conservative groups...
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 As the Major League Baseball All-Star Game draws near, Kansas City officials are looking to step up enforcement against unlicensed cabs in the area.
Extra staff will be working around Kansas City International Airport, entertainment districts and Kauffman Stadium to check for illegal taxis and licensed drivers who are breaking the rules, said Gary Majors, manager of the Regulated Industries Division.
During the past few weeks, there has been chatter about some cab drivers going on strike during...
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 They share many traits: They think strategically, understand the driving forces behind their businesses, possess leadership skills, and often are the unsung heros of the businesses for which they work.
They are the Kansas City Business Journal’s 2012 CFO of the Year finalists.
The awards program, now in its fifth year, honors the Kansas City area’s top financial executives. Applicants were judged for their contributions to their companies’ growth and financial success, their roles in corporate...
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 Prosperity Network of Advisors LLC is merging with Olde Canal Financial Inc., the companies announced Tuesday.
The combination of the companies, which are based in Overland Park and Chillicothe, Ohio, respectively, joins more than 100 independent financial planners, advisers and support professionals, Jim Linderer, Prosperity branch director and partner, said in a release.
The release did not disclose financial terms. The companies will remain in their locations and keep their names and leadership,...
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Kansas legislators have extended STAR bonds, a key development tool that has helped the state land big projects such as the Kansas Speedway and Sporting Kansas City’s Livestrong Sporting Park stadium in Kansas City, Kan., The Topeka Capital-Journal reports.
The action, which effectively extends STAR bonds through June 2017, came near the conclusion of the session’s last day. A spokeswoman for Gov. Sam Brownback told the Capital-Journal he would look over the measure carefully; his deadline to...
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Nine people who were set to go to criminal trial on June 4 over the alleged Petro America Corp. fraud now will wait until October, The Kansas City Star reports.
No new trial date has been set. The U.S. District Court in Kansas City called the case “extended and complex,” according to the Star.
Five already have pleaded guilty in the $7.2 million conspiracy, which prosecutors say victimized thousands of investors who bought shares in Petro America. The scheme largely spread by word of mouth...
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AMC Entertainment Inc. cut its annual losses by a third as the nation’s second-largest theater chain enjoyed a boost in attendance and revenue.
In a securities filing Friday, the Kansas City-based company said it lost $82 million during the year ending March 29, compared with a loss of $123 million in the previous year.
Annual revenue increased 8 percent to $2.6 billion. In the filing, the company said ticket revenue rose 6 percent, driven by a 2.8 percent increase in attendance and 1.8 percent...
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Your Morning Briefing and DailyUpdate emails won’t be hitting inboxes Monday because Kansas City Business Journal offices are closed.
But we’ll be back bright and early Tuesday, providing you with Kansas City’s latest business news.
Sign up for the DailyUpdate here.
Sign up for the Morning Briefing here.
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 The Schlitterbahn Kansas City Waterpark that debuted Friday had doubled in size thanks to a $5 million expansion, and waves of season pass-holders were eager to jump in.
The water park, which opened in 2009 near the Village West area in Kansas City, Kan., opens to the general public Saturday for Memorial Day weekend. Now, it sports more slides, a surf ride, a rapids river, cabanas and expansions to existing rides.
See the slide show
Schlitterbahn officials said the park experienced a 9 percent...
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 Almost 35 million Americans are expected to pack their bags and travel at least 50 miles this Memorial Day weekend, and they’re not going to skip over Missouri.
Nationally, the number of people traveling is expected to increase by 1.2 percent compared with last year. In the seven-state region that includes Kansas and Missouri, that number is expected to increase by 1.3 percent, according to AAA.
The West North Central region includes Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and...
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The Platte County Economic Development Council has named Alicia Stephens as its new executive director, replacing Pete Fullerton.
Stephens accepted the position and will leave her current job leading the Liberty Economic Development Corp. when her new role becomes effective July 1.
Fullerton was the Platte County EDC executive director for 22 years until the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City named him as CEO, a job he started on April 23.
Stephens was the Liberty EDC’s first executive...
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 NIC Inc. has landed on Forbes’ list of America’s 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies.
The Olathe-based company (Nasdaq: EGOV), which develops and manages government websites, was the only one from the Kansas City area on the Forbes rundown.
NIC captured the No. 20 spot, appearing with LinkedIn (No. 1), Apple Inc. (No. 2), Shutterfly (No. 10), and Ancestry.com (No. 15).
Forbes looked at more than 5,000 publicly traded technology companies in its review, narrowing the list down to profitable operations...
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 The American Restaurant’s Debbie Gold will appear on Bravo’s next season of Top Chef Masters.
The executive chef will appear on season four of the show, which will pit 12 chefs against each other in cooking competitions in Las Vegas. The overall winner gets $100,000 for a charity of his or her choice, and smaller cash prizes will be available after each challenge.
Gold will compete for Children’s TLC, a Kansas City-based charity that serves children with disabilities and developmental delays.
She...
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 The Kansas City Council on Thursday unanimously advanced a financing ordinance that will have voters deciding on a pair of tax measures on Aug. 7.
On that day, voters will decide whether to increase sales taxes by half a cent to finance parks maintenance in return for shelving a $12.50 motor vehicle fee, a $28.50 parkway tax and a $14.25 trafficway tax.
Kansas City officials estimate that the average resident will pay about $14 extra during the year if that ballot question is approved. The increased...
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Walters Bender Strohbehn & Vaughan PC’s $6.5 million payday for a settlement the firm reached in a residential mortgage fraud lawsuit is on hold.
The firm represents a class of plaintiffs who — after July 1997 — took out second mortgages that were sold to Residential Funding Co. LLC. When the suit, which seeks repayment of loan fees and interest charged in violation of the Missouri Second Mortgage Loans Act, went to trial in late 2007, a Jackson County jury awarded $4.3 million in compensatory...
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The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said bankers are valuable to the regional fed boards, but should resign if they undermine confidence in the central bank system, The Wall Street Journal reports.
In a statement most believe was directed at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon, Esther George said in a statement that bankers serving on Fed boards face high standards. When they fall short of those standards, “they should resign voluntarily to allow someone who does meet that...
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A marquee match-up of AMC Entertainment Inc. and The Cordish Co. will come to an end, The Kansas City Star reports.
Gerry Lopez, CEO of AMC Entertainment, said a joint venture with Cordish to redevelop the Mainstreet and Midland theaters in downtown Kansas City will end. He said the move has been in the works for a while and could be completed in the next month.
Neither Lopez nor a representative of Cordish’s Kansas City Power & Light District would say what the split will look like.
The venture...
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The parent of First State Bank of Kansas City, Kan., is selling a controlling interest to a group led by David Spehar.
First Bancshares Inc. board Chairman Jack Brozman announced the deal Thursday. It requires regulatory approval.
The $77 million-asset bank, which will change its name to Community First Bank, has offices in KCK and Shawnee, and with the deal there are plans to open a third office at Legends Outlets Kansas City in KCK.
Financial terms are not being released, Brozman said.
“Joining...
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 Lenexa-based Select Brands Inc. has recalled about 4,000 blenders for their potential to cut and injure consumers.
The Kitchen Selectives six-speed blenders were recalled because the plastic pitchers can separate from the blade assembly, leaving the rotating blades exposed.
Sutherlands and Pamida sold the blenders for about $20 from June 2009 to April 2012. No injuries have yet been reported related to the blenders, which were manufactured in China.
Select Brands had to recall about 304,000 blenders...
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 CVR Energy Inc. has hired an adviser to help hunt down other potential buyers, the company announced Thursday.
Jeffries & Co. Inc. will look for third-party acquisition proposals, as agreed to by the past CVR (NYSE: CVI) board and affiliates of Carl Icahn. The process starts Thursday and lasts 60 days — ending July 23.
Icahn, an activist investor, agitated for a sale at CVR, saying the company wasn’t providing enough returns to shareholders. A hostile bid ultimately brought Icahn Enterprises...
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Monthly residential permits in 2012 continue to beat year ago numbers in the Kansas City area.
The Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City reports that 2012 permit activity through April is up 50 percent compared with the same stretch in 2011.
April had 277 single-family permits pulled in the area, up 32 percent compared with the same month a year prior.
“Home sale closings in May indicate permit activity will continue into the summer,” Sara Corless, the association’s executive...
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 Missouri health insurance companies could owe policyholders millions of dollars in rebates this year under new provisions of the federal health care reform law, according to a new study.
Consumers Union, affiliated with Consumer Reports, and the Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance released an analysis Thursday estimating that insurers in the individual market could owe Missouri consumers as much as $18.4 million. Those in the small-group market — serving businesses with fewer than 50 employees —...
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 Manufacturing in the Kansas City region rebounded in May, and producers have grown more optimistic about the future.
Factory activity in the seven-state district returned to rates seen earlier this year after a dip in April, Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said in a release.
According to the Kansas City Fed’s monthly manufacturing survey, most durable and nondurable goods-producing plants experienced manufacturing growth, except for metal...
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 NovaStar Financial Inc. has upended its business model during the past several years, and now it’s changing its name and trading symbol to match that evolution.
The Kansas City-based company (OTCQB: NOVS) announced at its annual shareholder meeting Thursday that its new name would be Novation Cos. Inc. Also, its Pink Sheets trading symbol for common stock will switch to NOVC, effective Friday.
NovaStar left the mortgage lending business in 2008 after hitting fallout from subprime lending and...
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 Missouri will get a slice of a $7.9 million national settlement with Walgreen Co. tied to allegations that the drugstore chain used illegal means to draw consumers to its pharmacies.
The settlement will put $42,000 back into Missouri’s Medicaid program, according to a Wednesday release from Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.
Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG), which operates stores under the Walgreens brand, allegedly gave participants in government-sponsored health care programs gift cards and gift...
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After her iPhone is stolen on vacation, a woman finds that the device is automatically uploading photos to her iCloud account — complete with photos of the apparent thief, The New York Times reports.
The man using Katy McCaffrey’s phone, unaware of the automatic uploading, documented his adventures with pictures, the Times reports.
So McCaffrey did what any modern-day tech consumer would do: She began posting the photos as a slideshow on her Facebook account.
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SpaceX’s Dragon capsule buzzed past the International Space Station going about 17,000 miles an hour as it prepared for docking later this week, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The flyby represents a big step in SpaceX’s attempt to become the first private company to dock a craft at the station, the newspaper reports.
The Dragon capsule now is undergoing a series of tests in preparation for its predawn docking on Friday.
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Even as Facebook Inc.’s stock began pulling out of its debut dive on Wednesday, questions about the social media company’s IPO picked up speed, the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal reports.
In good news for Facebook (Nasdaq; FB), its stock rose about 3 percent on Wednesday, closing at $32 after selling for $38 in the IPO last week.
In less good news for Facebook, state and federal inquiries have begun into the initial public offering, and lawsuits have begun flying.
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Think Big Partners has launched a new venture capital fund and made its first venture investment, putting money into software startup EyeVerify.
Kansas City-based Think Big Partners is an early-stage business incubator and tech-focused startup accelerator. Its fund, Think Big Ventures I, will focus on early-stage, tech-based Web services, apps and software, Think Big Partners said in a Thursday release.
Kansas City-based EyeVerify aims to help develop software and devices to use the human eye as...
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H&R Block Inc. has named Gregory Macfarlane as chief financial officer, effective June 4.
The Kansas City-based tax preparer (NYSE: HRB) said Macfarlane would lead all parts of its finance and reporting functions. He will take the role currently filled by Jeff Brown, who will move to the job of chief accounting and risk officer under a previously announced plan.
Brown, a longtime H&R Block employee, became interim CFO in early 2010 and was given the permanent role later that year.
“Greg brings...
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 Despite shifts during the past year, H&R Block Inc. CEO Bill Cobb says the company has made strides.
During a speech at The Central Exchange in Kansas City on Wednesday, Cobb discussed some of the strategies he’s used at H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) and offered advice about business leadership.
One key shift of late was H&R Block’s April announcement that it would cut 350 jobs and close about 200 offices. However, Cobb said the past year has brought stability to the Kansas City-based tax preparer’s...
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T-Mobile USA Inc.’s plan to lay off 400 Lenexa call center workers and thousands other U.S. employees has inspired an ad campaign that has a lookalike for the wireless carrier’s TV spokeswoman ditching her pink dress — and pink slip — for a darker biker ensemble.
The video (embedded to the right) is a parody of T-Mobile’s “Alter Ego” ad campaign, which came out in April. The Communications Workers of America union launched its critical version Wednesday, attacking T-Mobile’s alleged...
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The McClatchy Co., which owns newspapers such as The Kansas City Star, plans to start using paywalls on more of its websites during the next 60 days, according to a media news blogger.
Jim Romenesko based his report on a confidential McClatchy memo about the plans.
However, the initial rollout looks like it won’t include the Star.
Our affiliate, the Wichita Business Journal, dug into the issue — read that report here.
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 The average existing Kansas City-area house sold for $149,610 in April, up 9 percent from a year prior.
New home prices in the metro area dipped modestly, falling 1 percent to $314,079, according to the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors.
Johnson County commanded the highest prices for existing and new homes in April — $223,146 and $381,542, respectively.
Overall, home sales activity has increased each month in 2012. In January, 1,313 existing homes sold; that figure reached 2,104...
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 Boulevard Brewing Co. has been named as the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s 2012 Small Business of the Year.
The Kansas City-based craft brewer earned the Mr. K Award, named for Ewing Kauffman, for its growth, company culture and community service work, the chamber announced Wednesday.
Boulevard founder John McDonald delivered his first keg of Pale Ale in 1989. The brewery’s original business plan called for 6,000 barrels a year, but in 2006 the brewery expanded its capacity to 600,000...
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 Caymus Real Estate LLC now goes by VanTrust Real Estate LLC.
The company is owned by a Van Tuyl Group Inc. affiliate, which is supported by auto dealer magnate Cecil Van Tuyl.
“The name change is the result of the evolving business model, which has expanded the company’s geographic footprint and its operational scope,” VanTrust President Dave Harrison said.
VanTrust remains based in Kansas City but also has operations in Columbus, Ohio, and plans new offices in Phoenix and Dallas.
Harrison...
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 Dozens of companies looking for college students to hire filled the upper level of the Kansas City Convention Center on Tuesday as part of the SIFE National Expo’s career fair.
Last year, Enterprise Rent-A-Car hired 100 SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) students, and it’s at the career fair this year to recruit for its management training program, said Marie Artim, vice president of talent acquisition.
Scott Peterson, chief human resources officer for The Schwan Food Co., said he’s looking...
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 Missouri House Minority Leader Mike Talboy has been hired by Burns & McDonnell as the Kansas City engineering firm’s director of government affairs.
The Kansas City Democrat announced earlier this week that he would not seek a fourth term in the House. He starts at Burns & McDonnell on June 4 and will be the company’s liaison to local, state and federal officials.
“As we have grown, it has become increasingly obvious that we need to be more proactively engaged with the legislative process...
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The Mayo Clinic is getting closer to Kansas City.
On Wednesday, the venerable health care and research leader announced that it has added St. Joseph-based Heartland Health to its Mayo Clinic Care Network.
Network members, of which there now are five, have greater access to Mayo Clinic physicians, research and education, providing additional resources and expertise in treating patients. The clinic’s main locations are in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida.
Heartland said the agreement formalizes...
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YRC Worldwide Inc. has promoted Scott Ware to be the new president of its USF Holland subsidiary.
Ware, who previously was the regional trucking company’s vice president of operations, replaces past president Michael Naatz, who stepped down earlier this month to take a job with Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU).
In a Wednesday release, YRC (Nasdaq: YRCW) said Ware joined Holland in 2007. Previously, he held management positions at Saia Inc., Jevic Transportation and Con-way Inc.
USF Holland provides...
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A vote tied to the success of the proposed Kansas City streetcar line in Downtown will be decided by 603 voters or fewer, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The deadline to submit applications to vote was Tuesday, and though 603 applied, the Jackson County Circuit Court Administrator’s office still has to weed out duplicate and flawed applications.
Specifically, the vote will determine whether to create a special taxing district in Downtown, the first step in generating local financing...
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 As of the Tuesday deadline, 603 residents of Kansas City’s Downtown submitted applications to vote on whether to create a special taxing district for a proposed Main Street streetcar line.
Janelle Jennings, a special projects law clerk with the Jackson County Circuit Court Administrator’s office, said the number of people who will be allowed to vote is likely to change as she weeds out duplicate and flawed applications and adds some mailed applications that haven’t yet been opened.
She said...
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 Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday signed a bill that includes big tax cuts.
The bill advanced to Brownback despite a last-ditch effort by lawmakers to reach an alternative that would mitigate the estimated $3.7 billion in deficits the changes are expected to mean during a five-year period.
The new law will cut state income tax rates for Kansans by between 14 percent and 24 percent, as well as do away with state income taxes for more than 191,000 small business owners, according to a release...
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 Kansas City steps up to bat on July 8, when two events help kick off the Major League Baseball All-Star Weekend.
First, the All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game will be played at Kauffman Stadium. That evening, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce will offer “Big KC’s Salute to Baseball.”
Kansas City Royals greats George Brett, Mike Sweeney and Bo Jackson will play in the All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game, which will air on ESPN on July 9.
The six-inning game also...
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 Making the most of Google Inc.’s high-speed fiber project means building publicly accessible Wi-Fi networks in parts of Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., according to a report a task force released Tuesday to the cities’ mayors and to the public.
In its 37-page report, “Playing to win in America’s digital Crossroads,” the Mayors’ Bistate Innovation Team recommended publicly accessible Wi-Fi networks, plus a slew of other ideas to promote universal Internet access. Kansas City Mayor...
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 The future of the Metro North Mall redevelopment may become clearer in a matter of weeks, with a Clay County Circuit Court judge expected to rule on a property dispute.
Judge Elizabeth Davis heard arguments Monday from Kansas City's Planned Industrial Expansion Authority and ZR Metro, the owner of the Dillard’s site at Metro North that was to be condemned.
In 2010, ZR Metro said it would fight a resolution the PIEA passed that year authorizing the use of eminent domain to take over the Dillard’s...
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The University of Kansas Hospital plans to open a new inpatient surgical center in Overland Park later this year, taking over the space currently held by the Heartland Surgical Specialty Hospital.
In a Tuesday release, KU Hospital said it will assume the lease for the 42,000-square-foot building at 10720 Nall Ave. and hire Heartland’s non-physician staff of more than 130 people.
Heartland’s 32 physicians are not part of the transaction, expected to close in the summer, and have said they plan...
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 U.S. freight levels hit the brakes in April, declining 1.1 percent compared with the previous month, according to new data from the American Trucking Associations.
The ATA increased its seasonally adjusted numbers for March, saying levels actually increased 0.6 percent, compared with the previously disclosed 0.2 percent increase.
The ATA’s index of for-hire truck tonnage now stands at 118.7, down from March’s 120. The year 2000 equals 100 on the index.
“While April’s decrease was a little...
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 This week, Kansas City will play host to the SIFE National Expo, a business convention for college students that is expected to bring a $3.3 million economic impact.
Tuesday is the main arrival day for the estimated 3,500 people who are expected to take part in the Students in Free Enterprise convention. The event runs Tuesday through Thursday.
During the convention, restaurants in Downtown could see a big influx of customers because people attending are on their own for meals, said Andrea Sammarco,...
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 A year ago today, Joplin High School graduates secured their diplomas. Two hours later, a 32-minute tornado almost a mile wide devastated the town, killing 161.
This year’s graduation, which was Monday evening, looked vastly different, with President Obama calling on the 2012 graduates to remember those who helped them, such as the University of Missouri football team, a volunteer who traveled from Japan and actress Angelina Jolie. Obama dubbed Joplin as an inspiration for the rest of the country...
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 President Obama and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday evening spoke to the graduates of Joplin High School — a day short of one year since a deadly tornado struck the city. Below are their prepared remarks, starting with Obama, though at the event he spoke after Nixon.
MAIN: Obama urges Joplin graduates to "pay it forward"
RELATED: Joplin high school rebuilding is déjà vu for KC construction company
Remarks by the President
Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat....
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The first private spacecraft headed for the international space station lifted off from Florida during the early morning hours Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reports.
However, Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s unmanned craft is at the beginning of a test flight expected to take about two weeks, and that includes many difficult goals, the report says.
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AMC Entertainment Inc.’s pending sale to Chinese company Dalian Wanda Group Corp. — the biggest purchase on record of a U.S. company by a Chinese buyer — is puzzling to many in the U.S. film industry, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The deal, announced Sunday night, is valued at $2.6 billion, and Dalian Wanda Group plans to invest as much as $500 million in AMC.
But industry observers noted few similarities between the companies, the report says. Kansas City-based AMC runs 346 multiplex...
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 Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony for Joplin’s new high school may bring a sense of déjà vu for the CEO of a Kansas City-area construction company.
Archie W. Smith III, now 92, was 45 when he stood at a groundbreaking in 1956 for Joplin’s high school. Lenexa-based Universal Construction Co. Inc., which has been in business since 1931 and now has 32 full-time employees plus seasonal workers, had a small office in Joplin at the time and won the contract to build the $2 million-plus high school....
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Midwest Energy Solutions has moved into the Bioscience & Technology Business Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The alternative energy company is the center’s fifth tenant, joining Aptakon, EON Labs, Orbis Biosciences and OsteoGeneX. The Bioscience & Technology Business Center opened in September and now is 43 percent full.
Midwest Energy Solutions designs and installs products that allow homes, offices and vehicles to use alternative energy sources such as hydrogen, propane and...
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 Shawnee-based Bio-Microbics Inc. is one of 41 U.S. companies to receive a presidential award for helping to increase U.S. exports this year.
The U.S. Department of Commerce presented the company with the President’s “E” Award for Exports on Thursday. Exports make up 70 percent of Bio-Microbics’ income, compared with about 30 percent four years ago, according to a release. Since 2008, Bio-Microbics’ main export markets have been Canada, Mexico and Russia.
Bio-Microbics manufactures environmentally...
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 One of AMC Entertainment Inc.’s closest partners is predicting big positives — including expansion — from the movie theater chain’s pending acquisition by a Chinese conglomerate.
David Brain, CEO of Entertainment Properties Trust (NYSE: EPR), is AMC’s biggest landlord — his Kansas City-based company owns a majority of AMC’s theater buildings, leasing the properties to the company.
Although he doesn’t know all the details of Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd.’s purchase of AMC, which...
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 AMC Entertainment Inc. has long been a Kansas City staple, emerging from humble beginnings in 1920 to spark movie theater innovation, drive industry consolidation, bolster Kansas City’s Downtown and secure a place as the nation’s second-largest movie theater operator.
Now, the longtime family company — which eventually went public, then was taken private in 2004 — has sold for $2.6 billion to a Chinese company, Beijing-based Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd.
View the slide show to the right to...
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 The Kansas Legislature could not agree on an alternative tax-cut compromise, meaning the only tax bill on Gov. Sam Brownback’s desk is one that could cost the state $3.7 billion in five years.
The Legislature passed a $14.3 billion budget Sunday night to end its 99-day session. Although legislators finished the budget, they did not revisit the tax bill passed May 9 by the House despite calls by Democrats and moderate Senate Republicans to scale it back.
Brownback has said he will sign the tax...
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 The Chinese company that’s buying AMC Entertainment Inc. has been in negotiations for two years about the $2.6 billion purchase. Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. called the deal a firm step forward in “implementing its internationalization strategy.”
The blockbuster deal, which has been discussed since 2010, forms the world’s largest cinema operator. The $2.6 billion price tag includes all of AMC and its debts, and Dalian Wanda Group expects to invest as much as $500 million in AMC for operations.
The...
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An MRIGlobal executive has been elected as chairman of the National Science Board, which oversees one of the largest U.S. sources of financing for university research.
In a Monday release, the board announced the May 4 election of Dan Arvizu, who is executive vice president for Kansas City-based MRIGlobal and director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, based in Golden, Colo.
The National Science Board governs the National Science Foundation, a $6.9 billion agency that provides about 20...
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Kansas has received almost $326,000 as part of a nationwide insurance settlement with MetLife Inc.
Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger announced the settlement Monday, saying the money would be deposited in the state’s general fund.
MetLife agreed to pay a total of $40 million to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa after a multistate insurance examination that raised concerns about how the company notified...
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China’s largest cinema owner will buy AMC Entertainment Inc. in a deal valued at $2.6 billion, the Kansas City Business Journal reports. The combination will create the world’s largest cinema company.
Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. announced the deal for AMC Sunday night. The Beijing-based company said AMC’s management will remain intact and that the company’s headquarters will remain in the Kansas City area. AMC plans to move its headquarters from downtown Kansas City to a new building being...
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Google Inc. has pushed back the timetable for its ultrafast fiber-optic network in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., The Kansas City Star reports.
The tech giant said it would make an announcement this summer about when customers will be able to sign up for the 1-gigabit network. Google already has pushed back the its target date for introducing the service at least twice.
David Scott of Avid Communications told The Star that Google has buried more of its network than he had thought it would,...
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China’s largest cinema owner will buy AMC Entertainment in a deal valued at $2.6 billion. The combination will create the world’s largest cinema company.
Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. announced the deal for AMC Sunday night. The Beijing-based company said AMC’s management will remain intact and that the company’s headquarters will remain in the Kansas City area. AMC plans to move its headquarters from downtown Kansas City to a new building being constructed in Leawood’s Park Place development...
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Johnson County businessmen Ben Craig and Larry Winn filed a motion Friday to intervene in the Kansas redistricting lawsuit that may set the state’s legislative boundaries.
Craig and Winn said they want to protect the interests of Johnson County in ensuring it gets fair representation in the redistricting plan. The Kansas Legislature has failed to agree on new maps, leading Secretary of State Kris Kobach to ask a panel of federal judges to weigh in.
“Johnson County is the state’s economic...
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 YRC Worldwide Inc. has named Stephanie Fisher as corporate controller, effective May 16.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Friday, the Overland Park-based trucking company (Nasdaq: YRCW) said Fisher previously was director of financial reporting. She has been in the company’s accounting department since 2004.
She replaces Paul Liljegren, who also was chief accounting officer. He stepped down in March.
In the filing, YRC said Fisher received 8,000 shares of restricted stock.
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Credit union regulators have banned Joseph Herbst from any involvement with corporate credit unions after he helped lead two into failure.
Herbst previously was chairman of Lenexa-based U.S. Central Federal Corporate Credit Union, a $34 billion-asset organization that failed in March 2009 and was seized by regulators. The National Credit Union Administration estimated that its insurance fund would sustain losses of between $2.2 billion and $6.5 billion because of the failure.
Herbst also was CEO...
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 Kansas City has landed in eighth place on a list of the Top 10 Most Affordable Places to Fly this Summer.
Cheapflights.com, which specializes in finding and publishing travel deals online, said the average roundtrip airfare to Kansas City is $245. That’s just behind Las Vegas, which was $244.
Chicago was No. 1 with an average roundtrip fare of $218. (See the full top 10 below.)
The ranking comes from an analysis of deals users have found during the past 90 days.
“We have millions of visitors...
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 If you see a list of the Kansas City area’s best businesses, it might be tempting to look at the differences.
Some are small, family-owned businesses; others are huge companies that employ hundreds. They exist to serve a multitude of purposes, from helping companies insure their employees to supplying power to our community.
But read about the CEOs, presidents and other representatives from the top companies who attended the sixth annual Kansas City Business Journal Champions of Business awards...
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 Cerner Corp. could be a nearly $10 billion company by the end of the decade, as global health care spending keeps growing and people look to technology to help rein in the costs, executives told investors Friday.
In a series of slides, COO Mike Nill showed annual meeting attendees that North Kansas City-based Cerner (Nasdaq: CERN) last year captured $2.2 billion, or 17 percent of the estimated $12.9 billion spent by its health care clients. In total, the worldwide market for health care information...
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The growing VinSolutions LLC in Overland Park announced a leadership shuffle Friday on the heels of last week’s expansion plans.
VinSolutions President Mike Dullea is moving to a spot with the auto dealer software company’s parent group, Atlanta-based AutoTrader.com.
As a result, Brian Skutta will be VinSolutions’ new general manager and vice president, effective immediately. Skutta previously was GM of AutoTrader.com’s Trade-In Marketplace in Atlanta. Skutta will report to vAuto president...
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 The Kansas City region’s first Microsoft Store will open at Oak Park Mall in Overland Park on June 28, a store spokeswoman said Friday.
Festivities will start at 9:30 a.m. that day, and doors will open at 10 a.m.
In April, the store had announced plans to move into the former Talbot’s space in the mall. It will be the 20th store of its kind worldwide, as well as the first in either Kansas or Missouri.
The store’s website lists its hours as 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and...
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Kansas had the 12th-lowest unemployment rate among U.S. states in April — 6.1 percent.
But both Kansas and Missouri saw their jobless rates edge down from March to April, with each shedding 0.1 percentage points, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Kansas’ rate came in two percentage points lower than the U.S. rate, as well as 0.6 percentage points below the state’s figure for April 2011, when the rate was 6.7 percent.
Missouri’s unemployment rate...
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 It’s a small world, after all — at least in Kansas City.
I wrote in last week’s paper about Bryan Cave LLP being bumped off a lawsuit it was handling against ViraCor-IBT Laboratories and ViraCor founder Flip Short due to a possible conflict of interest.
Stepping into the breach is Scott Bethune of Kansas City-based Davis Bethune & Jones LLC, who now represents plaintiffs Donald Carrigan and Konstance Knox. Their suit, which claims they held a 66 percent stake in ViraCor when it merged with...
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 The mercury is rising, and that means one thing for lovers of sweet treats — time to visit the local ice cream shop.
Kansas City-area ice cream shops sell a variety of treats, from ice cream to its thicker cousin, custard, to Italian gelato. Some — such as Murray’s Homemade Ice Cream in Westport — have been around since the 1980s, while others — such as Christopher Elbow’s Glacé Artisan Ice Cream — are just a couple of years old.
If you’re seeking a cool treat as summer approaches,...
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 This week, the Kansas City Business Journal ranks the area's top physicians groups based on number of active physicians.
See the top 5
For the full list, subscribers can take a look at this week’s edition of the Kansas City Business Journal. The full list also includes employees, locations, specialties, contact information and a re-ranking based on average number of local patients a day.
Want more research like this? Check out the 29th Annual Book of Lists in print or digital format.
Think...
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*100.jpg?v=1) Kansas City Power & Light Co. executive Scott Heidtbrink has been promoted to executive vice president and COO.
Previously senior vice president for supply, Heidtbrink will manage all utility operations for KCP&L and KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations, the two units of Kansas City-based holding company Great Plains Energy Inc. (NYSE: GXP).
Heidtbrink takes the place of Terry Bassham, who will become CEO effective June 1 after the retirement of Mike Chesser, who will remain as non-executive chairman.
Heidtbrink...
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Sprint Nextel Corp. not only has lost its status as the Kansas City market leader for average download speeds, the Overland Park-based wireless carrier’s speeds have slowed down since August, according to a study released Thursday.
RootMetrics, a Seattle-based service that measures consumer mobile experiences, performed “thousands” of speed, reliability and quality tests for data, text messages and calls in Kansas City between April 24 and April 30.
RootMetrics gave kudos to Verizon Wireless...
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Nico Leone will take over as general manager of KCUR-FM in August, the station announced Thursday.
Leone succeeds Patricia Cahill, who retired, as head of the public radio station in Kansas City. He has been co-executive director of KDHX-FM, a nonprofit community radio station in St. Louis.
KDHX may have more in common with Kansas City community radio station KKFI than with KCUR. The station’s lineup is heavy with locally produced music and talk shows, and its website encourages area bands to...
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 A Kansas City Council committee on Thursday morning approved a tax plan that probably will put a pair of measures before voters in August.
The Kansas City Finance, Governance and Transportation Committee advanced a bill that would call an Aug. 7 election about whether to eliminate some taxes, increase the sales tax and issue $500 million in bonds for stormwater projects.
The full Kansas City Council is expected to take up the matter on May 24.
Kansas City Mayor Sly James testified on behalf of...
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 Darth Maul meets Batman this weekend in Kansas City at the first Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! convention, which is expected to swoop in with a $3.4 million economic impact.
The convention will kick off Friday at Bartle Hall, 301 W. 13th St., attracting an expected 5,000 visitors. More than 200 booths will display paintings, sculptures and digital art in fantasy, science fiction, horror, movie and comic book themes.
Co-organizer John Fallone said the event is like an art fair rather than a large...
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 Tickets to Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in Kansas City on July 10 may be sold out, but eager buyers can find tickets online through resale outfits — if they’re willing to drop the dough.
The average price for a ticket on TicketsNow, Ticketmaster’s reseller, currently is $464. The site has 782 tickets available, with $288 on the low end for standing-room-only space, $357 for the lowest-priced seat, and a high of $3,517 for Diamond Club access behind home plate.
Historically, the...
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The Missouri General Assembly on Wednesday passed land bank legislation that would let Kansas City buy and sell swaths of abandoned land.
The Greater Kansas City Local Initiatives Support Corp. hailed the passage of the land bank bill, calling it the culmination of two years of work to get lawmakers to agree to the measure.
“The passage of this important legislation is a victory for Kansas City residents as we all continue to seek solutions that reduce the number of vacant and abandoned properties...
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 Ford Motor Co. will put more redesigned vehicles on the road in America during the next four years than any other automobile producer.
According to various media reports, the new “Car Wars” report by automotive analyst John Murphy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch showed Ford will replace 26 percent of its existing vehicles with new designs between the 2013 to 2016 model years. That’s a much higher rate than Ford’s historical average replacement rate of 14 percent, and it’s above the industry...
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 The U.S. Postal Service now plans to shut down a smaller number of mail-processing centers over a longer period of time, including potentially some locations in Missouri and Kansas.
On Thursday, postal officials said they would close 48 processing centers in August and 92 more in early 2013, creating an estimated $1.2 billion in annual savings.
If the post office’s financial status doesn’t improve, a third round of consolidation affecting 89 locations would occur in the spring of 2014.
In...
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A new study reports that a stunning 96 percent of main entrees sold at top U.S. chain restaurants exceed daily limits for calories, sodium, fat and saturated fat, USA Today reports.
The 18-month study found that most meals come up short of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommended limits, the newspaper reports.
“If you’re eating out tonight, your chances of finding an entree that’s truly health are painfully low,” Helen Wu, who oversaw the study, told the newspaper.
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Most of the nation’s babies are members of minority groups — the first time this has happened in U.S. history, The Washington Post reports.
Census figures show that 50.4 percent of children younger than 1 were Hispanic, black, Asian American or a member of another minority group, the paper reports.
“This is a watershed moment,” one sociologist says.
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Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has asked a federal court to step in to draw new legislative districts for Kansas.
The Kansas Legislature’s failure to complete the once-a-decade redistricting process has pushed back election filing deadlines and triggered what Kobach has called a “constitutional crisis.”
In a response to a voter’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Kobach on Wednesday requested a three-judge panel to draw up new maps and a plan of apportionment.
“Currently, potential...
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A Tiawanese smartphone-maker’s hiccup with the International Trade Commission is putting a kink in Sprint Nextel Corp.’s weekend plans.
The Overland Park-based wireless carrier (NYSE: S) has been heavily marketing the coming release of a new 4G LTE-enabled smartphone — an event set for Friday.
But a customs review has put the unveiling of the HTC EVO 4G LTE on hold. And no one is saying for how long.
This newsroom received a deluge of releases this week playing up Friday’s launch at various...
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 The sound of roaring engines can be heard at the Kansas Speedway, but it’s coming from construction equipment instead of race cars.
Kansas Speedway is in the midst of a track reconfiguration and repaving project, along with construction of a new road race track on the infield. The project started after the STP 400 NASCAR race on April 22 and must be completed before the Hollywood Casino 400 NASCAR race on Oct. 21.
See photos
The reconfiguration will give the track, now banked at 15 degrees,...
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Financing for construction of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan is advancing in Congress.
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved the proposed budget for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The budget includes $75 million for NBAF.
“With today’s appropriations bill, we’ve once again affirmed our commitment to protecting our Homeland by making sure the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility receives the funding...
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 Supporters of revamping the American Royal Complex say the project could generate a $75 million annual economic benefit. That’s about $15 million more than the existing complex in Kansas City’s West Bottoms.
Mariner Kemper, chairman and CEO of UMB Financial Corp., announced the preliminary study results Wednesday.
Kemper and others in his family — namesakes to the Kemper Arena — want to do away with the aging facility and replace it with a new livestock, rodeo and agricultural events center.
That...
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 We’ve got a fresh update from Mayor Sly James’ office about what Thursday’s tax proposal will look like.
Readers might remember an original $1 billion bond issuance idea that was cast out early in the budget process to pay for infrastructure improvements.
Discussions with businesses, council members and others have altered how voters will get to decide portions of Kansas City’s tax structure during the next year.
Here’s how it works:
In August, voters will consider these questions (summaries,...
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 Skechers USA Inc. has reached what could be a $40 million settlement regarding allegations of unsupported health claims about Shape-Ups and other “rocker-bottom” athletic shoes.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said his office had filed a settlement with Skechers to resolve the allegations, which also relate to advertising claims about Tone-Ups and Resistance Runner shoes, which likewise have rounded soles. The settlement, filed Wednesday in Shawnee County District Court, keeps Skechers...
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 A veterinarian and executive for Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. has been named as the new CEO of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute.
Dr. Wayne Carter will take over leadership of the institute on June 18, the organization’s board of directors announced Wednesday. He replaces CEO Dan Getman, who is retiring after running the institute since 2009.
Carter currently is vice president of global research at Hill’s Pet Nutrition in Topeka, helping commercialize new product discoveries. Previously,...
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A veterinarian and executive for Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. has been named as the new CEO of the Kansas City Area Life Science Institute.
Dr. Wayne Carter will take over leadership of the institute on June 18, the organization’s board of directors announced Wednesday. He replaces CEO Dan Getman, who is retiring after running the institute since 2009.
Carter currently is vice president of global research at Hill’s Pet Nutrition in Topeka, helping commercialize new product discoveries. Previously,...
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Sprint Nextel Corp.’s flagship 4G LTE-capable smartphone is being held up in the wake of a patent infringement ruling, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A customs review means a later debut for the HTC EVO 4G LTE, which had been set to go on sale Friday.
The International Trade Commission determined late last year that HTC violated an Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) patent. HTC says its design complies with the ruling, and it’s working with U.S. Customs to hasten the review. The ITC ruling, which...
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The University of Kansas has proposed increasing tuition and fees for incoming freshman who are state residents by 4.9 percent, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.
Non-residents would see a 5 percent boost. The increases would boost the cost of a 15 credit hour semester to $4,839 and $11,874, respectively, the report says.
A KU official told the Journal-World that the proposal is the lowest percentage increase since the 1999-2000 school year and would help improve the university.
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T-Mobile USA Inc. will trim 900 more jobs as it seeks to align costs with a shrinking number of contract customers, Bloomberg reports.
The cuts join the 1,900 layoffs that the nation’s No. 4 wireless carrier, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, announced in March. Casualties of the earlier round included a Lenexa customer-care call center and its 400 employees.
The latest set of cuts stems from restructuring “key functions and departments across the company,” Bloomberg reports, citing a memo to...
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 Teamster labor contracts with Twinkies-maker Hostess Brands Inc. will stay intact under a judge’s oral decision late Monday, according to a release from the union.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain denied Hostess’ motion to reject all International Brotherhood of Teamsters contracts, the Teamsters said in a release. A Hostess spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry Tuesday.
“We told our Hostess members all along that we would vigorously oppose the imposition of unjust working...
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 The number of people 65 years and older in the Kansas City metro area is expected to almost double by 2030, creating new pressure on the area’s health care, transportation and community support systems.
That was one of the big messages coming out of the Heartland EngAGEment Initiative, a three-year study of local senior citizen issues, the results of which were released Tuesday during a meeting at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City.
Researchers identified five main areas where an older population...
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 Ross Dress for Less has picked Lawrence for its first foray into the Kansas City region.
The off-price apparel and home retailer has signed a lease to move into 22,000 square feet at Pine Ridge Plaza. Old Navy vacated roughly that amount of space earlier this year, but the developer did not immediately respond to a Tuesday inquiry about whether that was the space Ross was taking.
Retail Properties of America Inc. owns the shopping center.
“We are pleased to continue to partner with Ross Dress...
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An AFL-CIO representative told Sprint Nextel Corp. board members Tuesday that the company’s current short-term incentive plans give executives an incentive to take on “excessive risk” that may not pay off for the company or shareholders in the long-term.
Even so, according to preliminary results, shareholders overwhelmingly rejected the proposal to defer bonuses, with only 23 percent of the votes in favor of the policy.
MAIN: Hesse wins re-election to Sprint board despite opposition
MORE:...
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 Gov. Jay Nixon visited a North Kansas City medical company Tuesday to tout Missouri’s job growth and export prowess in 2012.
Nixon spent part of Tuesday afternoon at Southwest Technologies Inc.’s manufacturing facility for therapeutic, wound care and scar-management products hailing 6,000 new jobs added in the Show-Me State in April and 35,500 so far this year.
“Southwest Technologies is a perfect illustration of our state’s economic resurgence,” Nixon said in prepared remarks. “It...
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A big shareholder’s attempt to knock Sprint Nextel Corp. CEO Dan Hesse off the company’s board of directors proved fruitless Tuesday, but preliminary voting results show the effort may have left a dent in the top executive’s support from investors compared with other directors.
Hesse and the Sprint (NYSE: S) board’s nine other members were up for re-election at Sprint’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday in Overland Park. Initial tallies show that four board members who weren’t directly...
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 Leawood-based Houlihan’s Restaurants Inc. is exploring a sale, but it’s keeping details close to the vest.
Jen Gulvik, Houlihan’s senior vice president of marketing, confirmed that the company had hired Piper Jaffray Cos. to help the chain weigh a potential sale. However, she would not provide additional information beyond saying that, despite a report to the contrary, the company saw sales increase last year in restaurants open at least a year.
Minneapolis-based private equity firm Goldner...
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 Sprint Nextel Corp. faces two new shareholder lawsuits in the wake of allegations from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that the wireless carrier underpaid more than $100 million in New York state and local sales taxes.
The suits, filed in federal court in Kansas, claim that Sprint (NYSE: S) officers and directors breached their fiduciary duties by exposing the Overland Park-based company to hundreds of millions of dollars in potential fines, bad publicity and a possible drop in the company’s...
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 YRC Freight plans to hire 200 over-the-road truck drivers in 13 U.S. cities, including Kansas City.
The company, a subsidiary of Overland Park-based YRC Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: YRCW), said Tuesday that the new hires are needed because business is improving.
“YRC Freight is growing, and our volumes are building,” Jeff Rogers, the unit’s president, said in a release.
YRC and its parent company have spent the past three years trying to dig out from the economic doldrums of the recession, which...
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The Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association is giving baseball fanatics the chance to score some of the summer’s hottest seats — tickets to the sold-out All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium on July 10.
How do you get your hands on those coveted passes? Submit a photo and description (no longer than 140 characters) by June 4 to the event’s Facebook page describing why you’re the ultimate baseball fan.
Online voters will pick the top five entries in the CVA’s Fan Faceoff by June 21,...
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Houlihan’s Restaurants Inc. is in talks to sell itself in a deal that could garner nearly $100 million, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The report, citing sources familiar with the situation, says the Leawood-based casual dining chain is looking to private equity firms and other restaurant companies as possible buyers. Houlihan’s declined to comment for the report.
Houlihan’s, owned by private equity firm Goldner Hawn Johnson Morrison, reported $145 million in 2011 revenue and operated 46 corporate...
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Frontier Airlines is permanently parking two nonstop flights linking Kansas City International Airport to the East Coast, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Daily nonstop service from KCI to Boston will stop Wednesday; daily nonstop service to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport ceases June 1.
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Ecto Development Corp. is breaking ground on an expansion of its headquarters Wednesday only six months after relocating to Blue Springs.
The 18-year-old company provides chemical and pesticide formulation, registration and research services for pharmaceutical and animal health companies.
It left Excelsior Springs in October to move to a 7,600-square-foot building at 850 N.W. Pink Hill Road.
“It’s closer to many of our clients, and it’s right on the Animal Health Corridor,” Ecto Vice President...
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 Kansas City International Airport is losing two nonstop flights to the East Coast, part of Frontier Airlines’ continuing effort to eliminate unprofitable routes.
A Frontier spokeswoman confirmed that the Denver-based airline will halt daily nonstop service from KCI (Code: MCI) to Boston on Wednesday and stop daily nonstop service to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport on June 1.
“The suspensions are part of our effort to remove unprofitable flying from the network,” spokeswoman Lindsey Carpenter...
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LightSquared Inc. put wheels in motion to declare bankruptcy Monday, though the company said it will continue to operate normally.
The Reston, Va., company announced Monday that it had started “voluntary reorganization cases under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to give it time to resolve regulatory issues that have prevented it from building its coast-to-coast integrated satellite 4G wireless network.”
See the company’s full release here.
Overland Park-based Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:...
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 The former GST Steel Corp. plant in Kansas City again is at the center of presidential politics. President Obama’s campaign released an advertisement on Monday showing what happened to the plant after Bain Capital took over in 1993.
Mitt Romney is a former executive of Bain Capital.
After 103 years in business, GST Steel went bankrupt in 2003, with 750 workers losing their jobs and ending up with only partial pensions. Bain Capital didn’t suffer in a similar manner. It’s investment was highly...
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An Overland Park software company has created a new executive position to oversee a part of the company behind recent growth.
Ad Astra Information Systems Inc. has hired Kelly Knetter as its new chief services officer to lead its professional services division.
Founded in 1996, Ad Astra caters to the higher-education community with software that helps colleges and universities with automated classroom scheduling. After the 2008 launch of software that also helps institutions with building management,...
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 Inergy LP has sold US Salt LLC to subsidiary Inergy Midstream LP for $192.5 million, the companies said Monday.
New York-based US Salt mines for salt, leaving caverns that can be used to store natural gas. Inergy purchased the company for an undisclosed amount in 2008.
The latest deal, consisting of $182.5 million in cash and $10 million in Inergy Midstream units, is the first “drop-down” of Inergy businesses into Inergy Midstream (NYSE: NRGM), which had a $252 million initial public offering...
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 Barbecue lovers will find some tasty news in the 2012 inductees to The American Royal Association’s newly acquired National Barbecue Hall of Fame.
The inductees into the Hall of Fame, which the American Royal acquired in March, include high-profile names such as two TV personalities that are expected to show up in Kansas City in the fall to receive the honor.
Here are the inductees for the three categories:
• The pitmaster inductee is Johnny Trigg, a personality on the TLC show, “BBQ Pitmasters.”...
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 Companies in just about every industry have found success integrating social media into their business strategies. Ford Motor Co., Starbucks, Lands’ End and the Dutch airline KLM all have used social media to enhance branding and marketing, bolster sales and meet customer service needs.
Ford is recognized by most who track social business as an innovator in the space. All of its social media efforts are aggregated at social.ford.com, which is prominently linked from the Ford home page. Ford has...
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 Pizza Hut franchisee NPC International Inc. carried out a larger revenue slice during the first quarter, but earnings slimmed down on higher costs.
Pizza Hut’s $10 Any Pizza and $10 Dinner Box promotions were popular among customers of Overland Park-based NPC’s 1,189 Pizza Hut restaurants, and the company’s January acquisition of $18.8 million worth of restaurants in Jacksonville, Fla., also provided a boost.
Compared with the same quarter last year, revenue increased 7.7 percent to $270.41...
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Inergy Midstream bought US Salt LP from Inergy for $192.5 million, the company said Monday in a release.
Inergy Midstream LP said the deal — consisting of $182.5 million in cash and $10 million in Inergy Midstream units —complements its operations. New York-based US Salt mines for salt, leaving caverns that can be used to store natural gas.
Kansas City-based Inergy LP has a majority equity ownership interest in Inergy Midstream. Inergy agreed last month to sell its retail propane operations...
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One of the top women on Wall Street will resign in connection with a $2 billion loss suffered by J.P. Morgan Chase, The New York Times reports.
Ina Drew, chief investment officer for the bank, is to step aside Monday. She oversaw the London office at the heart of massive trading loss. The publication said two traders who worked for Drew are likely to resign, as well.
The New York Times said Drew offered to resign many times since the scale of the loss became known last month, but that CEO Jamie...
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Digital Ally Inc.’s first-quarter revenue dove by 20 percent, the product of sluggish sales, but the company managed to trim its loss through cost-cutting efforts.
The Overland Park-based video surveillance product maker (Nasdaq: DGLY) blamed the soft sales on a persisting slow economy and lower tax revenues that limit law enforcement agency spending.
“The reduction in our first-quarter operating loss by 35 percent despite a 20 percent decline in revenue required some difficult decisions and...
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Blue Valley Ban Corp. lost $315,000 in the first quarter, mainly due to problem loans in its portfolio. Still, that improved on a $429,000 loss during the same quarter last year.
The Overland Park-based holding company for Bank of Blue Valley (OTCBB: BVBC) has $27.86 million in foreclosed assets held for sale on its books. The bank has $437.9 million in total loans.
Net interest income rose 3.5 percent to $4.25 million. However, the bank had to record a $450,000 provision for loan losses, compared...
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 Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP took its first step this week toward establishing a physical presence in the Northeast as litigator Sean Wajert joined the firm.
Wajert was chairman of Philadelphia-based Dechert LLP’s product liability and mass torts group for a decade. He’s long worked alongside Shook lawyers on cases involving Philip Morris USA.
Shook Chairman John Murphy said Wajert will work out of the firm’s Washington office while a Philadelphia office is being formed. That office will include...
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 A look at the past 10 All-Star games is promising for Kansas City officials, who expect a $50 million boost from the All-Star Game and related events in July.
Major League Baseball spokesman Matt Bourne provided a historical look at economic impact estimates and attendance for the past 10 All-Star Game events. See how they stack up, ranked by All-Star Week attendance at ballpark events, in the slide show to the right.
View the slide show
Economic impact estimates put out by the host cities of...
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 Time is running out for your business to enter the Kansas City Business Journal's Social Madness challenge, presented by Capital One Spark Business. The deadline for submitting a nomination for this free competition is Tuesday.
The competition is based on the growth of a company's social media influence, so you don't have to be a guru to do well (but gurus are welcome, too!). If nothing else, it's a great opportunity to improve your prowess with social media, which has become an increasingly important...
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 HomeGoods will open in Kansas City's Ward Parkway Center in the fall in space formerly occupied by Stein Mart.
The 40,080-square-foot store will be next to 24 Hour Fitness at 8600 Ward Parkway.
HomeGoods sells home decor items, including furniture, lamps, bedding, kitchen items and more. It stocks 35,000 pieces at any given time, pricing them at between 20 percent and 60 percent less than specialty store prices.
“We are excited to open a new HomeGoods at Ward Parkway Center,” Lori Cogan, the...
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 TMNG Global lost revenue but appears to have prevented its loss from widening in the first quarter.
The flat financial results come as the Overland Park-based company adjusts to new leadership, a shift that dominated the telecommunications consulting company’s first quarter. TMNG (Nasdaq: TMNG) started the year by terminating founder, Chairman and CEO Richard Nespola in response to shareholders calling for better company performance. TMNG added an independent member to its board later in January.
Here...
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 The Betsey Johnson store on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City starts its going-out-of-business sale Friday.
The Betsey Johnson location, 225 W. 47th St., joins the fashion retailer’s stores nationwide in a liquidation. The chain, which designer Betsey Johnson launched 30 years ago in New York City, includes 54 retail and nine outlet stores.
Merchandise such as apparel, jewelry, handbags and shoes will be discounted by between 20 percent and 50 percent. Store fixtures are for sale as well....
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 The ESOP Association has named Kansas City engineering firm Burns & McDonnell as the 2012 ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) company of the year.
Burns & McDonnell, 9400 Ward Parkway, is 100 percent owned by its employees. The firm, which offers engineering, architecture, construction, environmental and consulting services, has been employee-owned for about 25 years.
Burns & McDonnell hosts several events to celebrate its ESOP status, including a pancake breakfast, chili cook-off and ESOP bingo...
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 In this week’s edition, the Kansas City Business Journal ranks the top local labor unions based on 2011 membership.
For the full list, subscribers can take a look at the print or digital editions of the Kansas City Business Journal. The list also includes receipts, disbursements, contact information and a re-ranking based on assets.
See the top 5
Want more research like this? Check out the 29th Annual Book of Lists in print or digital format.
Think your company might qualify for a list? Email...
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 The Kansas Bioscience Authority’s investment committee gave tentative approval to $8.3 million in grants to four Johnson County companies and Kansas State University.
Adopted Thursday, the recommendations still must be approved by the KBA’s full board of directors at the authority’s meeting in June.
K-State is slated to receive the largest grant, $4.9 million during a five-year period to support the hiring of Dr. Jim Riviere. The veterinarian and professor of pharmacology is coming from North...
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Kansas City Southern and Commerce Bank will join more than 30 other Kansas City-area employers in seeking applicants at a May 17 job fair.
The KC Job Fair will be from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Sheraton Crown Center, 2345 McGee St., Kansas City.
Other employers at the event include Garmin Ltd., Verizon Wireless, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Farmland Foods, Nebraska Furniture Mart and many others. A full list is available online. Thirty-six companies had signed up as of mid-day Thursday,...
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A local businessman will launch the Mid-America Gay & *** Chamber of Commerce on May 31, bringing to the area the first group providing business support specifically for members of the LGBT community.
Bishop McCann CEO Dan Nilsen founded the organization to cover the metro area and eventually also Iowa, Oklahoma and Nebraska. The chamber will give LGBT members of the business community a chance to network and meet with business owners.
“It’s economic growth for another segment of the community...
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The Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City recommended approval of incentives for a $142.5 million development in Clay County.
The proposal for more than 1 million square feet of retail space and 150,000 square feet of office space still must go before the Kansas City Council for a final decision on whether to award TIF financing.
The Towne Center development, spearheaded by the CBC Real Estate Group, is located in northeast Clay County, bordered by Shoal Creek Parkway, Missouri Highway...
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Sporting Kansas City has signed a deal to expand its regional broadcasts to local television stations in Wichita and Topeka.
The deal, which allows the stations to broadcast all of the club’s 13 remaining away games this season, brings the broadcast reach for Sporting Kansas City games to 90 of the 105 counties in Kansas, as well as the entire Kansas City metropolitan area. In total, more that 1.5 million homes now can access the games on local television channels.
“The incredible growth of...
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Although there is plenty to be concerned about in the $3.7 billion tax cut package the Kansas Legislature approved Wednesday, eliminating tax credits for angel investors is not one of them.
In January, Gov. Sam Brownback released a proposed 2013 budget that would slash taxes on individual incomes and businesses.
But to help pay for it, he proposed sunsetting a number of tax credits, including the 8-year-old angel tax credit program.
Angel investors typically are wealthy individuals who give relatively...
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VinSolutions LLC expanded its local footprint with an 18,000-square-foot lease at Mission Tower.
The subsidiary of AutoTrader.com employs 250 locally and plans to continue expanding.
The auto dealer software company leases 35,000 square feet at the Cloverleaf Office Park in Overland Park, not far from the expansion lease at Mission Tower, 5700 Broadmoor St.
VinSolutions COO Keith Polsinelli said the new lease can accommodate 120 workstations, which gives the company room to grow.
AutoTrader.com,...
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 Prominent Kansas City entrepreneur Barnett Helzberg Jr., who is known for helping people find something shiny, is behind a technology startup specializing in helping businesses spot the phony.
The new company aims at identifying bogus payment invoices before business owners sign a check.
Helzberg, who poured an undisclosed amount of his money into PhonyInvoices.com LLC, formed the company in late February. He got the idea for the company while at Helzberg Diamonds, when his accounts payable department...
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The Kansas Legislature is fast-tracking two bills crafted specifically to undo recent court rulings, one on antitrust issues and another affecting debt-settlement companies.
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that a class-action lawsuit alleging price-fixing by California-based Leegin Creative Leather Products Inc., the maker of Brighton leather accessories, could move forward.
The court said a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that protected Leegin from some antitrust suits did not apply, allowing...
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 Ticket prices are going up at Kansas City International Airport, but they remain well below national averages.
Average ticket prices at KCI (Code: MCI) ranked 76th in the nation in the fourth quarter, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics said this month.
The average domestic, round-trip ticket originating from Kansas City cost $333, up 9.7 percent from $303 in the fourth quarter of 2010. It was up almost 4 percent from $321 in the third quarter.
The average U.S. domestic airfare was $368...
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 In April, the cards were stacked against both the Kansas City-area riverboat casinos, which all saw revenues decline compared with a year earlier, and the new Kansas City, Kan., casino, which saw a drop of more than $1.62 million compared with March.
Argosy Casino Hotel & Spa saw the largest April decline, with revenue dropping 28.5 percent to $12.45 million. This casino also saw the largest drop in visitors — down 26.9 percent to 322,200 people.
Argosy is the sister casino to Hollywood Casino...
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One of the largest shareholders in Krispy Kreme has sold his shares in the company for $50 million, according to The Business Journal, serving the Triad area in North Carolina.
Robert Stiller sold 8 million shares of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. at $6.15 a share. An SEC filing indicates he sold the shares on May 7. Forbes reports that his stake represents 11.8 percent of outstanding Krispy Kreme shares.
Forbes also reports that Deutsche Bank AG may have required Stiller to dump his stock, after...
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After Facebook’s initial public offering in mid-May, more of the social networking company’s employees may help form a new generation of tech tycoons, The New York Times reports.
It’s not unusual for an IPO to create a pool of people with money to invest, the Times reports, but Facebook’s $100 billion valuation may create a far richer fraternity.
Several ex-Facebook employees already have left the nest to start new tech firms.
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A delegation from the United Steelworkers is trying to turn up the heat on Overland Park-based Compass Minerals International Inc., publicly airing details of ongoing labor disputes.
The union alleges that Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP) is engaging in “abusive, illegal” labor practices. The union said it filed unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board after Compass Minerals implemented new employment terms in 2010 at the 100-employee Cote Blanche mine in Louisiana...
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 The U.S. Postal Service may cut hours at post office locations in small communities instead of closing them.
The Postal Service will seek approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission for the plan, which would help cut costs.
“We’ve listened to our customers in rural America, and we’ve heard them loud and clear – they want to keep their Post Office open,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said.
The plan would be phased in over two years and could save half a billion dollars a year,...
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Kansas and Missouri came in above average in a small business poll about states’ business friendliness.
In the survey, a collaboration of Kansas City’s Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Thumbtack.com, Kansas received an A-minus for overall business friendliness and came in ninth among states for ease of starting a small business.
The state’s lowest grade, a D, was for friendliness with regard to environmental regulations.
Missouri received a B-minus for business friendliness. Small businesses...
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The Kansas Division of Tourism on Monday launched a “There’s No Place Like Kansas” TV advertising campaign that will air more than 7,200 commercials in out-of-state markets.
The marketing push also includes print ads running in 23 national and regional magazines, as well as online search and social media campaigns.
Local tourism representatives — each wearing a version of Dorothy’s iconic red shoes from “The Wizard of Oz” — also created YouTube video vignettes featuring destinations...
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 Hostess Brands Inc. warned Texas on Wednesday that it might have to shut down and liquidate should certain conditions happen during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Hostess, which moved its headquarters from Kansas City to the Dallas area in 2009, sent potential layoff notices under the federal WARN act to its 18,000 employees nationwide, a company spokesman said.
As of January, Hostess had roughly 100 corporate employees in the Kansas City area, plus some at a Lenexa bakery.
In a letter...
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 Johnson County Community College will break ground on its $12 million Hospitality & Culinary Academy at 1 p.m. May 22.
The JCCC Foundation raised almost $3.3 million in a capital campaign, the Wysong Challenge. The school’s board of trustees challenged the foundation to raise 30 percent of the 36,000-square-foot building’s cost. The rest of the financing for the building came from the college’s capital outlay fund and capital reserves.
The center will hold 700 students and open in fall 2013....
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 Sprint Nextel Corp. is rolling out a flagship LTE-capable smartphone next week — before the Overland Park-based wireless carrier’s expensive 4G LTE network upgrade is completely up and running.
The HTC EVO 4G LTE, which features an advanced digital camera and a super-fast Internet connection, hits stores May 18. For those who agree to a two-year service agreement, the phone costs $199.99 for new subscribers or for existing subscribers eligible for upgrades. Pre-orders started Monday online.
But...
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A Kansas representative on Tuesday tried to add a proposal to a budget bill to study a possible sale of the University of Kansas Hospital, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.
The measure sparked strong resistance from Democrats and moderate Republicans, as well as from House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson. Although Suellentrop pulled the amendment, he said House Republicans will continue talking about the idea, which involves having a group study the viability of selling KU Hospital and report...
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Missouri’s $24 billion budget has gotten caught up on a $2 million snag, The Kansas City Star reports.
Two lawmakers are at odds about whether Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau should get a $2 million boost during a budget year in which other public universities don’t.
Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, says he’ll block all votes for the rest of the legislative session until the earmark is removed, according to the Star. House Speaker Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, argues...
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The Kansas House has approved a $14 billion budget, as well as a plan to add $50 million for elementary and secondary education, The Wichita Eagle reports.
Representatives voted 99-17 to add the money for schools and 77-44 to pass the budget. Now, the House will negotiate with the Senate, which last week added $77 million to education. However, Gov. Sam Brownback may not look favorably on the way the House freed up the money: taking it from transportation, according to the report.
The fiscal year...
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 Ford Motor Co.’s Kansas City Assembly Plant is one of six plants that will take only one week of idle time during the summer, part of an effort to boost production.
Ford (NYSE: F) typically shuts down its manufacturing plants for about two weeks to let employees take vacations or to perform plant maintenance and retooling. But it wants to increase summer production by 40,000 vehicles as part of an overall plan to rev annual production capacity by 400,000 vehicles.
Ford’s contract with the United...
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 As the new advertising agency of record for the Kansas City Chiefs, Sullivan Higdon & Sink’s first big task will be planning this year for the Chiefs’ 50th anniversary in Kansas City.
John January, executive creative director of Sullivan Higdon, said it will work on other strategic marketing initiatives as well.
“It’s not often you get an opportunity to do work for such an iconic brand,” said January, who described himself as one of many rabid Chiefs fans at Sullivan Higdon. “There’s...
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Gift Card Impressions has received a present of its own: A new capital investment, which came with a new board of directors.
OpenAir Equity Partners, a Kansas City-based private equity firm, led the investment in the Kansas City-based gift-card industry packaging provider. The parties did not disclose the amount of the deal, but it was for a minority stake.
Gift Card Impressions, which employs 25, plans to use the new capital and expertise to roll out a patent-pending gift-card personalization...
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 The Roasterie Inc., Kansas City’s largest coffee producer, is kicking off a $5 million renovation and expansion Tuesday that will double the company’s production capacity.
The expansion will include a new Roasterie Café in its Crossroads Arts District facility at 1204 W. 27th St., Kansas City. It also will bring a larger cupping room, an event space and a full-sized DC-3 airplane mounted on top of the building.
“This is a complete game-changer for us,” founder and President Danny O’Neill...
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 Sprint Nextel Corp. CEO Dan Hesse’s change of heart on compensation came a little too late for a big investor that plans to challenge his re-election to the board of directors.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which has a roughly 4 percent stake in the Overland Park-based wireless carrier (NYSE: S), said it would oppose Hesse, whose term on the board comes up for vote May 15 at Sprint’s annual shareholder meeting in Overland Park.
The Canada-based pension plan, which claims to have more...
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The Overland Park City Council unanimously agreed Monday night to issue $65 million in bonds on behalf of Teva Neuroscience Inc. to secure the company’s move across the Missouri-Kansas state line.
Teva plans to move its headquarters and 350 full-time employees at Holmes Road and Interstate 435 in Kansas City to a new building at the southwest corner of Nall Avenue and College Boulevard.
The $65 million bond issuance will help finance the cost of construction and land acquisition. It makes Overland...
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Former Mamtek U.S. Inc. CEO Bruce Cole took more than $900,000 from the company’s bond proceeds to prevent foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home, according to a court filing in Mamtek’s bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy trustee, Bruce Strauss of Kansas City-based Merrick Baker & Strauss PC, filed an adversary proceeding Thursday seeking to cancel “fraudulent transfers” of about $204,000 to Cole and $700,000 to his wife, Nanette Cole.
MORE: Download the court filing
Mamtek drew $4.3 million...
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 Increased revenue from a military blood bank contract helped Mediware Information Systems Inc. post a 36 percent increase in third-quarter profits.
The Lenexa-based information technology company (Nasdaq: MEDW) on Tuesday reported earning $1.9 million, or 22 cents a share, during the three months that ended March 31. By comparison, Mediware earned $1.4 million, or 17 cents a share, during the same period last year.
Revenue during the quarter rose 22 percent to $16.9 million.
In a release, CEO...
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AMC Entertainment Inc. is discussing selling the company — or a big stake — to one of China’s biggest theater owners, The New York Times reports.
Owners of the second-largest U.S. movie theater chain, which is based in Kansas City, have been trying to cash out but have withdrawn initial public offering attempts, most recently in late April.
The Times, citing people briefed on the talks, reports that a deal with the Wanda Group would form the first theater chain to have a significant presence...
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A case against a Kansas City lawyer accused of murdering his law partner has been dismissed, The Kansas City Star reports.
Jackson County prosecutors dropped the murder charges against Richard Buchli after an appeals court tossed evidence in the case. Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court declined to review that ruling, so prosecutors filed the dismissal Friday, the Star reports.
In 2002, Buchli was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2000 killing of Richard Armitage, who was found beaten to...
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The latest Fortune 500 list includes three Kansas City-area companies: Sprint Nextel Corp., Seaboard Corp. and YRC Worldwide Inc.
Those were the only three companies in Kansas to make the list. Missouri had 10, mostly in the St. Louis area.
Sprint (NYSE: S) lost a few spots compared with last year while YRC (Nasdaq: YRCW) edged up one; Seaboard (NYSE: SEB) leap-frogged YRC to gain 73 spots.
Read more about the local companies on the latest Fortune 500 list.
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Sprint Nextel Corp. nabbed a No. 90 ranking on the latest Fortune 500 list, down five spots from last year's list.
Still, the Overland Park-based wireless carrier (NYSE: S) made it to the highest spot of the three local companies to make the 2012 list.
Sprint's ranking was based on $33.68 billion in revenue. The prior-year ranking was based on $32.56 billion in revenue.
Near the bottom of the list, Merriam-based Seaboard Corp. (NYSE: SEB) landed at No. 427 based on revenue of $5.75 billion. That...
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Help us find the Kansas City area’s fastest-growing businesses.
We’re always looking for top local companies to highlight in our weekly lists. This list is more fluid because the fastest-growing companies tend to be younger.
The list measures the average revenue growth rate during the past three years. It changes from year to year as growth rates ebb and flow.
Information is compiled from surveys of Kansas City-area companies. To receive the survey, email jlorenz@bizjournals.com.
The...
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 Johnson County should get three more seats in the Kansas House and one more seat in the Kansas Senate, the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce said Monday.
The chamber is chiming in on what has been a hot-button topic for much of the year, with district maps proposed and scrapped. But time to approve a plan is drawing short, with the legislative session nearing its close.
The Shawnee Chamber says Johnson County’s population has grown by almost 100,000, based on the 2010 Census, so those suggested new...
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Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s loss is about to become a gain for residents of emergency shelters in Kansas and Kentucky.
Brownback made a friendly wager with Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear that the University of Kansas would win the NCAA men’s basketball championship. But the Jayhawks lost that game 67-59, so now Brownback is paying up.
This week, Brownback will deliver 440 Kansas steakburgers to the Hope Shelter in Lexington, Ky., which serves people who are homeless or have addictions or mental...
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 Sprint Nextel Corp.’s board backs CEO Dan Hesse’s decision to return more than $3.25 million in compensation, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hesse’s move came in response to “feedback from shareholders,” Hesse said in a Friday letter. Shareholders were upset about the Overland Park-based wireless carrier (NYSE: S) excluding the financial effect of carrying Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone when calculating employee bonuses.
“I do not want,...
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 Sanofi U.S. said it plans to lay off 112 employees in the summer from its Kansas City manufacturing plant, the first step in a two-year process to close the facility.
In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the drugmaker said it eventually will shutter its plant at 10236 Marion Drive, affecting a total of 337 jobs.
The company originally announced its plans to close the plant in 2009, saying it would phase out operations there...
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A tax increment financing plan for a proposed $142.5 million project in Clay County will be heard publicly for the first time on Wednesday.
The Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City plans to take up the Towne Center development plan, which proposes more than 1 million square feet of new retail space and 150,000 square feet of office space.
The development area generally is bordered by Shoal Creek Parkway to the east and south, Missouri Highway 152 to the north and Interstate 435 to...
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 Barkley has split off its public relations unit as a separate business to be called Crossroads.
The new company will focus on strategic planning, cause marketing, crisis management and internal communications. Mike Swenson, who has led the Kansas City-based advertising agency’s PR operations since 1987, will be Crossroads’ president. (See the Crossroads logo in the image gallery to the right.)
Swenson said his PR team will try to build its client base in the Midwest and especially in Kansas...
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 A YRC Worldwide Inc. executive who stepped down last week is trading wheels for rails.
Michael Naatz, the former president of YRC’s USF Holland trucking subsidiary, is joining Kansas City Southern as its senior vice president and chief information officer, the regional railroad operator (NYSE: KSU) announced Monday.
“Mike is a great addition to the KCS team,” KC Southern CEO David Starling said in a release. “His extensive transportation leadership experience will enhance our information...
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 Oil production increased 2.5 percent in Kansas during 2011, but natural gas production declined 6.6 percent, according to the Kansas Geological Survey.
About 41.5 million barrels of oil were produced in Kansas during 2011, along with about 333.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The combined value of that production was an estimated $3.5 billion, up from $2.79 billion in 2010.
Prices played a key role, as oil prices rose and natural gas prices fell.
Natural gas production in Kansas declined in...
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Sprint Nextel Corp. CEO Dan Hesse agreed to give up more than $3.25 million in compensation to try to quell complaints about how the company considered the effects of its iPhone sales when calculating bonuses.
Overland Park-based Sprint drew fire for its board’s decision to exclude results tied to the offering of the iPhone from calculating bonuses for 2011. While the company has attributed a surge of sales and new customers to the iPhone, analysts have questioned an agreement to buy billions...
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Institutional investors might have done better with publicly traded stocks than with venture capital funds, according to a report issued Monday by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The report shows that public stock markets have outperformed the average venture capital fund during the past decade. Further, VC funds have failed to return to investors the cash invested during the past 15 years, “despited high-profile successes, including Google, Groupon and LinkedIn.”
The study is based on...
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 It looks as if Sullivan Higdon & Sink Inc. will be doing work for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
Representatives of Wichita’s largest advertising agency were tweeting Friday about being the team’s agency of record.
What appeared to be an official announcement came Friday afternoon from SHS’ Twitter account, @wehatesheep: “Huddle up, huddle up. The @kcchiefs newest roster addition is @wehatesheep! Yep, we are the Chiefs’ agency of record.”
We don’t have any details yet, though. We...
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State officials dream of industries able and willing to consistently add bunches of employees to their payrolls. In most states, they need look no further than the government.
Thirty-seven states — including Kansas and Missouri — added government workers between March 2002 and March 2012. The numbers — and rankings of states by the addition of these jobs — come from a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures by The Business Journals’ On Numbers blog.
Kansas added 4,800 government...
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 Supporters of a proposed tax increase on tobacco products in Missouri have submitted more than 200,000 signatures to put the issue on the November statewide ballot.
Show-Me A Brighter Future, a group of health care organizations that includes the American Cancer Society, said Friday that it had collected almost 220,000 Missouri petition signatures and submitted them to the Secretary of State’s office for verification. If successful, the initiative proposes raising Missouri taxes on tobacco products,...
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 For those who lament Kansas City’s lack of light rail or streetcars, here’s a ranking to consider: Kansas City made 20th on a list of the 25 best transit systems in big U.S. cities.
However, that ranking puts Kansas City squarely in the category of having some or minimal transit.
According to Walk Score, which ranks cities and neighborhoods by how friendly they are to pedestrians, Kansas City has a score of 34 on a scale that ranges from zero to 100. But that’s far below No. 1 New York City...
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 U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver could be deposed in a wrongful death lawsuit against a Grandview car wash he owns.
Attorneys at Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP served Cleaver, D-Kansas City, with a notice of deposition April 13. They represent the family of Rosland Watson, who was killed Nov. 5, 2009, when a Toyota Land Cruiser unexpectedly accelerated out of the car wash and struck her.
At issue, the attorneys say, is whether Grandview Auto Wash was undercapitalized, preventing it from putting proper safety...
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 Teva Neurosciences Inc. is seeking $65 million in economic development revenue bonds to help finance the construction of its forthcoming headquarters in Overland Park.
The Overland Park City Council on Monday will hold a public hearing prior to voting on whether to issue the bonds, which the city’s staff recommended approving.
Along with the bond issuance would come a 10-year, 50 percent property tax abatement, valued at $10.6 million, on the new headquarters. Also, Overland Park offered a $125,000...
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A new Walmart store appears headed for Westwood.
Westwood City Clerk Fred Sherman said Friday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. officials want to put what appears to be one of the discount retailer’s smaller Walmart Neighborhood Market stores in a roughly 34,000-square-foot building at 4701 Mission Road. That’s the current site of Westwood Apple Market, whose owner was not available for comment.
If the site becomes a Walmart Neighborhood Market, it would be the fourth such store in the Kansas City...
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 No time to buy and mail a greeting card? Hallmark Cards Inc. has an app for that.
For those on the go who care enough to send the very best (quickly), the Kansas City-based greeting card giant has launched a free Go Cards app for the iPhone that lets users pick, personalize and send a paper greeting card.
Sending a card costs $3.49, which includes postage.
“Smartphones have high-quality cameras that make it easy to capture everyday moments,” Paul Barker, vice president of Hallmark digital,...
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As expected, and feared, the pace of job growth lost more momentum in April, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday morning that nonfarm payroll increased by 115,000 in April. Separately, the unemployment rate declined by a tenth of a percentage point to 8.1 percent.
The Department of Labor originally reported that March payroll increased by 120,000. It has revised that figure to 154,000.
The April trend feeds fears of a flat economy.
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Republicans on a House-Senate conference committee approved a tax cut plan that will slow some cuts but still eliminate taxes on certain types of business income, The Wichita Eagle reports.
The committee’s Republicans sidestepped objections by Democrats and lawmakers could vote on the tax cut plan next week.
Their compromise plan would phase out state taxes on income from farms, limited liability corporations, sole proprietorships and S corporations. Democrats argue that the cuts will provide...
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 Great Plains Energy Inc. swung to a first-quarter loss driven by unusually warm winter weather and costs tied to a Wolf Creek nuclear unit outage.
The Kansas City-based utility holding company (NYSE: GXP) on Thursday reported a loss of $9.5 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with earnings of $2 million, or 1 cent a share, during the same quarter of 2011.
Operating revenue for the three months that ended March 31 dipped 2.7 percent to $479.7 million.
“Similar to what we have seen across the...
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 Hospitals throughout Missouri are reporting shortages of key pharmaceutical drugs that sometimes lead to delayed care or patients not receiving the recommended dosages.
The Missouri Hospital Association on Thursday released the results of a survey of the state’s acute-care hospitals. It found that 82 percent of the 53 facilities that responded to the survey reported experiencing daily shortages of drugs and that 17 percent reported weekly shortages.
The drugs included ones used in surgery anesthesia,...
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The Kansas City Board of Trade is expanding electronic trading hours for hard red winter wheat futures and options.
The change takes effect on May 20 for the May 21 trading date.
Monday electronic trading sessions will last from 5 p.m Sunday to 4 p.m. Monday. Trading hours for Tuesday through Friday sessions will be from 6 p.m. until 4 p.m the following day.
Daily settlements still will be based on a 1:15 p.m. close each day.
Wheat futures and wheat options will continue to trade by open outcry...
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 Just more than a month ago, all Facebook Pages (the format businesses use) were reformatted to fit the new Timeline layout.
Particularly for small businesses, that March 30 shift may not have been your top priority. So if you’re still in the dark ages about the Facebook Timeline, here’s a refresher.
If you’re an owner, marketer or page admin, here are eight key changes about Timeline for Facebook Pages to note:
No more default landing tabs.
In the past, we could set a specific Facebook...
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One of YRC Worldwide Inc.’s regional trucking companies is losing its leader.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Thursday, the Overland Park-based company (Nasdaq: YRCW) disclosed that Michael Naatz, president of USF Holland, was resigning, effective May 4, “to pursue other opportunities.”
YRC did not provide additional information.
Naatz was made president of USF Holland last year. He worked for USF Corp. for 11 years until YRC bought the company in 2005. He also worked as chief...
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A telling deadline hits Friday night for CVR Energy Inc.
That’s when a takeover offer from activist investor Carl Icahn expires (at 10:59 p.m., to be precise) and the company will go one of two directions: sell to the Icahn Group, or shake off Icahn’s interest.
It all depends on whether enough shareholders tender their holdings to Icahn to give him control of a majority of shares. And CVR (NYSE: CVI) is reminding shareholders that its board isn’t a fan of the deal.
“CVR Energy’s board...
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*100.jpg?v=1) QC Holdings Inc. saw mixed results in the first quarter, with revenue rising 2.6 percent — helped by new online operations in Canada — but earnings falling 7.3 percent.
The Overland Park-based short-term lender (Nasdaq: QCCO) reported income of $4.93 million, or 28 cents a share, down from $5.29 million, or 29 cents a share, a year prior. Revenue improved to $47 million.
QC acquired Canadian online lender Direct Credit in September.
“Our revenues improved, primarily due to the inclusion...
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Inergy Midstream LP posted a double-digit profit increase Thursday in the first financial report since its initial public offering in December.
For its second quarter, which ended March 31, the subsidiary of Kansas City-based Inergy LP (NYSE: NRGY) reported net income of $13.4 million, up 44 percent from $9.3 million in the second quarter of 2011. That equals 18 cents a unit.
A year-ago comparison to per-unit income isn’t available because Inergy Midstream (NYSE: NRGM) was not public then. However,...
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 YRC Worldwide Inc. reported a smaller first-quarter loss as freight levels continued to rise.
The Overland Park-based company (Nasdaq: YRCW) said Thursday that it had a comprehensive loss of $79.8 million during the three months that ended March 31, compared with a loss of $98.6 million during the same quarter last year.
On a per-share basis, the company said it lost $12.40 compared with $643.56 a year earlier when adjusted to reflect a 1-for-300 reverse-stock split in December.
The company said...
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YRC Worldwide Inc. reported a smaller first-quarter loss as freight levels continued to rise.
The Overland Park-based company (Nasdaq: YRCW) said Thursday that it had a comprehensive loss of $79.8 million during the three months that ended March 31, compared with a loss of $98.6 million during the same quarter last year.
On a per-share basis, the company said it lost $12.40 compared with $643.56 a year earlier when adjusted to reflect a 1-for-300 reverse-stock split in December.
The company said...
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Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment Inc. gives area residents a chance to do something heroic on Thursday: Spend 12 hours at a Marvel superheroes movie marathon in advance of the midnight premiere of “The Avengers,” KSHB-TV reports.
A $40 ticket will include six Marvel series movies at three Kansas City locations. The summer-blockbuster-in-waiting “Avengers” opens at midnight.
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Construction will slow traffic on parts of Interstate 435 in Johnson and Wyandotte Counties starting Thursday.
Overall work will include a chip seal on the shoulders, an overlay on mainlines and ramps, and permanent pavement markings, the Kansas Department of Transportation said Wednesday.
Resurfacing work will begin at 9 a.m. Thursday on northbound and southbound I-435 between Midland Drive and the Kansas River Bridge, including ramps on the north side of Midland Drive, Shawnee Mission Parkway,...
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 The Citizens Commission on Municipal Revenue says Kansas City’s revenue structure is “generally sound.”
But in the same report — which advocated raising sales and property taxes and preserving the earnings tax — it also pointed out the following:
• Kansas City’s across-the-board decline in revenues since 2009.
• The uncertain future of the earnings tax now that voters get to decide every five years whether to keep it around.
• An insufficient unreserved operating fund balance.
•...
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 The U.S. business startup rate fell to the lowest point on record for new firm births in 2010, the most current year for which data is available, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The portion of businesses that are new firms dropped below 8 percent for the first time in 2010. The high was 13 percent in the 1980s; that fell to just below 11 percent in 2006.
The findings are based on data released Wednesday in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Statistics briefing. The...
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 BATS Global Markets saw its market share climb in April, undaunted by the March failure of the company’s initial public offering on its listing system.
Lenexa-based BATS, which operates trading platforms, saw its share of U.S. equities trades jump to 11.5 percent, compared with 10.6 percent a year prior and with 10.9 percent in March.
BATS Options’ market share in April grew to 3.1 percent, compared with 2.4 percent a year prior.
BATS listed seven new exchange-traded funds on the BATS Exchange...
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 Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers has expansion on the grill, and the Kansas City area is in line to get one of those new restaurants.
The Wichita-based chain plans to serve up an Olathe location in July, one of 19 new restaurants set to open by the end of August. But the Olathe store will be the only of the new locations to be run by the company rather than by a franchisee, becoming the chain’s 10th company-owned store.
The company’s website lists existing three Kansas City-area locations:...
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 Gary Wages is the new interim CEO of Cushing Memorial Hospital in Leavenworth.
Saint Luke’s Health System said Wednesday that Wages will replace the previous CEO, Ron Baker, who is taking over as CEO of Saint Luke’s East Hospital in Lee’s Summit.
Wages retired as CEO of Saint Luke’s Northland Hospital last year and is a past board chairman of the Missouri Hospital Association, the Kansas City Area Hospital Association and the Missouri Hospital Industry Data Institute. He also worked at...
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The Kansas City metro area’s jobless rate inched downward to 7.6 percent in March, compared with 7.7 percent in February, according to preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In March 2011, the rate was 8.5 percent.
The figures are not adjusted for seasonal variations.
The number of unemployed — which counts jobless people who actively have sought work during the prior four weeks — decreased by about 1,500 from February to land at 79,400 in March. Compared with March...
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 Garmin Ltd. announced a milestone Tuesday — it has sold more than 100 million products. That news came alongside a first-quarter financial report that included revenue gains, though earnings results weren’t as rosy.
First-quarter revenue improved 9.6 percent to $556.6 million, and earnings dipped 9 percent to $86.9 million. Earnings per share came in at 44 cents, down from 49 cents.
Garmin (Nasdaq: GRMN), which has its operations base in Olathe, blamed the earnings-per-share drop on an increased...
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A Kansas House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted against transferring $22 million to the Kansas Bioscience Authority, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.
The vote was along party lines.
State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said the state shouldn’t hinder the KBA, but committee Republicans said the KBA has sufficient money, according to the report.
The Olathe-based KBA, which was formed to invest in Kansas bioscience efforts, has been under fire — particularly from Gov. Sam Brownback...
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Garmin Ltd. has sold more than 100 million products, the company announced Wednesday, on the heels of a quarterly financial report that showed revenue gains but a dip in earnings.
First-quarter revenue improved 9.6 percent to $556.6 million, while earnings dipped 9 percent to $86.9 million. Earnings per share came in at 44 cents, down from 49 cents.
The navigation-device maker (Nasdaq: GRMN), which has its operations base in Olathe, blamed the earnings per share drop on an increased effective tax...
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Kansas City Life Insurance Co. is looking to acquisitions to expand its securities-related business and broaden distribution of its individual life and annuity products.
The Kansas City-based company (Nasdaq: KCLI) said in a Monday release that it had retained Dominick & Dominick LLC, a New York City-based investment banking and private wealth management firm, to examine buying one or more broker/dealers and investment advisers.
Kansas City Life, formed in 1895, sells life insurance and annuities....
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 There’s a lot about Facebook that is a mystery for people in business.
So let’s start with something businesspeople tend to be more comfortable with: numbers. Facebook reports having 901 million monthly active users worldwide as of March 31. That’s a full third higher than its total a year ago.
The social media giant tells the Securities and Exchange Commission that there were 125 billion friend connections as of March 31 and its users generated an average of 3.2 billion “likes” and comments...
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 A Sprint Nextel Corp. shareholder has filed a complaint against the wireless company’s officers and directors after New York’s attorney general accused the company of not paying sufficient sales taxes.
The Louisiana Municipal Police Employee’s Retirement System filed suit Monday in New York state court, naming CEO Dan Hesse, CFO Joe Euteneuer and former CFO Robert Brust among 13 defendants. Also, Overland Park-based Sprint (NYSE: S) is listed as a nominal defendant in the complaint.
The retirement...
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 A St. Louis County Circuit Court judge issued a ruling Tuesday blocking the transfer of students out of the unaccredited St. Louis public school district.
The ruling could be a preview of a similar case pending in Jackson County Circuit Court regarding the unaccredited Kansas City Public Schools.
Judge David Vincent III said the transfers would violate Missouri’s Hancock Amendment, which prevents the state from imposing a tax without providing an extra service — in other words, an unfunded...
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YRC Worldwide Inc. shareholders have elected seven board members as part of the trucking company’s annual meeting.
During the six-minute meeting Tuesday at YRC’s Overland Park headquarters, shareholders also cast a non-binding vote of approval for executive officer compensation.
Following the meeting, CEO James Welch and CFO Jamie Pierson said in a short interview that the company’s plans to streamline operations and improve customer service are on track, as shown by the complete support...
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 May Day is bringing higher sewer rates in Kansas City.
New sewer and water rates in Kansas City will mean most household users pay an extra $9 a month on their average bill — a 14 percent increase.
The Kansas City Council approved the new rates in the current municipal budget and is likely to continue raising rates to grapple with a $2.4 billion federally mandated sewer-overhaul project.
The Environmental Protection Agency sued Kansas City because its outdated combined sewer system caused frequent...
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Sprint Nextel Corp. has won a four-year, $2 billion wireless contract from the Western States Contracting Association.
The contract is one of the largest this year for Overland Park-based Sprint (NYSE: S), which will give participants access to wireless devices, unlimited data plans, accessories, applications and other products.
The WSCA is a consortium of 15 states that teamed up to increase purchasing power. It shares that power with public safety, public education, utility and health care entities,...
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 A 51-acre mixed-use development is on the drawing boards for Lenexa.
The Lenexa City Council on Tuesday will consider whether to hold a public hearing for a tax increment financing plan at the northwest corner of Prairie Star Parkway and Renner Boulevard.
The project, which consists of two development entities related to Price Development Group, would include a 308-unit residential project as well as surrounding commercial, retail and restaurant developments.
The project would be the third within...
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 April was not a kind month for sales of automobiles produced in the Kansas City area.
The Ford (NYSE: F) F-Series pickup, whose F-150 model is made at Ford’s Kansas Assembly Plant in Claycomo, was the only locally produced vehicle to see a sales increase in April. The F-Series, which remains the best-selling vehicle in America, had sales of 47,453, up 4.4 percent from last year.
There were 16,986 Ford Escapes sold in April, down 20 percent from a year earlier. Escape production in Kansas City...
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Chicago-based private equity firm CIVC Partners LP has acquired EN Engineering LLC, which has an Olathe office.
The deal, for undisclosed terms, is expected to help EN Engineering expand its efforts in the business services industry and the utility services sector.
As of June, EN Engineering had 54 local employees, but it planned to expand to 80 within three years. The company is an energy-focused firm that deals with natural gas, liquid petroleum and related industrial markets.
“CIVC was an...
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 The Kansas University Endowment is launching a $1.2 billion fundraising campaign to back the goals of the school and The University of Kansas Hospital.
“Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas” has been going on for four years leading to Tuesday’s public launch. It is set to wrap up in June 2016.
Since July 2008, when the group picked top priorities, alumni and friends have committed $612 million. The priorities include educating future leaders, advancing medicine, speeding up discovery and spurring...
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 The Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association has acquired the lawyer-finder service developed by Legal Sonar Inc.
Prairie Village-based Legal Sonar is an offshoot of Diana Kander’s KR Legal Management LLC, a Kansas City-based firm that matches contract lawyers with legal projects.
The KCMBA was a partner in the development of the online referral platform and now will support the system internally as a certified bar-affiliated service.
ARCHIVES: Legal Sonar uses social networks to link lawyers,...
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 Swope Health Services has received more than $2.5 million in federal grants designed to increase the number of patients the group can serve through its community health centers.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday announced $728 million in grants provided under the Affordable Care Act, including $10.3 million for Missouri and $21.7 million for Kansas.
Swope is the only Kansas City-area center receiving the grants, which are aimed at supporting construction and renovation...
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Dan Hesse has purchased 50,000 Sprint Nextel Corp. shares, bringing his stake to nearly 4.74 million shares, Barron’s reports.
The Overland Park-based wireless carrier’s (NYSE: S) CEO spent $119,000 on the April 26 purchase. His stake still amounts to less than 1 percent of the company, the report says.
A Sprint spokeswoman told Barron’s that the purchase “reflects Dan Hesse’s confidence in Sprint’s progress, our business plans and future opportunities.”
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