Calendar NOV. 13: Project Management Institute Charleston Professional Development Day. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. at Trident Technical College. Speaker: Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, business improvement expert and bestselling author of “The Goal.” Cost: $250 for members; $350 for nonmembers. Information: www.pmi-charleston.org or contact Dan Furlong, furlongd.pdd@musc.edu or call 843-452-4461.
Accolades & More Andra L. Watkins, principal of Positus Consulting LLC, has been appointed to the S.C. Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Committee for a one-year term. She will represent the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce.
People in the News The Advanced Technology Institute has promoted Larry Karns to director of the Advanced Maritime Technology business unit, Dolly Pelto to program manager II, Charlie Sharp to senior project manager, Margie Kraft to senior project manager of Healthcare and Emergency Response business unit, Sarah Swain to program administrator, Vicky Wing to senior management assistant, Connie Taylor to senior program assistant, and Mary Saady to senior program assistant.
St. Andrews Center to welcome Harris Teeter, redevelopment A 52,000-square-foot Harris Teeter supermarket will anchor St. Andrews Shopping Center as part of a $16 million redevelopment of the property that will include new buildings, access to the West Ashley Greenway for pedestrians and cyclists and 700 trees.
Health care: Watch those dangerous ‘facts’ By Bill Settlemyer As the debate about health care grows, it is becoming even more of a challenge to sort out “the facts” and deliver an honest analysis of the challenges and the realities of health care in America.
Legislation could punish businesses that hire illegal immigrants By Molly Parker and Kristen Poland Apolinar moved to the United States from Veracruz, Mexico in 1989, at the age of 20, leaving behind his parents and brothers and sisters to find employment in America so that he could help support his large family.
VA transitional housing program finds itself without a home A building that a nonprofit services organization had planned to buy from the local Goodwill and convert into a 50-bed facility for homeless veterans was sold last month to CAB Receivables Management Co., a collections agency, for $1.8 million.
League pushes for Jasper port By Dan McCue Days before the governors of South Carolina and Georgia are expected to unveil the findings of a commission charged with crafting a bi-state plan for a container terminal in Jasper County, the leadership of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League continues to push for the development of the site as an alternative to a new terminal at the former Charleston Naval base.
Jafza reveals early plans for Orangeburg By Dan McCue Baseball fields, public parks, nature trails and lush vegetation might not be the first things one typically thinks of when imagining a vast warehouse and distribution-based commerce park.
Going green a natural fit for spa industry By Kathleen Dayton What could possibly convince a successful corporate executive to change careers and open her own business? For Laura Kennedy, the answer came by way of a seaweed bath in Ireland.
Business school dean links business, academia By Molly Parker A common critique of higher education is that administrators and professors get so wrapped up in academia that they fail to recognize the needs of the business community for which they train students.
Attract the brainiac: You must become ‘way cool’ By Bob Bouyea It is no longer OK to be a cool community. Today a community has to be “way cool” to attract the best and brightest, according to Bruce Yandle, a professor and interim dean at the College of Business and Behavioral Sciences at Clemson University. Actually, that is according to Yandle’s granddaughter.
Grassroots movement needed to improve schools By Andy Brack Charleston education advocate Jon Butzon said something at a meeting this week that struck home: Until it costs politicians more to do nothing about South Carolina’s education system than it does to do something, not much will get done.
Charleston expects ’08 budget to be unaffected by fire By Kathleen Dayton The tragic fire that killed nine Charleston firefighters at the Sofa Super Store on June 18 has affected the bottom line of the city’s emergency funds, but officials don’t expect it to cause problems for the 2008 budget.
Santee Cooper hopes to generate 40% green power By Molly Parker Against the backdrop of Santee Cooper’s plans to build a coal plant in Florence County, the state-owned utility earlier this month rolled out an aggressive agenda to generate at least 40% of its power from non-greenhouse gas-emitting sources by 2020.
SCE&G reaches accord on rate increase By Molly Parker South Carolina Electric & Gas business and residential customers will see an increase in their electric bills starting Jan. 1, but the amount will be substantially less than what the investor-owned utility requested, according to a proposed agreement the utility signed in late October.
Tech outlook: brighter locally than nationally By Shelia Watson When Paul Graham, a nationally known programming language designer and author of several books on technology, spoke at the Future of Web Applications conference in October, he made several predictions of the tech industry’s outlook from a macro view.
Squeezing out more fuel economy could impact auto jobs By Molly Parker Two years ago, Charles Van Rysselberge bought his first sports utility vehicle—an Infinity QX4—because he wanted a safe automobile that could tote such loads as home-improvement wares from Lowe’s.
Coalition charged up to promote plug-in hybrid cars By Kristen Poland It’s tough enough remembering to charge your cell phone and iPod each night, but soon the most important thing to plug in before you head to bed might be your car.
Middleton’s inn contrasts modern against historic By Kathleen Dayton After 23 years, reactions still are mixed over the design of one of the Lowcountry’s more unusual inn properties, which also happens to be one of the area’s more off-the-beaten path accommodations.
Orangeburg seen as Jafza’s gateway to North America By Dan McCue Orangeburg, S.C., the gateway to North America? That’s part of the vision driving the development of Jafza International’s development of 1,300 acres at the crossroads of Interstate 95 and U.S. Highway 301 into a massive logistics, distribution and manufacturing center.
Southeast benefits from Dubai ports controversy By Dan McCue Ironically, the political difficulties one of Jafza International’s sister companies, DP Ports, encountered after it bought and quickly disposed of the assets of the British Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. two years ago may have enhanced the market position of the Port of Charleston and other facilities in the Southeast.
Jafza was asked to consider CaroLinks purchase By Dan McCue When CaroLinks CEO Lucy Duncan-Scheman made her first trip to Dubai last February, she was offering more than just land options in Orangeburg. Duncan-Scheman has revealed she was also ready to sell all or part of the company she founded in 2005.
Duncan-Scheman talks of life and ‘triumph’ By Dan McCue Lucy Duncan-Scheman has been a high profile Charlestonian since she moved back to her hometown from Washington, D.C., in 2005, making a splash and inspiring controversy with a proposal to use barges and rail to transport cargo from the port here to an inland site in Orangeburg.
Scheman defends CaroLinks against critics, charges By Dan McCue An investigation by the S.C. Attorney General’s office into financial dealings of CaroLinks’ founder Lucy Duncan-Scheman continues with no word on whether criminal charges will be filed, according to a spokesman for the agency.
Charleston Air Force Base gets facilities facelift By Shelia Watson The Charleston Air Force Base has embarked on an array of construction projects that will not only spruce up the base and housing areas but also pump money into the local economy.
Port of Charleston sees growth in break bulk By Dan McCue Despite a shortage of bulk ships and the escalating shipping rates that accompany such a shortage, the Port of Charleston sees real opportunities in the future of break bulk shipping on the city’s waterfront.
AirTran presence increases all flights at Charleston By Molly Parker Charleston International Airport officials are elated about the airport traffic that has taken off since AirTran Airways began servicing the market in late May.
Credit crunch delays housing market upswing By Kathleen Dayton When analysts began looking at the housing market at the first of the year, they saw a downturn they expected to correct by the year’s end. What they didn’t anticipate was the credit crunch.
Holiday sales may sink retailers’ hopes for 2007 By Kathleen Dayton “Modest,” “challenging,” and “conservative” are some of the words retail analysts are using to describe the upcoming holiday season as retailers enter the fourth quarter, traditionally their busiest season of the year.
FHA loans soar in wake of subprime crash By Molly Parker On Halloween, the Federal Reserve cut the interest rate for the second time in two months, hoping to shield the rest of the economy from the housing market’s ills.
Condos reverting to apartments in soft market By Kathleen Dayton Back when the housing market was hot, a strong investor market spurred a bevy of condominium projects and saturated the market with new condos.
Licensing board rejects education requirement By Shelia Watson The S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation has turned down a request to make continuing education a requirement for contractor licensing, much to the chagrin of several contractors in the Lowcountry.
Commerce park needs manufacturing rebound By Dan McCue It was the kind of gathering of public officials and economic developers that always puts a smile on Lewis Gossett’s face.
Monks form advisory committee in response to PETA By Shelia Watson After several months under fire from an animal rights advocacy group, Mepkin Abbey, the Trappist monastery in Moncks Corner, has started the process of appointing an advisory committee to review the egg production business.
Military housing may be outsourced to private sector By Shelia Watson The idea may not be new, but it’s getting close to home. Privatizing housing for military families became an official priority in 1996. That year, the U.S. Department of Defense enacted its Military Housing Privatization Initiative as part of the Defense Authorization Act.
People love to buy, but they don’t want to be sold By Jeffrey Gitomer I’m in Las Vegas at the mall. Not just anywhere. The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. If you’re a store owner, it’s the most expensive retail rental property in America.
Snagging corporations in your fundraising efforts By June Bradham Q. With so many great companies in Charleston and so many more big corporations relocating to the area, we want to expand our fundraising efforts to include corporate giving. These asks are a bit intimidating. How can I prepare my staff and increase the likelihood that these companies will give?
Taking sales lessons from the fun-loving RiverDogs By John Carroll In two earlier columns we focused squarely on the ballpark where the Charleston RiverDogs play minor-league baseball with a style and substance that provide excellent lessons for professional selling. Here are several more valuable lessons from that ballpark.
Apple’s iPhone included all the right ingredients By Bruce Murdy When was the last time you waited 20 minutes in line at 10:30 a.m. on a Wednesday night to spend $2,000 on technology you didn’t really need?
Today’s Profile: P.J. Johnson, Summerville Medical Center By Kristen Poland Teamwork, trust and consistency make up the heart of success. University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier understands this, which he displays by building a foundation for the Gamecocks football program that he hopes will result in the team’s first-ever Southeastern Conference championship.
Today's Profile: Robin Reynolds, Family Circle Cup By Kristen Poland As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Like the rest of quaint Daniel Island, the Family Circle Cup Facility strives to make the best of impressions on every visitor walking through its gates, whether to take in a tennis match or a jazz concert.
