Bay Area's First Electric Car Charging Station

The Bay area's first electric car charging station is ready for business.

The free charging station is at the AAA Auto Club office on Westshore Boulevard in Tampa. The station is part of a national network that officials hope will grow.

It's hoped that the stations will promote the use of electric vehicles by offering convenient locations motorists to top off their car if they're running low on power.

These charging stations are also being tested in San Francisco, San Diego and Santa Monica, California.

Tampa resident Rob Gross noticed the station while paying $3.73 a gallon to fill up his car at a nearby gas station.

"Hey if they can make the economics work where the cost of the car is affordable as well as the cost to recharge it, then it's great,'' Gross said.

Jessica Brady with AAA said more charging stations throughout the city will be opened in the future.

"These were installed as part of a grant from the Department of Energy,'' Brady said. "We're going to see about a hundred of them pop up in the Tampa area within the year. Some other locations include the St. Pete Times Forum, some local libraries, Hillsborough Community College.''

Meanwhile, Suncoast Electric Cars President Richard Nimphie is charged about the possibilities of electric cars. Nimphie said opening new statements eliminate a major obstacle in getting people to buy electric vehicles.

"Their number one concern is range anxiety,'' Nimphie said. "And even though we find that the average driver only drives 15-25 miles per day, the thought that there is a charging station available gives them that much more confidence that should they need it, they can do opportunistic charging."

Nimphie added this could be a major opportunity to change the way and what people drive.

Officials said other charging stations would be added in Temple Terrace and at Environmental Protection Commission offices. However, no timetable was issued for when those stations would open.

Business Succession Planning: A Short Course

Bell Investment Advisors, a Bay Area registered investment advisory firm, today announced they are now offering the public a free white paper, "Business Succession Planning: A Short Course." Bell Investment Advisors regularly offers free white papers and webinars as part of an ongoing educational series.

This recent white paper outlines the key factors a business owner must consider when planning to pass on the business. The paper examines the important steps of succession planning that must be completed to keep the business intact, functioning and profitable under the next generation of ownership and management.

The paper is written by John M. Latta, MBA, CPA of Orion Advisory Group, LLC, and long-time business consultant to Bell Investment Advisors. The author reviews essential concepts and issues such as "institutional independence" and familial complications, and presents vital strategies for business survival. In straightforward terms, Latta addresses common considerations for business succession planning and includes practical guidelines for successful transitioning.

"A frequent challenge is that the company is so identified with the founder that it loses its identity in the minds of customers and perhaps even employees once that founder is no longer involved," said Latta. "Owners must plan to ensure their business is capable of thriving under new ownership and management."

To access the free white paper, visit http://www.bellinvest.com/resource-center/white-papers/business-succession-planning.

An archive of additional resources and white papers offered by Bell's financial advisors and occasional guest writers can be found at http://www.bellinvest.com/resource-center/white-papers. Subjects include information related to business, wealth management, as well as career coaching.

Through Investment Management, Financial Planning, and Career & Life Coaching, Bell Investment Advisors (http://www.bellinvest.com/) helps people build positive momentum for a good life. Established in 1991, the firm has offices in Oakland and Santa Rosa, California.

The Owner of a Locally Based General Contractor Sentenced to 10 Years' Probation

The owner of a locally based general contractor that won at least 27 different government contracts in Bay Area counties was sentenced to 10 years' probation for various frauds in which the company did not properly pay its workers.

Monica Mui Ung, 51, owner of NBC General Contractor Corporation, pleaded guilty in April to felony fraud crimes, including prevailing wage fraud and workers' compensation premium fraud, and to committing white collar crimes.

Ung organized the fraud by telling governments that she was paying her employees a prevailing wage and giving them overtime, sick leave, pension, health care and vacation benefits. However, investigators found, Ung and others within the company had denied those benefits to workers and instead kept the money themselves.

As a result, the workers, many of who were non-English speaking immigrants, were not properly paid, a news release by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office states.

"In this case, many of the workers are non-English speaking and were fearful of coming forward, they found themselves part of a captive labor force working in the underground economy," said District Attorney Nancy O'Malley. "They were victimized by the predatory practices of dishonest employers."

NBC Contractors, which opened in 1995, had worked on a number of government projects including Piedmont Elementary School, Daly City Fire Station, Oakland Library, El Cerrito City Hall and Walnut Creek Civic Center.

Ung's sentence of four years in state prison was suspended and she was placed on 10 years felony probation and ordered to pay $350,000 in restitution to her workers and $850,000 restitution to the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

Vulcan Minerals Inc. and Investcan Energy Corporation have Finalized Plans for a 2011 Field Operations Program in the Bay St. George Basin

Vulcan Minerals Inc. ("the Company") CA:VUL +5.26% in conjunction with its joint venture partner, Investcan Energy Corporation have finalized plans for a 2011 field operations program in the Bay St. George basin.

Over the last several years a growing geological, geophysical and drilling database has been generated for the project area. The Company, as operator, has been focused on a geological analysis of this information towards optimizing a drilling program for the Flat Bay area. In particular, the 2010 seismic data has been incorporated into the geological understanding of the basin and its petroleum system. As a result, a drilling program on the shallow Flat Bay oil deposit is planned to accomplish three objectives. First, to delineate the areal extent of the oil deposit towards evaluating the oil-in-place resource. Secondly, to potentially locate areas within the deposit that are naturally fractured with resulting enhanced permeability; and, thirdly to test the down dip potential extension of the oil deposit in a south-southeast direction. The results of this program will assist the joint venture in determining the development strategies that may be viable for the deposit. The first two objectives will be accomplished by a shallow coring program consisting of 3 - 5 holes. The third objective will be met by a well to a depth of approximately 1000 metres (Journois location), subject to positive coring results. The core holes will span an area of approximately 4 kilometres from north to south and 2 kilometres east to west centered around the Flat Bay #1 discovery hole. The Journois location is approximately 4 kilometres from Flat Bay #1.

The permitting process to carry out these operations has commenced with the submission of relevant applications to the provincial government regulators. Procurement of goods and services has also commenced. It is the Company's plan to commence field operations as soon as permitting and procurement are completed and to utilize its own drill rig, capable of drilling to 1000 metres for the drilling of the Journois location. This is expected to be a late summer- fall program. The Company and its partner have agreed on a budget and have sufficient funds to carry out this exploration program.

In order to better appreciate the oil distribution and reservoir parameters within the Flat Bay oil deposit the Company has posted laboratory analysis and photos of previous Flat Bay core holes on its website at www.vulcanminerals.ca . These data demonstrate the significant oil saturations within the Spout Falls conglomerate/sandstone and the Ship Cove limestone.

Flat Bay core hole #2 has measured oil saturations ranging from less than 1% up to 76% and Flat Bay core hole #3 has oil saturations ranging from less than 10% up to 52%. Saturation numbers are based on 15 random samples over a 170 metre core length in core hole #2 and 15 random samples over a 50 metre core length in core hole #3. The analysis was carried out by Weatherford Laboratories.

Offshore Labrador

The Company owns a 30% working interest in EL1107 in the Hopedale basin, offshore Labrador. Investcan Energy Corporation is the operator with a 70% working interest. In late 2010 the joint venture acquired approximately 3000 line kilometres of 2D seismic data over the licence to enhance prospect identification. The interpretation of this data should be complete by mid summer. Following an assessment of this interpretation, the partners will decide upon a strategy for advancing further exploration on the licence. It is noteworthy that additional lands have been posted for a Call for Bids by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (CNLOPB) in the offshore Labrador area. Four parcels have been posted approximately 400 kilometres north of the Company's licence. Combined with the heightened level of drilling activity offshore western Greenland, the Company is optimistic that the offshore Labrador area will receive further renewed exploration in light of the large reserve potential of the area. This potential is typified by EL1107 which is undrilled and lies along trend between the Bjarni North Bjarni discovery to the north (approximately 3.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas) and the Grudrid discovery (924 billion cubic feet of natural gas) to the southeast. These gas quantities are resources as published by the CNLOPB.

Vulcan is a diversified junior exploration company focused on petroleum exploration in the under-explored Bay St. George basin in western Newfoundland and also holds mineral interests in areas strategic to its operations in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The statements made in this News Release may contain certain forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ from the Company's expectations. Certain risk factors may also affect the actual results achieved by the Company.

There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from any conclusions, forecasts or projections described in the forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Lowering Taxes and Making Tough Choices will Help Government Save Money

A rosier economic picture is ahead for economies in Mid-Michigan and the state of Michigan.

That's what the head of the state's Chamber of Commerce said today when he stopped in Bay City.

Officials say lowering taxes and making tough choices will help government save money.

"We're focused on job creation and business growth," said Rich Studley, President and CEO of Michigan Chamber of Commerce. "There is a good news story to tell about what's going on in Lansing these days. Governor Snyder is working very hard to reinvent Michigan and move our state forward. The state and local chambers across the state are part of that effort. They're doing everything we can."

Local chamber officials agree with Studley.

Bay Area Chamber of Commerce president Michael Seward says they've already seen improvements in local businesses.

"We've seen local companies beginning to expand here. It's been on a slow basis but it's going to continue," he told TV5 photographer Pat McLachlan.

But economic growth won't come without challenges.

"I think sometimes in Michigan, we're our own worst enemy," said Studley. "We need to focus on Michigan's solutions to Michigan's problems. We can't wait for the federal government to help us on a lot of these issues."

Studley said local chambers need to provide encouragement and support to pro-jobs and pro-business lawmakers to get Michigan's problems fixed.

A Dummy Way to Success

Judi Henderson-Town felt trapped. For years she was unhappy as an account executive at such industry giants as Johnson & Johnson and United Airlines. She found corporate life "soul-destroying."

"I wanted something more entrepreneurial," says 53-year-old Henderson-Town. "But I didn't know it was an option — no one I knew growing up owned their own business."

In the past decade she's carved out her own eco-friendly niche and launched a San Francisco Bay Area business that recycles and then resells old mannequins. Henderson-Town has become a clearinghouse for businesses looking to dump old displays that previously ended up in landfills. "The retailer saves on the disposal fee, and we gain inventory — it's a win-win," she says.

Her business, Mannequin Madness, is now certified green and earned special recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency for recycling 100,000 pounds of mannequins in one year. By collecting used mannequins, cleaning them up and renting or reselling them to businesses, artists or others looking for affordable displays, she's proving green business is good business.

The "a-ha" moment
Henderson-Town landed a job at a startup dot-com company in San Francisco in 2000. There, she saw firsthand how business owners make decisions and got a real itch to go off on her own.

While searching for a mannequin for an art project (she wanted to cover it with mosaic tiles and stick it in her garden), she came across mannequins for sale on Craigslist. When the seller casually mentioned there would no longer be a place for people to rent mannequins in town because he was moving away, she had an "a-ha" moment. So instead of buying just one mannequin, she bought 50 for $2,500.

"It wasn't rational," she says. "I had never touched a mannequin, never worked in the retail industry and had no idea that people actually rented mannequins."

With fiberglass dummies littering her house (she's thankful for a very understanding husband), Henderson-Town's first big break came in 2001 when she caught wind that Sears was eliminating its use of mannequins. She persuaded most of the area stores to sell her the used ones, rather than throwing them away. In about six months, her inventory skyrocketed to include more than 500 life-sized figures.

"We were still operating out of our home, so the mannequins were everywhere — in the basement, in tents in the backyard, in the garage, in boxes down the driveway. It was crazy," she says.

Commitment time
After 9/11, Henderson-Town was laid off from the dot-com. She did some soul searching and realized she wanted to make some serious life changes rather than looking for another full-time gig. She dove headfirst into Mannequin Madness. She broke out of the rental-only model and was soon selling her used stock to people all over the U.S. and Canada.

"Although the business was still fledging and not financially secure, it brought me joy and passion," she says. "I felt life was too short to not live with joy and passion."

As her Sears inventory dried up, Henderson-Town knew she needed an action plan. With her husband, Jay, now onboard, they noticed that more department stores were becoming environmentally conscious when remodeling or closing stores, and the couple reached out to major retailers. Leveraging Henderson-Town's online marketing savvy, Mannequin Madness was soon getting calls from the likes of Nordstrom, Talbots, Macy's, Kohl's and Ralph Lauren to recycle their mannequins.

Initially she was only equipped to handle mannequin liquidations locally in the Bay Area. But as Mannequin Madness established strategic partnerships with other used-store-fixture companies across the country, Henderson-Town became the point person for national mannequin liquidations for retailers such as Nike, bebe and The Gap. "We love what we do," she says. "We love mannequins, we love our creative customers, we love the creative things they do with mannequins, and we love that we make a difference to the environment."

Woman Filed a Discrimination Lawsuit Monday Against Abercrombie & Fitch

A San Mateo County woman filed a discrimination lawsuit Monday against Abercrombie & Fitch, claiming the clothing retailer firing her from its Hollister Co. store at Hillsdale Shopping Center because her Muslim headscarf clashed with the company's image.

When Hani Khan was hired for a stockroom job in the fall of 2009, she was told her hijab would not conflict with the policy as long as it matched company colors. She was fired in February 2010, however, when a district manager and corporate human resources manager asked if she would remove her hijab while working, according to the suit.

"When I was asked to remove my scarf after being hired with it on, I was demoralized and felt unwanted," Khan, 20, said in a statement. "Growing up in this country where the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of religion, I have felt let down."

Heroin, Stun Gun Found in Man's Car Near Santa Cruz County Town

Sheriff's deputies arrested a 31-year-old Santa Cruz man Friday night after finding they found a stun gun, four kinds of drugs and other items in a car they believe was his.

About 11:20 p.m., a Sheriff's deputy saw a man in a white Mitsubishi sedan pull in to a parking lot of a bar on the 3600 block of Portola Drive, said deputy April Skalland. The deputy checked the license plate against the system and saw the car was not registered but its registration sticker was current, Skalland said.


The deputy suspected the registration sticker was stolen and talked to the man. Officials believed he was on probation and could be searched, Skalland said.

Woman Dies after Being Struck by BART Train in Berkeley

Authorities are calling the death of a woman at the Ashby BART station today an apparent suicide.

A witness reported seeing the woman lying on the track seconds before she was struck by a Richmond bound train at 12:47 p.m.

The woman apparently looked up as the train approached and was struck, said BART spokesman Jim Allison.

Ashby station is currently closed it may be several hours before the station is reopened.

Calpine Corporation and GE Obtained an $844.5 Million Credit Facility for New Generation in San Francisco Bay Area

HAYWARD, Calif., Jun 27, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Calpine Corporation CPN -0.64% and GE GE +0.72% unit GE Energy Financial Services announced today that they have obtained an $844.5 million credit facility to finance construction of the 619-megawatt, combined-cycle Russell City Energy Center in Hayward, California. The power plant, now under construction, was the nation's first to receive a federal air permit that includes a voluntary limit on greenhouse gas emissions.
 

The project finance facility announced today includes a construction loan that will convert to a 10-year term loan when commercial operations begin, expected in mid-2013. The construction loan and term loan facility will initially be priced at LIBOR plus 2.25%. The loan facility -- jointly arranged by MUFG Power & Utilities Group; ING Capital LLC; Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets; BMO Capital Markets and CoBank, ACB -- is non-recourse to Calpine and GE Energy Financial Services.
 

"This financing marks an important milestone in our effort to bring much-needed electric power supply to California's Bay Area, allowing us to complete the construction of a modern, flexible, highly efficient, clean and low-carbon energy resource," said Jack Fusco, Calpine's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Building upon our 27-year history in the state, this project demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing reliable and sustainable electricity."
 

GE Energy Financial Services sees the project as an example of its strategic emphasis on partnering with energy project developers.
 

"This project shows how we complement the resources of respected developers such as Calpine by providing more than money, at a time when energy projects are becoming more complex, costly and time-consuming," said Alex Urquhart, president and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services. "We offer developers not only capital but our 30 years of energy investing experience, long-term view and commitment, technical and regulatory capabilities, and power and construction contracting expertise." Under development since 2001, the Russell City Energy Center will use the most advanced emissions control technology available today for a natural gas-fired power plant. Pacific Gas and Electric has agreed to purchase the full output of electricity from Russell City upon completion and will supply natural gas fuel to the plant under a 10-year power purchase agreement approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in September 2010. The facility is expected to play a critical role in meeting the Bay Area's power needs as older, emissions-intensive plants shut down and in supporting the integration of renewable energy projects into California's power grid.
 

A Calpine affiliate owns 75% of Russell City while a GE Energy Financial Services affiliate owns the balance.


About Calpine
 

Founded in 1984, Calpine Corporation is a major U.S. power company, currently capable of delivering approximately 28,000 megawatts of clean, cost-effective, reliable and fuel-efficient power from its 92 operating plants to customers and communities in 20 U.S. states and Canada. Calpine Corporation is committed to helping meet the needs of an economy that demands more and cleaner sources of electricity. Calpine owns, leases and operates primarily low-carbon, natural gas-fired and renewable geothermal power plants. Using advanced technologies, Calpine generates power in a reliable and environmentally responsible manner for the customers and communities it serves. Please visit our website at www.calpine.com for more information.
 

About GE Energy Financial Services
 

GE Energy Financial Services' experts invest globally across the capital spectrum in essential, long-lived, and capital-intensive energy assets that meet the world's energy needs. In addition to capital, GE Energy Financial Services offers the best of GE's technical know-how, technology innovation, financial strength, and rigorous risk management. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, the GE business unit helps its customers and GE grow through new investments, strong partnerships, and optimization of its $21 billion in assets. For more information, visit http://www.geenergyfinancialservices.com .
 

About GE
 

GE GE +0.72% is an advanced technology, services and finance company taking on the world's toughest challenges. Dedicated to innovation in energy, health, transportation and infrastructure, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com .
 

Forward-Looking Information

 
In addition to historical information, this release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Words such as "believe," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "may," "will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Such statements include, among others, those concerning expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans, as well as assumptions, expectations, predictions, intentions or beliefs about future events. You are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that a number of risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Please see the risks identified in this release or in Calpine's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the risk factors identified in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2010, and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. These filings are available by visiting the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov or Calpine's website at www.calpine.com . Actual results or developments may differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, and Calpine undertakes no obligation to update any such statements.

ASHWAUBENON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker Signed Budget ; Slashes Funding for Public Schools and the University of Wisconsin System

(AP) ASHWAUBENON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker signed his first budget Sunday, a plan that plugs the state's $3 billion shortfall but also slashes funding for public schools and the University of Wisconsin System.

Walker signed the two-year $66 billion budget at a private ceremony at a Green Bay area manufacturing company. The budget passed the Legislature without a single Democratic vote.

It fulfills Walker's campaign pledge to balance the budget without raising taxes. He released just 50 vetoes early Sunday morning, signaling the Republican-controlled Legislature had given him almost everything he wanted when lawmakers revised the document. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle issued 81 vetoes with the 2009-11 budget, his last before leaving office.

"As a state, we can choose to take the easy road and push off the tough decisions and pass the buck to future generations, or we can step up to the plate and make the tough decisions today," Walker said in prepared remarks. "Our budget chooses to fix our problems now, so that our children and our grandchildren don't face the same challenges we face today.

Democrats argue a $70 million reduction in tax breaks for some who qualify for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, as well as limits on a homestead exemption for poor homeowners and renters, amounted to tax increases.

Click on the video player below to watch a YouTube post by CBS Affiliate WISC correspondent Jessica Arp, showing protesters outside the location where Walker was privately signing the budget.

But no matter how it's spun, passage of the budget and Walker's signing of it before the new fiscal year starts on July 1 is a significant achievement for Republicans who control both houses of the Legislature.

They worked quickly to approve the budget before recall elections in August that could result in Democrats gaining a majority in the Senate and the power to block Walker and the GOP's agenda.

Democrats assailed the budget as an attack on middle class values since it cuts funding for public schools by $800 million, reduces funding to the UW system by $250 million and cuts tax credits for poor people.

It also reduces the amount schools can collect from property taxes and other revenue combined, which translates into another education cut of about $800 million. While schools are seeing deep cuts, Walker's budget extends tax breaks to manufacturers, multistate corporations and investors.

The budget also calls for $500 million in unspecified cuts to Medicaid programs, puts an enrollment cap on the popular Family Care program and increases spending on the state's roads.

There are no sales or income tax increases and property taxes are held essentially flat over the next two years.

The budget also expands Milwaukee's school voucher program to suburban schools in Milwaukee County and to the city of Racine, ends Doyle's Wisconsin Covenant financial aid program for college-bound students and cuts aid for technical colleges by 30 percent.

Local Business Writer Carl Cronan Known for Southern Charm

Getting to know Carl Cronan — at least feeling as if you had known him for years — was easy. The veteran business journalist, who reported on important trends for several local publications, most recently as Tampa Bay editor of the Gulf Coast Business Review, built a large body of well-read work on the relationships he established.

St. Petersburg Times business columnist Robert Trigaux recently included Mr. Cronan's name among 20 who had made "strong marks" on the Tampa Bay business landscape. Before his most recent position, Mr. Cronan worked for the Lakeland Ledger, followed by nine years at the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Mr. Cronan, who gained his business expertise through dogged work and Southern charm, died June 15 of colon cancer. He was 47.

He covered commercial real estate for the Gulf Coast Business Review, but also profiled entrepreneurs and new technology companies, making things like mergers and buyouts seem understandable to everyday consumers while keeping the business community informed.

He didn't just tell stories, he spotted trends.

"He was very intuitive in that he made sure the facts were accurate, that he made sure what the trends were in any particular market, and that he knew the right people to talk to because of the way he approached people personally," said David Sobelman, executive vice president of Calkain Cos., a commercial real estate firm.

A Birmingham, Ala., native with the drawl to prove it, Mr. Cronan attended the University of Alabama with plans to become an electrical engineer.

If he'd had his druthers, he'd have played guitar for a living. "But there's no money in that unless your last name is Clapton or Mayer," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Instead, he switched his major to journalism and wrote for the student newspaper, the Crimson White. He started his career at a small newspaper in Cartersville, Ga.; followed by the Decatur (Ala.) Daily in the mid 1980s, and eight years at the Florence, Ala., Times Daily.

Always, he left a personal stamp on colleagues like Suzy Fleming Leonard, once a fellow reporter at the Decatur Daily.

"He had this little way where he would cock his eyebrow up and look at you with this sly little look," said Leonard, who is now the features editor for Florida Today. "It meant that he was about to hit you with some kind of zinger."

Mr. Cronan moved to Florida and worked for the Ledger. In 1998 he signed on at the Tampa Bay Business Journal, where he became editor of commercial real estate. He was a one-man factory, often churning out several substance-packed stories a week on everything from hiring patterns to the value of waterfront real estate, tourism trends and what the major retailers were up to.

"He developed strong relationships because he completed what he committed to doing," said Alexis Muellner, the Tampa Bay Business Journal's editor. "It certainly made my life a lot easier."

Business leaders grew to trust him. "In all the years I worked with Carl, I never once felt that he had an alternative agenda," Sobelman said. "I was always comfortable giving him the inside story of any event we were working on."

He married former business writer (and fellow Alabama alum) Roselle Zayas in 2006, the first marriage for each. Later, he cheered her on while she earned two master's degrees in business fields.

In 2007, Mr. Cronan left to become the editor of Real Estate Florida, but the fledgling magazine folded after two years. He joined Gulf Coast Business Review last year, and won an award this year for business writing from the Florida Press Association.

In his free time, Mr. Cronan played in a rock band that met in Plant City. He continued playing with a group recently known as Midnight Mojo, even after the cancer slowed him down, and was working up to the day before he died.

Mourners were asked to wear 'Bama's crimson and white to his funeral service on Thursday at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Meanwhile, dozens of Facebook posts had people from childhood, the Decatur Daily, the Ledger and the Tampa Bay Business Journal all logging on to remember a stalwart friend who died too soon.

"I'm grateful to have had him for as long as I did," said Roselle Cronan.

Bounced Paychecks Issue at the New Dow Bay Area Family Y project

Bricklayers at the new Dow Bay Area Family Y project in downtown Bay City say some of their paychecks have bounced and a labor union official said he will seek to stop brick work there until payments are made good.

According to copies of bank documents contained in four “notices of furnishing” sent to the Bay Area Family Y and its general contractor, Saginaw-based Pumford Construction, some bricklayers working on the $13.2 million project received paychecks that bounced or incomplete payments from JC Brick, a Shelby Township masonry company.

The notices are dated May 31 and June 1 and are a required under the state’s Construction Lien Act before seeking a lien on labor to stop work until payments are caught up.

Greg Lobodzinski, a union representative for the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 9, said he plans to file a lien on labor for all employees of JC Brick early this week. As of Friday, bricklaying continued.

“A lot of people are disappointed that a community organization … is having things like this going on, on the job site,” said Lobodzinski. “Guys aren’t getting paid.”

Joe Cusmano, the owner of JC Brick, says all payments are current, despite the bank paperwork showing returned checks. He blames the general contractor, Pumford Construction of Saginaw.

“We’re up to date and, if there was slow payment, it’s on (Pumford Construction’s) end,” said Cusmano. “But I don’t know anything about late payments.”

Lobodzinski claims some payments due employees were made, but other employees are still waiting for their pay.

Chuck Brooks, executive director of the Bay Area Family Y, said the YMCA pays Pumford, which processes payments to subcontractors. Brooks said the Y has paid for the brick work to date and he is aware of the situation.

“Really, that’s minor in the grand scheme of it all,” said Brooks. “It’s important that those guys get paid, of course. There are just construction issues, though, many that happen in any construction project.”

Brooks announced his retirement Friday, just months before the project was expected to be completed.

Pumford Construction officials declined to comment about the labor allegations.

Kyle Lagace said he worked for JC Brick as a bricklayer on the Bay Area Family Y project from September to May.

He said he had two paychecks dating to November that totaled $1,393.26 returned for insufficient funds. Lagace said he received all of his pay last week, but is still waiting for reimbursement for a $210 medical bill for a job-related injury.

Stokley Properties Inc., is Happy to Announce the Company's Successful Increase in Business

Stokley Properties Inc., located in the Bay Area, is happy to announce the company's successful increase in business. As of May, the company is now managing more than 200 units, which is a record number for them. The managed properties are located throughout the greater Walnut Creek area. With its continuous efforts in promoting and advertising the company through real estate networking and referrals, Stokley Properties has succeeded in maintaining and strengthening its reputation within the community.

"This accomplishment allows prospective clients insight on how we do business and how we are growing with the help of referrals and the knowledge of Stokley Properties doing a good job for its clients," said Joseph Stokley Jr., owner of Stokley Properties Inc.

Stokley Properties has been working with professional networking groups over the past two years to provide the company a greater means of expansion. The success of managing 200 units proves that Stokley Properties is doing the job right and commits to sound and responsible business practices while providing a great value to its clients. The company is pleased with the development and is looking forward to working with more real estate property owners and professionals who will help manage and attract those in need of property management.

For more information, call 925-658-1415or visit www.stokleyproperties.net.

About Joseph Stokley Jr. and Stokley Properties Inc.
Joe Stokley Jr. is the principal broker and owner of Stokley Properties Inc. Joe has been active in real estate investments and property management for the past 20 years. Stokley Properties Inc. serves the communities of Concord, San Ramon, Bay Area, Brentwood, Martinez and Oakland.

He previously served as a Regional Vice President for a national real estate investment firm with holdings of over $2 billion. There he was responsible for sales and marketing of large commercial office buildings and retail shopping centers across the United States.

Joe has held a California Real Estate Salespersons license since 1988 and earned his California Real Estate Broker's license and his Security Series 22 and 63 licenses. He has also earned the designation, California Certified Residential Manager (CCRM) from the California Apartment Association. Joe has attended both Diablo Valley College and Sacramento State University where he received his Associate Arts and Business Degree.

Bay Area Businesses Plan to Hire Over the Next Six Months

Even as the nation’s economic recovery appears increasingly fragile, small- and medium-sized Bay Area businesses plan to hire over the next six months, a new survey shows.

The survey commissioned by the Bay Area Council showed that 37 percent of companies with 500-999 employees expect to hire over the next six months. And 43 percent of firms with 50-99 employees expect to hire during the same time period.

“Despite all the national talk about a dreaded double-dip recession, the Bay Area seems to be weathering the recovery much better than other regions,” said Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council, a business-backed policy group. “The situation is not nearly as sunny as it was several years ago, but confidence amongst business leaders continues to slowly build.”

The best places to look for a job over the next six months are still in San Francisco, on the Peninsula and Silicon Valley, in industries like information technology, trade, professional and business services and, for the first time in several quarters, construction and infrastructure, the survey reported.

The survey includes responses of 432 CEOs and top executives in the nine Bay Area counties between May 13 and June 5.

Overall nearly two-thirds of those executives said they think economic conditions are better than six months ago. In addition, six in 10 executives expect a better Bay Area economy six months from now.

Business Leaders Join Forces for Rays Stadium

It's hard to avoid pitting Tampa against St. Petersburg when the subject of a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays comes up.

After all, each city can't get a ballpark. But business leaders on each side of the Bay insist the two cities don't have to fight each other. With that in mind, the chairmen of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce will co-chair a stadium caucus aimed at bringing about a new ballpark.

Figuring out where to build a stadium isn't on the agenda.

"We've resigned ourselves that we really need a new stadium," said Chuck Sykes, chairman of the Tampa chamber and co-chair of the stadium caucus. "The question is how do you end up paying for this thing?"

The Tampa chamber thought of creating a stadium caucus late last year, but was very sensitive to appearances. Would people think it was trying to steal the Rays to Tampa? So it decided to bring the St. Petersburg chamber on board and create an executive committee with businesspeople from both chambers.

Sykes and Mark Wimberly, chairman of the St. Petersburg chamber, will co-chair the 14-member committee. Rays leadership won't have a seat on the committee, but they likely will make presentations to it.

The caucus' work won't be easy. It will tackle how to pay for a new ballpark, which could run $600 million, without relying too heavily on taxpayers. It also will study Major League Baseball finances and provide an estimate of how much money the Rays could afford to put into a ballpark.

Hillsborough-based members of the executive committee are Rob Rohrlack, chief executive of the Tampa chamber; investment banker John Hill; TECO Energy executive Sandra Callahan; Dan LeClair, an executive of AACSB International; Dave Auker, an executive with Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick; David Mallitz of developer DeBartolo Holdings; and Fifth Third Bank executive Brian Lamb.

Members from Pinellas are St. Petersburg chamber Chief Executive Officer Chris Steinocher; All Children's Hospital executive Arnie Stenberg; wealth manager Jeff Hearn; lawyer David Punzak; and JSA Healthcare executive Sidney Morgan.

The 9th Annual American Business Awards

Two Bay Area female executives received top honors at The 9th Annual American Business Awards ceremony Monday evening at a gala event in New York City. The American Business Awards is the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.

The Bay Area 2011 female executive winners are:

Talbott Roche, President, Blackhawk Network, Pleasanton, who was named “Executive of the Year –Financial Services.” Blackhawk Networks operates one of the largest private payment networks across the U.S.,

Stephanie Wakefield, Vice President, Investor Relations, Informatica Corporation, Redwood City, was named “Communications, Investor Relations, or PR Executive of the Year.” Informatica makes data integration software.

Other 2011 female executive winners included:

Michelle King Robson, Founder, Chairperson and CEO, EmpowHER Media of Scottsdale, AZ, “Chairman of the Year”
 

Saskia Chiesa, President and CEO, International Checkout, Van Nuys, CA, “Executive of the Year – Services – Up to 100 Employees”

Therese Tucker, CEO and Founder, Blackline Systems, Woodland Hills, CA, “Executive of the Year – Computer Software”

Patricia Cotter, Vice President, Worldwide Operations, IBM Netezza, Marlborough, MA, “Customer Service Executive of the Year”

The American Business Awards also honored philanthropist and entrepreneur Russell Simmons with its first-ever Difference Maker award for his groundbreaking vision and influence on music, fashion, finance, television and film, as well as the face of modern philanthropy.

Mission Bay Prepares for Makeover

San Francisco's effort to transform an abandoned rail yard on its eastern shore in Mission Bay into an urban center is poised for a serious boost from plans by Salesforce.com Inc. to build a sprawling corporate campus in the area.

Urban-planning experts say the arrival of Salesforce will provide a vital stimulus for a once-neglected part of the city. But the bold design for the campus is just beginning a monthslong approval process, and Chief Executive Marc Benioff is leaving open the possibility that the company could simply pick a different location for its new headquarters. Some civic groups and architects, meanwhile, lament that the corporate-driven development isn't creating the same neighborhood feel as other sections of the city.

The Mission Bay redevelopment zone was established in 1998, anchored by a new campus of the University of California, San Francisco. City officials, who envisioned Mission Bay as a center for health care and medical research, say 35 biotech firms now are based in the area and take up more than one million square feet of office space. Salesforce.com, a business software maker now based in the city's Financial District and South of Market Street, is proposing eight buildings containing roughly two million square feet. Mission Bay also is designed to include 6,000 housing units, half of which have been built so far.

Mission Bay "is the most important thing for San Francisco's economy in the past 30 years, if not longer," said Michael Teitz, an emeritus professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley. "The city was headed in a direction that was basically tourism, and some software development during the dot-com boom, but it didn't have what I'd regard as a solid, modern sector in the economy—and I think Mission Bay does that."

Yet critics say the large buildings and plazas planned for the Salesforce campus won't improve what they perceive as an unwelcoming atmosphere in Mission Bay.

"Unfortunately, that part of the city is still a bit of a wasteland, and the project doesn't do much to change that," said Eric Corey Freed, the founder of organicARCHITECT in San Francisco. Mission Bay, he said, offered the chance to build a new and vibrant neighborhood. Instead, he said, the area is "a place that feels cold, out of scale and out of touch with humanity."

Mission Bay is a public-private partnership. Private firm FOCIL-MB LLC uses a developer partner to build the infrastructure, and is reimbursed as the redevelopment agency issues bonds backed by increases in property-tax revenue and fees within the redevelopment zone. The agency has issued $320 million in bonds for Mission Bay, while the area's infrastructure is ultimately expected to cost about $700 million, said Kelley Kahn, the project manager for the redevelopment area. She added that the project is in year 13 of a 25-year buildout.

Only three of the area's more than 70 lots have yet to be sold by FOCIL-MB, Ms. Kahn said. Much of the land still unoccupied is expected to be filled by Salesforce.com, which purchased 14 acres for $278 million, and an adjacent UCSF hospital complex expected to open in 2014. Salesforce.com didn't receive any tax breaks for the campus.

Renderings of the Salesforce.com campus, released earlier this month, feature a flashy design. A public square is anchored by a hot-pink Jumbotron video screen.

"That was my idea," Mr. Benioff, the Salesforce.com CEO, said of the screen. "Putting something like that there can add a lot of energy." The Jumbotron could be used for things such as employee presentations and public entertainment, he said.

Salesforce.com is hoping for design-review approval from the city by September. "If we can't get the approvals we could also end up somewhere else," Mr. Benioff said.

The redevelopment agency's Ms. Kahn said that while she didn't anticipate problems with the design review, the pink Jumbotron might face additional environmental scrutiny. Overall, Ms. Kahn said, "we're generally, based on what we've seen, pleased."

Mr. Benioff argued that a dramatic influx of color in Mission Bay would liven an area that until now has had an "office park" feel.

Mr. Benioff said he first became intrigued by the Mission Bay property when visiting the site of the UCSF children's hospital he is helping fund with a $100 million gift.

Mission Bay has been the focus of disputes over how to best develop it dating to the 1980s. While the area is physically close to downtown, its location on the opposite side of Mission Creek and Interstate 280 can make it feel remote.

The project's housing also has generated complaints. A lawsuit originally filed in 2006 by occupants of the Beacon, a nearly 600-unit condo development, alleges flawed construction and insufficient disclosures about soil contamination beneath the building. An attorney representing the real-estate company that sold the condos says buyers were informed of the soil issues prior to the sales, and that the contamination doesn't pose a danger to residents. The case has been moved to arbitration, said Patrick Catalano, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.

Salesforce.com, which has about 2,750 employees in the Bay Area, expects to house between 8,000 and 9,000 at the new headquarters, designed by Mexico City-based architects Legorreta + Legorreta. The company said it doesn't yet have an estimate for the construction cost or move-in date.

Bay Area Artisan Bread - Semifreddi's

I’ve long been curious about what it takes to bake artisan bread in volume — for discriminating Bay Area palates, no less. Spending time with Semifreddi’s co-owner, President and CEO Tom Frainier helped me understand how their bakers make peace with so much bread and pastry dough on a daily basis.

Pedigree
An early player in the Bay Area’s artisan bread explosion of the 1980s, Semifreddi’s was founded in Kensington in 1984 by Cheese Board co-workers Eric and Carole Sartenaer, currently of Phoenix Pastificio fame, then sold in 1987 to two employees — one of them Barbara Rose, Tom Frainier’s sister. Barbara Rose’s husband, Michael Rose, joined shortly afterward in 1987, and corporate world escapee Frainier jumped on-board in 1988.

While Frainier handles all things business, Michael Rose focuses on baking and products. Barbara Rose currently spends her time raising three children.

Whether it’s genetic — the Frainiers’ grandfather was a baker — or passion, these UC Berkeley alumni took Semifreddi’s from storefront bakery to Bay Area artisan bread giant. In 1987, the company was baking 2,500 loaves per week in its original location: the 450-square-foot Kensington shop that currently serves as a retail store. Now, some 175,000 loaves and 30,000 pastries per week are turned out in a 33,000-square-foot bakehouse in Alameda that runs 24/7.

French pastries, Danish, scones, muffins, cookies and croutons are on the menu, and company drivers deliver bread and goodies to 480 Bay Area businesses daily.

The Bakery Happily, I was invited to Semifreddi's Alameda headquarters. At the industrial park Semifreddi’s calls home, I was greeted and outfitted with hair net and mask, and then ushered by the hip Frainier onto the baking floor with an enthusiastic, “It’ll blow your mind!”

I expected to find all kinds of mayhem, but it was civilized in there. There were no clouds of flour waiting to envelop us. The vast, loft-like, airy baking floor was sectioned into open work areas where unruffled employees were getting things done.

A machine moved flour from large silos to where it's needed. “Technology helps, but the bread making is not automated,” said Frainier. “We’re a bakery, not a factory.”

A sizeable mixer bowl seemed to float above a workbench before its contents were coaxed out and then quickly cut and weighed by hand. Focaccia dough squares on conveyer belts were greeted by bakers and pressed into pans, and a small group was seeding baguettes from a trash-can sized container of sesame, fennel and poppy seeds. Most of the bread is completely hand-formed, and loaves molded by machine are hand-finished.

A brigade of closet-sized "proofers" — chambers controlled for heat and humidity — stood ready to provide perfect rising conditions, and cavernous rack ovens with wide, gaping mouths were quiet except for one, whose baker was lifting out large rounds with a long wooden paddle called a "bread peel." There was also an aisle of tall, slender, rotating ovens designed to accept multi-tiered, wheeled racks. The ovens were shiny and fancy, with convection and steam functions.

What blew my mind were the hundreds of stacked sheet pans and rack after rack of cooling challah.

Frainier mentioned that Semifreddi’s also makes pastries and cookies. “Did you know?” he said. “It’s a well-kept secret.” Being a Kensington store regular, I did, but said I thought most people knew about the morning buns, if not the chocolate croissants and swirls.

In another section, garlic croutons — made from extra or imperfect baguettes — were being hand-packed. Croutons are one of two products meant to last more than a day, the other being biscotti.

Next was the conference room and a timeline of paper bread bags. Bags and space became more deluxe as the company grew. “The early days were tough,” Frainier recalled. “I used to take my girlfriend out on Friday night, and we’d stamp bread bags because we didn’t have enough money to buy them.”

Affording stamped bags is not a problem now; Semifreddi’s purchased the Alameda building in 2009.

Growth and Quality 

Artisan baked goods are crafted from high-quality ingredients and require time and attention, so I asked how Semifreddi’s was able to expand and not whittle away at quality.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Frainier explained, as he talked about their “slow growth” pattern, which allowed the company to grow — but not too quickly or too much. An improvement-driven culture helps. “We’re only as good as our last baguette,” he said. “We have to keep doing better."

Bakers are sent to the prestigious San Francisco Baking Institute, and quality ingredients are sourced, like non-GMO whole grain flour, Madagascan vanilla, Indonesian cinnamon and California chocolate and almonds. No trans-fats or preservatives are used.

I asked about frozen ingredients, and was ushered to a small freezer with a lonely box of blueberries. “For the muffins,” Frainier explained.

Being 100-percent family-owned is what ultimately allows them to remain faithful to certain standards. “Once you take backers,” he said, “you lose control.”

Staff and Community  

“We’ve been successful because we’ve been able to attract and retain really good people,” Frainier said, “and our goal is to offer the best wages and benefits in the artisan bread industry — and we’ve never had a lay-off.”

The company’s supportive work environment includes full benefits and not having to read email or answer cell phones while on vacation. All bakers and most of the managers have risen through the ranks, so working relationships are long-standing.

Distribution managers Craig West and Ken Simmons got some good-natured ribbing. “They leave and then come back when they see the light,” joked Frainier about West. Franier also kidded Simmons about once running from El Cerrito to Emeryville, where the company was located before moving to Alameda, because his motorcycle wouldn’t start and he didn’t want to be late for work.

Kristine Chavez is the manager of the Claremont and Kensington stores. “I make my own hours and work 40 to 45 hours a week, on average,” she said. Chavez, a young, energetic, former police officer, joined Semifreddi’s as a driver two and a half years ago and now supervises 10 people. “I love this company.... They take care of you.”

There’s also a sense of responsibility that extends to the larger community. Last year Semifreddi’s donated about $500,000 worth of fresh bread to an amazing number of organizations, including Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley, and opened its doors to more than 75 school groups.

“We want to give back because the Bay Area has given so much to us,” said Frainier.

What they don’t give back is much waste, thanks to comprehensive recycling. Bread returned from stores — for full credit — and unsold bread not used for baguettes is compressed into chicken feed. Who knew?

Now when I leave the Kensington store with baguettes, I’m wondering if they need a writer on staff.

SuccessFactors, Inc. has been named one of the Top Workplaces in the San Francisco Bay Area

SuccessFactors, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFSF), the global leader in business execution software, has been named one of the Top Workplaces in the San Francisco Bay Area based on an employee-based survey project from the Bay Area News Group. The Bay Area News Group's Top Workplaces special section was published in the San Jose Mercury News on Sunday, June 19.

Top Workplaces recognizes the most progressive companies in the Bay Area based on employee opinions about company leadership, career opportunities, workplace flexibility, compensation and benefits. The analysis included responses from more than 16,000 employees at public, private and nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area.

The rankings in the Bay Area News Group top places to work are based on survey information collected by Workplace Dynamics, an independent company specializing in employee engagement and retention.

"Helping our customers deliver extraordinary business results, increase the performance of their employees and create great workplaces is what we do at SuccessFactors every day. We believe every company can have employees that are as motivated and passionate about their job as our people are," said Jeff Diana, chief people officer, SuccessFactors. "At SuccessFactors we value our people and culture above all else and we believe this comes through in every aspect of our products and how we focus on the success of our customers. People are our competitive advantage and our most precious asset. We want to make every employee in our company, and every company, successful by providing the tools to enhance their professional skill set, advance their career goals and connect with their company and its mission. We truly believe it's time to love work again and that starts with creating a great work atmosphere that engages and delights the people who live in it each and everyday."

To qualify for the Bay Area News Group Top Workplaces, a company must have more than 50 employees in the Bay Area. More than 1,300 companies were invited to participate. Rankings were composite scores calculated purely on the basis of employee responses.

About SuccessFactors

SuccessFactors is the leading provider of cloud-based Business Execution (BizX) software solutions to organizations of all sizes, with more than 8 million users across multiple industries and geographies. We strive to delight our customers by delivering innovative solutions, a broad range of content, process expertise and best practices knowledge gained from serving our large and varied customer base. Today, we have more than 3,200 customers in more than 168 countries using our application suite in 34 languages.

Execution Is The Difference™Follow us: http://twitter.com/SuccessFactorsLike us: http://facebook.com/SuccessFactors

Join us for SuccessConnect in Sydney, Aug. 24-25: http://www.successfactors.com/successconnect/.

"Safe harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are SuccessFactors' current expectations and beliefs.

These forward-looking statements include statements about future growth prospects. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements include: our ability to retain customers and to experience high customer renewal rates; whether customers renew their agreements for additional modules or users; pricing pressures; the uncertain impact of the overall global economic conditions, including on customers, prospective customers and partners, renewal rates and length of sales cycles; the fact that the business execution market is at an early stage of development, and may not develop as rapidly as we anticipate; risks related to the integration of the acquisitions, including retaining customers and employees and managing geographically-dispersed operations; competitive factors; outages or security breaches; our ability to develop, and market acceptance of, new services; the impact of any discovered product defects or outages; our ability to continue to sell our services outside the HR area; our ability to manage our growth; our ability to successfully expand our sales force and its effectiveness; whether our resellers and other partners will be successful in marketing our products; our ability to continue to manage expenses; the impact of unforeseen expenses, including as a result of integrating acquisitions; and general economic conditions worldwide. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions proves incorrect, our results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make.

Further information on these and other factors that could affect these forward-looking statements is included in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our most recent report on Form 10-Q and in other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.

Be My Designated Driver is trying to targets drunk drivers

Ybor City, Florida - This year alone, 10,839 people will die in drunk driving crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's one person every 50 minutes.

But a new company based out of Ohio called Be My Designated Driver is trying to change that. George MacDonald works for the company, which is fairly new to the Tampa Bay area. He's been a professional driver for years.

MacDonald says, "I've been hit head-on twice by drunk drivers because being a professional driver I'm out late at night."

Be My Designated Driver has teamed up with bars and restaurants like Ybor Green Iguana Bar and Grill located at 1708 E. 7th Avenue in Ybor City. The hope is to keep drunk drivers off the roadways.

MacDonald adds, "The sad part of it is the person who caused the accident number one doesn't get hurt and number two has no clue that it even happened. Had they used a service like ours that disaster wouldn't have happened."

He admits the service is a little different from calling a cab, though, because they work in pairs. MacDonald says, "We have a team of drivers who will come by, pick you up, and most importantly your car up, and bring you and your car home."

Steve Lavelle is a manager at the Green Iguana Bar and Grill and says most customers who've had too much to drink hate leaving their vehicles behind because they risk receiving a ticket or because their vehicle may be towed. Lavelle says, "There's other programs out there. This one seems to be a little bit more of a favorite because you do get your car home."

Lavelle says that's why he and his employees recommend the service whenever they can. "It's like having a personal chauffeur. It's convenient for a lot of people and it's safer for everybody else."

James Roy was enjoying a beer and a burger with friends after a round of golf in the Ybor City bar and restaurant Saturday. He says in Michigan, where he came from, the service went over well. He says, "A lot of my friends used it. I never personally used it, but it's a great idea."

MacDonald says the service has a flat fee of about $25 and then you pay a mileage charge of about $2.50 per mile for the first ten miles, then $1.50 to $1.75 per mile after that.

Click here to learn more about how to contact or download a mobile app for the Be My Designated Driver program.

MacDonald says, right now, the company operates in 42 cities across 16 states. The owners hope to take it nationwide by the end of 2011.

Hispanics Rank High on Digital Divide

When Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, stood before the Cupertino City Council earlier this month to pitch his plans for building an enormous spaceship-shaped corporate headquarters, Councilwoman Kris Wang smiled wide and asked, “Do we get free Wi-Fi or something like that?”

Mr. Jobs brushed off the remark with a joke, but when asked again, he said, abruptly, “I think we bring a lot more than free Wi-Fi.”

Perhaps Mr. Jobs should not have been so dismissive.

Though it rarely makes headlines these days, the digital divide — the gap between the computer haves and have-nots — remains reality for thousands in the Bay Area, a remarkable situation considering this is home to Google, Apple, Facebook and many other titans of technology.

An estimated one in five adults in California do not use the Internet, and 30 percent do not have broadband access at home — about the same as the national average. Those left behind are increasingly isolated and disadvantaged as more of life’s basic information, like vital community news or transit schedules or job listings, has moved online.

The divide is most severe in California’s Latino community, where 35 percent of adults do not use the Internet at all, and only 50 percent have broadband access at home. Other groups fare better, according to a 2010 study by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group: whites (90 percent use the Internet, 82 percent have broadband access at home), Asians (87 percent Internet, 77 percent broadband) and blacks (82 percent Internet, 70 percent broadband).

Grandiose plans announced by some cities (like San Francisco in 2004) to help close the gap with citywide free wireless Internet access have mostly fizzled due to political disputes and financing.

But where governments have failed, others have stepped in.

MonkeyBrains.net is a small Internet service provider in the Mission district with funky offices that are a cramped imaginarium of spare parts and artwork. But unlike Apple, the company has made universal Internet access one of its core tenets, at its own expense.

Rudy Rucker, a MonkeyBrains.net co-founder, excitedly showed off electric-toothbrush-sized antennas the company has placed throughout the city, adjacent to paying customers’ equipment, providing free Wi-Fi to all in range

“This is the digital divide device,” Mr. Rucker said.

“It’s our social contract,” he added, explaining why the company donates its resources. “If you want to do anything, you need to be online.”

Ada Fuentes, 28, who immigrated to San Francisco from Honduras six years ago, recently entered the digital age thanks to Caminos, a nonprofit organization in the Mission that teaches computer skills to low-income Latina immigrants.

In the past 18 months Ms. Fuentes has learned Web browsing, word processing and spreadsheets — skills she used to start a fledgling company selling cleaning products online.

“I’ve been getting more and more business,” she said in Spanish, also marveling at how Skype has enabled her to video chat with relatives in New York and Los Angeles.

But Ms. Fuentes said her learning was initially stymied because her only online access was at public libraries, where demand for computers was so great that she was limited to 30 minutes a visit. She has since bought a laptop and set up a wireless Internet connection in her home.

Graciela Tiscareño-Sato, a former telecommunications executive and author of the new book “Latinnovating: Green American Jobs and the Latinos Creating Them,” said people like Ms. Fuentes are becoming increasingly common as Latinos see the value of connecting to the digital world.

“They see that without communication a lot of nothing happens, but with it anything is possible,” Ms. Tiscareño-Sato said.

She said there had been a recent increase in “leapfrogging” among Latinos — accessing the Internet via smartphones, which cost less than computers and Wi-Fi.

Lydia Chávez, managing editor of Mission Loc@l, a news organization associated with the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism that provides daily online news coverage of the Mission, said of the digital divide, “You can’t report in this community and not be aware of it.”

Ms. Chávez said at a recent neighborhood event for sixth to eighth graders, “30 percent didn’t have e-mail addresses.” Nationally, 93 percent of teenagers are online.

She said the digital void is even more profound among older Latinos who are uncomfortable with computers. As a result, Mission Loc@l is using a well-tested method to reach those offline: print. The most recent printing of 10,000 bilingual newspapers hit the streets last week.

“Some Latinos think we’re only a print edition,” Ms. Chávez said.

Jeff DeBalko Appointed as Senior Vice President/Chief Revenue Officer

The Bay Area News Group, publisher of 13 Bay Area dailies including this newspaper, named Jeff DeBalko to the newly created position of senior vice president/chief revenue officer.

DeBalko, 47, will focus on leading the news group and its advertisers "through the tremendous change and growth driven by the revolution of digital media and technology," the newspaper company said in a statement announcing the move Thursday.

He has more than 20 years' experience as a media and Internet executive, most recently at Reed Business Information, where he oversaw about 40 trade publications in 10 markets, as well as its Internet business. His new job starts Aug. 8.

"He's an individual who has been able to lead digital companies with great success," said Mac Tully, group vice president of Bay Area News Group and president and publisher of this newspaper; DeBalko will report to Tully. "I'm very excited to have him as part of the Bay Area team."

DeBalko said he wants to build the news group's sales and marketing organization and assist it in a "transition from a traditional local media company to a truly multimedia platform company with a very strong presence in digital media."

A graduate of Cal State Hayward, now known as Cal State East Bay, he has also worked for InfoWorld Media Group in San Mateo, International Data Group in San Mateo and eLogic in Marina del Rey.

International Plaza could soon Open a Henri Bendel Boutique for Women

International Plaza could soon open a Henri Bendel boutique for women in search of the perfect purse, and The Art of Shaving shop will be coming in November for men in search of the perfect shave.

Both stores represent the first location for those retailers in the Tampa Bay area, and they could hardly be more different.

Henri Bendel is a legendary name in New York women's fashion, operating since 1895, most notably now at a boutique at 712 Fifth Ave. made from three historic town homes built by the city's social elite.

Besides several floors of purses, accessories and a custom perfume shop, the location has a top-floor Frederic Fekkai salon.

Purses, for instance, can cost several hundred dollars, silk scarves $125 and fashion flip-flops $50 a pair.

In the early 1990s, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis petitioned the city of New York to grant Henri Bendel landmark status. Now, the company is owned by Limited Brands, which operates Victoria's Secret and other stores.

More recently, Henri Bendel has started expanding with new retail locations, including spots in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas, and several in Florida, including Miami, Boca Raton, and now, according to building permits filed here, Tampa.

Company officials at International Plaza and Henri Bendel declined to comment on their plans.

The Art of Shaving, by contrast, is a guy's guy place. It was founded by Myriam Zaoui and Eric Malka, who moved to New York in 1995 to pursue careers in the spa and beauty products industry.

Malka suffered with sensitive skin, and Zaoui blended a special oil for his shaving that let his razor slip over the skin more easily. Sensing a business opportunity, they sold their car and used the proceeds to start a store based on the idea of high-end shaving products.

Soon they became icons in the shaving market they helped create, with their own branded products, books and 49 stores. In June 2009, Procter & Gamble acquired the company.

The stores feature dark wood paneling, leather benches, marble sinks and traditional barber chairs where staff perform multi-step hot-towel shaves with warm shaving cream, several latherings, after-shave masks and hydrating toner's. Such services range from $35 to $55, and shaving products from $14 to $1,200.

There are now locations in Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Aventura and Miami. According to company officials, the Tampa shop should open in early November.

No Chance to Recover the Jobs Lost During Economic Meltdown Until at Least 2014

California won't recover the jobs it lost during economic meltdown until at least 2014 -- but the Bay Area could recapture its losses sooner than that, a report released Wednesday suggested.

Urban centers along the coast such as the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego are poised to rebound more rapidly than California overall. The most sluggish pace of recovery is expected for inland areas such as Sacramento, the Central Valley and the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario region.

"This is a bifurcated recovery," said Jerry Nickelsburg, a senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast, which released the report.

A jobs recovery will materialize in regions such as the Bay Area that are being bolstered by the tech rebound, along with exports and imports, the Anderson Forecast economists said.

"Coastal California, particularly the Bay Area with its technology and software industries, will lead in job growth," according to the forecast.

Areas that depend more strongly on residential construction -- such as inland regions of California -- will struggle to produce an employment revival, Nickelsburg said.

A region such as the East Bay, however, could experience an uneven pace of recovery.

The East Bay has some high-tech in places such as Fremont, Pleasanton and Livermore. It also a considerable amount of cleantech operations sprinkled through the region. The East Bay also enjoys manufacturing and distribution

Housing and financial services, which melted down during the recession, also are a big part of the East Bay economy, however. Those anchors could drag down the pace of the employment rebound in the Alameda County-Contra Costa County region.

"The East Bay is pretty interesting," Nickelsburg said. "It's kind of a mix of industries."

The biggest benefit for the East Bay could be its location near the primary recovery engines that are powered by the digital boom in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and San Mateo County.

"The spillover from high-tech in Silicon Valley will create employment opportunities in the East Bay," said Jeffrey Michael, director of the Stockton-based Business Forecasting Center at University of the Pacific.

Real estate will remain a problem for job creation in the East Bay, however.

"High tech and exports and imports somewhat offset the housing hangover," Michael said. "But the East Bay was hit as hard as anyplace else through the recession when it comes to jobs."

In contrast, things appear more solid in Santa Clara County.

"Silicon Valley is already recovering," Michael said.

The Anderson Forecast predicted that California will experience "slow growth" through the end of this year.

The forecasters also predicted:
Statewide unemployment, now at less than 12 percent, will continue to fall through the second half of 2011 and average 11.7 percent.
Job growth in 2012 will push the jobless rate down "marginally."
The unemployment rate won't reach 9.9 percent until the second quarter of 2013.
Growth in real personal income is forecast to be 1.7 percent in 2011 and 3.3 percent in 2012.

"The bifurcated recovery will be with us for some years to come," the Anderson Forecast said.

Successful Land deal with IT Firm will Create 100 jobs to Pensacola

The City of Pensacola may be nearing a deal with an information technology firm proposing to bring 100 jobs and a $4 million investment to downtown.

Since October 2009, the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, in cooperation with the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, has been negotiating with a company the city will anonymously label only as "Project Press."

The tech company currently has a Pensacola facility and is looking to expand downtown, according to a September 2009 memo to the city from Charles Wood, the chamber's former senior vice president of economic development.

The City Council — acting as the CRA — at that time authorized CRA staff to begin negotiating "an economic development property incentive agreement" with Project Press for a 0.66-acre CRA-owned property at 120 W. Government St., downtown.

The CRA-owned parcel, currently a metered parking lot, is in the center of the block of Government between Spring and Baylen streets, west of Gulf Winds Federal Credit Union.

Shortly after the CRA's approval to start negotiations, city officials said they were close to getting a similar deal with the company, but nothing became of it.

"I said, whatever was on the table, let's get it back on the table and get some business in Pensacola," Mayor Ashton Hayward said. "My role is to create jobs, and be proactive for taxpayers, and when the city has property where we can be a conduit to do business, we should."

Today, the city is running a legal advertisement in the News Journal as a notice of intent to dispose of the property and is now accepting other proposals for the parcel.

The legal ad states that alternative proposals must include "no less than 30,000 square feet of business or office space, $4 million in capital investment, 100 new full-time employees, and completion of construction within 24 months."

These thresholds are based on the levels of jobs and construction the technology firm has proposed for the CRA site.

The city's legal notice will stand until July 14. After that, the CRA and City Council will be asked to consider any proposals, and if no company has pitched something larger, then Project Press is likely set to get the land.

"I know we are very close to a deal, but there are some things you have to go through before you can close on it," Hayward said.

City officials say they cannot name the company, or get into proprietary information about the company, for legal confidentiality reasons because of state laws that govern how to dispose of CRA property.

"That information we cannot release because it could endanger the project," said CRA Administrator Becky Bray. "We have been working with this company in good faith."The company's customers include private businesses, defense contractors and the federal government, Wood's 2009 memo says.

Business Owners Anxious Over Mehserle Rally

The offices of Youth Radio along Broadway were plastered with plywood Saturday in preparation for a rally planned for Sunday over Johannes Mehserle’s early release from jail.

 

The former San Francisco Bay area transit officer was jailed for fatally shooting an unarmed man. He is expected to be released from Los Angeles County Jail Monday after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence. 

 

A jury convicted the 29-year-old ex-Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer last year of involuntary manslaughter for killing Oscar Grant on an Oakland train station platform New Year's Day 2009. 

 

Mehserle testified he meant to use his stun gun instead of his handgun.People angered over Mehserle's early release have planned to rally at the Fruitvale BART station at 3 p.m. and march to City Hall at 14th Street and Broadway.

 

The T-Mobile store on Broadway was also boarded up. The manager said the building owner took the precaution Saturday morning, because of damage that occurred last summer.Last year, outrage over Mehserle's case erupted into rioting and looting, causing hundreds of $1,000s of damage downtown.A Footlocker store and a family-owned beauty supply store were especially hard hit last year.Since then, the beauty store has installed metal barriers to keep its merchandise safe.

 

Many people said that the agitators last year were from outside Oakland.Merchants said they hope Sunday's protests stay peaceful.“Time has not healed the wounds, but some of that has dissipated,” said Art Pollard owner of Mr. K. Menswear. “But there is still high anxiety among the merchants of this area, because whether or not we have rioting, it is always going to affect business. People don't want to come to downtown, they're not comfortable. We don't know what's going to happen. We really don't.Oscar Grant's uncle has promised he'll guard the menswear store's doorway tomorrow if necessary.

 

Grant's family has always argued for peaceful protest and against property damage.The city of Oakland sent out an advisory to merchants about the march, indicating that police will be a strong presence and stated that vandalism or violence won't be tolerated.As many as 100 police officers will be on hand Sunday.BART officials are also preparing for Sunday's planned protests.In a statement on its website, BART said some stations may be temporarily closed or there may be service adjustments as circumstances warrant. Advisories will be published as often as necessary and expeditiously as possible.

Green Bay Chamber of Commerce Names Bay Tek Games CEO Larry Treankler Person of the Year

It was a deliberate choice by Bay Tek Games Inc. of Pulaski: The company was not going to participate in the recession.

So the company aggressively marketed its coin-operated games and continued to grow while other parts of the economy slowed.

"We put more effort into product development and more effort into sales and marketing during the downturn," Bay Tek President and CEO Larry Treankler said Thursday. "We actually grew our business a few percentage points during that recessionary period.

"We've been lucky enough to grow each of the last 17 years."

Treankler was named the 2011 Business Person of the Year during the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce's Business Recognition Awards.

He considers the award an honor for the entire company and its 116 employees.

"We produce entertainment … we're developing games, so there are silly names and silly concepts, but we also have a very, very, very hard working group of people," he said. "I very much appreciate the (award) and to me it's a validation of the team we have."

Bay Tek was among 19 businesses nominated for six awards.

In accepting the award, Treankler said the company has remained a strong domestic manufacturer in an industry heavy with imports.

"We made a conscious decision that we be a competitive and successful American manufacturer," he said after the ceremony. "Most of the customers in the world value quality, on-time delivery, the ability to have spare parts, communication and taking care of the customer's product."

Growth during tough times was at the heart of another of the award categories presented at the luncheon.

Like Bay Tek, Jet Air Group in Ashwaubenon continued to grow its operation and employment through the recession — including the construction of a roughly $2 million facility that opened last summer at Austin Straubel International Airport.

Jet Air Group was the recipient of the Growth Award.

"We took a big risk," said Al Timmerman one of the owners of the business. "But we saw the potential for the future."

He said that risk is now paying off.

"We've seen a huge increase in business," Timmerman said. "We're looking at future expansion."

That potential expansion includes both space and personnel. Work is ongoing as part of an airport project to expand an aircraft ramp near Jet Air's facility.Like Jet Air Group, Treankler said Bay Tek continues to look at potential growth opportunities for the business.

Area Businesses Receive 6 Awards

Area business owners were honored in Green Bay Thursday for their impact on the community.

Six awards were handed out at the annual Business Recognition Luncheon at the KI Convention Center.

Larry Trenkler of Bay Tek Games received the Business Person of the Year Award.

The Entrepreneurial Award went to Breakthrough Fuel, and the Green Award to Valley Trucking-Valley Transfer. Other awards included the Growth Award to Jet Air Group, the Cornerstone to Leonard and Finco Public Relations and the Special Accomplishment award to Insight Creative.

Event organizers say it's important to recognize community contributors.

"Small business accounts for the majority of job growth within the United States...so it's important to the continued vitality of the Brown County economy that we have this continued growth of small to medium sized business," said Fred Monique, the interim President for the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce.

FOX 11's Tom Milbourn was the emcee for the 17th annual event.