Posted by admin on December 30th, 2009
Who’s Foursquare Mayor of your local business? If you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, but would like to join the hottest, hippest new social networking tool for promoting a local business, read on. I’ll explain Foursquare – the still tiny but fast-growing mobile app phenomenon that could become the Twitter of 2010.
Foursquare combines elements of both Facebook and Twitter into a mobile social networking tool that lets users — mostly 20- and 30-somethings in urban areas — locate each other via mobile posts and join up at popular places. It’s a friend-finder, electronic game and city guide all rolled into one, and thousands of small businesses nationwide are quickly jumping on board.
Foursquare encourages people to explore the cities in which they live and frequent the places they like best, including favorite restaurants, pubs, coffee shops, galleries, bookstores, bakeries, markets, pizza joints, chocolate stores, bowling allies, wine bars and hundreds of other types of local businesses. Upon arrival at y Read more…
Posted by admin on December 30th, 2009
CORPUS CHRISTI A small fire was contained within minutes of igniting at Citgo Refinery’s West Plant, a company representative said.
The fire began at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and was confined to the unit it began in, Citgo spokesman Jesse Garcia said. There were no injuries, he said.
“There was never any threat to the community,” he added.
Once the fire was extinguished, air sampling was done around the plant to check for toxins in the air.
“We do that as a precaution. There were no detectable limits of any toxic gases found,” Garcia said.
The Refinery Terminal Fire Department also was called to the fire, but it had been contained before arrival of that agency, Garcia said.
He added that the cause of the fire was unknown Wednesday, but it is under investigation.
Posted by admin on December 29th, 2009
Brighthand
After years of anemic sales, e-books are starting to take off. As evidence: for the first time ever, Christmas Day shoppers on Amazon.com bought more books for their Kindles than they did regular books.
Obviously, this was an unusual situation — Christmas Day isn’t typically a big day for shopping, but virtually everyone who received a new Kindle e-book reader as a gift that day needed to download at least one book to try out their new device.
An E-book Milestone
The e-book has been around for years, but until recently there were questions about whether it would ever become a main-stream product.
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Posted by admin on December 28th, 2009
Business Week
Ford Motor Co. agreed with China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. on most terms for a sale of the U.S. automaker’s Volvo Car Corp. unit in the second quarter.
A definitive agreement probably will be signed by March 31, with a sale completed by June 30, the companies said in statements today. No financial details were provided. Ford has made progress to resolve issues such as protecting intellectual property, a person familiar with the talks has said.
Ford named Geely its preferred bidder for Volvo on Oct. 28 after putting the Swedish automaker on the block a year ago to finish unloading overseas luxury brands and focus on its namesake division.
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Posted by admin on December 27th, 2009
COASTAL BEND There were no new drilling permit applications for Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, McMullen, Nueces or San Patricio counti4es.
DUVAL COUNTY
Carter Exploration Company of Corpus Christi has filed a permit to drill the No. 12 Chapman (API 42-355-33975) in the Chapman Ranch (Upper Frio Consolidated) field. With a proposed total depth of 7,100 feet, the well will be 12.1 miles southwest of Corpus Christi in the R. De Ynojosa Survey A-411.
Sendero Energy of Dallas has filed for permits to drill two more 1,350- foot wells in the Govt. Wells, North, field. The Nos. 8 and 9 Texaco Fee 207 will be 5.4 and 5.6 miles northeast of Freer in the J. Poitevent Survey A-916.
JIM WELLS COUNTY
XOG Operating, LLC, of Corpus Christi has filed for permits to drill two wells in the Koopman field. The No. 1 (API 42-249-32553) and the No.
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Posted by admin on December 24th, 2009
The numbers aren’t all in yet, of course, but it looks like 2009 will end up being a pretty good year for Canadian investors in Canadian equities and income trusts. It certainly didn’t start out that way.
From the beginning of January to the first week of March, the S&P\TSX Composite Index continued the decline that began in 2008. But then, starting on March 9, the market rallied terrifically through to the end of August. After that, it was pretty much a show about nothing, with the market basically going sideways from September to the end of the year.
But through it all – through those three distinct periods – the TSX will probably close the year with a gain of 26.1%, if the year-end numbers aren’t much different from the year-to-date numbers we have so far. Income trusts should do even better, with a gain of about 31.9%.
Most investors, me included, would call that a very good year. And it’s
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Posted by admin on December 23rd, 2009
KINGSPORT — The future of United Way of Greater Kingsport is more secure thanks to the presentation of $10,000 from Eastman Credit Union to the United Way’s Endowment Fund.
Olan O. Jones, president and CEO of Eastman Credit Union, announced the presentation earlier this month. Both Eastman Credit Union and the United Way of Greater Kingsport marked their 75th anniversaries in 2009.
“This contribution will help ensure that United Way’s work will continue in the future,” said Jones.
Three of the United Way founders — B.M. Brown, J.C. Stone and J.C. White — were also instrumental in establishing Eastman Credit Union.
On hand for the announcement were Jones; B. Fielding Rols
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