Business Blog

Here’s a dubious list that Mississippi leads: Late car payments. The list by credit reporting agency TransUnion is sure to bring anguish to lenders and joy to repo men. TransUnion says an analysis found that Mississippi had the highest auto loan delinquency rate nationwide, with 0.77 percent at the end of the first quarter. This [...]

Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Mississippi built or fixed up 188 homes in 2011, helping to make Habitat the nation’s sixth largest homebuilder. The Christian-based organization has 40 affiliates in the state and more than 1,500 nationally. “I am profoundly impressed by the ongoing faithfulness, ingenuity and hard work of our affiliates,” said Trey Jones, [...]

If the much-hyped dream of U.S. energy independence must involve hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) to extract natural gas from shale deposits deep underneath the surface of the earth, the State of Vermont wants no part of it. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a law May 16 banning fracking, a practice that involves injecting [...]

By DAVID BRANDT, The Associated Press   College basketball has long been dominated by African-Americans on the court. The same can’t be said for the sidelines. And the numbers of minority coaches aren’t getting much better — they’re stagnant or even declining at the Division I level. George Mason coach Paul Hewitt — who also [...]

Toyota plans to expand its Huntsville, Ala., engine production facility by investing an additional $80 million and adding at least 125 new jobs, the company announced Friday. The expansion will bring total investment at Toyota’s Alabama plant to more than $700 million and the total number of jobs to more than 1,150. By spring of [...]

Here is some interesting news involving the future of newspapers …   Why Warren Buffett Really Likes Newspapers By Devin Leonard on May 17, 2012 When Warren Buffett announced that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, was buying 63 newspapers from Media General on May 17, he issued a soaring statement about his belief in a beaten-down [...]

Delta State University will get a new president after Dec. 31. Current president Dr. John Hilpert announced Thursday he will be leaving Cleveland, effective Dec. 31. There has been no announcement of a successor.

  Three dozen Mississippi business innovators will pitch their ideas Tuesday at the “Shark Tank – New Venture Challenge” at the Jackson Convention Complex. This is the 5th annual venture capital challenge presented by the Mississippi Technology Alliance. Presentations will be from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and will conclude with a networking seminar at [...]

Facebook may be king of the social media hill this week with their highly anticipated public offering, but here at MBJ we try to be well-versed in all the social media platforms.         Here are some favorite Twitter handles that we follow in no particular order. Chuck Jordan, Mayor of Greenville @GvillMayorChuck Volunteer Oxford @OxfordVolunteer [...]

PASCAGOULA — Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) announced today that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has received a $133.7 million, cost-plus-fixed-fee advance procurement contract modification from the U.S. Navy to provide long lead time materials for LPD 27, the 11th amphibious transport dock of the San Antonio (LPD 17) class. The funds awarded to Ingalls will be [...]