Business Blog

The Mississippi Development Authority is searching for an international business recruiter to head up its global business development. The MDA is creating the position as part of reorganization that severs business retention from international business development, Brent Christensen, MDA executive director, said at a press briefing Monday. “We have to find a way to build [...]

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Wednesday that he thinks it would be a good idea for people in the state to voluntarily show identification when they vote, even though it’s not required by law. “If you have to show a ID to buy a pack of cigarettes or to buy alcohol, which you should, then [...]

by Dennis Seid/NEMS Daily Journal   OXFORD – Expanding internationally for the first time, mortgage technology company FNC is partnering with a Brazilian firm. The move, announced Tuesday, will add 100 jobs in the next 12 to 18 months to FNC’s headquarters in Oxford. FNC, whose software is used by seven of the top 10 [...]

An eagerness to shorten the time frame for upgrading the Port of Gulfport led port commissioners Tuesday to scale back plans to elevate the West Pier to 25 feet as part of a $500 million-plus restoration and expansion of Mississippi’s main seaport. The choice ahead is whether to elevate to 12 feet or 15 feet. [...]

Thousands of Wells Fargo & Co. home loan customers recently received a surprise in the mail: refund checks from the big bank, along with letters saying they had paid unnecessary fees for their mortgages, the Los Angeles Times reports. The unsolicited offers of thousands of dollars arrived with a catch — if the borrowers cash [...]

Seems Mississippi and the Detroit Tigers have something in common. They both could use some bats. The Tigers’ bats disappeared in their four straight World Series losses to the new World Champion San Francisco Giants. Alas, they are expected to return for the 2013 season. But the Mississippi bats? No one is quite sure when [...]

JACKSON — The past is never dead, William Faulkner wrote. His heirs, in two lawsuits, say their copyright rights are also very much alive. The manager of the famous author’s literary estate is suing Sony Pictures Classics for using that “past is not dead” quote in Woody Allen’s 2011 film, “Midnight in Paris.” It’s also [...]

DETROIT — And the winner is … Japan. Japanese brands took the top seven spots in Consumer Reports’ annual reliability rankings, pushing aside their U.S. and European rivals. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Scion, Lexus and Toyota brands took the top three spots and the Toyota Prius C, a subcompact hybrid, got the best overall score. Mazda, [...]

  Forgive Mississippi’s veterans if they don’t return the insincere salutes rendered this Veterans Day by senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran. Veterans returning from a decade of conflict face unemployment in numbers at least 10 percent higher than the rest of us. They need help. The $1 billion Veterans Jobs Corps Act was designed [...]

Here’s a question most all home-state business services professionals  eager to get a public contract have ponder: Why is it that a public official tends to think an “expert” is anyone who lives at least one state away? Which brings us to the latest episode of things that Gray Swoope, former executive director of the [...]