Business Blog

Toyota adding 125 jobs at Huntsville, Ala., engine plant

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 [...]

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SR 9 project incorporates a number of firsts

At first glance, the State Route 9 reconstruction underway in Northeast Mississippi is simply a road improvement project supporting the new Toyota automobile plant at Blue Springs. However, officials say the project is bigger than even Toyota. In fact, plans for the project were hatched before Toyota announced it was coming to Mississippi. The project [...]

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Public land in Delta impacted by river flood 

Every year, hunters flock to the Delta to take advantage of some of the best public hunting land in the state offered by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks’ wildlife management areas (WMAs) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge Complex. This year, however, hunters are wondering if [...]

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North Mississippi’s Sherman gains Toyota logistics provider, 100 jobs

The tiny community of Sherman, Miss., Pontotoc County has landed a large supply chain operator that will provide warehousing and storage services to Toyota and its supply base, as well as a full-service truck maintenance operation. The community of fewer than 650 residents will gain 100 new jobs over the three years from a KC [...]

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Eminent Domain: Pro-Business… Or Not? 

By Stephen McDill Eminent domain, the taking of land for development, has proven to be a heavily emotional and highly politicized talking point in Mississippi this year. Staff writer Ted Carter will take a hard look at both sides of the issue in Monday’s edition of the MBJ. In the meantime, we’ve collected video clips [...]

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Tradeoff: Jobs or property rights? Mississippians must settle issue 

Mississippians cheered the arrival of big league economic development this decade with Nissan’s arrival in Canton and Toyota pending move into Blue Springs. But a property rights movement is working to blunt the enthusiasm for more economic bonanzas — at least if state incentives include offering the mega employers private property the state would seize [...]

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‘Replacement costs’ likely go by wayside with eminent domain vote 

A ballot initiative to curb eminent domain in Mississippi to protect private property from private enterprise carries a cost land owners may not have considered, says Randy Kelley, executive director of Three Rivers Planning and Development District. New limits on the state’s eminent domain law through a constitutional change could end the paying of “replacement [...]

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