A report card on the state of manufacturing in Mississippi includes the following facts, according to Jay Moon, executive director of the Mississippi Manufacturers Association: Manufacturing is holding steady with 12 percent of the state’s workforce employed in that sector. For every direct job in manufacturing, there are another two or three jobs that support [...] [...]

Legislation that has cleared the House and sits in a Senate committee would essentially kill any chance Mississippi Highway 9 north of Blue Springs had of broad development related to the Toyota plant. Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, filed House Bill 791, which would make Mississippi Highway 9 in Union County ineligible for money under the Economic [...] [...]

by Lynn Lofton Published: March 19,2012
Tags: Canada, Mike Tagert, Mississippi, Mississippi Business Journal, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi Transportation Commission, Northern District Highway Commissioner, Pontotoc, Tennessee-Tombigbee Economic Development Council, Toyota, United States, United States Green Building Council
Before he ran in a special election to fill an unexpired term as Northern District Highway Commissioner, Mike Tagert got a taste of working with transportation issues as president of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Economic Development Council. This group that focuses solely on logistics and the transportation component of bringing in new industry made him feel he [...] [...]

by Clay Chandler Published: December 25,2011
Tags: Blue Springs, Corolla, David Copenhaver, Elvis Presley, Gov. Haley Barbour, MBJ’s Top 5 stories of the year, Toyota, Toyota Motor Corp. president Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, “only fools rush in.”
The Toyota facility in Blue Springs held a “line-off” ceremony Nov. 17 to celebrate what amounted to a delayed grand opening. It was a celebration nearly five years in the making. The star of the show was a black Corolla that was built on Oct. 24, when production started. It will reside in the lobby [...] [...]

In this week’s MBJ — THE COLLEGE BUBBLE: Amy McCullough takes a look at whether a college education in Mississippi is even relevant any more. Also in this week’s paper: >> THE HILLS ARE ALIVE! Find out what shocking discovery Toyota ran across in its first Corolla to come off the line at the new [...] [...]

by Clay Chandler Published: November 17,2011
Tags: Amazon, amazon.com, american idol, aol, aol mail, aol.com, aquarius, auto trader, automobiles, automotive industry, Best Buy, bikini, bing, break ground, Cars, charlie sheen, CNN, comcast.net, Corolla, Costco, craigs list, craigslist, dailymotion, dictionary, diet, dogpile, drudge report, EBay, ebay motors, ebay.com, egotistic, espn, expedia, Facebook, facebook login, facebook.com, firefox, fox news, gmail, gmail.com, Google, Google Earth, google maps, google search, google.com, grand opening, home depot, hot, hotels, hotmail, hotmail sign in, hotmail.com, hulu, imdb, infospacegames.com, justin bieber, Keywords, kohl’s, lowes, manufacturing, map quest, mapquest, maps, medication, msn, msnbc, netflix, NEWS, Nissan North America, Olympic, paypal, prius, production, RAND, search engines, sears, Southwest Airlines, square feet, target, Toyota, USPS, vehicles, Verizon Wireless, Walmart, Weather, weather channel, weather.com, weight loss, white pages, Wikipedia, www.facebook.com, www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, yahoo, yahoo mail, yahoo.com, you tube, YouTube, youtube videos, youtube.com
BLUE SPRINGS — A year ago, Tereda Hairston was a third grade reading teacher in Starkville. Today, the 32-year-old is a quality check specialist at the Toyota plant in Blue Springs, having started there in July. “I absolutely love it,” Hairston said. “I applied here because I knew what Toyota was about. It’s stable. It’s [...] [...]
“Gov. Haley Barbour has asked the Legislature to approve $175 million in incentives for California-based Calisolar and start-up HCL CleanTech to open facilities in Mississippi — projects expected to create direct jobs for 1,800 people.” Clarion-Ledger, Sept. 1, 2011 When this writer read that sentence he immediately got out a calculator and did the math. [...] [...]
Eminent domain remains a hotbed of discussion in the Mississippi business community. MBJ staff writers Ted Carter and Stephen McDill interview NFIB state director Ron Aldridge and Parkway Properties chairman and interim MDA director Leland Speed. PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 [...]
by MBJ Staff Published: July 17,2011
Tags: agriculture, automobile industry, banking and finance, Canton, casinos, Congress, construction, courts, disaster, disaster recovery, economic development, editorial, education, elections, eminent domain, employment, energy, environment, federal agency, federal government, gaming, healthcare, higher education, hospitality, Hyundai, jobs, Kelo v. City of New London, Kentucky, Kim Dong-jiin, Lady Gaga, Magnolia State, manufacturing, mergers and acquisitions, Mississippi, Mississippi Business Journal, Montgomery, municipal government, Nissan, offshore drilling, oil and gas, oil spill, publicly traded company, recession, SiteSelection, Tea Party, Toyota, Weather
Economic development recruiters don’t use brass knuckles when they fight to get a big employer to come to their state. But they probably would if they could. That is the kind of pier six brawl recruiters walk into at the start of every economic development competition. The last one standing walks away with the deal [...] [...]

One of the less urgent results of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan March 11 was the announcement by Toyota, whose corporate headquarters is in Tokyo, that it would idle production at its facilities in that country. The initial decision came on March 14, roughly 72 hours after the 9.0 magnitude quake and the [...] [...]