Business

Employment in various business sectors in Cape Girardeau County generally mirrors statewide data, according to information presented by Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce president John Mehner at the chamber's Women's Network luncheon last week...

With the 2020 census scheduled to start in just a few months, the U.S. Census Bureau is "counting" on finding several hundred thousand temporary workers to conduct the count. "We're going to hire almost a million people nationwide," said Harry Niendorf, recruiting assistant with the Census Bureau in the Cape Girardeau area. Niendorf spoke last week about the bureau's employee recruitment efforts at a meeting of the Scott City Area Chamber of Commerce...

NEW YORK -- Walmart is rolling out a grocery delivery subscription service this fall as it races to gain an advantage in the competitive fresh food business. The service will charge an annual membership fee of $98 for subscribers to access unlimited same-day delivery, which will be offered in 1,400 stores in 200 markets. By year-end, it will extend to a total of 1,600 stores -- or more than 50% of the country...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook is trying to coax "news deserts" into bloom with the second major expansion of a tool exposing people to more local news and information. But the social network confesses it still has a lot to learn. The social media giant said Thursday it is expanding its "Today In" service to 6,000 cities and towns across the U.S., up from 400 before...

Sifting through a credit card's terms and conditions can be daunting. The language isn't always straightforward, and it's not uncommon to feel lost. Two-thirds of consumers report fully understanding credit cards' rewards offerings, according to J.D. Power's 2019 Credit Card Satisfaction Study. And cardholder satisfaction with issuers' explanation of terms scored low in comparison to other card features and services...

Inc. Magazine tells us celebrating is very critical to success — even suggesting if you don’t celebrate, you are likely to burn out. Celebrating changes your physiology and psychology, strengthens your network and attracts more success.

A network of regional high schools has announced the creation of a foreign exchange program to let students study across the big pond: the Mississippi River. The program, dubbed IMAGINE (Illinois Missouri Association Guiding Interstate Noteworthy Exchanges), will allow high school students to live with a host family and experience life on the other side of the river...

This is Day Three of the 2019 SEMO District Fair's eight-day run in Arena Park. When it was established 164 years ago, the primary purpose of the SEMO District Fair was to focus on the region's agricultural economy. Over the years, there's been less emphasis on crops and livestock at the fair, but fair officials say that's changing...

Pete Poe's "office" much of last week was the cab of his pickup truck as he logged mile after mile around and through Cape Girardeau's Arena Park. Next to him, on the truck's center console, was his cellphone and a note pad where he kept track of all the things that needed to be done before the SEMO District Fair opened...

NEW YORK -- In the first few years after Julie Mullen and Elizabeth Grace launched their public relations firm, they found it was hard to get some clients to pay. The co-owners of The Buzz Agency -- a public relations firm based in Palm Beach, Florida -- didn't require clients to pay up front, and checks were the only form of payment the company was set up for. Some of their clients, who included startups, were slow about sending in their payments -- or didn't send them at all...

It goes back to the ancient Greeks at Delphi in the 6th Century B.C.: they held multiple-day events that included music and athletic competitions. Throughout the Middle Ages, Celtic and Gaelic cultural fairs promoted music, with a dance competition as the main event. In Europe, large gatherings of the upper class listened to classical music. Throughout the 1960s, music festivals were a way to express counter-cultural views, meeting grounds for political activism and change...

For the next three-year funding cycle, the United Way of Southeast Missouri's Community Investment Committee (CIC) identified 27 partners representing 38 programs in Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Perry and northern Scott counties. The organization added 10 new partners by slightly decreasing funding to education and increasing it to health and financial stability. ...

Many chambers of commerce around the country sponsor awards and recognition programs that annually recognize members and businesses for their service or contributions to their respective communities. But only a handful of those awards bear the names of individuals or families as a tribute to their lifetime achievements...

Southeast Missourian editor Bob Miller held an impromptu staff meeting a couple of weeks ago and made an announcement he said we could not share. Now mind you, telling a group of newspaper writers they can't report a story is like telling a leaf it can't fall from a tree; it's just not right not to write. Still, we agreed to Bob's request, but I did so with the caveat that when the time was right, he would give me the "exclusive" and allow me to break the news here in my business column...

Although high school graduation rates are at an all-time high — nearly 85% nationally and 93% in Missouri, according to the National Center for Education Statistics — and workers are more "educated" than ever, employers say today's job applicants are lacking the basic "soft skills" they need to succeed in the workforce...

SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. -- On a cool South Carolina morning, Duke Energy electrical linemen shift their gaze toward the sky as their colleague rises above them in a bucket truck. Jordan Demartino's blonde ponytail peeks out from underneath her white safety helmet. She's quiet as she reaches the top and gets to work connecting a line from a transformer along a rural road to a new light she's installing in a customer's backyard...

Next year, Gayle Unverferth, RN, OB nurse at SoutheastHEALTH who has served the Cape Girardeau community at the hosptial for 40 years, will retire. Forty years at the same hospital in the same community is quite a feat. Especially today, when nurses often stay for only a couple of years at an institution due to the myriad of opportunities available. ...

Andy Patel, national franchise owner, came to the United States from India when he was 20 years old with $20. It was money his parents had given him as they saw him off from their small farming community, believing in his dream of making it in America through hard work...

It was on the stairs in a hallway at Cape Catholic High that Carolyn Bohnert, senior vice president of Drury Southwest, saw Bill Bohnert and told her friend, "That's the man I'm going to marry one of these days." And she was right: the two met when Carolyn was a junior, and four years later, they were married...

When Lisa Newcomer was a little girl, her mother worked at Saint Francis Hospital on Good Hope Street in Cape Girardeau and taught nursing at Southeast Missouri State University. Newcomer recalls "being the guinea pig" for nursing students as they checked her reflexes and temperature during pediatric clinics. She says the people her mother worked with became another family to her, and it was this that inspired her passion for health care...

Four former Redhawks football players have captured a community's attention with their infectious attitudes and commitment to mentorship among Cape Girardeau's most at-risk students. Aaron Adeoye, Cantrell Andrews, Kweku Arkorful and Wyky Jean knew they wanted to give back after college. They volunteered at the Christian Boxing Academy founded by Danny Rees. When boxing ended, they'd stay afterward to hang out with the kids. It was clear the kids could benefit from their positive influence...

I have been drumming since about the same time I started to walk. Music is a long tradition in my family, and I am a fifth generation traditional Ulster Scots (Scotch Irish) drummer, playing a large, heavy drum called a Lambeg. I played also in several marching flute bands growing up and at school played in the orchestra, concert band and jazz band. ...

To understand why Denise Lincoln is a Newsmaker, you have to know the twists and turns that led her to where she is today. From 13-week stints in cities across the U.S. for her husband Doug's job as an ultrasound technician to what she thought was a mistake the day she opened the wrong microfilm drawer at the National Archives while doing research on her family's history, it almost seems as though the universe put the African American story of Southeast Missouri into her hands to help tell...

Music is what emotions sound like. It's this artistic value of music that Ethan Welker, creator of a youth orchestra program in Perryville, Missouri, loves about music. Welker says he also enjoys the intellectual value of music: "Some things work because of rules that we just agree on."...

A few years ago, Jim Eddleman was driving around Perry County, Missouri, with architects, looking for a place to build a memorial to veterans. It was part of the fulfillment of a promise he made to himself more than 50 years ago, when he was serving his country in Vietnam: to honor his comrades in some way if he returned to the U.S. ...

"It's not about me." As the face of Old Town Cape for the past 13 years, it's hard to imagine a downtown Cape Girardeau without thinking of Marla Mills. Under her leadership as executive director of Old Town Cape, the downtown area has seen considerable change and growth, including what Mills sees as the pinnacle: winning the Great American Main Street Award in 2015. ...

For most people, the term "hacker" conjures intangible imagery; things like cryptocurrencies or swirling lines of binary code. But in practice, "hacking" is little more than problem solving. It's looking at a problem, evaluating the technological resources at hand, and then leveraging those resources in new and creative ways...

While serving in the U.S. Air Force 37 years ago, Dennis Vollink received a call that would map the course of his personal and professional life for the next four decades. Bob Drury of Drury Southwest in Cape Girardeau was looking for a pilot. After contacting Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City, Texas, and speaking with a couple of pilots who weren't a fit, the pilots said Drury should meet with Vollink, who, they believed, would be the perfect candidate: not only was he a pilot and engineer, but the career path was something his peers believed would suit him.. ...

You can't miss the booming voice -- or personality -- of Doug Austin. He's a fixture at any number of area events, be it with his church (Bethany Baptist Church) or community. After a career in the grocery business marketing products for more than 100 independent stores, Austin made up his mind early on he would retire by age 60. After two stops in Cape Girardeau during his career, Austin and his wife, Fran, knew where their retirement years would be spent...

The importance of networking shouldn’t be discounted when you are building a successful business. While some people are naturals, others understandably struggle getting started. How do you make a good and lasting impression?

August 28 6 p.m. Codefi 338 Broadway, Suite 600 Cape Girardeau If you are a female professional who has a heart passionate about innovation opportunities, growth and generating new ideas, and you want to support other women while doing it, this event is for you. There will be a panel of community experts present discussing life as a woman in different types of local businesses, using individual strengths and developing community with other female businesswomen...

Helping is part of who Patricia Morris is. It's why she loved working as a Department of Youth Services (DYS) teacher for 12 years, and why she founded Keidra's Caring Centers in Sikeston, Missouri, and Caruthersville, Missouri. She says her husband jokes she helps and gives too much. But Morris says she can't help it...

Had it not been for taking an art class rather than a Spanish class in high school, it's quite possible Alyssa Phares might never have made it to Cape Girardeau. As a senior at her Central Illinois high school -- a school of 34 people -- Phares had an opportunity while on vacation to visit the College of Charleston, which has one of the top-ranked programs for historic preservation studies. ...

Predictions of an economic recession in the next couple of years are premature, according to at least one Cape Girardeau banker. Jim Limbaugh, regional president and executive vice president of Montgomery Bank, shared his thoughts with me after reading my story in last Wednesday's paper about a survey by the National Association for Business Economics in which 74% of the 226 survey respondents said the U.S. will be in an economic recession by the end of 2021...

"No one has a lock on good ideas." This is a core tenant of the leadership philosophy of Dennis Vinson, president and CEO of Signature Packaging & Paper in Jackson. He credits the success of his business to the 66 employees he leads each day. "The basis and the success of Signature is all about the employees," Vinson says. "My leadership is there, but they make it happen everyday."...

River Radio 99.3 Real Rock program director. Radio personality. Founder of the heavy metal band Emaciation. Co-founder of the annual Scoutfest. Judge of the Polar Plunge benefitting Special Olympics. Board member of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. Lover of nature, animals and all types of music (yes, even the Country genre.) Photographer. Arrowhead finder. Falconer apprentice. Libra...

Although people tend to think of disposable diapers as a relatively recent innovation dating back to the 1960s and first worn by "baby boomers" born in the 1960s, their history can be traced to the late 1800s. Between the 1880s and 1930s, the US Patent Office recorded applications for dozens of diaper innovations including fitted diaper designs, innovative fastening systems, absorbent inserts and moisture-proof covers...

In case you hadn't noticed, Southeast Missouri State University students are back in town, and while we might complain about the extra traffic on streets surrounding campus, we should all be happy about the economic impact students have on the community...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Three Rivers College in Sikeston is taking part in an educational initiative growing industrial hemp in an effort to help local farmers who intend to grow the crop in the spring. "It is a really exciting time to be part of this project," Three Rivers College president Wes Payne said at a news conference Wednesday morning. ...

NEW YORK -- How bad is your disposable razor for the environment? The question is gaining attention among consumers amid a growing global campaign against plastic waste, with cities and countries introducing bans on single-use plastic bags and straws...

Each year, the Cape Chamber releases an annual report. This document serves as a great reminder of why the Cape Chamber exists and outlines exactly what we’re up to.

One of the top goals of parenting is to teach your children how to be successful, happy adults. Since making smart financial choices is so critical to a successful adulthood, it’s important to start teaching your child about healthy spending and saving habits early.

The future of the 150,000-square-foot Sears Grand building in Cape Girardeau is uncertain following the announcement last week by Sears Holdings the store is among 26 large-format Sears and Kmart outlets in the U.S. and Puerto Rico that will close by late October...

Conflict in the workplace is often inevitable and while it's usually thought of as something to be avoided, it can often lead to something positive, when handled correctly. That was the message last week at the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce's Women's Impact Network (WIN) luncheon...

DETROIT -- They were the suburban vehicle of choice in the 1990s and early 2000s, but ever since, minivans appeared to be riding the slow lane to extinction. The soccer moms who once made the boxy people-haulers ubiquitous have shunned them for car-based SUVs with three rows of seats. Many automakers have stopped selling them. In fact, Chrysler sold more minivans by itself in its heyday than the entire industry does today...

Throughout Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and Northeast Arkansas, the name "Shivelbine" is synonymous with "music." From piccolos to sousaphones and everything in between, Shivelbine music store in Cape Girardeau has been at the center of the music scene, especially at this time of year when schools -- and school bands -- begin "tuning up" for a new school year...

It was 50 years ago this month the Procter & Gamble plant opened north of Cape Girardeau. Over the past half-century, P&G has become an integral (and many say indispensable) part of the local and regional economy. It's difficult to overestimate the impact Procter & Gamble has made on Southeast Missouri in general and on Cape Girardeau specifically...

It might seem like you've been saving for back to school since you packed your children's backpacks last fall. But after replacing worn-out erasers, outgrown clothes and an outdated laptop, you may still feel the financial pinch. And then there are items for which you didn't budget. Maybe it's a budding interest in a travel sport, a fundraiser or birthday cupcakes...

ALEXANDRIA, Ind. -- At 79 years old, Art McManus said he's still able to hop on the tractor and maintain the 160 acres of cherry trees at his orchard in Traverse City, Michigan. His children have gone on to start lives of their own, though he gets some help running his farmers market from his daughter-in-law. But he hires seasonal help to keep the cherry operation moving...

What do we hear frequently from our existing employers about job applicants? From businesses to schools, churches to parents, charities to civic organizations, there is much discussion about the lack of soft skills, or essential skills, in the world today.