Web Development Live

With more than $100 million in assets, Texell wanted to drive the growth of its online channel, strengthen its Internet presence and reinforce its brand, while providing a secure forum to protect confidential data and comply with Federal regulations. According to Tony Hale, chief executive officer of Texell, what began as a simple evaluation of Web hosting providers evolved into a much more comprehensive endeavor, ultimately enabling the credit union to reap significant benefits from an extensive program that tied together multiple initiatives.

In addition to Web design and maintenance, Texell’s program incorporates Goldleaf’s marketing services, which ties the global campaign together to ensure cohesive and consistent messaging. Goldleaf’s marketing services include detailed market segmentation so the credit union can tailor specific marketing objectives to a particular audience.

“Goldleaf’s value proposition was unique, as it presented a solution that truly went beyond our initial needs,” Hale said. “Deploying Goldleaf’s technology demonstrates our commitment to our members through the creation of an easy-to-navigate, intuitive Web site, fully equipped with security features to protect our members’ confidential information. The site is customized, compliant, secure, and we were immediately impressed by the scope and depth of Goldleaf’s offering. The marketing services piece was especially attractive, as it pulls together the look and feel of the new site and couples it with marketing initiatives designed to drive more business to our institution.”

Texell is also leveraging Goldleaf’s distinct security features, including secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption, SAS-70 audit reporting and the Company’s Pharming Shield solution. Credit union executives also cited the flexibility of Goldleaf’s solution as a factor in their selection process. Texell has the capability to edit and manage content internally, which maximizes the speed and accuracy at which online information can be updated and maintained.

The site has multi-tiered authority to preserve the integrity of the data, as well as the ability for Texell to pre-create site changes that can be implemented on a timed rollout. Additionally, the solution has an automated system that archives changes to Web site content and images that will be tracked throughout the life cycle of Texell’s relationship, ensuring compliance with Regulation DD in the Truth and Savings Act.

Todd Shiver, executive vice president of Goldleaf Financial Solutions, said, “Our mission is to help our clients succeed and leverage technology to improve efficiencies, increase profitability, be more competitive, and provide the best products and services in their market. Our entire company is dedicated to the development of innovative solutions that have a positive and direct impact on an institution’s asset and customer base. Texell understands its members’ needs and has a very strategic approach to Web and marketing services, which we believe enables them to stand apart from the competition.”

PUBLIC radio is drawing its largest audience ever, some 28 million listeners nationwide each week. But if it’s a golden era, you wouldn’t know it from the frenetic activity to remake the genre.

In WNYC’s antiquated downtown Manhattan studios, the veteran National Public Radio and NBC journalist John Hockenberry and his co-host, Adaora Udoji, formerly of CNN, are rehearsing to find a comfortable rapport for their new live morning news program, which begins Monday. Flush from a $2 million Knight Foundation grant, this program, “The Takeaway” is designed with it partner, Public Radio International, and collaborators including The New York Times, the BBC World Service and the Boston public station WGBH, to be a stark counterpoint to the taped interviews on NPR’s venerable “Morning Edition.”

In the Chicago area, an 11-month-old FM station, :Vocalo, never mentions that it is affiliated with Chicago Public Radio. There’s no “All Things Considered” or “Car Talk”; instead hosts weave together interviews, commentary, reports and music, culled from user submissions to a companion Web site, vocalo.org.

NPR itself started the Web-radio hybrid “Bryant Park Project” last fall, hoping younger listeners would like to hear lively hosts banter about news and culture. And NPR’s year-old midday talk show “Tell Me More,” anchored by the former “Nightline” correspondent Michel Martin, aims at diverse new voices.

The urgency to find new formats is driven by audience research that can be read as glass half-empty or half-full. The 28 million weekly public radio listeners recorded by Arbitron in spring 2007 topped the previous high of 27.5 million in 2004. But the research also showed that the listeners were tuning in for shorter periods.

Public radio “had an enormous surge in listening over about a 10-year period from the mid ’90s up through about 2003, principally driven by a huge response to public radio’s news and information programming,” said Tom Thomas, co-chief executive officer of the Station Resource Group, a public radio consortium. But since 2003 “the audience has essentially been flat,” he said.

To address this, the consortium recently received a Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant to identify ways to get the audience growing again, and “Everything is on the table,” Mr. Thomas said.

Last year some 1,400 people entered the Public Radio Talent Quest, an online search for new hosts run by the Public Radio Exchange, a Web site, prx.org, where independent radio producers market their content. None of the three winners — a science blogger, a slam poet and a nonprofit executive who is a storyteller — reflect that typical public radio sound, said Jake Shapiro, the exchange’s executive director.

Executives stress that the new programming won’t abandon in-depth news, just “get away from a tone that feels too clubby,” said Graham Griffith, executive producer of “The Takeaway.” Nor do they want to tinker with existing programs; they just want more options for more people.

“A lot of the research that guided public radio’s direction in the last 30 years focused on us discovering a niche we could serve and serve well,” of highly educated, news-craving listeners, said Maxie Jackson, WNYC’s senior director for program development. But, he added, that formula “didn’t appeal to people of color.” He called it an issue of tonality.

“The Takeaway,” Mr. Jackson said, could be a model. It will be interactive, he said, and multicultural, with “voices, perspectives, contributors and stories that are relevant to a wide swath of people.” Its tone, he said, “has to be more compelling, with more verve.”

“People want to feel that the hosts are committed to the topic,” he added.

At a recent run-through, an Iowa State University economist discussed global food riots, and an assistant professor at Morehouse College dissected the Atlanta Ballet’s collaboration with the hip-hop star Big Boi. Listeners were encouraged to comment online about how fuel costs would affect vacation plans.

The morning hours where radio thrives have become a battleground, even though NPR’s “Morning Edition,” with 12.9 million listeners a week, is the second-most-listened to national radio program, behind Rush Limbaugh’s.

NPR itself created “Bryant Park Project” because the organization is “mission-driven, and if we can reach more people, great,” said Ellen Weiss, NPR’s vice president for news.

The program had a tough start. One host, Luke Burbank, quit just before the first day, Oct. 1, although he didn’t leave until mid-December. The Remaining host, Alison Stewart, is on maternity leave. Online listening is growing, and with few broadcast stations carrying the program, a plan to go Internet-only has been discussed. Ms. Weiss said that would not happen but declined to discuss coming changes.

Meanwhile in February, with competition looming, NPR cut the fees to carry “Morning Edition” that stations had long complained about by a total of $5 million (to take effect next fiscal year).

Still, stations in Boston, Cape Cod, Baltimore, Miami and across Wisconsin have committed to give “The Takeaway” a try, although “Morning Edition” will still be widely available in those places. On WNYC “Morning Edition” will shrink to five hours between the AM and FM stations, to make way for two hours of “The Takeaway.”

By June 30 the new program will be broadcasting four hours daily, although not all stations will carry the whole thing. Mr. Griffith envisions “The Takeaway” as a “breakfast table,” where a nationwide conversation can take place. Mr. Hockenberry uses a more high-tech metaphor, calling it in an interview “a massive multiplayer game, the rules and title of which are, basically, curiosity.”

DETROIT Tata Motors, the Indian automaker that’s about to burst on the global scene as the new owner of Jaguar and Land Rover and a long-term partner for Ford Motor Co., is the other face of globalization.It is a foreign company that employs hundreds of people in Detroit and plans to boost its workforce substantially in the region over the next three years.”We are adding people in Detroit,” said Warren Harris, chief executive officer of Tata’s Michigan-based Incat engineering group.At a time when the common perception is that Indian companies pay low wages and pilfer good-paying jobs from the United States, Incat just won a contract for its employees in Oakland County, Mich., to develop a new vehicle platform from the ground up for a Chinese automaker.Incat’s engineers in Michigan work with about 350 customers, including Chrysler, Ford and Nissan, suppliers and non automotive companies, including Boeing, Bose and Gulfstream, said Kevin Fisher, vice president for engineering and design.”If you’re in the car business, Detroit’s the center. This is where you want to be,” Fisher said at Incat’s engineering and design center. He added that the Oakland County offices are “in the late stages” of negotiations to run development of a new platform - from design to sales launch - for another Asian automaker.The Michigan offices work with facilities in England, Thailand and India to provide round-the-clock engineering on everything from body panels to powertrain development.Incat also is negotiating contracts to bring work for several aerospace engineering projects to its offices in the Michigan cities of Troy and Novi.Tata Motors and Incat are arms of the Tata Group, a conglomerate that employs 289,500 people worldwide, does business in more than 80 countries and accounts for 3.2 percent of India’s gross domestic product. The group has 19,500 North American workers.The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and traces its origins to the 1860s, when Jamsetji Tata opened a trading company. He moved on to manufacturing, opening a textile factory in central India in 1874 and a steel company in 1907.Members of the Tata family have run the business through most of its 144 years, but two-thirds of its stock is held by two charitable foundations Jamsetji Tata set up.Tata’s businesses include: Tata Motors, the largest Indian manufacturer of cars and commercial vehicles; Tata Steel, one of the world’s biggest steelmakers; information technology services whose jobs include running Chrysler LLC’s dealer Web sites; and luxury hotels, including the Pierre overlooking Central Park in New York City.Incat handles an increasing amount of engineering work for automakers from Detroit, Europe, India, Japan and China.Employment at Incat’s Novi headquarters and Troy engineering center grew by 130 in the last year, to 500 today. The workforce there should hit 900 to 1,200 by 2011 as Incat adds business, Harris said.Incat is part of Tata Technologies, the engineering business that the group set up to handle Tata Motors’ engineering and product development.Tata Motors is a relative newcomer, opening shop in 1945 building railway engines and heavy-duty trucks. It introduced its first passenger car, the Indica compact, at the 1998 Geneva auto show.Tata Motors also is the most visible part of the company, gaining worldwide prominence this year with the introduction of its $2,500 Nano - a subcompact developed to be India’s Model T, the car that puts the nation on wheels - and its pending purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.The sale should be final in a few weeks.Tata sold 580,280 vehicles in its most recent fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2007. About 60 percent of its sales were commercial vehicles. Nearly 91 percent of its sales were in India, where it holds 64 percent of the truck business and a second-place 17 percent in the car market to Suzuki’s Indian unit, Maruti.But Tata’s domestic ranking is likely to change. Initial capacity for the Nano is 250,000 cars a year, and Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said output can rise to 450,000 a year “fairly quickly.” Tata also just introduced a new pickup that it developed with Fiat, and new versions of the Indica and its Sumo Grande SUV. It expects to add production of at least 200,000 units a year of its new Ace small van.Despite the hubbub surrounding the Nano and Jaguar-Land Rover, Kant knows Tata Motors has a long way to go before it can compete in developed markets.”We are working to increase our strength in the Indian market,” he said, “and create an international footprint in other markets - markets that are behind India or slightly ahead in their development.”The company’s core capabilities are low cost, reliability and repairability, Kant said. However, Tata’s cars lack the sophistication, comfort and performance necessary to compete with established automakers.Tata will gain some of those things from long-term agreements it is expected to sign with Ford to ensure Jaguar and Land Rover get the engines, electronics and other technologies they’ll need to compete with the likes of BMW, Cadillac, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz.Incat, which has a 20-year history of working with companies like Chrysler, Ford, Jaguar and Volvo, also will play a role, Harris said.”Mr. Kant has told us not to focus so much on time and cost, but to concentrate on quality,” engineering parts and systems for Tata, Harris said. “In the past, Indian customers had lower expectations for fit, quality, ride and handling, but the presence of global automakers has set a new benchmark that every indigenous Indian company is driving toward.”Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors and the Tata Group, “has aspirations of becoming a global player,” Harris said. “He knows the company must be driven by the standards of global excellence.”

Veracode, which was established by former Symantec employees and launched its initial service in February, is seeking to distinguish itself by focusing on backdoor detection and on-demand services.

Companies such as Fortify, whose products only scan program source code, aren’t able to find certain classes of security flaw, according to Veracode. The company argues its approach of scanning compiled, binary code is more accurate and complete.

“The binary represents the actual attack surface for the hacker,” said Veracode’s chief executive officer, Matt Moynahan, in a statement.

Backdoors, which are often included in programs by developers for legitimate purposes, nevertheless can pose a serious threat to companies, Veracode argues.

Financial services firms, which increasingly assemble their software from reusable binary components or rely on third-party development work, originally requested the ability to detect such backdoors, Veracode said. The company is also focusing on military software, but said any organisation could be under threat from backdoors.

Veracode’s research has found that backdoors are typically eliminated from open-source software in weeks but could exist undetected in commercial applications for years.

The company also cites research from the US Department of Homeland Security pointing to a significant risk from backdoors. The research found that 23 software packages that US government employees might download for tools or development had backdoors within them.

BOULDER, Colo. The man nominated to lead the state’s flagship university is an oilman, not an academic. In a sea of Ph.Ds, he has only a bachelor’s degree. But he does offer this: A reputation as a formidable fundraiser.Bruce Benson’s nomination may be bitterly dividing this 52,000-student, three-campus institution, but it is a sign that dollars, not degrees, are playing a bigger role in choosing college presidents. Though Benson would be one of only a fraction of college presidents without an advanced degree, he says he’s not worried about doing the job.”People say, ‘What are the most important issues?’ I say, funding, funding, funding,” Benson said. “I don’t think you need to have a Ph.D. in anything to talk to legislators and raise money. We have highly educated chancellors. I will work closely with them.”Campus observers have fiercely protested the selection, which has yet to be approved by regents. A “Boycott Benson” Web site questions the selection process and criticizes his background as a conservative Republican activist. The student government has voiced complaints, and a campus portrait of Benson was defaced with graffiti that said, “I’ve given CU enough $ for an individual right-wing nut like me to be CU’s president.”State House Majority Leader Alice Madden, a Democrat and CU law school graduate, declared that Benson would be “the least educated president ever considered in modern history.”Benson is the sole finalist for the job overseeing three campuses in Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs. In recent years, CU’s president has been more of a chief executive officer, with chancellors leading individual campuses.He would join a small club of college leaders without advanced credentials. A 2005 Chronicle of Higher Education survey of 764 presidents and chancellors found fewer than 1 percent held only a bachelor’s degree. More than 83 percent held a doctorate, while most others held master’s or professional degrees.”Generally speaking, for major research universities and colleges and liberal arts colleges, it would be indeed rare to appoint somebody to such a high position with no more than a bachelor’s degree,” said Jonathan Knight, associate secretary of the Washington-based American Association of University Professors.Benson, 69, insists his professional experience gives him an edge. He has chaired a $1 billion fundraising campaign for the school, successfully lobbied for a state law to give universities more money, and served on several education boards.After earning his B.A. from CU in geology, he abandoned a master’s degree to pursue a lucrative career in oil and gas. He went on to become owner and president of Benson Mineral Group, Inc., a Denver-based oil and gas exploration firm, and was CEO and President of United States Exploration Inc., a Montana-based oil and gas producer. He has served on numerous corporate boards.He recently was national co-chair of Mitt Romney’s recently suspended presidential campaign. That qualification, combined with his background in oil, has rankled many students and faculty at Boulder, whose climate researchers shared a Nobel Prize with Al Gore last year. Benson, however, says he quit politics after being named a finalist for president.That Benson is familiar with the university and Colorado tipped the scales in his favor over out-of-state candidates, said CU Regent Steve Bosley, who led the presidential search committee. Regents, in seeking a president, said an advanced degree would be advantageous but that they wanted a president to be a visionary, leader and fundraiser.Fundraising will have to be a priority for the university’s next president because a voter-approved measure in which taxpayers gave up billions of dollars in potential refunds to pay for higher education is expiring in a little more than two years. CU has a $2 billion annual budget, but Benson notes state funding only covers $180 million, and some of that is at risk in 2010.”We do have a financial crisis in this state in funding higher education, so we’re looking for somebody who could immediately have an understanding of the finances and a demonstrated ability to work with legislators across party lines,” Bosley said.As state budgets have squeezed public university funding, more and more campuses have chosen candidates with political or business connections. But they usually have advanced degrees. Last year, West Virginia University hired Mike Garrison, a former lobbyist and chief of staff to the governor who has a law degree. Former investment banker and White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles heads the University of North Carolina system. Bowles has an MBA.In December, the University of Missouri chose former Sprint Nextel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Gary Forsee, who has an undergraduate engineering degree, as its president. Lee T. Todd Jr., who has a doctorate in engineering, took over at the University of Kentucky in 2001 after leaving IBM’s Lotus Development Corp.Still, many faculty and students haven’t warmed to Benson, something that was evident in a meeting between Benson and students at Boulder Tuesday. A regents vote to approve his nomination has yet to be scheduled, and he is currently participating in rounds of question-and-answer sessions with staff and students.”It’s good the search committee is looking for somebody who is going to be able to fix our funding crisis … but how can you fundraise for a business you know nothing about?” said Hadley Brown, a student government member.Jerry Hauser, former chair of the Boulder Faculty Assembly, said he hasn’t made up his mind about Benson, but predicted he would have a tough time. “He has an awful lot of learning to do,” he said. “He’s going to have to scramble for the first six months or so. … Beginning with such an incredible absence of enthusiasm from faculty, it’s going to be very difficult for him.”

Walter BauerST. LOUIS (AP) - Dr. Walter Bauer, a pathologist and leader in the famous baby tooth study that helped show the spread of nuclear fallout, has died. He was 82.Bauer died Saturday after falling ill last month; he died of acute respiratory distress, his wife, Marcia Robbins Bauer, said Monday.Bauer, along with renowned biologist and environmentalist Barry Commoner, was a key founding member of a committee of St. Louis scientists and citizens concerned about nuclear testing in the 1950s, following development of the atom bomb in World War II.The Greater St. Louis Citizens Committee for Nuclear Information led the St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey from 1958 to 1970, which studied almost 300,000 baby teeth, searching for evidence of fallout from atomic and hydrogen bomb tests.The study found that the teeth had absorbed nuclear material through children’s consumption of milk from cows that ate contaminated grass. The findings contributed to a ban on above-ground testing of atomic bombs in the early 1960s.Other baby tooth surveys were formed and patterned after the St. Louis program elsewhere in the U.S. and overseas.—Earl GreenburgRANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) - Earl Greenburg, once president of the Home Shopping Network and an entertainment industry pioneer who elevated the profile of the Palm Springs International Film Festival by luring such stars as Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Halle Berry, has died. He was 61.Greenburg, who was also known for his philanthropy and leading the fight for AIDS research, died Friday at Eisenhower Medical Center of skin cancer. Greenburg’s son, Ari, said his father was first diagnosed with melanoma four years ago, but he seemed to have beaten it. It returned last year, he said.Greenburg, who became chairman of the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2004, was once president of the Home Shopping Network. He later promoted the infomercial industry as chairman of the Electronic Retailing Association.He was a founding partner of Transactional Marketing Partners in Santa Monica and was chief executive officer of Total Marketing Partners in Palm Springs.—Raymond JacobsREDDING, Calif. (AP) - Raymond Jacobs, believed to be the last living Marine photographed during the original flag-raising on Iwo Jima during World War II, died Jan. 29, of natural causes. He was 82.Jacobs died at a Redding hospital, his daughter, Nancy Jacobs, told The Associated Press.Jacobs spent his later years working to prove that he was the radio operator photographed gazing up at the American flag as it was being raised by other Marines over Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945.Newspaper accounts from the time show he was on the mountain during the initial raising of a smaller American flag, though he had returned to his unit by the time a more famous AP photograph was taken of a flag-raising re-enactment later the same day.Annette Amerman, a historian with the Marine Corps History Division, said in an e-mailed statement “there are many that believe” Jacobs was the radioman. “However, there are no official records produced at the time that can prove or refute Mr. Jacobs’ location.”The man with a radio on his back had usually been identified as Pfc. Gene Marshall, a radio operator with the 5th Marine Division who died in 1987. The other men involved in the raising all have died, including Charles Lindberg of Minnesota, who died last year.Jacobs was honorably discharged in 1946. He was called up during the Korean conflict in 1951 before retiring as a sergeant, his daughter said.—Shell KeplerPORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Actress Shell Kepler, who for years played the gossipy nurse Amy Vining on the TV soap opera “General Hospital,” has died. She was 49.Kepler died Friday at Oregon Health %26 Science University hospital, which did not give the cause of death.Kepler’s busybody character on “General Hospital” was a fan favorite and enjoyed a long run, 1979-2002. In addition to her run on “General Hospital,” she was also in a 1982 Joan Collins film, “Homework,” and a couple of episodes of the situation comedy “Three’s Company.”On the side, she was a businesswoman, marketing clothing on the former Home Shopping Club. She said in a 1994 Associated Press interview that her “Lacy Afternoon” collection had sales topping $20 million that year alone.Kepler was born in Ohio and the family moved to California when she was 10. She recalled in 1994 that she didn’t yet have a driver’s license when she began trying out for film roles. She moved to Portland after her TV career and became involved in charity fundraising.—Ed VargoBUTLER, Pa. (AP) - Ed Vargo, a longtime National League umpire who worked in four World Series and was behind the plate when Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s career home run mark, has died. He was 79.Vargo died Saturday at his home in Butler, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh, according to Geibel Funeral Home in Butler.Vargo umpired in the National League from 1960-83, worked the 1965, 1971, 1978 and 1983 World Series and in four All-Star games.Vargo is the only major league umpire to call a no-hitter and a perfect game for the same pitcher, according to MLB’s Web site. He was behind home plate for Sandy Koufax’s no-hitter on June 4, 1964, and his perfect game on Sept. 9, 1965.A one-time minor league catcher, Vargo stayed in baseball long after leaving the field. He was the supervisor of umpires for the National League from 1987-97. Edward P. Vargo was born in Butler in 1928. One of his first jobs was as a batboy and equipment manager for the Butler Yankees.

WASHINGTON The Energy Department on Wednesday canceled a futuristic, virtually emissions-free coal plant scheduled to be built in Illinois, saying it preferred to spend the money on a handful of projects around the country that would demonstrate the capture and burial of carbon dioxide from commercial power plants.”This restructuring … is an all-around better deal for Americans,” said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in making the announcement to scuttle the FutureGen program.Bodman said the Energy Department would solicit industry applications for participation in the new carbon capture projects. The idea is for the government to pay for building the carbon capture and storage facilities and industry to build the modern coal-burning power plant. Each project would be designed to capture 1 million metric tons of CO2, the leading greenhouse gas linked to global warming, officials said.The shift has stunned officials in Illinois, where an industry group announced in December it would build the $1.8 billion FutureGen plant, three-fourths of which was being paid for by the federal government - funds now no longer available.The FutureGen program was envisioned as a unique research project that would trigger development of a virtually pollution-free coal plant where carbon dioxide emissions would be captured and buried deep beneath the earth. It would produce both electricity and hydrogen.First proposed nearly a decade ago with an estimated cost of just under $1 billion, its cost has soared to nearly double that. The project for years had trouble getting adequate funds and some critics long ago dubbed it “Never Gen.” But in 2003, President Bush hailed it as a potential breakthrough in clean coal technology and a key to eventually achieve wider use of hydrogen as a fuel.The FutureGen Alliance issued a statement saying it “remains committed to keeping FutureGen on track” but it was unclear how that would be possible without the federal funding.Michael Mudd, the alliance’s chief executive officer, called the project “America’s best hope for near-zero emission coal technology” as quickly as possible. “It will take four to five years for DOE to evaluate new proposals, place contracts, and conduct environmental reviews for new projects,” said Mudd in a statement on the Alliance’s Web site.The Energy Department on Wednesday cited its concern about the FutureGen cost escalation. Officials said it was preferable to pursue separate clean coal technologies instead of what one official called “a living laboratory” concept. It will begin a process leading to a solicitation of industry bids for projects by the end of the year.”There was a consensus view that the price of this project will only increase,” said Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell of the FutureGen program.Sell said FutureGen was viewed has having little prospect of commercial viability. If industry pulled out of the program at some point in the future “it would put taxpayers at risk,” said Sell.The announcement to cancel the program came 43 days after the FutureGen Alliance, the private coalition developing the program, announced it would build the plant in Mattoon, Ill., winning a competition with two other sites in Texas.Illinois’ congressional delegation waged a last ditch, and unsuccessful, appeal to the White House to keep the project intact.Illinois Reps. John Shimkus and Timothy Johnson, both Republicans, contacted President Bush aboard Air Force I.”President Bush did take the time to listen to our concerns,” said Shimkus.Some Illinois officials, noting Bush’s connections to Texas, said they believe the plant was scuttled because the industry group had selected Mattoon, Ill., over a proposed side in Odessa, Tex.Sell called such a charge “outrageous” and said the department had tried to keep the FutureGen Alliance from making a site selection on Dec. 18, so as not to give false hope to the people of Mattoon, where the project would have brought thousands of construction jobs.Sell said he and Bodman learned only last March that FutureGen’s cost had escalated from an original $950 million to $1.8 billion. “I knew (then) that we were in to something that would not end well,” Sell told reporters in a conference call Wednesday.The department will propose as part of its fiscal 2009 budget to be unveiled next Monday $241 million for demonstration programs involving carbon capture and storage from coal-burning power plants, including $156 million related to the FutureGen “restructuring.”

JOB CHANGESTitleOne Corp., a locally owned and operated title and escrow company, has announced that Doug Brigham has joined its team as vice president for finance and strategic growth. Brigham’s background includes 20 years of operations, finance and administrative management in private industry. He has held increasingly responsible positions including treasurer, corporate controller and business unit chief financial officer. Most recently he served as senior vice president for business development for the Infrastructure Business unit at Washington Group International. Brigham is a Meridian High School graduate and earned a BA in Business Administration from The College of Idaho. He went on to get an MBA from Boise State University.George Seybold has accepted the position of project manager with Wirestone LLC. He comes to Wirestone with 14 years experience in online marketing, online community creation, Web analytics and search optimization.Formerly, Seybold held the position of brand marketing e-media manager at Weyerhaeuser’s building materials division, iLevel (formerly Boise-based Trus Joist), where he managed and set the strategic direction of the division’s online properties and online marketing promotional activities. He will maintain his seat on the Metrics and Standards board of Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization.RECOGNITIONThe National Association of Women Business Owners, Boise Area and Southern Idaho Chapter, announced the winners for its Business Women of the Year Awards. This is the sixth year NAWBO has recognized Idaho business women who exemplify excellence in business accomplishments, employee development, achievement, community leadership and advocacy for women professionals. Joan Stephens, CR, of Stronghold Remodeling Inc., won the Business Woman of the Year Award. Kandy Weaver, of Kandy Weaver and Associates LLC, was also nominated. In other categories, Paula Miller, owner of Framed!, won the award for Business Woman of the Year - Up and Coming. The other nominees were Tawni Weaver of ReNu Medispa, Rebecca Evans of Inner Element, and Robin Phipps Woodall of Tone Athletic Club. Irene Deely, owner of the Woman of Steel Gallery, received the Trailblazer Award, given to an inspirational businesswoman whose accomplishments are in a field or industry where relatively few women have made inroads. Melanie Krause, of Cinder/Krause Consulting LLC, was also nominated. And Tamara Brandstetter, president and CEO of Delta Dental, received the Leadership Award, given to a woman who promotes a climate for a healthy business community on a local, regional and state level. Other finalists were Rebecca Poedy, Idaho president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, and Judith Garzolini of Hewlett-Packard.Dr. Carl Thornfeldt, chief executive officer and founder of Boise-based Episciences Inc. and practicing dermatologist, and the Epionce product line are featured in three national publications this month. Thornfeldt was interviewed for and appears in the article “Chemical Peels Today” in the January/February issue of Medesthetics Magazine, a trade publication for physicians and medical spa professionals. The article highlights the Epionce Equalizer Peel, a chemical peel for sensitive skin. He was also interviewed for and appears in Household and Personal Products Industry’s January issue article “Transdermal Delivery: Marketers rely on a variety of ways to deliver active materials to the skin.” Finally, the Epionceproduct line is featured in the January issue of Dermascope Magazine, another skin care trade publication for estheticians, spa owners and the salon industries. Thornfeldt wrote an article, “Skin 101,” that will appear in the February issue of Dermascope as well.

WASHINGTON The Energy Department on Wednesday canceled a futuristic, virtually emissions-free coal plant scheduled to be built in Illinois, saying it preferred to spend the money on a handful of projects around the country that would demonstrate the capture and burial of carbon dioxide from commercial power plants.”This restructuring … is an all-around better deal for Americans,” said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in making the announcement to scuttle the FutureGen program.Bodman said the Energy Department would solicit industry applications for participation in the new carbon capture projects. The idea is for the government to pay for building the carbon capture and storage facilities and industry to build the modern coal-burning power plant. Each project would be designed to capture 1 million metric tons of CO2, the leading greenhouse gas linked to global warming, officials said.The shift has stunned officials in Illinois, where an industry group announced in December it would build the $1.8 billion FutureGen plant, three-fourths of which was being paid for by the federal government - funds now no longer available.The FutureGen program was envisioned as a unique research project that would trigger development of a virtually pollution-free coal plant where carbon dioxide emissions would be captured and buried deep beneath the earth. It would produce both electricity and hydrogen.First proposed nearly a decade ago with an estimated cost of just under $1 billion, its cost has soared to nearly double that. The project for years had trouble getting adequate funds and some critics long ago dubbed it “Never Gen.” But in 2003, President Bush hailed it as a potential breakthrough in clean coal technology and a key to eventually achieve wider use of hydrogen as a fuel.The FutureGen Alliance issued a statement saying it “remains committed to keeping FutureGen on track” but it was unclear how that would be possible without the federal funding.Michael Mudd, the alliance’s chief executive officer, called the project “America’s best hope for near-zero emission coal technology” as quickly as possible. “It will take four to five years for DOE to evaluate new proposals, place contracts, and conduct environmental reviews for new projects,” said Mudd in a statement on the Alliance’s Web site.The Energy Department on Wednesday cited its concern about the FutureGen cost escalation. Officials said it was preferable to pursue separate clean coal technologies instead of what one official called “a living laboratory” concept. It will begin a process leading to a solicitation of industry bids for projects by the end of the year.”There was a consensus view that the price of this project will only increase,” said Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell of the FutureGen program.Sell said FutureGen was viewed has having little prospect of commercial viability. If industry pulled out of the program at some point in the future “it would put taxpayers at risk,” said Sell.The announcement to cancel the program came 43 days after the FutureGen Alliance, the private coalition developing the program, announced it would build the plant in Mattoon, Ill., winning a competition with two other sites in Texas.Illinois’ congressional delegation waged a last ditch, and unsuccessful, appeal to the White House to keep the project intact.Illinois Reps. John Shimkus and Timothy Johnson, both Republicans, contacted President Bush aboard Air Force I.”President Bush did take the time to listen to our concerns,” said Shimkus.Some Illinois officials, noting Bush’s connections to Texas, said they believe the plant was scuttled because the industry group had selected Mattoon, Ill., over a proposed side in Odessa, Tex.Sell called such a charge “outrageous” and said the department had tried to keep the FutureGen Alliance from making a site selection on Dec. 18, so as not to give false hope to the people of Mattoon, where the project would have brought thousands of construction jobs.Sell said he and Bodman learned only last March that FutureGen’s cost had escalated from an original $950 million to $1.8 billion. “I knew (then) that we were in to something that would not end well,” Sell told reporters in a conference call Wednesday.The department will propose as part of its fiscal 2009 budget to be unveiled next Monday $241 million for demonstration programs involving carbon capture and storage from coal-burning power plants, including $156 million related to the FutureGen “restructuring.”

JOB CHANGESTitleOne Corp., a locally owned and operated title and escrow company, has announced that Doug Brigham has joined its team as vice president for finance and strategic growth. Brigham’s background includes 20 years of operations, finance and administrative management in private industry. He has held increasingly responsible positions including treasurer, corporate controller and business unit chief financial officer. Most recently he served as senior vice president for business development for the Infrastructure Business unit at Washington Group International. Brigham is a Meridian High School graduate and earned a BA in Business Administration from The College of Idaho. He went on to get an MBA from Boise State University.George Seybold has accepted the position of project manager with Wirestone LLC. He comes to Wirestone with 14 years experience in online marketing, online community creation, Web analytics and search optimization.Formerly, Seybold held the position of brand marketing e-media manager at Weyerhaeuser’s building materials division, iLevel (formerly Boise-based Trus Joist), where he managed and set the strategic direction of the division’s online properties and online marketing promotional activities. He will maintain his seat on the Metrics and Standards board of Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization.RECOGNITIONThe National Association of Women Business Owners, Boise Area and Southern Idaho Chapter, announced the winners for its Business Women of the Year Awards. This is the sixth year NAWBO has recognized Idaho business women who exemplify excellence in business accomplishments, employee development, achievement, community leadership and advocacy for women professionals. Joan Stephens, CR, of Stronghold Remodeling Inc., won the Business Woman of the Year Award. Kandy Weaver, of Kandy Weaver and Associates LLC, was also nominated. In other categories, Paula Miller, owner of Framed!, won the award for Business Woman of the Year - Up and Coming. The other nominees were Tawni Weaver of ReNu Medispa, Rebecca Evans of Inner Element, and Robin Phipps Woodall of Tone Athletic Club. Irene Deely, owner of the Woman of Steel Gallery, received the Trailblazer Award, given to an inspirational businesswoman whose accomplishments are in a field or industry where relatively few women have made inroads. Melanie Krause, of Cinder/Krause Consulting LLC, was also nominated. And Tamara Brandstetter, president and CEO of Delta Dental, received the Leadership Award, given to a woman who promotes a climate for a healthy business community on a local, regional and state level. Other finalists were Rebecca Poedy, Idaho president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, and Judith Garzolini of Hewlett-Packard.Dr. Carl Thornfeldt, chief executive officer and founder of Boise-based Episciences Inc. and practicing dermatologist, and the Epionce product line are featured in three national publications this month. Thornfeldt was interviewed for and appears in the article “Chemical Peels Today” in the January/February issue of Medesthetics Magazine, a trade publication for physicians and medical spa professionals. The article highlights the Epionce Equalizer Peel, a chemical peel for sensitive skin. He was also interviewed for and appears in Household and Personal Products Industry’s January issue article “Transdermal Delivery: Marketers rely on a variety of ways to deliver active materials to the skin.” Finally, the Epionceproduct line is featured in the January issue of Dermascope Magazine, another skin care trade publication for estheticians, spa owners and the salon industries. Thornfeldt wrote an article, “Skin 101,” that will appear in the February issue of Dermascope as well.