Business
Quick takes
ATTEND CONFERENCE:
J.C. Collins Realtors agents Cindy Alloggia, Noelle Koos, Joann Albaugh, Carolyn Turnbull and Amy Beaman attended the 99th annual convention of the Ohio Association of Realtors in Columbus in September.
Highlights included the naming of the state’s Realtor of the Year and the President’s Sales Club Dinner.
In addition, attending Realtors were given the opportunity for education courses, general interest sessions and visited displays of products and services by more than 50 exhibitors.
The Ohio Association of Realtors, with more than 35,000 members, is the largest professional trade association in the state.
OMEGA EVENT: Gov. Ted Strickland is the keynote speaker for the semi-annual meeting of the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association Thursday afternoon in Cambridge.
The meeting will be held at the Francis Family Restaurant, 1038 Wheeling Ave., Cambridge, beginning at noon. Reservations are required and must be made by Monday.
To file a reservation or learn more about OMEGA programs, contact Marybeth Porter at (740) 439-4471 or (800) 726-6342 or by e-mail at mbporter@omegadistrict.org.
CERTWOOD’S HERE: Certwood Ltd., a British plastics manufacturer, officially has established its presence in Jefferson County.
According to Progress Alliance, Certwood officially lists its local distribution center on a map in its latest catalog. Certwood uses 6,000 square feet of warehouse space at 110 Main St., Wintersville, in the Riesbeck’s plaza. Company officials are continuing to attend trade shows around the nation to promote U.S. sales of its plastic storage products, aimed at classroom educators.
CIC MEETS: The Community Improvement Corp. board of trustees, which oversees the operation of the Progress Alliance public-private economic development organization in Jefferson County, will meet at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the offices of the Jefferson County Job and Family Services at 125 S. Fifth St. downtown.
The county is host for the November CIC meeting, which will feature a discussion of Steel Valley Regional Transit Authority operations from the authority manager, Frank Bovina.
SVRTA recently joined the CIC.
PRAYER BREAKFAST: The annual interfaith prayer breakfast for the local economy will be held at 7:30 a.m. Friday at The Rose, 680 Lovers Lane. The Rev. Phillip Makari will deliver the keynote address, “The Biblical Call to Thanksgiving.”
For reservations, send an e-mail to 2009prayerbreakfast@gmail.com or call (740) 282-1132 by the end of the day Monday. The suggested donation for the event is $5.
ASSOCIATE: The law firm of Steptoe & Johnson welcomes Michael McCarthy as a new associate in the firm’s Charleston office. McCarthy will focus his practice in the area of litigation.
McCarthy received his undergraduate education from Washington and Jefferson College and his legal education from Washington and Lee University. While at Washington and Lee, he was the executive editor of the Washington and Lee Law Review.
SAFETY COUNCIL: The Jefferson County Safety Council will hear a discussion of firearms safety by certified firearms instructor Rev. Harry Croft when the group meets Wednesday at noon at the YWCA on North Fourth Street downtown.
(Send news items or photographs for inclusion in the Sunday Business section to Paul Giannamore, Business Editor, 401 Herald Square, Steubenville, OH 43952; or fax to (740) 284-7355 or via e-mail at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com. We cannot guarantee the return of photographs. Questions? Call Giannamore at (740) 283-4711, ext. 357.)
Bayer offers contest for children
PITTSBURGH — Bayer Corp. and the United Nations Environment Program are offering pupils between the ages of 6 and 14 in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle the opportunity to enter an art contest with two fully-paid trips as the potential prize.
The contest, part of the 19th annual International Children’s Painting Competiton, is for children’s art focusing on protecting Earth’s life forms and natural resources. The theme of the competition is “Biodiversity: Connecting with Nature.”
Artwork must be submitted on either letter- or legal-sized paper and be received by the U.N. program by April 15. For entry rules, visit www.BayerUS.com/MSMS.
Regional winners will be announced April 30. The world winner will go to Pittsburgh for World Environment Day June 5 and to Aichi, Japan, later in the year for the 2010 Tunza International Children’s Conference, the U.N.Environment Program’s world youth forum.
Bayer, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is a subsidiary of Germany’s Bayer AG, a health care, nutrition and high-tech materials company. In the region, in addition to its Pittsburgh headquarters, Bayer has a plant in New Martinsville.
Toyota workers grieve to NLRB
BUFFALO, W.Va. — Workers at the Toyota Motor Corp. plant in Buffalo have filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, saying they’re being denied the right to pass out union literature.
The complaint was filed at the federal agency’s regional office in Cincinnati.
Toyota employees Tim Smith and Richard Snyder say they were denied permission to distribute union literature during break periods.
Mitch Weese, human resources director for the Buffalo plant, says the company has no immediate comment on the complaint.
But Weese says company policy does restrict the distribution of literature to non-work times and non-work areas.
The engine and transmission plant in Buffalo employs 1,050 people.
Venezuela nationalizes coffee firms
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez’s government on Wednesday nationalized two coffee companies, including Fama de America, one of Venezuela’s largest coffee producers.
The state-run Bolivarian News Agency said presidential decrees published in the Official Gazette ordered the government takeover of Fama de America and Cafea, which together control about 80 percent of the local coffee market.
Company executives were not immediately available to comment.
Government officials took control of some operations at Fama de America, which was founded in 1887, and Cafea earlier this year.
Chavez’s government has nationalized major players in the electricity, steel and cement sectors since 2007, as well as four major oil projects.
It now says it’s asserting control over coffee companies that it accuses of acting as monopolies and flouting price controls by smuggling coffee into Colombia. Government officials have said they also hope to purchase a majority stake in a third company, Cafe Madrid.
A spokesman for Cafe Madrid said the company would not immediately comment on the government plan.
Col. Carlos Osorio, an army officer in charge of food distribution, said the move will give other smaller coffee producers access to better distribution. He said the government plans to combine Fama America and Cafe Madrid into a single business with a reduced market share.
Yahoo boss vows turnaround ahead
SINGAPORE — Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Carol Bartz promised Tuesday to turn around the struggling Internet company after this year’s ‘‘terrible’’ performance.
Bartz reiterated her goal to boost operating profit margin to between 15 percent and 20 percent within the next two or three years by spurring revenue and cutting costs.
That would be a sharp improvement over this year’s margins of 6 percent — a result she described as ‘‘terrible, terrible.’’
‘‘Yahoo is certainly poised to execute financially,’’ Bartz said at a luncheon hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. ‘‘We saw the economy stabilize in the last quarter and that feels really good.’’
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo has been losing ground to Google Inc. and other hot Web sites, such as Facebook. Yahoo expects revenue to fall in 2009 by 11 percent to $6.4 billion, despite trimming its work force by 13 percent, or 2,000 jobs in the past year.
Bartz, who plans to meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later this week, said Yahoo plans to expand its operations in India and hire more staff, but she did not give additional details.
Mutual, Oprah spar over ‘aha moment’
OMAHA, Neb. — Mutual of Omaha may have had its own ‘‘aha moment.’’ The insurance company has decided to settle its lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey’s production company over rights to the phrase.
Jim Nolan, a spokesman for Mutual, and Angela DePaul, a spokeswoman for Winfrey’s Chicago-based Harpo Productions Inc., would only say Monday that the case was resolved amicably. Documents filed last month in U.S. District Court in Omaha do not outline details of the settlement.
Mutual and Harpo began sparring earlier this year after Mutual starting using the slogan ‘‘official sponsor of the aha moment’’ in a national advertising campaign.
Harpo asked Mutual in a letter to stop using ‘‘aha moment’’ to promote its insurance and financial products because it didn’t want confusion about whether there was a relationship between Mutual and Winfrey. Winfrey’s representatives argued in April that the phrase was synonymous with Winfrey and her show. Winfrey often discusses ‘‘aha moments’’ — described on her magazine’s Web site as ‘‘those flashes of understanding’’ — with guests on her show.
By The Associated?Press
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