HUNTSVILLE, AL — The US Small Business Administration announced today that federal disaster loans are available to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses and most private nonprofit organizations of all sizes in Madison, Jackson, Lauderdale and Limestone counties as a result of drought and excessive heat that beganJune 1, 2010.

These counties are eligible because they are contiguous to one or more primary counties in Tennessee, said Frank Skaggs, director of SBAs field operations center east in Atlanta, in a release. The SBA, he said, recognizes that disasters do not usually stop at county or state lines. For that reason, counties adjacent to primary counties named in the declaration are included.

When the Secretary of Agriculture issues a disaster declaration to help farmers recover from damages and losses to crops, the Small Business Administration issues a declaration to assist eligible entities affected by the same disaster, said Skaggs.

The SBAs Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is available to eligible farm-related and nonfarm-related entities that suffered financial losses as a direct result of the drought and heat. Farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers arent eligible to apply to SBA, but nurseries are eligible to apply for the disaster loans for losses caused by drought conditions.

Loan amounts can be up to $2 million, with interest rates of 3 percent for nonprofit organizations and 4 percent for small businesses. Terms can be up to 30 years.

These working capital loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that could have been paid if the disaster had not occurred. The loans arent intended to replace lost sales or profits.

To get information on the SBAs Disaster Loan Program or application forms or to apply online visit www.sba.gov, call the SBAs Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955 (800-877-8339 for people with speech and hearing disabilities) Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm ET or send an e-mail to disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.

Completed loan applications must be returned to the SBA no later than Oct. 17, 2011.

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February 17, 2011 Rising costs worry businesses in US With winter frost damaging crops, food prices had biggest spike in Jan. in over 2 years, while gas prices are up 22%

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Target Corporation, the largest discount retailer in the US after WalMart, saw nearly one billion visitors to its online store Target.com in 2009. The rapidity with which retail buying is moving online has persuaded the $65-billion company to completely re-do its online platform, to make it more user friendly and capable of handling mobile technologies. Much of that work is happening at its Bangalore technology centre. On a visit to the city recently, Target chief information officer Beth Jacob spoke to TOI about the initiative.

Tell us about your new e-commerce platform.

Online is a huge growth initiative for Target as customers want more information on the merchandise at home and on the go. Target India, along with our Minneapolis team, is developing a new dotcom platform that will debut shortly. There are about 700 people working on developing the e-commerce site. Teams go back and forth to build different pieces of the initiative. We are bringing best-of-breed technology providers to build what we believe is a differentiated experience for Target customers.

You are currently using Amazons e-platform. How will the new initiative be different from what you already have?

Yes, Amazon built and hosted it for us. Now we want to take over completely the reins of our website operations, hence moving out of the Amazon platform. If you think of a Target store, you would think about a friendly guest experience and an array of quality assortments. We want to personalize the customer experience and transport all of these elements online. For instance, pharmacy is a huge part of our growth strategy. We are designing an application called RedRock for pharmacists to help them check prescriptions for accuracy and patient safety. Currently, we have nearly 100 team members working on the programme, with more than half of them in Bangalore. We plan to add more team members, primarily in Bangalore, over the next several months.

Is data analytics a part of this?

The Bangalore team is working on analytics to understand how people shop. They are looking at assortment of products that customers put in their baskets. We want to increase the frequency of products being bought by analysing this data. We want to optimise the assortment in stores and increase pairing of products. You know, a small change in temperature impacts our sales. So we play around with the assortment depending on the change in temperature. Its called the 1-degree project, because theres sensitivity to even a 1-degree change in temperature. If you expect a particular weather and it turns out to be different, it will show up in the daily sales. We are also working on a proof-of-concept of a self-check out system. Customers can themselves scan their items, swipe the card or put cash in the tender.

Whats the rate of growth in mobile shopping transactions?

Mobile shopping transactions in the US have increased from $369 million in 2008 to almost $1.2 billion in 2009. Estimates for 2010 are about $2.4 billion. So mobile is a huge initiative for us, and much of the work on mobile is done out of Bangalore.

You started a mobile couponing scheme. How does that work?

We were the first retailer to offer mobile (discount) coupons on the phone. Once you sign up, you will be updated about the offers in our stores. For instance, if we have 10 offers running, it shows the barcode of the products on the face of your phone. The device at the cash counter is enabled to read the barcode and you can redeem the coupon value.

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A former Portland pizzeria manager admitted today he was the getaway driver for a revolver-packing bandit dubbed the River Rat.

Travis Oles, 36, told US District Judge Robert E. Jones that he had a cocaine problem in 2009, when he helped plan four bank heists in Northeast Portland and seven other holdups of banks and check-cashing businesses in Clark County, Wash.

Oles reportedly had worked for a time as a reserve officer with a small-town police department near the Puget Sound.

The accused River Rat, Alexey Perez-Hernandez, 33, is charged with brandishing a .38-caliber revolver as he stormed banks and check-cashing establishments in the Portland-Vancouver area.

Police named their suspect the River Rat because his robberies occurred on both sides of the Columbia River. Authorities in Portland plan on arraigning Perez-Hernandez on the same four-count indictment for which Oles pleaded guilty today.

Oles is expected to serve about 18 years in federal prison under the terms of a plea agreement.

– Bryan Denson

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• Date: 02-15-2011 Views:

  KeyWords: Aida Arenas,free to play,f2p,action,new mmo,GamerKraft

• Summary: Free-to-play MMO platform GamerKraft has a new title Aida Arenas for global gamers, especially those who love action games. The game set in the raucous world of Aida – a land where adventuring, treasure-hunting, and good ol fashioned rough-housing are the primary pastimes.

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DANES THRILLED ABOUT E-SHOPPINGJan. 25, 2011
| Topic: Society and living

On average, Danish customers spent DKK 12,310 on e-shopping in 2010.

That is the highest amount among all European countries, according to an international survey conducted by the trading platform Kelkoo, writes Børsen.

Danish citizens spent almost DKK 1,000more than internet shoppersinUK, who are second on the list.

The average European customer spent DKK 8,000.

In total, e-shopping transactions in Denmarkconstituted DKK 33.5 billion in 2010 and this revenue is expected togrow to DKK 38.8 billion in 2011, which would be an increase of 16 percent.

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has tasked a 30-person committee with helping double the involvement of minority- and women-owned businesses in state contracts.

Cuomo wants to have 20 percent of state contracts and procurement deals to go to “minority- or women-owned business enterprises,” or M/WBE firms.

The rate of involvement today is 9 percent, falling shy of the state’s target of 10 percent. The rates vary within certain state agencies.

“We must always look for ways to improve and strengthen our business climate and make it reflective of our current world,” Cuomo said.

About half of the businesses in the state are M/WBE firms, or could qualify as such under state certification. About 6,400 businesses have registered with the state as M/WBE companies.

Recent governors have pushed to increase the involvement of M/WBE firms in contracting. Former Gov. David Paterson, the state’s first black governor, signed multiple bills aimed at making it easier for M/WBE firms to be certified by the state and compete for contracts.

Cuomo gave the team from March 1 to May 1 to identify a plan to improve M/WBE participation in the state contracting and procurement processes. The plan must be fully implemented by mid-2012.

The state paid $1 million for a 2010 study that concluded M/WBE firms were discriminated against in the private sector and in the state’s contracting processes. Cuomo directed the new committee to use the report as a basis for its work.

For a roster of committee members, go to governor.ny.gov.

Related story:

Study: MWBE firms get short end of stick in state contracting process

asichko@bizjournals.com | 518-640-6818

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Two people are in custody after local agents raid a Perry County home for possible drug activity.

Agents with the Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force raided a home in the 500 block of Harrison Street in New Lexington after reports of drug activity.

Agents said they found marijuana and prescription drugs in the home.

Two people were taken into custody, but their names were not released, pending formal charges being filed.

This bust was the latest in a series of those involving the sales and usage of illicit drugs.

Anyone with information regarding drug activity is urged to contact the Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force at 740-349-4TIPS or the Perry County sheriffs office at 740-342-4123. Calls can be made anonymously.

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By Scott Kirsner, Globe Columnist

It never hurts to highlight the parallels between your nascent start-up and a more successful and established company. The comparison that Pixability founder Bettina Hein likes to draw is between her 10-person Cambridge firm and Constant Contact, the publicly-traded Waltham company with more than 600 employees. Just as Constant Contact made it easier for small and mid-sized businesses to send out e-mail newsletters and marketing messages to their customers without being considered spammers, Pixability wants to help businesses make better use of online video.

“Creating video is really a hurdle for most smaller companies,” says Hein. “They may not have a camera, they may not know who to hire, and they don’t know where the video needs to be once it’s finished ? like YouTube and Facebook.” (Hein is second from the left in the picture. The other members of the Pixability team shown are, from left, Andreas Goeldi, CTO, Yelena Kadeykina, marketing director, and Apollo Sinkevicius, operations director.)

Pixability helps its clients produce videos for as little as $895, which can be added to their corporate Web sites and also uploaded to video-sharing sites where prospective customers might find them. (YouTube, Hein points out, is now the #2 search engine people use to find information online, after Google.) For that entry-level price, the company ships out a hand-held Flip video camera, and asks you to shoot up to 30 minutes of raw footage. Once you upload the footage you’ve shot to a private “online project area,” Pixability then handles the editing, integrating imagery like logos, PowerPoint slides, photos, or Web site screenshots. (They also add music.) The whole project gets done within two weeks from the time you upload the footage. One key to Pixability’s speed is that the videos are edited by a network of several dozen freelance editors around the country, rather than Pixability staffers.

The company was founded in 2008 to help consumers edit video footage of birthday parties and summer vacations. “That didn’t fly,” Hein says. In the fall of 2009, she decided to concentrate exclusively on video for businesses, and raised a small seed round from angel investors.

This latest $1 million funding round came together after Hein spoke at a meeting of the Angel Capital Association in Worcester last October. The focus was deal syndication: how the groups could collaborate better when making investments. Now, Pixability will become a kind of poster child for syndication among angel groups. Its latest round includes money from nine different angel groups, including Maine Angels, the eCoast Angel Network in New Hampshire, North Country Angels in Vermont, and Boston Harbor Angels and Launchpad Angel Group in Boston.

Hein says the largest single investor in Pixability is IKEA chairman Göran Grosskopf; he was also an investor and board member at Hein’s last start-up, a speech recognition company in Zurich, Switzerland called SVOX AG.

Hein says that only about 15 percent of Pixability’s customers so far have been from the Boston area, but that group includes companies like CloudSwitch, High Start Group, MIT, and Houghton Mifflin.

Several of Pixability’s board members and board observers, interestingly, have ties to Constant Contact: two were early investors in the e-mail marketing company, and one, Janet Muto, once served as Constant Contact’s chief marketing officer.

Hein is also the founder of a networking group for about 100 female leaders called the “She-EOs,” which convenes once a month for a meal. (There is no Web site yet.)

(The Globe covered Pixability in greater detail last May.)

tags Bettina Hein, Constant Contact, Pixability, video

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