March 4, 2011

An ambitious plan to enlist farmers to grow grass for fuel on thousands of acres of their land depends in the short term on federal funding that’s uncertain and in the long term on national energy and environmental policy that’s changeable. To plant up to 50,000 acres of Miscanthus Giganteus in each of three project […]

Small businesses often rely heavily on loans to stay afloat. The recent economic recession has created a reduction in available credit for many small businesses, which makes it difficult for many businesses to operate. Tansel Yilmazer of MU’s College of Human Environmental Sciences said that lack of available credit has forced many small-business owners to

1020 E. Walnut | (573) 424-3757 | www.comoacademyofmusic.com Musicians of all ages have a new place to learn, practice and play — the Columbia Academy of Music. The music school opened on March 1, and The Bridge, a venue in the same downtown building, has its first show booked for March 19. The Bridge will

The annual Columbia Chamber of Commerce Business Showcase will be held March 15 at the Holiday Inn Executive Center. Self-marketing guru Jeff Beals will be the keynote speaker during the luncheon. The schedule of events: Tuesday, March 15 7:15 a.m. Doors open for check-in to Quarterly Membership Breakfast. Breakfast is not included with booth price.

Midwestern students dreaming of futures in the film industry don’t need to head off to Los Angeles to get to work. The opportunity to take part in the production of a feature-length film exists at the University of Missouri, where the fourth film since 2005 is in the works. The upcoming movie’s cast and crew

A few years ago, I saw a comedian whose entire routine was based on “first thought wrong.” He openly stated those initial thoughts that run through our heads, the ones that often aren’t spoken because it seems inappropriate to verbalize them. For this comedian, they were wildly inappropriate and hysterically funny. What happens, though, when

Ornamental grass increasingly targeted as biofuel source Professor Stephen Long has been studying Miscanthus Giganteus for the better part of three decades. The University of Illinois crop scientist began investigating the plant for use as a biofuel in Europe and performed research for universities there as well as the European Union before moving to Illinois

I saw an opinion piece by Robert Reich last week in which he argued that the US recovery is not real until we see jobs recovering. Lots of people have turned to the game of computing what job gains would have to be realized to get back to the employment peak before the recession started

Columbia’s Gross Domestic Product, the market value of all goods and services made in the metropolitan area, grew about 3 percent in 2009 while the vast majority of other U.S. cities had GDP declines, according a new federal report. The latest estimate of real GDP, the measurement that compensates for the changes in the value

Hansman Custom Homes is building two houses in The Cascades, both of them speculative. John Hansman said of the 30 homes he built in the past year, 10 were in The Cascades. He estimated 60 percent of the homes he built last year were speculative — and they’ve all been purchased. “The demand has been