Area Spotlights

Still learning to fly? California knows how to make a nest for you, then kick you out.

Seventy years ago Stanley Davis purchased St. Peter Creamery, in the eponymous town located just north of Mankato and about an hour southwest of Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Foreign investors, entrepreneurs and defense-related companies are transforming two once-sleepy North Florida markets from raw material-dependent communities into thriving high-tech centers of global commerce.

Satirists Draw Scorn For Creating Actual Jobs.' "No way to treat loyal scoffers," says straight-faced applicant.

"It is exciting to see South Carolina once again recognized as the 'it' place for business investment," noted Gov. Nikki Haley in January, when her Commerce Department announced the Palmetto State's first-place finish in a ranking of foreign direct investment (FDI) destination states for 2011 based on estimated jobs.

Perhaps it's the incentives directed specifically at aerospace company investment. Perhaps it's the presence of three national laboratories and dozens of others, three Air Force bases and three test facilities.

Suppliers to two of Alabama’s key industries announced new operations in the state in December, including the first to supply Airbus’ new A320 production plant in Mobile (see the Aerospace Report in the November 2011 issue).

Ole Miss has a new way to prepare business students for more satisfying careers in the manufacturing sector — and for manufacturers to access engineers, accountants and other business majors with an actual understanding of manufacturing.

Maine is a bundle of contradiction, wrapped snugly in traditional New England eccentricity.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter says he had two primary goals when he came into office in 2007: Grow the state’s economy and streamline state government.

“Welcome to NikeTown!,” read the signs outside the Oregon state capitol in Salem in December.

When two multinational firms announced recently that they would invest a combined US$3.1 billion to build nitrogen fertilizer production units in Iowa, the news only confirmed what many economists had begun to see throughout the Midwest.

This fall, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead presided over the opening of the $70-million National Center for Atmospheric Research west of Cheyenne, while also formulating a new energy strategy. The state’s more than 42 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves continue to play a major part in energy strategy and in the atmosphere, not to mention the state’s high-ranking business climate and fiscal soundness.

If the Mac’s coming back, could the Empire State be its destination?

The ink from Gov. Rick Snyder’s signature on House Bill 4003 and Senate Bill 116 was barely dry when reaction started pouring in to the legislation that will make Michigan the 24th right-to-work state on April 1, 2013.

A beneficial tax climate helps grow Washington’s diverse economy.

Johnson County encompasses 20 municipalities, with Overland Park and Lenexa leading the way in recent corporate facility development. The county itself has no economic development agency. What it does have is a reputation for wealth, and for a wealth of education excellence.

A high-tech cluster adds solar device innovation to its roster. Development of new solar energy technologies figures to be a major driver in the economy of Upstate New York in the coming years.

Gavilon, TPG lead a new wave of companies expanding in Nebraska. The search for a new corporate headquarters home for grain and commodity trading firm Gavilon didn’t take long. America’s 19th largest private company found exactly what it wanted in its hometown of Omaha, Neb.

Projects up and down the seaboard help companies look outward and inward all at once.

Business builders find the knowledge capital they need in college towns in the Southwest. Across New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona, entrepreneurs are tapping into this base of knowledge capital to propel their companies into rapid growth.

Tennessee: “We Will Live By This”

Montana ended the last fiscal year on June 30 with more than $453 million in surplus funds, the second highest amount in state government history.