Briefs

by John Temple Ligon

The Best

Earlier this month the Society for Human Resource Management - South Carolina State Council (in partnership with Setcom Media, SC Jobnetwork.com, the SC Chamber of Commerce, and Best Companies Group) announced their 2006 selection of the best places to work in South Carolina:

Buist Moore Smythe McGee P.A.; Buist, Byars, Pearce & Taylor, LLC; Carolinas Hospital System Colonial Supplemental Insurance; Edward Jones; FGP International; First Financial Holdings, Inc.; First Reliance Bank; Life Cycle Engineering; SC State Credit Union; Shred First, LLC; South Carolina Bank and Trust Financial Corp.; South Carolina Education Lottery; The Jackson Companies; Time Warner Cable - SC Division

Hilton Head: 21 acres for $225

That was the price paid by former slave Matthew Jones in the 1880s. Jones was born into slavery near Columbia in 1845. His great-great-grandson Adolph Brown and another 180 heirs of the Jones property have formed a limited liability corporation, Jones Family LLC, for development, and they see a $16 million take-home.

S.C. unemployment

The S.C. jobless rate in September was 6.4%, down from the previous month but still the fourth highest in the country. S.C. added 6,900 jobs in September, and Governor Sanford said earlier this month nearly 125,000 jobs had been created since he took office. Mississippi, Michigan, and Alaska had higher jobless rates.

S.C. population

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, S.C. had 4,255,083 people in 2005.

Yeah, nice, but can you get a

Columbia mechanic to work on it?

Aston Martin, the exotic English car company owned by Ford since 1987, is being sold for probably more than $1.3 billion, industry insiders say. In Goldfinger , in the early 1960s, James Bond drove an Aston Martin six-cylinder DB5. The 2006 12-cylinder DB9 can be bought for about $170,000 from the Aston Martin dealer in Atlanta.

Geddings waits

In the second week of October, Democrat lobbyist Kevin Geddings heard a federal jury convict him of five counts of mail fraud, possibly good for as much as $1 million in fines and 100 years in jail. Sentencing is set for February 5. Geddings, the former chief of staff for S.C. Governor Hodges, failed last year to disclose his recent paid relationship with lottery company Scientific Games while he signed on as a member of the state lottery commission in N.C. Also with Scientific Games about the same time was SCANA lobbyist Meredith Norris, 32, who failed to disclose her ties with SCANA and with Scientific Games. Even though Norris had contracted with SCANA to collect $2,500 a month from March 2005 through February 2006, she never actually lobbied on SCANA's behalf, the prosecutor determined. She did, though, promote Scientific Games while she worked for N.C. House Speaker Jim Black, who testified in the Geddings trial about his personal relationship with his aide Norris. She was convicted in May with lobbying law violations. According to the Raleigh News & Observer , SCANA attorney Joseph B. Cheshire V said, "Norris's contract was the only document that SCANA had to share with state officials regarding her work."

Krispy Kreme slows down

Winston-Salem-based Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. expanded north a few years ago, and in August 2003 its stock price hit almost $50, up from $10 in 2000. But in October 2005 it fell below $5. Now it's just under $9, but more trouble is on the way. Chicago and New York City are about to ban a key ingredient in its doughnuts. Like smoking in public places and work spaces, trans-fatty acids could get banned. The first doughnuts might have been fried in Greece, but trans fat is what Krispy Kreme uses, and a ban of the ingredient could severely hurt the company.

Savannah River Site

The SRS is one of five nuclear weapons facilities in the country under consideration for new facilities for plutonium research and bomb trigger assembly. Together, the two activities at SRS could add another 1,000 jobs. A decision from the National Nuclear Security Administration is expected in 2008. Also, SRS is scheduled to start construction of a mixed-oxide plant that can convert surplus nuclear material into fuel for generating electricity.

Top dollar

In 1999, the Mount Pleasant Towne Centre shopping center was built for about $40 million or $83 per square foot for the total of 480,000 square feet. IMI Mount Pleasant last week bought Towne Centre for $134.3 million, or $276 per square foot, roughly three times the money in seven years.