Cerner, KC Southern tumble, YRC rallies
Regional stocks got off to a choppy start to the week
Monday, May 20, 2013
Regional stocks got off to a choppy start to the week




It was a safe bet that Cerner Corp. would once again lead the The Stars rankings as the regions top-performing public company. Cerner, the nations second-largest company that helps hospitals and doctors offices convert paper files into computerized medical records, is in a sweet spot. Other top-ranked companies here do business in areas that have an edge: energy, rail transit and online government services.
The already-hefty pay packages of many public-company executives bulged last year, thanks to higher values of their company stocks. Million-dollar base salaries as paid to Cerner Corp. CEO Neal Patterson (pictured) and Waddell & Reed Financial CEO Hank Herrmann are only the beginning. For most of the bigger-company CEOs, stock awards, options and non-equity incentive compensation dwarf their base pay.

More than three years after it closed, Westport mainstay The Corner Restaurant has been resurrected in the same spot but with new owners, a new decor and new menu. Executive chef Natasha Sears said the kitchen uses many local vendors, and makes about 90 percent of the menu from scratch on-site.

Oak Park Mall said it has signed local fast-casual chain Ingredient for its food court. Menu items include salads, grilled sandwiches, soups, wraps and panini, burgers, and gourmet pizzas.
Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Monday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market

Special K was once just a line of cereals. Today, it's a diet food empire.

Yahoo has reached a deal to buy online blogging forum Tumblr for $1.1 billion, the latest acquisition under CEO Marissa Mayer. Yahoo is paying mostly cash for Tumblr and expects to complete the deal by the end of the year. Here are key events involving Yahoo Inc. and its performance in recent years:
The Supreme Court has affirmed the authority of federal regulators to try to speed local government decisions on proposals to build or expand cell phone towers.
The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered Enercon Services Inc. to reinstate the employee who had reported unsafe conditions. The company plans to appeal.

When The Office crew clocked out Thursday night, the workers had been at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. for nine seasons, or about twice as long as the average job tenure for most Americans. But even as everyday workers tend to complain about their jobs and bosses and quickly jump ship for better opportunities, viewers have shown remarkable loyalty to TV programs about the workplace.

The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce recognized the real estate company as its 2013 Small Business of the Year and winner of the Mr. K Award, named after the late Ewing Kauffman, founder of Marion Laboratories and original owner of the Kansas City Royals.
The real estate company, which was established in 1922 in downtown Kansas City, receives the Mr. K Award,. The award honors the late Ewing Kauffman, founder of Marion Laboratories and original owner of the Kansas City Royals.

Reaction to my last column allowing that the advocates of a new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport might have a decent case was certainly bracing. Most of the more than 100 callers, emailers and kansascity.com commenters batted me roundly about. But many others allied themselves with the single-terminal advocates.

After fully hashing out pros and cons, Kansas Citians may want to stick with the old flame. To carry the day, new-airport advocates will have to heavily restack the deck of arguments in their favor. Thats whats going to be required to toss over a 40-year love affair.
Chesapeake Energy has named Anadarko Petroleum executive Robert Douglas Lawler as its new CEO.
Actavis is buying Warner Chilcott in an all-stock deal valued at about $8.5 billion that would create the third-biggest specialty pharmaceutical company in the U.S. market.