Stocks

Star 40

Cerner tops Star 40; others in economic ‘sweet spots’ also doing well

It was a safe bet that Cerner Corp. would once again lead the The Star’s rankings as the region’s top-performing public company. Cerner, the nation’s 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.

Star 40: Wealth soared in 2012 for KC companies' executives

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.

Cityscape

Dollars & Sense

A solution to tuition inflation

The University of Dayton, beginning with this fall’s incoming class of freshmen, will offer merit-based scholarships and grants that will grow each year to match tuition increases dollar for dollar.

Workplace

As 'The Office' ends, other workplace shows find a big TV audience

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.

Development

Talking Business

Debate over KCI flies fast and hard

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.

With KCI, breaking up is hard to do

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. That’s what’s going to be required to toss over a 40-year love affair.

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