TheKansas City Fed’s report noted that businesses’ future expectations for activity also increased, but the optimism was tempered by concerns that the economic recovery remains weaker-than-expected.
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.
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.
Sales of new homes rose in April to the second highest level since the summer of 2008 while the median price for a new home hit a record high, further signs that housing is recovering.
Average rates on fixed mortgage rose for the third straight week, hitting their highest levels since mid-March. Still, mortgage rates remained close to historic lows, a trend that should help sustain the housing recovery.
Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will close its two Australian auto plants, ending production in the country in 2016, amid soaring manufacturing costs and plummeting sales.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell 23,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, a level consistent with solid job growth.
Centric Projects, a commercial general construction firm, and HighTower Group, a commercial furnishing company, will move in August to the former Western Blue building at 1814 Main St.
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.
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. That’s what’s going to be required to toss over a 40-year love affair.
Average rates on fixed mortgage rose for the third straight week, hitting their highest levels since mid-March. Still, mortgage rates remained close to historic lows, a trend that should help sustain the housing recovery.
Sales of new homes rose in April to the second highest level since the summer of 2008 while the median price for a new home hit a record high, further signs that housing is recovering.
