That's The Randle Report for the first week of the year. We posted almost 1,000 stories this week. Join us again on Monday morning as we bring you every significant business, economic development and political story to break in the South. Feel free to use the sort buttons above to find your favorite story over the last several days. If you are looking for more information on economic development in the South, click on the headline above to read Southern Business & Development magazine.
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The American economy picked up a little steam last quarter, with output growing at an annualized rate of 2.8 percent, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The pace of growth was faster than in the third quarter, when gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.8 percent. Even so, both figures were below the average speed of economic expansion in the United States since World War II. And it would take above-average growth to recover the ground lost during the Great Recession. The New York Times
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JACKSON, Miss. — On a Saturday night in October 1995, a blue Toyota came hurtling down the wrong side of a county road in a town in north Mississippi and crashed head-on into a pick-up truck. Scotty Plunk, the driver of the truck, was killed. The driver of the Toyota, 19-year-old Joel Vann, had been drinking so much that he did not remember the moments leading up to the accident. The New York Times
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TALLAHASSEE — The head of a newly formed state agency designed to promote Gov. Rick Scott's campaign promise to create 700,000 new jobs across Florida has resigned after just four months. Doug Darling resigned his $140,000 position as executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity in a three-paragraph letter to the governor late Thursday. Darling's last day will be Tuesday. The former Marine officer said he was leaving for personal reasons. "I thank him for his invaluable efforts in getting DEO off the ground," Scott said in an announcement released by his press office today. "He has been a tremendous asset during these first months of the agency." Tampa Bay Times
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The Louisville Assembly Plant will begin mass production of the 2013 Ford Escape with two shifts on or about April 6, officials with a company that will provide seats for the SUV said Tuesday. Magna Seating officials revealed the date at a grand opening ceremony for the company’s new plant in Bullitt County. Ford officials have said production would begin by spring but have not given a specific date. Marcey Evans, a Ford spokeswoman, said in an email Tuesday that the automaker expects full production to begin in the “first half” of April but she can’t give a specific date. Louisville Courier-Journal
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RAYVILLE, La. — The publisher of an economic development magazine predicts the U.S. will gain as many as 3 million manufacturing jobs during the next eight years, with most of them coming to the South. Mike Randle, publisher of Southern Business & Development, spoke Wednesday during the Northeast Louisiana Economic Alliance's annual meeting at the Rayville Civic Center. Randle said most of the jobs will come from China, where he said that country's low cost advantage is shrinking fast because China's labor costs are rising rapidly, and the American worker's productivity is skyrocketing. "It's happening now," Randle said. "It's a wave we haven't seen since World War II and will last about eight more years." Monroe News-Star
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A school district that was sued for holding a prayer rally at a school assembly and prayers at official events has agreed to end its promotion of religion. A federal judge on Thursday made final a consent decree in which the Chesterfield County schools admitted to violating the separation of church and state. Under the decree, school officials may not encourage prayers at events or allow endorsement of religion in the classroom. The suit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a middle-school student who objected to the evangelical assembly and other Christian activities at school. The New York Times
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Insurer Cigna’s $3.8 billion deal to acquire Franklin-based managed-care company HealthSpring could be completed as early as next week. In a regulatory filing Friday, HealthSpring said the parties may be in a position to close as early as Tuesday if certain closing conditions are met. When announced three months ago, the deal was expected to close by April. After the closing, HealthSpring would become an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Cigna. The Tennessean
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CAMBRIDGE, Md. — President Obama on Friday called on all Americans to share in the responsibility of shoring up the country’s still wobbly economy, but denied his policies are pitting the wealthy against the middle class in a class war. The Washington Times
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