“I serve on a lot of committees, and I felt like I kept having the same conversation. It took hours and hours of repeating the same thing. And every time, I felt like I had to start all over again,” said the architect and president of KAI Design and Build.

Founded by his father, Michael E. Kennedy, 32 years ago, KAI is recognized as one of the leading minority-owned architectural firms in the country. The senior Kennedy serves as chairman and chief executive.  

To the younger Kennedy, 34, the exchanges with contractors, government officials, trade unions, developers and fellow designers inevitably returned to the shortage of minority contractors and trade participation on local construction projects.

The problem has vexed St. Louis, publicly at least, since the afternoon of July 14, 1964, when Percy Green and another activist climbed a leg of the yet-to-be-completed Gateway Arch to protest the lack of African Americans working on the landmark.

Nor has the situation shown much sign of improvement. A March study by the Associated General Contractors of St. Louis that pegged the number of minority workers on local construction jobs at approximately seven percent.

African Americans account for 49 percent of St. Louis City residents and 23 percent of those in St. Louis County.

Kennedy didn’t need census data to drive the point home.

He found proof in the overwhelming number of white faces encountered on visits to area construction sites, particularly those outside the city.

The time had come, he concluded, to move the conversation from board rooms and business meetings to a broader audience.

“I thought if I could capture everything that is being said in these meetings on video, and then get that video in (the right) hands, then maybe we can finally move onto some viable solutions,” Kennedy said.

“Building a Better St. Louis” was initially envisioned as a “ten-minute clip.”

But once Kennedy and the production company, headed by Bobby Edwards Media Group, began the interviews, they learned just how much local business and community leaders, both black and white, had to say about minority hiring.

Thirty hours worth to be exact.

Edited to 41 minutes, the film takes unsparing shots at the insularity of white-dominated local trade unions, the shortcomings of public education in St. Louis and the chronic racial divide.

“Anyone who says St. Louis is not a segregated community is someone who has had his head stuck up his you-know-what for too many years,” volunteers Terry Nelson, the outspoken head of the Carpenters’ District Council of Greater St. Louis.

St. Louis City License Collector Mike McMillan offered a more measured analysis: “What we’ve found at every level of business or corporations or government is that if (change) is not pushed from top and implemented all the way down, then women and minorities, who have always been left out of the picture, will continue to be left out of the picture.”

In an interview this week, Kennedy cited additional factors he believes shift the odds against minority contractors and workers. High on the list are the social and economic forces separating the city and outlying suburbs.

He praises adherence to the ordinance stipulating that minorities perform 25 percent of the work on projects within the city. But frets at how the threshold is rarely met on construction sites in the surrounding counties free credit score online.

Kennedy says a fair share of the blame goes to minority contractors and laborers themselves.

Construction, like all businesses, is about relationships.

African American contractors and laborers, Kennedy charges, don’t forge the necessary connections while working side-by-side with non-minorities on city projects.

The upshot, he says, is that construction companies choose to do business with white subcontractors when jobs materialize in St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson and Lincoln counties.

“Building a Better St. Louis” points out that minorities compete for just one percent of the opportunities to participate on area construction jobs.

“It’s not a black and white issue, it’s a cultural issue,” Kennedy says, singling out the “where’d you go to high school?” question. “It’s about the St. Louis cliques. St. Louis is not friendly to outsiders, white or black.”

“Building a Better St. Louis” makes a stab at answering the overarching question of how, or if, minority contractors can ever achieve equity.

It’s a tall order.

Kennedy believes it will occur organically.

He points out that the white males that have dominated the construction trades are retiring. With many of their children exhibiting little interest in continuing the family tradition, the door will swing open for African Americans.

The key, Kennedy says, is getting young minorities interested and prepared to step into the breach.

He sees “Building a Better St. Louis” as prompting a dialogue to move the black community in that direction.

The video was screened this week for a group of contractors and Kennedy ultimately hopes to bring it to a wider audience of government officials, civic groups and – his big goal – an airing on a public broadcasting station.

“This industry lags farther behind any other industry that I’ve seen,” Kennedy says in the video. “The more I talked to people the more I decided other people needed to hear what I was hearing. And that was to listen to the voices of reason.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“… workforce professionals we interviewed said that some employers are reluctant to hire older workers. Because of legal prohibitions against age discrimination, employers are unlikely to explicitly express a lack of interest in hiring older workers; however, one workforce professional told us that local employers had asked her to screen out all applicants over the age of 40.” - U.S. Government Accountability Office on plight of older Americans suffering bouts of long-term unemployment.

Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office

BY THE NUMBERS

7.3 percent - Missouri’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in April, the lowest in 40 months.

Source: Missouri Department of Economic Development

FINAL WORD

“There has been a lack of progress on this issue, and too many families are struggling right at the time when they should be celebrating the birth of a new family member. Working parents should have the benefit of these programs.” Vicki Shabo, director of work and family programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families on study that found only 11 percent of privately-owned companies provide paid family leave for new parents.

Source: The Chicago Tribune

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The verdict is the latest in what activists claim to be a pattern of acquittals for police blamed for the deaths of nearly 850 people during the 18-day revolt that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.

A Cairo court on Thursday found the policemen not guilty of shooting protesters in front of police stations on Jan. 28, 2011, one of the most violent days of the uprising.

The 14 are among nearly 200 security officers and former regime officials _ including Mubarak himself _ who face trial for the deaths of protesters during the uprising.

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Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 57 points to 12,712. Standard & Poor’s 500 futures are up 7.9 points to 1,342. Nasdaq composite futures are up 19.25 points to 2,604.25.

The Commerce Department is expected to report Tuesday that consumer spending growth slowed to 0.2 percent in April after a very strong start to the year.

And economists expect the Labor Department will report that spending cooled even though prices likely increased only modestly last month. Consensus estimates are for a consumer price index increase of only 0.1 percent in April.

The government also releases business inventory data from March. Predictions are that companies likely restocked at a slower pace.

Source

The north St. Louis County-based company earned $267.8 million, or 55 cents per share, down from $326.5 million, or 61 cents per share, in last year’s first quarter.

Excluding one-time items, it earned 73 cents per share. Analysts forecast earnings of 77 cents per share on $11.47 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Revenue climbed 9 percent to $12.13 billion. It filled 192.8 million adjusted prescriptions, up 3.6 percent from a year ago.

Express Scripts Holding Co. completed its acquisition of Medco Health Solutions on April 2. The deal made Express Scripts the largest pharmacy benefits manager by far.

Express Scripts expects the combined company to earn $3.36 to $3.66 per share in 2012, while filling 1.4 billion adjusted prescriptions.

Analysts are expecting a profit of $3.58 per share, on average.

Express Scripts said the deal should be “slightly accretive” while it integrates Medco and forecast a moderate increase in its profit after that process is finished in the first half of 2014. The company expects to create $1 billion in annual savings after it fully integrates Medco into its business.

The company said Medco’s first-quarter profit fell about 26 percent to $245.1 million, or 62 cents per share. Excluding transaction and amortization costs, it said Medco earned 79 cents per share.

Express Scripts shares rose 44 cents to $54.34 Thursday. The stock slid 60 cents to $53.74 in after-hours trading.

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First-time claims dropped by 1,000 to 367,000 in the period ended May 5, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Other reports showed that a gauge of consumer confidence declined to a three-month low, and the trade deficit widened on rising demand for imports from oil to autos.

Claims are returning to levels reached in February and March, indicating a surge last month probably reflected difficulty in adjusting the data for an Easter holiday that came earlier this year than last. Declines in dismissals point to a brighter labor market that would help sustain consumer spending after payroll growth slowed last month.

]]> http://latestfinnews.com/jobless-claims-allay-concern-on-us-job-market-economy-bloomberg/feed/ http://latestfinnews.com/the-top-reasons-to-skip-facebooks-ipo/ http://latestfinnews.com/the-top-reasons-to-skip-facebooks-ipo/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 12:36:24 +0000 Piter http://latestfinnews.com/the-top-reasons-to-skip-facebooks-ipo/ With Facebook hurtling toward a spectacular initial public offering in the $100-billion range May 18, it

But Tehran says such concerns are based on “fake evidence” concocted to cause it political and economic harm.

Envoys for the U.S., the EU and Iran spoke Monday at a 189-nation meeting looking for ways to strengthen the Nonproliferation Treaty low interest rate personal loans.

The divide over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities threatens the success of both the talks and a meeting between Iran and the U.N. agency trying to probe its atomic secrets.

Source

Here’s a look at countries where political cadavers litter the landscape.

_ SPAIN: A burst real estate bubble also deflates faith in a Socialist government, which is nonetheless reluctant to admit Spain has problems. Blips of good economic news are seized upon as “green shoots” pointing to recovery. Wrong. Stimulus measures are enacted, then crushing austerity. Unemployment soars. The Socialists of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero are wiped off the map in November 2011 elections; Mariano Rajoy’s conservatives take over.

_ ITALY: Silvio Berlusconi, the long-serving Teflon leader accused of everything from bedding escorts to serial corruption, finally bites the dust in November 2011. He resigns to cheers and jeers as investors lose confidence in his ability to spur economic growth and rein in debt. It’s the end of a political era. Mario Monti, a former European Commissioner, is named to replace him and lead a technical government until elections in 2013.

_ BRITAIN: Gordon Brown leads the Labour Party to defeat in the May 2010 election; Conservative Party leader David Cameron becomes leader of a coalition government. Brown had been finance chief for a decade before succeeding Tony Blair in 2007. Brown had boasted endlessly of ending the cycle of boom and bust _ but as prime minister he presided mostly over bust.

_ IRELAND: Brian Cowen, promoted to prime minister in 2008 after being finance minister, doesn’t even get to run. He resigns as leader of the Fianna Fail Party weeks before the February, 2011 election. It doesn’t help his party, which suffers its worst ever defeat. Cowen was finance minister during Ireland’s banking crisis and the collapse of its housing bubble.

_ GREECE: Greek Socialist leader George Papandreou swept to power in October 2009 over conservative opponents, pledging to spend his way out of a deteriorating economic situation. Two years later, at the height of Greece’s worst financial crisis since World War II, Papandreou’s own deputies force him out after he endangers a hard-won bailout by announcing he would put it to a referendum. He’s replaced by caretaker Prime Minister Lucas Papademos.

_ PORTUGAL: A month after Portugal requests a 78 billion-euro bailout, the center-left Socialist government of Jose Socrates is voted out of power in June, 2011. Portugal’s woes stemmed from a decade of feeble growth as it failed to modernize amid increasing global competition and dug itself deeper into debt.

_ DENMARK: A center-right government in Denmark loses power in September in part due to discontent over austerity measures introduced amid the debt crisis. It is replaced by a center-left coalition.

_ FINLAND: Finland’s government is reconfigured after June elections following a sharp surge in support for nationalists who oppose bailouts for debt-stricken eurozone countries. A conservative-led coalition spanning left and right is formed to keep the nationalist True Finns out of power.

Bucking the Trend:

_ ROMANIA: Romanian President Traian Basescu wins re-election in 2009, the year Romania’s economy shrinks by 7 percent and Romania takes a 20 billion-euro bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Union. Basescu, a former ship captain, prevails because he is seen as a strong leader in a time of crisis.

_ POLAND: This has been a rare European success story: It’s the only European Union country that did not to slip into recession during the global crisis of 2008-2009. Last fall the center-right party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk wins a second straight term in parliamentary elections, making history by becoming the first government since the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 to be re-elected.

_ ALSO: Sweden’s prime minister is re-elected in 2010 and the prime ministers of Latvia and Estonia are re-elected in 2011.

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Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 4 points at 13,147. Standard & Poor’s 500 futures are up 1.17 to 1,387. Nasdaq 100 futures are gaining 2.75 points to 2,694.75.

In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 index, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 are all down, as traders waited for the U.S. jobs figures and fretted ahead of weekend elections in France and Greece that could impact Europe’s debt crisis instant payday loan. Earlier Asian markets were mixed, with the Nikkei in Tokyo gaining, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and South Korea’s Kospi both ended down.

U.S. stock to watch include Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle reports quarterly results after the market opens.

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