Biz Buzz

A group of 120 Community Development Foundation members and other leaders are visiting Toyota’s plant in Georgetown,Ky., Saturday through Monday. Most are riding on two chartered buses, but others also drove separately. Visits with Georgetown leaders as well as officials in nearby Lexington are scheduled. Some tours of the area and “meet-and-greet” functions and dinners are planned today and tomorrow. On Monday, a tour of the Toyota plant begins at about 8:30 a.m.

Daily Journal Business Editor Dennis Seid is on the trip, as are DJ county-courts reporter Leesha Faulkner and DJ photographer Deste Lee. We’ll be blogging, a reporting, from here.

And, look for a special wrapup series next weekend in the Daily Journal.

It’s about 4:15 p.m. Tupelo time - we’re an hour ahead in Lexington, Ky. - and some of us have arrived ahead of the buses. They should be here within the hour, and then we have a dinner in about two hours.

This should be a very informative and interesting trip!

In case you missed today’s business page:

Bourne Holdings on Thursday unveiled Inspiration Oxford, a mixed usage development north of Oxford that has the potential to be worth about $1 billion.

The 2,500-acre site is situated on the east side of Highway 7, north of Oxford and south of Abbeville. The proposed development will include residential units, three fishing lakes, a golf course, a retail-office center, a full-service retirement community and an equestrian center with riding trails.

The long-term goal is to attract 15,000 residents over 10 years. Bourne is targeting retirees, Ole Miss alumni, university faculty and Toyota executives.

Back from getting gas prices for this week’s Business & Money.

Cheapest gas is in New Albany ($2.66 for regular unleaded).
If that’s too far to drive, the next cheapest option is Sam’s Club ($2.75 for members) or Sherman ($2.75).

And for once, gas in Starkville ($2.85 regular) is cheaper than in Oxford ($2.89).

Today’s the day. In case you missed this morning’s paper, here’s what you need to know about the iPhone.

Folks started lining up outside the Ridgeland AT&T store at 5 p.m. Thursday, according to the AP. Five people were in line by 9 a.m. this morning.

We’ll be checking on AT&T stores in Tupelo throughout the day. AT&T is expecting customers to start lining up this afternoon outside both stores in Tupelo that will sell the device. We’re a little more skeptical. Stay tuned for updates via the comments section.

Hancock Fabrics filed notice in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware that it would abandon property owned by the company in 71 stores across the U.S., including two in Mississippi.

A court order in April allowed the corporation to leave the property without liability to the landlords of the properties as long as it gave five days notice. The stores in Mississippi include one in Meridian and one in Columbus.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 21, soon after announcing it was closing some 134 stores.

Wal-Mart last year introduced a new uniform for its “associates” - employees to you and me – replacing those hideous blue smocks. Selected store workers got khaki pants and a blue polo shirt emblazoned with the Wal-Mart logo.

Now, the company said it’s rolling out the new unis to all of its stores and that associates are really pleased with the new look.

Maybe it will bring a new attitude in customer service, too. Unfortunately, good service has become an exception and not the norm at the world’s largest retailer.

Capital Bancorp, a bank holding company headquartered in Nashville, today announced that its shareholders voted to approve the merger of Capital with Renasant Corp.

The merger is scheduled to finalize on Sunday.

Three directors from Capital—Rick Hart, Albert Dale III and Michael Shmerling—will join Renasant’s board of directors. Hart and John Gregory, Capital’s COO, will join Renasant’s executive management team. Hart will be the president of Renasant’s Tennessee division.

After the merger, Renasant will have assets of about $3.4 billion and operate 70 banking, mortgage and insurance offices in 38 cities in Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.

Finally some good news about the drought.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor that was released today, the rain this week did some good. As of Tuesday, 6.7 percent of the state was in a D4 exceptional drought, the most severe drought classification. The number is down from 18.8 percent the previous week.

The D4 classification now includes the following counties: Itawamba, Monroe, Clay, Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Noxubee, Winston and Kemper. Last week, the drought included 19 counties.

The drought retreated the most along the northwestern part of the state. Counties such as Panola, Lafayette and Yalobusha were classified as being in at least a severe drought last week. Now they are in a moderate drought.

This is all an improvement, but we still have a ways to go. The entire state is still considered to be under a drought, but at least we aren’t alone.

We have a big story about the iPhone coming out in tomorrow’s paper. It will go over where you can buy it, how much you are going to pay and all the other pertinent details.

But for those of you who are just chomping at the bit, The Washington Post has a good interview with Justin Long, the actor in the Mac commercials. It’s funny to read about his life now that people view him as the embodiment of an Apple computer.

Ad Age, a respected trade magazine in the advertising and marketing world, also has its take on why the iPhone will be a big success. A fun quote: “Companies such as Apple, one of the few that can still create passion beyond logic for its products, remind us that marketing is more than computer science.”

In case you’ve missed all the unfolding drama, here’s an update from the New York Times:

“Many of The Wall Street Journal’s reporters did not show up for work this morning, to protest the expected sale of the newspaper’s parent, Dow Jones & Company, to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and the fact that they do not have a contract.

The reporters will return to work by mid-afternoon, ending a ’stay-out’ that their union has been secretly planning for several days, organizers said.”

Read the entire story.