Archive for the ‘Business as Usual’ Category

Celeb server Ellen Horshman, dean of St. Louis University’s School of Business, said that enrollment “is challenging.” However, she pointed out, “People think there are no jobs available in the business field. But, graduates are getting jobs now at banks, which have begun hiring again. Supply Chain Management is hot right now. That includes inventories, logistics and transportation, delivering components to customers. That’s why Walmart is so successful.” Meanwhile, Horshman’s hub, Carl, espied wandering around the mall, admitted, “She told me to go out and buy something.”

KSDK, Channel 5’s Mike Owens is leaving Channel 5 to join a law firm, where he’ll clock in after Labor Day.  In a memo to staffers, news director Mike Shipley wrote, “It is therefore,with a heavy heart that I announce his impending departure from NewsChannel 5 where he has served the community knowledgeably, passionately and with aplomb since 1963!  Mike’s reputation as a challenging interviewer and tireless advocate for the community he serves is well-known not just here at KSDK but across two states he’s served from here in St. Louis.”  Shipley and Owens gathered news together since they both worked in small market radio – Owens in Sedalia and Shipley in Jefferson City. Mike’s last day at the station will be Friday, Sept. 3.  Good luck, counselor Mike Owens!

Despite a risk of deflation and a weak employment market in the nation, employees at the 500-bed Missouri Baptist Medical Center, on north Ballas Road, are praising the much-admired and emulated president Joan Magruder. She has reached rock star status among them. Within the past two months, employees received salary increases across-the-board. Just a few weeks ago, they also received bonuses in their paychecks. Why? Patient satisfaction has skyrocketed to an all-time score – a public relations dream!

Pals of Jeff Smith, who was sentenced to a year in federal prison last November and has been serving his time in a Kentucky facility, aver that the fallen state senator will be back in the St. Louis region later this month to spend the remaining nights of his incarceration in a half-way house. One rumor is that the former political science prof, who will need a new career, will be interning at a local company in the hospitality industry.

Nicholas Miller will purchase and continue to operate Harvest Restaurant, 1059 south Big Bend Blvd., according to a public hearing petition, which states that on Aug. 19, the city of  Richmond Heights’ planning and zoning commish will focus on the conditional use permit. The venerable dinery has always been owned by Steve Gontram. The city’s planning and zoning commish will also hold a hearing the same night on St. Mary’s Health Center’s request for renovation by the Lawrence Group architects for public automobile and pedestrian entrances on Clayton Road.

Glammy KMOV, Channel 4 co-anchor Jasmine Huda chowed down at Protzel’s on the deli’s famous Reuben sandwich with her boyfriend, Springfield, Mo. Judge Mark Powell, on her 32nd birthday. Huda also mentioned, her boss, station prez and GM Allan Cohen, has reached the milestone of his 30th year there. . .Tyler Stephens and Michael Byrd’s architectural firm, CORE-10 is moving to the entire ground floor of the Lindell Terrace Condominium bulding at Taylor Avenue and Lindell Boulevard from Clayton to become the only business tenant in the bulding, where 40 percent of the residents are retired architects. Interesting how CORE-10 made the move. After the owners conducted a survey of clients, asking them what features they would most like to see the firm in new digs – high-rise or ground floor? Clatyon or downtown? – they found the right spot. As for architectural business these days, most of CORE-10 is doing remodeling instead of new construction. Stephens and Byrd said more and more people are opting to remain in their current homes and fix them up to become their “dream home” instead of buying a new one.

Savvy television exec Spencer Koch (KTVI-TV/KPLR-TV) has begun beefing up KPLR, Channel 11’s fall programming by beckoning station regular Patrick Clark to helm a 4p.m. newscast, which will feature Clark – not only delivering the news of the day – but also making the rounds ’round town. Koch has also inked for the fall sked: 10 a.m airings of “Doctors”; 11 a.m. “Milliionare”; 2 p.m. “Housewives” and 6 p.m. “How I Met Your Mother.” Meanwhile, by popular demand, Koch has focused on junior football by slotting games on digital tv’s Channel. 11.2.

The typical marriage story. They started out to be good friends, but later they changed their minds. That would be Baltimore’s  Patty and Bob Quicksilver, who have decided to call it quits. Both, former  St. Louisans, he once owned a chain of six candy stores – underwritten by Patty’s dad, the late Sid Rich,. to the tune of $600,000 – which bellied up. . .Addressing the recent leak of Pentagon information, Sen. Kit Bond said on network teevee:: “We’re not counting on good journalistic judgement”. . .Director of social media (IT) Kurt Greenbaum has ankled the Post-Dispatch for a berth at patch.com. .  .T.J. Birkenmeier is circulating the latest from UntaxMeNow, that reads: “Nothing impairs wealth accumulation (a.k.a. freedom) more than taxes.  That’s why taxes are referred to as “redistribution of wealth”. . .Caught up with former St. Louis Symph chief  (1966-1972) David Hyslop, who has since married Sally Fefercorn in Minneapolis, where he operates a consulting shop. Hyslop remains in touch with former symph maestro Lenny Slatkin, who commutes between Detroit and Lyon, France (some combination).  And, Hyslop confides he surfed on the ‘net to find baggy pants burlesque comic Billy “Zoot” Reed, who held forth, between strippers, at the old Grand Theatre.  “I was not in the concert hall all of the time,” he admitted.

“Savvy Settings”, a just-opened shop, vending upscale quality furniture and unique home decor, located at 412 Boone’s Lick Road,  is  also featuring antiques “at crazy low prices,” sez the owners. The store is helmed by  Meredith Borgmeyer, spouse of Dan Borgmeyer of BMG Marketing fame, and Cathy Glosier.

Lacy explained that the Scholarship and Research Fund provides full scholarships, based on financial need and academics. He said that 100 percent of the grads have turned to such professions as lawyers, engineers and a nuclear physicist. On the scene were real estater Dean Morgan, attorney Robert Adler, McMahon Ford’s Bill Schicker, power broker Gene Slay, Regis Hollow with his daughter, Mary Fran, Gateway Classic’s Earl Wilson and Court of Appeals Judge George Draper.  At their golf cart, Adler and Draper reminisced over when they both served as assistant prosecutors.  The subject of the television show, “Judge Judy”,  was raised.  “That doesn’t happen in a real court,” insisted Judge Draper.

Isn’t it unusual for a trial attorney to take jibes at a circuit court clerk, when files can easily be “lost”?  The columnist would think so. High-profile barrister Paul Passanante has penned a vitriolic letter to members of the bar blasting Mariano Favazza in Passanante’s quest to support Jane Schweitzer’s candidacy to succeed Favazza in the August election. Passanante wrote, “For 12 long years, the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis has been disrupted by the antics of Mariano Favazza.  Constant bickering, some of which has resulted in frivolous and embarrassing lawsuits, has impeded, if not impaired, the administration of justice in the city.” He also noted, that Schweitzer has pledged to support and serve the judges “and implement audit recommendations
Mariano has ignored for 12 years.”

When asked about his wife, Mary, and their children, McClellan enthused, that in September, he and Mary will become grandparents to Evelyn Sanchez, whose parents are Lara and Darryl Sanchez. Darryl is a native of baseball-crazed Guatemala; named after Darryl Strawberry. The McClellans’ heir, Jack, has four years of college under his belt and is heading for the infamous Alacatraz, where he’ll serve in the gift shop. Nearby, hostelry co-owner Tim Drury ticked off the cities in which the company has targeted for new hostelries: Nashville, Tenn.; Valdosta, Ga., Independence, Mo. and Westminster, CO. 
Then, Don Kozeny of Kozeny Wagner, tipped that his construction firm is erecting five buildings in New Madrid, Mo. for DuPont’s soybean processing.

While he has rejected pitches for interviews by national media, Gary Parker went public the other night, with his wife, Carmen.  Parker, who led his company, Center Oil, to a reported gross of $3.4 billion in 2009 from the second floor of the company’s Mason Ridge Center Drive, was spotted dining al fresco at Il Bel Lago snorfing down  pasta with meatballs.  Asked about the Gulf oil spill, Parker lamented that it will hit the consumers later this year.