New SE Side metals center to employ 20

Tucson Citizen

Published: 12.20.2006

The $10 million Macsteel Service Centers USA facility being built on the Southeast Side is scheduled to open in February.

The 73,400-square-foot metals manufacturing and distribution facility, on eight acres in the Century Park Research Center, 6692 S. Memorial Place will process and distribute a full array of steel and nonferrous products to customers in the Southwest and Mexico.

The research center is between South Wilmot and Kolb Roads, south of East Valencia Road.

The facility will initially employ about 20 people.

Applications are being accepted and interviews will be conducted in the coming weeks.

For information on job applications, contact Ed Porembski, the plant manager, at eporembski@macsteelusa.com.

Macsteel Service Centers is based in Newport Beach, Calif.

Gov’s panel: High schoolers need four years of math; Horne: That doesn’t add up

By Howard Fischer

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES as published in Arizona Daily Star

PHOENIX — A battle is brewing over the question of how much math is enough.

A task force appointed by Gov. Janet Napolitano wants all Arizona high schoolers to have to take four years of math to graduate. Now they need just two courses — elementary algebra and geometry.

Panel members already have Napolitano on their side. The governor said Wednesday that two years of math isn’t enough to prepare Arizona students for the jobs of the 21st century.

The proposal from the P-20 Council — so named because it covers everything from preschool through graduate work — is getting a fight from state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. He contends that the move, while well-intentioned, is misguided and will lead to more dropouts.

The Business Journal of Phoenix – 10:35 AM MST Wednesday

December 14, 2006

You don’t have to be over 21 to be a successful entrepreneur.

University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management and 1st National Bank of Arizona are out to prove just that with the launch of the Arizona Youth Entrepreneurship Award.

The two point to Junior Achievement statistics showing that 70 percent of high school and middle school students would like to be self-employed at some point in their lives.

Encouraging youths to pursue both their entrepreneurial dreams and a college education, the new award is designed to support the growing interest in business ownership among teens by providing resources and coaching.

Tucsonan to head state Commerce

Governor picks longtime local activist Jan Lesher

By Joseph Barrios

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Gov. Janet Napolitano has named a longtime Tucson activist and head of her Southern Arizona office as the state’s new Department of Commerce director.

Jan Lesher, who has led the governor’s operations in Tucson for four years, will replace Gil Jimenez, who will leave the post on Jan. 15. Jimenez told Capitol Media Services Tuesday that he is retiring to spend more time with his family.

Lesher, 51, a Democratic Party and community activist with strong political ties throughout Southern Arizona, was named in January as 2005′s Woman of the Year by the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

UA institute may find ‘bifocals for the brain’

By Eric Swedlund

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

From momentarily forgetting a name to misplacing car keys, “senior moments” may be commonplace, but very little is known about the age-related changes in the brain that cause memory to start slipping.

A new institute at the University of Arizona is combining researchers from molecular biology to neurology to psychology to medicine, with the singular focus of unlocking the secrets of how the normal aging process changes the brain and contributes to memory loss.

The Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, which will be formally launched with a dedication ceremony today, began with a $5 million donation from the Florida-based McKnight Brain Research Foundation, whose trustees sought out Carol A. Barnes, a Regents’ Professor in psychology and neurology, for her 30-year career studying memory and aging.

Bioscience lacks venture capital

By Ed Taylor, East Valley Tribune

Mesa/Scottsdale/Gilbert/Chandler AZ

December 6, 2006

Arizona’s bioscience sector has added jobs, drawn more federal research money and created companies, but the state still needs to attract more venture capital for the state to become a major player in the industry.

That’s the assessment of the status of Arizona’s bioscience businesses after four years of a major public and private-sector effort to expand the industry in Arizona, according to Battelle, a Columbus, Ohio-based technology research organization, which wrote a 10-year plan for the state’s bioscience industry.

“Arizona is well on its way to achieving the 2007 midpoint goals set back in 2002, when the road map was published,” said Walt Plosila, vice president of Battelle Technology Partnership Practice.

But analysis says Arizona must do more

Ken Alltucker

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 6, 2006 12:00 AM

Arizona’s lucrative bet on the biosciences is yielding more high-wage jobs, federal research dollars and new buildings that are expected to birth scientific breakthroughs for decades to come.

But the state needs to accomplish a lot more to establish a thriving research-based economy, particularly providing enough money, lab space and support that will allow small research companies to grow and prosper.

That’s the assessment of Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, the Ohio-based research group that developed Arizona’s bioscience roadmap in 2002 and monitors progress with annual updates.

Battelle representatives said Arizona’s challenge is that bioscience is an ultracompetitive field, and states across the nation are pursuing initiatives to bring the good-paying jobs that the sector promises.