American, American Eagle: Traffic is down
American Airlines Inc. and American Eagle released traffic reports on Monday that show the airlines with higher percentages of plane occupancy in December but less traffic in terms of passenger miles flown compared to the same period last year. (AMR)
Tom Craddick drops out of Speaker?s race
State Representative Tom Craddick, R-Midland, is dropping out of the race for Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
Greystar acquires JPI Management Services
Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC has purchased JPI Management Services in a move that significantly expands Greystar as a leading multifamily real estate company, Greystar announced Monday.
Lombardi family closes one restaurant
Pescabar, an italian seafood restaurant located in the West Village, has closed its doors, according to the restaurant’s owner, Lombardi Family Concepts.
Mathews Nichols joins Allie Beth Allman
The Mathews Nichols Real Estate Group is beginning the new year with a new company.
Tyler Technologies inks $3.7M deal
Tyler Technologies Inc., a North Texas company that provides government entities with information management assistance, said Monday the company has inked a $3.7 million contract with Cameron County to provide the county with the firm’s courts and justice software. (TYL)
Comstock to spend $450M on development
Independent energy company Comstock Resources Inc. said Monday it will spend $450 million in the new year on development and exploration, with the company focusing specifically on the natural gas-rich Haynesville Shale region, which is located in the East Texas-Northern Louisiana region. (CRK)
American, Continental sue FAA
American Airlines Inc. and six other airlines have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration opposing new safety requirements aimed at tackling pilot fatigue on some international flights. (AMR) (CAL)
Conn?s sales beat gloom and doom
Specialty retailer Conn’s Inc. has released a preliminary sales report for the month of December, which shows the Texas retailer had a 5% growth in same-store sales when compared to December of 2007.
Apple CEO discloses health problem
Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs ended weeks of speculation Monday with an open letter saying that he has a hormonal imbalance that has caused him to lose weight. Apple has five store locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. (AAPL)


10 Things To Do To Ensure You Come Across As A Complete Idiot In Your Email Correspondence
Email etiquette is one of the most overlooked parts of education even in B Schools across the country. Writing an email is an art, but it isn't all that complicated. It takes a basic level of awareness and some guidelines to ensure your email correspondence can have the desired effectiveness, especially for an Introduction or a Business correspondence.
ERP and Portal - Working Together: Getting Maximum Value From Your ERP Investment
The 1990 was the decade of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). ERP systems became the center of the business operations by providing employee access to information that was consolidated and coordinated in one application. Now, a decade later, many companies want to extend the reach of their ERP to non-ERP applications, and also to their trading partners outside the organization. Getting the right information into the right person's hands, at the right time, in the right place (factory floor, warehouse, 18 wheeler), and in the right format (portal, PDA, printed) is defining the next level of productivity. It is all about providing access and making information truly useful to everyone up and down the entire supply chain.
Case Study: Using an Employee Opinion Survey to Affect Organizational Change
Many organizations that administer employee opinion surveys act on the results in the same way. They analyze the survey data to determine specific areas for action, organization-wide and at geographic, division and department levels. This analysis can result in meaningful insight and change. However, employee surveys contain wealth of data to be mined and most analyses only scratch the surface. When utilized to its full potential this valuable information can stimulate broader and more effective organization development. This case study describes an organization that used its survey to uncover specific "Pockets of greatness" within itself and to further study these discoveries for best practices to model and apply across the rest of the enterprise. The resulting information became a critical aspect of a broader organizational change process.
Micromanagement and Delegation
Delegation can be difficult to learn because it looks like a huge risk and a huge leap of faith. But it doesn't have to be that way. There are techniques explained in the paper that a person can learn that will help him delegate and get him out of the detail. And he has to get out of the detail if he really wants to be an executive.
8 Sources to Research Awesome Article Topics
Writing articles is by far the most effective online promotion strategy the author has come across. If a person can write good, readable, original content, he can easily put himself far ahead of the pack in his field of interest. But article marketers and new article writers are often stumped for topics to write about. Finding topics that appeal to his readers can be time-consuming but well worth the effort.
Time and Attendance System
Time and attendance systems are designed to assist organizations to effectively manage the working hours of employees. They are a paperless system used to collect the work time of employees electronically. The systems automate and simplify timekeeping and human resource management. Time and attendance systems effectively interact with any payroll system.
Writing Skills - Before You Write It Down, Know This
Many people are intimidated by writing. Even so, there are times when writing is the best way to communicate, and oftentimes the only way to get the message across. Thankfully nowadays technology makes memo, letter and proposal writing much easier by providing reliable tools that check and even correct misspelled words and incorrect grammar use. Unfortunately, these tools are not fail proof and will require the support, making the knowledge in this area important.
Effective Email - How to Communicate Powerfully by Email
As with all written communications, emails should be clear and concise. Sentences should be kept short and to the point. This starts with the email's subject line. Use the subject line to inform the receiver of exactly what the email is about. Keep in mind, the subject line should offer a short summary of the email and allows for just a few words. Because everyone gets emails they do not want (spam, etc.), appropriate use of the subject line increases the chances the email will be read and not discarded into the deleted email file without so much as a glance.
Making Headway on a Slow Day: 9 Ways to Turn Down - Time Into Productivity Time
If a person works from home, he knows the kind of day the author mean. He made the calls. He revised those drafts. He sent out the emails. Where is everybody!? As much as he used to relish a slow day when he was corporate, it's a little different when he is playing boss to himself. His mind gets to wandering. Should he head out to the park? Should he hit the mall? Should he... file for unemployment? A slow day is his big chance to get cracking on those little plans that will lead to big business for his company. In this paper the author explains how to make headway on a slow day.
Online HOA Newsletters
In homeowner associations, consistent and effective communication is extremely important to build consensus and to keep the gossip mill at bay. Besides the timely distribution of meeting minutes, newsletters are key to this charge. While printed newsletters have been the norm, the internet offers a wonderful alternative to publish newsletters online and eliminate printing, mailing, labeling and postage costs. Online newsletters offer a number of really cool features that printed copy either can't or would be very expensive to duplicate. They can include color for no extra charge so pictures, graphics and fonts can shine with chromatic intensity. The same feature for printed newsletters ratchets up the cost considerably.
HOA Newsletter Essentials
Every homeowner association needs to communicate regularly to the members on HOA related issues like finances, rules, meeting minutes and the like. Adding the personal touch with pictures of newcomers and volunteers makes the piece of greater interest to many. Besides content, newsletters need to have an appealing and organized look. Software programs like Microsoft Publisher offers professional looking templates which require little more than filling in the blanks. With a little effort, the same effect can be cloned with word processing programs like Word and Word Perfect. The internet provides a substantial number of resources to assist in newsletter execution.
Do Your Newsletter Subscribers Visit Your Web Site?
The Excess Voice newsletter goes out to a little under 10,000 subscribers. Conventional wisdom has it that these 10,000 souls are among the most interested in the web site and the various resources it offers. After all, everyone who receives the newsletter went to the site at least once in order to sign up.
Email Newsletter Marketing: Step-by-Step Guidelines for Professional Marketers on Producing Email Newsletters That Get Results
Few companies achieve the full potential of their email newsletters. Publishing a content-rich newsletter on a regular basis can dramatically increase the number of people who come to a person' site and buy. Creating a quality newsletter and building a large list of loyal subscribers is a long-term strategy. But the results can be remarkable.
Great Newsletters Deliver Complete Content, Consistently
In the early days of the web, there were some wonderful, informative, interesting newsletters. Now, more and more newsletters have become little more than HTML candy...with small snippets of incomplete content, accompanied by links through to an accompanying web site. The result is that the newsletters themselves are not interesting, not useful, not satisfying...and destined for the junk folder.
Focusing on Ezines
Does a person know how to really increase his sales & profits online? A guaranteed route to success used by many Internet marketers who turn a profit is to incorporate ezines & newsletters into their marketing strategy. Ezines and newsletters are a genuinely useful tool in the Internet marketer' armory. They serve as a platform to communicate products & services to subscribers who have a qualified interest in a certain field or subject - either through advertising, product endorsement or articles and content.