Dollar General to Hire 6,000 in 2011

Building on its plans to open 625 new stores in 2011, Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) today announced that it plans to create 6,000 new jobs. The new stores and jobs will be spread among Dollar General’s existing 35-state operating area as well as three new states: Connecticut, Nevada and New Hampshire.

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Nonprofits turn foreclosures into first homes

In several locations throughout the country nonprofit groups are snagging foreclosures at a discount — and sometimes for free — before banks make them available to speculators. Rebuilding Together obtained a home for free from JPMorgan Chase & Co., the bank that foreclosed on its previous owner. Honeywell International Inc. provided the labor to renovate it and $25,000 cash for the materials.

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Business Activity in U.S. Grows at Fastest Pace in Two Decades

Here's an encouraging headline - Woo Hoo! Businesses in the U.S. expanded in December at the fastest pace in 20 years. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. reported its business barometer rose to 68.6 this month, exceeded the most optimistic forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the highest level since July 1988. Figures greater than 50 signal expansion.

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The Gift of a New Roof Touches Many

Tucked off a street in the Greenwood neighborhood is a small orange house, its paint peeling and — until this week — its plywood roof leaking. The modest two-story structure has been home to 62-year-old Ruth Piper for 30 years. Piper had been worried about the roof, especially when the rains came, so she'd propped up a tall ladder and climbed atop the house to patch the holes — all to the watchful eyes of horrified neighbors.

Now they've given Piper, who lives on a fixed income, the treasured Christmas gift of a new roof.
"We did it to help a neighbor," said one of the neighbor's, Lance Mansfield. "It's very cool."

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