SCIP's Exec. Dir. Ken Garrison provides an update on the merger with FSI.

Do we make too big a deal about steroids?

The AG won a court case requiring Peak to secure bonds before accepting pre-paid gym memberships. Move is an effort to guarantee consumers can get their money back if Peak collapses.

Yellow Pages publisher RH Donnelley files for bankruptcy protection.

Ben "The Troublemaker" Holder is running for the District 1 city council seat in Greensboro.

This sounds like a very useful item: fabric repair cement.

Ken Sawka has written a thought provoking piece on the "death of the CI professional." Definitely worth a read for anyone involved in CI.

The "grow your own" competitive intelligence network on Ning is ablaze with comments about the SCIP and Frost & Sullivan merger. One of the people on the network contacted FSI directly to get their view of the merger and if what they wrote is accurate it seems to be very different from what SCIP members were told before they voted for the merger. In a way it doesn't matter because SCIP would have folded if the vote had been no, but it also could make the transition pretty ugly if the members feel misled.

Boy do I hope he's wrong.

Scary paragraph in the story:
"Housing starts unexpectedly slid 13 percent to an annual rate of 458,000, led by a 46 percent tumble in multifamily starts, which tend to be more volatile, Commerce Department figures showed in Washington. Building permits, a sign of future construction, fell 3.3 percent to a record low of 494,000."

Beware the coffee maker. A defective coffee maker started a fire that caused $40k in damage to a second story apartment on Konnoak Drive.

Two firms I did a lot of work with during my days at SCIP are teaming up. Ken Sawka and his OI crew are working with David Kalinowski, Gary Maag and the rest of the folks at Proactive. That's a lot of fire power.

Michael Lewis's review of this biography on Warren Buffett is quite possibly the best book review I've ever read.

I love Smitty's Notes, and Smitty ain't too bad either. I've had the pleasure of meeting with Smitty on a couple of occasions and I consider him a local treasure. That's why I think it's a HUGE honor to be…

Nice article about the Davie County Enterprise Record and the Clemmons Courier. Article is part of a series about local weekly newspapers that are thriving in NC.

Money quote: "The report found that overall costs for dealing with insurance plans is $31 billion a year, and 6.9 percent of all U.S. expenditures for physician and clinical services."

Kotis is going to spend $20 million to take an old factory they've owned for 10 years and turn it into a mixed use building. Article says they're teaming up with an out-of-town multi-family developer for the residential part.

Mark Cuban hits the nail on the head re. Twitters commercial applicability.

CNBC piece about homeowners renting out their homes until economy recovers.

Raleigh News & Observer's articles on Gov. Easley's friends and family deals.

A book I'd love to read about education reform.

Guilford County Planning Board procedures, schedule, etc.