Do it with your local architect (Texas bumper sticker, 1978) In a monthly survey of U.S. architectural firms, the American Institute of Architects announced its Architecture Billings Index was down from 45.5 in April to 43.4 in May. The index tries to forecast activity in the construction business almost one year in the future. Most design commissions come into an architectural firm months, maybe even a year, before construction.

Massachusetts tops, and Mississippi stays at bottom The Milken Institute recently named Massachusetts as the best state in the country for pulling economic growth from science and technology. South Carolina moved up from 44th in 2004 to 42nd this year. California, surprisingly, fell from second to fourth place, while Maryland took second and Colorado, third. According to the Charleston Post & Courier, "The rankings are swayed by a state's entrepreneurial environment, population of technology- savvy workers, and government commitments to education and other programs that plant the seeds for more tech growth." The bottom for 2008 was the bottom for 2004: Mississippi.

What: Taking out ten percent of personnel Newspaper publisher McClatchy two years ago took over rival publisher Knight- Ritter ( The Charlotte Observer, The State et al.). The company has dropped about 1,400 jobs over the past few weeks. Buyouts were offered to employees, and others were called in for dismissal, all to achieve a ten percent cut in personnel. The firm aims to save $70 million annually from its drop in the work force, which is the majority of the targeted $100 million in cost cutting over the next year. A McClatchy share of stock has lost more than 80 percent of its value since the takeover of Knight- Ritter.

Why: Reduced revenues For the first quarter in 2008, print advertising sales by newspapers in the U.S. fell the most on record, dropping off 14 percent. For all of 2007, according to the Newspaper Association of America, print- ad spending fell 9.4 percent. Advertising in newspaper Web sites did rise, though, by 7.2 percent, which was the smallest gain since tracking online sales growth began in 2004.

Even Citizen Kane has it tough William Randolph Hearst, the inspiration for the Hollywood title role of newspaper publisher Kane, left his Hearst Corp. as a trust owned by his descendants. Victor F. Ganzi, president and CEO of Hearst, quit his job last month in a clash with the Hearst family's trustees. Still, Hearst didn't have it so bad in 2007, raising consolidated revenue by one percent, while ad revenue fell by 1.4 percent.

Greenville's new tourist draw The Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Library opened last month in Greenville, S.C. Jackson, who died 57 years ago, was notorious for the 1919 Black Sox scandal. He supposedly, as claimed in sports journalism circles, blew the World Series that year to collect a bribe. "Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover- Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded" was published by Potomac last year, 2007, and makes the case against Jackson. The case for Jackson was made in the Kevin Costner movie, Field of  Dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

Jackson and his fellow accused ball players were acquitted in court. After the acquittal, Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1921 banned Jackson and his seven Chicago White Sox teammates from ever playing again. The continuing controversy is part of the museum's draw. Jackson's childhood home was relocated to a parking lot facing the Class A Greenville Drive's ball park. Completely renovated, Jackson's home is the museum.