Briefs
by John Temple Ligon
      Home prices Among the 20 markets tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case- Shiller Home Price Index, the Dallas home prices fell the least in September compared to the same month last year, 2.7 percent. Next to Dallas was Charlotte with a price drop of 3.5 percent.
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Financial advice came and went
By John Temple Ligon Photo by Elizabeth Bailey Johnson
      All day Tuesday, November 25, Your Money Bus was in town, lured to Columbia and underwritten by Abacus Planning Group of Devine Street. Cheryl Holland, founder and CEO of Abacus, was featured in The Wall Street Journal Monday, December 1. The article covered almost a full page and noted that Abacus has more than $500 million invested for its clients.
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Midlands Technical College opens Business Accelerator
Contributed by Midlands Technical College
      Midlands Technical College (MTC) held a grand opening for its new Business Accelerator on Tuesday, December 2, 2008. The 25,000- squarefoot Business Accelerator is designed to accommodate emerging businesses, industries or technologies that have left the research and development stage and are ready for start- up production.
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Star Profile
By John Temple Ligon temple@thecolumbiastar.com
      In August 1998 Patricia Moore- Pastides and her husband, Dr. Harris Pastides, moved to Columbia, as Dr. Pastides was becoming dean of the School of Public Health at USC. Their daughter Katharine stayed behind in Amherst, Mass., to finish her senior year in high school. Their son Andrew made the move to begin his four years of high school in Columbia.
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Folks about town
      Jessica Daly has been promoted to president of The Clare Morris Agency company. Jake Barker has joined Ellis Lawhorne as a new associate attorney.
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