Charity The January 24 World Beer Festival- Columbia at the convention center on Lincoln Street has taken on charity partners River Alliance and Columbia Opportunity Resource, as reported by All About Beer Magazine and Green's Discount Beverages. The festival offers two four- hour sessions. The first session will be from noon to 4 pm, and the second session will be from 6 to 10 pm. A single admission ticket is $40: www.allaboutbeer.com/wbfcolumbia/tickets.

Delinquent The Mortgage Bankers Association reports 7.4 percent of S.C. homeowners were at least 30 days past- due in the third quarter for 2008. Also in the third quarter, 2 percent were in foreclosure. Compared to the same period last year, the combined 9.4 percent is up more than 1 percentage point. For the entire U.S. in the third quarter, 6.99 percent were delinquent, and 2.97 of home loans were in foreclosure.

Titanium Titanium Holdings recently announced its new headquarters site at Ft. Mill, S.C. Titanium Holdings is the parent company of Titanium Solutions, a leading provider of homeowner contracting and consulting services. The company partners with top mortgage servicers to re- establish communication with homeowners using its nationwide network. Over the next five years, the company plans to bring up to 300 new jobs to the Ft. Mill area.

Columbia's Collexis E c o n t e n t magazine has named Collexis Holdings Inc. as one the 100 Companies that Matter Most in the Digital Content Industry.

Wish lists Just before Christmas and in plenty of time before the inauguration, Columbia's Mayor Coble and Charleston's Mayor Riley left their wish lists in Washington, D.C., with the new administration. Coble's list totals $76 million for infrastructure projects, mostly park and road improvements. A homeless shelter is included. Mayor Riley asked for $7.8 million to build an intermodal terminal for the Amtrak station in North Charleston, which would also handle in- town and inter- city buses. The Charleston bus system, unlike Columbia's, already has a dedicated income stream to cover its operations. The Columbia Amtrak station off Pulaski and the Greyhound station on Gervais can be combined in an intermodal station, like Charleston's. Coble's Congressional conduit, Representative Clyburn, put together an impressive intermodal bus station in Sumter. If Sumter and Charleston can agree, can Columbia be far behind?

Everybody's cutting back, even Georgetown ArcelorMittal, a global steel manufacturer that owns the former Georgetown Steel Co. plant, plans to close its Georgetown plant from Dec. 5 through Jan. 12. About 280 employees will be temporarily out of work.

Furlough The S.C. Dept. of Mental Health plans to furlough workers, close centers, and eliminate beds from its facilities, all to trim $26 million from its budget. The department's employees, except those who work in inpatient facilities, will be required to take off five days without pay. The inpatient facilities contingent must take a three- day furlough. The S.C. Dept. of Mental Health has about 4,200 full- time employees.

Charlotte and Columbia get cracking On Monday, Dec. 1, several national economic development and recruiting executives gathered with 25 of Charlotte's business and political leaders at the Charlotte City Club to exchange ideas on moving the Charlotte economy forward. And in Columbia, Mayor Coble has called a Dec. 15 meeting of similar players as the Charlotte event to prepare for new programs expected from the Obama administration.

Bank of S.C. says, "No thank you." The Charleston- based parent of the Bank of S.C. has chosen not to participate in the U.S. Treasury Department's voluntary program to buy preferred shares in banks to help restore credit markets, such as the $347 million that's coming to Carolina First's parent, The South Financial Group.

S.C. higher education In a study released Wednesday, Dec. 3, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education disclosed 11 percent of the state's blacks have a bachelor's degree compared with 29 percent of whites. Blacks' college enrollment rate is 29 percent, and the whites' college enrollment rate is 40 percent. In S.C., 56 percent of students complete a bachelor's degree within six years.