Suzanne Holland has has been named the second John B. Magee Chair in Science and Values in the Honors Program at University of Puget Sound. She is a professor of religion and a bioethicist with particular focus on the intersection of ethics, medicine, religion and new genetic technologies.

Jeff Matthews has been named the George Frederick Jewett Professor at University of Puget Sound. He is a professor of business and leadership. Matthews joined the faculty in 2000 and has served as director of the Business Leadership Program since 2005.

America's small business owners are the most optimistic they've been since July 2008, according to the latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index. The index was 15 for January, compared to minus 3 during October and readings of zero (neither optimistic nor pessimistic) in November and December.

The index's future expectations component (forward looking 12 months) rose to 21 last month, an increase of 13 points from the survey's last reading, which occurred during October. Driving the increase was a more bullish sentiment across several categories tracked by the survey:

Mason General Hospital & Family of Clinics has joined the Telestroke Network, a southwest Washington hospital partnership set up by Providence St. Peter Hospital, that allows access to neurologists 24-hours-a-day through advanced video technology.

"This technology puts the neurologist right in the room with the patient and emergency medicine physician," said Dean Gushee M.D., director of emergency services. "When needed, this new technology will allow the neurologist to be right here at MGH when the patient arrives. Faster diagnosis and immediate treatment can often reduce or eliminate the debilitating results of a stroke."

Hotel occupancy numbers in Tacoma and Pierce County were lower during 2011 than 2010, but managed to eke out a small increase in southwest Washington, which includes Thurston and Lewis counties, according to the latest Trends in the Hotel Industry Report from Wolfgang Rood Hospitality Consulting.

The occupancy rate in Tacoma and Pierce County fell 6.4 percent (65.6 percent vs. 70.1 percent) year over year. For the month of December, occupancy was off 1.6 percent (46.6 percent vs. 47.4 percent. Year over year occupancy rates in southwest Washington increased slightly (63.2 percent vs. 63 percent). For December, the rate fell 10.6 percent (42.6 percent vs. 51.7 percent).

A coalition of health care providers, including the Washington Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, Washington State Medical Association and Washington State Hospital Association, has proposed a plan to help reduce emergency visits while saving the state millions of dollars and protecting patient safety and patient access to care.
 
The plan is an alternative to one advanced by the Washington State Health Care Authority.

Small business owners see corporate tax loopholes and accounting gimmicks used to shift U.S. profits to offshore tax havens as serious problems, according to a poll released by the American Sustainable Business Council, Main Street Alliance and Small Business Majority.

Respondents also said that big corporations and the wealthy don't pay their fair share of taxes. They support increasing taxes on millionaire incomes, letting high-end tax cuts expire and closing the carried interest loophole that gives big tax breaks to hedge fund managers.

Port of Tacoma is soliciting nominations for corporate achievement and business excellence through its Summit Awards. The awards, which will be presented at the port's April 24 annual customer breakfast, recognize three categories of leadership.

• Business Magnet: A port customer or member of the supply chain (shipper, transportation or logistics service provider, developer) for business development efforts and investments that lead to a recognizable increase in business volume or new business opportunities for the port and have a positive economic effect for the residents of Pierce County.

Work on Trader Joe's 500,000-square-foot distribution center in Thurston County is well under way. Located on about 30-acres in Hawks Prairie, the project is expected to be completed this summer.

"For the City of Lacey this is a very nice addition to our industrial area and community, especially bringing 400 jobs when job development is scarce," said Director of Community Development Rick Walk.

Tacoma now has 12 new public electric vehicle charging stations available for public use at a cost of $3 per charge.

The stations are located at the following facilities:

Mason County led the South Sound housing market during January, posting increases in both sales and median prices compared to a year earlier, according to the latest data from Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Home sales in Mason County increased from 34 during January 2011 to 40 last month. The median price rose 3.99 percent, from $154,250 to $160,400.

Thurston County Chamber is hosting Morning MIXXer from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Feb. 7 at Columbian Hall, 6794 Martin Way East, Lacey. The cost is $5 for members and $10 for general admission. Click here for more information.

Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber is hosting Small Business Roundtable from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Feb. 8 at 5000 Bridgeport Way West, University Place. Call Savannah Kimball at (253) 683-4881 for more information.

The U.S. Small Business Administration's February web chat will offer business start-up advice for entrepreneurs.

Janice Washington, state director of the Arizona Small Business Development Center Network, will host the February Web chat on "New Year, New Business: How to Start it Right." The series provides small business owners with an opportunity to discuss relevant business issues online with experts, industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs.  Chat participants have direct, real-time access to the Web chats via questions they submit online in advance and during the live session.

U.S. containerized imports closed 2011 with a surge, with goods related to the recovering housing and auto markets pushing inbound volume up 3 percent year-over-year during December, according to The Journal of Commerce/PIERS.

The growth marked a rebound from weakness earlier in the fall and lifted containerized imports for the year up 3 percent over 2010 and 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter over the same period last year.

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased 0.73 percent during January to 105.81, up from the revised figure of 105.04 in December. The January figure is also up 5.9 percent from the same month a year ago.

"The Employment Trends Index has been improving rapidly for four straight months, suggesting somewhat more robust job growth is likely to continue in this quarter," said Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic research at The Conference Board. "Beyond that we still remain cautious. We expect sluggish growth in economic activity in the first half of 2012 and therefore we do not foresee the strengthening of the labor market to be sustained in the second quarter of 2012."

The nation's 100 largest defined benefit pension plans experienced a $30 billion improvement during January, resulting in a funding deficit of $434 billion, according to Milliman Inc.'s latest Pension Funding Index.  The strong month follows a year in which interest rates drove the pension funding deficit to historic levels.

"Interest rates actually cooperated this month – or at least they didn't go down," said John Ehrhardt, co-author of the Milliman Pension Funding Study. "The lack of interest rate movement allowed these pensions to take advantage of a 2.49 percent investment gain for the month and recoup some of the funding loss that characterized 2011. With the Fed committing to low rates through the end of 2014, we're going to need more months like this if we are going to fill the pension funding gap."

Sumner is limiting the Bridge Street Bridge to vehicles weighing less than 12 tons. This means that passenger cars, smaller commercial trucks and SUVs can continue to use the bridge, but large delivery trucks, buses and tractor-trailers cannot.

The bridge serves as a link between Sumner's downtown and The Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse, The Old Coffee Company, Sumner's Visitor Center, Snider Petroleum and Captain Jacks, as well as routes to Edgewood, Puyallup and the Port of Tacoma.   

Small, nonfarm businesses in 35 Washington counties and eight neighboring Oregon counties, are now eligible to apply for low-interest disaster loans from the U. S. Small Business Administration.  

"These loans offset economic losses because of reduced revenue caused by the combined effects of excessive rain, flooding, below normal temperatures, high winds, frosts and freezes occurring Jan. 1 through July, 31, 2011," said Alfred E. Judd, director of SBA's Disaster Field Operations Center – West.

Thurston County Chamber is hosting Morning MIXXer from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Feb. 7 at Columbian Hall, 6794 Martin Way East, Lacey. The cost is $5 for members and $10 for general admission. Click here for more information.

Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber is hosting Small Business Roundtable from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Feb. 8 at 5000 Bridgeport Way West, University Place. Call Savannah Kimball at (253) 683-4881 for more information.

Despite the addition of 21,000 jobs during January, the nation's construction industry unemployment rate jumped to 17.7 percent, up from 16 percent the previous month, according to U.S. Labor Department. However, construction employment is up by 116,000 jobs, or 2.1 percent, compared to January 2011, and is down from the 22.5 percent rate posted the same time last year.

The nonresidential building construction sector added 6,000 jobs in January and has added 12,000 jobs year over year, or 1.8 percent, as January employment levels stood at 662,000. The residential building construction sector added 3,000 jobs for the month and has added 14,000 jobs, or 2.4 percent, year over year as January employment levels stood at 575,000.

New orders for manufactured durable goods during December increased $6.2 billion, or 3 percent, to $214.5 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The increase followed an uptick of 4.3 percent in November.  
 
Excluding transportation, new orders increased 2.1 percent. Excluding defense, new orders increased 3.5 percent.