Business

High on the list of top threats are online pitches from startup companies and promoters pushing new business ideas without financial statements and other traditional documents.

For more than a decade, Missourians have been able to ban most telemarketing calls from their landline phones, a protection that has been extended to cellphones following a bill-signing ceremony Thursday.

The co-owner of the once prominent marketer of auto services will be sentenced Sept. 28. His brother, Darain Atkinson, pleaded guilty in April and faces sentencing July 16. 

Apple appears to be severing its ties with Google as is it going to replace the Google Maps application on its iPhone with a new Apple-developed application, and will partner with Facebook instead of Google's social network platform, Google Plus.

Missouri ranks 43rd nationally in real GDP, but the unemployment rate ranks in the top 10 in recent improvement among states.

The number of new home construction permits in Columbia and Boone County has increased through April this year, compared with last year.

The Franklin, Wooldridge and Arrow Rock post offices will have their hours reduced by more than half as the U.S. Postal Service cuts costs.

New federal Commerce Department figures show Missouri's economy in 2011 grew by just 0.04 percent when adjusted for inflation.

Facebook is now testing ways to allow those children to participate without lying about their age. This would likely be under parental supervision, such as by connecting children's accounts to their parents' accounts.

The report's overall economic index declined to 57.6 in May from April's 60, but remained well above the neutral score of 50.

As of Friday, all residents were required to have left Columbia Regency mobile home park. The park was controversially rezoned in November. Plans call for student apartments to be built in its place.

DineEquity has sold 342 Applebee's company-operated restaurants since it acquired the restaurant chain in 2007.

The company plans to relocate its circuit breaker manufacturing lines to Mexico by the end of 2013.

Don Laird, Columbia Chamber of Commerce president, announced he will be retiring in January after 24 years of service.

The family that flies together,  and stays together, pays more together, too. Airlines are reserving aisle and windows seats for higher-paying customers, forcing family members to cough up more dough to sit next to each other.

Proponents say an enhanced enterprise zone could bring manufacturing jobs to Columbia. However, a 2010 state audit found that promises of jobs and investment related to Missouri's EEZ program were inaccurate and often overstated.

A group of California grade school students wants Crayola to start a recycling program for spent plastic markers, but the company doesn't appear ready to make such a move.

Some citizens are concerned that 12-year-old demographic data might paint an inaccurate portrait of Columbia and Boone County. The city's population has grown about 30 percent from 2000 to 2010.

Regional Economic Development Inc. began to look into the possibility of an enhanced enterprise zone in early 2011. It first came before the City Council in January, and the council will consider re-establishing an EEZ board at its meeting on Monday.

Columbia group would seek removal of City Council members who vote to reform enhanced enterprise zone board