Press Releases

MARSHALL, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- As we enter November, many of us are struck with the stark reminder that the holidays are just around the corner. Those who are organized may have already started setting money aside to use towards purchasing holiday gifts. But, with the teetering economy, others may find it difficult to save necessary funds for holiday gifts and other festivities this year.

"We all want to be able to provide a fulfilling holiday experience for our children, relatives and friends. But, in today's economy, it will be difficult for some people to set aside the same amount of money as in years past," said Heather Chastain, president of Celebrating Home, the nation's largest direct selling home decor company. "I'm glad to say that the direct selling industry has been a life saver for many, including me. I am able to contribute to my household income and make money for the holidays, without having to sacrifice my personal responsibilities and time with my family."

The U.S. unemployment rate is nearing 10 percent - coming in at 9.8 percent as reported last month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - and the need for additional income is getting stronger as people become jobless or are faced with a reduction in salary. An update on the unemployment rate is reported to be released November 6.

According to Chastain, you can be a stay-at-home mom looking for a way to earn income while managing family priorities, a retiree looking for a stress-free way to earn cash, or an empty nester ready to make new friends and extra income, and benefit from a home-based business such as by Celebrating Home provides.

Celebrating Home was founded on Christian principles, with the purpose of helping people take control of their lives, both spiritually and financially - all while achieving healthy and fulfilling life-balance, Chastain said. Guided by this purpose, the company offers an income opportunity where women across the nation can achieve the American Dream by bringing families together with home-related entertainment and decorating products that are designed to be affordable.

For more information, visit www.celebratinghome.com.

    Source: Celebrating Home

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Skoodat today announced that its Foundation Edition suite of education applications has been selected as a finalist in the Force.com Forty Innovation Showcase held by salesforce.com.

Force.com Forty finalists were evaluated through a rigorous selection process, including a detailed review of each application and in-person presentations delivered to venture capital firms and salesforce.com executives in San Francisco.

"We are quite honored by this distinction," noted Ken McElrath, CEO, Skoodat. "Two years ago, salesforce.com issued a challenge to developers to use the Force.com platform to innovate to benefit education. Skoodat was formed just 11 months ago to take on the challenge. Our small team created a disruptive business and innovative suite of applications in less than a year. It's a credit to our team and to the power of the Force.com platform."

Built using the Force.com platform, Skoodat Foundation Edition is immediately available for deployment to schools everywhere from the salesforce.com AppExchange, www.salesforce.com/appexchange. As a salesforce.com Power of Us partner, Skoodat offers limited license donations to qualified schools in conjunction with the salesforce.com Foundation.

"Education customers look to salesforce.com partners like Skoodat to help realize success," said Kendall Collins, chief marketing officer, salesforce.com. "With solutions such as what Skoodat demonstrated during Force.com Forty, educational institutions will have access to innovative enterprise applications that help them run their organizations better."

Additional resources

    --  For more information about Skoodat Foundation Edition, visit the Skoodat
        website at: http://www.skoodat.com/apps
    --  For more information about Force.com, visit the website
        at:http://www.salesforce.com/platform/
    --  For more information about the Power of Us partner program, visit the
        website at:http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/partnerinitiative

About Skoodat

Skoodat aims to provide a total solution for education, delivering tools for teachers and systems for superintendents that are fully integrated to deliver change that's real, substantive, sustainable and scalable. For teachers, Skoodat Foundation Edition includes customizable apps for grades, attendance and assignments. For principals and front office staff, Skoodat Foundation Edition offers registration, scheduling, relationship management and a host of other tools. By delivering all the apps on a secure, stable and proven cloud platform, Skoodat can provide a complete, integrated system for teachers, parents and administrators to measure, track, and analyze student performance in real time.

About the Force.com Platform and AppExchange

Force.com is the only proven enterprise platform for building and running business applications in the cloud. The Force.com platform powers the Salesforce CRM applications with more than 800 ISV partner applications like those from CODA and Fujitsu, and more than 120,000 custom applications used by salesforce.com's 63,200 customers such as Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE and Sprint Nextel.

Applications built on the Force.com platform can be easily distributed to the entire cloud computing community through the salesforce.com AppExchange marketplace at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/.

    Source: Skoodat

GRANITE FALLS, Minn., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Fagen, Inc. of Granite Falls, Minn., has reached an agreement with wholesale energy supplier Southern Power for engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of the Nacogdoches Generating Facility in Sacul, Texas. The Nacogdoches Generating Facility is the largest single boiler biomass project in the United States.

Southern Power, the subsidiary of Southern Company that acquires, builds, manages and owns wholesale generation assets, acquired the project from American Renewables, LLC on Oct. 9 and is now moving ahead with construction. When completed in the summer of 2012, the 100-megawatt plant will be the largest single boiler biomass project in the United States.

"This project is an excellent opportunity to work with Southern Power to help Austin citizens use local fuel resources to help reach their renewable energy goals. We look forward to great relations with Nacogdoches County residents and officials as we construct this biomass power plant," said Ron Fagen, CEO and president of Fagen, Inc.

Zachry Engineering Corporation has been contracted by Fagen Inc. to be the design engineer. Zachry Engineering will provide overall site design, balance of plant engineering and design coordination. Minneapolis, Minn., will be Zachry Engineering's prime office for design services.

Fagen, Inc's partner for the engineering, supply, erection, and commissioning of the biomass boiler and distributed control system is Metso Power, Charlotte, N.C. The biomass boiler plant will use bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) technology and once operational, will be one of the largest and most efficient biomass boilers in the world.

Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas of Lake Mary, Fla., a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is Fagen Inc.'s partner for the steam turbine. This turbine is specifically designed to be the most efficient and therefore make as much power as possible from the available energy from the biomass. In this manner Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas is able to minimize the emissions and make this plant the cleanest in the entire region.

Fagen Inc's partner, Wolf Material Handling Systems of Elk River, Minn., has the responsibility for the design, engineering, supply and commissioning of the Biomass Fuel Handling System. This includes truck receiving, processing, storage, reclaim and delivery of fuel to the boiler.

Fagen, Inc. is the largest, most respected merit shop green energy design-builder in the United States. Utilizing a database of over 25,000 civil, mechanical, and electrical direct-hire employees, Fagen, Inc. has constructed 60% of the ethanol production capacity in the United States, multiple wind farms, and significant upgrades to power plants. Fagen, Inc. is prepared to meet industrial demand growth with a large inventory of cranes, including several Manitowoc 18000's, and one of the largest CAT fleets in the Midwest. The unmatched standard for safety, quality, and service has led Fagen, Inc. to be listed in the top 40 largest contractors in the United States by ENR. Information about Fagen, Inc. can be found by visiting www.fageninc.com.

SOURCE Fagen, Inc.

WATSONVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE: GVA) today announced LeAnne M. Stewart, senior vice president and chief financial officer, will present at the Stephens, Inc. Fall Investment Conference in New York City at 9:00 a.m. (ET) on Tuesday, November 17, 2009.

Granite invites investors and those interested to listen to a live Webcast of its presentation via the Internet at http://www.graniteconstruction.com.

When: November 17, 2009

Time: 9:00 a.m. ET

Website: http://www.graniteconstruction.com

A Webcast replay will be available on Granite's website shortly after the conclusion of the live presentation. If you have any questions regarding the Webcast, please contact Granite's Investor Relations department at 831-761-4714 or via email at ir@gcinc.com.

About Granite

Granite Construction Incorporated is a member of the S&P 400 Midcap Index, the Domini 400 Social Index and the Russell 2000. Granite Construction Company, a wholly owned subsidiary, is one of the nation's largest diversified heavy civil contractors and construction materials producers. Granite Construction Company serves public and private sector clients through its offices and subsidiaries nationwide. For more information about Granite, please visit their website at www.graniteconstruction.com.

    Source: Granite Construction Incorporated

LAFAYETTE, La., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- How did our economy come so close to collapse? How did we lose jobs, homes and retirement funds? Ordinary people are angry that they are suffering the grievous effects of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression -- and they want an explanation about how it happened.

"They aren't getting answers from the big banks that created this mess, the ones that were bailed out with taxpayer dollars, and they aren't getting it from the government officials who were supposed to be guarding against this very disaster that has befallen us," MidSouth Bank President and CEO C.R. "Rusty" Cloutier writes on the book jacket in Big Bad Banks. "That's why I decided to write Big Bad Banks."

However, just weeks before Big Bad Banks hit bookstore shelves, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan did an about face. Speaking before the Council of Foreign Relations in New York on Oct. 15, Greenspan actually suggested breaking up big banks:

"If they're too big to fail, they're too big," Greenspan said, according to Bloomberg. "In 1911 we broke up Standard Oil -- so what happened? The individual parts became more valuable than the whole. Maybe that's what we need to do."

But where has America's "Economic Dictator," as Cloutier refers to him in Big Bad Banks, been for the past two decades? "It was pretty obvious to me from the get-go that Alan Greenspan had never met a big-time banker who he didn't like and had never met a small-time banker who he did like," Cloutier writes in Big Bad Banks. "With his deregulatory mindset he went about the business of making it easier and easier for his beloved big bankers to expand their franchises and become even bigger while making it more and more difficult for small banks to thrive and prosper."

Then, in a Nov. 6 Bloomberg story, another startling admission came from John S. Reed, who helped engineer the merger that created Citigroup Inc., which has taken $45 billion from the U.S. Treasury to shore up its finances. For the first time, Reed apologized for supporting the 1999 repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which prohibited a bank holding company from owning other financial companies. He said lawmakers were wrong to repeal and replace it with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act on Nov. 12, 1999.

"We learn from our mistakes," Reed told Bloomberg. "When you're running a company you do what you think is right for the stockholders. Right now I'm looking at this as a citizen."

In Big Bad Banks, Cloutier points another finger of blame directly at Reed and Travelers Group CEO Sandy Weill, whom he calls "The Prince of Darkness." Cloutier writes, "In February 1998, Weill proposed to John Reed, the CEO of Citicorp, that they merge Travelers and Citi. Weill and Reed would serve as co-chairmen of the behemoth financial services company. There was, of course, a problem: such a merger was illegal on the face of it because it violated the Glass-Steagall Act, a law passed during the Great Depression that forbade a commercial bank (Citi) from owning or being owned by an investment bank (Travelers and its Smith Barney subsidiary). Congress isn't always the brightest group of people on the face of the earth, but legislators passed Glass-Steagall for a very good reason: The kinds of dealings it forbade were partly responsible for the devastation wrought by the Great Depression."

From his humble perch as a small bank president in Lafayette, La., Cloutier has seen this disaster shaping up for many years. "While the big bankers and government officials concoct elaborate theories about what happened -- theories that always seem to lay the blame on somebody else -- I can tell you right now what caused it: pure greed and ego," Cloutier adds.

In Big Bad Banks, subtitled How greed and ego among the big shots in banking and government created the crisis that wrecked our economy, Cloutier discusses the warning signals that went unheeded, the vast egos that drove the push for power and money at the expense of service to country and community, and the bad behavior that resulted. He also offers 20 specific recommendations that would go a long way toward restoring credibility to our financial system and avoiding the risk of future crises like this one. Among those suggestions is to break up big banks, requiring any financial firm with assets in excess of $500 billion to divest itself in order to reach a level of $500 billion or less within three years. Thereafter, the cap of $500 billion should be adjusted every five years to reflect the effects of inflation, Cloutier writes.

"My goal is twofold," Cloutier says, "for you, the reader, to understand what happened and for you, the citizen, to insist to your own bankers and lawmakers that it never happens again."

Big Bad Banks' Cloutier, a native of Morgan City, La., is a lifelong community banker. He was a director of the Atlanta Federal Reserve's New Orleans branch for six years and is a former chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America. Over the past decade he has hammered the point that regulators, and in particular Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, were complicit in the practices that allowed big banks to grow to the point where many believe they became too big to fail. When the current financial crisis took hold of our country, the trade association again called on Cloutier to represent the country's small community banks and their customers -- who have been damaged by the crisis through no fault of their own -- in numerous congressional hearings. Cloutier has worked tirelessly to convince Congress that big is not always better in banking and in no way justifies disregarding basic principles of lending.

In the spring of 2009 Cloutier held a series of 16 Town Hall-style meetings throughout MidSouth Bank's markets in Louisiana and Texas. Customers, community leaders and employees embraced the concept, turning out in large numbers to hear about the bank's proactive efforts to lend money to stimulate its local economies and to hear Cloutier's explanation for how the country got into this financial mess. Those efforts, combined with Cloutier's congressional testimony, shined a national spotlight on the issue of "Too Big To Fail." Cloutier was interviewed by CNBC, Fox Business News, ABC News, Bloomberg Radio and TV and The Dave Ross Show, and quoted by The Wall Street Journal and other national business publications. A Bloomberg reporter spent three days with MidSouth Bank executives during the Town Hall series, and in May 2009 The New York Times Magazine published a four-page feature, "Rusty Cloutier Has Money To Spare," which discussed the role of big banks in the massive collapse of our financial services industry.

The national media's interest in what Cloutier has been saying about how greed and ego created the crisis that wrecked our economy has generated substantial anticipation for Big Bad Banks. Through Big Bad Banks, the appalling behavior that shattered the nation's confidence will finally get the attention it deserves.

Early Praise for BBB:

    --  "Rusty Cloutier is a knowledgeable and outstanding banker. When he
        writes a book, we should pay attention. Big Bad Banks is an excellent
        resource for understanding not just the latest banking crisis, but those
        that led to it as well." -- Fred C. Dent Jr., Louisiana Commissioner of
        Financial Institutions, 1987-1991
    --  "Rusty Cloutier has the courage to write the book that needed to be
        written about the banking crisis of 2008-2009. Big Bad Banks is truly
        intelligence gathered at the front lines of banking. The time has come
        to lay the cards on the table face up, and Rusty does just that." --
        Alex Sheshunoff, America's foremost banking consultant
    --  "While the causes and characters of the Great Recession of 2007-2008
        will long be debated, we can get a unique insight into what happened
        from Big Bad Banks. A lot of powerful people won't like this book, but
        proponents of a better regulated financial system will find it a most
        timely read." -- Ken Guenther, former president and CEO, Independent
        Community Bankers of America

    --  "As a member of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing and
        Urban Affairs, I have often called upon Rusty Cloutier to provide his
        insight during many hearings before Congress. As an early opponent of
        the idea that some companies are 'too big to fail,' his positions served
        as a clear and early warning of the crisis that was ultimately brought
        to bear on America's banking system." -- Republican U.S. Sen. David
        Vitter, Louisiana

Big Bad Banks is due out nationwide on Nov. 12 and is now available for order at Barnes & Noble bookstores and at barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, independent bookstores in Louisiana and Texas, and through www.bigbadbanksbook.com.

The views expressed in Big Bad Banks are solely the views of Rusty Cloutier in his individual capacity and are not necessarily the views of his employers MidSouth Bancorp Inc. and MidSouth Bank, N.A.

SOURCE Cloutier Publishing, LLC