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Jim Spencer

Fake goods, stolen secrets cost U.S. firms billions

Last updated Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - 1:22pm

An industrial spy tries to steal $20 million in trade secrets from Minnesota-based Valspar paints. The kingpin of a Houston-based drug counterfeiting ring makes millions plugging his fake pharmaceuticals into the pipeline of Britain's socialized medical system. In Washington, the Defense Department unwittingly buys and installs knockoff Cisco computer software to track troop movements.

The theft of intellectual property has grown into an organized crime wave that costs U.S. businesses up to $250 billion a year in lost revenue and pilfered ideas, officials estimate. The problem extends from charade Chanel perfume to pirated movies to bogus cancer drugs. It includes the theft and marketing of chemical formulas and designs for medical devices.

Business, Fraud, Spying, Trade secrets Read more Comments

Biofuels industry gets boost from military

David Shaffer, Jim Spencer Minneapolis Star Tribune

Last updated Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - 1:22pm

The federal government intends to jump-start the fledgling biofuels industry in the name of national security.

The initiative, introduced Tuesday by President Obama at a rural economic forum in Iowa, commits $510 million to help finance a new generation of plants to produce advanced biofuels for Navy jets and marine craft. The effort would, in turn, boost job creation in rural America, proponents say.

Business, Alternative Energy, Biofuel, Military Read more Comments

Unions will find retail no easy target

Jim Spencer, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Last updated Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 2:16pm

MINNEAPOLIS -- From the moment the election was set to determine whether a Target Corp. store would be unionized for the first time, the company got very tough, very fast.

The retail giant hired Jackson Lewis, one of the country's fiercest "union avoidance" law firms, to help keep Target's 1,755-store chain union-free.

Using blunt language on the motives and effectiveness of the organizing union, the company seized on the uncertainty about pay and hours -- the very issues that sparked the union effort -- to raise doubts in workers' minds. You may be unhappy with working conditions, Target told employees at its Valley Stream, N.Y., store, but it could be a lot worse if you accept the overtures of the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).

Business, Retail, Target, Unions Read more Comments

Initiative links manufacturing businesses, industrial education for new age

Jim Spencer, Maria Elena Baca, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Last updated Friday, June 17, 2011 - 2:23pm

This is the vision: a new manufacturing age, when increased efficiency, innovation, technology and service are what give U.S. products an edge, and when a professional class of American manufacturing workers gets the bonus of a safer workplace and increased job satisfaction and pay.

A metal fabrication company in Fridley, Minn., hopes to be in the forefront of the new thinking, and earlier this month it got a shout-out from the White House as President Barack Obama announced an initiative to train and certify 500,000 U.S. manufacturing workers in the next five years.

Business, Industry, Jobs, Manufacturing, Technology Read more Comments

Ripped-off stores fight theft rings

Jim Spencer, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Last updated Friday, April 8, 2011 - 7:51pm

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. -- With frosted, unmarked windows and no sign hanging from the storefront, Target's retail crime investigations center doesn't even look like it is being used.

But inside, analysts and investigators are poring over footage from surveillance cameras and inventory spreadsheets. They are searching for leads on theft rings that have replaced old-school shoplifters with sophisticated criminals.

It's a battle in which major U.S. retailers are struggling to gain ground. While retailers spend $12 billion a year to battle organized retail crime, thieves pilfer $15 billion to $30 billion annually, a huge blow to businesses and, ultimately, their customers.

Business, Crime, Economy, Retail, Theft Read more Comments

For-profit schools lobby to save their profits

Jim Spencer, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Last updated Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 1:15pm

Kevin Gilligan, CEO of a large for-profit college, has been doing a lot of politicking recently.

In recent months, Gilligan met personally with five members of Minnesota's congressional delegation and twice with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

His company, Capella, has an enrollment of 38,000 and paid $100,000 last year for lobbyists to talk to legislators and regulators.

The message from Capella, as well as for the entire for-profit college industry, has been the same: Stop new regulations that would withhold federal education loans and grants from for-profit colleges with high student debt and low student loan repayments.

Business, Schools, For-profit-schools Read more Comments