Roanoke City takes lead in new business initiative
On February 6, 2007 at 11:00am at the Valley View Mall Marble Court (in front of JCPenney on the first floor) the City of Roanoke will be announcing a new online tool to assist the city economic development team in determining new business and retailers to invite to consider the Roanoke region. Through this online portal, the City is seeking input from the citizens and region on who they should attempt to attract to Roanoke. Here’s a short excerpt from their pre-announcement–
In an effort to address the needs of the changing population and increase the quality of life of residents and visitors, a program to aggressively seek and attract retailers to Roanoke will be rolled out on February 6. The City of Roanoke will announce a new Web-based program, MyRetailRoanoke.com, to assist in economic development efforts focused on attracting new retailers and service providers to Roanoke. Join Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris and City Manager Darlene Burcham on February 6 at 11 a.m. at Valley View Mall’s Marble Court on the 1st floors adjacent to JC Penney. We encourage all local bloggers to attend.
I’ll see you there!
Keep a tab on the Virginia General Assembly
I ran across a great resource when visiting the Bored Young Professional weblog for the first time. One of the contributors who uses the moniker “JMUDUKE” introduced Richmond Sunlight.
Richmond Sunlight is a fantastic website program by the Virginia Interfaith Center and created by Waldo Jaquith. It features the ability to track all the bills and actions introduced in the current Virginia General Assembly as a whole or by the delegate or senator. They put it best on their website when they say-
Lobby your senator, keep up with your delegate, find out what bills could affect your life and make your voice heard. It’s easy, it’s fast, and it’s fun. Fully buzzword compliant, Richmond Sunlight demystifies the often-baffling process of how a bill becomes law, giving you a say in it, every step of the way. This year’s General Assembly session begins on January 10, and is slated to run through February 24. Legislators are currently pre-filing bills in advance of the session.
JMUDUKE continues with-
This site removes any excuse for being uninformed about what the government of the Commonwealth is doing on your behalf. Websites like Richmond Sunlight and the Virginia Public Access Project bring the process right to your fingertips and allow a user to jump into the legislative fray armed with all the information necessary to influence the process. Here’s hoping that our legislators realize that tools like this make it even easier for the public to watch what they are actually getting done in Richmond.
Here are a few topics you can quickly jump to and view relevant legislation being proposed-
- Virginia Real Estate legislation
- Virginia Eminent Domain legislation
- Virginia Property Tax legislation
- Virginia Education legislation
- Virginia Transportation legislation
Many many kudos to the Virginia Interfaith Center and Waldo Jaquith for putting this great project together!
ING Checking
I myself use ING Savings, wasn’t aware there was an ING checking yet but thanks to Cameron Johnson for getting the word out–
Do you use ING Direct? I do, and have since I turned 18. Now, they even let minors setup savings accounts. ING is an online savings account that pays very respectable interest rates. They’re super easy to use and best of all they charge no fees and pay rates you’ll never find at a bank for a liquid savings account with no minimum. Check them out at www.ingdirect.com.
Well it just gets better! A few weeks ago I was invited to open an ING Checking Account. And I did just that. Why? Why not? They offer no minimum balance, a Mastercard Debit Card, free ATM access, free bill pay, and a 3% interest rate (about 10x that of banks). And yes, it’s FDIC insured. Look out brick-and-mortar banks. ING and other virtual banks are going to grow by leaps and bounds and prove to be an even bigger threat in the years to come. One more added perk of an ING Checking account, is their new free $1,000 overdraft protection. You’ll never get a “non-sufficient funds” charge from ING - instead they give you an instant credit line so if you write a check for $30 you don’t have, they’ll accept it and not charge you a large fee but instead charge a “competitive interest rate” which would typically cost you less than a few bucks until you replenish your balance. I’m told their new checking account will be available to all customers in Jan or Feb 2007.
