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Phil Hardwick's Weblog

  • Did the War on Poverty Fail?

    The short answer is “yes” if one looks at the percentage of people in poverty.  Much has been written about the failure of the War on Poverty, and it’s no wonder.  In 1966, the poverty rate in the U.S. was 14.7 percent.  Since then it has varied between 11.1 percent [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 6:21am EST
    by philhardwick

  • The secret to escaping poverty

    The secret to escaping poverty is no secret at all, according to  Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill in their new book Creating an Oportunity Society.   Those who finish high school, work full time and marry before having children are virtually guaranteed a place in the middle class. Only about [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 5:27am EST
    by philhardwick

  • One way government can get citizens’ ideas

    The lack of citizen participation in government at all levels has been lamented many times.  Often, elected officials will merely announce that they welcome comments and ideas about new inititives – and they usually mean it.  However, citizens who submit ideas never realy know if their ideas were considered or [...]
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    Posted: December 07, 2009, 8:08am EST
    by philhardwick

  • Tacky Light Tour on TLC, The Learning Channel

    Tacky Light Tour on TLC, The Learning Channel See us on TLC, The Learning Channel! The Tacky Light Tour season is in full swing with over 35 million Christmas lights from 430 displays in 270 cities featured online. This year son-in-law Matt Burgess, the founder of http://www.facebook.com/l/bd106;TackyLightTour.com, with several Tacky Light Tour decorators [...]
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    Posted: December 05, 2009, 6:17pm EST
    by philhardwick

  • Authors Alan Lange and Tom Dawson to addrees Stennis-Capitol Press Luncheon on December 7

    Kings of Tort, by Alan Lange and Tom Dawson, is to be released nationwide on December 2nd. And on Monday, December 7 at noon at the University Club in downtown Jackson the authors will address the Stennis-Capitol Press Corps luncheon. You can register by replying to this e-mail or on the website at www.stenniscapitolpress.wordpress.com. [...]
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    Posted: December 01, 2009, 8:22am EST
    by philhardwick

  • Representing Louisiana or selling her vote?

    Number of comments: 1
    Representing Louisiana or selling her vote? Senator Mary Landrieu’s vote to send the Senate’s health care bill to the floor for debate illustrates that perspective is a subjective thing.  Some bloggers have already called her a “whxxx,” while others are praising her for getting more aid for her home state. [...]
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    Posted: November 22, 2009, 10:17am EST
    by philhardwick

  • Five Reasons Why I Like Thanksgiving

    First,  Thanksgiving always occurs on a Thursday.  That means that most businesses, except for those involved in that Black Friday madness, shut down for Thursday and Friday.  Ah, a four-day weekend. Second, Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday.  It has an American history.  Even though most of us think about Pilgrims [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2009, 6:53am EST
    by philhardwick

  • The U.S. Grant Presidential Collection is where?!

    When I talk to people from other states I always learn something about their states.  Likewise I try to share something about Mississippi that is surprising or myth-dispelling.  Last week I had the opportunity to be with a group that found it incredible that the U.S. Grant Presidental Collection is [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 7:06am EST
    by philhardwick

  • Follow me to Appalachia

    From Sunday, Novemeber 8, though Wednesday the 11th I’ll be in the West Virginia and Ohio area of rural Appalachia.  The purpose of my trip is to learn how several high schools in such a region have achieved very high college-going rates.  I’ll be on a bus tour with others [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:06am EST
    by philhardwick

  • Thinking in North Carolina this weekend

    NOV. 4, 2009 — More than three dozen thinkers from across the South will gather this weekend for a two-day conference to develop an “Agenda for a Better South” that seeks to inspire Southern leaders to move the region forward. (Read the news release) “In our increasingly partisan and media-saturated world [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:42pm EST
    by philhardwick

  • Person of the Week – Knox Ross

    Knox Ross of Pelahatachie exemplifies the new breed of mayor in Mississippi. Ross is a CPA by profession, and is a part-time mayor. He is progressive, up-to-date, educated and has a strong bias for action. He understands the value of the Internet. For example, he’s brought free wireless Internet access [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 6:55am EST
    by philhardwick

  • Best (and worst) states to lose your wallet

    Do you trust your neighbor?  Are there different levels of trust by state? These are questions the Gallup polling organization delved into through a survey of over 170,000 Americans in the first six months of 2009.  What they found was that most people do indeed trust their neighbor, but that the [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 7:16am EST
    by philhardwick

  • What mayor said, “I brought in 1,100 companies from around the world – $70 billion in private investment – and generated more than a million new jobs.”

    From an article in the Washington Times - In a race testing racial harmony in Georgia’s largest city, some veteran black power brokers say their hold on power is being undercut by their past successes running the city. “We haven’t always gotten the credit for that, no,” said former Atlanta Mayor Andrew [...]
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    Posted: November 01, 2009, 9:40am EST
    by philhardwick

  • Phil’s Person of the Week – LaVerne Edney

    Number of comments: 1
    Phil’s Person of the Week is a salute to someone making a positive contribution to the community.  This week I salute LaVerne Edney and the law firm of Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC for their efforts in helping low-income Mississippians with legal representation. La’Verne Edney is going from A [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 7:19am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Most mission statements are dumb

    At least that’s what Nancy Lublin, CEO of Do Something, says in an article in Fast Company magazine. She also says that good mission statements have a goal. Good advice, but what I liked about the article was that it had four mission statements, two of which were created by the [...]
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    Posted: October 29, 2009, 10:05am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • What do Renaissance Men Wear???

    This following is a guest blog from Kesha Perry, on of my colleagues at the Stennis Institute of Government (reprinted with permission) - Morehouse College. History. Tradition. Martin Luther King, Jr., Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Maynard Jackson, and countless others have roamed the halls and grounds of this private, all-male, [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 7:43am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Ole Miss Chancellor to address Stennis-Capitol Press Luncheon

    Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones will address the Stennis-Capitol Press Luncheon on Monday, November 2.   The event is open to the public, however seating is limited and pre-registration is required.  To register or get more information go to www.stenniscapitolpress.wordpress.com. Daniel W. Jones, M.D. is the 16th Chancellor of the University [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 7:58am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • The most important comment made by the TARP Special Inspector General

    Last week TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky issued a report that “blasted” the Tresury Department’s handling of the $700 billion bailout program.  An article in USA TODAY provides a good summary.  There is a lot to read in the report, but a comment made by the IG relates to [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 7:55am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • It’s Friday – Time for Hero of the Week

    The biggest business and political event of the week was Hobnob Mississippi, a signature project of the Mississippi Economic Council (MEC).  The gathering of the state’s business and political leaders drew over 1,000 attendees.  Hobnob is just one of MEC’s many projects.  In the past few years MEC has become [...]
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    Posted: October 23, 2009, 7:54am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Connecting the Apple, Google and Gannett dots

    This morning I connected the dots as I read the 3rd quarter earnings reports and reflected on my own travel habits.  One little change in habit tells me a lot about why Apple and Google are up this quarter, while Gannett is down.  Specifically, Apple’s profit is up 47%, Google’s [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2009, 6:49am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Is nonprofit status the answer for financially failing newspapers?

    There is a lot of discussion in the public domain about the future of newspapers.  Some have opined that newspapers that can’t make it financially in the current environment should be given a federal bailout.  Others have said that the market should dictate the outcomes because newspapers are just another [...]
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    Posted: October 19, 2009, 10:47am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Hero of the Week

    Number of comments: 1
    Everybody seems to complain that there is too much bad news being reported.  Nevertheless, there isn’t a week that goes by when there is not a report of a heroic act or a heroic person. So, in order to give recognition to some of these heroes I am announcing my [...]
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    Posted: October 19, 2009, 7:49am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Bailout helps fuel new era of Wall Street wealth

    Number of comments: 1
    Thanks, Washington.  Excerpt below.  Click here to read the entire article from the NY Times as posted on MSNBC.com. It may come as a surprise that one of the most powerful forces driving the resurgence on Wall Street is not the banks but Washington. Many of the steps that policy makers [...]
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    Posted: October 17, 2009, 6:37am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Amazon and Wal-Mart Take off the Gloves

    If you like reading bestselling books and want to buy them cheap, you’re in luck. The bestseller sites of  Amazon.com and walmart.com have declared discount war, and are selling Top Ten bestsellers for only $9.00 each.  This won’t last long, but it is an indicator that Wal-Mart plans on challenging [...]
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    Posted: October 16, 2009, 9:45pm EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Catch Frank Abagnale if you can.

    Mark you calendar for February 17, 2010.  That’s when Frank William Abagnale, Jr. will be the featured speaker at the Millsaps College Else School of Management Spring Forum, which will be on the subject of ethics. According to the Wikipedia entry, Frank William Abagnale, Jr. (born April 27, 1948) is an American [...]
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    Posted: October 15, 2009, 7:00am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Mississippi Executive is 2009 Ms. Senior America 1st Runner-up

    Number of comments: 1
    Congratulations to Barbara Travis, a Mississippi Beauty who happens to be the Executive Director of the Mississippi World Trade Center (or is it the other way around?), for placing 1st Runner-up at the 2009 Ms. Senior America pageant, which was held in Atlantic City October 4-8.  Barbara was crowned 2009 [...]
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    Posted: October 13, 2009, 7:41am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Why Strategic Plans Fail

    I’ve seen research reports that put the failure rate of strategic plans as high as 80 percent and as low as 30 percent.  How can there be such a wide difference?  Well, the discrepancy in those rates is easily understandable when one looks behind the numbers.  It’s not that the [...]
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    Posted: October 12, 2009, 7:55am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Notes and Reflections from Millsaps Economic Forum

    On Tuesday, October 7, the Millsaps College Else School of Management held its Fall Forum.  Presenters were Thomas Cunningham, VP and Associate Director of Research at the Atlanta Federal Reserve, John Turner, Director of Economic Development for Entergy Mississippi and Ben Allen, President of Downtown Jackson Partners.  Each offered their [...]
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    Posted: October 07, 2009, 8:37am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Traits of the World’s Best Companies

    Business Week recently released its list of the 2009 World’s Best Companies.  I take most so-called “Best” lists with a high degree of skepticism, and this one is no exception because of how the companies were measured.  In this case, an outside consulting firm took the 2,500 largest publicly-traded companies [...]
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    Posted: October 05, 2009, 8:27am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Poor and Proud or Drunk and Dead?

    Juxtapose this - “Attempted and completed suicides take place at higher rates in rural communities, especially in areas that have more bars and taverns than other rural places, according to a new study. The numbers of suicides were highest among white men.” Source: http://www.dailyyonder.com/booze-guns-and-rise-rural-suicides/2009/09/22/2358 with this - “Perhaps the biggest surprise in [...]
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    Posted: September 30, 2009, 1:52pm EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Forbes Best States for Business Reveals Mississippi’s Strengths and Weaknesses

    The latest Forbes Best States for Business ranking is out.  Mississippi is in the Top 20 in 3 categories and the Bottom 5 in 3 categories.  The Magnolia State ranks 18th in Business Costs , 19th in Regulatory Environment  and 20th in Growth Prospects.  It ranks 49th in Labor, 46th [...]
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    Posted: September 28, 2009, 11:43am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Is your community a mac or a pc? Vol. 3 of 3

    Leadership programs are a great place to use the “Describe your community as if it was a person” exercise.   Most local leadership programs are run by a chamber of commerce, and most tend to try to balance the class based on the demographics of the community. In my presentations to [...]
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    Posted: September 23, 2009, 6:56am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Is your community a mac or a pc? Vol. 2

    Yesterday I discussed how communities and organizations are often seen as having human characteristics.  I also suggested an exercise for your staff meeting to discuss what your organization would look like as a person. The primary reason for the exercise is to gauge how your employees perceive your organization.  It could [...]
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    Posted: September 22, 2009, 10:48am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Is your community a mac or a pc?

    Number of comments: 1
    Don’t you just love those mac vesus pc commercials? Especially the mac ones that portray mac as a young, hip dude and pc as the suit-wearing, paunchy salesman? Regardless of which computer system is better it must be admitted that by assigning human images to a product an impression has [...]
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    Posted: September 21, 2009, 8:21am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • 1959 Chevy Bel Air vs. 2009 Chevy Malibu – which one wins crash test?

    The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently conducted a crash test of the above two vehicles.  Before reading the Wall Street Journal article – and seeing the video – think about which vehicle you would rather be in?  OK, I admit the 1959 model did not have seat belts and [...]
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    Posted: September 18, 2009, 9:15am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • First-time homebuyers must close by December 1 to get tax credit

    With the deadline quickly approaching, the Internal Revenue Service today reminded potential homebuyers they must complete their first-time home purchases before Dec. 1 to qualify for the special first-time homebuyer credit. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act extended the tax credit, which has provided a tax benefit to more than [...]
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    Posted: September 18, 2009, 8:25am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Retail clinics provide less costly treatment than physician offices or urgent care centers.

    Got your attention with that headline, didn’t I? I confess that I posted only part of a sentence that was the conclusion of a study. The entire sentence reads, “Retail clinics provide less costly treatment than physician offices or urgent care centers for 3 common illnesses, with no apparent adverse effect on [...]
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    Posted: September 17, 2009, 8:56am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Rural America at a Glance

      Each year the Economic Research Service publish a report on rural America. It’s called Rural America at a Glance and this year’s edition focuses on the recession. No surprise there. Friday we learned that the recession has “plunged 2.6 million more Americans into poverty, wiped out the household income gains of an [...]
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    Posted: September 16, 2009, 2:08pm EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Are you addicted to e-mail?

    Do you wake up in the middle of the night and check your e-mail messages?  Do you check e-mail first thing in the morning and last thing at night?  In short, are you addicted to e-mail? An article in the September edition of  the Harvard Business Review entitled, Death by [...]
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    Posted: September 11, 2009, 6:50am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Cathy Grace to Receive Winter-Reed Award

    Cathy Grace, founding director of Mississippi State University’s Early Childhood Institute, has been named the 2009 recipient of the Winter-Reed Partnership Award. The award ceremony will be held Sept. 21, 2009 at Hunter Henry Center’s Parker Ballroom on the campus of Mississippi State University.   More info at the Mississippi [...]
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    Posted: September 10, 2009, 9:06am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • What is asset mapping?

    Number of comments: 1
    What is asset mapping? “Asset mapping” is the current buzzterm in economic and community development. Everywhere I turn it seems that I find that organizations and communities are doing asset mapping. So, exactly what is asset mapping? There are no shortage of definitions. Consider: A disciplined, structured process of listing key [...]
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    Posted: September 08, 2009, 9:10am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney to address Stennis-Capitol Press Luncheon

    Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney will address the Stennis-Capitol Press Luncheon on Tuesday, September 8.  The event is open to the public, however a reservation is required.  See www.stenniscapitolpress.wordpress.com for reservation details and more information about the luncheon. Posted in General Comments Tagged: Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Stennis-Capitol Press [...]
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    Posted: September 03, 2009, 7:51am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Why Your Coach Votes Republican

    Interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal about why it appears that most college football coaches vote Republican.  It should be fodder for plenty of discussion, especially the comments of Coach Lou Holtz: Mr. Holtz, who coached Notre Dame to its last national championship in 1988, draws a parallel between the [...]
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    Posted: September 02, 2009, 6:50am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Rent or Buy – 5 Questions to Answer

    Number of comments: 1
    My upcoming column is about the rent versus buy decision.  Here’s a portion of the column: If the rent versus own decision was based purely on economics it would be fairly easy to make. Just plug in certain economic assumptions and take away any emotional factors. Unfortunately, this decision is also [...]
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    Posted: September 01, 2009, 10:40am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Latest Internet Stats

    From the August 31 edition of Internet World Stats News comes the following: The new total for the world population is estimated at 6,767,805,208 persons for mid-year 2009. This represents an increase of 91,684,920 persons, a 1.4% population increase since one-year ago. On the other hand, our mid-year 2009 estimate for world [...]
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    Posted: August 31, 2009, 8:09am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • The two main reasons strategic plans fail

    I did an Internet search for “why strategic plans fail,” and was presented with one post that purported to contain the top five reasons and one post that contained 37 reasons.  The latter was a blogger who said that he was asking his clients to give him more reasons so [...]
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    Posted: August 28, 2009, 5:26am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Which is the greater cause of death? Homicide or suicide?

    The National Vital Statistics Report – Deaths: Final Data to 2006, which was published in April 2009 by the Center for Disease Control, has some fascinating data about death in the United States.  For example, suicide ranked # 11 while homicide ranked # 15 on the Leading Causes of Death [...]
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    Posted: August 26, 2009, 4:01pm EDT
    by philhardwick

  • Open your meeting with a two-minute story

    Stories are powerful when used correctly in meetings.  Not just any story though.  Stories should have certain characteriestics.  Professor Stew Friedman of Wharton’s Leadership Program says that the use of stories can provide valuable leadership lessons and opportunities.  Here’s his advice: A good leadership story has the power to engage hearts [...]
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    Posted: August 26, 2009, 8:55am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • The future of Clarksdale – and rural Mississippi

    A meeting was held in Clarksdale last week to discuss the future of the community after a local company closed its doors and left 76 workers without jobs.  The Clarksdale Press Register article provides a good summary of the meeting and the various perspectives of the public officials and community [...]
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    Posted: August 25, 2009, 6:34am EDT
    by philhardwick

  • IRS on YouTube!

    Here’s the latest IRS press release: The Internal Revenue Service today announced the availability of video and audio products to help taxpayers take full advantage of the 2009 tax provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The IRS has launched a YouTube video site and an iTunes podcast site to [...]
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    Posted: August 24, 2009, 9:26am EDT
    by philhardwick
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