Ideas

A surge of back-to-school sales helped most U.S. retailers ring their cash registers in August, according to the latest monthly totals.

Journal Broadcast Group, a subsidiary of Milwaukee news company Journal Communications Inc., has announced it will acquire WTVF NewsChannel 5 Network in Nashville, Tenn.

U.S. home prices rose for a second month in June, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index, which showed the strongest back-to-back monthly advance in the more than decade-long history of the price gauge.

BMO Financial Group, the Toronto-based parent company of BMO Harris Bank, reported third quarter net income of $970 million (Canadian), up 37 percent from the same period a year ago.

Joy Global Inc. reported third quarter net income of $193.6 million, or $1.81 per share, up from $173.1 million, or $1.62 per share, in the same period a year ago.

Mary Kay Merkt has been named senior vice president, director of vendor management and procurement at Johnson Financial Group...

The construction and homebuilding industry has not recovered much since the Great Recession, with housing starts at around 15 to 20 percent of what they were in 2006.

You've been told – or said yourself – many times, “Whatever you do don't discuss politics or religion.” It may be that you are prepping your son for his first serious job interview. Or prepping yourself for the annual holiday party. “OK, don't drink very much and don't bring up politics at all.”

I recently posed the question “Are you a cognitive or intuitive negotiator?” to a group of experienced negotiators and teaching professionals. We participate in the Expert Negotiator online threaded discussion at LinkedIn.com on a regular basis. The responses were quite varied and interesting.

In 1970, as a C-130E Instructor pilot in Vietnam, I was asked to lead a treacherous mission just south of the DMZ.