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With the Small Business Act of 1953, the U.S. Congress established that as many Federal Government contracts as practical should be awarded to small businesses. Specifically, the federal marketplace has a mandated small business contracting goal of 23 percent. A recent report from the Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General reveals that not only is that goal being missed, it's being done so to the benefit of large firms, including Fortune 500 companies.
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The Las Vegas Valley is a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity, with a near-constant stream of accolades anointing it one of the nation's best markets for startup businesses. And a fair number of businesspeople flocking to the city for new opportunities are minorities. Experts say boosting opportunities for minority business owners bolsters the local economy because many minority entrepreneurs run the kinds of smaller companies that create most of Nevada's jobs.
Three years after becoming one of a handful of baseball executives who are female, Emily Christy now gets her hardball fix by dominating a fantasy league. Following the 2006 season, Christy left her job as general manager of the Class A Vero Beach Dodgers and moved to New York, where she analyzes energy companies for a bank. Not that she regrets her time spent as a minor league GM. "You see all parts of (the baseball industry). You do sales for spring training, then stadium operations ... and you get a little exposure through baseball operations," she recalls.
A years-old labor dispute has ended with the recent dismissal of a lawsuit filed against San Joaquin County by the union representing deputies in the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office. The San Joaquin County Deputy Sheriff's Association filed the suit in October 2006, after the Board of Supervisors refused to pay $14,400 to 36 deputies who called in sick in 2003 during a countywide labor strike. Thousands of county employees walked off their jobs Aug. 13 and Aug. 14 in 2003, and 42 deputies called in sick, according to news reports.
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