April 30, 2009

DOE stimulus money arrives in Oak Ridge TN

OAK RIDGE – Three weeks after the Department of Energy announced that Oak Ridge would receive $755 million in stimulus money for shovel-ready environmental cleanup projects, the money has finally arrived – at least the first allotment.
“We have received $604 million,” DOE spokesman John Shewairy said Wednesday.
That’s 80 percent of the total money that’s targeted [...]

April 30, 2009

8 Great Ways to Land Your Dream Job

Even as jobs become harder to find, too many job-seekers rely on a tunnel-vision strategy that makes use of only one or two job-search methods. That strategy may eventually land you a job, but it’s likely you’ll spend more time being frustrated than interviewed.
So should you rely on job fairs, Internet job boards or social [...]

April 30, 2009

Tennessee colleges consider stimulus projects

Voluntary buyout plans, energy efficient buildings, and roofs that don’t leak when it rains — these are the items college administrators in Tennessee have in mind when it comes to spending an additional $312 million in federal and state stimulus funding this year and next.
The one big exception that schools can’t pay for with the [...]

April 30, 2009

Inmates learn to transition back into society

Almost 200 inmates at Foothills Correctional Institution spent Friday learning about opportunities to assist them in transitioning into society.
Inmates enrolled in the academic programs at Foothills were eligible for the event, teacher Ruth Anne Beaver said.
Inmates with less than a year until release focused on transitioning into jobs, while those with more time left focused [...]

April 30, 2009

VA, WCU form nursing partnership

A federal grant will boost the number of students and faculty in Western Carolina University’s accelerated nursing program to prepare the region for an expected shortage of nurses, officials with WCU and the VA Medical Center in Asheville announced Thursday.
The $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will fund five new faculty [...]

April 30, 2009

WNC employment slide slowing

Western North Carolina’s economy continued to decline in February but at a slower rate than in previous months, according to a report released Thursday by economists at Appalachian State University.
Economic activity in the region dropped by 0.1 percent for the month, the smallest decline recorded since July 2008, as measured by the WNC Economic [...]