Jake Jabs now selling furniture online, too

Already the No. 1 dealer in Colorado, Jake Jab's American Furniture Warehouse is now offering online sales for the first time at www.shopafw.com. The Web site is set up so that customers can design their space and confirm their purchase with a few mouseclicks. The new online shopping feature also allows customers to schedule delivery to anywhere in Colorado or Wyoming. Deliveries to metro Denver/Boulder, Fort Collins/Greeley, Colorado Springs and Pueblo can usually be made within two to four days.

Array of speakers in town

Steve Baker, author of "Pushing Water Uphill With a Rake, Memoirs of a Successful Failure," will talk about building, then losing a $500 million travel business he built in Conifer as part of the 2007 Entrepreneurial Finance Speaker Series.
Baker's talk is scheduled from 6-7 p.m. Wednesday at the University Center Theater at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The free address is open to the public, but reservations are requested at citti@uccs.edu. The series is sponsored by Center for Entrepreneurship, the College of Business and Administration and the Colorado Institute for Technology Transfer and Implementation.

The series continues in April with Karl Dakin, a Denver entrepreneur and attorney specializing in startup business, speaking April 4 on raising angel funding and seed capital and Patrick Bultema, venture partner with vSpring Capital and former technology executive, speaking April 25 on venture capital.

If you would rather hear about economics than glorious failures, Todd Buchholz, former director of economic policy at the White House, will give the H. Chase Stone Lecture in Economics at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Gates Common Room on the third floor of Palmer Hall, 1025 N. Cascade Ave., on the Colorado College campus.

Buchholz also is a managing director of the $15 billion Tiger hedge fund and is the author of the best-selling "New Ideas from Dead Economists."

100 jobs coming to Ford Motor Credit

While in Colorado Springs on Feb. 27 discussing the future of American auto manufacturing, a Ford Motor Co. exeuctive said Ford Motor Credit's customer service center in Colorado Springs will add 100 jobs this year.

Ford Motor Credit announced a few months ago it would consolidate 59 U.S. branches by the end of this year into six service centers around the nation.

The local center employs 500, which will increase to 600 by year's end, said Bill Russo, director of manufacturing for Ford's North American Vehicle Operations.

Employees service 1,700 Ford dealerships in the region, Russo said, providing financing options for buying and leasing vehicles.

Downtown soup restaurant to open in late March

Bad weather and delays in obtaining permits from the city planning office have pushed back the Original SoupMan’s opening at 10 S. Tejon St. to the end of March, says owner Debra Canale. Interior painting starts March 5 and Canale says the rest of the work “should go quickly after that. If everything goes as planned, we should be open by the third week in March, but it should be no later than the last week of March.” The restaurant is part of the franchise gourmet soup operation owned by the chef, Al Yeganeh, made famous on the “Seinfeld” sitcom as “The Soup Nazi.”

United Web site has new look

United Airlines it has refreshed its Web site to prove customers with new tools to book tickets, new navigation tools and a new look. See more at www.united.com.

All the world's a storage .....

In addition to the new upscale storage condo companies coming to the city this year -- Garage Town USA and Colorado Springs Storage Condominiums (see Tuesday's Gazette) -- there will be a slightly more modest competitor in the Rustic Hill neighborhood. Chris Mencini's Second Garage is scheduled to break ground on 12 units in March that will be large enough to accommodate storage of motor homes and other large vehicles. While Second Garage will not have a clubhouse for storage unit owners or some of the other amenities offered at the upscale sites, the units at 1855 N. Academy (behind American Classics Marketplace), will be selling its space at a much less costly $70-75 per square foot.

Energy tax credits now cover window film

Federal tax credits established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 have been expanded to include solar-control window film.

Among the products that qualify are LLumar, Vista and Gila solar-control window films by CPFilms, a business unit of Solutia Inc., the world's largest manufacturer.

Homeowners can earn up to $500 by having the energy-saving product installed, according to Kent Davies, president of CPFilms.

The 10 percent tax credit covers improvements made from Jan. 1, 2006 through Dec. 31, 2007.

Tax credits for energy savings are listed on www.energystar.gov.

Chamber Washington D.C. trip- Update

The Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce has extended the early bird reservation deadline to March 5 for the Washington Legislative Action Mission trip to Washington D.C. March 18 to 22.

Cost for early bird registration is $590.

The Washington Legislative Action Mission offers community leaders the opportunity to go to briefings by national officials, meetings with Colorado’s Congressional delegation, and a reception. Participants will be divided into teams: business, defense, homeland security, international affairs and education/health care. Some activities included in the trip are: Potomac River cruise, visit to the Embassy of India, meetings with the Colorado Congressional Delegation, briefings at the Pentagon, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, NASA and the White House.

For information or registration, contact Sandy Wenger at Sandy@cscc.org or 575-4317. To register online click here.

Do you work for a great company?

If so, check this out.

Applications are being accepted through Friday, March 2, for the second annual “Best Companies to Work For in Colorado” contest. (Go to http://www.coshrm.org/ or call Christina Firouztash at 720-212-2034.)

Sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management Colorado State Council, the competition is designed to identify and recognize for-profit and nonprofit companies that excel in workplace practices that improve the employee experience.

Eligible employers can be either publicly or privately held businesses and must have a facility in Colorado.

Winners will be selected from two categories: small or medium-size companies with 25 to 199 employees, and large companies with 250 or more employees.

Winners will be notified in May, with final rankings announced at a July awards ceremony.

Last year, 25 companies made the list. Edward Jones ranked as No. 1 large employer and the No. 1 small or medium employer went to WR Starkey Mortgage.

Refinery explosion in Texas Panhandle may ripple to Colorado Springs

A fire and explosion at Valero Energy Corp.'s Texas Panhandle McKee refinery on Feb. 16 is expected to have widespread repercussions, including in Colorado Springs.

A propane leak is being blamed for the accident, and 14 people ended up hospitalized, with a contractor seriously burned.

The refinery was shut down until Feb. 20, along with pipelines that ship Valero's petroleum products to Colorado Springs, Denver, El Paso, Lubbock and Albuquerque.

Industry analysts expect gas prices in these cities to rise. But other areas are being affected as well. Reuters reported wholesale gasoline prices jumped 9 cents a gallon in the Los Angeles spot market because of a boost in demand for Arizona gasoline and because McKee is a major supplier to Arizona.