Business

You may remember that my wife, Carol, and I grew up in Oak Ridge and schedule “Out to Lunch” high school reunion committee meetings. This lets us plan our reunions, provides an column-writing opportunity, and we get to enjoy a fun lunch.

Our reunion committee has met several times at New China Palace on Melton Hill Lake Drive in Oak Ridge, but I had never written an “Out to Lunch” column on it until this visit.

Roane County’s 8-percent January unemployment rate may be slightly higher than reported last month, but it’s still lower than it was during the same period in 2011, according to statistics released late last week from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

The state’s figures indicate the most recent posting is up 0.6 percent over December’s 7.4 percent rate.

That means 25,790 workers in the county’s 28,030 labor force were employed in January.

Small employers that provide health insurance coverage to their employees are encouraged by the IRS to check out the small business health care tax credit and then claim it if they qualify.

The recently-revamped Small Business Health Care Tax Credit page on IRS.gov is packed with information and resources designed to help small employers see if they qualify for the credit and then figure it correctly.

The Radio Frequency Identification Transportation System Project has supported more than 60,000 waste shipments and more than 10,000 clean-fill shipments from the East Tennessee Technology Park to the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility since becoming operational in March 2009.

The system has demonstrated that the concept for electronically tracked shipments of hazardous materials is a viable concept in supporting the U.S. Department of Energy’s waste operations on the Oak Ridge Reservation.