The candidates trying to become Alabama's next governor have views on electronic bingo casinos that range from a desire by some Republicans to shut them down to Democrat Ron Sparks' plan to expand them to every county that wants them. Republican Gov. Bob Riley's crusade against electronic bingo casinos has pushed the gambling issue to the forefront of the governor's race, often eclipsing discussion of other issues like the state's highest unemployment rate in 26 years.

"Let's focus on the real issue -- job creation," Republican State Treasurer Kay Ivey complained at a recent candidate forum in Birmingham.

Both Democratic candidates for governor have criticized Riley's Task Force on Illegal Gambling for its efforts to raid electronic bingo casinos late at night, but they have differences after that. [Read the full article]

Judging from the financial mayhem that's going on in other states around the West, Wyoming lawmakers accomplished a remarkable feat when they closed the books on a balanced budget last week without raising taxes.

In Arizona, by contrast, state government is considering cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from that state's K-12 school funding if voters reject a tax hike in May.

In New Mexico, strapped lawmakers last week endorsed proposals to raise some personal income taxes, allow local governments to impose a tax on groceries and increase taxes on cigarettes by 75 cents a pack -- up to $1.66.

And Colorado lawmakers, meanwhile, are considering a proposal to layoff nearly 300 workers in the state prison system as they look for ways to cover a $1.5 billion shortfall in next year's $18 billion budget.

State revenues are down significantly since the glory days of the energy boom that started petering out in 2008. [Read the full article]

Centauri Labs, an innovative, full service environmental testing laboratory with expertise in analytical and radiochemical testing, today announced it has received a long term contract with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to conduct radiochemical analysis in and around the State nuclear power plants. Under the contract Centauri will be providing analyses for gamma spectroscopy, gross alpha/beta, strontium-89/90, tritium, and iodine-131 in milk, air particulate, charcoal cartridges, soil, fish, vegetation, and aquatic sediment.

Joe Hernandez, Chairman of Centauri Labs, stated, “This contract will allow Centauri Labs to leverage our experience in radiochemistry and our recently established Center of Excellence for Radiochemistry Facility in our Montgomery Alabama location. [Read the full article]

First to provide highly structured, actionable event information that drives trading strategies

Selerity, a provider of real-time event data solutions for the financial services industry, today announced the launch of its ultra-low-latency platform for delivering machine-readable U.S. Corporate and Economic event data. The Selerity Platform allows investment firms to make accelerated decisions using breaking events.

Created to meet the needs of sophisticated investment firms, including hedge funds, banks and proprietary trading companies, Selerity uses a proprietary, real-time search and extraction technology" combined with event analysts" to produce market-moving factual data on U.S. corporate earnings, key performance indicators, guidance and select economic indicators from primary sources. [Read the full article]