Government sector contracting is fundamentally important to the success of minority-owned businesses. Minorities represent a greater percentage of government contractors in comparison to their share of all small businesses. They also receive a greater share of their revenue from the government contracting than do non-minority owned small businesses. To illustrate this point, consider the following.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak celebrated the wrap-up of the City's STEP-UP summer jobs program last week with interns and their employers, including many of the city's top corporations and nonprofits. The Mayor thanked the 230 businesses and organizations that employed 1,850 youth this summer and presented special awards to STEP-UP employers Wells Fargo and Project for Pride in Living.

The Board of Directors of the Minneapolis Television Network (MTN) announced that they have appointed Michael Fallon as the organization's new executive director.

Fallon earned his master's degree in nonprofit management from the H. John Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University. While pursuing his undergraduate degree at University of California-Berkeley, Fallon worked as a reporter at campus radio station KALX.

Over the past decade, the fossil fuel industry and its well-funded backers have mounted a coordinated campaign to discredit renewable energy and hinder its growth, according to a new report released today by the Sierra Club.