January 11, 2013 | The Hill

The chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the powerful business lobby wants Congress to make more high-skilled visas available to immigrants as part of its push for comprehensive immigration reform. Thomas Donohue, the head of the U.S. Chamber, said that immigration reform would drive economic growth and help the U.S. stay competitive with other countries.

January 13, 2013 | Sioux Falls Argus Leader

If higher education and economic development officials are right, they’re almost certainly the first wave in a research-driven surge that will create jobs and businesses, increase wages and persuade the state’s best and brightest to remain here in South Dakota. Last month, the Board of Regents took the latest step in its effort to marry area university research to product and technology commercialization, approving the creation of a nonprofit corporation to develop an 80-acre research park at the northwest edge of Sioux Falls.

January 13, 2013 | St Louis Post Dispatch

Missouri income tax cut say a neighbor’s actions have made their campaign more urgent this year. That neighbor, Kansas, decided last year to exempt certain small-business income from the state income tax, and it cut the top tax bracket for everyone to 4.9 percent from 6.45 percent. The two states were already engaged in a long-running border war over jobs, with Kansas City area employers being offered incentives to move a few miles across State Line Road. Now, some people are worried that the tax cut will cause a mass exodus of small businesses moving west.

January 15, 2013 | Washington Post

The ads may start coming in the next few months through e-mail, on billboards, even via a passing reference on Facebook — companies looking to give you a chance to invest on the ground floor of a start-up that could hit it big. The tantalizing offers may be legitimate or pie-in-the-sky schemes, and that’s the messy reality that federal regulators must address as they craft new rules that will fundamentally change how private offers are marketed to potential investors.