Country Inns & Suites wants to help sedate your road-trip passengers this summer — and combat global hunger. The Carlson Cos.' hotel chain has partnered with an organization called Feed Them With Music to sell a pair of road-trip compilation CDs. Sales will benefit a program that provides meals to needy children around the world. No AC/DC or Night Ranger, though. One disc is a collection of "beautiful and expressive piano," and the other is a batch of acoustic tracks, including some solid local performers like Gary Louris and The Pines. Read more...

By Dan Haugen

As nonprofits face increased pressure from funders to show results, the latest buzzword is "return on investment." Read more...

By Scott Russell

St. Jude Medical said today that second-quarter sales were up 20 percent from a year ago. The St. Paul-based medical device maker is selling more heart devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, and also selling them in places with favorable currency exchange rates. Read more...

By Dan Haugen

Offshore-drilling move deepens rift over the future of oil

Over the next two weeks, those distinctive yellow delivery trucks will be disappearing from metro-area streets. Read more...

By Dan Haugen

The amount of loans US Bank borrowers aren't paying back has doubled from a year ago, Reuters reports. US Bank, based in Minneapolis, is the first of 10 major banks around the country to report results for last quarter. Read more...

By Dan Haugen

Some of Minnesota's biggest companies have signed on as sponsors for CivicFest, the big political and history festival that will run in conjunction with the Republican National Convention. Read more...

By Joe Kimball

As airlines look to lighten their loads by building planes out of plastic instead of metal, Alliant Techsystems said it's come up with a machine to automate a key step in the process. The Edina aerospace and weapons company said its automated stiffener forming machine will make the next-generation aircraft material less expensive and time-consuming to reinforce. The carbon composite frames are lighter than metal and thus conserve fuel, but safety concerns are being raised about whether the material holds up over time.

By Dan Haugen

Medtronic says it's not interested in buying a California heart valve maker, despite Wall Street chatter that the two companies could be a good fit, Bloomberg reports. An analyst recently speculated Medtronic or its rival Johnson & Johnson may benefit from acquiring Edwards Lifesciences, which makes a heart valve that can be implanted without opening up the patient's chest. A Medtronic spokesman said: "We believe we're going to be able to leapfrog them, relatively quickly and relatively easily." Read more...

By Dan Haugen

What do we want? Cheap oil! When do we want it? Now! Northwest Airlines is spamming its frequent fliers today with an e-mail asking them to spam their members of Congress with a form letter demanding cheap oil now. In a few clicks at StopOilSpeculationNow.com, supporters of the airlines' campaign against excessive speculation in oil markets can fire off an email to their elected officials making it appear like they understand terms like "over-the-counter swap trades" and the "exempted commercial markets" loophole. Read more...

By Dan Haugen

Regis Corp. will attempt to trim costs, just above the ears, please, by closing 160 underperforming salons in 2009. The hair care giant, based in Edina, operates about 13,400 salons and shops worldwide, including SuperCuts, MasterCuts and Cost Cutters. Today's announcement follows an 18-month review in which Regis examined costs and profits for 8,500 company-owned salons. Of those that will close, about 100 are in regional malls, another 40 are in strip centers, and 20 aretin the United Kingdom. Read more...

By Dan Haugen

As national polls show that more than 70 percent of Americans favor lifting a 29-year ban on offshore oil drilling to help address skyrocketing pump prices for gasoline, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is crisscrossing her district with a call to remove barriers to drill in offshore areas and the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Read more...

By Ron Way

In 1868, the railroad bypassed Forestville, Minn., and the town died. The decline came slowly, and over time my distant relatives, Thomas and Mary Meighen, saw the town dwindle and people move away. They were left in an empty town with their farm and a general store attached to their home. Farmworkers, paid in "chits" to spend in that store, kept it open until 1908, when business in it came to a screeching halt as Thomas abruptly closed up shop — the last business in Forestville — with all the merchandise inside.

By Steve Borsch

Arriving just in time for the Beijing Olympic Games, a new line of Target clothing by snowboard and skating phenom Shaun White will hit shelves later this month. The clothes include shorts, T-shirts and hoodies that reflect a "love for skateboarding, music, art and travel." White, who is nicknamed "the Flying Tomato" because of his mop of red hair, won a gold medal for snowboarding in 2006. Read more...

By Dan Haugen

Last May, I bumped into former state Rep. John Clawson, now executive director of Minneapolis-based House of Charity. Its halfway house was closing July 1, he said, replaced by an expanded treatment program. Later, I spoke to Pat Dale, chief executive officer of Richfield-based The Storefront Group. Its Way 12 halfway house was closing after 34 years, effective July 1. Read more...

By Scott Russell

The Strib began overhauling its editorial board nine months ago, so it shouldn’t surprise that certain editorial positions have changed. In general, the page has shucked its rep as a lefty lightning rod; on some days, it’s hard to find a call to action at all.

ATS Medical is finding its rhythm this summer. The company estimates it made close to $17 million in revenue during the quarter that ended last week. Read more...

By Dan Haugen

All disasters, it seems, come with a silver-lining of opportunity for companies that happen to be in the right place at the right time, and in the right line of business. Read more...

By Dan Haugen