Update to Post from Sept 10: "Bread" was '60's-Slang for Money > Alpine Valley Sale Done

Mesa’s Alpine Valley Bread sells for $120M

Posted December 18, 2015 by AZ Business Magazine

The purchase by Flowers Foods, Inc. for $120 million in cash and stock. The acquisition was completed in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Alpine Valley Bread was founded in 1997 by the Wood family and operated its first small retail bakery from a Mesa strip mall. In 1998,
Their wholesome breads found their way into several local Kroger and Costco stores and, later, Sprouts Farmers Market.

From those early retail customer roots, and with a commitment in 2007 to create certified organic and non-GMO Project verified breads, Alpine Valley Bread grew rapidly into a regional and national wholesale bakery business.
Alpine today employs 282 employees and operates two bakeries in Mesa, with anticipated 2016 sales of more than $85 million.

Alpine Valley Bread CEO Todd Wood expressed confidence in the support Flowers Foods will offer to expand the reach of products made in its Mesa bakeries.

http://azbigmedia.com/ab/economy/mesas-alpine-valley-bread-sells-for-120m

 

 

 

 

Real ID or Real Nightmare?? RFID Chips? 1984 Deja VU

While visions of sugar plums might be dancing through people's heads, there's a mad dash at the Arizona State Legislature to pass through the current snow-job of fear-and-anger a clever provision crafted by Senator Bob Worsley, R-Mesa,  into this year’s legislation
to enact the Real ID Act - specifically barring the use of RFID technology in a half-measure step to total surveillance and/or supposedly giving Arizona drivers "a choice" for what kind of driver's license they want after April 1, 2016 . . . good choice of a date for that: April Fool's Day!

State legislators approved a measure in 2008 prohibiting the MVD from producing a Real ID-compliant license, largely under the influence of then Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano, who resigned from that office [leaving it to the nationally-embarrassing Republican Jan Brewer], to become "Big Sis" heading up the Department of Homeland Security until she resigned from that job too.
Napolitano rightfully called it "an unfunded mandate" at that time
http://www.azcentral.com/story/dougmaceachern/2015/04/03/napolitano-mandate-license-legislature/25269805/
Curiously, both sides of the political spectrum - The John Birch Society and the American Civil Liberties Union - were united in their concerns, proving the point that you can't fool all the people all of time.

AT A GLANCE . . .

The Real ID Act of 2005 would turn our state driver’s licenses into a genuine national identity card and impose numerous new burdens on taxpayers, citizens, immigrants, and state governments – while doing nothing to protect against terrorism. As a result, it is stirring intense opposition from many groups across the political spectrum. This Web site provides information about opposing Real ID.

Read more: http://www.realnightmare.org/

Hey! Fast Forward >> 2016 Artists + Creative Place Makers > Poster Contest

SWMF 2016 Poster Design Contest
Southwest Maker Fest will celebrate its third annual festival on March 12, 2016 in downtown Mesa > seeking a design for the poster and other materials for this exciting event!
Time-Sensitive: Send by 25 January 2016 @ 11:59 p.m.

Submission must be completely original. All posters need to be submitted via email to info@southwestmakerfest.com.  
The design size of the file must not exceed printed size of 11”x17”. The design should be saved at a resolution that will enable us to zoom in to see details during judging, but the file size must not exceed 2MB (although a high resolution file will be requested from the winning artist).
Files accepted as .pdf only. Include your first and last name, email address, and phone #.
There is no entry fee.

Work must be the original work of the submitting artist and cannot have been previously published or used as a promotional image for any activity or event.
Maximum of 3 submissions per person. Entries will not be accepted after the deadline.

Southwest Maker Fest is an annual one-day festival in downtown Mesa. It is a place of ideas and action that celebrates the uniquely human power of creativity and invention, and the entrepreneurial spirit.  Visit SWMF to experience, learn, play and shop.  From new art forms to extraordinary inventions, from programs that explore new techniques to do-it-yourself on-site opportunities, from art to technology to food, SWMF will stimulate curiosity and inspire the maker inside you!

Are you ready to get creative?
We hope you are because Southwest Maker Fest is looking for the most creative image to market our THIRD ANNUAL MAKER FESTIVAL in Downtown Mesa – March 12, 2016.

Southwest Maker Fest’s Mission is to Celebrate, Engage and Inspire the Maker in Each of Us 

Vision =

A Connected Community, Empowered by Creativity.  

http://www.southwestmakerfest.com/

OpenGov //. The Sunlight Foundation Year-End Wrap-Up

Still on-hold pausing to hear from Mesa City Hall, but other Year-End Wrap-Ups are streaming into the Email Inbox: here's one from The Sunlight Foundation affiliated with Bloomberg's WhatWorksCities that the City of Mesa joined in August 2015.
From Capitol Hill to city hall to parliament, Sunlight made an impact opening governments large and small, engaging citizens at home and abroad. Take a look at some of our accomplishments for 2015 below. (And follow along with our work in 2016 by joining Sunlight's opengov community here!) 

For the state and local team @ Sunlight here's what they had to say:

2015 has been a landmark year for Sunlight’s local team, as we launched our largest project to date: the What Works Cities initiative.
This ambitious, multi-year effort means Sunlight will work with 100 mid-sized american cities to advance municipal open data policy and practice at scale.
Since our first announcement of the program in April, Sunlight’s team has supported open data efforts in 13 cities and has played a key role in the adoption of four new open data policies in Jackson, Miss., Mesa, Ariz., Kansas City, Mo., and as of Wednesday, Waco, Texas.
Keep up with the local policy team's progress by following along on our blog.

See the entire OpenGov Year-End Wrap-Up here >> http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/12/18/sunlight-in-2015-looking-back-on-the-world-of-opengov/

Here's a link to a very brief 1:56 You Tube video on Sunlight's Transparency Camp that was uploaded on 18 September 2015
  https://youtu.be/GqT-BXBqiHc

As the sun sets on 2015, we here at the Sunlight Foundation would like to thank all of you for helping us on our journey toward making our government more accountable and transparent. We appreciate all of your support, and we wouldn't be able to do such important work without your support. If you've read an article on our blog, dug through our open data or just want to support the cause of transparency, consider making a donation to Sunlight today. Thanks, and onward to 2016!

OPEN HOUSE @ Mesa Chamber of Commerce

This just in the e-mail Inbox less than 40 minutes ago:

Music, Fun & Frivolity [Heh? Wotz that?]

ALL DAY 8-5

Who's the dude?

BizBash > Mesa Start-Up Crowd Mics

Back on March 4, 2014 reporter Mitral Sorrells published an article with this headline
New App Turns Smartphones Into Microphones
The new Crowd Mics app allows meeting and event organizers to turn attendee smartphones into microphones.
Ever attended a public meeting when you could not here questions from the audience? This app solves that problem . . . and two guys, the Holladay brothers - from Mesa did it.

Gathering audience questions and feedback at a meeting or event is usually done by positioning stand microphones around the room or by passing around a wireless unit. Crowd Mics, an iOS and Android app released last week at Launch Festival, provides a new option: it connects audience members’ smartphones to the room’s sound system, so every person has his or her own microphone.
Image and excerpts from article readers can see by going to this link >> http://www.bizbash.com/new-app-turns-smartphones-into-microphones/new-york/story/28005/#.Vngum5XSnIU

Phoenix Biz Journal had this report written by Hayley Tingle today
Dec 21, 2015, 6:36 AM  MST                   
This Mesa startup that turns your smartphone into a microphone just raised $1M in its seed round                    

The app turns smartphones into wireless microphones at live events.

Link >> http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/techflash/2015/12/this-mesa-startup-that-turns-your-smartphone-into.html?ana=e_phx_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2015-12-21&u=QU7bVbydM2U4wrdSLqhnXw091bba69&t=1450716508

 

So how does it work? The speaker on stage plugs a smartphone into the room’s sound system and creates a name and access code for the event in the Crowd Mics app. Audience members download the app and enter the code to join the event. When they want to ask a question or make a comment, they tap their phones, and the presenter will see a list of people who want to talk in the order they came online. The presenter can enable an individual microphone, mute a microphone, or put the system in “open mic” mode so anyone can comment. Audience members can also submit text comments to the presenter through the Crowd Mics app, and the system offers basic polling functions.

Crowd Mics is free for audience members. The event organizer, presenter, or venue pays for access to the system based on the size of the crowd. It’s free for 20 people or fewer, and then starts at $25 for 50 participants.
[that information above, excerpted from the BizBash article, may have changed]

Check out the Holladay brothers on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crowdmics?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

 

2 hours ago - View on Twitter

We are excited to announce our $1M seed round led by @Sandhillangels! #eventtech #eventprofs aztechbeat.com/2015/12/cr…

News: State Quarterly Personal Income, Q1 2015 - Q3 2015

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has issued the following news release today, EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EST, Monday, December 21, 2015
State Personal Income: Third Quarter 2015
State personal income grew 1.3 percent on average in the third quarter of 2015, the same pace as in the second quarter, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal income grew in every state with third-quarter personal income growth rates ranging from 0.6 percent in Alaska to 2.2 percent in Nebraska and South Dakota (table 1).
Not much, but some subject to the usual post-quarter revisions, momentum to report [to use a favorite phrase by mayor John Giles - but this was noted in the release:
The largest percentage increases in the third quarter were in Arizona and Oregon where nonfarm earnings grew 1.6 percent.
Readers can see the entire news release by going to this link >> http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/spi/sqpi_newsrelease.htm

Here are some details extracted:

Earnings in professional services grew 1.7 percent in the third quarter following a 1.8 percent rise in the second. 

This industry contributed the most to personal income growth in California, Michigan, and Utah.

Earnings in health care grew 1.6 percent in the third quarter following a 1.4 percent increase in the second.  

Health care was the leading contributor to personal income growth in New York and North Carolina in the third quarter.

Earnings in finance grew 1.5 percent in the third quarter following a 1.6 percent rise in the second quarter.  

Finance was the leading contributor to personal income growth in Arizona, Connecticut, and Delaware in the third quarter.

Earnings fell 1.9 percent in mining in the third quarter, after falling 5.5 percent in the second quarter and 0.6 percent in the first quarter. 

This subtracted from personal income growth, particularly in North Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Alaska, Louisiana, and Texas.

[Quarterly state personal income estimates for 2015:I and 2015:II have been revised]

Next quarterly state personal income release – March 24, 2016, at 8:30 A.M. for fourth quarter 2015 and preliminary annual 2015.