Contact: Joanne Randolph, 256-213-2727

[HUNTSVILLE, AL] – Too often entrepreneurs get caught up in their own company’s daily operations and do not take time to plan for the future. In essence, the entrepreneur spends all their time working IN the business rather than ON the business. FastTrac® Listening to Your Business™ will provide you with the tools you need to spend time ON your business to plan for the future. FastTrac is sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Joanne Randolph, the Executive Director of the WBCNA, is a Certified FastTrac Facilitator.

Through this interactive and enlightening workshop to be held at the Women’s Business Center of North Alabama (WBCNA) on Thursday, May 10, 8:00 a.m. until 12 noon, at the Crestwood Women’s Center at 185 Chateau Drive, you will take time to listen to your business and develop a strategic direction for the future. With the use of seven assessment tools, you take a snapshot of where your business is today, think about where you want it to be in 3 years, and leave with a strategic plan to get there.

MONTGOMERY – Sight Savers of Alabama will receive a $150,000 grant from the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program to provide vision screenings and follow-up eye care to all sixth grade Black Belt students.

Since 2004, Sight Savers has worked with the Health Committee of Governor Bob Riley’s Black Belt Action Commission (BBAC) to coordinate follow-up eye care services for more than 2,000 children in the 12 Black Belt counties. The grant, a two-year award of $75,000 per year, will expand Sight Savers’ work in the Black Belt by funding sixth grade vision screenings and follow-up eye care for all children who fail the screenings.

IS YOUR HOME A HEALTHY HOME? What you don’t know may be hurting you and your family. Many of our everyday consumer products are filled with toxic chemicals. Find out more about safe, healthy, and affordable alternatives that really work.

People First-TM will sponsor a free Household Toxics Workshop on Saturday, May 5th, from 1:00-2:00 p.m. at 1535 Sparkman Drive, Conference Room.

This informational session will change your life.

For more information & reservations, contact Yvonne Lee-Johnson at 656-0065 or 721-0362, email: PFTM@knology.net. Seating is limited.

PeopleFirstTM.HealthyHomeTour.com

The April/May issue of fDi magazine has named Nashville the most business-friendly city among large metropolitan areas in its "City of The Future" competition.

Other winners in the business climate category for large cities included: 1. Toledo, Ohio; 2. Austin, Texas; 3. Orlando, Fla. and 4. Columbus, Ohio.

Nine judges reviewed nominations from 108 cities on more than 60 criteria to assess cities' potential to attract business investment projects.

The competition was broken into micro-cities, small cities, large cities and major cities.

Some examples: Huntsville, Ala. was named second best small city of the future, and Albany, N.Y. was named first for quality of life for a small city.

fDi magazine is based in the United Kingdom and published by the Financial Times publishing group.

WBCNA is a non-profit organization that helps women, AND men , who want to start or grow a business.

All of the services are free and include start-up assistance and nurturing, counseling and formal mentoring, access to reduced-rate services, referrals to other resources, access to financing, business training, business development assistance, and a ready-made network of contacts.

WBCNA serves entrepreneurs in seven counties in North Alabama--Madison, Morgan, Marshall, DeKalb, Jackson, Limestone, and Lawrence. Our services are open to all members of the community regardless of sex, race, religion, political affiliation, ability to pay, or background.

Visit: WBCNA

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Digital Products, Inc. (SPDI), a leading system integrator of Broadcast and Professional Audiovisual Systems, is pleased to announce that they were awarded a GSA IT Contract, Schedule 70 on April 13th, 2007. This contract award will allow Southern Digital's government customers to now purchase off of their GSA Contract.

With a wealth of experience in the military/government market, and years of experience in AV integration, SPDI has what it takes to get the job done right ... the company understands the critical nature
of your projects, and will make sure that the end result exceeds your expectations. In addition to its new GSA schedule, SDPI is an outstanding small woman-owned business and has been a part of the SBA procedures for years.

Louisville defensive tackle Amobi Okoye fancies himself as the same type of athletic prodigy as the Cavaliers' LeBron James, and the comparison might not be that far-fetched.

Even James could be amazed by the 19-year-old, who Saturday will become the youngest player selected in the NFL Draft since the 1970 merger. Okoye is projected as a top 10 pick, unless an admission that he has smoked marijuana causes him to slip.

Teams could regard Okoye's honesty as a positive. Despite the report by Pro Football Weekly, someone will be captivated by his upside.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Apr 23, 2007 – ADTRAN®, Inc., (NASDAQ: ADTN), a leading supplier of next-generation network solutions, today announced that Horizon Chillicothe Telephone Company, ATC, and Citizens-Brevard Telephone have selected ADTRAN's Total Access® 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform for deployment in their networks. The Total Access 5000 provides a competitive advantage for carriers of all sizes, by allowing them to use existing infrastructure in support of both legacy and next-generation services.

"The ADTRAN Total Access 5000 was the most economical solution for ATC. We wanted a solution that could offer 100 percent DSL/POTS and ADTRAN delivered," stated Kevin Eason, manager of Network Operations for ATC. "This will reduce both OPEX and CAPEX on our future DSL deployments. We look forward to adding additional Total Access 5000s and replacing our embedded base of legacy DLCs."

The largest building permit issued during the week of April 9-13 in the city of Huntsville went to Garber Construction, valued at $900,000, for a 5,000-square-foot addition to Somerby at Jones Farm, a retirement community at 2815 Carl T. Jones Drive.

Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Television stations W-B-R-C in Birmingham, W-H-N-T in Huntsville and W-T-V-Y in Dothan won top awards in the Alabama AP Broadcasters Association awards contest. They were honored Saturday night in Birmingham for most outstanding news operations.

In addition, the AP staff recognized stations for news cooperation. Those honored were radio stations W-E-R-C in Birmingham and television stations W-S-F-A in Montgomery, ABC33/40 in Birmingham, W-A-F-F in Huntsville and W-K-R-G in Mobile.

The awards were announced at the annual convention of radio and TV stations in the state that are members of The Associated Press news cooperative.