Memphis Mayor A C Wharton introduces his administration’s Memphis Office of Resources and Enterprise (MORE) initiative in remarks to local business leaders at the MBE Regional Power Breakfast at Bridges Wednesday.

The mayor of Memphis has a new plan to streamline city government and boost entrepreneurship.

Speaking to more than 100 minority and women business owners and executives Wednesday, A C Wharton introduced his administration’s Memphis Office of Resources and Enterprise (MORE) initiative, a new effort to make it easier for small businesses to bid on, and win, local government contracts.

Previously, Wharton said, the city had no centralized system to assist entrepreneurs with issues such as how to obtain business licenses or how to bid on city contracts, or even how to grow theirpanies.

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The Associated Press Published Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Updated Tuesday, January 24, 2012   |    |    |     |   tool goes here

Treasury prices edged up from their lowest levels this year Tuesday as uncertainty about a deal to reduce Greece’s debt drew money into safer investments.

European leaders are locked in negotiations with owners of debt issued by Greece. They want the bondholders to write off half of Greece’s debt load. The two sides disagree about how much interest the new Greek bonds would carry.

Traders sold other European government bonds Tuesday, fearing that a messy default by Greece would spark financial panic. French and Italian bond yields rose.

Traders bought dollars and ultra-safe Treasurys. The yield on th

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Online shoe seller Zappos.com says a hacker may have accessed the personal information of up to 24 million customers.

The company says customers’ credit card and payment information was not stolen. But names, phone numbers, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, the last four digits from credit cards and more may have been accessed in the attack.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh alerted employees and customers of the cyber-attack in an email on Sunday that is posted on the company’s website.

Zappos is contacting customers by email and urging them to change their passwords.

Zappos said the hacker gained access to its internal network and systems through one of the company’s servers in Kentucky. Zappos is based in Las Vegas. It is owned by Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc.

Robert Tuccillo Jr., a Barclays Capital trader, is surrounded by stock market data monitors on the first day of trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 180 points on good economic news.

WASHINGTON — U.S. manufacturers ended 2011 with their best month of growth since the late spring. And the struggling construction industry spent more on projects for the third time in four months.

The data, reported Tuesday, bolstered hopes that the economy is gaining momentum and helped Wall Street start 2012 with a bang.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 180 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,397, its highest close in more than five months. Broader indexes rose as well.

Factories hired more workers in December, saw the most growth in new orders since April and ramped up production. U.S.

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By LOUISE WATTAssociated Press By LOUISE WATT Published Sunday, December 11, 2011 Updated Sunday, December 11, 2011   |    |    |     |   tool goes here

BEIJING — Chinese President Hu Jintao said Sunday that China doesn’t intentionally pursue a large trade surplus and that it will focus on expanding imports in the coming years.

In a speech broadcast live on state television, Hu said China’s ultimate aim is to have balanced trade and that total imports will exceed $8 trillion over the next five years, bringing “enormous opportunities” to businesses around the world eager to sell to hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers.

Hu was speaking at a forum to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

Other economies are looking to China to help drive global demand, but its high trade surplus has meant that fewer of the gains are shared with other countries. Last year, China

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