Kansas City Law Firm Van Osdol & Magruder Client Spotlight: André’s
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
By Bob Beachy, chief strategic officer of Van Osdol & Magruder
Longtime Kansas City Law Firm Van Osdol & Magruder client André’s has been serving the Kansas City community for over 50 years. With one of the busiest holidays finally behind them, Valentine’s Day, the business continues to draw locals for breakfast, lunch and the ever special treat.
Rene Bollier, who operates the original Swiss Confiserie at 5018 Main with his father and mother, Marcel and Connie Bollier, says that his grandfather André started up on the Plaza back in 1955. The family (André’s daughter Brigitte and spouse Kevin) added a second shop at Hawthorne Plaza in 2002. Both stores reflect the fine European training and craftsmanship André Bollier learned as a master Konditor-Confiseur back in Switzerland as a young man. In addition to elegant confections, André’s serves an excellent breakfast and lunch of fine delicacies Tuesday through Saturday each week.
Thank you to André’s for being an important client and for continuing to deliver delicious treats to Kansas City.
Kansas City, Mo. Mayor Appoints Small Business Committee
Friday, June 17th, 2011
Posted by Bob Beachy
Here is a recent news article from Thinking Bigger Business Magazine regarding Mayor James establishing a special committee on small business. The committee will focus on cutting red tape and streamlining city services related to doing business in Kansas City, Mo. James has appointed Councilman Scott Taylor to chair the committee, which will include Councilman Jermaine Reed, Councilman Scott Wagner and Councilwoman Cindy Circo.
Kansas City Law Firm Van Osdol & Magruder P.C. Reviews Kansas City Business Journal Article: Google Can Follow Numerous Paths To Kansas City-Area Suburban Customersumerous Paths To Kansas City-Area Suburban Customers
Friday, June 3rd, 2011
Posted By: Shawn Stogsdill
Google officials announced last month that Google was to expand its high-speed fiber network into Kansas City Mo. This expansion will hopefully create jobs as well as benefit area businesses and technology.
Google can follow numerous paths to Kansas City-area suburban customers
When Google Inc. announced last month that it would add Kansas City, Mo., to Kansas City, Kan., as the site for its first ultra-high-speed Internet network, company officials said they weren’t done expanding the project.
Google won’t comment on which other communities in the metropolitan area might be next in line for the 1-gigabit network. But that hasn’t stopped others from handicapping the field.
“What I don’t know is whether Google is going to build a completely new network or utilize an existing network,” said Rex Schick, president of Olathe-based K&W Underground Inc., which lays fiber-optic cable.
Google will extend ultra-fast Internet project to Kansas City, Mo.
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Posted By:Shawn Stogsdill
Van Osdol & Magruder P.C. would like to congratulate Kansas City, Mo. for being selected to collaborate with Google on the one-gigabit-per-second, ultra-high speed, fiber-to-the-home broadband network.
According to an article from the Kansas City Business Journal, “Kansas City will get hooked up to the much-touted Google Inc. fiber-optic network that previously was announced for Kansas City, Kan., officials announced Tuesday.”
Google will extend ultra-fast Internet project to Kansas City, Mo.
New Kansas City Mayor Sly James held a Tuesday morning announcement at Union Station to explain the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) news, which he said makes the city the most attractive on the planet to entrepreneurs and is a “huge win for the entire region.” The service — more than 100 times faster than what’s available to most Americans — will launch early next year, pending City Council approvals; the cities on either side of the Missouri-Kansas state line are the only two slated for the initiative.
“It’s kind of hard to overstate how big this announcement is to our future,” James said. “As a result of this announcement, we have become the most attractive city to entrepreneurs. Think about it — in the next year, our city and region (are) going to have the fastest Internet connection in the world.”
Officials credited Kansas City Power & Light, the first investor-owned utility to join in on such a project, as playing a key role in attracting Google’s efforts. KCP&L is owned by Kansas City-based Great Plains Energy Inc. (NYSE: GXP).
KCP&L will offer Google access to its poles, infrastructure and existing fiber network to get Kansas City customers connected. The agreement means significantly lower costs and rollout time.
“Rather than having to build out their own delivery system, this innovative agreement will allow Google and KCP&L to work together to deploy service over KCP&L’s existing infrastructure, significantly reducing costs as well as time for engineering, permitting and construction,” said Mike Chesser, chairman and CEO of Great Plains and KCP&L.
James also said “tireless efforts” by Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Circo helped land the project.
“Our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community, and develop working partnerships with the local government, utility and community organizations,” Google said on its website about the project. “We believe we’ve found this in both Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.”
Google’s vice president for Access Services, Milo Medin, made the official announcement Tuesday in Kansas City.
“Just a few weeks ago, when we announced that we would bring our first ultra-high-speed network to Kansas City, Kan., I promised it would be the start and not the end of our efforts,” Medin said. “We love this market and wanted to deploy our service in the broader region and have been working to make that a reality.”
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., said that it has not finalized pricing for the service but that it will be “competitive” with what consumers now pay for Internet access.
The news comes a month and a half after Google made its announcement in Kansas City, Kan. The network there is scheduled to be up and running in early 2012, and that announcement had fueled speculation that the network would extend across the state line.
The Google Fiber for Communities project creates a 1-gigabit-per-second, fiber-to-the-home broadband network that could have broad implications for business and entrepreneurial efforts.
Kansas City technology lawyer Greg Kratofil Jr. of Polsinelli Shughart PC said that the news is a game-changer for the region but that the tool provided by Google must be turned into economic development.
“Our challenge — and opportunity — is to take this advantage we will have in Kansas City and create economic development,” he said. “We will do this by supporting technology entrepreneurs with capital, programs and government as a partner.”
The tech community is ready, but the entire community should get engaged, he said.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t be too long until it came into Kansas City, Mo.,” Missouri Rep. Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, said of the news. “I’m just happy they got it done.”
Kansas City was among about 1,100 U.S. cities to apply for the Google project last year. Early this year, Kansas City was contacted by Google, and officials were involved with meetings and negotiations leading up to the Tuesday announcement.
The Kansas City Star Announces: Missouri launches five-year campaign to nurture economic development
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
Posted By: Shawn Stogsdill
Here is an article from the Kansas City Star written by Kevin Collison. The article breaks down the economic development campaign implemented by Gov. Jay Nixon. The five-year campaign will focus on multiple industries for economic growth.
Missouri launches five-year campaign to nurture economic development
Gov. Jay Nixon laid out a five-year plan Monday to improve the Missouri economy that identifies biosciences and financial services as among the more promising areas.
The Missouri Strategic Initiative is a result of an 11-month effort that kicked off last May at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. More than 600 business, labor, education and economic development officials participated.
The report identified seven target clusters:
•Advanced manufacturing.
•Energy solutions.
•Biosciences.
•Health sciences and services.
•Information technology.
•Financial and professional services.
•Transportation and logistics.
Nixon said much of the economic development agenda identified by the task force could be implemented quickly.
“We do not see this as a legislative economic plan,” he said. “We see this as a state economic development plan with the direct help of businesses and economic development professionals.”
Other highlights of the report included development of a science and technology innovation fund in Missouri to help finance promising initiatives, and a potential tuition-forgiveness program for qualified state high school seniors to attend Missouri colleges and universities.
Although the governor said he backed proposed changes that would lower the amount available for a state historic tax-credit program, he did support new tax-credit programs for research and development, and so-called “angel” investment support for promising new companies.