A victim of budget cuts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Microbiological Data Program, which since 2001 has analyzed samples of select fruits and vegetables for foodborne pathogens, closed down its operations at the beginning of 2013.

Every calendar quarter, public companies provide guidance to Wall Street to explain recent performance and project future results. In these quarterly telephone conference calls, investment analysts responsible for recommending stocks to their clients get to ask management questions to shed light on company strategy. While the “scripted” portions of these calls are interesting—where corporate executives read prepared remarks—the Q & A sessions that follow can reveal the most meaningful information. This was the case in the November 2012, fourth-quarter conference call hosted by Austin, TX-based Whole Foods Market.

Promotions, new hires, retirements and more.

In an economic race that many see as the key to future global growth, North American businesses are decidedly not in the lead. Sustainable or green innovation, and the integration of these technologies into business practices, is an area where North American companies are currently behind the curve set by the rest of the world, according to a survey conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group.