NASHVILLE, TENN. Twenty-five communities in Tennessee are receiving more than $9.6 million in grants to help them attract economic development projects.

Gov. Bill Haslam said in a news release that the Site Development Grants announced Wednesday are intended to help rural communities finalize infrastructure and engineering improvements for project-ready, certified economic development sites.

Some long-declining small towns and farming and manufacturing counties are adding people as population growth in large cities cools, according to a Stateline analysis of census estimates released Thursday. 

“This seems to be the beginning of a return to population dispersal after a decade or so of clustering into cities and the biggest metropolitan areas,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. Steady improvement in the economy and recovering housing markets may be prompting employers and job seekers to look again at areas that were growing before the Great Recession — suburbs, exurbs and small towns, Frey said.

Image: http://www.pewtrusts.org

One could say today’s American woman is a working woman. In 2016, 57% of women participated in the workforce, up from 43.3% in 1970. Additionally, 42% of mothers were the primary breadwinners for their families, meaning they brought in at least half of their family’s earnings, according to a 2015 report from the Center for American Progress.

Image: https://www.magnifymoney.com

A funny thing happened after Amazon invited cities to compete for its second North American headquarters. Somehow other corporations got the idea that they would be the winners.

There's been a disturbing trend in corporations seeing the tax breaks offered to Amazon and deciding they're entitled to the same when they pursue their own expansions or relocations. There's nothing inherently wrong with municipalities offering tax breaks in exchange for jobs, but it shouldn't be automatic. Municipalities should weigh the pros and cons, and in a labor market this tight, cities might conclude tax breaks are a losing bet.

Harvard University and the University of Chicago have tied for the top spot in U.S. News & World Report's latest ranking of the best MBA programs in America, although both schools came up short in the one category that matters most to business school students: average starting salary.

U.S. News determined that at $159,815, the University of Pennsylvania’s MBA graduates had the highest average starting salaries among the nation's MBA graduates last year. Coming in at No. 2 was Stanford University, whose average starting salary for MBA grads was $159,440 per year. 

Image: https://www.bizjournals.com

This spring, the National Institutes of Health will start recruiting participants for one of the most ambitious medical projects ever envisioned.

The goal is to find one million people in the United States, from all walks of life and all racial and ethnic groups, who are willing to have their genomes sequenced, and to provide their medical records and regular blood samples.

Image: Blood samples to be processed at the U.K. Biobank. The U.S. is embarking on a similar project called All of Us, but its scope — and costs — are raising challenges. Credit Phil Noble/Reuters

Disruption has turned our modern-day business world on its head. Agile startups continue to leverage digital technologies to bring down legacy brands--and it's putting entire industries on edge. No one wants to be the next Blockbuster or Kodak, but if you're going to remain competitive in the Digital Age, you need to embrace change and innovation.

But where can you find the next big idea or ground-breaking product? How do you know which technology to leverage or where your business might be missing the mark? In many cases, you can find the answers you need within the walls of your own company.

As any entrepreneur should know, good sleep is essential to good business.

High-quality sleep sustains the energy levels you need to grow a company. It enhances cognitive function so your brain operates at its best. It helps you recover from grueling days so you don't burn out . And it's consistently linked to improved performance and productivity in the workplace.

Housed at the University City Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator, Lia passed a significant hurdle late last year, earning FDA pre-market clearance. The company’s pregnancy test is expected to begin online sales in the U.S. in the middle of this year and in Europe in early 2019.

Lia, the world’s first flushable pregnancy test The idea and early research for a discreet, sanitary and environmentally friendly pregnancy test began at the University of Pennsylvania’s Masters of Integrated Product Design program. CEO Bethany Edwards co-founded the company in 2015 with several classmates — they saw opportunity in a product that hadn’t seen innovation in decades.

Image: Lia, the world’s first flushable pregnancy test - https://www.keystoneedge.com

We’re led to believe that the best approach to life is to “never give up.” And while perseverance and  “grit” are essential success, so is knowing when to walk away.

But how can you tell when quitting is the right thing to do? After all, if you give in every time you feel like throwing in the towel, you’ll never get anything done. These four questions can help give you an idea of whether it’s time to say goodbye, or keep at it just a little longer.

Image: Chinmay Singh/Pexels

Our country faces an ever-growing number of challenges in the 21st century, but all too often our political dialogue can’t even begin to scratch the surface. While Washington remains mired in its usual partisan fights, entire communities across the country — especially in the Midwest — have been locked out of an economy that has moved away from the manufacturing base that helped build the strongest middle class the world has ever seen.

Image: On the bus with Silicon Valley VCs and D.C. congressmen for the Comeback Cities Tour. - https://www.recode.net

The chance of becoming infected with a common respiratory virus on an airplane may be smaller than originally thought — less than 3% unless you are sitting within one meter of an infected person, where your chances rise to 80%, according to a study published in PNAS Monday.

Why it matters: There are more than 3 billion airline passengers annually, and global health officials want to learn more how infectious diseases are transmitted, particularly after reported transmission of cases of flu pandemic and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) via planes.

Terrific Washington Post column on research done by Google on the skills that matter most to its employees success. Big surprise: it wasn’t STEM. The Post writes:

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both brilliant computer scientists, founded their company on the conviction that only technologists can understand technology. Google originally set its hiring algorithms to sort for computer science students with top grades from elite science universities.

Image: http://michiganfuture.org

I generally don't use the word "mentor."

Mentors and mentorships have become a "thing." People talk about these relationships as something that's given or received. They treat mentorships almost like a stepping stone to success rather than a true relationship.

While I'm not big on the term "mentor," I do think entrepreneurs need people to reach out to. In my mind, every entrepreneur should have a personal board of advisers--a diverse group of people they can rely on and seek advice from in different situations.

WELLESLEY, Mass., March 20, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report has recognized Babson's MBA as the No. 1 program in entrepreneurship for the 25th consecutive year as part of its Best Graduate Schools ranking.

Babson College's F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business is followed by Stanford University (No. 2), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No. 3), Harvard University (No. 4), and University of California—Berkeley (No. 5).

"Babson is thrilled to celebrate 25 consecutive years as the recognized leader in entrepreneurship education," said Babson College President Kerry Healey. "All over the world, Babson's incredible network of alumni and friends is transforming lives, businesses, and communities for the better.

Image: Babson’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business celebrates a quarter century in the top spot - https://www.prnewswire.com

Gov. Phil Murphy often talks about the innovation economy. Monday, he took a step in that direction. In a room full of government officials, academics and corporate heads at Rutgers University, Murphy announced plans to turn a hole in the ground, known in New Brunswick as “The Hub,” into a large incubator for scientific and technological research.

Image: https://www.njtvonline.org

A hundred fifty years ago, poet Emily Dickinson described loneliness as “the horror not to be surveyed, but skirted in the dark.” Had she been running a modern company, she might have felt differently. Loneliness should be as important to managers, CFOs, and CEOs as it is to therapists. The last half-decade of research has demonstrated that loneliness threatens not only our physical health and well-being, but also our livelihood.  Research shows that loneliness has the same effect as 15 cigarettes a day in terms of health care outcomes and health care costs.

Image: DAVE WHEELER FOR HBR - https://hbr.org

TAMPA — Tampa Bay Lightning owner and developer Jeff Vinik is investing $12 million in Dreamit, an early-stage venture fund and startup accelerator with offices in New York, Philadelphia and — in the foreseeable future — Tampa.

Vinik, 58, will become a partner in the company and a member of Dreamit’s board of directors, he and the company announced Monday.

Image: Tampa Bay Lightning owner and Water Street Tampa developer Jeff Vinik speaks during the Building Cities of the Future Summit by Bisnow and Dreamit at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina in Tampa on Dec. 5. On Monday, Dreamit and Vinik announced that he is investing $12 million in the startup accelerator. ALESSANDRA DA PRA | Times (2017)

Do you find it nearly impossible to resist the opportunity to devour a cupcake, brownie, or doughnut? You’re not alone. Most of us jump at the chance to satisfy our sweet tooth, even though we know it isn’t good for us. Too many people, however, take an all-or-nothing approach when it comes to junk food, which can make it hard to quit. You don’t have to stop eating sugar completely, but eating less of it could improve and even save your life.

Time and time again, senior executives are challenged to transcend their personal limitations. This often relates to the way their behavior is perceived. They may be brusque with people, or somewhat disorganized, or easily distracted, or they may act out of their depth in some other way. They discover they must change if they hope to keep the loyalty of the rest of the enterprise. They have to learn to communicate and make decisions in new ways that may feel uncomfortable at first.

Image: Aaron Kotowski