Executives from various organizations come together to discuss diversity in 2010 and beyond.

In July, attorney Carolyn House Stewart, a shareholder in the Tampa, Fla., law firm Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen P.A., was installed as the 28th international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., presiding over its 250,000 members in 975 chapters worldwide. Stewart spoke to TNJ Executive Editor Rosalind McLymont about her goals for her administration. 

Early in August, at a conference organized by Resource Driven Technology Centre for South Africa, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor rolled out a prototype of a hydrogen-powered electric bicycle nicknamed “Ahi fambeni,” Tsonga language for “Let’s go.”

In today’s tenuous job environment, with mass layoffs an almost daily news item, it behooves employees to become familiar with state laws and doctrines that directly affect their job security. Two such doctrines, employment at will, which favors employers, and right to work, which favors employees, are cases in point.

The debt crisis in Europe, worries about a possible double-dip recession in the U.S. and a slowdown in Chinese growth have trimmed market confidence worldwide, including in Africa and the Caribbean.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, then the jobless immigrants who introduced dollar vans to U.S. commerce are due for some puffing up. So, too, does the informal economy, where dollar van-type “popular entrepreneurship” thrives.

A businessowner who decided to share ownership with his employees writes: “For the past several years, I have operated a very successful service business. We are a limited liability company and while I am the sole owner, I have several W-2 employees.

In a speech titled “Science, Edu-cation and Democracy,” delivered at the 1913 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Atlanta and published a month later in Science magazine, J. McKeen Cattell, owner and editor of Science, declared —while arguing for educational opportunities for Blacks — that “There is not a single mulatto who has done creditable scientific work.”

Once upon a time, the banks wanted your business so badly they actually gave you a free toaster as an incentive to make a deposit. That’s a time few remember — a tale told by elders to amuse the younger generation.

China’s decision to end its currency’s two-year-old peg to the U.S. dollar is raising expectation of a gradual appreciation in the yuan’s value — an increase that could bring relief to U.S. and other non-Chinese manufacturers struggling to compete with cheap Chinese products.

Amid all the gnashing of teeth over the paucity of minorities in science, technology, math and engineering (STEM) careers, one organization is tackling the problem by reaching into inner-city high schools nationwide.

In today’s tumultuous economic environment, when survival is paramount, it is difficult for businesses to argue that a specific function, program or initiative should be considered “sacred” and left untouched.

A tap on the HealthMap iPhone application brings up a cluster of red pins on a map, representing nearby cases of swine flu. Another tap brings up a form for ordinary Americans to add to the collection by reporting bouts they have or know about.

The açai berry (ah-sigh-EE’) — it’s today’s new “superfood.” Given the claims — fast and effortless weight loss, reduced wrinkles, bolstered immune system, enhanced sexual desire — açai has been embraced enthusiastically by nutrition faddists.

By 2015, Cameroon could boast the busiest port in Central Africa if an ambitious scheme to transform the palm-fringed beach resort of Kribi goes according to plan.

As you plan your next fall or winter getaway, whether for pure relaxation or to see basketball megastar LeBron James play with his new team, the Miami Heat, include a stop in West Palm Beach to experience Florida Stage (www.floridastage.org), the nation’s largest theater company devoted exclusively to producing new American plays.