On the Street

Owners of a Springfield Express Lane will pay a $2,000 fine for price gouging in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Attorney General Jay Nixon uncovered the fraud during a statewide investigation that his office organized last year. Waddill’s Markets Inc. was sued in Greene County Circuit Court for inflating gas prices to $3.19 a gallon between Aug. 29 and Sept. 12, a move that increased profit margins by more than 400 percent at the 2959 N. Grant station, according to Nixon.

The investigation determined that nine other Missouri stations inflated prices, with Nixon’s office bringing monetary penalties against them; all paid and avoided legal action.

$15,000 a day

The average transportation construction project in Missouri cost $15,463 per day in 2005, according to a Missouri Department of Transportation report. The annual report, called the Tracker, also showed that 80 percent of MoDOT construction projects were completed on time, and 52 percent of them cost less than the amount budgeted. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that highway fatalities increased 10 percent to 1,234 and 47 percent of major highways were considered in good condition last year. Sixty-seven percent of small highways were in good condition.

Mega-marketing

Los Angeles-based Web hosting company Globat.com is taking marketing tactics to new heights, and a Missouri woman is next in line. Globat.com is sponsoring the mid-March birth of a baby in St. Louis. Expectant mother Asia Francis, medical staff and others will wear Globat.com T-shirts and hats during delivery. Francis will even sport a temporary Globat.com tattoo – all part of Globat.com’s Defying Gravity campaign, which aims to secure unique sponsorships in every state. Globat.com paid $1,000 in an eBay auction to sponsor the birth. Globat.com also purchased for $10.50 on eBay a 131-year-old housefly caught in St. Joseph. The eBay seller claims his frontiersman ancestor trapped the fly in a book, where it remained until being mailed last month to California.

Slice of Nice

Eat at Panera Bread – support Gillioz Theatre. A portion of Panera’s sales 5–8 p.m. March 13 will benefit Gillioz Theatre as it continues $8 million of renovations for an October reopening. The Gillioz board is planning 11 days of activities Oct. 12–22 for Encore 2006. A gala is planned for Oct. 21. Fund-raising efforts will continue throughout the year, culminating with the $1 million Final Stage capital campaign. The Panera fund-raiser comes on the heels of hard hat preview tours March 6–9 of Gillioz Theatre’s renovations. Gillioz staff is keeping a blog of the project at www.gillioz.blogspot.com.