KU center to present workshop on state taxes

The Kansas University Small Business Development Center in conjunction with the Kansas Department of Revenue will present a small business seminar, “Meet the Taxman: KDOR State Tax Workshop for Small Businesses.”

The seminar will be from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at 734 Vt., Suite 104. It will feature a discussion on state tax topics, such as sales tax and employee withholding taxes.

To register for the free seminar, call 843-8844. Seating is limited.

Forbes list: Many CEOs, politicians belonged to fraternity

If you want to be a chief executive or politician when you grow up, consider joining a fraternity in college.

Forty-two percent of U.S. senators and 40 percent of Supreme Court justices belonged to a fraternity. So did a quarter of the CEOs of the biggest companies in America, including billionaire Warren Buffett, outgoing Sprint CEO William Esrey, Wal-Mart Stores founder Sam Walton and Sanford Weill, the Citigroup leader.

Forbes magazine perused the college fraternization of CEOs on its Forbes 500 list. Beta Theta Pi, the Ohio-based fraternity founded 163 years ago, led the corporate list with 11 CEOs, followed by Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Chi with nine each.

Motley Fool: Name that company

I was started in an Iowa farmhouse in 1985 by a ponytail-wearing guy who’d borrowed $10,000 from his grandmother. Today I’m a billion-dollar company, employing more than 10,000 people and raking in some $6 billion annually. In 1995, I was the first manufacturer to offer online ordering for my kind of product. I’m a “personal technology company,” offering consumers, businesses and government agencies digital music, photography and video services, as well as high-speed Internet connections and networking for the home and office, among other things. I’m known for my bovine design, too. Who am I?

Advice: How to cut spending

If your credit card debt is piling up, the folks at BillSaver.com have some tips to help you cut spending:

• Lower your interest rate. Call the company and request a better rate. If they say no, transfer the debt to another card.
• Consider what magazines you read and what cable channels you watch. Sure, there are hundreds available, but you might look at only a few. Go to the library for your reading material instead of buying.
• Put some savings to work. If you have cash sitting idly in a savings account or CD, earning a minuscule rate of return, apply it to the credit card debt.