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The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded the West Kentucky Workforce Investment Board a $250,000 regional innovation grant to establish plans for promoting economic growth for an area consisting of nine counties in Western Kentucky and one in Tennessee.

The grant will be implemented by the West Kentucky Workforce Investment Board’s Leadership, Education and Economic Development team, which includes representatives from 27 Kentucky and Tennessee organizations.

The organization is focused on the growth of the region’s energy, advanced manufacturing and health care sectors.

The project encompasses the Kentucky counties of Caldwell, Christian, Crittenden, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, Muhlenberg, Todd and Trigg, plus the Tennessee county of Montgomery electronic check payday advance.

Saudi Arabian inflation accelerated to a record 10.6 percent in June from 10.4 percent in May, led by a jump in food and housing costs, Saudi Press Agency reported.

Food and beverage prices rose 16 percent in June from a year earlier after gaining 15 percent in May, the state-owned news wire said today. Rent, fuel and water was 19 percent more expensive.

Inflation accelerated above 10 percent in five of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states as oil-fueled economic growth created shortages of housing and services. The weaker dollar and higher global food costs also made imports more expensive. All GCC countries except Kuwait peg their currencies to the dollar.

“Saudi inflation is still going to be rent and food driven for the rest of the year,'' said Monica Malik, chief economist at EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, Egypt's largest investment bank by market value in a telephone interview from Dubai. “We expect some stabilization in food prices'' toward the end of the year.

Saudi Arabia has raised the reserve requirement for banks in an attempt to slow money supply and lending growth, which have accelerated as the central bank cut interest rates to keep its peg to the dollar.

The kingdom's M1 money-supply growth, a gauge of future inflation, accelerated to 29 percent in June from 27 percent in May http://payday-nofax.com. Saudi commercial bank lending to the private sector, a contributor to money supply, increased 35 percent, after gaining 33 percent in May.

Inflation has been accelerating since the middle of last year, when the rate was at around 3 percent. It has been just over 10 percent in the past three months.

Easing Pressure

“The rate of inflation growth has been slower in the last two months, which makes me optimistic that price pressure are easing,'' said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Saudi British Bank, the Riyadh-based lender 40 percent owned by HSBC Holding Plc, in a telephone interview from Riyadh today.

The GCC is an economic and political grouping of Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

Qatar had the highest inflation in the GCC, at 14.8 percent in the first quarter, followed by 13.2 percent in Oman. The U.A.E., which reports inflation annually, said consumer prices rose 11.1 percent last year.

Kuwait reported that the inflation rate fell to 11.1 percent in May from 11.4 percent in April.

Source

Waikiki Nei will debut at Royal Hawaiian Center on Aug. 5, following several delays.

The show opening, from the producers of Maui's Ulalena, was delayed three times because of technical difficulties from a flood that occurred in July.

Performances will run Tuesday through Sunday at 6 p.m.

For more information: www.waikikinei.com.

The University of Hawaii has received a $5 million donation for its planned culinary institute at Diamond Head, which has been stalled several years due to a lack of money.

UH said the multimillion-dollar gift from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation brings private funding for its Culinary Institute of the Pacific to a halfway point.

UH had said previously it wanted to raise at least $14 million for the $20 million project from private contributors.

The school is planned for the site of the old Cannon Club, which for years has sat in ruins on the slopes of Diamond Head on the grounds of a former U.S. Army base.

The Army closed the social club in 1997 and sold the property to the state in 2001.

UH wants to build the school to take its culinary arts programs beyond the current two-year degrees offered at its community colleges, including Kapiolani Community College, which is only a short distance from the Cannon Club site payday advances.

The university's regents approved a 65-year lease for the 7.9 acre property in 2003, and the state released $3 million in planning and design funds in 2006.

UH said a news conference is scheduled Aug. 7 at 8:45 a.m. at the Hawaii Convention Center to provide more details on the donation and project.