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EVANSVILLE — A strong local workforce and educational system, along with a “business-friendly tax and regulatory environment,” helped convince Berry Plastics to add 120 jobs at its Evansville headquarters, according to Berry Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Rich.

Berry announced Wednesday it will add 120 customer service, finance and general administration jobs in Evansville over the next three years. The positions will pay between $30,000 and $40,000 per year with benefits, Rich said. About half of the jobs will be filled this year, with the remainder added over the next two years.

Berry makes and markets plastic packaging products. For its fiscal year ended Oct. 2, Berry reported net sales of $4.3 billion. The company has more than 15,000 employees worldwide, including 1,750 locally. Wedne

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ATTLEBORO – Mar Seafood, a Warwick-based wholesale fish distributor, ended its months-long standoff with the city of Attleboro after Mayor Kevin Dumas agreed to reimburse the company for some utility work, The Sun Chronicle reported.

Mar Seafood is building a 30,000-square-foot processing plant on a 5.6 acre lot in the Industrial Business Park, the park’s first tenant, after striking a $250,000 tax break with the city.

Mar was threatening to abandon the move, complaining that it paid about $40,000 for utility installations that will be used by the park’s other occupants.

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I’ve been writing lately about what I’ve learned from blogging. Last week, I singled out a comment that I found extremely helpful. This week, I want to talk about the opposite.

Since this is a moderated forum, spam and insane nonsense rarely make it to the page (except for this guy.) Thank you, editors! That still leaves room for people who disagree with my opinions — which make perfect sense to me — or who think they somehow indicate that I’m an inhuman monster (see some of the comments on this post about hiring.)

I’m going to disqualify ad hominem attacks from my list of unhelpful comments. I want to highlight, instead, a couple of ways that I have found advice to be less than useful. Doing this, I hope, will be helpful for small-business owners who must constantly decide whose advice to take. Here are fo

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The accompanying table shows 20 of the largest upcoming Northeast and South construction projects. They are all in the planning stage and are mainly new projects, but may also involve additions and/or alterations.

Shopping centers, hotels, office buildings, medical buildings, educational buildings, libraries and museums, sports and entertainment complexes, industrial projects and government buildings will all be covered on a rotating basis.

There are several reasons for highlighting upcoming large projects. Such jobs have often received a fair amount of media coverage. Therefore, people in the industry are on the lookout for when job-site work actually gets underway.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The dollar is rising against most major currencies after a government report showed more people in the U.S. applied for unemployment benefits then were expected.

The news sent investors nervous about slowing economic growth searching for less risky currencies.

The dollar gained against the euro and pound in morning trading Thursday, and the Swiss franc hit a new record high against the euro.

The U.S. L

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CHESHIRE-BASED Holidaybreak has begun its sell-off of non-core businesses as it looks to refocus on the education market.

The education and activity travel group today announced the sale of its subsidiary West End Theatre Bookings for £10.9m to theatre booking firm Encore Tickets.

Martin Davies, chief executive of Holidaybreak , said: “The sale demonstrates our commitment to strengthen the education share of the Group as part of our longer term growth strategy to become the leading educational travel provider in Europe.

“At the same time, we are saddened to see West End Theatre Bookings leave the Holidaybreak Group but we believe Encore Tickets, a leading ticket agency, will provide a good home with both businesses strategically focused on providing theatre tickets to the consumer.”

Mr Davies became group chief executive in April, 2010, and one of his challenges has been to reduce the company’s debt, with the proceeds of today’s deal being used for that purpose.

At the end of its last financial year, September 30, it had net debt of £99.7m. It recorded

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