The times they are a changing! The words to the Bob Dylan song describe an era of change that occurred in the 1960s and defined a generation. Fast forward to today, and we see the most active primary season in recent memory. Runoff elections will be scheduled for May, and we have the May 10 Senate District 4 elections to determine who will represent us in the Texas Senate. The faces in Austin will change with the election of a new Governor, attorney general, comptroller, and lieutenant governor...

Registration for Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation's 2014 Business Development Week and Governor's Small Business Forum is now OPEN! This will be the third year SETEDF has presented the three day series. This year's program focuses on entrepreneurship, leadership development, business growth and expansion. Sessions will focus on exporting, health care, professional development, human resources, risk management, social media and more. This year we have added several Executive...

This morning, Beaumont played host to the Texas Department of Insurance. A special thank you to Representative Joe Deshotel, Representative Todd Hunter, Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce and Commissioner Rathgeber, for their effort in organizing the public hearing. The Texas Department of Insurance has proposed rules to implement provisions of House Bill 3 related to loss funding and premium surcharges for the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. The Beaumont meeting was the first of three...

Ice on the cars, Interstate 10 closed, and an unexpected day off will be long remembered as we roll through January and get closer to warmer weather. We enjoyed hosting an economic forecast breakfast earlier in the month which pointed to a strong 2014, but progress has been slowed by the rarest of winters throughout the nation. We will have some ground to catch up in the months ahead if the year is to keep such a promise. President Obama gave his State of the Union speech and spoke about the...