In the rural counties surrounding Augusta, folks know attracting new industry doesn't begin by offering businesses incentives and tax breaks, it begins by getting Essie Moss her high school diploma equivalency. Banks swallow banks.
Defense companies close ranks.
Phone companies hook up. Merger mania has spread to utilities, cable companies, drug makers, railroads, toymakers. It was a business convention, the perfect place to talk shop and maybe make a sale. But when Lorie Holman, a corporate accounts manager for a medical supply company, tried to do just that, the man she approached had other ideas. For millions of taxpayers, it always gets a little greener around springtime.