Local Honors and Other News

A grab bag of items on a sunny Thursday:

• A primary player in Eastman Kodak's push into commercial digital printing has earned a prestigious recognition. Venkat Purushotham, general manager of digital printing in Kodak's graphic communications group, was named as one of the 50 outstanding Asian-Americans in business by the Asian American Business Development Center. Purushotham and other winners will be honored at an award ceremony on Friday at the New York Hilton and Towers. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is giving the keynote. Purushotham previously headed NexPress Solutions LLC, the joint venture between Kodak and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. Kodak bought out Heidelberg's share of the venture in 2004.
• Every so often our friends at the New York Times discover there's more to New York than Manhattan. The latest installment is a story about the alarm over population declines in our region -- and issue the Rochester Business Alliance has been talking about all year. Here's a link.
• The magic of the Wegmans Food Markets Inc. reputation continues. People flocked to the opening of its newest store -- this one, in Cherry Hill, N.J. Here's a story from the Courier Post newspaper.
• I wrote Sunday about RIT Professor Robert Manning, who many people feel is the leading critic of the nation's financial services industry. I neglected in that article to mention his web site -- www.creditcardnation.com. If you're at all concerned about the state of our nation's finances, this is a good site to check out. Manning served as editorial adviser to "In Debt We Trust," a documentary based on his work, that debuts Friday at the Nantucket Film Festival. The trailer to the movie is available here. The film's web site is here.