Portland Buy Local honors 10 businesses

PORTLAND – Portland Buy Local, which promotes locally owned, independent retail and service providers, honored 10 businesses Wednesday night with its fifth annual Indie Biz Awards. The awards featured quirky categories such as “Out of Sight, Not out of Mind” and “Soul of Portland.”

“The Portland Indie Biz Awards recognize leaders among Portland’s vibrant independent businesses and community organizations and showcase the impact that independently owned businesses have on Greater Portland and the state of Maine,” Portland Buy Local said in a statement.

Portland Buy Local is a campaign of the Portland Independent Business & Community Alliance. The 2012 winners are:

Soul of Portland: Micucci Grocery Co. Inc.

Flavor of Portland: Rosemont Market and Bakery

Portland’s Best Kept Secret: The Honey Exchange

Environmental Hero: Portland Trails

Community Hero: Planet Dog

Out of Sight, Not out of Mind: Close Buy Catalog

Artistic Leader: SPACE Gallery

Global Hero: Portland Museum of Art

Best New Business: The Holy Donut

Portland Icon: Longfellow Books

Kaplan University opens third campus in Augusta

AUGUSTA – Kaplan University has opened a new campus in Augusta.

It’s Kaplan’s third campus in Maine, joining others in South Portland and Lewiston. The new school has 19,500 square feet of space and will offer degree programs in business administration, public health, criminal justice legal science and other fields.

Gov. Paul LePage delivered remarks at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday.

Construction starts Tuesday on assisted-living center

WESTBROOK – Construction will start Tuesday on a 60-unit assisted-living community at 320 Spring St. for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory loss.

The $14.5 million project is a joint venture of Sandy River Co. of Portland and Northbridge Cos. of Burlington, Mass.

Avita of Stroudwater will combine state-of-the-art building design, a specially trained staff and innovative programs to serve some of the 25,000 people in Maine who have Alzheimer’s disease, said Wendy Nowokunski, Northbridge’s president.

The project, designed by Gawron Turgeon Architects, will be built by Allied Cook Construction, both of Scarborough.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Stocks rise on positive data ahead of U.S. jobs report

NEW YORK – U.S. stocks rose Thursday, with the S&P 500 index gaining for a fourth day, after weekly data offered a positive read on the U.S. labor market a day before the September employment report.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 80.75 points, or 0.6 percent, to end at 13,575.36. The S&P 500 index rose 10.41 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,461.40. The Nasdaq composite advanced 14.23 points, or 0.5 percent, to 3,149.46.

— From staff and news services