Aug. 23--Gulfstream Commercial Services has begun work on a small retail center behind the Wendy's restaurant in Highland Pointe, the development at Kentucky 54 and the U.S. 60/U.S. 231 bypass.

Drew Augenstein, the company's chief operating officer, said last week that the company is close to announcing plans for the center.

Gulfstream picked up a building permit last week for the shell of the center.

The permit shows the cost of that phase at $980,200.

-- Gas prices in Owensboro dipped back below $2.50 a gallon last week.

AAA said the average price here on Thursday was $2.47 -- down from $2.50 a week ago.

The automobile association said the average price here a month ago was $2.35.

It was $3.51 a year ago.

-- Jeff Stum, a Madisonville native, has created a new line of teas -- Rooibee Red Tea.

It's available locally at Gene's Health Food Store and at Great Harvest Bread Co.

The tea -- available in unsweetened, sweet, lemon/honey, peach, cranberry/pomegranate and watermelon/mint -- is bottled in Louisville.

-- The QSR 50, an annual ranking produced by the publication QSR, shows some changes in the Top 10 quick-serve restaurants.

McDonald's still holds the top spot with more than $30 billion in sales, but Subway, with $9.6 billion in sales, moved ahead of Burger King.

And Starbucks, with $8.75 billion in sales, bumped Wendy's for the No. 4 spot.

Farther down in the rankings, Dunkin' Donuts edged KFC for the No. 8 spot, the publication said.

-- The total number of restaurant locations in the U.S. dropped by more than 4,000 units in the past year -- to 577,178, according to the latest NPD Group ReCount, which tracks commercial restaurant locations.

-- According to CityTownInfo.com, the top five jobs in Owensboro (in terms of the number of people) where most people have a college education are registered nurses, 1,520; elementary school teachers, 540; sales reps, 390; secondary school teachers, 340; and middle school teachers, 230.

The top five jobs where most people don't have a college education are retail sales, 1,770 workers; cashiers, 1,200; food preparation and serving, 1,110; janitors and cleaners, 900; and nursing aides, orderlies and attendants, 870.

-- The Center for American Progress says people who have lost their jobs during the current recession are having a harder time finding new ones than they've had at any time since at least 1948.

The average length of unemployment was 24.5 weeks in June, the report said.

The median length was 17.9 weeks, and 29 percent had been without work for 27 weeks or more.

All three of those benchmarks were at their highest levels since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started to collect the data in 1948, the report said.

Keith Lawrence, 691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com

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