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The Clarion-Ledger - 02/25/2016 Page : C001 February 25, 2016 8:25 am (GMT +6:00) Powered by TECNAVIA Copy Reduced to 79% from original to fit letter page Depending on our experiences, the term “high school” likely brings to mind a flood of memories that might be positive, negative or a mixture. But for some people who never had a chance to finish high school, getting a General Educational Development or similar certification can be a major milestone on the road to a better future. If you’re interested in getting your diploma, there are many resources out there. In every community, there are numerous programs, and many in- stitutions of higher learning offer assis- tance. But some students have found out the hard way that just because someone says they can help you get your GED doesn’t mean it’s a good in- vestment. This week, the Federal Trade Com- mission shut down two online “high schools” which the agency has labeled “diploma mills” because they allegedly charged fees to students but didn’t deliver as promised. Students signing up for the programs with names like West Madison Falls High School, Co- lumbia Northern High School, Stafford High School (and many others) paid from $135 to $349, only to get a certif- icate later found to be worthless. “The defendants took advantage of people who wanted a high school diplo- ma,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “If a company says you can get a diplo- ma in no time at all or by simply taking an online test, it's almost certainly a scam.” Currently, GED programs are ad- Companies scam those seeking diplomas THINKSTOCK Bill Moak CONSUMER WATCH See Moak, Page 2C

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Page 1: AT HIGHLAND VILLAGE CHANGES HAPPENING · PDF fileThe Clarion-Ledger - 02/25/2016 Page : C002 February 25, 2016 8:25 am (GMT +6:00) Powered by TECNAVIA 2C Thursday, February 25, 2016

The Clarion-Ledger - 02/25/2016 Page : C001

February 25, 2016 8:25 am (GMT +6:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

Copy Reduced to 79% from original to fit letter page

JUSTIN SELLERS/THE CLARION-LEDGER

Charlie Mozingo, owner of Mozingo Clothiers, packs up items Thursday in his Highland Villagestore in preparation to move to a new location in Fondren.

“I’ve been busting at the seams in Highland Village for 20

years. They just didn’t have anywhere to really move me.”

JOHN RAVENSTIENOWNER OF JUNIKER JEWELRY

Highland Village is shaking things up.Since the Fowler family sold the 220,000-square-foot

property to WS Development in 2012, some local busi-nesses have moved out while national chains havemoved in.

Highland Village’s gross leasable area breakout is151,000 square feet of retail and 68,000 square feet ofoffice, said Masa Liles, Highland Village General Man-ager.

Liles said 92 percent of the retail space and 95 per-cent of the office space is currently leased.

Since the purchase of Highland Village, WS Devel-opment invested approximately $4 million in the WholeFoods Market building shell and site as well as land-scaping improvements around the building andthrough the north parking lot.

An additional $8 million was invested in other tenantimprovements and relocations such as Red Square, Tur-koyz & Turkoyz @ Home, Lululemon Athletica, KateSpade New York and J.McLaughlin, The building andfaçade were upgraded as well.

“All the new and relocated tenants have also madeadditional investments on top of our landlord invest-ment of approximately $12 million,” Liles said.

Despite the improvements, for some tenants, leav-ing Highland Village made more financial sense.

Charlie Monzingo, owner of Monzingo’s, has been inHighland Village for 13 years. As of March 1, he’ll moveto a new location in Fondren, at 3100 N. State St. Suite101. The storefront faces Duling Street.

Monzingo’s in Highland Village is 3,033 square feet.The new location in Fondren is 1,150.

JUSTIN SELLERS/THE CLARION-LEDGER

Crazy Cat Bakers employee Sue Clements walks through a courtyard Thursday at Highland Village shopping center in Jackson.

CHANGES HAPPENING AT HIGHLAND VILLAGE

Multiple national chains replacinglocal businesses at retail venueSARAH FOWLERTHE CLARION-LEDGER

See Highland, Page 4C

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016 THE CLARION-LEDGER clarionledger.com SECTION C

B U S I N E S S L E D G E R

Depending on our experiences, theterm “high school” likely brings tomind a flood of memories that might bepositive, negative or a mixture. But forsome people who never had a chance tofinish high school, getting a GeneralEducational Development or similarcertification can be a major milestoneon the road to a better future.

If you’re interested in getting yourdiploma, there are many resources outthere. In every community, there arenumerous programs, and many in-stitutions of higher learning offer assis-tance. But some students have foundout the hard way that just becausesomeone says they can help you getyour GED doesn’t mean it’s a good in-vestment.

This week, the Federal Trade Com-mission shut down two online “high

schools” which the agency has labeled“diploma mills” because they allegedlycharged fees to students but didn’tdeliver as promised. Students signingup for the programs with names likeWest Madison Falls High School, Co-lumbia Northern High School, StaffordHigh School (and many others) paidfrom $135 to $349, only to get a certif-icate later found to be worthless.

“The defendants took advantage ofpeople who wanted a high school diplo-ma,” said Jessica Rich, Director of theFTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.“If a company says you can get a diplo-ma in no time at all or by simply takingan online test, it's almost certainly ascam.”

Currently, GED programs are ad-

Companies scam those seeking diplomas

THINKSTOCK

Bill MoakCONSUMERWATCH

See Moak, Page 2C

Page 2: AT HIGHLAND VILLAGE CHANGES HAPPENING · PDF fileThe Clarion-Ledger - 02/25/2016 Page : C002 February 25, 2016 8:25 am (GMT +6:00) Powered by TECNAVIA 2C Thursday, February 25, 2016

The Clarion-Ledger - 02/25/2016 Page : C002

February 25, 2016 8:25 am (GMT +6:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

2C Thursday, February 25, 2016 The Clarion-Ledger

SAS ShoesHighland Village, Suite 146 • Jackson, MS 39211

SASshoes.com | (601) 981-5874 Mon-Sat 10-6

SAVE $15 OFF ONE PAIR. SEE STORE FOR DETAILS.

FINAL

WEEK

SAS SHOES

Just off Main Street in Madison is the newlyopened location of Campbell’s Bakery.

No need to fret. The original location at 3013 N.State St. in the Fondren Arts & Entertainment Districtin Jackson is still open, and there are no plans to closeit.

Both locations sell iced teacakes — cookies that arecut out and frosted — made using the recipe of LouisCampbell, who established the bakery in 1962.

I recently stopped by the Madison location at 123Jones St. — just off Main Street and behind Inside Sto-ry gift shop — and bought a couple of the teacakesshaped like the state of Mississippi and frosted in apretty shade of red.

I’m glad Campbell’s Bakery is around because Ihave visions of turning out picture-perfect iced cook-ies for friends and family on every holiday that rollsaround, but never manage to do so.

The Mississippi-shaped cookies satisfied my sweettooth while I marveled at their perfection.

Mitchell Moore, owner/pastry chef, said he hadplans to open a second location of the bakery for quitesome time, but took his time and looked for a locationin an area underserved by custom bakeries.

When he found the 1890s house with a front porchand hardwood floors that once housed Hearts of Mad-ison event space, Moore knew it was a good fit for hisbusiness.

The space required a small amount of remodeling,he said, details such as the addition of bead board pan-eling on the walls and an interior paint job. The spaceis sunny and pleasant and furnished with tables andchairs, making it an inviting space in which to meet afriend.

“It’s a busy place with lots of people coming in andhaving coffee with their kids, not just picking upsomething and leaving,” Moore said. “It’s become amom’s meeting place.”

Breakfast is popular at the Madison location,which is a little bit larger than the Jackson location,he said.

The breakfast menu is what you’d expect to find ata bakery: cinnamon rolls, cream cheese danish, choc-

olate croissants, scratch biscuits with local smokedsausage and cheddar cheese, scratch biscuits withsage cream cheese and turkey sausage, and crois-sants with bacon and sharp cheddar cheese.

The bakery cases feature petit fours — perfect forbaby showers and other events — as well as cookiesranging from Snickerdoodle to Kitchen Sink (sonamed because it includes pretzels, potato chips andjust about everything but the kitchen sink), cupcakesfrom strawberry to Italian cream and bar cookiesfrom caramel blondies to lemon chess squares.

Birthday cakes, wedding cakes and cakes for aboutany occasion are also items Campbell’s is known for.Because everything is made from scratch, the bakerycan customize any order to fit a customer’s likes.

The coming of March and St. Patrick’s Day willbring shamrock-shaped teacakes iced in green toCampbell’s. Easter will bring egg shapes and bunnyshapes.

A word of advice: Place your order for iced tea-cakes for Easter early. Moore expects to be booked upfor those by March 21, which is the Monday beforeEaster. (You can always buy some from the case, pro-vided you don’t need dozens and dozens.)

Moore said he aims to please his customers, citingone evening when he was locking up and noticed atruck pull in the parking lot. “We opened up for thedriver of the truck and his son,” he said.

Moore grew up in Byram, where he learned to cookat home. His mother often prepared supper and ex-celled at baking. He worked as a line chef at Nick’srestaurant in Jackson and became a pastry chef. Helived in the Big Apple and Los Angeles for severalyears before returning to Jackson.

With the second location, Moore added five em-ployees, bringing the total employment for the bak-ery to 15.

Both locations of the bakery are open Mondaythrough Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 10 a.m.to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Contact Nell Luter Floyd at [email protected].

JOE ELLIS/THE CLARION-LEDGER

Campbell's Bakery owner Mitchell Moore recently opened a location in Madison.

Nell LuterFloydRETAIL

JOE ELLIS /THE CLARION-LEDGER

Campbell's Bakery, long a staple of Jackson's Fondren District,has recently expanded to Madison.

Fondren’s Campbell’s Bakeryopens location in Madison

TUPELO - The Spring Tupelo Furniture Marketwill kick off its 29th consecutive year this week asbuyers and sellers start to gather.

Kevin Seddon, president of the Tupelo FurnitureMarket, said 49 new companies have bought spacethis year, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journalreported. The market officially begins today.

“I think we’re going to have a very good showingof some great companies once again,” he said.

This year’s spring market is later than usual. Itnormally occurs before or during the PresidentsDay weekend, but with Las Vegas moving its furni-ture market later, Tupelo officials wanted to createsome more separation between the markets.

“We’re in the middle of tax season and it’s a busytime, but we’ve always done fantastic in Tupelo,”said Ron Teeter, vice president of manufacturingand merchandising for Houlka-based AffordableFurniture Manufacturing.

Although furniture is the highlight of this week’sspring market, officials also are putting some moreemphasis on outdoor furnishings.

“We’re kind of calling this market the ‘outdoor ex-po.’ It’s spring, the weather should be good — it’s thattime of the year,” Seddon said. “We have at least 15outdoors-specific companies showing.”

While Seldon said he thinks the number of prere-gistered buyers will grow this week, he said the con-stant influx of new buyers is a good sign.

“Some are here for the first time, some are hereafter a long absence for whatever reason,” Seddonsaid. “The biggest thing we’re finding is that thequality of the buyers continues to grow.”

Spring TupeloFurniture Marketkicks off todayASSOCIATED PRESS

ministered by the GED Testing Service, a part-nership between Pearson USA and the AmericanCouncil on Education. The program reports thatnearly 800,000 students take GED tests each year.

In its complaint, the FTC alleges the for-profitcompanies bought a number of websites undernames that made them appear to be legitimateonline high schools, and used the terms “GED” and“GED Online” to raise their profile in onlinesearches.

Students would take four untimed, unmonitoredmultiple-choice tests, the agency alleged, requiringthat students answer 70 percent of each test cor-rectly. “For some ‘high schools,’ noted the FTC’scomplaint, ‘when students fail to meet that stan-dard, they are redirected to the test once more, andthis time, the correct answers are highlighted forstudents to change their answers. Other ‘highschools’ provide students with an online ‘studyguide’ that, when used, also highlights the correctanswer for students to select.”

Once tests had been completed, students wouldbe directed to a set of menus that would lead themto think they would be given credit for their “lifeexperience,” for example, knowing how to balancea checkbook would translate into credit for ac-counting coursework, and a response of “Listen toMusic Occasionally,” would mean credit for a mu-sic appreciation course.

Once students had received the “certificates”and tried to use their newly earned credentials toget jobs, apply for college or join the military, theyfound the diploma was worthless because it wasn’trecognized. In some cases, the companies claimedaccreditation from nonexistent accrediting bodies.

The FTC has requested in federal court that thecourt issue a temporary restraining order to stopthe operations and freeze their assets. Two sets ofdefendants were named: Stepping Stonez Devel-opment LLC, also doing business as AmericanCertification Specialists; Intentional Growth LLC;Capitol Network Distance Learning Programs LLC;and Capitol Network Digital Licensing ProgramsLLC, Veritas Sales Inc.

If you’re considering getting your GED online,it might be a good idea to visit the FTC’s website onthe topic at www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0539-high-school-diploma-scams. To determinewhat resources are available, visit www.ged.com.

Contact Bill Moak at [email protected].

MoakContinued from Page 1C

WASHINGTON - U.S. home prices increased at asolid clip in December, helped by a healthy job mar-ket and low mortgage rates.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city homeprice index rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier,same as the annual increase in November.

Prices rose 11.4 percent in Portland, Oregon;10.3 percent in San Francisco and 10.2 percent inDenver. Washington, D.C., registered the lowest an-nual increase, 1.7 percent.

In December, the index reached the highest levelsince February 2008 — but it remained nearly 12 per-cent below its July 2006 peak.

Mortgage rates remain near historic lows morethan two months after the Federal Reserve raisedshort-term interest rates for the first time since2006. Unemployment has fallen to an eight-year lowof 4.9 percent.

David Blitzer, chairman of the index committeeat S&P Dow Jones, said steady price increases wouldencourage builders to start putting up more newhomes. Last year, construction companies brokeground on 1.1 million properties, the most since 2007.

Builders have been focusing on apartment com-plexes to take advantage of rising rents. But the realestate data firm Zillow said Tuesday that growth inhome rental prices slowed in January, rising a sea-sonally adjusted 2.9 percent from a year earlier andcooling even in hot markets such as San Franciscoand Denver.

Home prices in U.S.

rise in DecemberPAUL WISEMANASSOCIATED PRESS