Local Economics

Whiting, Indiana Saturday, August 27, 1955 Sunrise, 6:11 a.m. Its 80 degrees in the shade, and most of the city's residents are still trying to sleep off an airless, oppressive night. But inside the plant at Whiting's biggest employer (and one of the worlds largest oil refineries), something has gone horribly wrong, something that threatens to destroy the entire community. The clock changes. 6:12 a.m. This is the story of what happened at one minute after sunrise on that cataclysmic day in 1955, spoken in the words of the people who lived through it.

This practical and engaging guide is your modern-day roadmap to dominating online business directories—the digital evolution of the Yellow Pages. It opens with a relatable reminder of how finding local services used to mean flipping through a fat phonebook. Today, it's all about online visibility. If your business isn't easily found online, you're basically a ghost. The book breaks down how to get listed in key directories like Google, Yelp, and industry-specific sites, showing you how to attract more customers, boost your SEO, and become the go-to in your local area. Each chapter offers ...

In 2005, Margaret Jones Bolsterli learned that her great-great-grandfather was a free mulatto named Jordan Chavis, who owned an antebellum plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The news was a shock; Bolsterli had heard about the plantation in family stories told during her Arkansas Delta childhood, but Chavis' name and race had never been mentioned. With further exploration, Bolsterli found that when Chavis' children crossed the Mississippi River between 1859 and 1875 for exile in Arkansas, they passed into the white world, leaving the family’s racial history completely behind.