The Best Burger in Harrisburg Hands Down – The Jackson House

So I randomly noticed a small hole in the wall restaurant the other day called the Jackson House, it’s located at 6th and Boas Streets. The storefront was littered with those best of Harrisburg stickers for best burger so I figured I had better look into the matter. I stepped inside the place for lunch (it’s only open for lunch FYI) and noticed the place certainly had character. It’s really not much to look at inside, but the sheer amount of people that were squeezed in the tiny dining room gave me high expectations for the food.

I wasn’t disappointed.

I ordered the “Jackson Burger” guessing it was the house specialty and sweet heavens the 1/2 pound burger was so juicy and succulent I basically inhaled the thing. Prices are practical, the staff was friendly, and I left more than satisfied. You should be aware that they don’t take credit cards, but other than that I fully endorse the place and suggest you toss whatever lunch you brown bagged this morning and head over to the Jackson House for the best burger in Harrisburg.

Upcoming Event: Harrisburg Young Professionals Presidential Debate

HYP has just announced that on April 3rd at the Hilton Harrisburg they will host an educational presidential debate to raise awareness about the candidates before the PA primary on April 23rd. The event will take place in the Pennsylvania Ballroom at 6:30 and is being sponsored by Harrisburg University for Science and Technology and Greenlee Partners, LLC.

The debate will end at approximately 8 p.m. A post-reception will be held to encourage follow-up conversation and reflection between surrogates and attendees. All members of HYP and the public are invited to this exciting educational event.

Surrogates will appear for each candidate. They are:

HYP Founding President and noted developer J. Alex Hartzler (representing Barack Obama) Harrisburg City Councilman Brad Koplinski (Hillary Clinton) Former HYP President, lawyer and Harrisburg University corporate faculty member Scott Foulkrod (John McCain)

A panel, which will provide questions to each surrogate, includes: Patriot-News political reporter Brett Lieberman, (Allentown) Morning Call political reporter John Micek, and WHP 580 reporter Lynne Richarde. If time permits, panelists will take questions from the audience. This is an educational event. Political signage and vocal outbursts are prohibited.

Harrisburg Featured on Squidoo

So I randomly came across this squidoo.com site and thought the page on Harrisburg that was featured was embarrassingly weak, let me know what you think of my own attempt to highlight Harrisburg: www.squidoo.com/Harrisburg

I’ve got some pretty cool videos on the page – check out the video recorded from above the city.

Messiah College to Host McCain, Clinton, & Obama April 13th

Messiah College has been selected to host the Compassion Forum, an event in which the leading presidential candidates of both political parties have been invited to discuss compassion issues that bridge the theological spectrum. The Compassion Forum is scheduled for the evening of April 13.President Kim S. Phipps sent this announcement to campus on March 13, 2008:Dear Messiah College Students and Employees:

I am excited to inform you of an unprecedented opportunity that has been extended to our campus community to contribute to the dialogue surrounding significant issues of the 2008 presidential election.

Messiah College has been selected to host the Compassion Forum, an event in which the leading presidential candidates of both political parties have been invited to discuss pressing moral issues that bridge ideological divides within our nation. Invitations are being actively considered by Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator John McCain, and Senator Barack Obama. The Compassion Forum is scheduled for the evening of Sunday, April 13, in Brubaker Auditorium, and will be covered by mainstream media and religious media outlets alike—including the Church Communication Network, which will broadcast the event to tens of thousands of people of faith in at least 1,000 congregations nationwide on April 20, the Sunday evening before the Pennsylvania primary. In anticipation of the candidates’ acceptance, officials from Faith in Public Life, the Washington, DC-based resource center for faith leaders that is organizing the event, and members of the Secret Service visited campus last week to tour our facilities and to begin planning the logistics for the event.

The Compassion Forum is sponsored by the faith community, represented by the Compassion Forums Board, which includes nationally prominent religious leaders from across the faith and ideological spectrum. Organizational sponsors of the forum include the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities; the ONE Campaign (an effort to rally Americans to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty); and Oxfam America (an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice).

The Compassion Forum will be a unique event—not another traditional debate. Each candidate will participate in a separate substantive conversation. The Forum will be moderated by Jon Meacham, editor of “Newsweek,” author of “American Gospel,” and a respected scholar on faith and American politics. Conversation topics will focus on compassion and social justice issues such as U.S. and global poverty; AIDS; climate change; Darfur; and human rights.

The compassion, reconciliation, and social justice issues to be discussed at this forum are relevant to the mission and values of Messiah College. As host organization, Messiah will be able to create important educational opportunities for our students related to this event. However, due to space limitations and security constraints, attendance at the forum will be by-invitation only, and a limited allocation of tickets will be made available for members of the Messiah College community. We are also pursuing strategies to simulcast the Compassion Forum to other on-campus venues where student and employee “watch parties” will be held.

Because the Compassion Forum is scheduled only nine days before the Pennsylvania primary, we expect to have considerable interest from the national media, and the nationwide network of churches and general public audience that will have access to the forum broadcast. This is an exceptional opportunity to create national visibility for Messiah College among important constituent groups while influencing critical conversation about significant cultural and societal issues.

I want to thank Kelly Phipps for his role in utilizing his contacts with Faith in Public Life and for consistently advocating that Messiah College would be an excellent host site for this event. I also want to express appreciation to Kathie Shafer, vice president for operations, and Carla Gross, director of marketing and public relations/special assistant to the president for communication, for co-leading the campus team that is planning and implementing Messiah’s involvement in the Compassion Forum. The success of this event will only be realized because of their leadership and the volunteer efforts of many campus community members.

Due to the rapid timing of this opportunity, the College will need to reschedule numerous campus events that were previously scheduled to use campus facilities and public spaces. I am in conversation with the people and organizations that will be affected by this change, and I am grateful for their cooperation. We are currently determining many logistical details, including ticketing, facilities, and technology and security arrangements. These decisions will likely affect many aspects of campus life and operations in the weeks preceding the Compassion Forum. Details of the forum planning will be shared with the campus community as they are confirmed (the College will soon launch a Compassion Forum web site).

As president, I welcome the opportunity of demonstrating the distinctiveness of Messiah College’s mission and the excellence of our educational program, students, and employees to a national audience.

Warm regards,

Kim S. Phipps
President

Apogee Biotechnology Corporation Becomes First Non-Academic Tenant of the Hershey Center for Applied Research

Spin-off Developing Inhibitors to Sphingosine Kinase, an Enzyme Driving Cell Proliferation and Inflammation

HERSHEY, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Hershey Center for Applied Research (HCAR) announced today that its first private company tenant, Apogee Biotechnology Corporation, has established its headquarters on the HCAR campus, in Building One. Apogee, a spin-off of the Penn State College of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology, is developing chemical compounds that will inhibit the activities of sphingosine kinase, an enzyme known to drive cell proliferation and inflammation. Sphingosine kinase is overactive in several diseases such as cancer, diabetic retinopathy, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and atherosclerosis.

“We have been fortunate to have the support of many leaders in the biotechnology community here in Hershey and throughout the region,” said Dr. Charles D. Smith, President, CEO and Founder of Apogee. “Moving onto the HCAR campus further solidifies our presence in this community – we foresee great opportunities for sharing lab facilities and state-of-the-art equipment, while also leveraging HCAR’s excellent network of service providers, investors, vendors and more.”

The lead compound being developed by Apogee was identified in 2006, and is the first-in-class non-lipid inhibitor of sphingosine kinase. It has shown promising biological activity in several disease models, and Apogee expects that it will advance into human trials in 2009. The Company currently has six employees, four of whom hold PhDs, and received more than $7 million from the Small Business Innovative Research grant program from the National Institutes of Health.

Apogee will reside in the HCAR Technology Suites, which is flexible wet lab space that is being supported by the Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania (LSGPA). LSGPA recently awarded HCAR a $700,000 grant to subsidize leasing in the HCAR Technology Suites for start up companies such as Apogee. The LSGPA was formed to provide start-up money and business support services to early-stage life sciences companies.

“We couldn’t be more pleased about our first tenant company,” said Laura Butcher, Executive Director, HCAR. “The research Apogee is pursuing has the potential to change lives, by potentially slowing down the progression of diseases. Being situated within close proximity to so many other great research minds from academia and industry will foster continued success for Apogee – as will the access they will have to additional research resources and business connections.”

“It has been a pleasure to watch Apogee grow, and to help with that process,” said Kent Vrana, Chair of the Penn State College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology. The Department of Pharmacology is housed on the third floor of Building One of HCAR, and the Department shares many resources with Apogee. “Their decision to locate in HCAR is testament to their savvy business sense – the leaders of Apogee are smart to leverage the connections they have built already and to continue to grow and expand those.”

Apogee’s new address will be:

Apogee Biotechnology Corporation

Hershey Center for Applied Research

1214 Research Boulevard, Suite 1016

Hummelstown, PA 17036

Located adjacent to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine, the Hershey Center for Applied Research is a research park that offers life sciences and high technology researchers and companies at all phases of the business lifecycle state-of-the-art wet and dry lab facilities and office space, as well as access to capital, business support services and shared amenities. HCAR offers a premier location for life sciences and high technology researchers and companies to grow and succeed in the global marketplace.

About the Hershey Center for Applied Research

Hershey Center for Applied Research (HCAR) provides resident organizations with state-of–the-art facilities and high-value business and research resources that enable growth escalation. In addition to its wet and dry lab facilities and office space in a campus-like setting in Hershey, PA, HCAR provides facilitated access to research expertise, especially in the areas of research discovery, development and commercialization; access to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine, a major research institution with amenities that include core facilities, clinical trial participation, researcher sponsorship and research advisors; and assistance in obtaining necessary business resources, like venture capital, human resources, including Penn State M.D.s and Ph.D.s, and access to business advisors. For more information, go to www.hersheyresearch.com.

Contacts

Hershey Center for Applied Research (HCAR)
Media:
Jen Bannan, 412-580-3675
jen@0to5.com

Aspiring Author or Playwright? Now You Can Afford to Get Noticed.

It’s called LitPitch, a  web-based platform for up-and-coming authors, playwrights, and writers of screenplays to reach the public and potential publishers. Not only is it extremely easy-to-use, it’s actually writer-affordable.

For the avid reader, LitPitch provides access to the newest material from the best up and coming authors – free of charge. Read from an abundance of undiscovered talent wherever is most convenient, LitPitch is compatible with multiple forms of media including your laptop and iphone. The site is designed to allow writers a chance to showcase some of their work and jump start their career, which in turn provides a plethora of exceptional reading material. 

There’s no better way for a writer to get noticed.

New Events Website for Central PA Officially Launched!

Now you can find something to do, or at least find the spot to be everyday of the week in Central PA with the official launch of Spotobe.com . . . .

“Whether you’re looking to visit Central Pennsylvania, move here or already live here, bookmark this site to keep up with what’s going on in the region. Spotobe aggregates all the events—from concerts to exhibitions to hockey games, and much more—so you can view all your options in one convenient place.

In other words, if there’s a spot to be, you will find out about it on Spotobe.”

Upcoming Webinar: “Commercializing Your Idea” – Product Development for Entrepreneurs

If you have an idea for a new product or service that may have commercial potential, but are not sure where to turn for help, this workshop is for you! The workshop is intended to provide an overview of what is involved in commercializing your idea (getting your product on the market). It will assist you in evaluating whether or not your idea may have commercial potential, if you should take the next step in developing the idea, and what that next step might be. You will learn how to protect your idea, how to assess the business opportunity your idea represents, and how to put together a plan for commercialization. The instructor will also address design issues and manufacturing approaches. Finally, you will be directed to other resources that can further assist you, in making your idea a reality. Following the seminar, the instructor will be available for individual consultation.

Register online: www.wb.psu.edu/ce/idea.htm

When: March 14th, 8am-12pm

Location: Penn State Harrisburg

Cost $99

Student sponsorships available. For more information call 570.675.9253 or email vjohnson@psu.edu

Free Upcoming Seminar: Developing Profitable Customer Relations

Tomorrow, March 12th from 9am-noon at the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC offices, 3211 N. Front Street, Harrisburg, there will be a free seminar on customer relations. The speaker will be Bill Gladstone of the Bill Gladstone Group, and he will touch on such topics as: identifying your customer base, reaching your potential customers, recognizing the needs and buying patterns of your customers and prospects, and better understanding your customers.

There is no cost to attend! The seminar series will continue with two other free seminars after tomorrows event: “The Sales Process Made Easy” – April 16th, and “Bonding, Bidding and Winning in Government Contracting” – May 16th.

For more info. on any of the seminars contact the Harrisburg Regional Chamber – 717.232.4099

The series is made possible by EDS.

Upcoming Seminar: Using Online Survey Tools Effectively

On March 20, 2008, from 8:30 AM to noon at Penn State Harrisburg the Ben Franklin Venture Investment Forum will host a seminar which will address the tools and technologies available, survey design, and the basics of sampling and implementing your survey. With so many affordable research tools available, this seminar is a great opportunity to learn from a pro; Jim Fong, President of Diagnostics Plus, a market research and consulting firm located in State College will be presenting.

For more information about the seminar check out www.venture-forum.org.

If you’re not familiar with the Venture Investment Forum and it’s services, the VIF assists “entrepreneurs in their preparations to seek private equity, helping angels to form and manage angel investment networks, and providing training in various aspects of interest to emerging growth companies.” Find out more on the website.