BUSINESS DIGEST || 20th anniversary

20th anniversary

YOUNGSTOWN

USI Insurance Services celebrated its 20th anniversary with 20 for 20: USI Gives Back — a nationwide event in which each of the more than 140 USI offices across the U.S. takes part in local community service during 20 weekdays throughout August.

The USI Youngstown office spent time at the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley. Office workers bagged and labeled 6,525 pounds of elbow macaroni for distribution to individuals and families in need throughout the area.

Marketing firms combine forces

NORTH CANTON

Sanctuary Marketing Group LLC acquired the services division of Site-Logic Inc., a marketing firm from Canton. SiteLogic works in Internet marketing, generating sales and uses online-marketing strategies for effectiveness. Adding the team from SiteLogic to Sanctuary Marketing Group results in a new level of expertise for its clients, the company said.

Protesters cuffed at higher-pay rallies

NEW YORK

Police handcuffed dozens of protesters who blocked traffic in dozens of cities across the country Thursday in their latest attempt to escalate efforts to get McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food companies to pay employees at least $15 an hour.

The protests, which were planned by labor organizers for about 150 cities nationwide throughout Thursday, are part of a campaign called “Fight for $15.”

Since the efforts began in late 2012, organizers have switched up their tactics every few months to bring attention to the protests, which have attracted spotty crowds. Organizers previously said they planned to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience Thursday, which they predicted might lead to arrests.

In New York, 19 people were arrested Thursday for blocking traffic, with at least three people wearing McDonald’s uniforms taken away by police officers after standing in the middle of a busy street near Times Square. About two dozen protesters were detained in Detroit after they wouldn’t move out of a street near a McDonald’s restaurant. Others were apprehended by police in Chicago, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami and Denver.

Tesla battery factory planned for Nevada

RENO, Nev.

To bring electric cars to the masses, Tesla Motors will transform an expanse of desert where pioneers passed on their way to the California Gold Rush and wild mustangs still roam the hillside.

This time, the rush will be in Nevada, which Tesla chose over four other states as the site for a $5 billion factory that the carmaker projects will crank out enough high-tech car batteries to power 500,000 vehicles annually by decade’s end.

A state synonymous with gambling hit the jobs jackpot — Tesla has said the factory will employ about 6,500 people. That’s a welcome jolt for a tourism-based economy particularly hard hit during the Great Recession.

Vindicator staff/wire reports