Peoria Journal-Star, “Caterpillar finds Victoria, Texas, ‘ideal’“: “PEORIA —Caterpillar Inc. will build its new hydraulic excavator plant in Victoria, Texas, the company announced Thursday. Caterpillar will create more than 500 new jobs at the plant, on which construction will begin next month with completion expected by mid-2012. The plant will triple the company’s existing capacity of hydraulic excavator production in the United States.”

CNBC, July 13, “CNBC’s Top States For Business 2010—And The Winner Is Texas“: “Texas powers past the tough times on the strength of its economy—top-ranked in our Economy category four years in a row. The Texas economy is the 15th largest in the world, according to government figures; larger, for example, than all the Scandinavian nations combined.”

Jack Stewart, California Manufacturers and Technology Association, Employment debate focuses on creaky wheels of industry Factory jobs critical to growth”: “Since the latest budget revision was signed late last month, there has been a loud chorus decrying the compromise struck between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature because it contained no new taxes on business. The leaders of this ‘tax business’ chorus have submitted an initiative aimed at repealing business tax reforms enacted in February that were meant to level the playing field for California employers. Raising taxes on business, however, is no way to help the state’s economy or its manufacturing base.”

Bloomberg, “US Retail Sales Rise Less Than Economists Estimated“: Sales at U.S. retailers rose less than forecast in July, indicating a lack of jobs is prompting Americans to hold back on spending. The 0.4 percent increase, led by autos and gasoline, followed a revised 0.3 percent drop in June, figures from the Commerce Department in Washington showed today.”

Investor’s Business Daily editorial, “The Cabinet From Another World: “There’s never been an administration led by so few people with any experience in the private sector — including the president, the vice president and even the treasury secretary, who last week wrongly called it a ‘myth’ that raising taxes on high-income Americans would hurt small business.”

Commerce.gov news release, July 15, “Hightower to Step Down as Deputy Commerce Secretary“: “Deputy Commerce Secretary Dennis F. Hightower announced today that he plans to step down effective August 27. He’ll be returning to the private sector to resume his work on corporate governance and training and developing the next generation of global business leaders. At Commerce, Hightower brought skills he learned at the top levels of the business world to help shepherd some of Commerce’s most complicated initiatives, including satellite acquisition, cybersecurity and the Recovery Act’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.”

The Commerce Department announced Thursday, “Hightower to Step Down as Deputy Commerce Secretary“:

Deputy Commerce Secretary Dennis F. Hightower announced today that he plans to step down effective August 27. He’ll be returning to the private sector to resume his work on corporate governance and training and developing the next generation of global business leaders. At Commerce, Hightower brought skills he learned at the top levels of the business world to help shepherd some of Commerce’s most complicated initiatives, including satellite acquisition, cybersecurity and the Recovery Act’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

“We deeply appreciate Dennis’ service, especially the mentoring he provided to senior Commerce managers,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “He took on some of the Commerce Department’s most difficult management challenges, and in every case, those programs are on a better footing today because of his diligent work.”

Before coming to Commerce, Hightower was chief executive officer of Europe Online Networks S.A., a privately held broadband interactive entertainment company based in Luxembourg. From 1987 to 1996, he was a senior executive of The Walt Disney Company, where he led multi-billion dollar enterprises as president of Television & Telecommunications and president of Consumer Products, Europe/Middle East and Africa.

Hightower was, if not the highest, then one of the highest-ranked members of the Obama Administration with business experience. He and NAM President John Engler had served on the board of Northwest Airlines together.

President Obama issued a statement praising Hightower’s service. We wished Hightower good luck upon his joining Commerce, and good luck again on challenges ahead.

We previously noted the arrival to Commerce of a great, experienced manufacturer, Peter Perez, who will serve as  Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing, emphasizing exports and trade. Here’s the Crain’s Detroit Business story, with a comment from NAM President Engler: “Peter will be a strong and effective representative for the manufacturing community within the Administration. His experience as a business and community leader will serve him well … and we very much look forward to working with him in his new capacity.”

Deputy Secretary of Commerce Dennis F. Hightower was in Detroit Friday, speaking at the “ExportsLive! Real Deals—Real Profits” event in town — one in eight city stops for the program organized by the Export-Import Bank. From the Commerce news release:

“Exports are already a growing and substantial part of the U.S. economy and account for almost 13 percent of our GDP and over six million manufacturing jobs alone,” said Hightower.

“We want to ensure that American companies, especially the small- and mid-sized firms that account for over half of all new jobs, have fair and frequent access to foreign markets.”

In 2008, Commerce’s Commercial Service worked with nearly 24,000 active clients to help them achieve their export goals.

For example, in early 2009, the Commercial Service staff helped counsel MedArray on its first export sale to Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, MedArray has successfully exported to Australia, Canada, France and South Africa.

MedArray’s website is here, www.permselect.com. The company manufactures and develops membrane hollow fibers using proprietary forming techniques.

Dennis Hightower, the recently confirmed Deputy Secretary of Commerce, gave a very strong pro-trade speech yesterday at Commerce’s “Trade North America” conference in Detroit (where NAM President John Engler also spoke). Excerpt:

I have only been on the job at the Commerce Department for a month, but that has given me plenty of time to identify one of the key challenges our department and the entire Obama administration faces:

Keeping trade flowing freely and fairly across our borders.

Canada and Mexico are our first and third largest trading partners—accounting for 32 percent of our total goods exports.

In North America, the U.S., Canada and Mexico—conduct nearly $2.7 billion dollars in trilateral goods trade each day.

Our economic prosperity and the jobs of millions of workers in North America depend on this trade relationship continuing to flourish.

But during these difficult economic times, we have inevitably seen a troubling rise in protectionist sentiment around the world.

Down that path lies more economic pain for us all.

Lots of good comments also regarding export controls and intellectual property protections.

So we have the Administration in favor of trade, Majority Leader Hoyer today once against endorsing Panama and Colombia trade agreements, and a big Democratic majority in the Senate.

Why the delay?

The Senate Commerce Committee’s confirmation hearing this morning for Dennis F. Hightower to serve as Deputy Secretary of Department of Commerce deserves notice separate from the CPSC nominees. He’s an impressive nominee, who, as the White House release noted, “is a seasoned business executive with extensive global general management experience. ” And indeed, “His distinguished career spans the private and public sectors, including more than 30 years of experience in global marketing, strategic planning, operations and international general management.”

We appreciate his manufacturing experience. His previous position was in communication and entertainment, as CEO Europe Online Networks S.A., a privately held broadband interactive entertainment company based in Luxembourg.

Before that, from 1987-96, Hightower was a senior executive for the Walt Disney Co., where his responsibilities included overseeing Consumer Products, Europe/Middle East and Africa. Thus, global manufacturing, supply chain and retail experience …

Also, he recently served on the Boards of Directors of Accenture, Domino’s Pizza, Lightfleet (a start-up high technology company), and privately-held Brown Capital Management.  He has formerly served as a board member of The Gillette Company, Northwest Airlines, PanAmSat Corporation, Phillip-Van Heusen Corporation, The TJX Companies, Inc., and as a member of the Price Waterhouse Chairman’s Advisory Council. Lots of manufacturing experience there.

And one shouldn’t overlook his Army service in Vietnam (major by 27) and Harvard MBA.

All of which is to say, good luck!