Owning a beauty salon in Brooklyn, I’m proud to be an American small business owner. With the release of a bi-partisan immigration reform bill by the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” this week, I’m also proud to be part of a longstanding Brooklyn tradition – the tradition of immigrant job creators.

This editorial first appeared in the Alaska Journal of Commerce:

On April 8, a joint session of the Alaska Legislature confirmed 87 of 88 appointments put forth by Gov. Sean Parnell and rejected a third term for Board of Fisheries member Vince Webster by a single vote.

People collect stuff. 

And those collections are important to those who build them up over the years. They are cherished, shown off to friends. Trips to trade shows and conventions focusing on one’s favored hobby are planned months in advance. Life revolves around collecting more for the collection.

Coins, baseball cards, train sets, stamps, comic books, beer cans and so forth. One guy I knew collected toy John Deere tractors. A great friend of mine collected old fishing lures, but only from 1920-1940.