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In late June, after three years of planning, the Helix Center will open, providing lab space and offices to start-up technology, life and plant sciences companies.

The development of the $7.5 million business incubator was shepherded by Beth Noonan, of the St. Louis County Economic Council, who will also oversee operations after the center opens its doors. With low-rent shared labs and flexible office space, the center could be home to as many as 30 fledgling companies. Its proximity to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, where very early-stage research is done, and the Bio-Research & Development Growth (BRDG) Park, where more established enterprises find homes, is by design. The center is the latest addition to the region’s bioscience belt and the fifth incubator developed by the council.

How did the project begin and where do things stand now?

The genesis came about when we were approached by some folks from the Danforth Center and Nidus (an entrepreneur network based next door). Their focus was changing. We have the research and the science at the Danforth Center, and BRDG is a post-incubator space, so there emerged this gap in terms of affordable space for companies in the county. We were a natural fit because we run an incubator program. This is just a specialized version. The construction is not quite completed, but we should be done in June. We’ll have 8,000 square feet of office space, 7,800 of lab space.

What’s the objective?

The bottom-line goal of any incubator is to really provide that first commercial space for early-stage companies at an affordable price, and to provide them with shared resources and amenities, and access to other entrepreneurs. They all function in the same way. But in terms of the Helix Center it provides specialized lab space and specialized equipment that early-stage technologies wouldn’t have access to. I think what’s unique about Helix is the close proximity to the specialized resources nearby.

What kind of company do you see finding a home at the Helix Center?

The kind of tenants we’re looking for are folks who are in the bioscience space, which is broadly defined: plant science, life science, clean technology. We’d like to have some nexus to the biosciences. It’s not necessarily something that finds the next drug for cancer, but a support company. A contract research company or doing something with medical records related to biosciences.

How do you go about finding these companies?

We’re doing quite a few things. We’re going to places where start-up companies gather to inform them of the space. We’re getting close to finishing our web site. I’ve been doing speaking engagements. A lot. Our goal is to provide space to companies that are growing in St. Louis. The most likely source of our tenants will be St. Louis.

What ensures that they stay here after they “graduate?”

Of course, we can’t force people to stay in St. Louis. But I think what we’re trying to do with Helix and what a lot of folks in the region are doing, is help continue strengthening the environment for entrepreneurs and making sure people have access to resources. We have early-stage companies here all the way up to Fortune 500 companies. We can help them make those connections. We have other resources to help them as we grow.

BETH NOONAN

Title • Vice President bio-sciences and technology, business development division, St. Louis County Economic Council.

Education • BA in Linguistics, Brown University, masters degrees in social work and jurisprudence, Washington University

Family • Husband, Frank Pfau; two children, Emily, 12, and Michael, 9.

Hometown • Chesterfield

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Shares of Tilly’s Inc. rose Friday above their offered price in the clothing retailer’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company’s stock jumped $2.30, or 14.8 percent, to $17.80 in morning trading after opening at $18.80 and briefly rising as high as $19.29 per share.

The company had priced its initial public offering of 8 million shares at $15.50 per share. It is offering 7.6 million shares and selling stockholders are offering 400,000 shares.

Tilly’s sells surf-inspired and casual West Coast-styled clothing and accessories at its chain of 140 stores in 19 states. It was founded by Hezy Shaked and Tilly Levine, who opened their first store in Orange County, Calif., in 1982 and are still principal shareholders.

Tilly’s expects to receive net proceeds of about $107.6 million after expenses. It won’t receive any proceeds from the sales by the selling stockholders cheap credit report.

Tilly’s is a holding company and does its business through Tilly’s World of Jeans & Tops. It plans to use proceeds from the IPO to pay shareholders with a stake in Tilly’s World Jeans & Tops, which will be made into a wholly owned subsidiary of Tilly’s.

In the fiscal year ending Jan. 28, the company earned $34.3 million. That was up 41 percent from the prior year. Its revenue rose 20 percent to $400.6 million for the year.

The underwriters of the IPO included Goldman, Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch, and Piper Jaffray. Underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an extra 1.2 million shares to cover overallotments.

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Stocks opened lower on Wall Street Monday on news that Spain’s economy entered another recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 34 points to 13,193 in the first half-hour of trading. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell eight points to 1,395 and the Nasdaq composite fell 21 points to 3,048.

Stocks were also being held back by a report from the Commerce Department that consumer spending growth slowed in the U.S. last month. That added to worries that the U.S. economy recovery is slowing down.

The losses were broad. Nine of the ten industry groups in the S&P 500 fell, led by materials. Only health care stocks rose. The dollar rose against the euro and the prices of U.S. Treasury bonds increased as investors parked money in low-risk assets.

European markets were mainly lower over growing concerns about Spain. Stocks were off nearly 1.3 percent in Spain and France.

The Spanish government said that country’s economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first three months of the year, the second straight three-month period of contraction. It’s the second time in three years that Spain has been in a recession.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain’s government debt to just three notches above junk Friday. On Monday S&P lowered its rating for 11 Spanish banks, which are loaded with bad debt from a collapsed housing market. Spain is the fourth-largest economy among the 17 countries that use the euro online payday advance. Investors worry that Europe’s bailout funds won’t be big enough to rescue Spain if it needs help.

Stocks to watch include Barnes & Noble, which is teaming up with Microsoft to create a unit to house the digital and college businesses of the bookseller and include a Nook application for Windows 8. The companies said they may separate those businesses entirely. That could mean a stock offering, sale, or some other kind of deal.

Barnes & Noble jumped 62 percent to $22.26 in early trading. Microsoft was flat.

Health insurer Humana fell 6 percent to $82.44 after reporting a 21 percent drop in first-quarter profit as the company paid out more in claims, falling short of Wall Street expectations.

NYSE Euronext, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, fell 4 percent to $25.95 after reporting that its income plunged 44 percent in the first three months of the because of weaker trading business and the collapse of its proposed merger with the European exchange operator Deutsche Boerse.

Sunoco jumped 21 percent to $49.30, the most of any stock in the S&P 500, on news that the company agreed to be bought by Energy Transfer Partners, a natural gas pipeline company, for $5.3 billion.

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Advocates for ex-offenders are hailing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report they hope will improve job opportunities for individuals often turned away because of criminal histories.

The EEOC, in an “enforcement guidance” issued last week, ruled that  undue emphasis on an ex-offender’s background in some some instances violates federal statutes governing employment discrimination. 

The EEOC said the specter of discrimination becomes even more pronounced when hiring managers factor race or ethnicity into employment decisions.

Citing studies reflecting a felony conviction rate of African American men that tops 25 percent, the National Employment Law Project welcomed the new guidelines as an antidote to what it termed “especially severe” discrimination against ex-offenders of color.

Michael Holmes, executive director of the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE), says the obstacles encountered by individuals with a criminal backgrounds cuts across racial lines.

“We have a major public institutions that discriminate against both white and black people because they have a criminal record,” said Holmes. “Now they can’t use that as a way to eliminate (an ex-offender) with the skills they are looking for.”

The ruling could give a boost to thousands – by some estimates up to 18,000 - ex-offenders in the St. Louis region who are currently-out-of-work and searching for employment.

“Some businesses do have a blanket policy about not hiring ex-offenders,” said David Kessel, chief operating officer of the Employment Connection, a St. Louis non-profit that helps ex-offenders overcome job barriers. “(The EEOC) guidance gives employers clarification on what they should be doing to make better hiring decisions.”

Kessel believes the unemployment rate for ex-offenders in the St. Louis area runs as high as 75 percent.

The EEOC guidelines were not universally acclaimed.

The National Retail Federation criticized a recommendation that employers eliminate queries about criminal and arrest records on application forms.

A ban on the “box” that alerts a company of an an applicant’s brushes with the law will restrict an “employers’ ability to ensure the safety of their workers and customers,”  Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French said in a statement.

A 2011 NRF survey revealed that 87 percent of its members turn to criminal background checks prior to hiring bad credit personal loan lenders.

Les Johnson, the vice president for grant and management services for ARCHS, an advocate that sponsors programs that support at-risk populations including ex-offenders, praised the EEOC initiative.

But he cautioned the hiring process will continue to require discretion and common sense on the part of applicants with criminal records.

A paroled bank robber, for instance, needs to make a better choice than seeking employment with a financial institution. Just as a convicted drug offender may want to steer clear of opportunities at a pharmacy.

“We’ve always said that a criminal record should not be the sole qualification for an (ex-offender) applying for a job as fork lift driver at a warehouse producing pallets,” Johnson said. “But we also ask ex-offenders to take responsibility on the front end, explain to the employer what the offense (entailed), that time has been served, amends have been made and that they are now trying to earn a decent wage.”

The EEOC report also points employers to the difference between a conviction and arrest.

“The fact of an arrest does not establish that criminal conduct has occurred, and an exclusion based on an arrest, in itself, is not job related and consistent with business necessity,” the EEOC said.

Holmes questioned why ex-offenders have a particularly difficult time landing job offers from governmental institutions.

He understands why a local or state government office would want to avoid public backlash over tax-payer supported salaries going to people with criminal records.

But points out that many of those same institutions welcome state and federal funds for job training.

“You’re taking training money, but not hiring ex-offenders? That’s crazy,” Holmes said.

Companies that stiff-arm ex-offenders, he added, need to take responsibility for contributing to a vicious cycle.

“In prison, they get three meals a day, healthcare and a roof over their head and when they get out they don’t have any money. If they can’t provide for themselves, they’re going do what they know in order to survive and go back to crime rather than starve to death,” Holmes said. “If you do your time, and you’re qualified for a job, then you should be given another chance.”

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Thousands of people from across Poland demonstrated noisily Friday outside Parliament to protest government plans to raise the retirement age to 67.

The law currently allows women to retire at age 60 and men at 65, but Prime Minister Donald Tusk wants to raise the retirement age to 67 for all Poles, saying it will increase pensions while reducing state debt.

The plan, supported by many economists, has angered the public. The unions are deeply unsatisfied by a new agreement the ruling coalition parties reached Thursday that would allow people to go into partial retirement earlier but with lowered monthly payments for the rest of their lives.

Piotr Duda, head of the Solidarity trade union, said the plan gives Poles the choice of “either working until death or quickly dying of hunger.”

The protesters, blowing horns and carrying Solidarity white-and-red banners, were equally vocal.

“People are not strong enough to work as long as machines, 48 years, it is physically impossible,” said Arkadiusz Maziar, a 40-year-old coal miner from Zory, in southern Poland no faxing payday loans.

“Tusk is an office clerk and he will never understand this. I am here to defend the people,” he said.

Danuta Nowaczek, a 50-year-old cook from Zabrze, in the South, does not believe that longer work would markedly improve her pension, or that she will live to benefit from it.

“This is a joke, this plan and I don’t want to work longer,” Nowaczek said. “My father did not even live to get his retirement” at 65.

The crowd showed their anger as the lawmakers were debating a motion signed by some 1.4 million Solidarity supporters to hold a referendum on the matter.

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A group of prominent Chinese writers have demanded millions of dollars in compensation from technology giant Apple Inc. for allegedly selling unlicensed versions of their books in its online store, a lawyer said Monday.

The case is a departure from the usual pattern of U.S artists or companies going after Chinese copycats. Trade groups say illegal Chinese copying of music, designer clothing and other goods costs legitimate producers billions of dollars a year in lost sales.

Three separate lawsuits have been filed with the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court on behalf of 12 writers who allege 59 of their titles were sold unlicensed through Apple’s iTunes online store, said Wang Guohua, a Beijing lawyer representing the writers.

The three suits together demand 23 million (US$3.5 million) in compensation from Apple, Wang said. Well-known novelist and race car driver Han Han is among the writers taking the legal action, he said.

Apple did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Wang said Apple uploaded the Chinese writers’ works without their permission, violating their copyright, and while Apple deleted some of the books after the suits were filed in January, some of the works quickly appeared again, apparently uploaded by developers that sell apps through the Apple Store.

“Some developers, with whom Apple has contracts, put them back online again,” said Wang of the United Zhongwen Law Firm. “It is encouragement in disguise, because they did not punish the developers. The developers could have been kicked out. But nothing happened to them.”

Wang said 10 other writers have also gotten involved since January but their suits have yet to be filed. In all, 23 writers have registered their complaints with Wang and claim that Apple sold 95 pirated titles.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported late Sunday that the writers were collectively seeking 50 million yuan ($7.7 million) in compensation from Apple but Wang could not confirm that figure.

Product piracy is a major irritant in China-US relations, but usually involves complaints that Chinese are copying American products.

However, it’s not the first time Chinese have cried foul over copyright infringement by an American company either. In 2009, the government-affiliated China Written Works Copyright Society complained that Google had scanned nearly 20,000 works by 570 Chinese authors without permission as part of its digital library project, drawing an apology from Google.

For Apple, the latest case is just one of several legal battles being fought in China. The company is embroiled in a battle over the iPad trademark with Proview Electronics Co., a Chinese computer monitor and LED light maker that says it registered the trademark more than a decade ago.

Proview wants Apple to stop selling or making the popular tablet computers under that name.

Apple says Proview sold it worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 2009, though in China the registration was never transferred.

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AP researcher Zhao Liang contributed.

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Consumers earned a little more in January and spent most of the extra money. The gains should keep the economy growing at a modest pace.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that consumer spending increased 0.2 percent in January. That’s also better than December’s reading of no change.

Americans’ income rose 0.3 percent, the second straight monthly increase.

Income barely kept pace with inflation last year. So the increases are a positive sign that consumers will have more money to spend.

Stronger hiring in December and January, rather than pay raises, helped boost income. Still, that trend should fuel more consumer spending and support solid growth for the economy in coming months. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Economists are worried that Americans might cut back on spending if their paychecks don’t increase this year.

Incomes were much higher in the second half of last year than previously thought, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Still, even with the revision, after-tax incomes adjusted for inflation rose only 1.3 percent in 2011. Except for the recession year of 2009, when incomes fell, that’s the smallest annual growth in incomes since 1991.

Consumer spending rose 2.1 percent in the final three months of last year, and economists expect a similar increase in the current quarter. That should help the economy expand at about a 2 percent pace in the January-March period.

Most economists expect growth should rise to 2.5 percent this year. That would be healthy in most years but is modest coming after the worst recession since World War II.

The increase in income stems from more hiring, greater overtime and small pay gains. Employers added 243,000 jobs in January, the most in nine months. The unemployment rate has fallen for five straight months, to 8.3 percent.

Manufacturing workers worked more overtime in January. And average hourly earnings rose 4 cents to $23.29, the Labor Department said earlier this month.

Other changes may also boost incomes. About 55 million Social Security recipients will get a 3.6 percent increase in their benefit checks, intended to offset rising inflation last year.

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The Greek government resumed stalled talks with its private creditors in Athens on Wednesday in the hope of sealing a euro100 billion ($128 billion) debt relief deal needed to avoid a disastrous default this spring.

Charles Dallara, a top official at the Institute of International Finance, a global banking association, returned to Greece after negotiations stalled last week, and held a nearly three-hour meeting with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos.

“A very crucial meeting, that lasted several hours, has just finished at the prime minister’s office,” Venizelos told Parliament shortly afterward. “The meetings between the Greek government and the IIF have resumed and they will continue (Thursday).”

Earlier, he said the talks “are without a doubt at a very sensitive stage.”

The so-called private sector involvement, or PSI, deal is meant to write off half of the debt Greece owes private bondholders. Creditors would get most of the remaining debt in new bonds with extended repayment periods, as well as a cash payment.

“We want this (deal) to happen in a way that is safe for Greece _ with Greece in the eurozone _ and safe for the real economy and the financial system,” Venizelos said.

Since May 2010, Greece has kept solvent with rescue loans from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund. In the event of bankruptcy, Greece would likely have to abandon the euro and revert to a devalued currency. Since the country imports more than it exports, the costs of fuel and basic consumer goods would skyrocket, further frustrating a population angered by two years of harsh austerity.

The PSI talks have mainly been held up by a disagreement on interest rates for the new bonds.

“The interest rate on the new loans is a key issue here,” Dallara told CNN before Wednesday’s meeting. “Some seem to have a view that we should actually extend the loans at interest rates even lower than what the IMF and (the Europeans) extend their loans at, and there’s not much logic in that in our viewpoint.”

Dallara urged the EU to make clear that a similar deal would not apply to other troubled eurozone countries. “Greece really is a unique situation,” he said.

A Greek government official said Athens is still considering whether to impose so-called collective action clauses on its bonds. Such clauses could force private debt holders resisting a settlement to fall in line with the majority if an agreement is reached. The official asked not to be identified, citing the sensitive nature of the talks Payday advance.

A second government official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Athens estimates there could be an agreement by the end of the week.

Greece needs to clinch the deal quickly to qualify for more bailout loans before it faces a euro14.5 billion ($18.6 billion) bond repayment on March 20. The bond swap is a key part a new euro130 billion ($166 billion) bailout package in loans and bank support from international rescue creditors.

Recession-bound Greece needs to write off some of its borrowings, if it is to have a fighting chance of emerging from its debt hole.

It has so far relied on austerity measures, which were a condition for it to receive the emergency loans. The Greek government has cut pensions and salaries, raised taxes and sold some state property.

Yanis Varoufakis, a professor of economics at the University of Athens, argued that even with a debt deal Greece could do little to eventually avoid default.

“Let the truth be revealed. Let’s have a default because Greece is insolvent and insolvent entities have to default. It’s a law of nature and of society and of reason, and we should simply succumb to that,” Varoufakis told AP Television.

“If European leaders are worried about the effect this will have on banks, they might as well recapitalize them, not continue to drip-feed the Greek state,” he said.

Dallara, the Institute of International Finance official, said that if Greece is forced to default, it will be messy. “I personally believe that there is no such thing as an orderly default for Greece,” he told CNN. “If there is a default, it is likely to be very disorderly.”

As austerity measures have cut deeply into incomes and unemployment has risen, unions have held frequent strikes and protests over the past two years.

Unions and employers were to start talks on Wednesday on reducing labors costs, but the negotiations were disrupted when protesters from a Communist-backed labor union occupied the central building where the meetings were to take place.

EU-IMF debt inspectors are back in Athens this week to monitor progress of those reforms aimed at slashing the country’s high budget deficits.

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Derek Gatopoulos and Theodora Tongas in Athens contributed to this report.

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Funds that give everyone from retirees to money managers easier access to junk bonds are fueling the biggest price swings in more than two years after their buying power surged tenfold.

Exchange-traded funds that track high-yield bond indexes exceed $22 billion, up from about $2 billion three years ago.

While that’s just 2 percent of the $1 trillion in U.S. corporate speculative-grade debt outstanding, ETFs are among the biggest holders of benchmark securities, including those of casino owner Caesars Entertainment Corp. and HCA Inc.

ETFs, which drew scrutiny last year as riskier versions emerged, are adding to volatility because of rules that promote trading. A measure of price swings for junk bonds was seven times higher in November than May, making it harder for the neediest borrowers to raise capital guaranteed high risk personal loans.

Their influence in the market for high-yield, high-risk debt is becoming similar to what ETFs, which have grown to $1.5 trillion from $109 billion in 10 years, have done in other assets.

While cash has poured into ETFs, they haven’t outperformed. Speculative-grade bonds on average returned 40 percent since April 2007, compared with 36.3 percent for investment-grade debt and 37.3 percent for U.S. Treasuries, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.

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