Well, here's something we didn't know – the Mississippi Development Authority's Tupelo regional office has moved to the Renasant Center for IDEAs.

On top of that, the Appalachian Regional Commission office in Tupelo also has moved to the Renasant Center, which makes sense since they shared space at their old location.

Here's press release info from MDA:

In a cost-saving effort that will allow MDA to further strengthen existing partnerships in north Mississippi, MDA's regional office in Tupelo has relocated to Suite 230 on the second floor of the Renasant Center for IDEAs, located at 398 East Main St. in Tupelo. The regional office's official first day at the new location was Feb. 1.

The Renasant Center for Ideas is the Tupelo/Lee County regional business incubator. The center provides critical physical and social infrastructure for start-up businesses in the region to help them launch and successfully grow their operations.

With MDA's Tupelo regional office staff working to support area entrepreneurs and small businesses through MDA's Entrepreneur Center, the office's move to the incubator facility will help MDA better align its small business support efforts with those of the agency's partners in the region.

The Mississippi office of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has also relocated to the Renasant Center for IDEAs and continues to be co-located with MDA's Tupelo regional office.

MDA's Tupelo regional office staff can still be reached via phone at (662) 844-5441 or (662) 844-5413. The ARC staff can be contacted at (662) 842-3891 or (662) 844-1184. The office's mailing address, P.O. Box 1606, Tupelo, MS 38802-1606, remains the same.

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At noon today, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi will test its weather sirens.

So, if you hear the long wailing sounds coming from Blue Springs, that's what it is. Weather's perfect, so don't be alarmed.

Thank you. And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming....

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It appears another 24-hour fitness center is coming to Tupelo.

You may have noticed ATC Fitness – the ATC stands for Around The Clock – running ads during the Super Bowl.

We called the company, which is based in the Memphis area, apparently, and the person there said they hope to open in the next 90 days or so.

ATC Fitness is eyeing a spot in the Barnes Crossing Plaza, the shopping center that’s home to Toys R Us, OfficeMax, Oreck Vacuums, TJ Maxx and Hobby Lobby.

ATC has 11 locations, with nine of them in Tennessee: Arlington, Bartlett, Brighton, Collierville, Cordova, East Memphis, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington. The other two are in Mississippi: Olive Branch and Senatobia.

It has a website here if you'd like to check it out.

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Tupelo has a new national chain restaurant coming soon, it appears, and it's unlike anything we've seen before.

There's not a lot of information available on the site plan, but we do know it's Salad Creations.

It's set to go in the former Quizno's location in The Shoppes at Barnes Crossing - where Bed Bath & Beyond, Dollar Tree, Margarita's and David's Bridal are located. And if memory serves, the Southern Ice Cafe was the most recent occupant of the old Quizno's site, having closed in 2008.

Ever heard of Salad Creation? There are about 30 of them nationwide, mostly in Florida. If not, here's a link to the company's website.

The company sells salads and wraps in classic, signature and premium categories, along with paninis.You can also create your salad

And here's a description from a franchise website:

What could be more “Fresh and Fabulous” than a healthful meal in an exciting, welcoming environment? At Salad Creations, our goal is to provide an incredible selection of foods that appeals to everyone. Along with our menu of nutritious and tasty choices, we invite guests to “create their own” meals with the assistance of enthusiastic and service-focused “salad chefs.”

We know consumers are always seeking alternatives to traditional fast food fare, so we created a menu offering salads, dressings, wraps, soups and smoothies made with only the freshest ingredients.

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The new Mexican restaurant being built in Saltillo has applied for a liquor license (it's been running legal notices in the Daily Journal, the last on Saturday), and barring any objections, it should be open in a few weeks.

The restaurant, Mi Toro Bravo, is next to Emi Lou's in the Center City Market development. I poked my head in to see what was going on, and the interior was being finished out. Still plenty of work to do, but it shouldn't be too long.

It will be Saltillo's second Mexican restaurant – the other one is Los Campadres, located across Highway 145.

Which means Saltillo has about two dozen few Mexican restaurants than Tupelo.

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According to the Washington, D.C.-based Corporation for Enterprise Development’s 2012 Assets and Opportunity Scorebard, 31.9 percent of households in Mississippi are “asset-poor,” meaning they have little or no financial cushion to rely on if unemployment or another emergency leads to a loss of income, according to CFED.

The scorecard ranked Mississippi 47th in the country overall for how it residents fare in terms of achieving financial security across 52 measures in five different issue areas.

From a press release:

Many of Mississippi’s residents have jobs, but they lack adequate savings or other assets to cover expenses for three months if they lose a steady income. Asset poverty, the Scorecard’s signature measure, is a conservative estimate of financial security since it counts all assets, including those – such as a home – that would need to be liquidated to be used for day-to-day needs.

A more realistic measure of the resources available to families is “liquid asset poverty,” which excludes assets such as a home or car that are not easily converted to cash. Excluding these assets, the liquid asset poverty rate increases to 56.5 percent of Mississippi residents.

Mississippi earns an “F” in Financial Assets & Income, leaving its residents economically vulnerable. The state ranks worst in the country in income poverty rate, unbanked households and consumers with subprime credit. The state ranks 51st in low-wage jobs and 50th in average annual pay.

For a link to the study, click here.

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Sara Lee is closing its plant in the Tupelo Lee South Industrial Park, where it's been operating since 1997, the company said today.

The plant, which makes the Bryan Smokies cocktail sausages, is expected to close by March 30. About 155 employees will be laid off.

Here's a press release from Mike Cummins, Sara Lee's director of corporate communications:

The decision to close the facility is the result of excess capacity and Sara Lee’s ongoing efforts to consolidate resources and simplify operations in the ongoing transition to a pure-play business model. Production at Tupelo will transfer to our Claryville, Ky., and St. Joseph, Mo., facilities.

While this facility is a legacy Bryan manufacturing plant, we have no intention of exiting the brand. We remain committed to the Bryan brand, its Southern heritage and maintaining our loyal following.

Any decision that affects the livelihood of our employees is made by Sara Lee only after very careful consideration. We want to emphasize that our decision is not driven by the quality of our workforce at this site. We understand this will be a very difficult time for our employees and their families. Impacted employees will receive appropriate support from the company, including severance and outplacement assistance. We also will coordinate efforts with state training and employment agencies to help facilitate and ease the transition.

We anticipate the facility will close on March 30, 2012. Employees will receive a 60-day WARN notice in accordance with federal regulations. Depending on the ramp-down schedule and facility closure needs, some employees might be able to stay longer and their termination date might be extended by mutual agreement.

For the remaining time the plant is open, our focus will continue to be operating in a safe and efficient manner and producing high-quality products.

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Ironically, the closing of the plant also is the fifth anniversary of Sara Lee's decision to shut down its Bryan Foods plant in West Point. In 2007, the last 400 or so workers at the plant that once employed 1,200-plus workers shut down.

CDF President and CEO David Rumbarger confirmed the closing, although he hasn't officially heard from the company. However, he did say MDA and MDES have been notified, and a Rapid Response Team is ready to help with outplacement services, worker training, etc., as soon as they hear from Sara Lee.

Rumbarger said that any layoff is undesirable, but noted that the layoff affects less than 1 percent of Lee County's manufacturing workforce. He said the ramp-up of Toyota suppliers, and expansions of other manufacturers will help offset the Sara Lee loss. He also said Sara Lee workers shouldn't have any problems finding manufacturing jobs

Read more in tomorrow's Daily Journal.

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Sorry you didn't invest in Apple 30 years ago? Join the crowd.

But some analysts think Apple shares are cheap compared to its peers.

More from the Associated Press:

Apple is worth $415 billion, putting it neck and neck with Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable company. But by standard Wall Street measures, its stock is a bargain.

There’s a big discrepancy between Apple’s earnings and its stock price, and it became even more glaring on Tuesday, when the company reported results for its latest quarter. The well-managed launch of the iPhone 4S and the ever growing popularity of Apple products around the world conspired to send earnings and sales zooming past analyst estimates.

Apple’s sales were $46.3 billion in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, up 73 percent from a year ago. That’s more than twice the revenue of its old nemesis, Microsoft Corp. Net income grew 118 percent to $13.06 billion. That’s more than Google Inc.’s revenue for the quarter.

Investors cheered —sort of. Apple’s stock rose 6 percent Wednesday, hitting a new all-time high of $454.45.

Still, Apple’s price to earnings ratio of roughly 13 is far below the S&P 500 average of about 22, an indication that the stock is cheap compared to its large corporate peers.

And analysts believe the stock should be trading higher, based on the earnings expected this year. Before the earnings report, 45 Wall Street analysts who follow the company believed, on average, that Apple should be worth about $556 per share. After the report, the analysts rushed to raise their estimates, some as high as $650.

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Four airlines, including two familiar names, have submitted bids to provide subsidized air service in Tupelo.

They are Air Choice One, SeaPort Airlines, Sun Air and Blue Sky.

Air Choice and SeaPort have submitted bids before, but Sun Air and Blue Sky are new players.

Here's a look at the bids:

• SeaPort offers four options:

The first is 18 weekly roundtrips to Memphis and 6 weekly roundtrips to Nashville. Subsidy: $2,053,089

The second has 12 weekly trips to Memphis and 12 to Nashville. Subsidy: $1,706,297

The third, which is contingent on Greenville choosing SeaPort, has 18 trips to Nashville and 12 trips to New Orleans, via Greenville. Subsidy: $1,976,099

The fourth option, contingent on Laurel/Hattiesburg selecting the airline, offers the same number of Nashville and New Orleans flights, via  Laurenl Hattiesburg. Subsidy: $2,034,159

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• Air Choice One's bid offers 24 trips between Memphis and Tupelo. BUT, Air Choice has packaged its bid to include Greenville, Laurel/Hattiesburg, Tupelo and Muscle Shoals together. In other words, it's bid is good for all four airports, and not a separate service for each one. So, it would offer 24 connecting flights to Memphis in each of the four cities, at a total subsidy request of $6,542,907. If it gets a four-year agreement instead of a two-year agreement, Air Choice would reduce its subsidy request to $6,477,478 to service all four cities.

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• Sun Air, like SeaPort and Air Choice One, will fly 9-passenger turboprops. While the other two fly Cessna Grand Caravans, Sun Air opts for Piper Cheiftains. Sun Air submitted bids for Muscle Shoals, Greenville and Tupelo.  Sun Air is offering several options, too:

In one option, Sun Air is offering 24 weekly roundtrips to Memphis, with four daily trips on weekdays and two daily trips on Saturday and Sunday. Subsidy: $1,955,832

A second option adds more flights, with six weekday flights and three weekend flights daily. Subsidy: $2,564,573

A third option, which takes out its bid for Muscle Shoals, uses the identical schedule in the first option. Subsidy: $2,069,768

BUT, all these options for Sun Air might be moot, because it's not an airline just yet. It submitted its air carrier application with the U.S. Department of Transportation in September, and Sun Air says, "the application is in its final stages of review."

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Finally, we have Blue Sky Airlines, which offers the only regional jet - 50-seat Embraer EJR145. It's offering to use two of them in an "inseparable package," providing air service for Greenville, Laurel/Hattieburg, Muschle Shoals and Tupelo, connecting them to Atlanta, Memphis and Nashville in three scenarios.

It would provide 13 weekly round trips this way: Two weekday departures Monday through Friday, two Saturday departures and one Sunday departure for each of the four cities. To do that, Blue Sky says its subsidy request would be $2,822,574.

The problem with Blue Sky, however, is that it's not even an airline yet; it's only an airline on paper only. So, take its presentation for what it's worth.

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If you managed to wade through all the numbers and details, congrats. And thanks!

You can see more on the Tupelo Regional Airport's website here.

We'll have more in Tuesday's Daily Journal.

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It was close, but Fulton has the lowest gas price this week in our survey of area gas stations.

It's $3.14 in Fulton, a penny more than Pontotoc.

The highest prices – $3.27 – were found in Ripley and Tupelo.

Here's what we found elsewhere:

• Amory: $3.17
• Belden: $3.19
• Booneville: $3.16
• Corinth: $3.18
• New Albany: $3.19
• Oxford: $3.23
• Sam's Club: $3.22 (member/card price)
• Sherman: $3.17
• Starkville: $3.24