Makita 18V LXT Series

Remember that scene from “The Longest Yard” when Burt Reynolds’ incarcerated character snaps his fingers, and boxes of sparkling new football uniforms are delivered to his rag-tag team of inmates just in time for their big showdown with the guards?

That was a great moment for prison procurement. One feels inspired by it.

One gets a very different feeling from the procurement policy of the real-life Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, Md.

Employee loyalty in the U.S. continues to wane. Only 42% of employees said they felt a strong sense of loyalty toward their employer—a seven-year low—according to MetLife’s 10th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends report, released in March 2012. Conversely, the percentage of employers who felt a strong sense of loyalty toward their employees grew to 59% in 2011—a seven-year high.

Driving a Chevrolet sponsored by the home center chain founded by his father, Nascar driver Paul Menard won his first race. 

John Menard, founder of Eau Claire, Wis.-based Menards, celebrated the upset victory at the Brickyard 400 with his son at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The win was the first for Paul Menard, after 167 races.

The owner of a hardware store in Everett, Wash., determined to get back a high-end nail gun, took a wild ride through traffic on March 7 but eventually accomplished his mission with the help of bystanders and some duct tape.

As a result of too much good material and not enough space, here is a collection of semi-random notes from the International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla.  


• Question: Does anybody really pay $99 a day for Internet connection — the asking price at the convention center? 


• I told my cab driver what I was doing in Orlando. 


“That’s funny,” he said. 


“Why?”


Towson, Md.-based DeWalt has signed an agreement with Richard Petty Motorsports to sponsor Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 Ford Fusion, for the 2011/2012 Nascar season.

The No. 9 car will now brandish the DeWalt logo, which will alternate between the hood and quarter-panel during each race of the 2011/2012 Sprint Cup season.

A routine highway stop over an expired license plate resulted in the arrest of an Arizona man and the recovery of several hundred circuit breakers stolen from Home Depots in five states, according to a report on WISH-TV, an Indianapolis station.