Waco-based Life Partners Inc. has been recognized as the fastest growing small public company in America by CNNMoney.com in its ranking of the top 100 such companies.

Life Partners is an insurance company that offers individuals 65 and older the opportunity to sell their future life insurance benefits for a discounted cash payout. Life Partners sells those future benefits to investors.

The company also buys policies of the terminally ill who need cash.

CNNMoney.com said Life Partners enjoyed $95.4 million in revenue during the four quarters that ended Dec. 31, 2008, and that it generated a 120 percent return to its investors.

Alcohol in Hewitt?

A group called the Hewitt Committee for Economic Development wants limited alcohol sales in that community and is offering two petitions to accomplish that.

One petition calls for the legal sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption. Sales would take place in grocery and convenience stores. The second petition calls for the legal sale of mixed beverages in restaurants with food permits.

State law requires the group to gather about 1,500 signatures of Hewitt residents by July 31 on each petition. Then the McLennan County Commissioners would order the election in November.

Citizens can sign the petitions at the Hewitt Chamber of Commerce, 101 Third St. in Hewitt, or Uncle Dan’s Barbecue at 231 N. Hewitt Drive.

Remember Jack N Jill?

I grew up eating Jack N Jill doughnuts years ago, before Shipley Do-Nuts became a dominant force locally.

It is remodeling space at 6828 Sanger Ave., and hopes to open a new location there by September.

That location will be owned by the same family that owns the 618 N. New Road.

Minimum wage rising

People making the minimum wage get another bump this month.

The federal wage floor will rise from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour on July 24.

The minimum wage has been rising steadily since 2007, when Congress passed a bill to boost the wage from $5.15 to $5.85 to $6.55 and now to $7.25.

John Lonski, chief economist for Moody’s Investors Services, has been quoted in published reports as saying the increase may not be coming at a good time, with unemployment at a 26-year high.

“This might actually delay the return of job growth,” Lonski said.

Czech bakery update

Bryan Anderson has faced construction delays, but he remains determined to put a kolache shop at Sixth Street and Franklin Avenue in Waco called Gerik’s Ole Czech Bakery & Deli.

It will go into the former Olive Branch restaurant space.

Anderson had hoped to open the bakery by mid-June. “But there have been some holdups, construction-wise,” he said, adding he now hopes to open in a week or two.

Bryan and his wife Jeanne will serve an array of kolaches, pastries and sandwiches. They also will sell something called a skunk egg, which is a mixture of chicken, cheese, onion, jalapeno and bacon that is battered like chicken-fried steak and then deep fried. The egg is what the Andersons are best known for at their bakery and restaurant in West.

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

757-5736